31 Hours, 4 Minutes: Breaking the Cannonball Run Speed Record in a BMW M5

Welcome to the very first episode of off the racing line a podcast about what really happens on and off the racetrack and what happens when things don’t go as planned so I know you guys are wondering why the name why off the racing line if you’ve ever raced you know the phrase the racing line is Holy it’s the fastest way around the racetrack when you come off of it that’s when stuff happens you find the marbles uncertainty chaos but that’s also where you see you find some great opportunities and some great stories I am your host Carlos Espitia uh with my co-host Mike Moore and today we are kicking off things with someone who absolutely represents the embodiment of this show my good friend David Meyer that’s a hell of an intro David’s a seriously good driver the former US Coast to Coast speed record holder the 2024 far superlap series SL1 champion and the guy with some incredibly wild stories so we want to definitely get into those right now uh this episode we’re going to dive into instructor War Stories the art of coaching and a segment I like to call The One That Got Away stories of almost Glory David so anyways we’re gonna get into it all right let’s go David welcome to the show it’s great having you here thanks for having me so for those of you listening David Meyer has been in Motorsports in the Motorsports world for about 20 years right sure he started out tracking and racing up in New York at Watkins Glenn and he’s been coaching and instructing ever since the wildest part well one of the wildest stories that I like for your stories is back in 20 2006 David was one of the co- drivers who broke the cannibal uh Coast to Coast Speed Record New York to LA in 32 hours and 7 minutes that’s incorrect that was the record that we broke oh 31 hours and 4 minutes was my time we broke a 23-year-old record that was set in 1983 in a red Ferrari 308 so what was your time then 31 hours and 4 minutes oh yeah you seem to have that committed to memory you know one of those things in life that tends to stick so one of my favorite parts of that story is that you guys did it in an absolutely amazing car the BMW E39 M5 the last of the best m5s yes so here’s a really great story about that that I would like to share with you guys uh back in 2007 2008 uh when I was just starting my hpde Venture in uh I had an E46 M3 at the time I was at a at a bookstore where they you know you could still go to a bookstore at that time and I was looking for books about you know how to drive faster and things like that and I happened to see the uh the book on the Shelf you know this one here and what caught my eye was the M5 on the cover I said well let me let me take a look at this I picked it up kind of you know read through it real quick I said illegal illegal racing Coast to Coast like this is for me let me read it I I took it home and I loved it I I I read it from cover to cover fast forward about 15 years later um I’m hosting the very first track event that you know that I’ve hosted at PB you remember that oh yeah you were invited as a as a guest um instructor and I kept hearing people saying asking me who who’s that guy in the blue E46 M3 I’m like why what’s what’s the matter well he’s kind of a he’s kind of wild what’s going on well you know he’s kind of kissing walls with his rear bumper and this nice sideways so I made it a point to to go over where you were like I don’t know who this guy is and I don’t know if he’s just a young crazy guy I went over there and and that’s when I met you and uh just down to earth just really laid back and like okay I guess he’s fine two months later um I was I was asked to instruct at the Ferrari Club of America uh annual event at Sebring I go there and sure enough I meet David there again it was like destiny that him and I were going to become friends friends uh we shared we we exchanged numbers and after the event I’m leaving and sure enough I look in front of me and there’s David in his yellow Ferrari so I called him up I’m like hey man where where are you headed he’s like I’m going down to dely I’m like no kidding I live in Del so let’s just Caravan good so we’re heading down about an hour later David calls me and he’s like hey man I got to stop by uh what was that shop we orbit orbit you’re the Ferrari was making like funny noise or something was going on with the car what what happened yeah so um it was it was having a little bit of a just it was missing just a little bit and um it turned out there’s you know the timing was off just just a hair so um I’ll let you finish the rest of the story but so so he’s like hey do you mind if I just drop the car off and uh and and can you give me a right home like well we both live in Del that’s not a big deal so I said sure we dropped the car off at orbit he jumped in the car we start sharing stories and he just kind of just drops this this this bomb of you know the Cannonball Run Record and he just keeps going on on a different story and I was like whoa whoa wait a second Circle back to yes what what happened there you broke the speed record he’s like yeah you know back in 2006 I was like in what car in in in in the M5 I was like no you didn’t I was you know I’m I’m I thought I was being cheeky cuz I read the book and you were not in this book so I told him I’m like listen I have the book you were not in the book he’s like yeah I was he said look when you go home after you drop me off go home look at the book and so sure enough I dropped them off I run in open the book look at the pictures I was like holy [ __ ] that’s David Myer right there anyways that’s how you and I essentially started becoming like really good friends it kind of spiraled from you know from from that point that was that was date one of the Bromance yes yes um but so now David you’re part of uh a huge project with P1 motor club uh a private Motorsports Country Club opening in Port St lcy in 2026 that’s the plan is to