Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / From Pit Lane to Purpose: How VETMotorsports (Peter Cline) is Rewiring the Veteran Experience Through Racing

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From Pit Lane to Purpose: How VETMotorsports (Peter Cline) is Rewiring the Veteran Experience Through Racing · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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Break fix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from
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all over the auto sphere, from wrench turners and racers to artists, authors,
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designers, and everything in between.
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Our goal is to inspire a new generation of petrol heads that wonder.
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How did they get that job or become that person?
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The road to success is paved by all of us because everyone has a story.
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For years now, GTM has participated in community charity and philanthropic events
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like SCCA's Helmholtz off to heroes.
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And last season we were introduced to the team from vet motor sports.
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An organization that, since 2013, takes veterans with service connected injuries
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and places them in the motorsports teams as a non clinical therapy program.
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With us tonight is Peter Klein, Executive Director and Founder of Vet Motorsports,
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to explain how all this works.
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And as always, I'm your host Brad.
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And I'm Eric.
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So let's roll.
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So welcome to Break
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Fix, Peter.
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Hey, thanks for having me.
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And I want to thank everybody for tuning in to the show.
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Greatly appreciated.
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And thanks for having us on.
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Absolutely.
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So tell us about Vette Motorsports.
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Where did you guys come from?
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What's the backstory?
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What's the secret origin story here?
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How did this all get started?
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So the origin story for me is I used to race motorcycles.
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I guess you would call pro am or semi pro.
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Um, I've always been a gearhead though.
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Like when I was growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, love muscle cars, um,
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was a big, am still a big Ford guy.
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That's how I got into it.
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Just, I loved vehicles and cars and I started doing track days in
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2004 and got seriously injured.
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I had a closed head injury, but at that point I figured, what's
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the worst that can happen?
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I've already screwed myself up and wrecked my motorcycle.
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I'm going to go racing.
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Right.
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So now we're just going to go racing and go from track day to racing.
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So it's probably like the guy who went out to a track day for HPDE program
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and hit the wall with his car and said, Oh, at this point, I might as
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well just go racing at this point.
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And this is back in 04 and it was a little bit different
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back then than it is nowadays.
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You know, the internet had just started getting involved in motor sports
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was really a word of mouth thing.
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So maybe you knew somebody that had gone racing, or if you were.
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In the motor sports social club, you know, or new people that
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had cars or motorcycles, that's how you kind of got involved.
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And so that's what happened to me.
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I started out with vintage motorcycling with Arma, and then I went to
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Wira, which is a sanctioned, both are sanctioning organizations.
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And just kind of progressed from there.
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But I did notice, uh, I reviewed your TEDx talk and you were featured on a Ohio
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based TEDx, and you talked about this story about a veteran friend of yours
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who texted you and it kind of inspired you and shot you off in a new direction
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where we are today with VET Motorsports.
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So do you want to elaborate on that story a little bit?
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How we got involved with veterans is I had the opportunity to go and race
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in AMA Pro, which is now Moto America.
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For most amateur or pro am races is really kind of the pinnacle, right?
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That's the, the creme de la creme, the, the top of the pile.
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And they had a Harley Davidson spec series at that time.
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And so I had some sponsorship money and I was also at that time watching top
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gear, the original top gear, not the new top gear, but the original top gear.
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And they had a segment on top gear about some UK soldiers that had
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come back from Iraq, Afghanistan.
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I remember that
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and they were trying to qualify for the Paris to Dakar rally.
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So they were, I think at the time racing or competing in a modified Volvo
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SUV or something along those lines.
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And that was the first time we got to see the Stig without his
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helmet on, the same episode.
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You know, it's a 20 minute blurb within Top Gear.
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And I kind of thought to myself, why can't I do that with my racing
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team, as it were, you know, I'll call you parentheses team, you know,
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hand quotes, air quotes around team.
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Why can't I create this thing, this event, this experience that kind of
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takes everything that I've accumulated since 04 and kind of bring it together.
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And a little more background between 04 in 2013, when I went and did this
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Harley Davidson spec series, I had.
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Experiences with MotoGP with a wildcard team at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
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I had been a race official with USAC and FIM for MotoGP for a
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couple of years doing tire control.
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I had been a race official with Wira for a couple of years.
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I had gotten third in the country in Formula 2 on an underpowered
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Super Motard in Formula 2.
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Nationally, I think that was 08.
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And had been doing track day coaching for the super bike KTM school at mid Ohio.
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So I had all these accumulative experiences that I felt that I could
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share, not in like a, Hey, kids get off my lawn kind of vibe, or, Hey,
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let me tell you how it was done a back in my day vibe, but more of,
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I think I have something to share.
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Because I felt that if we could create this experience as a pit crew, for those
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that never would have been given the opportunity, it could be transformative.
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So I reached out to some veteran organizations, nonprofits, who
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really thought I was off my rocker and ended up selecting a nonprofit.
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And, uh, we had a phone conversation and they came over to the house and we
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talked and they figured out it was legit.
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And we went off and running.
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And so my first professional race with AMA pro and the Harley Davidson series.
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We did a fundraiser for that nonprofit, raised a bunch of money.
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I qualified for my race.
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I finished, I didn't end up in the hospital and, uh, it was a success.
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The guys had a great time that were with the team.
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Um, I brought some people over to manage my team so I could race that I,
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you know, it's trying to race and do a fundraiser and manage the vets and
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all that, it could have been completely distracting, but I had some great people.
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I brought over to help manage the program when I was doing it for the weekend.
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We knew we had something special.
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Cause everybody that was involved really had a great time and
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really love the opportunity.
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So that was really kind of, you know, the framework of how we got
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to where we were in the beginning.
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And then we just carried it forward.
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We got more money to go race at Indianapolis motor speedway.
