Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / GTM’s Crew Chief Brad on Cars Yeah! #2174 (Crossover)

Transcript

GTM’s Crew Chief Brad on Cars Yeah! #2174 (Crossover) · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

0:00
Rev it up and welcome to Cars Yeah, show number 2, 174.
0:05
Be prepared to be inspired.
0:10
This is Cars Yeah, where you'll enjoy interviews with
0:13
inspiring automotive enthusiasts.
0:15
Mark Green is here to provide you with a fuel injection of automotive inspiration.
0:20
So get in, sit down, buckle up and get ready for a wild ride here on Cars Yeah.
0:31
Hello, inspiring automotive enthusiasts and welcome to Cars Yeah.
0:35
Today I'm in Midlothian, say that 10 times fast, Virginia with a very
0:39
special guest by the name of Brad Novak.
0:42
Brad, welcome to Cars, you have it in gear and are you ready to release the clutch?
0:46
Let's go for it.
0:47
All right.
0:47
We're going to have some fun.
0:48
Now, before I introduce you, what's one little thing that maybe
0:52
people don't know about Brad?
0:54
Uh, well, my, most of my friends know, I think, but, uh, I am a musician.
0:59
I played saxophone from elementary school through college.
1:02
And do you still play?
1:03
Uh, unfortunately, I had to sell it to buy one of the many cars that I've owned.
1:08
You.
1:09
But now that I have a child, I do plan on getting another
1:12
one so I can kind of teach him.
1:14
Yeah.
1:14
Yeah.
1:15
Well, congratulations on the new little baby.
1:17
Uh, know how that goes.
1:18
Sleepless nights.
1:19
Uh, is he sleeping through the night yet?
1:21
For the last three nights, yes, but he's, he's actually finally healthy.
1:25
He's been sick since January with various, uh, daycare ailments.
1:30
Oh my goodness.
1:30
Yeah.
1:31
Well that happens to building up the immune system as they say.
1:34
I'm glad he's the little guy's doing well.
1:37
Yeah, I get back into that music.
1:38
Um, as you can see, we're talking to each other.
1:40
I've got a guitar hanging on the wall here and I need to pick it up more often.
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Used to play a lot.
1:44
Used to teach guitar to little kids when I was in high school
1:47
to make money in the summertime.
1:49
But I've had a large number of guests on the show in the
1:51
automotive field that are musicians.
1:54
And it's kind of interesting.
1:55
Some that were professional musicians in the back.
1:58
And of course, uh, probably one of the more famous ones is, uh,
2:01
John Oates of Holland Oates, who was a guest on the show.
2:03
Which was pretty cool.
2:04
I didn't know he was a car guy until I met him at a Rennsport
2:07
events and he's quite the car guy.
2:08
So, uh, very cool.
2:10
Well, let me give you a proper introduction here.
2:11
Brad Novak is the break.
2:14
Yeah.
2:14
The break in the break fix podcast.
2:16
He produces and hosts with his business partner, Eric, who's
2:20
a past guest here on cars.
2:21
Yeah.
2:21
Every week, Brad and Eric interview motorsports and automotive enthusiasts.
2:25
I'm very proud that I'm going to be a guest on their show next month.
2:28
That's pretty cool.
2:29
Sharing their stories and their enthusiasm.
2:31
His career of the past 22 years was in finance, uh, working in credit unions
2:36
and financial institutions, but he's a lifelong automotive enthusiast who has
2:40
been a drag racer, a road racer, HPDE, driving instructor, autocross, off roader.
2:45
And he rides motorcycles too, just about everything.
2:47
It's pretty safe to say that if it rolls on rubber, Brad loves it.
2:51
We'll be back in just a moment.
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So Brad, we are back.
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So I'm going to dive a little deeper into the corner.
5:19
You need to have this background in finance, but your passion was with cars
5:23
and sounds like you finally decided to kind of make a bit more of a move.
5:27
And I want to talk a little bit about all the different automotive
5:31
things you've been doing.
5:31
And then we're going to dive into the break fix podcast, why you started it.
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What it's all about, because I know a little bit about the podcasting
5:39
world here after doing this for a while, uh, but cars, bikes, everything
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that rolls, what gives, you know, I don't know where it started.
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I mean, I have an idea, but when I was a little kid, you know, my brother and I.
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Would play with our Matchbox cars and our Hot Wheels, but
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it didn't come from my father.
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I mean, he's not very much a car guy.
6:00
He was in his teens.
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You know, he, he built and destroyed an AMC.
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Uh, I can't remember what it was, but he, he had an AMC that he took to a buddy.
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You know, cause we all have a friend that we take our cars to, to hop up.
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Uh, and, but since he got rid of that car, he's been more into like trucks and
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boats and fishing and things like that.
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So I didn't get the car bug from him.
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My only.
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Guess is that I got it from my mother who when I was born.
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She had a late 70s v6 Camaro That I remember a little bit I don't remember
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going for very many rides in it because I was just a baby But I if
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I had to guess where in my family I got the car bug from it would be my
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mom But other than that, nobody else in my family's really into two cars.
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So I don't know how I gravitated towards them, but it just kind of happened from,
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from the Hot Wheels and Matchbox car days when I was a wee, a wee little tot.