have cars driving on track in uh in February 2026 yeah it’s um it’s an awesome facility they own 650 Acres which is approximately a square mile uh they’re building two uh FIA uh two or three certified racetracks one of them is 4 and2 miles long and it has elevation Loops under itself and um and then that that track is four and a half miles so they can run that track two and a/4 mile two two and a/4 mile tracks concurrently if they need that’s the member track the P1 track and then the Gold Coast track is going to be a 3.2 mile track another FIA SE track which they will be able to hold races on and you know it’s also a big country club facility uh they’re offering residences which you can Homestead um it’s really going to be awesome it’s going to be one of the first like real purpose-built RAC trcks with all the right runoff and Banking and elevation and I feel like you know the tracks we drive mostly are a retired Airfield Sebring and you know an oval and an infield either a Daytona or Homestead and oval infield tracks just I don’t know they I used to drive at Pocono in the Northeast and it was just never my favorite it was always like the first track event of the year and you just go there just kind of shake off the cobwebs but the track experience was not quite the same as like a Watkins Glenn or a purpose built track Like New Jersey Motorsports Park or even you know Lime Rock so right right now now we’re going to have that here in Florida which is awesome and Flor is supposed to be one of the first um racing clubs that’s going to be racing at P1 in 2026 yeah um it’s it’s all it’s all happening they they’ve Broken Ground they’re they’re moving shovels they’re moving dirt they’ve excavated the whole thing and they’re also going to have a carting track and a crosscar track which is actually I think probably going to be the most fun for people who are into racing it’s sort of off-road sort of onroad catch a you know roll cage and all that and a little yeah you so anyway there’s going to be a lot of cool things happening there we are definitely um privileged I think Florida has 11 Tracks in in in Florida and then some of those are just major major tracks yeah but even you know we used to have um PBR right nearby and it was great because it was so close but again the track was it was flat and it was short and it got boring quickly and I don’t think this track with the different configurations they can run and just running a 4 and a half mile track that’s like not anything you I mean Sebring is pretty long but SE Sebring will chew your car up you know and this the elevation changes is something that’s going to be very different for us Florida drivers that are not used to that for sure um even if it’s minor we’re not used to that yeah no it’s um I think it makes tracks a lot better I’ve raced you know tracks up and down the east coast and Canada and California and having the elevation is fun to get some of that momentum and the extra grip going down and the lightning of the car when you’re going over rise it makes for really good Driving Experience so you mentioned it’s going to be roughly 10 miles of you know private racetrack essentially replacing the traditional Golf Course model uh with the Motorsports experience um we’re starting to see more of these highend driving Focus clubs popping up across the country um why do you think this model is catching on and what kind of enthusiasts does it you know attract well listen um you know it’s getting harder and harder to find fun places to drive your car on the road these days and you know the way things are going lot electric cars and autonomous driving cars I think you know eventually racetracks might be kind of the last place to really go experience what what cars can do um you know down here in Florida the driving is straight roads and no turns and you know so getting on track for us you know track focused people like this is a place where we can do all the things we like to do with our cars and um and I think that that’s the there’s there’s a need for that and there’s a lack for that and um you know roads are getting more dangerous and RAC trcks are a safe place to go experience what your car can do I think you um you nailed a couple points that I think the cars are becoming faster and faster the roads are I think littered with people that are just not focused on driving they’re focused on just about everything else but driving and so where can you actually you know enjoy you know a high horsepower car you know whether it be a BMW P hor power cars are fun too on the track of course of course but they’re going to let you they’re going to I think get you in less trouble at on the street for sure the cars are so capable these days I mean to get maximum performance even out of a Cayman these days I mean you got to be you got to be breaking the law so violently to I took a little bit of offense to your even just David hey get get a get a GT4 and like forget it by the time you’re experiencing the limits on that car and even the base models are so good that’s what I’m saying not not a dig in any way but you know even the base models are so good you got to be you got to be going so fast to experience the limits of these cars and you know there’s not a turn on the roads down here to experience that and all these cars are the most fun in the turns I’ve I’ve always been a a BMW guy when I started you know doing track days and uh I think it was Porsche of Naples uh did a one of those uh programs where they allow you to test drive their their new Porsches at Homestead I remember I drove the uh the Carrera S or on Homestead and by the time I was finishing the first lap I seriously this my thought was this is a cheater car it is so easy to drive this car it’s not even so fair I have a funny story about how I ended up a Porsche guy um I was had been instructing for a while in my previous track car my first track car well my first track car was a Corvette we we talk about that my second