Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / From V6 Mustang to Spec Miata: Annika Carter’s Unconventional Road to Racing

Transcript

From V6 Mustang to Spec Miata: Annika Carter’s Unconventional Road to Racing · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

• 0:00
  BreakFix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from
• 0:04
  all over the autosphere, from wrench turners and racers to artists, authors,
• 0:09
  designers, and everything in between.
• 0:11
  Our goal is to inspire a new generation of petrolheads that wonder How did they
• 0:17
  get that job or become that person?
• 0:19
  The road to success is paved by all of us because everyone has a story.
• 0:27
  Our guest tonight has many years of performance driving experience.
• 0:31
  She has driven racetracks with names like Road Atlanta, AMP, Barber Motorsports
• 0:36
  Park, Carolina Motorsports Park, VIR, and Roebling Road to name a few.
• 0:41
  In the summer of 2017, she joined the National Autosport sports
• 0:45
  associations, high performance driving education program, and rapidly
• 0:50
  progress from HPD level one to level four, all while completing NASA's
• 0:55
  licensing school in a single season.
• 0:58
  Fast forward a bit.
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  She began her racing career in spec Miata campaigning her own car and ultimately
• 1:04
  hopes to proceed into professional racing, starting with the Mazda MX
• 1:08
  five cup series, joining Donovan.
• 1:11
  From Garage Ride and I tonight is Anika Carter.
• 1:14
  She's constantly working to better herself behind the wheel.
• 1:17
  She believes everything is possible and is fully dedicated
• 1:20
  to fulfilling her goals on track.
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  And we welcome her to BrakeFix to share her story.
• 1:26
  So welcome to BrakeFix, Anika.
• 1:28
  Thank you so much for having me.
• 1:29
  A pleasure.
• 1:30
  So let's start off talking about your motorsports past.
• 1:33
  How did you get into cars?
• 1:36
  It's kind of funny how I got into cars.
• 1:38
  Cause I didn't grow up as a car person.
• 1:40
  My dad is not a car person.
• 1:41
  My brother is not a car person.
• 1:43
  I've actually made my brother into a car person recently.
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  When I was looking at going to colleges, my parents essentially
• 1:49
  bribed me to go to school in state by offering to buy me a car.
• 1:53
  It was just that much cheaper for me to go to school in state.
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  Cause here in Georgia, we have a state funded scholarship that essentially pays
• 1:59
  for all of your tuition at a state school.
• 2:01
  So my parents were like, Hey, That's cheaper to buy you a car.
• 2:05
  Let's do it.
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  I've always liked to, you know, stand out a little bit from the
• 2:08
  crowd and, you know, drive the same thing that everyone else drives, wear
• 2:11
  the same thing everyone else wears.
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  So I didn't want to just get a Toyota Camry.
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  I wanted something, you know, a little sporty, a little different.
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  Was initially looking at Scion FRSs, didn't know anything about them, just
• 2:22
  knew I liked the way they looked.
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  Went back and forth with my parents because they wanted me
• 2:25
  to have something bigger and finally settled on a V6 Mustang.
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  Then I didn't want my Mustang to be like everyone else's Mustang.
• 2:32
  So I decided I wanted to modify it.
• 2:34
  And I am 100 percent YouTube certified in car modifications.
• 2:39
  I learned everything I know on YouTube.
• 2:41
  The very first project I ever did on my car was Lowering Springs.
• 2:44
  Great place to start.
• 2:45
  Didn't start easy.
• 2:46
  Just dove right into it, you know, just kind of first started getting
• 2:49
  into cars just by modifying my car.
• 2:51
  After I'd done a couple of little things to it, I was at school in Athens,
• 2:54
  Georgia And I went to Home Depot for something and someone from the Athens
• 2:59
  Area Mustang Club left a business card on my driver's side window, like
• 3:04
  inviting me to go to their next meet.
• 3:06
  So I started getting into the car meet scene through the Athens Area Mustang Club
• 3:10
  there, started making more car friends.
• 3:12
  Became friends with some people who happened to work at Road
• 3:15
  Atlanta about a year or two after I bought my car or got my car.
• 3:18
  I put coilovers on it.
• 3:20
  All my friends were like, Oh, you can't put coilovers on your car
• 3:22
  and not take it to the racetrack.
• 3:24
  So I did naturally.
• 3:26
  That's, you know, someone says you can't do it.
• 3:28
  You got to do it.
• 3:28
  I just remember that first track day was like the best day of my life.
• 3:31
  I remember halfway through just thinking that like, this is so much fun and just
• 3:35
  decided that that was what I wanted to do.
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  Was it a manual Mustang?
• 3:39
  My parents didn't trust that I knew how to drive stick.
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  It is manual now.
• 3:43
  Good, good.
• 3:44
  Nothing worse than a V6 Mustang is a V6 Mustang with an automatic, right?
• 3:48
  No, right?
• 3:49
  I will take the V6 automatic Mustang jokes.
• 3:52
  I have made them.
• 3:53
  Nice.
• 3:53
  I will still take the V6 Mustang jokes.
• 3:55
  I still own one.
• 3:56
  Having a Mustang, can you tell us if there's any truth behind all of the memes
• 4:01
  that we see about Mustang drivers, uh, not being able to At cars at cars and coffee?
• 4:05
  Yeah.
• 4:06
  I would say in some way there is truth to it.
• 4:09
  Really, it's it's starting to become Chargers now, I feel, but really
• 4:13
  Mustangs, and now Chargers, are like the easiest way to Get a lot of horsepower.
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  And so think like when you've got a young kid who can, you know, spend 30, 000
• 4:23
  and get 450 horsepower under his right foot, like he's going to do stupid stuff.
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  Right.
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  It happens.
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  Your first cars would be six Mustang.
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  And then you didn't make that your race car forever.
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  And you found a couple of cars since then.
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  So what's the progression and where are you at now?
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  What is, what's the fleet look like?
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  The fleet is larger than it should be.
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  So I started with the V6 Mustang.
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  That was my first car became my first track car.
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  I started tracking it.
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  It started getting less and less practical for the road,
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  especially because it was lowered.
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  I put on a splitter, it's scraping over every speed bump.
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  So I decided that I wanted to get myself something practical to drive every day.
• 5:00
  Okay.
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  And naturally my practical car was a 1992 Miata.
• 5:03
  They're cheap.
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  You know, did you change your mind and go from a Mustang to a Miata because
• 5:08
  you were passed by one on the track?
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  Is that how it went down?
• 5:11
  That usually happens.
• 5:12
  Believe it or not.
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  No, it was the cost.
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  Cause spec Miata is a lot, a lot less expensive to run, but I have passed a
• 5:20
  Corvette in my Miata at Road Atlanta.
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  And then in my Mustang, I actually, I got a custom plate for my
• 5:25
  Mustang that says it's a V6.
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  Because I would pass people on the track and they would think that'd be the thing.
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  It was a GT and I like had to, you know, prove to them that it was a V6.
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  So like that way, when I passed, you know, the Audi R8, which happened or,
• 5:38
  you know, your Porsche or something like that, I just want them to know immediately
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  that they got passed by a V6 Mustang.
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  It's necessary.
• 5:45
  The flip side of that is I had a Japanese turbo.
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  I'll spare which one it is back in the day.
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  And my tag said V8 this.
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  Please do that.
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  Do some racing.
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  And it was always, it was, you know, that, Oh, you know, I've got a big V8.
• 5:57
  I can smoke, you kind of thing.
• 5:59
  Back when I was doing things I probably shouldn't have.
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  I would love to get my Fiat to that point just because the Fiat is such a cute car.
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  Like you don't think anything of it.
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  Like it's just adorable.
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  I actually had like a person come up to me at the post office once and ask me
• 6:12
  what kind of fuel economy it made because they thought it was like one of those
• 6:14
  little econo boxes, like a smart car.
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  And I was like, No, it, it's not.
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  And then I started it and I saw her like do a double take.
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  He's like, yeah, it's so like inauspicious.
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  I like would love to be able to, you know, pull up to a stoplight and
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  when that guy in the V eight muscle car pulls up next to and he's reving
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  thinking he's, you know, all cool and everything, just gap him in a fiat.
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  It would be so great.
• 6:33
  . I was, I was really surprised.
• 6:34
  I think you and I talked about the last time I went to the dragon and there
• 6:37
  was a fiat in front of us and yeah.
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  Just through the corners.
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  It was incredible.
• 6:40
  Bought my Miata, his name is Steve.
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  So Steve, I named before I ever bought it.
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  I just thought like a Miata.
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  It's got a cute little face.
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  It needs to have like a generic name.
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  So his name is Steve.
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  You gotta say it like they did in, what was that?
• 6:51
  One of those Pixar where it's like Steve . Right?
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  I, I've always said it's spelled with a period at the end.
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  Like it's just Steve full stop.
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  Yeah.
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  Yes.
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  That is my street Miata.
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  A lot of people get confused.
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  I have two Miatas now I do.
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  So I bought Steve.
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  He became my daily driver slash my project car.
