How This Mini Cooper Expert Found Success in Wheel-to-Wheel Racing

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:29):
Welcome to the Late to Grid podcast.
This is your host, Bill snow.
And I'm back in the Atomic AutoSports studio
to bring you another storyof a motorsports journey.
And this time, I'm really excited towelcome Adrian Willoughby into the studio
to tell us more about his business,his racing background,
but more importantly, his motorsportsjourney.
So, Adrian, welcome to the podcast.

(00:50):
Yeah, thanks for having me, Bill.
I'm super excited to be here.
As I told you before the show,this is my first show.
So this is awesome.
I'm looking forward to it.
Yeah, so am I.
So all week, as I've been thinkingabout today and recording this
with you, there's two wordsI can't get out of my head.
Yo, Adrian.

(01:11):
Oh, myGod, my entire life, that's
all I ever heard.
The first time I ever rememberhearing it, was Boy Scout summer camp.
Like.
Oh, God, this is.
I was probably, like, 12, 13 years old.
And we had a old Germanas our mayor, badge counselor for shotgun,
mayor badge, and he said that to mefor the first time only.

(01:32):
What does that mean? You know,what are you talking about?
Because you hadn't seen the movie.
I still haven't seen the movie.
No way.
I still haven't seen the movie.
But everywhere I go, it's yo, Adrian.
I'm like, yeah, yeah, that's me.
That's awesome.
So before we get into the mainpart of the podcast, you and I are just
back from a Champ Car race at PittsburghInternational Race Complex.

(01:54):
You were a busy guy.
You raised five hours on Saturday.
Every time I turned around,you were zipping up and down the paddock
or the pit lane.
How tall are you? 62. You're 62.
You're on this miniquad going 100 miles an hour.
Where do you come up with allthis energy to be everywhere
and put five hours in on Saturday?

(02:15):
I don't know, man. I've.
I've always been, like, super energetic.
Like going back to when I was a kid.
I've just always been go go go go go.
I mean, I'm the same waywith, like, with my business.
Like, I just go, go, go.
I don't, I don't stop.
It it is a little bit of a sicknessin a way.
But also like, it helps mein a lot of different other things.

(02:36):
So that's pretty cool.
And that quad, by the way, is amazing.
Is it?
I literally just got it.
And the start switch doesn't work,so I have to hop wired every.
Need to get online for some very typicalgrassroots race racer vehicle.
Literally.
I keep like I pop the seatand I keep a wire stuck
in between the battery and the and the,you know, the cover of the chassis.

(03:00):
And I just pull it outand I touch it to the battery,
touch to the starter, fire up.
And that's like, oh, that's great.
Let's you know why we have a minute.
Let's talk about the race weekend.
Because you were racing with money shiftracing.
Friends of ours. Yeah.
In the same classthat we run in with Raider Racing,
you had a pretty stellar weekend.
Yeah.
So, the money shift guys,those people are like my family.

(03:22):
I've really only known themfor probably about three years now.
I met Kevin through a mutual friendwho has actually been
a little bit of a customerand actually came and helped me out
at the shop every once in a while.
And he says, listen, I think you twowould be great friends you need to meet.
And so we did.
And then, yeah,it just kind of led to where we are now.

(03:46):
This weekend was fantastic.
We had our best resultthat we've ever had.
And not even, just, like,since I've joined the team since, like,
that civic was built.
Yeah.
Four years ago,four, 4 or 5 years ago now.
I think they built that,between 2019 and 2020.
So, we finished third overall.

(04:08):
Like you mentioned,I drove five hours on Saturday.
It was, it was exhausting.
I forgot my cool shirt at home.
I'm usually pretty well prepared, and,I was not, so that sucked. But,
yeah, we went outand we did everything that we had to do.
And, this year, we've been fightinga lot of, mechanicals.

(04:32):
So, like, we went to run Atlantaand our car didn't have Vtec,
so we were going down the back straightat Road Atlanta, like 109 miles an hour,
whereas everybody elseis, you know, zooming by at 120, 530.
We went to Ginger man,and we just destroyed brake pads.
We couldn't keep them in the car.
Then we went to Nelson.
We chewed through three sets of axles.

(04:55):
I mean, practice day was a set of axles.
Saturday's races of axles.
Sunday's race was a set of axles.
And then we went to Mid-Ohio.
We lost another set of axles,and alternator as well.
And we just finally gotwe put it together.
This, this, this past Saturday.

(05:16):
Yeah. Sure did.
And the team Friday night or Thursdaynight was in a panic.
Yeah. Right.
Because we there were some data,logger issues or dash issues.
Yeah.
So, we run a, a, CD seven dash,I think it is.
And amthey have a vehicle dynamics module,
and it connects to the, the dash,and it provides

(05:40):
GPS coordinates and track mapping dataand things like that.
It was also on the same circuitas our, fuel gauge as well.
Right.
So something had happenedin the computer out.
I'm like computer guy,so I don't know what's going on.
Tony had that figured out.
He's he's got that stuff figured out.

(06:01):
But so we didn't have a fuel gauge.
We didn't have a speedometer,we didn't have lap timing.
And like, the lap timing.
Yeah. We don't need, like.
I mean, that's an amenity, right? Right.
But that speedometer waswhen we have purple 35 or we have 20 mile
an hour speed limit in the pit lane.
Like we need to know what what how fastwe're going so we, we don't get a penalty.

(06:23):
Right.
And yeah, we were paying it toI don't think we got the car loaded up

till about 930, 10 (06:26):
00 Thursday night to, to be out there.
And I know there are some peoplethat, you know, they load up
a lot later than that, unfortunately.
But that was probably the latestthat we've loaded up in a long time.
Yeah.
It was awesome to see, you know,you know, taking not only the green flag
but the checkered flag both daysafter kind of a, a rough season.

(06:47):
So road Atlanta.
So instead of Vtec yo it was Vtec.
No. Yeah.
Oh yeah.
Oh yeah.
I mean it was youmilks that that car for everything.
It had you, you know,I mean it was like driving a miata really.
Or an. M or. Yeah.
There you go. Or it neon.
And if anybody's been on the trackwith that money shift

(07:07):
civic in the last, you know, 3 or 4 races,you know, that thing's not slow.
Oh, man.
And, at Road Atlanta, we were slow.
It sucked, man. It really did.
But we we managed through it,and we finished second in class that,
that weekend,we would have been first in class,
but we had a wheel bearing failure.
And we actually saw it.

(07:28):
It was, brake issuesbecause we kept going into a braking zone
and we had no brake pedal,and you'd have to pump it.
Well, we were getting pad knock back,but we we were on fixed calipers.
There's no reason we get pad knock back.
But we had a wheel bearing sale.
So you you turn the wheeland it would flex the wheel bearing
and it would push the pistonsand in the caliper,

(07:50):
then you hit the next brake zone,you got to push them back out again.
So explain pad knock back to the listener.
So pad knock back is what occurs on a,I guess you could say a traditional style
caliper that's got sliding pins.
And, as you turn the carand put the side load into the,
the, the suspension,it actually causes the,

(08:15):
the rotor to push back on those side pinsand send that piston of the caliper
actually kind of back into it.
So now you don't have,almost the immediate grab of your brake
pad when you hit that brake pedal.
So sometimes, like, you'll see people,they'll go down, straight away

(08:53):
and you'll see them tap their brakes waybefore the brake zone,
and then that's them checking to make surethat their, their brakes are there
because a lot of cars aren't runningfix calipers.
All right. Very interesting.
Yeah.
So, any more enduranceracing for you this year?
Possibly.
There, there's a team.

(09:15):
And this was actually the first teamthat I ever worked with in Champ Car.
They might be runningthe Sebring New Year's Eve race.
And if they are, I might go down there,with our good friend.
Less and less.
Less has been a guest before. Less apps.
Yeah, yeah.

(09:35):
Lester, he,shout out to him. He's fucking awesome.
I love that guy.
He really is.
When I went down to Daytona,to work with this team, he he really,
helped me out and and showed me the ropesbecause this is my first time ever
at an endurance raceor at a at a Champ Car race.
And,yeah, he gave me a lot of good pointers.

(09:56):
And we've been friends ever since.
We chat all the time.
Every time we're at the track,we hang out.
So, yeah,we might go race a mini down there with,
John John Player Dano, John Allen,John Allen special.
So, yeah,they run a, and 14 hour, 36 mini night.
So we'll see if they're running.