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I remember my brother and I used to debate, you know, because I
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was like seven and he was, you know, three years younger than me.
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He was four, so if you can imagine what an elementary school debate sounds like.
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Um, the Lamborghini was always the fastest.
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This followed by the Ferrari and then the Porsche.
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And that was, that was the end of the debate.
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That was it.
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And all three of them were red.
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So, well, of course they have to be what you've gotten into a lot of
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seriousness with a lot of things.
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I mentioned in your intro, a lot of driving stuff, racing stuff,
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uh, instructing other drivers, autocross off roading motorcycles.
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Uh, when you started getting into this, how did you start and where'd you start
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driving and what were you driving?
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Uh, so my first car was a Honda Civic, a 91 Civic that I inherited from my father,
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um, but I always used to, to tear up, uh, the highways with this 90 horsepower,
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you know, four speed Civic, uh, and from there, I mean, I obviously I didn't
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do any racing or anything with that.
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That was just, you know, my, my being dumb in high school car.
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Um, but from there I, I upgraded to a 2001 GTI, which was the first car that I
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bought for myself just out of high school.
8:04
Uh, and I remembered Eric was, you know, my, my cohost, Eric, that
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he's already been on your show.
8:09
Um, he.
8:11
Was in autocross.
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I mean, you've got his car background and his whole family was in the cars
8:15
and from birth, he came out with an Audi badge on him or a Volkswagen badge.
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I can't remember which one it was somewhere on his rear end.
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Yeah, his birthmark is a Volkswagen badge somewhere.
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I won't, I won't say where, but so I, I, I rekindled like a friendship that
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I had with him because we met in high school, you know, your freshman year, uh,
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Spanish class, you know, and everything.
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And, I remember he autocrossed and he was like, yeah, you should bring that
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car out and we should go autocrossing.
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So, you know, 2001, 2002, I kind of did, you know, autocrossing with him and
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his father ran the, if I'm remembering correctly, he ran the Potomac region
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of the Porsche Club here in Maryland or where I used to live in Maryland.
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And he would, they would hold autocrosses at Tipton Airfield near Fort Meade.
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So we did that for an entire summer.
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Unfortunately, then 9 11 happened and they shut down.
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The access to the airfield and auto crosses, especially with PCA
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kind of move around a little bit.
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So we kind of got out of, I got out of autocross a little bit and started
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getting more into the drag racing.
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Some of the friends that I had met made in college were more into drag racing.
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They had Camaros and Mustangs and there was an errant Chevy Cavalier
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running around with us too.
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But I always had this feud between my, my four cylinder turbo GTI and
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this other guy with a V6 Camaro.
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Uh, and we were going at each other all the time, you know, I ended
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up getting the better of them, you know, on the drag strip and then
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he got mad, put a supercharger on his car and everything like that.
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I'll get you.
9:44
Exactly.
9:45
But that led me to the, the, the drag racing.
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Uh, and then at one point, because they all had Camaros, I kind of,
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you know, I was like, Every, every once in a while I get the, the, the
9:54
bug to keep up with the Joneses.
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So I got rid of the GTI and bought it a Z 28, which I drag race as well.
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You know, once I got to Z 28, the V six Camaro argument between me and
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him were, was pretty much killed.
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So that is where I guess I started the drag racing.
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Then I started following my friends and kind of started flipping cars.
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I had the Camaro for a couple years.
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Unfortunately, that car I had to retire.
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Um, because I ran it into a horse trailer.
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Uh oh.
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Not, not on purpose, obviously, but I was driving on some back roads.
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And then they, uh, it was a, it wasn't a dark, it was, you
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know, during the day on a Sunday.
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But there was a blind corner, uh, and I was coming up over this hill, and
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this truck was making a left turn.
10:39
You know, hauling a horse trailer, he turned right in front of me.
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Thankfully, there were, there were no animals in the trailer.
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It probably would have Much worse accident if there were, but the car was totaled.
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I knocked the trailer completely off the truck.
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Um, if anybody knows me on socials, my, my handle everywhere is Mr.
10:53
Ed killed my Z.
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Oh my gosh.
10:55
That's pretty much where, where that came from.
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Um, but, but from there I, I, I dabbled with Mustangs.
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I got back into a GTI.
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I got out of a GTI.
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I've had STIs I've had, you know, trucks.
11:07
I've got a Tundra now I've had Suburbans, you know, a couple of different Camaros.
11:11
I mean, I've been all over the place.
11:12
I've run the gamut.
11:14
Uh, when it comes to vehicles, I've had a couple Jeeps, uh, which led me into
11:17
the off roading, um, for a little bit.
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I don't know, I've just, on, I just love, you know, cars and they just give me
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a feeling of freedom and I can escape.
11:28
You know, it's just nothing better than hopping into a car, going on
11:30
a nice drive, or a, a, a vehicle, a Jeep or something on the trail and
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just putting on some good music and just hanging out with your friends.
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They kind of bring, bring people together.
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You're a bit addicted, my friend.
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I am.
11:42
Unfortunately, my, my wallet hates me for it.
11:45
Oh, no, it loves it.
11:47
Wallets are designed to be open and emptied.
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That's what they're all about.
11:50
Filled, filled, emptied.
