Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Morgan Performance Group & GT Celebration (Rob Morgan)

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Morgan Performance Group & GT Celebration (Rob Morgan) · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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BreakFix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from
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all over the autosphere, from wrench turners and racers to artists, authors,
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designers, and everything in between.
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Our goal is to inspire a new generation of petrolheads that wonder.
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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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Unparalleled passion for sports car racing is what GT celebration is all about.
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Founded by Rob Morgan, president and CEO of Morgan Performance Group or MPG for
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short, he worked to build this racing series from the ground up, utilizing both
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experience and passion with one mission.
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Deliver a unique racing platform for drivers and teams to compete
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in a safe, adrenaline filled, unforgettable environment.
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MPG features dozens of manufacturers and a wide range of race cars that
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compete in one of four series.
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And he's here tonight to explain how it all works and joining me as co host
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is Charlie Stryker from Max Track Time.
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So I want to welcome you both to break fix.
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Thank you for having me back on Eric.
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Thank you.
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Glad to be here.
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Thanks for having me.
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Eric, Charlie, Charles, not sure what you go by, but yeah,
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thank you guys for having me.
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So like all good stories, there's always a beginning.
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So Rob, tell us about the who, what, when, and where of you,
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Rob Morgan, the petrolhead.
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How did you get into cars?
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How did you get into racing?
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Did it start as a kid?
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Did you come from a racing family?
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My mom said the first word I ever uttered was car.
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It's imprinted in my DNA.
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Car, motorcycle, anything with wheels.
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I love cars, love racing, grew up around it.
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My dad actually started in motocross in the 70s.
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Ended up blowing out both knees and ended up going to four wheels.
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I'll jump ahead a little bit and say that's actually
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when MPG was first founded.
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Morgan Performance Group is actually what he raced under when he started doing
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SCCA and uh, M-A-G-T-U and Es Dawson.
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So, yeah, so I grew up around it, grew up at the racetrack, a lot of trips
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in the motor home to the racetrack, and it was just an amazing experience.
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Not only did I love the cars.
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And love everything.
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I couldn't wait till I could drive them myself, but it was just fun because
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that's what we did as a family as well.
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If I'm not mistaken, I detect a little bit of a Southern accent there.
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Did you grow up in NASCAR country?
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Well, I did believe it or not grew up in Arkansas.
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So I would definitely say that's NASCAR country for sure.
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But I, I didn't drive in NASCAR till.
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After a lot of years, sports car.
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So my dad race sports cars.
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I grew up racing sports cars.
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That was always what I wanted to do.
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Not much road racing going on in Arkansas back when I drove.
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There wasn't really Cardi.
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In Arkansas, I mean, there was probably a little stuff, but that
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didn't interest me at the time.
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So I didn't really start driving until 1992.
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I went to driving school at road Atlanta the month after I graduated high
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school, and then entered my 1st person, fire, later, so kind of thrown to the
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walls, but my dad always had the theory that instead of going from an 80, C.
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C.
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2 stroke.
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Might as well go straight to the 2 50.
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My racing career was in cars was pretty similar.
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So I went from doing Firestone Firehawk to jumping right into
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an MCGTO car like a year later.
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So, yeah, I was racing New Orleans Grand Prix street race.
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I think it.
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19 years old when I went NASCAR racing, it was the same way.
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I mean, I'd never driven any ovals, definitely not a short track, which
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was quite the experience doing it for the first time, but went straight to
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doing the truck series, did some races with Kevin Duran and David Dollar who
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ended up being my partner later on.
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But in 1997, I raced a Ferrari 333 SP for a full season.
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And then.
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About five or six truck races.
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So I don't think you can get much different and the cars that you're
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driving prototype pickup truck.
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So it was fire hose.
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Yeah.
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So you mentioned going to school and racing at the same time.
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That had to be hard because obviously you need to study at some point and
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all the races are on the weekend.
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And if you're super committed on the big stage, it's a week long
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affair for some of these races.
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And it's hard to just drop in, arrive and drive and go.
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I mean, some people do it, you know, they have that talent.
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They have that ability.
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Was school the building block for what became MPG?
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What did you go to school for?
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My degree is in marketing management from the university of Arkansas.
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I was lucky enough to have a lot of good pledge brothers that when I was
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going off racing, they were taking good notes and I could stay fairly
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up to date with what was going on.
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But yeah, I mean, we would leave typically.
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On a Wednesday afternoon, and I would miss Thursday, Friday, for sure.
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And then depending on when we got back, sometimes a Monday, but
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yeah, it was tough, but that was always the deal with my parents.
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It's like, okay, you can race, you can follow this dream and do this.
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But our caveat is you got to get a degree first.
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I mean, you'd have to have a degree to keep doing it.
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So if you grew up in the golden era of sports car racing, as we like to call it
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around here, who were some of your heroes?
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Who were some of the people you were looking up to during those times?
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I always love John Paul, Jr.
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The transition from, let's say, the 935 to the prototypes was always
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just incredibly interesting to me.
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And I just thought the prototypes were may came out the March and 962 and
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some of these other cars were just, I mean, they look like spaceships to me.
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And then to go to walk and squint and before the bus stop, watching
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962 go down the back straight away and the little whistle that
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it does when you shift the gear.
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I mean, it would just give me goosebumps.
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Yeah, sounds like you have a bit of a driving background there.
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And so how did you end up making the transition from being a driver to starting
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a series back in 2001 when I stopped driving and the craftsman truck series
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full time, I started a company in Orange County, California called true speed.
