Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Making Track Days a Household Name: The Story Behind HPDEjunkie.com (Dave Peters)
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
- 0:15wonder, how did they get that job?
- 0:18or become that person.
- 0:19The road to success is paved by all of us because everyone has a story.
- 0:27We here at GTM are always amazed to discover that most people have
- 0:31no idea that track days exist.
- 0:33Sports car owners and driving enthusiasts are missing out on the
- 0:36best part, driving their cars fast in a safe and controlled environment.
- 0:40Well, we aren't alone.
- 0:41And the folks over at HPD junkie.
- 0:43com decided something should be done to promote high performance driving events.
- 0:48So they created a website with the goal of turning HPD into a household name.
- 0:52And Dave Peters, director of HPD junkie is here to tell us all about it.
- 0:57And as always, I'm your host, Brad and I'm Eric.
- 1:00So let's roll.
- 1:01Hey fellas.
- 1:02How are you?
- 1:03Good.
- 1:03How's it going, Dave?
- 1:04Real good.
- 1:05Real good.
- 1:05Thanks for having me.
- 1:07All right, Dave.
- 1:07Well, welcome to break fix.
- 1:09So from what we know, HPD e junkie was started in 2015
- 1:14based out of North Carolina.
- 1:15But that can't be the whole story, can it?
- 1:18Let's unpack the who, what, where, when of HPD junkie.
- 1:22So I started it with another guy.
- 1:24His name is john Marsh, and I guess it was after our first track day and we both were
- 1:30car enthusiast and road race enthusiast.
- 1:33Pretty much our whole lives.
- 1:34I mean, my dad had me at Watkins Glen in 1970 for a F1 race.
- 1:39So it started early for me.
- 1:42You know, thought maybe I'd get into go, go cart racing, but some things changed
- 1:46in, in our lives and that didn't really happen, but I basically grew up like
- 1:50wanting to be a race car driver and was smart enough to realize that my family,
- 1:55nor I had the money to be race car driver.
- 1:58So it just kind of, yeah.
- 2:01So it kind of just remained a dream for me.
- 2:04And.
- 2:04I, you know, was going to a lot of races at VIR and rode Atlanta with my dad.
- 2:09And, you know, loved it.
- 2:11We always had a good time.
- 2:12Had a big group of guys that would go, but still I wanted to drive.
- 2:15And I, at that point, I think track days were already going on.
- 2:19I just had no idea.
- 2:21So, I guess it was around late 2000s I heard about it and I knew that was
- 2:27the thing for me and I could afford to do it every once in a while.
- 2:31So finally got to do my first one in 2013 and I knew right away one here
- 2:38and there wasn't going to be enough.
- 2:39John and I had tried to find businesses in the motorsport field that we could
- 2:44start up and literally this kind of came to me sitting at the computer
- 2:48trying to find our second event.
- 2:51And I had, you know, five, six tabs open, clicking back and forth
- 2:55and comparing prices and times and which track we wanted most.
- 3:00And, and the light bulb went off and I was like, this is the business we start.
- 3:06So neither one of us were, Really computer experience in
- 3:11the it sense or website sense.
- 3:14We knew you could pay someone to do that, at least, at least build it.
- 3:18That's kind of what got it going, but it was also, we loved it so much that
- 3:24we wanted everybody to know about it and know you could do it, but I, I all
- 3:29adamantly wanted to be giving back.
- 3:32something.
- 3:33So, you know, I think that kind of sums it up why it started, how it started.
- 3:36What type of information is HP junkie collecting?
- 3:40How are they updating this information and how are you
- 3:42getting it out to your visitors?
- 3:44As far as collecting, you know, the first couple of years, it's pounding Google
- 3:50and search and track days and HPD in any way, shape and form I could think of.
- 3:54And You know, looking at all the tracks websites and on their
- 3:57calendars, there would be track day companies and locked in website.
- 4:02I got a lot from there.
- 4:05And so basically it was, you know, just collecting it myself with
- 4:09help from my partner at the time.
- 4:11But Yeah, it's, you know, kind of manually searched every year and, you
- 4:15know, every year I get a little better at it, I guess you'd say, more efficient.
- 4:20So, you know, I have my list of all the companies and usually
- 4:23they'll start releasing calendars.
- 4:26Some, they should be starting to come out.
- 4:28In fact, wow, this has gone by so fast, I didn't even, it dawned on me that.
- 4:33I need to start looking at 2021 calendars and start putting them up,
- 4:37but they'll start coming out around October and then it'll kind of trickle
- 4:42all the way into kind of late February.
