Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / From Combat Boots to Pit Boxes: How Operation Motorsport Rebuilds Lives Through Racing

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From Combat Boots to Pit Boxes: How Operation Motorsport Rebuilds Lives Through Racing · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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BreakFix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from
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all over the autosphere, 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 petrolheads that wonder How did they
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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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Established in 2017, Operation Motorsport promotes the physical, emotional,
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psychological, and educational life skills necessary for recovery and
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reintegration of our veterans into civilian life through motorsports.
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Operation Motorsport has three distinct roles.
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To provide motorsport as a recovery activity, to provide training and
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qualifications to return beneficiaries to work, and as relationship managers to
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the motorsport industry for vocational opportunities for ill and injured
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service members and disabled veterans.
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And with us tonight is COO and treasurer of Operation Motorsport,
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Jason Leach, to tell us all about the Rehabilitation and Outreach Program.
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And with that, Jason, welcome to BreakFix.
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Thank you, Eric.
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I'm glad to be here tonight.
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And joining me tonight is returning guest co host Mountain Man Dan,
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who you might remember from many different episodes of BreakFix podcast.
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But did you also know that he's a former enlisted airman?
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So he's here to help talk about this today.
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Subject tonight.
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So Dan, welcome back.
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And as Dan will attest to the GTM clubhouse of our organization has
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always been lovingly referred to as the car club of the DOD since many
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former and active duty folks, as well as many support the U S military.
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So this topic really hits close to home for us.
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So Jason, let's talk about Operation Motorsport, how it got started,
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the who, what, when the program and how you got involved with it.
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Yeah, absolutely.
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As you mentioned, we were founded in 2017 out of Brighton, Ontario, and then it's
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quickly into Raleigh, North Carolina.
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So we're a dual organization engaging medically retired and wounded service
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members from the Canadian armed forces and the U S armed forces.
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And we believe in three things that focus on, which is team identity and purpose.
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That's something that every veteran or military member struggles
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with as they leave the service.
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But when you're being medically released, it's even harder because
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your government is telling you you're no longer fit to meet mission.
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And depending on where you're at in your career, that can be a pretty
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big punch in the gut because you don't know what's going to come next.
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Where our genesis was born from was from the race of remembrance,
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which is put on by an organization called Mission Motorsport.
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In the United Kingdom, they are similar to us, except they are focused
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really more on the vocational side.
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And they've got a lot of connections with OEMs in the UK.
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They're backed by the UK government.
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They are a much larger organization and much more focused in that
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rehabilitation vocational perspective.
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So in around 2015, 2016, Diesel and his wife, Tiffany, went to the
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race for remembrance, they were invited there and they just saw
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really the power of what motorsports can do for the veteran community.
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Now, if you pause, I mean, every veteran or military member listening
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will recognize this, but for the civilians that might be listening,
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there are so many parallels between motorsports and military operations.
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You know, that small team dynamic working towards the common goal,
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you all have your lane, you all have your job specialty, but.
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When it gets down to it, you've got to sometimes pick up that person
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to your left or your right and help out on the day of competition.
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Murphy's law is going to step in and throw you a curveball.
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You probably didn't plan for it, but you've got to overcome that obstacle
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and continue to move forward as a team that just resonates so well across our
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military veteran community to where we see the change when guys come in
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on Wednesday and load in and then on Sunday after the checkered flag.
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They are just completely different people.
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They've realized, yeah, there's still value added, even though their
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military career kind of came to an end.
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Now, how I got involved, around 2019, I was looking to retire out of the army, and
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I was trying to figure out what was next.
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I was already interested in motorsports, I had a track car, I was doing track
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days here in the mid Atlantic region, having a lot of fun doing that, but I
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had to take a little bit of a pause, because at the time, my military career,
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my family was taking a lot of priority.
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So the car went away, the trailer went away, all of that,
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so I gave up that crack cabin.
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And I started listening to podcasts.
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I started researching online.
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How do I get involved in the motor sports world?
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I had some help from an organization called the commit foundation.
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And really it was another podcast cars.
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Yeah.
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I was listening to Mark Ralph off from YMSA.
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Talk about the book they put out at that time, about the 50 years of YMSA.
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And his story really resonated.
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I got online and went and found him on LinkedIn and reached out to him.
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I was already planning to go to mid Ohio to the IMSA race.
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I was going to be a volunteer crew member with Corp Motorsport
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in the Michelin Pilot Series.
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And Mark was like, Hey, come talk to me.
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Give me his phone number.
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And we sat down and we talked.
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I've always known from a young age, from my military career, that you
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make opportunities for yourself.
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You have to go and seek whatever it is you want to do.
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And you can't be afraid to talk to people and tell your story.
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While I was at Mid Ohio with CORE Motorsport, in walked this guy in an
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MZ uniform, red polo and black pants at the time, and he's talking to the crew.
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I hear him talking about jumping out of airplanes, and I was like, ooh,
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he's a veteran, because I jump out of airplanes for my military job.
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So I went to introduce myself and we got to talking.
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It turns out it was Diesel Lotter, the co founder and CEO of Operation Motorsport.
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And as we were talking, he asked me if I'd heard of Operation Motorsport.
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I said, I just found him online a little bit.
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I wasn't medically retiring and releasing.
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So I said, I'm not really the person you're looking for.
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He asked me who I was talking to.
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And I mentioned, you know, somebody named Tiffany.
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So he said, hold on, I walked out of the garage, little area there and came back
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in and here's this woman, same thing, in the uniform, and it was Tiffany.
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We met, it almost seemed fortuitous that after we were done racing on Saturday,
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I stayed there for Sunday, my dad lives just a few miles from the track, and We
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just started to build a relationship.
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I really believe in the mission and what they were doing.
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I saw some of the things they were doing.
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Yeah, I came on board at that point as a volunteer, and five some odd
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years later, I'm still doing it.
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What is the organization's footprint of operation?
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Because I saw on your website that you guys have United States and Canada.
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But you mentioned the UK as well.
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Mission Motorsport is a supporter of us, but it's more of that
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big brother type relationship.
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Again, their mission is slightly different.
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They don't financially support us.
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They don't support us from a governance perspective or anything like that.
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They're there to kind of help advise and assist if we need it.
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They were instrumental early on.
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Tiffany went and spent, I think, a month or two with them, kind of interning with
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them to kind of understand the business side and how they were using motorsports
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for the UK veteran and military community.
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So she learned a lot of good lessons learned and brought those back and they
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implemented that into what we are today.
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I mean, even if you look at our logos, our logos are kind of similar.
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I mentioned the race for remembrance.
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We're going to launch a veterans race for remembrance in November of 2025,
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a similar type format with a 12 hour endurance race over veterans day weekend.
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That's their remembrance day weekend.
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Our footprint across Canada and the U S.
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There's no geographical limitations.
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If there's somebody in Fort Liberty, they're going to partner with a
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team and they're going to go out to Sonoma Raceway, we get them there.
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We don't see a lot of back and forth from the U.
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S.
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to Canada or vice versa unless the race schedule calls for that.
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Also on your website, I'd mention medically retired or retired veterans.
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Now, I was curious, does it also open to veterans that didn't retire?
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Because like myself, I only served a shy of eight years and got out, but I
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do have service connected disability.
