Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / From PACCAR to Pikes Peak: Keri Weishaar’s race to the sky in a Semi!

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From PACCAR to Pikes Peak: Keri Weishaar’s race to the sky in a Semi! · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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Break Fix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from all
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over the autos sphere, from wrench, turners, and racers to artists, authors,
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designers, and everything in between.
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Our goal is to inspire a new generation of Petrolhead that wonder, a.
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How did they get that job or become that person?
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The road to success is paved by all of us because everyone has a story.
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Our guest has had her class A commercial driver's license,
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also known as A C D L since 2008.
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She has logged thousands of highway miles driving across the country.
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Some of those include the snow covered passes of Montana with a loaded 52
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foot trailer during winter testing.
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She has also been trained and qualified to drive on the durability test track at the
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Bosch Automotive proving grounds, as well as the track at Paccar Technical Center.
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In addition to training Carrie Wise, co drove with Hollywood Stunt Driver and
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then 16 year Pikes Peak International Hill Climb competitor Mike Ryan at the
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2010 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb and today finds herself designing safety
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equipment for trophy roll designs.
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She's here to tell us more about her automotive journey.
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With that, let's welcome Carrie to break fix.
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That's right, and my co-host tonight is the one and only Mountain man, Dan.
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So Carrie, welcome to the show.
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Why don't we get started like all good break fix stories.
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Tell us the who, what.
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Where and when of carry.
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How did you get into big rigs of all things?
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Did you come from a trucking family?
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Yeah, I get that question a lot.
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I had three generations back home.
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It was either logging or the hospital where the two industries, very small
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community, and I did grow up wanting to be a chip truck driver, just like
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all the trucks I saw drive in and out of the mill that my dad and my
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grandpa and my brother worked at.
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Luckily, I'm not.
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I'm a little bit better.
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I've achieved a few more things.
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Speaking of which, on your resume it says you got a degree in mechanical
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engineering, you also have a C D L, so you're sort of dual hatted here a
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little bit more than meets the eye.
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Why?
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So my goal was to enter into the automotive industry as a career.
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With my engineering degree, and I was able to do that in 2007.
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And in 2008, the position I entered into required that I have a C D L and I
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delivered trucks to the proving grounds in Indiana, and then I'd fly back home.
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I would leave them there to die.
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They would die on the durability track.
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I would go back home and manage all the failures that happened, and
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I was housed at the headquarters where the design engineers were.
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So I'd intercept these broken parts and say, This is how
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poorly your part performed.
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Can you fix it for.
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I did that a few times, got a lot of miles under my belt, and then
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I switched to a different company.
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I've only ridden in a semi one time, and it was actually pretty recently and
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it, it was an interesting experience, but for those of us that have only had
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the privilege to drive regular passenger vehicles, What's it like to drive
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something so big and how did you learn and how different is it to learn to
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drive a semi than a passenger vehicle?
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It can be really intimidating because of the size of it.
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You're in charge of this massive machine.
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It can be a little scary that if you don't do the right thing, it could do
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a lot more damage than a regular car.
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The first couple times I went cross country out on the road
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in a truck, I realized the road really does belong to truckers.
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The rest of us just commingle in between them.
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But really it's a trucker's world out there, and it really doesn't seem
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like it until you do it yourself.
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I mean, you have to fit in around them.
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They can't stop as quickly.
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Not everyone drives carefully around truckers, but you should.
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If you don't, they'll get you every time.
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They'll win every time.
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So I wonder if it's more like when we're on the racetrack, they say all the
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time, we have to be situationally aware.
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We have to look way ahead.
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Our heads are on a swivel, as they say, right?
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We're constantly looking around.
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Is that the same for being a trucker or do you get a moment where you can actually
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relax when you're behind the wheel?
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It's constantly watching.
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The side mirrors can't really see out the back unless you're
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like in a day with no trailer.
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So constantly watching the mirrors, even looking out your driver's window.
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When there's nobody nearby, you can yeah, relax a little bit.
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Honestly, over the first five years that I got in a truck and drove, I
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would sweat and I would have white knuckle grip on the steering wheel.
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I was a good driver, but I was able to control the nerves.
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It's not easy, and now it's just like driving anything else because I've driven
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some larger trucks in my years as well.
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For me, the biggest thing out on the road is it's not so much
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you are driving, you have to pay attention to everyone else's driving.
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Almost like you're a teacher looking after a bunch of toddlers and all
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the small cars are the toddlers.
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'cause you don't know if they're gonna just turn in front of you.
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Did you find it difficult trying to deal with other drivers on the road that
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are not respectful of the big trucks?
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It gets irritating.
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You know, I'd say most people are aware and respectful of the size of
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us and the space that we have to do the maneuvers that we need to do.
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Then yes, sometimes there's people that kind of make your heart skip a beat, like.
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You just got in front of me.
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You better keep going.
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I really hope you don't suddenly slam on the brakes because that was a bad move.
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One thing, when I was getting my license, when I was younger driver coach that
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I had when I was getting my regular license, one of the best lessons that he
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told me, and I've taught it to all the young drivers, I teach Drive on the road.
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He was like, there's right of way.
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There's right of weight.
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You might have right of way coming down to a open.
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He's like, there's a semi or something coming.
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They've got right of weight.
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They can't stop as fast as you let them go.
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And for the listeners out there, that's wait, W E I G H T, not w a i t.
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Just wanted to clarify the right of weight.
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I like that though, the right of weight.
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I do feel that I have grown a newfound respect for.
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Truckers in the trucking industry, especially towing the race
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cars and trailers and enclosed trailers and things like that.
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It doesn't compare.
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It's apples and chainsaws.
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I get that.
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But there are things that irritate me and it's like, do you not realize
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that I'm, I'm towing something.
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I got something behind me.
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Right.
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It's not that easy.
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Even if you're in a pickup or an SS u V.
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So I definitely get it and, and it's amplified on that larger scale plus
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when you're loaded down, but there's a lot of training involved in that.
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Kind of walk us through what you had to do, what the exercises were like.
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I mean, you knew how to drive a car, you drove yourself to the training
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center to become a semi driver, but what was the rest of it like?
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My situation was a little bit unique.
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It was normal for people to go through training within my company.
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We didn't have like a third party person train us, or I didn't go to like
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specifically a truck driving school.
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But in my position at the time, I was required to be potentially
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decking a bobtail truck.
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So that means without a trailer.
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Onto the back of another bobtail truck, so it's not bobtail anymore, it's got
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another truck up on the fifth wheel of it and taking that to Indiana.
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So that was more than a Class B requirement.
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That was a Class A at that point.
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In fact.
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Did you have your A Class CDLs?
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And for our listeners that aren't aware of it, there's a class and B class,
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as you were saying, when you're going down the road and see a dump truck.
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That's a B class 'cause it doesn't have trailer behind it.
