Welcome to Off the Racing Line. [Laughter] Welcome back to Off the Racing Line. I am your host Carlos Espia and we are live from Homestead Miami Speedway with Faras Homestead 250. This episode is brought to you by Farra Formula and Automobile Racing Association.
[Music] Ever since we took over at Farara, our vision has always been to expand. First came the creation of Formula Fara, followed by the development of the Farra HPDE Academy program, which then led to the establishment of the competition school, superlap series, and most recently the instructor school. Our next major step was to launch the Mission Foods Prospec Miata class which has been a resounding success. So on behalf of the entire Farra family, thank you and we’ll see you on the track. Want to race?
Today’s guest is a very special young man. I can’t believe I’m saying it that way. Mr. Hollywood himself, Jack Hobbs. How are you? I’m so good, Carlos. I’m Thanks. Thanks for bringing us on. I’m really, really happy to be here. So, as you can see, this is a very special episode. We are shooting live from Victory Lane at Homestead Miami Speedway. What do you think of the set? Oh my Oh my gosh. I don’t know which car I would choose. I mean, that the I don’t know. I mean, it’s a tough one. I I like the paint the the wrap on that car a lot better. Sorry, whoever’s car is That M4 is amazing. I mean, that man, let’s get into it.
You are the founder of uh CRS, which is Collegiate Racing Series. Yes. Let’s start there because that’s a huge undertaking. Take me from I have an idea. I think this might work to where we’re at today. Oh, it’s a it’s a it’s a pretty fun story and it’s one I really I think a lot of most of the days. Um so I’ll paint the picture for you. I was a sophomore in college at Clemson University and I had done a whole bunch of track days, HPDEs, done a little bit of Spec Miata stuff and I get to Clemson and there’s no avenue for me to leverage the university to go wheelto-heel racing or any form of actual motorsports beyond autocross. Um, and I am an impatient man. And so instead of waiting around for someone else to do it, I got with my best buddy and I I kid you not, we sat in the dining hall. We were sitting in the dining hall. I look at I look at Nathan Chang and I said, “Man, let let’s go racing with Clemson.” He said, “Okay.” We literally wrote out the plan for this racing team on a napkin. I still have that napkin. I’ll send you the picture. I have that napkin. Yes. Send it to me so we can include it on the show. Oh my gosh. And so, uh, we, uh, we were, you know, we agreed for better or for worse that we were going to go racing with Clemson University. We’ll figure it out. We’ll just go, we’ll just go do it, get to the track. And in two, a little under two years, uh, we had grown to over 100 members. We had two race cars, a truck, and a trailer, and went driving all over the country. And that really expanded my mind to students can be taught to leverage all of the amazing resources that universities and colleges and uh professional schools have to offer them to fund their racing career. Um and the story that these students get to tell is is incredible. And so uh uh uh you know after I graduated I met uh Peter Saddington and Center Smith who was our last guest.
Well, he was our last guest and uh we sat down at a bagel place in Greenville, South Carolina, and I pitched this idea to him. I said, “Guys, I’ve figured out a way to go racing with a high level of execution, a high level of excellence, and I think we can share this with the entire world.” So, what it makes a lot of sense, and it kind of begs the question, why hasn’t this been done, right? So my my thinking here is we have collegiate football, basketball, baseball, I mean just about every sport, soccer, why not racing? You you know uh it’s something we asked ourselves in the early stages of developing this. Um and we were we were just utterly flabbergasted that no one had done this before. And so this hasn’t been tried before. Never. You can go look throughout all of history and not one person, one entity has ever attempted collegiate racing series in its truest form.
There are clubs all over the country nestled in tiny, you know, hidden places. Uh, but as far as a an NCAA level sport, it’s never been done. And I think the reason was motorsports has never been more popular in America than it is today, especially with the uh social media, especially in the last 20 years. It’s created a smaller world. We can spread information faster. We can teach students better. And uh it’s a wonderful time to enable students to get to the racetrack to fulfill their dreams. So you told me the story uh a little while ago and and I I found it fascinating that you were able to talk Clemson University into this. So just give me the the 30 secondond. this is how I pitched it and this is when they came back and said yes. Were you surprised by that? Uh so I went to Clemson University as an undergrad. Um so I had a few connections there and through you know one of our our largest and most uh profound pillars that we built this company off of was we want to educate the students. We don’t just want to provide an avenue for them to go show what what they have behind the wheel of a car. We want to provide the education for them. And so when running a race team, which is what we do, it takes walks of everybody to run it successfully. You know, you have your engineers, media marketing, your pit crew, mechanic, the list goes on.