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So we try to identify the service member before they leave the service.
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That in and of itself can be a bit tough because each branch of service
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does things a little bit differently.
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And a lot of that really depends on what your Rolodex is.
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We do work with the USO on some occasions and try to identify
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people through some of their tracks.
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But if you're a veteran, we try to find people who are
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less than 10 years released.
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For And they will have had to have gone through the VA process
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or the equivalent of in Canada.
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They just have to have a service connected rating.
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We don't target like a 50 percent or 80 percent or a hundred percent.
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We don't target just post 9 11, although that's really the case.
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Nowadays, you know, for the majority.
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But we're pretty open in the veteran or the military member.
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It doesn't have to have any particular skill set.
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They just have to have an interest in motor sports or they grow an interest.
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So I can remember we had one guy show up and he thought he was coming to like
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a car show and little did he know, put on a team uniform and he was slinging
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tires that weekend with the race team.
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Yeah.
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They just have to have an interest in motor sports.
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It resonated with me when you were talking about everybody
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had their own individual role.
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But the reality is there's that end goal that everybody's working towards
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together, even though you have a different role to get there, the objective
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and the mission is still the same to get to that end point as a civilian.
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There's not many companies and stuff that have that sort of
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mentality to where you have that team that gets together to do that.
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And I think my experience in the track and like the paddocks and all the different.
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No matter what discipline I've been to, motorsports in general is a close
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knit community, much like the military.
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Yes.
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It's a small world.
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You might meet somebody one place and then not see them for years and see them
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halfway around the world and be like, hey, I remember you from this event.
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And it's one of those things, too, where your reputation precedes
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yourself across the paddock, right?
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Your reputation, if you're a good crew person, that's going to
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get promulgated to other teams.
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They'll pick that up really quick that your value add and then you
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become a commodity to where other teams might be trying to pick you up.
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It is so cool to see.
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I mean, for me, when I'm around the guys or whatever, it's like being in the
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team room again, where you get some of that banter back and forth that I never
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got in the civilian jobs I worked with, even when I was around other veterans.
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It's just the civilian marketplace is just, it's just different.
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Rather bland.
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Sometimes a little more PC.
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Definitely.
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You guys mentioned veterans.
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Are there any specific ones you guys are geared towards reaching out to?
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On your website, it mentioned the horrible statistic about
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22 veterans a day taking on.
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I've had numerous guys I've served with or known through military service that
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unfortunately have taken their lives.
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So, that hits, you know, real close to home for me.
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Is there a way that other than the individual themselves reaching out to
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you, do you guys have any sort of like referral to where like, Hey, I got this
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person, would you be willing to reach out to them to see if it's something
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that they'd be interested in doing?
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A lot of it's word of mouth.
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I mean, right now we don't follow up under the VA.
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We are working towards trying to get more of a established
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relationship with the USO.
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But generally speaking, people find this either word of mouth or we've
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started to do a little more outreach.
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We were just at the military influencer conference for the
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first time this past year.
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We've been to PRI a couple of different times.
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We're a small organization.
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We don't have a huge budget.
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So getting in physically into some of the places where we'd like
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to go can be a bit challenging.
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And then sometimes it's.
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It's a matter of people truly understanding what we do because when
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they look at the website or they first see it, right, they see the race cars and
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they think, okay, there's an opportunity here to become a race car driver.
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There is and there isn't.
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So let me back up and let's talk about the programs a bit more in depth.
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The Motorsports Immersion Program is our bread and butter.
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That's where we spend a lot of our effort.
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That's where a lot of our limited funding goes to support.
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Motorsports immersion is taking somebody and putting them in to become
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a crew member with a race car team.
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That's 90 percent of it.
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They can also go into tech.
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They could go into marketing, hospitality, photography, videography.
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If you look at everything from a business perspective that takes place inside
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of a paddock during a race weekend.
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Minus putting somebody in the driver's seat.
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We have a partnership where we know people that can make an opportunity for somebody.
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So Dan, such as yourself, if you were interested in getting into
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race control, let's say we know people in race control and we could
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potentially find an opportunity where you'd come in almost like as an
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intern or on the job skills training.
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And that's where you would be for up to two race seasons, learning everything
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there is to know about race control.
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And I'm going to talk about one guy.
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His name is Matt Smotherman.
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He was a medically retired U.
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S.
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Army major, and he came to us.
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First started off in tech, had, he had some back issues, so it kind
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of held him back a little bit on doing some of the physical stuff.
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But.
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The opportunity came up to go into race control at SRO, and
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he hit it right off the bat.
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I mean, he describes it as feeling like he was back in that tactical operations
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center for deployed with all the computer screens, all the information coming in,
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having to make decisions to execute the race at the end of his second race season.
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SRO offered him a paid position to where he's now doing that moving forward.
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We've seen people get offered positions with actual race car teams at the
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end of their season, or for some of them, they do their two race seasons
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and they realize that they're better human beings or better fathers or
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better brothers or better sisters, better mothers, whatever it might be.
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So they take those skills and they apply it back to their normal life.
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Back home with the family, you know, because, I mean, let's be honest, if you
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look at like an IMSA schedule, that's a lot of traveling throughout the year.
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You look at an SRO, not quite as heavy, but still a lot of
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traveling throughout the year.
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That can be pretty taxing on a family, especially when they think,
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Any, your military service came good and end yet you're still out there.
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You're going all the time.
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Some of them do that.
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And then within the motor sports immersion program, and I want to make sure your
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audience understands what I say, there's an opportunity to potentially try.
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In the past, we've had partnerships with different race schools and we
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look at like the race of remembrance.
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We've been able to put some of our beneficiaries into the
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race car for that one event.
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When we look at what 2025 is going to look like with the Veterans Race
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for Remembrance, that's still a goal.
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If the beneficiary has the right race license, there's an opportunity for them
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to actually get into the seat and drive.
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Just like every other driver, they've got to go through the process of a race school
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and race licensing and whatever it may be.
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Then our second program is Diversionary Therapy.
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Here you can drive all you want, but it's virtual.
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We do e motor sports or iRacing.
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We run an iRacing league.
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It's a private league geared primarily towards veterans and
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military members, whether they're beneficiaries with us or not.
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So Dan, you do good.
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If you're in iRacing, you could join us for our next race season.
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That's going to kick off, I think, in February.
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And we run an eight week race schedule, but what we found, it
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was born out of COVID, when the big racing world shut down, we had
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to find a way to stay connected.
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So we came up with this idea, took somebody else's playbook and said,
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okay, let's adapt this to our own, create our own online racing league.
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What was surprising about that, not only just creating a place for people
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to virtually come together, we found a new subset of veterans we would
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otherwise never have found because they were in the e motor sports
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or they're in the e sports world.
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They're not the ones necessarily coming to the event, or they may not
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be the ones who feel comfortable yet kind of stepping away from the safety
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and the sanctuary of their homes.
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Matt Sumner was one of those guys.
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I don't say he wasn't willing to step away from his home, but I don't think
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we would have found a guy like Matt to go from iRacing to now helping out
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in SRO race control on a paid basis.
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I mean, that's a pretty cool story.
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Motorsports Immersion, that seems to be solely focused.