11:52
You can't take it with you, right?
11:53
So you might as well just spend it all.
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Well, and then, yeah, I guess.
11:57
And then on top of all that, uh, I sprinkled in a couple of
12:00
motorcycles just because I thought I wanted to be a motorcycle writer.
12:04
Um, so I, I had, uh, my first bike was a 99 Ducati 748, uh, that I loved.
12:09
I bought it used from a guy, he just, sometimes things just align.
12:13
I had in my head, you know, I want this motorcycle, I want a Ducati.
12:17
And then a friend of a friend said, Oh, I know someone who's selling one.
12:19
Then they just, it just happened.
12:21
And then my, my next bike was a Hayabusa, uh, and then I
12:25
almost killed myself on that.
12:27
So I scared myself to the point where I wanted to, yeah, it was, One night
12:32
on a dark highway, I was doing about 160, 170, and I, I could barely see
12:38
what was going on in front of me.
12:40
The trees look like just a blur.
12:42
You know, the highway itself, the lines on the road were a blur.
12:44
So once I survived that ride, I parked it, I listed it for sale and
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I got rid of it like a week later.
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Smart.
12:52
This is just not for me.
12:53
I did get back into a bike.
12:55
I got a Yamaha Raider for a year or so, but at that point, I love
13:00
the idea of owning a motorcycle.
13:01
I don't actually like riding them that much.
13:04
There's just so much.
13:06
Yeah.
13:06
A lot can go wrong, especially today.
13:08
With all these, uh, people that are, you know, watching their phones so
13:11
much, and 748 Ducati, uh, sometime when we have a longer time together,
13:17
asked me about a guy that worked with me, and he rode his 748 through the
13:23
plate glass window into my office.
13:25
Uh, yeah, that was a crazy, Oh my, that was crazy day.
13:30
Well, let's talk about break fix.
13:32
Now I know why you're the break in break fix.
13:35
I get it now.
13:36
And it all comes clear.
13:37
The break fix podcast, you know, having been a podcast for, for as
13:41
long as I have, I've learned a lot.
13:42
And when I started.
13:44
I tell people I was a podcaster and they say, Oh, what?
13:47
They had no idea what it was.
13:49
Most of the guests that are on my show had never even listened to one.
13:51
Some still haven't, uh, which is amazing to me because there's so many
13:54
out there, but you and your buddy, uh, Eric started this break fix podcast.
13:59
Why'd you start it?
14:00
What's it all about?
14:02
Uh, it started, we talked about it for a while, um, and it's just, I don't
14:09
know, we, we, we wrote a whole bunch of articles that we put on our website, it
14:13
didn't seem like, some of them would, they'd hit or miss, but a lot of people
14:17
don't like to read, you know, for some reason, because in this new day and age,
14:21
um, with people, the way they consume media, it's, it's gotta be really quick.
14:25
And it's got to hit really fast, uh, and the reading of the articles, and
14:29
it just didn't seem to be doing it.
14:31
But we still had a bunch of stories that we wanted to tell.
14:33
Um, we still had ideas and things.
14:35
So we thought, you know, maybe we just turn it into, you know, something,
14:39
uh, I thought either like a podcast or even like a YouTube channel or video.
14:44
Um, but like doing video production is even more, you know, time intensive
14:48
and complicated than, than even podcast, um, production, which.
14:53
You know, Eric knows all that, but that's complicated in and of itself.
14:57
Um, but we were going to the track, we had all these stories that we gathered from
15:02
all these people that we were hanging out with, and we wanted to tell those stories,
15:05
but we never really got, we never really got the bug to do it until COVID happened,
15:10
and we weren't going to the track anymore.
15:12
Suddenly, everybody's schedule freed up, and it started, really, we just
15:16
started doing a couple Zoom happy hours to keep everybody engaged,
15:20
and people were still talking.
15:22
I'm telling stories about the good old days, you know, the back in 2019 so far
15:27
away when they could go to the track still and then we just started recording
15:31
things and we thought, you know, we could turn, we could turn this into a show.
15:35
Um, so we, we ultimately did.
15:37
I think it was June of 2020.
15:39
Yeah, June of 2020.
15:41
June or July, Eric and I just sat down and, you know what, let's just do it.
15:45
You know, let's just put on our microphones, let's just start
15:48
talking and see what happens.
15:50
And then that's where our origin story kind of came from.
15:54
Uh, on our very first episode, we had a lot of criticism from, you know,
16:00
people in our families, a lot of opinions and advice on how to change it.
16:03
So we kind of re recorded the pilot episode and made it more,
16:08
you know, podcast friendly with the advice that we, we received
16:11
more, I guess, listener friendly.
16:13
And then we just kind of, we've just moved on from there.
16:15
The show has, you know, It's evolved a little bit.
16:18
It's changed more from kind of silly stories and, you know, joking around
16:24
and what ifs and what should I buy.
16:26
We still have some of those episodes, but now it's more about
16:28
telling the stories of other people.
16:30
It's not just telling our stories, it's other people in the industry
16:34
that may not have an opportunity or a platform to get their story heard.
16:38
You know, that's, so now we're here, we've developed this fan
16:42
base, we've developed this platform, and now we want to help others.
16:46
Their story out there.
16:48
Yeah.