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But if the dump truck has a trailer behind it with air brakes and stuff,
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then sometimes you're required to have the A, because you can drive
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a heavy duty truck bobtail with a Class B license on the road.
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Normally employees would get trained.
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To drive with a Class B, get some miles under their belt
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and then go for the Class A.
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But I went for the class A right away, planned for three weeks, but we
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only used two and he assigned me off.
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Normally he would train with 45, 47 foot trailer, but those weren't
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available, so we used a 52 foot.
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And this was in the Portland area, so that included some mountain driving.
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He just said I was one of his best students.
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And I think a lot of that has to do with being a female, which I've
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heard repeated over and over again.
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Same thing with my forklift training.
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I got a hundred percent, I was like the best student he'd ever had in like
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15 years because we don't have an ego.
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We just listen, do what we're told.
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And if they're a good trainer, then we'll come out ahead.
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So you said you went, started getting your B'S first and going to your raise.
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You went straight to getting your A's.
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Did you also get additional endorsements?
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Because I know there's hazmat endorsements, there's passenger,
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there's all kinds of endorsements that go along with the CDLs.
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I didn't do studying for everything, but I took the test
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for everything and I didn't pass.
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Makes sense.
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I didn't study.
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But I do have my air brake restriction removed, so it's
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not necessarily an endorsement.
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It's more of a restriction that's removed.
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And then I have any combination, but that does not mean doubles or triples.
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I don't have my passenger endorsement to where I could like drive a school bus.
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Didn't wanna do hazmat because you have to keep up on it.
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I felt like the chances of me using it were low and I like, I could have
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got it the one time, but I felt like I wasn't gonna put in the effort
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to keep up on it because there's so many different things hauled and the
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endorsements factor into what you're hauling and what your thing is.
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So that made sense that you didn't pursue the hazmat.
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Yeah.
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So that, are there any endorsements that you don't have
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that you would like to obtain?
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Not at this point.
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I think one of the big things I still wanna drive in my lifetime is a
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limo, and I'm already qualified for.
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Nice.
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So is the training more like aviation school where it's all about hours
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behind the wheel and it's nothing like the driving test we take to
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get our standard driver's license?
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Right.
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There's just extra stuff.
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It's still just like a half hour to hour driving test with someone that will
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sign you off to go to the Department of Licensing and get your license.
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But yeah, there's extra things you have to perform, especially like a pre-trip.
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There's a bunch of things on the truck you have to physically walk around,
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look at and touch and talk about, so they know that you understand that
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you're checking on the mechanics of this vehicle, which is not required
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of a regular car, which is more like a pre-flight check for an airplane, right?
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You have to do all that and submit your plans and all those kinds of things.
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So that's really interesting where it's a blend of kind of those two worlds.
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What would you say is the hardest thing or the most challenging thing to learn?
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Or maybe it's the hardest thing to do when you're driving a big rig?
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Still, road signs are hard for me.
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It's hard for me to pay attention and read every single one because
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I'm used to driving my regular car and a lot of the signs don't apply.
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Right.
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But when you're a truck, they all are important.
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Yeah, I miss the speed limit.
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Sometimes I thought you were gonna tell me it was, you know, parking or, or some
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sort of maneuver or something like that.
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Right.
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I would've never guessed roadside.
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No.
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I can actually parallel park, truck and trailer.
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Wow, that's awesome.
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So since we're still talking about training, There's been a big push
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in the racing world to use more and more simulators to train drivers, to
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get them accustomed to different race tracks that they've never been to and
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things like that so they can learn their breaking points and their apexes and
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track out points and things like that.
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But I've also noticed on social media, there's a lot of folks posting about
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semi-truck simulators and they look fascinating 'cause they're very detailed,
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they look almost very realistic.
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The windshields are screens, you know, those kinds of things.
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Do you see that being more prevalent in the teaching side, or do you think it
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actually helps or there is no substitute for just being out on the road?
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Yeah, I'm not really exposed to that because I'm not in the
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industry of creating truckers.
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I'm in the industry of creating trucks.
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I'm more on the manufacturing and service side, but as far as video
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games and simulating the road, my brain cannot make it work.
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I have to feel those G-force.
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It's a completely different learning concept.
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I may become good at a video game.
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I don't really care for them too much, but does that really translate
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to being good in the car with certain suspension and power and tires traction
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and contact patch and all that?
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It's totally different.
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So that's just something that my brain can't get to correlate.
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You know, you mentioned, let's call it the pre-flight check or the pre-travel check.
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How much survivalist training is also involved?
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How much do you need to be able to do on your own, especially if you're on
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a long haul from let's say, Northern California to the middle of the country
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and you get a flat or something breaks, you're kind of on your own, or is there
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a network of folks that you can rely on to help you in an emergency situation?
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There are big rig tow companies.
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So just like any other driver, if you are not mechanically inclined and
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you're not really sure what's going on with your car, but you feel it's
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unsafe for you or others on the road, you pull over and you call for help.
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Truckers can do that as well.
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They don't have to be mechanics.
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However, they do have to go through the way stations
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follow extra rules on the road.
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You know, you can't go over certain bridges.
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You have to put on chains sometimes before regular passenger cars, sometimes not.
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Just depends on the state and how they run their policies.
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Yeah, there is some extra responsibilities and then you are
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required to check your load after the first 150 miles of your trip.
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Certain companies may have safety checks that you have to do, submit
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electronically or on paper at the end of your shift that are more strict than
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what like the local state laws require.
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You mentioned the way stations, if you've ever driven for any sort of distance,
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especially across the country, you see trucks just lined up waiting, or
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there's signs that say trucks must exit now for wait station, things like that.
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What is that all about?
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Each axle has a maximum weight that you can be.
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You drive over about three miles an hour on the scale, and they see each
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of those axles as they go by possible.
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A load shifted and you were really close to the max on axle, and now you're over,
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which means you're under somewhere else, so they're gonna have you pull into the
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lot and you have to make an adjustment or offload before you can continue
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again, and it's also a chance to pull you in randomly for an inspection to make
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sure all your equipment is up to par.
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As she was saying there, d o t does that for the purpose of helping
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prevent issues with the roads where too much weight loss actually calls.
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Because if you pull up certain stoplights where a lot of truck traffic is,
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you'll notice there's major crown in the center of the road from where the
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wheels of the semis sink the asphalt in.
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Yeah.
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That hit the stuff loaded properly.
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So if you have it not loaded property and you're gonna across a
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bridge or something like that, it can cause damage to the bridges.
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So they try to make sure that's done.
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And when you're talking about load shifting, that is not uncommon to where if
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a load shifts bad enough, it can actually cause a trailer to flip onto to its side.
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Wow.
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Because I've seen that a couple times here with the trucks near my house
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when they're hauling equipment out.
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There's been three of 'em in the amount of time I've lived here
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that have wound up on their side.