track car was a 2012 Golf R and I love that little car you could fit all the parts four four wheels and Tire in the back you know Jack the whole so I just go to the track by myself swap brake pads swap tires so I had a buddy of mine that was living in the Northeast and he had come down and he was driving Sebring for the first time so very capable driver but just you know didn’t know the track it’s obviously very long and complicated so I said oh I’ll hop in the right seat with you you know ride around for 15 minutes and you know you’ll be good to go after that so we hop in the car he does sort of one warm-up lap and uh come through turn one and then down into turn three and I was just ready to say you know too hot too hot to get him to slow down he turned in the car went right around the corner and I thought to myself there is no way my little Volkswagen will ever do that and I promise you this I got out of the car and start started shopping for a Porsche and that’s how I ended up with Porsche I was just like my chassis will simply not do this so that is how I became a fan so yes to your point very easy to drive yes it’s a fantastic car uh let’s shift gears for a minute and talk about something that doesn’t get enough credit in this world the art of coaching being a good instructor isn’t just about writing right seat and giving commands it’s about understanding your student adapting to their needs and sometimes going Way Beyond what’s expected a good coach doesn’t just help you drive better they look after you and on and off the track now David you and I were talking about an experience that uh you had a couple maybe a year ago with long ago yeah so walk me through that where you actually went well out of your way for this one student that showed up unprepared at Sebring for his first track day you know coming into the last turn 16 it was fine then going back out into one again the brakes faded and we went way deep and I was like you know I don’t know how many l we can handling this thing before we wind up in a wall so um let’s just bring this thing in and take a look at where where the break pad situation is you know break it’s like did you change the Brak you change the fluid he’s like yeah well I had the fluid change but um you know it was a car that um he was probably light on brakes and he was running Street pads and you know he just kind of didn’t know all these things so to his credit like maybe the pads were down to a third but um you know maybe it was just Street Compound on a on an older car that you know wore out quickly I don’t know I didn’t fully inspect them before didn’t realized that he was going to go through a third of the pth sure anyway sessions or a session this poor guy smoked his brakes and he was down to the backing plates on the rear brakes of the car too so I was like uh man you know and that was after the first session on the first day of a three-day weekend and um I was like well this might be a long expensive painful experience for you learning experience for you to figure out you got to make sure all this stuff is done but you know to your discredit you know it’s a first track day you don’t know how quickly you’re going to wear through stuff and you know you might have looked at it and thought it was fine but anyway um you know the poor guy I hated to see him you know ruin his whole weekend by you know not having pads on his car so I mean we did everything I called AutoZone with the guy and he thought he found a set of them and you know I ran him out to the Auto Zone and we picked up some stuff some pads and some fluid and we’re going to bleed them a little bit I happen to have a bleeder with me and let them borrow tools and all those things and it’s it’s not um necessar an instructional thing that I I would do all the time but this guy was just such a nice guy and he was so into it and he was a competent driver for having never been on the track so I wanted to maximize his experience for him and I want them to come back to events like this because these are the people you know the first timers that get excited about it tell their friends about it and bring people back so you want to make sure they have a really good experience and I went above and beyond what you know most instructors or even I would do with you know a different a different student um you know maybe somebody older didn’t care so much or you know so um I think there are two takeaways from that story number one please show up you know with an adequate amount of you know tires and brake pads make sure your your car is going to go to war unlike you’ve ever seen it go through before and then number two I think we’re talking about what what makes a good instructor is is understanding when you have to go beyond the Call of Duty and understanding that you know what this guy like you said this guy nice guy I don’t want his weekend to be over let’s see if we can find you some break pads and and see if we can get the car back out there again so I think that’s what makes one of the things that makes a really good instructor is that you care about the student and the experience that they have especially being their first experience Mike what do and and you know and that guy did come back too I mean he signed up for another event and he’s like he was upset that he didn’t have me the next time and I didn’t realize that he had signed up but um anyway yeah and and I will say that it’s not just instructors right it’s just track people in general are like it’s hard you’d be hard pressed to find somebody that won’t lend you you know a Jack or a screwdriver or something gen generally speaking track people really stick together it’s it’s a A brotherhood a Sisterhood um yeah it’s it’s really interesting I’ve had people that you know just were in the garage next to me that saw me struggling early in my my career I didn’t have any idea what I was doing right um we’ve all been there everybody everybody started at some point in time their