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True speed when I started, it was basically just pre own sales of
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specifically air cool courses and it was kind of before they were cool.
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I mean, everybody sells them and they're worth a ton of money now, but I started
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down 2001, focusing on the 9, 9, 3, specifically turned into quite a business.
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The euro was so strong to the dollar 06 to 08.
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God, I was selling 30 cars a month to Germany.
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We were selling the car so fast.
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I started my own service department mainly for our own cars, which turned
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into clients, which turned into getting a 27, 000 square foot facility.
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And then I was like, well, I'm doing sales and service to
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street cars, let's do race cars.
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It's a logical conclusion.
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Yeah, especially it's an opportunity.
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Maybe get back in the seat.
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Right?
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So, I started that for North America is in Santa Ana, which was close to where I was.
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Went and met with those guys at the time, the program I wanted to put together
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was just basically buy and portion cup cars, refurbishing them through
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portion motorsport, North America.
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So they get the seal of approval and, you know, you're
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buying a good car at the time.
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He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, we'll do that.
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Then they said, well, what we'd really like you to do is start a premier
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track side service for cup car owners.
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Southern California, so that's kind of what started true speed motorsports,
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which is still around sold it to my GM back in 2013, they're located
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out at the thermal racetrack now.
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But, yeah, so I actually went from driving to team owner to sponsor to actually
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in 2017 did work for world challenge.
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I was a class manager.
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Work for Greg Gill and those guys.
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And from there, and just, I saw an opportunity, it started with the GT
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three cars, continue to grow it today.
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We've had Greg Gill and a lot of other people on the show.
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So I'm really kind of interested to compare and contrast GT celebration
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and some of the other classes against your experience, obviously
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in IMSA, but also in world challenge.
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So what facilitated starting up a whole nother sanctioning body of racing?
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You know what?
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It's a great question and it, and it was very calculated.
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So with my experience with True Speed bought and sold a lot of
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three cars of course, but we ended up doing a lot of race cars.
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I mean, I bought and sold probably a hundred race cars during that period.
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And then when I went to work for World Challenge, I noticed that,
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okay, the new generation of the GT three R comes out the dot two.
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Well, to race and pro racing, you got to have the latest and
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greatest to compete and to win.
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And so these.
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1 cars are still absolutely amazing cars.
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There's no reason they should be put to bed.
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And so they were ended up in gentlemen, racers hands.
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With the growth of social media and everything else, I see all these cars.
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And I'm not taking anything away from NASA or SCCA club racing, but when you
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got a $400,000 GT three R racing against or on the track with a Mazda Miata, I
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mean, the right front corner of the GT three R costs what the, the Miata costs.
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So I put myself in those.
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If I were to be able to be in a position to buy one of those cars.
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Would I not want to race against light cars?
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So that's kind of where the concept came from and providing them a fun
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and that's the key word of fun.
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Because none of these guys have to do it a fun, but professionally run series
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where these guys, because these guys are obviously all very successful.
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Well, to do like, things structured and so that's basically where the
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idea came from was given these.
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And I used to always say this when I was starting it, the guy you're racing
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against knows what the car costs.
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The guys you're racing against knows what it costs to get the
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car prep to get to the racetrack.
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And most importantly, he knows what it costs to fix it.
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And our guys, a lot of them, they could be running them.
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So they could be running SRO.
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They definitely got the funding and the ability and some of them, like I
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say, some of them do have the ability, but just don't want the hassle.
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You know, you mentioned professionally run.
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So a thing that I was interested to hear about, how do you guys
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handle the homologation and the BOP?
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Do you stick pretty close to how it was back in this series
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that they were running before?
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Or do you have your own kind of setup of rules?
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Nick Lester is obviously my partner.
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It was a porcumiter for, for many years in Honda and GM.
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He is the technical side of things, but I'm, I'm technical
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enough to, to understand what we need to do to make it fine.
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Right?
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And so there's no way you're gonna B-O-P-A-A 2012 Audi R eight GT
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three to a dot two, GT three R.
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So, what my idea was, and Nick's drawn the line in the sand where these cars are
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divided, but we have a red and a yellow.
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So there's a split there just because of the generation of the car, the 2012 are a.
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Is running against the 997 GT3R, which that alone makes it a lot easier.
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And it's obviously for all models.
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I'm just using the Porsche and Audi just because I'm more familiar.
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But then we also, we have this saying, we want to make tech fun again.
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We know we have to manage and balance these cars somehow, because they
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were never meant to be run uncorked.
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I mean, if you run a GT3R against an uncorked Evo Lamborghini.
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It would be a joke, so we have to do something.
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But 1 thing we do is we kind of start look at what SRO and
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answer doing as far as baseline.
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We don't dive deep into the details.
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What we do is we do a way a minimum ride height and restrictors.
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And that's it.
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Allegation question was always the one that was interesting to me.
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Cause I don't, you know, like for the P3 car, for example, if you're testing, you
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got to move the camera back from where it's homologated to B& M so that you
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can actually see the driver's hands and whatnot, and then move it back to the
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race, you'll get a safety infraction.
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Have you relaxed any of those rules specifically around the cars to
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allow people to Service the car that they want to have, I don't want
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to say it's run what you brought.
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I mean, it's definitely an LMP 3 homologated car,
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preferably 1st generation.
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We will allow the new ones, but we're also letting the Orica, the old
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LNPC open cockpit cars run with us.
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So that's our prototype class.
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And then we have a prototype light, which is for revolutions,
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radicals and stuff like that.