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on the beneficiaries being veterans with medical status issues,
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disability claim, or whatever.
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But did I understand correctly when you said the iRacing portion
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of it's open to any veteran?
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It is.
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So we run three classes within our iRacing program.
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So we have our beneficiary class.
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So those are people who are coming through our program.
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Go through the same recruitment process, if you will, you know, the VA rating or.
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Medically releasing, medically retiring, what have you, or if you're over that
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tenure mark, let's say, yeah, you can come on, you just come on board,
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join our discord channel, fill out a form that says, you know, basically I
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won't be complete idiot out on track.
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We pride ourselves in the iRacing community that we police ourselves.
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But that we hold ourselves to a pretty high standard that we have clean racing.
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We have people in our iRacing program that are brand new to the platform, to
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guys that are running in some of the higher iRacing one off event type things.
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We have professional drivers from IMSA or SRO and FEL that come in
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and join us periodically because they're friends of the community.
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We see a huge skill level between that.
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Every driver's meeting is completely emphasized.
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Hey, I got it.
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You know, somebody might be brand new here, but give
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them grace, give them space.
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And we tell the new guys, like it's a track day, like be predictable on track.
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That's how you communicate with other drivers.
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Plus we've got the discord channel and people are talking back and forth,
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but yeah, so we've got the beneficiary class and then we have our open class.
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It's pretty much everybody else.
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And then we have our pro class.
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And that will be dictated upon, are you a rear door race car driver?
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What is your eye rating?
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What is your safety rating?
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Certain levels would dictate that you would move into that class.
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And then we've seen enough of our beneficiaries actually grow in
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their eye racing skills to where we created a pro beneficiary class.
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They're running the same cars as the pro class, except they're just in
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a different subclass, if you will, kind of like the real racing world,
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we run a professional livery, we run sponsor decals on all the cars, right?
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We try to give it the look and the feel as if it's a real racing event that you
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might see in an MZR or SRO or FEL pack.
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When I was stationed over in Europe, one of the things, this
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was back before online gaming and Halo 1, you could set up multiple.
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So within USAFE, they set up a thing throughout the European bases to where
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there were competitions at each base, and then they had us go to Germany for finals.
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Each base said their best.
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If you guys have had a chance to reach out to bases to see if there's something
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they could, you know, get out there for troops on the bases to participate.
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So we were working with the USO North Carolina.
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They had a couple of donated sim rigs in one of their centers.
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They were joining us.
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Brian Knight was the guy who helped put that together.
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And Brian's still involved with us on the iRacing side and whatnot.
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So there's that piece of it.
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There's also, I know it's some of the military organizations have their
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own e sports organizations as well.
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We've reached out and talked to them to let them know who we are
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and give them an open invite.
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Kind of like sports car racing in the US, where it's a very niche thing.
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I think even in the e sports world, iReducing is a very niche thing.
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We are looking to expand those, some of that stuff.
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One of the things we've talked about doing is, again, we're doing primarily
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sports car racing, but if we were to break that open and, uh, let's go do
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a NASCAR league, because there's a lot more people interested in NASCAR
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than there are in sports car racing.
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You know, maybe we do some things like that.
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And we also use some of our eMotorsports for charity events as well.
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You've mentioned a couple different racing bodies, whether
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it was SRO or IMSA, et cetera.
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So it sounds like you lean pretty heavy towards road racing.
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Are there any other organizations that you're affiliated with?
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Are there other disciplines of motorsport that veterans get involved with?
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Let's just say drag racing, dirt, off roading, you know, things like that.
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So our goal is to be the leader in the motorsports world for all veterans.
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That's a long term goal.
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We're not quite there yet.
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We're primarily only focused on sports car racing.
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So the three main series right now are IMSA, SRO, and
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FEL Motorsports up in Canada.
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There probably will be some additional stuff coming on board,
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specifically on the Canadian side.
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And when it comes to the drag racing, when it comes to off road, we would
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love to be in those places, but we just don't have the bandwidth or the
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capacity to expand too heavily into them.
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That doesn't mean that if somebody comes to us, And he goes, Hey,
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that's what I'm interested in.
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We know some people to help make those connections.
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In the nonprofit space, I learned early on, sometimes when you start talking to
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other nonprofits, and how do they do this?
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How do they do that?
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Can we partner?
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They start to see you as a threat because every nonprofit is fighting for the
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dollar in order to support their programs.
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We look at it a little bit differently.
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We are not your competition from that perspective.
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How you guys get your financing is how you get your financing.
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Good luck and Godspeed, but I want to know about your programs.
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I want you to know about our programs because at the end of the day, we're
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all serving the same community.
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If somebody comes into Operation Motorsport that's a vet and
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wants to get into off road stuff, that's not what we do.
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But here's some resources.
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Let me help you make that connection to those people who are doing that.
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Cause we know some of those people.
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So when you make those connections with those organizations and
19:15
you get folks placed, how does it work on the other side?
19:18
Meaning on the receiving side, you described it as like an
19:21
internship, learning on the job, those kinds of things.
19:23
Is there some sort of playbook that you offer the organizers or the teams to say,
19:28
Hey, look, we've got a service disabled veteran coming in, you know, maybe with
19:31
these types of accommodations that might be necessary, et cetera, that sort of
19:34
How do you educate the teams on the people that they're bringing on board?
19:39
It's a constant piece of communication right now.
19:41
I'm working to get stuff going for 2025, reaching out to teams,
19:45
sending them a small deck.
19:47
This is who we are.
19:48
This is what we do.
19:49
This is why we do it most importantly.
19:51
And here's the benefits for both sides of the organization.
19:53
Here's what you're responsible for.
19:55
Here's what we're responsible for.
19:56
And then every activation we have, and this is one of the things that limit us
20:00
from really expanding into other forms of motorsport right now, is We have an
20:03
event coordinator on site at each event.
20:06
If we just have one beneficiary in with a race team, let's say at an
20:10
SRO race, somebody like me, somebody like Tiffany is going to be on the
20:14
ground there for a couple of reasons.
20:16
One, we're there to kind of be that safety net.
20:18
If something happens, we're there to help defuse it.
20:21
Unless you served or unless you're like a first responder, some of the
20:25
challenges that some of these guys or girls have, it's hard to understand
20:28
because you haven't walked in their shoes.
20:30
The paddock could be in a place where things get triggered, you
20:33
know, whether it's the smells of fuel or taking you back to a motor
20:36
pool while you were deployed, right?
20:38
Or, you know, the loud noises or the sudden noises.
20:41
That could trigger something that brings up a bad memory or a bad experience.
20:45
We've seen it.
20:46
Sometimes the crew members just don't quite understand what
20:48
the individual's going through.
20:49
So that's why we have a staff member or volunteer on site to kind of
20:54
put your arms around the individual and go, Hey, it's going to be okay.
20:56
We got you.
20:57
You know, we're here for you also to help defuse anything with the teams.
21:00
You know, the other side of it with the team, specifically getting into
21:03
motorsports can be a pretty daunting task.
21:06
You know, there's a lot of people that want to go do that kind of stuff,
21:09
but they don't know how to do it.
21:10
Sometimes our beneficiaries are almost looked at as a threat.
21:13
To some of the crew members because they don't understand why
21:15
the team is partnering with us.
