Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / Driving with Friends: Inside Hooked on Driving with Mike Arrigo

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Driving with Friends: Inside Hooked on Driving with Mike Arrigo · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

• 0:00
  Break Fix podcast is all about capturing the living history of people from all
• 0:05
  over the autos sphere, 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 Petrolhead that wonder.
• 0:16
  How did they get that job or become that person?
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  The road to success is paved by all of us because everyone has a story.
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  You and your car on America's best racetracks, that's the
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  hooked on driving motto.
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  GTM has been very fortunate to have partnered and worked with HOD for
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  many years, as well as watching their program evolve and expand.
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  For those that know hooked on driving, not much of an introduction is probably
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  needed, but for those that might be new to the brand, with us tonight is
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  Mike Ar Rigo, director of Hooked On Driving Northeast to explain why HOD
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  is America's number one non-competitive performance driving program.
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  So welcome to Break Fix, Mike.
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  Thanks for having me on.
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  I'm glad I finally got on here.
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  It's a long wait sometimes and I apologize.
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  Yeah, you guys should have been on here a lot sooner.
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  With that being said, let's talk about how you, Corvette Club Petrolhead got
• 1:17
  involved with Hooked on Driving and how you've grown the Northeast Program over
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  the years and how you've made changes.
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  You know, you, my usual joke when people ask me that, Mona told me
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  not to say it, but I'm gonna say it anyway, is uh, I lost a bet.
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  Now I've run hooked on driving.
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  Truth is, you know, I started with a Corvette and I was, uh, with NCC
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  National Council of Corvette Clubs.
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  You know, most of their stuff was autocross and one high speed event
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  we do at Jefferson every year.
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  At the Spooktacular it was called, I mean, I was doing stuff with NASA
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  mostly because PDA and NASA just become merged back then into one unit.
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  Audi, Ferrari, the Corvette Club, you know, the usual track junkie stuff where
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  you jump wherever there's a track day, you know, you're kind of running up
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  to, I'm good friends with the regional competition director for Corvette.
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  And Brian's like, you gotta try this.
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  HOD it was brand new.
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  It had just come here and it was actually considered the Pennsylvania region when
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  it first started, believe it or not.
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  Interesting.
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  I think David started it 2004, so this was like maybe 2007 ish.
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  We went out there.
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  It, it was pretty awesome.
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  I'd say the first time I did an HOD event, it was really.
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  Different from what I was used to.
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  Most of the stuff was, it's that very club mentality, you know?
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  Or you went to like someplace that raced.
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  So this was like kinda the first time there was something that
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  was completely non-competitive and had no car brand affiliation.
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  I saw the way Joe Mills ran his operation at the time.
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  He was the original franchisor here.
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  And, uh, Joe Mills is a great guy and he still comes to all our events.
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  It's like, I can never not have him around.
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  We just saw him at Watkins Glen here at the finale of 2021.
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  Yeah, we, yeah, all the time.
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  I just saw the way he looked at people and treated people.
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  It was different.
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  Like, you know, people, they, they were drivers.
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  They were.
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  Customers, they were guests, you know, they were real people.
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  They weren't just like numbers on a balance sheet, so to say.
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  And you know, that's what really stuck out in my head at the time.
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  'cause I drove to the track, you know, this was pre trailering, so I had a
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  hundred mile radius, but that was it.
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  AAA was gonna tell me home, I was good.
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  And then, then it went to the 200 mile range.
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  So unless I was going with somebody who was, had a trailer and a car
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  that they could drive in the street, like that was my little bubble.
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  I mean, it was so great when I got the 200 mile trip because you know,
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  that opened the door for Watkins Glen and Summit and all the other
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  place I always wanted to go to.
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  But yeah, that was it, that that really started me there.
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  So after that, you know, I was still coaching for everywhere else.
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  Five years down the road, Dr. Edelman basically took over.
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  I love Fred, he's great, but he's a foot surgeon with multiple practices.
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  Think about the time it takes.
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  I mean, how much time does it take just to get yourself ready?
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  To go to an HPDE or any kind of driving event, think about
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  trying to run the operation.
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  So it, it was a lot for him.
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  I'm not really sure what Fred was thinking of buying, hooked on driving as a surgeon.
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  You think about it like, you know, here you are, you know, in an
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  operating room and then the next day you're gonna be out there.
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  Just, you know, kind of handing out schedules and, you know,
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  putting on a track event.
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  Definitely, uh, a different vibe for somebody and it, it's a lot of work.
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  His, his wife Bridget was really involved and I think the first year
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  the legendary Jay Tepper pretty much took the reins and, and ran it for him.
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  Year two with Fred, I think it was Jay was kind of out the picture and then Chris Lou
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  took over and I had met Chris Lou at HOD.
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  I think the first time I met Chris was up at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
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  We used to do the BMW event for, um, south Shore BMW.
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  Chris took over about half the season in, brought me on, and then the
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  two of us kind of ran it for Fred for another year and a half or so.
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  And that's when a lot of us here at GTM started to come on board, which is when
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  you and Chris were running the show.
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  We had a lot of good momentum because being a national brand
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  makes things a little bit different.
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  You know, we, we try to keep it somewhat standard even though every region
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  has their own little flavor to it.
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  My region, which, you know, think about the area I have to encompass.
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  I go from New Hampshire down to Virginia, think I'm probably the largest region,
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  TrackWise probably in the country.
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  If I look at them, I'm not the busiest.
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  'cause I mean, you look at California, they, they're season's
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  11 months outta the year and you know, if I can get six good months.
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  Two, cross my fingers.
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  I hope nothing goes bad months with weather, you know, I'm lucky.
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  So we uh, we got approached by, uh, Corvette, by Chevrolet for the what,
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  the launch of the Stingray 'cause they were bringing back the Stingray.
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  They were worried.
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  So that put us out there a lot more.
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  We had two stingrays for people just to play with at every event.
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  And I think we did six national meets where we had Pratt Miller there.
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  I dunno, 90 some odd Corvettes come in there and they, you
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  know, brought people in.
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  You specialized.
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  So if you owned a Porsche or you owned a GTR or you owned any of these
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  kind of competitor cars, they brought you in to try and, and do this.
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  And it definitely worked fantastic.
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  So fantastic that, you know, our year two option, we weren't even needed.
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  So we kind of just put ourselves up, which kind of sucked for me.
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  'cause you know, my Z oh six never appeared after that.
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  But, um, it, it's a funny story.
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  We were at New Jersey Motorsports Park.
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  A guy comes out there and he's got his Porsche, his nine 11.
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  He takes the Stingray for a ride.
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  He loves it.
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  Saturday, he goes right over to Kerbeck, puts his nine 11 on his trailer,
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  takes a Z 51 car right off there, and that's what he drove on Sunday.
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  Nice like that, like so I know that type of stuff works.
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  Wish we could get back to doing that stuff and actually have live
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  cars there for people to play with.
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  I mean, not every company wants to do that type of stuff anymore.
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  It seems uh, companies have gone their way to let me pay a
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  marketing agency to do everything.
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  Let's unpack a couple things here.
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  So HOD as a brand hooked on driving started in California
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  by David Ray and that's where the parent company comes from.
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  And you mentioned briefly there's been franchises of HOD over the years now.
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  When we came on the scene 2012 ish through people like the Crutchfields and
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  others, there were more regions to HOD.
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  There's HOD Southeast, there was HOD Great Lakes.
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  You know, nowadays it's.
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  It's changed a couple times.
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  There's HOD, Texas, there's like HOD Southeast again in
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  Florida and things like that.
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  So it kind of ebbs and flows, and as you mentioned, it changes ownership,
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  but you've been around a long time now.
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  You came on the scene, you know, in the early days and then took over in the 2012
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  ish timeframe if I got my calendars right.
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  Yeah.
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  You've been growing steadily ever since.
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  What has changed over your tenure at HOD?
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  What have you really tried to improve from the early days?
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  We tried to make things.
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  I don't wanna say the same, but we really try to make sure we cater to
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  every track and every demographic because how you operate in real south
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  is very different than how you operate, say, up in Boston and Massachusetts.
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  Just completely different genre of people.
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  In the beginning there was the Pennsylvania region, which
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  now became the northeast.
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  Southeast, there was a Florida region, there was the California region, and
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  there was the Great Lakes region.
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  What had happened when, uh, the southeast region, we, I kind of absorbed Virginia
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  'cause that was, I really wanted Virginia.
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  I think the two, two of the best tracks on the eastern half of the United
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  States gotta be Watkins Leonard, VIR.
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  There's a reason that magazines use them to do their tests and stuff.
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  Absolutely.
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  So I got Virginia and then Florida actually took over from
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  basically the Carolinas down.
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  So instead of having three regions on the east coast, kind of muddled
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  down to two because there's a big gap of where tracks were.
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  But in the meantime, we've been moving more and more west.
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  So we've been doing stuff at NCM the last two years with COVID.
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  It happened, it didn't happen, but, uh, we run Camaro Fest every year.
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  The David would fly it in, run Camaro Fest for them.
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  And it was so, uh, you know, we started doing pit race.
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  I'm trying to put together a Mid-Ohio type of back-to-back event with.
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  Pit race, but track scheduling is just, it's an unbelievable juggling act.
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  2022 is definitely increased for us as far as track days.
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  We added a ton of track days, but I know I, I kind of went off there,
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  but at California had its region.
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  There was a Pacific Northwest and then California was two regions,
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  Northern and southern Twain Dobson.
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  The race car driver took over the southern region, but I know his
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  racing career kind of took off more.
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  So David RA put California back into one region.
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  Now we have Texas, Arizona, so David added a couple regions.
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  The person that actually.
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  Came out there and took him over.
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  Real interesting guy.
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  His name is David Zubik.
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  If you look him up, he's got some history.
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  Olympic skier, I mean, does a lot of, uh, exotic car experience.
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  He's been around a long time and I think everyone that's in hooked
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  on driving family nationally all started somewhere, you know, in some
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  kind of car enthusiast type of guy.
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  I don't think anyone actually came into this because they just saw,
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  uh, they're gonna be the next Warren Buffet by running an HPD organization.
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  I think it's all a labor of love for everybody, and if I remember correctly.
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  One of our members who was stationed down in Texas happened to go to A HOD
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  Texas event and I believe, uh, Zubik you mentioned he actually owns the
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  track, the home track that HOD Texas is based out of, which is Grand Sport
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  Speedway grounded in Motorsport there.
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  So that's really pretty cool.
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  So would you say that's maybe one of the key differentiators between Hooked
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  on Driving and other providers that are out there, be it Chin or SCCA or just
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  track it and other folks that have been on break Fix over the last, you know,
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  year and a half or so, what would you say really stands out and makes HOD different?
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  I think how we look at people.
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  How we treat people.
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  We try to treat everyone as their, as an adult.
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  I don't want anyone spoken down to, I don't want anyone feeling like inferior.
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  I mean, the people that come to our events are, are pretty far along in life.
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  You know, they're, they're CEOs, they're doctors, dentists, lawyers.
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  I mean, they're professional people.
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  They're usually top in their field.
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  They're kind of decision maker type of guys, mostly wanna
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  treat them the right way.
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  There's a balance to keeping people in order and, and kind of bringing
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  them along and to treating them right.
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  So, uh, I don't consider them, you know, just.
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  Some random driver, you know, uh, I don't tell our coaches are instructing you
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  and you're just some student out there.
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  No, no.
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  You're our guest.
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  You've chosen to come to us and we're gonna treat you as such the
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  same way if you had a guest at your house, you know you are gonna treat
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  'em a certain way and they're gonna treat you a certain way also because,
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  you know they're a guest of yours.
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  So we wanna make sure everyone's an adult.
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  We treat 'em as such.
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  We expect them to act like adults.
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  And I think it's been balanced out really, really well the way, um, things
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  have become, uh, kind of people that don't fit that HOD family mentality.
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  I think they kind of uninvite themselves.
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  They realize it's not for them.
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  We look at it, we, we treat people as friends, driving with friends, you know,
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  they're gentlemen drivers out there.
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  I mean, granted, I mean, we have TransAm and IMSA teams and pro racers that come
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  and practice with us on their pseudo name a lot of times that you don't see.
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  But, but they're still, they're drivers driving with drivers,
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  you know, that's, uh, there.
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  One day he came to us and he said to us, he goes, you know, he comes up to, and
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  he grabs moan and he says, I gotta tell you something about what goes on here.
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  He goes, this is the first organization where the helmets come off.
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  I know who drives that car now.
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  It's not just that car and that car and that car.
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  It's Joe and John and Larry and people become friendly and they talk.
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  You know, at lunchtime, you know you're sitting at the table and you know
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  the guy that's driving that $6,000, you know, Miata is having lunch.
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  Yap.
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  And, and they're all having a great time with the guy who
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  just showed up in a center, GTR.
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  It's people, you know, we like to bring people together.
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  We consider this the HOD family and everyone that comes to an event,
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  we try to treat 'em that way.
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  Uh, I think that's a big part of it.
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  Well, I'll never forget one of the first instructor meetings that I went to where
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  Chris Lou was, and he always had a certain way of presenting things, especially
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  the hierarchy, I guess you could say.
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  And the way, as coaches, you know, we don't call ourselves
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  instructors in nature.
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  Do we call ourselves coaches the way we would treat the guests?
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  And I always thought it was hilarious.
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  You know, you'd tell us right up front, you know, you're adults, be professional,
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  do your job, but also remember that they're here to have fun, be safe, and if
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  they learn something as a, as a result.
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  So be it.
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  Yeah, so he always put the impetus on customer service, and I will say that is
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  something that definitely has always stood out about HOD versus anywhere else that
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  I've been, no slight against anybody else.
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  You know, there's a ton of fantastic groups out there, but you guys
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  really make it a point to be forward about it, to be very upfront.
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  Like you said, Joe Mills set that precedent by making customer
• 12:52
  service the number one priority.
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  It's really important, and I, and I do feel that is a key differentiator,
• 12:57
  but let's move on a little bit and talk a little bit more about HOD.
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  So as the Pennsylvania region originally, and now Northeast, does HOD Northeast have
• 13:06
  a quote unquote home track or home base?
• 13:09
  That's kind of hard to say.
• 13:11
  When you have an area.
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  That stems from New Hampshire down to Virginia.
• 13:16
  It's hard to say.
• 13:16
  What's gonna be your home base?
• 13:18
  You know, I live 11 miles from Pocono, give or take.
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  Can I say that's my home base?
• 13:22
  No, not really.
• 13:24
  You know, we do a lot of events in New Jersey.
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  I think we're doing seven different dates in New Jersey.
• 13:29
  We have eight days at Watkins Glen in 2022 now.
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  So it, it's kind of hard to pick a track that say that's my home base, you know?
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  'cause we're national, you know, want any, anyone who comes, you
• 13:39
  know, becomes part of that team.
• 13:40
  HOD you know, it's like, what's your home track?
• 13:43
  Well, anyone you want to be at, so to say.
• 13:45
  So I, I, I don't want to just pick, I couldn't really say home track.
• 13:50
  That's fair.
• 13:50
  That's fair.
• 13:51
  Guacs Gun's probably one of my favorite 'cause of the area.
• 13:53
  'cause you know, we have some good friends up there also, you know, overall
• 13:57
  a good time up there, you know, it just, it's just such a fantastic facility.
• 14:00
  If I live closer to VIR, I might say VIR.
• 14:03
  It's tough to pick one track just in case any of the track operation
• 14:06
  guys are out there listening.
• 14:07
  You're all, we love you all.
• 14:08
  Yeah, right.
• 14:09
  Let's give us better dates.
• 14:10
  So let's switch gears a little bit because obviously we're talking about HPDE,
• 14:14
  high performance driver's education, there's always an emphasis on the
• 14:17
  e part of this, which is education.
• 14:19
  So let's talk about H HODs DE program.
• 14:23
  What is it like, what are expectations for somebody that's new
• 14:26
  and never been to an HOD program?
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  Or maybe there's some things that veterans have forgotten that you
• 14:31
  would like to remind them of.
• 14:32
  What's it like at an HOD event?
• 14:34
  You know, for the first time, there's basically two things I I
• 14:37
  look at, uh, that are major for me.
• 14:39
  You know, one is safety.
• 14:41
  Safety's already paramount for me.
• 14:42
  You, you gotta have a safe day.
• 14:44
  People are get comfortable and they realize that this is
• 14:46
  actually gonna be safe for them.
• 14:47
  Their anxiety level goes, drops down a little bit.
• 14:49
  You know, I try to explain to people, you know, say, Hey, you know, you're
• 14:52
  doing 70, 80 miles on a highway.
• 14:54
  You have no idea.
• 14:55
  The girl next to you is crying, texting her boyfriend who just broke
• 14:58
  up the truck driver's been in out there for 17 hours, you know, in,
• 15:01
  you know, about to fall asleep and you're three inches away from them.
