Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Chin Track Days: From Closed Gates to a National Movement

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Chin Track Days: From Closed Gates to a National Movement · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

• 0:00
  BreakFix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from
• 0:04
  all over the autosphere, from wrench turners and racers to artists, authors,
• 0:09
  designers, and everything in between.
• 0:11
  Our goal is to inspire a new generation of petrolheads that wonder.
• 0:16
  How did they get that job or become that person?
• 0:19
  The road to success is paved by all of us because everyone has a story.
• 0:27
  Hey everyone, crew chief, Eric here.
• 0:29
  And on this episode, we are honored to have Mark Hicks, the chief operating
• 0:33
  officer and director of chin track days with us on the show in our continuing
• 0:38
  effort to spread motor sports enthusiasm.
• 0:40
  We want to explore the chin origin story.
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  A history that goes back 21 years in the making.
• 0:47
  Though many GTM members have been fortunate to participate and coach in
• 0:51
  several Chin events over the last five years, including places like Pit Race, Mid
• 0:56
  Ohio, Barber, Road Atlanta, Motorsports Ranch, Indianapolis, and more, many
• 1:02
  might not know what Chin is all about.
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  But we hope to remedy that in short order.
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  And with that, let's welcome Mark to Break Fix.
• 1:10
  Well, hello there, you guys.
• 1:12
  It's definitely a pleasure for me to join you online, and I
• 1:17
  definitely appreciate the invitation.
• 1:20
  to, uh, be a part of your program and say hello to your audience.
• 1:23
  So, thanks for letting me join in.
• 1:26
  Absolutely, Mark.
• 1:27
  So, let's get into it.
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  How about we start off by you telling us about Chin, the who, the when, the
• 1:32
  where, and explain the brand name.
• 1:35
  You know, great topic, of course, that has come up before, right?
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  If you've been to Chin Track Days uh, events over the years,
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  you've seen, uh, me often.
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  And then Maria, who is also my better half, and with me, uh, one
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  of the founders of Chin Track Days.
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  But, what is the deal with Chin?
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  So, there's a man named Chin, and he's my partner.
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  And he is the original founder, the guy behind the very first
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  ever, then, Chin Motorsports event, which, uh, took place at Sebring.
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  In 1999, Dr.
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  Chen, he was an enthusiast and a sports car owner and he, along with a number
• 2:19
  of other drivers who were signed up to participate in the same event,
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  all arrived the day of the event, lined up at the gate, and guess what?
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  The gates never opened.
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  And Dr.
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  Chen went to the front of the line and talked to the track official
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  and was like, hey, what's up?
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  We're supposed to have a track event.
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  And he said, yeah, those guys, they never paid their track rental fees.
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  Unfortunately, this little cottage industry of track days has a number
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  of stories like that of operators that had good intentions, perhaps, and
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  intended to carry on a track event.
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  Well, it didn't bear fruit.
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  This was one of those days and Dr.
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  Chen turned back to the track official and he said, well, what's it going to take to
• 3:01
  pay those fees and get these gates open?
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  He quickly pulled the others there, and a hat was passed, a kitty was raised,
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  the fee was paid, and the gates opened at Sebring on that day, and the first
• 3:17
  Chin Motorsports event took place.
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  Dr.
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  Chin standing there, making these arrangements on the fly.
• 3:24
  I think if you rewind, uh, in time, if you've been a track enthusiast, uh,
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  anybody out there for some time, you might recognize that 20 plus years ago,
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  the setting of doing track events is somewhat different than it might be today.
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  So the track was receptive to getting somebody to pay the track rental and
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  opening the gates and letting them walk right in under those conditions,
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  but of course they needed The name.
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  They said, okay, great.
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  Entity renting the track.
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  And he went, uh, well, uh, Chin Motorsports.
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  That is the name that we carried for a very long, long, long time and built.
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  But come along in 2016, we began to have the awareness that kind of
• 4:10
  across the space that we were in.
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  Chin Motorsports ended up being kind of ambiguous, okay?
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  That's a tag that, you know, did we service cars?
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  Are we a racing team?
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  Are we a used car lot?
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  What do we do?
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  So we rebranded from Chin Motorsports to Chin Track Days, which of course
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  gives a quite a bit more specific indication of what we're doing, but that
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  was the beginning of Chin Motorsports.
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  And there's one more principal, a man named Vincent Howard.
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  He is our CFO and the guy who, uh, Pays our bills, pays our staff, and
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  manages all the, uh, financial activity.
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  Vincent is the third principal of Chin Track Days.
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  Our small startup gained momentum and do more track events and have more
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  drivers participate with us eventually.
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  Reached a scale to where Dr.
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  Chen, who has a large and, uh, successful medical practice in Orlando,
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  it reached the point where he was running out of bandwidth to keep up with
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  all the demands of Chen Motorsports.
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  And at the time, uh, I was in restaurants.
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  That's what I did before motorsports, thank goodness.
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  I, uh, was able to leave a 20 year career in food and beverage and hotel
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  and restaurant hospitality, which in Chen Asked me to take over Chen
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  Motorsports and run the operations full time, manage all of our track events.
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  And that was all the way back in 2004.
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  And I have been the director of and, and kind of at the top of the pyramid
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  of Chen Motorsports ever since then.
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  My wife Maria, pivotal role, a highly accomplished driver and instructor
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  and began to grow our calendar.
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  Beyond the boundaries that just a team of two could manage to where
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  we had the necessity for additional staff and that, of course, also led
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  us to be able to actually expand our capacity, adding more events and all
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  of that, beginning about 2014 15.
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  The past five plus years have been really expansive for chin track days.
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  And today, 2020, what an, what an odd year, obviously, like everybody
• 6:35
  out there who was, uh, running track events or trying to go to track events,
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  or even if you manage a racetrack, we all had a bunch of cancellations.
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  In the spring, March, April, May, so we lost some events then, but the full
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  calendar, uh, we began the year with 60 event dates on the 2020 schedule
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  at 17 different venues, most of which are the greatest hits list of road
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  course racetracks in the eastern U.
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  S.
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  We, we reach as far west as Circuit of the Americas in Austin.
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  Anybody out there that's, uh, paid attention to Chin, you
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  probably Uh, are aware already.
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  We're not in California.
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  We don't do anything west of Texas, but in the eastern U.
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  S., we've got almost every track that really has, uh,
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  great meaning to enthusiasts.
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  You will find it on the Chin Track Day schedule.
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  Sixty calendar dates this year, about a hundred and fifteen days on track.
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  And by the time We finished 2020.
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  Well, COVID cancellations included, we'll see about 7, 500 driver entries in 2020.
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  That's where we are today.
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  And from the very first event at Sebring, that was about 60 drivers.
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  And when I took over, Full time operations management in 2004, we had five track
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  events scheduled at three locations, and we had about 600 total driver entries
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  in 2004, and this year that number will be, it would be about 9, 000.
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  Without COVID cancellation loss, you know, so if you just try and compare
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  apples to apples, that's, uh, that's where we've come over the last 20 years.
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  The short story is, there is a man named Chen, and he is my partner, and he's still
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  around, often seen with us at Sebring, he doesn't travel as much as he once did.
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  But since he's Orlando based, he's certainly very fond of going to our
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  Sebring events, which are very frequent.
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  Uh, we're the number one provider of track events at Sebring.
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  We were just at Sebring last weekend.
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  Our next Sebring date is only three weeks away.
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  So it's, uh, Sebring is kind of home track, the home field for Weishen Chen
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  showing up at Sebring pretty regularly.
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  A big, uh, bucket full of background, but You know, there is a man named Chin,
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  and I sure am glad, uh, that he had the initiative on, uh, that original
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  day standing at the closed gate at Sebring to get this track event done.
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  You're a big personality at Chin, not just in the fact that you're, you're
• 9:23
  the director, but you're at a lot of the events and most people see you,
• 9:27
  well, they hear you first over the microphone and over the PA, but then
• 9:31
  you have your signature fedora, right?
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  Which is, it's also part of your email signature, et cetera.
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  But I think just to get to know you, Mark, the car enthusiast, a little bit better.
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  We've recently done some episodes where we ask people about this mythical garage.
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  mythical island.
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  You know, if they could have any three cars on that island, what would it be?
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  So Mark, what would your three cars be?
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  Oh, wow.
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  Well, I appreciate that.
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  By the way, Eric, the, uh, my wide brim hat quite familiar.
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  It's in the trailer, right?
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  It stays in the trailer prepared to go to the track.
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  I would share it with your audience, but it's not in my hands right now.
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  I tell you what, I think the Mazda Miata is one of the all time, great sports cars.
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  It's on my list.
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  It's just pound for pound what Mazda did to create accessibility.
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  At the time the Miata got introduced, right?
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  Uh, early 90s.
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  Drive a quote sports car.
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  You needed to have a bunch of money Mazda Pushed down that wall with the
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  introduction of the miata and made owning a sports car Accessible to an everyday
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  enthusiast, but it's not just the price the balance of that car the proportions
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  of that car How the cockpit works.
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  I love Miatas.
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  But the other side of that is, uh, it's actually also a little side
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  note of the chin origin story.
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  All of the chin principles, uh, mentioned Dr.
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  Weishen Chin, myself and my wife, and my third partner, Vincent Howard.
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  Every one of us owns an NSX.
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  And We have a vintage NSX, each of us, and collectively, we own a
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  brand new NSX, an NC1, the supercar.
