Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / From Pure Stock to TCX Champion: Colin Garrett’s Unconventional Racing Journey
Transcript
- 0:00BreakFix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from
- 0:04all over the autosphere, from wrench turners and racers to artists, authors,
- 0:09designers, and everything in between.
- 0:11Our goal is to inspire a new generation of petrolheads that wonder, how did
- 0:17they get that job or become that person?
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- 0:25The following episode is brought to you by SRO Motorsports America and their
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- 0:35Be sure to follow all the racing action by visiting www.sromotorsports.com or
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- 1:01The last time we saw our guest, he was suiting up to attack the track
- 1:05at Virginia International Raceway behind the wheel of the Rooster Hull
- 1:09Racing BMW M2 in his inaugural season.
- 1:13Fast forward an entire year and Colin Garrett is the newly crowned TCX Class
- 1:18Champion in the SRO World Challenge.
- 1:21TC America series, and he's here to share some incredible stories of racing,
- 1:25discuss new trends in motor sports, and bring you up to speed on his unique
- 1:30mission of advocacy and social impact.
- 1:33And with that, Colin, welcome to break fix.
- 1:35Yeah.
- 1:35Thank you for having me.
- 1:36I'm excited.
- 1:37Well, like all good break fix stories, there's a superhero origin.
- 1:40So let's talk about the who, what, when, and where of you, how, and why
- 1:44did you get started in motor sports?
- 1:45Did you come from a racing family?
- 1:47No, no one in my family actually raced.
- 1:49Always been the mystery of where I got this racing bug from.
- 1:53It's just been something I've always loved.
- 1:54I had a neighbor that was my babysitter at the time and they all watched NASCAR.
- 1:59And I think it was when I would go over there that I would watch NASCAR
- 2:02with them and I just got glued to it.
- 2:04It's been something that I just can't get enough of.
- 2:06We grew up with South Boston Speedway, the iconic short track.
- 2:09It's 20 minutes from the house.
- 2:10And then VIR is 15 minutes from the house.
- 2:12You know, you're right in between two historic tracks.
- 2:14And I grew up going to both of them.
- 2:16I was more of a NASCAR fan at the time.
- 2:18So obviously South Boston was the place I really loved.
- 2:20And I'd go to VIR when the big NASCAR guys would come out to go test out there for
- 2:24the road course stuff back in the day.
- 2:26So yeah, that's just kind of what I always loved.
- 2:28I think that's how I got it.
- 2:29And then.
- 2:30NASCAR ended up lowering the minimum age to 14 for the weekly series.
- 2:34So South Plaza Speedway is a NASCAR track.
- 2:36I convinced my dad to buy a pure stock.
- 2:38It was a Nissan 240 SX, 4, 000 bucks or whatever.
- 2:41It was the car trailer, like everything.
- 2:43We went racing.
- 2:44So you started that at 14 years old, you were racing in that Nissan.
- 2:47Yeah, yeah.
- 2:48It was the first thing I'd ever raced.
- 2:49You're in your mid twenties now.
- 2:51So let's say 10 years of progression.
- 2:53What did you do after that?
- 2:55How did you end up in world challenge?
- 2:57Start off in the pier stock and the pier stock car.
- 2:59Like it was not good at all.
- 3:01The last two races of the year, we actually, we threw our
- 3:03illegal computer in the car.
- 3:05To see, cause the car was so slow.
- 3:07We're like, we're not going to like win the race.
- 3:08Let's just see, you know, if I can race with these guys.
- 3:11And we threw it in and ended up actually being pretty decent.
- 3:13So the next year we're like, all right, let's get like a real race car.
- 3:15So the next year I was actually racing for my local hero at the time,
- 3:18Peyton Sellers, Sellers Racing, I was.
- 3:21Kind of running out of their shop with the pure stock.
- 3:22They primarily ran late models.
- 3:24So they're like, once you come around a limited late models, the
- 3:27same car, just a smaller engine.
- 3:28And so 2016 started off in the limited late model progressed through there.
- 3:32Ran 2017, ran limited late model again, and late model stock.
- 3:35I won the championship, South Boston limited that year.
- 3:38Won a bunch of races, track record, won a few races up at dominion
- 3:41raceway, but Fredericksburg.
- 3:43We went and ran all kinds of races that year, 2018.
- 3:47We decided that we were going to run the full season at dominion and four
- 3:52or five canons pro series races back when that used to be a thing, the old
- 3:56NASCAR can and pro series, we had a team out of our shop that Sam Hunt racing.
- 3:59It was Hunt sellers racing at the time.
- 4:01That was kind of like the natural progression that was just.
- 4:03In the shop, we started to do that.
- 4:05We start racing and we get to Langley for the first canine race.
- 4:09And we ran like second or third, I think like the whole race.
- 4:11And then ended up, I think six after a shuffle at the end and the restart.
- 4:15And that was like my first canine race ever.
- 4:16And we're like, Holy crap, this is pretty cool.
- 4:18So we decided to go full time for the rest of the year.
- 4:19We missed the first two races, but we went full time for the rest of the year.
- 4:22We struggled a lot.
- 4:23Just the team wasn't, I don't think prepared to go full time that quickly.
- 4:27And so we probably shouldn't have done that, but everyone was like, screw it.
- 4:30Let's do it.
- 4:31We all learned a lot and that builds up to the next year.
- 4:34So through it in the middle of 2018, we moved the shop down to Morrisville,
- 4:37North Carolina, the hub of NASCAR.
- 4:39We started running down there, 2019.
- 4:42We came out rocking.
- 4:43We almost won the first race at New Smyrna that year.
- 4:46We got taken out by a current cup driver.
- 4:49Didn't get to win that race is what it is, but.
- 4:51At the end of the year, we ran a bunch of K and N races that year.
- 4:54And we were some struggling trying to keep crew chiefs on board.
- 4:56Cause all the guys, you know, as soon as they get national series deals, they
- 4:59just go and run national series stuff.
- 5:01It just, it pays more and it's more lucrative than a K and N deal.
- 5:03The amount of money that was just being spent on K and N and stuff.
- 5:06It was like, we can go rent an expensive car for the same price.
- 5:09And make an insane amount.
- 5:10Like I finished third at South Boston and at Canaan car and got like 600 bucks.
- 5:14And it was like, what is it?
- 5:17We went Xfinity racing at the end of the year at homestead
- 5:20with the Sam Hunt racing guys.
- 5:22So we broke off, moved to Charlotte, built the whole Sam Hunt racing deal up.
- 5:25Got an XFINITY car.
- 5:26That was old TriStar car.
- 5:28I think we're not qualified 14th, out qualified three of the four
- 5:31DRM cars, junior motorsports cars.
- 5:33And it's like 20th, 21st.
- 5:35We had a loose wheel on the last pit stop of the day.
- 5:37And I don't know where it run it before that, but it just killed our finish.
- 5:402020, still driving the NASCAR stop running trucks, running whatever here and
- 5:44there, it just costs so much to do it.