• 15:04
  You're gonna come here, you have a closed racetrack, no cross traffic,
• 15:07
  no this, no that, no one's gonna pass you without you knowing about it.
• 15:10
  You're gonna be in complete control of everything that goes on around you.
• 15:12
  It's a lot safer.
• 15:13
  So we try to explain that to them and bring their anxiety down
• 15:16
  as, as far as someone new goes.
• 15:18
  It's very structured as, as you see, but it's also very fluid at the same time.
• 15:22
  So we, we have to make sure to balance that structure with the
• 15:25
  fluidity of what people want.
• 15:27
  So after that, I look at, I said, Doug, the next part of it, like
• 15:29
  you mentioned before, is my motto.
• 15:30
  You have safe.
• 15:31
  Have a good time.
• 15:32
  'cause if we make this enjoyable for you, like anything else, you know,
• 15:35
  you can't help but learn something about you, about your car, about the
• 15:39
  person next to you, whatever it is.
• 15:41
  But you're gonna come away with some bit of knowledge.
• 15:43
  This is for me, I love this, I can do this.
• 15:46
  This is not, whatever the case may be.
• 15:48
  Then the other part of it is like, what does that individual want out of this?
• 15:51
  There's some people out there that they want to be the next Emerson fitter Aldi,
• 15:54
  or you know, Mario Andretti or, you know, they might want have real aspirations.
• 15:59
  They want to, you know, go to Formula one one day.
• 16:01
  Who, who knows out there?
• 16:02
  We gotta figure out what that one person is looking for.
• 16:04
  What's their goal?
• 16:05
  We have people out there, their only goal, like, listen, I got this great car.
• 16:09
  You know, I do 50 miles an hour on the highway 'cause I don't
• 16:11
  wanna get a ticket or get hit by a deer or something like that.
• 16:13
  I wanna see what it can do, but I wanna make sure I'm safe doing it.
• 16:16
  So that coach's job for that day is to help that guy achieve that goal.
• 16:20
  He wants to just see what this car's like, he wants to learn, he wants
• 16:23
  to get more comfortable with it.
• 16:25
  The next weekend that coach might be with someone and he's like,
• 16:27
  listen, I think I wanna race one day.
• 16:29
  I love it.
• 16:29
  I, you know, I, I don't wanna street race anymore.
• 16:31
  I want to, I wanna do this.
• 16:33
  And, and so we really customize it for what that person wants.
• 16:37
  But under that complete structure of like, these are the guidelines that
• 16:40
  you have to follow right before every event, you know, kind of three, four
• 16:43
  days before the event you get them.
• 16:44
  I, you know, I send out like a two page email, which make sure you, you
• 16:47
  know, follow up, check your car, give that that flag, talk the ancient flag
• 16:51
  video from, uh, you know, David, do.
• 16:53
  I want people to really understand so when they come out there,
• 16:56
  they're already prepared.
• 16:57
  And I think if you give people a little bit more information about that and what
• 17:00
  to expect and what to do, they'll have a better time and it'll flow easier.
• 17:03
  So to your point, I think one of the things that's often overlooked
• 17:07
  or maybe misunderstood about.
• 17:09
  HPDE.
• 17:11
  It is a discipline within Motorsport, right?
• 17:13
  It's educationally focused, but a lot of people that I've talked to that I'm like,
• 17:17
  Hey, you should really come to the track.
• 17:18
  You should check it out.
• 17:19
  They're apprehensive.
• 17:21
  I've discovered there's this fear that they're going out there alone.
• 17:24
  Yeah, they're gonna take their car and they're out on a track by
• 17:27
  themselves with 50 other people.
• 17:28
  Like you said.
• 17:30
  In reality, it's not like that.
• 17:31
  You have somebody in the right seat.
• 17:33
  You have a classroom scenario that you're going through.
• 17:35
  You're being educated on how to improve your driving and grow yourself as a
• 17:40
  driver and learn your machine, et cetera.
• 17:42
  That's the focus behind the de part of HBDE.
• 17:45
  So let's talk a little bit more about how HOD does it differently.
• 17:49
  What does, Jay, as we all know, Jay, is classroom instructor emeritus.
• 17:53
  What does he do?
• 17:54
  What does he talk about?
• 17:55
  What type of knowledge does he try to transfer to these newbies?
• 17:58
  Well, usually our structure kind of is based on, you know,
• 18:01
  we get 'em in the classroom.
• 18:02
  So the new guys are gonna go out there, they're gonna be with their coaches, you
• 18:05
  know, we have a small drivers meeting.
• 18:07
  They meet their coaches if they haven't already communicated.
• 18:09
  'cause we send out an email and I gotta say, we get about a 90% response
• 18:13
  that the coaches and our guests have actually contacted each other.
• 18:16
  They gotten the talk, they got a little bit of that out of the way.
• 18:19
  So when they meet each other for the first time, they, you know, they've already had
• 18:21
  some sort of conversation or dialogue.
• 18:23
  Then they'll go out on track.
• 18:24
  There's a, an orientation and inspection lab.
• 18:27
  So you're gonna drive under highway speeds, helmet's not required.
• 18:30
  There's a PACE card out there and there's no passing.
• 18:32
  So you're just gonna go out there, single file and you've
• 18:34
  been part of it, you've seen it.
• 18:35
  And that's just kind of to alleviate so people can get a little bit of
• 18:39
  vision of what's going on out there.
• 18:41
  Where things are for like 15 minutes or so before they get into that classroom,
• 18:46
  that angst that go out out there.
• 18:47
  We got, we're gonna be out on track, we're gonna be on track.
• 18:49
  Probably builds up for, you know, that two hours while they're in that classroom
• 18:52
  before they really get out there.
• 18:54
  So I think by doing that orientation inspection lap out there that goes
• 18:57
  out there, they get to see the track and it's multifold, you know, and you
• 19:00
  can inspect the track, you can see what's going on and you kind of get
• 19:03
  that little bit outta your system.
• 19:04
  You've been out there even though it's slow and you realize the residual
• 19:07
  effect is like all those flaggers are holding out a yellow flag.
• 19:09
  So now you understand what a flag is.
• 19:11
  You've seen the video if, if you hopefully read the email that we send
• 19:14
  out and watch and that guy's standing out there with that flag out there
• 19:17
  and he's like, oh, okay, so flags.
• 19:19
  So now when he gets in that classroom, they talk about flags.
• 19:21
  They've already seen it out there.
• 19:23
  There's a guy holding that flag.
• 19:24
  There's a guy waving that checkered, so they get a little bit out of
• 19:27
  their system right then and there.
• 19:28
  The head of the classroom where Jay takes over and starts to go over the basics,
• 19:32
  what high performance driving really is, what's involved in it, a little bit of
• 19:36
  the physics behind it, and a lot of the communication that you require to use.
• 19:40
  So that way when you get in the car with that coach, you have already
• 19:44
  kind of somewhat built up that skillset so that communication's
• 19:47
  much, much easier and fluid.
• 19:49
  We try to make sure that there's a relationship built.
• 19:51
  Ken does this, you know, and I'll, I'll talk about Ken after tour too.
• 19:54
  'cause he's just a fabulous part of the organization.
• 19:57
  He goes out there and he really looks, he says, you know, part of
• 19:59
  being personal with everyone, I said, okay, I know that he's six foot four.
• 20:02
  I'm not putting him in that Miata.
• 20:05
  I know that he's, you know, tiny, but you know, he's, he just
• 20:08
  drives all front wheel drive cars.
• 20:09
  So if I put him with that cobalt, those guys are gonna meld well.
• 20:13
  You know, so there's a lot of background work to really try and
• 20:16
  make sure that people are paired up personality wise, also along
• 20:20
  with the cars that they're used to.
• 20:21
  Just be realistic out there.
• 20:23
  You know, a guy who drives a Cobra probably is like, oh my God, I got
• 20:25
  a Corvette guy in the car with me now, you know, and a guy in a vet.
• 20:28
  He goes, so I don't want that Mustang guy teaching me anything.
• 20:31
  You know?
• 20:31
  So we try to really break that apart like that because, you know, the Corvette and
• 20:35
  the Viper guy and the Mustang guy, they're all having lunch together later on.
• 20:39
  So we, we really.
• 20:40
  Break the clicks.
• 20:42
  There's really no hierarchy of this group of coaches and that group of
• 20:45
  coaches and, and these guys over here, you know, we, uh, we try to make, really
• 20:49
  make everyone feel like they're at home.
• 20:51
  Like there's no one's inferior.
• 20:52
  Mm-hmm.
• 20:53
  Or better than anyone else.
• 20:54
  At the end of the day, same blood runs through all of our veins.
• 20:57
  And no matter how good or bad we are, you know, no matter how good we become,
• 21:01
  you know, one point in our lives, we got in that car for the first time.
• 21:03
  Like, what the hell?
• 21:04
  What's that third pedal for?
• 21:06
  My mom never told me that third pedal.
• 21:07
  What the hell's that?
• 21:08
  You know, we all started somewhere and really had no clue and someone
• 21:12
  brought us along and no one was born being a Louis Hamilton or,
• 21:15
  uh, you know, or an Antron set up.
• 21:16
  I try to kind of remember, remind people that.
• 21:19
  You were there one day, remember what it was like that, so that way you can
• 21:23
  better help this person that's there.
• 21:25
  Now.
• 21:25
  I think we do a decent job.
• 21:27
  We're always, we, we always try to do a little bit better.
• 21:29
  We send out surveys and uh, we really listen to what people try to have to
• 21:33
  say about things that go on there.
• 21:35
  For 2022, we're definitely making some changes based on the surveys
• 21:39
  we've got from people on how they like runs, how the run groups are
• 21:42
  structured, how the timeframes are structured, you know, they're adaptive.
• 21:46
  I don't run 20 minute sessions at every track, like some
• 21:49
  other places will do that.
• 21:50
  He goes, Nope, it's 20 minutes on the twenties, on the forties,
• 21:52
  and on the zeros and that's it.
• 21:54
  And I'm like, well, I can't do that, you know?
• 21:56
  20 minutes at a, at a three and a half mile track is like,
• 21:58
  okay, I just did seven laps.
• 22:01
  I'm back in there.
• 22:02
  You know, take your three laps to warm up.
• 22:04
  You don't wanna do a half hour session at a one and a half mile track either.
• 22:07
  You know?
• 22:07
  Yeah.
• 22:08
  Sometimes that might be too much.
• 22:09
  So it's hard to find a balance with the hours that go on there.
• 22:12
  And I think that's one of our strengths that we really try to focus and customize
• 22:17
  every track experience based on that track and based on the people we have
• 22:20
  coming, the run group sessions that were, the way we run them, we're A,
• 22:23
  B, C, D, you know, A is our novice group and wristbands are colored and
• 22:26
  everything else that goes on there.
• 22:28
  So you always know what run group you're in.
• 22:29
  You do it a couple times, fourth, fifth, sixth times, you know,
• 22:32
  depending, whatever it is, you know.
• 22:33
  But now that classroom kind of gets stale at the same time.
• 22:36
  Right.
• 22:37
  You don't need to hear Jay's classroom for a fourth time.
• 22:39
  I mean, it gets repetitive after a while and each track is kind of customized a
• 22:43
  little bit to it, but maybe you've been to Thunderbolt three times already.
• 22:46
  Guess what?
• 22:47
  You don't need to seat that same classroom for the fourth time for 2022.
• 22:50
  One of the things we're planning is once you've been to a track, yeah, you've
• 22:53
  done this a couple times, you've, you've know the classroom stuff you have that.
• 22:57
  Basics and the bad habits have already been broken.
• 22:59
  You're going out there, you know, maybe you're not ready to go out
• 23:02
  there on your own yet, but we're gonna start to say, okay, once you
• 23:05
  get that first class, remember where we're gonna remind you because you
• 23:08
  know, you can never say it enough.
• 23:09
  The flag talk, the safety talk and the safety speech, they're gonna start
• 23:12
  going out with some of the more, the advanced tutoring that's going on
• 23:15
  there and instructing that's going on.
• 23:17
  You know, with our classrooms, we're gonna teach something more
• 23:19
  dynamic, say from each corner.
• 23:21
  So now you're gonna go out there and we're gonna be doing stuff from
• 23:24
  the track side, so maybe we'll be picking a corner at that corner.
• 23:27
  There might be really good examples of.
• 23:30
  How the apex is taken, how the track out is used.
• 23:33
  And the way we formatted our schedule is right after the A group C-D-B-A-C goes
• 23:38
  out, which are more we our more advanced drivers, you know, those are our solo
• 23:41
  advanced drivers passing us out anywhere and they could say, see what that car's
• 23:45
  done, you know, and then start to explain, say he's a little off and the next car.
• 23:48
  So that coach that's going out there with them, one of our group leaders is really
• 23:52
  gonna focus with them and people could ask questions and do things and make it
• 23:56
  a little bit more interactive on there.
• 23:58
  Eventually you get good enough, you don't need a coach in the car anymore,
• 24:00
  or you don't need it every time anymore.
• 24:02
  Prior you'd go from A to B. I start to look at this, I'm like, so.
• 24:06
  Group B, intermediate drivers, you know the biggest variety of talent?
• 24:10
  My favorites.
• 24:11
  My favorites are the bees that continue B and and the cars, right?
• 24:16
  Because you got low horsepower cars and then you got ZR ones
• 24:20
  and everything in between.
• 24:21
  You have guys that just became solo and guys that should have been
• 24:24
  advanced long time ago, but eh, I don't wanna play with the big boys.
• 24:28
  Most of my friends are in B still.
• 24:29
  So I'm gonna register there.
• 24:31
  So you got this extreme vast talent separation and car separation
• 24:36
  and it become overwhelming 'cause the pace is much faster.
• 24:38
  When you get into B, I mean I, you know, depending where you go and which B drivers
• 24:42
  are there, I'm like, holy shit, these guys are just like killing it when half
• 24:45
  the team is, you know, running 2 0 6 to two tens at Watkins Glen in the B group.
• 24:50
  You're like, wow, you know, so what are we doing?
• 24:52
  So when you're done with a, you're actually gonna run in with a solo.
• 24:56
  Now you're gonna be out there on your own, but at the pace you're already used to
• 24:59
  the size limitations have changed also.
• 25:01
  So, Watkins done is 3.4 miles long.
• 25:04
  I think we're only gonna take 12, a 17, a solos, 35 Bs.
• 25:11
  If you look at it there, you know, that's.
• 25:13
  Not even 10 cars per mile, basically on, on most of the, like that if you are
• 25:18
  looking at the A group, it's pretty small.
• 25:20
  We're really gonna try and stick to that now, and it, it gives
• 25:22
  me a little bit of a buffer for the people that might exaggerate
• 25:25
  their talent for the first time.
• 25:26
  Or, you know, they might be a C level driver at a track like.
• 25:30
  Pocono, but you know, they get to walk and spend where it's very different.
• 25:34
  They're like, okay, I'm not ready for that.
• 25:36
  Right.
• 25:36
  So we're very adaptive, very fluid.
• 25:38
  After the first session, we've kind of know the newer people that
• 25:41
  have never been with us, if they're in the right group, so they might
• 25:44
  need to be moved up or moved down.
• 25:46
  Um, I know a lot of places they're first time running with them.
• 25:49
  Like, you gotta start at the beginning.
• 25:50
  Do I need a guy who's here for the first time is won?
• 25:53
  WRL, California and Lucky Dog?
• 25:56
  Does he really belong in the novice group?
• 25:58
  Because he's never run with us.
• 25:59
  No.
• 25:59
  We treat him like adults.
• 26:00
  We let 'em register where they want, but we also do our homework.
• 26:03
  We look at their experience and if something looks outta whack,
• 26:05
  they're getting a phone call.
• 26:06
  Our group leaders have notes on every driver that comes in there This year,
• 26:09
  for the most part, we've had the same group leaders almost at every event.
• 26:13
  Or they're there doing something so they get to know the drivers.
• 26:16
  You know, you get to see the drivers.
• 26:17
  Drivers start to become, you know, used to each others.
• 26:20
  But I think that's one of the bigger changes we're doing for next year,
• 26:22
  limiting the run group sizes tremendously.
• 26:25
  So listeners, as you can probably ascertain by this point, you
• 26:29
  think, I talk a lot on this show.
• 26:31
  If I.
• 26:32
  Mike go.
• 26:33
  He takes all of the runway.
• 26:35
  And I mean that in the most loving way.
• 26:37
  By the way, I mean you, you are definitely a talker.
• 26:39
  But we have to unpack a little bit of all this stuff you said in here
• 26:42
  'cause you covered a lot of ground.
• 26:43
  So I wanna refresh our listeners minds here for a minute.
• 26:46
  Especially if they're learning about hooked they driving for the first time.
• 26:48
  So what did we just cover in your talk here?
• 26:51
  We talked about expectations, we talked about what to expect
• 26:54
  in the classroom, what J covers.
• 26:55
  We talked about progression models, we talked about number of cars
• 27:00
  on track, the run groups, right?