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  You also recall, uh, earlier in our conversation, I mentioned a
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  previous life, I'll say, in hotel and restaurant hospitality, food and
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  beverage, was successful enough in that career that I bought an NSX,
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  while I was a restaurant owner.
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  That introduced me to Wei Shin Chin, because he was an NSX
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  owner, pretty small community.
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  We did a track event together.
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  At the time, I still owned restaurants.
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  Today, I have the, the, the gratifying privilege to lead one of the largest
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  track day operators in the U.
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  S.
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  And it's because I bought an NSX.
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  So an NSX makes my list, not the new one, because The vintage original NSX,
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  I can strip down, disassemble, and reassemble pretty much like a blindfold,
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  like a well trained Marine with an AR.
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  That's how I feel about the vintage original NSX.
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  And then, you know, what did you say?
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  Three?
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  Three.
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  You got two.
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  What's your third?
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  I have a forever lifetime soft spot.
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  For the special lines of, uh, a late sixties 67 or 68 Ferrari 3
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  6 5 Daytona spider with the roof down and Barron wire wheels with a
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  three and a half liter V 12 and six Webers a nightmare to keep running.
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  But for me personally, right, everybody's got their own subjective
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  scale of what is one of the most beautiful cars ever for me.
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  Daytona spider.
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  Is it by chance in black and are you living out of miami vice fantasy?
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  I just want to It would be red with camel seats, of course Very good, very good
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  so And and if I was alone in a desert island, and those are my three cars The
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  ferrari would stay parked and I would drive the ns6 and the miata There you go.
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  The desert island has an unlimited supply of fuel doesn't it?
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  100 percent.
• 13:20
  Absolutely And coconuts apparently So there's a lot to unpack there, Mark.
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  So let me ask another question, and please don't take offense.
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  You may have not heard this phrase before with reference to Chin, but you guys are
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  often referred to as the traveling circus.
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  It has a lot to do with your schedule and has a lot to do with
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  how Chin moves around the country.
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  So can you explain how that works?
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  And what I'm alluding to here is that you guys are not a franchise.
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  So it makes you very unique in the fact that Chin moves from location
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  to location when you talk about 60 different venues in a year.
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  That's a lot.
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  So do you want to elaborate on that a little bit?
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  Uh, you know, great question.
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  I appreciate the perception that you have there to, to see what
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  it is that we do in that way.
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  Uh, we, we certainly We refer almost internally ourselves.
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  We call it a bit of a circus as well.
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  You know, there's a couple of keys there.
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  First of all, I got a seriously highly committed, very capable staff, you know,
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  that I can never give enough credit to.
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  They are fantastic.
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  Our event management team are all autonomous.
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  They have the same kind of commitment.
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  To superior track events and a heart in the whole hobby because they are in their
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  core sports car enthusiasts themselves.
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  They didn't just sign up to earn a paycheck by working for chin.
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  They signed up because they love doing track events.
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  And it turned out that they thought it was miraculous that they
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  could also get paid to do that.
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  So the staff is what makes it possible.
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  First thing, and then.
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  I'll tell you, one of our master keys, here in my glamorous setting, you see
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  exposed to duct work, what have you, I'm in my man cave, the basement, at what we
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  call Global Headquarters, which is eight miles from the driveway of Road Atlanta.
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  So, Road Atlanta features heavily in our schedule.
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  I call Sebring our home turf, it was the original Chin Track Days event.
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  And Sebring is on the Chin Calendar 14 times a year.
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  That's how much we love Sebring.
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  But Road Atlanta is second only to Sebring where it wrote Atlanta nine times a year.
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  When we do road Atlanta dates, nobody travels.
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  It's hardly far enough away to warm up my twin turbo diesel
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  under the hood of my Ford F 450.
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  That's how far it is to road Atlanta for me.
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  I can literally, when I'm here at home, I can hear the wonderful noise.
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  From rhode atlanta.
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  I am not a complaining neighbor.
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  Let me assure you So that's part of our secret there because a rhode atlanta
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  date, which is when you when you suck it out of our calendar It's 15 percent of
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  all of our dates occur at Road Atlanta.
• 16:21
  I think enthusiasts all know by now, if you go to the track on a regular basis,
• 16:25
  there's a, there's quite a few hard things that we all have to tackle to make
• 16:29
  a track event a success, whether we're the provider or you're the participating
• 16:34
  enthusiast, there's a bunch of work that has to get done for you to get.
• 16:38
  to and participate successfully in the track event.
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  And one of the hardships that we all face is the travel.
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  We're all attracted and we find it compelling enough that, hell yes, we'll
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  drive four or five hundred miles, three, four states away to go to Whatever
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  fantastic racetrack is on the menu for the weekend, but now you've given up
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  friday and monday You know, that's a time away from work or family and the
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  travel requires that commitment And it's possible but i'll deny it if you if any
• 17:11
  authorities ask me that Untagged track only vehicles have been driven from my
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  shop On the street, that's hypothetical.
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  It's that we're close enough that that could be done if you
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  had to In the dark at dawn.
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  That's possible.
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  So with that being said, I mean, let's take away.
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  All right.
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  30 or 40 percent of the year being, you know, Sebring in Rhode Island.
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  That's still a lot of events.
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  I mean, when it's not a covert year, the chin track schedule is pretty much
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  year round from the way I've looked at it, which is, which is amazing.
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  And, and, and to your point about traveling, um, You know, we've gone
• 17:47
  upwards of 850 miles to go to a chin event in the past, you know, traveling
• 17:51
  to Barber and other locations.
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  So it's not a hop, skip and a jump for those of us here in the D.
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  C.
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  area.
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  But still, as we talk more about getting more familiar, the guys that
• 18:00
  know how to get into a chin event, they know where to go and they know
• 18:03
  what to do and they know the process.
• 18:05
  But explain to the newbie, you know, how do I find a chin event?
• 18:08
  Am I going to Motorsports Reg?
• 18:10
  Is my buddy signing up for me?
• 18:11
  How is that process done and what does it entail to get signed up for a chin event?
• 18:16
  You know, appreciate you asking that, really.
• 18:18
  Because, uh, I'd love to try and give some clarity that Chin Track Days always,
• 18:26
  uh, has our own stand alone website.
• 18:29
  Um, Motorsports Reg is a great product and a very useful tool
• 18:33
  for enthusiasts nationwide.
• 18:35
  And we post calendar listings on Motorsports Reg if you want to see.
• 18:39
  What is the date of the next, the next chin event?
• 18:41
  You can certainly find us listed there, but it will say, please
• 18:45
  visit our website, chin track days.
• 18:47
  com for driver registration, sign up, et cetera.
• 18:50
  But, uh, chin motorsports.
• 18:52
  com as a website and a registration predated motorsports reg by
• 18:58
  a, by a solid five years.
• 19:00
  And today we maintain our own and update regularly our
• 19:05
  standalone website, which has.
• 19:07
  Really, it's a comprehensive internet destination for track enthusiasts.
• 19:12
  Of course, you can find the full chin schedule and driver registration, etc.
• 19:17
  You know, to get into an upcoming chin event.
• 19:19
  But you'll also find a comprehensive description.
• 19:22
  Uh, driver skill benchmarks, our run group format, uh, tons of pages on just
• 19:29
  great, uh, tips for any enthusiasts, how to prep your car, what to do to, you know,
• 19:36
  prepare to spend the weekend away from home to go to the track, uh, a guide for
• 19:40
  new enthusiasts, comprehensive guides to all the tracks that we visit, et cetera,
• 19:45
  all of that can be found on ChinTrackDays.
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  com and that is all original content.
• 19:50
  Where, uh, we collaborate either in house with our own team or talk to
• 19:56
  experts who are part of the CHIN program.
• 20:00
  And one of the things I don't think people realize, and we joke about this when
• 20:04
  we're trying to get people really engaged to come out for the first time, it's
• 20:07
  always register early and register often.
• 20:10
  And one of the things that is unique about CHIN's registration process is you
• 20:13
  guys only open registration, I believe, and you can correct me if I'm wrong,
• 20:18
  it's about two weeks before the event.
• 20:19
  Is actually set to go off and you got to get in line early because
• 20:23
  those tickets sell out quick.
• 20:25
  I mean, they are super popular events.
• 20:27
  So I can't reiterate enough register early and register often, but pay attention and
• 20:32
  set reminders because I've been on some of those events were within 20 minutes.
• 20:37
  It's almost sold out.
• 20:38
  That's fair to say.
• 20:39
  I will.
• 20:40
  I will address that.
• 20:41
  The lead time is is longer, but we do that.
• 20:45
  Yeah.
• 20:45
  Very specifically on a predictable scheduled cycle, and that is once
• 20:51
  a week on Monday evenings 9 p.
• 20:54
  m.
• 20:54
  Eastern, whatever is eight weeks downstream on the calendar will go online.
• 21:00
  And so, for example, right now you can visit our website and see dates running
• 21:05
  through September and into October.
• 21:08
  It's all online.
• 21:09
  You can register for October events, and we always limit Novice driver
• 21:15
  registration for the entry level drivers.
• 21:18
  Of course, we do one on one student and instructor pairings.
• 21:21
  You want to limit the number of drivers there so you can hopefully ensure a
• 21:26
  very high quality driver experience, but you also rely on your instructor
• 21:30
  population, of course, to do the one to one student and instructor pairings.
