Episode Details

Listener Request - Re-Release

GHIT 0185 Racing 101 Part 6: Paddock and Pit Area - Prep and Tips

Our podcast is trying to encourage people to try high performance driving and racing, so Vicki wanted to start a special series she calls "So You Wanna Racecar". For this episode, A lot of our fellow teams recognize that our paddock game is often better than our on track game so we could not escape our Racing 101 series without covering our paddock prep and processes at a race weekend.

Please let us know if we missed anything that you may want discussed in a future episode of our Racing 101 Series.

The outline for the series is:

Part 1: Building Your First Race Car (and options to not)

Part 2: Safety and Safety Related Equipment Needed

Part 3: Best Entry Points To Start Performance Driving

Part 4: Buying and Selling Cars (With Special Guest Lara Vernon)

Part 5: Going To and From The Event/Track – What To Expect

Part 6: Paddock and Pit – Best Practices

Part 7: Perspective of a New Driver (With Guest Adam Owens)

Part 8: Tools, Spares, Supplies Needed for a Race Weekend

Part 9: Common Issues All Drivers Will/May Experience in When On Track For the First Time

Part 10: Miscellaneous Topics (& Things We Forget to Mention Earlier)

Highlights from this episode include:

1) Our goal is to reduce some of the flood of information that occurs when you first go to the track for your first event.

2) Bill provides a tip to answering the dreaded question of "Do I look fat in this dress" and also goes into potentially what may be the worst response to the question.

3) Our team is founded on checklists and we provide several examples of what we use on our website at: www.GarageHeroesInTraining.com. Hot tip though, having a checklist that you don't bring with you or use won't help you at all.

4) One of the tried and true sayings from our Lemons races "Numbers are hard". Here are several tips that try to make them a bit easier.

5) Tips on garage and paddock layouts at the track.

6) We try to walk you through the point where you arrive at the track and all the way through the event. Many tracks and series have slightly different details and procedures, but we try to give an overview of many of the most common procedures.

7) We go through the tech inspection process of both the driver's safety equipment and the car's mechanical and safety tech inspection.

8) Tracks also will have varying ways that they hold their practice schedule and we try to give a couple of examples that are most common. It is important to make sure you know what the schedule is and make sure you can get the value for the expense. If it does work for you, especially if you are a new driver or new to the track, we recommend signing up and getting some laps on the track, often with only a few other cars on the track.

9) If you aren't familiar with them, track walks are a great way to learn the track, especially if you can tag along with a group who is familiar with the track. If you see us taking a track walk, please feel free to join us.

10) Our endurance races usually start Saturday morning until Saturday evening, pause, and then resume Sunday morning and finish Sunday evening. As such, Saturday mornings and Sunday mornings are very similar. Also, Friday evening and Saturday evening are usually similar, but often if things are going well, Saturday has a lot more social "opportunities" (read as parties) in the paddock.

11) Organizing the paddock and pilot area are key to getting the car prepped quickly and efficiently. Tips abound.

12) Most races end Sunday evening and the track closes in a few hours after that, so there are a few tips on prepping the paddock and pit area for departure to make this possible.

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