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The Harley Davidson series was brought over during the MotoGP
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weekend as kind of a, I wouldn't say a sideshow, but it was a support race.
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And I got the race at Indy on the old F1 track that MotoGP was using.
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I qualified 20th, but unfortunately in the last five minutes of
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qualifying, I ended up in the sand trap and broke my collarbone.
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And that was it.
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I was done at that point.
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And we had brought in veterans to be within our team to crew for me.
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And what was great is all the other teams took him in and basically treated him
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like they were one of their crew members.
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And then.
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Um, Yeah.
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From that point forward, I couldn't race anymore, at least for that
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year, because of my injuries.
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And we went to the next race in New Jersey at NJMP and did the same thing, except
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now we were providing crew members for other teams in the Harley Davidson series.
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And we kind of walked away from that.
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And I mean, we, I refer to myself in a third person crazy sense that I knew
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that we had something at that point, but how are we going to harness that?
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Right?
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How are we going to use that this momentum that we had gained?
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And we got more sponsorship money to race the next year.
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The reality was, is I was not in any physical condition
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to, to race a motorcycle.
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The injuries that I had sustained were much larger than what I previously had.
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I ended up destroying my knee.
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So I'd have ACL surgery.
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I'd suffered a concussion, you know, I'd broken a collarbone.
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Broken a rib behind my scapula.
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So, I mean, I was still healing up from that event.
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You know, we joke a lot that, you know, motorcycle riders are on a whole nother
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level of, of the send it philosophy compared to us four wheel folks.
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Yeah.
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And really I had to make a decision about racing.
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And I think we all come to that decision at some point in our life.
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Mine just was accelerated.
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Uh, at that point, what I came to was this is I could still do the pit crew thing.
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With this limited amount of money that we were given to go and race and be
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known for this guy that had this really cool project until the money ran out
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and be done with it, or I could take that money and create a nonprofit.
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And from that point, it could be something greater than the
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sum of the individual parts.
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And so what I did is we formed a nonprofit.
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I got a whole bunch of people on board that were much smarter than me.
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And we went forward and that's, that was in 2013.
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And we really haven't looked back since then.
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And so the, really the concept of it was how can we create a
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transformational experience to the military community that allows them
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to be exposed to motor sports as.
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A possible vocation as a possible social circle as a, uh, a way for them
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to understand that adrenaline anxiety, all that's normal, especially when you
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put it in a motor sports environment.
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Right.
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And I think as racers or people that are involved in motor sports that are
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listening, they'll understand that, but how can you reduce that barrier?
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And create a point of entry for people that want to understand
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what motorsports is about, but just don't know where to start.
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And that kind of taps into the beginning of the conversation about
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when I first started, I didn't know where to go and how to turn to.
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And so even with the internet, even with, uh, all the things out there that you can
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go to on Facebook and social media about trying to get involved in the racing,
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it can be an abyss for a lot of people.
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And especially for those in the military that want to
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figure out how to get involved.
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That was how we started.
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And this is kind of where we end up at, at this point.
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So it's really interesting to hear your whole story and how you got from where
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you are to where, where we are today.
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So is vent motor or sports?
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Awesome.
9:54
Yes, it is.
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Thank you for asking.
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And I'm glad I can share that
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with you.
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Let me back this up.
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So we had this opportunity in 2014 to go to Pike's Peak with Ducati.
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And this was lined up through a mutual friend of ours.
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You know, I'm a gearhead, but I'd never been to Pike's Peak.
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I didn't know much about Pike's Peak as the hill climb, but I did know
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that asking to be involved with a team that was sponsored or working with
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directly with Ducati at the time was in a prison, pretty amazing thing.
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So I would consider that event like a tier one event for our participants,
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meaning we had to handpick people that we know that we could send out there.
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Or be involved that we're going to be reliable.
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And so I went out, we had a Marine from the wounded warrior regiment that still
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lives in the Denver, Colorado area.
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Come out with us.
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We had two Marines come out from Ohio, both are purple heart recipients.
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We put them on the mountain for, I think like 10 days, you know, we were
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up at, well, I think we were out of the hotel at two or three in the morning in
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a van, driving to whatever designated point we had to unload the motorcycles.
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And then we were testing, you know, For a two or three hour,
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maybe two or three hours at best.
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And it was cold as hell.
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And then as soon as the sunlight was coming up, you were rolling
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the wheels and then you were done and you were back off the mountain.
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By like 10 a.
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m.
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And then working on the bikes or making dinner or doing laundry or whatever.
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I mean, you were done by that point.
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So what did come out of that was a shared experience between everybody,
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between the Marines that I was with myself and the team, and it
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was extremely transformational.
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For me, because I got to see over a longer period of time than just a race
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weekend of two or three days, a 10 day experience or seven day experience and
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very adverse conditions with some people that really did some amazing things.
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And I think one of the things that.
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I saw and that I struggle with and not necessarily struggle with, but that I
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see other veterans deal with is that if you're coming out of the service and
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let's, you know, just because you have that label of specialist or corporal
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doesn't mean that that label that you had in the military is going to define you.
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I think, and I call myself an optimist in this case is that you've got to shed
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that, even though that's what you were in your previous life in the military,
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you can shed that and really reach your potential to do something else.
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If you take a risk.
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And that's what really came out of that weekend became real close with
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both Marines, you know, I've lost touch with one and then I've recently kind
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of lost touch with another, but, you know, they felt comfortable in their
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experiences that they came to me, you know, in time of need to talk or, or
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to make sure that everything was okay.
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I mean, they are really good guys and we kind of have that shared
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bond from that experience, even though we don't talk right now.
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So, and I think we'll always be connected by that experience.
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Yeah.
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So Pete, are you a former serviceman yourself or what's
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the connection back to veterans?
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Uh, no, I never served.
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My stepdad was second ID.