• 21:35
  So we have to limit our novice enrollment.
• 21:37
  We opened that VIR registration this past Monday night.
• 21:41
  With 15 available novice driver entries, at 9.
• 21:45
  07, we were sold out.
• 21:49
  And today, now three days into registration, we have over 80
• 21:54
  entries on the VIR date, which will have a cap of about 110 entries.
• 22:01
  So it's 65 plus percent already sold three days into registration.
• 22:08
  And of course, if we continue on that pace, The October date at VIR, now eight
• 22:13
  weeks into the future, will be fully sold out by next week, seven weeks in advance.
• 22:20
  It's very fortunate that there is that demand out there.
• 22:23
  I definitely give a hat to to the enthusiast population who were
• 22:28
  all very frustrated by the COVID closure in the spring months.
• 22:33
  And since the tracks reopened and we got into the controlled mitigated space, you
• 22:39
  can't say fully safe, you know, COVID.
• 22:42
  is out there, it's a problem, but the track operators were able to be persuasive
• 22:48
  with the public health authorities and their local governments to the extent
• 22:52
  that they began to recognize, okay, we're in an outdoor space, you can spread out
• 22:57
  across a 10 or 15 acre paddock, we're not doing group gatherings, and so, The COVID
• 23:03
  restrictions got lifted on the racetracks.
• 23:06
  As long as we weren't doing large scale spectator events, of course,
• 23:09
  that's still not happening.
• 23:10
  But, you know, you can get 100, 150 sports car enthusiasts into a
• 23:14
  paddock and spread them out widely.
• 23:17
  And, you know, we've taken certain other steps.
• 23:19
  Gotta cover your face.
• 23:21
  Bottom line there is, we got into this set of conditions that enthusiasts
• 23:25
  felt like the risk was controlled in a reasonable way to the extent that
• 23:30
  they felt like they could go to the track and enjoy laps without being
• 23:34
  at risk of becoming ill with COVID.
• 23:37
  And the enthusiasts came back strongly from end of May, June,
• 23:43
  July, our summer schedule.
• 23:45
  We've seen very solid support.
• 23:47
  And heading into fall, we're just talking about the strong demand
• 23:51
  primarily for that VIR day.
• 23:53
  That's one of our peak flagship events.
• 23:55
  But, you know, we're also at Searing Watkins Glen.
• 23:58
  Uh, Road Atlanta, Circuit of the Americas are all on our fall schedule
• 24:03
  as well, and enthusiasts have really embraced that, and I'm really optimistic
• 24:09
  and very grateful for the very strong response we continue to see.
• 24:14
  But you're right, for the most popular flagship dates, we will see registration.
• 24:20
  Demand that creates really rapid sellouts when we start taking
• 24:25
  entries on Monday nights at 9 p.
• 24:27
  m But I'd love to say that we can sell out each and every single event
• 24:32
  that doesn't happen not by any means, you know We could say like a popular
• 24:36
  restaurant your flagship dates.
• 24:38
  You're filling up friday saturday nights every table occupied I
• 24:41
  want to wait to get a table.
• 24:44
  We're still doing dinner monday through thursday.
• 24:46
  So certainly Want enthusiasts to uh, be optimistic That uh, you
• 24:52
  don't always have to nail it at 9 p.
• 24:55
  m Monday night now you do if you're a novice driver.
• 24:57
  I will admit if you're new to the track hobby.
• 25:00
  I cannot overemphasize The necessity to be online night, nine p.
• 25:06
  m.
• 25:07
  Right wh to ensure that you can ge limited novice entries, m row
• 25:13
  seats for the rolling like that.
• 25:17
  And it reminds of, you know, getting tha auction on ebay, like you top of your
• 25:23
  game or it wa But since we're talking a
• 25:29
  Chin's HPD program.
• 25:30
  And I do want to differentiate and I'm not trying to call out any other, you
• 25:35
  know, competitors or any other people that are in the market space, but Chin
• 25:38
  is in the column of HPD only unless, you know, you guys have developed a
• 25:43
  racing program that we didn't know about, unlike some other organizations
• 25:46
  that do DE to supplement their racing programs and things like that.
• 25:50
  So you're very fortunate to be very focused.
• 25:52
  on education, which is important to us here at GTM.
• 25:55
  So what we want to talk about is what expectations should a new student have
• 25:59
  coming into the classroom at Chin for the first time, you've already mentioned
• 26:03
  how many students on track and the instructor ratio and things like that.
• 26:07
  But let's talk a little bit about the education program that
• 26:10
  you guys have put together and anything that's unique about that.
• 26:13
  Thanks, Eric, for asking, man, you have done your homework and I appreciate that.
• 26:17
  You are absolutely right.
• 26:18
  No, I don't have.
• 26:20
  A super special secret hidden competition program.
• 26:24
  Uh, there is no club racing at chin and that enables us to say chin track days.
• 26:29
  There is no competition.
• 26:31
  Think about that.
• 26:32
  But our emphasis for sure is the track day driver.
• 26:38
  We've recognized a long time ago that there are more hobby enthusiasts
• 26:42
  with high performance street cars.
• 26:44
  That want to make laps then there are race car drivers now We've got a place
• 26:49
  for race car drivers if you've ever been to a chin of it You have seen
• 26:53
  some fully prepared competition cars doing testing and practice But the the
• 26:58
  racers like that because they don't have to worry About you know serious
• 27:03
  tech scrutiny or running Untried stuff that may not be in rules compliance
• 27:08
  with their class that kind of thing.
• 27:10
  They can do whatever they want At a chin event as long as their car is safe and
• 27:14
  the driver is following the chin format So we'll see plenty of competition
• 27:19
  cars, but over and over and over Uh, there's far more high performance
• 27:23
  street cars, and that's where we see the heart of our market, for sure.
• 27:29
  Club racing has great merit, and I have nothing but kudos to those
• 27:35
  who are committed to competition.
• 27:37
  Uh, it's definitely a different path, uh, than what we're doing, but we know that
• 27:42
  there are a lot of enthusiasts out there.
• 27:44
  Corvettes, Camaros, Mustangs, Porsches, Acuras, Ferraris, you name it, BMWs
• 27:50
  of course, and any other brand you can think of that can be associated
• 27:55
  with performance, they all end up showing up at Chin Track Day's events.
• 28:00
  And there are more cars in this category in the hands of enthusiasts
• 28:04
  than there are race cars out there.
• 28:07
  It has very fortunately been validated by our own business model over all these
• 28:13
  many years that in fact the people who own these cars are interested in coming
• 28:19
  out and making laps and getting advanced driver coaching and we certainly have
• 28:25
  been putting an emphasis on the DE.
• 28:28
  In, uh, HPDE for a very long time, we've got a staff of veteran instructors.
• 28:36
  It's often said that an instructor will get qualified with Chin Track Days last.
• 28:43
  There are new instructors with Chin Track Days.
• 28:46
  That is, they're new to Chin Track Days, but they are not new instructors.
• 28:51
  Instructors to be eligible to get on the Chin Track Days instructor team You
• 28:56
  must already have preexisting instructor experience, so you won't see any new
• 29:03
  brand new instructors in our program.
• 29:06
  For all the aspiring coaches out there or the coaches that, you know, have
• 29:11
  put your time in the trenches and you're looking forward to coaching
• 29:13
  with Chin after hearing this whole conversation, please note it is a
• 29:17
  little bit skull and bones where you're expecting that secret invitation to be
• 29:22
  slid under your door because I don't think you just walk up to Mark and
• 29:25
  say, Hey, I want to coach with Chin.
• 29:27
  You have to be invited in.
• 29:28
  To the kind of inner coven there.
• 29:30
  And again, it's on a track by track basis.
• 29:33
  And I'm not trying to poke fun, but that's the experience that I went
• 29:35
  through where it was like, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock.
• 29:38
  Hey, we need you for NJMP.
• 29:40
  And then once you were in, you were in, and then you had to qualify for
• 29:44
  tracks independently, et cetera.
• 29:45
  And again, it's been a rewarding experience.
• 29:47
  So I just want to highlight that before you get a bum rush of people
• 29:50
  going, Hey, when can I coach for chin?
• 29:52
  You know, that You know, that is awesome, Eric, but I'll certainly add that we
• 29:58
  welcome instructor applications from well seasoned instructors all the time and in
• 30:04
  fact On the home page of our website, you know, the the things that are prominent
• 30:09
  is the track schedule upcoming events, etc But scroll down the page drivers, you will
• 30:14
  see instructor criteria and instructor eligibility fortune track days and if
• 30:20
  you are A seasoned instructor and you have completed a known instructor school.
• 30:27
  One of the, there's a number of really well established structured
• 30:31
  instructor training programs.
• 30:33
  If you've been through one of those, um, a NASA, a PCA, a BMW club, but
• 30:38
  then of course, kind of the master key.
• 30:42
  Motorsports Safety Foundation MSF level 2 status.
• 30:47
  That is almost going to be automatic entry into Chin Track Day's
• 30:53
  instructor status track specific.
• 30:56
  You are correct, Eric, that we want a driver to have Known experience on a lap
• 31:02
  before they show up to coach that lap, but we do recognize existing established
• 31:09
  instructor qualifications from other well known track day providers that
• 31:14
  have structured instructor training.