- 5:46And 2020, we go to Daytona, built a brand new Gibbs car.
- 5:50It wasn't brand new, but Gibbs gave us a car, Joe Gibbs Racing, awesome car.
- 5:54And.
- 5:54We went down there with a crap set up and we missed the show by 0.
- 5:5801 or something like that.
- 6:00And it was bad.
- 6:01We had no straightaway speed.
- 6:02That kind of, I think killed us for a while.
- 6:05Cause that would actually put us in points cause that COVID hit and the
- 6:08world kind of stopped when we went back to the tracks, we could race.
- 6:13Cause they added like four cars to the field or whatever.
- 6:15So they would have a 40 car field and we could race our person's only
- 6:184, 500, no matter where you finish.
- 6:20So if you won the race, it's 4, 500 bucks.
- 6:21It's stupid.
- 6:22So we did that and that just kind of killed us throughout that year.
- 6:26I actually went to work for Sam Hunt racing as interior mechanic.
- 6:29So I did that for a while.
- 6:31And then also racing just got to a point where it just costs so much to race
- 6:34five extended races throughout the year.
- 6:36Go get to the track.
- 6:37And these guys have been running 33 weekends in a row.
- 6:40And I've, you know, haven't been in a car in 10 weeks.
- 6:42And I'm like trying to learn the car for the first third of the race.
- 6:45And I get back in and I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing here.
- 6:47Two thirds in, you're like, all right, I got it now.
- 6:49And then the field's already settled into where they're going to be.
- 6:52And that just kind of is what it is.
- 6:54So for everybody that's keeping score at home, there's a lot of roundy
- 6:57round happening here in the last eight to 10 years, how do you jump
- 7:02from the NASCAR Xfinity truck series.
- 7:05Into a BMW where you got to turn left and right at the end of 21, you know,
- 7:12I was saying we'd the whole money thing and everything to run five, six races.
- 7:16It was just insane.
- 7:17I guess it's actually started in the spring of 21.
- 7:20I was sitting in my apartment and I was scrolling through Facebook and I saw.
- 7:23Hammer Motorsports, Tim over there, he posted a thing on Facebook.
- 7:25Like, Hey, we need somebody to come drive her.
- 7:27I think he was running Audis at the time.
- 7:29And I was like, Oh, you know, that seems kind of cool.
- 7:30So, you know, I messaged him on Facebook.
- 7:32I'm like, Hey, what's this all about?
- 7:33So on and so forth.
- 7:34And he's like, Oh, we'd love to have you come down like for VIR or something.
- 7:37I was like, ah, schedules don't work up, but you know, I'd definitely
- 7:40be interested in some later on.
- 7:41So later that year, I think like November, he calls me.
- 7:45Hey, we have a deal for WRL.
- 7:48Coda in the BMWs.
- 7:50And I was still on the NASCAR route.
- 7:51And I was like, well, NASCAR is running Coda.
- 7:52I think they maybe were going to Coda for the first time the next year or something.
- 7:56I can't remember.
- 7:57I was like, well, that seems like a smart thing to do is go get lasted Coda.
- 8:00So, and he was like, Danny Suarez is running the car.
- 8:02And I was like, all right, cool.
- 8:03So we'll go down there.
- 8:04And Daniel and I showed up as kind of the roundy round guys ran.
- 8:08This BMW GT4 for the first time, like I'd always loved like F1 and stuff.
- 8:12So it was super cool to like, kind of be in that sports car world and,
- 8:16you know, have the steering wheel with all the buttons and stuff on it.
- 8:18It ended up, my dad met this guy 40 years ago, working for Edward Jones.
- 8:23They've been friends for years and years and years.
- 8:25He's since went out on his own.
- 8:26Started his own firm.
- 8:28He raced and dad didn't really know what he raced, but he just knew
- 8:31that he club raced or whatever.
- 8:32And when I started racing, we kind of met with him.
- 8:34It was like, oh, you know, just as friends.
- 8:36Well, I hadn't seen him in like five years.
- 8:37We pull up to Koda and the Hammer Motorsports car and
- 8:41his car are side by side.
- 8:43I was like.
- 8:43I know you guys.
- 8:44And so it was Todd Brown, the owner of Rooster Haw Racing.
- 8:47And it took them for a second, I was like, Oh crap, like,
- 8:49Hey, what are you doing here?
- 8:50And I was like, Oh, I'm running this thing.
- 8:52Like, I don't know really what it is, but you know, I'm running it.
- 8:54And I was like, Oh, awesome.
- 8:55It was whatever.
- 8:56Like we saw him throughout the weekend and I ran that WRL car.
- 8:59We'd go on throughout the rest of the winter.
- 9:02And I was like, well, I guess, you know, we're just going to focus on NASCAR here.
- 9:04Well, then Todd calls us in late December.
- 9:08I think, I think dad and I were actually going hunting.
- 9:09We're like in the truck, driving to a farm that we rent.
- 9:12And he was like, Hey, do you want to come down to Sebring and run a BMW M2 for
- 9:16PBOC for a few days, it's like five days.
- 9:19That seems cool.
- 9:20Like why not?
- 9:21So we'd go down there for PBOC.
- 9:23My first laps of Sebringer at night, never seen the place before in my life.
- 9:26I had iRacing or whatever, but it was still at night.
- 9:29I'm making laps around there.
- 9:31Like, Oh my God, what is this?
- 9:32So anyway, I ran for five days there.
- 9:33We ended up throwing a 450 stick in the car and it had a ton of power.
- 9:36And I was like, Oh, this is cool.
- 9:38Day four or whatever.
- 9:39Johan Schwartz, he had his M240 there coaching some other people.
- 9:42And Todd kind of got my dad and Johan and all them together.
- 9:45Like he's kind of good.
- 9:46Why don't we go pro racing with this in TC.
- 9:50And I didn't know what they're talking.
- 9:51I saw like brain meeting over there happening.
- 9:53And I was like, I don't know what's happening right now, but I knew it
- 9:56was about me and I didn't like it, but finally they called me over
- 10:00like, what do you think about this?
- 10:01I'm like, yeah, I mean, why not?
- 10:02So that was January and in January, two weeks later, I think when we decided
- 10:08like, yeah, all right, let's do this.
- 10:09They found a car, I think, down at Texas and here we are.
- 10:13So making the transition from asphalt, oval, then to road racing, what have you
- 10:18learned along the way and what's been the toughest thing to acclimate from
- 10:22the oval track to the road circuits?
- 10:24It was.
- 10:25Different it wasn't, it wasn't like last year at the beginning of the
- 10:28year at Sonoma, when we showed up for the first race, the whole paddock
- 10:32environment is just way different.
- 10:34And that's probably like in the garage.
- 10:35It's everyone's right there.
- 10:36That's like, it's spread out.
- 10:38There's so much stuff going on.
- 10:39There's bajillions of cars going around and whatever.
- 10:41Like it was just, it was a little overwhelming, but getting out there,
- 10:44like the cars, I mean, it made sense.