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He was in Korea at the DMZ during the Vietnam era, which some
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people call the second Korean war.
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It was a pretty tense over there at that time.
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My grandfather, I was in the army air corps during world
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war two doing pilot training.
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He never went overseas or was never deployed overseas, but did pilot
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training, I think in California.
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Uh, my other grandfather served during the occupational forces
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during world war two in Japan.
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So there is this small connected service history, part of my
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family, but never served.
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But I wanted to do something within the military space.
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Cause I felt not only.
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I felt this connection for some reason, and I, and I can't
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really put my finger on it.
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It's very noble.
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I mean, I've been, I've personally been supporting the military for over 20 years
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now and I haven't served either, but you know, I tip my hat to everyone that has,
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and I, I thank everyone for their service.
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And that's why we're engaged with events like helmets off to heroes.
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We engage with organizations like yours for philanthropic reasons because we do
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want to give back and we have that long lasting connection to the DOD as a whole.
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So.
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How do you connect motorsports to veterans?
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How did, how did you bridge that gap?
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Let's go back to that question.
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Let me just say that when we first started out the nonprofit, there was
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a lot of miscues and missteps, like with trying to interact with veterans.
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And I think veterans or military can be extremely distrustful of the media.
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They're very loyal.
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Loyalty and service are very high up there.
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And so when working with the military, a lot of it is about trust and
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it's about building that trust and building that repertoire or that
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conversation with somebody that you're going to work on a weekend.
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And there's clearly questions that you don't ask.
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For those listening, you know, you know, how many people did you kill?
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Or, you know, there's some really asinine questions that you can throw out there
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that really can alienate, not only you and make you look like a complete idiot,
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but those people don't really want anything to do with you at that point.
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You know, my approach has always been, someone's here to have
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a great time in motor sports.
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We're going to show them a great time.
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We're going to provide them a quality event.
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And you know what, if they want to talk about their service history, Great.
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If they want to commensurate with another veteran that's participating in our
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program or maybe they're with the club or whatever, that's really what it's about.
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But it's about creating that kind of social environment where
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they're acclimating themselves to civilians and understanding that
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their adrenaline can be controlled.
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But back to the original question, working with veterans has, it's been difficult
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because again, I don't know, have that vernacular, that vocabulary, that shared
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experiences that a lot of veterans have.
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And it's not.
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A shared experience from the deployment perspective, although that really does
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come into it, especially if they've been a combat deployment, but I mean,
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there's even on the most basic level from bootcamp to advanced training,
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they all have that kind of shared experience, even if they were never
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put in a, in a combat situation.
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So it's trying to understand the language.
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And the talk and the presence of that, and that just takes time.
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That's something that you're never going to pick up right away.
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Yeah.
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And you refer to that in your Ted talk as the language of trust.
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So were you able to find overlap between the motor sports world, especially
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coming from the motorcycle world with veterans, where you could build that
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connection and build a bridge between them and start to, I guess, you know,
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In some ways you do mention in your Ted talk, it's all about the team.
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It's about being part of something about building something.
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So you want to elaborate on that a little bit.
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Again, we're talking to very general things here.
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So I don't want somebody that's listening to this to think that
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I've got it all figured out, right.
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How to speak a language to veterans or whatever, but there are some common
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things that I've observed in working as a civilian in the veteran space,
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this language, as you know, most.
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Veterans want to have a purpose.
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Most people want to have a purpose.
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They want to have a mission.
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They want to be able to trust the people that they're around.
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They want to have a camaraderie.
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And I think when people that are in the service come out of the service,
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they miss those things, right?
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And there's a huge gap between the civilian world
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and the military world, right?
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In the military world, everything's black and white.
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There's As far as orders and missions and commands.
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And there's this, uh, you know, sense of purpose and that really kind of
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gets eluded or lost when they come out.
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And so what we found when we integrated the military and veteran community into
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motorsports is that for those that have you or that are listening, that are.
17:34
Race, whether it's a car or motorcycle or tractor or whatever, right?
17:38
You have all that.
17:38
You have a race schedule.
17:40
You've got a tech sheet.
17:41
You've got more than one person working on the car.
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You've got anxiety.
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You've got adrenaline.
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You've got all these things that really kind of were in the
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military shoved into this one, two or three or even 10 day event.
17:56
In motorsports, right?
17:58
And so that was the connection for us.
18:01
You have in a very simplistic term, you have a population of people that are
18:06
looking to fill this void that they had in the military, which was camaraderie trust.
18:12
Adrenaline mission, sense of purpose and motorsports does that now to be
18:18
pretty clear, it's not for every person that comes to our program, right?
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Not every person that comes to us is going to walk away from a motorsports
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event and say, you know what?
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I really want this.
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This is what I want to do.
18:31
I mean, there There are some people leave our events.
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Some people walk out, they'll participate, and they walk away and they're
18:37
like, you know, that's not for me.
18:38
And that's fine, but at least they came out and they tried it.
18:40
They were able to get out of the house.
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work through whatever anxiety they may have had for the event, participate
18:46
with civilians and other veterans, and then have a great time and then decide,
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you know what, this wasn't for me.
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And maybe out of that, what comes out of this participation is, you know what, I
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did this, so I can definitely do this now.
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Or, you know what, I did this, I didn't like it, but maybe I want to go do that.
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Hopefully the program's a catalyst for those that come out to try something
19:08
different if they didn't like this.
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Ideally, we want them to be involved in motor sports.
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That's at the best at the worst.
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They came out of the house and they were able to go in and experience
19:20
something that they didn't have prior.
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That is the kind of the big dichotomy shift right now is the aging demographic.
19:26
And can some of the traditional brands stay on top?
19:31
And much like it is in motor sports and car racing, you're seeing this Exodus of
19:38
talent because they were Vietnam or Korean era guys that had money that were spending
19:44
them on cars and going car racing.