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  And I learned a lot of what I know about cars, about mechanics on cars
• 7:12
  on that car on Steve, just because the Mustang, a lot of stuff didn't break.
• 7:16
  It was like, I was just modifying and making stuff better, but on Steve,
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  I was actually having to fix things at one point, like there was this.
• 7:23
  Rhythmic thumping vibration that I couldn't figure out what it was.
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  So I just replaced everything.
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  I literally did the drive shaft and the axles and the wheel hubs just at the
• 7:31
  same time, because I was like, yeah, it's going to be one of them, but yeah.
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  So got Steve had those two for a while, started getting closer to doing
• 7:37
  competition school, had to buy my first set of track tires for the Mustang.
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  At that point, I was a college student working at a restaurant and
• 7:45
  those tires were quite expensive.
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  So I realized I had to find something a little bit more affordable to race.
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  And I also wanted to get into a series where I would have a large
• 7:53
  group of people to race with.
• 7:54
  And that's where I started looking into Spec Miata.
• 7:57
  Cool thing about Spec Miata, even though our cars aren't very fast,
• 8:00
  super close racing, all the cars are essentially identical in horsepower and
• 8:04
  torque, they have the same suspension.
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  They limit you on their tires.
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  I mean, they limit.
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  Pretty much everything you can do to the car.
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  And we're getting classes of, you know, 20 to 30 cars instead of five.
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  And it's fun when you can race someone first through third, or
• 8:18
  you can race someone fifth through 10th, or you can race someone if
• 8:20
  you're in 18th, 19th, and 20th.
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  I heard in spec Miata that essentially you stay in line until an opportunity rises,
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  but if you jump out of line, they'll.
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  They'll basically close you off and make you circulate to the back of the pack.
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  Yes.
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  In a way it's kind of like that when you get your group of
• 8:36
  really evenly matched drivers.
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  So let's say you're like places one through seven or something like that.
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  They're all be really evenly matched.
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  They're probably all running within a couple of tenths
• 8:44
  of each other on lap times.
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  So they'll be running in a line doing what's called bump drafting.
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  So close behind someone you're getting the draft going a little bit faster
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  and you bump them down the straight.
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  And yeah, when you're in that situation, you just follow and
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  you're waiting for that car in front of you to make a little mistake.
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  And once you see them make that little mistake, you go for it.
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  Sometimes, too, you'll be in the line and you're watching for where you might be
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  stronger than the driver in front of you.
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  So you might notice that they're pulling on you going, you know, out of turn 11,
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  but you're pulling on them into turn 1.
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  So maybe next time going into turn one, you're gonna try to outbreak
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  them because you know you're stronger than them in that corner because
• 9:19
  the cars are so evenly matched.
• 9:20
  It relies very, very heavily on technique and driver skill.
• 9:23
  Bought my spec Miata out of Ohio, actually sight unseen, had it shipped to me.
• 9:28
  Started racing that, let's see, I got that in November of 2017.
• 9:32
  Started racing that in 2018 I had to get a trailer because I, uh, was initially
• 9:38
  street driving my race car to the track.
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  Which like fully stickered, fully caged race car driving
• 9:43
  it to the track on the street.
• 9:44
  It's a miracle I didn't get a ticket because 500 percent not street legal.
• 9:47
  I got my trailer and bought a 2011 Ford Expedition as my first tow vehicle because
• 9:52
  they were cheap and trucks are expensive.
• 9:53
  So I owned the Expedition and The entire time I owned that car, I
• 9:58
  was shopping for a diesel truck.
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  And a year and a half after I bought it, I found a great deal on a diesel
• 10:02
  truck, four and a half hours away.
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  Impulse bought that.
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  Kept the Expedition as a daily driver because at that point, Steve
• 10:07
  was getting his engine rebuilt.
• 10:09
  And then traded in the Expedition on my Fiat 500.
• 10:11
  What's the Fiat called then?
• 10:13
  The Fiat's name is Bart.
• 10:15
  Is yours an Abarth?
• 10:16
  Yeah.
• 10:16
  Oh yeah.
• 10:17
  So mine has still has the factory turbo on it, but I have a bigger turbo I'm
• 10:21
  going to be putting on hopefully in the next couple of months, fingers crossed.
• 10:25
  I would blend the two worlds.
• 10:26
  I'm still after a one 24 spider, which is a Miata with the Abarth power plant.
• 10:31
  Right.
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  So it's the best of both.
• 10:32
  Turn up the wick on that thing.
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  Make 300 horse and call it a day.
• 10:35
  The Fiat.
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  That's what I call it.
• 10:37
  The Fiat.
• 10:38
  Exactly.
• 10:38
  I'm going to ask this pits up question.
• 10:40
  Like we always ask, what is.
• 10:42
  the sexiest car of all time?
• 10:44
  Oh, that is such a difficult question.
• 10:46
  My first car obsession, when I first got into cars, which was relatively recently,
• 10:51
  I got into cars as an adult and then got into real estate and had to buy an adult
• 10:55
  car and bought a 2021 Mazda 3 Turbo.
• 10:57
  So I have six cars.
• 10:58
  But was the Viper ACR, specifically the ACR and the most recent generation of it.
• 11:04
  Don't ask me chassis codes and stuff because I don't know.
• 11:08
  But I also have a soft spot for pretty much anything
• 11:11
  McLaren, especially the Senna.
• 11:13
  And I had the chance to see a Senna in person when I was in Greenwich,
• 11:16
  Connecticut last year, along with a bunch of other fantastic cars that I'm
• 11:20
  never going to see again in my life.
• 11:21
  So we did a Viper episode recently.
• 11:23
  So I have to ask, you know, there's the quote unquote classic Viper, which is
• 11:27
  the blue with the white stripes, which I don't necessarily agree that is completely
• 11:30
  classic since the first Viper was red.
• 11:33
  So what's the best color combination for a Viper since you said that
• 11:36
  is the sexiest car of all time?
• 11:38
  Any and all?
• 11:40
  So if you had to buy, if you had to buy one today, what color would it be?
• 11:44
  I mean, the one that first drew my attention was the gray
• 11:48
  with red and black accents.
• 11:50
  And probably like if I had to buy one, I would go with that because
• 11:53
  my theory is always go with a neutral colored car because then
• 11:56
  you can add bright colored accents.
• 11:58
  Or in the future, wrap it.
• 11:59
  And if you start with a bright colored car, you can't add bright colored
• 12:03
  accents 'cause like your car's already red or blue or something like that.
• 12:07
  And then if you do wrap it, your door jambs just really stand out like a sore
• 12:10
  thumb . So I'm looking at your Instagram over here and now the car's purple.
• 12:15
  Was it purple before purple for a couple of weeks?
• 12:19
  Where do you, so you do that all yourself, right?
• 12:22
  I was going to say the, the color of your Fiat currently is not so neutral.
• 12:25
  It's that metallic purple, but the car is great.
• 12:28
  See, so like when I, if I cut it cleanly in the door jams, like
• 12:32
  it doesn't hurt your eyes going from the purple to the gray.
• 12:34
  You don't even really notice it.
• 12:35
  Or like the under of the underside of the hood being
• 12:37
  gray, you don't really notice it.
• 12:39
  Whereas my Miata.
• 12:41
  is red and I've wrapped it black.
• 12:43
  It bothered me so much in the trunk.
• 12:45
  I actually painted the trunk black inside of it.
• 12:48
  And at some point I will be pulling the engine and painting the engine bay black.
• 12:51
  Cause I just hate like the car's black and you open the hood
• 12:53
  and it's like red in your face.
• 12:55
  See, that goes back to my theory that everybody should just buy black cars.
• 13:00
  And then you paint over top of them or wrap over top and then
• 13:02
  you don't have to worry about it.
• 13:04
  It's all black, black, white or gray.
• 13:06
  Yeah.
• 13:06
  Honestly, black or gray.
• 13:07
  Cause white would stand out a lot too.
• 13:09
  Cause white's pretty bright.
• 13:10
  Exactly.
• 13:10
  So if we flip that, we take the inverse of that question.
• 13:13
  What's the ugliest car in your opinion?
• 13:15
  Um, the Nissan juke.
• 13:18
  Interesting.
• 13:19
  Okay.
• 13:20
  I jokingly call it the Nissan puke.
• 13:23
  I'm not a fan of that one.
• 13:25
  I don't know why that's the first one that comes to mind, but it is on cube.
• 13:29
  I don't like the cube either, like the asymmetrical rear window.
• 13:31
  Yeah.
• 13:33
  But you know, what's really funny about the juke that a lot of people don't
• 13:36
  realize it's the closest we'll ever get.
• 13:39
  To driving a Renault in this country.
• 13:42
  It's a Renault Clio underneath, but the center of gravity is completely
• 13:45
  wrong because it's up on stilts and it's super high as a CUV.
• 13:48
  But I'm still like, but, but maybe sort of, but no, unfortunately it's a joke.
• 13:52
  Right.
• 13:53
  But Hey, they stopped making it.
• 13:55
  So it's all good.
• 13:56
  I feel like the Duke is very polarizing too.