• 27:02
  I do think we need to expand a little bit more on the progression model, but
• 27:05
  I also wanna remind folks that when you come to HOD, when you're signing
• 27:09
  up in the A group, the beginner and novice group, you are assigned a coach.
• 27:13
  It's a one-to-one student to instructor ratio, which is awesome as a coach.
• 27:17
  Myself, a veteran coach of HOD.
• 27:19
  I, you know, I love the fact that I can come in and work with you, the
• 27:23
  student for the entire weekend, right?
• 27:26
  Be it a two day event, three day event at Walk-Ins, Glen, things like that.
• 27:29
  I can really focus my attention on your car, your needs, what needs to get done,
• 27:33
  and my job is to augment everything that's going on in the classroom.
• 27:37
  The Jay and also the ci.
• 27:39
  Kenny are covering, so they don't cover all of it in the textbook sessions.
• 27:44
  We have the rest of the work to do out in the field, but we're working together.
• 27:47
  We're working in concert with a material that's there.
• 27:50
  It's a really great thing and it, I hate this term, but it's
• 27:52
  a symbiotic relationship between the coaches in the field and
• 27:56
  what's going on in the classroom.
• 27:58
  Just want everybody to understand that you're covered on all ends.
• 28:00
  You're not alone.
• 28:01
  And if you do feel as though you're off by yourself, raise your hand.
• 28:05
  Come say something to somebody because that's not the HOD way, that's for sure.
• 28:08
  But let's unpack the progression model a little bit more.
• 28:11
  Mike A is our beginner, novice B is our intermediates, and
• 28:15
  then we have C and D group.
• 28:17
  So you kind of hinted that C group is advanced, and then there's this
• 28:20
  mysterious, also quite alluring D group, which we'll talk about.
• 28:24
  But how does one get from A to B2C to D?
• 28:28
  How does that exactly work?
• 28:29
  A group is our, our novice group, like you've never done this before.
• 28:32
  You wanna try it?
• 28:33
  Sign up.
• 28:34
  We try to get you acclimated.
• 28:36
  What you're gonna do is you're going to have a dedicated one-to-one coach, right?
• 28:39
  You're gonna sit there when you're, whenever you're on track,
• 28:42
  that coach is gonna be there.
• 28:43
  Helmet to helmet communicators are absolutely mandated by us, so you're
• 28:47
  never gonna be screaming over someone or figuring like that, and he's gonna be with
• 28:51
  you and he's gonna guide you through that.
• 28:52
  Everything that has to go on there, you know, you could say, I don't want to say.
• 28:56
  Concierge, but you know, he's there for you.
• 28:58
  You know, we've weeded out people that have just come kind of
• 29:01
  just, oh, I just want some free track time and I'm outta here.
• 29:04
  I gotta say, everyone I see come to our events almost entirely are doing
• 29:08
  that just because they just, they just love to give back to the sport.
• 29:11
  It's amazing how many people just show up.
• 29:13
  So, yeah, you know what, my car broke last weekend, but they're still there.
• 29:16
  Coaching.
• 29:16
  You know, they're not just saying, oh, well my car broke, I'm not coming anymore.
• 29:19
  You know, it's few and far between when that happened,
• 29:21
  and it's very understandable.
• 29:22
  I don't expect someone who lives in upstate New York to drive down to
• 29:25
  VIR just, you know, to coach with us.
• 29:27
  It's like they're there for them.
• 29:28
  They'll hold that person's hand as much as needed.
• 29:31
  You're gonna have classroom time that's really gonna go over and get
• 29:34
  you ready for what goes on on track.
• 29:36
  You know, it's a racetrack.
• 29:37
  Oh my God.
• 29:37
  But, you know, you start to realize that you're probably doing faster
• 29:40
  speed sometimes on that off ramp than you are in some of these situations
• 29:43
  till you really get used to it.
• 29:45
  So you do this, you're out there, you've got your track time in, you're at the
• 29:49
  point where coach is like, you're, you're hitting, you're doing everything right.
• 29:52
  You know, you're, everything you do is very consistent.
• 29:55
  If you're consistent.
• 29:56
  You're good, because even if you're doing the wrong thing, consistently
• 29:59
  means you have the ability to learn something at that point.
• 30:01
  You're not just random and that's what it is.
• 30:03
  You, you know, you're, you've become predictable at some point.
• 30:06
  You're doing yourself a disservice if someone's always pushing yourself,
• 30:09
  because part of what we try to do is we want to teach people how to self-learn.
• 30:14
  Can you know I can give you a fish or I can teach you how to fish, right?
• 30:17
  If I could teach you the habits of the basics that are out there,
• 30:20
  because listen, there's a million different ways to do something, right?
• 30:24
  There's always things that are absolutely wrong, and there are
• 30:26
  things that are absolutely right.
• 30:27
  We try to make sure that you have those proper habits.
• 30:30
  You know, don't drive with one hand, don't lean your seed back.
• 30:32
  Don't put your arm over the, you know, over the steering wheel like you're, you
• 30:35
  know, you're cruising on a net round.
• 30:37
  You know, get those, break those bad habits of making sure that you have the
• 30:40
  proper tools in your toolbox now to learn.
• 30:43
  Comes a time where now you become soloed off.
• 30:45
  Right?
• 30:46
  You know, they go through progression, they check you out.
• 30:48
  We have a sheet that every coach, when they want to check someone
• 30:51
  off, right, they go through it, make sure this student does this,
• 30:53
  this, this, this, this, and this.
• 30:55
  I'm not gonna go through the two pages of what they're looking
• 30:57
  at and say, you know what?
• 30:58
  I think this person's ready.
• 30:59
  You know?
• 30:59
  I think your time to really be out there in your own.
• 31:02
  At that point, the group leader will go out there and he'll, he'll get
• 31:04
  someone and they'll do a checkout ride.
• 31:06
  Before that checkout ride though, that coaches and one of the other coaches
• 31:10
  or group leaders has probably been watching you on track now because he
• 31:13
  knows that you're gonna go solo soon and to see what's going on from the outside.
• 31:17
  You go through all that, you find that boom, you're now a solo driver
• 31:20
  out there, but that's not the end.
• 31:21
  You know, you're still gonna be with someone.
• 31:23
  So, uh, once you get soloed, that coach is staying with you.
• 31:27
  So whether, you know, you decide that we're gonna do some lead follow exercises,
• 31:31
  driving my tracks, pretend there was snow out there, type of scenarios.
• 31:34
  And you know, we have a lot of tools in our toolbox.
• 31:36
  You know, all of you guys are just.
• 31:37
  Fantastic.
• 31:38
  We couldn't do this without all of you coaches out there.
• 31:40
  You know, I haven't coached in quite a few years and believe
• 31:43
  me, I, I will never forget how difficult it is sometimes out there.
• 31:47
  You know, you're never alone.
• 31:48
  Like, so once you're soloed, you know that group leader now when you move
• 31:51
  to the next group is always gonna be, there is kind of that person to go to,
• 31:55
  you know, he's gonna be there for you, you know, whether you have a problem
• 31:58
  with a turn or you know you're having an issue or you know you wanna work on
• 32:01
  something, they're always gonna be there with you as, as well as the coaches.
• 32:04
  And I mean, you could attest how many times you say, listen, you
• 32:06
  wanna jump in this car with this guy?
• 32:07
  'cause he really has, he's having issues at turn seven over there and
• 32:11
  you know, just, you know, he might be a C driver, but you know, he's just
• 32:13
  trying to get a little bit better at this, you know, so always there for you.
• 32:18
  So guys get soloed, they'll go out and the passing rules in A and B
• 32:22
  are pretty much straightaways and in B, they're a little more looser.
• 32:26
  Maybe an extra area here or there where the wheels are perceived straight.
• 32:29
  Generally, you know, there's no passing in the corners in that B Bravo group
• 32:33
  because we're, you know, we're still getting you used to that higher pace now.
• 32:36
  Once you get to that, you know, you have group leader meetings afterwards and some
• 32:39
  classroom time in our group B, you come to the point where it's like, you know what?
• 32:42
  I want to go to group C. And uh, a couple times a year we do, uh, a passing exercise
• 32:47
  very similar to what is done in race school, where we do drills where people
• 32:51
  are three wide at a very reduced speed.
• 32:53
  Kind of gets you very used to and comfortable being right next to a
• 32:56
  mirror to mirror with a car, you know, and we're doing this at 25, 30 miles
• 33:00
  an hour for a session, just so you can get used to, you force people to
• 33:04
  be in the corners next to each other.
• 33:05
  We also, you know, kind of set the pace where people get used to.
• 33:08
  Flowing around each other, almost like a dance, and, and you've done the exercise.
• 33:12
  So it's kind of hard to describe on a, on a podcast, but you know, if
• 33:16
  you have three cars wide, you know the car all the way to your right.
• 33:19
  So to say if you were going in that direction, sets the time when people
• 33:23
  are gonna move around by dropping back, going over and getting on the outside.
• 33:26
  You know, the car in the middle sets, the speed you're going at and the guy
• 33:29
  on the outside kind of just blips along.
• 33:31
  So you'll be in one of those spots at every time.
• 33:33
  So whether you have the car all the way on the inside of an apex, taking
• 33:36
  your turn, but not being able to track out all the way because someone's
• 33:39
  next to you at a very reduced speed.
• 33:41
  That feeling of what it feels like to be next to each other in a
• 33:45
  corner, or get past multiple times.
• 33:47
  Most guys love the exercise.
• 33:48
  You know, if we get a group where every B driver in there says,
• 33:51
  yeah, we, we've all done this like three times already like that.
• 33:54
  So, you know, we might.
• 33:55
  Bypass that, but, 'cause you know, we want guys, people to be happy.
• 33:58
  They realize the value in that.
• 34:00
  And, and there's a reason that that's even taught in race school because,
• 34:03
  you know, no matter what, you're not used to being, I mean, unless you're,
• 34:07
  you know, a little out there, nobody wants to be mirror to mirror with
• 34:10
  anyone on the highway all the time.
• 34:11
  You kinda wanna be staggered.
• 34:12
  You want some space, you want some comfort zone, some emergency.
• 34:15
  Where am I getting out of this situation if something happens?
• 34:17
  So we want people to get used to that.
• 34:19
  So once they've at least done a more a b group exercise with us, or,
• 34:23
  or we know that driver, we've, you know, taken steps to promote him.
• 34:27
  That point, he's out there, he's consistent, he's at the top of the group.
• 34:30
  And it's not about being fast, right?
• 34:32
  Because no matter what I mean, I mean, you look at the cars that are out
• 34:34
  there today, a mediocre driver in a Z oh six or a ZR one or a GTR is gonna
• 34:39
  look a lot better with all those trunks there in there to help you than say.
• 34:43
  Someone with a maybe, maybe an older slower, E 36, E 30 Miata,
• 34:47
  that has none of those things to kind of help 'em out there.
• 34:50
  So you really can't just judge on speed, you know?
• 34:52
  So that's what we do.
• 34:52
  We want, we really look at consistency, the flow, the courteousness and the
• 34:57
  situation and dimensional awareness of what you have around you.
• 35:00
  You have all those things.
• 35:01
  You know how to pass and the turns out, 'cause you got it, you're provisionally
• 35:04
  moved up into sea at that point.
• 35:06
  Does it take three days on track?
• 35:08
  Does it take two years on track?
• 35:10
  Everyone's different, you know?
• 35:11
  Right.
• 35:11
  I don't tell people you have to do 10 days at this.
• 35:13
  Once you do this, then you can go to there.
• 35:15
  No, everyone's a little bit different.
• 35:17
  We have kids that have come out carting champions.
• 35:19
  I'm like, does that kid need an exercise?
• 35:21
  And you know, dimensional awareness.
• 35:22
  No, he just needs to get used to how we do our things.
• 35:25
  You know, he's already got that skill set.
• 35:26
  Passing is allowed anywhere, still with a point by which I didn't really get
• 35:30
  into for people that don't do this.
• 35:32
  Basically, when you are, uh, when you're in these run groups, in order
• 35:35
  for someone to pass you or for you to pass 'em, there has to be a point by.
• 35:39
  So if, if, if you want to let someone around you, you're gonna point them
• 35:42
  in the direction that you want them to go around you either by sticking your
• 35:46
  arm straight out, very courteously, and I know I'm, I'm sticking my
• 35:49
  arm out on a podcast right there.
• 35:51
  Or you're gonna kind of point up and like just kind of give a big swing over the, so
• 35:55
  people, when, when you watch the extras, you'll see me acting like a monkey, like
• 35:58
  now, like from scratching my head here.
• 36:00
  So you're very much in control and that's why I say it's a very safe.
• 36:03
  Environment where it's not like what, you know, you see on TV where people are
• 36:06
  just trying to get around each other.
• 36:07
  It's nothing like, it's not Days of Thunder.
• 36:09
  No.
• 36:10
  No, not absolutely not as much as I, I know I put that movie on where Watkins
• 36:13
  Glen all the time in, in the background up there is no, it's a, it's very controlled.
• 36:16
  So the passing is always done controlled and someone is always telling you Yes.
• 36:21
  So if you're behind somebody and you know, you just can't just pass them.
• 36:24
  There's corner workers that are out there that are watching everything along with
• 36:27
  coaches and group leaders that are out there and kind of in the background.
• 36:30
  And when something goes on like that, you know, you're gonna
• 36:32
  get black flagged and come in.
• 36:34
  You know, flags are flags, but for people that, no, no, if you get a black
• 36:36
  flag rolled up and pointed at you, it means you gotta come and you're
• 36:39
  gonna be spoken to about something.
• 36:40
  So nobody wants to lose track time.
• 36:42
  So there, uh, we don't get a lot of rule offenders.
• 36:45
  People realize that.
• 36:46
  Your safety is involved here and everyone out there, and
• 36:48
  that's why he said we're adults.
• 36:49
  So that's passing us anywhere.
• 36:50
  You guys want to go three wide at turn one to high banking at Pocono.
• 36:55
  Go at it.
• 36:55
  You've got the skillset, you wanna do it.
• 36:57
  Go.
• 36:57
  I gotta say, you know, we have a very safe operation.
• 37:00
  Couple years ago, the uh, Lockton Affinity does our insurance for us
• 37:04
  and they came to us and they told us, I said, you know, you did a million
• 37:06
  and a half miles on track last year.
• 37:09
  You have no incidents, you know, to report, you know, listen,
• 37:11
  people get mechanical failures.
• 37:12
  Things happen.
• 37:13
  But uh, you know, when they came to us a couple years ago, they
• 37:16
  said, you know, you think about it, a million and a half miles.
• 37:18
  I guess that's what bean counters do for a living, right?
• 37:20
  They figure out how many cars are on there, how big the cars
• 37:22
  are, how much time you've had on there, how long does it take?
• 37:25
  And they figured out that we did about a million and a half miles
• 37:27
  on track in the Northeast and we've never had a claim, ever.
• 37:30
  We are.
• 37:31
  Considered by the insurance agencies out there, the, the safest
• 37:34
  HPD organization in the country.
• 37:37
  So, uh, congratulations.
• 37:38
  Luck on wood.
• 37:38
  Thank God our, our rates reflect that helps me out a lot.
• 37:41
  So our drivers are doing the right thing.
• 37:43
  We missed a run group.
• 37:44
  We keep avoiding D group, Delta group.
• 37:46
  How, how do, how does the, somebody qualify for this mysterious Delta group,
• 37:50
  which doesn't exist at every event?
• 37:52
  No, it doesn't.
• 37:53
  The D group is basically, I'm not gonna say it's one step up
• 37:57
  from C, it's different from C.
• 37:59
  The driving skillset and speed and pace is, you know, is on
• 38:02
  par with C most of the times.
• 38:03
  It's not like any cards are that much faster, but the difference is
• 38:07
  pointwise are not required out there.
• 38:09
  So it's an invitational group.
• 38:10
  It's the group that we have the least amount of incidences.
• 38:13
  Ever at any run group out there, because we're really
• 38:15
  careful who goes on out there.
• 38:17
  And that's where you'll see a lot of these IMSA teams come into practice.
• 38:20
  Or, you know, the TransAm teams and these, you know, pro drivers.
• 38:23
  They'll be out there in that Delta group.
• 38:24
  It's invitational.
• 38:25
  So basically, if you want to get into D, you have to be a C-level driver.
• 38:29
  Our D group leader's going to really go through everything with you and
• 38:32
  vet you to make sure you're there.
• 38:34
  It's dimensional awareness, situational awareness, predictability.
• 38:38
  There's no point buys required.
• 38:39
  But even though people do give point bys and D sometimes, you
• 38:42
  know, just to open the door.
• 38:43
  If I'm in an E 36 doing 120 and I see that 0 1 1 turned behind me, I'm just
• 38:47
  gonna be like, yeah, just go right there.
• 38:49
  Uh, the door's open for you.
• 38:50
  I'm not gonna do it, but have a nice day.