- 4:45So was the idea to evangelize high performance driving or was it to
- 4:50correlate all the schedule information?
- 4:52Which came first?
- 4:53Actually, they came together.
- 4:55I mean, you know, right off the bat, the schedule was part of it.
- 4:59I guess I didn't really feel like you could put enough together as a
- 5:03website to get people out there if you didn't have something a little more.
- 5:06And, and actually at the beginning, we had worked a deal with a safety equipment
- 5:11supplier, you know, selling it through the site and we're drop shipping.
- 5:16We had some merchandise and stuff.
- 5:18I think we thought we were going to get rich selling t shirts and stickers, but
- 5:22That doesn't really happen felt like not only did people need to know about track
- 5:27days But they needed the stuff to go and mainly the dates and the places so
- 5:31they kind of came together at the same time as you know after a couple years I
- 5:36realized that Selling safety equipment wasn't doing us any good and I'm fortunate
- 5:42enough that I don't have kids and a wife so I have a little more time on my
- 5:46hands and he has kids and a wife so it was just getting a little bit too much
- 5:50for him and he graciously backed out.
- 5:53Still does my taxes for me though.
- 5:55You know, we sold a helmet here or there, but you know, So we made different
- 5:59arrangements with that same company, which is Apex performance, great folks,
- 6:04kind of a small mom and pop, but they've been with us since before we went
- 6:08live, just really good, good folks.
- 6:11So are you scouring the, let's say different calendars nationwide?
- 6:16Are you regional?
- 6:17Absolutely nationwide and actually somewhat expanded into Canada for 2020
- 6:24COVID kind of, I don't want to say made it impossible, but I was playing catch
- 6:29up with everything else so much that I didn't get to do the due diligence
- 6:34I wanted to do with that in Canada.
- 6:36I don't see why in 2021 we wouldn't have all of Canada up.
- 6:40But there are some of the tracks there, and I basically ended up
- 6:44listing those events from PCA groups that were American, but doing a
- 6:49Canadian track day here or there.
- 6:51So, so there definitely are some Canadian, uh Well, it's probably pretty slim now
- 6:56that it's getting cold, but I mean, I feel like I've got everybody, every PCA region
- 7:01that does a DE, the BMW clubs, the Audi clubs, but I'm always eager to find new
- 7:08ones and they're popping up all the time.
- 7:11So yeah, anybody out there that's got a new track day company or knows of one,
- 7:15we're not listing, please shoot us an email through the, through the website.
- 7:19We would love to have it.
- 7:20The other thing I kind of wanted to mention is how many groups and
- 7:25how many events there are a year.
- 7:27And if you count, which I do, PCA and the Audi clubs and the BMW clubs as separate
- 7:32groups, I mean, I think they should be since they all have their own schedules.
- 7:37And there's about a hundred of those.
- 7:39And then there's also about a hundred for profit companies in the U S which.
- 7:44I guess I wanted to mention it because it surprises people that ask.
- 7:48And typically the past three years has been right in the
- 7:5215 to 1600 events a year.
- 7:54Which kind of is telling me that we're kind of capped out unless somebody can
- 7:59make more days happen in a year or build more racetracks, there's not a whole
- 8:04lot of opportunity tracks are booked.
- 8:07I don't, they're booked, but I don't know that we've met saturation yet.
- 8:10Right.
- 8:10So that's a whole nother, that's a whole nother thing.
- 8:13So let's say.
- 8:14You could have 200 cars in a weekend.
- 8:16Yeah, so the calendar days are full, but the number of participants is not.
- 8:20You got 80 cars on track for three days.
- 8:22It's like, well, okay.
- 8:24No, I agree.
- 8:25I don't think every event is filling.
- 8:28I mean, I know every day that's not filling.
- 8:30If we're going to talk about scheduling, it poses a whole nother scenario
- 8:33there because I've preached for a while that groups that are, that
- 8:37continually complain that they're suffering, that their numbers are down.
- 8:41There's another group the next weekend also complaining
- 8:43that their numbers are down.
- 8:44And I know that everybody wants to be able to make a profit and whatever it might be.
- 8:48I'm not here to dictate how they do business.
- 8:50It would make a lot of sense if those two groups got together, pooled their
- 8:55resources, be it the coaches, be it the investment, whatever it might be.
- 8:59And then, to make that event successful.
- 9:01But what ends up happening by doing that is now we don't have two events
- 9:04that failed where the calendar is full.
- 9:06We freed up a weekend at VIR.
- 9:09We freed up a weekend at the Glenn or wherever it is for
- 9:11another group to come in.