• 13:59
  Like I've talked to people, not necessarily car people.
• 14:01
  I feel most car people who I talked to about the Duke are
• 14:04
  like, yeah, no, we don't like it.
• 14:05
  But I've talked to people who aren't car people and they're like, Oh, I love it.
• 14:09
  And I'm like, how are we thinking about the same car?
• 14:14
  It's like the key of soul.
• 14:15
  And you're like most car.
• 14:17
  It's completely soulless.
• 14:18
  It's boring.
• 14:19
  And somebody else, it's so cute.
• 14:21
  And I'm like, What are you talking about?
• 14:23
  Hey, my friend who has a Kia Soul only still has it because it's paid off.
• 14:26
  That's literally the only reason he still has that car.
• 14:29
  Because he doesn't have a car payment.
• 14:31
  We asked that question recently.
• 14:33
  Would you buy a Chevy Spark?
• 14:34
  Would you drive one?
• 14:35
  No.
• 14:37
  Under no circumstances.
• 14:38
  Absolutely not.
• 14:40
  Throw some race tires on it and some coilovers and you probably could
• 14:42
  have like a really fun spec race.
• 14:44
  That was my justification was it would make a really cool B spec
• 14:48
  car with like a Fiesta and a Honda.
• 14:50
  you because they're all gutless.
• 14:52
  So you're out there just having fun in it.
• 14:54
  You know, it's like, who cares?
• 14:55
  It's a Chevy spark.
• 14:57
  So let's get back to talking about spec Miata racing for just a second.
• 15:01
  You go from D E to spec racing and it's a night and day difference.
• 15:05
  The conditioning, the whole process.
• 15:07
  How did you find the experience?
• 15:09
  What was it like as somebody coming to motorsport here in the last couple of
• 15:13
  years and going from, you know, Hey, this Miata on a track day that was, you know,
• 15:17
  let's call it street prepared to use an autocross term to a fully caged SSM car.
• 15:22
  It's different, really any car.
• 15:24
  Once you go from like your track car to your race car,
• 15:27
  it's a very different feeling.
• 15:29
  Like even my Mustang when I made it full race car.
• 15:32
  Race cars low key want to kill you, like all the time.
• 15:35
  They kind of feel like, even a Miata, I know it's silly to say this with
• 15:37
  a Miata, it makes 115 horsepower.
• 15:39
  I, this is going to sound silly, but like race cars in and of
• 15:43
  themselves just feel a little wild.
• 15:44
  They're just so bare bones.
• 15:46
  Going from, you know, something that has, and especially with the Miata,
• 15:50
  right, we're going from something in the Mustang, I have traction control,
• 15:53
  I have ABS, I have power steering, to something that has none of that stuff,
• 15:58
  plus is caged, bare bones, like, pure race car, it's just a very different
• 16:02
  feeling, and it's really hard to explain, and I think people who haven't driven
• 16:06
  race cars have a hard time, like, understanding, too, just how different
• 16:09
  it can be, because they're like, oh, my street car's fast, But race cars just
• 16:12
  have such a different attitude to them.
• 16:14
  And the biggest difference for me is just the difference in how you drive,
• 16:18
  even a V6 Mustang compared to a Miata.
• 16:21
  So a Miata is a very momentum based car where you do very little
• 16:24
  braking, and you're just trying to carry as much speed as possible.
• 16:27
  You're either flat foot on the gas or flat foot on the brake.
• 16:30
  It's one or the other.
• 16:31
  And you're not doing a lot of time flat foot on the brake and the Mustang.
• 16:34
  You're still having to, even the V6, you're still having
• 16:36
  to feather a little bit.
• 16:37
  Learning that new style of driving was very different to me, but it did
• 16:40
  ultimately make me a much better driver.
• 16:42
  The next time I got into my Mustang, you mentioned, you know,
• 16:45
  you didn't come from a car family.
• 16:46
  You weren't predisposed to it.
• 16:48
  You didn't have an auto crossing background or carting.
• 16:50
  Like some other people that we spoke to, you jumped right into HPDE, which
• 16:54
  is very similar to a lot of people that are listening to this episodes.
• 16:57
  Okay.
• 16:57
  I've gone to the track a couple of times.
• 16:59
  And then you made that leap into club racing, right?
• 17:01
  Let's What was it like to go through the program?
• 17:06
  We interview a lot of the organizers sometimes and they, and they talk about
• 17:10
  it, but you're the first person to come on here and express what it was
• 17:13
  like going through the progression.
• 17:15
  So do you want to take us through what that was like day one to then
• 17:18
  receiving your license, let's say a year later, for me, I think it was
• 17:23
  relatively easy because I kind of had a mentor through the whole process.
• 17:26
  I got hooked up with NASA because I'm bringing my Mustang to a drag racing
• 17:30
  shop and when I decided I wanted.
• 17:32
  To get into road racing.
• 17:33
  I called the owner just cause I knew he had done racing and said like,
• 17:37
  Hey, do you have any idea of how we can get started in road racing?
• 17:39
  I'd been reading through SCCA and NASA rule books.
• 17:42
  And just those rule books make absolutely no sense if you haven't seen them before.
• 17:46
  And if you're not familiar with racing.
• 17:47
  It might as well be in a different language.
• 17:49
  And he gave me the information of Jerry Mulkey, who's a coach and instructor with
• 17:54
  NASA and Jerry lives in North Carolina.
• 17:57
  And he actually drove down from North Carolina to Georgia to Atlanta
• 18:00
  motorsports park for a track day to meet me and instruct me at that track day.
• 18:05
  He told me about the NASA program and how it worked.
• 18:08
  And so he kind of walked me through the whole process.
• 18:11
  He was my instructor the entire time.
• 18:13
  He's a lead instructor.
• 18:14
  So he was able to sign me off the whole time.
• 18:16
  So it was very easy for me because of that.
• 18:19
  So I would say, you know, if you're coming into NASA or SCCA and you're
• 18:24
  deciding you want to get your competition license and get into amateur racing.
• 18:27
  If you know someone who already does it, and if you can ask them questions,
• 18:31
  it really is going to help you.
• 18:33
  And if you don't know anyone message me because I get messages all the time.
• 18:36
  And I make a point to answer, cause I want to share this community
• 18:40
  with as many people as possible.
• 18:41
  And if you want to get into racing, I want to help you get into racing.
• 18:43
  But I think that's really the easiest cause it can be a little.
• 18:46
  confusing.
• 18:46
  If you sign up for a track day, you don't know who a lead instructor is.
• 18:49
  You think you want to be a higher level, but you're not a higher level.
• 18:52
  With NASA and SCCA, you have to be signed off by a lead instructor.
• 18:55
  And then you're like, well, who do I talk to?
• 18:57
  Who is that?
• 18:58
  I don't know who this person is.
• 18:59
  I don't know who the race director is.
• 19:01
  And it gets very confusing.
• 19:02
  The difference between the DE schools And the competition school, did you get
• 19:07
  a lot out of, you know, the D sessions are sitting here talking about safety and
• 19:10
  going over the track, things like that.
• 19:11
  Did it translate well as you graduated from one program to the other?
• 19:15
  Or did you see them as kind of two different schools of thought entirely?
• 19:19
  It does translate.
• 19:20
  pretty well.
• 19:21
  DE is a lot more just like fundamental based.
• 19:24
  HPDE1 and HPDE2, the first two levels of DE, the classes to me
• 19:30
  were incredibly boring and the same stuff over and over again.
• 19:34
  Be ready to hear what the flags mean.
• 19:37
  About 50 million times.
• 19:38
  I mean, I'm exaggerating 50 million, but maybe not 50.
• 19:41
  Like you're going to hear that over and over and over again.
• 19:43
  And people talking about this isn't turn in.
• 19:45
  This is an apex.
• 19:46
  This is a track out.
• 19:47
  Make sure you break in a straight line.
• 19:49
  Make sure you steering wheel straight again.
• 19:51
  When you get back on the gas, things like that.
• 19:53
  And I felt that the classroom for the first two levels was very similar and kind
• 19:58
  of the same stuff and I tuned out a lot.
• 20:00
  But once it got, I got into HBDE3, most of those people are starting to think
• 20:03
  about going into time trials and racing.
• 20:05
  So they would talk about fire safety, they talked about like different levels
• 20:09
  of SFI rating for suits and gloves and helmets and things like that.
• 20:13
  I think they did a little bit of talking about trail breaking and string theory
• 20:16
  and just some more complex techniques.
• 20:18
  So that was where the classroom actually started getting helpful,
• 20:21
  but then you only have, I think, one or two classrooms a day.
• 20:23
  You're not going as much either competition school.
• 20:26
  I guess it's a little bit of a different path because HBD classes
• 20:30
  fundamentals competition school is really the rules of competition.
• 20:34
  They're not yeah.
• 20:35
  teaching you how to be a good driver in competition school.
• 20:38
  It's just so the school itself is just today.
• 20:40
  They're just teaching you how to be a safe driver and how to follow the rules.
• 20:44
  They literally tell you, at least at the NASA competition
• 20:46
  school, don't go off track.