(10:17):
We might go run with them.
That'd be fun to nuts, for sure. Yeah.
So you got started in all thisbecause your dad was a dirt track racer?
Yeah. That's how you got the bug?
Yeah.
So growing up,my dad race before I was born.
He raced, six cylinder, dirt modifieds.
And when I was born, he kind of likehe had to hang it up, you know?

(10:41):
But we were still going to the trackall the time.
So we were at Sharon Speedway, MercerSpeedway, Lerner Ville Speedway.
Anytime we were with him.
And it was a weekend.
That's what we were doing.
Maybe not every time,but a large majority of the time.
And, yeah, I fell in love with it.
And I remember telling my dad I was like,dad, dad, I want to I want to go racing.

(11:04):
And how old. Were you when you. Said that?
Oh, God. I was like, 4 or 5, you know?
I mean, there was a local, dirtgo kart track,
and I was trying to convince himwhen I was like 8 or 9, like, hey,
can we put a kart togetherand just go run dirt carts?
You know,but I remember telling, like, let's go
racing.
And Sharon Speedway is,home of the Blaney family,

(11:27):
if you're familiar.
And my dad is the same ageas Dale and Dave.
So he grew up watching them,you know, climb the ranks and everything.
And first thing he said to me was like,if you want to go racing,
you're going to have to waittill you're 18.
And I was like, but why?
He's like, well, if Dale and DaveBlaney had to wait until they were 18

(11:47):
to get in a car, you have to waituntil you're 18 to get in the car.
If it's good enough for the ladies, it'sgood enough for for the willoughbys.
Yeah, exactly.
So yeah.
Then so we didn't go racing,but we went and saw all the races.
Yeah.
You know, we always, our favorite racewe always did was, Don Martin Memorial
Silver Cup for the World of Outlawsshow at Lavell, watching the sprint cars.

(12:11):
Okay, that's my that's my favorite.
I could drive a sprint car.
So if anybody out there,you got a sprint car, and,
you know, you might want to giveme a test. I would love that.
But that's that's, on my bucketlist is to drive a sprint car one day.
Oh, that'd be a blast. Under under under.
Yeah, yeah.
Maybe I'll see you in the ChiliBowl or something. Hey,

(12:33):
that was sweet.
So, what was the very first timeyou had something on track?
So first time I had something on trackwould have been 2019.
And that would have been,the first Mini Cooper they were on.
Everybody knows me, Froning. Mini Cooper.
Yeah.
The first one I ever owned,was the first car I ever took on track.
I use when I bought that car,I did,

(12:56):
a lot of very dumb things on the road.
I'm sure as a lot of us young,teenage, boys do.
Wait.
The road is not the racetrack. No. Oh.
All right.
Yeah.
So I was,I did a lot of things that, you know,
I can laugh about now,but I'm not necessarily proud of. And,

(13:17):
I put myself in situations, and I said,you know what?
I can't keep doing this.
And that's when I signed upfor my first track day out at, Pitt race.
Pitt race.
They have their own, driverschool, actually,
you know, like, there's organizationsthat whole driving schools
and stuff like that, but, Pitt Raceactually has like their own program
that they put on.

(13:37):
And so I went outand and I did that for two.
I did two days in 2019.
And, what was what was your immediatereaction that first lap?
So the firstthe first three laps was,
I know how to drive a car.
I know what I'm doing.

(13:58):
And I loved it.
And I was right about one of those things.
The fact that I loved it,it was not right like that.
I knew how to drive the car.
Because the guy sat in my passenger seatafter probably about third or fourth lap,
he he got over the communicationsand he said, listen,
if you don't start listening to me,we will park the car for the day.

(14:18):
Oh, and I had just spent $400come like I'm not.
Parking the car for the day.
Pleaserepeat yourself, sir, I will listen. Yeah.
So, Yeah.
So I listened to him and that is how,I got on track.
So that was that was a fun time.
And I remember that after the first day,like, my buddy told me you need to get
a rear sway bar on that mini.

(14:42):
You need it for sway. I'm like.
I looked him up online there.
I want to say, like, $500.
And I'm like, man, $500 for,you know, a little steel tube.
And at the time, I was like,well, I'm not paying that.
Yeah, I'll pay another five bucksand get on track for a couple of days.
Yeah, exactly.
You know, and I did that first track dayand as soon as I got home,
the first thing I did isI ordered a rear sway bar.
Oh, yeah.

(15:03):
Click.
We need that, you know, but.
Yeah. So. And then sickness started.
So before you hooked upwith Frank Schwartz,
which we'll talk about in a minute,did you do more track days?
You do more HPD things.
What was your next couple of eventsafter that?
Yes. So,like I said, I did two days in 2019

(15:23):
and then obviously 2020 hit andwe know how that year went for everybody.
I did manage to get a track day outat Nelson Ledges, in November of 2020.
Perfect weather to be at Nelson. Yeah.
It was like 50 degrees.
Yeah.
And, I had no idea what I was doing.

(15:44):
And actually.
So my second track day ever.
So that second day I didn't at Pitt race,I had upgraded my brake pads
and I had upgraded my brake fluid,and I had put on that rear sway bar,
and I went out, and every sessionI boiled the brakes.
No kidding.
And this and I didn't put,I just bought for

(16:07):
I didn't realize, oh,hey, maybe I should buy Motul, you know?
Yeah. I didn't ask the right questionsto the right people.
And at that time,I didn't have those people, which is so.
Okay.
And really quickly. Yeah.
How did you find the right people?
Just keep going to the track.
All right?
That's really how you do it.
I mean, you just keep going to the trackand, I mean, I like to think

(16:30):
I'm a fairly personable person, andI like to put myself into other people's.
You do talk to everybody.
So, yeah, you are very personable,you know?
So I put my I try to put myself out there.
So that way I can, you know, get to meetmore people and learn more things,
you know, because the more I know, thethe better I can be on and off the track.
So that's the best thing that you can dois go to the track

(16:51):
and just walk up to somebody that you see.
It doesn't even matterif you like their car or not.
Like if it looks like thatthey've been to the track
more times than you go talk to them.
And just,you know, ask them questions like, hey,
what brake pads are you running?
Or, you know, what should I do here?
I'm a little confused.
Everybody at the racetrack is a family.

(17:13):
And,that's why I love going to the racetrack,
because I can go there, and I know thatI'm going to have the best time of my life
every time. It doesn't even matterif I bring my own car.
There's been talent. Like, this year,I didn't take my car out at all.
My carnever drove this year. The yellow mini.
The yellow mini. Right.
I you know, I it never drove,but I still have been
at the track constantlyand I've loved every minute of it.

(17:35):
The people out thereamazing. The always help you.
They never hesitate.
You know, if you got a problem,they'll they'll make sure that
you're taking care of.
Yeah. So that's a pro tip right there.
Yeah.
Ask people talk to people.
Engage with people.
If there's a session after a session,you know, if there's like a classroom
session go and learn mingle network.
Great stuff.
Yeah 100%.

(17:56):
So but going back to yeah pit racethat second time I boiled the brakes
and I actually going into 17oh I lost brake pedal going into 17.
Not a place you want to be.
No. With no. Brakes.
No. And, I went into full panic mode,I really did.
I mean, I'm on the comms. I'm telling.
I were wrecking the car.
Wrecking the car? Like,this is the brace for impact.
Yeah, basically.
And he's super calm, collectedand, telling

(18:19):
me, like, every input that I need to do,which is fantastic.
Because I did listen to him, you know,he had gained my trust and before.
And I listened to him then and,thankfully the car was saved and
everything was okay.
I was able to drive home becauseat the time I didn't have a trailer.
So I drove track.
Yeah.
You know,but yeah, that was kind of about it.
And then in 21,I did, one time trial with SCCA.

(18:46):
Oh, yeah, I did NCMbecause my mom was down there.
So I was like, well, let me do this event.
Looks really cool.
And I can go see my mom.
So I did that. And so in that 2016 mini.
Yep yep yep yep yep I thatthat was my first car
and I didn't get my second car until.
And the22 and it didn't start campaigning
until end of 23.