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'cause they took the turn onto the on ramp a little too fast and the load shifted
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and the box trail just fell onto its side.
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Dan segues into a great point.
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So let's take a sort of pit stop here in in the realm of trucking and talk about
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your best and worst moments in trucking.
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So there's one very anxious moment that I had.
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I was leaving a break check area.
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My partner had just done some programming on my truck for some reason.
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Not something that I'd ever experienced before or really even heard of before,
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or it's not something that we're required to check, but I took off down
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a grade that's usually where you find a brake check areas before a downhill
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grade, and I had no engine brakes, which were absolutely necessary to
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complete this decline in a safe manner.
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So I had to do an emergency stop and smoke the brakes a little bit.
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But luckily I found a shoulder to do that right before I hit a guardrail.
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And fixed everything, and I left myself enough room to check the engine brakes
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before I entered back onto the road.
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I was still on the shoulder and they returned, and so we were
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able to continue our truck.
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But yeah, that was a very scary moment for me.
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I was very upset.
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I did not like that at all.
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Our listeners might not be aware of it, but a lot of the layman, like
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guys will call it a Jake break, but what it does is it actually uses it.
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Exhaust pressure to help keep compression on the engine, to help slow it down,
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alleviate it to where you don't overheat your brakes going down a steep grade,
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because one of those things coming down through the mountains, it's not
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too difficult to overheat your brakes.
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And then you're just rolling.
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Yeah, the brakes are not enough.
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And then another more funny time was actually the very first
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time I set out on a solo trek.
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I was gonna leave from home because it would save me time.
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Not going to work the next morning just to get the truck.
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So let me take it home so I could leave from there in the morning.
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So I got my fuel the night before.
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I go to the fueling station, and it's not like you just put in a credit
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card like you do at the regular pump.
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You go in and of course, because it's for business, I gotta collect
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all my receipts and whatnot.
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I go and have them turn the pump on.
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They authorize it for a certain amount, attach it to your truck, serial number,
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your company, whatever, go back out.
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I pump the fuel.
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I come back in to get the receipt.
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Well, there's a different clerk there.
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He is like looking for this receipt on these different printers or machines
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and he is like, are they getting like oil or truck wash or anything?
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I'm not sure what he is talking about.
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They, but I'm like, no.
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So he is kind of frantically looking around, well, are
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they getting any services?
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Is anyone out there helping them?
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I'm like, who's they?
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He's like the driver.
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I'm like, I'm the driver.
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I was like 25 years old, 26 years old.
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This really young girl asking for a receipt for a truck.
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There was no way he was gonna guess that I was the driver.
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And he apologized profusely.
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He's like, I am so sorry.
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But eventually we sorted it out that my company would
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automatically get the documentation.
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I didn't need a paper receipt, but that was quite an embarrassing moment
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for him and really funny for me.
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Even a little bit more of an interesting story, which is the trip that the,
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uh, no engine brakes happened on.
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There was a team of two trucks traveling together.
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I was one driver, and then there was medium duty truck with a flatbed.
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So it's a truck configuration with straight rails in the back, no
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fifth wheel for towing a trailer.
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So it would accept some kind of body, like a mixer or a garbage or dump.
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The others that tow a trailer are referred to as tractors.
18:45
So I had a truck with me and I was in heavy duty tractor with a
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sleeper and a long band trailer.
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We are in Wyoming and we are trying to get to Silverthorne in Colorado,
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and there was a road closure on the way that we would normally take.
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So we took a lunch break and had to improvise.
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One team went ahead.
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They left about 20 minutes before me because I work in
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testing for a truck manufacturer.
19:12
Sometimes our trucks are heavily instrumented, so that means we have
19:16
string gauges on certain parts on the truck with wires coming off of
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them to a data collection point.
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So I happen to have strain gauges on my airbags, so the air suspension.
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This road that they spent 20 minutes on was just gravel
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and was heavy with potholes.
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They said, don't come down here.
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You're gonna tear all the instrumentation off.
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So we had to improvise a plan B or plan C.
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At this point, co-driver and I decide we're gonna head east along the Wyoming,
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Colorado border and then head south.
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And so, We climbed up over eight, nine, 10,000 feet.
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A couple times.
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We crossed the border eight times.
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This particular road does that we're up in a national forest for hours.
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It was foggy, it was sunny.
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It snowed.
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It rained.
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We had hail, we had everything.
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A lot like my Pikes Peak experience.
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And then finally we are committed into Colorado and we're headed south.
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That continental divide and the Rockies, I crossed it like five times.
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I just really didn't know that was possible, and
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especially not in a semi-truck.
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So I mentioned that first trip that I took where the clerk mistook me
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for someone else, not a truck driver.
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I think I was in maybe South Dakota or something.
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I had gone in to have the pump activated.
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So she recognizes that.
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I'm out on the commercial aisle.
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I'm not on the regular car aisle, and she's like, are you one of those truckers?
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What's that show?
20:49
Ice Road Truckers?
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It just kind of blew my mind, like you see hundreds of truckers a day.
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I'm like one young female, and you decide to ask me if I'm my ice road trucker.
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I mean, I thought it was kind of cool.
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Unfortunately, I had to say no, but eventually, seven years later, I would
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become the closest thing to an ice road trucker that I was gonna become, which
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I mean, I wouldn't say I necessarily pursued becoming an ice road trucker.
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If it happened, it would be awesome.
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Right?
21:19
So winter test with my current employer, they go to Yellowknife in
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the Northwest Territories of Canada.
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It's on the Great Slave Lake.
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It takes four days to get there.
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Four days to get back.
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Didn't have a lot of snow that year.
21:34
It was 2020.
21:36
The first Covid patient died in Washington while I was gone.
21:40
Spent about a week and a half there.
21:42
Came back and they weren't the same for quite a while.
21:44
I saw the Northern Lights for the first time.
21:46
You know, I spent the longest stint on the road in some of
21:50
the craziest remote places.
21:52
You know, not seeing cars for a really long time, never had to chain up.
21:56
Like I said, we got pretty lucky with the weather, which was a huge
21:59
blessing 'cause it just, you know, it's less stress and less cause for
22:03
issue that creates delays and whatnot.
22:05
I did get within about a mile and a half of the entrance to the Ice
22:10
Road where the first episode of Ice Road Truckers was filmed and
22:14
it was just super exciting for me.
22:15
Well, I'm glad you brought that up.
22:17
Shows like Ice Road Truckers and World's Most Dangerous Roads and other
22:21
programs like that that you see on History Channel have made trucking
22:24
more popular in the last decade.
22:27
And so how real is that?
22:29
I think they really are embellished and add drama.
22:34
No doubt.
22:35
It's definitely dangerous.
22:37
I just feel in today's world you can't be that dangerous and keep your job.
22:43
It's kind of stylized for tv.
