June 3, 2025 • 32 mins
Tonight, we return to the world of Drag Racing with Jordan DaCosta an 18-year-old drag racing phenom from Bradenton, Florida, with an unwavering passion for motorsports. Currently piloting a nitrous-powered S10, Jordan competes in major Florida National events, showcasing his exceptional talent and determination on the track. But his journey doesn't stop there—Jordan recently announced a future in the NHRA as a professional driver with the prestigious Bishop Motorsports Pro Sportsman Team.
Joining us is returning guest - 2x NHRA Drag Racing champion - Megan Meyer, who you might remember from our Panel episode earlier this spring.
===== (Oo---x---oO) =====
00:00 Meet Jordan DaCosta: The Drag Racing Prodigy
01:11 Jordan's Racing Journey Begins
03:09 Challenges and Triumphs in Racing
04:36 Balancing School and Racing
05:24 The Business Side of Racing
09:12 The Finesse of Drag Racing
11:43 Joining a Professional Racing Team
18:35 Advice and Reflections
28:32 Future Goals and Shoutouts
====================
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Break Fix podcast is all about capturingthe living history of people from all
over the autos sphere, from wrench,turners, and racers to artists, authors,
designers, and everything in between.
Our goal is to inspire a new generationof Petrolhead that wonder to.
How did they get that jobor become that person?
The road to Success is paved by allof us because everyone has a story.
(00:27):
We return to the world of drag racingwith Jordan DaCosta, an 18-year-old drag
racing phenom from Bradenton, Floridawith an unwavering passion for Motorsport.
Currently piloting a nitrous powereds. 10 Jordan competes in major Florida
national events showcasing his exceptionaltalent and determination on the track.
His journey doesn't stop there.
(00:47):
Jordan recently announced a futurein the NHRA as a professional
driver with the prestigious BishopsMotor Sports Pro sportsman team.
That's right.
And joining me tonight is returning guesttwo time NHRA Drag racing and champion
Megan Meyer, who you might remember fromour panel episode earlier this spring.
So welcome back to the show, Megan.
Thank you.
And with that, let'swelcome Jordan to break fix.
(01:09):
Hello everyone.
How are you guys?
All right, Jordan, it's tradition on thisshow that everybody starts out with a
superhero origin story, but in this case,we're at the origin of your origin story.
So tell us about the who, what,when and where of you, how did
you get involved in Motorsport?
Did you come from a racing family?
What drew you in?
You've only been doing thisfor about two seasons now?
(01:30):
Yeah, I'm on my second season now.
We just ended here in Florida 'causeit's actually different than the NHRA.
But it started out I was pretty young.
Used to go drag racing with my dad.
He raced a stick shift car.
We lived in, uh, long Island,New York, so we'd have to travel
four hours to go to every race.
I remember, you know, when I waslittle, painting the underbody of
the car, cutting out the front end,putting a tube front end in it.
(01:53):
Every winter we would switch the turbo,do twin turbo, set up single turbo.
And then we made the move to Floridaand we just so happened to be able
to find a property five minutes awayfrom Bradenton Motorsports Park.
I got my first square body, S 10.
I started doing test and tuneevents every single Thursday.
To really just learn and it, it was a tensecond truck, I felt ready to start doing
(02:18):
events there at Bradenton, we were ableto find another S 10 that was faster.
I could do like a nine 50 indexin it and then still progress as
I grew as a driver and learn more.
So I started doing that, and thenI didn't really take it as serious.
I just did it as a hobby and then.
All of a sudden I met Mr. West Buck atDrug Illustrated and he gave me a lot
(02:40):
of great advice and so did Kevin Canto,which is now one of my business managers,
and helps me a lot today with everything.
And I started getting sponsorsabout a season I. After starting,
you know, you brought me back tothe Fast and Furious Vin Diesel.
You owe me a ten second car.
You know, that kind of thing.
It sounds like your transition frommaking it a hobby to a profession was
(03:03):
pretty quick, and it sounds like youhad a plan underneath of you, and you've
got some people helping you along.
So what were some of the challengesto getting to this point?
Now you're signing with theteam, and we're gonna talk about
that more as we go along here.
What did you discover along the way?
Is it as easy as people make itout to be, to get into Motorsport?
Or have you faced with some issues?
No, it's not easy at all.
(03:24):
I'm sure Megan can agree with that.
Doing it for so many years.
I knew it wasn't going to be easy.
I knew it was going to cost mea lot of time, and you know,
I fully was dedicated to it.
I still am.
I'm a very driven person.
I've always been a natural leader.
I've always been hardworking.
I've been working since I was14, so I, I knew that if I.
(03:45):
Kept going, even though I didn't seethe results in the beginning right
away, that I could get to this point.
I'm a big vision person.
I could vision myself 10 yearsfrom now and I'm big on that.
And you know, just to get to whereI am today, I never really thought
it would've happened, but I'veenvisioned it a year ago today.
It's definitely achallenge, that's for sure.
(04:06):
But I try to keep my head high and keeppushing and keep doing what I'm doing.
I'm always evolving andlearning and changing new
things on the business side on.
The mechanic side andeverything in between.
My whole program for our listeners outthere who are keeping up with all the
different personalities that we haveon here, we recently had another young
and up and coming driver who's workingthrough carting to get to imsa and he
(04:27):
talked about the struggle about balancingschool at a young age with driving.
Yeah.
Here you are at 18.
The last two years.
Drag racing now into NHRA.
How are you striking a balancebetween school and work?
Yeah, so this year Iactually switched to online.
It just worked out better becauseof my schedule here in Florida.
You know, I'm, I go to racesfrom Wednesday or Thursday
(04:49):
all the way to Sunday.
I was always out of schoolwhen I was in 11th grade.
You know, this year I did online andI was able to actually finish my whole
year's worth of work before my season evenstarted here in Florida in two months.
So I've been done since Septemberand I've been fully focused on
the business side during the day.
(05:09):
And then I have a job at nightwhere I work in my dad's shop
and then racing on the weekends.
So I've been fully into this,you know, for about a year now,
like just totally dedicated tobuilding my name and progressing
as a driver and business person.
I wanna go back to what you justsaid about visioning leadership,
the business side of racing.
'cause I know firsthand that it is.
(05:30):
So important to really workon the business side of it.
Not all racers realize that youdo need to treat your career like
it's a business and not just,Hey, I wanna go drive a race car.
'cause it's fun.
So when you're not behind the wheeland now that you're, you're done with
school, can you tell us more about.
What you are doing on the businessside, and then also what you do
(05:50):
to stay sharp for racing, for yourdriving and, and especially now
that you're gonna be stepping up.
Yeah, so my day to day I like to sendabout a hundred to 150 emails a day to
companies, preferably COOs, CFOs, youknow, people, um, on the marketing side
of, you know, the bigger companies.
Now that I need a larger amount offunding, I'm finding myself needing
(06:13):
to find those bigger companies.
Not so much the local ones anymore.
So I, I send up the one 50 a day and Iactually find those companies based off
of, I'll be driving around and I justsee this company, I think about it, I'll
write it in my notes and that's how I go.
I watch nascar.
I watch F1.
I see who's sponsoring other sports.
And also a big thing I think you'vealso talked about on your social
(06:35):
media is you don't really want thecompanies that are already in the sport,
you want the ones that are outside.
'cause those are the ones.
That have the funding, that havethe pockets to be able to help you
and to even just bring them intothe sport and just doing that, you
bring a new fan into the sport.
So that's also our goaltoo, to bring new fans in.
So that's something I've been focusingon my day to day, and it's a lot of fun.
(06:58):
You get a lot more, noanswers than not even knows.