first track day didn’t know where to go didn’t know what to do they were ill prepared so we’ve all been there um so yeah the overwheling majority of my my best friends today are all people that I met the track yeah for sure I mean I’ve had that experience too even one of my first days track days down here is with you and um our buddy John and I got a puncture my tire and he had a you know tire patch kit and yeah he patched that and put air back in the tire and I ran a track day with a plug tire but you know it got me through the rest of the day and uh I find that too with you know the the racing that we do and you walk through the paddock if you need something you need a jack you need jack stand you need you know fluids or you know there’s always somebody with there willing to help and I think that’s one of the things that’s very I think comforting as you approach maybe somebody that’s listening to this uh wants to go to their first track day that it is so welcoming you know um like you guys mentioned anybody is willing to you know lend you a tool if you forgot there’s chances are if you showing up to the track for your first track day you’re going to forget something and and ask enough people in the padic and chances are you’ll find it somewhere right yeah and people are are willing to just get out the car and like hey let’s fix this right now um I I love that Mike let me ask you this um what’s the most satisfying moment you’ve ever had as a coach or instructor um you know it it’s I guess I would be remiss if I if I didn’t say that it was instructing my wife all the way from her very first track day at Sebring all the way up to now a intermediate blue group driver some people would say that could be you know Hit or Miss well you know yes I I I figure if our if our marriage survive that it can survive anything my and I have to tell you that my favorite thing about that was and you know all the all the married men out there will appreciate the story I told everybody for two hours a day I get to yell at my wife and she had to do exactly what I was saying so that was personally that was a very rewarding experience but no actually it it was great you know I I took her out for she was uh played uh Sports in high school you know so I knew that she had the competitive bug um so I brought her you know a track day for her birthday one year and thought it was a Saturday a two-day event I was there instructing so I said you know I’ll instruct you on Saturday and uh you know fully expected to go out there and for her to be like oh yeah you know that was fun had a good time and we didn’t even get to lunch on Saturday before she said can I sign up for tomorrow too and I thought to myself I didn’t really Factor all these extra consumables into this onetime birthday present that she got but yeah fast forward 5 years uh she’s out there solo mixing up with the with with the rest of the guys that’s that’s amazing I’ve always heard there’s there’s a few things you don’t teach your wife and one of them is skiing the other is driving and the other one is sex yeah oh well the things you’re not supposed to coach on I’ll just comment that she’s home with a broken arm from skiing and I’m not going to comment on the other topic we’ll just leave that Al cover two of the three right on um okay let let’s transition over to a question that I really want to ask both of you um have you ever coached someone who genuinely genuinely thought you thought should not be on the track like this person doesn’t doesn’t belong in the racetrack and I know it’s counterintuitive to what we’re trying to do which is get people to the track but some people are just not cut out for that have you guys have ever had experience like that I mean I I will say that the overwhelming majority of people that join us don’t understand how hard it is to do this right it it it it’s very difficult um fortunately the only person that I really had that I genuinely was concerned about um fortunately they were on the the two conserv side which I often find is the case you know even if you find somebody that show up high horsepower car type A personality you know they they they think that they sort of know it all I generally find those people like one lap in they have checked their ego very quickly because they realize how difficult it is so the only time that I I I truly felt this person doesn’t belong on the track uh fortunately they figured that out themselves um so had gone out for uh the first sort of 30 minute warm-up session standing yellow just learning that was it they packed up after the 30 minute warm-up session Under full course yellow with no passing I think we got over I don’t think we ever got over 85 mil an hour um somebody had somebody had gotten them uh this as a present so they were sort of you know pseudo interested in it they weren’t super passionate about it they just wanted to drive their 911 on the track they drove the 911 on the track uh they they checked out and there was a little bit of of relief there because it would have been a long day okay I’m I’m curious like did you have a conversation with him afterwards like what what could have happened that prompted him to just say this is not for me um you know I think because it was somebody else had gotten them this for a present and they didn’t realize just what it was I think maybe they they thought it was one of the more long the lines of a just an experiential thing where you’re going to go out there and it’s going to be nice and Rel right exact parade laps or um you know they’re going to spend most of the time in the the passenger seat and you know just learn a little bit I I don’t think that they realized what it was that that they had purchased um and and they quickly realized that it was not for them interesting I’ve I’ve had a couple of those too um I I became an instructor with u the Porsche Club and went through their whole thing up in Watkins Glenn and there was always a term for the the students