- 9:13So then to your point where the calendar can't grow because it's basically maxed
- 9:17out by consolidating events and making the events more popular and more successful,
- 9:22you have basically opened the calendar up.
- 9:25Yeah, I, I agree with you.
- 9:26Um, if, if there's a couple groups that aren't what we
- 9:29would call filling an event.
- 9:30Now, I sure don't like when a group overfills an event.
- 9:34Um.
- 9:34And that happens.
- 9:35And, and, I mean, that to me is, that's just not fair to the drivers.
- 9:40You know, it, it just becomes a completely different thing when you're at VIR
- 9:44running with, uh, 3035 cars versus 60.
- 9:48It's different.
- 9:49Makes it a less experience.
- 9:50But what you're saying, I agree.
- 9:52You know, there's a lot of groups that are not selling out and they
- 9:57probably, you know, maybe someone, but they don't want to swallow their
- 10:01pride and partner with someone else.
- 10:02I don't really know.
- 10:04It would be good for the whole hobby and industry if that happened more often.
- 10:09I mean i'll give an example right because I came up through the autocross world
- 10:13and it got to a point there too Where as lots were drying up the calendar got full
- 10:18immediately, especially in the in the dmv, right down Where you are in the carolinas
- 10:22might be a different story I know still in the southwest and in the south like places
- 10:26like texas There's still an opportunity to have big autocrosses and stuff like that.
- 10:29But here as You Things changed and open oceans of asphalt started disappearing.
- 10:35It meant that clubs had to band together.
- 10:37And you started to see it early on, especially in the late 90s, early 2000s,
- 10:41where you would all of a sudden have the Porsche Corvette challenge, and you
- 10:44would have the BMW Porsche challenge, and you'd have these groups cross pollinating
- 10:48because their events were suffering.
- 10:51And the lots, it was a scarcity, right?
- 10:53So it became a game of commodities.
- 10:55And at that point it made sense to merge together, get that weekend, get it
- 10:59full, keep the excitement of autocross going so that the sport wouldn't die.
- 11:02Now in our area, SCCA capitalizes on autocross.
- 11:05I'll just say that they own it.
- 11:07Flat out, there are still other clubs out there that do stuff.
- 11:10And we partner with them, you know, the Corvette club, et cetera, but it's not
- 11:13the same draw as going to FedEx field.
- 11:16And you're still waiting around all day.
- 11:18And there's 250 cars waiting to get their turn to do the solo thing.
- 11:23I don't know, again, it's economies of scale, but I see it in the track
- 11:27world with the smaller driving organizations, where it would make
- 11:31sense for them to pull their efforts together and put on better events.
- 11:34And again.
- 11:36I would rather come away from a big event as a newbie and
- 11:39say, man, this was awesome.
- 11:40All these cars, all this stuff, the math works out right.
- 11:4420 cars per mile, 24 cars per mile at VIR.
- 11:47You're right.
- 11:47That's 60 cars.
- 11:48That's easy to do though.
- 11:50You still don't feel like you're driving around the beltway.
- 11:52So again, I'd rather go to an event that was full and full of energy than like,
- 11:56man, yeah, it was a VIR and basically I drove around all day by myself.
- 12:00No, I'm with you, man.
- 12:01I don't like driving around by myself.
- 12:03It just, there's just one lap and I'm good.
- 12:07You know, I, I wanna, and not that I have to pass anybody, but at least have
- 12:11somebody that I can see in front of me.
- 12:13Am I gaining on em?
- 12:14You know, are they gain?
- 12:16And same thing letting people by, but man, I gotta tell you, when too
- 12:20many cars, it's not that fun at BIR.
- 12:24That's true.
- 12:24I give you, that mean's the same at Summit Point.
- 12:26I mean, you get 40 cars in Summit Point, it's a traffic jam, but and then being
- 12:31in the Miata and there were a lot of high horsepower cars, and I, I had a sore arm.
- 12:37I literally had a bruise on the bottom of my arm from the windowsill from putting
- 12:41my arm out the window all day so much.
- 12:44But all those point buys the Miata, you know, yeah, well, no, it's
- 12:48exactly, but yeah, I mean, I want it to grow and I agree with you.
- 12:51There's room and there are some clubs doing that and some groups doing that.
- 12:54I know Daytona has a couple, but offhand, you know, I don't really remember.
- 12:59Listing any this year that were a dual event except for some PCAs or some
- 13:04BMW and even some of those were, you know, not necessarily PCA and PCA,
- 13:09but there were some PCA and BMW and.