- 10:46Like test shifters and I threw track control off on the cars and
- 10:50they would do the same things.
- 10:51Nothing too crazy different.
- 10:53Didn't have to learn a lot.
- 10:55So I thought going around Sonoma, you know, we're doing things and finished.
- 10:58All right.
- 10:59There's a deal with the tire manufacturer where they didn't
- 11:01bring enough tires for us.
- 11:02So the Sunday race, I was the only one that didn't start on
- 11:05stickers or something like that.
- 11:06It was weird.
- 11:07I had one sticker and.
- 11:09Three tires that were somebody else's practice tires from that weekend.
- 11:12We get to Nola though.
- 11:13A couple of weeks later, we get running.
- 11:15Now that I had a weekend under my belt, our engineer at the time, he sits me down.
- 11:19I was like, all right, so we're going to start working on breaking
- 11:20and everything at this point.
- 11:21Now we start just going on it.
- 11:23And I won the race that weekend.
- 11:25It's different now, now that I've, you know, have a year or
- 11:29two, two seasons of these things.
- 11:30Now I'm not even close.
- 11:32Like I'm running, I racing, like I'm having to learn how to oval race again.
- 11:35Cause like the breaking is just so much different.
- 11:37These cars, you're just hard on the brakes coming off of them easy.
- 11:40As you're getting to the effects, whereas the asphalt stuff, you easy
- 11:42into the brakes all the way in.
- 11:44And it's just, it's so different.
- 11:45So same thing, just little stuff.
- 11:47It's actually funny how many short track techniques that
- 11:49you use when racing people.
- 11:51I side draft a lot of people and I think it's.
- 11:53Scares them because that's what I did in the extended cars and going
- 11:56to Talladega and whatnot, like you'd sidetracked the hell out of people.
- 12:00I kept the lead last year, actually Jacob and I were fighting for the
- 12:03championship last year at Indy and coming onto the front stretch there,
- 12:06Indy, he passed me and I was like, there's no way I'm gonna be able to.
- 12:10Like he just had so much more speed down straight away and I ended up just
- 12:13side drafting him and I had him back cleared by the time we got to turn one.
- 12:16So that's really the only like big track stuff I have.
- 12:18And I still do that this year.
- 12:19And you can see people, they get scared and they like get to go away from me.
- 12:22But as far as like the short track stuff, man, going into those corners,
- 12:25I mean, you're going like 50 miles an hour, 20 miles an hour or whatever.
- 12:28I use my short track stuff all day.
- 12:29I can run them wide, pinch them or whatever.
- 12:31Like it's just what I've been doing for the last decade.
- 12:34So, but you've also got two other tools in your tool belt.
- 12:37One is human and the other digital.
- 12:39And you've mentioned both of them so far.
- 12:40Johan took you under his wing to do some pro coaching.
- 12:43He's a famous pro coach.
- 12:44He's brought up a lot of drivers over the years.
- 12:46So you got him.
- 12:47Working with you, obviously you got the engineers on the team working with you.
- 12:50And then you have iRacing on the other side where you can practice some
- 12:53of the tracks before you get there.
- 12:54So let's talk about the coaching a little bit.
- 12:56What have you learned from Johan?
- 12:58What were some of the things you struggled with?
- 12:59Johan's been a super big help.
- 13:01Yeah.
- 13:01I've also had another coach that came on this year who ended up
- 13:04becoming our engineer due to some.
- 13:06Personnel changes within the team.
- 13:08So Vijay Merzayan, he was like Grand Am and stuff back in the day for
- 13:11factory mini and Turner and stuff.
- 13:12So we brought on Vijay, actually we brought on 2020 when COVID hit and all.
- 13:17This was our first real year, like working together.
- 13:19So I've had Johan kind of helped me out all last year.
- 13:22We didn't really know each other.
- 13:23He was on the GT4 program and I was running the TC car.
- 13:25So I was doing my own thing, but you know, he upped a little bit there.
- 13:27And then this year actually co driving with Johan.
- 13:30And then having Vijay come in, you know, so I have these two guys who are
- 13:33obviously phenomenal racing drivers sit there and coach me everything.
- 13:37They have a lot of differences for sure in their driving.
- 13:41So it's a little difficult.
- 13:42I just take bits and pieces from both of them.
- 13:44I think when it comes to drifting, Johan's got the record.
- 13:47Johan's got it.
- 13:48Yeah.
- 13:48Yeah.
- 13:49Pun intended.
- 13:50Yeah.
- 13:50That's actually funny because we run our traction control
- 13:52at like the lowest of anybody.
- 13:54I think like the BMW factory guys run it at like.
- 13:57Six and we run that like one.
- 13:58So that may be the cause of some of our finishes this year, but it's fun.
- 14:06Pulling their little pieces of information together and putting them towards what
- 14:09I'm actually doing is really cool.
- 14:11Johan's been a super big help.
- 14:13Obviously he's driving the same car, so we can bounce back and forth ideas.
- 14:16Thankfully we have kind of the same driving style, which is really aggressive.
- 14:20We're on the same page most of the time.
- 14:21So actually along the track control thing, I was.
- 14:24Committing to traction control a lot and just hammering down into
- 14:27it at a few tracks this year.
- 14:29And Johan was like, I don't feel like that's comfortable at all.
- 14:32I was like, man, you just got to sack up and do it.
- 14:34So there's been a few times where, you know, I've helped him a bit, but
- 14:38he's, he's been a huge help this year.
- 14:39And obviously then VJ coming in, he's, you know, been a performance coach.
- 14:43He's helped me a lot mentally working on all of it.
- 14:45I think that's.
- 14:45It's been a real game changer in the TC program, TC last year.
- 14:49You know, I did what I was doing.
- 14:51You know, I didn't really have much coaching.
- 14:52Like I said, Johan was there, our engineer at the time, Brent Tedder.
- 14:56He's really smart and with the data and everything, it just
- 14:59wasn't like a complete program.
- 15:00Like we were.
- 15:01Fast.
- 15:01We won half the races, but it was our championship to lose basically last year.
- 15:05And, you know, we did get screwed by the officials one time and whatnot,
- 15:09you know, throughout the year.
- 15:10But this year it was just a whole new game changer.
- 15:13We came in swinging, we did not have the best car at a lot of the races.
- 15:17Obviously with the Honda BOP, I should have won.
- 15:19We were the best car.
- 15:20If you take the Hondas out of it, just, Hondas didn't exist for an entire year.
- 15:24We were the best car or best BMW for 13 or 14 races.
- 15:27Glad you brought up BOP because all the guests we've had on the show from
- 15:31SRO, to include Jim Jordan, we've asked them about balance of performance.
- 15:36Would you like to share your thoughts on how it really works and
- 15:39how it makes you feel as a driver?
- 15:42It doesn't make me feel great.
- 15:43You know, I can't say much, but I wasn't too thrilled with the
- 15:47way it was handled this year.