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What I said earlier, let's make tech fun again.
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We're not here to make people jump through hoops for no reason.
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Quite frankly, as far as like, you mentioned the cameras.
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I mean, yeah, we want to forward facing camera.
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We would love a rear facing camera just because if things do happen, but no, we're
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not going to get into the minute details.
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1 thing I've always said is this is going to morph into whatever it morphs into.
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Some of that stuff may be needed down the road.
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We may have to get a little more strict and we may have to
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change things and which is fine.
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But if it's for the betterment of the sport and of the
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series, we're okay with it.
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If it's just do it to do it to say, we can do it.
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No, that's not how we do things.
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You know, with a lot of these cars, you know, recently out of
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homologation, they were running on a spec tire, kind of strict rules.
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Do you guys have an open tire rule or how do you guys manage that?
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We're sponsored by Pirelli.
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Couldn't do it without them.
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They take really good care of us and quite frankly, the early days
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went to a lot of races and supported us when they shouldn't have.
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Just renewed with them for another few more years.
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The GT Celebration, Cup Celebration, M2 Celebration, all run on the Pirellis.
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Pirellis.
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1 thing we've noticed with the LMP cars is a lot of those guys don't like running
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the Pirelli's on them for whatever reason.
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Pirelli claims that, and I'm sure the right set up needs to be drastically
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different from running on a Michelin, but we just don't want that to be a hiccup.
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So our prototype class, and then also to with the revolutions and the radicals
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has a tire for it, but it's in Europe.
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And so we'd have to bring them all over here.
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So, to try to motivate people to come over and try us out in the class, we
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just felt it was best to leave that open and a ratio and everybody really
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North America, but in Europe was nice enough to allow us to do that.
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Which they didn't have to, so we really appreciate them doing that.
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At the end of the day, they succeed if we succeed.
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They looked at the bigger picture, and even though they may not agree with our,
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where our mindset is, they allowed us to do it, which was very nice of them.
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If somebody's cheating at this level, it's like, there's no
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reason for you to be there.
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But it's more about having fun.
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But we also take the liberty, as well as, we want it to be
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fun and exciting for the guys.
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We don't want.
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An Andy Wilsock, a Brent Martini to just lap the field, which they can do
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sometimes, because those are two guys that can definitely race in the upper leagues.
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But the guys that are maybe not as experienced, have good cars,
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putting the time in, go to the races.
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We may help them out, help them with restrictor, help them with weight.
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And it's mainly just to keep it more exciting for them.
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We want them to come back.
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I'm not saying we're going to let them go 30 miles an hour
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faster down the straightaway.
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That's not what we're trying to do, but it's our goal to have the whole
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field come by within a legitimate amount of time and not the winner's
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already in pit lane and the last place guy is crossing the finish line.
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So Charlie segued right into talking about.
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The logistics of the program itself.
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So let's unpack that a little bit more and talk about how
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the MPG series is broken down.
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There's obviously four different classes in there, but you mentioned
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even within your GT three class, you split between a red and a yellow.
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You're talking multi class in the same session, or is there a run group
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specifically for red and one for yellow, or how does this all break down?
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How does a day of racing play out?
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What we did at our last event, Dakota is kind of a prelim of what
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we're going to be doing this year.
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1 thing we did, we've noticed Nick and Kelly and I is for this series to grow.
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You got to have a different product.
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You can't just have 1 product running on the track.
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I mean, you're limited as to how much that can grow.
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So we realize.
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Over the last few years that having our own product, developing our own product,
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controlling our own weekends is key to grow in this and making it successful.
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Let's use celebration because that's at this point now,
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it's just a class within MPG.
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So celebration is GT 3 cars, red and yellow GT 4.
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And we're considering now with all the new GT 4 cars coming out,
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eventually splitting those as well.
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1st generation Afton Martin sure as hell can't keep up with the new GT 4 Cayman.
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There's just no way.
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I think that's down the road, but we can see that coming.
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And then what we've done the last 3 years, it will run.
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When we do have prototypes, we've run the prototypes with the GT cars.
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We've moved on from that, and now we're going to have a prototype celebration
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class, a cup celebration class.
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Some events we're going to do into celebration, the BMW 2.
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so that's mainly West Coast.
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A typical Friday is 340 minute sessions.
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Saturday Sunday is the same schedule, which is a 30 minute practice 20 minute
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qualifying and then a 40 minute long race.
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With the prototypes, it's a little different because a lot of those drivers
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also have pro coaches like Colin Braun and Matt Bell and some of these other guys.
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So we want to find a way to incorporate those guys into coming to some events
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with their drivers that they coach.
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So, Saturday event for the prototype will be a 50, 60 minute Enduro.
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The gentleman will qualify it.
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The pro will start it.
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But the thing is, the pros got to bring the car back in one
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piece for the gentleman driver.
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So that's why we did that, because you put the pros in at the end of the race,
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might not have all the cars on Sunday.
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You partially answered my question.
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I was going to ask if you guys were ever considering doing
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something like an Enduro format.
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Are you guys ever looking at doing any sort of special events where you run along
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with another series or something like, you know, like F4, F3 will go and run with
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any car at a time or something like that.
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Is that on the radar at all?
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A little bit, I mean, our our road Atlanta event is with formula drift and
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so it has been for the last 3 years and it's actually an incredible weekend.
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I mean, they'll bring in 30 to 50, 000 spectators for that event.
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You go through the festival area road Atlanta before
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you come back down the hill.
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I mean, they've got 10 set up.