- 13:12PCA and Audi.
- 13:14This year, 2020 has been a challenging year for everybody across the board.
- 13:17And I'm, you know, I got to tip my hat to all the organizations that
- 13:20have come back out to play when the tracks basically reopened in June.
- 13:24They've been hitting it hard, you know, every weekend since, and
- 13:27I think turnout has been good.
- 13:28But Let's face it.
- 13:30Turnout is has also been scaled down, right?
- 13:33So I don't want to get into the politics of how all that's working,
- 13:36but I'm hoping that 21 will be a better year for everybody.
- 13:39And we'll be looking forward to that new schedule coming out here.
- 13:42Maybe in the fall.
- 13:42Right?
- 13:43Absolutely.
- 13:44I mean.
- 13:45I would think within the next month that we'll have actually, I know I have one
- 13:49or two 2021 events already on the site, but I would think, you know, the regular
- 13:54schedule should be coming out starting in October is typically when it happens.
- 13:59And, you know, most of the established groups, like hooked on driving and,
- 14:03you know, They relatively are going to have the same schedule that, you
- 14:07know, the date number just changes by a day or two because of, you
- 14:11know, it's a new year, but so they're all relatively at the same places.
- 14:14Yeah.
- 14:14Even the newer guys, I mean, once they've get date under their
- 14:17belt, they kind of hold on to it.
- 14:19How often is the data updated?
- 14:21Like how often are you getting in there?
- 14:23I go through about every two months and just check everybody's schedules, and
- 14:27you know, I'm on a lot of their mailing lists, so I'll catch stuff that way and
- 14:31just change it instantly, and I find a lot on Instagram that they'll post
- 14:36they had updates or changes, so, you know, it's really just paying attention,
- 14:41and again, about every two months, I'll just go down the list of all of
- 14:44them and double check the schedules.
- 14:46And usually they're, you know, there might be one or two every time I
- 14:50check, but it stays pretty consistent.
- 14:52Do any of them reach out to you or do they come to you versus you
- 14:56having to look it up and everything other than the email newsletters
- 15:00and stuff like that that come out?
- 15:01Do they come to you asking for your help, I should say?
- 15:04Yeah, I mean, obviously in the beginning, I would say in the
- 15:07first three years, not so much.
- 15:09I mean, a few did.
- 15:10But now We definitely have them reach out to us.
- 15:14They're always very humble asking, well, how, how do we get, and I'm like, you
- 15:17just give me your list, give me your list and where you want it linked.
- 15:20And, uh, I'm happy to do it.
- 15:23Which actually leads into my next question.
- 15:24Are you linking through or are people clicking through to
- 15:27motorsportreg or clubregistration.
- 15:29net or directly to, let's say, Chin's website?
- 15:32How does that work?
- 15:33You know, what's the process like once you've landed on HPD Junkie's website?
- 15:37I link to all of the above.
- 15:39Basically, each event listed, which you can look at on a calendar form,
- 15:44or you can look at it through what I call the track search, which will have
- 15:48every event for each track for the year.
- 15:50And whichever situation you can click on, and it is going to send you
- 15:54to either, you know, for instance, Chin has their own registration.
- 15:58That's where I send you.
- 15:59If someone uses Motorsports Reg or club registration.
- 16:04I know that when I'm looking at stuff online, I want it to be
- 16:07the least clicks as possible.
- 16:08Why not just send them where they need to go?
- 16:11Let's talk about chin as an example.
- 16:12We had Mark Hicks on here not too long ago, and he told us all about their
- 16:16registration process and how, you know, they've got it basically time gated.
- 16:20You know, X amount of weeks away from when the event is going to occur.
- 16:23The registration actually opens up, but a lot of us forget that.
- 16:26Right.
- 16:26And even though we're reminding our listeners of that right now, it'd be
- 16:29nice to get an automated alert to say, Hey, there's an upcoming chin event in my
- 16:33area, have you thought about signing up?
- 16:35So is that a function of HPE Junkie?
- 16:38It is not at the moment that, and probably a hundred other things that
- 16:43I would love to do that I either don't have the budget for or the time
- 16:47for, and again, I'm not an IT guy, so it's not like common knowledge to me.
- 16:53To me to you know, this is out there that you could be doing that's really
- 16:56easy, but i'm learning and you know I've got friends here and there that kind of
- 17:01will help me out occasionally with that kind of stuff So, you know as it grows
- 17:05these things will happen and and uh will expand but bottom line It's a it's
- 17:10a small budget business and I have a I have a day job so Yeah, hopefully someday
- 17:16it'll take you to the track itself.