But you know, out of a hundred maybeyou'll get three people that answer you.
You can get some meetings set up.
I've had some good meetings sofar, so it's pretty exciting.
The opportunity is definitelywhat excites me the most.
Thinking about, you know, what thepotential could be with X company.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, and sharing thatvision is so important.
(07:19):
And going back to what you said.
I like to tell racers like, it's likeimagine you have a a pizza or like a pie.
If you're going after a companythat already is sponsoring people
in motorsports, you're just takinga smaller piece of that pie instead
of bringing a whole nother dish tothe table exactly like what you said.
So I'm so glad that you understand that.
(07:41):
And even the fact you had mentionedyou might get more, no responses
than nos, but just that experience.
Of that repetition of sending themout, learning what to say, you know,
I'm, I'm sure you're changing itevery time because you're learning
what works and what doesn't work.
And even just the fact that like ifyou do get a no, that's still like a
step in the right direction becauseit does help you learn those losses
(08:03):
help you get closer to your win.
And, and you're definitely wellknown within the drag racing world
because you do stand out because.
Not very many racers in our worldare putting in the work that you
do to get your name out there.
Thank you.
So that's why when I heard from ChrisBishop that you're gonna be joining
the team, it's like, oh, that's a nobrainer, because you've just been doing
(08:23):
so much work to get your name out there.
Congratulations.
Thank you on that and I'mvery excited to follow you.
So I do wanna talk about how have youseen the sport change since you first
started and the fact that you haveraced, you went from New York to Florida,
have you seen it change very much?
And then also where do youthink it's going in the future?
(08:44):
I've seen it change a good amount.
You know, it's more focused onthe social media now, not so much.
As what it used to beyears ago and just driving.
There's so much more marketingpartners needed nowadays because
everything just has rising in price.
Even you see in nascar, they havenew sponsors every single weekend.
Sometimes you see that on drag cars too.
(09:06):
It's just evolved so much inthe past couple of years that
we are bound to change with it.
So let's switch gears here a little bit.
Let's talk a little bit more about thefinesse of drag racing, because you
hear different opinions about it, right?
In terms of motor sporting, somereally awesome things going on, like
we talked about on the panel withMegan, you know, gender parity and you
know, a lot of young people in dragracing, which is absolutely awesome.
(09:28):
But there's a lot of talk around, youmentioned Formula one is super popular,
even sports card endurance racing.
And you know, you take this turn likethis and your entry speed and your exit
cornering and how much did you try?
And there's all these nuancesto, let's say, road racing.
And I think a lot of that is lostin translation with drag racing.
'cause it, it's such a short run.
Yeah.
But it's so powerful of a runin that short amount of time.
(09:49):
So what I wanted to do was kind ofhighlight how it is for you right now.
'cause you're in the middle of it.
If you talk to.
Legendary drivers.
If you talk to retired drivers,you know the old saying, the
older we get, the faster we were.
And again, some of thisstuff is lost in translation.
So can you kind of walk us through theday in the life of a young drag racer?
What's it like for you?
What's it like being at the startingline and all that adrenaline and the.
(10:11):
Car prep and everything that goes into it.
Yeah, I, I'm an overthinker andI, in the mornings, like on any
race day, so like Thursday, youknow, you have your qualifying.
Friday I have your qualifying.
Then sometimes, in my caseit's elimination Saturday
and goes into Sunday as well.
I like to get there early.
I'm always first, I lovethe trailer organized.
I like to have all my merch set up.
(10:32):
I'll go in early before myparents and my other part-time
help comes in and helps me.
So I'll come early set up.
I like to sit in the car in the lanesa lot earlier than most do because
I like to just sit in the silenceand kind of think about my run and
what I wanna focus on in that run.
See where I need to improve.
(10:53):
Let go of the button different.
Try something, you know, new.
Like right now, we just did a lotof changes to my car, so I had to
learn how to drive on a radio tire,which is a lot harder than slicks.
A lot more times in a radiocar, you'll smoke the tires
than in the slicks that I had.
So I had to learn how to gothrough tire shake wheeling too.
(11:13):
Like I had to learn how to pedal itdifferently and shift at a different
rate and be used to a higherwheel speed with those radials.
So there's definitely a lotinvolved in driving a drag car.
It's not about just holding itand you know, going straight,
especially for me, there's.
You know, I have nitrous, so I'mwatching, you know, after my burnout,
my nitrous pressure, and I have topurge it down to a certain number, and
(11:35):
there's buttons you gotta hit in betweenall of that and things that you gotta
make sure are going right to be able togo down the track as safe as possible.
Up until this point, you've beenworking with your dad, prepping your
own truck, and you are the masterof your domain and you're very.
Sensitive to the car you,like you said, you gotta purge
it down, you gotta do this.
If it doesn't sound right,it's not running right.
We gotta tear it down.
(11:55):
But now you're signing up with a teamwhere the car will probably be provided.
How is that gonna be different for you?
What's that transition like going fromdriver mechanic to just pro driver?
Oh, I've definitely thought about this.
It's definitely gonna be weird.
Definitely gonna, you know, want toget my hands dirty in the pits and
help the team as much as possible.
But it's definitely gonnabe nice knowing that.
(12:17):
They have so much knowledgein their class range.
The whole team just, they know whatthey're doing and I have full trust in
them in the tuning side and everything.
Even their coaching, they're gonna becoaching me a ton because it's a total
new avenue and class I'm going in.
I'm gonna be driving three differentclasses for them in my first race.
So it's definitely gonna bea huge learning curve for me.
(12:40):
I'm excited to be able to go thereand I have to fly in 'cause they're
actually in Minnesota, so I have tofly in a day early and then fly out a
day after because I still want to helpthem, you know, bring everything back
and go to their headquarters as well.
Other disciplines of motorsport,even the roundy round stuff.
Road racing especially,there are practice days.
Do you get thatopportunity in drag racing?
(13:01):
Do you get to practicewith the cars before?
Yeah, so my divisional racesI'm doing with them I think are
Friday races, are practice days.
But because it's an NHRAdivisional race, I actually have
to relicense in all of their cars.
So I'm actually flying up therefor a week, the beginning of
next month to meet the team.
'cause I haven't even met them.
I haven't been to their shop oranything, meet them, start to learn
(13:25):
how to drive the cars and license.
Three different cars so that I'm preppedand ready to go for my first race and
not have to worry about licensing on thatFriday test day in three classes and try
to, you know, scrim that in the schedule.
Are you nervous?
I am nervous.
I've never traveled to a dragrace and just raced by myself.
I've always had, you know, my dadwith me and my parents there, so it's
(13:46):
definitely gonna be different, but.
I'm also a very independent person.
I'm very excited.
I'm definitely counting downthe days until I get there.
I can speak from Chris's experiencebecause that's how we run our program,
is we provide the cars, the team, and wejust have the drivers fly in and show up.
I have worked closely with Chrisbefore in the past, and I know
he has trained multiple drivers,so he knows what he's doing.
(14:09):
He is a professional, so it's likethe best team, I think, out of all
the NHRA that you could race with.
And yeah, it, it is.
So important that you do come in earlyand like you get to know the team, get
to know their setup, learn how theyorganize their stuff, like what you
had mentioned, even just going to theirheadquarters because sometimes we do
get drivers that go through our programand they don't put in that extra effort.
(14:31):
They end up being the ones that staywith us for the shortest amount of time.
You could tell, like they just don'thave that much passion and drive for it.
Clearly you do.
So I feel like you're gonna be verysuccessful with Chris and his team.
Thank you.
So, yeah.
Yeah, you're welcome.
So what do you think will bethe most challenging moment?
For you going from radials ina drag truck to Super Street?
