Welcome to Off the Racing Line. We have a special edition of the podcast today. We are shooting live at location from Homestead Miami Speedway for Far’s Homestead 250. This episode is brought to you naturally by Farra Formula and Automobile Racing Association.
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 Farah 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?
All right, let’s get into it. Our guest today, two very special people. I’ve been trying to get you guys on the podcast forever. I have Peter and Joseph Saddington with me. Welcome, guys. Thank you for having us on. Thank you for having us.
So, like I said, I’ve been trying to get you guys on. You guys are coming out from out of town. Um, from Georgia. You live in Georgia. Okay. So, Joseph, I want to get started with you. Okay. You were the youngest competitor or driver to go through FAR’s competition school a few months ago right here at Homestead Speedway. How was that? Tell me your experience through that.
Um, when my dad first gave me the news that I was going to be the youngest person doing comb school ever, I was like, you know, I got a bit of pressure because I’m the youngest person like in America doing this. So, I was like, ah man, like everyone’s looking at me, right? Cuz I’m the youngest. But after I got there, like I rented your car, the car was awesome. I just got into a groove and it was just amazing. Sure. And all the nerves just pretty much disappeared. Was it everything you thought it was going to be? Was it more? Was it less? Was it how strenuous was it?
It was actually a lot more fun than I expected because I was expecting like just school and not that much fun, but like getting to drive on the track and do like race starts, pit stops, it was awesome. Okay. And that was your first time here at Homestead Speedway also. Okay. How did you like the track? Um, I really like the combination of the high-speed straits with the banking and the technical uh infield. It’s really great track. Okay. Awesome. So that brings us to let’s actually you know what let’s talk a little bit about how you got to competition school before that you didn’t just jump into a car and started competing you were also competing in carting before that how tell me how you got your start doing that I got into carding when I was watching racing on TV I was like kind of want to do that so I asked my dad for like nine months straight just like let me race let me race. He kept saying no until finally he was like, you know what, he’s clearly um dedicated to racing and he clearly wants to just race. So, he gave it a shot. We went to Atlanta Motorsports Park for my first carting drive and it was just I fell in love with it. And you were doing it competitively? Yes. Okay. Did Did you win uh is it a series that you go in?
Uh yes. I won my second season at AM. I got second in the championship and the next year I won the championship. Okay. And after that we move we decided to go a little bit more competitive where the better drivers were. So we moved to Track House Motorplex where a lot of the national winners go and we raced there for quite a long time. Got uh third in championship there and right still racing a little bit but we’re probably going to focus on cars a little bit. So that brings us to this weekend. Yes. You started in carting. How old were you when you started in carting? 6 years old. Six years old. Competition school 12 years old. Now we are in August, a few months after you finish competition school, you are going to be in your first fully sanctioned race racing in prospect Miata. Yes. How are you feeling?
Uh I’ve been a uh very nervous for tomorrow and Sunday, but after practice today, I got a feel for the car. Session one was just a little shakeddown, getting a feel for the car. Session two, session three, pushing, gaining like three seconds each session, and I’m actually uh feeling pretty confident for tomorrow. Okay. And uh you and your dad built this car. Yes. Okay. Tell me about the is it’s a Miata. Obviously, you’re driving in in a Prospect Miata class. So, tell me about the car. Um you guys put a lot of work into it. Yes. So, my builder was Bill Aa. He um he set up like the roll cage, the engine, and everything. And Todd Burus was working on um like all the extra things that Bill Auga didn’t add. And then when we arrived at his workshop, we uh worked on the seat and technical wires, right? And Yeah. So, you’re feeling pretty good about this weekend? Yes. Awesome. Peter, let me bring you into the picture. I have an eight-year-old daughter. Yes. I took her carting for the first time, indoor carting. Yeah. For the first time last week, and the joy that I felt just watching her go around, it was immense. I cannot imagine what’s going through your head right now as he’s getting ready to go out in his first race.
