Latest / BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show / From Cadet Karting to SpeedU: The Rise of Christian Blevins Jr.

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From Cadet Karting to SpeedU: The Rise of Christian Blevins Jr. · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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Grand Touring Motorsports started as a social group of car enthusiasts,
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but we've expanded into all sorts of motorsports disciplines, and we
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want to share our stories with you.
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Years of racing, wrenching, and motorsports experience brings
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together a top notch collection of knowledge and information
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through our podcast, Brake Fix.
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We're diving into the high octane world of racing with a young driver who's
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redefining what it means to chase a dream.
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Meet Christian Blevins Jr., a rising star in the racing world who's been
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leaving traditional classrooms in the dust to focus on one thing,
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becoming the best behind the wheel.
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Instead of textbooks and lockers, Christian's education happens at
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SpeedU, an elite racing focused program that's built for athletes
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like him, drivers who live life in the fast lane both on and off the track.
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On this episode, we'll follow Christian's journey from
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training sessions to race day.
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The challenges of balancing school and sport and what it really takes to
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be a champion in the making, whether you're a racing fan, an aspiring
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athlete, or just someone who loves a good underdog story strap in because
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this ride is just getting started.
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And joining me tonight is returning guest David Middleton, our partner
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from MIE racing, who you might remember from several break fix episodes.
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So welcome back, David.
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And along with him, we have Christian Blevins Sr. adding the parental
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perspective to this conversation as well.
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So with that, let's welcome Christian Sr.
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and Jr. to Break Fix.
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Hey guys, thanks for having us on.
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I appreciate the opportunity to talk with you this evening.
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In Break Fix tradition, I usually always start off by saying, you know,
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there's always a superhero origin story.
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But tonight we're literally at the origin of the origin story.
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So what I want to do is I want to pass the baton to Dave for a moment
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to sort of set the stage for us.
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Why are we talking to the Blevinses?
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Do you have a relationship with them?
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So tell us how you guys met and how we're getting started here.
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I go up to Atlanta Motorsports Park, which is out in Dawsonville.
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And actually I'd been going out there almost since that place opened.
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So now it's been 12, 15 years.
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It's been a, it's been a while anyway.
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I'd been going back and forth when, when I was living in Europe, I'd come back
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to visit my in laws and go to the track.
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But once we finally moved out here, and I'm, I'm within an, an hour from
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my house, I, I go out there regularly.
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And one day I popped out there, I was actually looking for a helmet, and I go
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into the shop and I meet Christian Sr.
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and Christian Jr. And we kind of just struck up a small conversation
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because I hadn't been on the track in a while, and you guys were
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actually about to do a session.
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Yeah, that's right.
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And Christian Jr. was much younger at the time than he is today.
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We struck up a conversation.
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I told him I just moved back from California and I'd been in Europe
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and he was like, what do you do?
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And I was like, well, I was kind of in industry.
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And then we used to keep running into each other because I would do so much carding.
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And at the time, his son was still very, very new to carding.
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And I remember he was getting a little frustrated.
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And I remember telling Christian Jr. I was like, don't worry.
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I said, in a few years, you're going to be much taller than me.
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And you're going to be much faster than me.
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And that's exactly what I told him.
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And yeah, now it's true.
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Unfortunately, on both ends, and he's taller than me now, too.
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So don't feel bad.
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Yep.
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Yeah.
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So when I met him, he was just starting out.
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So explain where you guys were at the time we met.
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Cause he wasn't even in junior cars yet, or had he just started?
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I think he might've been running L206, right?
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Yeah, he was still in Cadet, L 206.
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That was maybe even start of our second season.
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You know, somewhere thereabouts, when we first ran into you up at AMP.
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To Junior, what are you racing currently?
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How did you make the decision to actually get into karting?
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Currently, I'm racing X30 Senior.
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I got into karting partly from my dad, but I went to an indoor karting summer
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camp at a place called Andretti's.
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After that, my dad asked me if I wanted to do this more, and I was like, yeah.
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Eventually, we went to Atlanta Motorsports Park, and I did
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the karting class up there.
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A little while after that, for Christmas, I got my first kart.
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The Andretti camp, was it every single day for many hours, or how did that work?
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One of those.
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About a week?
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Yeah, it was a week long, a Monday through Friday day camp.
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Drop your kid off in the morning, 8 a. m. or something like that, and then
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come back and pick them up at the end of the day at four or five o'clock.
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I forget what the exact time was.
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We actually kind of stumbled on it by accident.
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I think I had gone there one day to do a couple sessions of indoor karting.
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And saw their advertisement for it up on the wall and thought,
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Oh, hey, this sounds kind of cool.
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I wonder if our kid would be interested in this.
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And so when I got home that day or the next, I asked him summer
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break was coming up for school.
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And I said, Hey, what would you be interested in doing?
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This is.
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part of your time over summer break and he said yes and so we signed him up for
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it and little did we think that would start a long journey to where we are
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now for frame of reference you're in elementary middle school at this point
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like how old were you oh yeah he would have been in elementary school or yeah
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that sounds about right in the fourth grade so like nine ten years old Which,
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unfortunately, nowadays, like, that's old for someone who gets into karting.
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Right?
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Yeah.
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So, Junior, was your dad the biggest influence in getting you into racing?
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Did you like racing previously?
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Or was this program the springboard into something that
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you didn't really know about?
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I kind of always liked cars.
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Got that from my dad.
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I really enjoyed Lightning McQueen when I was a kid, much younger.
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That's kind of how I got into racing because after that I was like,
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yeah, I really want to do this more.
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All right, dad.
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So if you're the influencer in this, what's your backstory in motorsport?
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Did you race when you were younger?
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Like, what's your affiliation?
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I grew up going to the racetrack.
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My dad was a motorsports Fan from early on as a kid, I can remember going to
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road Atlanta in the mid to late 70s to watch anything and everything that we
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could get up there to watch from, you know, a local SCCA event all the way up
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to back in the days of the IMSA GPT cars.
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would watch them and everything in between.
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You know, that's kind of a lot of my earliest memories going to
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the track and watching cars and hanging out at the racetrack.
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And of course, when you're six, seven, eight year old boy, I can't
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think of anything cooler that I would have wanted to do than to
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go watch fast loud cars go by.
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So yeah, that was.
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Kind of my intro into it.
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And then eventually my dad got into amateur racing and SCCA.
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I think I was probably around 14 or 15 at the time when he got into that.
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Eventually I got into racing as well, again, and SCCA.
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Once I kind of hung up my bicycle racing days, myself and another
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friend of mine that I raced bicycles with, we were, ironically enough, at
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Road Atlanta watching Petit Le Mans.
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He struck up a conversation with my dad who was up there watching with us
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about getting into SCCA and getting into racing and the Spec Miata class had just
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really sort of gotten off the ground and my dad was doing that at the time.
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So we pretty much decided at that race, that was something we should do.
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The very next February, we're at SCCA driver's school at Roebling road.
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That started my time behind the wheel in racing.
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So we've got some intergenerational club racers and motor sports enthusiasts here.
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So we've got three generations of Blevins is happening in this span
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that we're talking about here.
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As we're talking about Christian jr's story, what's interesting
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about this is you hear about.
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Kids that, you know, I started in a card at 5 years old and I worked my way up and
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then dirt track racing and sprint card.