- 17:19Well, you know, it's very fortunate because it often seems that in the
- 17:23motorsport world, there's always a sect of either engineers or IT professionals.
- 17:29And so, you know, our listenership, there's a lot of IT folks out there.
- 17:32So maybe there's some people that are interested in helping out, right?
- 17:34And writing some code and whatnot.
- 17:36I'm not volunteering myself yet, but I've got plenty of code to write on my end too.
- 17:42But let's talk about the kind of traffic that's coming through the website.
- 17:45What are you seeing on average?
- 17:47Like how many visitors are you seeing per month?
- 17:49Yeah, about 9, 000 a month.
- 17:52I would say it's like 100, 120 a year last year.
- 17:55I can't quite remember, but this year has been kind of weird.
- 17:58It was definitely slow through the COVID.
- 18:01People just weren't looking.
- 18:02You know, I, I, there was no real reason to, you know, and it did start
- 18:06to pick up once things were relaxing.
- 18:08Yeah.
- 18:09On the average it's, you know, two 50 to three 50 a day.
- 18:12I think that works out to around nine, 10,000 a month.
- 18:15So for the organizers that are out there, you know, the Mark Hicks of the
- 18:18world and, and you know, the David Rays of HOD, et cetera, and the guys over
- 18:22at CCA that we talked to not too long ago as well, is there an opportunity
- 18:26for them to go in on a self-service portal and start adding the information
- 18:29themselves to HPDE junky, or is it.
- 18:32It's still something that you have to do.
- 18:33It's still set up where I have to do it.
- 18:35You know, actually it would be great to have it that way.
- 18:38But quite honestly, I think we'd end up with less events on the website because
- 18:43you know, some of the groups are great about giving me their schedules before
- 18:46I ask, but some of them, you know, I don't mean this in a bad way, but some
- 18:51of them don't really care that much.
- 18:52I don't think so.
- 18:53I don't know that they would actually send them to me or, or, or upload them.
- 18:59So I'm kind of cool with doing it myself.
- 19:02And I guess it is what it is for now.
- 19:06Understood.
- 19:07So the scheduling part of HPE Junkie is just one facet of the website.
- 19:12What are some of the other draws of coming to the website?
- 19:15I wish I could woo you with something, but.
- 19:17You know, it really, I've actually simplified it since the beginning
- 19:21because I don't know, I just felt like that's what most people want.
- 19:25And that's what I would want.
- 19:27If I were a driver using the website, I would want it to be as
- 19:30easy as possible to find my event.
- 19:31And so I've really tried to focus on that.
- 19:35And even to the point of advertising, I don't want, you know, people
- 19:38are like, well, you should do Google ads and you should do this.
- 19:40And I don't.
- 19:41I don't like going to websites and seeing that.
- 19:43So I don't want to do it.
- 19:44So anything that's on the site, I want it to be related to the site
- 19:48and something that I would use.
- 19:49So I guess that's a bit of one is if you see somebody's link on my site, I
- 19:54recommend using them or going to them.
- 19:55And I'm sure if it grows, like I'd like it to, and like, I think it will, I'll
- 20:00continue to do more features and such.
- 20:03Very cool.
- 20:03So one of the things I noticed, you know, coming around the
- 20:06site, And checking things out.
- 20:08One of the big mottos on there is drive fast, safely.
- 20:12So how does HPD Junkie promote safety?
- 20:15You know, I think I should tell you that when we started the website,
- 20:19it probably had a slightly different meaning than I kind of see it now.
- 20:24When we started out, I, I think we both thought we would be attracting, you know,
- 20:29the new drivers and, and that was kind of a don't go out driving on the back roads.
- 20:34I, I really get bummed out by, you know, street drag racing because to me
- 20:38that it's even more dangerous because there's so many other people around.
- 20:42But it really, it, the start of it was that.
- 20:45And I guess that still comes into play because, you know, that's kind
- 20:48of how I see an HPD is it's the safest way to drive your car fast, like, and
- 20:54really get the potential out of it.
- 20:56And I just see driving on the back roads now is really dumb,
- 21:00but I guess it also, now that I've done it for a while, I see it as.
- 21:05Put your stuff on, on jack stands when you get back from the track and go underneath
- 21:09and you know, check as many bolts as you can touch and bleed your brakes often.
- 21:14And you know, that's how I kind of see it now as, as well is, is
- 21:18literally be a safe driver on the track for yourself and everybody else.
- 21:23So what is something you wish you knew as someone starting out in HPD?