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The drivers just love it.
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Because they actually feel like somebody is there to watch them.
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And then after the race, a lot of the fans come down to our paddock and look
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at the cars and get exposed to it.
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Something they don't see every day.
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So we've done that a little bit.
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We tried to do an event at Sebring a few years ago, the week before the 12 hour.
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It was with MSAL and P3 and we were going to be a support event.
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We couldn't get the traction.
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Kind of find out.
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We just think with IGT and PCA that's going there that time of year.
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It's just.
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Seabirds overdone, but, yeah, we've had some opportunities to go and do that.
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I mean, we run with the use that guys Porsche sprint challenge from time to
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time really like working with those guys.
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Great group of guys.
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But as far as big time events, probably not.
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And here's why it's because, like I said earlier, a lot of our guys.
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Most of 'em for that matter, could, like I say, do SA or SRO, but they choose
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to run with us because it's, you don't have the jacked up hotel prices, you
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don't have all this crazy security.
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They go, they have fun, they race against their buddies and it, it's just a low
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key weekend, and that's what they enjoy.
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All of this is really exciting.
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And so I like the fact that you're giving the opportunity for some of these older
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cars to still come out and play and folks to be able to utilize the investment
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that they've made in these cars.
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So my question is how old is too old?
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You know, you mentioned driving.
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The trucks and then a 333 SP, if somebody was willing to ensure
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something like a 333 SP to come out and run and prototype, is that allowed?
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Or is there like a minimum age that these cars need to hit to be allowed
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to run in the, in the different series?
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No, it has to fit within that window with that type of car, that type of class.
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With the prototype edition, we've been asked, well, can we do Daytona prototypes?
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Well, at the end of the day, we have to be able to police it.
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And we also don't want it to look like a run.
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What you brought, we want the cars to look similar, be similar,
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have similar performance, and that's where I was talking about.
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If we got to split classes up based on the age of the car, then we'll do that.
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I mean, we all need car count, right?
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But at the same time, you got to stick to what the series was founded
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on and what's bringing the customers there and why they're interested.
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I mean, we're getting a lot of LMP 3 interest from guys that have been doing
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HSR and some of these other classes because they're taking their LMP 3 cars to
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these events, but they're classified with.
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LMP two and LMP one.
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I mean, they've gotta beat an LMP one, Audi to . You know, the podium,
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you've gotta draw the line somewhere.
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It's gotta fit into that mold.
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And the GT classes obviously make sense.
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GT three, GT four, like you said, some of the older GT two cars by today's standards
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are probably as fast as a GT three car, even though there were class ups.
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So I'm sure you guys make exceptions for all that.
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But I'm really curious about the cup class.
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Is that specifically relegated to Porsches or do you have like M four
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competition in there, maybe some S fours, other vehicles like that, that may be
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competed in world challenge back in the day, what qualifies for cup classing?
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I'm going to use next terminology.
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It's as delivered from Porsche.
21:43
However, we don't have any affiliation with portion motorsport North America.
21:49
And I don't want this to sound bad, but quite frankly, don't want to.
21:52
And the reason I say that is because there are so many cars
21:57
that have had engines rebuilt by autometrics out of South Carolina,
22:03
not rebuilt by portion motorsport.
22:05
Well, that car that's had an engine rebuilt by Gordon and those guys can't
22:10
run in a Porsche sanctioned event.
22:12
And to answer your question, we're going to go from a 997.
22:14
2 to a 992 cup is our window, but the engine doesn't have
22:20
to be sealed by Porsche.
22:22
The gearbox doesn't have to be sealed by Porsche.
22:24
It's given these guys another place to go run.
22:27
And some of the mindset behind it was once autometric started racing
22:32
with us pretty much full time.
22:33
They've got a very large contingency that they take to these bigger events.
22:39
Road America, for example, there would be 70 cars.
22:48
And it's gotten to be pretty physical.
22:50
It's not quality track time, which is what we provide and what we pride ourselves on.
22:55
It's not only a lot, but quality.
22:56
I mean, the most part of me, you want to put on Laguna 25 to 30.
23:01
I'm not going to sell a 40 car field at Laguna.
23:03
I mean, we're just not going to do that because it starts
23:05
taking away from the product.
23:07
What we're doing is giving these guys another option because if you have a 991.
23:11
1, pretty much the only place you can race it is NASA or some other type of
23:17
PCA, POC, but just giving them another place to go look at, to go run the car.
23:21
Going back to the race weekend, you mentioned, you know, when you partner
23:25
with, let's say formula drift, you know, you have tens of thousands of spectators.
23:29
What's it like for a spectator coming to an MPG weekend?
23:33
Are there spectator fees?
23:35
Are the races televised?
23:37
Like, what would somebody expect going there for the 1st time?
23:41
So we are starting to get traction.
23:43
I mean, like I say, we're going into our 4th year.
23:45
We do have people that either look at our website or follow the tracks website
23:50
that we're going to see that we're coming and we get quite a few emails about.
23:54
What the costs are, but no, we don't charge a gate fee.
23:57
The track may, it's something like the Formula Drift.
24:01
They don't charge a gate fee to get into our paddock.
24:03
We're in the old paddock outside the front straight.
24:06
But most all of our events are come hang out.
24:10
Check it out.
24:10
Did have an incident.
24:11
We were at VAR with USAC.
24:12
The track was getting so many people coming out and wanted to see it
24:17
that the track started charging.
24:18
Of course, USAC and us, we didn't see a penny of that, but we don't care to.