19:45
So how do you infuse, and that's kind of what motorsports does is how do
19:50
you infuse this younger generation, this younger talent to get involved
19:53
in the motorsports, whether it's motorcycling or car racing or whatever.
19:56
Right.
19:57
And so that's an opportunity for people, right?
20:00
It's this crisis of.
20:02
This vacuum is happening with the, these people leaving the sport, uh,
20:07
they're aging out, but it's also an opportunity for people to create
20:11
pathways for people to get involved.
20:13
And that's kind of what we're trying to do at the same time.
20:15
Absolutely.
20:16
And we talk about it a lot within our organization, you know, this
20:19
whole concept of fellowship, right?
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And, and we're, we're not a small organization.
20:23
We're not huge either, but we do house a lot of former DOD and actually,
20:28
currently enlisted folk as well.
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And so, you know, when we're in an event together and we travel in large
20:34
numbers and something goes royally pear shaped, it's amazing to see the vets
20:39
and the DOD guys step up right away.
20:41
They go into action.
20:42
There's not a lot of talking.
20:43
Everybody's got their, their role and responsibility and
20:45
things get done quickly.
20:47
And, you know, oftentimes people have said, man.
20:49
They look like a pit crew, right?
20:51
And we've had some things break and things go wrong and people crash and whatnot.
20:54
But it's always very calming to know that you have these everybody's
21:00
there to support each other.
21:01
And I think to your point, a lot of people miss that.
21:04
And so I think you're doing a great thing.
21:06
And it resonates 100 percent with what we're doing.
21:09
But I also want to expand upon it.
21:11
What that motor sports offers.
21:13
So you have like two different kinds of programs from what I can
21:16
tell and correct me if I'm wrong.
21:17
There's a pit crew outreach program, and then a behind the wheel program.
21:21
So do you want to explain what those two are and how people get involved
21:25
and what the expectations should be?
21:26
Yeah.
21:27
So for us, we started in motorcycles and I, and you know, that's how
21:31
I cut my teeth as a racer and that's how the program started.
21:35
You know, we actually started working with Triumph North America and we were able to
21:38
get a Marine hired into their team as a full time mechanic, uh, when Triumph was
21:43
racing motorcycles between 2014 and 2015.
21:46
So for us, You know, for the listeners out there, the population that we
21:51
service is any veteran from any era with a service connected injury, any
21:57
active, Guard or reserve military member or any gold star family member.
22:04
And so, you know, we expanded the program to encompass the majority of
22:09
people in the military, plus a guest.
22:12
You think that you want to be involved and you fit into that
22:15
population that we're serving.
22:16
Or even if you don't, but you know, somebody that is in that service
22:19
population and you want to get involved.
22:22
We can probably accommodate you.
22:24
All I have to do is reach out and we can let you know if
22:25
you can participate or not.
22:27
Our pit crew experiences, they're across the board.
22:30
So right now, we've done stuff in Formula 2, Formula 3 with SCCA.
22:36
We've done stuff at the Baja 1000 with MAG 7 and Warfighter Made.
22:41
We've done stuff with NASA and some late model teams.
22:45
We've done land speed racing with the Garage Shop based in North Carolina.
22:50
They've been with us for forever.
22:52
And we've actually, some of our veterans have land speed race.
22:55
Records with them and we just got it involved into vintage drag racing which
23:00
into itself is this completely different I mean for those that drag race drag racing
23:06
is a culture into itself, but especially vintage drag racing So those are our pit
23:10
crew experiences and they can range from one day to three days And what we'll
23:16
do is we'll solicit for participants.
23:18
We have a registration page that people can go to.
23:21
We have all of our events from pit crew to behind the wheel, and they
23:26
can see if they want to participate and they can go and we'll do some
23:31
verification of service history.
23:32
If they've never been with us before, connect them to the team
23:36
and they get to be with that team for whatever period of day or days.
23:41
Working on the vehicle or being with a vehicle and hanging with
23:43
them and doing whatever duties that the team assigns to them.
23:46
And they don't necessarily need to have mechanical background or aptitude,
23:50
although that's nice, but they just need to be willing to show up and be on
23:53
time and be there for the team and just kind of experienced the whole event.
23:59
So how do you go from the guy that's checking tire pressures
24:01
and moving the tires around the paddock to the guy behind the wheel?
24:05
So the behind the wheel program.
24:08
We've had a couple opportunities recently.
24:10
We had a land speed opportunity and the driver of that card, actually, the car
24:16
was lent to him by one of the members of the East coast timing association.
24:20
So thanks Andy, for that.
24:21
He was able to set a land speed record, but he was a pit crew guy for
24:25
the garage shop, and so this Marine.
24:28
Came to us.
24:29
We gave him a pit crew opportunity.
24:31
He was looking for a career opportunity.
24:33
He's got one now with this team.
24:35
And then that transferred into getting behind the wheel of this
24:37
car to do a land speed run and actually hold a land speed record.
24:41
It's not that complicated for somebody that just wants to come to us.
24:45
So we typically.
24:46
Do autocross events with the sports car club of America.
24:49
We're actually, one of our biggest supporters is the SCCA foundation.
24:54
They provide us funding to get people involved in autocross and other SCC
24:58
activities, such as road rally track night in America, that type of thing.
25:02
What we try to do as an organization is again, lower that barrier for
25:07
those that want to get involved.
25:08
So if someone comes to us and says, I want to get behind the wheel, We have,
25:13
I think at least nine national programs right now for autocross across the U
25:17
S it's typically more, but with COVID right now in the current situation,
25:21
it's a lot of that's been cut back just due to social gatherings and all that
25:27
stuff related to COVID we'll provide a car we'll provide in car instruction,
25:31
helmets, pay for the entry fees, and we'll put them in an autocross.