• 31:17
  But yes, it is also true that once you are accepted to instructor eligibility,
• 31:22
  which in track days, that driver is then eligible to instruct at any track where
• 31:28
  they have prior existing experience.
• 31:31
  And so we welcome that.
• 31:32
  That's right.
• 31:33
  I'm ready to instructed Barbara next time.
• 31:35
  We're good.
• 31:36
  That is fantastic.
• 31:38
  Out of our entire, um, kind of the population of enthusiasts that follow
• 31:43
  Chin Track Days, and today if you join as a new member today in, uh, August
• 31:48
  of 2020, You'll have a member number in the range of like 24, 000 and something.
• 31:54
  So over the years, we've given instructor eligibility to over 2, 400
• 32:00
  different, highly experienced drivers across the country that, uh, support
• 32:05
  chin track days and always hats off.
• 32:09
  To the instructors who are at the heart of the track day hobby.
• 32:13
  Thank you very much.
• 32:14
  Whether you instruct for chin or not, if you are a qualified instructor and
• 32:18
  you regularly give your time to the track hobby to show up and share your
• 32:22
  experience with a less experienced driver, I thank you personally.
• 32:27
  Well, thank you, Mark, for saying that.
• 32:28
  I appreciate that.
• 32:29
  Uh, having, having instructed now for, okay, I've lost track
• 32:32
  of the years, but, but thank you.
• 32:34
  And I'll say that on behalf of everybody that's listening as well.
• 32:37
  And all the folks in GTM that have coached for Chin and
• 32:40
  coach for other organizations.
• 32:41
  But let's step back to the training for a second.
• 32:43
  I think there's a couple of things that are very unique to Chin
• 32:46
  that I want to, I want you to kind of unpack for the listeners.
• 32:49
  That being the way you guys do your orientation laps.
• 32:52
  I think the way you split up your novice and your solo novice, and in addition
• 32:57
  to that I think the flag test would be something interesting to talk about.
• 33:00
  I think our listeners would also be interested to hear about your tech
• 33:03
  process because that's really important to a lot of the newbies as well.
• 33:07
  Sure thing, thanks Eric.
• 33:08
  So, so basically if you are the novice driver, you're an entry level
• 33:12
  driver, you love your high performance street car, and you want to learn how
• 33:16
  to drive it well because of course making laps is not a natural skill.
• 33:21
  Many folks who own high performance cars aren't fully acquainted with
• 33:24
  that, but there's a great difference between being qualified to buy an
• 33:30
  expensive high performance car and being qualified to make laps in it.
• 33:34
  Everybody out there who's an enthusiast has heard stories about
• 33:39
  brand new owners of brand new sports cars who left the dealer and never
• 33:42
  made it home, crashed the car.
• 33:45
  Because they're intoxicated with, you know, 0 to 60, 3 second times,
• 33:51
  and 160 mile an hour top speeds.
• 33:55
  And you just, you know, you want to get sideways every time you turn right.
• 34:01
  And you end up all in big trouble.
• 34:02
  Instead, we want you to come to the track, get acquainted with one of our veteran
• 34:07
  instructors, and get some very intensive, committed coaching on high performance
• 34:15
  driving techniques, vehicle preparation, vehicle dynamics, car control, track
• 34:20
  safety, and generally the conditioning of the fantastic hand eye foot coordination
• 34:30
  that an accomplished driver must acquire.
• 34:33
  And we've got the staff, we've put the emphasis on that for a driver.
• 34:38
  who is participating with Chintrac Days, if they're new to the hobby,
• 34:42
  they're not going to have an option to sign up as a solo driver.
• 34:47
  We require an entry level driver to work with an instructor.
• 34:51
  You don't get the opportunity to just go start randomly making
• 34:55
  laps and let's see how it goes.
• 34:57
  That doesn't work out.
• 34:58
  We look at it like any kind of advanced skill set.
• 35:02
  that you've got to get qualified for.
• 35:04
  Maybe you want to go scuba diving.
• 35:05
  You've got to take classes.
• 35:07
  You work with an instructor diver and eventually you
• 35:10
  become a certified scuba diver.
• 35:12
  You get a C card.
• 35:14
  Diving is one of those hobbies.
• 35:15
  Aviation.
• 35:16
  You can't just go down and rent an aircraft at the local
• 35:20
  airport and go take off and land and do some sightseeing tours.
• 35:24
  You have to get lessons.
• 35:26
  And now while we're all qualified to drive a car, Right?
• 35:30
  You're carrying a driver's license?
• 35:32
  Well, there you go.
• 35:33
  That says, I'm qualified to drive a car.
• 35:36
  That doesn't make a driver qualified to make laps.
• 35:39
  And that's part of our education philosophy, to help folks understand that
• 35:45
  you don't yet know what you don't know about what it takes to make laps safely.
• 35:51
  And we want to introduce you to that, to where you get a breakthrough and
• 35:54
  you go, Oh, now I see what's happening.
• 35:58
  And now I want to work with my instructor for longer and more because then you end
• 36:02
  up You spend less time having to learn the lap and more time going faster.
• 36:08
  The instructor is kind of a fast forward cheat to becoming a great driver.
• 36:14
  If y'all have been to the track on many occasions, you perhaps have heard someone
• 36:19
  say, you know, I really need to be solo.
• 36:22
  I can get, if I get the instructor, you know, 200 plus pounds out of my
• 36:26
  right seat, I'm going to go faster.
• 36:28
  That is not A correct assumption.
• 36:32
  It only applies on a Miata because they're weight sensitive, but otherwise
• 36:36
  that may be fair to say, but you certainly better know what to do
• 36:43
  with your Miata to get that right, to corner that car at 101 percent and
• 36:49
  use it from track edge to track edge and not leaving any unused pavement.
• 36:54
  That's how you run a Miata.
• 36:56
  I'm a big Miata fan.
• 36:57
  The chin track days.
• 36:58
  fleet includes two Miatas.
• 37:01
  So one of the great sports cars of all time, without a doubt.
• 37:04
  So going back to going back to something you said and from
• 37:07
  personal experience, I want to kind of shore up what you said there.
• 37:10
  So, I mean, I've had the pleasure of coaching for Chin at several different
• 37:15
  locations and I thought the process was really interesting and I I struggled with
• 37:19
  it kind of internally for a while because it is so disciplined in a way, but I came
• 37:25
  to appreciate it the more time I spent with Chin and the fact that there's still
• 37:30
  a trust but verify within Chin that I found refreshing and important because no,
• 37:34
  we're not just going to let you on track.
• 37:36
  in the highest run group because you said so and you showed up with a
• 37:38
  car with a bunch of stickers on it.
• 37:40
  But the same was true of coaching.
• 37:42
  Had you not been to that track before, you couldn't coach at that
• 37:45
  track until you got signed off.
• 37:47
  So there was still a vetting process even there, which I thought was really cool.
• 37:50
  And again, I've been very fortunate to coach with Chin in the past, so it's
• 37:54
  been a very rewarding experience overall.
• 37:57
  Eric, that's awesome.
• 37:59
  I, uh, I so appreciate you, uh, taking a moment to make that comment there.
• 38:04
  And what, what that all goes back to is, if I can add to that,
• 38:09
  is our kind of safety culture.
• 38:12
  We have this really high commitment to mitigate risk.
• 38:17
  Okay, your driver, whoever you are out there, novice up to 20 year veteran,
• 38:22
  you've made a choice to motorsports event.
• 38:25
  This is inherently risky.
• 38:27
  However, if you've got eyes wide open, And you're paying careful
• 38:31
  attention to your environment.
• 38:33
  You can identify the risk.
• 38:34
  You can recognize them out here in front of you, and you can take deliberate
• 38:39
  steps to recognize and then mitigate.
• 38:42
  The risk and that kind of goes hand in hand with this, uh, the trust, but
• 38:48
  verify as you point out, and if we can eliminate the variables of those
• 38:55
  potential risks that perhaps are subject to our influence, whether it's
• 39:01
  the chin staff or other well seasoned instructors who are part Of the event
• 39:06
  where we can recognize and mitigate risk.
• 39:09
  We want to do all that we can to take those variables out of the
• 39:13
  equation so that the driver one is going to increase their focus so
• 39:19
  they don't have to give attention.
• 39:21
  To these other things that might be occurring that create,
• 39:25
  shall we say, background noise.
• 39:26
  We want to reduce that from the driver load.
• 39:30
  But then also, if you can identify and take steps to control the things
• 39:34
  that you actually can control, then you leave space in what's happening.
• 39:41
  For the unexpected to occur and this of course Is something that it goes
• 39:48
  hand in hand with motorsports That you can't control all the variables and
• 39:53
  that random and unexpected things will occur And so what we're our deliberate
• 39:58
  intention now is to try and create surplus bandwidth for the driver or
• 40:04
  instructor or advanced driver, especially whoever you are out there where you're
• 40:10
  making laps and you think things are going right and you are well within the
• 40:16
  capability of your car and yourself as a driver, but something now random occurs.
• 40:23
  A car ahead blows a tire, drops fluid, a squirrel runs out from the edge.
• 40:29
  You never know.
• 40:30
  And now, you're equipped to address or respond to these unexpected conditions
• 40:38
  and hopefully end up with a safe outcome or at least no injury, right?
• 40:44
  Incidents do happen.