(14:54):
I'd say just driving a car, it'stotally different than a truck.
And I've actually thought about it alot 'cause I've, you know, sat in drag
cars before, like friends of mine.
But it's a total different viewand I'm a shorter driver, so we're
definitely gonna have to adjust theseat and do a lot of adjustments.
But you sit a lot lower.
My truck is pretty low, but it's.
Still a lot different, youknow, than a normal car.
(15:16):
So I think that's gonna bea big adjustment for me.
And then also, I didn't announce thisyet, but I guess I will hear, I'm gonna be
driving their super comp dragster as well.
I've never even drove a dragster,never been around a dragster.
I've always wanted to.
So that's gonna be a whole new adjustmentas well, and I'm really excited for
that opportunity with them as well.
So I'm gonna ask youagain, are you nervous?
(15:38):
I'm nervous.
I'm nervous.
Excited.
Yeah.
Well, that's awesome.
Super accomplished.
So much fun.
It is very intimidating.
At first, I remember the first time thatI made passes in my super comp, we brought
our super comp dragster to Frank Colley.
So I got to license there andbecause my dad knows nothing
about Super comp Dragsters, right?
(15:59):
He like, he can do top alcoholdragster, you know, with his
eyes closed in his sleep.
But don't ask him to do anythingwith bracket racing 'cause he
does not know how to do it.
He does not care.
So we actually, yeah, we had tolearn from someone else and it took
us a long time to figure it out.
So it will be much easier for you goingwith a team that knows what they're doing.
Yeah.
And they can tell you exactly what to do.
(16:20):
Yeah.
When to do it.
But that's awesome.
Congratulations.
Yeah.
Super comp is so much fun.
Thank you.
I wish I could still do it, butwe sold my card and so I, I can't
anymore, but you know, maybe one day.
I'll buy another dragster.
Yeah.
I wanna go back to your past and talka little bit more about the truck.
So do you have a certain racethat stands out that's the most
memorable one that you have?
And what made it so special for you?
(16:41):
I would say, you know, it's a series, soit's the Drag Illustrated winner series.
That whole series just changedmy whole perspective as a driver,
a team owner, and an influencer.
So that race.
I was able to bring in my titlesponsor, which is a local store,
Bradenton performance supply.
They're five minutes down the roadfrom the track, so we were able to
(17:04):
get them as a vendor spot and I wasable to actually park next to them.
So just the marketing was amazing,that whole series that we were able
to be next to each other, you know,having their name on the side of
the car and you know, their littlestorefront, you know, at the track there.
I was able to actually park on the pro modside, and I was the only index car on that
side, so I got to be next to Kai Kelly.
(17:26):
I was across from Stevie Fast Jackson.
I was next to Erica Enders, AntronBrown, you know, all the big names
and the stars, and you know, theyactually came up, talked to me,
gave me advice, and, you know.
Telling me I have a coolsetup and all that cool stuff.
So it definitely inspired me and to seethe humbleness from all the other drivers.
But another thing that kind of stood outto me was I started making these hats
(17:47):
that say JDR for Jordan DeCosta Racing,and I sold out of them every single race.
So then what I started doing, becauseI realized there was traction from
it, I started making sweatshirtsand shirts and selling that.
And then I also madea marketing table for.
All of my sponsors that may have businesscards or like a lot of my other brand
(18:08):
deals like Dream Giveaway or Racers Club,we have coupon codes and stuff like that.
And I saw a big progress from that.
It definitely opened my eyes to, and alsoeven because I'm not one of the stars
of that series, you know, I'm not in apro mod, believe it or not, I had people
asking for autographs and stuff andit felt, you know, really cool and it.
(18:28):
Just pushed me to, you know, wannawork harder and want to do more
to get to where I want to be likethe other drivers surrounding me.
Well, Megan, you'll recall, you andErica, when we were on the panel together,
shared a sentiment about how the highsare extremely high in drag racing,
but the lows can be very, very low.
So Jordan, you know, you talked aboutsome of the good things, those lows
teach you a lot in life in general,but especially in Motorsport.
(18:52):
So what's one of the most catastrophicthings that have happened that
you've learned from, or failuresthat you've grown from, from
your time in Motorsport so far?
You know, there's a lotof failures all the time.
I mean, finishing my second season off,obviously this season was a lot better
than my first, my first, I went withoutany round winds or anything, and my
goal for my second season was just.
(19:12):
To get a round win, not even an event win.
I didn't care.
I just wanted to win a round becausebracket racing and index racing is very
hard and I had to learn how to finishline drive and you know, do all that
critical stuff of the driving side.
And just as much as getting my car dialed,we had the hardest time getting it dialed.
We've had issues.
We had to change transmissions,we changed drive shaft rear
(19:34):
end, we changed nitrous systems.
We had issues where thecar would just shut off.
So.
That low felt very low, likeI couldn't escape out of it.
And then the next season came andnow I have 10 career round wins
and one event win in just a season.
It went from really low and you know, notgiving up, but still feeling bad about it
to going into the next season, trying tobe positive, and then doing pretty well.
(19:58):
So I'm happy with this.
Last season.
That brings up another good point.
You're rubbing shoulders with somebig names and you're making your way.
You're just starting out.
So when you look over the history ofdrag racing and NHRA and you're talking
to these people and listening to theiradvice, what do you think separates
a good drag racer from a great one?
The good ones are great drivers, butthe great ones are great drivers.
(20:21):
Business people, marketers, and theycould do just about anything, not
just the driving 'cause the drivingis great, but we're also, like Wes
Buck says a lot, you know, withDrug Illustrated, we're characters.
We're the stars of the show.
We need to kind of show that off.
And now that everything has evolved inthe past couple of years with social
media, we need to follow that trend.
(20:42):
Let's start vlogging.
Let's start a podcast.
You know, let's evolve with the sport.
So the great ones evolve.
The good ones just.
Stay driving.
That's really good advice.
And is it so true?
And I share that online too as well.
'cause you kind of see the ones that just,they stay stuck in their ways and then
over the years they just kind of fadeoff and then new talent like you come in.
(21:05):
So speaking of Wes, what has beensome advice that Wes has given you
or Kevin that you could pass onto those aspiring drag racers who
want to follow in your footsteps?
When I first started out, when theysaw my car and there was no sponsors,
it was just a plain black truck.
And they were like, you need to start,you're young, you are business hungry, and
(21:29):
we think you could be a potential star.
And they started off telling me, youknow, try to find the local guys.
So I started off findinglocal companies and.
I'm lucky enough to have about10 local companies that are on
the car and have been helpingme and helping me in the future.
One of them is actually a localrestaurant that sponsors the Drag
(21:51):
Illustrated Winter Series food for us.
So I met him from them andhe's actually sponsoring my
2025 season in my truck here.
And then he's also sponsoring my25 season with Bishops Motorsports.
So I was able to bring himinto the NHRA side and he's.
Such a fan and it's just so exciting.
But also, Kevin, now that we'relooking for, you know, those
(22:13):
bigger corporate ones, he helpsme with a lot of my wording.
So he's like definitely the punctual guy,uh, that helps me spruce things up a bit.
He's always telling me I'mgoing too low on my packages.
He wants me to go higher in price, butthey just really support me and, you
know, every step of the way they've.
Always had my back no matter what.
They've always introduced me, andthat's another thing, just networking.
(22:35):
You know, if I never met them, Ihonestly do not know what I'd be doing
today without them kind of pushingme forward or giving me that contact.
Talking to everybody is a must.
So the local companies that youare bringing on, what is it that
you are giving to them in value inexchange for, you know, the exposure
that you're offering for 'em?
(22:56):
Yeah, well of course you start offwith placement on the car and then,
you know, some of my other deals are.