- 21:28Something that, you know, looking back on it now.
- 21:31No, I'm glad you, I'm glad you asked that.
- 21:33Don't do anything to your car.
- 21:35Um, go out there bone stock and you know, I, I didn't do it.
- 21:40And I just, I don't think, you know, any better until you've done it or
- 21:44unless you've really done some research.
- 21:46Yeah.
- 21:46Cause I mean, everybody shows up.
- 21:48With coil overs and exhaust system and a cold air intake.
- 21:52And, and I did in my Z, I mean, you know, you see all the newbies showing up
- 21:56like that and then do your brakes first, because that was the first thing that I,
- 22:00I, um, butt puckered on second track day at Carolina motorsports park in the Z.
- 22:07In the rain coming down the straightaway and pedal went to the floor and
- 22:12turn one is a 90 degree left hand.
- 22:14I'll never forget it.
- 22:15And I was, I felt pretty humiliated.
- 22:17My instructor was like, so, um, what have you done to your car like mods?
- 22:22And I said, I call air intake and exhaust system and lowering
- 22:25springs and, you know, It was like, you do anything to your brakes?
- 22:28And I was like, no, it's got big Akebono four piston brakes.
- 22:33They're fine.
- 22:34So let's go back to one of the things that you mentioned earlier, which was
- 22:38you're talking about value for dollar.
- 22:39And the fact that there's a price comparison you can make on HB88junkie.
- 22:43com.
- 22:44So what do you think if you're starting out and you're looking
- 22:46at this, track days are expensive.
- 22:48I mean, let's call it what it is.
- 22:50Let's call it spade a spade.
- 22:52What do you think is the sweet spot in terms of track time for dollar?
- 22:56What should consumers be looking for?
- 22:59To me, it's all based on the track because you know, VIR rental for
- 23:03the day is three to four times what?
- 23:06A track like Ebing Road or CNP cost.
- 23:10Coda, for example, is like $80,000 a day I think it is.
- 23:16Daytona is $50,000 a day.
- 23:19You know, obviously the more it's a pro track, the more you got to expect
- 23:24to pay for it to me, what's a really good deal is if you're getting more
- 23:27than four hours total a day, you're getting a lot of track time that
- 23:33would kind of be my best judge of it.
- 23:35But pricing really, I think is pretty close between the different
- 23:38groups at the same track.
- 23:40You know, you're going to find some that are drastically higher and
- 23:44maybe one or two that are drastically low, but they're all pretty close.
- 23:48It's just probably more of a personal preference, you know, because some
- 23:52guys will like 20 minute sessions and you typically get six of those.
- 23:56Some guys like 30 minute sessions and, you know, a group will do four of those.
- 24:00So it kind of, you know, it depends on what you like, you could sit there with a
- 24:04few tabs open and compare one to another and well, this one's more expensive,
- 24:08but I'm going to get five hours.
- 24:10Track time and this one's a little cheaper and I think it really boils down
- 24:13to minutes per dollar It's kind of what you would break it down to our hours
- 24:18per dollar What do you think is a good starter track for people that are getting
- 24:22into this and getting addicted to HPD?
- 24:25Wow, I mean, I think any and it really is based on what's the closest one to
- 24:30you I think if you're starting and I guess I look at it because if you're
- 24:34starting out Probably not pushing your car to anywhere close to its limit You
- 24:39You're likely going to have an instructor in the car with you to keep you safe.
- 24:42So it's at least going to give you the chance to see if you
- 24:46like it, which you will beware.
- 24:49But yeah, I think any really any track and I mean, unless it's full of potholes, but
- 24:54they probably don't have an events anyway.
- 24:57As a track junkie or HPD junkie, you've been in this now for seven plus years.
- 25:03What has kept you going on top of just your love and passion for driving?
- 25:07Is there a piece of advice you could give a newbie to say,
- 25:10Hey, Don't do 27 events a year.
- 25:12Pace yourself.
- 25:13This is how you keep the magic alive.
- 25:15This is how you keep it going.
- 25:16Do you have any advice there to say, you know, this is really how
- 25:19you should space out your calendar?
- 25:21I guess the advice I can give is what I've kind of come to for myself.
- 25:26That I feel is comfortable.
- 25:28There were a couple of years I was trying to do spring and summer every two weeks.
- 25:32And it just wore, just wore me out.
- 25:35Um, but it wears the car out too.
- 25:37And you know, then you're, you're tired.
- 25:39You're going through tires and brake pads and oil and brake fluid faster.
- 25:42So what's been kind of the magic for me is once a month.