22:46
So I've noticed over the past decade or so, a lot more females getting into
22:49
driving, being in industry, have you noticed it being more approachable
22:54
of a job for females to pursue?
22:56
I have not necessarily noticed more women on the road.
23:00
I still feel like it's pretty rare.
23:03
Here on the East coast, I see it quite often.
23:04
There's a lot more than what I used to see like a decade ago, and I know quite
23:09
a few women who have done it as well.
23:10
So it's, maybe it's starting here and it'll filter its way out your way and
23:14
yeah, I gotta agree with Dan on this one.
23:15
When I look up at a trucker's cabin, when I'm on the highways here in
23:20
the D M V, I'm always like, ah, it's another lady trucker that's.
23:23
Cool.
23:24
Like it, it's awesome.
23:25
But at the same time you're like, wow.
23:27
Like it used to be like once in a blue moon and it, it is kind of more often
23:31
than not, and maybe it's because we do a lot more commercial trucking in the
23:35
sense that there's a lot more Amazon trucks and a lot more u p s trucks 'cause
23:38
everybody's ordering everything nowadays.
23:41
And so you see a lot more of those in our area where they're moving people's
23:44
stuff around, you know, the brown boxes that need to be delivered to your house.
23:48
So maybe it still hasn't reached the west coast yet, maybe.
23:52
But more and more, you're seeing a lot of corporations.
23:54
So you mentioned Amazon or U P s, they're pretty big.
23:57
They're all about inclusivity and being diverse.
24:01
So could be that they're really pursuing alternate genders besides males and races
24:07
and all that, the way the country's built.
24:09
We still need truckers that we have not found a way to replace that yet, although
24:12
we do have these things called trains.
24:14
But that's a conversation for another day.
24:15
Right.
24:16
But let's talk a little bit more about.
24:19
The trucks themselves.
24:20
So just like cars, not all the trucks are the same.
24:24
I kind of wanna ask another almost pit stop style question.
24:27
Do you have a favorite or least favorite?
24:29
Is there such thing as the prettiest or ugliest semi-truck?
24:33
Well, I really like my peterbilts Western star is not that great looking.
24:39
I'm with you on that.
24:40
I, uh, started my career managing the very first six Cascadia.
24:49
And tested on us roads.
24:51
So I do kind of have a strong connection and love for the Cascadia, although I
24:56
don't work for Freightliner anymore.
24:58
So what makes one, let's say better looking than another with cars?
25:01
It's, I don't wanna say it's a lot easier if you like the style
25:04
of a Porsche, you like it, versus a Ferrari versus a Corvette.
25:08
But with the trucks, for those of us that aren't in the business,
25:11
it's hard to tell 'em apart.
25:13
Oh yeah, absolutely.
25:14
I completely agree with you.
25:15
It wasn't until I got into the industry that I started to realize,
25:20
okay, I can really recognize some differences before it's just a truck.
25:24
To me, they look all the same, right?
25:26
People definitely have their preferences for different reasons.
25:29
There's some people that can't stand the look of new trucks.
25:32
They like the old boxy ones that are lowered frames are stretched,
25:37
painted, all fancy colors.
25:39
Monochrome everywhere and, and I'm not familiar with many
25:43
manufacturers putting out any cab overs anymore or flat nose trucks.
25:48
What are your thoughts in comparison to the traditional cabs to the older
25:50
cab overlooking flat nose trucks?
25:52
I never drove a cab over.
25:55
They still have those.
25:57
Exclusively, pretty much in Europe because of length restrictions.
26:00
They just can't have that extra space in the truck.
26:02
Taking away from space hauling freight.
26:05
Mercedes makes a lot of those still.
26:06
Yeah.
26:07
My company owns a company in Europe that makes those as well.
26:11
So we're all partnered together.
26:13
Yeah, I don't care for the way they look, not my specialty.
26:17
Just I really love new trucks.
26:19
You know, they've come a long way.
26:20
I like the comfort of them.
26:22
Not that I want them to be more like a car, but there are definitely
26:27
some creature comforts and some fancy things about them that.
26:30
I really enjoy the amenities on a lot of the newer ones are way better
26:34
than the ones from like 20 years ago.
26:36
Yeah, like simple things.
26:37
I remember my introduction to semis was my stepfather's dad was a truck
26:42
driver from the day he started driving to the day he stopped driving.
26:45
He always ran Mack trucks.
26:47
Every truck he ever got rid of, he pulled the emblem off the front of
26:50
it and kept it where he had probably 30 of these Mack truck dogs, you
26:54
know, on display in his house.
26:56
And I remember riding in one of those when I was a kid and it was a rigid seat going
27:00
from that one to front of the family.
27:02
Had one that had the air rights suspension seat in it.
27:05
I was like, this is so much smoother and it's just continually progressed.
27:08
Where compared to how rigid, where you would feel every
27:10
bump in the road to nowadays.
27:12
It's like riding a Cadillac compared to the old ones.
27:15
And Dan was reading my mind because you know, there is that old saying,
27:18
nothing drives like a Cadillac.
27:21
So I wonder, is that true of the trucks too?
27:23
You have your favorite from, let's say an aesthetics perspective.
27:27
Have you gotten behind the wheel of a semi and said, man, this really drives.
27:31
Nicely.
27:32
Okay, so this is hard to say because I've never worked for this manufacturer.
27:38
I worked for two others, but I did appreciate driving a Volvo because
27:42
semi-truck have four suspensions.
27:45
Regular cars have two is what I like to say.
27:47
So the tires are a little bit of suspension, and then you have, you know,
27:51
the leaf spring and shocks and all that.
27:53
Well, semi-trucks also have CAD suspension.
27:56
And then they have seat suspension too.
27:58
So the way this Volvo performed on the road, including taking off from
28:02
a stop and coming to a stop, it just was super smooth and really nice.
28:07
As I walk up and down the paddocks at racetracks, a lot
28:10
of the team haulers are Volvos.
28:12
Is it because they're so comfortable?
28:14
Is there something about them that makes them maybe more
28:17
desirable to race teams to use?
28:19
They're a premium truck and they're gonna last longer.
28:22
I know that Freightliner has a reputation of being called a freight shaker,
28:27
and they're a lot cheaper truck.
28:29
You'll see 'em all over for a long haul because you can get one for 80,000.
28:34
The Kenworth and Peterbilt are more premium brands.
28:37
They're gonna be at least 150,000, summer over 300,000.
28:42
A big thing that's come to change in recent years is a lot of
28:46
the semis are starting to have automatic transmissions put in 'em.
28:49
What is your thought on automatic transmissions compared
28:52
to the manual transmissions?
28:53
I mean, it's too bad.
28:55
Manuals are a lot of fun.
28:57
You get a lot of choice with them.
28:59
But yeah, automatics are more fuel efficient.
29:02
Fleet owners are gonna choose them and they can have a lot more variety
29:08
of drivers because they're easier.