More so I guess ambassadorships,you promote them on social media.
Another perk of, you know, having themlocal is I offer when they go to car
shows to be featured in the car showswith them to go to all their brand events
and stuff like that and kind of speakout and do a lot of community engagement,
(23:18):
which helps a lot with their sales.
And I also try to help a lot ofmy companies that I'm with try
to get into the track as a vendordepending on, you know, what
business they have for instance.
A local company we havehere is Steel supplements.
They're also parentcompany is Omni Energy.
For the past two years of the winterseries, they've been the official
(23:38):
energy drink of the winter series,so I gave that connection to them.
So you also want to connect them to otherthings that can help grow their brand.
Other than just a name on the car andposting social media stuff as well.
All right, Megan, let's turn the table.
What advice would you give Jordan?
You are so far ahead of other races.
That's what everybody says,but I, I could have it my way.
(24:01):
I'd be a pro today.
Tonight.
Yeah.
Well, it does take time,I gotta tell you that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it took me three years.
Of just training for top alcoholdragster before I even did a, a
professional, you know, an HRRA.
So it takes time, but you arelearning so much that's gonna
pay off so far down the road.
(24:22):
'cause yeah, there's even racersthat have been racing for 20, 30
years that still haven't figuredout, like the things you just said.
The importance of networking is so key.
So my advice for you is tojust keep your head down.
Just keep trying to grow your network.
You never know who is watchingyou either at the track or online.
(24:43):
There's so many times I have heardfrom brands where they won't wear
their logo on their shirt or a polowhen they go to a race because they
don't want to be treated differentlybecause people see, oh, you know,
they're associated with this company.
So they'll just wear, you know, a regulart-shirt and they'll just observe and
see how drivers interact with fans.
(25:05):
Or are they just sitting on the golfcart, you know, just on their phone
the whole time, not talking to anyone?
Do they have a clean pit space?
Like do they take care of their car?
I have heard multiple times from brands.
Saying that they'll interact with someonelike on Zoom or email or phone call, and
it sounds like a great deal, sounds likesomeone they would wanna partner with.
And then they go and see them at theTrack incognito style and realize,
(25:29):
oh, that's not actually the personthat we want to represent our brand.
So I feel like you're on that right path.
Just stay professionalin person and online.
You never know whatcould haunt you one day.
So just make sure you know, you're notposting anything negative or bad or saying
anything bad about someone else out there.
And just, you know, stay positive.
Interact with every singleperson you meet at the track.
(25:52):
Treat them all like royalty,no matter who they are.
If it's a little kid or a old man orsomeone, you have no idea who they are.
Yeah, because you never know.
What they do or what connections theyhave that could help you in the future.
Of course.
Thank you.
Racing is one of the places wherethe nice guys don't finish last.
They usually come out ahead.
That being said, dovetailing off ofthat, I will bestow some wisdom if I can.
(26:16):
And to your point about bringingthese new ideas to the paddock and
the things you're doing to promoteyourself, we had the opportunity to.
Sit down and chat with Matt Marellia couple years ago and he, you know,
was friends with Ken Block and then heeventually took over the Mint 400 and
a lot of other off-road events out westand I went to visit him at the Mint.
You know, we got to chit-chatting.
He was taking me around andI said, you know, Matt, this
seems awful familiar to me.
(26:38):
Like there's certain aspects ofother motorsport at this event.
And he goes, yeah.
Because I went and checked themall out and then I took the best of
that and brought it home with me.
So I tell you the same thing is go checkout other motor sport disciplines and
learn from them what they're doing,how they're marketing, how they're
getting their sponsors, and if youcan take that back home with you in
some way and that propels you, that'llgive you a leg up on your competition.
(27:00):
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And Matt's so good at marketing.
The mint is on my bucket list.
I wanna go there someday.
It's an awesome event.
I can't recommend it enough.
Yeah.
Alright, so Jordan, for you, what wouldyou say to the next Jordan, so the
10, 12, 15-year-old that's watchingyou, looking at you move up through
the ranks, what would you say to them?
(27:20):
Who wants to do whatyou're doing right now?
Look down and never look up untilyou're where you want to be.
I'm big on like a not giving up.
I know that's what everybody says, butif you truly believe it and you vision
it in your head, when you envision itin your head, it's going to happen.
It could be the craziest idea of mein a top fuel car in two years, right?
(27:43):
But if you believe it,it's going to happen.
It doesn't matter howlong it's going to take.
It could take 10, 15, 5 years.
It doesn't matter.
So if you have the right visionfor yourself and it's not a
vision from somebody else, youcould do anything you want.
Such a coincidence that you said thatbecause I am rereading this book,
think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.
(28:04):
That's exactly what this bookis all about, is about visioning
and making it come to life.
If you haven't read this.
You should read this.
I haven't.
Okay, good.
Yeah, so that's exactly it.
Yeah.
My SAT word for the day tosummarize that is tenacity.
That's what that all boils down to.
Jordan, you made a reference thereto keeping your eyes down, meaning
looking down the strip, you have a lotof strip ahead of you still to come.
(28:27):
Yes.
You're on a fast track to becoming aprofessional driver and maybe your.
Clinching your first NHRA championshipsomewhere here down the road, but
what's your five, 10 year outlook?
What's next for you?
Is drag racing what you wanna do forever?
Are there other disciplines ofmotorsport that you wanna explore?
What are your goals?
What are you keeping youreyes set on right now?
(28:47):
I'm definitely trying to focus onjoining this new team and, you know,
making them happy, helping them growas much as possible, as well as myself.
I definitely see myself.
Down the line, progressingwith the team in class.
So if that means moving up in dragstersor in cars, I would like to do that.
And I definitely could see myselfstaying in the sport for a very long
(29:10):
time because I do want to become a, afull-time pro driver and I definitely
always want to stay in the sport,even if that was not to happen.
But I know at the right vision itwill, just as much as, you know,
I want to drive, I want to be onthe business side as well, so.
Investing my time into a team I thinkis definitely worth so trying to
(29:30):
help Bishop's Motorsports grow, notjust for myself, but also for them.
It's a big deal to me, soI'm excited for that as well.
Well, Jordan, we've reached that partof the episode where we like to invite
our guests to share any shout outs,promotions, thank yous, or anything
else that we haven't covered thus far.
My first race is June 8th in Minnesotaat Brainerd International Raceway.
(29:52):
We have title sponsor, poblanosMexican Bar and Grill, so I wanna
really thank them for coming onboard for the 2025 season and I hope
to make them proud of my new team.
Proud.
Known for his focus, grit, and dedication.
Jordan has set out to make a name forhimself in the professional racing
world through hard work, passion,and perseverance and visioning.
(30:13):
He's determined to turn his dreamof becoming an NHRA professional
into reality when not racing.
Jordan is also seeking ways toconnect with brands that align
with his values and racing goals.
His enthusiasm for motorsportsand his entrepreneurial spirit
are the core of his success.
And he's always looking forways to grow and improve, both
(30:34):
personally and professionally.
To learn more and keep up with Jordan'sprogress and hear about his first race,
be sure to follow him on social mediaat Jordan DeCosta racing on Instagram.
And with that, Jordan, I can'tthank you enough for coming on the
show and sharing the beginnings ofyour Road to Success story with us
here on Break Fix and some of the.
Exclusives that you droppedwith us, we are rooting for you.
(30:56):
We are gonna be watching you and we arewishing you the best of luck and hope
to see you with an A HRA championshiptitle under your belt one day.
One day.
Definitely.
Thank you guys so much for having me.
It was nice talking to you guysand the advice was really helpful.
Yeah, and Megan, a pleasure as always.