• 20:49
  Don't push yourself to the point where you're going to spin or go off track.
• 20:52
  You do that, you fail.
• 20:53
  Period.
• 20:54
  Because they don't care that you're fast.
• 20:55
  You could be the slowest driver out there.
• 20:57
  They just care that you're paying, you know, watching your mirrors, paying
• 20:59
  attention to everyone else around you.
• 21:01
  And then there's a written test too, about the rules.
• 21:03
  And you need to, you know, get those questions right as well.
• 21:05
  So there's plenty of people I've heard stories where they just jumped
• 21:09
  right into club racing to your point.
• 21:11
  It's like, Hey, the point is to be safe, be predictable.
• 21:14
  You know, these kinds of, they don't care if you're fat, the
• 21:15
  fastest guy or the slowest guy.
• 21:17
  But do you think, Looking back over your experience that HPDE
• 21:21
  prepared you to go into club racing.
• 21:23
  Maybe you were more predictable and situationally aware and all
• 21:26
  those things, rather than just coming straight off the street.
• 21:29
  I think yes and no.
• 21:30
  I think it depends who you run HPDEs with.
• 21:32
  HPDE is very different from racing in that you always leave courtesy
• 21:36
  room between you and other cars.
• 21:38
  And the second you get into competition school, they're not doing that anymore.
• 21:41
  I was bump drafted for the first time in competition school.
• 21:44
  Immediately, you've got cars right up next to your door, and you don't do
• 21:47
  that in HPDE because you're being nice.
• 21:49
  It's a different kind of traffic management.
• 21:51
  It's much closer driving, but HPDE does still help.
• 21:54
  You know, if someone's never been on track before and was thrown into
• 21:57
  a club race, they would be scared shitless because from driving on the
• 22:01
  street to driving in a club race.
• 22:03
  Yeah, it would be, it would be a major shock.
• 22:05
  So HPDE is good to help get you that seat time.
• 22:08
  But more than anything, I think HPDE exists to improve your personal skill.
• 22:12
  So they do like weekend schools where it's three days.
• 22:14
  They train you during those three days and you have the potential to
• 22:17
  graduate with your competition license.
• 22:18
  And if you go and do one of those, like you can sit there and you can tell me
• 22:21
  every single rule in the CCR, the club codes and regulations, you can sit there
• 22:25
  and you can tell me exactly how to go through a corner, but you might not
• 22:29
  necessarily be able to translate that when you get into the driver's seat.
• 22:31
  So even if you decide to get your license through a school I would
• 22:35
  still encourage you to just go and choose some of your favorite track day
• 22:38
  organizations and still do track days just to translate what you know, into
• 22:42
  what you can actually do in the seat.
• 22:44
  And it's a good way to learn the tracks and under a lower pressure situation.
• 22:48
  You never want to go straight into competition going,
• 22:51
  this is my first lap at VIR.
• 22:53
  And you're like, yeah, you'll figure it out.
• 22:54
  I suppose.
• 22:55
  My first lap at VIR was in qualifying.
• 22:57
  Nice.
• 22:58
  That's a good way to do it.
• 22:59
  I mean, trial by fire.
• 23:00
  No, I did a track day at Daytona before I, okay, no, VIR, I think is
• 23:03
  the only track that the very first time I drove it was in qualifying.
• 23:07
  Yeah.
• 23:08
  Oh wait, no, that's a lie.
• 23:09
  Gingerman, Gingerman in Michigan.
• 23:11
  Also very first time I drove it was qualifying.
• 23:13
  Okay.
• 23:13
  Can I just say the first time I was on VIR, it was getting dark in a car where
• 23:17
  the front wheels were pointing in at each other and everybody else had already
• 23:20
  been on the track for about three hours.
• 23:22
  That was, that sounds like fun.
• 23:23
  Yeah, came in and gave it off to the next guy and they went from there.
• 23:27
  But Donovan learned the first rule of being a race car driver is making
• 23:31
  up excuses for why you got to send it, my man, you got to send it.
• 23:37
  So that being said, did you dabble in time trials at all?
• 23:40
  I want to get your feelings on, on that discipline of motorsport.
• 23:44
  What'd you think of it?
• 23:45
  I have done one time trial event.
• 23:47
  It was after I started racing Spec Miata.
• 23:49
  I brought my Mustang and did time trials with it.
• 23:52
  And it was fun.
• 23:53
  It's different from wheel to wheel racing.
• 23:56
  I think I personally prefer wheel to wheel, but time trial is like safer.
• 24:00
  So I felt more comfortable doing that with my Mustang because I
• 24:03
  didn't want, you know, to have to buy a new fender for my Mustang.
• 24:06
  If you go into wheel to wheel racing, there's always a chance that, you know,
• 24:09
  something might happen and you might need to be buying a new body panel.
• 24:12
  You've dabbled in different forms of road racing.
• 24:14
  Do you have any desire to try other disciplines of motorsport like rally
• 24:19
  or drag race or even autocrossing?
• 24:21
  Like what's your goal?
• 24:22
  I mean, we mentioned in the intro talking about, you know,
• 24:24
  MX5 cup and things like that.
• 24:26
  What's your long term plan?
• 24:27
  Do you want to go pro?
• 24:28
  Do you want to go IMSA?
• 24:29
  Do you have a desire to drive at Le Mans?
• 24:31
  Like, what are you thinking about?
• 24:32
  What are you dreaming about?
• 24:33
  So I have actually done one autocross event and it was in my
• 24:36
  Mustang and it was fun, but Mustangs aren't very good autocross cars.
• 24:39
  So it probably would be more, have been more fun if I was in a Miata
• 24:42
  and maybe I would have gone back if I had been in a better autocross car, I
• 24:45
  have done a couple of drift clinics.
• 24:47
  I enjoy drifting.
• 24:48
  I would love to get better at it because it's made me a better
• 24:52
  road racer learning how to drift.
• 24:53
  And I think ultimately, like, if someone were to offer me a seat to drive in
• 24:57
  Petit Le Mans or Le Mans or something like that, like I would literally cry
• 25:01
  because that would be like lifelong dream.
• 25:03
  That would be amazing.
• 25:04
  At the end of the day, professional racing is hard and professional racing is
• 25:08
  especially hard when you're self funded and you're having to find your own funding
• 25:12
  for it as much as I would love to do that.
• 25:15
  I think at the end of the day, the most important thing to me
• 25:18
  is for motorsports to be fun.
• 25:19
  So if that means that I stay where I am because it keeps motorsports from
• 25:23
  being a full time job and makes it so I can, you know, go and enjoy my
• 25:26
  weekend when I'm actually there and not worry that I'm spending 200, 000
• 25:29
  on this weekend and I better not ruin it and yada, yada, yada, then, you
• 25:33
  know, that's what matters the most.
• 25:34
  That's very, very true.
• 25:36
  So let me ask you this question.
• 25:38
  If not making it a full time thing, you do have some goals in mind, but is there
• 25:41
  a goal track, a track that you still want to drive somewhere you fantasize about?
• 25:46
  This is the dream course, you know, place you want to take your Miata and go run.
• 25:49
  I really want to run Koda.
• 25:51
  And I was supposed to run it a couple of years ago, had some issues
• 25:53
  with the car and wasn't able to go.
• 25:55
  And it was so sad.
• 25:57
  Probably not Koda in the Miata, probably Koda in something with horsepower.
• 26:00
  I was going to say, cause you mentioned in the Miata, it's either all on or all off.
• 26:04
  I think you would be all on, there is no breaking.
• 26:10
  You'd be sitting there sipping tea on the back straight.
• 26:12
  You'll read war and peace.
• 26:13
  Yeah.
• 26:14
  So speaking of that, so far of all the tracks you've been to, what
• 26:18
  would you say is your favorite outside of your dream track of Coda?
• 26:21
  And maybe your least favorite as a driver favorites, VIR for the longest time.
• 26:26
  It was road Atlanta until I went to VIR because VIR is very similar to
• 26:29
  road Atlanta, but it's got a little bit more of a technical aspect to it.
• 26:32
  Yeah.
• 26:32
  I guess it was the second time I drove VIR was in my Mustang.
• 26:35
  It was right after I put the big wing on it.
• 26:37
  The uphill S's, when like you actually have more power than a Miata, and you
• 26:41
  just have your foot flat to the floor.
• 26:43
  So much fun.
• 26:44
  So much fun.
• 26:45
  I love it.
• 26:45
  Least favorite track?
• 26:47
  I have a least favorite.
• 26:48
  I don't know if I can have a least favorite.
• 26:50
  Cause racing's fun.
• 26:51
  That's true.
• 26:51
  But some people will say, you know, maybe, and I want to be careful, you
• 26:55
  know, cause I don't want to single out tracks and say, Oh, they're terrible.
• 26:57
  But some drivers will say this track is not fun to compete on, right.
• 27:02
  Maybe because the way it's built or the way it's structured.
• 27:04
  So you ever had one where you walked away from the weekend
• 27:06
  and went, man, that was just.