• 38:52
  Yeah, yeah.
• 38:52
  It's, you know, it's uh, and there's two rules in D. You know,
• 38:55
  there's two major, major rules.
• 38:57
  I know I have one.
• 38:58
  The only rule I have in D is there's no contesting corners.
• 39:01
  Two friends are going at it back and forth.
• 39:03
  That's fine.
• 39:04
  But you in that car don't have some arrangements, some radio,
• 39:06
  some whatever, some history.
• 39:08
  You don't contest a corner.
• 39:09
  That is it.
• 39:09
  There's zero tolerance for contesting a corner.
• 39:11
  You either give it or you don't give it.
• 39:13
  It's not a race.
• 39:14
  It's not race practice on how to block somebody.
• 39:16
  It's friends, driving with friends and having a good time out there.
• 39:19
  Yep.
• 39:19
  I know this was the Chris Lu rule, and Ken says it too.
• 39:22
  Rule number two.
• 39:23
  Go out there, drive, don't be a dick.
• 39:25
  That's it.
• 39:26
  I've heard that so many times.
• 39:28
  It's true.
• 39:28
  And that's all.
• 39:29
  And that's it.
• 39:29
  You know, so I have, you know, my one rule is don't contest a corner.
• 39:32
  And the group leader has his own rules.
• 39:34
  We don't really allow driver switching of a car out there in D
• 39:37
  because now you're out there, right?
• 39:39
  And you and Mark and the Mustang, you see 'em, you know.
• 39:43
  How he drives the predictability.
• 39:45
  You've learned it right away.
• 39:46
  Well, you get another driver in that car, suddenly he drives very differently.
• 39:50
  Now the predictability is gone.
• 39:51
  So that's one of the, the limits we set.
• 39:53
  We don't really want people, drivers switching cars that aren't
• 39:56
  there, which leads us into our group leader meetings after.
• 40:00
  The run group about 10 minutes after you come off track.
• 40:03
  In the lower groups, there's more of them, the upper groups, you know,
• 40:05
  there's usually now one or two after the first session of every event.
• 40:09
  That way, you know, we can actually talk about what goes on and they're
• 40:11
  really important because that's where we're gonna go out and we're
• 40:14
  let, that's a forum for the drivers.
• 40:15
  We're all gonna talk to each other about what's going on out there, you know,
• 40:18
  what we've seen, what we're experiencing.
• 40:20
  Um, you're gonna find out there's a guy with hand controls.
• 40:22
  You know what, he's not gonna be able to give you a a point by somewhere.
• 40:25
  You know, we're gonna find out that there's a person, you know, who's
• 40:28
  in, you know, a radical that's gonna be out there that morning with you.
• 40:30
  'cause you don't know all the drivers.
• 40:31
  So at that meeting, and when you have a, or your first morning group
• 40:35
  leader meeting, and then your meetings afterwards, you're gonna find out
• 40:38
  what's going on in your group.
• 40:39
  It's gonna make you safer for the day, and you're gonna find
• 40:42
  out what's happening out there.
• 40:43
  Even though you may not have experienced, other drivers could say something,
• 40:46
  you know, you could have pitted and then something happened out there.
• 40:49
  Say, you know what, Hey, we're seeing this at turn seven.
• 40:52
  You know, who's driving that blue Corvette out there?
• 40:54
  Man?
• 40:54
  Great job out there.
• 40:55
  You know, it's like, listen.
• 40:56
  I saw how you took that turn and tracked out and it creates a dialogue
• 40:59
  of drivers getting to know each other.
• 41:01
  I think when people get to know each other, they're also more courteous
• 41:04
  and respectful around each other too than not just some random car.
• 41:07
  It's a person.
• 41:08
  I think they're really valuable.
• 41:09
  It's hard to balance that of like, you know, being overbearing and trying to give
• 41:13
  people too much, you know, and guidelines on how to do this and how to do that.
• 41:17
  And being off in the wild, wild west.
• 41:20
  Absolutely.
• 41:20
  It's, it's a balancing act.
• 41:21
  It definitely is.
• 41:22
  But I, I feel that those group leader meetings really help
• 41:24
  people that come out to it.
• 41:26
  And, uh, and it's a place to, uh, to share their grievances.
• 41:29
  Uh, you know, you've seen my morning meeting is about five to
• 41:31
  10 minutes long in the morning.
• 41:33
  I tell you where the bathrooms are, where lunch is gonna be happening.
• 41:35
  I tell you the, you know, the couple safety options.
• 41:38
  And one of the things I always tell people is, uh, you know, don't suffer in silent.
• 41:41
  Shooting me an email next week and telling me what happened and how
• 41:44
  we could do better is fantastic.
• 41:45
  And I want that.
• 41:46
  If I could fix something for you today, right here at the track to
• 41:49
  make it better, that's my goal.
• 41:51
  Come see me.
• 41:51
  Mona, any of the coaches that are out there, your group leaders, you know
• 41:54
  anyone, our grid staff is out there.
• 41:57
  You see something that goes on track that's weird.
• 41:59
  Pull through the pits.
• 42:00
  Car 37.
• 42:01
  Listen, I, I, I don't think he's got a gas cap on there.
• 42:04
  You know, we're gonna take care of that right then and there.
• 42:06
  Yeah.
• 42:06
  Throughout the day.
• 42:07
  You know, we, you know, we try to make sure there's bottled water,
• 42:09
  you know, hopefully next year COVID restrictions are lifted.
• 42:12
  We can get back to having, you know, snacks and our drinks and our coffee
• 42:15
  and our, you know, all the stuff that I shouldn't be eating every morning at.
• 42:18
  But you never know what's going through someone.
• 42:20
  You know, they didn't drink enough.
• 42:21
  You know, you see a driver you've been driving with all day out
• 42:23
  there, it's a little bit different.
• 42:24
  You go out there and you pull through the pits and say, Hey, you know,
• 42:27
  that car is really erratic out there.
• 42:29
  Pull him in.
• 42:29
  He might just need a wake up call 'cause he's dehydrated.
• 42:31
  You know, we're always looking out for each other.
• 42:33
  I don't want people to suffer.
• 42:34
  I want to know whatever I can do to fix your day right then and there.
• 42:37
  I want to do.
• 42:38
  Yeah.
• 42:38
  And that's, uh, and I think that's one of the things we try really hard.
• 42:41
  You know, we don't always succeed, you know, but we're
• 42:43
  always looking to get better.
• 42:44
  We definitely appreciate it.
• 42:45
  And I gotta say, I take this as a joke, one of the biggest changes
• 42:48
  I've seen over the years is your morning meeting has gotten shorter,
• 42:52
  and I thank you for it every time.
• 42:53
  Yeah.
• 42:55
  But let's kind of switch up the conversation a little bit and talk
• 42:57
  a little bit more about coaching, because that's, you know, the
• 43:00
  other side of the audience, right?
• 43:02
  You have the people that are really interested in trying
• 43:04
  HPD for the first time.
• 43:05
  You've got folks that are from other organizations that want to
• 43:08
  check out HOD for the first time.
• 43:10
  But there's also a glut of coaches out there that wanna know what
• 43:13
  the HOD Coaching program is like.
• 43:15
  Do you accept certifications from other groups?
• 43:18
  How do you become a coach with HOD?
• 43:20
  How do you get promoted to a coach within HOD?
• 43:23
  Do you recognize certifications from S-C-C-A-P-C-A-M-S-F?
• 43:28
  Is there reciprocity there?
• 43:29
  Let's talk about that a little bit and try to invite some other
• 43:33
  coaches from other organizations to come and check out HOD as well.
• 43:36
  We don't necessarily say like if you're a coach at any of the other organizations,
• 43:40
  you, it means you're automatically okay to coach or, Hey, I did my MSF level
• 43:44
  one and two, I want come coach with you.
• 43:45
  It really doesn't work that way.
• 43:46
  You know it.
• 43:47
  You need to have a certain skillset.
• 43:49
  If someone wants to come in there and they've been coaching and they're
• 43:51
  coaching with X, Y, Z organization, I don't wanna single anyone out like that.
• 43:55
  They would come up and say, Hey, I coach here and this is what I do and I'd
• 43:58
  like to, you know, come coach you here.
• 43:59
  You know?
• 43:59
  So they come to me, you know, or moan or anyone else.
• 44:02
  We're gonna put him right in touch with Ken, you know, who's our lead coach?
• 44:05
  He's our head of coaches.
• 44:06
  I let him handle everything.
• 44:08
  I try to stay his hands off so I don't get in his way.
• 44:11
  My mentality has always been to manage from the bottom up, not the top down.
• 44:15
  I build a structure.
• 44:16
  This is the, uh, the structure we have to keep, you know, refining there.
• 44:19
  These are some basic guidelines of what is yes and what's no.
• 44:22
  And from there, I feel, as you know, uh, in a tiered, managerial type of position,
• 44:27
  my job is to give the people who, for lack of better term, below me, the tools
• 44:32
  they need to do what they need to do.
• 44:33
  If I've instilled you as a group leader or a head coach or classroom
• 44:37
  or whatever, that job that you have there is because I trust you enough.
• 44:40
  At that job.
• 44:41
  If I had to, uh, babysit you and just watch you at every moment, then you know,
• 44:46
  I'm not, I don't need to have you there.
• 44:47
  So you're an adult.
• 44:48
  I vetted you through a process and you belong there.
• 44:51
  So my job now is to make sure that you have what you need.
• 44:54
  So with that said, I put them onto Ken and, and Ken will go through their resume
• 44:58
  and, you know, it's a small, tight circle, the HPD world, so we all know each other.
• 45:02
  I have no problems when someone say from, uh, you know, when
• 45:05
  the guys are on Summit or.
• 45:06
  Frat called me and say, Hey, you know who this person is.
• 45:08
  He wants to drive in this run group.
• 45:10
  This person says he coached with, he wants to come here.
• 45:12
  And I'll give 'em their resume and their history and you know,
• 45:14
  some customer evaluations and different things like that.
• 45:17
  And, uh, other organizations will do the same.
• 45:19
  They go through that whole process, you know, they give us their resume.
• 45:22
  They say this, we check out their head.
• 45:24
  Coach loves 'em.
• 45:25
  The, you know, uh, person who owns the organization says, yep, they're fantastic.
• 45:28
  They do great.
• 45:29
  Usually Ken will give you, you know, it's a couple page document.
• 45:31
  It tells you the HOD philosophy, you know, like what we explain, you know, these
• 45:35
  people are our guests, you know, we are co we're not coaching them a certain way.
• 45:39
  If a person's there, I'm not gonna try to beat their head that you
• 45:42
  need to know how to take this apex.
• 45:43
  Perfect.
• 45:44
  That person's goal is what that person's goal is.
• 45:47
  All you have to do is get him safely through the day, make sure he has
• 45:50
  a good time, and just break any bad habits as it goes on there.
• 45:53
  So the coach has to understand that philosophy.
• 45:56
  So depending where they came from, that's a hard thing to break sometimes, you
• 45:59
  know, because certain organizations are very geared towards, we're teaching race
• 46:02
  car drivers, we're teaching a certain way, and they have to learn something.
• 46:05
  So once they've realized that, they'll figure out, is this for me or not?
• 46:09
  We'll take 'em in provisionally and then Ken.
• 46:11
  Or some of the other guys that have been around the group leaders, we'll
• 46:14
  work with that person to make sure that they understand what their expectations
• 46:19
  are set at and how to handle that.
• 46:21
  If all works well, you know, they do it a couple times.
• 46:24
  You're an HOD coach, forget right, that we started this past year and so
• 46:28
  far we're doing it yearly and we're gonna try and start to do it, you
• 46:31
  know, and coming soon, at least twice a year, we have a coach workshop.
• 46:34
  So every year at Pocono right now, and we're gonna try and
• 46:37
  do it more than once a year.
• 46:37
  It's just very hard to get track time in tandem with an event.
• 46:41
  The Saturday before our big mega course where we, you
• 46:43
  know, do the entire facility.
• 46:45
  We rent a small part of the track, so we have season coaches that
• 46:48
  are coming out to refreshers.
• 46:49
  We have coaches that are just going out there to be mentors, and we have
• 46:52
  people that want to come in there.
• 46:54
  And basically do this, you, I mean, there's some qualifications, you know,
• 46:57
  that, you know, they basically, they have a chat with Ken first, and we only take,
• 47:00
  you know, about 10 people through this.
• 47:02
  And most of the people just wanna do it as refresher.
• 47:04
  But we're doing, we're starting that program now to kind of get people, we
• 47:07
  want our coaches to continuously improve.
• 47:09
  And like, if you stop learning, then you, you, you kind of, you, you
• 47:12
  probably shouldn't be doing something.
• 47:14
  'cause you know, the moment you start looking at things,
• 47:16
  I have nothing else to learn.
• 47:17
  You probably have more to learn you than you can imagine.
• 47:19
  And the first thing you need to learn is that I'll always learn something.
• 47:22
  So we really try to make sure that our coaches are up to date with
• 47:25
  different programs that are going out there, different technologies
• 47:28
  that are going out there.
• 47:29
  And whatever we can do, we try to share that information.
• 47:32
  We don't try to keep it all to ourselves and worry that, oh, other places might,
• 47:35
  it might take this somewhere else.
• 47:36
  You know, anything we could do to make this sport safer across the
• 47:39
  board is better for everybody.
• 47:40
  You know?
• 47:40
  So if I teach a coach how to do something, he becomes better at it
• 47:43
  and takes it to another organization.
• 47:45
  Well, you know, I know that.
• 47:46
  Someone's safer out there because of it.
• 47:47
  And those places, you know, hopefully they, you know, the reciprocity
• 47:50
  is there on how they do things.
• 47:51
  So, but we are trying because there, there are a lot of places that have that
• 47:54
  and they, they definitely teach a certain way and get some skill sets in there.
• 47:57
  But we are, uh, we've tried this now and every year we're gonna have at least one
• 48:01
  and we're gonna try and mo make more of them where it's that coach clinic, we're
• 48:04
  not teaching you to be an instructor.
• 48:06
  We're teaching you how to do this, how to do this better, is this for you?
• 48:11
  And we're only gonna take like a handful of new people and promote them.
• 48:13
  But most of our teaching has been one-on-one throughout the year
• 48:17
  where we take you under our wing and really give you a personalized
• 48:20
  experience on how to coach.
• 48:22
  And it qualifies as an MSF certification too for people that want that, which
• 48:26
  I think is a very good starting point.
• 48:28
  It's a really good starting point to learn is this for me, type of stuff.
• 48:31
  It's definitely not a program where it's say, I've done MSF, now
• 48:34
  I'm a, now I'm a certified coach.
• 48:35
  No way.
• 48:36
  You know, there's a lot more to it than that.
• 48:37
  At least.
• 48:38
  At least for us it is and we wanna make sure, like I said, that
• 48:41
  customer's getting what they deserve.
• 48:42
  You brought up a really good point, and it's something that I learned
• 48:45
  early on when I was becoming a coach.
• 48:47
  I actually, I got this from John Meyer who's also a veteran HOD coach from the
• 48:51
  Northeast and because in his real world job, he was a ski instructor, he says.
• 48:57
  Coaching, high performance driving is very much like coaching, skiing
• 49:01
  because you're taking children and adults that, you know, you're trying
• 49:04
  to work on the basics, the balance, and you know, standing up on their skis
• 49:08
  and working the poles and all this.
• 49:09
  And it's a different type of mechanism than making large assumptions
• 49:13
  that everybody knows everything.
• 49:14
  And so, you know, that really resonated when he explained that,
• 49:17
  you know, how, what his philosophy was and his approach to coaching.
• 49:20
  And I see a lot of that.
• 49:22
  Actually amongst the HOD coaches, and you see it amongst the good
• 49:25
  coaches do approach it that way.
• 49:26
  It's like you're kind of clay and we're gonna mold you or work from zero.
• 49:30
  And if you do have some natural talent, we can build upon that.
• 49:33
  You know, we can go from there.
• 49:34
  But yeah, it's not very, you must take this apex at 80
• 49:37
  miles an hour, da da da, da.
• 49:38
  You know, all like a race school would be.
• 49:40
  It's, it's very much more low key.
• 49:42
  So I wanna make sure that people understand that it's
• 49:44
  not a stressful situation.
• 49:46
  We're there to work within your limits.
• 49:48
  We understand some people can be more timid, some people can be more aggressive.
• 49:52
  We work with that and the coaches are super adaptable to all these
• 49:55
  different personalities and cars and all that kind of thing.
• 49:57
  So the idea is to ingratiate you into this world of high performance driving,
• 50:02
  you know, work with what we've got for that weekend in a very quick manner.
• 50:06
  But make very good forward progress for you, the driver.
• 50:10
  But also we learn something every weekend, every student.
• 50:13
  I'm well into the triple digits of students now that I've had.
• 50:16
  I learn something from each one of them and I learn something from other coaches.
• 50:20
  I mean, it's just one of these very wealth of knowledge sharing type of environment.