Thanks for coming back.
Yeah, thank you for having me back, Eric.
Glad to be on.
Thank you guys.
(31:20):
We hope you enjoyed another awesomeepisode of Break Fix Podcasts, brought
to you by Grand Tour Motorsports.
If you'd like to be a guest onthe show or get involved, be sure
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(31:41):
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(32:03):
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And remember, without you,none of this would be possible.
Break Fix podcast is all about capturingthe living history of people from all
over the autos sphere, from wrench,turners, and racers to artists, authors,
designers, and everything in between.
Our goal is to inspire a new generationof Petrolhead that wonder to.
How did they get that jobor become that person?
The road to Success is paved by allof us because everyone has a story.
(00:27):
We return to the world of drag racingwith Jordan DaCosta, an 18-year-old drag
racing phenom from Bradenton, Floridawith an unwavering passion for Motorsport.
Currently piloting a nitrous powereds. 10 Jordan competes in major Florida
national events showcasing his exceptionaltalent and determination on the track.
His journey doesn't stop there.
(00:47):
Jordan recently announced a futurein the NHRA as a professional
driver with the prestigious BishopsMotor Sports Pro sportsman team.
That's right.
And joining me tonight is returning guesttwo time NHRA Drag racing and champion
Megan Meyer, who you might remember fromour panel episode earlier this spring.
So welcome back to the show, Megan.
Thank you.
And with that, let'swelcome Jordan to break fix.
(01:09):
Hello everyone.
How are you guys?
All right, Jordan, it's tradition on thisshow that everybody starts out with a
superhero origin story, but in this case,we're at the origin of your origin story.
So tell us about the who, what,when and where of you, how did
you get involved in Motorsport?
Did you come from a racing family?
What drew you in?
You've only been doing thisfor about two seasons now?
(01:30):
Yeah, I'm on my second season now.
We just ended here in Florida 'causeit's actually different than the NHRA.
But it started out I was pretty young.
Used to go drag racing with my dad.
He raced a stick shift car.
We lived in, uh, long Island,New York, so we'd have to travel
four hours to go to every race.
I remember, you know, when I waslittle, painting the underbody of
the car, cutting out the front end,putting a tube front end in it.
(01:53):
Every winter we would switch the turbo,do twin turbo, set up single turbo.
And then we made the move to Floridaand we just so happened to be able
to find a property five minutes awayfrom Bradenton Motorsports Park.
I got my first square body, S 10.
I started doing test and tuneevents every single Thursday.
To really just learn and it, it was a tensecond truck, I felt ready to start doing
(02:18):
events there at Bradenton, we were ableto find another S 10 that was faster.
I could do like a nine 50 indexin it and then still progress as
I grew as a driver and learn more.
So I started doing that, and thenI didn't really take it as serious.
I just did it as a hobby and then.
All of a sudden I met Mr. West Buck atDrug Illustrated and he gave me a lot
(02:40):
of great advice and so did Kevin Canto,which is now one of my business managers,
and helps me a lot today with everything.
And I started getting sponsorsabout a season I. After starting,
you know, you brought me back tothe Fast and Furious Vin Diesel.
You owe me a ten second car.
You know, that kind of thing.
It sounds like your transition frommaking it a hobby to a profession was
(03:03):
pretty quick, and it sounds like youhad a plan underneath of you, and you've
got some people helping you along.
So what were some of the challengesto getting to this point?
Now you're signing with theteam, and we're gonna talk about
that more as we go along here.
What did you discover along the way?
Is it as easy as people make itout to be, to get into Motorsport?
Or have you faced with some issues?
No, it's not easy at all.
(03:24):
I'm sure Megan can agree with that.
Doing it for so many years.
I knew it wasn't going to be easy.
I knew it was going to cost mea lot of time, and you know,
I fully was dedicated to it.
I still am.
I'm a very driven person.
I've always been a natural leader.
I've always been hardworking.
I've been working since I was14, so I, I knew that if I.
(03:45):
Kept going, even though I didn't seethe results in the beginning right
away, that I could get to this point.
I'm a big vision person.
I could vision myself 10 yearsfrom now and I'm big on that.
And you know, just to get to whereI am today, I never really thought
it would've happened, but I'veenvisioned it a year ago today.
It's definitely achallenge, that's for sure.
(04:06):
But I try to keep my head high and keeppushing and keep doing what I'm doing.
I'm always evolving andlearning and changing new
things on the business side on.
The mechanic side andeverything in between.
My whole program for our listeners outthere who are keeping up with all the
different personalities that we haveon here, we recently had another young
and up and coming driver who's workingthrough carting to get to imsa and he
(04:27):
talked about the struggle about balancingschool at a young age with driving.
Yeah.
Here you are at 18.
The last two years.
Drag racing now into NHRA.
How are you striking a balancebetween school and work?
Yeah, so this year Iactually switched to online.
It just worked out better becauseof my schedule here in Florida.
You know, I'm, I go to racesfrom Wednesday or Thursday
(04:49):
all the way to Sunday.
I was always out of schoolwhen I was in 11th grade.
You know, this year I did online andI was able to actually finish my whole
year's worth of work before my season evenstarted here in Florida in two months.
So I've been done since Septemberand I've been fully focused on
the business side during the day.
(05:09):
And then I have a job at nightwhere I work in my dad's shop
and then racing on the weekends.
So I've been fully into this,you know, for about a year now,
like just totally dedicated tobuilding my name and progressing
as a driver and business person.
I wanna go back to what you justsaid about visioning leadership,
the business side of racing.
'cause I know firsthand that it is.
(05:30):
So important to really workon the business side of it.
Not all racers realize that youdo need to treat your career like
it's a business and not just,Hey, I wanna go drive a race car.
'cause it's fun.
So when you're not behind the wheeland now that you're, you're done with
school, can you tell us more about.
What you are doing on the businessside, and then also what you do
(05:50):
to stay sharp for racing, for yourdriving and, and especially now
that you're gonna be stepping up.
Yeah, so my day to day I like to sendabout a hundred to 150 emails a day to
companies, preferably COOs, CFOs, youknow, people, um, on the marketing side
of, you know, the bigger companies.
Now that I need a larger amount offunding, I'm finding myself needing
(06:13):
to find those bigger companies.
Not so much the local ones anymore.
So I, I send up the one 50 a day and Iactually find those companies based off
of, I'll be driving around and I justsee this company, I think about it, I'll
write it in my notes and that's how I go.
I watch nascar.
I watch F1.
I see who's sponsoring other sports.
And also a big thing I think you'vealso talked about on your social
(06:35):
media is you don't really want thecompanies that are already in the sport,
you want the ones that are outside.
'cause those are the ones.
That have the funding, that havethe pockets to be able to help you
and to even just bring them intothe sport and just doing that, you
bring a new fan into the sport.
So that's also our goaltoo, to bring new fans in.
So that's something I've been focusingon my day to day, and it's a lot of fun.
(06:58):
You get a lot more, noanswers than not even knows.
But you know, out of a hundred maybeyou'll get three people that answer you.
You can get some meetings set up.
I've had some good meetings sofar, so it's pretty exciting.
The opportunity is definitelywhat excites me the most.
Thinking about, you know, what thepotential could be with X company.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, and sharing thatvision is so important.
(07:19):
And going back to what you said.
I like to tell racers like, it's likeimagine you have a a pizza or like a pie.
If you're going after a companythat already is sponsoring people
in motorsports, you're just takinga smaller piece of that pie instead
of bringing a whole nother dish tothe table exactly like what you said.
So I'm so glad that you understand that.
(07:41):
And even the fact you had mentionedyou might get more, no responses
than nos, but just that experience.