• 27:07
  Terrible.
• 27:08
  I didn't enjoy it.
• 27:09
  I mean, I've had weekends I didn't enjoy, but not because of the track.
• 27:12
  If you have, you know, that bad weekend because your car broke down or you
• 27:15
  made a stupid mistake and ended up in a sand berm on the first lap of
• 27:19
  qualifying and they're done that.
• 27:23
  Nelson ledges.
• 27:24
  I like Nelson.
• 27:26
  So actually that's a great segue into how you prepare for a weekend
• 27:31
  because there's two sides to this where you need to prepare the car.
• 27:34
  And as you said, you're YouTube certified, you're doing a lot
• 27:36
  of your own wrench turning.
• 27:38
  And so you've got to get the Miata ready or you got to get the Mustang
• 27:41
  ready or whatever you're running that weekend, but you also have to
• 27:42
  yourself prepared for the weekend.
• 27:44
  So let's talk people through that as a pro am driver.
• 27:48
  What's it like?
• 27:49
  What's your routine?
• 27:50
  Do you work out?
• 27:51
  Do you mentally prepare?
• 27:52
  Do you use simulators and how are you preparing your car?
• 27:55
  I actually don't prepare my cars myself anymore.
• 27:57
  I store them at a shop called Pro Auto in South Carolina
• 28:00
  and he gets them ready for me.
• 28:01
  So I just pick up my trailer and go.
• 28:03
  Which is a huge weight off my back, but when I was first getting started and I
• 28:07
  was prepping on myself because I'm working a full time job and trying to do this, I
• 28:12
  would take note at the end of my previous event, like what needs to be done?
• 28:16
  Like, Hey, I know I need new brake pads.
• 28:18
  I know I need rotors.
• 28:19
  I think my wheel hub's going bad.
• 28:21
  And then over the next three, four weeks till my next race, I would
• 28:24
  make a point to get those things.
• 28:25
  You know, get the parts ordered and get those things done.
• 28:28
  And then of course, you know, racing, you want to do an oil
• 28:30
  change pretty much every event.
• 28:32
  I do them every event because it's a lot harder on the car than driving
• 28:35
  on your street on the street.
• 28:36
  Please don't go 7, 000 miles on a race motor.
• 28:40
  Please don't changing the oil.
• 28:42
  Yeah.
• 28:43
  Like I have, um, a system of when I do fluid changes.
• 28:45
  So I do, um, oil every event.
• 28:47
  I do brake flushes every event as well.
• 28:49
  Just like a quick bleed, not a full flush.
• 28:51
  And then trans and diff, I'll do every three or four events.
• 28:55
  Just go ahead and flush them.
• 28:56
  Make sure those fluids are good too.
• 28:57
  And of course I have so many cars.
• 28:59
  I have a whiteboard in my garage to keep track of it because I can't, I
• 29:02
  can't keep track of that in my head.
• 29:04
  For getting myself ready.
• 29:06
  It's difficult with a job and I wish I could get myself
• 29:10
  prepared a little bit more.
• 29:11
  Not going to lie.
• 29:12
  There have been times back when I was still working in the restaurant where I
• 29:15
  would get off my shift at 10 or 11 PM, go get my truck, go pick up my car and
• 29:20
  drive to the track and get there like four or five, 6 AM and then, you know, sleep.
• 29:24
  I have done a track day on no sleep as well.
• 29:26
  I'm like two hours of sleep.
• 29:27
  Don't recommend it.
• 29:28
  Please don't do that.
• 29:29
  Do what you got to do.
• 29:30
  And then a lot of my prep just comes in my daily routine.
• 29:33
  Like when you say working out, like I don't do any sort of
• 29:35
  special working out for the races.
• 29:38
  It's just, you know, trying to stay on top of it every day.
• 29:40
  The one thing actually that I do on race weekends is I actually
• 29:44
  focus on staying hydrated, which I don't do at all in my daily life.
• 29:47
  I'm terrible about drinking water, but when I'm going to the
• 29:51
  track and when I'm at the track, I will drink some damn water.
• 29:54
  Do you also use like, as part of your gear, are you using anything like
• 29:58
  a cool suit or anything like that?
• 29:59
  Because it does get very hot in the car, right?
• 30:01
  Yeah, I have a cool suit and my cool suit decided to break on me in August in
• 30:06
  Savannah, Georgia, right before my race.
• 30:09
  I like put it on, put the, you know, put the ice in the cooler, put it
• 30:12
  in my car, didn't think anything of it, plugged in, started my car to
• 30:15
  go to grid and it wasn't cooling.
• 30:17
  Oh no.
• 30:19
  Yep.
• 30:20
  Yep.
• 30:20
  To learn these new tracks, some of them you said you dropped in and drove
• 30:24
  for the first time during qualifying.
• 30:26
  Other ones you did through DE.
• 30:27
  Do you use any simulators to help you learn the tracks or watch other
• 30:30
  people's videos or anything like that?
• 30:31
  I wish I had a sim.
• 30:33
  I want one very badly.
• 30:34
  When I was supposed to drive Koda, I did borrow a sim that was at
• 30:38
  ProAuto, the shop that my cars are at, and drove on that a couple times.
• 30:41
  But usually I don't use Sims just because I don't have easy access to one.
• 30:44
  My usual go to is videos on YouTube.
• 30:47
  Major tracks.
• 30:48
  There's usually some really good videos.
• 30:50
  Like Road Atlanta has a fantastic video that literally like points you through
• 30:53
  where to look and all the different marks on the concrete to like to position your
• 30:57
  car over and when to start turning in.
• 30:59
  And so often you can find videos like that.
• 31:01
  And if not that, you can find at least a school line video.
• 31:04
  And then I'll just watch that on repeat.
• 31:05
  Again, when I was prepping for Koda, cause that was the most recent
• 31:09
  new track that I was prepping for.
• 31:10
  And I really was so excited to drive there.
• 31:13
  So of course I did extra prep, but I also I've connected through social media with a
• 31:17
  professional driver who had driven there.
• 31:18
  And so I sent him a message and said like, Hey, I know you've driven here before.
• 31:23
  Do you have any pointers?
• 31:24
  His name's Simon Tibet.
• 31:25
  I got, I think I'm, I don't know if I'm saying his last name, right.
• 31:28
  I have to give him a shout out because he was amazing and he
• 31:30
  literally emailed me like an essay.
• 31:32
  Down to, be careful tracking out in this corner, there's a really big bump.
• 31:36
  If you hit it like this, you'll go airborne.
• 31:38
  If you hit it like this, you'll be fine.
• 31:39
  Like literally down to those little minute details.
• 31:42
  It was amazing.
• 31:43
  So how do you find The simulators, you know, the digital
• 31:46
  world versus the real world.
• 31:47
  Did it translate well for you?
• 31:48
  A lot of people say, Hey, I can't drive with my eyes.
• 31:51
  I just got to get in the car and do it.
• 31:52
  What did you think about all that?
• 31:54
  It took a lot of getting used to.
• 31:55
  The sim that I drove on for Coda wasn't one of the full sims either.
• 32:00
  It didn't have the, um, like the seat didn't move.
• 32:02
  It had just the steering wheel.
• 32:04
  I don't know the technical terms for it, but like where the steering
• 32:06
  wheel kind of vibrated and gave you some feedback, force feedback.
• 32:09
  Yeah.
• 32:09
  Yes, that, and it took me a lot of getting used to, but I did get to the point on
• 32:14
  it where I was running like appropriate track times or lap times for that car.
• 32:18
  I've gone to Andretti's and driven on their like big giant Sims before.
• 32:21
  And I think it's the same thing with that.
• 32:23
  It just takes a lot of getting used to.
• 32:24
  You guys are in your element.
• 32:25
  I'm just enjoying watching the YouTube channel right now.
• 32:29
  So on the subject of driving with your eyes.
• 32:32
  I am awful at Forza, terrible That's okay.
• 32:36
  You're, you're in good company there.
• 32:38
  There's plenty of people that aren't good at it.
• 32:40
  We have many virtual racing leagues to prove that.
• 32:42
  So in your resume, it also says that you do some coaching and obviously you've
• 32:47
  seen Seeked out private coaching and have had mentors and things like that.
• 32:50
  So how has the coaching experience been for you as you give back to the NASA
• 32:54
  community and the other communities that you've grown up through?
• 32:57
  I really enjoy it.
• 32:58
  So I've done track day instruction with just different track day organizations,
• 33:01
  and that's always fun because usually you're matched up with someone who's
• 33:05
  very new to driving, sometimes who's not.
• 33:07
  It's their first time at the track.
• 33:08
  Sometimes it's their first ever track day to me.
• 33:11
  That's almost the most special just because like I said, I love sharing what I
• 33:15
  do and getting more people involved in it.
• 33:17
  And so if I can take someone who's never done this before and get them
• 33:20
  excited about it, I've done my job.
• 33:22
  And then coaching wise, I've done some coaching with primal racing
• 33:26
  school at Atlanta motor sports park.
• 33:27
  And that was fun because I got to drive a radical, but that's one of those.