• 50:24
  So I, I just wanna remind people that that is what it's really about.
• 50:27
  Again, that stress on that e part of HBDE.
• 50:29
  But I do wanna move on to some of the more, you know, kind of bits and bytes
• 50:33
  part of this that somebody might be listening for the first time or is
• 50:37
  already comfortable with HBD wants to know more about, you know, HOD, which is,
• 50:41
  what are those average session lengths?
• 50:43
  What is the weekend cost on average?
• 50:45
  Let's talk about, you know, dollars per mile dollars per session.
• 50:48
  What does that boil down to for somebody that's looking to
• 50:51
  come to HOD for the first time?
• 50:53
  That's a tough question to how we do that.
• 50:55
  My goal has always been to provide.
• 50:57
  Quality track time over quantity, track time, so to say.
• 51:00
  So, uh, we were at Watkins Glen last two weeks ago.
• 51:03
  I, I felt like we were so overcrowded with 40 some odd cars in the run group,
• 51:08
  but I break it down to what goes on.
• 51:09
  I'm like, okay, that's probably not that much.
• 51:12
  The guy that was running Grid out there, he goes, oh man, you, he goes, I don't
• 51:15
  wanna say the name of the club, but they had 80 some odd cars in every run group.
• 51:20
  And he told me, I said, are you for real?
• 51:21
  He goes, I wouldn't lie to you.
• 51:22
  And I'm like, how can you have quality track time by
• 51:26
  putting 70 or 80 cars on there?
• 51:28
  Like, you get what you pay for.
• 51:30
  And I'm hoping that we're providing value and quality track time from the
• 51:34
  responses we get and we ask people.
• 51:35
  And I, and I hope people are honest about it, but they say
• 51:38
  they get more quality track time.
• 51:40
  And that's what they're really looking for over quantity.
• 51:43
  So yeah, you know, I could run three run groups charge XY and you had, you
• 51:48
  know, more track time, but if you get two good laps every session as opposed
• 51:53
  to two or three bad laps every day for the whole day, I mean, I think, you
• 51:57
  know, we, we try to not price people out, but at the same time, I want
• 52:01
  to try and get less cars on track.
• 52:02
  And that's something we're gonna stick to next year because as a softie, I'm not
• 52:05
  taking these calls anymore for people, but he goes, oh, you know, I didn't register.
• 52:09
  I want to try and get in.
• 52:10
  And I'm like, okay.
• 52:11
  You know, our car counts are always a little bit lower to begin with.
• 52:14
  So, um, starting for 2022, we're gonna really strict car count numbers.
• 52:18
  And that is it.
• 52:19
  It's sold out.
• 52:19
  It's sold out.
• 52:20
  And like I said, I leave myself like a 10 to 15% buffer.
• 52:24
  Like I said, if you register for B and you don't belong there, we're gonna move you
• 52:27
  into C. And if you register for C and I find out when you get there that you're.
• 52:32
  Experiences Forza, you're going into a, you know, right.
• 52:35
  I, I'll tell you about later, but I've had that twice in my life already.
• 52:39
  Yes, grand Tomo the name of choice.
• 52:42
  But so we are trying to do that.
• 52:43
  So when you get a track like Limerock, that's one and a half miles long.
• 52:47
  It's in there.
• 52:47
  There's the most expensive track you could probably rent per mile.
• 52:50
  The couple tracks that are more expensive to rent out there, you know,
• 52:53
  you look at Coda is pretty long track there, you know, such a huge facility.
• 52:57
  You get Watkins Glen, you know, huge facility, three and a
• 53:00
  half miles, and then you get.
• 53:01
  Limerock, which is actually more expensive to rent because we're one
• 53:04
  of the few people that our weekend in June, the second week in June is,
• 53:08
  uh, is become like a, a thing for us and we don't have sound restrictions.
• 53:11
  So if you have a loud car or you need to practice with your race
• 53:14
  car, I mean there's, there's very limited opportunities to
• 53:16
  do that on a weekend there.
• 53:18
  So we have that and we're usually, I think the week before the SCCA
• 53:22
  regionals, which kind of helps a lot of those guys that really need that
• 53:24
  last minute test and tune or to bring a driver in and stuff like that.
• 53:28
  So, I guess aimless pitch right there where there, right before the SCCA races.
• 53:31
  How do you price that out By giving people and you have a,
• 53:34
  you know, a decently short day.
• 53:36
  It, this is an expensive hobby.
• 53:37
  And if you think of it in the long run, like the cheapest part of that weekend
• 53:40
  might actually be the, the entry fee.
• 53:43
  Once you consider fuel getting there, the cost of tires, the cost
• 53:46
  of breaks and everything else you do.
• 53:47
  That might be the cheapest part of it sometimes, besides maybe the hotel
• 53:50
  room at Limerock, maybe not the hotel room, but well look, we're there in
• 53:55
  June at the perfect springtime, it's prime season at a hotel up there and,
• 53:58
  and there's some nice resorts there.
• 54:00
  It's kind of hard to, uh, balance that.
• 54:02
  'cause at the end of the day, you know, this is, it's a business and
• 54:05
  we have to keep things flowing.
• 54:06
  But I do this more because I just, I just love the sport.
• 54:09
  I love doing it.
• 54:10
  I love giving back and I like to see the people that are having a good time.
• 54:14
  But like I said, you know, we gotta keep the lights on at the same time.
• 54:17
  There's no McLaren center in, in my future because of HOD right now.
• 54:21
  Both McLaren wants to send me one, but I try to make it fair.
• 54:24
  Now we look at it.
• 54:25
  We come up with a number and I figure out how many cars I can put per mile, what
• 54:30
  it costs to operate per minute there, the prices went up substantially, but I think
• 54:33
  this is what I'm going through all now to make it next year's price schedule.
• 54:36
  It was running me $58 a minute to run it line rock.
• 54:42
  Wow.
• 54:42
  So that's my cost per minute.
• 54:43
  I'm paying the track.
• 54:44
  So, you know, do the math there, how many cars do you need at X
• 54:48
  amount of dollars is to do that.
• 54:50
  I found that that most drivers would rather spend, you know, 25 or $50 more
• 54:55
  to know that they're on a track with a couple less cars, with a different
• 54:59
  quality of drivers that they're used to.
• 55:01
  And I think that's what we're really catering to.
• 55:03
  We're not the budget track day where you know, you're coming in there
• 55:06
  maximum time go on and off all day.
• 55:08
  You know, that's definitely not us.
• 55:10
  I've done a couple events where we did less run groups, midweek events,
• 55:14
  guys were getting like three, three and a half hours of track time.
• 55:17
  Midweek I, I got complaints that there was too much track time.
• 55:19
  Like, I literally got survey complaints that we did.
• 55:21
  It goes too much track time in there and there wasn't enough time between sessions.
• 55:25
  And I'm looking at myself and I'm like, I thought that people
• 55:27
  just wanted more and more.
• 55:28
  So I started to realize that, you know what, most guys want a
• 55:32
  little bit of downtime in there.
• 55:33
  They wanna be able to do things.
• 55:35
  There are a lot of drives that are coming out there just because, you
• 55:37
  know, this is their relaxation time.
• 55:39
  There're there with their friends, you know, they're not out there
• 55:41
  to get maximum track time.
• 55:42
  So, uh, we try to balance that.
• 55:44
  So you could say on an average two hours of track time, give or take, you
• 55:48
  know, depending on the track, say at Watkins Glen is a very, very short day.
• 55:52
  They're very strict.
• 55:53
  From eight 30 to four 30, that's your entire day with an hour lunch on there.
• 55:57
  We're Pocono, we're on there for, you know, a 10 or 11 hour day.
• 56:00
  We can have, depending on what it is, we try to do that accordingly.
• 56:03
  So, but you can figure on the two hour mark, give or take at Limerock.
• 56:06
  Like, we'll run 20 minute sessions because, you know, when.
• 56:09
  Pace car probably running, you know, a minute and 10 a
• 56:12
  minute and 20 seconds fast.
• 56:13
  Guys are running under a minute.
• 56:14
  You know, you're gonna get, you know, 15, 20 laps depending on what
• 56:18
  you're doing out there, depending where you're putting out there.
• 56:20
  You know, if I gave you a 20 minute session of Watkins Glen by the time you
• 56:22
  got your first lap done and you warmed up, you know, you'd, you'd get almost no time.
• 56:26
  So we're billing the schedules ahead of time.
• 56:28
  We're gonna put them up on all the event pages and uh, and really try to adjust
• 56:32
  them to maximize the efficient time of you having a good time having a break.
• 56:37
  Depending where things are, I don't want you to have a three hour break because
• 56:39
  lunch fell in the middle of it all there.
• 56:41
  So it's a juggling act to try and make everyone happy.
• 56:44
  We're definitely not the cheapest game in town.
• 56:45
  We're not the most expensive.
• 56:47
  We're just trying to make sure we're the most fun, where you
• 56:49
  get the most quality track time.
• 56:50
  That's the goal here for me.
• 56:51
  For people that are excited to come learn more about HOD and,
• 56:55
  and sign up for an event, where do they find out where HOD events are
• 56:59
  and how do they register for them?
• 57:00
  That's the easiest part.
• 57:02
  You, they just go to hooked on driving.com and then you'll see all the regions
• 57:06
  listed right across the board there.
• 57:07
  There's a membership fee that goes to our parent company, PDP, out in California.
• 57:11
  And what that does get you, there's, you know, there's quite a few
• 57:14
  discounts that come up with that, depending on what you're doing.
• 57:16
  You know, wine countries, one of our national sponsors that come out
• 57:19
  there, so you'll get discounts, you'll get free shipping at certain times.
• 57:23
  Bell is, is one of our major sponsors out there for the coaches out there.
• 57:26
  I dunno if they, you know, a lot of people may not realize that every era,
• 57:29
  like the 2020 helmets came out there.
• 57:31
  So once every error you're gonna get a any bell helmet other than their.
• 57:35
  I think 88, 60 line, you know, those 4,000 helmets, you know, any one of those
• 57:39
  helmets are gonna be 25% off for you.
• 57:41
  So, you know, all the catches there.
• 57:42
  There's a lot of others like that.
• 57:43
  We, we have break partners, we have regional partners like that will be
• 57:46
  announcing, uh, certain deals for 2022.
• 57:48
  I don't wanna shock anyone out there, but, uh, you know, we have a, Rachel and David
• 57:52
  Eaton from Eaton Motorsport are out there.
• 57:54
  They're at all our events.
• 57:55
  You know, if you need something delivered to the track, they're
• 57:57
  bringing it with you out there.
• 57:58
  They're giving the HOD coaches a very nice discount.
• 58:01
  On brake pads and a lot of the consumables that we, uh, we go through,
• 58:05
  you know, those are the big ones.
• 58:06
  You know, the consumables, people don't realize how that adds up.
• 58:09
  As you know, John, he's got PMX Motorsports coming out there.
• 58:12
  You know, he's got some nice deals for communicators, for all the coaches
• 58:14
  that wanna upgrade from the old chatter boxes and stuff that would
• 58:17
  basically, you know, point to point helmet stuff for motorcycle guys in
• 58:21
  tandem, you know, but we've adapted.
• 58:22
  And so they give a lot of benefits out there that go through things.
• 58:26
  You know, uh, apex Wheels buy Apex Wheels.
• 58:28
  You, you know, they double the warranty if you're team HOD members.
• 58:31
  There's a lot of programs and what I, I try to remind people, I see this all the
• 58:34
  time and I, uh, we actually go on our way to make sure people get refunded.
• 58:37
  Sometimes it's like, wait, you and your wife and your son are coming?
• 58:41
  Why'd you buy three memberships?
• 58:42
  It's one family membership and you can register any driver you want on there.
• 58:45
  Yeah.
• 58:45
  But that's something that helps keep that going on there for our
• 58:48
  sponsors and everything else.
• 58:49
  So there, there's a good amount of discounts that come out there that I, uh.
• 58:52
  I hope people take advantage of out there because it adds up.
• 58:54
  You know, you once, you know, you get the money off on one set of brake pads, right?
• 58:58
  There is more than that.
• 58:59
  Uh, that yearly fee, your events are listed on, hooked on driving.com.
• 59:02
  Every once in a while they pop up on places like Motorsport
• 59:05
  Reg and things like that.
• 59:06
  Yep.
• 59:06
  Depending on where you are in the country.
• 59:07
  But you register through HODs proprietary system on hooked on
• 59:11
  driving.com and then obviously it walks you through, you pick your event, you
• 59:14
  know, there's a whole shopping cart mechanism, all that kind of thing.
• 59:17
  And in the recent years, there's been something that's been
• 59:20
  added to the shopping cart.
• 59:22
  There's some options that you can get.
• 59:23
  And so normally I'll ask people like, you know, do you recommend that a student get
• 59:27
  track insurance before coming to an event?
• 59:29
  But HOD actually recommends it right there at checkout and you can
• 59:33
  sign up for track insurance through one of ho's national partners.
• 59:36
  So I didn't know if you wanted to expand on that a little bit and get people
• 59:40
  to understand what that's all about.
• 59:41
  You're flowing right in the direction I was gonna go right into.
• 59:44
  So, uh, so yeah, so when you're, you're on there and you, you order your stuff, one
• 59:47
  of the options out there, like after you fill out all your information and your,
• 59:50
  your driver information, your emergency contact, and you ordered what you want,
• 59:53
  you know, there's that box there said, do you wanna purchase track insurance?
• 59:56
  And, uh, we don't provide track insurance.
• 59:58
  It's done through open track.
• 59:59
  Just try to do is provide a, an easier pathway so you don't have to go outside.
• 1:00:04
  You can get everything done at once.
• 1:00:06
  So basically you go through that, you decide whether you want to buy track
• 1:00:09
  insurance, and one of the questions you asked was like, do you suggest it?
• 1:00:12
  And I'm like, it's kinda like a personal type of thing.
• 1:00:14
  Like as more insurance companies are looking at this,
• 1:00:17
  you know, check your policy.
• 1:00:18
  Like there's certain.
• 1:00:19
  Companies out there that because we are strictly non-competitive
• 1:00:23
  as an education department, you know, you would be covered.
• 1:00:26
  And there are a lot of insurance companies now that have changed
• 1:00:29
  and said anything that goes on at a race facility is not covered.
• 1:00:33
  So the best thing to do is to check your policy.
• 1:00:36
  But after that, you know, you say you want to get track insurance, so you know,
• 1:00:39
  track insurance, you know, with liability might be 350 bucks for the weekend.
• 1:00:43
  Right.
• 1:00:44
  Think about what in, in reference to what is value to you.
• 1:00:47
  You know, this is your my daily driver.
• 1:00:49
  This is a dedicated track car.
• 1:00:51
  It's really depends on the person.
• 1:00:53
  And when you look at it and you say, okay, I'm spending a thousand dollars
• 1:00:56
  this weekend on a hotel room and an entry fee and this and that, and then, you
• 1:01:02
  know, plus my fuel costs, plus my travel.
• 1:01:06
  350 bucks make a difference.
• 1:01:08
  To some people, it might to that person that that's their daily driver, they
• 1:01:11
  come up with a value and you know, and that's what it's geared towards.
• 1:01:14
  So it's not like, okay, we're gonna go find you another, you know, 2006 this,
• 1:01:18
  you're gonna have an agreed upon value.
• 1:01:20
  When you do track insurance, which is very different from what most
• 1:01:22
  people are used to, you're gonna know exactly what your deductible is.
• 1:01:25
  You'd know exactly what the value of your car is.
• 1:01:27
  So you're gonna, you know, you may have a car that's, I value this car at $47,000.
• 1:01:32
  You know what you've put into that car.
• 1:01:34
  That's gonna be the value of that car on that track.
• 1:01:36
  Regardless if they can find you 16 other cars for $4,000, they don't realize
• 1:01:40
  that you have $15,000 shocks in that car and you have, you know, $10,000
• 1:01:45
  worth of motor work in their car.
• 1:01:47
  These motorsports, HPD insurance companies, they're familiar with what we
• 1:01:50
  do, which is very different from like, you try to explain HPD guy to your local
• 1:01:54
  insurance agent and he's gonna be like.
• 1:01:56
  What are you talking about?
• 1:01:57
  Yeah, exactly.
• 1:01:58
  And it's, it is relatively, you know, cheap insurance, right?
• 1:02:00
  Against what can happen out there.
• 1:02:02
  We don't see a lot of instances, and I know a lot of people do get the
• 1:02:05
  track insurance out there, so I'd never wanna discourage anyone from
• 1:02:07
  getting it because it's peace of mind.
• 1:02:09
  Insurance is peace of mind is what it is for everybody.
• 1:02:12
  I suggest it.
• 1:02:13
  Yeah.
• 1:02:14
  It's out there, you know, it's not in everyone's budget all the
• 1:02:16
  time, but at the same time, you know, you, you gotta look, it's.