(19:07):
So yeah I still have that car.
Yeah I still have the car.
Did you like the time trial format?
At the time I did, yes. Yeah.
And what I,I don't mean that in like a bad way.
It's just,you know, as I have grown, my,
my journey, I guess you could say, like,my motorsports journey,
time trials is not, like,my favorite thing in the world anymore.

(19:30):
I just love the people.
And for that, like, I'll keep going back,but I don't, you know,
I don't wake up in the morning andand look forward
to going to the time trial.
You know, John Hunterputs on an amazing event with the SCCA.
So, if you want to go check outa national time trial event, really go do
so, but, yeah, I just enjoy the enduranceracing so much more now.

(19:53):
I loveI love it because it required, like,
it requires you to be perfectfor a much longer period of time.
And to me, that that's a lot harder to dothan to put down one fast lap.
Right.
That's my opinion.
And everybody'severybody's entitled to their own opinion,

(20:13):
but that's my preferences.
So. Well,that's the beautiful thing about our sport
is there's so many different thingsyou can do.
And I had a guest on Sareen Capelli.
He raced with us.
He's been a guest here.
He said,you got to find your joy in motorsports.
And for some, that's time trial.
For others, it's endurance racing.
For others, it's sitting on the pit boxand maybe taking, you know, tire pressure.
So whatever,whatever brings you joy and motorsports

(20:34):
is what you need to focus in on.
For you, it's endurance racing.
Yeah. And that's 100% correct.
You know,I mean, we have a guy on our team, j
J does not get in the car.
J just likes to help in the pit stops,and, J's awesome.
I usually ride with him.

(20:54):
Hey, we're we're in the tow vehicletogether.
Towing the race car. Yeah.
And then the other guys who are towingthe, camper and everything, but,
Jay really enjoys,being a pit guy, and,
which is amazing because youyou can't do it
without all these different people.
You know, you need somebody who can dowho wants to do the pit stuff,

(21:17):
and you need somebody whocan drive the car fast, and
you need somebody who can build the carand make sure that it's ready to go.
And you need somebodyto be able to analyze
the data, to know what changes to make.
And you have to have that.
If you don't have that,it makes it makes it definitely
a lot harder than than it can be.
Yeah, for sure.
It is a team sport. Yes.
And that's the other thing.

(21:37):
I love the camaraderiewith endurance racing.
You don't get that kind of camaraderieanywhere else. So.
So what is some early advicethat you received
that you still reflect back on todayand use?
The number one thing,my dad told me this,
and, I tell this to all of my students.

(21:58):
Is thatif you want to go to the racetrack
and you have a car that you want to drive,drive it to the racetrack
and put it on the track.
Do not go on line and put a dozendifferent things in your cart
and spend a weekend.
Put them on the car.
Take your car in its stock form on itsall season

(22:21):
tires to the racetrack,and actually get to feel what's going on.
The only thing is, definitely changeyour fluid and your brake pads. Yes.
But other than that, leave the car100% bone stock.
Because now you're going to be able toyou're going to go out there
and you want that driver driver to carprogression ratio.

(22:43):
You know, if your car progressionis so much further ahead than your
your driver progression,you're you're going to stunt your growth.
You're going to have a much harder timeunderstanding what changes need to be made
and how those changes are going to affectthe car and you behind the wheel.
So go out there, drive the car as it is,and then come back and say,

(23:03):
hey, you know what?
The car was super understeerand you were able to recognize that, okay,
let me get a rear sway barif it's a front wheel drive. Sure.
And then the next timeyou go out and say,
hey, it's doing this,let me add some more camber
because my tires are getting really,Warner, you know, make small steps
because that will allow you to progressas a driver so much faster.

(23:23):
And the more you learn early, the moreyou can adapt, the more you understand.
And as you get faster and faster,you're probably going
to repeat some of those things again.
Oh, 100%.
And having that experiencewill help you overcome those quickly.
Yeah, absolutely.
And then especially to like,you know, if if you do that
slow progression in if you're like meand you decide that you have
to constantly build cars for no reasonthat don't run,

(23:45):
you know, like the one car I'mcurrently building right
now, we're going, you know,all the way out from first get go.
We'renot even going to take it out for testing.
But that's because we have a lotof experience already.
And understanding what a lot of differentaspects of the car make.

(24:06):
So if you if you build that knowledge baseand, you, you fine tune that, but dyno
the first time you get that car,you're going to be able to recognize
a lot of the things that are going on,and you'll be able to build out
cars a lot quicker.
Are you talking about a TSX?
Maybe, maybe,maybe there is a nice quick one.

(24:26):
This past weekend,talk to those guys a little bit.
That was fun.
New, fun to see them on track.
Yeah. That's, Charlie, Charlie's up.
I want to say out of,the lower Wisconsin area.
We've actually bought partsoff of Charlie, for our car.
Gotcha.
He he, he does a lot of Hondavalve cover, powder coating.

(24:49):
He also, makes track car,bars, impact bars.
So I did see those.
And not only that, there's a toe strapthat was really impressed by their design.
Yeah, toe strap attaches to himand they have a jack point.
So you can jack up carbon.
The and he also welds bunks.
So if you want to do a,a splitter in the front, you know,

(25:10):
so like the bars we ordered, they havea, toe hook, spot in the front.
And then they have, two bunks,threaded bunks for, splitter rods.
So, and they're, they useinch and three quarter Dom tubing.
And I believe everything is tig welded,if I recall correctly.

(25:31):
And we lost, I think, 25 poundsby replacing the factory bars
with his bars.
Oh, impressive.
And his barsgo directly up against the bumper,
you know, so a lot of these peoplewho sell these track bars,
you know, you put them on the carand you have a 2 or 3 inch gap
between the bumper and the impact bars.
So the minute that you hit someone withthat bumper, like the bumper is destroyed.

(25:53):
Yeah.
Well, Charlie does a lot of really goodengineering and,
model scanning of,make sure those fit perfectly. So.
And that cars fast.
Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
The car. Is fast.
So you mentioned earlier you're you'reyou were a Boy Scout.
Yeah. Boy scoutmotto is be prepared. Yeah.
How has that helpedyou make sure that you're ready to go

(26:14):
for a race weekend or an HPD eventand not forget anything but a cool shirt.
You know, I, I prepare,well in advance, so, like,
if I know I'm going to the track, say,you know, today's Wednesday if I'm going
leaving for the track Friday after work,I'm already starting packing.

(26:37):
Usually Wednesday,I'll start packing the trailer.
I always have a list.
And,that includes list includes everything
from tools to spare partsto extra toe straps.
Because one.
You never knowif one of them might break or,
and I, I just go throughand I cross off my list and,

(26:59):
and then usually, Thursday night,I'll make sure that my, my gear bag and,
my, my, suitcase is all packedand ready to go, and we get out there.
Yeah, I, I am overly prepared sometimes.
You know, bringing two, three, four,maybe even sometimes five of one thing
that I maybe only needed two of.

(27:22):
But I'd rather have it than not have it.
Yeah.
You know, especially with, like, it waspossibly supposed to rain on Sunday.
You know, I guess what, I bought,like 2 or 3 extra pairs of socks
because you never know, right?
Thankfully, I didn't need them. Exactly.
It didn't rain.
Well, I was hoping it was raining.
You like driving in the rain?
I like driving in the rain.
It's front wheel drive,independent suspension.

(27:44):
I mean, the rain is is to our advantage.
A lot of my teammates would disagree.
You know, they, they kind of were likeAdrian, shut up, shut up.
Quit like and that's broadcast.
We don't want to know about it.
You know jinx it.
But I hope we race in the rain one day.
We just have it. It hasn't happened yet.

(28:04):
Well, not for me.
Not not for me. In the money shift car.
I think the last rain race we didwas pit two years ago.
And that was when it was red flagged.
Yeah.
Like we didn't even have a chanceto really race in the rain. Yeah.
It was I mean,I think it rained for five minutes
and then after it rainedor it rained harder
and they red flagged itand they called the race. Right.

(28:25):
So we it, I was on the carat Watkins earlier this year
and, it started rainingand I got maybe like five minutes.
They took us down a purple 35 and calledthe race an hour and a half early.
I, I, you know, every time I'm like, man,I really hope it rains.
So apparently I need to go down to Daytonabecause it always rains at Daytona.