21:17
So we're there to help educate them on that.
21:19
This is a good news story.
21:20
This is a good branding story for your team, right?
21:23
They're not here to take your job.
21:25
They're here just to learn how to do this stuff because it helps them feel
21:29
a part of something again, right?
21:31
So here's your opportunity, Mr.
21:32
crew member or Mrs.
21:34
crew member to show them what you do.
21:36
Give back to the community.
21:37
Be a part of the solution.
21:39
Be a part of helping the movement.
21:40
forward.
21:40
We're there as the event coordinators to keep an eye on them.
21:43
But then we're also there marketing and branding of the
21:46
organization, talking to teams.
21:47
Hey, how can we work together?
21:49
Maybe later on the season or if it's, you know, already kind of
21:51
midway through the season, how do we do something next season?
21:54
How do we create opportunities?
21:56
Sometimes we'll get up in front of drivers meetings and give a
21:59
quick Five minute elevator pitch about who we are and what we do.
22:02
Again, generate knowledge because when these guys or girls go in with
22:05
their teams, they're wearing the same uniform that the team members are.
22:08
There's nothing on them to identify them as a veteran.
22:11
There's nothing on them to identify them as an Operation Motorsport
22:13
program participant, because that's part of that identity.
22:16
That's part of being in that team is looking like everybody else.
22:19
So they blend in to everybody.
22:21
So we don't really stand out.
22:22
So it's one of those things where that's so important to us that
22:25
we're not going to change that.
22:26
At the same time, sometimes from a branding perspective, nobody
22:29
knows who you are because they don't recognize the organization.
22:32
And you mentioned earlier placing some people that had no idea, like
22:36
what racing was about, what motorsport entails and things like that.
22:39
Yeah.
22:39
Take somebody like Dan, who his MOS was.
22:42
Working on helicopters and airplanes.
22:44
And he was on the flight line and he's mechanically inclined
22:46
and all that kind of thing.
22:47
So to drop him or anybody, like you said, in the motor pool, into a racing
22:51
scenario, they're going to get it.
22:52
It's all going to click.
22:53
We're turning wrenches, changing tires, we're filling fuel.
22:56
But in those instances with the teams, how do you help them get over the,
23:00
Oh man, we just brought on somebody that has no clue what they're doing.
23:03
Is there a continuing education for the beneficiaries?
23:07
Like, how do you get them up to speed in the world of motor sport?
23:10
We start off with our Academy program.
23:12
That's just an online puncher through PowerPoint slides.
23:15
Right.
23:15
And we first start off with just trying to get them accustomed to the
23:18
lingo, you know, the language, right.
23:20
Anytime any of us have ever stepped into a new organization or a new.
23:24
One of the biggest barriers is communication, and that's usually because
23:28
each industry has its own way of talking.
23:30
And unless you've been around it, you know, you don't know what
23:32
Castor is, you don't know what Canberra is, you don't know what
23:34
tow in or anything like that, right?
23:35
So it takes a while to learn some of that.
23:37
And sometimes that frustration comes from not understanding what somebody is
23:42
saying, which creates its own challenges.
23:44
So we've taken it upon ourselves to try to help just from that perspective.
23:47
And then we try to give them an overview of what the weekend's
23:50
going to be like, right?
23:51
We're trying to get them comfortable.
23:52
I mean, if you go into, let's say your first time you're getting
23:55
thrown into an Amazon WeatherTech team at the Rolex, you're getting
23:58
tossed in the deep end really quick.
24:00
But because of the relationships we have with the teams, we
24:04
assess what are the team's needs.
24:05
Are they looking for somebody, maybe like a Dan who has some mechanical
24:09
background that's going to help make that transition a little bit easier?
24:12
Or do they want somebody to just, they don't care, they want a green horn.
24:14
They might not know what a, the difference between a Phillips and
24:17
a flathead or metric and standard.
24:19
Some teams are willing to take that, because what they'll do, what
24:21
every, what we ask every team to do is give them a battle buddy.
24:24
Give them somebody that's going to shadow them and watch them and kind
24:27
of hold their hand a little bit.
24:28
through the process.
24:29
And we also temper the expectations, though, with the beneficiaries.
24:33
So again, I'm going to pick on Dan here a little bit.
24:35
It comes from the aviation community, comes from that
24:37
mechanically inclined background.
24:39
He understands complex systems and setup and all that stuff.
24:43
Well, you know what, Dan, your first time into the team, you might be
24:46
handed a rag and a cleaning bottle and go, Hey, just go wipe the car down.
24:49
Everybody has to take a step back on the beneficiary's side and understand that.
24:53
Whatever you did in the military is great, or if you come from the
24:56
motorsports world, or maybe you're doing track days, maybe you got your
24:59
own garage and doing stuff like that.
25:00
Anytime you get into a new team in the military, it was like this,
25:03
at least for me, you've got to take a step back and you've got to
25:06
earn your way to be there again.
25:08
It doesn't matter where you came from, that team is going to do
25:10
things a little bit different.
25:11
So core motorsport and Michelin Pilot Series.
25:14
Might do things a little bit different than an archangel.
25:16
That's also a mission and pilot series, but different cars, different
25:19
crews, different things, right?
25:20
So you can't always take what one team does or what one experience
25:24
is and expect it to be a direct one for one translation to another team.
25:28
So you got to eat a little bit of humble pie and check yourself, but that's
25:31
part of earning your way onto the team.
25:33
And then once you start to earn that trust.
25:35
Then you start to see more opportunities come about within the team, where they'll
25:38
start to give you more tasks, they'll start to give you more responsibility.
25:40
I know I've mentioned Matt a couple times now, but his first day, or his
25:44
first week, I think, in SRO Race Control was like, Hey, you just sit here and
25:48
watch, and just listen, and absorb.
25:50
And now, He's gotten to the point where he's actually running certain parts of it.
25:54
He's got that level of responsibility.
25:56
So is your goal also to flush out if any other vets exist on the
26:01
teams now and use that as your part of your battle buddy system?
26:04
Yeah, we have.
26:05
I mean, I can think of a guy by the name of Adam Roberts.
26:07
When we met him, he was with Skip Barber Racing.
26:09
He was an Air Force veteran and he got it.
26:12
I mean, he understood already, but then also to hear him tell his
26:15
own story when he was like, you know, nothing like this exists.
26:18
I wish it did because it would have helped him in some of his own journey.
26:22
There are a lot of veterans in the paddock.
26:23
So yeah, we, we lean on them as well to kind of help the individual, because
26:27
again, they understand they get it in nine times out of 10, they really
26:31
appreciate what we're trying to do.
26:32
Even us, whether in seasoned wrench turners and stuff at one
26:36
point started out as a gopher.
26:37
So yeah, so you got to start somewhere.
26:39
So it's one of those things, as long as people are willing to learn and Take
26:42
the initiative, jump in there and do it.
26:44
It's like, for me, I love motor sports.
26:45
And Eric knows I talk people's ears off all the time when it
26:48
comes to anything vehicle related.
26:50
And you know, what's funny about motorsport compared to other sports.
26:54
And a lot of people sometimes don't qualify motorsport as a sport.
26:57
It's literally in the name.
26:58
There is physical exertion.