29:10
So I'm surprised you said that.
29:11
Fuel efficient, I would've imagined because in normal automotive vehicles,
29:16
the automatics tend to have less fuel economy than the manuals.
29:20
I'd be interested in seeing how the automatics and the semis
29:23
are making them more economical.
29:25
I do believe with all the different.
29:27
Calibrations that they have, they can be more fuel efficient.
29:30
Yeah.
29:31
There's other mechanisms on the truck they can drop to neutral while
29:36
you're traveling down the road.
29:37
So consumer cars, they'll shut off the engine when your foot's on the brake.
29:41
But we do have a neutral coast feature.
29:44
There's things like driver reward where there's signals on the dash
29:48
that guide you how to break and accelerate to be more fuel efficient.
29:53
Sometimes it's just an overall effect of the whole system.
29:57
I do believe the automatics can be more fuel efficient programming, and the
30:01
automatics have gotten a lot better too.
30:03
And if they're borrowing any technology from the passenger car world or even
30:07
the racing world where there's more of a continuously variable transmission
30:11
type of setup, or what would be the equivalent to a flappy paddle gearbox.
30:15
In our world where the gear ratios are quick and fast, it's hard to beat that.
30:20
Having written in the one semi, yes, you can shift gears without a clutch
30:24
and rev match and all that kind of stuff, but it's very slow and it's
30:27
very deliberate versus the automatic.
30:29
It's always thinking about the optimal rev range and where you are
30:32
and all these other kinds of things.
30:33
The computer, in this case, I.
30:35
Can outbeat the driver versus in a passenger car.
30:38
It's a lot more nuanced in the difference between the automatic and the manual.
30:42
Yeah.
30:42
Race car, we'll call 'em nannies that they have on for the
30:45
computers doing a lot of stuff.
30:46
So it sounds like they've started to put a lot of technology into
30:49
these trucks to make them to where they are more efficient.
30:51
And if anything, they just.
30:53
The to be more efficient and safety too.
30:56
Safety is really big.
30:57
We are implementing a lot of safety features.
31:00
We have cameras on the external of the truck, looking at the side, the
31:05
front detecting objects, checking, following distance, and alerting you if.
31:10
You're approaching too quickly, and in fact, I have been what I call a crash
31:15
test dummy at work, exercising these features and making sure that the warnings
31:20
are responding at the appropriate time with the appropriate warning on the
31:23
dash, because you can't push a semi with the cruise control set to a collision.
31:32
Behind another vehicle, you have to trick it so you go really fast.
31:37
You hit cruise at the last second to get that most dire warning.
31:41
And so I've done that a lot on the test track.
31:43
At work, I have to have an engineer ride with me so they can verify some of the
31:48
warnings and some of the things that are happening on the computer when they're
31:52
plugged in because I'm busy driving.
31:54
I've slammed a few people into the dash, I'm sorry.
31:57
And I'm also scared a few people, but they always get back in.
32:00
Have the trucks adopted adaptive cruise control now?
32:04
Yes, absolutely.
32:05
And that's good that the trucks are continuing to evolve, incorporate
32:09
new technologies, things that we take for granted in the passenger cars.
32:11
But you start to think about the trucking industry and go, well,
32:14
trucks are trucks or trucks.
32:16
There's not a huge disruptor in that industry.
32:19
But then there's this one name that sticks out kind of everywhere
32:22
you turn around these days.
32:23
And that's Tesla.
32:25
So what do you think about the introduction of the quote unquote EV
32:29
semi, all the manufacturers are working, well, I guess maybe not all the big
32:34
ones are working on that right now, and you're gonna see a lot coming up.
32:39
The company I work for is a little bit more conservative.
32:41
We're not first to the game, but we're gonna come up
32:44
behind with a better product.
32:46
Overall, it doesn't take too much Googling on semi EV trucks to see kind
32:53
of where we're at and where we're headed.
32:55
I think it's controversial, and I'm not sure if there's a net gain for
32:59
the environment or the consumer.
33:01
So I've always argued the way to do it was to adopt.
33:05
The train technology, which is diesel electric hybrid in the sense that the
33:10
diesel is used as a generator to build electricity for the rest of the system
33:16
without divulging too much information.
33:19
Is that something that's being looked into in the trucking
33:22
industry to go that route versus.
33:24
Just a straight ev.
33:25
Yeah, it's been tested.
33:27
We had two alternate configurations built and tested at Los Angeles ports.
33:33
That was actually partially managed by my department directly.
33:37
Everything everyone is wondering about is happening.
33:40
We're just not ready to come out with it.
33:44
So other than the like hybrid or the EV aspect.
33:47
Cummins was doing the hydrogen diesel engine.
33:51
What are your thoughts on concepts like that?
33:54
That's under development too.
33:55
It's in the universities, it's in the manufacturers.
33:58
I'm not directly involved, but I know that things are happening.
34:02
Well, we'll just have to wait and see Dan.
34:05
Well, like we say in the intro of the show, We're always fixing to get
34:10
into something motors sports related, and you fit that category as well.
34:15
As we look through the photos on your website, there is
34:18
evidence of super truck racing.
34:20
There is evidence of Monster Jam, king of Hammers, Pikes Peak, and more.
34:25
So let's dive into that a little bit.
34:27
How did you go from working at the test center and doing all
34:30
these other things in research and everything you've been talking about?
34:33
Into the world of racing these trucks.
34:35
Racing was my first love, and that's what really led me to my college
34:40
education and then my career choice.
34:43
My father was a volunteer for Sports Car Club of America Racing.
34:49
He took me a lot of weekends.
34:51
From Northern California, and when I say Northern California, I mean about an hour
34:56
and a half south of Oregon, so this is still four hours north of San Francisco.
35:01
He would take me all the way down to what I consider Southern California
35:06
Laguna Seca at the time in Monterey Sea Point, miss Sonoma area.
35:12
We were basically course marshals.
35:15
The tire crew, every volunteer group on the track had t-shirts.
35:19
There was the fire guys, their t-shirts said, you smoke it, we soak it.
35:24
We had responsibility for restocking the tires at the wall.
35:27
So you whack it, we stack it.
35:30
There was another one.
35:31
You blow it, we tow it.
35:32
Every kind of volunteer group had these funny shirts and I really
35:35
thought that was a lot of fun.
35:36
And the noise and the power and the speed and the sunny days
35:41
I thought was really awesome.
35:42
So at one of the races we volunteered at, I found out that my high school had.
35:48
A racing team where I knew we had Auto shop, but I wasn't to the point of taking
35:53
electives and exploring what those were.
35:55
So as soon as I got into electives my junior and senior year, I took
36:00
auto shop, joined the auto club, ended up being nominated for
36:03
Homecoming Queen by the Auto Club.
36:05
There was a parade.