(28:45):
Yeah. So that's on our list.
We might go down there this year.
We might go down there next year.
We're not sure yet. All right.
We're thinking about it for 2025.
So maybe we should coordinate on that.
Yeah.
To us it'sgoing to depend on how the car is because,
we boiled our brake fluid,at pit, for Saturday's race.

(29:06):
And Sunday's race.
Wow. And we've changed masks,cylinders and bias valves.
And, I mean, we've done a lot of workon that brake system to try and,
you know, get it more dialed in.
And by the end of the race on Saturdayand the race on Sunday,
we had 800psi to the front and 1100 psi to the rear.

(29:27):
So our, you know,we're not quite sure
what's exactly going on and causing our,you know, pressure to flip flop
because obviously you're supposedto have higher pressure
in the front. Yeah.
So if we can get that dialedin where we might go to Daytona,
this, this, coming year,if not, we'll we'll probably go in 26.
All right.
So, yeah, yeah,I want to shift gears a bit and talk about

(29:50):
you and your business.
So you are in a mini Cooper business?
Yeah.
Flippingmini Cooper's fixing mine, and Cooper's
to a certain extent, partying out.
Mini Cooper's? Yeah.
So did you get into thisbecause your first track car was a mini
and you have an affinity for minis?
Had this all come about.
So, there's a, gentlemanby the name of Jonathan Dresser over.

(30:16):
And,actually right here in Cuyahoga Falls,
he runs a mini Coopershop, strictly service.
And, he had been servicingmy car for me, because I had to.
So I bought my first one,and then I bought my second one, and
I was driving three hours a day for work.
Like,I just didn't have the time or the car.
I had to have an oil change done.

(30:37):
Every, every month, you know?
So to me, it was like, you know what?
Saturday morningsI'll stop, I'll have my oil changed on him
and I'll go grab lunch, hang out,you know, whatever.
And after hanging out with him,I was like, man, I, you know,
I kind of want to start my own business.
And I didn't know what it was going to be.
I was just like, I want to do it.
How am I going to do it?

(30:59):
And I bought a house and East Lake,which you're familiar with, East Lake.
Yeah. Okay.
Right over there by the Walmart.
On off of Vine Street.
And I had a sixcar detached garage
and a one car attached garage,and now was only five minutes
away from work.

(31:19):
I was like, man, I need a project.
So I went out and I bought a miniCooper Clubman that I was going to
turn into furniture for.
You know, I was going to make it.
I was going to take the, the suicide doorand, and the front door off,
and I was going to make like a four personcouch
and I was going to have the hood openand, and have the, the engine block
be a grill.
I mean,I had this whole thing planned out.

(31:40):
I mean, I really did, and I was like,well, wait a minute, I have a mortgage
now. Like I can't afford to just,I mean, fling money around at projects
that really have no value to them asideto, for for me.
So I said, well, I need to go.
I need to figure out how to do this.
So my buddy Jonathan, he calls me,he says, hey,

(32:00):
I got a guy here, he's got a mini.
He wants like 400 bucks for it.
I was like, okay, he's like,you want it like, oh, 400 bucks.
Yeah. Okay. Sure. I'll take it.
So I got it.
And then I started stripping it down,you know, and selling the parts off of it.
And then I bought,after I finished that one,

(32:20):
I bought two more,and then it just went downhill.
I had ten cars in my drivewayat one point, city knocking on my door,
saying that, hey, you can't run a businessout of your house.
Business. This is a fun hobby.
Right.
And so that's kind of how,like, the business started, like, I mean,
it wasn't like I went out and I said, I'mgoing to sell used Mini Cooper.

(32:43):
I just one day,it just kind of took off, and and,
now there's a lot of people that they,they give me a call and they say, hey,
I'm having a hard time with my money,I need help.
And I say, I have the parts for you,and and I'm thankful for them.
Yeah.
You know,there's a lot of really great people
that I've met along the way doing that.
All across the country,the Mini Cooper community,

(33:06):
if you don't know, which I'm pretty sureyou do, since you've owned one.
Yeah.
The Mini Cooper communityis actually probably one of the best,
community brands that there are.
I mean, Jeep is really strong.
But when it comes to the Mini Cooper,they're also pretty strong, too.
Yeah.
I mean, and, you know, likemini USA puts on massive events,

(33:31):
you know, like they domini takes the states every year, right?
And 99% of the peoplethat are doing that event
that many USA is putting on are peoplethat did not buy their mini brand new,
which means that they did not give miniUSA their money.
Right?
They gave somebody else their moneyand mini USA is still supporting them.

(33:51):
Mini USA supports a lot of racers.
They they, if you have, you know,kind of like Mazda contingency.
Yeah.
I think Nissan has a contingency as well.
Mini USA has a contingency when it comesto I think it's only SCCA racing.
I know they don't do it for NASA, and,I'm almost positive
they don't do it for for enduranceracing with Champ Car either. But,

(34:15):
But yeah, mini is fantastic.
So a lot of great people. Yeah for sure.
So does the business help your racingto give you the flexibility
needed, the funding.
How does the business fit in the racing.
Yeah.
I mean, I think a lot of people who arein racing would know that,
being a business owner is kind of thethe easiest step into racing

(34:36):
because it is very time consuming.
So I'm able to make my own schedulein that way.
You know, if I say, hey,you know, like this past weekend,
we we left, Friday morning.
So I had to take Friday off.
And, I usually work Saturday mornings,and I took Saturday morning off.
So I have that flexibility.
Whereas,I mean, I'm probably at the racetrack

(34:57):
15 weekends a year.
And, a lot of those include Thursdaysand Fridays.
Right.
Most jobs you would not be ableto get that kind of flexibility.
So definitely being a business ownerallows you to be able to do that.
Andit does definitely help fund it.
But I mean,regardless of whatever the job I had,

(35:17):
you know, we'd find a way to fund it.
That's right.
You know, I mean.
Scratch it. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
You got an edge.
You'll find a way to scratch.
Yeah. For sure.
So while we're on the topic of minis.
How did you get connected withFrank Schwarz to get that first wheel.
The wheel race.
Yeah.
So, Frank, Frank, was a customer first.

(35:41):
That's actually how a lot of,a lot of my connections, you know,
like the guy who taught mehow to drive on the track,
I met he was a customer.
Evan Lewis. Fantastic guy.
I love Evan, he's one of my best friendsnow, actually, but.
So Frank, like I said, yeah,he was a customer.
He came in and, I'm trying to thinkwhat his first order was.

(36:05):
I want to say his first order.
He came down to the shopin Willoughby Hills
because that's where I was originally.
And I'm now in Sebring.
He came to the shop and Willoughby Hillsand he bought a factory LSD transmission,
I think.
Yeah, I have a sixspeed swap for a convertible project.

(36:26):
This was back in spring of 21or maybe end of 2020.
Can't remember exactly.
And he is just now startingthat convertible project, actually,
because he keeps himself pretty busy.
He is a busy guy.
Yeah, he's very busy guy.
So that's how I met Frank as a customer.
And then, then.

(36:48):
So actually. Yeah.
So what does itactually would have been in 2020 sometime?
Because in 2021, when I started goingpretty heavy with my car to set it up
for the timetrials and, Frank was helping me out with
some of that stuff, you know, giving mepointers and, and, stuff like that.
So, then Frank knew that I loved racing.

(37:08):
And he called me.
This probably would have been,I want to say it was February
or March of 2022.
He called me and he said, hey,I know you want to get out onto the track
and do some wheel wheel racing.
And if anybody knows about Wheeler racing,it's very difficult to get into

(37:29):
if it is not your own car.
Because you, the people need to trust you.
Right.
And so he called meand he says I have this car,
it just got wrecked pretty bad at Vir.
Somebody maneuvered it,and it got sent sideways into a guardrail,
the Armco barrier.
And he was like,do you want to repair this car?

(37:50):
And I was like, well, what's in it for me?
You know, like, am I getting paid?
Or, you know what?
What's how are we going to do this?
And he says, well, there's, SCCA,enduro, the, inaugural one,
the one that they held at Nelson Ledges.
Actually, I think it was the only onethat they've held.
They might have held a second oneat Nelson last year.
Right.
So 20, 22 and 23 were races,but 24 got canceled.