26:59
You know, we don't need to get onto that soapbox, but it is
27:02
one of the few team sports.
27:05
In the sense that the team must work together to get to that common goal.
27:09
Now you could say that about football, you could say that about basketball, but at
27:13
the end of the day, you've got superstars and you've got second strings and you
27:16
got this and that in racing, yes, you've got the pilot or the driver, it's the
27:21
whole team behind him or her that makes that driver and that car successful.
27:26
So it's a completely different echelon of teamwork.
27:28
And that's where I feel that what you guys are talking about
27:31
really resonates with the veteran community, dropping these folks in.
27:34
There's a moment of change, but I think it comes rather quickly.
27:37
I think you can adjust a motorsport much faster than you could.
27:41
I'm going to make you a defensive coordinator for the Ravens.
27:43
And you're like, wait, what?
27:45
Yeah, no, yeah, yeah, yeah.
27:47
And in the motorsports levels we're into, again, I know I mentioned
27:50
like games and weather tech.
27:51
I mean, that's the cream of the crop when it comes to sports car racing.
27:54
But if you look at some of the other teams, like SRO with even
27:56
some of the mission pilot, they're a bit more grassroot type teams.
27:59
So there's a bit more willingness.
28:01
to let somebody new come in, right?
28:03
Well, for a couple reasons.
28:04
One, our beneficiaries cannot accept any compensation for their time.
28:08
It's strictly their volunteer OJT type stuff, internship.
28:11
If I'm a new team owner, I'm fighting for money race to race, and you're going
28:15
to give me somebody who wants just to help and be productive and is a good fit?
28:19
Yeah, I'm going to take that because it helps me out from that perspective.
28:22
But also, some of those guys are just learning as they go,
28:25
so they can learn together.
28:26
Now, we get asked sometimes, let's say like NASCAR.
28:28
Are you guys in NASCAR?
28:29
Well, I can tell you here, NASCAR in the US, those crew members, a
28:33
lot of them are like their top tier athletes coming out of college, D1
28:37
schools, whatever it might be, right?
28:38
That's a hard place to come in and bring a newbie, somebody
28:42
who's never done it before.
28:43
It'd be like F1 or IndyCar, right?
28:46
I mean, that's a much higher level.
28:48
It's not to say the guys or the girls can do the job, but I think it comes
28:51
down to more, there's so much more money in those sports from a brand
28:55
perspective or marketing perspective that drives a lot of decisions.
28:58
Because the nice thing about NASCAR is that as the sixth and seventh generation
29:04
NASCARs are coming out, you know, the car of the future, and now the next gen based
29:08
on the garage 56 car we saw last year, what you begin to realize is it's starting
29:13
to converge with the sports car world.
29:16
And so the skills that they'll pick up.
29:18
Through SRO and IMSA and things like that will translate to
29:22
the new generation NASCAR.
29:23
So it's actually a great place to cut your teeth while NASCAR is trying to
29:27
figure out how they're going to evolve.
29:29
These lines are going to get really, really blurry here
29:31
in the next five years or so.
29:32
But it brings up a really interesting question.
29:34
If you talked about Matt a couple of times and how he's become more involved in race
29:37
control and he stayed behind past his two seasons and now he's got a paying gig.
29:41
Is there anybody else that's gone beyond maybe to SRO in Europe or gone off to WEC
29:47
or some other disciplines of racing once they kind of graduated from the program?
29:51
No, this is the best of my knowledge.
29:53
We haven't seen anybody that's gone really beyond the series they were introduced to.
29:57
We might see somebody go from IMSA or SRO or SRO to IMSA type
30:00
stuff, but we haven't seen anybody really branch out beyond that.
30:03
Well, you know, what we haven't talked about yet, Jason is how do you become
30:07
part of the operation motor sports team?
30:09
How does that whole process work?
30:11
The vetting what's involved?
30:13
It's pretty simple.
30:14
It starts off first by completing an interest form on our website.
30:17
And when you get to our website, you'll see two landing pages.
30:19
You'll see a U S page and a Canadian page for the most part,
30:22
they're mirrors of each other.
30:23
There's just some nuanced stuff towards each specific country.
30:26
If you go on our webpage, you'll see the big red button that says apply.
30:29
Now that brings up an interest form that you'll fill out.
30:32
It just says some basic content.
30:34
Which then, once you send, hits our inbox, and then that goes
30:38
to our beneficiary trustee.
30:40
Currently, it's Darren.
30:41
And Darren will review your stuff, and he'll reach out to
30:44
you to have a conversation.
30:45
Why are you reaching out?
30:46
What are your goals?
30:47
What are you struggling with?
30:48
What is your time commitment?
30:50
When we talk about IMSA or SRO or even FDL, right, we're looking, ideally,
30:54
for a 75 percent time commitment.
30:56
What's your life like right now?
30:58
Can you support that?
30:59
Can your family support that?
31:00
Because the team is making an investment into the individual.
31:03
And that's why we ask for at least a 75 percent time because you're
31:07
going to be a part of that team.
31:08
Ideally, you'll become a lot of value added to that team.
31:11
And they want you to, could you elaborate on 75%?
31:13
Does that mean like make it to three out of four races of the race season?
31:16
If we're starting off with, let's say Rolex with IMSA in January
31:20
and 75 percent of the season, taking you to Petit Le Mans.
31:24
And then once we kind of have a good feel for who you are, what's going on, you copy
31:28
your DD 214, have you gone through the VA process, if you are not still serving,
31:33
then we'll go into a longer application.
31:35
And at that point, then we're starting to look to see where we
31:38
can fit you in, what teams might be available or what interests you.
31:41
If you want to do photography and videography, finding an opportunity
31:44
is going to be a little bit different than if you just want to get out to
31:47
a, if you want to get into marketing.
31:48
Again, that's going to be a different conversation with somebody.
31:51
So some of that can ebb and flow as far as timing.
31:53
Timing is everything.
31:55
We typically don't activate after about the halfway point of the season, depending
32:00
on what the individual is looking for, because the race teams themselves are
32:03
already very well solidified and they're ideally working very well together.
32:07
It starts to become a bit of a disruption by introducing a new
32:10
person halfway through the season.
32:12
Doesn't mean it can't happen.
32:13
It just depends.
32:14
There's an exception for the most part of everything I say.
32:16
That's pretty much the process.
32:18
We've activated somebody as quickly as.
32:20
A couple of days to where we've had some folks that have had to wait, trying to
32:24
find them an opportunity where they may have had to wait a couple of months.
32:27
We're talking about SRO right now, looking at 2025.
32:31
Well, their racing season doesn't start until March.
32:33
I might have somebody that comes to us in the fall of 2024 and I can't give
32:38
you an opportunity until March of 2025.
32:41
Some of it just comes down to timing.
32:42
So you mentioned it's like an unpaid internship.
32:45
Is there any sort of way to help offset the cost of travel?
32:49
Cause you mentioned to yourself, the schedule is all over the place.
32:52
We'll use SRO, you know, used to start in St.
32:54
Petersburg and then they're off in California and then they're
32:56
in Texas, then they're in New York and all over the place.
32:59
And so with the cost of flights and hotels and all that, I mean, that's a lot to
33:02
bear when you're not making any money.
33:04
So how do you help to offset that?