• 33:31
  Three day racing schools.
• 33:32
  So that was, you know, you get to kind of walk people through from honestly their
• 33:36
  first time ever on track to watching them build their skills and, and get
• 33:40
  a little bit, you know, get better and get to the point where they might
• 33:43
  graduate with a competition license.
• 33:45
  So is it true what they say when you first sit in the right seat, you
• 33:48
  suddenly notice all the mistakes of your student and you become a better
• 33:52
  driver yourself because of that.
• 33:54
  Yeah, I would say so.
• 33:55
  I think so.
• 33:56
  Because you have nothing to do but focus on what they're doing wrong.
• 33:58
  Like, you feel like you're a terrible instructor if you're
• 34:00
  sitting there not saying anything.
• 34:02
  So you like, you have to find stuff to critique.
• 34:04
  So, I mean, I would say so.
• 34:06
  Yeah.
• 34:06
  Looking at the years ahead, you mentioned, you know, racing is tough,
• 34:09
  especially when you're self supported, you know, traveling all over the place.
• 34:13
  You know, they talk about the starving artist, or you see, you watch those films
• 34:16
  about the waitress that goes off and she wants to be an actress, and it's like,
• 34:19
  It's the same thing in racing, right?
• 34:20
  You got to get there somehow.
• 34:22
  So what does your racing schedule look like over the next couple of years?
• 34:26
  What tracks are you running at?
• 34:27
  You know, things like that.
• 34:28
  It's kind of a big question mark right now.
• 34:30
  I underwent a big career change and I'm trying to get my feet under me with that.
• 34:34
  Last year, I was trying to race and do that at the same time.
• 34:38
  It was incredibly beyond stressful.
• 34:41
  I got towards the end of the year.
• 34:43
  So I go to SEMA to kind of meet with my sponsors and meet new sponsors and
• 34:46
  try to, you know, work on my budget for the next year, I almost didn't even
• 34:50
  go to SEMA because I suddenly looked at my calendar, had two, three weeks
• 34:54
  until SEMA didn't have my booklet made.
• 34:57
  My deck didn't have that made.
• 34:59
  Hadn't made new business cards, hadn't booked a hotel, like literally
• 35:02
  just had my pass and that was it.
• 35:04
  Ended up going and then never really ended up following up with anyone from it.
• 35:09
  Because like, that was the point when I realized I was like, yeah, this
• 35:12
  is kind of too much, I have no free time and racing is getting not fun.
• 35:16
  Racing is becoming a job.
• 35:17
  So this year it's calm down, take a break, let it be fun.
• 35:21
  I know I'm going to be at VIR later in the year with a, um, a charity event
• 35:26
  actually, so I'll be posting about that later and I'm going to be doing,
• 35:29
  um, I did a charity event at Barber.
• 35:30
  This past December for Children with Special Needs.
• 35:33
  That was so much fun.
• 35:34
  It was it was so wholesome.
• 35:35
  I absolutely loved it.
• 35:36
  We were giving rides to special needs children's and their families
• 35:39
  around Barber and I'm going to go on a tangent real quick.
• 35:42
  The first child who I had in my car.
• 35:44
  He was I think four.
• 35:46
  The helmet didn't even fit him, right?
• 35:48
  Like he could hardly hold his head up because the helmet was so big.
• 35:51
  I buckle him in the seatbelts, like almost going across his
• 35:53
  face because he's so little.
• 35:55
  And of course, when we've got this kid in the car, like I am not going 10 tenths.
• 35:58
  I'm going like half of one 10th.
• 36:01
  And so I'm going on, you know, I get on track and I go to take the first corner.
• 36:05
  I've been, I'm in my Fiat and I go to take the first corner.
• 36:07
  And next thing I know, I feel something hit my shoulder and I
• 36:10
  look over and the kid, he's sitting there with his hands under his legs.
• 36:13
  Yeah.
• 36:13
  not supporting himself and he's like falling over and
• 36:16
  his head's on my shoulder.
• 36:17
  So as I'm driving barber, I'm helping this kid sit back upright,
• 36:21
  grabbing his hand like, Hey, you need to hold on to the door.
• 36:24
  Like, make sure you're holding on.
• 36:25
  It was so cute.
• 36:26
  It was adorable.
• 36:27
  So I did that event this past December.
• 36:29
  I'm going to be doing that again.
• 36:30
  I'm going to be focusing a little bit on getting some of the projects in my
• 36:33
  garage done because I've really missed out on the mechanic side of things.
• 36:38
  Having someone else prep my cars for me and I miss that.
• 36:41
  And then we'll just kind of see where it takes me.
• 36:43
  Let's talk about that for a minute.
• 36:44
  So what are you working on?
• 36:45
  What's in the garage?
• 36:46
  That's actually, that's Donovan's question, right?
• 36:48
  What's in your garage?
• 36:49
  What you doing?
• 36:51
  The current project car is the Fiat.
• 36:52
  I am, like I said, I have the big turbo for it.
• 36:56
  I bought that almost a year ago now.
• 36:58
  So I've had it for a while, but I went from the car being 100 percent stock.
• 37:03
  To buying a big turbo.
• 37:04
  And I didn't want to just do everything in one go.
• 37:06
  The company that I bought it from Euro compulsion, they create the turbo.
• 37:09
  It's a board out stock turbo.
• 37:10
  Essentially they create the tunes for it and they create a lot of the parts for it.
• 37:14
  And they have their tunes are phased.
• 37:16
  I hate using that word because it feels so like street racer kid.
• 37:19
  Like my phase tunes, I hate it, but my stage tunes, that's what it is.
• 37:23
  So what I've been doing is I've been going from like phase one, phase two,
• 37:26
  and then phase three is the big turbo.
• 37:28
  So, um, let's see if I can remember everything I did put on coil overs.
• 37:32
  And I did do the, uh, the rear sway bar.
• 37:34
  It didn't do the front.
• 37:35
  Cause I want the car to three wheel because that's necessary.
• 37:37
  If all four tires are on the ground, you're not trying hard enough.
• 37:40
  That's front wheel drive life.
• 37:41
  Yes.
• 37:42
  I love it, but I went ahead and I've done massive front mount intercooler.
• 37:46
  I put in coil packs from the Alfa Romeo four C I've done
• 37:49
  downpipe and full exhaust.
• 37:51
  I've done the waste gate.
• 37:52
  I've done the blow off valve.
• 37:54
  Oh, and the clutch, which don't even get me started on that.
• 37:57
  That was awful.
• 37:58
  Don't ever do a Fiat clutch on jack stands, rebuilt axles.
• 38:01
  And so at this point I just need to put in gauges, which I just grabbed
• 38:04
  from my storage unit today and should be getting started on those soon.
• 38:08
  And then the big turbo, do you know what your power numbers are going to be?
• 38:11
  Or do you have a goal according to Euro compulsion?
• 38:14
  Who's done this on their cars?
• 38:15
  I should be about two 30 wheel up from one 30.
• 38:18
  That's significant for a 1.
• 38:20
  4 liter.
• 38:20
  Yeah.
• 38:20
  That's awesome.
• 38:20
  That's good.
• 38:21
  It's going to be quick.
• 38:22
  So then what's the plan?
• 38:23
  What are you going to do with it?
• 38:23
  Just run around, go into cars and coffee and being a menace?
• 38:26
  I mean, track it.
• 38:27
  I already have.
• 38:28
  Oh, perfect.
• 38:29
  That's good.
• 38:30
  That's almost definitely the car that I'll be taking to BIR this
• 38:32
  summer because it comes up a lot.
• 38:33
  We call it fun wheel drive.
• 38:35
  So do you prefer the front wheel drive Fiat or the Miata?
• 38:38
  I mean, granted, dollar for dollar horsepower wise, they're in totally
• 38:41
  different categories, especially after you do the big turbo, but driving style wise.
• 38:45
  They are different, which do you prefer?
• 38:47
  I like front wheel drive better in the wet, but I like rear wheel drive.
• 38:50
  I think better in the dry.
• 38:51
  I say, I think just because I'm more comfortable with rear wheel drive
• 38:55
  in the dry, I feel more comfortable.
• 38:57
  So I feel like I'm faster in real driving the dry.
• 38:59
  But the first time I drove the Fiat on track, my second session was like
• 39:03
  soaking wet and I had so much fun.
• 39:06
  I had the guy who builds my cars in my passenger seat.
• 39:08
  I scared him, which is always my goal.
• 39:10
  If you're in my passenger seat, I'm always trying to scare you.
• 39:13
  The liftoff oversteer is just.
• 39:16
  Right.
• 39:16
  Isn't that awesome?
• 39:17
  It's like, you get somebody in your car and they're like,
• 39:19
  it's not supposed to do that.
• 39:21
  I'm like, yeah, it is when it's dialed in right.
• 39:23
  It sure does.
• 39:24
  Yeah.
• 39:24
  And then I had to force myself to stop driving before I broke something
• 39:28
  because I had to drive the car home.
• 39:29
  Oh, and, um, when I had it at, uh, so when I had it at Barber for the charity
• 39:34
  event, I got one of the adults in my car.