(38:15):
Yeah.
So the 2022 race,he said you fix this car.
This will be the carthat will race at Nelson for that race.
And you will be one of the drivers.
And I'm like, okay. Yeah.
I mean yeah.
So I mean here he comes.
I mean it's pouring down rain outside.

It's like 8 or 9 (38:32):
00 at night.
And here he comes.
Pulling inthe car wasn't even tracking straight.
Like I don't even remember how I got itin the shop because I only have it.
I only have a single wide car garage door.
I have a forklift.
I could have picked it up and put it in,but like I
crash was not wide enough to get it in.
So I don't remember what we did,but we got it in there.
And, as soon as Frank left,first thing I did is I called my dad.

(38:53):
I said, dad, we're going racing.
And he's like, what are you talking about?
I said, well, I have us a project.
And he's like, what do you mean, us?
But my dad's a frame technician.
All right.
So. And he's been doing bodyworkall of his life,
so I've done some of it, but not a lot.
And I was like, dad, I need your help.

(39:15):
We got to do this.
And,so we put a quarter panel on the car. We.
New rear subframe, new rear control,two lower control arms.
I think we put a new front subframe.
Either that or we just changed.
No, we put a whole new front subframein it.
New fender, new hood,repaired the radiator support, new bumper,

(39:39):
new wheel bearing, new strut,fresh set of brakes.
And then I had to do rear brake linesbecause when the rear brake lines,
they attached to the rear subframe like,that's like the hard line
and the soft line connect.
When I went to go disconnecton, drop the rear subframe,
the, fitting was likealmost froze to the line, as you know,

(40:03):
you know, and repair business.
And so it just twisted the line.
So I had to put a new rearbrake lines on.
Well, I couldn't get them to save my life.
I probably bled those rear brakes.
I probably went through,like, 4 or 5 bottles of RBF.
It was. It was a nightmare.
And what actually ended upworking was vacuum bleeding them.
Oh, yeah.

(40:23):
Because I was trying to pressurebleed them.
I was trying to do the, you know, pumpthe pedal, somebody else crack it method.
Yeah.
And, for whatever reason,it was just building up too much pressure
and wasn't able to get all the air out.
So. Yeah.
And that was that was how I got on track.
And actually, that car got blow itblown up on a test day.
Got a hole through the block.
Oh that's right, because didn't someonego back up to Michigan and pick up.

(40:46):
Yeah.
So this again goes back to Frankand you know, his stubborn determination
to his customersand his clients and, his friends, Frank.
Frank does not like to let people down.
And,that's an amazing trait that he has.
And so that car blew up.
I think they had a track night in Americais what the.

(41:08):
You know, the test was. Yeah.
You know, and, it blew up there.
Put a hole in the block.
He loaded the car on the trailerand drove three hours back to Detroit.
Dropped that car off, picked upanother car, brought it back down
so that way we could raceSaturday and Sunday.
That's awesome.
I think I do rememberbecause we were at that,
that was our first endurancerace at The Neon, and I remember him

(41:28):
rolling in really early in the morning.
Yeah. And I was like,all right, these guys are racing.
Yeah, I don't think I think he probablyleft some time around like nine, 10:00
I want to say maybe a little bit earlier,but it's a six hour round trip drive.
You know, and then it's just him,you know, he had nobody else
helping him at the time.

(41:49):
So, you know, he'sgot to push the car off the trailer.
He's got to get the new guyon the trailer.
So, yeah, I don't think he got backuntil, like, 2 or 3:00 in the morning.
And, Yeah,but he made sure we were ready to go, and,
he made surewe had a car that that made it to
the made it to the end both days.
Yeah. That's that was that was awesome.

(42:10):
Right. So.
And you getting in the car wasn'tjust a, putting around the track.
You were laying downsome pretty fast laps,
and your first wheel,the wheel race weren't you?
Yeah.
There wasn't a lot of traffic at thatrace, though, so that counts, right?
Eight entries? Yeah, something like that.
Or I think there might have been 11,but the handful of people broke,

(42:31):
like there was that factory ToyotaCorolla, if you remember that, I do.
They blew up on the practice day too.
And then, I think TimLally had a car
that, ended up in the wall.
The Corvette. Yeah. Right.
And they came backthe next day with the BMW, I believe.
BMW or GTO.
Maybe it was the white GTO, man.

(42:51):
One of them. Yeah. Yeah.
But. Yeah. So.
So that definitely helped get, like, upto terms, up to speed because, you know,
there's a lot going out, a lotgoing on out there on the racetrack.
And so, that helped for sure.
And yeah, I was going out there, I,I set ftdi for the team in my first race.

(43:12):
Everybody else had race before, you know,and that was.
Yeah, that was my first race.
And, I did not be frank, though.
But can't let the car owner,you know, be slower than you, right?
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Sorry,I. I don't I can never be slower.
But, you'll have to ask Kevin about that.
Yeah.
You're faster than Kevin.

(43:32):
Yeah.
So to kind of, like, lean into thethe next race I did, the next opportunity
I had after that was,the Nelson led just 24
in 2022 with Champ Car.
And like I said I'd done Kevin you knowa little bit, a little while before then.
And I had already told himthat I was going to crew for him.

(43:52):
You know, I'll help you out.
I want to be involved.
Well, I just got done doing thatrace of Frank, and I'm like, man,
I need to drive again.
Like, I can't,I can't just. Turtle on the high.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
So I called Kevin up.
I'm like Kevin, like,do you have a seat that I can,
I can pay you for to to drive at the 24.
He's like,I can give you one step, 700 bucks.

(44:13):
One stint.
I said I'll take it. Yes, I don't care.
Something is better than nothing.
And so I'd never driven their car.
I had never even seen their car before.
And I show up and,they say Kevin gives me the walk around.
I mean, everybody else,Chris and, Tony J.
Everybody that was there and,you know, my family now, which is awesome.

(44:37):
Yeah.
And Kevin gets me into the car,we get strapped up to go, you know, for me
to run some practice laps.
And first thing he says to me is like,listen, just go out there, turn some laps.
If if, you're fast, you're fast.
If you're slow, you're slow.
If you go out, you run 20 threes in 24.
Is it Nelson? I don't care.

(44:57):
So if you want some coachingwhen you come back
in, I'll be happy to give it to you.
It's like, we got Adam Roberts out here.
He'll be running 16and I'll be running 17 and 18
and Tony, JP and, I'm trying to think youthe other driver was.
I think it was just the five of us.
Well, Keith got in Keith Stepanek,he got in first stint, accidentally,

(45:18):
but I they're he's like, yeah,they'll be running twice, incidentally.
Yeah.
We'llwe'll get to that. Okay. All right.
So. I go out and, and I start running my,my laps and getting used to the car
and everything like that.
And at that point, Nelson,I had the most track time, too, and

(45:40):
and that also, at that point,I only had 12 track hours.
I mean, between the races that I didat Nelson with Frank,
the track days,the the time trials, I had 12.
Hours. Yeah. Not very much.
No. Still. No.
No. And so I go out and Istart clicking off 16, nine, 16, seven,
16, four, 16, four, 17, one,you know, and so like I was like, man,

(46:02):
I want to keep driving.
Like, this is fun.
Like, I really liketheir car is just so fun to drive.
You know, Chris and Kevin have donea fantastic job of prepping that car, and
I just love driving itso much, that I wanted to keep driving.
But I'm like, no, no, like, I'mI'm putting I'm good enough like that.
Like we are comfortable.
There's no reason to keep doing more lapsfor no reason.

(46:23):
So I pull in and, parked the carand I'm on unstrap and and everything.
And Kevin comes up and he's like, oh,I had the car feel.
I was like.
And a car felt amazing.
I love the car. It's great.
Oh, what kind of lap times did you do?
And I was like,oh, you know, I did a 16 four.
He's like, you did a wait.
And he reaches over it,flips, flips the kill switch
that way the dash will turn offso you can see the number.

(46:45):
And he turns and he yells at Tony.
He's like, Tony, get over hereand pull the data out of his dash.
I want to see what he was doing.
You know, and that was fantastic.
That's awesome.
You know,so I, I'm very proud of that moment.
I'm very thankful for that moment becauseKevin didn't have to put me in that car.
Yeah.
You know, he he had no reasonto put me in that car, and he did.