24:23
And then as far as the TV, I mean, we would love the live stream.
24:27
It's not as much for sponsors, which we do have some.
24:31
Also, we're going to be announcing some new ones, some pretty nice
24:35
ones actually come in the next few weeks, but it's mainly for these
24:38
guys to say, hey, tell their buddies.
24:40
I'm going to race my car this weekend.
24:41
Check it out on this YouTube channel or what have you.
24:45
It's mainly just another avenue to build interest and keep this thing going.
24:50
Sounds like the big impetus behind a lot of this is to give guys a fun
24:53
place and experiential place to race.
24:55
Is there any sort of hospitality or anything provided by the
24:58
series to kind of elevate that?
25:00
We have a very nice 53 foot transporter that we take to the events.
25:05
One side is hospitality, the other side is for tech.
25:08
We always have a, uh, Either a Friday night or a Saturday night
25:11
beer and wine party with food and some races we barbecue for everybody.
25:16
Like, because the formula drift thing we run during the day and then
25:18
they run at night what we'll do.
25:20
I think it's Saturday night.
25:21
We do it.
25:22
There is we'll do a barbecue have fun, have some drinks and then everybody
25:26
will go in the golf cart or whatever and go over the formula drift thing.
25:30
But we're not far long enough yet to have a typical Ferrari challenge
25:34
or a career cup type of hospitality.
25:37
Definitely looked at it.
25:39
Yeah.
25:39
And it's definitely something that's interesting.
25:41
It's a whole nother event in itself.
25:43
We're a small organization.
25:45
It's full time.
25:46
It's me, Nick and Mallory Kelly pops in every now and then.
25:50
But yeah, we're a small organization and we've got a business office, but
25:54
it's for the most part, we're doing what we can do to keep this thing
25:58
rolling between really the 3 or 4 of us.
26:01
I host test events where I offer catering and all that stuff, and I hear you 100%.
26:04
The second you add hospitality in, it's a whole other level of community for sure.
26:08
It is, and it's nice, and we would all love to do it.
26:11
It's just, you've got to have somebody full time just taking care of that.
26:15
And that actually raised another interesting question.
26:16
So it looks like you've got some really cool tracks here lined up.
26:19
I'm seeing Apex Motor Club, you've got Spring Mountain, you've got Sonoma,
26:23
Utah, which I love that facility.
26:25
And it looks like I saw Flat Rock, I think, somewhere on there.
26:28
Yeah.
26:28
What goes behind your track selection there?
26:30
Fly Rock's interesting.
26:31
I'll get into the other ones as well, but we've been talking
26:34
about our Road Atlanta event.
26:36
At Road Atlanta, we're also with Global Time Attack and we see this
26:40
guy out there running his Cayman GT4 and we walked over to him and said,
26:44
hey, why don't you come race with us?
26:47
And he goes, well, I've never done wheel to wheel.
26:48
And then we kind of Kelly talked to him a little bit and
26:51
understood what his experience was.
26:53
And we said, well, why don't you come around with us?
26:55
He's like, okay.
26:56
And actually brought 1 of his buddies to, and it was rusty Bill, who is
27:00
actually the guy that's doing the track.
27:02
We knew that track was coming quite a few years ago, actually.
27:05
But, yeah, that's how that came about.
27:08
Rusty's been a good supporter of ours, and I think it's going
27:11
to be an amazing facility.
27:12
I think they're doing it the right way.
27:14
Little concern.
27:15
They're having supply chain issues and some weather issues.
27:17
So I hope that doesn't.
27:19
Throw a kink in it, but we're excited about it.
27:21
Everything else is destination at the end of the year.
27:24
We put out a questionnaire.
27:25
Where would you like to go?
27:26
I mean, some of the places you're just, you got to go to.
27:29
Right?
27:29
I mean, you got to go to Laguna and red America, which we're
27:32
not going to either this year, but there's stories behind that.
27:36
But, yeah, there's just places you got to go to.
27:38
We got a lot of feedback and people wanting to go to Watkins Glen.
27:41
So we're going there.
27:42
Obviously, people love, so we're going to go back there.
27:47
Laguna, which is my favorite track with their repaid and rents for we
27:53
quite frankly, couldn't get a date because we have to run unlimited sound.
27:57
And with the repaid, they're given all those unlimited sound dates
28:01
to IndyCar teams to test there.
28:03
We got put on the side burner with.
28:06
Elkhart, we just couldn't get a date.
28:08
There were dates there that we could nab, but they didn't make sense
28:11
with what we already had in place.
28:13
But the big thing is we listen to our customers, see where the teams are that
28:16
run with us and try to maximize that.
28:19
So I was scribbling down names cause you've been.
28:22
Name dropping tracks left and right, you know, between road American
28:25
road, Elena and the Glen and Coda and Laguna and Sebring and BIR and
28:28
flat rock and a spring mountain.
28:30
And I mean, the list goes on and on.
28:31
Is there a track that you call home?
28:33
I would say Laguna a couple of years ago, we ran that twice.
28:37
A lot of the teams like true speed and some of these other flying lizard used
28:40
to run with us a lot because we were specifically just West Coast the 1st year.
28:44
So we got a lot of West Coast support.
28:47
So I would say Laguna.
28:48
I love Sonoma.
28:49
We struggled there a little bit the attraction and I don't know
28:53
why and they're quite frankly, 1 of the best tracks to work with.
28:57
But yeah, I would definitely say Laguna.