• 39:36
  And of course, when there's an adult in your car, instantly send it.
• 39:39
  I don't know, Barb, the turns at Barber, but some of like
• 39:41
  the back like S kind of areas.
• 39:43
  If you take it right in the Fiat, you just like popping it a third,
• 39:47
  your foot's flat to the floor.
• 39:48
  And it just like the way the front with front wheel drive, you just kind
• 39:51
  of get that little slide, but because you're giving it gas, like it's such
• 39:55
  a controlled slide, it feels great.
• 39:56
  You know, I, I could sense the enthusiasm as we're telling these stories and
• 40:00
  we're talking about things and it kind of turns me to get another question
• 40:03
  that I think is important, especially being a woman in motor sports.
• 40:07
  If a young lady walked up to you today and said, Anika, why do you race?
• 40:11
  What would you say to them?
• 40:12
  Ultimately, I do it because I love it.
• 40:14
  When I first got into racing, I fell in love with it because it was my escape,
• 40:17
  because I am a very type A personality.
• 40:20
  I always have something on my mind.
• 40:22
  I was in school at the time.
• 40:23
  I was always thinking about my next assignment, test, whatever it was,
• 40:26
  always stressing about something.
• 40:28
  But when you get on track, you can't do that.
• 40:30
  If you're thinking, Oh, I have a test on Monday.
• 40:32
  While you're going through turn one, you're not going
• 40:34
  to make it through turn one.
• 40:35
  That 30 minutes of that HPD session that I was on track, it
• 40:38
  was just me, the car in the track.
• 40:40
  And so that's why I fell in love with racing in the first place.
• 40:43
  It's just that it was my escape.
• 40:44
  You have 68, 000 followers on Instagram.
• 40:46
  How has having that kind of following on Instagram affected you and your racing?
• 40:51
  I wouldn't have an Instagram if it wasn't for racing or cars, I should at least
• 40:54
  say I didn't have an Instagram account until I was a freshman in college.
• 40:58
  And one of my friends guilted me into making one.
• 41:00
  And then one of my car friends guilted me into making it about cars.
• 41:04
  So I started doing that and then it just kind of started growing and I
• 41:08
  would not have one if it wasn't for racing, but it has definitely helped
• 41:11
  in the like sponsorship realm, just because it gives me an extra something
• 41:15
  to provide, you know, as far as, Return on investment for my sponsors.
• 41:20
  I mean, I keep saying this, but I really enjoy sharing what I do with everyone
• 41:23
  else, ultimately, I don't have it for me.
• 41:25
  I have it.
• 41:25
  Cause I want to share with, you know, everyone else out there.
• 41:28
  And I want to share with hopefully young girls or at least their dads.
• 41:31
  You can then show it to them to see that, you know, anything is possible.
• 41:35
  And it really means a lot to me when I have people reach out to me and I've, and
• 41:39
  I've had this, let's say like, Hey, you've inspired my daughter to do this, or you've
• 41:43
  inspired me to go and try to do this.
• 41:45
  And so that means the world to me when I see that there's kind of
• 41:47
  a dark side to social media too, and you get a lot of criticism.
• 41:51
  You kind of have to learn to have tough skin and take it with
• 41:53
  a grain of salt and ignore it.
• 41:55
  Sally McNulty out in Arizona, we became really close friends through Instagram and
• 41:59
  kind of became teammates and everything.
• 42:01
  And she's amazing.
• 42:01
  And I love her, but we will literally, like when we get frustrated about a
• 42:05
  comment on Instagram, instead of like going, you know, and actually replying
• 42:09
  to that person and giving them what the attention that they want and all that.
• 42:12
  We'll just send it to each other and say, Oh, look what this dummy said.
• 42:16
  So, you know, now, now all of, you know, if you follow me and
• 42:18
  you say something stupid, I will be laughing about it with Sally.
• 42:22
  Yeah.
• 42:22
  She's amazing.
• 42:23
  I love her.
• 42:25
  Since you've been involved in cars, how have you seen the scene change for women?
• 42:30
  It's become a lot more inviting for women.
• 42:33
  I'm pretty recently involved in the car scene, involved in racing.
• 42:37
  So I think really since I started, it has, the change hasn't been too drastic.
• 42:41
  But when I talk to people, women who've been in the scene for longer
• 42:44
  than I have, it really used to not be very inviting to women.
• 42:47
  It was like, you know, Oh, you're a woman in the car scene.
• 42:50
  Like, Oh, you're doing it for attention.
• 42:51
  You're doing it because you think guys are going to pay attention to you if you
• 42:54
  have a cool car or something like that.
• 42:55
  And now it's really getting to the point where we see women in the car
• 42:58
  scene and we're like, Oh, wait, that's really cool and praise them for what
• 43:01
  they're doing instead of criticizing and assuming that they have different
• 43:03
  motives for doing what they're doing.
• 43:05
  How would you recommend that?
• 43:07
  Racing organizations or the motorsports disciplines or even at
• 43:11
  the grassroots level like HPD, how should they change their programs
• 43:16
  to make it more inviting for women that are interested in motorsport?
• 43:19
  I don't think the programs necessarily need to be changed.
• 43:22
  I think it would be nice to see more female instructors and female coaches.
• 43:27
  And female role models, you know, in order to get that, you need
• 43:30
  to get more women in the sport.
• 43:32
  So that's kind of counterintuitive, right?
• 43:34
  But I don't necessarily feel that the programs that were in
• 43:37
  place made it harder for women.
• 43:38
  I just think maybe showing the women who are already in the sport a little
• 43:43
  bit more showcasing them a little bit more might help just so, you know,
• 43:46
  when a woman goes and does a DE and she's the only female in the entire
• 43:51
  DE1 class, which will probably happen.
• 43:54
  She can see like, Oh, there are women who are doing this.
• 43:57
  Like I'm not the only one.
• 43:58
  And I think really it comes down to not so much the organization, but just
• 44:02
  the other people in that DE1 class.
• 44:04
  Right.
• 44:05
  So there's the one female, well, the 29 men, like it comes to them to make
• 44:09
  her feel included in not a weird way to like, don't make her feel included by
• 44:13
  going up to her and trying to hit on her.
• 44:14
  Like make her feel included by going and talking cars with her.
• 44:17
  And that's exactly to the point I was driving at pun intended is that
• 44:21
  maybe the way the marketing is.
• 44:22
  presented, it needs to change in such a way that it's not just a flashy
• 44:26
  car on the cover or some dude looking all, you know, hyper masculine.
• 44:29
  It's like maybe an equal representation to say, Hey, there are women at these events.
• 44:32
  Like I always find that to be funny when you look at the post weekend photos,
• 44:37
  it's always, you know, the same 16 gray Mustangs on track or whatever, but
• 44:41
  there's never pictures of the people.
• 44:43
  So I often sit there and go, well, who was at this event?
• 44:46
  Who was driving that Mustang or that came in or that Miata?
• 44:49
  No.
• 44:49
  You know, was it Anika or was it Bob or who was it?
• 44:52
  Right.
• 44:52
  So I feel like sometimes it's a missed opportunity in the way we represent
• 44:57
  the events and that the marketing has to change to be more inviting to
• 45:00
  everybody that might be interested.
• 45:02
  Do you think it should happen sooner than that?
• 45:03
  Because at the point that somebody is ready to sign up for
• 45:06
  a D they've already found it.
• 45:07
  And you know, it makes me think about, you know, we try to encourage women
• 45:11
  in the sport to through garage, right.
• 45:12
  Right.
• 45:12
  Getting involved with events and things.
• 45:14
  And it, and it makes me think about things like the fast and furious movies.
• 45:17
  Really?
• 45:17
  Those are kind of the first time.
• 45:19
  That we saw women, you know, kind of equal to men and racing
• 45:22
  and driving cars and things.
• 45:23
  And it became cool.
• 45:24
  It wasn't just kind of a guy thing.
• 45:25
  So, you know, I wonder, and maybe my, I guess my follow up question to that
• 45:28
  is prior to getting to the level where somebody would want to get involved
• 45:33
  in a D how do we raise the awareness, I guess, or the make it more inviting
• 45:38
  for more women to get into the sport.
• 45:40
  And, you know, Get involved.
• 45:41
  That's a tough one.
• 45:42
  I was kind of going to go the same direction.
• 45:44
  I think it's not only just women for sure, but just kind of everyone.
• 45:47
  A lot of people until they really dig deep on the internet, have a
• 45:51
  hard time even seeing track driving, not even just racing, but just
• 45:55
  track driving as being feasible.
• 45:57
  To do like, you know, male or female, and I've actually, I had the honor
• 46:00
  of being part of a group that kind of went out to try to fix that a
• 46:05
  little bit called track shaker.
• 46:06
  And so he made a website that's supposed to be kind of your one
• 46:09
  stop shop for getting on track.
• 46:11
  And I do think, you know, I was happy I was involved in that because
• 46:15
  they've got me and they also have a woman named Tracy who does some of
• 46:18
  their instructional videos too, right?