- 15:48Obviously Honda's put forth a lot of effort and money into the TC program for
- 15:54next year, building the new Acura TCX car.
- 15:56And I get the BMW field is down.
- 15:58I don't have like any ties with BMW.
- 16:00I'm not employed with BMW at all, but like when three quarters of the field plus is
- 16:04BMWs and it's been like this for years.
- 16:07You come in to the first race and I'm not knocking any of the driver's
- 16:10abilities, but they just gap us.
- 16:13And, but they've never raced touring car or like full size cars at all before.
- 16:17And we go to Nolan, they're 48 seconds ahead of us before the caution.
- 16:21This is before the caution falls with 12 minutes to go.
- 16:23And then we go green with like two laps remaining.
- 16:25By the time we come across the checker, there were another
- 16:27like 10 seconds ahead of us.
- 16:28Dude, it's something like we were racing for second place most of the year.
- 16:31So anyway, that's TC.
- 16:33It was a whole thing.
- 16:34We should have won a lot more races is what it is.
- 16:37GT four though.
- 16:38I feel like the BOP for the BMW is really good this year in GT four, at least.
- 16:43So, I mean, BMW won a lot of races and I think it's a little unfair to
- 16:47a few racetracks where, you know.
- 16:49And it was BMW, I think one, like every category.
- 16:51And so I think it was most of the cars on the podium too.
- 16:54It was pretty bad.
- 16:55A BMW didn't end up winning the championship and Pro Am either,
- 16:57which was interesting, but they gathered it pretty well.
- 16:59And I think GT4 is probably the best racing we had this year.
- 17:02There was a lot of times where BMW wasn't the best car at the track.
- 17:05I think for sure that being Andy Sebring, Sebring, we were definitely
- 17:08not the fastest car ourselves.
- 17:10We're definitely not the fastest car.
- 17:11We were terrible.
- 17:12BMW in general was not the fastest car though for those races.
- 17:15So it's interesting to see how it balanced out.
- 17:17So I think there's enough data between all the manufacturers that they
- 17:21can come up with something great.
- 17:23And we see that in GT4.
- 17:24So I see what happened in DC is a little inexcusable.
- 17:28It's what it is.
- 17:29So we'll put a pin in that for now and BOP is a hot topic, but let's go back and
- 17:34talk about how iRacing has helped you.
- 17:36And in some ways, now that you're spending a lot more time, especially
- 17:39road racing on the track, where's the big difference lie between, you
- 17:43know, everybody says how great it is.
- 17:45And you could just, you know, even the new Gran Turismo movie
- 17:47showcases how you can go from a video game or a simulator to the track.
- 17:51Is that really real?
- 17:53It's good.
- 17:54I'm not going to say it's great.
- 17:56It's a good learning tool.
- 17:58Plenty of examples.
- 17:59Roger Carruth being one of them.
- 18:00William Byron, I don't know if you can really say he was iRacing to
- 18:03success, but Roger Carruth, definitely.
- 18:05He's a current truck series driver.
- 18:06I don't know his full story, but I'm 99 percent sure he came from iRacing, like.
- 18:09Four or five years ago, I think he's got a full time Xfinity run next year.
- 18:12I mean, he's really good.
- 18:13So there's been a lot of learning obviously for him, but God, he's really
- 18:17freaking fast and trucks and stuff this year, as far as like, personally,
- 18:21I've never had the best time on there.
- 18:23Like I got into it really big and 17, I ran it like 17,
- 18:2818, 19 ish, and we got to 20.
- 18:30We had a lot of friends on there that we'd get on there and screw around,
- 18:33including some current Cup Series drivers that I'm not friends with anymore.
- 18:36And we, uh, just have fun.
- 18:38We do hosted races.
- 18:40We crash each other.
- 18:41We did in real life.
- 18:42So it wasn't like serious to us when COVID hit and it had a massive influx
- 18:47of just people, we'd still be doing our same shenanigans and then people
- 18:51would get really upset with it.
- 18:52And so I just kind of stopped.
- 18:53I was like, whatever, this is not, this is stupid.
- 18:55Like it kind of got ruined, but.
- 18:56I started getting back into it a little bit later on last year, I guess, actually
- 18:59it was when the whole TC program happened.
- 19:01I'm like, well, I guess I need to start, you know, running these tracks.
- 19:04So I started doing that and I've gotten back into it.
- 19:06I've been running some official races.
- 19:08I can definitely use some of my racing knowledge.
- 19:11Like if I'm racing cars and stuff, I can have race craft with it.
- 19:14But there's still the fact, like I go to a track that I know, and I'm doing
- 19:18everything that I do in real life and the car that I drive in real life.
- 19:22And I'm not even close to the people that I'm racing with way off.
- 19:27And I'm like, all right, this is a little really like, there'll
- 19:30be like five seconds ahead of me.
- 19:31So then I have to kind of like change my driving style
- 19:34to like our racing standards.
- 19:35So, yeah, I agree with you there.
- 19:37I've always found that that's the biggest drawback, especially if you
- 19:40know, attract, you know, where the breaking zone is, where the turn in
- 19:42point is exactly to hit the apex.
- 19:44The speed you should be carrying.
- 19:45It's like the BOP.
- 19:47How are they 12 seconds ahead of me?
- 19:48Are you jumping over the turns?
- 19:50Like I don't get it.
- 19:52Right.
- 19:52So to your point, there is a different driving style.
- 19:54And I think other than the physical part of it, where you can't actually
- 19:57use your senses, your touch, your smell, your sight, feeling of
- 20:00gravity and motion that you have in a real car in the digital space.
- 20:04Even if you had a motion rig, it's not exactly the same, but the point
- 20:07is there's loss in translation there.
- 20:10But for you to learn tracks, you've never been to probably
- 20:13the best tool you can find.
- 20:14Yeah.
- 20:15Like it's been really good for just visual imagery of a lot of the
- 20:19racetracks that we go to, like, okay.
- 20:20Like.
- 20:21There's a tree here.
- 20:21This is where the boards are.
- 20:22This is where the flag stands are, you know, so on and so forth.
- 20:25Road America, this is where the bridges are.
- 20:27You cross the hill and you know where the track goes.
- 20:29Like, you know, I went to Sebring for the first time at night.
- 20:32Like I obviously didn't, my first lap around there ever wasn't at night.
- 20:36Like I'd been on the Sim running laps there a bit.
- 20:38So when I got there, yes, my first real labs were at night.
- 20:41I still like had an idea of where the track went.
- 20:44I didn't know, like maybe how far the straightaway was in real life,
- 20:47but I had a general idea of it.
- 20:49So it's been really good for that.
- 20:51I've been fortunate enough to run on Toyota Racing Development's
- 20:55bajillion dollar race sim.
- 20:57It's super awesome.
- 20:59You are literally in a car strapped in, ready to go.
- 21:02The whole room is a screen.
- 21:04You're wearing 3d glasses.
- 21:05You're wearing your helmet, like everything.
- 21:07You're talking to the guys back at the shop.
- 21:08It's really cool to see like what they have.