who you know just didn’t have it or weren’t going to get it and OSB which is other sports beckan and and I’ve definitely had a few of those um I was instructing at New Jersey Motorsports Park back in ‘ 08 and um Greg andred who was um Mario Andre’s nephew say the name sounds familiar yeah he was he was trying to put together um you know a little Ferrari you know driving you know driver’s ed program and um I had had a an older gentleman and he had a beautiful which was pretty new at the time in’ 08 um uh a 430 um it was a coupe but it was had a manual transmission which is which is rare in that car um and this guy just thought he could hit the gas pedal everywhere and didn’t really understand that he needed to use the brakes and after the third off on the outl um I was I was terrified and um you know what’s surprising is now I’ve been doing this for almost you know 20 years instructing how few times I actually run into students that that are like that most people are super coachable and most people don’t want to wreck their car you know some people don’t get it as quick as others but uh that guy was definitely OSB and I just had a conversation I said you got to bring this car in I said I I I’ve I’ve warned you you know each time and you know just I’m like but I’m I’m worried for for my safety here this this isn’t going to end well for you or me or the car so I say you got to bring it into the pits and find a different instructor you know maybe somebody else can communicate with you better but um he was just out there just Yahoo gas pedal you know just like straight over Hill right like trying to Wrangle this poor car in and I’m just like oh here we go off again bounce through the grass just overdriving and not interested learning how to dve yeah just not paying any attention to what I was saying and um and you know I was also um going back even before that I was up at Watkins Glenn and and my first track car um was a 1979 930 Turbo the old Widow Maker and um and all I did was you know remove weight and add horsepower to that car but perfect um excellent recipe for dis I went up there cuz my mom had had um had bought a 1999 Carrera 4 you know Tiptronic or whatever they were back at the time and and I was like Mom let’s go let’s do track day together and um I went out in in her run group at one point and she was just a moving chicane the guy was like you you could drive faster on an exit ramp than you’ve been driving her on any one of the turns here is like um yeah it just wasn’t working for her but she tried um so my mom was definitely one of those OSB people too all right well that’s um it’s a great segue for our next segment which I’m really excited about that this is going to be I believe the Cornerstone to the uh the show um it wouldn’t be off the racing line without a little chaos this is this next segment is called instructor War Stories three of us have talked about what this segment is about so we’re going to jump right into it Mike I’m going to start with you in over 10 years of instructing I know you’ve got a vault of insane moments but if you had to pick one that still lifts rentree in your mind which one would that be you know the majority of of my insane moments have been self-inflicted uh with me behind the driving me me in the me in the driver’s seat to be perfectly honest with you I’ve been very fortunate in that uh I I my most sort of problematic um experiences sitting in the right seat have always been people that were just too conservative right like they wouldn’t you know it like I said it’s a hard thing to do right to get somebody at you know coming through a blind corner to roll back on the throttle where you can’t when you can’t see the exit and to go all the way out to that Rumble strip and use the entire track you know it’s the only way you’re going to get around the track fast right um so the majority of my my you know I wouldn’t even call them War Stories um are all more tied to people that simply wouldn’t push as hard as they were capable of you know I I I tell everybody when I’m sitting in the right seat I’m not going to tell you to do anything that I don’t know that you and the car will do now whether you’re willing to do that or not is entirely up to you so if you tell me hey Mike I’m not really interested in doing that because I think you’re a crazy person uh that’s fine you know I’m I’m there to get us around the track as fast as possible uh in a safe manner so you know sitting in the right seat I’m certainly not going to tell somebody to do something that’s going to put me them or their car in Jeopardy Mike I really appreciate you completely letting us down on this segment I was totally hyping up appreciate that I knew you’d be uh you know a little bit disappointed but you know like I I you know knock on wood I I really I’ve been very fortunate that you know the the yeah my horror stories are um I was down at Homestead one time and the overwhelming majority of them you know thankfully fall into this category I was down at Homestead one time uh had a guy had come out with a Audi ttrs it was relatively brand new I can’t remember what probably like 201 18ish maybe and uh from my vantage point in the right seat I could look over and they had you know the digital dashes that had already become popular at that point in time and he had it customized to that the you know the gigantic gauge that I could see from my side was throttle input right so we come down and you know we down into the infield you know two through two three four coming out of five right you can roll back on the throttle there and this guy’s all proud C like 600 miles on it he was all excited about it so you know we get down to the Apex there a four starts to track out and I say okay go go go go go go and I can see out of the corner of my eye the the throttle input and literally the gauge is like 1% 4% like go go go go go 7% I mean it was just like come on man like you want to trade seats with me like I would love to