• 46:20
  So we've got women who are doing instructional videos for people who are
• 46:23
  beginning to think about getting on track.
• 46:25
  But past that point, as far as like, how do we help more women even
• 46:28
  consider, maybe I want to do this.
• 46:30
  I don't, I don't really know.
• 46:31
  That's, that's a tough one.
• 46:32
  Are you doing video stuff?
• 46:33
  Are you on YouTube at all?
• 46:34
  I am about to be, hopefully it's not going to be, it's not going to be racing.
• 46:38
  It's going to be more like car review related.
• 46:40
  I guess I'll be doing some articles for that too.
• 46:42
  But so like this week I have a CX5 from Mazda 2022 CX5.
• 46:46
  I saw that you posted about that.
• 46:48
  Yeah.
• 46:48
  So it's a group called a girl's guide to cars and it's literally just women who
• 46:51
  review cars and it's supposed to be, I get, you know, going back into women in
• 46:56
  motor sports and women with cars, right.
• 46:57
  It's supposed to be a little bit more like comfortable for
• 46:59
  women to hear from a woman.
• 47:00
  And it's supposed to be a little bit more like, Hey, what's it like to live with
• 47:03
  this with my kids or something like that.
• 47:05
  So I'm going to be doing some reviews with them, but because of that, I was like,
• 47:07
  yeah, I might as well try doing a YouTube.
• 47:09
  So I often think because I have two daughters, you know, and I want to
• 47:12
  leave something behind for them.
• 47:14
  And I want them to obviously be interested in motor sports, but I wonder, you know,
• 47:17
  as we've talked to other folks on this show about like STEM and STEAM programs
• 47:22
  is catching boys and girls at a younger level, where it's more of an even playing
• 47:28
  field for everybody and say, how do we engage them in the education world?
• 47:32
  I was even talking with some people about, Hey, do you know
• 47:34
  about the formula SE program?
• 47:35
  They're like, what?
• 47:36
  Like you guys are in academia.
• 47:37
  How do you not know about this?
• 47:39
  Right.
• 47:39
  These existed different colleges and universities.
• 47:42
  So I'm wondering if maybe people view cars as too complicated, as
• 47:47
  too difficult, being super nerdy.
• 47:49
  And like, you need to be an engineer to understand how a car works and
• 47:52
  you're working on your own stuff.
• 47:54
  I'm working on my own stuff.
• 47:55
  I mean, I didn't go to school to be, you know, to turn wrenches.
• 47:58
  Would you say it's really that hard or is it more of just kind
• 48:01
  of get over your fear and try it?
• 48:02
  I mean, I would say working on cars is not that hard.
• 48:05
  And I've had that conversation with a lot of my friends.
• 48:07
  Like I, I have many friends who will ask me like, Hey, like, will
• 48:10
  you help me change my brake pads?
• 48:11
  Will you help me change my oil?
• 48:13
  And I will not help someone unless they help me help them.
• 48:16
  If one of my friends asked me, will you help me change my oil?
• 48:18
  I'll say, yeah, I will teach you how to change your oil.
• 48:20
  But no, I do think a lot of people, you know, they're like, Oh my
• 48:22
  gosh, you work on your own car.
• 48:24
  Like that's so complicated.
• 48:25
  At the end of the day, it's really not, if you take something out,
• 48:27
  just put it back where you found it.
• 48:30
  That's how I grew up understanding it too.
• 48:32
  If you can take it apart without breaking it, you can put it back together.
• 48:36
  Okay.
• 48:36
  Many times I have done things like clutch jobs and ended up with five or six extra
• 48:40
  bolts that I just kind of hid somewhere.
• 48:42
  So maybe not for all of them.
• 48:43
  If you throw them away, you can pretend they didn't exist.
• 48:45
  Nice.
• 48:46
  I, that doesn't usually fly in the GTM DIY garage.
• 48:48
  There's usually no leftover parts.
• 48:50
  We're usually buying more because we've broken something.
• 48:53
  No, all kidding aside, I think this has been a really great conversation
• 48:57
  and it is a challenge for all of us.
• 48:59
  to engage the younger audiences, to engage both men and women, boys
• 49:04
  and girls all the way through.
• 49:05
  Because as we've said many times, there are so many different
• 49:08
  disciplines to motor sport.
• 49:09
  It spans the entire gamut, right?
• 49:11
  From go karting to motocross to drag racing, to road racing and
• 49:15
  rally and everything in between.
• 49:17
  It's bigger than people realize.
• 49:18
  But the touch points are always the same.
• 49:20
  They're always grounded in petrol.
• 49:21
  Let's call it that, you know, even though we have the evolution coming, it's this
• 49:25
  brotherhood and sisterhood in motor sport and bringing us all together.
• 49:28
  And we need to keep that going.
• 49:31
  We need to keep that torch burning.
• 49:32
  We need to figure out how to engage more women, more diverse audiences,
• 49:36
  more kids and things like that, because otherwise it all just.
• 49:40
  Kind of dies on the vine.
• 49:41
  And I've said it before and I'll say it again.
• 49:43
  Vehicles are more than appliances, right?
• 49:45
  There's more to it.
• 49:46
  There's science, there's engineering, there's art, there's
• 49:48
  all sorts of different things that you can get passionate about.
• 49:50
  And we see that in, in you too, Anika, and how you've come up and
• 49:54
  where you're going and taking things.
• 49:55
  And so I really appreciate everything you've shared with us and your backstory.
• 49:59
  So Anika, I know that we've done a bunch of shout outs and
• 50:01
  promotions throughout the episode.
• 50:03
  So we probably don't want to revisit that, but let's remind people how they
• 50:07
  can get in touch with you, where they can find you on social and things like that.
• 50:11
  My Instagram is where I'm most active.
• 50:13
  My Instagram is my name with an underscore.
• 50:15
  You probably don't know how to spell it.
• 50:16
  It's A N N I K A.
• 50:19
  C A R T E R underscore.
• 50:21
  If you send me a message on there, I promise I will answer unless it's
• 50:25
  something creepy that I won't answer.
• 50:26
  But if you ask me a car question, I will answer.
• 50:29
  I always try my best to answer everyone the best I can.
• 50:31
  You can also reach me if you want to do email.
• 50:34
  My email is on OnykasRacing at gmail.
• 50:37
  com.
• 50:37
  Again, my name is.
• 50:38
  Spelled A-N-N-I-K-A.
• 50:40
  There's gonna be an S on the end of that, and then racing@gmail.com.
• 50:43
  And I have a website.
• 50:45
  It is annika's racing.com, and I have some merch on there too.
• 50:48
  So if you want stickers, that's pretty much what my merch is
• 50:50
  because stickers are amazing.
• 50:52
  So if you want some cool stickers, you can go there and see those as well.
• 50:55
  And you're always looking for new sponsors, right?
• 50:57
  So if there's anybody interested in looking to sponsor, um, spec
• 51:00
  Miata or whatever you're racing next year, to reach out to you, right?
• 51:03
  We gotta get.
• 51:04
  We got to get you to petite Lamont somehow.
• 51:05
  Right.
• 51:06
  Yeah.
• 51:06
  Right.
• 51:07
  Is this, is this what I should also say?
• 51:09
  Oh, and if you're looking to buy, sell, invest in real estate in Georgia.
• 51:14
  And on that note, Anika, I can't thank you enough for coming on the show.
• 51:17
  This has been an absolute pleasure and a great look into an up and coming star.
• 51:22
  Right.
• 51:22
  And getting people interested in pursuing this themselves to
• 51:25
  say, Hey, I can do it too, right?
• 51:27
  Look at what she's done.
• 51:28
  And I really applaud you for being able to share your story.
• 51:31
  Engage with people, mentor them as well.
• 51:32
  That's super important.
• 51:34
  You know, I've never been a fan of drivers.
• 51:36
  They're like, Oh, I'm just in it for the trophy at the end, right?
• 51:38
  This is all about community.
• 51:40
  This is all about sharing and us growing together.
• 51:42
  So again, thank you for everything you've done so far and good luck this
• 51:46
  season and all the seasons to come.
• 51:48
  Thanks for being on the show.
• 51:49
  And you know, we've graduated as followed you for a long time on Instagram.
• 51:52
  So it's a pleasure to get to talk to you in person.
• 51:54
  so much.
• 51:54
  I appreciate it.
• 52:00
  If you like what you've heard and want to learn more about GTM,
• 52:03
  be sure to check us out on www.
• 52:06
  gtmotorsports.
• 52:06
  org.
• 52:07
  You can also find us on Motorsports.
• 52:11
  Also, if you want to get involved or have suggestions for future shows, You can call
• 52:15
  or text us at 202 630 1770, or send us an email at crewchief at gtmotorsports.
• 52:22
  org.
• 52:23
  We'd love to hear from you.
• 52:25
  Hey everybody, Crew Chief Eric here.
• 52:27
  We really hope you enjoyed this episode of Break Fix, and we wanted
• 52:30
  to remind you that GTM remains a no annual fees organization.
• 52:35
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• 52:38
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