- 21:11Was it still accurate?
- 21:12Not really.
- 21:13It is way better than just generic iRacing or your, you know, normal salmon stuff.
- 21:18I mean, you're in a car driving around and it helped a lot.
- 21:21And when I got through the racetrack, I was like, Oh, this is pretty accurate.
- 21:23However, though, like when it starts crashing and stuff, like
- 21:26it's hard to save the car, like, cause you just can't quite feel it.
- 21:30I got loose going into three at Michigan on the TRD sim.
- 21:33I couldn't save it.
- 21:35And how realistic is it or how realistic looking I guess I should
- 21:39say it gets flung back to the fence.
- 21:40I brace like I was actually crashing because it was such like a shocking thing.
- 21:45It's pretty cool.
- 21:46Let's take a look back into the 2023 season.
- 21:49I mean, you absolutely crushed it 285 points.
- 21:53You secured your championship spot in TCX.
- 21:55So congratulations on that again.
- 21:57Yeah, thank you.
- 21:58Any war stories that you can share from this season, you know, the good,
- 22:01the bad, the ugly, what did you learn?
- 22:03Do you now have some favorite and some worst tracks on your list?
- 22:07Well, Road to America was my least favorite track after last year's ordeal.
- 22:10I made a move on the opening lap there last year that was not approved
- 22:14by race control and Everyone else ever in the paddock and not in the
- 22:20paddock says it wasn't a bad move.
- 22:22So whatever.
- 22:23But coming back this year, I had that track kind of circled.
- 22:27I was like, I had so much redemption.
- 22:29I wanted to go prove that because I knew we should have won that week.
- 22:32And that would have been our championship.
- 22:35I mean, that killed our championship when I got that penalty.
- 22:37So going into that race this year, I was like, I have to
- 22:39fricking do something here.
- 22:41And I slept the weekend.
- 22:43Now I kind of like it and we should have won all four races that weekend.
- 22:46I won both TC races.
- 22:48I got taken out in the GT four car, leading the first race.
- 22:50And then the second race, we should have cycled out to the lead after pit stops
- 22:54and we had issue on pit road and we ended up not, but it was like, Holy crap.
- 22:58Like it was actually a really good track for us.
- 23:00Sebring has always been really good to us.
- 23:02Swept all the TC races that are library.
- 23:04So it's been really fun.
- 23:06I mean, nothing really happened this year.
- 23:07That was too crazy.
- 23:08I had one incident at VIR with my main championship competitor.
- 23:13It's another one of those tracks where it should have been more wins,
- 23:16but you know, it is what it is.
- 23:18That was really our only run in throughout the year.
- 23:20We ran really well with each other all year.
- 23:22We ran well last year, but.
- 23:23That same corner last year and this year in the same race, we collided both times.
- 23:30It's the exact same corner.
- 23:32Rolls were reversed.
- 23:33Stewart says it was his fault.
- 23:34I'm not gonna say whose fault it was, but Stewart says it was his fault that time.
- 23:37So apparently we can't race in it.
- 23:38Like we can race everywhere else.
- 23:40I mean, we ran side by side up the S's we ran through Oak tree side.
- 23:43I mean, we did everything, but that one fricking corner, we
- 23:45can't get through together.
- 23:46So other than that, I mean, there was really no war stories.
- 23:49There's a lot of.
- 23:50The Honda thing.
- 23:51I mean, there was a lot of tension throughout the paddock with that, you
- 23:54know, no disrespect to the drivers, but I didn't really like them either.
- 23:57I didn't have a reason not to like them, but just because, you know, they
- 24:00were winning and they shouldn't have been or whatever, you know, it wasn't
- 24:05bad this year, it was really cool.
- 24:07Having Vijay as my mental coach for all this year, he helped me a lot, just, you
- 24:11know, mentally being prepared for all those races, I went into it and drive
- 24:14my car, I mean, just doing my own thing.
- 24:16So it wasn't too exciting.
- 24:18So, I mean, if you saw me get out of the car, I mean, even after we won the race
- 24:21at Sebring, I was like, it was cool.
- 24:23Like I knew we'd lock up the championship, but that's what we came there to do.
- 24:26I mean, the only reason I ran this year in TC was to win the championship.
- 24:29Cause last year kind of pissed us off.
- 24:31We're like, all right, we have to win the championship now.
- 24:33So.
- 24:34We're going to say we have two championships, but it was the
- 24:36job that I had to be there for.
- 24:38Like I said, I got the car at Sebring.
- 24:39I knew I won the championship and the guys were all really happy.
- 24:42That made me happy, but I had a job to do.
- 24:44I had to go get a GT4 car in like five minutes.
- 24:46So it was like, cool.
- 24:47We won the race.
- 24:48I got to go do this now.
- 24:49Wasn't much to celebrate.
- 24:50Like all drivers, we could probably spend the rest of this episode chatting
- 24:54about races gone by and the one that got away and you could have done this and
- 24:58they've got to take that apex like that.
- 25:00But you know, we got some other things to talk about.
- 25:02Let's switch gears here, get a little bit deeper into your backstory,
- 25:06especially coming from a military family and then how you got involved
- 25:09with the 1111 Veterans Project.
- 25:11What's that all about?
- 25:12How you're working with them and all that.
- 25:14Both of my brothers are active army down at Fort hood, Texas, or Fort
- 25:18Cav, I guess for short, the new Fort hood down in Texas, he's a company
- 25:22commander, flying Apaches and stuff.
- 25:23Other brother was in the Virginia army, national guard, but he also
- 25:27worked for DITRA in the DC area.
- 25:30Did all that.
- 25:30I did the contracting stuff, had a family member in every major American
- 25:35conflict since like the revolutionary war.
- 25:37So cool fact there.
- 25:39So 1111 is founded by myself.
- 25:42And we brought on my brother who worked over at Ditja to be the
- 25:46CEO of the company, essentially.
- 25:48So when he got out of the army, we brought him on to head the program.
- 25:52So where 11 11 came from was we were already working with Racing for Heroes.
- 25:56It's been on my car since like 2019, I think.
- 25:58And the Rosie Network, we've since added Tech4Troops, Helios, a bunch
- 26:02of other companies that we've been working with here in recent times.
- 26:05But we're trying to help Racing for Heroes.
- 26:07We're trying to help Rosie Network.
- 26:08We're trying to add.
- 26:09Bunch of different companies and we're like, we can do this better.
- 26:12Cause it was just kind of weird.
- 26:13Like we just had them on the car and like, wasn't promoting it much.
- 26:16So what we ended up doing was kind of inventing 11, 11.
- 26:20And what 11, 11 is, is we are the middleman, I guess, for everyone.
- 26:24So we go to a veteran or veterans come to us.
- 26:26We're like, Hey, what do you need?
- 26:28Like, do you need this service?
- 26:29Like, so, you know, we can go through our list of people like racing heroes.
- 26:33They help guys just get back into the family environment.