(47:08):
And so,you know, I, I tell Kevin and the guys
this after every race that, you know,I thank them for the weekend and, and,
you know, I thank them for their presenceand how amazing they are
and everything like that.
And, you know, I do it because of, like,I really am grateful, you know,
I don't have to be there.

(47:29):
They could invite somebody else there.
Because I'm, I mean, I am a team member,but I'm not invested into that car.
And they keep calling me and asking me,which is.
Awesome. Well, it's at times like that,you're always going to be invited back.
Yeah.
So, that was awesome.
And, I tried to set FTD for the race,but, Adam Roberts went out at like

(47:49):
00 in the morning and did a 15, nine,at 3:00 in the morning.
Right. Justin?
Probably fog, right? Yeah, exactly.
Yeah. Of course. No, some ledges and fog.
Yeah.
I mean, that's like two peas in a pod.
But. Yeah.
So the keys,I can't I'm trying to remember
exactly what it was, butKeith was like our reserve driver,
I think, or he was there.

(48:13):
Wasn't planning to drive, but, you know,you don't show up to the racetrack
without your gear.
That's right.
Rule number two. Right.
Versus have fun. Numbertwo is always bring your gear.
Yeah. You always bring your. Yeah.
I mean, it doesn't matterif you're getting in the car or not.
You bring your gearbecause you never know who might ask you.
And he had his gear with him andhow he might even been helping us
with pitstops or something but.
Oh Tony.

(48:34):
Tony went out and hishis horns thing on his,
his helmet had fell off.
Oh the like what screws into the helmet.
It fell offand we caught it on our livestream camera.
So we called him in because, like,we're not
we're not letting somebody out therewith a defective horns.
I mean, I would never go outwithout a horn, right?
You know,I try to encourage all my students
whenever I hop in the car with themand they don't have a horns

(48:56):
and they have, you know,safety belts like you need to go by one.
So we called him in and Keith was dressedand ready to go.
So we sent out in the car, he went outand he did like an hour and a half.
Stanton two hours and something like that,and came back and felt bad for Tony.
He lost some seattime, but, Our safety first, right?
Yeah. And, yeah.

(49:17):
So when I got out of the stand,I did stint number two. That race.
I got out of the car and I, like I said,I only paid for one.
Stanton and Kevin, he's like,you're going back in again.
And I was like, oh, okay, cool.
Awesome. Thanks.
And, he put me in at night.
So not only was it like,you know, my first, you know, big race,
I guess you could say, you know,a 24 hour, he said, hey, you're hopping

(49:39):
in the car at 430 in the morningwith Nelson Fog. Wow.
You know, that was that was awesome.
That was fun.
And somebody had clipped a groundhogso sharp throughout the night.
So the kinkgoing down the back straight,
that groundhog was, like, sittingon the outside of the back straight.
And it was the perfect turn in marker.
Really for the kink. Yeah.

(50:00):
Like I can't remember if it was likeyou saw it and immediately turned
if you saw it.
And he went one Mississippiand then turned. But yeah,
you saw that groundhog and it was like,okay, cool the kinks right here.
Yeah, it was awesome. Right?
Do you enjoy driving at night?
I do, yeah, I love driving at night.
So when we,we did the R 24 last year, which I loved,

(50:21):
the team does not, no, no,I'm the only one that likes the 24 hours.
Unfortunately.
But I did two stints at night at Vir.
The one stint was at the dead, and I wantto say, like, 2 or 3:00 in the morning.
I say,I think it was about 2:00 in the morning,
because then I got in the carat, I want to say like 435 a

(50:44):
I did two stints, I know that.
And, and I drove into the sunrise.
I like driving into the sunrise.
And I know, like, Kevin and Chris,they have a hard time
driving into the sunrise or the sunsetjust because, like, the way the sky.
I mean, a lot of people do. Yeah.
You know, it's not just.
I mean, a lot at. Low sunthat can bother you. Yeah.
And and just like the transitionfrom super vibrant to super

(51:06):
dark, you know, it's actually happensa lot quicker than you think.
Yeah.
And so I like, I like drivinginto the sunset or into the sunrise.
It's beautiful.
And I love getting up earlyand watching the sunset or this or
I mean, getting up early,watching the sunrise
and staying up lateand watching the sunset.
Oh, those are my favorite things.
Yeah, I things some. Life,no matter what. They are magical.

(51:27):
No doubt about it. Yes.
So what's the big goal with all this?
Where do you hopeto end up with the racing?
I don't know yet.
I'm still figuring it out.
I, I have aspirations,I don't think that they are achievable,
but I will continue to work towards them.
So like my,my highest goal is to race at the Rolex.

(51:50):
All right. That is that is my dream.
It is going to be a lot of moneyand and I understand that.
And, Just sell more old mini parts.
Thereyou go. Right. So simple as that. Yeah.
Just sell so many good partsand it'll be okay.
That is my goalis, is to go race it to Rolex one day.
That's probably at the top of the list.

(52:11):
Well, now that you've publicly statedthat every listener
is going to hold you accountable for that.
Well, so actually,it is in my best interest
to put it off a little bit longer because,if you were under 27 years old,
you are considered a silver level driver.
Regardless of anything.
Regardless of anything.

(52:32):
So you are not able to go runthe GTD Pro Am or.
Well, I think it's GTE, GTD is the Pro Am,and then GTD Pro is all pro.
But so right nowI would have to run an GTD Pro
and it'd be much harderfor me to get a seat in that.
But if, you know, I'm 28, 29and I'm now considered a bronze level

(52:54):
driver,it'd be much easier to get a GTD seat.
I mean, not that much easier.
It's all relative range.
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
So that's, that's on my bucket list,and I don't know how
I'm going to make it happen, but,I'm trying like hell yeah.
Yeah, yeah, I'm.
I'm trying to get to the racetrackevery chance I can.

(53:15):
And, you know, we're trying to builda, a race, a little bit bigger
of a race program at at money shift.
And we're hopingthat that's going to work out well for us
and work out well for our customers, too,that that we plan to bring in with that.
And, maybe that will help with that.
I don't know, but I can't. Hurtand I'll tell you that.
No, no, it can't hurt.

(53:35):
So that's kind of alsoone of the things that we're you know,
I'm trying to do in my racing journey is,you know,
kind of in a way be like Frank.
Frank, Frank, leads by example.
You know, he is one of those peoplethat like, if you look at
Frank, you say, I want to be like Frank.
I want my kids to be like Frank.

(53:56):
I want my kids. Kids to be like Frank.
You know, nobody's perfect,but Frank does
his best to be as perfect as he can.
And and, that says a lot.
And so, if I can give back,you know,
if I can provide opportunities to peoplethat have never been in a car before, and
they want to get that, that availability,I want to do that.

(54:20):
That's why I instruct now,you know, I started that this year.
And it is scary, let me tell you that.
Sitting in the right seat.
Yes, I bet.
It is sitting in a seat,especially with somebody who has never
driven a car or driven at that track.
Like my one student this year.
He's like, I've never been here before,but I've done it on the same.
And I'm like, oh, great, I bet you.

(54:41):
He lights up the tiresand here we go. Yeah.
And, like turn ten,that downhill left hander after the S's,
like he was not turning.
I'm like, I'm like, dude,the track goes left.
They turn the wheel left.
Please, please, please, please, please,you know, but then, like,

(55:01):
you know, I got to experience,you know,
and this was my first student ever,and this guy had never been to the track
before, and he hops in the car and,we go out for the day, and he wanted to.
He wanted to make a vlog for the day.
So, I mean, he he interviewed meand we did all these different things

(55:22):
and he had all sorts of camerasand stuff like that, whatever.
And so it was moreabout the video than it was driving.
No, no.
I mean, I mean, he definitelywanted to get it all on video.
Yeah.
But,he definitely really enjoyed the driving.
Okay.
Like, we got out of the carfor the last session,

(55:42):
for the last session, and he said,can I ride in your car?
And like I said,I wasn't driving my car this year.
So, no, actually I was,I did I drove my white car, that weekend.
So he hopped in the passenger seatof my white car.
We went, did some laps.
When we get out and he says,this is the best weekend of my life.

(56:03):
No way.
That was I mean, he got out of the carand that's what he said.
And, you know, it'sit sent chills down my spine
because, like, I remember when I was thereand that was me.
And to be able to provide that tosomebody else was amazing.
And then he quickly followed it up with,please
don't tell my wife that I said that.
So maybe my weddingwas the best day,
and this is my second best day.