Of that repetition of sending themout, learning what to say, you know,
I'm, I'm sure you're changing itevery time because you're learning
what works and what doesn't work.
And even just the fact that like ifyou do get a no, that's still like a
step in the right direction becauseit does help you learn those losses
(08:03):
help you get closer to your win.
And, and you're definitely wellknown within the drag racing world
because you do stand out because.
Not very many racers in our worldare putting in the work that you
do to get your name out there.
Thank you.
So that's why when I heard from ChrisBishop that you're gonna be joining
the team, it's like, oh, that's a nobrainer, because you've just been doing
(08:23):
so much work to get your name out there.
Congratulations.
Thank you on that and I'mvery excited to follow you.
So I do wanna talk about how have youseen the sport change since you first
started and the fact that you haveraced, you went from New York to Florida,
have you seen it change very much?
And then also where do youthink it's going in the future?
(08:44):
I've seen it change a good amount.
You know, it's more focused onthe social media now, not so much.
As what it used to beyears ago and just driving.
There's so much more marketingpartners needed nowadays because
everything just has rising in price.
Even you see in nascar, they havenew sponsors every single weekend.
Sometimes you see that on drag cars too.
(09:06):
It's just evolved so much inthe past couple of years that
we are bound to change with it.
So let's switch gears here a little bit.
Let's talk a little bit more about thefinesse of drag racing, because you
hear different opinions about it, right?
In terms of motor sporting, somereally awesome things going on, like
we talked about on the panel withMegan, you know, gender parity and you
know, a lot of young people in dragracing, which is absolutely awesome.
(09:28):
But there's a lot of talk around, youmentioned Formula one is super popular,
even sports card endurance racing.
And you know, you take this turn likethis and your entry speed and your exit
cornering and how much did you try?
And there's all these nuancesto, let's say, road racing.
And I think a lot of that is lostin translation with drag racing.
'cause it, it's such a short run.
Yeah.
But it's so powerful of a runin that short amount of time.
(09:49):
So what I wanted to do was kind ofhighlight how it is for you right now.
'cause you're in the middle of it.
If you talk to.
Legendary drivers.
If you talk to retired drivers,you know the old saying, the
older we get, the faster we were.
And again, some of thisstuff is lost in translation.
So can you kind of walk us through theday in the life of a young drag racer?
What's it like for you?
What's it like being at the startingline and all that adrenaline and the.
(10:11):
Car prep and everything that goes into it.
Yeah, I, I'm an overthinker andI, in the mornings, like on any
race day, so like Thursday, youknow, you have your qualifying.
Friday I have your qualifying.
Then sometimes, in my caseit's elimination Saturday
and goes into Sunday as well.
I like to get there early.
I'm always first, I lovethe trailer organized.
I like to have all my merch set up.
(10:32):
I'll go in early before myparents and my other part-time
help comes in and helps me.
So I'll come early set up.
I like to sit in the car in the lanesa lot earlier than most do because
I like to just sit in the silenceand kind of think about my run and
what I wanna focus on in that run.
See where I need to improve.
(10:53):
Let go of the button different.
Try something, you know, new.
Like right now, we just did a lotof changes to my car, so I had to
learn how to drive on a radio tire,which is a lot harder than slicks.
A lot more times in a radiocar, you'll smoke the tires
than in the slicks that I had.
So I had to learn how to gothrough tire shake wheeling too.
(11:13):
Like I had to learn how to pedal itdifferently and shift at a different
rate and be used to a higherwheel speed with those radials.
So there's definitely a lotinvolved in driving a drag car.
It's not about just holding itand you know, going straight,
especially for me, there's.
You know, I have nitrous, so I'mwatching, you know, after my burnout,
my nitrous pressure, and I have topurge it down to a certain number, and
(11:35):
there's buttons you gotta hit in betweenall of that and things that you gotta
make sure are going right to be able togo down the track as safe as possible.
Up until this point, you've beenworking with your dad, prepping your
own truck, and you are the masterof your domain and you're very.
Sensitive to the car you,like you said, you gotta purge
it down, you gotta do this.
If it doesn't sound right,it's not running right.
We gotta tear it down.
(11:55):
But now you're signing up with a teamwhere the car will probably be provided.
How is that gonna be different for you?
What's that transition like going fromdriver mechanic to just pro driver?
Oh, I've definitely thought about this.
It's definitely gonna be weird.
Definitely gonna, you know, want toget my hands dirty in the pits and
help the team as much as possible.
But it's definitely gonnabe nice knowing that.
(12:17):
They have so much knowledgein their class range.
The whole team just, they know whatthey're doing and I have full trust in
them in the tuning side and everything.
Even their coaching, they're gonna becoaching me a ton because it's a total
new avenue and class I'm going in.
I'm gonna be driving three differentclasses for them in my first race.
So it's definitely gonna bea huge learning curve for me.
(12:40):
I'm excited to be able to go thereand I have to fly in 'cause they're
actually in Minnesota, so I have tofly in a day early and then fly out a
day after because I still want to helpthem, you know, bring everything back
and go to their headquarters as well.
Other disciplines of motorsport,even the roundy round stuff.
Road racing especially,there are practice days.
Do you get thatopportunity in drag racing?
(13:01):
Do you get to practicewith the cars before?
Yeah, so my divisional racesI'm doing with them I think are
Friday races, are practice days.
But because it's an NHRAdivisional race, I actually have
to relicense in all of their cars.
So I'm actually flying up therefor a week, the beginning of
next month to meet the team.
'cause I haven't even met them.
I haven't been to their shop oranything, meet them, start to learn
(13:25):
how to drive the cars and license.
Three different cars so that I'm preppedand ready to go for my first race and
not have to worry about licensing on thatFriday test day in three classes and try
to, you know, scrim that in the schedule.
Are you nervous?
I am nervous.
I've never traveled to a dragrace and just raced by myself.
I've always had, you know, my dadwith me and my parents there, so it's
(13:46):
definitely gonna be different, but.
I'm also a very independent person.
I'm very excited.
I'm definitely counting downthe days until I get there.
I can speak from Chris's experiencebecause that's how we run our program,
is we provide the cars, the team, and wejust have the drivers fly in and show up.
I have worked closely with Chrisbefore in the past, and I know
he has trained multiple drivers,so he knows what he's doing.
(14:09):
He is a professional, so it's likethe best team, I think, out of all
the NHRA that you could race with.
And yeah, it, it is.
So important that you do come in earlyand like you get to know the team, get
to know their setup, learn how theyorganize their stuff, like what you
had mentioned, even just going to theirheadquarters because sometimes we do
get drivers that go through our programand they don't put in that extra effort.
(14:31):
They end up being the ones that staywith us for the shortest amount of time.
You could tell, like they just don'thave that much passion and drive for it.
Clearly you do.
So I feel like you're gonna be verysuccessful with Chris and his team.
Thank you.
So, yeah.
Yeah, you're welcome.
So what do you think will bethe most challenging moment?
For you going from radials ina drag truck to Super Street?
(14:54):
I'd say just driving a car, it'stotally different than a truck.
And I've actually thought about it alot 'cause I've, you know, sat in drag
cars before, like friends of mine.
But it's a total different viewand I'm a shorter driver, so we're
definitely gonna have to adjust theseat and do a lot of adjustments.
But you sit a lot lower.
My truck is pretty low, but it's.
Still a lot different, youknow, than a normal car.
(15:16):
So I think that's gonna bea big adjustment for me.
And then also, I didn't announce thisyet, but I guess I will hear, I'm gonna be
driving their super comp dragster as well.
I've never even drove a dragster,never been around a dragster.
I've always wanted to.