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I want to go to Xfinity and, you know, they're working their way up
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through the Carolina system, you know, and all those kinds of things.
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And, and the folks that they want to race in Formula 1, and it's a very
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long and arduous road to get there.
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But you guys are on this path right now.
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You started in carting in the Georgia area and you're building up But you
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had to make a decision at some point, we're going to focus on it full time.
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And so to Christian senior, what was that moment that you said, all right, we're
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going to pull them out of school and we're going to go after this full bore.
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That moment really happened towards the end of the school year.
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really sort of preceded by, at some point in that racing season,
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Junior made the decision himself.
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I guess just internally, I don't think we've ever really talked about this.
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At some point, the switch went from just about having fun to, I want to win.
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And so we went from doing everything on our own and dad turning the wrenches
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and the cart set up and all of that sort of stuff to starting to work
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with a team, letting a pro mechanic and a coach and teammates and all
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that sort of stuff fell into place.
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We got towards the end of that racing season, realized that, number
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one, because of that and the amount that we were starting to travel to
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races and try to be on the national racing calendar in karting, that
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we were missing school already.
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As we got to the end of the school year, realized that we had missed enough days
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of school at that point that Junior was going to have to take, I think
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it was one or two of his classes, he was going to have to take the finals.
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For those classes versus being able to exempt out of them because
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of how many days he had missed and I couldn't miss anymore.
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And we still had end of the year race at track house to go.
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And so, yeah, once we realized all that and realized if this
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is the direction that we really.
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want to go, then we've got to find a different avenue where we're not
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going to have to be concerned about, did I miss too many days of school?
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Am I going to get in some sort of trouble or possibly get held back
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a grade or, you know, whatever the end result might've been.
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So at that point, we really just kind of by accident stumbled up on a Facebook
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post that came across my wife's feed that somebody had posted in the carting
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group up at Atlanta Motorsports Park.
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Hey, the school down in Griffin called Skip Stone Academy was starting this
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online school for kids who raced.
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So we knew Skip Stone Academy already, at least by name, private Christian school.
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Their football team played the football team at our former school,
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also a private Christian school.
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So we, hey, we know this school already seems.
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It's like, you know, a good reputable school.
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If they're putting their resources into doing this, then high likelihood
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it's going to be a quality product.
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My wife and I talked about it and talked with junior about it and
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decided, Hey, let's sign up for it.
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So we did that part, then we had to go meet the people at the school, you
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know, do a little interview with the administrators at the school, talk with
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them about what the program entailed and whatnot, and kind of make sure this was
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going to be a good fit for everybody.
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We concluded all of that and walked away from it with, yeah, okay,
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this, this is a really good fit.
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Let's move forward with it.
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That's interesting.
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It is.
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And so let's unpack that for just a second.
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So to Junior, Your dad mentioned, you guys didn't really discuss that moment.
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He says you made the decision that you wanted to take on this full time.
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What was it for you that just snapped, that changed, that
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light switch that went off?
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What was that moment that you said, Okay, dad, I want to do this for real.
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Like, let's figure out a way to get this done.
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There wasn't really any particular moment that I can point out that,
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uh, It was like, I want to do this even more and I want to win.
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It was always, I really like this.
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And then gradually it was, I want to start doing this more.
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And then one day it was just, I want to try and win all of this stuff.
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Were you seeing things even on social media or, or like professional races,
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something like that, that was drawing you in further into this world?
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Like, Hey, I want to be like, so and so.
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Is there somebody that you're looking up to in the professional motor sports world
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that maybe you're modeling yourself after?
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Or someone you competed against in karting.
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One of the things in the car world was, uh, Wayne Taylor Racing.
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I've always really liked the cars that they run, and I've always wanted to drive
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one of their entries to whatever racing series that they'll be competing in.
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That's probably the main one for my inspirations.
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All right, so we got our eyes set on IMSA, so we're gonna unpack this as we go along.
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That's right.
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How was the transition of having your dad work with you and prepare the cards
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and everything to going into a team?
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How was that first year?
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How did you deal with giving feedback?
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Because a lot of the younger generation giving feedback to the engineers
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is always an interesting thing.
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Kids of course are different across the board, but we find that
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there's a certain generation that just, they want the car prepared.
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They don't really want to give feedback to the engineer.
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And then when things aren't working, they don't always know how to be
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eloquent and articulate what's going on.
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You transitioning from dad doing everything and you doing everything with
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dad and having grease to you just kind of basically sitting back and being the pro.
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You're paying for the service.
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How did you deal with that?
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How did you deal with feedback when you weren't happy when the cart was
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maybe not set up in the right way or was pushing in a certain corner?
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Like how did you transition from giving feedback to dad to giving feedback
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to somebody who's running a team?
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With dad it was always like, hey dad, cart isn't turning or something like that.
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When we moved over for that first, like, initial while, I never really
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had much to complain about because the mechanic who we have has been doing
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it for a really, really long time.
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Like, he mechaniced for Logan Sargent when he was still in Karts.
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So he knew what he was doing and I, at the time, I never really had much
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of a complaint to say, but after a while I've been able to give feedback.
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Like I want more front grip or the front has too much grip.
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Let's give it a little less, really just small stuff.
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Of course, the more you're in the cart, the more experience you have.
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Did it become a challenge of like, man, these guys know so much.
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This guy was a mechanic for a guy who went into formula one and did formula two.
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Were you able to assert yourself or did you feel like, man, if I
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say something, maybe I'm saying something wrong and the guy's going
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to be like, Hey, that's ridiculous.
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The cart's not doing that.
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It was really just, I never had much to say, because if I'm being honest, the
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car felt better than it ever had been.
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That's pointing more fingers at dad.
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Dad mechanic and pro, and I would say too, one thing that I've noticed.
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Over, especially this past year, to your point, comes with experience in seat
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time, as he's developed as a driver, and he's pushing the car harder, he's
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giving more feedback now than I think he did in the first two years that we
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were with this whole team combined this year, I think he's given more feedback,
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and I think he's developed enough as a driver to know what the cart's doing
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and then come back in after a session on track and be able to communicate
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that to the mechanic to say, hey, when I do this, the cart's doing this.
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And then, you know, either that's good or that's bad, or can we change it
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to have more or less of whatever he's looking for at that particular time.
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Just to clarify for those listening at home.
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This is still sprint racing, right?
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We're talking 20, 30 minute sessions.
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We're not talking endurance karting, right?
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Correct.
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Okay.
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Well, getting back to the education side and drawing that line, you know,
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one thing about motor sports is you do reach a point where if your kid is good
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enough, school becomes an issue, right?
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It's not like.
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He's playing travel baseball or travel basketball where you're doing
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it after school on the weekends.
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Like, yeah, we're gone on the weekends.
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We're gone.
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Maybe sometimes like Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, because
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we got to travel or even Monday.
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That begins to take, I think, a toll on the family.
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And how did having a child who does motorsports, how did you
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guys balance that as a family?
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If you could just talk also more about how SpeedU and Skipstone was able to
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give you guys a sense of community and education, because I'm sure that
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was important to you and your wife.
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Right.
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You didn't want him just to be 100 percent driver.
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And then down the line, like got nothing out of his education.
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Absolutely.
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So yes, education is obviously very important.