to Pilot this thing around there and see what it’s capable of great handling car right you know all-wheel drive like you were it was going to take a lot to get in trouble with that car um and yeah he he just would not do it so so I I hate to disappoint you but it won’t be the first or the last time all right no I know thanks Mike I do have one I have a story that I would like to share with uh with you guys and our audience um Homestead as well this was uh oh my goodness back in 12 13 years ago uh one of Henry Gilbert’s uh events back when he owned hooked on driving M it was supposed to be a night event so when we went out there with our students it was it was I would say this the sun was just starting to set it was still daylight but you know it was starting to set there were some Shadows uh we go out there and uh my guy’s just you know he he’s it seems like he’s not listening to me but he he’s he’s not all there so I remember distinctive distinctively still going into uh going into turn six you know the the Horseshoe and uh he’s he’s going relatively slow he takes the turn and he goes way too wide and now we’re on the left hand side on on the dirt and he’s kind of bumped being we’re doing 30 mph or something I was going to say not a great place to do that but at 30 m an hour you were like 30 or 40 we’re bouncing around like hey not a big deal I’m looking over like not a big deal man just you know put it back on the track and you know we’re still bumping you know we’re still doing our thing and I look over I’m like hey it’s it’s fine you know I I see him fixated on the wall it’s like staring at us now and I look at him he’s just like this right and um and I’m like hey it’s fine it’s fine just get back on TR to your right yeah I’m like hey I’m like I’m like yelling at him now and so I like one of the only times I think that I’ve ever grabbed the wheel like actually grabbed it pulled it back in and again we’re doing 30 miles an hour um and so I’m I’m I’m kind of concerned at this point right because he’s not answering me at all so I said listen I I don’t know what’s going on like you’re not responding to me you’re not answering me I don’t know if like you could hear me you goes I can hear you I’m like okay well why don’t we go into the pits and have a little conversation because I I don’t know what’s going on so we go around we go into the pits you know he puts the car in park I’m like so I you know I kind of looked over at him like okay what what’s going on what’s up and he looks at me and I still remember his the expression he says to me I I can’t see what what what are we doing on a RAC track and you can’t see this this was a a Mustang GT um and and I remember I was like okay well this is the end of your day and my day cuz we’re not going back out there so U that that was my you know one of my worst stories Dave you got one you know I probably the worst one I had was that the guy in that um um Ferrari was probably one of the worst um but you know like like Mike said I hate to disappoint but um you know a lot of a lot of the I’ve never had a student wreck his car but I wrecked my own car so um you know that these things happen on track you know to to me some of the the most frustrating stuff is like when you’re coming out of a turn and a guy’s in a you know higher horsepower car that doesn’t know how to drive all that well and you say hey check your mirrors you got some traffic behind you and and they just don’t know what to do or they Mash on the gas pedal and trying you know you know like it’s not we’re not out here to drag race down the straightaways but there’s a lot of people that think that and that sometimes gets frustrating when guys are just like we know you have the faster car but he’s the faster driver and you got to you got to let people through that’s how this this operation Works we’re not racing we’re we’re learning how to drive and and nobody’s learning how to drive if you’re holding them up through all the turns and um just mashing it on the straightaway so you know you you’re always going to have those students and you just try and you know once once they figure out okay well there’s people out there in slower cars older cars that are way quicker than me know how to get around quicker than me and be like we’re going to figure out how to get as fast as them and so those are some of the things that you know just get frustrating over time that um you know you always get a new guy out there who just first time out it’s just wants to mash the gas pedal on his car and go and doesn’t know how to ease in the brakes and ease off the brakes and get those transitions to the turn so um those are things I I like to try and encourage and work on be like hey let’s let’s some of these guys go and then we’ll we’ll figure out how to catch up with them right follow follow them you may learn something and and so that’s hard to hardly a war story but those those are things that keep coming up and those are those are things that you just that that make everybody else’s track day better too if you everybody’s enjoying that flow and and going at their own pace and super rewarding when that light comes on and they finally figure out oh okay more fun to Chas that faster car and see what they’re doing that I that I’m not so sure you know um far we’re we getting ready to launch our instructor school and so um in the instructor school one of the the roles to you know for for senior instructors to you know to play a mentor and we’re doing our role playing on the track um that that that person that you mentioned that just smashes the throttle cuz I have a higher horsepower car I love to embody that person when I’m playing I’m being the mentor and I’m doing the driving and the candidate is is playing the instructor and so I I do that on purpose because because you see it almost at every single track day you’ll find somebody that’s just that Miata I don’t know how you got there but I’m definitely faster so he’s not getting