• 40:46
  We've all heard before, perhaps if you've been in the hobby for a while,
• 40:49
  that you're probably at greater risk driving to the racetrack on the streets
• 40:55
  than you are actually making laps, you know, so that's what we're trying to do
• 41:00
  with this disciplined, very conditioned and structured approach to how our
• 41:06
  run groups are organized, how our instructors provide coaching for entry
• 41:11
  level drivers, and what are the, uh, shall we say ladder steps For a driver
• 41:18
  to move from solo status to intermediate solo to advanced solo to instructor.
• 41:25
  You know, that whole ladder where one skill set layers on the other to create
• 41:31
  this whole well rounded background for a seasoned, uh, experienced enthusiast
• 41:37
  who's been in the track hobby for a while.
• 41:39
  That you reach a place.
• 41:41
  where making laps at nine tenths becomes kind of a conditioned muscle
• 41:47
  memory and you may have a moment.
• 41:51
  You know, to, to pause and consider, you know, what's that noise or what
• 41:55
  have you while you're on the limit and you recognize other things that
• 42:01
  are happening that are outside of your driver envelope because you've
• 42:05
  gotten very well conditioned.
• 42:07
  And that's part of the risk management that we want to condition for drivers
• 42:12
  that participate with us because the driver that is comfortable
• 42:17
  and shall we say relaxed in their, in their driving environment.
• 42:21
  is going to perform better than a driver who is under stress and uptight and
• 42:28
  has too much happening around them, but they can't keep up with it all.
• 42:31
  That driver ends up making mistakes.
• 42:33
  And of course, mistakes at the track can lead to, you know,
• 42:37
  unexpected, unfortunate consequences.
• 42:40
  Absolutely.
• 42:40
  We're going to unpack a little bit more of that here in a minute.
• 42:43
  You've hit one of my favorite highlights, the warmup session.
• 42:48
  Every single Chin Track Days Doesn't matter the location or the time, we
• 42:53
  will begin with a half hour period of standing yellow flag full course caution.
• 42:59
  And it has a whole wide influence over many things at the track event.
• 43:05
  A warm up in general sounds like a good idea, right?
• 43:07
  If you're a very experienced driver, maybe you don't need the track orientation,
• 43:12
  but you do need to shake down your car.
• 43:14
  Maybe you've recently serviced it.
• 43:16
  Maybe you need to get the brakes hot.
• 43:18
  Maybe you need to scrub the stickers off your tires.
• 43:20
  But if you are a brand new entry level driver, you get out on the
• 43:25
  track with your instructor in the right seat under yellow flag.
• 43:28
  Now you don't have to worry about managing traffic.
• 43:32
  There is no passing.
• 43:33
  And so the instructor can give their attention to the driver about track
• 43:40
  orientation, turn in apex, track out, here's the break point, here's the
• 43:44
  blind spot, look at that tree on the horizon, without the novice driver
• 43:49
  having to worry about what's in their mirror or managed traffic at all.
• 43:53
  It brings down the stress level.
• 43:56
  If you're an experienced enthusiast, everybody who's been
• 43:58
  to track events, you know that when you arrive Saturday morning.
• 44:02
  And dawn, semi darkness, and there's always a rush.
• 44:07
  Yeah, you gotta unload or prep the car, or get your gear, or see the
• 44:11
  event management to get checked in, go to the driver's meeting.
• 44:15
  All of this is, happens on deadlines.
• 44:18
  You're actually under stress in the opening hour before you've ever
• 44:22
  gotten in your car to make laps.
• 44:24
  We want this opening warm up session to be a calming period where the
• 44:30
  driver can get out of that stressful environment of rushing around in the
• 44:34
  paddock under deadlines, and now they got nothing but their car, the windshield,
• 44:40
  and the track in front of them.
• 44:41
  Don't forget yellow flag, no passing, notice the corner stations.
• 44:46
  So the warm up session has a lot of benefit in calming the field in
• 44:51
  giving a new driver orientation to the lap and allowing an experienced
• 44:55
  driver to shake their car down.
• 44:58
  And that's done at full speed with full gear and basically I've always heard it's
• 45:03
  as fast as the car in front of you can go.
• 45:06
  So if you're stuck behind a Miata Yeah, but hey, it could be a 10 year
• 45:11
  veteran in a Miata stuck behind a new guy in a 992 Porsche, right?
• 45:17
  But indeed, there's not a speed limit.
• 45:20
  You can go as fast as the car in front of you, and if the If the guy in front
• 45:24
  of you is a very seasoned driver and he doesn't have anybody holding him
• 45:28
  up, he might be going a hundred plus miles an hour in the warmup session.
• 45:33
  And you know what?
• 45:33
  That's okay.
• 45:35
  Can't overtake anybody, but it is true that you do start full gear.
• 45:40
  I want to point out that there are some programs that run a warmup
• 45:45
  period to begin their track event.
• 45:47
  And they'll say, Oh, off pace, low speed, no helmet required.
• 45:52
  Let's rewind a moment.
• 45:54
  And I was talking about risk mitigation, identifying risk factors.
• 45:58
  If a novice driver is getting in the car for the first time to make laps, and
• 46:05
  they're going to do a warm up period and they don't have their helmet on, now I
• 46:08
  can understand there's some potential benefit in what the instructor has to
• 46:13
  say and, and what have you, but that then means that the first time that
• 46:20
  driver makes laps while wearing a helmet, Which can be a little disorienting if
• 46:26
  you're, if it's not a familiar thing to you, the first time that driver
• 46:29
  may make laps while wearing a helmet will be under full speed conditions.
• 46:34
  We want that driver to already have a comfort level with what
• 46:40
  are these conditions with my belt?
• 46:42
  So the harness or, you know, the helmet, or maybe I've got a head
• 46:45
  and neck restraint or Hans device or hybrid or other backpack, they need
• 46:51
  to get oriented and comfortable with.
• 46:55
  The whole cockpit environment under less than full speed conditions
• 47:00
  so that they're ready for it.
• 47:02
  When they get to full speed status.
• 47:05
  And so yes, indeed, that is why the helmet is required in the warm up session, not
• 47:11
  to mention the obvious safety benefit.
• 47:14
  If I were to tell you, yes, we have seen incidents in the warm up session.
• 47:18
  Would you be surprised?
• 47:20
  No, not at all.
• 47:21
  Probably not.
• 47:23
  It's a racetrack.
• 47:24
  And yes, uh, the reality is we have seen off track incidents
• 47:28
  occur in the warmup period.
• 47:30
  So of course your helmet is going to be required.
• 47:33
  So let's go back to progression because you talked about that a little bit in
• 47:36
  terms of, you know, the expectations of the classroom and things like that.
• 47:39
  And one of the pieces that I found is unique to CHIM is the flag test and
• 47:44
  it's part of your progression model.
• 47:45
  So you want to talk about that.
• 47:47
  Well, great.
• 47:48
  I sure will.
• 47:49
  And by the way, anybody who watches the Break It Fix It
• 47:53
  podcast, you want to cheat?
• 47:55
  17turns.
• 47:57
  com It's the Chin Track Days flag test.
• 47:59
  That's the number one seven turns dot com.
• 48:03
  And for those of you who aren't completely in the know that's how
• 48:06
  many turns there are at Sebring.
• 48:08
  This is part of the whole platform of driver conditioning that we do in
• 48:14
  terms of education and it literally ties back to the warm up session that
• 48:20
  we were just talking about because of course at that time every corner
• 48:24
  station is displaying a yellow flag stationary full course caution.
• 48:27
  Which gives every driver the opportunity to identify notice the location of the
• 48:33
  corner stations if you're visiting An unfamiliar lap for the first time you need
• 48:37
  to know where those corner stations are We put a lot of emphasis on the corner
• 48:42
  stations and the flags And in the chin format as a driver gains experience And
• 48:49
  confidence raises and they build pace.
• 48:52
  They're going faster.
• 48:53
  Maybe they're now ready to qualify into a next higher run group.
• 48:58
  We will give you the flag test and you can practice that at 17turns.
• 49:03
  com.
• 49:06
  And yes, they're all there and this is something that we think should
• 49:10
  be second nature to every driver.
• 49:13
  It is universal in motorsport and we have seen.
• 49:18
  Some fairly fast drivers, drivers that appear to have that natural gift of speed
• 49:23
  that they were very good at managing the geometry of the track, using the whole
• 49:29
  track, working their vehicle, they're going fast, they want to get to a higher
• 49:33
  run group, we give them the flag test, and we have a handout for that, a hard
• 49:37
  copy paper, you can look at that, read this, and then we ask you to take the
• 49:41
  flag test, and they fail miserably!
• 49:44
  They haven't had any flag conditioning or training previously.
• 49:47
  They've just used their natural skill to make good laps.
• 49:53
  But that will tell us if they failed the flag test.
• 49:56
  They're probably not noticing the corner station doesn't just mean you don't need
• 50:00
  know the difference between the blue or black or, or red or yellow, but it also
• 50:07
  can indicate that that driver is not giving appropriate ample attention to
• 50:12
  the corner station eyes up eyes out of the car, not off the end of your hood.
• 50:17
  Looking down track to the next corner station, drivers, a general tip, not
• 50:23
  just a chin track day standard, but for everybody out there, every lap
• 50:27
  you make, if you get your eyes up and down the track and see the next corner
• 50:31
  station, your laps are going to improve.
• 50:36
  Rather or not, the corner station is showing a flag.