28:59
Let's talk about the key differentiators between the MPG racing series,
29:05
which includes GT celebration, cup celebration, prototype M2, et cetera,
29:10
versus SRO world challenge and IMSA.
29:13
What really sets you apart from those other organizations?
29:17
I know this sounds kind of cliche ish, but we want it to be fun when
29:21
Greg Gill and I work together.
29:23
I always told him, especially growing up around it.
29:25
I saw it.
29:26
The backbone of sports car racing was built on the gentleman racer.
29:30
And they're the ones that provide these guys, the opportunities field, the cars.
29:34
I mean, quite frankly, the manufacturers come in there sometimes and screw that up.
29:39
The gentleman racer and having fun and go by boat.
29:42
And go by an airplane, you can just travel.
29:45
So what we want to do is provide a place that it has structure.
29:49
We don't want to be the level of structure of or and so our guys could do that.
29:55
I mean, they definitely could.
29:56
They have the funding and the ability, but they just don't want to.
30:00
Again, I'm not taking anything away from club racing, but they don't wanna
30:04
necessarily run club racing anymore.
30:06
They've all done it 'cause they've had to get the experience somewhere.
30:10
We're between that club level racing and that.
30:13
S-A-S-R-O usac, we feel there's a real gap there that needs to be filled and
30:20
that's what we're trying to provide.
30:22
Another thing we pride ourselves on is.
30:25
Kelly Collins, myself and Nick are all owners of the series.
30:29
We consider ourselves and this is another thing that series don't typically
30:33
have the ability that we're nimble.
30:34
I mean, if something comes up, something needs to be decided, whether it's even
30:38
changing the schedule of the weekend, 3 of us will sit down in a room, talk about it.
30:43
And if we feel like we're not all on the same page, we'll have
30:45
a vote majority wins, but we'll make a decision quick and easy.
30:50
I mean, it wrote Atlanta this year, whether it looked
30:52
iffy for the afternoon race.
30:54
So we swapped the schedule around, talked to the drivers about it.
30:57
They were all cool and made qualifying a race.
31:00
We ended up saving a race.
31:01
So you, the other, the guys are going to be out there in a rain race.
31:03
And at this level, I don't think many of them would have gone out, quite frankly.
31:07
It's a great service.
31:08
And I think a lot of us see that as well, but it also gives people stepping stones.
31:12
So you're not jumping straight out of a spec Miata.
31:15
Into IMSA, you can work your way up through the system if you want to.
31:18
I mean, if you have the ability and the talent and the funding to jump from one
31:22
to the other by all means, but this is a great way to make your way through
31:27
the system, you know, with a stop in GT celebration or an M2 or whatever
31:32
it might be with your organization.
31:33
So I think this is a really great thing.
31:35
Thank you.
31:35
And I mean, uh, you look at a guy like.
31:38
Let's say Jason Harward.
31:39
He ran his 1st race with us.
31:41
He's zealous.
31:42
Motorsport runs in GT America and SRO young guy.
31:46
Very successful ran actually his 1st semi pro race with us.
31:51
I knew we weren't going to keep a guy like Jason in the paddock.
31:54
I mean, he's young fit.
31:56
Well, to do, we knew it was going to move up, but yeah, exactly what you said.
32:00
We knew we could provide a place for him to run and gain experience
32:04
and go on to the next level.
32:06
But let's look at a guy like Jim Slavik or Kevin Westcott older
32:10
guys per se, they've got ability.
32:13
They can win races, but they have no desire.
32:16
To go run in SRO, and I'm sure I've had plenty of opportunities, teams
32:19
beating them up and coming to do events, but it's not in their wheelhouse and
32:23
what they're interested in doing.
32:24
That makes a very valid point.
32:26
Not only can you move up the ladder, you can come back down too.
32:29
So if you feel like, you know, the big stage is too big and you want something
32:33
a little bit more relaxed, you don't have to go all the way back down to, you know,
32:36
SCCA if you don't want to, that you have this stop gap in between, which is great.
32:40
But it begs another question because you see it in IMSA and SRO, which
32:44
is the classification of drivers.
32:46
So do you guys utilize a metric or a system like a gold, silver, or bronze
32:53
qualification for drivers or as drivers, just drivers, the car BOP is what it is.
32:58
Let's start with GT celebration, which was the original series and
33:02
kind of what sparked all this.
33:04
GT celebration was founded on bronze drivers and below.
33:08
What's crazy is you look at a guy like Andy Pilgrim, you're
33:11
technically a bronze, but there's no way Andy Pilgrim is a bronco.
33:16
It's founded on bronze drivers and below, especially in the GT 3 class GT 4, we've
33:21
kind of let some of the, like, Andy's and some of these other guys come in.
33:25
Johnny O'Connell is probably a bronze.
33:27
James Sopranos is bronze.
33:29
You get those guys in there and some of the other drivers like it.
33:32
Hey, I raced against Johnny O'Connell.
33:34
I raced against Andy Pilgrim, but then.
33:36
Other guys don't like it because it's taking podium spots away
33:39
from so it's happy balance.
33:41
And like I say, as far as BOP and what we do, we really, really
33:45
try to keep it bronze and below.
33:47
If we do have a true silver that wants to come, we've
33:50
crossed that a couple of times.
33:51
We run them an exhibition.
33:53
We just put an exhibition class on and they don't care.
33:56
Those guys that are at that level aren't coming to win trophies.
34:00
They just want to get the track experience or test or whatever.
34:03
And they typically don't care.
34:05
But yes, prototypes a little different.