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And, you know, we place a big emphasis on that A's and B's
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keep you in the seat of the cart.
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C's, we got to have a little conversation, which we've never had to have, and
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we've never even approached, you know, what happens if you have a D.
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So we've been extremely as parents, we've been extremely fortunate
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in that regard that he's always done well in school number one.
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And then I think, secondly, you know, as parents, we did have some
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concern with going to speed you in this online education environment
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where the onus is on junior.
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To make sure that he is completing the required amount of work per class per
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week, as well as if there's something that he doesn't understand or is
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struggling with to speak up and say, Hey, I need to get some additional
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help on this or something like that.
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So those were definitely some concerns going in coming from a
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traditional school type setting with.
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kids in a classroom in a physical building and a teacher that's right there in the
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room with you and you know all of those things that we don't have now so far
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it's worked out extremely well he's also this school year started dual enrollment
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so he's taking his college english class you know while he's in school it
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is definitely a balancing act for sure with The travel involved now with what
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we're doing going in the second year that we're doing this amount of travel.
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Now, I like to think that we have it a little smoother than we
18:03
did the first year, but I don't really know that that's the case.
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That's maybe just an illusion.
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I'm telling myself because, you know, there are definitely some
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challenges with it to your point, but these national level races.
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Oftentimes, we're leaving on a Wednesday, and then we're not back
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home until sometime late Sunday night.
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For Junior, with his schoolwork, one of the great things about the SpeedU program
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is that he can either know that, Hey, I've got this event coming up, so I need
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to work ahead, so that when I'm out for a few days doing this, I don't have a whole
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bunch of makeup work to do on my return.
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Or, all right, hey, I've still got these X amount of things I need to get
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done once we're back from the event, knowing that, all right, these next
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couple of days I've got to put in some extra time to get caught back up in
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these, you know, whatever classes, where, you know, maybe he didn't get
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all the work completed before we left.
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And then you wrap all of that up with mom and dad still have full time
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jobs, trying to balance that out.
19:02
With travel and taking time off of work and trying to juggle that my
19:06
wife and I both travel for work.
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My wife travels extensively for her work.
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There's a lot of times where she's not able to make it to
19:14
these big national level events.
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You know, she's.
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somewhere else in the country or somewhere else in the world sometimes
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and just can't get back in time to, you know, when we leave, you
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know, it just doesn't make sense.
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You know, she's maybe not back until sometime Friday night before she could
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even consider coming to the race.
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So it's definitely a struggle in that aspect.
19:35
Has that been the biggest challenge that you have faced having your son?
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pursuing this?
19:40
Probably so, now that you say that.
19:42
The school piece now through SpeedU is, actually, that's kind of easy.
19:47
But, you know, it's not so easy for myself or my wife to just go, oh,
19:52
well, you know, we'll just work ahead because we've got to be out of the
19:55
office these next few days, right?
19:57
We, as adults, we all know it, you know, doesn't necessarily work that way.
20:00
So, I think that's probably the biggest challenge that we face
20:04
with all of the traveling is.
20:06
It's sort of, okay, who's going to this event?
20:08
Can we both go to this event?
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What happens at home while one or both of us are gone to whatever the event may be?
20:17
And you know, trying to figure all of that out, I would say last year,
20:21
which was the first year that we really hit the national schedule hard.
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That was probably one of the biggest pieces to kind of try to figure
20:28
out how do we manage all of that.
20:31
If I'm being honest, I'm not sure that we still have that completely figured out.
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How many other kids that junior is racing with or against are in similar programs?
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There are a large amount of the folks on the national stage and national carding
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that are doing the same sort of thing.
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Are you guys part of the norm?
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Are you still part of the exception?
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My sense is, from the few parents that I've spoken to, especially
20:58
ones that know what we're doing, but they're not doing it, I think we
21:02
are a little bit of the exception.
21:04
Of course, you know, the primary one is their kid is still in traditional school.
21:10
And they're missing school and taking time off and all of that stuff.
21:14
The next group of kids are kids that are in some sort of homeschool type
21:19
program, whatever that looks like.
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They're still dealing with, if my kid needs help in a particular
21:26
Subject that they're not doing good in or something like that.
21:29
They're trying to figure all that out on their own as a homeschool parent or, you
21:34
know, where do they go to get whatever resource they need or whatever homeschool
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curriculum that they're following is, is it going to meet all the accreditation
21:44
standards and whatnot so that when their kid goes to apply to college?
21:48
that they can get in.
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We had this unfortunately happen to a friend of ours that we know very well that
21:53
they did the homeschool thing, got to the end of it, and realized that one of the
21:58
subjects that we took, I don't remember all the details on, but they either
22:03
didn't do enough hours in that subject or, you know, there was something there
22:06
that was lacking that they were going to have to go back and redo some work in
22:11
that one subject area where we don't have to worry about that with this program.
22:17
So it takes a lot of worry off the plate when we first looked into doing this
22:22
program was one of our big concerns like, okay, this all sounds well and good, but,
22:28
you know, at the end of the day, does this get us what we need, what junior
22:32
needs to go from high school student to college world at the end of it, or, you
22:38
know, are we going to get to the end of this and find out, oh, we don't have
22:41
this, this or this, or, you know, this was just a colossal waste of time and money.
22:46
So, so, yeah, I think that's been a big advantage for us in that aspect of we
22:51
don't have to try to figure all this out.
22:52
Somebody has already done that.
22:54
I'm sure there's a lot of parents listening right now, trying to run
22:57
the numbers and figure things out.
22:58
So let's unpack this a little bit more.
23:00
You mentioned the curriculum and it's part of an existing private school.
23:05
The speed you sort of is a, let's say subset of that.
23:08
Mm hmm.
23:08
Is it completely self taught?
23:10
There's no instructor led anything, or is it more like the COVID times where
23:15
you're working remote, there's a teacher that checks in every so many days,
23:18
and then you've got assignments, you gotta, like, how does it work exactly?
23:22
So they do have a, what they call a, what do they call it?
23:25
Your weekly check in?
23:27
Yeah, it's a weekly check in.
23:29
So they do a weekly check in, I think it's on Tuesdays.
23:33
Where the whole class gets together all the grade levels of the kids that
23:37
are in this program, they get together with one of the administrators from the
23:41
school all on a zoom call that usually last somewhere around 30 minutes.
23:46
They kind of talk about what's going on.
23:48
What have you been doing?
23:49
You know, what's going on in your world?
23:52
What's coming up?
23:53
What do you have on your radar?
23:54
And then they'll intersperse that a lot with having a guest speaker will
23:59
come on and talk about some topic to the kids, making sure everybody's sort
24:04
of corralled and staying on task for the week and the month and whatnot.
24:09
The actual classes themselves, Junior sits down in front of a laptop.
24:15
How would you describe it?
24:16
Like a video you watch?
24:17
Yeah, a video, and then there's some questions based on the topics that were
24:23
in that video, and you answer those, and then you move on to the next lesson, which
24:28
is another video, and then questions.
24:30
So computer based training, I've got this scenario in my head of this
24:33
virtual one room schoolhouse, right?
24:35
You mentioned all the kids from all the grades get together for these check ins.
24:39
It's all grade levels, which is from elementary to high school.
24:44
Oh, wow.