- 25:48And I like to start around March or early April and then quit late November.
- 25:55And part of that is towards the end of the season, I get a little burned out.
- 25:58I kind of feel like the car needs kind of a good overhaul.
- 26:02And I shouldn't say overhaul, but it needs to be checked thoroughly.
- 26:05You know, all the fluids need to be changed, checking your ball
- 26:09joints and all that kind of stuff.
- 26:10But.
- 26:11And, you know, maybe I get a little more burned out because
- 26:15I, I'm really busy at the track.
- 26:16I really try to get around and meet people and talk to people
- 26:20and, but by November I'm, I'm kind of ready for, for it to be done.
- 26:24And then it takes a couple, two, three months and, and
- 26:27then I start itching again.
- 26:28And usually that's about when my car's coming close to being
- 26:31back on the garage floor.
- 26:32And yeah, there's, there's something known as like the three year hurdle.
- 26:36Oh, and you're talking more in a long term.
- 26:39I haven't hit that yet.
- 26:40So I can't really speak on it.
- 26:42I've been hitting the once a month for probably a solid four years and I haven't
- 26:48hit it yet, but I hope it doesn't happen.
- 26:50Yeah.
- 26:51Well, maybe again, it's, it's because of a matter of convenience,
- 26:54you know, life changes, but you know, we seem to go through these
- 26:57cycles of every three to four years, especially in motorsport where people.
- 27:01Kind of like you just see new faces and the long timers.
- 27:03Those of us that are extremely addicted to the sport.
- 27:06We hang around forever.
- 27:07It seems like so Dave, is there anything that we didn't cover that you want to go
- 27:10over or is there any thing new coming out that people might be interested in for
- 27:14the 2021 season and also, you know, here's an opportunity for you to thank your
- 27:18sponsors, shout out to different people, et cetera, as we get closer to the end
- 27:22of our segment here, you know, next year.
- 27:24I will have Canada added.
- 27:26The only thing I can promise is we'll have every track day in the U.
- 27:30S.
- 27:31that we can find listed.
- 27:32And, you know, hopefully something else will grow from it.
- 27:35And I do, I would like to mention a few people that have, you know,
- 27:40really helped us get the ball rolling.
- 27:42Apex Performance, which I mentioned earlier.
- 27:44Great folks, and they've got some really good deals right now.
- 27:48You know, it's kind of close out.
- 27:50I kind of prefer to buy the five year old helmet and keep it for five
- 27:54years cause it's going to stink like hell anyway and get a new one cheap.
- 27:58So I just got a 2015 helmet at a great price.
- 28:02I know there's some other ones available.
- 28:04And if you mentioned HPD e junkie to them.
- 28:07That will give you at least 10 percent off, probably not the close out stuff,
- 28:10but anything else really great people.
- 28:12I can't say enough about them.
- 28:14Another guy that's kind of been really cool and helped
- 28:17me out a lot is Jim Tramitano.
- 28:20He runs with NASA Northeast.
- 28:22He's got a blog called no, no money, motorsports blog.
- 28:27And to me, it's like the perfect.
- 28:30Track day blog, especially for the newer crowd.
- 28:33I mean, he hits all of the really cool, you know, things you need to
- 28:36know, the tires, the little triangles on your tires, why they're there.
- 28:41Latest one came out today.
- 28:42It's like 17 things to know about your brakes.
- 28:45And I scanned through it, all great information.
- 28:48G Lock brakes, been good to us.
- 28:51Lockton Motorsports has been really good to us.
- 28:54Another one that I don't think a lot of people know about is tracklapse.
- 28:57com.
- 28:57There's a link at the bottom of our, our homepage.
- 29:00It has all the, it's just data of different guys track times across the
- 29:05country and all the different tracks.
- 29:06So you can either like compare what you're doing or post yours and watch
- 29:10videos of other people that track.
- 29:12I think it's a pretty cool resource.
- 29:14And, um, you know, he, he's kind of been one of those guys that's
- 29:17been with me since the beginning and just a really nice guy.
- 29:20Yeah.
- 29:20Visit the partners.
- 29:22They're at the bottom of the homepage.
- 29:23I wouldn't have them there if I didn't think they were
- 29:25worthy of, um, an HPD reader.
- 29:29So what else about HP junkie?
- 29:31Do you want to tell the audience or tell us the floor is yours.
- 29:36Wow, you kind of caught me off.
- 29:38This must be the trick question.
- 29:40Those are coming, don't worry.
- 29:43You know, I guess I just want people to know that, you know, we're trying to
- 29:47give an honest thing back to the sport.