16:48
Yeah.
16:48
Well, that's the way to do it.
16:50
That's, that's was my whole why story is sharing other people's inspiring stories.
16:55
Uh, cause you, you found out real quick and many people do, you only
16:59
have so many of your own stories to tell, and then you start retelling
17:02
the same stories and the fishes get bigger and then the stories lose
17:05
credibility and all that kind of stuff.
17:07
Have you had a, what I call a driving inspiration in your life,
17:12
some type of mentor or influencer?
17:14
I have a couple.
17:15
I would definitely list Eric as one, uh, because, I mean, as he mentioned
17:19
on his interview, uh, he, his work ethic and everything he got from
17:22
his father and his family, um, he, uh, his work ethic and his ability
17:28
to just get stuff done inspires me.
17:30
I swear he never sleeps.
17:32
I think he closes his eyes from like 12 to 6, um, but he's not actually sleeping.
17:36
I think his mind is still working and churning out the next great idea.
17:40
Uh, and then, uh, My wife, for one, she inspires me because she's a
17:45
much different person than I am.
17:47
I used to be a very pessimistic and cynical person.
17:50
She's very much more an optimist, uh, and just a happy go lucky, you know, person.
17:56
And she's kind of brought, brought me out of my shell a little bit
17:59
when it comes to my pessimism.
18:01
She kind of, she's always quick to, to stop me when I start going down that path.
18:06
And just, well, think of it this way, and she's always right.
18:09
And then another is, yes, my wife is always right.
18:12
I'm sure every husband that's listening to the show right now will say that.
18:16
Well, yeah, that's how you stay married for a long time.
18:18
Exactly.
18:19
Exactly.
18:20
Uh, and then I just recently found this guy over the last couple of years
18:24
and I'll talk about him when we get to the book section of your, your,
18:27
your interview, but David Goggins, uh, he, he's a fascinating guy.
18:32
Person and an amazing individual.
18:34
And he's just kind of, he inspires me to just never give up and never think that
18:39
anything is out of reach or out of grasp.
18:42
Yeah.
18:42
Yeah.
18:43
I know who he is.
18:43
So that's very cool.
18:45
We'll talk about him in a little bit.
18:46
We'll take a short break.
18:47
We come back.
18:48
I want to talk a little bit about some challenges.
18:50
Love the challenge question here.
18:51
Sometimes it's a little, uh, rough to go down that road, but
18:55
it always ends up very positive.
18:56
So keep that in mind.
18:57
And we'll be right back.
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com We all count on skilled auto technicians to ensure that our families,
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and ourselves, are safe on the road.
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That an airplane will get me safely to my destination.
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That trucks are moving the stock to shelves of essential
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parts and things that we need.
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That's why Techforce Foundation's slogan is so appropriate.
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When techs rock, America rolls.
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I love that.
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TechForce is a charity of cars, yeah.
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If you love cars and can relate to the young person's desire to turn their
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org today and donate or become a volunteer.
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That's techforce.
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org.
21:33
So let's talk about this challenge, obstacle failure, something that kind
21:37
of stopped you in your tracks, perhaps.
21:39
But more importantly, what was that lesson learned?
21:42
If you take your wife's way of looking at things, you know, even if something
21:46
seems bad, there's some less in there, maybe another door opening.
21:49
I like her spirit.
21:50
That's pretty cool.
21:51
So let's talk about that.
21:52
Is there something in your life that you learned a really valuable,
21:55
positive lesson from, even though the experience wasn't so great?
21:59
One thing I've definitely learned over my career and you know, in life is
22:03
that the grass is not always greener.
22:06
When my wife and I got married, we bought a house that was a significant distance
22:11
from where I was working at the time and I had to make a decision, either I
22:17
was going to do a 60 plus mile one way commute, or I was going to find a new job.
22:21
And I, I put some feelers out, found a new job.
22:24
It was actually with somebody that I had known before, you know, that I
22:27
thought I had a good relationship with.
22:28
Well, it turns out that was not a good situation for me.
22:32
It was a terrible six months of my life and my professional career, uh, and
22:37
I, I spatially spent the whole time.
22:39
And Trying to get out of it and then ultimately I ended up just leaving.
22:44
I just left the company.
22:45
Luckily, my wife was able to financially support us and I was able to find
22:49
a part time job just to get me by until I could find something else.
22:53
And then the next job after that, I mean, I had a string of a couple.
22:56
Like, not so great, you know, jobs in the finance world.
23:00
That really made me rethink whether I even wanted to be in finance anymore, period.
23:05
I started looking for other career paths.
23:07
I didn't have the knowledge or the experience to jump into something like
23:12
IT, which all my friends are doing.
23:13
At one point, I thought about going back to school and becoming a nurse.
23:17
Um, because that's something that, that's what my mom was.
23:19
I knew many people that were nurses.
23:21
Uh, Back in elementary school, they had those, you know,
23:24
silly little vocational tests.
23:26
Oh, sure.
23:27
Yeah.
23:27
My mind told me in fifth grade that I should be a nurse.
23:30
Really?
23:31
So I was like, yeah, very interesting.
23:33
Very weird.
23:33
Um, but so I, I looked into that while I was doing that, I was
23:36
still looking for another job.