25:37
Event with other veterans and with our program managers.
25:41
And we'll, for a day, we'll get them behind the wheel and just do autocross.
25:45
Um, we've done stuff down at MSR Houston with James Rogerson.
25:50
We're actually doing a hand control car now, or he's doing a hand control car.
25:54
And if somebody wants to get their race license and they need a hand
25:58
control car due to their, uh, catastrophic injuries, or if they can't
26:02
use their hand, uh, hands or feet.
26:03
There's a way that the car is set up now where they can go and get behind the
26:07
wheel and do wheel to wheel racing or wheel to wheel and get their race license.
26:12
It's not a stretch to go from pit crew to behind the wheel.
26:16
There are two different paths because we understand, at least we as the non
26:20
profit, as Vet Motorsports, understand that not everybody Wants to race a
26:24
car or has the ability to race a car.
26:27
Some people just want to work on a car, right?
26:29
These people, these veterans, these military personnel that come out,
26:33
have great mechanical aptitude.
26:35
And so they want to work on vehicles and being part of that team.
26:38
Others want to get that adrenaline rush, but by beginning behind the wheel.
26:41
So we offer these two different paths, you know, the behind the wheel one.
26:46
And the pit crew one, we have some motorcycle stuff as well
26:49
for riding in North Carolina.
26:51
That's what we have.
26:52
So there's a lot of opportunities for vets to get involved and you go participate
26:56
in these programs and everything.
26:58
Do you have any ways for non vets to get involved if people just want to help move
27:02
through donations or if they just want to donate their time or there any type
27:07
of resources that they may have to help you all out to help you help the vets?
27:11
Do you have things for that?
27:12
That's
27:13
a great question.
27:13
And we are for the listener out there, a 100 percent volunteer based organization.
27:20
So even myself as the CEO, I don't get paid.
27:23
Our executive board doesn't get paid.
27:26
Our voting board doesn't get paid.
27:28
Even our program managers nationwide don't get paid.
27:31
So if somebody is listening to this.
27:34
Civilian or military and they want to get involved.
27:36
We are fueled by one donations and they can donate on our page to Volunteers
27:43
that want to help manage programming or be involved in the veteran community
27:47
and that's what makes it happen So we have what's called a street team.
27:51
We use that phrase, uh back from the 70s In 80s, uh, the indie music scene
27:57
had people that would go out and promote bands and that kind of thing.
28:00
I don't know if I got off topic there for a second, but so we have
28:03
people that's called a street team and they're our program managers.
28:07
Those are the people that just want to run stickers on their
28:10
car to promote what we do.
28:11
Those are our donors.
28:13
Those are the people that have gone to the well and drank it and believe in it.
28:17
And they think that this is as transformational to the military community
28:21
as we think it is, and we know it is.
28:23
And they just go out there and spread the gospel as it were.
28:25
That's awesome.
28:26
And if you're looking for coaches, you can always call
28:28
us because there's a ton of us.
28:30
They were always willing to help out.
28:31
So let us know, especially if you're, you know, in the DMV area or we
28:35
run on a ton of different tracks.
28:36
So it sounds like it's pretty easy to become part of the VET Motorsports team.
28:39
Go to the website, fill out a form, you know, some
28:41
verification checks and whatnot.
28:43
The bigger question for a lot of people that might be new to this and they
28:46
might be wondering is, Are there fees?
28:49
Are there costs?
28:50
Who should they reach out to for more information?
28:52
You know, some of those other details that may help lower the bar a little
28:57
bit more, lower that barrier to entry.
29:00
If somebody wants to get involved with that motor sports, we would
29:03
ask them to go to vet motorsports.
29:05
org O R G.
29:07
And we have a contact us.
29:08
Page there or forum and they can send us a message about
29:11
getting involved from that point.
29:13
The ball just gets rolling and we, you know, asking where they live.
29:16
And we don't really ask for anybody's service history up front until we
29:20
actually confirm them into an event.
29:22
So, if somebody just wants to have a casual conversation about getting
29:25
involved or volunteering or donating, or whatever the case may be, that's
29:29
where you're going to do it at.
29:30
We also have.
29:31
On our social media couple of forums, you know, we're on instagram so you
29:35
can send us a message on instagram We're at that motorsports there.
29:39
We're on facebook At Vet Motorsports, and you can contact us there as well.
29:44
So we try to have these different social media platforms to not only
29:48
share our stories, but for people to reach out to us and to get involved.
29:52
From there, they can just ask all the questions they want.
29:54
Try to make it pretty clear on the webpage, but understandably,
29:57
some people want to have that personal interaction as well.
30:00
And then from there, we just try to figure out where to route
30:01
them to the best opportunity.
30:03
And then costs or fees or anything like that?
30:05
How is that managed?
30:06
No,
30:06
no, there's no, there's no annual fee.
30:08
There's no, you know, cost as far as we're going to charge them for anything.
30:13
We try to cover all the costs for the event upfront.
30:16
And, uh, from entry fees to food to water, it just depends
30:20
on the nature of the event.
30:21
I mean, right now to be pretty upfront money's pretty tight strictly because
30:24
of COVID and donations and, and whatnot.
30:28
Um, but we're going to try to try to cover as much of that cost as possible.
30:31
Ah, that's awesome.
30:33
Is Vet Motorsports regional, a little more local, or are you guys reaching
30:38
out nationwide to set up these different types of events and people get connected?
30:42
How does that network work?
30:43
With us setting up events, We work on a lot of different levels.
30:48
So, you know, you mentioned earlier about how can people get involved if they're
30:51
not in the military or if they are in the military as a donor or as a volunteer.
30:56
For us to set up events nationally, we have a volunteer base for the autocross
31:02
program with the SCCA foundation where they manage three to four events a
31:09
year and we allocate them a budget and they just host the events and so that's
31:17
I think in currently in nine states.