• 50:39
  There may be no hazard whatsoever, but if you got your eyes that far down the
• 50:43
  track, your lapping will get better.
• 50:46
  Get your eyes up, look at the corner stations, know your flags, and we'll
• 50:51
  give you the flag test at the next Gen Track Day event you attend to qualify
• 50:56
  you into the next higher run group.
• 50:58
  And then for our most advanced category, for a very experienced driver who wants
• 51:05
  to get to kind of the tip of the track day pyramid, the Gen Track Day's red group,
• 51:10
  you'll take the flag test and we will further give you A corner worker test,
• 51:16
  and that is the blank track map for the track that we're visiting at that time.
• 51:22
  And we'll give you the track map and ask you to take a pen and please mark
• 51:26
  the location all the way around the lap of every corner station that is in use.
• 51:33
  And that is a test of track awareness and of course, flag
• 51:37
  management and corner stations.
• 51:39
  And it's a, it's a safety step.
• 51:42
  And that is part of the Chin culture and part of our run group ladder.
• 51:47
  If you will, that keeps some pretty clean run groups and
• 51:52
  it keeps the drivers honest.
• 51:54
  You can show up in, uh, a new $300,000 exotic and tell us you
• 51:59
  should be in the fastest run group.
• 52:01
  Y'all know the video, right?
• 52:03
  And there's plenty of 'em.
• 52:05
  And, and we'll go, um, you know, show me your track history.
• 52:09
  You got a nice car there, but tell me about all the laps that you've made.
• 52:13
  'cause we don't qualify cars, we qualify drivers.
• 52:17
  And, uh, so, uh, you can have a day one driver in a brand new Ferrari and a
• 52:22
  day one driver in a ten year old Miata.
• 52:27
  In Chin Track days, they will both be in the same run group because
• 52:30
  each driver has the same skill level.
• 52:34
  We're not measuring wallet thickness.
• 52:37
  So with that being said, I know one of the things that's a
• 52:40
  dreaded part of the whole process.
• 52:43
  It's for veterans and newbies alike getting through tech.
• 52:46
  And so I, we try to offset some nerves by explaining the process to
• 52:52
  people because I think people get overly anxious about what's involved.
• 52:56
  So and every group does tech differently.
• 52:58
  Some require like mark organizations require you to go
• 53:02
  to specialists and there's other groups that don't tech at all.
• 53:04
  And there's every gamut in between.
• 53:06
  So can you elaborate a little bit on what Chin's tech is like?
• 53:11
  Sure.
• 53:12
  Yeah, thanks Eric.
• 53:13
  So you're absolutely right about that in terms of this is one of the stress
• 53:18
  steps That enthusiasts must face as they get started in their track event
• 53:23
  one of the things you must do really in the arrival hour as soon as you get to
• 53:28
  the track is Pass tech and for drivers that may be new to the hobby indeed
• 53:34
  they might find that to be a fairly burdensome and on its surface appear to
• 53:40
  be Quite a complex task and you know, Oh, will I fail tech for this chip
• 53:46
  in my windshield at chin track days?
• 53:48
  Honestly, one of the risk mitigation steps that we take is to put the
• 53:54
  burden of having a safe car and completing tech on the driver.
• 54:00
  And what we mean by that is chin track days doesn't want The responsibility
• 54:08
  to put a lug wrench on your wheels and torque your lugs or raise your
• 54:13
  hood and check your battery cables or check any of your fluid levels.
• 54:17
  You know what?
• 54:18
  That's really not a good practice for someone else.
• 54:22
  To tamper, so to speak, you're not tampering deliberately, but to do things
• 54:27
  with someone else's car, in many cases, if you're a track enthusiast, that
• 54:31
  track car is your prized possession.
• 54:33
  We're not gonna tamper with that.
• 54:35
  We're gonna give you a comprehensive list and say, here are the requirements, follow
• 54:40
  these guidelines, check these boxes.
• 54:44
  If you are an enthusiast who can change your own brakes, Jack your car up, take
• 54:49
  the wheels off, remove the calipers, swap the pads, put it all back together,
• 54:52
  have no leftover pieces, and bleed.
• 54:55
  You are qualified to tech your own car.
• 54:57
  That is fully legit.
• 54:59
  In fact, many enthusiasts may say this is a fundamental thing that a track
• 55:04
  enthusiast ought to have mastered.
• 55:08
  Go through the list, check all the boxes, sign off on, at the bottom, it
• 55:13
  very deliberately says, I take full responsibility for the mechanical
• 55:17
  condition of my car, and even if you have gone to the high end professional
• 55:24
  shop with multi levels of ASE certifications that are very familiar
• 55:29
  with doing track inspection and all of that, and a mechanic has completed the
• 55:34
  tech and signed off on it, guess what?
• 55:36
  You still have to take responsibility for it.
• 55:40
  And there is a line on our tech sheet at the bottom that says I am the
• 55:44
  owner, operator, driver, et cetera.
• 55:46
  And I take full responsibility for this, the condition of this car.
• 55:51
  And on the one hand, it might appear that Chen is just trying
• 55:56
  to shrug the responsibility of doing a safe, clean tech.
• 56:00
  That is absolutely not the case.
• 56:02
  We are emphasizing to the owner, operator, driver, the
• 56:06
  importance of taking care of that.
• 56:10
  It's okay if you're not a person who can change your own brakes and you
• 56:13
  do send it out for service, and you get someone else to inspect the car.
• 56:17
  That's great as long as that is your comfort level and you have
• 56:20
  high confidence that that mechanical inspection has been thoroughly and
• 56:24
  appropriately addressed, you still are going to have to sign off on that.
• 56:28
  And so we're putting That burden and this responsibility on the driver to make sure
• 56:36
  that this has been done in advance Now that driver will face one of the chin
• 56:42
  tech leaders who will take the complete Tech inspection form validate that
• 56:48
  everything has been correctly completed signed off on meaning you accept full
• 56:53
  responsibility We'll check the number.
• 56:55
  We certainly are going to look at your seat belts, etc.
• 56:58
  We want to make sure You know vintage car, you know with the good old
• 57:03
  fashioned 60 seat back and a lap belt Okay, that's going to get a
• 57:07
  red flag right up front early on.
• 57:09
  Fortunately, we don't see that often One of the chin tech leaders is certainly
• 57:14
  going to eyeball the car And review that page and then we're going to give
• 57:19
  you that tech sticker and tell you to move along We want to make the tech
• 57:23
  process user friendly and very accessible for a prepared driver Whose car is in
• 57:29
  excellent condition a passing tech at chin track days takes about 90 seconds
• 57:34
  to two minutes and that's it So we want to make that user friendly, but at the
• 57:37
  same time give emphasis That this is a very important step And i'll tell you
• 57:45
  the number one thing and the 1a thing That we do have to correct drivers on
• 57:50
  at tech one is they got a kind of a collector car spends most of its time
• 57:56
  in the garage or man cave And they're showing up on tires that have plenty
• 58:02
  of tread life Because it's they haven't been used in six seven eight years.
• 58:08
  They're holding air just fine Nope, we're gonna fail you if your tires
• 58:13
  are that old and the second thing 1a Is your helmet being out of date?
• 58:20
  Drivers don't realize this, or, you know, often said, uh, you know, the
• 58:24
  motorsport manufacturers are just trying to make money by having that
• 58:28
  helmet standard, but you know what?
• 58:31
  The Snell thing is all about the, the, the helmet ages sitting on your shelf.
• 58:35
  Drivers, the shell oxidizes, it becomes brittle, it loses its impact resilience.
• 58:42
  So the Snell certification is a real thing.
• 58:46
  And if you show up with an out of date helmet.
• 58:48
  We will rent you one of our current and up to spec helmets that are
• 58:53
  available at every Chin Track Days event, you know, so that's our approach
• 58:57
  to tech, which is Fundamentally, it's to put the responsibility on the
• 59:02
  driver to have a well prepared car.
• 59:06
  All very good points, Mark.
• 59:07
  And we covered helmet aging and things like that on a previous episode
• 59:11
  titled Things I Wish I Knew as a Noob.
• 59:13
  And we talk about, you know, the 11 year run and why helmets Come out
• 59:16
  when they do and what the ratings mean and what, you know, SA versus
• 59:20
  them and all that kind of stuff.
• 59:21
  So if anybody's interested in diving into that a little bit more, check
• 59:24
  out that earlier episode where Brad and I covered that in more detail.
• 59:27
  But one thing I do want to mention in something you mentioned at the
• 59:30
  top of that part of the conversation is I always cringed at those events
• 59:36
  where somebody would walk up to the car with a torque wrench, which
• 59:39
  you didn't know what it was set at.
• 59:40
  And let's just say.
• 59:42
  You know you own a Lotus Elise or you own a Subaru or a Honda where
• 59:47
  your torque spec is 75 pounds at best and I'm in a Volkswagen Audi
• 59:52
  Porsche where my torque spec is 100.
• 59:55
  Who's got the over tightened lug and who has the under tightened
• 59:58
  one in this case, right?
• 1:00:00
  So it never sat right with me.
• 1:00:02
  Has that torque wrench even been calibrated?
• 1:00:03
  You know is it the 10 Harbor Freight Special or is it the 180 Snap on?
• 1:00:10
  Right?
• 1:00:11
  Exactly.
• 1:00:12
  So again, I, I cringe at that and I'm like, yeah, you know, so
• 1:00:15
  I like the way you guys do it.