around me and so I verbalize that as I’m playing the you know the the student I’m like you know the instructor says hey you know we got a guy behind me behind us we should let him pass and I’m like no throttle yeah I I I us I I like to pick on on the Mustangs just cuz I don’t know it’s fun and I’ll say something like Mustangs you know this car is way faster than a Mustang and Mustang drivers are dumb so I am not going to let him Mustang fans here it’s the the embodiment that I like to to take but I do have I do have one Final War Story and and I can thank Mike for this one we were um had a a far track day and there was a guy there all suited up in his RAC Su and had his um GT3 RS there and he had brought his own instructor and you know wasn’t clearly playing by the rules and um I said hey Dave we need to do a checkout ride with this guy like it’s the end of the day and it’s like you know 5:00 and I want to get home and um what day it was like I feel like there was something maybe it was like that was Super Bowl yeah was Super Bowl Sunday yeah it was that day um and I get in the car with this guy and his English was um very very sparse um and I I give him the the radio so I could talk to him I said can you hear him and he kind of nods his head and we go back out there I run down the the front straight and he’s like half pedaling like pass start finish at this point and he’s like I can’t see I can’t see and I’m like the sun isn’t that low in the sky it’s not that deep in your eyes and and then I was like okay could you point out the corner workers to me he goes I can’t hear you I said well you heard me if you heard me say that and it was like in his you know broken English and I said I just wouldn’t you have point out some Corner workers and then never pointed out one and you know going into 67 and going around um he was just like 30 m an hour in a GT3 RS I’m like I could I could do laps around this guy in in an E30 if I had to and and it was very difficult to communicate with him and he was not listening to anything I said whether he could hear me or not I I knew he could hear me if he just couldn’t understand me but um I said let’s bring this in like it’s it’s late you’re you’re not getting it and um he did not get checked out so um that’s actually a success story um I’ll brief you on that one okay so he ends up coming back the following uh event with f and we gave him one of our instructors um he’s one of more senior instructors and I um I remember I went up to him I said how’s it going how’s how’s the day going and he’s like oh man this is amazing my instructor is just amazing of course because it’s it’s a far instructor he knows how to instruct rather than somebody that owns the team or something like that they don’t they don’t understand how to be an instructor so he by giving him that uh assignment of an instructor that really wasn’t an instructor right I think it it it sort of short changed that student you know by giving him a a proper uh instructor he had a blast you know the teachers make all the difference right i’ I’ve got identical twins at home and fortunately they’re both very smart they’ll take you know they’re both taking you know calculus or something and one of them has a great time the other one is miserable and it all comes down to the quality of the instruction sure m all right um let’s close things out with the last segment that I got in store for us The One That Got Away right so we’re talking about missed opportunities uh missed opportunities for Glory now this could be uh racing could be a track day could be a tenth of a second C you to come in second place to me that was coming Dave start with you uh you’ve been around racing and coaching for decades what’s a moment that still sticks with you as the one that almost went your way but didn’t oh man I got I got a few here but um uh as as you know um Mike knows I’ve I’ve done a lot of the endurance racing with um with champ car and a and other things so i’ I’ve done a ton of racing um all with you know pretty low quality vehicles um which makes it fun because everybody else has low quality Vehicles BMW yeah BMW like an E30 um but anyway was uh I was at Watkins Glenn my favorite track and I had a team of um of good guys and and we were down to the last last three laps and we’re running in sixth place in this you know junker car that I had dressed up like uh a laughing clown Malt Liquor car and I I found the guy who did the graphics for the car and the movie and I had the Ricky Bobby RAC suit and the Jean Gerard RAC we had a whole theme together for the team and the batteries from the radio went out and so we just had like a few laps to go we’re running in sixth place and all we needed to do we were like way ahead of the guy in seventh place and we weren’t going to catch the guy in fifth place so we just needed to like take it easy and um one of my teammates um who actually produced the the documentary from me racing cross country the canonball Run um he’s all by himself huge gap in front and behind and going around the off camber um turn nine at Watkins Glenn wads the thing up in the wall oh and um this is towards the end of the race this was this was three laps left we’re in we’re in sixth place which you know top top 10 in any one of these 14 hour uh this was a they do a like a 778 or something like that so it’s three separate races on on different days and this the last day last race and the car was watted up and I was heartbroken the guy was fine but um you that that was that was a tough one um just to yeah to swallow you know and it was like they just kind of walked away from the situation kind of yeah um it was it was unfortunate um that’s a tough one because I think especially because it’s a an endurance race and there’s so much that you’ve already invested so much time to be able to have the car running at the end of the race is is a success in these things right so the goal is just to finish yeah so and and when you’re in top 10 you’re