24:45
Are they all from the same geographical area, or are there kids from all over
24:50
the United States in the SpeedU program?
24:53
Pretty much all over the U. S. Okay.
24:56
There's some people in Florida.
24:58
Georgia, I think it might still be California.
25:02
So kind of all over.
25:04
Okay.
25:04
Thinking about tuition, are you paying the normal rate to the school?
25:09
Are you paying a, you know, a lower rate?
25:11
Is it a rider on top of the standard?
25:13
Like, how does it work from a dollars and cents perspective?
25:16
Their fee is to do this particular program.
25:19
So it's not like you're paying the fee to the traditional school and then
25:24
paying some sort of additional fee on top of it to be in this program.
25:28
You're just paying for just this program.
25:30
Nothing additional.
25:32
Personally, we found the cost to be actually a good bit less than
25:37
what we were paying at our previous private brick and mortar school.
25:42
So that was a nice surprise to find out that, you know, this was
25:45
going to hit the pocket, but less.
25:47
I mean, that buys some tires and gas at the end of the year, right?
25:49
It does.
25:50
Yes, absolutely.
25:52
So yeah, that helped out a lot.
25:54
I'm sure a question for the parents out there that they're thinking about.
25:57
When I talk with other people whose kids aren't even in motor sports, and
26:01
I tell them, you know, what my kid does and where he goes to school, I
26:05
think they kind of automatically assume the curriculum is somehow different.
26:11
Junior is taking the same high school classes.
26:14
That any other kid in high school would take as far as, you know,
26:17
the English, the science, the math.
26:19
All of that's the same.
26:20
You could walk into any school and find the same subjects being
26:23
taught where things differ a little bit, especially like with
26:26
the weekly check ins that they do.
26:29
Those will oftentimes have a very tilted slant towards the motor sports.
26:34
World and the guest speakers that they have are typically somebody
26:38
from the motor sports world.
26:40
And then our field trips with the school are very different than
26:46
traditional school field trips.
26:47
So, all of our field trips revolve around motor sports for the most part.
26:51
Case in point, our first year with the program, was it October, I think it
26:56
was, when we went to North Carolina?
26:58
The school put together a field trip, and it just happened to work out
27:02
perfectly with a national level race that was at Track House in Mooresville.
27:07
The school did a field trip up to the Mooresville and surrounding area that,
27:11
you know, home of NASCAR and whatnot.
27:13
We went up the week before.
27:15
To do some practice at the track to stayed up there that whole next week
27:19
because the field trip encompassed like three days of that week, we went around,
27:23
saw various race teams and spoke with team owners and program directors and
27:28
engineers and all that sort of aspect of the motor sports world that a lot of
27:33
people probably don't even realize exists.
27:36
And then at the end of that week, we were back at the track again, getting
27:39
ready for this national level event.
27:42
In between all of that, Junior was able to sit in our hotel room on his
27:45
laptop and get his schoolwork done.
27:47
That worked out really well.
27:49
And the field trips are super cool.
27:50
Who did we get to meet?
27:51
Hold on, I know this.
27:54
I don't know why I can't remember the name.
27:56
Sunglasses, big hat.
27:57
Richard Petty!
27:58
There you go!
27:59
The king!
28:00
The king.
28:01
The king!
28:02
I don't know why I couldn't remember that there.
28:04
Guys, they're lucky I haven't even got to interview him yet.
28:06
Man, alright.
28:08
One more piece of this, just from the parental side, right?
28:11
Cause you're at that age, dad, you mentioned before, you got
28:13
to start thinking about college.
28:15
Has the academy, the brick and mortar school, assigned a college
28:19
counselor to you guys yet?
28:20
Have you been talking about what the next steps are?
28:23
Have you identified programs that will accept the Speed U
28:26
and all that kind of stuff?
28:27
Are you thinking very local in the sense of like, maybe
28:30
something like Belmont Abbey?
28:31
Which has a motor sports program, you know, stuff like that.
28:34
What's the next step?
28:35
And what are those conversations like now that you're in this
28:38
program in its second year?
28:39
Honestly, I think we're probably a little behind getting some of those conversations
28:43
going with the school coupled with junior.
28:47
I don't think has really decided which direction he wants to
28:50
go after high school as well.
28:52
So we're still feeling that out, looking at options, if it was up to me.
28:57
If it was up to dad, you mentioned Belmont Abbey, which I didn't
29:00
realize had a great program.
29:01
I might need to talk with you some more offline.
29:04
Of course, I know Clemson has a great program, you know,
29:06
knowing my kid's passion and love for the motorsports world.
29:10
I'm trying to push him to look that direction at some of these programs.
29:14
One of the things that is a big sort of saying at SpeedU with the people that run
29:18
that program is it's great that you want to pursue this route and try to make it
29:23
in this world of motorsports as a driver.
29:26
But what's your plan B?
29:28
And so you got to have a plan B. And as you and David well know from your
29:33
experience, there's so many avenues and so many roads in the world of motorsports,
29:38
so many different things you can do and still be involved in this arena, even
29:43
if you're not the guy behind the wheel.
29:44
We call that the autosphere.
29:46
The autosphere.
29:47
I like it.
29:49
There's one more piece of this before we transition into some other topics that
29:53
Dave wants to talk about it's really for junior You're not in a traditional school
29:58
your high school experience when you look back on it You're gonna be telling people
30:01
man I did this thing and I was on the road with my dad and we're racing but I
30:05
didn't have The same emotional connection.
30:07
You don't have the same kind of classmates.
30:09
And as you said, there's varying in age, maybe some of them you race with.
30:12
Some of them you only get to see at the races.
30:15
And again, in this day and age, we're all connected through social
30:18
media and discord and this and that.
30:20
So I'm sure you've got friends that you're connecting with, but
30:23
emotionally, how is this affecting you?
30:25
Like not being in a brick and mortar school, have you given it any thought?
30:29
At first it was pretty difficult because I had a lot of friends and
30:33
the school that I used to go to.
30:35
Because I've been there since first grade, all the way up until, uh, ninth grade.
30:40
I got the idea of what high school is like since I had one year in it.
30:45
I was able to get used to not being able to see my friends
30:49
in person nearly as much.
30:51
But, like, we still talk every now and then, and I see a lot of my, uh,
30:56
friends from racing nearly every weekend.
30:59
So do you think, in a way, it adds a level of clarity and focus to what you're doing?
31:04
Because you don't have all the distractions, whether it's the pubescent
31:08
ones, the dramatic ones, you know, the girlfriends, all the other stuff that
31:12
sort of comes along with high school.
31:14
With all that distraction out of the way, do you think it's going
31:17
to make you a better driver?
31:19
I feel like it never really had an impact.
31:22
I was just able to kind of just put it aside when I was racing.
31:25
Yeah, and I would say that was one thing I was going to say too, that
31:29
social aspect for the parents that are out there, because that was a
31:33
concern of, you know, my wife and I's.
31:36
Going into this program and sort of losing that connection with the kids that
31:40
he knew and, you know, that aspect of high school and that socialization and
31:46
peer group and all that sort of stuff that we, and a lot of aspects don't
31:50
have, in fact, we just got an email not long ago from the actual brick and
31:56
mortar school that runs this program.
31:58
They have prom coming up.
31:59
Uh, right.