It’s every walk of person at a university. So I approached Clemson University at the automotive engineering department, uh, where I’m getting my PhD now. And I sat down with, uh, some of the professors, and I said, why don’t we have a motorsports program? and they said, ‘Well, we’ve never really had anyone to go out and do it. And so I I said, ‘Well, if I could build you a motorsports degree with a textbook, a class curriculum, syllabus, the whole nine yards, would you sit down and listen and see what I have to offer? And they said yes. So, six months later, I approached Clemson with my textbook and every curriculum, and I’ve talked to everyone I could get my hands on getting advice. And so, I imagine this is not a a five pager. No, this this is a 417 page textbook um that I I wrote over six months. Uh I I pulled from every person I get my hands on. I mean Todd Beerus, Senator Smith, uh Roger Pinsky, uh John Dunan, the titans of the industry. And so I pitched this to Clemson and they liked it enough. And so I’ll tell you, and you may not know this yet, but we recently got approved for the first motorsports class at Clemson. It’s a double header. So they have motorsports one and motorsports 2 over two semesters and we sold out the seats in 24 hours. It was incredible.
I I was I had to take a walk. I mean I I was so overwhelmed with what had just happened because what we just proved to Clemson and the greater academic community was motorsports not only has a massive interest, but these students are willing to make sacrifices to get out to do this. So, I have to give a big shout out to Clemson because other schools have been very slow to take in the idea of of CRS. So, huge shout out to Clemson for for being the the really the first. They were the first I mean they were the first to do it at the level that we expected uh collegiate motorsports to happen at. Right. There are a whole number as I found out through doing this there are a whole number of uh motorsports clubs nestled in random universities all across the country and what they the only thing that they lacked was uh credibility and a sense of uh family and connection that we provide here with CRS. We we all we do is we provide the platform for them to come and prove to the world that you don’t have to be born to $200 million parents to go racing. you can do this for for next to nothing and leverage opportunities to help it be paid for you. Of course, you know, uh when we first talked about, you know, uh CRS, I went to the University of Florida. And so I I I envisioned what those cars would look like, right? Wrapped in Clemson wrap, like Gator wrap. Like that would be amazing. Like I would I would love to be a part of that, you know, as a a UF grad. It Well, I I’ll tell you one thing, too, is we are very large believers that alumni have a place in this series, of course, and because students can learn so much from just connecting with the alumni members and alumni can be a part of this. So, that’s awesome. UF has a team that they’re building and we would love to connect you with that team to provide mentorship to these students and also take advantage of all of the amazing opportunities that we can provide together. I I am there. Any UF student that’s a part of CRS, I will give them free track day. Oh my gosh. You hear that? Free track day with Farah. Free track day with Far. If you go to UF and you’re part of the Collegiia Racing Series, you get a free track day with Farra. Okay, there we go, baby. Let’s talk a little bit about um how you got started in HPDE and how you got your nickname Hollywood. Oh yeah. So, as someone might be able to see, uh you see Mr. Hollywood uh stamped across the my visor on my helmet. And that that nickname came out because whenever I was going to the when I was going anywhere, it didn’t matter if I was going to the track, going to get dinner, I mean just going for a drive, whenever I pulled up with friends, I always had the windows down, sunglasses on, and music blasting without fail. And someone one day said, “Man, you look like Mr. Hollywood.” And so as the years went on, it just kind of stuck. And so I was for from since then I was known as Mr. Hollywood on the track. Nice. Nice. There’s a there’s a nice shot when you guys were filming for um um for Joseph uh when he was going through the right the uh competition school. There’s a nice shot a close-up shot of you wearing the helmet says Hollywood. It’s pretty awesome. It was I I was sent a uh um initial snapshot of that and I I didn’t know what to think. I mean, it it’s it’s one thing to, you know, be to say, you know, you’re a race car driver.
You race cars. I’m not a professional, but I do race cars. And but to see it on a screen and to see your your reactions and that that it was such a deep moment for me, you know, preparing your mind and your body to go out and put yourself in this car that wasn’t mine, by the way, uh wheelto-heel less than a couple, you know, a couple inches away from people. And so it was an incredibly good shot and I mean it it kind of summed up a lot of you know my journey and to get out here and get going. So uh you know how I got started in HPDE. It’s a fun story. So I uh long story short, my parents helped support me as much as they could uh in early stages of racing, getting me coached up, taking me to driving schools, all this other stuff. Uh spec me out of stuff and they ran out of money. They said, “Jack, we can’t afford it anymore.” And I was like, “Well, that sucks, but that’s life.” Yeah. So then I found an HPD and I was blown away by the ease of access it is to come out and come into a a very very safe environment that is is part of this motorsports family and it’s such an amazing place for people to get a start and this is why I say to every anyone who’s looking to get into motorsports I if you are unsure or you’re not sure if you want to make the investment to go into motorsports HPDE is the place for you. There is no question. um the opportunities it provides for you to get on track to learn from uh professionally uh professionally trained people um is incredible. Well, the thing also is and this kind of leads into a next question that I have for you because you attended or compet the far competition school and instructor training school. Oh my gosh.