• 1:02:19
  Things, you know, what's, uh, what's the cost of a windshield
• 1:02:22
  on your, on your pizza.
• 1:02:23
  Exactly.
• 1:02:24
  It's $5,000 windshield, you know?
• 1:02:26
  So, you know, it all depends on what goes on out there, you know,
• 1:02:29
  as opposed to a car that does that.
• 1:02:30
  So, I like it, but, you know, we don't actually make any money off of that.
• 1:02:34
  That is just a separate pass through that goes right to them.
• 1:02:37
  And in fact, you know, even though you, you're putting your card and
• 1:02:39
  your information out there, you'll see it come out as two separate bills.
• 1:02:42
  One goes right to, you know, what we did, what we hear, team,
• 1:02:45
  HOD fee goes where it has to go.
• 1:02:47
  And then that open track insurance goes where it has to go.
• 1:02:49
  So you'll see that separately out there.
• 1:02:51
  So we don't actually make any money on that.
• 1:02:53
  We are just trying to provide a service to our customers.
• 1:02:56
  One stop shopping.
• 1:02:57
  So there, it makes it easier.
• 1:02:58
  You know, I've heard stories of people, he goes, I want to get track insurance.
• 1:03:01
  And I called and I didn't do this.
• 1:03:02
  I do that and I wish I would've gotten it.
• 1:03:04
  Well, now we put it right there on our website.
• 1:03:06
  So you can do it very, very easily.
• 1:03:08
  I will say, you know, the guys at Open Track are fantastically easy to deal with.
• 1:03:12
  They're responsive.
• 1:03:13
  The emails, the phone calls, or I mean like you're talking, if
• 1:03:16
  you need to, you can talk to a human being, you know, right away.
• 1:03:18
  They work with us, so anytime people have had to make a claim or anything
• 1:03:22
  else, it's been very seamless.
• 1:03:24
  I just tell 'em like, yep, this car was here at this event.
• 1:03:27
  I certified, it was there.
• 1:03:28
  There's an incident report, and that's it, and they're done.
• 1:03:30
  You know, it's 1, 2, 3.
• 1:03:32
  They've made it very, very simple and easy because the turnaround rate is so small.
• 1:03:37
  Chances of something happened to you.
• 1:03:39
  At a racetrack during a, an education program like ours, you're more likely to
• 1:03:43
  have something happen to you on the way to the track and home than either track.
• 1:03:47
  I mean, really it's, and I know that because, you know, we've been told that
• 1:03:51
  from, you know, the insurance agencies and the bean counters have told us that.
• 1:03:54
  I'm very proud of that.
• 1:03:55
  And I, and I trust that because of, uh, of you guys that are out there
• 1:03:57
  that coach for us, you are our eyes and ears out there in the other run groups.
• 1:04:01
  So I gotta give all you guys out there that, that, and anyone who's
• 1:04:04
  a coach with us or coaches anywhere, I mean, you're the eyes and ears
• 1:04:07
  of everything in these operations.
• 1:04:08
  So, you know, my hat's off to you right there out there.
• 1:04:12
  Great spot up there.
• 1:04:13
  Well, thank you.
• 1:04:13
  You know, because, uh, you're, you're the guys that make this,
• 1:04:15
  uh, this sport what it is.
• 1:04:16
  And safe, you know, we couldn't do this.
• 1:04:18
  We've got new drivers.
• 1:04:19
  Now you did mention something that is truth that we all understand, but often
• 1:04:24
  ignore, which is a mechanical failure.
• 1:04:26
  Right.
• 1:04:26
  We are stressing.
• 1:04:28
  Machines to their utmost limit when they're at the track, especially
• 1:04:31
  when you're in the higher run groups.
• 1:04:33
  'cause you're, you know, we're not timing, but we're all reaching for
• 1:04:36
  this golden lap in our head, right?
• 1:04:38
  Let's call it what it is.
• 1:04:40
  A lot of organizations, they have a pre-inspection, they'll call it, or
• 1:04:44
  they'll have a tech inspection or something you have to fill out, and that's
• 1:04:47
  part of the registration process as well.
• 1:04:49
  So does HOD have that?
• 1:04:52
  If they do, how does it work?
• 1:04:53
  If they don't, how does that work?
• 1:04:55
  You know, explain that to the audience.
• 1:04:56
  When you register for an HOD event, you come on there, you're
• 1:04:59
  on our website, you've gone to hooked on driving.com, you're gonna
• 1:05:02
  get what's called an E waiver.
• 1:05:04
  So we've gone to an electronic waiver system and electronic tech system.
• 1:05:08
  So basically you're signing the same waiver that you
• 1:05:10
  would sign at the racetrack.
• 1:05:11
  Instead of signing at every single event, you're signing a yearly
• 1:05:14
  waiver, then you're also gonna sign a tech inspection form.
• 1:05:17
  That says that, and like I said, it goes back to treating you like an adult.
• 1:05:20
  You're getting out there, you're getting on a racetrack, you're getting
• 1:05:23
  into a car that you're gonna push to, you know, a, a limit higher than
• 1:05:27
  what you would normally be driving.
• 1:05:28
  And it says that, you're saying that say, I'm gonna make sure that
• 1:05:31
  all of these things at the most basic level have been checked out.
• 1:05:35
  You're gonna do that before.
• 1:05:37
  Every event.
• 1:05:38
  So I don't need you to bring me a tech form.
• 1:05:40
  You've already told me you've signed a document and said, Hey,
• 1:05:43
  I'm gonna be responsible enough to do all these things out there.
• 1:05:46
  Come the day of the event.
• 1:05:47
  I'm not gonna go over your car and look at it and make your weight in a, in a
• 1:05:51
  20 minute line to so we, someone could check your wheel nuts and take a peek
• 1:05:55
  under your hood or anything like that.
• 1:05:57
  One.
• 1:05:58
  No one at any of these events is, is really gonna catch any of these major
• 1:06:01
  mechanical problems that usually happen.
• 1:06:03
  Two, it's time consuming.
• 1:06:05
  I, I'm asking you to fill out a waiver and sign that you did this and then I'm gonna
• 1:06:09
  check up on you as if you are lying to me.
• 1:06:12
  That's the case.
• 1:06:13
  Do I won't even want you on track with me.
• 1:06:15
  With all that said, you know, our group leaders go over this and our coaches
• 1:06:19
  are out there and, and you do this also, you know, when you, when you meet that
• 1:06:22
  student and you go over it, you're kind of going to the conversation about the car.
• 1:06:25
  I mean, we're all car people 'cause we're out there at the racetrack and
• 1:06:28
  you know, we're gonna look at it.
• 1:06:29
  Hey, check your torque system and check your tire pressures this morning.
• 1:06:32
  You know, like, just give their memory because they, they got a lot
• 1:06:34
  of things going on in their mind.
• 1:06:35
  They're there for the first time that coach nine at a 10 times is gonna give 'em
• 1:06:38
  a hand with that and say, oh, no, no, no.
• 1:06:40
  Say no you, you don't wanna be at 38 pounds right now.
• 1:06:42
  I said, you know, that's, we're gonna do this and we're gonna build up.
• 1:06:45
  And, you know, they're gonna give them, because, you know, they're
• 1:06:47
  a, a wealth of knowledge out there.
• 1:06:49
  They're gonna notice if that car is, you know, looking out there and say, well.
• 1:06:53
  That tire doesn't look, it belongs on track.
• 1:06:55
  You know, we are walking the paddock, we are looking at things,
• 1:06:58
  we are making announcements.
• 1:06:59
  We are telling people in our group leader meetings, these are all the things, you
• 1:07:02
  know, Hey guys, make sure you know, you went over your checklist on there and you
• 1:07:06
  know you got it here, but before you go out and you know, make sure your wheels
• 1:07:09
  are torqued, you know, take a peek that nothing happened from the last track day.
• 1:07:12
  You know, Hey guys, I know you were here Thursday and Friday, but you
• 1:07:16
  know, it doesn't mean that you know you're good today, Saturday and Sunday.
• 1:07:18
  You know, because a lot of times events go back to back and if it's a
• 1:07:21
  destination track, you know, we do get a lot of people that will come say,
• 1:07:25
  you know what, it's a 12 hour ride.
• 1:07:27
  I'm not going there for one day or two days, but if I can do a four
• 1:07:30
  day weekend there, I'm gonna do it.
• 1:07:31
  I will say mechanical videos that we've had, usually.
• 1:07:35
  Nothing that we would've caught ahead of time.
• 1:07:37
  You know, no one's pulling up their, a very small percentage and
• 1:07:41
  we usually catch 'em at the grid line, you know, that's leaking.
• 1:07:43
  Something like that.
• 1:07:44
  If something happens, it's usually something that's been just catastrophic
• 1:07:47
  right out there, out in the open.
• 1:07:48
  And like you saw at Watkins, you know, a motor blows, you know, I
• 1:07:52
  broke a wheel hub going into turn one.
• 1:07:54
  I was like, all right, whatever.
• 1:07:55
  It happens, right?
• 1:07:56
  It is what it is.
• 1:07:57
  I heard about a guy who broke an axle on a skid pad at Watkins Glen.
• 1:08:01
  Hey, hey, you know, that's, that's a story for another day.
• 1:08:04
  A rainstorm and then some maniac.
• 1:08:06
  Went out there and did the skid pad in the pickup truck.
• 1:08:10
  Uh, I still have that video.
• 1:08:11
  It's so funny.
• 1:08:12
  We're all, we would knee deep, we would pretty much knee deep in water pushing
• 1:08:16
  that car outta there, weren't we?
• 1:08:18
  But, uh, we had good time.
• 1:08:19
  So, I mean, that's the, the process with the tech inspection, you know,
• 1:08:22
  and it, in all seriousness, it's.
• 1:08:23
  Really, really important.
• 1:08:24
  I mean, you're putting your life on the line out there.
• 1:08:27
  I mean, would you, would you go out and drive with ball tires and a snowstorm
• 1:08:31
  out, you know, in, on the road, you know, with your family and your kids in the car?
• 1:08:34
  Probably not think of, you know, what goes on, you know?
• 1:08:36
  And if you're not capable of doing it, we're asking you and you're asserting
• 1:08:40
  that you are gonna have someone take this.
• 1:08:42
  And I gotta say, a huge amount of people are out there and they're
• 1:08:45
  going out there and they're getting their stuff checked out.
• 1:08:48
  And uh, you know, we have certain, you know, partners that are out there
• 1:08:50
  and being such a big region, it's hard to say, okay, go to this one spot or
• 1:08:54
  that one spot there, you know, we just wanna make sure you're safe out there.
• 1:08:57
  And that's what it boils down to.
• 1:08:59
  And Yep.
• 1:08:59
  In the lower run groups, when you're first starting out there, if your
• 1:09:02
  car's roadworthy and in good shape.
• 1:09:04
  You can probably do this in there.
• 1:09:06
  You know, you, you can't take your minivan, you can't take your big
• 1:09:08
  SUV or your pickup truck out there.
• 1:09:11
  Most road cars are out there.
• 1:09:12
  And like I said, you know, it's funny when you see out there and you see, you know,
• 1:09:16
  a brand new perfor out there and there's a, a Honda Accord bucket list, I've
• 1:09:21
  stuff, and they're out there together.
• 1:09:22
  It's crazy, right?
• 1:09:23
  If your car's capable of being out there, we ask you still.
• 1:09:26
  I, I don't care if it just came off the lot three weeks ago.
• 1:09:29
  Go over it, make sure things break.
• 1:09:31
  And being in the service industry, like a lot of people are there.
• 1:09:34
  We know we do a lot of service stuff, you know, if things didn't break
• 1:09:37
  people, a lot of people wouldn't have jobs out there, so, yep.
• 1:09:39
  I stopped questioning why things break, but we do what we can to pick.
• 1:09:42
  Beforehand, find the wear and tear items.
• 1:09:45
  Don't come to the track when you only have a quarter of your brake pads left,
• 1:09:48
  you know, don't come to the track.
• 1:09:49
  That never happens.
• 1:09:50
  That never ever happens.
• 1:09:52
  I, I won't mention any names, but he, he answer Now it all is pretty
• 1:09:56
  much par for the course, right?
• 1:09:57
  I mean, these are things that people oftentimes forget to consider, and,
• 1:10:02
  and I think you've done a good job.
• 1:10:04
  Explaining all that, but you know, as we're kind of wrapping up here
• 1:10:06
  and, and kind of bringing everything to a head, you know, HRD has a
• 1:10:09
  lot of great things to offer.
• 1:10:11
  It's a great program.
• 1:10:12
  It's been around for a long time.
• 1:10:13
  It's progressive, right?
• 1:10:14
  It's been changing, it's been a, it's adopting.
• 1:10:16
  You guys have been at the front end of a lot of programs, you know, like MSF
• 1:10:21
  and its early days and things like that.
• 1:10:22
  So I wanted to take a moment to talk about if there were any other
• 1:10:26
  services that HOD offers that people might not be aware of, even if
• 1:10:29
  they've been around for a long time.
• 1:10:31
  You mentioned some changes that are coming in the 22 and 23 season.
• 1:10:35
  Things that you guys have had to change because of COVID, you know, anything
• 1:10:39
  else that you wanted to address?
• 1:10:40
  The services we offer a lot, what a lot of people realize is we do
• 1:10:43
  a lot of event management services and private event caterings.
• 1:10:46
  There are people that, you know, want to go out there and do.
• 1:10:49
  A private event.
• 1:10:50
  They want to, instead of doing an a hundred thousand dollars Atlantic City
• 1:10:53
  bachelor party crazy weekend, you know, let's get a bunch of guys, let's go to the
• 1:10:57
  racetrack and rent a racetrack and stuff.
• 1:10:59
  You know, I just threw a fictitious number out there.
• 1:11:01
  You know, it's like, you know, I, if anyone's having a bachelor party
• 1:11:04
  where they're throwing a hundred grand out there, please invite me.
• 1:11:06
  I'm, yeah, yeah.
• 1:11:07
  I wanna be on that list too, right?
• 1:11:08
  Me and Eric will be there right away.
• 1:11:10
  In fact, I'll put a cap on and drive.
• 1:11:12
  We're both professional drivers here.
• 1:11:14
  No, but we do a lot of event management and private event services.
• 1:11:17
  Whether you are, you know, a small club of enthusiasts, you know, you got
• 1:11:21
  your local exotic car club or anything, or you know, the Shelby guys or the
• 1:11:25
  vintage lotuses or anything like that.
• 1:11:27
  It's very hard to rent a racetrack.
• 1:11:28
  One date availability is so hard to get out there.
• 1:11:32
  And two, it's ridiculous, expensive.
• 1:11:35
  If you can have someone else put together a turnkey operation for you
• 1:11:38
  where you just have to arrive there.
• 1:11:41
  You're done.
• 1:11:42
  We do that for you.
• 1:11:43
  One of our partners right now is Track Car Solutions, you
• 1:11:46
  know, and Mike is fantastic.
• 1:11:47
  You know, if you saw some of the, his setup over there, you know, with the,
• 1:11:50
  uh, couple brand new C eights, you know, the one elite, the Z 20 eights,
• 1:11:54
  the SS Camaros, and you know, and it's quite a few cars are out there.
• 1:11:58
  So for guys that want to do something and maybe do like, you know, a team
• 1:12:01
  building exercise or do something together, I mean, there's solutions
• 1:12:04
  there where we can actually provide cars.
• 1:12:06
  Now, it's not like it was years ago where if you wanted rent, you were renting
• 1:12:09
  kind of like a semi prepped race car and who doesn't know how to drive stick
• 1:12:13
  and oh my God, I'm getting into this.
• 1:12:14
  You know, what am I getting into over here and I can't fit into these spells?
• 1:12:18
  Might get track.
• 1:12:18
  Our solutions is in a lot of places and he has an arrive and drive program, whether,
• 1:12:22
  you know, one of our members wants to said, know I always wanted to drive Coda,
• 1:12:26
  but I don't wanna ship my car out there.
• 1:12:27
  And I don't do that.
• 1:12:28
  Guess what?
• 1:12:28
  Simple phone call.
• 1:12:29
  You fly in there, you're picked up, you're there at the track, everything
• 1:12:32
  is taken care of, and you fly home and, and you've driven the shit
• 1:12:36
  outta someone else's car basically.
• 1:12:37
  Um, so we do that for people where, you know, I say, Hey, you know what?
• 1:12:41
  I want to do a little corporate outing on a Wednesday, you know?
• 1:12:45
  Upstate New York, or whether it's in New Jersey or Pocono, you know, we deal with
• 1:12:48
  the track operations, we get everything set together and we do that for you.
• 1:12:52
  Um, some car clubs, they want to do, they, you know, 15, 20 guys, you know, they
• 1:12:56
  just want to be together and that's it.
• 1:12:58
  And they wanna do all these, you know, famous race tracks and do stuff like that.
• 1:13:02
  So, you know, they'll.