(56:26):
That's a real pinch me moment for you.
Yeah. I mean, think aboutyou had a part of that.
Yes. That's something that you didn'tremember forever.
Exactly.
And so, you know, that's where, like,I want to try and be able
to give back to those peoplethat want to be in this community,
any way that I can, whether that'sinstructing them, whether that's,
helping them with car setupor giving them, you know,

(56:49):
ideas about how to drive a trackor learn how to drive a truck.
These every track is different.
You know, you have to be able to show upto a new track,
you know, especially if you're driving,like Champ Car or something.
You have to be a be able to show up,put in a 20 30 minute practice session
and know that track, you know,at least be able to know it at 90%.
Yeah.

(57:09):
And so if I can teach peoplethose things or,
you know, get somebody into a weirda wheel situation, I would love to do it.
That's that's what I want to do.
A giving back and teaching.
It's the best thing that we can doas a society, right?
Is, is to give back to the younger peopleand help them
do things that they want to do thatwe have done.

(57:31):
Yeah. You know. That'swhat it's about. Yeah.
So I have a few more questions herebefore we we wrap it up.
So somebody comes to youthat's never been on track before.
Wants to take that next step.
What advicedo you give them on how to get started?
He did. Cher, don't modify the car.
Just get out there.
But what else would you share with them?
So the first thing that I would tellthem is I'd say, hey, go check out

(57:52):
Auto Interests.
That's who I instruct with.
They're a great organization.
I like working with them.
I like driving with them.
And so I would tell them, hey,go check out
auto interests, look at their schedule,and sign up for a day.
Don't hesitate, you know, just go sign up.
That's the first thing that I'll tellsomebody, the real quickly.

(58:17):
What do you like about auto interests?
Above other days, you've done,I like their instruction.
Because you're an instructor?
No. So I actually joined auto interest.
Not as an instructor.
You know, I've been drivingwith auto interest for.

(58:37):
I think this is my third season now, and,they have a large base of knowledge
between their instructors.
You know, one of the instructorsthere is an ex tire engineer.
I can't remember what the company washe worked for, but he was a tire engineer
for 30 years. Right. So guess what?
If my student gets out of the carand he's got questions about tires.
You know, I know some stuff about tires,but guess what?

(58:59):
That guy knowsa lot more stuff about tires.
So I'm going to say, hey,go talk to this guy or, you know,
and we have a lot of instructorsthat have different strengths.
You know,so like we have instructors
that are really good with peoplethat are first time in the car,
and we have instructorsthat are really good with people that,
you know,they've been in the car a few times,
but they're just trying to make that nextextra step.

(59:19):
I like their formatthe, the way that they have it set it up,
the way they have it organized.
They also provide insurance for you.
You know, because that's a lot of thingsthat most organizations or series
don't do, like Champ Car, we get intoan accident, Champ Car like we're Sol.
Yeah.
You know, you get into an accidentwith auto insurance.

(59:40):
Auto insurance?
I believe the flier they just sent outsays they cover up to $10,000.
SCCA is also one of those organizationsas well that if you get into an accident,
they will, take care of your hospitalbills due to the accident.
Which, thank God for some of those peopleout at, Road America this past weekend.
So thoseare all really, really good things.

(01:00:02):
That auto insurance does.
All right. Advice tip number two.
Advice tip number two is safety.
You know, I try to tell peoplethat safety is the most important thing.
I have had conversations with people thatwhen I hop into a race car myself,

(01:00:22):
the first thing that goes through my mindis, how can I make sure
that I make it home this weekend?
How can I make it make sure that my familyis able to continue saying hello to me.
But the days after. Right.
And, I was like I said,I said that to a guy that,
on a forum,we were talking about safety equipment

(01:00:46):
and he says, well, I don't know about you,but the first thing that I think of
when I hop and race cars get infirst place, I'm like, all of us do, man.
All of us think about winning.
That's why we race.
Like nobody goes to a racetrack and says,man, I can't wait to finish last.
What you like?
No. Like we're we're we're show up.
We want to win. Right?
That'swhy we do this. Yeah. Part of it. Right.

(01:01:07):
But safety should be the number one thingon somebody mind, because,
you know, like Evan, when I first metEvan, I told him I was like,
yeah, I'm going to the racetrack,I'm going to go racing.
And he's like,yeah, yeah, okay, sure you are.
You know?
And I was like,no, serious, I'm going racing.
He's like, well, make sure you buy safety.
I was like, oh, I will.
And he's he's like, it's expensive.

(01:01:27):
I said, I know, but I'm going to buy it.
You know, like I went outand sorry friends over at track first.
Tim and Sally, fantastic people.
By the way, if you need any,any type of safety gear, to get on track,
they just are the people, but Iwent over there and I bought a harness.
I bought, what else did I buy?
I, I, I bought belts, I bought seats,I had a roll bar installed on my car.

(01:01:52):
And because to me, you know,I spent what I think it was like 4
or 5 grand on all that safety equipment.
And, I mean, that's a lot of money, right?
When you kind of think about five grand,four grand,
it's a lot of money for safety equipment.
But what is your life worth? Right?
You know, what is waking up tomorrowworth to you and to me, it's
worth a hell of a lot more than $4,000.

(01:02:12):
And so I was going to spend that money.
And I encourage everybodyto spend that money.
You know, like I said earlier,I have a lot of students.
I get in a carand they don't have a horns.
I'm like, you're out here,you know, going back, you know.
Yeah, I mean, not literally, but,you know, like,
you're going to really fast downhere, you know, you have an incident,
you know,you could be in that wall, you know.

(01:02:33):
So like this year was my first yearinstructing.
So what I did is I went outand I bought the Simpson Hybrid S.
Right.
The one that straps around your chest.
So you don't need the harness. Yeah.
So that way when I hop into a student'scar that has a three
point harness, I know that I canbe protected with my hands.
You know that that is so important.
I know a lot of people right now.
And NHRA just changed some of their rolls.

(01:02:56):
And the Hunt's device was requiredthis year for certain classes
that haven't been traditionally.
And everybody's all in an uproar about it.
Oh, I've been racing all this longwithout a horse.
So I'm like, yeah, I guess what?
Dale Earnhardt said the same thing25 years ago.
You know, and unfortunately,look at where he's at, right?
Like, you know, don't be dumb.
So any other bits of advice?

(01:03:18):
Those are probablythe two most important ones.
Yeah.
Is go, go talk with an organization,get on track that they they want
first timers and beginners out thereand invest in your safety equipment.
Those are the two most important things.
Everything else can wait. Got it.
Now when you need to learn moreabout improving your driving,

(01:03:38):
picking your car faster, learningmore about the sport, where do you go?
What resources do you use?
I watch a lot of video.
So, like this past weekend,I've already rewatched
the five hours from Saturday.
No kidding.
I've already rewatchedthe two hours from Sunday.

(01:03:59):
I've already rewatched the live showthat Champ Car put on.
Do you fall asleep on the part I was on?
Of course not, Bill.
Of course.
That, I do, I watch a lot, and I'llprobably watch that again next week.
You know, and it's just like footballplayers or basketball players.

(01:04:21):
You're right.
You study film because that film can teachyou so much, you know?
So like I hadI had two incidents this weekend.
One incident was not my fault.
One incident was 100% my fault.
And I can look at those incidentsand I can see what I could have done
better, right, in those incidents.

(01:04:41):
But then the other thing that I can lookat, too, is, when I watch my video,
I can, you know, I know the track line,so I don't need to worry
about the track line.
What I need to worry about is racecraft,you know, is, should
I have taken this pass?
What could I have done betterto set myself up better for that pass?
Or was there a better timethat I should have taken that pass

(01:05:03):
than when I did take it?
You know, so I do a lot of that.
And then also watching other people'srace footage,
like watching the Champ Carlive broadcast.
What that allows me to dois to see what other people are doing,
because I know what I do and what I liketo do and what's comfortable for me.
But just because it's comfortable for medoesn't mean it's comfortable for others.

(01:05:24):
And what is comfortable for others may befaster than what's comfortable for me.
Right.
So, you know,so I spent time watching them,
and, I don't do them, believe it or not.
I've never done the same.
No, I take that back.
I actually did, Sam Thursday night.
Tony, one of our drivers.
He loves the sim.