• 1:00:16
  It's a little clinical, but that's a good way to approach it and the
• 1:00:20
  whole sign off and the double check.
• 1:00:22
  But you're right.
• 1:00:22
  It's not something to be worried about at the end of the day.
• 1:00:25
  If you've made preparations well in advance, not the morning of
• 1:00:29
  trying to get your way through tech, we've seen that happen too.
• 1:00:33
  There shouldn't be any anxiety there.
• 1:00:34
  And once you've gone through it once.
• 1:00:36
  That usually subsides relatively quickly, but it does still factor
• 1:00:41
  into that whole conversation about risk mitigation and risk acceptance.
• 1:00:45
  And I think there's one more piece that we've talked about with multiple people
• 1:00:48
  on this show, and we want to get your opinion about it from your personal
• 1:00:52
  opinion and maybe from Chin's Perspective is the topic of track insurance.
• 1:00:56
  Uh huh.
• 1:00:57
  How do you feel about track insurance?
• 1:00:59
  And is chin one of the organizations that is starting to company registration
• 1:01:04
  with the ability for a driver to purchase track insurance as they register?
• 1:01:08
  So if you want to unpack that or Yeah, great topic, Eric, uh, which is Very
• 1:01:14
  multifaceted, honestly, there are layers of complexity and every driver out there
• 1:01:20
  has a little bit different scale for Kind of risk reward and What their level of
• 1:01:29
  comfort is with exposure track insurance?
• 1:01:32
  Has definitely been on the rise recently.
• 1:01:35
  No question about it.
• 1:01:36
  Probably the last five six years It's become more and more prevalent for
• 1:01:42
  drivers To opt in to buy track day coverage and drivers that may typically
• 1:01:48
  come with a fee in the range of 3, 4, 5 percent of your declared value.
• 1:01:56
  If you're in a Miata from the 90s in a car, That has a real street value
• 1:02:04
  of five six seven thousand bucks.
• 1:02:06
  You may not need track day insurance It's you know, probably irrelevant and
• 1:02:10
  then you look at the absolute abundance of high performance cars available
• 1:02:18
  today Honestly, I would look around and say we may be in the greatest
• 1:02:23
  automotive era Of our generation.
• 1:02:27
  I was born in the 60s.
• 1:02:29
  And of course we all look back fondly At muscle cars from the 60s and 70s
• 1:02:35
  and there's a lot of conversation that goes back and forth about
• 1:02:39
  What's the greatest era of cars?
• 1:02:41
  Well, I'll tell you what Never ever have was there a time before
• 1:02:45
  now where you could walk in?
• 1:02:47
  To a Chevy dealer with 65, 000 bucks, come away with a Camaro Z011LE, drive into
• 1:02:57
  Road Atlanta, and if you're a competent driver, do a minute 35 after doing nothing
• 1:03:01
  but filling the tank for 65, 000 bucks.
• 1:03:05
  Honest to God, wow!
• 1:03:07
  In the 90s, you would have had to have a 200, 000 car to go
• 1:03:14
  a minute 35 in Road Atlanta.
• 1:03:18
  So now, this performance has become really accessible, and not 65,
• 1:03:23
  000, well that's not chump change.
• 1:03:26
  But compared to the performance that 65, 000 would get you 10 years ago, It's an
• 1:03:33
  extraordinary leap that we have now taken.
• 1:03:37
  So now, cars in this category, Mustang GT350, the new Camaros, the new
• 1:03:42
  Corvettes, are more expensive, but still, bang for the buck, is enormous.
• 1:03:48
  And now, you may be thinking, if I did, uh, you know, have an off, have
• 1:03:53
  an incident that resulted in collision damage, I tell you what, the Expense to
• 1:04:00
  repair these cars now has escalated in lockstep with the available performance
• 1:04:06
  So performance is skyrocketed.
• 1:04:09
  But now they've got all you know lane keeping assist And uh anti collision
• 1:04:14
  braking systems with radar in the bumpers this kind of thing You know
• 1:04:17
  what you tag the tire wall with what appears to be just cosmetic skim And
• 1:04:23
  you've damaged the bumper, but hey the car's still drivable and you've driven
• 1:04:26
  you drive away into the pits A car generation ago, 10 plus years back, that
• 1:04:32
  would have been a 1, 000 or 2, 000 fix.
• 1:04:34
  Now it's a 9, 000 fix.
• 1:04:36
  Why?
• 1:04:37
  Because the bumper is radar equipped, and it's got all these other G sensors, etc.
• 1:04:43
  So the cost to repair the vehicles now, for even what appears to be minor
• 1:04:48
  things, has escalated significantly.
• 1:04:51
  That might mean that getting track insurance is a good idea.
• 1:04:55
  The track hobby is Even at the entry level, it's an expensive undertaking.
• 1:05:01
  Honestly, motorsport in general, it just, there's not a cheap way to do it.
• 1:05:06
  But if you have that commitment and you're paying five or six hundred dollars in
• 1:05:09
  track fees and you've, you're bringing your 65 to 80 plus thousand dollar car,
• 1:05:16
  if it's a late model, you know, plenty of us drive, you know, recycled cars
• 1:05:21
  that we have made track prepared for 20, 000 bucks, et cetera, but still you've
• 1:05:26
  taken time off work, you've committed expense to travel, you're going to
• 1:05:29
  spend on, on hotels and dining and all the other consumables, tire, et cetera.
• 1:05:34
  Gas, grapes, etc.
• 1:05:36
  You know what?
• 1:05:37
  You got a couple thousand bucks into the weekend, just like that is what it takes.
• 1:05:43
  Is it worthwhile now to spend another 350 to 450 bucks?
• 1:05:49
  To cover your car for on track damage.
• 1:05:52
  This is what enthusiasts have to consider Honestly, it wouldn't be my place to tell
• 1:05:58
  enthusiasts Hey, you should ignore track insurance forget it or hey, you must
• 1:06:03
  have track insurance go out there and get it You know with a high recommendation,
• 1:06:07
  but I certainly what I do want to do is educate enthusiasts on the pros and cons
• 1:06:14
  of having or not having Track insurance the con right out up front, of course is
• 1:06:18
  the expense It's going to add three to four to five hundred dollars depending
• 1:06:22
  on the expense of your car It's going to add that to your track weekend the
• 1:06:28
  pro Well, if you have the unfortunate occurrence to find yourself off the
• 1:06:34
  track Up against the wall in a cloud of dust Going now you're going to be
• 1:06:41
  really glad you have track insurance.
• 1:06:43
  Now, of course The statistical probability of this occurrence is low.
• 1:06:50
  If you found yourself in those conditions and you didn't have
• 1:06:53
  insurance, you will say, man, I wish I got the track insurance.
• 1:06:57
  And if you have it, you'll say, boy, I'm glad I got the track insurance.
• 1:07:02
  That's what will happen.
• 1:07:03
  But it is readily available and there are several great providers out there.
• 1:07:08
  Chin Track Days definitely has a relationship with Locton.
• 1:07:12
  Motorsports, one of the leaders in providing track day insurance.
• 1:07:17
  There is a referral link on our website to Lockton Motorsports
• 1:07:22
  for track day insurance.
• 1:07:25
  It's not part of our direct online registration because, well, just for
• 1:07:29
  insurance regulatory reasons, unless Chin Track Days is a licensed insurance
• 1:07:35
  seller, we can't sell insurance directly.
• 1:07:38
  I can just let you know that we have a relationship with Lockton Motorsports.
• 1:07:43
  And they give favorable rates for Chim Track Days events, by the way.
• 1:07:46
  Per event premium for some Chim Track Days events is lower from
• 1:07:52
  Lockton than perhaps if you were participating with a different club.
• 1:07:57
  So that's not a guarantee, uh, and it depends on what
• 1:08:00
  event venue you're going to.
• 1:08:02
  Some venues are higher risk than others.
• 1:08:04
  Road Atlanta, Watkins Glen, et cetera, have inherently higher risk than a
• 1:08:09
  place like, say, Koda, where it's hard to, uh, hurt your car in some ways.
• 1:08:13
  But every enthusiast ought to give consideration to what is their
• 1:08:18
  exposure to risk, with the value of their car, one of the things that
• 1:08:24
  you can easily find on the internet.
• 1:08:27
  Advice from other enthusiasts about track day insurance.
• 1:08:29
  They'll say if you can't afford to get out and walk away from your car
• 1:08:34
  Then you should insure it But that is something for every enthusiast to make
• 1:08:38
  a personal decision about it is not a requirement But do know If you are
• 1:08:44
  an enthusiast and you choose to track your high performance streetcar, your
• 1:08:48
  streetcar policy very likely does not provide coverage for damage that might
• 1:08:55
  occur in a track related incident.
• 1:08:57
  Read your policy, drivers, is the best advice you could get.
• 1:09:01
  It will say.
• 1:09:03
  We exclude racetracks where it won't say that.
• 1:09:05
  And by the way, if it doesn't It doesn't have to say we insure
• 1:09:09
  you in a racetrack incident.
• 1:09:11
  It doesn't have to say that.
• 1:09:12
  It only has to be silent about that.
• 1:09:15
  Fundamentally, we are non competition, right?
• 1:09:17
  And that is a key thing because every insurance provider out there
• 1:09:21
  will certainly say, we exclude using your car if you go racing.