33:06
So it's zero cost to the beneficiary.
33:09
They don't pay for anything unless they want to buy a t
33:11
shirt or souvenir at the track.
33:12
Any costs they incur as part of their travel, they're reimbursed for.
33:16
Fuel to and from the airport.
33:18
Parking at the airport.
33:19
Like the government or the DOD, right?
33:20
You've got to have your receipts for everything, but you
33:22
basically file a travel voucher.
33:24
Once they're with the team, the team picks up the care and feeding.
33:28
The team provides their credential, whether it's an annual or a single
33:31
event, depending on where they're at.
33:33
The team picks up their lodging.
33:34
They live with the team.
33:35
It is part of being a Merson doll.
33:37
So the team is responsible for a lot of that.
33:40
Operation Motorsport, we cover the flights.
33:42
To and from, again, no geographical limitations.
33:44
If there's somebody in New York that's got to go down to Sebring, we get them there.
33:49
Kota, or wherever, right?
33:51
We get them there.
33:52
Right now, we're partnered with Fisher House.
33:54
They've been a huge supporter for us on the flights.
33:56
We would have a hard time executing our program with the amount of
33:59
people we have active right now if it wasn't for organizations like Fisher
34:02
House stepping in to help support.
34:04
And there's always the opportunity for you.
34:05
for a beneficiary to, let's say, ride along in the truck, right?
34:08
If they're in that type of situation, you don't have to fly.
34:11
You could be riding with the team as they're transporting the cars.
34:13
You could, you'd probably only tend to see that if just by happenstance,
34:16
the beneficiary is co located in proximity to where the team is at.
34:20
SRO, AMSA guys, they tend to be kind of scattered.
34:23
A lot of the crews are flying crews, so there's very few people that actually
34:27
have a shop that live and work on them.
34:28
But yeah, that's always a possibility.
34:30
I saw a post.
34:31
And it's stated that 98 percent of donations directly support
34:35
the veteran recovery program.
34:37
Yes.
34:37
As a veteran, I want to give some huge kudos on that fact because so many
34:40
other organizations out there have disappointingly gotten to where they
34:44
have minimal percentages of donations actually going to support us as veterans.
34:47
On behalf of the veterans, I'd love to just say thank you on that because you're
34:50
not using the veteran community as a grip for you guys to fatten your pockets.
34:54
We are not and I can tell you that is something that we hold true
34:57
and we will continue to hold true to as an organization regardless
35:00
of financially how we grow.
35:02
We are run primarily by volunteers, even as the COO and as the
35:07
treasurer for the organization.
35:08
I am a volunteer.
35:09
I am not compensated for the time I give.
35:11
My compensation comes from helping solve problems.
35:14
My compensation comes from helping give other people opportunities.
35:17
The veteran is my way of giving back after serving for so many years.
35:21
So yeah, one, thank you.
35:22
I appreciate that.
35:23
That won't change.
35:24
Our overhead, those who do draw a salary with the organization, the pot of money
35:29
that they're paid from is from a grant.
35:31
It does not come from the private donations that come in.
35:34
What about corporate sponsorship?
35:36
They're an opportunity for companies to get involved or even for companies to
35:39
volunteer their folks to come help out.
35:42
Absolutely.
35:42
We are always looking for ways to create more corporate partnerships.
35:46
We have some already with like a Michelin or mobile one.
35:49
We have good partnerships with them.
35:51
What we have found in the motorsports world, when you walk through that
35:54
paddock, there's an illusion of money.
35:57
There's a lot of money in the paddock, but the money is going to the racecars.
36:00
It's generally not going to the people who are running everything.
36:03
But that sometimes gives a false illusion that because we're in that world, We've
36:07
got all the money in the world to do what we do, and frankly, we don't.
36:11
We could help so much more if we could create more financial programmatic
36:14
support from different corporations.
36:16
So yeah, we welcome those conversations, those who want to get back.
36:19
If there's a veteran ERGs, employee resource groups that want to get
36:24
involved, we absolutely welcome that.
36:26
We can have volunteers come out and support some of our events.
36:29
I'm sure we'll talk about the Veterans Race for Remembrance here
36:31
in a little bit, but that's going to be a big event where we're going
36:34
to be keen on needing volunteers.
36:36
A corporate donating or corporate matching programs, you know,
36:39
sometimes those who want to come on board and volunteer as well.
36:42
I know I used to work for Microsoft and for every hour I donated to Operation
36:47
Motorsport of my time, Microsoft would give them X number of dollars per
36:51
hour to this unreachable cap at the end of the year, which is awesome.
36:55
So I think the same programs out there.
36:56
You know, we're in fidelity charity.
36:59
If people want to donate that way, if people want to donate stock, we can
37:03
take stock and help support our program.
37:04
So there's a lot of different ways that people can get involved and help
37:07
financially support the organization.
37:09
So other than corporate sponsorship, like individuals, cause there's a
37:12
lot of people that support veterans.
37:14
Is there a spot on your website or people to reach out for, say, someone
37:18
that only can donate five bucks or something like that to help you
37:21
guys out to help a veteran in need?
37:23
Absolutely.
37:23
You can go right onto our website.
37:25
At the top of the page, there's a big red donate button that will take you to
37:29
that portion of our website where you can donate as little or as much as you'd like.
37:33
On the U.
37:33
S.
37:33
side, it is a tax deductible per whatever you and your accountant have agreed.
37:37
You will receive a tax donation for all U.
37:39
S.
37:40
side.
37:40
And then as of January 1st, we will have.
37:43
The equivalency of 501C3 status in Canada through CRA.
37:47
So that's going to be a huge potential game changer for us,
37:50
especially North of the border, because that's been a hold back.
37:53
There's a lot of corporations or there's a lot of individuals that want to give
37:56
back or they want to donate, but sometimes we're looking for that tax letter.
37:59
So come early 2025, we'll no longer have that restriction on us inside Canada.
38:04
I sometimes feel like money's the easy way out.
38:06
It's like, all right, I'm going to go hit that big red button
38:09
and I'm going to donate 20 bucks.
38:10
It's going to make me feel good.
38:12
You mentioned a couple of times Operation Motorsport volunteers,
38:15
and that's where the rubber hits the road is volunteering your time,
38:18
getting up off the couch, getting to the track, you know, whatever it is.
38:21
So let's talk a little bit more about the volunteer opportunities.
38:24
How can we help Operation Motorsport?
38:26
Where do you need help?
38:27
Program managers, event coordinators, people who want to go and support the
38:31
veteran at the event, you know, help do that, website administration, marketing,
38:36
writing, helping tell the story, branding.
38:38
When you look at our organization on our, basically who's who in the zoo side
38:42
of it, you're going to see quite a few folks, but like every small organization,
38:46
there's really just a handful of folks who are executing the day to day stuff.
38:49
So if there's anybody listening and wants to reach out info at operation motorsport.
38:54
org or just hit the volunteer button, it's a blue button on our website.
38:58
We'll have that conversation.
38:59
And I think it's also important to remember when you think about
39:02
the volunteer opportunities that the audience that we're talking
39:05
to, that's listening to this.
39:07
Isn't necessarily in our demographic.
39:09
There might be a lot, and there are a lot younger folks.