So that's gonna be a whole new adjustmentas well, and I'm really excited for
that opportunity with them as well.
So I'm gonna ask youagain, are you nervous?
(15:38):
I'm nervous.
I'm nervous.
Excited.
Yeah.
Well, that's awesome.
Super accomplished.
So much fun.
It is very intimidating.
At first, I remember the first time thatI made passes in my super comp, we brought
our super comp dragster to Frank Colley.
So I got to license there andbecause my dad knows nothing
about Super comp Dragsters, right?
(15:59):
He like, he can do top alcoholdragster, you know, with his
eyes closed in his sleep.
But don't ask him to do anythingwith bracket racing 'cause he
does not know how to do it.
He does not care.
So we actually, yeah, we had tolearn from someone else and it took
us a long time to figure it out.
So it will be much easier for you goingwith a team that knows what they're doing.
Yeah.
And they can tell you exactly what to do.
(16:20):
Yeah.
When to do it.
But that's awesome.
Congratulations.
Yeah.
Super comp is so much fun.
Thank you.
I wish I could still do it, butwe sold my card and so I, I can't
anymore, but you know, maybe one day.
I'll buy another dragster.
Yeah.
I wanna go back to your past and talka little bit more about the truck.
So do you have a certain racethat stands out that's the most
memorable one that you have?
And what made it so special for you?
(16:41):
I would say, you know, it's a series, soit's the Drag Illustrated winner series.
That whole series just changedmy whole perspective as a driver,
a team owner, and an influencer.
So that race.
I was able to bring in my titlesponsor, which is a local store,
Bradenton performance supply.
They're five minutes down the roadfrom the track, so we were able to
(17:04):
get them as a vendor spot and I wasable to actually park next to them.
So just the marketing was amazing,that whole series that we were able
to be next to each other, you know,having their name on the side of
the car and you know, their littlestorefront, you know, at the track there.
I was able to actually park on the pro modside, and I was the only index car on that
side, so I got to be next to Kai Kelly.
(17:26):
I was across from Stevie Fast Jackson.
I was next to Erica Enders, AntronBrown, you know, all the big names
and the stars, and you know, theyactually came up, talked to me,
gave me advice, and, you know.
Telling me I have a coolsetup and all that cool stuff.
So it definitely inspired me and to seethe humbleness from all the other drivers.
But another thing that kind of stood outto me was I started making these hats
(17:47):
that say JDR for Jordan DeCosta Racing,and I sold out of them every single race.
So then what I started doing, becauseI realized there was traction from
it, I started making sweatshirtsand shirts and selling that.
And then I also madea marketing table for.
All of my sponsors that may have businesscards or like a lot of my other brand
(18:08):
deals like Dream Giveaway or Racers Club,we have coupon codes and stuff like that.
And I saw a big progress from that.
It definitely opened my eyes to, and alsoeven because I'm not one of the stars
of that series, you know, I'm not in apro mod, believe it or not, I had people
asking for autographs and stuff andit felt, you know, really cool and it.
(18:28):
Just pushed me to, you know, wannawork harder and want to do more
to get to where I want to be likethe other drivers surrounding me.
Well, Megan, you'll recall, you andErica, when we were on the panel together,
shared a sentiment about how the highsare extremely high in drag racing,
but the lows can be very, very low.
So Jordan, you know, you talked aboutsome of the good things, those lows
teach you a lot in life in general,but especially in Motorsport.
(18:52):
So what's one of the most catastrophicthings that have happened that
you've learned from, or failuresthat you've grown from, from
your time in Motorsport so far?
You know, there's a lotof failures all the time.
I mean, finishing my second season off,obviously this season was a lot better
than my first, my first, I went withoutany round winds or anything, and my
goal for my second season was just.
(19:12):
To get a round win, not even an event win.
I didn't care.
I just wanted to win a round becausebracket racing and index racing is very
hard and I had to learn how to finishline drive and you know, do all that
critical stuff of the driving side.
And just as much as getting my car dialed,we had the hardest time getting it dialed.
We've had issues.
We had to change transmissions,we changed drive shaft rear
(19:34):
end, we changed nitrous systems.
We had issues where thecar would just shut off.
So.
That low felt very low, likeI couldn't escape out of it.
And then the next season came andnow I have 10 career round wins
and one event win in just a season.
It went from really low and you know, notgiving up, but still feeling bad about it
to going into the next season, trying tobe positive, and then doing pretty well.
(19:58):
So I'm happy with this.
Last season.
That brings up another good point.
You're rubbing shoulders with somebig names and you're making your way.
You're just starting out.
So when you look over the history ofdrag racing and NHRA and you're talking
to these people and listening to theiradvice, what do you think separates
a good drag racer from a great one?
The good ones are great drivers, butthe great ones are great drivers.
(20:21):
Business people, marketers, and theycould do just about anything, not
just the driving 'cause the drivingis great, but we're also, like Wes
Buck says a lot, you know, withDrug Illustrated, we're characters.
We're the stars of the show.
We need to kind of show that off.
And now that everything has evolved inthe past couple of years with social
media, we need to follow that trend.
(20:42):
Let's start vlogging.
Let's start a podcast.
You know, let's evolve with the sport.
So the great ones evolve.
The good ones just.
Stay driving.
That's really good advice.
And is it so true?
And I share that online too as well.
'cause you kind of see the ones that just,they stay stuck in their ways and then
over the years they just kind of fadeoff and then new talent like you come in.
(21:05):
So speaking of Wes, what has beensome advice that Wes has given you
or Kevin that you could pass onto those aspiring drag racers who
want to follow in your footsteps?
When I first started out, when theysaw my car and there was no sponsors,
it was just a plain black truck.
And they were like, you need to start,you're young, you are business hungry, and
(21:29):
we think you could be a potential star.
And they started off telling me, youknow, try to find the local guys.
So I started off findinglocal companies and.
I'm lucky enough to have about10 local companies that are on
the car and have been helpingme and helping me in the future.
One of them is actually a localrestaurant that sponsors the Drag
(21:51):
Illustrated Winter Series food for us.
So I met him from them andhe's actually sponsoring my
2025 season in my truck here.
And then he's also sponsoring my25 season with Bishops Motorsports.
So I was able to bring himinto the NHRA side and he's.
Such a fan and it's just so exciting.
But also, Kevin, now that we'relooking for, you know, those
(22:13):
bigger corporate ones, he helpsme with a lot of my wording.
So he's like definitely the punctual guy,uh, that helps me spruce things up a bit.
He's always telling me I'mgoing too low on my packages.
He wants me to go higher in price, butthey just really support me and, you
know, every step of the way they've.
Always had my back no matter what.
They've always introduced me, andthat's another thing, just networking.
(22:35):
You know, if I never met them, Ihonestly do not know what I'd be doing
today without them kind of pushingme forward or giving me that contact.
Talking to everybody is a must.
So the local companies that youare bringing on, what is it that
you are giving to them in value inexchange for, you know, the exposure
that you're offering for 'em?
(22:56):
Yeah, well of course you start offwith placement on the car and then,
you know, some of my other deals are.
More so I guess ambassadorships,you promote them on social media.
Another perk of, you know, having themlocal is I offer when they go to car
shows to be featured in the car showswith them to go to all their brand events
and stuff like that and kind of speakout and do a lot of community engagement,
(23:18):
which helps a lot with their sales.
And I also try to help a lot ofmy companies that I'm with try
to get into the track as a vendordepending on, you know, what
business they have for instance.
A local company we havehere is Steel supplements.
They're also parentcompany is Omni Energy.
For the past two years of the winterseries, they've been the official
(23:38):
energy drink of the winter series,so I gave that connection to them.
So you also want to connect them to otherthings that can help grow their brand.