32:00
And so we really hadn't even thought about, at least I hadn't,
32:04
until that email hit my inbox.
32:07
Oh, prom is coming up pretty soon.
32:08
What do we do?
32:09
We don't know anybody at the school.
32:12
The kids that are in this program are really sort of apart from
32:18
the whole rest of the school.
32:19
I don't know that if we walked on campus.
32:21
Somebody at that school would go, Oh, that's Christian jr. He's in the speed.
32:27
You program.
32:27
He does.
32:28
I don't think anybody there would know who we were, why we were there.
32:31
Well, the fact that he's in his racing suit, because that's
32:33
the only suit he has that,
32:37
that might, yeah, that might, yeah, that might give it away.
32:42
Yeah, you know, that was a concern of ours going into this, but like you said.
32:47
People, especially kids nowadays, are so connected with each other
32:52
through this social media universe.
32:55
I have my own thoughts on that, for better or worse, but you know,
32:59
we were at Track House last year.
33:02
I keep seeing this kid coming over to where Junior's at on Grid before he's
33:07
going out for his sessions on track.
33:10
And I didn't think much about it at first.
33:12
Until I keep seeing this kid over and over again, and then I'm like,
33:16
Wait a minute, I don't know that kid.
33:18
Who is this?
33:20
Finally I asked him, I was like, Hey, who's this kid that keeps hanging around?
33:24
Do you know him?
33:24
Like, I had no idea.
33:26
And he's like, Oh yeah, that's my friend.
33:28
And I'm like, Well, how did you meet him?
33:31
Oh, we met on Discord.
33:33
Discord?
33:34
What's that?
33:34
Right?
33:37
And then I'm like, Well, where is he from?
33:40
Wisconsin.
33:41
What?
33:42
I need somebody from Wisconsin on this thing called Discord.
33:47
That's what kids do these days.
33:49
Yeah, right.
33:50
So, Dad, to kind of close out this thought on the parental side of things.
33:54
If you could go back in time and this program was available when
33:58
you were juniors age, do you think you would have done it?
34:01
Knowing what you know now?
34:02
Oh yeah, absolutely.
34:04
I'm that personality type that when I'm going at something, I'm all in.
34:10
It wouldn't have mattered to me, that social aspect.
34:13
Like, oh, I don't have any friends other than the people I
34:16
see when I'm at the racetrack.
34:18
Okay, that's fine because I'm doing this thing right here that I'm really
34:22
passionate about and I'm chasing after it.
34:24
That's all that matters.
34:25
Like, that's my sort of mentality for better or worse.
34:29
If this program had been available when I was growing up as a kid and
34:32
if we'd had the financial means, my parents to do for me what we're able
34:37
to do, my wife and I, for our son.
34:39
Yeah.
34:39
Sign me up.
34:42
Well, Christian, I got news for you.
34:43
All four of us sitting in this room are exactly the same.
34:46
Right.
34:47
You know, we wouldn't be in this room if we were different.
34:50
That's the way all four of us are, where you're going to basically put
34:54
everything aside to chase your dreams and to chase what you're passionate about.
34:57
I know for sure, Eric and I talk about this all the time.
34:59
And there's just a certain set of people that we are this way.
35:02
We don't care about everything else.
35:04
It's like, this is a goal I set.
35:06
And this is what I want to do and I don't know how much time you've been
35:09
on track recently, Christian, but you know, Eric spends a lot of time on
35:11
track and I still try to get out there.
35:13
I'd like to get more, but my mom joked and she said, every time I
35:16
see you on track, you seem at peace.
35:18
And I say, yeah, I find peace at the racetrack.
35:20
That is where I'm most at peace.
35:21
I'm not thinking about my kids.
35:22
I'm not thinking about parents, job, anything.
35:25
I'm really focused on myself and how I could be faster and what I got to
35:28
do to be faster than the next person.
35:30
Right.
35:30
So there's this piece that you get out there and not everybody's built that way.
35:34
Yeah.
35:34
You're in a good group, but to you, junior, I've got a question about speed.
35:37
You.
35:37
So you're at a, you're at a place called speed.
35:39
You, what do they do from an educational standpoint for your race craft?
35:43
Do they use any tools to make you faster?
35:46
Do they talk about physical training to prepare for being a driver or.
35:49
What kind of things like that are you getting out of this program?
35:52
Or is it strictly educational and are they teaching any kind of engineering stuff?
35:56
It's mainly, uh, educational speed.
36:00
You is like its own thing.
36:01
And then there's another thing that is affiliated with the school of the
36:06
synergy, synergy speed lab is like their actual racing shop and team, which they
36:12
do like legends car racing, band of arrows, late models, and things like that.
36:18
Like whenever I go to one of the events, like PRI, they'll be there and they'll
36:24
have like some of their sims there.
36:26
We'll be there representing the actual education part of it.
36:29
Do they use sim training in your curriculum?
36:32
How does that work?
36:33
We did see the sim, but how do they utilize that?
36:36
Or do you have to go down to Skipstone and use the sim?
36:40
Do they have certain days where, like, all of you can come down and do training
36:44
in that way, whether on the sim or off the sim, or anything, working on your
36:48
racecraft or the mental side of driving?
36:49
They don't, but from what I know, you can pretty much just go down
36:53
there since you're with the school.
36:55
They'll most likely let you do some laps on the sim.
36:58
Okay.
36:58
I haven't really gotten a chance to do that though.
37:01
They do have the sims, which you guys saw at PRI.
37:04
You know, they take certain ones around to different events that they're going
37:08
to, to provoke the school program itself.
37:12
You know, if we wanted to drive down to the Griffin, Georgia area where they're
37:16
located at to go in their shop and hop on a sim, we, we certainly could.
37:21
But, you know, for us where we live on the west side of Atlanta, just kind of
37:25
logistically doesn't really make a lot of sense to make that trip down there.
37:30
Plus, finding the time to do it as well.
37:33
It's something we could take more advantage of than we
37:35
do, but at the same time.
37:38
Logistically, I don't really know that does it make a lot of sense to try to
37:42
fight through all that traffic to get there, spend whatever amount of time
37:46
where they're doing that, and then fight our way through traffic to get back home.
37:50
So then as an alternative to that, are you doing SIM at home on your own?
37:53
Yeah.
37:54
Are you strictly iRacing?
37:56
Are you mixing it up?
37:57
What are you using to practice, and what are you practicing with?
38:00
iRacing is the main one, but I also use Assetto Corsa for
38:04
when I just want to drive.
38:06
iRacing is the gold standard for most professional drivers.
38:09
I don't think there's ever going to be a Well, I don't think in the next few
38:12
years there's going to be a major shift.
38:13
But a lot of professional drivers are also using Assetto, which is used in industry.
38:18
And yeah, LMU is getting a lot of positive feedback right now,
38:22
now that they're tweaking the game and getting it up to par.
38:24
Yeah, I've been wanting to try that random R factor.
38:28
And if I think back when we first met years ago, I told you guys I was in
38:32
the middle of developing a sim program because my program was still fairly new.
38:36
How has sim helped your driving?
38:39
And what are you learning from it going forward?
38:41
Because one thing I talked to your dad about, and I told him, there's so
38:44
much you can do in the sim with, and this is why it's such a great teaching
38:48
utility, whether you're going to be a driver or engineer or things like that.