39:12
So if you're in a position where you need to clock service hours for your high
39:17
school or for your college or whatever it is, you want an opportunity to volunteer,
39:20
and especially if one of your relatives or your parents are in the service or retired
39:26
and serve, this is a great opportunity to be involved in that community.
39:29
As a kid.
39:30
So that's where I was sort of thinking about this is what are those jobs?
39:33
There's plenty of opportunities.
39:35
I think there's plenty of people out there with talents and they could
39:37
plug into this, become part of it.
39:39
Yeah.
39:39
If I could get somebody to come on board and help me how to take advantage of
39:42
tech talk, definitely welcome that one.
39:46
For the beneficiaries, you mentioned like a time commitment.
39:49
Is it the same with your volunteers?
39:51
Yeah.
39:51
Let me use myself as an example.
39:52
Like if I can only be present at one track to be like a liaison firm and everything.
39:58
We would probably have somebody else there with you, because part of being the event
40:03
coordinator at the track is you start to build a bond with the beneficiaries.
40:07
To have somebody come in for just one time out of the year, maybe not, we
40:11
would most likely have somebody with you.
40:12
The other thing we are looking to do, kind of how you guys found us
40:15
at Waukesha Squad, I think it was, for we were doing, A little bit of
40:18
marketing and branding outreach.
40:19
We had our pop up and I think Diesel's car was there and stuff like that.
40:23
So that's an opportunity to volunteer.
40:25
There'd be a lead up.
40:26
How do you tell the story?
40:27
That'd be an opportunity to volunteers to come and help man our
40:31
booth and help people understand who we are and what we do.
40:33
Plenty of options for people to help volunteer.
40:35
That's a great thing.
40:35
Yeah, there's plenty and there could be things that I'm not
40:38
even thinking about that.
40:39
Again, let's use a cars and coffee.
40:41
For example, maybe you're in a region of the country where that's
40:44
a thing and you want to give back.
40:46
Well, let's talk about how you could maybe host a cars and coffee with
40:50
proceeds that benefit operation motor sport, lead that in your own
40:53
community to benefit the organization.
40:56
That's another opportunity that could potentially be there
40:58
from a volunteer perspective.
40:59
When you're saying the fact.
41:00
It, you know, there's even things you haven't thought of.
41:02
Do you guys, by chance on your website, have like a suggestion box for people drop
41:05
suggestions and things that could help?
41:07
No, it's a good idea.
41:08
I'll bring that up with our webmaster.
41:09
And sometimes crowdsourcing ideas can lead to stuff you haven't thought of.
41:12
We'll switch gears into our final segment.
41:15
Let's talk about.
41:15
Let's talk about the future of Operation Motorsports.
41:18
Since you're the COO and treasurer, what's the two, five, maybe 10 year outlook?
41:23
New programs for 2025 and beyond, new initiatives.
41:26
You talked about the race of remembrance.
41:28
What's going on?
41:29
Ideally, if I was to look at what two to three years down the road
41:32
looks like for Operation Motorsports specifically in the US, I'd like to
41:36
build regional communities or centers.
41:38
That's one thing that it's kind of sucks, frankly, with being
41:41
geographically dispersed that we don't have a brick and mortar anymore.
41:45
What if we were to create regions where beneficiaries in the Midwest can
41:50
come together for special events or that peer to peer support type things,
41:54
or host a cars and coffee, or host something that gets people more involved.
41:58
But we're going to need a volunteer base to really help build something like that.
42:01
Long term, again, it's creating more opportunities for more veterans,
42:06
more potential beneficiaries.
42:07
Our goal, minimum, is to have 10 beneficiaries in every race across
42:12
each series throughout the season.
42:13
If we can get there, that's a huge win.
42:15
And if we can grow that, we'll happily grow that.
42:17
We'd love to have somebody in with every race team.
42:19
But for 2025, I'd say the big thing we have coming up, it's called
42:22
a Veterans Race for Remembrance.
42:24
Now we just got back from Anglesea this past November, where we campaigned
42:28
two GT86 cars, a US and Canadian.
42:30
It was Mission Motorsports 10th year of running that event.
42:33
I think it was our 7th.
42:35
It was also our final year.
42:36
So for 2025, we are bringing in the concept and the idea of the race for
42:40
remembrance to Virginia International Raceway over Veterans Day weekend.
42:44
So that will be November 7th through the 9th.
42:47
It's going to be a 12 hour endurance race for over two days, much like
42:50
it is at Anglesey, but we're going to blur it a little bit in the sense
42:53
that for the UK, for Canada, it's their Remembrance Day, which is
42:57
the equivalent of our Memorial Day.
42:59
For the U.
43:00
S.
43:00
side, it's Veterans Day.
43:01
It's a celebration of veterans.
43:02
So what we're going to do is we're going to put together an event that kind of
43:05
merges those two things a celebration of veterans We want to create an opportunity
43:10
to have like a veterans resource fair or a military resource fair there to
43:14
track Give some of these companies an opportunity to maybe engage with a
43:17
different product Part of the veteran community at a racetrack, which is
43:20
something that might be kind of foreign to them, but could be kind of cool.
43:23
At the same time, we're gonna have a couple different support race series.
43:26
Mustang Cup has committed.
43:28
We're in final discussions right now with the second support race series.
43:31
Is that would be like an SRO event or an SSA event?
43:34
Yeah, so it is a one off.
43:35
USAC is gonna be the governing body.
43:37
We are still finalizing what the class structure is gonna
43:40
look like for the 12 hour race.
43:42
I would anticipate it's going to be a mix of some of the stuff you might
43:46
see in like a WRL level and some of the stuff you see in an MSA SRO.
43:50
Because I'm also an officer within the VFW, do you guys welcome out like VFW and
43:54
American Legion people come out to try to bring their members out to see this?
43:58
Yeah, we can definitely talk about that.
44:00
You know, it's a matter of time.
44:01
Just timing and what's going on, depending on the event.
44:03
I mean, we could potentially work with a partner to kind of give a little bit more
44:07
of a hospitality or VIP type engagement, depending on the number of people.
44:11
We did work with Michelin a couple of years ago at VIR and the boss
44:14
program out of Fort Liberty.
44:15
Michelin carried a lot of that weight, but we stepped in to help them execute
44:19
a little bit of that event where they had single soldiers come out
44:22
and we helped host them a little bit.
44:23
All that stuff's possible.
44:25
The nice thing is.
44:26
With people like Tiffany and Diesel and their contacts and our reputation
44:30
within the series and whatnot is most of the series are willing to help.
44:33
They want to engage the veteran community.
44:35
They don't always know how and that's where we can help bridge that gap.
44:38
So for any of our listeners that might be interested in participating
44:41
in that event, Is that something that you look forward to seeing on your
44:44
website for being able to register for?
44:45
Yeah, well, once we get everything finalized with USAC on the class
44:48
structure and the timings and whatnot, then yeah, registration will open
44:52
and we'll start accepting teams.
44:54
You know, the other things we're going to try to do there too is encourage teams
44:57
to host a beneficiary for that event.
44:59
We want to connect with the military veteran community that might be
45:02
interested in seeing what it's like to be on a race car team for a weekend.