Other than just a name on the car andposting social media stuff as well.
All right, Megan, let's turn the table.
What advice would you give Jordan?
You are so far ahead of other races.
That's what everybody says,but I, I could have it my way.
(24:01):
I'd be a pro today.
Tonight.
Yeah.
Well, it does take time,I gotta tell you that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it took me three years.
Of just training for top alcoholdragster before I even did a, a
professional, you know, an HRRA.
So it takes time, but you arelearning so much that's gonna
pay off so far down the road.
(24:22):
'cause yeah, there's even racersthat have been racing for 20, 30
years that still haven't figuredout, like the things you just said.
The importance of networking is so key.
So my advice for you is tojust keep your head down.
Just keep trying to grow your network.
You never know who is watchingyou either at the track or online.
(24:43):
There's so many times I have heardfrom brands where they won't wear
their logo on their shirt or a polowhen they go to a race because they
don't want to be treated differentlybecause people see, oh, you know,
they're associated with this company.
So they'll just wear, you know, a regulart-shirt and they'll just observe and
see how drivers interact with fans.
(25:05):
Or are they just sitting on the golfcart, you know, just on their phone
the whole time, not talking to anyone?
Do they have a clean pit space?
Like do they take care of their car?
I have heard multiple times from brands.
Saying that they'll interact with someonelike on Zoom or email or phone call, and
it sounds like a great deal, sounds likesomeone they would wanna partner with.
And then they go and see them at theTrack incognito style and realize,
(25:29):
oh, that's not actually the personthat we want to represent our brand.
So I feel like you're on that right path.
Just stay professionalin person and online.
You never know whatcould haunt you one day.
So just make sure you know, you're notposting anything negative or bad or saying
anything bad about someone else out there.
And just, you know, stay positive.
Interact with every singleperson you meet at the track.
(25:52):
Treat them all like royalty,no matter who they are.
If it's a little kid or a old man orsomeone, you have no idea who they are.
Yeah, because you never know.
What they do or what connections theyhave that could help you in the future.
Of course.
Thank you.
Racing is one of the places wherethe nice guys don't finish last.
They usually come out ahead.
That being said, dovetailing off ofthat, I will bestow some wisdom if I can.
(26:16):
And to your point about bringingthese new ideas to the paddock and
the things you're doing to promoteyourself, we had the opportunity to.
Sit down and chat with Matt Marellia couple years ago and he, you know,
was friends with Ken Block and then heeventually took over the Mint 400 and
a lot of other off-road events out westand I went to visit him at the Mint.
You know, we got to chit-chatting.
He was taking me around andI said, you know, Matt, this
seems awful familiar to me.
(26:38):
Like there's certain aspects ofother motorsport at this event.
And he goes, yeah.
Because I went and checked themall out and then I took the best of
that and brought it home with me.
So I tell you the same thing is go checkout other motor sport disciplines and
learn from them what they're doing,how they're marketing, how they're
getting their sponsors, and if youcan take that back home with you in
some way and that propels you, that'llgive you a leg up on your competition.
(27:00):
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And Matt's so good at marketing.
The mint is on my bucket list.
I wanna go there someday.
It's an awesome event.
I can't recommend it enough.
Yeah.
Alright, so Jordan, for you, what wouldyou say to the next Jordan, so the
10, 12, 15-year-old that's watchingyou, looking at you move up through
the ranks, what would you say to them?
(27:20):
Who wants to do whatyou're doing right now?
Look down and never look up untilyou're where you want to be.
I'm big on like a not giving up.
I know that's what everybody says, butif you truly believe it and you vision
it in your head, when you envision itin your head, it's going to happen.
It could be the craziest idea of mein a top fuel car in two years, right?
(27:43):
But if you believe it,it's going to happen.
It doesn't matter howlong it's going to take.
It could take 10, 15, 5 years.
It doesn't matter.
So if you have the right visionfor yourself and it's not a
vision from somebody else, youcould do anything you want.
Such a coincidence that you said thatbecause I am rereading this book,
think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.
(28:04):
That's exactly what this bookis all about, is about visioning
and making it come to life.
If you haven't read this.
You should read this.
I haven't.
Okay, good.
Yeah, so that's exactly it.
Yeah.
My SAT word for the day tosummarize that is tenacity.
That's what that all boils down to.
Jordan, you made a reference thereto keeping your eyes down, meaning
looking down the strip, you have a lotof strip ahead of you still to come.
(28:27):
Yes.
You're on a fast track to becoming aprofessional driver and maybe your.
Clinching your first NHRA championshipsomewhere here down the road, but
what's your five, 10 year outlook?
What's next for you?
Is drag racing what you wanna do forever?
Are there other disciplines ofmotorsport that you wanna explore?
What are your goals?
What are you keeping youreyes set on right now?
(28:47):
I'm definitely trying to focus onjoining this new team and, you know,
making them happy, helping them growas much as possible, as well as myself.
I definitely see myself.
Down the line, progressingwith the team in class.
So if that means moving up in dragstersor in cars, I would like to do that.
And I definitely could see myselfstaying in the sport for a very long
(29:10):
time because I do want to become a, afull-time pro driver and I definitely
always want to stay in the sport,even if that was not to happen.
But I know at the right vision itwill, just as much as, you know,
I want to drive, I want to be onthe business side as well, so.
Investing my time into a team I thinkis definitely worth so trying to
(29:30):
help Bishop's Motorsports grow, notjust for myself, but also for them.
It's a big deal to me, soI'm excited for that as well.
Well, Jordan, we've reached that partof the episode where we like to invite
our guests to share any shout outs,promotions, thank yous, or anything
else that we haven't covered thus far.
My first race is June 8th in Minnesotaat Brainerd International Raceway.
(29:52):
We have title sponsor, poblanosMexican Bar and Grill, so I wanna
really thank them for coming onboard for the 2025 season and I hope
to make them proud of my new team.
Proud.
Known for his focus, grit, and dedication.
Jordan has set out to make a name forhimself in the professional racing
world through hard work, passion,and perseverance and visioning.
(30:13):
He's determined to turn his dreamof becoming an NHRA professional
into reality when not racing.
Jordan is also seeking ways toconnect with brands that align
with his values and racing goals.
His enthusiasm for motorsportsand his entrepreneurial spirit
are the core of his success.
And he's always looking forways to grow and improve, both
(30:34):
personally and professionally.
To learn more and keep up with Jordan'sprogress and hear about his first race,
be sure to follow him on social mediaat Jordan DeCosta racing on Instagram.
And with that, Jordan, I can'tthank you enough for coming on the
show and sharing the beginnings ofyour Road to Success story with us
here on Break Fix and some of the.
Exclusives that you droppedwith us, we are rooting for you.
(30:56):
We are gonna be watching you and we arewishing you the best of luck and hope
to see you with an A HRA championshiptitle under your belt one day.
One day.
Definitely.
Thank you guys so much for having me.
It was nice talking to you guysand the advice was really helpful.
Yeah, and Megan, a pleasure as always.
Thanks for coming back.
Yeah, thank you for having me back, Eric.
Glad to be on.
Thank you guys.
(31:20):
We hope you enjoyed another awesomeepisode of Break Fix Podcasts, brought
to you by Grand Tour Motorsports.
If you'd like to be a guest onthe show or get involved, be sure
to follow us on all social mediaplatforms at Grand Touring Motorsports.
And if you'd like to learn moreabout the content of this episode,
be sure to check out the followon article@gtmotorsports.org.
(31:41):
We remain a commercial free and noannual fees organization through
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families, and friends through Patreon.
For as little as $2 and 50 cents a month,you can get access to more behind the
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(32:03):
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