31:19
When it comes to the pit crew experiences teams come to us, With
31:24
some opportunities, or we have an established relationship with some people.
31:28
We know their schedule and we'll go and put it out there.
31:31
And sometimes opportunities just come to us out of the blue.
31:33
Like we talked earlier, I don't know if it'll be on this pod in this segment,
31:37
but we talked about, you know, going to Laguna Seca and being involved with Mazda.
31:41
I mean, they just called us right.
31:42
And so we were able to go out there and facilitate that or
31:45
with Ducati at Pike's Peak, or.
31:48
You know, fill in the blank.
31:49
Some of the other opportunities that we've had, we have had some amazing
31:52
opportunities from a national perspective.
31:54
We have a set base of people that we interact with.
31:57
And then people, some organizations or some clubs or some teams will come to us.
32:02
The one off, you know, our first thing with drag racing this year with, uh,
32:06
the great lakes nostalgic drag racing association was an amazing opportunity
32:10
for races working on vintage funny cars.
32:12
Right.
32:12
And then with the mag seven thing at Baja, they'll come to us and say, we
32:16
have an opportunity for some vets in California if they want to go to Baja.
32:20
work in a neutral pit environment.
32:22
They'll work on any vehicle, so we set up a schedule for those that
32:27
we work with on a regular basis.
32:28
And then if we're presented a quality opportunity that puts the veteran or
32:33
military member in the best position to succeed, we'll We're going to
32:36
take that opportunity as well.
32:38
Excellent.
32:38
I just wanted to make sure that people understood that they could call you
32:40
from Hawaii or Georgia or New York or whatever, and say, Hey, Pete, I
32:45
want to do something with veterans, or I want to be part of a team.
32:47
I am a veteran, et cetera, and know that it's just not at mid Ohio or wherever.
32:52
Right.
32:52
So that's really good to know.
32:53
And that's great information for everybody that's out there that may be interested.
32:57
Well, I want to add to that too.
32:58
I also want to make it pretty clear.
33:00
I don't want to leave people to stray that are listening to this, right?
33:03
Vet Motorsports can't be an end all be all for all veterans, for everything, right?
33:08
So, If someone comes to us in a location that we don't have a
33:13
program in, we may turn them on to a different nonprofit that maybe can
33:17
give them what they're looking for.
33:19
We are constricted as a nonprofit by like any business, any other nonprofit
33:26
by a monetary constraint, by a time constraint, by volunteer constraint.
33:31
So if you come to us, And we can't do something for you.
33:35
We probably can turn you on to somebody that can help you out.
33:39
And so I just want to be pretty clear on that.
33:41
So if people are beating down our door to get in and have an event and we
33:44
can't do it, I don't want them to be disappointed because we're not there,
33:48
but we'll do our best to maybe put you with somebody that can help you
33:51
out or provide an experience for you.
33:53
So if I want to find.
33:55
events specifically, where would I go to find that?
33:58
Would I go on the website?
33:59
Would I look on motorsports reg?
34:01
What's the best way to see a list or a schedule of what's upcoming for the year?
34:05
So the best way to find out what we do is we actually just
34:08
staple flyers to telephone poles, like bands did in the eighties.
34:12
And then no, I'm just kidding.
34:13
I'm not doing anything like that.
34:13
So yeah, you want my mixtape, my hot rock and mixtape.
34:18
We have an, uh, what's called an event, right.
34:21
So there's this platform called Eventbrite where people can post up
34:25
events and they can register and whatnot.
34:27
And so if you go to Eventbrite and type in Vet Motorsports, our stuff's going
34:31
to come up and we're going to list all of our events nationally there.
34:34
So Vet Motorsports on Eventbrite, you go there, all the events will be posted.
34:38
And we do have a capacity limit for certain events.
34:42
In some events we don't necessarily Post because we do have I guess what you would
34:48
call tier one events where we're going to hand select Past participants for a unique
34:54
opportunity based on their reliability.
34:56
If you go to our webpage or if you go to Eventbrite, we'll have opportunities
35:01
posted there and just sign up if you're interested in attending.
35:04
I'm throwing it out there.
35:05
Cause I, I guess I'm looking for input, which we're going to do an iRace
35:09
fundraiser over Armed Forces Week.
35:12
So we're going to do, the concept is we're going to run it through the SCCA.
35:17
There's a guy that's doing the unofficial SCCA iRacing.
35:20
So we're going to do, I think the concept is going to be a qualification
35:24
and race using one of the free tracks and cars that's offered on the platform.
35:30
So you don't have to buy anything, but the entry fee will be a donation.
35:33
And then you get to represent a branch of the armed services.
35:37
And so we'll have all fires.
35:39
And then there'll be winners for the race, and then based on a cumulative
35:46
scoring, like a manufacturer's points kind of thing that you do
35:50
for nascar, but for the military.
35:52
So whoever the top runners are combined, out of all the field of people that
35:57
we run, that'll be the top rant of the military represented that weekend.
36:01
Okay.
36:01
So we're going to just
36:02
doing one, one race, not a series of races.
36:04
We're going to do qualifiers and then a race.
36:08
So we're going to have, I think capacity at some of these tracks is 60.
36:12
So what we want to do is like three qualifiers.
36:15
And then we're going to take the top, whatever, and then
36:18
they will be in the main event.
36:19
And then we may have an LCQ or something like that.
36:22
We're going to sort it out.
36:23
Got it.
36:24
Okay.
36:25
I want to keep it simple, but I want to make it complicated.
36:29
I'm not sure.
36:29
So it's
36:30
just like our virtual racing league, super complicated.
36:33
I don't want to make it complicated.
36:34
I want to get people involved and donate to the cause, but I want to make it fun.
36:39
It'd be like a golf outing, but worse.