So, what I the point that I wanted to make is that you can start with a relatively inexpensive car. let’s call it a $2,000 $5,000 Miata. You can throw suspension and tires at it. I mean, you’re not talking about a significant no um investment and then after that if you you know start progressing, get a lot of coaching, you can become an instructor and then your track fees are waved. Oh, that’s the that was the when I found out that if you became an instructor and you got comped track time, my mind was blown. I mean, it was utterly working for it. It I am working for it. But I it’s it is it was my mind was blown. And I I mean I got to give a shout out to Farah and you Carlos and and all the whole team with the instructor school. What an amazing program that was. I have had the pleasure of teaching a whole bunch of students when I when I was at uh Clemson Tiger Racing at Clemson and now at CRS. There was so much that I didn’t understand on how to convey information to students in a uh quick efficient and uh you know precise manner because on the track and you’re sitting right seat you’re a passenger. At the end of the day the only thing that’s going to prevent you and a student from messing up is your voice and how you translate the immense amount of knowledge that’s in your head. You actually have a lot of control riding in the right seat. A lot of people are afraid of that or nervous because they feel like they have no control. You and I I try to tell people that you’d be surprised how much control you actually have with your voice. After that class, it illuminated my mind to just how uh influential you can be to the driver. Yeah. Um I I I don’t want to spoil too much, but uh it was Crazy Steve. And if you go to the class, you will understand that reference. Uh Crazy Carl. Crazy Carl. Excuse me. Crazy Carl. Um, that’s that’s the one that we just allowed the mentor to just go crazy. So, you have to reel them in. Oh my gosh. The my instructor was just he was oh he was drifting corners and I mean oh my he was awesome. I don’t want to know who that was.
Yeah, maybe I’ll I’ll keep that to myself. But uh um he he first off amazing driver totally under control but he it in it illuminated myself to what is necessary to take control if you need to. So you got a lot out of instructor school. What what I I found really I think profound and interesting is that we that weekend Farra had instructor’s training school on Friday and then competition school for racing Saturday, Sunday. You did the all three days. That was a long weekend. I can imagine. I went through instructor training school years ago and I remember it was draining like mentally draining because you realize how far ahead you have to be talking. I will tell you I’ll do better. You did 3 days. The comp the instructor school was 10 times harder than competition school. It was 10 times more draining. It requires such a level of focus because you know it’s not just you. You’re affecting someone’s life at the end of the day. Not not life in the sense of that, but you’re affecting their trajectory as far as their motorsports path. And it’s your duty as an instructor to ensure that they are having a blast doing it while being as safe as they can. Right. Right. I I I thought that was amazing that you you were able to pull that off to do uh instructor school and then back to back right into competition school. I mean, there was it it’s not just like physical, it’s just mental. It’s mostly mental. You you’re getting so much information in one weekend. It’s pretty daunting. It it is daunting, but I do have to say it would not have been possible without the friends that I now call my family. Uh Senator Smith, Todd Beerus, Danny, Michael, Peter, all you guys, the far family, you included. Um, you know, I I consider you guys very good friends of mine and part of my family and you guys have touched me in my motorsports path and career. I don’t know how far I’ll go. Um, but Far and this team and these people will always be very near and dear to my heart. Awesome. Well, listen, we love having you. I’ll come back, man. I It has been a dream. I I started watching these um and I absolutely love them. It’s a dream to be on the podcast. Off the racing line, baby. Off the racing line. It is unbelievable. And it’s it is I watch the whole thing every time you start and we appreciate that. I do. I I genuinely I have push notifications turned on for off the racing line. We um you started doing track days um with Clemson at Jay-Zilla. With Jay-Zilla. Yep. Tell me about that organization. So, uh James Marcelana, uh Jay-Zilla Track Days. They’re a Atlanta based southeast uh track day group. Uh not all that different from Farra. They just don’t do racing, right? Um, and James was James is an amazing person. I heard a lot of good things about James. He is so humble. He is so dedicated to his family. This and I I keep coming at it as family because motorsports really is a family. And uh James was super supportive of Clemson when we got the racing team off the ground. He actually gave Clemson when we had to do test days for our car, free track days. Yeah. And that changed the game. I James, if you’re listening, I hope you know that that still means more than you could ever know.