• 1:13:03
  Pool their money together and kick in there and they have
• 1:13:05
  15, 20 dates in California.
• 1:13:07
  We're doing that between Laguna and a couple other tracks that are out
• 1:13:11
  there and it's just them and that's it.
• 1:13:13
  So we do that and we, we do that, you know, pretty much everywhere.
• 1:13:15
  And you consider the caliber of racetracks we have out there, you
• 1:13:18
  know, it's a lot of opportunity.
• 1:13:19
  I don't think a lot of people realize that we do that for them.
• 1:13:22
  Hopefully we can get some more guys out there to do some of
• 1:13:24
  these nice private days, because I can tell they're easygoing.
• 1:13:26
  People have a great time, you know, they've.
• 1:13:28
  It's a, it's a white glove service type of operation.
• 1:13:31
  We really, we really try to treat them nice and have,
• 1:13:33
  uh, have some fun out there.
• 1:13:35
  The other part of, uh, you know, what we're planning to change, like
• 1:13:38
  I said, is we're really gonna try and look over and just get away
• 1:13:41
  from what everyone else is doing.
• 1:13:43
  You know, everyone else does this, this, and this.
• 1:13:45
  And taking some of the data we've have, I've collected over the
• 1:13:47
  last two years of what works.
• 1:13:49
  Some of the surveys, what people like, what people don't like, and obviously you
• 1:13:53
  can't make everybody happy all the time.
• 1:13:55
  And I'm gonna start to put together, like I said, I mentioned some of the
• 1:13:57
  numbers for Watkins Glen, and I'm like, you, you know how big that facility is.
• 1:14:00
  You know how big that track is?
• 1:14:02
  27 cars out there.
• 1:14:03
  I mean, you should never see a train of cars out there.
• 1:14:06
  And it is like that.
• 1:14:07
  You do 35 cars, you know, or in the higher run groups, it kinda
• 1:14:10
  gets boring when you don't have someone to play with, so to say.
• 1:14:12
  So, you know, if you take 15 cars per mile and multiply that by 3.4, when I put
• 1:14:18
  45 cars out there, I'm well under that.
• 1:14:20
  My goal has always been between 12 and 15 cars per mile.
• 1:14:24
  Next year we're actually gonna kind of work on that, where it's.
• 1:14:27
  A lot less in our lower groups.
• 1:14:29
  I think people with less cars, you know, even though it might be a little
• 1:14:32
  bit more money kind of hurts the profit line a little bit later on.
• 1:14:35
  But I want them to have a good time and I want them when they get somewhere else to
• 1:14:38
  be like, you know what, I'm going back.
• 1:14:40
  I really want them to be hooked on driving with us.
• 1:14:43
  I think that's one of the major changes we're gonna be doing next year, along
• 1:14:46
  with keeping a very adaptable schedule.
• 1:14:49
  It's one of the things we do differently.
• 1:14:50
  Um, mishaps happen.
• 1:14:52
  You know, someone blows a motor and spins oil on the, at the end
• 1:14:55
  of his run group who suffers.
• 1:14:56
  They had two lefts left.
• 1:14:58
  Next group lost 10 minutes.
• 1:14:59
  I don't tell people like, you know, well sorry, you know, you lost that run session
• 1:15:03
  'cause someone blew oil before you.
• 1:15:05
  What happens if that happens three times in a row?
• 1:15:07
  You know, I don't want someone leaving there getting 15 minutes
• 1:15:09
  of track time for the day.
• 1:15:10
  Have you seen like, uh, you know, I will go up there and I, you know,
• 1:15:13
  I'll work with the, uh, race control.
• 1:15:15
  People and really figure out, how do I maneuver this?
• 1:15:18
  At the end of the day, you've had cars break down.
• 1:15:20
  You have guys that are tired, you know, you lose some drivers through attrition.
• 1:15:23
  They're just like, nah, I'm not going out.
• 1:15:24
  The last session, you know, kind of the end of the day, we'll try to manufacture
• 1:15:27
  where people fit in with each other.
• 1:15:28
  Like the c and d group drivers, for the most part, are on the
• 1:15:31
  same level and most of the, that's where most of the coaches drive.
• 1:15:34
  Also, we have a lightly attended event and we're already running
• 1:15:37
  those lower numbers to begin with.
• 1:15:38
  It becomes a lot easier to kind of combine maybe one group to get back a half hour.
• 1:15:43
  Makes sense.
• 1:15:44
  Yeah.
• 1:15:44
  And then, you know, give the C group an extra 15 minutes here and give the
• 1:15:47
  B group the 20 minutes they lost here.
• 1:15:49
  So I try to adapt to that.
• 1:15:51
  I know you guys, uh, provide a great online tool, c scheduling and stuff.
• 1:15:55
  So we're gonna try and work forward to have something electronic displayed
• 1:15:59
  at all our sites for, for next year.
• 1:16:01
  And, uh, we're working on that.
• 1:16:02
  Hopefully I'll get it done by March where people will see any schedule changes.
• 1:16:06
  I know people tell me, you know, I get on that microphone, you know, at all advance
• 1:16:09
  and I try to make announcements and, you know, like I said, our our run group
• 1:16:12
  leader meetings, you know, when we're gonna make changes and we try to adapt.
• 1:16:16
  As a driver, you know, if I lost track time, it's upsetting.
• 1:16:19
  You know, it happens when it happens this time and this time and this time,
• 1:16:22
  you know, we go through events where we have four or five events where like
• 1:16:25
  not one thing has ever gone wrong.
• 1:16:27
  And then you'll have an event where there's like literally five breakdowns
• 1:16:30
  who blew a radiator hose, an oil line broke, you know, or just like, just
• 1:16:33
  mishaps or control arm just snapped.
• 1:16:35
  You know, things that just happen, you know, it's, it's nature.
• 1:16:38
  It's, we're stressing cars out tremendously.
• 1:16:40
  You know, you have, it doesn't have to be driver error all the time, right.
• 1:16:42
  You know, even though there is, I wanna make sure that I try to make it right
• 1:16:45
  for those people as, as best I can.
• 1:16:47
  Something happens, you know, near lunchtime, okay, you know what, guess
• 1:16:50
  what, we're gonna start lunch now and move the whole schedule by half hour.
• 1:16:54
  We try to work with the tracks to adapt that.
• 1:16:56
  Um, people say share the wealth, I guess.
• 1:16:58
  Uh, share the pain of losing a little track time so you haven't
• 1:17:00
  lost 30 minutes of track time.
• 1:17:03
  Maybe every group is lost.
• 1:17:04
  Four or five minutes.
• 1:17:06
  Yeah.
• 1:17:06
  It all just blurs into gray at that point.
• 1:17:09
  Yeah, exactly.
• 1:17:10
  So, you know, we try our best to really do that, and we're gonna really work harder
• 1:17:14
  at that for next year to keep that number lower so we can adapt a little bit better.
• 1:17:19
  So hopefully, you know, knock on wood, you know, we won't need it, but it'll,
• 1:17:23
  it'll be another tool in our toolbox.
• 1:17:24
  Right now, the one looming thing out there, COVID is still a very real thing.
• 1:17:28
  And obviously we're gonna.
• 1:17:30
  Foremost follow state locality and then track guidelines, right?
• 1:17:35
  Every track has different things, and even at Watkins Glen, there
• 1:17:38
  was posts all over the place.
• 1:17:39
  You know, still social distancing and all this kind of stuff, and this and that.
• 1:17:42
  I mean, there's a lot of open space at the Glen, which is nice.
• 1:17:45
  Like a lot of tracks like you're not indoors at really at any point.
• 1:17:49
  I'm not trying to make any exceptions there, but any special COVID related rules
• 1:17:54
  that HOD has instituted, whether between students and coaches or amongst the, the
• 1:17:58
  guests, whatever it might be that you wanna share with folks so that they know
• 1:18:02
  coming into next season what to expect?
• 1:18:04
  We're following old guidelines given to us by every track.
• 1:18:07
  Being that we cover so many states, it's a lot to follow.
• 1:18:09
  But behind the scenes, basically I get there the day before, you know, we do
• 1:18:13
  an inspection, we make sure things have actually been cleaned and sanitized,
• 1:18:17
  and if they're not, we get on the phone with someone, whoever's gotta do that.
• 1:18:20
  There's masks at our classroom.
• 1:18:22
  There's masks at the gate.
• 1:18:24
  There's masks at our registration table, and we tell people, listen, they're here.
• 1:18:27
  Anyone wants one.
• 1:18:29
  You don't feel comfortable with something, say something.
• 1:18:30
  We're gonna do what we can.
• 1:18:32
  Like at Watkins Gun, we no longer use that little room for any kind of meetings.
• 1:18:35
  As far as the group leader meetings, we went and we use the media
• 1:18:39
  center now, which is, if you've been in those two rooms, is huge.
• 1:18:42
  People can be really spaced out, you know, a little bit better between whether
• 1:18:46
  it's the press room or the other room.
• 1:18:47
  The other thing that goes on, like say for our coaches and all our novice guests or
• 1:18:51
  anyone who's gonna be coached at an event, we also provide professional coaching for
• 1:18:55
  much higher level with data acquisition.
• 1:18:58
  It's in-car and out of car.
• 1:19:00
  That's another thing that we do.
• 1:19:01
  We have a lot of pro coaches that will actually come to us, whether it's, you
• 1:19:04
  know, they're flying in from California or you know, wherever they are.
• 1:19:08
  You know, we had some fun with Billy Johnson, uh, last week.
• 1:19:13
  That's a whole nother story.
• 1:19:14
  That could be a whole podcast on its own.
• 1:19:16
  Yeah, so we, we, right, so we send out over an email and we said, listen.
• 1:19:20
  Do you want to be with someone, you know, whether they, you will not
• 1:19:23
  work with someone who's vaccinated.
• 1:19:24
  What, what's your preference as far as what you want?
• 1:19:28
  Do you want to be in a lead follow situation, which for, you know,
• 1:19:31
  people that don't know what this is, it's like we're gonna teach you from
• 1:19:33
  outside the car, you know, we're gonna do our best and depending on
• 1:19:36
  the cars, and we try to pair people up because technology's here, there's
• 1:19:39
  a lot of great technology out there.
• 1:19:41
  We can Bluetooth car to car pretty much, right?
• 1:19:43
  There's a lot of options to use technology to help us.
• 1:19:46
  So we can guide someone behind them, walk them through as if they were in the car.
• 1:19:50
  That is a great tool to use.
• 1:19:52
  I feel in-car coaching still has a very important place because someone who's
• 1:19:57
  never done this probably has bad habits.
• 1:20:00
  Whether it's they keep taking their hand off the wheel to hold the stick
• 1:20:03
  or whether it's, you know, their, their hand position Being in the car as a
• 1:20:07
  coach and I, I said there are certain risks and I'll, I'll get into that too.
• 1:20:10
  You can see certain things, you know, you can see his body language, you
• 1:20:13
  can see how tightly he's gripping, whether he's holding in the right spot.
• 1:20:16
  So a lot of habits.
• 1:20:17
  Break that, go on like that.
• 1:20:19
  So that part is a really important aspect of being in there.
• 1:20:22
  But we have COVID now.
• 1:20:23
  So how do you social distance in there?
• 1:20:26
  Well, we tell people if you're gonna be in a car together, listen, you have
• 1:20:29
  two wide open windows with a hundred mile an hour wind coming through
• 1:20:31
  you and you're wearing a face mask.
• 1:20:33
  So we, we insist if you're gonna be in a car together, obviously, you know,
• 1:20:37
  a father's coaching, his son lives at home with them and stuff like that.
• 1:20:40
  You know, am I gonna enforce that?
• 1:20:41
  It's like, no, you live together, you drove in the same car there and you're
• 1:20:44
  sleeping in the same hotel room together.
• 1:20:46
  Let's use some common sense in here like that.
• 1:20:48
  But we send out an email, we survey and we match people
• 1:20:51
  over what they're looking for.
• 1:20:52
  But if people are on the car together, we're asking, and certain states, it's
• 1:20:56
  mandated that you wear a mask at all times and the windows have to be down.
• 1:21:00
  We usually don't have a window rule.
• 1:21:02
  We're okay.
• 1:21:03
  Our insurance company's fine with it.
• 1:21:04
  Windows have to be either all the way up or all the way down.
• 1:21:06
  But like I said, you know how you gonna give a point by with a closed window?
• 1:21:09
  So yeah, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
• 1:21:10
  Right?
• 1:21:11
  Yeah.
• 1:21:11
  But, but for the coach, when it's raining, it's a great thing.
• 1:21:13
  Windows are open and you have to wear a face covering in there.
• 1:21:15
  Most of the people will wear a face mask, and then we will give them an HOD bva,
• 1:21:20
  you know, a head sock to put over there.
• 1:21:22
  So you have kind of an extra layer out there.
• 1:21:23
  Yep.
• 1:21:24
  The communicators that we give out are sanitized.
• 1:21:26
  We have new phone pieces at every event.
• 1:21:28
  Basically, your students, you're gonna get a headset of communicators that
• 1:21:31
  you're gonna slide into your helmet.
• 1:21:33
  I know we're on a podcast.
• 1:21:34
  I'm making hand motions here.
• 1:21:36
  Okay.
• 1:21:37
  And you're gonna put it in there.
• 1:21:38
  So that's been sanitized, it's been cleaned, bring bottles of alcohol
• 1:21:41
  and stuff to every event with cleaning wipes and sanitizing wipes.
• 1:21:44
  After that, mic's been sanitized, A new foam mic cover goes on
• 1:21:48
  that, and you keep that with you.
• 1:21:50
  So that's yours.
• 1:21:50
  You're using it.
• 1:21:51
  And then when you give it back to the coach, when you're done with it.
• 1:21:54
  He's gonna clean and sanitize it, and then we provide, you know,
• 1:21:57
  new, uh, foam pieces for 'em.
• 1:21:58
  And at the coaches' meeting when Ken goes, I have foam mic
• 1:22:01
  feeds if you need new ones.
• 1:22:02
  You know, you know, a lot of guys I've noticed have been going to Amazon
• 1:22:05
  just buying them for themselves, you know, because they just wanna
• 1:22:07
  make sure they always have 'em.
• 1:22:08
  But, and there are people that never go out and follow the strictest guidelines
• 1:22:12
  and they suddenly get it outta nowhere.
• 1:22:13
  So we do the best we can to protect ourselves, but we treat you like an adult.
• 1:22:17
  You're outside, how much time are you really spending alone in
• 1:22:21
  a closed quarters with someone?
• 1:22:22
  It's really minimal.
• 1:22:23
  Yeah.
• 1:22:23
  But we still insist that you have there and we ask, you know, you to
• 1:22:27
  choose your vaccination requests.
• 1:22:28
  If you do not want to be with someone who's unvaccinated, we are not gonna
• 1:22:31
  pair you with someone who's unvaccinated.
• 1:22:33
  You know it.
• 1:22:33
  It's your choice.
• 1:22:34
  We're all adults and we are never gonna try and force anyone to a
• 1:22:37
  situation that they're not happy with.
• 1:22:38
  And on the flip side of that, now's a great opportunity to start thinking about
• 1:22:43
  maybe refreshing your helmet and getting one with comms already built into it.
• 1:22:47
  I will say I made the switch last season 'cause I was due for a new helmet and
• 1:22:52
  I will never buy another helmet that doesn't have integrated comms ever again.
• 1:22:56
  'cause it is a godsend, that's for sure.
• 1:22:58
  But at any rate.
• 1:22:59
  So, Mike, as we're closing out here, any shout outs you want to give to
• 1:23:03
  sponsors, friends, people, while you still have the microphone at your disposal?
• 1:23:07
  Some you, you know, anything you wanna say to, to fans out there of
• 1:23:10
  HOD, uh, as a thank you or otherwise?
• 1:23:13
  I gotta thank all the coaches that are out there.
• 1:23:14
  I mean, they do a fantastic job of really showing the people that
• 1:23:18
  are out there, what we're about the staff people that I work with.
• 1:23:21
  You know, I gotta say we have the most amazing group leaders
• 1:23:24
  and out there, you know, um, our group C leader, Steve Ferman.
• 1:23:28
  You know, it's funny, you hear me at the driver's meeting, the jeweler
• 1:23:30
  of the drivers, you know, he's, uh, have you seen like, I, you know,
• 1:23:33
  you guys have those HOD watches.
• 1:23:35
  Steve made them for everybody, you know, added.
• 1:23:37
  He just created that stuff.
• 1:23:38
  So he's, uh, he's great.
• 1:23:40
  He's fantastic out there and, and he really, really is
• 1:23:44
  passionate about what he does.
• 1:23:45
  He cares about those people.
• 1:23:47
  Like, they're like his kids, even if they're older than him, you
• 1:23:49
  know, that's the way he looks at it.
• 1:23:50
  He goes, uh, Ken has been Indisposable.
• 1:23:53
  I mean, he's just fantastic.