36:40
Um, do you have questions after you go to eventbrite?
36:44
Motorsports, you can send us a message as well.
36:47
The one thing I do want to talk about for those that listen is, you know, we
36:50
get a lot of people that come to us and veterans and military community and, Hey,
36:55
I want to get involved in motorsports.
36:57
I want to have a career in motorsports.
36:59
And there are some programs out there.
37:02
I think, you know, the Andretti family has a motorsports program, and
37:05
there's some other programs as well.
37:08
But what I would tell those that are listening that want to get involved
37:11
in the motorsports as a vocation is, um, there's a couple of things.
37:14
First off, you have to kind of put yourself out there and have
37:18
the kind of personality to go and meet and talk to people about.
37:21
Hey, can I do this?
37:22
Or can I do that?
37:23
You have to understand that even if somebody says no to you, the next thing
37:27
you should really ask them is, uh, you know, Hey, I know you're saying
37:30
no, but you know, somebody that, may be interested in helping me out.
37:34
I think some of the frustration from the veteran and military community,
37:39
you know, I have this skillset that I developed, you know, while I was
37:42
serving, you know, working on tanks or combat vehicles or trucks or
37:47
whatever it can, it does cross over.
37:49
I do think that for those wanting to get involved, in a crew perspective,
37:56
there needs to be a better pathway for them to get involved.
37:59
And I'm not saying, I mean, we've done direct hire for triumph and we've done
38:04
some hiring and some other teams as well, but it's like a secondary after
38:09
effect for lack of a better term.
38:11
It just happened by chance, right?
38:13
Or the opportunity was created more importantly, the opportunity was created
38:17
because the veteran was really willing to kind of put themselves out there And take
38:21
a risk by showing up to our events or even putting themselves in that position and.
38:27
It's hard for those listening to understand how important that is
38:32
that you do need to take a chance, but it also to to understand the
38:36
reality of being involved in a team.
38:38
I think a slight misconception by some that it's romantic
38:43
and that it's glamorous.
38:45
I mean, and it does have that kind of a lure to it, right?
38:47
You're on the road and you're traveling and around fast cars and
38:50
occasionally probably a pretty good looking woman is a, your umbrella
38:53
girl or whatever the case may be.
38:55
Right.
38:55
But it's also a lot of work.
38:57
I mean, you're at the track eight to 10 hours, you're possibly rebuilding a car.
39:01
And again, that replicates the whole military.
39:04
Background of dedication and teamwork, but there is a serious amount of time
39:09
commitment in being involved in a professional team from a, not only
39:14
at the track, but in the shop when you're not at the track and travel.
39:19
And I really.
39:20
Want to convey that during this, this interview to those that really want
39:25
to make motor sports a vocation, you know, I want to summarize that too,
39:29
but you need to create opportunities.
39:30
Now you can come to us and create opportunities and which we can try
39:34
to put you in the right direction.
39:36
I think the best thing that people can do is just go out and experience it.
39:40
Either through, if not our program, other programs and see
39:42
if it's something they want to get involved in and then go from there.
39:45
Um, but that's something I really wanted to talk about because we've
39:47
had these conversations with race teams, I've had conversations with
39:51
veterans and military people, you know, there's really no program right now
39:57
that really provides a straight path.
39:59
And it goes back to the early part of the interview too, where there's this huge
40:03
vacuum of people leaving motor sports.
40:05
Not because it's not profitable, but because they've aged out, right?
40:10
There's a lot of talent that kind of came in after Vietnam that is now leaving.
40:15
And so there's always going to be a need.
40:18
For people to be mechanics, to be involved in IndyCar, to be involved in NASCAR,
40:23
but you've got to find that there's got to be a pathway that is a little more
40:26
clear cut than just kind of throwing darts in the basement with no light
40:32
on trying to hopefully hit the mark.
40:33
The one thing that I do want to stress in working with the military
40:37
community, and especially for those listening right now, is that everybody
40:42
has the ability to do amazing things.
40:45
And I can tell you right now through personal experience and working with other
40:51
people that suicide is not the answer.
40:55
And for those that have contemplated it or considered it, who think that they have
41:00
no value or that problems are not worth working through, I can tell you right now
41:06
that I would ask those that need help to seek it through their family or through
41:12
their church or through fellow veterans.
41:15
The conversations may be difficult, or you may think they're difficult.
41:21
The release that you will get through talking through your problems and
41:26
talking to people that you can trust or earning people's trust will go a long
41:30
way to helping resolve those issues.
41:33
Maybe some of the pain you're going through and maybe some of the
41:36
issues that you're going through.
41:37
I'm not going to sit here at the end of this podcast and
41:40
tell you that I've been there.
41:41
I haven't been there, but what I can tell you is that those thoughts and
41:46
those actions, you can work through them.
41:49
You've just got to be patient and that people understand that
41:52
people do care that you stay here.
41:56
And I want to make that pretty clear at the end of this,
41:58
uh, of, of this interview.
42:00
Absolutely.
42:01
I agree with that.
42:01
And you know, it's kind of interesting.
42:03
I think there's an extra or in there.
42:04
You mentioned church and this and that.
42:06
I think the extra war in there is motor sports because I've often found, and it's
42:11
been demonstrated without provocation that motor sports is cathartic, right?
42:15
Even though you're in the paddock and maybe you're changing tires or
42:18
you're, you know, changing an axle for the hundredth time, there's these
42:22
conversations that just start and feelings get expressed and emotions, whatever.
42:26
And guys just You know, we have a hard time opening up to each other and not
42:29
saying it isn't just guys alone, guys and guys, but he is, but there's something
42:37
about working on a car, working on a vehicle, being part of that team, that
42:40
the barriers drive, it just invites conversation and invites, like you said
42:44
at the beginning, that camaraderie, that fellowship, as we describe it, where
42:48
you get closer with your teammates.