23:37
I found a job that I actually love now.
23:39
I'm back in an industry that I care about, you know, the credit
23:43
union world, the finance world.
23:44
Uh, and so basically the, the moral of this story or the
23:47
failure was that I left the job.
23:49
for something that I thought was going to be ideal.
23:52
It doesn't always turn out that way.
23:53
The grass is not always greener, uh, but don't stop looking.
23:57
Uh, I learned that, you know, just keep going.
24:00
Uh, you're going to fail, but it's just a minor blip in the, in the grand scheme.
24:06
Yeah.
24:06
You know, the other obvious lesson and you're in finance, you know,
24:09
this is always have a bit of a laning pad set up, you know, a savings
24:12
account, something on the side, you know, We hear it all the time.
24:15
Unfortunately, they don't teach finance in schools unless you
24:18
get into the college level stuff.
24:20
I wish they did even back to elementary school, just simple lessons
24:23
on compound interest and why it's important to have some money set aside.
24:27
Not always spend every allowance you get.
24:30
Although I never got an allowance.
24:31
I mean, they could, they could, they could teach an entire course on what your
24:35
credit score is and why, why your credit score, how it moves, why it's important,
24:40
why you need a good credit score.
24:42
I mean, that's a, that's a.
24:43
Entire semester worth of, uh, education right there.
24:46
Yeah.
24:46
Yeah.
24:47
But of course they don't, I think the, the school system is designed just
24:50
to create robots out of all of us.
24:52
So it would be really good workers for somebody else, which, uh, uh,
24:56
no thing, yeah, I think the school, the school system is designed to pat
25:00
itself on the back and it's all these standardized tests, but that's, that's
25:03
another topic for another, we could spend hours on that discussion for sure.
25:08
So looking ahead with the break fix podcast, I like to ask about bucket list.
25:13
Items, where do you see this going?
25:15
Have you guys thought past the next year, two, three, or are you just still
25:19
ramping this thing up and trying to feel your way through and adjust and move,
25:23
just like being on a track in a new car?
25:25
We, we have thought about it.
25:28
I believe we do have kind of a rough.
25:30
Draft of a strategic plan and what we want to do, but we want to grow
25:33
the podcast into more than a podcast.
25:36
We want to be able to tell people's stories, obviously
25:38
sticking with the podcast platform.
25:41
But we want to grow into, as I touched on earlier, video.
25:44
If there's a way we can figure out how to do the video
25:47
production, we want to do on site.
25:50
We've actually already started doing this on site.
25:53
Recordings and interviews at live races with some of the drivers and
25:56
things like that find other methods to Reach people and get the stories out
26:02
that may be greater than the podcast.
26:04
We'd love to get hooked on Partnerships with with like, you know, we do the
26:08
crossover episodes with you and with other podcasters to I guess bright
26:15
This, um, widen our reach and we just want to continue widening our reach
26:20
even outside of the podcast, uh, world.
26:23
Yeah.
26:23
Yeah.
26:23
It's cool.
26:24
There's a lot of different ways to go with this platform than people think.
26:28
So, and you know, things are changing so much.
26:30
I had a.
26:31
I talked with Wayne Carini from Chasing Classic Cars yesterday.
26:34
He's going to be a returning guest.
26:35
He was a very early guest of my show, number 36, and
26:38
he's going to be on the show.
26:40
Yeah, he's going to be on the show next week.
26:41
And so we were talking about cable and what's happening.
26:44
You know, his, his TV show ran, he goes, I never drained.
26:47
My show would run as long as I did.
26:48
I thought after the first year, it'd be over.
26:50
Who would want to watch me?
26:51
And I think it ran 16 plus years still in the air, but he said something
26:54
pretty Profound because he's about to do some new things with his career.
26:58
And he said, he goes, I guarantee you in the next four or five years
27:01
cable, there will be no cable TV.
27:03
It'll be gone.
27:03
It's just, it's, it's so outdated, not working Roku platforms and other
27:09
streaming platforms are the way to go.
27:11
And I think you and I you're much younger than me, but I'm trying to
27:14
be young in my knowledge of it is that there's so many other ways now.
27:18
And I, I think of how little I watch TV because there's some great, uh,
27:23
YouTube channels I like to do that are content created by amateurs that
27:27
do a fun job and it's enjoyable and there's a whole world out there.
27:31
So, uh, yeah, there's, there's a lot more to do.
27:33
It's, it's pretty, pretty, pretty cool.
27:35
So special vehicle story for you.
27:37
I mean, for a guy who's had so many, so many things that roll on rubber.
27:40
Holy cow.
27:40
If you could pick one and share a story.
27:42
That would be cool, other than running into horse trailers.
27:45
Uh, so I've already told that one.
27:47
I actually had three.
27:48
Okay.
27:49
But uh, so we've already talked about the 99 Camaro.
27:52
That, I miss that car.
27:54
I had a 99 Ducati 748.
27:57
That was my first motorcycle.
27:58
My first looked like what I thought was a cool vehicle.
28:01
You know, nobody I knew had a Ducati.
28:03
It sounded amazing.
28:04
Yeah.
28:05
Those motorcycles just sound phenomenal.
28:07
I regret selling that, but I always try to, I don't always, when in my younger
28:12
days I tried to keep up with the Joneses and try to get something else, or I wanted
28:15
something, I always wanted something else.