38:50
So how are you using the sim different from maybe when you started years
38:53
ago to what you're doing now that you're more of an experienced driver?
38:56
Mainly it's, to me, it's still about just keeping the reflexes sharp, kind of a
39:02
substitute for being in the seat, although it really isn't a full substitute.
39:07
It just complements to it, if anything, but that's mainly what
39:10
I've gotten out of it so far.
39:12
Do you use setup shops or are you tweaking setups at all?
39:16
Have you started messing around with that?
39:18
I prefer to do fixed setup.
39:20
Okay.
39:20
The only thing that I even somewhat bother with for setup is another
39:25
software called Kart Racing Pro.
39:28
It isn't compatible with the PC that we use for The Sim.
39:31
I use it on my gaming PC, and I can still connect it to The Sim.
39:36
I just don't really feel like picking up my PC and going into a different room.
39:40
Connecting all that up, and then when I'm done, unconnecting it,
39:44
moving it back, and all of that.
39:46
That makes sense.
39:47
When you guys get your new hardware, I'll get you hooked into some software
39:51
where you can basically start tweaking, go faster, and just play around with it.
39:55
Because I think that's very vital going forward.
39:57
It's not exactly one to one, but there's so much you can do
40:00
that will help to teach you.
40:01
More vehicle dynamics and carry it forward as you step into
40:04
the next stage of your career.
40:06
And I think, you know, that's going to be something I'm kind of interested to
40:10
see as we start to transition out of the cart and into the car utilizing the sim,
40:17
because, you know, let's face it, the carting world, especially our proximity
40:21
to AMP, even though we're not super close, we get up in the morning, we drive up
40:25
there, we do what we do and drive back home and we're home in time for dinner.
40:29
Right.
40:29
That's real easy to do in the kart.
40:31
Not so easy to do in the race kart.
40:33
I do see the day coming where the sim is going to start becoming a more vital
40:38
aspect of what we're doing to hone those skills and keep the reflexes and
40:43
practice techniques and all of those things because we simply, we won't
40:47
have the ability like we do now with the kart to go, Oh, it's Saturday.
40:52
Let's go spend two hours driving around the kart track.
40:55
Unless mom and dad win the lottery, that ability is going to go away.
41:01
So yeah, I'm very eager to see how the Sim is going to fill that gap.
41:06
Christian Sr., you brought up a really good point, the next steps.
41:09
And Junior, you're right at almost legal driving age.
41:12
So the question becomes, what is the next step when you step away from karting?
41:17
Are you gonna go do some autocross?
41:19
Are you gonna go straight into club racing and dust off the patina off a dad's Miata?
41:24
Like, what is that next step there?
41:26
Do you want to start that out or should I start that out?
41:28
I guess I'll start it.
41:29
Okay.
41:30
I don't really know what we would do for cars.
41:32
But I'm pretty sure they'd probably be going to club racing.
41:36
I don't know if it'd be oval and like legends cars, road course and legends
41:41
cars, or like radicals for road course.
41:44
It's kind of whatever we end up feeling gives the best option.
41:48
You guys are going for a test though, right?
41:49
Aren't you going?
41:50
We're a radical test.
41:51
Yeah.
41:52
Yes, we are.
41:53
So yeah, junior mentioned the legends car.
41:55
So we did a test in a legends car back last November with the
41:59
help of some folks at speed.
42:01
You that do some people in the legends car world.
42:04
We were able to set that up.
42:06
So we spent a day in the legends car.
42:07
I think you had a blast.
42:08
You liked it.
42:09
Yeah.
42:09
Yeah.
42:11
And, uh, you know, now we're set up to do a test day in a radical up at amp.
42:16
Yeah.
42:16
You know, and I think from there, we'll kind of look at between the two and sort
42:20
of look to make some sort of a decision between which path do we go down, you
42:26
know, one of those two roads, which are very different from each other.
42:32
But there's going to be a lot that goes into that decision.
42:35
What are we comfortable with?
42:36
Also, a big part of that decision is what opportunities present
42:41
themselves with which one of these roads that we might pick to go down.
42:45
The Legends car is, of course, in that ladder up into the NASCAR world.
42:50
And one of the great things about SpeedU is that really all of the kids
42:54
that are in this program That's the direction all of them want to go.
42:58
They're all in either Bandoleros or Legends cars.
43:01
We're really, I think the only people in the Speed U program that are in karting
43:06
and in the road course world full time, you know, we kind of see where the
43:11
Legends car road sort of goes and we know.
43:15
people in that sort of world already versus the radical.
43:19
We don't really know anybody in that world, but it also looks like there
43:23
are some exciting things happening in that world, especially up at AMP
43:28
with the primal school that's up there in the, in the program that
43:32
they're running and some of the things they're doing with a race series.
43:36
That's.
43:36
kind of merging some of that gamer sim world and bringing
43:40
that over into the car world.
43:41
And so, you know, if that's the route that we go, he may get out of
43:46
the radical at the end of the day and say, dad, I hate this thing.
43:49
I kind of doubt it.
43:50
You won't, you won't.
43:52
I've been in a radical.
43:53
Nope.
43:53
Nope.
43:54
You definitely won't.
43:55
But yeah, so that's kind of what at the moment, what the world
43:58
sort of looks like for us as we.
44:00
Transition out of the carting and into the car world.
44:04
Speck Miata was also a discussion of maybe that's a path as well.
44:08
Junior wasn't super excited about that.
44:10
I don't want to rely only on draft.
44:12
Of course I'd love Speck Miata.
44:15
It's what I did.
44:16
It's a great class for a lot of different reasons, but the last few
44:21
races that I did in Speck Miata, I looked around and started to
44:25
realize unless something changes.
44:28
These are all cars that were at best 15 years old or older.
44:34
It's a spec class.
44:35
And so if you need a new wiring harness for your injectors,
44:40
where do you get that from?
44:42
The junkyard.
44:42
What's going to happen there in another five years?
44:45
And so that gave me a little pause about going down that particular
44:50
pathway for as good as it is.
44:52
I think there are going to be some things that need to change
44:54
with that category because Those cars aren't getting any younger.
44:57
Parts are becoming increasingly harder to find for these cars if they're not
45:02
gonna make some provision for, okay, we realize some of these parts that fail
45:07
on these cars because they came from a street car and now we're asking them to
45:11
live in a race car environment but there aren't any new parts of these parts.
45:16
Something's gonna have to give at some point.
45:17
I really do worry about what's gonna happen with that class.
45:20
Ultimately, so yeah, we talked about spec Miata, maybe that's something
45:25
we still dabble in at some point, but I don't really know you alluded
45:29
to something earlier as you move up, things get more expensive.
45:32
That's the punch line of motor sport, right?
45:35
Pay to play.
45:36
So that said, depending on the path you choose, every one of them has some
45:41
sort of financial burden and it takes us into a conversation about what we
45:45
talk a lot about with pro drivers, which is the business side of racing.
45:49
And it seems to be the consensus among drivers.
45:52
One of the things they.
45:53
Is begging for money from sponsors and then the sponsorship commitments
45:57
and, you know, got to go here and public speaking and show the car,
46:01
you know, all these obligations.
46:02
Suddenly they become part of this media machine and there's less focus on them
46:07
winning so much as being a commodity to the businesses that they're representing.