• 1:23:55
  He's been the Group D leader, which kind of just fit great for him for a while
• 1:23:59
  because it's, uh, you know, he's got a lot of coaches who are running in there.
• 1:24:03
  He really has his hands on right on there of what we actually do and
• 1:24:08
  what we mean, and, and the amount of.
• 1:24:10
  Time and effort he puts into things.
• 1:24:12
  It shows, it shows completely on, on how operations run.
• 1:24:15
  He's been fantastic.
• 1:24:16
  Ken out there and we have Dave Du Bois has come on and people know Dave has been
• 1:24:20
  around for a very long time doing this.
• 1:24:22
  You know, chief instructor for Ferrari comes out there and they know, and then
• 1:24:24
  he helps us with our intermediate drivers.
• 1:24:26
  The hardest run group I think there is out there.
• 1:24:29
  And then, you know, you have Jay who's been around and you know, sorry Jay, but
• 1:24:33
  you've, I mean, I think, uh, you've been around before, dirt, you know, doing
• 1:24:36
  this, you know, I mean, there are tracks that have opened, closed, opened and
• 1:24:40
  closed and no longer exist that you've been to that I'll never get to see now.
• 1:24:43
  And uh, and all these guys bring all these years of experience and.
• 1:24:46
  Their only goal is to really pass on this information so this can
• 1:24:49
  continue and, and be out there.
• 1:24:51
  And it's, uh, so I gotta thank all those guys out there
• 1:24:53
  that really make this happen.
• 1:24:55
  I, I gotta thank the coaches that are always out there, just looking
• 1:24:58
  out for people and just, you know, just really on top of everything
• 1:25:01
  to make sure we have a great event.
• 1:25:03
  And then we have the people that come out there and, and make our drivers
• 1:25:06
  and our, our people that are out here.
• 1:25:08
  Fantastic.
• 1:25:08
  Like I mentioned, you know, Dave and Rachel from Eat Motorsport, they do an
• 1:25:12
  absolutely fantastic job of out there.
• 1:25:14
  And if, and if it's funny too because we go to their website.
• 1:25:17
  You'd think they were only a, a Subaru type of guy, but
• 1:25:20
  they, uh, they do everything.
• 1:25:22
  Um, I had a problem with some shock shocks on my rv.
• 1:25:25
  They actually got me NY shocks from my rv.
• 1:25:27
  I mean, so they're a one-stop operation out there.
• 1:25:30
  Uh, a lot of guys know Greg Bristow from his, uh, Camaro days and uh,
• 1:25:34
  you know, even though we haven't seen 'em in a while, but he provides all
• 1:25:36
  those numbers, those awesome stickers that everyone looks forward to.
• 1:25:39
  You know, we have fast automotive, you know, Adrian and his Trans Am
• 1:25:42
  team, you know, they come out with us.
• 1:25:43
  They do so much track site support for everyone.
• 1:25:46
  It's just, it's great.
• 1:25:47
  This year, uh, we've had Bright come on.
• 1:25:49
  And if people don't know what Bright is, they're uh, an internet
• 1:25:51
  solution security company.
• 1:25:53
  What she said re really hit home is like, you're out here, you know,
• 1:25:57
  enjoying your time with the track.
• 1:25:58
  You don't have to worry about what's going on with your website and
• 1:26:00
  especially with internet commerce.
• 1:26:01
  And, you know, so much is based on the websites out there.
• 1:26:04
  And that's what they do.
• 1:26:05
  And they've come on there and they've had a great time.
• 1:26:07
  And like I said, I mentioned Mike already from Track Car Solutions.
• 1:26:10
  I mean, he, there's lots of times when guys just, they don't
• 1:26:12
  want to bring their four, five, $600,000 car out to a racetrack.
• 1:26:16
  You know, one windshield is more expensive on their car than, uh,
• 1:26:20
  than renting a track car for the day.
• 1:26:22
  So Track Car Solutions provides a, a great chance for people to
• 1:26:26
  drive some really nice cars without having to take their cars out.
• 1:26:29
  Or the flip side is that they can actually go to tracks around the country
• 1:26:32
  without, without have to ship their car.
• 1:26:33
  So these are guys that are making our drivers days a lot easier.
• 1:26:38
  And these are our local regional guys and, uh, and we try to, you know, have a part.
• 1:26:41
  For everywhere.
• 1:26:42
  Uh, next year, um, one of our drivers, Chris Coronado, I mean, he's got
• 1:26:46
  a, a tremendous realty group out of Jersey and he does a tremendous
• 1:26:49
  amount of rental properties.
• 1:26:51
  You could say almost like an Airbnb up at Watkins Glen area.
• 1:26:54
  You don't wanna stay in a hotel room.
• 1:26:55
  And, uh, we try, like I said, you've seen our operation.
• 1:26:57
  We're very family friendly.
• 1:26:59
  We ask people.
• 1:27:00
  Bring your wives, bring your girlfriends, bring your kids out there.
• 1:27:02
  And there's things to do, especially at a place like Watkins Glen.
• 1:27:06
  Uh, it's uh, it's how I first got Mo to come out to the track.
• 1:27:08
  You know, I got them to come out to go camping and they would go to Corning
• 1:27:11
  Glass Museum and see the waterfalls and we'd go camping and stuff like that.
• 1:27:16
  So it's a really awesome, like, family type of weekend out there where,
• 1:27:20
  you know, you get to go out and play and they can do a couple things and
• 1:27:23
  then, you know, our day ends at four 30, so you are plenty of time to
• 1:27:27
  go out and do stuff with the family and have dinner and everything else.
• 1:27:29
  Chris is a, is a, is a great guy.
• 1:27:31
  He's super fast out there and you know, he is got a bunch of properties
• 1:27:35
  out there, up at, up in Watkins Gun that he does rentals for, you know,
• 1:27:38
  for guys that, you know, wanna do a, a bed and breakfast near the track side.
• 1:27:41
  And as a track guy, it's great to have someone like that on board.
• 1:27:44
  Try to figure out what helps people and like I, and, and I say this in
• 1:27:47
  my meetings and stuff like that, so we're the core of America, you know,
• 1:27:50
  all these small business out there, and we should always really be trying
• 1:27:53
  to help each other out, out there.
• 1:27:55
  Jeff Bezos does not need another jet.
• 1:27:57
  I don't think he does.
• 1:27:58
  I mean, maybe he does.
• 1:27:59
  You know, can you get those same brake pads on Amazon?
• 1:28:02
  Maybe a little cheaper.
• 1:28:03
  Maybe, probably not, not with the service that these people are gonna provide.
• 1:28:07
  And you know, when you get some, say, say from Dave and Rachel Eaton out there,
• 1:28:11
  you know, it's gonna be a real part and you don't have to worry about it, whether
• 1:28:13
  it's been fake or anything else like that.
• 1:28:15
  Yeah, yeah.
• 1:28:15
  Uh, you know, so when you're dealing with these people, they're,
• 1:28:17
  they're really topnotch guys.
• 1:28:19
  They're track people.
• 1:28:20
  They come to the track and that's what they're all about.
• 1:28:22
  So they understand what people need, what they want, and what they expect.
• 1:28:26
  I love our continued relationship with them, you know, locally and
• 1:28:29
  then on national tires, you know, we, we have Toyo, which is, uh,
• 1:28:32
  another, you know, thing like.
• 1:28:33
  Which is unheard of in the HPD industry.
• 1:28:36
  You know, all our coaches I know, you know, and you've, you get them right.
• 1:28:39
  You, you see them when they come in there.
• 1:28:40
  So when you coach every event you coach for us, you're gonna get Toyo
• 1:28:43
  bucks sent to you, which you redeem.
• 1:28:46
  And then, you know, at event you're out there, you know, you do a couple
• 1:28:48
  events, next thing you know, you have four or $500 towards, you
• 1:28:51
  know, getting a Toyo tire, you know?
• 1:28:52
  Well, if you're in a mi, that's, that's more than half a cent right
• 1:28:55
  there, you know, if you're in a. New Camaro, that's almost one back tire.
• 1:28:59
  Yeah.
• 1:28:59
  Right.
• 1:28:59
  So, uh, those little perks that we try to really are hardest
• 1:29:02
  to provide for our coaches.
• 1:29:04
  'cause those are the guys out there and, and our members that are coming out there.
• 1:29:07
  You know, everyone works hard for what they have out there.
• 1:29:09
  And I, and I, uh, and I appreciate that they choose hooked on driving and
• 1:29:12
  I'm gonna do my best to give 'em the, uh, the, the best day that they can.
• 1:29:16
  And that's, uh, that's what we do out there.
• 1:29:17
  So, you know, thank you to all those people out there.
• 1:29:19
  Thanks Bell.
• 1:29:20
  Thanks Lockton Affinity.
• 1:29:21
  Thanks.
• 1:29:21
  You know, open track and wine country and, uh, the corner workers.
• 1:29:25
  People don't realize they're the unsung heroes, those corner workers and ambulance
• 1:29:28
  workers and our track first responders.
• 1:29:30
  I mean, you have no idea what's happening in that next turn.
• 1:29:33
  And when you're doing 160 in the back street at Watkins Glen, that flagger
• 1:29:37
  is the only person that's gonna tell you what's up there ahead of you.
• 1:29:40
  And those people, I think, don't get the recognition they deserve.
• 1:29:43
  So every time I chance, I get, I thank them out there.
• 1:29:46
  Those, the people that are keeping us safe, they're the guys that
• 1:29:48
  are giving us communication of what's gonna happen in front of us.
• 1:29:51
  If any of those guys ever listen to any of this like that, listen,
• 1:29:54
  thank you so much for what you do.
• 1:29:56
  And, uh, you know, it's a labor of love for those guys.
• 1:29:58
  I know that, you know, they're out there and whether it's raining,
• 1:30:01
  whether it's hot, whether no matter what it is, keeping us safe.
• 1:30:04
  So I want to thank them out there too.
• 1:30:06
  I think there's two people we forgot and I'm gonna shout out to them.
• 1:30:09
  First and foremost, Jay's better half Ginny for always being at every event,
• 1:30:15
  you know, putting up with all the shenanigans and the chaos that goes on.
• 1:30:18
  But there's one other person, and I know she's in the room with you, and she
• 1:30:21
  deserves a massive amount of applause for keeping everything running so smoothly.
• 1:30:26
  And that's a big, can you need my word?
• 1:30:28
  No.
• 1:30:28
  No.
• 1:30:29
  It's a big thank you to Mona.
• 1:30:31
  Thank you, sweetheart.
• 1:30:32
  She abandoned me for this call, for this podcast.
• 1:30:36
  I don't think, I don't think this ship would stay afloat without Mona.
• 1:30:39
  No.
• 1:30:39
  And, and, and she doesn't ask for a lot of praise, but she
• 1:30:42
  deserves every ounce of it.
• 1:30:43
  Yeah.
• 1:30:43
  So, thank you, thank you, thank you.
• 1:30:44
  I'll say I am, I'm very blessed to have Mona in my life with this,
• 1:30:47
  you know, she is the voice of hooked on driving when you call.
• 1:30:50
  She's the one who, uh, who picks up the phone.
• 1:30:53
  She tells me everything I'm doing wrong.
• 1:30:55
  Um, and once in a while, you know, very rare tells what I do right
• 1:31:01
  now.
• 1:31:01
  You're out there.
• 1:31:01
  Thank you, Billy.
• 1:31:02
  Thank you.
• 1:31:03
  Thank you.
• 1:31:04
  And I can't tell you how many people have met at the track or now, like
• 1:31:07
  family friends, go on vacations together.
• 1:31:09
  It's a really great feeling to see that, you know, we can provide that field
• 1:31:13
  and that environment where people are so comfortable that, you know what?
• 1:31:16
  You gotta come over, bring your wife over to my house for
• 1:31:18
  dinner and stuff like that.
• 1:31:19
  You know, where, you know, I, I never really saw that before.
• 1:31:22
  HOD you know, I didn't see a lot of that.
• 1:31:24
  And I, I think we kind of moved in that direction.
• 1:31:27
  There's a lot of organizations out there and you know, I think we've scratched the
• 1:31:31
  surface on like, you know, a single digit percentage of what's out there car-wise.
• 1:31:35
  I mean, this is the golden age of performance in cars.
• 1:31:38
  It really is right now.
• 1:31:39
  So, I mean, you think about the amount of cars that are out there
• 1:31:41
  that can do this and the amount of cars that are doing this.
• 1:31:44
  You know, there's a, there's a lot of people out there.
• 1:31:46
  So there's, uh, I think there's something for everyone.
• 1:31:48
  You know, like I said, not everyone wants to be a race car driver and you
• 1:31:51
  know, we treat people as that friends, driving with friends, drivers driving
• 1:31:55
  with drivers, you know, so with that, Mike, you know, I have to say it has been
• 1:32:01
  an honor and a privilege to grow with.
• 1:32:05
  And be able to work with HOD all these years, obviously, you know, we've had a
• 1:32:09
  strong relationship, you know, many of us from GTM come from HOD and vice versa,
• 1:32:14
  and it's been a, a mutually beneficial family relationship as, as you call it.
• 1:32:18
  So it, it's been an honor to be able to be part of this and see this story expand
• 1:32:23
  and be able to, you know, stand here and.
• 1:32:25
  What does the next five, 10 years look like with HOD?
• 1:32:28
  And so we're really excited to see what happens and what comes of all this.
• 1:32:31
  And so for those of you that don't know the story, you're hearing this for the
• 1:32:36
  first time and you wanna learn more about hod, now is your opportunity to
• 1:32:41
  jump on www.hookondriving.com and then click on Northeast and check out all
• 1:32:46
  the things that Mike was talking about.
• 1:32:48
  Or maybe you live in a different part of the country.
• 1:32:50
  Check out the other events that hooked on driving has nationally
• 1:32:53
  that are available to you.
• 1:32:55
  Also check for UpToDate schedules on h HP D Junkie, another, you
• 1:32:58
  know, HOD partner, but also remember to follow HOD on Instagram at.
• 1:33:03
  Hooked on driving and at hooked on driving NE for Northeast or join
• 1:33:08
  the HOD Northeast Facebook group.
• 1:33:11
  So if you're into that and you wanna chat with some people, reconnect
• 1:33:13
  with folks that you met at the track, that's a great opportunity to do that.
• 1:33:16
  So Mike and Mona, who I know is in the background, I can't thank
• 1:33:20
  you both enough for all the many years of us working together,
• 1:33:24
  but also for coming on break fix.
• 1:33:27
  Getting this opportunity to get your story out there and tell people and
• 1:33:30
  get them closer to HOD and hopefully we'll see them out there next season.
• 1:33:34
  No, listen, thank you for having us on here and thanks for all, you know, over
• 1:33:37
  the years you guys have definitely have put a tremendous amount of support in us.
• 1:33:42
  And you know, me, me and Mona, we, we appreciate that.
• 1:33:45
  We, we love that.
• 1:33:45
  You know, you'd have your yearly bash at the events.
• 1:33:48
  You know, we've had a, a couple anniversaries out
• 1:33:50
  there, which are always fun.
• 1:33:52
  Shenandoah is back on the schedule for this year.
• 1:33:54
  Alright.
• 1:33:55
  Yes.
• 1:33:55
  So, uh, I did not put it up.
• 1:33:57
  It'll be putting up tonight.
• 1:33:58
  Silly fact, I, uh, we wrote the dates down, scribbled 'em down
• 1:34:01
  when I was with the track on the bill and we couldn't find them.
• 1:34:05
  And we will be the, um, third weekend of June at Shenandoah.
• 1:34:09
  So that's a great weekend.
• 1:34:10
  So looking forward to that.
• 1:34:11
  Let us know if we are, uh, plan around that.
• 1:34:13
  Yeah, that'll work.
• 1:34:14
  And then we, uh, we have the summit main back later on, but I
• 1:34:17
  think June is more fun, especially with the skid pad like that.
• 1:34:20
  So, we'll, uh, I'll bring extra axles.
• 1:34:22
  How about that?
• 1:34:22
  Is that a deal?
• 1:34:23
  And we, we definitely plan on bringing back our Saturday night
• 1:34:27
  barbecues if COVID allows it.
• 1:34:28
  That's one of the things we've missed the most, that family type of everyone
• 1:34:32
  getting together and just, you know, everything just has such a good time.
• 1:34:35
  I mi that's what I think I miss the most about this past season.
• 1:34:38
  Mm-hmm.
• 1:34:38
  With COVID taking over.
• 1:34:39
  Barbecues are legendary.
• 1:34:41
  Absolutely.
• 1:34:42
  Absolutely.
• 1:34:42
  Yeah.
• 1:34:42
  Just get a couple of us, mix a little Pat Sullivan in there
• 1:34:46
  and woo, it's all a good time.
• 1:34:53
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• 1:34:58
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• 1:35:03
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• 1:35:14
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• 1:35:17
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• 1:35:21
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• 1:35:29
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• 1:35:37
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• 1:35:39
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• 1:35:41
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