28:17
But again, the grass is green, the grass is always greener, even though it's not.
28:20
So I always wanted it, so I sold it for, I don't even remember what I bought, but.
28:24
Uh, and then I had a, a 98 Jeep, uh, Wrangler TJ that was lifted on
28:29
35 or 32 inch tires, open axles.
28:32
I mean, I didn't put a lot of money into it, but that was just a lot
28:35
of fun, you know, driving around, taking the doors off the top off.
28:38
Uh, I beat the, the crap outta that thing and it just kept
28:40
taking it, it just loved it.
28:42
Uh, those are, those are the three vehicles that of probably the 30
28:45
or 25 or 30 that I've had that I miss the most, I would say.
28:50
And then a runner up or, um.
28:52
Honorable mention would be my first track car, which is a 2003 GTI, we
28:57
dubbed Eddie because my racing number is 666, um, and Eddie from Iron Maiden
29:02
and Number of the Beasts and all that.
29:04
Um, that was, that was my, my first track car.
29:07
I, I miss that car too, but when I, When my, my son was born, I decided that I
29:12
needed something less, you know, track oriented and more like something I
29:18
could drive on the street and have some fun because my, my time is limited and
29:21
being able to get to the racetrack and having a track, a track only vehicle
29:25
just wasn't going to work for me.
29:26
So I had to sell Eddie, uh, then I bought a Mark 5 R32, uh, which is kind
29:32
of what I have now with my Tundra.
29:34
Well, welcome to parenthood changes all perspectives for sure.
29:38
Yeah.
29:38
I was writing a seven 50 Ducati monster and a MV Augusta at
29:42
four and had little kids.
29:43
And every time I, I talked my wife into jumping on the back of my Ducati cause
29:48
you could take the seat off and there was an extra space for her in the back.
29:51
One time.
29:52
And I was very careful.
29:53
We went for a ride and do anything silly.
29:55
And we came back and she got off and I said, what do you think?
29:57
She said, all I could think about is our kids being orphans the
30:00
entire time I was on this thing.
30:02
And so I, you know, it kind of puts your perspective in a different place.
30:05
And as we said, bikes are dangerous, but they sure are fun.
30:07
Maybe off road stuff.
30:08
I've got lots of friends who have families of little kids are riding
30:11
off road little motorcycles.
30:12
It's a lot safer.
30:13
And, uh, Maybe that's in your future.
30:15
I have a feeling it might be.
30:16
So I'm going to be your car psychologist here.
30:18
Uh, this is an interesting place to go.
30:20
We do this here on cars.
30:22
Yeah.
30:22
Is into your mind.
30:23
If you were reincarnated pun intended manifest as a vehicle,
30:27
not what you want to be though.
30:28
This is how you perceive yourself.
30:30
You got to dig a little deep for me here.
30:32
I'd have to get the tissues out and do a little analysis.
30:34
Uh, what would you be and why?
30:36
You know, I thought about this question a lot over the last couple days, you know,
30:41
preparing for the, for this interview.
30:43
And I, I ultimately came up with two options.
30:47
Um, they're both kind of about the same, but the one I'm going to go
30:51
with is the Mercedes Benz CL 600.
30:53
Okay.
30:54
And the big V12 huge, huge horsepower.
30:57
One of the ones from like the early 2000s.
31:00
They're quiet.
31:01
You know, they're, they're unassuming.
31:03
They just look like any other, you know, Mercedes coming down the road.
31:06
Um, but if you pick a street fight with one, you know,
31:09
you're going to get annihilated.
31:11
And I kind of feel that's kind of me.
31:13
I'm, I'm a, I'm a big guy, you know, like it's a big car.
31:16
I'm kind of quiet and, you know, unassuming.
31:19
I don't stand out with the exception of my size.
31:22
You know, I don't stand out with my voice or my persona or anything, but.
31:25
Yeah.
31:25
Yeah.
31:26
If I was somebody else, I wouldn't want to mess with me.
31:29
That's pretty good way to say it.
31:30
Yeah.
31:31
Well, you know, uh, what was it?
31:33
Walk quietly, carry a big stick, you know?
31:35
I mean, that's what that, that CL600 does.
31:37
And you know, they're all, there's all sorts of cars like that, that do that.
31:40
I kind of think about, I have an E46 M3, that car is kind of that way.
31:44
Uh, people just saying, oh, it's another BMW, but you hit the sport button
31:47
and you go and the thing takes off.
31:49
And, uh, there's other cars in the world that are like that as well.
31:52
Even to think about the wonderful Mercedes black series.
31:55
Cars.
31:55
Yes.
31:56
You don't know what those are, but holy mackerel, don't pick a street
31:59
fight with a one of one of my all time favorite cars is a CLK black series.
32:04
If I could, if I could scrounge up the money and convince the wife
32:08
that I need one of those cars, it would be in my, my garage right now.
32:12
Yeah.
32:12
Well, you know, there's a thing about need and want.
32:16
My listeners know this.
32:17
My mom taught me this.
32:18
I used to say, mom, mom, I need a new bike.
32:20
She goes, no, you want a new bike.
32:22
You already have a bike.