- 26:35If they want like to learn or work on race cars or cars or whatnot, you know,
- 26:39that's where you go, you know, if you want to learn more about comedy or, you
- 26:42know, try to use that to heal, heal areas uses the power of comedy to heal wounds.
- 26:47The Rosie network.
- 26:48They work with military families.
- 26:50So like spouses and veteran entrepreneurs who are trying to work
- 26:54and build their own company and stuff.
- 26:55So we'll help them out and try to, you know, build their own deal.
- 26:58And tech for troops, they teach guys, you know, how to work on computers and
- 27:02different data programs and whatnot.
- 27:03So they teach them, you know, how to take that into like the fields when
- 27:06they're getting out, when they're transitioning, so guys come to us.
- 27:08We're like, Hey, what do you need?
- 27:10We can send them to name what you want and want to do need.
- 27:13We can send them out to where you need to be.
- 27:15So that started a few years ago.
- 27:17Like I said, we were trying to figure out how to like do this better with everyone.
- 27:20Cause we, like I said, we had a bunch of people in the car, but
- 27:22it was like, it's kind of stupid.
- 27:23We need to have like one place that people can come to and then go from there.
- 27:26And we've since partnered up with bunches of companies.
- 27:29We're just up an event for veterans growing America up in Northern Virginia.
- 27:33He has veteran pop up shops.
- 27:34Veteran entrepreneur families, they come in there and they have a bunch
- 27:36of little shops and stuff in the town.
- 27:38And it's right like it's across from the Apple store and
- 27:40Starbucks and like everything.
- 27:42So it's like right there.
- 27:43It's really cool.
- 27:44Kind of what 1111 is all about and trying to help these
- 27:46veterans and veteran families.
- 27:47We've recently brought on TikTok and Instagram famous guy.
- 27:51He's got like 600, 000 followers.
- 27:52Mandatory fun day.
- 27:53Yeah, he's pretty cool.
- 27:54So we've recently brought him on.
- 27:56He's starting to work with us.
- 27:58We had an 11, 11 pitch contest a few months ago, and we had some
- 28:01budgets come out and pitch ideas to us about what their business was.
- 28:06We're doing a crowd funder for a guy and he is a comic book writer out of Iowa.
- 28:11He pitched this comic book idea that we really liked.
- 28:14And we started the crowd funder to help funding for him to build his little deal.
- 28:19He actually wrote me into it.
- 28:20So I'm a character, my favorite car is a BMW E30.
- 28:23So I think the characters drive at E30 in the book and stuff.
- 28:26Yeah, but the book is about, you know, fighting veteran suicide and it's
- 28:29not a political book, but it's like, you know, how the government could
- 28:31be better and doing all this stuff.
- 28:32It's, you know, it's a big, cool story.
- 28:34So what's your goal to.
- 28:37Are you putting together, let's say, a registry of all these organizations
- 28:41and the services that they offer?
- 28:42Are you brokering that?
- 28:44Are you looking to expand out of the mid Atlantic?
- 28:46Like, for example, we had Peter Klein on the show a while back, and he heads up BET
- 28:50Motorsports, which is based out of Ohio.
- 28:52So there's all these different groups.
- 28:54Are you working to tie them more closely together?
- 28:56For sure.
- 28:56So, you know, we're already working with nationwide companies doing this.
- 29:00So a lot of them are, I think the Rosie Network is actually out of California.
- 29:03So we're already working kind of nationally on this deal.
- 29:05And we have events all over the place.
- 29:07We were sponsoring an event in Las Vegas for the Hilarious.
- 29:09They have their finale.
- 29:11So they had a little contest between different comedians in
- 29:14each city that they stopped on their tour throughout the country.
- 29:16And we're sponsoring that.
- 29:17But in the grand scheme of things, kind of like what 11.
- 29:2111 is trying to do is we're trying to bring in A big company, and I'm
- 29:24going to make this up, we're trying to bring in Target or somebody.
- 29:27And, you know, Target is trying to increase their veteran outreach and hire
- 29:31X amount of veterans for the year or whatever, or they really want to support
- 29:35or show their support for veterans.
- 29:36So they're gonna basically sponsor these guys to put their names on the car.
- 29:42So that's what we do is we try to like have their names on the cars.
- 29:45Like if you look at any of my race cars.
- 29:47They don't have any big companies or anything on them.
- 29:49They had this year, we had 1111 and unbroken, which is command sergeant
- 29:53major Gretchen Evans, her team.
- 29:55They were on the world's toughest race, Bear Grylls deal.
- 29:58So we had unbroken on the car this year, racing heroes, Rosie network
- 30:01and different companies scattered throughout, but we're trying to have a
- 30:05big company come in and support this.
- 30:07So every week we can, you know, have.
- 30:09A veteran company on the car and kind of showcase them every week, switch it up.
- 30:13You know, we'll have 11 different companies come in and do a pitch
- 30:17contest or whatever, and whichever one target like likes best or whatever.
- 30:21And like I said, I'm making the target thing up, but that's kind of the whole
- 30:24plan here is trying to help the companies as much as possible and get their name
- 30:28out as well as trying to get support from a bigger company that can help everyone.
- 30:32Outside of the events that you're putting together for these pitch
- 30:36contests and things like that.
- 30:37What's the best way for people to get ahold of you, share their story.
- 30:41Do you prefer phone call an essay and email?
- 30:44How do you want to be able to engage with these sorts?
- 30:47So there's so many different people out there with so many different needs.
- 30:49You know, we have the 1111 veteran project Instagram, and that's been kind of a hub.
- 30:54We have a lot of guys.
- 30:55We actually sponsor a pro shooter.
- 30:57He just got out of the army.
- 30:58Great friend of ours, but he's going around and he's got a lot of guys
- 31:02kind of involved with 1111 if they need something, they can come to us.
- 31:05So that's kind of what we're trying to do is put out these little cells too.
- 31:08Like.
- 31:09All right.
- 31:09This guy, you know, he can help the law outreach in this niche community of the
- 31:12gun community, you know, at the shooting ranges, then they come to us, you know,
- 31:15whether that be through our buddy, John, or, you know, he can come to us and
- 31:18like, tell us about him or they just send us a thing on Instagram or, you know,
- 31:23on our website, 11 on venture project.
- 31:25com.
- 31:25I mean, tell us your story and, you know, we can help in any way.
- 31:28I mean, that's.
- 31:29That's definitely, you know, what we're trying to do here.
- 31:30Something else you did that's really unique.
- 31:32And I want to highlight this because it goes right in line with
- 31:35what we've been talking about.
- 31:36You look at all the race cars and you were talking about the different liveries
- 31:39that are out there and they just seem to be getting crazier and wilder every year.
- 31:43We had Andy Lee on who runs a GT four for flying lizard.
- 31:46And he was joking about how they made tactical tan, a fashion
- 31:50statement, you know, with the Aston Martin that he was running.
- 31:53And then you have on the other side of the extreme, you have Samantha
- 31:56tan with her van go inspired BMW.