45:05
You know, we haven't quite figured out how we're going to do that yet, but
45:08
again, you might have listeners out there that want to go, Hey, I might
45:11
be interested in something like that.
45:12
And one race weekend, you might just be wiping a car down and be a bit more
45:15
of a spectator in the pits, or you could actually be setting up tires.
45:19
I don't know.
45:19
It depends what the team needs.
45:21
But yeah, we want to engage and give the veteran or military community
45:24
something to do that weekend, other than just be a spectator.
45:27
Well, I'll definitely say from the many times I've been down to VIR, any of
45:30
our listeners that haven't ever been there before, they want to come out
45:33
just to support the veteran community.
45:34
It's an awesome track.
45:35
It's beautiful scenery.
45:36
It really is a nice location.
45:38
Yeah.
45:38
And we're going to have some other things down there too.
45:39
You know, we're going to do some go karting down there.
45:41
We'll do some hot laps, most likely.
45:43
I mean, I think we're going to partner with a couple organizations for like
45:46
a 5k track walk or run type thing.
45:49
It's going to be more than just racing.
45:51
We're talking about maybe a comedy show.
45:53
We're talking about maybe a concert of some sort.
45:55
So it's going to be really a three, four day event where we
45:59
want to engage the military veteran community across Virginia, North
46:03
Carolina, up to Washington, D.
46:04
C.
46:05
I mean, we've got people from the U.
46:06
K.
46:06
that are talking about coming over because they know about this, but, you
46:09
know, from anywhere across the country, come and spend your weekend with us.
46:13
Learn more about what we do and take part in a really cool first
46:17
ever veteran focused motorsports event on Veterans Day weekend.
46:21
VIR has been a great friend of ours for a number of years.
46:24
That's where we had our first activation in 2017 for Operation
46:28
Motorsport on the US side.
46:29
It was at Virginia International Raceway.
46:31
So it makes a lot of sense.
46:32
That was our first activation in the US.
46:34
Well, now let's do our first veterans race for a member.
46:36
It's at VIR.
46:38
Plus VIR is just such a cool track anyways to be at in the fall
46:41
of VIR is absolutely beautiful.
46:43
That's the big thing.
46:44
We were going to be focused on this year.
46:46
In addition to everything we've got going on inside of IMSA, SRO and FEL.
46:49
You mentioned before the GR86 cup cars.
46:52
And I was wondering, is there any ambition for Operation Motorsport to
46:56
build their own team using the veterans that they've trained on all the other
47:01
race teams after all these years?
47:02
That conversation comes up at least a couple of times out of the year, right?
47:05
The closest we've seen right now is a couple of folks that have come through
47:09
our programs, or there were drivers with us at the Race for Remembrance,
47:12
gentlemen drivers, they've put together a team where they're trying to do some
47:15
stuff like in WRML level to put something together without more branding on it.
47:19
And again, they have the support.
47:21
Operation Motorsport, you know, where we could not so much
47:24
from a financial support, more from a thank you type support.
47:27
And then the other thing we've looked at though, to do those work again with other
47:30
teams or other organizations that might have teams out there that are doing more
47:34
of the racing stuff and trying to connect those coming out of the motor sports
47:37
immersion program into those arenas.
47:40
Because again, if I'm running a WRL team or even a champ car, chunk car
47:44
type, right, and if you tell me, Hey, here's a guy or girl, they just came out
47:48
of spending two years at a IMSA team.
47:50
Or SRO team, there's a lot of knowledge potentially coming in
47:53
with that individual that could help a grassroots race team take it to
47:56
the next level that much faster.
47:58
And since we're talking about being forward looking, you guys also do
48:02
an annual online auction and you do some things around Giving Tuesday.
48:06
You want to elaborate on how people can get involved and
48:08
what the auction's all about?
48:09
For us, it's one of our bigger fundraising events out of the year.
48:12
In conjunction with GivingTuesday, we run an online auction.
48:15
It kicks off on Wednesday before GivingTuesday.
48:17
It runs until the Tuesday.
48:18
But a lot of cool motorsport types events are items.
48:22
Some of them are one off.
48:23
Unique things you're not going to get anywhere else unless you maybe you're
48:26
already a part of the motor sports world.
48:27
We have what's called the mobile one oil drop award.
48:30
If you're not familiar with that, it's an acrylic piece that mobile one puts
48:33
together in conjunction with Corvette and Corvette racing, where they have
48:36
drops of the actual oil used in the Corvettes throughout the race season.
48:40
And then they got the little acrylic Corvettes on there.
48:42
Really cool thing.
48:43
Unless you're part of that racing world.
48:44
That's not going to show up magically under the shelf.
48:46
We've got some driving experiences.
48:48
If you want to go run a dark course in Charlotte with Ford Performance
48:51
Racing School, we've got some NASCAR experiences this year.
48:54
We've got tickets to Indy 500.
48:56
We've got tickets to the Superbowl.
48:58
So it's really some kind of cool, unique things.
49:00
We're trying to expand it.
49:01
We've got a bunch of gift baskets, things that may be of interest to others,
49:04
other than just motor sports, right?
49:06
We're trying to expand as we go to our auction here to reach a larger audience.
49:09
Well, Jason, we've reached that part of the episode where
49:12
we like to invite our guests.
49:13
to share any shout outs, promotions, or anything else
49:16
that we didn't cover this far.
49:17
Follow us on Facebook, follow us on Instagram, follow us on LinkedIn, you
49:21
know, website, Operation Motorsport.
49:23
org.
49:23
Get involved.
49:24
And at the end of the day, if it's not going to be with us, get
49:26
back to the military and veteran community in some shape or fashion.
49:29
There are a lot of these guys or girls that could really use your help.
49:32
We all have our own individual stories, but there's one common bond that ties
49:37
everybody together, and it's that service.
49:38
And once that service ends, It can be a difficult road depending on where you're
49:42
at, so if you see somebody struggling, just reach out and lend a helping hand.
49:46
By competing and racing and working together in motorsports
49:48
hospitality, Operation Motorsport engenders a real team ethos.
49:52
As previously mentioned, every day 22 veterans tragically take their lives.
49:56
A donation of just 22 to Operation Motorsport can provide a beneficiary
50:01
with a recovery opportunity.
50:03
To learn more and to donate today, be sure to log on to www.
50:07
OperationMotorsport.
50:08
org or follow them on social at Ops Motorsport on Facebook and Twitter
50:13
at Operation Motorsport on Instagram and Operation Motorsport on LinkedIn.
50:18
If you'd like to personally reach out to Jason, please feel free to email
50:21
him at info at operation motorsports.
50:24
org.
50:25
And with that, Jason, I can't thank you enough for coming on break fix
50:28
and sharing your story and helping to educate us on operation motor sport
50:32
and the absolutely incredible things that you guys are doing to give back
50:37
not only to the motor sports community, but to the veteran community as well.
50:41
And like I said at the beginning, this is something that is near and
50:44
dear to our hearts here at grand turning motorsports headquarters.
50:47
So again, a big.
50:48
Huge thank you to what you're doing and keep up the good work and we
50:51
hope to see you in the 2025 season.
50:53
Yeah.
50:53
Thanks again for having me.
50:54
Sorry.
50:55
Took so long for us to finally make this happen.
50:57
No worries.
51:03
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51:07
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