That’s really big, man. Um it is and it it you know we have incorporated Jzilla track days um and so many things as part of this journey with collegiate racing series just because of that initial show of love uh for the sport love for people doing it trying to change something about you know the lack of motorsports or the lack of their sport and anywhere and so James they do they phenomenal job one of the best track dayto day organizer I’ve ever been to so one of the things we always talk about um you know with within within FARA in the academy is really any organization that you talk about as far as HPDE goes in order for the sport to continue growing you you have to keep bringing in new drivers. Absolutely. So to make it easier for younger drivers to get onto the track is a very smart thing to do. Oh, HPD. Motorsports. I I would find it very hard to believe if someone told me motorsports could continue to exist without HPD. Yeah, it it it it’s the lifeline. I think it is. Well, it’s something that, you know, through our partnership with Mazda, uh we were and we it was an internal goal of Mazda to create the ladder system and the funnel for motorsports. And what we’ve done in partnership with a lot of amazing organizations like Farra is we’ve created the ladder system for students to go from nothing to track hero zero to track her as we like to call it. Um and HPDE is is crucial. It provides that stepping off point from okay I’m an iRacer. I did some carding. I’ve done some light light performance driving up in the mountains or something. And it provides that stepping point to go say, “Hey, I’m going to a real track on a with a real car and I’m going to learn real racecraft.” I mean, iRacing absolutely a per perfect system, but to get onto the racetrack for the first time, it’s a life-changing moment. Oh, yeah. It I think it’s uh it’s almost a religious moment. You know, the first time, you know, it is religious. That’s a very good way to put it. It really is. It it shakes your bones to your core. The first my first track day was at Sebring. And granted, I have never watched F1 racing, NASCAR. I’ve I’ve never been somebody to watch racing on TV, so I didn’t really understand the full history behind Sebring. Right. When I drove over the the bridge to get into the paddock at Sebring, oh my god. My I got goosebumps. Goosebumps. The hair on my my arms stood up like you could feel the history. the exact same experience. I was going over the bridge, sunset, we got in real late and I I just had I was like center pullover. I got I got to get I got to look at this. It’s It’s religious. It is a And then once you hit the track, it’s a whole different thing. Oh. Well, Sebrand, good night. Turned 17. I took my my uh HPD daily driver Mustang GT to the track. And Todd Beerus, love you, buddy. Uh you took my car for a drive for the first time and I had brand new tires, brand new brakes, it’s tuned. I mean, everything was brand new. Yeah, I had not driven the car. He drove the car first cuz he didn’t want to tell me to do something without knowing I could do it. 100% agree. And he drove the walls off that car. I did not know that car could move that fast. Now, we have 5 minutes left, so I want to get into that. You were coming from driving tracks up in the north with elevation. Yeah. So, we talked a little bit about your experience at Sebring. You It was surprising how flat it was. I’ve never been a flat track. It was a totally different world. I mean, I live and breathe in elevation. It’s my friend. I use it to slow the car down. I position myself according to the elevation. And while Sebring is full of bumps, it it was totally different. I mean, turning completely. I mean, there was no camber. I was like, what what’s happening? Like, what is this? This is totally new. Which was my experience when we went to AMP a few months ago with with FAR for competition school. That was the first track that I’ve been on with elevation changes. And I was like, okay, okay. This is different. We’re looking at the sky now.
Yes. this blind uh blind apexes. Oh my gosh. Turn uh 12 at am. You’re coming up a hill. You’re staring at the sky and you just have to look. You just trust hold your wheel steady. Turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn turn and then this tower comes into view and you put the front of your car on the tower and you’re going to be just fine. I really liked AMP. I thought that that facility was fantastic. Not a very fast track, but very technical. It’s a Oh, it’s it’s by far the most technical track I’ve ever driven. Um it requires there’s no breathing moments. No. Um, and you know, while I’m driving a near 4,000 pound Mustang GT, it’s not suited for that type of driving. Um, it’s made me a a much better driver. It’s made me realize what it really takes to get a car turned. All right, listen. We’re up to, uh, the next segment, which is the guest challenge. Oh, boy. So, this is your chance to challenge two of your friends to come on the podcast, to come on off the racing line. So, look at the camera and lay down the challenge. All right. Um, Divit, I’m challenging you, professor at Clemson University, granddaughter of the Wood Brothers NASCAR team, challenging you to come to the podcast and talk about the motorsports education. And Nathan Chang, co-founder of Clemson Tiger Racing, now team principal of Clemson Tiger Racing, and one of my best friends. You better get your butt down here, man. It’s time. There it is. Come on the podcast. Jack has laid down the challenge. Go to off theracingline.com, fill out the form, let us know when you want to come in and we will make that happen. Jack, it’s been awesome finally getting to chat with you on the camera cuz you’re from out of state, so it’s hard, you know, to 15 hour drive, baby. Worth it. This was uh this was this was really good that we finally had a chance to talk. Um remember, everything interesting happens off the racing line. Let’s go. [Music] I’ve earned these stripes. The road from dreamer to driver ain’t always straight. Kept my head down. Fueled by faith. I lost some time but found my name. Pressure made a diamond out of me. I’m right and I brought [Music] w my truth between the scars and his peace. This ain’t luck. Out the sea hop the racing line where my story begin. [Music]