(01:05:46):
When we went to Road Atlanta, he told me.
He said he put about 500 laps at roadlaying on the sim. Wow.
Before we went to Road Atlanta, and,it showed because I did
the sim at Road Atlanta, and I couldn'tturn a clean left to save my life.
Oh, yeah.
Like I could not keep it on track.
He went out thereand I mean, he putts around and
I mean, he was running 40 flat, you know,so but I don't typically do the same.

(01:06:07):
I don't like the dynamics of it.
I have a very hard time.
Like I said, everybody can do it.
Yeah.
And I drive based on the feel of the car.
Yeah. You know, like,I feel what's going on on my.
But I feelwhat's going on on the steering wheel.
You can't do that on the sim.
And the sim will try to do a lot of thatfor you and recreate it,
but it doesn't do the best job. No.
Even like Tim, they have a, simplace in the same building

(01:06:30):
as, some experience.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And, before I went to Watkins, the,the owner of the team that I drove with at
Watkins was a maker for team.
And he says, I would really preferthat you can get on the sim.
And I was like, oh, I got NASCAR.
He back at home. He did not.
Have a Snickers car around Talladega.

(01:06:54):
But, so I went out over the track firstand, I put some laps in on that sim.
I mean, that's like a 30, $40,000. Yes.
You know, I mean, that was a nice sim,but even then, like, it was still
very difficult to understand, like whatthe car was actually doing in the sim.
So, to me, it'sa great benefit to learn a track.

(01:07:16):
I don't think it's a great benefitto hone in your craft, in my opinion.
All right. That's just my. Opinion.
All right. Two more questions.
What's the forum verbal input links toto what we're about to talk about.
Yeah.
What's the best way for folksto, follow you and connect with you?
So I am very heavily involved on Facebook.
Believe it or not, I have a lot of peoplelaugh at me about that.

(01:07:36):
Because apparently Facebookis for us old people now.
So you can find me on Facebook,Adrian Willoughby, you can also find
my business page on there.
Well, Mac, mini Cooper parts.
You can also find me on Instagram at.
Yo, Adrian. That's four O's.
Double underscore. Adrian.
And, and then, my YouTube, I don't know,the the exact handle to my YouTube.

(01:08:00):
I know I'm on YouTubeand I try to post a lot
of my personal videosfrom my cars on YouTube.
I have a link to it.
Yeah. You have? Yeah,you have a link. So share it.
Yeah.
But,yeah, I'm pretty active on social media.
I try to be, you know, I try to makea lot of posts, and I always do
race recaps.
That's kind of like my thingwhen we get back from a weekend is I go on

(01:08:22):
and I put in, like A56paragraph race recap for for the team.
So nice.
All right, time for the last question.
Have you ever been late to grid?
You know,I thought about this on the way here.
Yeah,because I've watched, like, your podcast,
and I know you always ask that question.
And I was like, have I ever been late?
And I sit back and I think about it,and I do not think that I have.

(01:08:45):
Comes back to being prepared.
The only time that I was ever latewas because of mechanical.
So I don't know if you can count that,but, my.
Hey, as the grid marshal would say,late is late.
There you go.
So in 2021,I did like I said, I did my first time

(01:09:09):
trial with SCCA in my white mini,and I had never towed before.
I had never driven a big truck before.
All right.
I had never strapped a car down before.
And I said, hey, let's go driveeight hours
to National Corvette Museumtowing a trailer with a car on it.
And, it's actually a lot of badthings happened that weekend.

(01:09:34):
Like the truck that my truck thatI had bought, the engine, it had gone bad.
And it, it had rod knock.
So then I had to rent a U-Haul.
Oh my goodness.
And then theyI couldn't rent a 2500 U-Haul.
So I didn't take my trailerbecause I had a 24ft and clothes and yeah,
I could have towed it with a 1500,but I like I want to be,

(01:09:56):
you know, way above what is capable or waybelow what's actually capable.
And so I towed, my buddyBrandon Anderson.
He's a great guy, too.
He actually helpedget a lot of things happen.
And so I put my car in the trailerand I strapped down
and on the minis on the on the third gen,many stiff chassis cars,
there's not really anythingto, like wrapper,

(01:10:16):
strap around or anything like thatexcept for the wheels.
So I rap through the wheels.
Well, the brake caliper has a brake linethat goes on the bottom of it.
Yeah.
And during transitthe wheel shifted with the strap
and it caught that brake lineand bent that brake line like 90 degrees.

(01:10:39):
Oh my goodness.
So but I still had brake pressure.
It wasn't leaking or anythingbecause I pulled the car off the trailer.
I went through techlike everything was fine.
And my mom lived 15,20 minutes away from the track.
So as soon as we got done, it was,hey, like, let's head home.
I, you know, I made a real nicehomemade meal and I'm like, mom's cooking.
Let's go. Yeah.

(01:11:00):
And Istarted driving out the exit of NCM down
that long road.
And I started hearing, like, this.
Shit. And like, what is that noise?
So I get out,and that's when I see the bent brake line.
So hitting the wheel or the rotor though.
The wheel. Yeah.
Because it bent in front of the caliper.
Gotcha. Yeah.

And so, we stayed up till 11 (01:11:20):
00 and that night and we, we went out,
we bought a brake line.
Nobody had a brake line tool.
So we had to rent,you know, that crappy one from AutoZone
or whatever and took like 2 or 3 triesto get some good flares.
So this is a little difficult.
We made that happen.

(01:11:42):
And then we went to goahead and start bleeding. It
and the bleeder broke.
So this is Wednesday night.
Practice is on Thursday.
Competition starts on Friday.
And where do you find a mini Coopercaliper?
Right.
Or at least try to back to the easy outthe circular.
That's what I did.
So I got up at 630 in the morning.

(01:12:04):
AutoZone opened at seven.
So I drove straight to AutoZoneand I picked up a easy out
kit and ESPI believe it is, they were on site.
We're doing tires and selling gear andstuff like that, and they had a bleeder.
So I bought a bleederand then the bleeder broke.
Or I mean, the, they, easy outbroke inside the bleeder.

(01:12:29):
So then I'm like, go, now I'm screwed.
I got nothing.
And at the time,I did not have one of these calipers
on the shelf at my shop.
So I made some calls to some other peoplein the business.
Nobody else had some used caliperson the shelf.
So then I called many of Nashville,which I was only like an hour south.

(01:12:52):
Yeah.
And they said, oh yeah, there'snot even a single caliper in the country.
Let. Adrian. Yeah, yeah. Lucky me.
Right.
They're five weeks out from Germany.
So then there was a guy.
Oh, God.
And I feel bad because I can't rememberhis name now, but Brandon
Anderson hooked me up with him,and, he he
he fixed all the go karts for NCM,and so he ran that shop there.

(01:13:15):
So we took the caliper offthe car, went over there,
and we tried to weld ten differentnuts to this bleeder.
The welds would not hold.
I'd like to thinkthis guy knew what he was doing. Yeah.
And if the track trusted himto take care of his, their go karts,
and and we could not get the,the nut to hold.
And so then we, we tried to dremel itout, and we're like, wait a minute.

(01:13:39):
This caliper is still technically sealed.
Yeah.
You haven't left anything out of it. Yeah.
So we're like,why don't we bleed it through the cross
pipe on the bottom of the caliper?
And so then that's what we did.
All right?
Is, because we tried to dremel itfor like, an hour.
I still have the caliper on the shelf.
It's one of my trophies. And I went, oh,yeah.
Yeah.

(01:13:59):
And, so we got it back on the carand we put the brake pads in the caliper,
and we stuck a 27 millimeter socketin between the brake pads,
and we took the caliper up at an angle,and we bled the caliper the best we could.
Through the fitting for the crossoverline on the brake caliper.
And, I was able to run the weekendand I was the final session

(01:14:20):
on the practice dayI was able to make it to
I was ten minutes late.
They have already gottenten minutes on track,
but I was able to get out thereand actually drive.
Oh my goodness.
So I'm glad you're able to get it allfigured and sorted and run some laps.
Yeah. Yeah.
Well Adrian,thanks so much for being on the podcast

(01:14:41):
and sharing your motorsports journey.
I can't wait to see where it leads.
Yeah, absolutely.
Thanks for having me. This was exciting.

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