• 1:09:26
  You know, does the same thing apply if you're doing autocross, for example?
• 1:09:30
  Because that's a controlled environment.
• 1:09:31
  It's not at a racetrack.
• 1:09:33
  They're all gray areas, and I'll be honest to you, internet viewers.
• 1:09:38
  insurers very widely.
• 1:09:41
  Um, there is not a uniform model out there.
• 1:09:44
  And if you are committed to be in the hobby long term, using a car that
• 1:09:48
  is street tagged and that you drive on the street, you ought to spend
• 1:09:52
  some time giving attention to the language of your insurance policy.
• 1:09:56
  One of one of our members says if I can't put a boot in the door of your car
• 1:10:00
  Then you've chosen the wrong car meaning
• 1:10:06
  Well, I will say hey, we're all enthusiasts I won't go around putting
• 1:10:10
  my boot in anybody's car A couple things to wrap up here If there's anything in
• 1:10:15
  particular you want to let people know about the remainder of the season by
• 1:10:18
  all means And if you want a shout out to any of this any of chin sponsors
• 1:10:22
  Because I know you guys have them.
• 1:10:23
  Please do that as well.
• 1:10:25
  And i'll have my closing comments before, you know, we wrap up.
• 1:10:29
  Well, that's just, that's fantastic.
• 1:10:31
  Uh, thank you for opening the window to that.
• 1:10:34
  I definitely will thank our forever long time partner in driver safety
• 1:10:40
  and motor sports accessories is discovery parts discounts.
• 1:10:44
  Discounts to Chin Drivers.
• 1:10:45
  Our brake partner is G Lock.
• 1:10:48
  Discounts to Chin Drivers.
• 1:10:51
  Uh, they offer brake pad and friction compounds in every range
• 1:10:56
  for almost any style of vehicle.
• 1:10:59
  Uhlen's Advanced Suspension Technology.
• 1:11:02
  Is our title branding partner for all of our road Atlanta and
• 1:11:07
  Watkins Glen dates Oolans also gives discounts to chin drivers.
• 1:11:11
  Oolans became famous for providing Suspension for formula one cars that you
• 1:11:17
  know was like 20 000 bucks a corner But now you can get ulens that very same.
• 1:11:22
  Um level of engineering.
• 1:11:24
  It's not the same stuff But the same thought and care goes into their products
• 1:11:30
  for track cars If you're thinking about a suspension upgrade We would recommend
• 1:11:34
  ulens if you're in florida and you own a porsche You should be considering track
• 1:11:39
  support from zotts racing zotts racing is the Home of Porsche Podiums in Florida.
• 1:11:45
  They're Orlando based, but they serve Porsche owners across the entire state
• 1:11:51
  with top tier service and in their facility at Zots Racing in Orlando.
• 1:11:57
  If you are near VIR, Shin Track Days recommends trackside service and
• 1:12:02
  support from Quantum Speedworks.
• 1:12:05
  Quantum.
• 1:12:06
  is, uh, in the RacePlex right next to V.
• 1:12:09
  I.
• 1:12:09
  R.
• 1:12:10
  and they provide service for track enthusiasts across the Southern Virginia
• 1:12:15
  and Northern North Carolina tier.
• 1:12:17
  They are awesome.
• 1:12:18
  We visit COTA in Texas often, and you're from other parts of the country
• 1:12:22
  and you want to enjoy laps at COTA.
• 1:12:24
  Many drivers ask us where can they get a track prepared rental.
• 1:12:28
  We go to W2W, and that is Will to Win Racing, and they are based in Budda,
• 1:12:35
  which is just south of Austin, but they provide fully supported track car
• 1:12:39
  rentals, really for any Texas track event, but especially accessible for all.
• 1:12:44
  CODA dates and also in Texas, our partners at Thin Speed Racing Wheels do
• 1:12:51
  custom billet forged aluminum wheels.
• 1:12:55
  If you want your wheels cut from a single billet block, they are quite incredible.
• 1:13:00
  Many IMSA teams have adopted these because of zero failure.
• 1:13:04
  When they start banging wheels in competition.
• 1:13:08
  The other guys are breaking wheels and the fin speeds are finishing the pass.
• 1:13:12
  Just a snapshot of some of the, uh, the big backers and
• 1:13:16
  supporters of Chin Track Days.
• 1:13:18
  I, honestly, we have more.
• 1:13:20
  I, I don't want to keep tying y'all up there.
• 1:13:23
  But, uh, looking down the calendar, you know, we're finishing our summer season.
• 1:13:27
  We call it the, uh, The weight loss series because we continue to do
• 1:13:32
  track events through the heart of the summer this weekend We are at michelin
• 1:13:36
  raceway road atlanta next weekend.
• 1:13:38
  That's the third week of august We'll be at barber motorsports park and then
• 1:13:42
  in the last weekend of august summit point raceway And that is followed
• 1:13:47
  by watkins glenn On the first week of September and Labor Day, and then
• 1:13:53
  tumbling down the calendar, we'll return to Barber and Road Atlanta again
• 1:13:58
  in September, followed by Sebring.
• 1:14:01
  Coda, VIR, and then many of these tracks cycle and pop up on our
• 1:14:06
  calendar month after month after month.
• 1:14:08
  So you can find Road Atlantic and Sebring Dates pretty much in every month from
• 1:14:13
  now until December and we'll be out in Texas also at Eagles Canyon Raceway.
• 1:14:18
  Man, I don't know what your audience is on that side Eric and Brad, but Eagles
• 1:14:25
  Canyon is one of our new favorite venues.
• 1:14:29
  This place is spectacular.
• 1:14:32
  2.
• 1:14:32
  75 mile, 17 turn lap on the rolling hill country of the Texas ranch
• 1:14:40
  lands north of Dallas and Fort Worth.
• 1:14:43
  Uh, what a spectacular venue.
• 1:14:45
  Gotta recommend it.
• 1:14:46
  Uh, and we'll be back at Eagles Canyon.
• 1:14:49
  In October, and those are just some highlights.
• 1:14:51
  There is a ton more from now till year end.
• 1:14:54
  We have about 26 more track events on the calendar over the next three
• 1:15:01
  months and of course, you know where to find it ChinTrackDays.
• 1:15:05
  com.
• 1:15:06
  Unbelievable, Mark.
• 1:15:08
  It's an incredible, incredible production that you guys put on and I can't thank
• 1:15:13
  you enough for what you guys do and all the effort that gets put into it.
• 1:15:16
  It's a top notch service and again, we've had the pleasure of running with
• 1:15:20
  Chin for many, many years now and it's been a rewarding experience every time.
• 1:15:26
  Now, with that being said, I can't thank you enough for coming on the show.
• 1:15:29
  Educating our listeners, giving them an inside scoop into what Chin is
• 1:15:33
  like, what you're all about, the values, the ideology, the education,
• 1:15:37
  everything that goes into making, you know, your events as successful as they
• 1:15:40
  are for all the listeners out there that have tuned into this episode.
• 1:15:44
  If you want more details about Chin, you can visit Chin track days at www.
• 1:15:50
  chintrackdays.
• 1:15:50
  com or follow them on Instagram at Chin track days or call.
• 1:15:54
  1 855 799 CHIN.
• 1:15:57
  You'll probably get Mark on the phone, so be prepared.
• 1:16:01
  And on that note, Mark, it's, it's been an absolute pleasure, and we look forward
• 1:16:05
  to seeing you again in another event soon.
• 1:16:07
  You know, obviously our calendar has been all sorts of in turmoil, but,
• 1:16:11
  uh, you know, we're going to see where things line up and see what
• 1:16:14
  the rest of the year looks like.
• 1:16:15
  Right.
• 1:16:15
  So, you know, maybe we'll see you soon.
• 1:16:16
  If not, we'll definitely see in 21 as we partner up with Chin yet again.
• 1:16:21
  You guys are awesome, Eric.
• 1:16:23
  I so appreciate what Grand Touring Motorsports has done for your,
• 1:16:28
  your small and growing community.
• 1:16:31
  Your commitment to the hobby as it is because indeed it is enthusiasts
• 1:16:35
  like you and the others in Grand Touring Motorsports and many,
• 1:16:40
  many tens of thousands magnified throughout the enthusiast community
• 1:16:45
  across the country who make our hobby what it is and it makes it possible
• 1:16:51
  for me to tell this story today.
• 1:16:54
  I am very grateful to you and I thank you for the privilege to share that with you.
• 1:17:00
  All right.
• 1:17:01
  Well, thank you, Mark.
• 1:17:06
  If you like what you heard and want to learn more about GTM,
• 1:17:08
  be sure to check us out at www.
• 1:17:11
  gtmotorsports.
• 1:17:12
  org.
• 1:17:13
  You can also find us on Instagram at grandtouringmotorsports.
• 1:17:16
  Also, if you want to get involved or have suggestions for future shows, you can
• 1:17:20
  call or text us at 202 630 1770 or send us an email at crewchief at gtmotorsports.
• 1:17:27
  org.
• 1:17:28
  We'd love to hear from you.
• 1:17:29
  Hey, listeners, crew, chief Eric here.
• 1:17:31
  Do you like what you've seen, heard and read from GTM?
• 1:17:34
  Great.
• 1:17:35
  So do we, and we have a lot of fun doing it, but please remember, we're
• 1:17:38
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• 1:17:43
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• 1:17:44
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• 1:17:48
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• 1:17:49
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