- 31:58you that I know you've run against her, you did something totally different.
- 32:03You showcase the first ever Braille paint scheme.
- 32:07How did that come to be and why did you choose that?
- 32:09And what exactly does it say?
- 32:11Yeah, so it was cool.
- 32:13So we have a big network on.
- 32:16LinkedIn and kind of what 11.
- 32:1711 is about is trying to connect people as much as possible.
- 32:21And a lot of service members are blind, you know, they're blind through service.
- 32:24The reason why we did Braille Paint Scheme wasn't because of that.
- 32:28So we met a guy named Hobie Wedler.
- 32:30Hobie was a born blind.
- 32:32He was an entrepreneur.
- 32:34He was a chef.
- 32:35He had like different sauces and stuff.
- 32:36And he did all sorts of stuff.
- 32:38We started working with him like, Hey, this would be kind of cool to
- 32:41like, have your company on the call.
- 32:43Car and try to help the 11, 11 program, help people out with all this stuff.
- 32:47He loved that idea.
- 32:48He came to Daytona and this was my, I guess, third to last, second
- 32:53to last six venue race ever.
- 32:54So came to Daytona in 2021.
- 32:56And we're like, we'll be super cool here is if he.
- 33:00Could read the car when we got there, what we did was you see in Braille
- 33:05all the time, the numbers and my name and everything, we're all still there.
- 33:09We put a little dot on each of the cars.
- 33:11So the problem with a lot of the wraps is they build the dot like into it, or
- 33:14they build everything's just one piece.
- 33:16So this kind of took a little bit more work.
- 33:17I had to overlay a Braille letters on everything.
- 33:20So they had to come back through with all the dots and put them out and put
- 33:23them in the right places and stuff.
- 33:25So when he got there, he could actually go through and read this.
- 33:28He could read the number and then my name above the passenger door was in braille.
- 33:33So he went over it.
- 33:34We didn't tell him what any of it said and he'd go over and he
- 33:36told us and it was really cool.
- 33:38Do my number and he could feel my name and all kinds of stuff.
- 33:40It was really awesome to do that at a place like Daytona.
- 33:44The purest engineers would have argued that all that braille was actually
- 33:47giving you an aerodynamic disadvantage and all sorts of reasons not to do it.
- 33:52But I think this is super cool and it's very unique.
- 33:54So well done.
- 33:55Daytona is one of those places where you kind of want to get away.
- 33:57A little bit of stuff now I'm forced like that.
- 33:59So it actually, you know, might be an advantage there.
- 34:01People might start doing Braille paint schemes now.
- 34:05Well, you can say you did it first.
- 34:06Exactly.
- 34:07It's the reason why people run 10 tear offs instead of the average six.
- 34:10So I didn't say that.
- 34:13Kind of been hinting at it.
- 34:14You've got a long road ahead of you.
- 34:16So what's next for Colin Garrett?
- 34:19You know, I don't know.
- 34:20You know, we're at a position where I can do a lot of stuff.
- 34:24I love NASCAR.
- 34:25I'd love to go back to NASCAR.
- 34:27I love sports car racing now.
- 34:28I'd love to keep on doing sports car stuff.
- 34:30If I had everything I wanted, I'd be forming a one racing next week.
- 34:32You know, I can't obviously do that, but I'd like to run GT four again next year.
- 34:37So if we're going to go to sports car route, I'd love to run GT four
- 34:40again next year, full time kind of do what we did with TC this year.
- 34:43So I ran TC was learning it.
- 34:46And then this year I mastered TC and was learning GT4 where this next year I'd
- 34:51like to master GT4 in a perfect world, maybe run GT3 some or whatever, or maybe
- 34:56run the SRO GT3 deal where it's not a ton of races, but at least be learning
- 35:00GT3 and then in 25, go full blown GT3.
- 35:03I don't know.
- 35:03Realistically, you know, I'd like to run GT4, like I said, full time, at least.
- 35:07I'd like to run more stuff.
- 35:08I'd really like to run on the double headers.
- 35:10Jumping on a TC car, going in a GT four cars, a lot of fun.
- 35:14And I felt like I was doing something while I was at the
- 35:16racetrack last year in the TC car.
- 35:18There was a lot of downtime.
- 35:19You have practice in the morning and you have another practice at like 5 PM.
- 35:23It's like, what am I supposed to do all day?
- 35:25There's a lot of downtime where this year I was like constantly, it's like,
- 35:28all right, I got another session here in like an hour or back to back or whatnot.
- 35:31Coming to the track.
- 35:31And I just ran GT four.
- 35:33I'd be like, this is kind of sad because they also drive like half the time.
- 35:36So I don't know if that's particularly what I'm going to do.
- 35:38If you don't end up going back to NASCAR and you stick with sports car
- 35:42racing, do you see yourself in IMSA?
- 35:43Yeah, for sure.
- 35:44You know, SRO is obviously the global sports car series.
- 35:48I guess they're it, but in the U S they're not, it kind of sucks.
- 35:51You know, a lot of people, you know, like SRO, what is that?
- 35:53And I'm like, I call it Euro IMSA.
- 35:55And it's basically what it is.
- 35:57For sure.
- 35:57I see myself going to IMSA at some point, whether that be in GT4 or
- 36:01GTD, I guess they call it over there.
- 36:03It'd be cool.
- 36:03I'd like to run the Rolex.
- 36:04I went to a Rolex this past year and I was like, I don't want
- 36:06to come back if I'm not racing.
- 36:07I hate going to races and not racing.
- 36:09It's the dumbest thing in the world.
- 36:10People are like, Oh, let's go to the racetrack.
- 36:12I was like, I don't want to go to the racetrack.
- 36:14I do it for a living.
- 36:15Why do I want to go?
- 36:16I'll go to Southbawn Speedway now.
- 36:18I haven't done that in forever.
- 36:19I am at the point now where I like want to go back and race at South Boston.
- 36:22I'm like all the time, like I'm going to run a late mile race so bad.
- 36:24So like, I'll go over there and watch that.
- 36:26I love watching people crash and short track stuff.
- 36:28All my friends beating and banging us up.
- 36:29It's awesome.
- 36:30But yeah, I definitely see myself going to IMS at some point, always going over
- 36:34the, or trying to get the lucrative factory drive that everyone always
- 36:38talks about wanting, and, you know, it's probably next to impossible of getting
- 36:41it, unless you go and run a full season in hypercars or whatever now, I mean,
- 36:45it's just, you go and look through.
- 36:47The BMW factory drivers and it's like, Oh, they won Le Mans before
- 36:50they started being a factory driver.
- 36:51So it's like, I'm not going to go race Le Mans, let alone win it.
- 36:55If I'm not affected, basically, like, I just don't have the support.
- 36:58Like hopefully I do have one day have the support to do that, but I don't
- 37:01foresee that without the factory support.
- 37:03To add to that.
- 37:04Any bucket list cars or tracks that you'd like to drive on or race on?
- 37:08Nürburgring for sure.