36:06
The auto shop teacher had his own tow home and towed me on top of the race car in
36:13
town in the parade, and I thought that was the coolest thing ever out of all racing.
36:17
I had always really admired the long distance desert truck racers.
36:21
I saw a documentary where, They had spare transmissions and motors out
36:28
in the desert and they could replace that in the pits and keep going.
36:31
And I thought that was the coolest, biggest commitment
36:34
and effort and so much fun.
36:36
So I always just kind of had my sights set on maybe getting
36:40
into that kind of rum someday.
36:42
I eventually was able to do that.
36:44
I spent the whole season with a team.
36:46
Racing in the best in the Desert Series in Nevada in 2008, and
36:53
I got a pre-runner, mid travel suspension truck shortly after that.
36:57
One thing led to another.
36:58
I did end up racing it, and then the whole Pikes Peak thing was somewhat accidental.
37:04
So Pikes Peak, I just decided I needed to go.
37:08
It was an event I needed to attend.
37:10
I was working for Freightliner at the time, and Freightliner had a team in the
37:15
past and then ended up giving Mike Ryan a, a newer Cascadia cab to go on his.
37:21
Old Starling chassis.
37:23
So it was still a Starling truck, but it had this Cascadia cab.
37:26
I ended up telling one of my coworkers who was on the team originally and
37:32
supported Mike that I was gonna go.
37:34
He is like, Hey, you know, Mike always sends a personal invite.
37:37
Would you like to be hooked up with him?
37:39
I'm not gonna go.
37:39
I said, yeah, that sounds great.
37:41
So I got to hang out with Mike's team now.
37:44
The way Pikes Peak works is during the week before race day, which is
37:49
Sunday, every year, last Sunday in June, they practice the mountain Wednesday,
37:53
Thursday, Friday, Saturday is a day off, and then Sunday's race day.
37:57
So the whole fleet of race vehicles gets split up into three groups.
38:01
They stick together each of the three days and practice one third of the mountain.
38:05
So they have cones at an inline and then a little bit further up.
38:09
They have a new start line, and then they'll an inline
38:12
and then a new start line.
38:13
So over the three days, he usually committed to getting all of his crew
38:18
and support people in a fire suit in the passenger seat to do these practice runs.
38:23
But no one had ever rode on race day, so it was the last and final day, and
38:29
it was supposed to be my turn coming up.
38:31
Of course, I was the newbie.
38:32
Everyone else got to write first, which I was totally cool with.
38:35
But he started having a slipping issue that he thought was the
38:38
transmission, and so he called it for the day and it was third day,
38:43
so my heart was a little broken.
38:44
I didn't get a ride, but there was always another year, right?
38:47
On Saturday, he had like a team barbecue at his hotel and I was there.
38:52
He started kind of asking me, you know, how was it that I was there?
38:56
You know, what was I doing there?
38:57
I said, well, you know, I've just.
38:58
Always been into motor sports.
39:00
This is a race I need to attend in my lifetime, and so I decided
39:04
this was the year, and here I am.
39:06
He's like, wow, that's really interesting.
39:07
He's like, you know, since he didn't get to ride during practice,
39:11
I wonder if you want to, if they'd let you ride on race day.
39:15
I was like, well, heck yeah.
39:16
I do that.
39:17
And so he is like, all right, I'll talk to the officials in the team.
39:22
It's.
39:23
Midnight 3:00 AM deal.
39:25
You get up on the mountain, set up your pit, and other spectators are getting
39:28
on the mountain at that time as well.
39:30
He comes back with a waiver on a clipboard, says, all right, just
39:33
sign your name here and you're in.
39:35
So I got in the truck with Mike and he even, you know, mentioned it in
39:39
his interview at the start line.
39:41
This was the first time he'd ever had a co-driver.
39:44
The thing that scared me the most outta the whole thing was he is like, you know,
39:48
I won't even let my son ride with me.
39:50
I was like, well, what does that mean?
39:53
Honestly, it was one of the most incredible experiences of my life.
39:57
I was just elated and brought to tears over it, literally to tears
40:02
for a few different reasons, and I really couldn't spill the beans or
40:06
elaborate about it for several days.
40:08
I did eventually tell my parents within like a day that what I had done, I
40:13
didn't tell them beforehand and they weren't on the trip with me, you
40:16
know, so they weren't too surprised.
40:18
I, I would usually call and tell them about crazy things I had
40:21
just done, I was on a Jeep Forum before the Facebook group days.
40:26
I just had mentioned and posted a few pictures and about like the
40:29
fifth response down, someone just said something as simple as, That
40:34
must have been really awesome.
40:36
The thoughts and emotions came back and the words started flowing and I
40:40
wrote like three paragraphs about it.
40:42
This particular forum online had regular participation by, at
40:48
the time, John Herrick and Larry Nickol, owners of Crawl Magazine.
40:52
So John Harrick sent me a message.
40:54
He said, Hey, we have a series in the magazine right now
40:57
called Women in the Dirt.
40:58
Would you like to submit an article about your experience?
41:01
And I was like, yeah, that'd be great.
41:02
So like, how long should it be?
41:04
He's like, oh, just do whatever.
41:05
We'll pare it down.
41:06
So single space and word.
41:08
I wrote out seven pages, but you know, it's my story.
41:12
I own it.
41:12
It'll always be mine.
41:14
If you want the whole thing.
41:14
It's on my website.
41:15
But he paired it down to about three pages of print and then a full page graphic.
41:20
For the beginning of the article.
41:22
And so that was the first time I was really published,
41:25
and that was a lot of fun.
41:26
I hung out with them a lot, appeared in photos, on trail rides and whatnot.
41:30
And then with trophy girl designs, I've had two of my products
41:34
appear in the magazine as well.
41:35
So yeah, you know, I felt like sitting in that passenger seat.
41:40
I wasn't writing for myself, I was writing for every single
41:44
person that had ever been a fan.
41:46
That would ever dream of being in that seat.
41:49
I dedicated it to everyone that would ever want to be in that seat.
41:53
My feet didn't even touch any kind of platform or the floor.
41:57
My heels were just banging underneath the seat.
42:01
I felt like a little tiny kid just having a joy ride of my life.
42:05
We had all kinds of weather.
42:07
It started out sunny.
42:08
We had sleet, we had rain, we had snow, we had hail, and this is the end of June.
42:14
So, All summer long in Colorado Springs, which the mountain is about 45 minutes
42:19
outside of that town, thunderstorms roll in about 1:00 PM You'll get some
42:23
rain, you'll get lot of thunderstorms.
42:24
We're climbing from about eight to 9,000 feet up just over
42:30
14,000 feet to the finish line.
42:32
And so I'm looking out at the horizon and above and so.
42:38
As we're climbing the mountain, we're climbing to the bottom
42:42
of these thunderstorm clouds.
42:44
I've been watching lightning, literally go down to earth is what it feels like.