34:07
I mean, we'll let pros, we'll let goals, we'll let whoever
34:10
because we want to help motivate.
34:12
Them to bring the guys that they coach, they're gentlemen drivers.
34:15
And the reason, quite frankly, we don't do an enduro with the 3 cars is
34:20
they're just so expensive to operate.
34:22
They're expensive to fix.
34:24
1 of those guys don't want anybody else in their car unless it's their process
34:29
and a data lab or something like that.
34:31
They don't necessarily want to pay for driver damage.
34:34
Have a race from Joel Miller getting in the car.
34:36
Not that Joel would hurt a car, but getting in the car
34:39
and having something happen.
34:40
So where are the prototypes are a lot more cost effective to run.
34:44
Since we're still sort of talking about differentiators between the MPG series,
34:48
SRO and MCI, et cetera, as we spent a lot of time last year with world challenge
34:53
and following them around and being part of the press corps and things like that.
34:55
So you kind of learned the inner workings of the series as well.
34:58
And one of the things that just.
34:59
Baffled me outside of not being totally thrilled with balance of power as a
35:04
concept in general was the way they conducted the restarts of their races.
35:08
So they do tend to follow a lot of the rules from the European side of
35:12
SRO, which is interesting into itself.
35:15
And I see how IMSA does things, right?
35:17
If there's a yellow condition, people check up.
35:20
And then when it goes green, everybody goes green again.
35:22
You're kind of where you are behind the pace card.
35:24
There's not this, Oh, we're going to take a lap and catch up and
35:26
reorganize and all this kind of stuff.
35:28
So I saw a lot of fire drills happening in the other series.
35:32
So I'm wondering how do you guys handle caution situations
35:35
and the restart of a race?
35:37
Cause you know, event after event, it was an interesting debate as
35:40
how they were going to handle that.
35:41
At our level.
35:43
Luckily, it hasn't been as much of an issue.
35:45
A gentleman club racing is much different than top level pro racing.
35:50
Definitely understand what you're saying.
35:51
Been there, done that, wrote the book, but with us, quite frankly, it hasn't
35:56
been much of an issue, but my experience with the world challenge, I was in race
36:00
control quite a few times and voiced my opinion of what should be done.
36:04
And I wasn't listening to, but I know where you're coming from and
36:07
I know what you're saying, but.
36:09
If we see that there could be an issue, because we know our group,
36:12
we know who's running with us.
36:13
If we got a slower GT 4 guy between 2 GT 3 guys that we've been watching,
36:19
they're going to end up racing each other for position at the end.
36:22
I'll notify Casey or Kelly will, because we're watching
36:25
what's going on with everybody.
36:26
And we'll say, hey, will you talk to the guys on pit lane and just see if so
36:30
and so will give so and so a wave bye.
36:32
And at that point, it's up to the, uh, the driver, it's purely for safety and
36:36
for equipment and they don't have to.
36:38
It's just a question, but we do as much as we can.
36:41
And with Kelly and myself being racers, we see what's going on.
36:45
We see what's transpiring.
36:47
We're paying attention.
36:48
And so we try to avoid that stuff as much as we can been lucky
36:52
so far as car count increases.
36:55
Those incidents are going to increase for sure, and SRO
36:58
definitely has a lot of cars.
36:59
So that's going to be an issue.
37:01
And then we just do what we can to manage it.
37:03
And then not to say that that's an issue, but hopefully someday we
37:07
get enough cars that we really got to start paying attention to that.
37:10
It becomes a good thing, right?
37:11
When you get to that point.
37:12
Which is actually a great segue into our penultimate question here, which is
37:17
what's next for MPG and GT celebration?
37:21
What's the next five years look like what's on the horizon?
37:23
Verbally agreed.
37:24
We're going to have a fuel sponsor.
37:26
Sunoco is going to be our fuel sponsor.
37:29
And then Ironclad has always been a, uh, product sponsor buyers and they were.
37:35
Team sponsor when I had true speed, but they're big supporters,
37:39
they did a lot of activation.
37:41
They really enjoyed that.
37:43
They've got a new company that bottom out that's progressing,
37:46
which is always a good thing for us.
37:48
When I had this concept and I started it, it was always the intention to
37:52
grow it into other classes and other.
37:55
I don't want to say serious, but additional classes and so now that
37:59
we've made that step, and this is our 1st full year of controlling all the
38:03
race weekends ourselves, controlling our own content, it's going out there
38:08
and perfecting the product, making it a destination place where people do want
38:12
to come listening to the driver team owners, what they're looking for as a
38:16
place to go race and take their customers.
38:19
I think our base is now built and what you see is what we're going
38:23
to have for the next 5 years.
38:25
We've got one other exciting thing going that maybe one event this year, we
38:29
thought it was going to be three, but I think it's going to turn a lot of heads
38:32
if it comes together, it's going to be pretty cool and that would be a VAR.
38:36
But, but yeah, it's just perfecting the product and getting people to come
38:41
to the racetrack and try us out and I don't want to sound like I've got a
38:44
big head or anything, but once they do come try the series out, they love it.
38:48
I mean, the guys love it.
38:50
Of course, you're going to have a few here and there that.
38:52
Didn't like this or didn't like that, but nobody's perfect.
38:55
But I mean, it's a lot of track time.
38:57
It's good track time.
38:58
It's well run.
39:00
And like you said earlier, we got a good tracks.
39:03
So since we're talking about futures, let's just take one
39:06
more quick look down the past.
39:08
So Rob, if you could.