46:11
And so, as a parent.
46:13
How are you setting the stage for sponsorships?
46:17
Have you started to reach out?
46:18
How are you building a business plan for your son as he is now starting
46:23
to choose where he's going to go once he's graduated away, not only from
46:27
speed you, but from carting itself.
46:29
Yeah.
46:29
So a project that he has.
46:32
That is not completed yet.
46:34
I will point out Jr. It was too, I wanted him to work on my initial thought was just
46:41
kind of a simple one page flyer that he could go around to businesses with or hand
46:47
out to people kind of, this is who I am.
46:49
This is what I'm doing in exchange for these different levels of sponsorship.
46:53
Here's what you're going to get back out of this, which I think is.
46:57
Super important.
46:58
Drivers hate going and looking for sponsors, but I think maybe the next thing
47:02
they hate probably the most or hate even more is then the obligations that come
47:06
after that and standing in front of a room of people to talk about what it's like to
47:10
be a race car driver or show up somewhere with your car, whatever that looks like.
47:15
But I think in this day and age where there's so many different
47:20
things that are vying for.
47:23
Businesses, attention, and dollars, at least in the world of
47:28
motorsports, it's no longer about what happens on Sunday between the
47:34
green flag and the checker flag.
47:35
Yes, that still ultimately does play a part, but I think the bigger thing
47:40
now is what happens from after the checker flag on Sunday until the next.
47:46
Green flag on Friday or Saturday because if you can't show yourself as a individual
47:53
and a driver to be somebody to that business owner that you're asking to hand
47:58
over money, if you can't show them that you've got a good head on your shoulders.
48:03
You're not going to go out and do some boneheaded thing that's
48:07
going to ultimately reflect back on that business owner's business.
48:12
They're quickly not going to care about what you did on Sunday, and
48:16
they're going to go find somebody else.
48:17
And that's a big topic of discussion in the program at SpeedU, that they
48:22
really harp on with all the students there is, Yes, we want you to be
48:26
whatever level you can be as a driver and hope you succeed in this world and
48:32
in all of those things, but we want you to be a quality, upstanding person.
48:36
That's number one.
48:38
You see this at the track, even in the karting world.
48:41
For better or worse, I can look at how somebody's kid acts.
48:45
At the kart track, I can be pretty assured, I can tell you
48:49
what their upbringing's like.
48:50
The parent's reflection comes out in that environment, maybe unlike any other.
48:56
There's all this emotion at the race.
48:58
Your adrenaline's pumping, and you're going after it, and
49:02
somebody sends you off in a corner.
49:04
Watch what that kid does after that.
49:06
And that will tell you a whole lot about that kid's parents and
49:09
how they're raising that kid.
49:11
I thought you were going to tell me there's the equivalent
49:13
to dance moms and carting.
49:14
There's like cart dads.
49:18
There's cart parents.
49:20
There are cart parents.
49:21
I think dance moms are probably worse, but.
49:26
You know, you guys are really taking a non traditional path in the world
49:31
of sports, whether it's motorsport or sports in general, right?
49:34
Like, this is a really interesting paradigm that you guys have going on here.
49:37
The speed bumps in the road aren't clearly visible yet, and
49:41
there's challenges to be overcome.
49:43
If I pull any lesson back from the pros, sponsorship is it.
49:47
Coming up with the funding to race.
49:50
As your job, because remember, you're going to become a professional driver.
49:53
That is your career.
49:54
What you do for a living is drive cars.
49:57
So again, to the point of earlier, what's your plan B, you know, if it doesn't
50:01
work out and I don't want to pass any shadows or clouds on things, but it's a
50:04
really serious discussion that I think a lot of people get excited about the wins
50:08
and the trophies we're moving forward.
50:10
forward and then you get to this point where you're like,
50:12
money don't grow on trees.
50:14
There's a lot of sacrifice, a lot of compromise in there.
50:16
And so my best advice in this case is finish that project.
50:19
Your dad set out for you there, junior, and come up with a business plan,
50:23
come up with an executive summary, come up with a way to sell yourself.
50:26
Self as an asset to these businesses, whatever they are.
50:29
And the one thing I've heard from a lot of folks is they were afraid to
50:33
knock on the door of that company because they were like, well, why
50:36
would they be interested in racing?
50:37
Why?
50:37
Why would they be interested in sponsoring me?
50:39
And if the lesson there was the worst they can say is no, but if
50:43
you don't ask, you'll never know.
50:45
So that's also important is.
50:47
Just try different things and see who can rally behind you because you don't
50:50
know where it's going to take you next.
50:52
There's a lot of things to think about there and we could probably talk on
50:54
sponsorship for a whole nother episode.
50:57
But I do want to move on a little bit here as we sort of wrap out this episode.
51:02
Dad, if you could give a piece of advice.
51:05
To other parents, knowing what you know now and going back to my point about
51:09
not knowing all the speed bumps that are yet to come, what would you say to
51:13
another parent that was in your shoes a couple years back looking at this going?
51:17
Is this the right thing for my son or daughter?
51:20
I'm just going to throw this into.
51:21
Eric and I have girls who really love motorsports and they're really young.
51:25
And we're always like, Hmm, I really want my daughters to get into motorsports.
51:29
And they, they know what we both do, but there's also the hesitation of
51:32
like, we know what's going to happen if they start going down this path.
51:35
I know enough people in industry.
51:36
I can make phone calls.
51:38
I could say, Hey, if my girls get good enough, I can make phone calls.
51:40
I can do this.
51:41
But at the end of the day, sometimes there's this
51:43
hesitation because I'm like, man.
51:45
That is a sacrifice.
51:46
You know, it's such a sacrifice to get your kid to that next level.
51:49
So, you know, you're not just talking to the main audience.
51:51
You're kind of talking to us too, who have kids who aren't
51:53
that age, who like motorsport.
51:55
Yeah.
51:56
Yeah.
51:56
I forgot about that.
51:58
The main things I would say, looking back from where we started to where we are now.
52:03
Take small steps in the beginning, because you ultimately don't know
52:06
until you get to a certain point, kind of where we're at, is this something
52:10
they're really going to stick with?
52:12
You know, right, we've all seen, you could pick the sport even, it's not
52:15
just motorsports, but you could pick the sport where you see the parent with the
52:18
kid that has all the latest, greatest equipment, everything's top dollar,
52:23
and it's their first time doing this.
52:26
So you could go down that road.
52:28
I would say don't.
52:29
Start out small, take baby steps, make sure this is really going
52:35
somewhere, whatever that looks like.
52:37
Enjoy the journey as well.
52:39
I think we all know here that there's days at the track that are just Fantastic.
52:44
You get the win or you clench pole or whatever that is.
52:48
And it's just the best day ever.
52:50
But those days are rare in the sport.
52:53
There's a lot of days where it didn't go right at the track.
52:56
You leave the track not feeling good and you feel dejected and you question,
53:02
what the heck are we doing here?
53:03
I would just say enjoy the process and enjoy the journey because You
53:07
said earlier we met however many years ago up at AMP and now we're
53:12
at where we're at and it seems like it's gone by in the blink of an eye.
53:16
That is so true.
53:18
Take time and enjoy the journey.
53:19
And then the other thing I would say is remember that, you know, motorsports.