42:49
'cause you're so high up.
42:51
The slope of the mountain just goes away so quickly down into the
42:55
valley, like Colorado Springs, you really feel like you're just kind
42:58
of flying in the thunderstorms.
43:00
And I could watch the lightning and I could see rain in
43:03
different spots falling and.
43:05
It was just so surreal and it brought me to tears.
43:08
So you get to the finish line and then everyone comes down as a group 'cause they
43:11
don't let any competitors down in between.
43:13
Everyone just goes up, up, up all day long and then all the fans come out onto the
43:18
road and they're cheering you on and it's raining in spots, it's snowing in spots.
43:22
They literally have their children over their heads to keep them dry.
43:27
And get their children higher above the crowds so they can
43:30
cheer you on and wave at you.
43:31
And a couple times Mike lost complete electrical power, which means he had
43:38
to drive his back of his shoulders into his seat, and both his feet as
43:43
hard as he could on the brake pedal to stop that giant machine around some of
43:47
those tight turns coming down the hill.
43:49
I wasn't scared because I go into things for the first time with no expectations.
43:54
Yeah, everything's gravy.
43:55
It's not till the next time that I start to get nervous 'cause I've experienced
43:59
this thing or that thing, and I know a little bit more what to expect.
44:02
So I was cool as a cucumber, but man, he was kind of freaking out a couple times
44:06
and luckily everything turned out okay.
44:08
Years later, he went off course during practice and ended up 20
44:12
feet in a tree just because the mountain gave way so quickly.
44:15
But he was by himself at that time.
44:17
And yeah, really, really, really good first and probably last experience.
44:23
How different was his racing truck versus the trucks you were used to?
44:28
Like how much power was he making?
44:30
How was it decked out, the safety?
44:32
Like tell us a little bit more about the truck itself.
44:34
So he had an old, old series 60 Detroit diesel series 60 marine engine with
44:41
two turbos over 2000 horsepower.
44:44
He had just a single rear axle, single tire on each side.
44:49
I think three and a half inch king shocks back there.
44:52
An amazing machine.
44:54
It sounds amazing.
44:55
So I knew that they put like GoPros on the truck, but it wasn't till
44:59
like a year later, I happened to cross a video of our run on YouTube.
45:04
I think it was published by his son.
45:06
I watched that and that's when I got scared, seeing how close
45:10
we were to the edge of the road where there's no guardrail.
45:13
That was before the paved.
45:16
Saliva.
45:17
It was gravel.
45:18
I was amazed how much steering wheel movement there was while
45:21
seemingly going straight.
45:23
He did let me flip one switch one time, which was pretty cool.
45:26
And then I watched the speedometer a few times.
45:29
At one point we were going over 90 miles an hour, which for
45:32
a vehicle that big is fast.
45:34
Yeah, a diesel truck, 90 miles an hour.
45:36
I watched the video you have on your website.
45:39
That's the one.
45:40
It's an awesome video.
45:41
And to any of the listeners, Go to our website, check it out.
45:44
It is worth the watch.
45:46
I had my daughter watch it and one thing that she noticed is
45:49
like you're saying, the wheel turning a lot to keep it straight.
45:52
There's one corner.
45:53
You guys are going around and a guy like steps out onto the course a
45:56
little bit to get closer to get like a better video of you guys as you go by.
46:00
She's like, what is that guy doing?
46:01
That's the world of rally baby.
46:03
It's like the wild west.
46:04
I love it.
46:06
So, and that's like, I told her, I was like, Eric loves this kind of stuff.
46:09
With you having ridden on that before they paved the whole thing out there,
46:13
do you think would be different?
46:14
Riding now with a fully paved, the drifting would be a lot different.
46:18
Right.
46:18
Still just as exhilarating and just as infamous, but yeah,
46:22
it'd be a different ride.
46:23
Question is where did he get slicks that big?
46:25
That's what I wanna know.
46:27
Yeah.
46:27
Well, they're called.
46:28
Super singles, they have some traction.
46:32
No, that's awesome.
46:33
And, and obviously you've had experience with other disciplines of
46:36
motorsport, always involving trucks, like we mentioned, monster jam,
46:39
king of Hammers, things like that.
46:40
Now that I've conquered to a certain point of satisfaction, long distance truck
46:45
desert racing, I would love to go to a Hill Climb event and be involved in that.
46:50
So tell us about your time in the desert.
46:52
So I spent that one season invest in the desert with Roma goat racing.
46:57
They were stock mini with a Ford Ranger, excellent group of guys.
47:01
Just an excellent time, and that's really where I fell in love with the sport.
47:06
So I had watched that documentary, but that was my first exposure to it.
47:10
That's what led to me getting my pre-runner style track, which I ended up
47:15
racing short course, and I was the 2012 series winner at a somewhat local track.
47:20
Just a little track.
47:22
Very nice.
47:22
Congratulations.
47:23
Well, two of the crew guys with Mike Ryan are James Smith.
47:27
He is a Hollywood stunt driver as well.
47:29
And then Sam I got in touch with to be my first co-driver for short
47:34
course, and he did a great job.
47:36
I didn't have anybody holding my hand or giving me tips.
47:39
Everything was just observation at this point.
47:41
So he really taught me a few things, and I think he kind of had low expectations.
47:46
The very first jump, he was really holding onto his seat and kind of
47:50
nervous that I was going so fast.
47:52
We launch off this jump and have a really soft landing.
47:55
He's like, wow, that wasn't bad at all.
47:58
By the time we got done with our race, I had probably been hyperventilating.
48:02
It was a crazy race.
48:03
I ended up getting past a couple guys that had sandbagged during qualifying
48:08
so that they would get placed in the front and I had to pass 'em all.
48:11
Gave me a lot of, lot more work.
48:13
But we got around and we got first place.
48:15
I felt like I had ran a marathon.
48:17
We were just hitting and hollering and screaming the whole
48:19
time, and it was just a blast.
48:21
So making connections at races has really led to a lot more personal
48:26
satisfaction in my life and a lot more opportunities that sometimes my eyes
48:31
were open too, but a lot of times it brought me outta my comfort zone so I
48:36
could initiate a lot of networking or.
48:40
Seek out opportunities to participate in things that I was interested in,
48:45
and really ultimately led to a lot of these really unique experiences
48:49
that a lot of people won't have unless they are a real go-getter
48:53
and get out there and get involved.
48:54
I also made a personal contact with the late Jesse Combs, and she was the one that
49:00
emailed me and referred me to Monster Jam.
49:03
So I got to try out for three days in a grave digger.
49:08
I won't tell you how many there are, but there's more than one.
49:11
During that three days of training, I broke my tailbone, which
49:14
you can't really break it, but essentially like breaking a bone.
49:18
Couldn't sit straight for six months.
49:20
But I also got to see the very first trial of the Forward Flip by Tom Mince,
49:26
which is now done in stadium shows.