39:10
Give some advice to aspiring racers, folks that may be looking to get
39:14
out of SCCA and NASA and whatever.
39:17
And as you look back over your career, maybe some do's and don'ts for these
39:21
younger drivers, as they're coming up through the system, you know, any words
39:23
of wisdom, it's all about seat time.
39:25
If you can get in a Mazda Miata and go drive it all day,
39:29
Saturday and Sunday, go do it.
39:30
It's all about seat time, perfecting your craft.
39:33
One of the things.
39:34
I always used to get asked from, especially when I was driving
39:37
and NASCAR was who do you think the best driver is in the world?
39:41
And my answer was always he's sitting on his couch at home.
39:45
They look at me like, what do you mean?
39:47
I said, this sport is not like a stick and ball sport where you can
39:50
just have the talent and make it.
39:52
And that's where you got to have the funding and the resources to get that
39:56
shot, to get out there and do it.
39:58
As much as anything advice would be is just don't give up.
40:02
If you can't afford to, to necessarily drive, help out on the team, just
40:05
have that mindset and never give up.
40:08
And any opportunity you can get seat time, no matter what it is, hop in it.
40:13
Well, with that Rob, any shout outs, promotions, or anything else you'd like
40:17
to share that we haven't covered thus far?
40:18
Touched on a little bit earlier, just Corelli and Orazio and Bob at Frisbee.
40:23
And like I say, those guys, they've stuck it, stuck it out with us.
40:27
And I cannot thank them enough.
40:29
And like I mentioned earlier to went to quite a few races where
40:32
they had no business being there.
40:34
I know they lost money.
40:35
Really appreciate them and those guys sticking with us.
40:39
Been a growth for us and everybody at MPG and GTC.
40:42
We've been lucky enough to have a few teams that have really
40:46
supported us and what we're doing.
40:48
And Chicago performance with Al has been a great supporter with his driver, Michael.
40:53
Speed Club.
40:54
With Rex and Paul and true speed, of course, my old team and autometrics is
41:00
really coming on board and supporting us.
41:02
And quite frankly, and changing a lot of their program around
41:05
to be centered around us.
41:06
So it's exciting stuff for us.
41:08
And we just continue that to grow, but couldn't do it without guys
41:12
like Alex and Gordon and Paul and Rex and Tyler and the list goes on.
41:17
But those guys have been really supportive of what we're doing.
41:19
And we, we really appreciate it.
41:21
Quite frankly, our whole team, just the dedication from Chris
41:25
and Brock, our logistics guys.
41:26
I mean, they're making trips daily.
41:28
Chris is rebuilding all of our scale pad equipment, reorganizing
41:32
the tractor trailer truck, and Brock doing all the shuttling.
41:35
I mean, it just takes a team effort.
41:37
Chris Lester, Nick's son, does a lot of our financial forecasting.
41:41
Pam, back in Arkansas, does all of our business side of things, and sure
41:45
as hell couldn't do it without her.
41:47
And of course, Mallory, I mean, Mallory has been a godsend,
41:50
definitely couldn't do it without her.
41:52
Um, great group of people.
41:53
We get along really well, but when we get to the racetrack,
41:56
we take care of business, but at the same time, have a good time.
41:58
Where racing, fun, and camaraderie come together.
42:02
Racing that's been designed by enthusiasts.
42:04
For enthusiasts, that's the Morgan performance group motto to learn
42:08
more about GT celebration and the other programs in the MPG series
42:12
and how you can become part of them.
42:14
Be sure to check out www.
42:17
mpg racing.
42:19
com or follow them on social at race MPG on Instagram.
42:24
At Morgan performance group on Facebook and at GT celebration, 3529 on YouTube.
42:30
So with that, I cannot thank you guys enough for coming on the show,
42:34
especially Rob for coming on and sharing the newest, hottest racing sanctioning
42:39
body that's out there right now.
42:41
You know, personal favorite for me, sports car racing.
42:43
So this is great to see more cars out there, especially these
42:46
older ones back on the track.
42:47
Giving them a second life and opportunity for all these drivers to get out there.
42:51
And thanks to Charlie for coming on the show and co hosting with me and
42:53
kind of digging deeper into this story.
42:55
So thank you both for doing this.
42:57
No, thank you guys for having me.
42:58
Uh, really appreciate it.
43:00
And I'm glad you guys are behind what we're doing and believe in it.
43:03
So thank you very much, Eric.
43:05
Thank you for having me back out and Rob.
43:07
Thank you for sharing the story.
43:08
This sounds like a really cool series.
43:09
I think the idea behind creating a fun environment for bronze is to bring
43:13
this recently out of homologation cars.
43:15
Sounds like a great value.
43:16
Thank you.
43:17
We believe in it.
43:18
We're going to keep charging forward.
43:24
If you like what you've heard and want to learn more about GTM,
43:27
be sure to check us out on www.
43:31
gtmotorsports.
43:31
org.
43:32
You can also find us on Instagram at GrandTouringMotorsports.
43:35
Also, if you want to get involved or have suggestions for future shows, you can call
43:39
or text us at 202 630 1770, or send us an email at crewchief at gtmotorsports.
43:47
org.
43:47
We'd love to hear from you.
43:49
Hey everybody, Crew Chief Eric here.
43:52
We really hope you enjoyed this episode of BreakFix, and we wanted
43:55
to remind you that GTM remains a no annual fees organization, and our goal
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is to continue to bring you quality episodes like this one at no charge.
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As a loyal listener, please consider subscribing to our Patreon for
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