53:23
It's the long game.
53:24
Yes, when you first get into it, at some point, you start
53:28
making these big strides, right?
53:31
You go out one day and you find, you knock off three seconds
53:34
off of your personal best.
53:36
And then the next time you go back to the track, you knock another two seconds off.
53:40
But then you get to that point where you get to the track and, wait a
53:44
minute, I didn't find any time today.
53:46
Wait, I lost two tenths today.
53:48
Or, you know, you're stuck in one spot for two months before you find another tenth.
53:54
To get any faster, it's a long game.
53:56
I think it's real easy, especially in today's society and world, to lose focus
54:02
on that with The younger generation where it's all, we want instant results.
54:06
We want it right now.
54:07
And we want to see immediate improvement and all of those things.
54:11
If you want that, go drag racing.
54:12
You're right.
54:14
Yeah.
54:15
And by and large, motorsports doesn't work that way.
54:17
Right.
54:17
And so it's easy to get discouraged.
54:19
You know, you just got to keep your eye fixed.
54:21
Way down the road and take little baby steps to get there and junior.
54:25
Do you feel the same way?
54:26
Like what advice would you give to someone like our daughters who our
54:29
kids are almost same age, right?
54:30
Like 10 and 8 and they're watching emza with me.
54:33
Well, you've seen him at amp, you know You've seen my kids at amp and you
54:36
know, we go up to petite every year And at least my eldest keeps asking
54:40
and because of the situation our family is in like I can't put them in carding
54:43
right now, but she keeps asking, you know, she's like, I want to do this.
54:46
I want to do this.
54:47
So what would you say junior to like a young person who's 1011
54:51
maybe has done a few things?
54:52
What advice would you give them as they're starting out?
54:54
Don't give up.
54:55
It's gonna be a long road either way.
54:58
So just keep getting out it.
55:00
That's really the best thing you can do.
55:01
Remember why you got into this?
55:03
To begin with, right?
55:04
Good advice.
55:05
But we still do this some now where we'll have a day where we'll go to
55:08
the track, especially up at AMP.
55:10
We're just there to have fun.
55:12
We may go there that whole day.
55:13
We're not working on anything in particular.
55:15
We're just making laps and having fun.
55:16
I think as you get down this road, obviously things do get very serious,
55:21
and they should because of where you're trying to get to, and they have to be.
55:24
But if you could take a moment to step back once in a while, and
55:28
just go to the track and remember.
55:29
Why you fell in love with this and why it's fun and just go do that not
55:33
worry about oh today I'm showing up to the track to work on these three
55:36
things or this one thing or whatever just go drive Make time to do that
55:40
once in a while, you know to kind of keep a perspective of hey We're here
55:44
because we like this because It's fun.
55:46
So yeah, I guess biggest question is, what is Junior your final goal or dream?
55:51
How do you see five to ten years out?
55:53
I know you mentioned Wayne Taylor, but is that the end goal?
55:56
What would be your dream scenario to dream big for a second?
55:59
Probably prototypes.
56:02
Or like IndyCar or something like that.
56:05
Super Formula.
56:06
I think those are really cool.
56:07
Or if like GT3 or Super GT, those are also really, really cool.
56:13
Just somewhere in cars, really anywhere.
56:16
Now, would you be a factory driver?
56:17
Or have you ever thought about that?
56:18
Like being a factory driver or are you going to be more
56:20
like a gold platinum driver?
56:22
Honestly, whatever is easiest for me to do.
56:26
Whatever can get me the farthest.
56:27
That's.
56:28
Kind of how I always think.
56:29
It's like, if this can take me somewhere that's worth it, I'm gonna go.
56:33
Keep your options open.
56:35
And your eyes up and be situationally aware, right?
56:37
Well, we've reached that part of the episode, gentlemen, where I like to
56:43
extend the opportunity for our guests.
56:45
To give any shout outs, thank yous, promotions, or talk about anything
56:48
else we haven't covered this far.
56:50
For all the folks out there, obviously, that might be interested
56:53
in the school program that we're doing, please check them out online.
56:58
Coincidentally, along with that, the school is running a sim racing based
57:03
contest that you can sign up for.
57:05
I believe it's a 25 fee to sign up for it, like an online
57:10
racing league using iRacing.
57:13
You know, a number of events scheduled throughout the year, the grand prize at
57:16
the end of it is a fully funded legends race for the winner of that competition.
57:21
So, for any aspiring young drivers out there that have a SIM and you're
57:26
looking to get yourself into a car could be a great avenue for you to do that.
57:30
I'd like to thank the chassis manufacturer, SOTY.
57:33
I'd like to thank their US department, SOTY USA.
57:37
I'd like to thank our local shop, DCT.
57:40
They've helped us pretty much our entire karting careers.
57:43
Leo, who's the owner of DCT.
57:46
He's been a great coach, been a great friend too.
57:49
And then Miguel, he's my mechanic.
57:52
He's really good at what he does.
57:54
I'd like to thank D2 Motors, they're our engine builder.
57:57
They make really good motors and we're going to be running
58:00
with them a lot this year.
58:02
So looking forward to that.
58:03
My mom and dad, I'd like to thank them for my sponsors.
58:07
Both of them are my sponsors.
58:10
Really quick, Christian Jr.
58:11
Where can we find you on social media?
58:12
Are you on social media?
58:13
I know you're using Discord and hopefully you've taught your dad what Discord is.
58:17
But can we find you on social media, whether on Instagram or TikTok or
58:23
Facebook or anything like that?
58:24
Is there any way to follow you and you follow your journey?
58:26
Last Turn Racing on Instagram.
58:28
Search up Last Turn Racing and that should give you the account.
58:32
Okay.
58:33
I want to try and get a YouTube channel one of these days.
58:36
I want to get a GoPro that way I can post them on boards because
58:40
that would be pretty nice.
58:41
I think the Facebook account is also Last Turn Racing.
58:45
It is.
58:47
Well, anyway, fellas, from the twist and turns of racing to the
58:50
challenges of balancing education and competition, Christian Jr. is
58:54
proving that sometimes the road less traveled is the fastest one to success.
58:59
If you are an expiring driver and you want to learn more about SpeedU's
59:03
program, be sure to visit www.
59:06
skipstoneacademy.
59:08
org.
59:08
for more details.
59:09
And if you want to keep up with Christian Jr's journey, you've heard
59:13
his social media and definitely stay tuned for more behind the scenes action.
59:18
And with that, gentlemen, I can't thank you enough for coming on break
59:21
fix and sharing the beginnings of your journey of your story with us.
59:25
So Christian Jr, I can't applaud you enough for what you're doing.
59:29
We're rooting for you.
59:30
Keep pushing those limits, keep chasing those dreams.
59:32
And remember, there's always another green flag ahead of you.
59:36
So we hope to see you back.
59:38
You have an open invitation to touch base with us.
59:40
Tell us more sections of your story.
59:42
Keep us up to date on your progress.
59:44
And again, the best of luck.
59:46
Absolutely.
59:46
Thanks so much, guys.
59:47
We really appreciate the opportunity and get to hang out with you guys.
59:50
Yeah.
59:50
Thank you.
59:55
If you like what you've heard and want to learn more about GTM,
59:58
be sure to check us out on www.
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