42:50
And so you learn more and you're able to kind of just let go of things.
42:54
And then there's always the, the extremely.
42:56
Therapeutic part of just cursing at the car until you've run out of
43:00
expletives, because that is extremely relaxing, at least on my part.
43:04
So there's something to be said.
43:06
There's something for everybody in motorsport.
43:08
Right.
43:08
Right.
43:08
I mean, that's, what is that?
43:10
Uh, it's called a mechanics Tourette's
43:12
a hundred percent,
43:13
a hundred percent.
43:14
Um, so yeah, I, I wanted to say that cause I think it's, you know, you, you nailed
43:19
it motorsports does provide that, but I do think that, you know, we provide that
43:25
Other organizations can provide that.
43:26
But I think when the rubber hits the road, no pun intended, if you are
43:30
seriously considering harming yourself or others, I do think there are
43:34
definitely resources that you can tap into that can get you through that.
43:38
Although you may not think.
43:40
They're going to help.
43:41
They do.
43:42
Right.
43:42
So I guess you had some other questions, things you want to wrap up with.
43:46
Is there anybody you want to thank or shout outs or anything you want to do?
43:50
Other sponsors, et cetera.
43:51
Yeah.
43:51
So there are some people that I definitely want to thank and they're numerous.
43:55
So I'm going to do my best here to recite this.
43:59
List of people.
44:00
And if I forget anybody, I apologize.
44:03
Certainly that is not the intent.
44:04
So here it goes.
44:06
So I definitely want to thank the SCCA foundation and the SCCA
44:11
incorporated sports car club of America for supporting our programming
44:14
over the past couple of years and committing themselves to us for 2021.
44:19
Um, we could not ask for a better partner.
44:21
I want to thank the garage shop and everybody over there,
44:24
especially Aaron Brown for.
44:27
Uh, bringing on Mike, the Marine, and providing him a land speed opportunity.
44:32
I want to thank Black Flag Motorsports for logoing up their car, doing
44:38
grid life with our logos on their car, and also, uh, Champ Car.
44:42
I want to thank Sean Clifton, Special Forces, a part recipient
44:46
for being our brand ambassador along with auto interests.
44:50
For providing us novice bootcamp opportunities for new drivers to
44:54
get on track with HVDE programming.
44:56
I want to thank, Oh my God.
44:58
There's so many people that like logo up their car.
45:01
I want to thank Steven, Don in Atlanta for logoing up his late model.
45:04
I mean, that thing looks super boss with our logo on the hood.
45:07
I want to thank everybody at one lap of America that raced
45:10
with our logos on their car.
45:12
Um, I want to thank everybody that's donated, especially to our programming.
45:16
80 percent of what they give to us as a donation goes directly towards what
45:22
we do, you know, our average event per event cost is about 550 bucks, not
45:26
accommodates for veterans and for guests.
45:28
And, uh, you know, it's a life changing experience for them.
45:31
So all the teams.
45:34
All the donors, all the volunteers, anybody that's running our sticker on
45:38
their car, even their daily beater.
45:40
If it's a, you go to the get, you know, to the grocery store running
45:43
a, uh, a decal, which is free by the way, if you email us, thank you.
45:48
So Peter, I want to thank you.
45:49
And I can't thank you enough for coming on our show, spreading the word.
45:53
The message, you know, this is something that really resonates with us at GTM.
45:57
You know, we've been volunteering with window warriors, helmets, up to heroes,
46:00
et cetera, for many, many years now.
46:02
Again, we have a lot of people in our organization that are currently enlisted,
46:06
you know, former DOD veterans, et cetera.
46:08
So this hits really close to home for us.
46:10
Really cool that an organization like that motor sports exists in the first place.
46:14
So this is really awesome.
46:15
So I want to thank you for coming on and I want to remind everybody that vet motor
46:19
sports is an award winning nonclinical outreach program that honors and empowers
46:25
the military community through their active participation in motor sports.
46:29
So to learn more about that motor sports, visit their website, V E T motor sports.
46:35
org, or search them on Facebook.
46:37
And you can also email vet motorsports at gmail.
46:40
com.
46:40
So again, Pete, thank you so much for coming on the show.
46:43
I want to thank everybody for listening and super appreciative
46:45
for the opportunity to speak.
46:47
Hopefully we can get back on, uh, at a later time.
46:50
We could talk, uh, heavy metal.
46:52
I rock Camaros in Cleveland.
46:54
Absolutely.
46:55
Cause Cleveland rocks.
46:56
Cleveland rocks.
47:03
If you like what you've heard and want to learn more about GTM,
47:06
be sure to check us out on www.
47:09
gtmotorsports.
47:09
org.
47:10
You can also find us on Instagram Also, if you want to get involved or have
47:16
suggestions for future shows, You can call or text us at 202 630 1770, or send us
47:23
an email at crewchief at gtmotorsports.
47:25
org.
47:26
We'd love to hear from you.
47:28
Hey everybody, Crew Chief Eric here.
47:30
We really hope you enjoyed this episode of Break Fix, and we wanted
47:33
to remind you that GTM remains a no annual fees organization.
47:38
And our goal is to continue to bring you quality episodes
47:41
like this one at no charge.
47:44
As a loyal listener, please consider subscribing to our Patreon for
47:47
bonus and behind the scenes content, extra goodies, and GTM swag.
47:52
For as little as 2.
47:54
50 a month, you can keep our developers, writers, editors, casters, and other
47:58
volunteers fed on their strict diet of fig newtons, gummy bears, and monster.
48:04
Consider signing up for Patreon today at www.
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patreon.
48:07
com.
48:07
patreon.
48:08
com forward slash GT Motorsports and remember without fans,
48:13
supporters, and members like you, none of this would be possible.