- 37:09So the iRacing thing, I get super bored on iRacing running VIR.
- 37:13I work over at VIR.
- 37:15I work for Skip Barber.
- 37:16I work for Racing for Heroes.
- 37:17They have a for profit site called RFH Tech and Mobility.
- 37:19I do all the driving training and stuff over there.
- 37:22I race VIR.
- 37:23All the time.
- 37:25It's boring.
- 37:25I've been to all these tracks on iRacing a bajillion times.
- 37:28I can only drive in circles by myself so many times.
- 37:31I go to the Nurburgring and like a cup car.
- 37:34Oh my God.
- 37:34Nurburgring in a cup car is the coolest thing ever.
- 37:37Like in the old, not the old school, but like the, uh, gen six cup cars, I guess.
- 37:40Those are the best cars to run in Nurburgring.
- 37:42You're shifting, you're bouncing around doing all sorts of that.
- 37:44It's so much fun.
- 37:45Or like old F1 car on the Nurburgring, something like that.
- 37:48I'd love to go there in real life.
- 37:50I hate kind of the feeder series that you have to do to run it in real life.
- 37:53You have to go run TC, GT4 and then whatever.
- 37:55So that kind of sucks.
- 37:56But other than that, Spa would be cool.
- 37:59I'm trying to do Pike's Peak.
- 38:00So I've been trying to convince the owner of Rooster Hall, Todd Brown
- 38:03all year to let me go run Pike's Peak in one of his cars next year.
- 38:07That's I think we started that deal back in.
- 38:09I guess it was at VIR.
- 38:10It was like the week before Pike's Peak or a couple of weeks before Pike's Peak.
- 38:13I got, for some reason, I don't know where I got it from.
- 38:15I was like, I need to run Pike's Peak.
- 38:16And I've been at it for like all year.
- 38:18I like, I have to go to Pike's Peak next year.
- 38:20And, uh, every time we get in a conversation, I'll just throw a
- 38:23Pike's Peak into a conversation.
- 38:24He throws them all off guard and he doesn't know how to respond.
- 38:27And he's like, I guess we're going to Pike's Peak.
- 38:29So I don't know whether we'll do that or not, but that's
- 38:31another place I want to go.
- 38:32There isn't many tracks that.
- 38:34I mean, like I've driven a lot of them in the States.
- 38:35There's a handful that I haven't, and I think I'm at like 52
- 38:38tracks that I've driven on.
- 38:39So there's obviously still a bunch that I want to tick off, but I guess we're
- 38:43going to Barbara next year if I'm on SRO, so I'll get to take that one off.
- 38:46So other than that, there's not many, I've raced a lot of them.
- 38:48It's been super cool.
- 38:49Well, you mentioned Lamar and you come from a NASCAR background.
- 38:53So I got to ask you this, what did you think of the Garage 56?
- 38:56So, like I said, VIR is like beside my house.
- 38:59I think it's like six miles as the crow flies.
- 39:01And I was out hunting one morning.
- 39:02I guess it would have been about 8 AM.
- 39:04Cause that's when, what time track goes green there.
- 39:06Oh my God.
- 39:07Mike Rockenfeller was there in that G56 car and he pulled out on track
- 39:11and I thought he was in my field.
- 39:12It was so loud.
- 39:14It was insanely loud.
- 39:16I mean, I have a video I recorded on Snapchat.
- 39:18It sounds like, I mean, you can hear going through the shifts.
- 39:20I could tell where he was at on track.
- 39:22He was coming out of Oak tree and I heard him get a bunch of wheelspin
- 39:24coming out of Oak tree and I was like, Oh God, I mean, I have it all on video.
- 39:27You can hear it.
- 39:28It sounds like I'm outside the racetrack.
- 39:30Insanely loud is the coolest thing ever.
- 39:32It's the perfect place for Chad Canals, who is way too good for NASCAR.
- 39:35He's over there cheating every week.
- 39:37Cause he can make it faster.
- 39:38Like he knows how to make the cars better and why not send them to a
- 39:41place where it basically has no rules.
- 39:43I mean, it literally had no rules.
- 39:44So do whatever you want, make this thing the fastest, coolest thing ever.
- 39:47Um, he did.
- 39:48That's really cool car.
- 39:49They need to make like a spec series for that.
- 39:51It'd be really cool to see.
- 39:52I didn't follow it too closely.
- 39:54You know, I'd see the.
- 39:55Posts and stuff.
- 39:56I saw posts all the time about it, but I didn't like religiously follow it.
- 39:59But I like the interior of it, man.
- 40:00Interior was like full blown sports car and stuff.
- 40:02I still have like little stock car fuel.
- 40:04It was really cool.
- 40:05So Colin, on that, I get to ask you our final question, which is any shout outs,
- 40:10promotions, or anything else you'd like to share that we haven't covered thus far.
- 40:13I forget how much stuff I've like really done in racing and we could
- 40:16go forever and talk about whatever.
- 40:18So if you ever want to have a question about anything, I
- 40:21probably have an answer to it.
- 40:22As far as like shout outs and promotion stuff, you know, obviously
- 40:24I talked about the crowd funder thing we're doing with essential studios.
- 40:28Who's the graphic novel group we're doing that 1111 retching projects.
- 40:32You know, we're working with them, all those guys, the guys who were working
- 40:35on my car all year, they've done a lot.
- 40:36They worked their asses off all year.
- 40:38It was well earned our championship.
- 40:39I feel like, well, folks, there's more to motor sports.
- 40:42Then just turning laps.
- 40:43Remember that when you're watching Colin's next race, he's out there racing
- 40:47to help veterans, military families, and the disabled access resources
- 40:51that support healthy and happy lives.
- 40:54To learn more about Colin Garrett and his mission, visit www.
- 40:58colingarrettracing.
- 40:59com.
- 41:02And 1111veteranproject.
- 41:03com or follow him on social media at Colin Garrett Webb on
- 41:07Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
- 41:09With that, Colin, I can't thank you enough for coming on BreakFix and sharing
- 41:12your road to success story with us.
- 41:15And what's great about this is you still have a long road ahead of you.
- 41:20Such a young man, young racer.
- 41:22And what's great about what you're doing is you're doing it now while
- 41:25you're able to, not when you're retired, looking back going, I
- 41:29need to give back to the community.
- 41:30You're giving back to the community while you're racing
- 41:33and you're racing for a cause.
- 41:34And I commend you for it.
- 41:35And it's awesome.
- 41:36Yeah, thank you.
- 41:37I don't feel like I have a long way to go.
- 41:39I feel like my career is dwindling to the end because there's kids now
- 41:44that, you know, I see that are coming up and I'm like, Oh my God, he's
- 41:47going full time extremely racing.
- 41:49He was in a legend car like two years ago, but turns out it was like eight years ago.
- 41:53So it's crazy.
- 41:54So I forget how young I am sometimes.
- 41:56And I forget how long I've been around, but yeah, thank you.
- 41:58Thank you for having me on.
- 41:59It's been a blast.
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