like hey we got a top 10 finish and i’ I’ve had better finishes and we finished better but um that one hurt that one still hurts I I missed that car we had a lot of fun with that car I’m sure Mike what about you man what’s what’s the one that got away from you this is a loaded question if I ever saw I carry my my second place uh trophy around with me um you know as a not subtle reminder of U Sebring that was Sebring my yeah Sebring if I’m not mistaken the same thing happened at a homestead our first our first so so yeah it um it first of all thank you for for getting me involved in in far the superlap series you know I’ve been doing this for a long time it was just kind of out there spending money on gas spending money on brakes spending money on tires I had you know lost a little bit of that that passion I was getting obvious you know honestly more was more passionate about coaching at that point in time than I was driving um and then you know you introduced me to to far into the superlap series so I’m out there running time trials so I I I took it so far as I’d gotten rid of one track car that was terribly unreliable so when I was shopping for my next track car I was actually putting the calcul putting the the stats for a bunch of cars I did hours of research a days probably hours is an understatement making sure that I was going to find find a car that was competitive um you know you need the right car the right driver the right equipment all that stuff so found a car that I knew to be good went out there and first day lost by a tenth of a second yeah second day lost lost by a tenth of a second I was just like this is brutal that second day remember that uh I ran I don’t know what it was a whatever it was and I remember you were already aiming for that time and he came he comes up to me and he says I got you I got you and I had gone faster at that moment also by a 10th yes this this this was before we had the the live scoring you know so so now now I uh I come into I go out I run my hot laugh I come into the pits I take out my phone I just stare at the live scoring was like oh I’m only up by a third of a second I guess we got to guess we got to go back out or oh good I’ve got got got a second that makes us you know it it it TR involved more mentally and and you the competitive Spirit of this is is what makes it fun you took SL1 I have a different I have a different story I I have a I’m running a car that’s you know almost um 30 years old and um it’s in no way competitive with a a 992 GT3 or GT3 RS or some of the other cars there and but but Carlos said hey you should come out and do this there’s only two people registered for SL1 you come out your car and you can you bring home a trophy so I’m like okay bring home a trophy that’s cool and and I did it sort of as a as a lark just to kind of have fun with it but then um all of a sudden after a couple more events and a couple more third places second here or there and then and then it got down to the very last event of the year and I got a little bit of a late start in the morning to drive down to Homestead and um they were cleaning up a big wreck a couple cars that rolled over and there’s debris all over um Turnpike down there or whatever that road is and um and I get to the track and there’s one guy ahead of me Leo and a GT4 and the guy is legitimately quick in that car anyway so there was no way I was going to beat him so I’m fighting for second place but I get there and poor Leo he had he had ran over a piece of that debris from the wreck and and put a puncture his transmission there’s transmission fluid all over and I’m like I’m I feel horrible for the guy but I’m chuckling inside because not that bad did I just steal SL1 champion from this guy cuz I slept in a little bit too late like that’s not supposed to happen but you know it just goes to show hey keep showing up to these events keep signing up and you you might not be the fastest guy every weekend but you know if you’re there you you get to bring home the hardware and um you know it’s it’s fun to get other people to step up their game and these things like you guys are saying you guys are tense apart but you know um I set a personal best in my car at at Sebring this year chasing around some of the guys in the SL2 I remember you saying I’m not going to push it you know this is this is a this is a classic car 993 turbo I’m not I’m not going to push it da on the racetrack forget him Jas last time like everybody else putting the what $200,000 car sideways coming around the turn one at Sebring comes in breaks smoking I’m not going to push it remember what I told you I said just show up he’s like cuz he’s like I’m not going to be competitive against a GT4 and I told him and I’ll tell everybody else to come out of superlap series just show up just show up every every day every time that we have an event you could come in second third you’ll still take a trophy home but it’s it’s the accumulation of points right and that’s that’s ultimately what matters towards the end of the season and you got to take home the got my belt I got my belt right I’m uh like Hulk Hogan I know I know you’re for it this year you’re going for that all I have to say is that you’re very fortunate that I didn’t join last season until July because I I was coming I I resoled I resolved my my tenth of a second dilemma and I was coming some people might think that I uh got out of SL2 to escape you competing against you right I was just chasing other competition oh I don’t know we we have that we have that recorded right some somebody heard him somebody heard him admit that right okay we’re we need a sound clip of that sure yeah all right guys that’s the end of this episode thank you so much Mike Dave um for joining me stay sharp stay hungry and remember everything interesting happens off the racing line see you next time a driver ain’t always straight kept my head down fueled by faith I lost some time found my name PR made it D of me for