32:23
And I go, yeah, but I want what I need and I need what I want.
32:25
And she'd look at me and go, go to your room.
32:27
Smart kid.
32:29
There you go.
32:30
How about a great book?
32:30
Love to share books that people have enjoyed here on cars.
32:33
Yeah.
32:34
All right, so books.
32:35
Yeah, great books.
32:36
I have three, well, two books in a series of books that I'm going to say
32:42
one is performance thinking by Dr.
32:45
Jacques Dallaire.
32:47
If you listen to the break fix podcast, we actually interviewed
32:49
him at one of the SRO races not too long ago, but it's all about.
32:55
Getting out of your own head, you know, and finding being able to operate at
33:00
your, your highest peak performance all the time, not just in practice,
33:05
but in the big game, you know, you know, if we use the sports analogies
33:08
or the big race, you know, or that big speech that you've got coming up
33:11
in the boardroom, you know, it helps you get out of your own mind and stop.
33:22
Yeah, he's great.
33:23
He's been a guest here too and I love that book.
33:25
He's helped a lot of drivers get over mental, uh, moves.
33:29
Do you think about even great athletes like, um, Tiger Woods who went through
33:33
a really bad period of mindset, you know, failures and then came back
33:37
strong and yeah, shock is great.
33:39
Great book.
33:40
Yeah, he's, he's got a, he's got another one that's also geared towards
33:43
helping your, your children reach their, their full potential as well.
33:47
I have both of them obviously because I've got a son and I want to make
33:50
sure that I, I help him grow and support him in the best ways that
33:54
I can and whatever he wants to do.
33:56
Um, the next book is obviously, we talked about David Goggins,
33:59
his book, Can't Hurt Me.
34:01
Uh, that book is, you gotta callous the mind.
34:04
It's, it's an amazing book.
34:05
His journey is just fascinating.
34:07
All the things that he's accomplished, you know, in his life and from the
34:11
childhood that he had that was not the greatest of childhoods, um,
34:14
to be able to, to be who he is and become, you know, what he's become.
34:18
And it's, it's a fascinating book.
34:20
It's very eye opening and it's just, he's a wonderful person.
34:23
I love that guy.
34:24
I would love to actually interview or talk to him, just sit down and have a
34:28
beer with him and just pick his brain.
34:31
The next one is not inspirational, it's more just, you know,
34:34
because I like to read.
34:36
Uh, and I'm very big into like fantasy books like Tolkien and George R.
34:40
R.
34:40
Martin and stuff.
34:41
Uh, this is the, uh, the series is called the Stormlight Archive.
34:45
Uh, it's part of the bigger overarching Cosmere series by Brandon Sanderson.
34:51
The first book of the series is called The Way of Kings.
34:54
Fantastic read.
34:55
Very, very fantasy oriented.
34:58
I just, you know, I love those books, so.
34:59
Yeah, you can escape in those kind of books.
35:01
Very cool.
35:02
Exactly, exactly.
35:02
All right, we're gonna have some fun today because I'm gonna be your benefactor.
35:06
I'm gonna open the checkbook and I'm gonna park anything you want in the
35:09
driveway so you can go for what I call the ultimate drive and you can take
35:13
it anywhere, anywhere in the world.
35:15
Or if you want to be like Elon Musk, we'll launch out into space,
35:18
uh, playing rocket man forevermore.
35:20
Wonder where that, wonder where that car is now that he sent out there.
35:23
And, uh, I I'd love to thought that someday an alien will fly
35:26
up next to it and look over and go, what on earth is that?
35:30
Uh, I'm sure he's thinking that way too.
35:31
And, uh, you can take anybody with you.
35:33
Even somebody who is not with us anymore.
35:36
Someone who's deceased, which opens up the world of opportunities.
35:39
So what's the ultimate drive look like for you today, Brad?
35:42
Uh, well this one's going to be a little bit of a tear jerker.
35:44
Okay.
35:45
Um, so the person is going to be my mother.
35:48
She passed away from complications from lupus.
35:50
She had lupus.
35:51
She's dealt with that for several years.
35:53
A lot of people don't know.
35:54
Yeah, a lot of people don't know what lupus is, but it's
35:56
a autoimmune, uh, disease.
35:58
Uh, it's very, it's very, it's terrible.
36:00
It is, it's, it's a terrible thing.
36:01
My mother-in-Law had that.
36:02
It's, uh, yeah, it's terrible.
36:04
Yeah.
36:04
Go, go look up the Lupus Foundation for more information
36:07
and please donate if you can.
36:08
Sorry, I didn't mean to, to plug there, but, so she would be the person
36:11
that I would, uh, I would drive with.
36:14
Um, she was my closest thing in my family to a car enthusiast, so.
36:18
The car would be a Ferrari 250 GT California, long wheelbase.
36:25
I say long wheelbase because I'm a big guy and probably I can fit in the long
36:28
wheelbase more than the short wheelbase.
36:29
Uh, and then we would drive up and down Pacific Coast Highway.
36:34
Well, nice choice of car and nice choice to drive and of course taking your mom
36:39
and again, my condolences for that loss.
36:41
Uh, yeah, that disease is just horrible.
36:43
I mean, there's so many terrible diseases, but a lot of people mentioned
36:46
that they don't have any ideas.