49:28
That was also super awesome experience once in a Lifetime.
49:32
Dwayne the Rock Johnson, he openly talks about.
49:36
How devastated he was over not making it into the N F L.
49:40
I can relate to that a little bit.
49:42
Not near the same kind of athletic level or anything, but for a year I
49:48
was heartbroken and had nightmares and good dreams and bad dreams about.
49:54
Never being called by Monster Jam and being placed in my own truck, but I'm
49:58
over it now and just like everyone says, at least I got to do that.
50:02
At least I gotta try.
50:03
I'm just grateful for that.
50:05
Now, with all your Motorsport experience, always again around trucks.
50:10
Is that what inspired you to break out and found and start trophy girls design?
50:16
Is that where all your safety gear and your products are coming from
50:19
or was there some other inspiration?
50:21
Yeah.
50:22
When I bought my ranger pre-runner, my mid travel truck that I ended
50:26
up racing, I needed stuff for it.
50:29
I would find products online.
50:31
I was like, oh, well I could make that for cheaper.
50:34
And so it all started with the fire extinguisher mount.
50:37
I made one for myself.
50:39
I used a local laser cutting shop with my own CAD designs.
50:44
'cause I have CAD at home.
50:45
Posted it on that Jeep form where John Harris saw me talk about Pikes Peak
50:50
and offered space in the magazine.
50:53
I had like nine orders overnight.
50:54
I was like, oh, well maybe there's something to this.
50:57
I've sold probably three to 400 now.
51:00
It's not something I advertise, it's really just word of mouth.
51:04
If you Google the right terms, you can come across me or you can see
51:08
me on social media a little bit.
51:10
I've been focusing on my family.
51:12
I have two kids.
51:13
I've been married almost 10 years now, so.
51:15
Things have definitely slowed down in the motor sports world.
51:18
But yeah, I still exist and I can do any custom laser cutting too.
51:21
Anything else you're designing or manufacturing or have
51:25
been commissioned to make?
51:26
Yeah, on my Facebook business page, I have posted a lot of past projects.
51:31
A lot of them are automotive, just because I participate in those online discussions,
51:38
I'm present in that world online.
51:40
But you know, there's kind of arts and craftsy stuff too, like yard
51:43
signs for your garden or whatever.
51:46
But another one of my main products is a plane of bend bracket for
51:50
when you're bending tubing on more than one plane, all the welders are
51:54
now suddenly just church nodding.
51:56
They're like, yep, that, yep, we need that.
51:57
Exactly.
51:59
Yep.
52:00
As your children get older, are you planning to hopefully accelerate
52:04
the motor sports side of stuff?
52:06
Definitely more of a hobby type thing.
52:08
Now, every day is kind of a new day.
52:11
I'm known to not really do the same thing more than once too often, so I
52:15
have been to Pikes Peak three times.
52:18
I don't know if I'll go again, but I'm always looking for the next new adventure,
52:22
something new, something bigger.
52:25
I'm not sure what's next.
52:28
I'm doing some off-road recovery training, which I've never done before.
52:33
I've experienced lots of recovery operations, but I would
52:36
have no idea what I'm doing.
52:37
Well, that's why you go to learn, right?
52:39
Yeah.
52:40
It segues into a great question, which is if a young lady came
52:43
up to you and said, Carrie, why?
52:46
Why trucks?
52:46
Why motorsport?
52:47
Why engineering?
52:48
What would you say to them?
52:50
In high school, I just decided that my passions were.
52:53
Art and auto shop class.
52:56
I remember my parents were always super supportive.
52:59
I was raised a little bit of a tomboy.
53:01
We were a hunting family.
53:02
I didn't do team sports.
53:04
I tried, didn't care for it.
53:05
So hunting's a sport too.
53:08
I've done competitive shooting in the range before as well.
53:11
I.
53:12
So automotive was new to me at some point, but not foreign as a girl.
53:17
But yeah, I was just encouraged to explore all things and do whatever interested me.
53:23
And for whatever reason, I always had a brain that wanted to know why
53:29
something was designed the way it was.
53:31
I didn't necessarily take things apart to see how they worked, but
53:35
it was more of like from a design perspective and like functionality.
53:40
Analyzing the requirements and meeting those requirements, solving a problem.
53:44
So the artwork, the drawing class and the auto shop class was really what
53:47
drove me to mechanical engineering and wanting to be in the automotive industry.
53:52
But that racing certainly helped.
53:54
Getting involved with volunteering at the track definitely had some
53:58
adversity along the way, and it's hard being a female in engineering.
54:03
It's hard to be a female in racing, but.
54:06
You'll always find somebody that's gonna cheer you on and you just
54:09
kind of have to have the mentality to keep an eye out for that.
54:14
Keep your ears open and accept the love that you're gonna
54:16
get from the good people.
54:18
We've reached that point of the episode where I get to ask you if
54:21
you have any shout outs, promotions, or anything else you'd like to share
54:24
that we haven't covered thus far.
54:26
I just wanna thank my tribe, my.
54:29
People, my family, that's always been there and supported me.
54:34
Thank you, Carl Magazine.
54:35
You know we've had a lot of fun times over the years.
54:39
Jeff, thanks for my connection.
54:41
Love you.
54:42
As a talented mechanical engineer racer and a professional in the semi-truck
54:46
world, carries a true trailblazer breaking down barriers and aspiring
54:49
others, especially women and young ladies to pursue their passions no
54:53
matter how unconventional they may be.
54:55
If you want to keep up with Carrie's journey and stay tuned on her latest
54:58
projects, be sure to check out the website, trophy girl designs.com.
55:02
You can find her at Trophy Girl Designs.
55:05
Harry, I cannot thank you enough for coming on Break Fix for our
55:10
previous guest and friend of the show, Jeff Willis, for introducing us.
55:14
You know, this is a really interesting look into the automotive industry,
55:18
especially from the world of.
55:19
Big trucks.
55:21
It's exciting to see more women behind the wheel of big trucks, but also for
55:25
you being involved in the mechanical side of this, in the testing of this,
55:28
in the production, the manufacturer, and I'm really excited to see where the
55:32
future of big trucks goes, especially in the next couple of years here.
55:35
So thank you for sharing your knowledge with us, sharing your story with us,
55:39
and it's been an absolute pleasure.
55:41
Well, I was happy to do it and really grateful for the
55:44
experience, so thank you too.
55:45
I feel like it's an interesting story and unique.
55:48
Hopefully everyone else thinks so too.
55:50
It a pleasure to meet you and talk to you.
55:52
Bye guys.
55:53
Have a good night.
55:58
If you like what you've heard and want to learn more about G T M, be sure to
56:01
check us out on www.gt motorsports.org.
56:05
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56:09
Also, if you want to get involved or have suggestions for future shows, you can call
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56:21
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56:23
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56:25
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