- 29:48You know, we don't really get a lot from the website.
- 29:51We get some perks.
- 29:52We're not getting rich by any means.
- 29:55It's finally where we're not coming out of pocket for it.
- 29:58Again, you know, it's kind of like back to the advertising and the ease of using it.
- 30:01I just really want to provide Trackday HPDE World with an easy way to find
- 30:06events and Be as comprehensive about having everything that's out there.
- 30:12And, and I get a lot of emails that, Hey, thanks for, for what you do.
- 30:15And so for now I feel like I'm doing what I can and just trying
- 30:19to do the best I can at it.
- 30:21Absolutely.
- 30:21I was going to say, we hear a GTM fully approve of what you're doing because
- 30:26we often say all the time that this sport is a sport of convenience and
- 30:30you're not looking to, Oh, I have to run with PCA or I have to run with.
- 30:34With HOD or chin or whatever you're looking for, who's going to be
- 30:38at this track at this day, and then I'm going to run with them.
- 30:41So I think what you're doing fits exactly with what a lot of the
- 30:45people that do HPDs are looking for.
- 30:47And I think it's going to help, or it has helped bring new people in just because
- 30:51you've simplified it so much for us.
- 30:53I mean, it's simple to go to your website, pick a date that you want to run.
- 30:57And that's, who's running on that date.
- 30:59I think it's perfect.
- 30:59I think it's great.
- 31:00Thanks, Brad.
- 31:01And, you know, I, that was my goal.
- 31:04You know, I looked at it like everybody knows the tracks they want
- 31:07to drive, so we have that option of, I want to go to VIR this year.
- 31:13Well, here's 30 options, you know, and you can click on each one of them
- 31:18and compare the prices and, you know, whatever makes you happy, how much run
- 31:23time you get, whatever it might be.
- 31:25Then I also looked at it like, well, there might be a guy that is really busy and he
- 31:29finds out he has this particular weekend open and he lives on the East coast.
- 31:33What's going on on the East coast.
- 31:35So, you know, at least you got the two options of, you can check it either way.
- 31:40So Dave, I can't thank you enough for coming on.
- 31:42It's been super educational and I'm hoping that, uh, HPD Junkie.
- 31:48In the future to correlate all that scheduling information and get their
- 31:52schedule planned out for the year, because like we say, and we've said
- 31:56often register early and register often.
- 31:59And the easiest way to get to that information is through
- 32:02a site like HB junkie.
- 32:03com.
- 32:04Where you can check out what is close to you.
- 32:06And it is a really unique way of searching out those track
- 32:10events that are close by to you.
- 32:11So again, Dave, I can't thank you enough for putting that type of
- 32:14service together for the community.
- 32:16It's a huge give back and it is definitely something that everybody should be
- 32:20checking out if they haven't already.
- 32:22Well, thank you very much for saying that.
- 32:25Thank, thank you as well for having me on your, uh, podcast.
- 32:28It, it's been great talking with you.
- 32:30Something I wanted to add really quick when you said about register early is I,
- 32:35I couldn't agree more because the more the hobby grows, the faster they're gonna
- 32:39fill and there's so many, only so many racetracks and so many days in the year.
- 32:43Exactly.
- 32:44And you know, that's that's been part of our mission since 2014 is to continue
- 32:48to spread motorsports enthusiasm.
- 32:50And that's in all facets and all disciplines, right?
- 32:53Because if we don't continue to spread all these tools and all this knowledge
- 32:58and the enthusiasm behind motorsport to the next generation or to people that just
- 33:03didn't know and they got cars collecting dust, not being driven the way they were
- 33:07intended or the way they were built, Yeah.
- 33:09Yeah.
- 33:09Yeah.
- 33:09Then the sport dies, right?
- 33:11So it's very important that we continue to evangelize all of this.
- 33:14And I don't want the sport to die because I hate golf.
- 33:19I need something to do on Saturdays and Sundays.
- 33:22And I, I don't like golf.
- 33:24It's boring.
- 33:25Me either.
- 33:26And on that note, I think it's time to end.
- 33:28So thank you, gentlemen.
- 33:29We will talk again soon.
- 33:31Thank you.
- 33:36Hey listeners, did you enjoy this particular episode?
- 33:39Did you know you can learn more about what we just talked about
- 33:42by visiting the GTM website?
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- 33:48episode, be sure to log on to www.
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- 33:57From all of us at GTM, never stop learning.
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- 34:23We'd love to hear from you.
- 34:24Hey listeners, Crew Chief Eric here.
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