36:47
So, uh, yeah.
36:49
My wish is that.
36:49
That gets eradicated from the world.
36:51
Uh, so people don't have to do that, but that Pacific coast highway
36:54
drive have done that many times.
36:56
Uh, it's, it's a lot of fun.
36:57
Beautiful.
36:58
Uh, the key there is to take your time and enjoy.
37:01
And if you do a little series, turn around and go back and drive it down
37:03
and go in the other way and then turn around and drive back around.
37:05
On the other way, uh, did that a couple of times with my son, for sure.
37:08
You've taken us on a fun ride today, Brad.
37:10
This has been great.
37:11
Uh, your court in, uh, your endeavors at break fix podcast, Eric.
37:16
Um, he did a great job too.
37:18
So for you listeners that miss my talk with him, that you'll find that on the
37:21
cars you have podcast or any mobile podcast app before I let you go, could
37:24
you share a success quota mantra?
37:26
Maybe some type of words of inspiration for our listeners.
37:29
Uh, I have a couple.
37:30
Um, one is, uh, it's actually a quote from one of Quentin
37:34
Tarantino's films, Four Rooms.
37:36
Uh, it's the less a man makes declarative statements, the less apt
37:39
he is to look foolish in retrospect.
37:41
Um, so basically just keep your mouth shut.
37:44
Uh, and then, uh, what's behind you doesn't matter.
37:47
Obviously, the Enzo Ferrari, the famous Enzo Ferrari quote, things that
37:51
happened in the past, yeah, they, they shape you and they make you who you
37:53
are, but they don't matter when it comes to what's coming in the future.
37:56
Just look forward and keep plowing ahead.
37:59
And then the thing that I thought of, uh, is actually one of Eric's favorite quotes.
38:03
It's, uh, we're looking for the thing that gets us to the next thing.
38:08
You know, you asked us what we were looking to do with the podcast.
38:10
You know, where we want to go.
38:12
We want to go to YouTube or whatever, you know, comes after the podcast,
38:16
you know, to grow the channel.
38:17
You know, and grow our footprint, our platform that's going to get us to, you
38:21
know, the next thing after that, you know, we're always looking ahead, you know,
38:25
trying to see what the next great platform is, how we can get these stories told,
38:29
uh, and then how we can reach the maximize our reach, you know, to, to make these,
38:34
uh, these stories told and then heard.
38:36
A couple of these have great, they're great metaphors for racing because as
38:39
you know, uh, when you race, you're always looking way ahead, not in
38:44
front of you and yeah, it doesn't matter much who's behind you really.
38:47
Um, you're just always looking way down the road.
38:49
I have a great quote that ties into what's behind you doesn't
38:52
matter from Ayrton Senna.
38:54
The past is just data.
38:55
I only see the future.
38:57
And I put that on my business card when I started this podcast so that instead
39:02
of dwelling on what I used to do.
39:04
Focus on what's way ahead of me and how am I going to get
39:06
there and, uh, and so forth.
39:08
So, uh, great inspiration there.
39:10
How can people learn more about you and the break fix podcast?
39:13
Um, they can catch breakfast on all as Eric likes to say the pod catchers.
39:17
I like that term.
39:19
I never heard that term before.
39:20
I might have to stop.
39:22
Yeah, by all means.
39:23
Go for it.
39:24
We're on, you know, Spotify, Apple, you know, wherever you can find your,
39:27
wherever you get your, your podcast fix.
39:29
Um, you can reach us on our website, www.
39:32
gtmotorsports.
39:33
org.
39:34
Um, you can catch us on your social media.
39:36
We're on Instagram, Facebook.
39:38
Um, GT Motorsports, um, just look for us anywhere.
39:41
I'll put links to all these on Brad's show notes page.
39:43
Check out the Break Fix podcast and uh, you follow me on social media listeners.
39:47
Uh, as soon as my show pops up on theirs, I'll make sure I post
39:50
that so you can listen to me with the mic flipped a little bit.
39:53
That's always a little awkward for me is to have the mic flipped
39:56
and have to answer questions.
39:57
It's, uh, but it's a fun thing and I had a a great time with
40:00
you guys recording that show.
40:01
You did a.
40:01
Marvelous job.
40:02
So I'm really looking forward to the finished product, Brad.
40:06
Thanks for being so generous today with your time, your expertise,
40:08
have fun with that new little boy.
40:10
What a great new adventure you have coming in your life.
40:12
You have no idea what's ahead of you, but it's pretty darn great being a
40:16
father of two wonderful children and now a grandfather, which is even cooler.
40:20
You can spoil them and send them home.
40:21
So that's kind of neat until you and I talk again, my friend, I'll see you.
40:25
Down the road.
40:27
Alright, thank you.
40:27
You're welcome.
40:29
Thank you so much for joining us on today's ride here at Caria
40:34
Drive on over to caria.com.
40:36
To find show notes and inspiring automotive fun.
40:39
Download your free copy of Filler Up, A fun book filled with gorgeous photographs
40:44
of fuel filler fun, including quotes from more inspiring automotive enthusiasts.
40:49
Download your copy today and we'll see you next time on cars.
40:52
Yeah.
40:57
Um, uh, Um, uh, Um, uh,