Talk to me about that from a father’s perspective. This the you you got the nail on the head, Carlos. This is a dream come true for a second generation race car driver. My father drove. I drove uh SECA licensed. U I drove a little bit of club Porsche Club Sport Radical SR3. Um you know, gentleman driver stuff, right? Uh and then just as my son said, you know, asking us to go race for nine months straight, we’re like, “Yeah, you don’t want to you don’t want to race. Like you just do it cuz your old man drives and your old man’s an old man drove and you’re just doing, you know, you’re doing what they want to do.” But after really seeing his perseverance and and really wanting to go race, we’re like, “Well, I know too much about this game, like you’re you’re asking the right guy.” Yeah. To get you in this game. Like, I know every not everything, but I know how to get into this game. And so, we ripped him out of school, um started homeschooling, and we said, “You’re going to be on the simulator every day, and you’re going to be on the racetrack three weekends a month, and we’re going hardcore.” And so we did six amazing seasons of carting and now he’s graduating into cars and this is the dream. Like I can’t tell you Carlos how many times we were driving down from Atlanta to Melbourne, Florida to Todd Burrus’s shop to get the car fit finalized with data, wiring, and the seat fitting. And I kept and we kept talking about this right on the drive down. And I was like, I I this is one of the only times in 44 years of life, Carlos, where I literally wanted to pinch myself cuz we’re doing the thing. Yeah. We’re doing the thing.
We are we’re driving sports cars. And so I’m over the moon. And for you, Carlos, to be part a big part of that story means a whole lot to us. It’s it’s amazing. It’s amazing to be sitting here and talking to you guys about it. Um I want to I want to get the other perspective because you also raised Yep. in in your previous life, are you still racing now? I still have my SECA license. I’m offered drives. Um the but the opportunity usually doesn’t come up because I’m either driving with my son at the carting track or doing it now. Now cars. So we literally did a double header national race up north on Saturday, Sunday. Drove down here on Monday to finish the car, the Spec Miata car. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, drive it here. First shakeddown today. Brother, I’m I’m eyeballs deep in racing, so I don’t have any time to get on the track myself. It sounds like you’re essentially vicariously living. This is the dream. This is the I don’t need to be I don’t need to be behind the wheel for him to to watch him run around uh this amazing track with amazing support at Farra um and Garage ID. Like this has been a dream come true. So, it’s just great to be here on site, on location at this podcast. You’re doing the thing, too, bro. It’s a pretty cool set, right, bro?
Say less. This is awesome. I love I love doing it. This is awesome. The weather held out. Like, I’m I’m pretty happy that that it worked out. Let’s talk a little bit more about the shakedown today. Today you had practice. Today’s Friday. Tomorrow is going to be your first race. How do you get ready? Uh, so today was practice. And for session one, I just got a feel for the car. And all the other sessions, I was practicing the line breaking points. And when I go to bed, before I go to bed, I visualize the track. I’m like, “Okay, I need to breaking at this cone. I need to be shifting to third gear here.” And I make sure I get a good dinner, good night’s sleep, wake up in the morning. Um, just visualize the track again. Get my mind set ready. You’re more responsible than most adults, it sounds like. We I we pulled them out of school to do this, bro. No, you guys are doing this like the right way. Yeah. Yeah. We’re We’re going the sports car track, right? We we you know, everyone dreams about Formula 1 and and that type of racing, but we’ve always loved endurance racing. And for him to want to do sports car racing and as you can tell, like gets locked in for the races means a lot lot to us. One of the things that we really enjoyed over just the last couple days, Carlos, is learning new kind of processes for sports cars, right? You you you drive sports cars, so you know that there you have this this this way of doing things before you get in the car, right? You you maybe you do your helmet first and then you lock in your Hans or you know, you you do your you you do your cool suit or what whatever. And so we were practicing that over the last last couple days, his new process for getting in this car and it’s just so fun learning all of these little facets of this racing game in sports cars and prospect beyond. It’s really really really fun. So one of the cool things I was thinking actually thinking about this on the drive down here. Uh, I was in my head as I was driving thinking about some of the questions that I I wanted to go over with you and I thought, you aren’t legally allowed to drive on the street and you’re about to hit the racetrack for the first time in a sanctioned race tomorrow. That’s got to be exciting, you know, like you’re you’re driving faster than most people can drive on on the street and you’re going to do it on, you know, on the racetrack.
If if I if I can just interject before you say anything, bro. um after he did comp school in your car. Yeah. Uh he was the coolest kid at school. I couldn’t imagine. He was the coolest kid at school, bro. Every dude, all your homies, all your homies were like, “Bro, you were racing the cars.” Like, everyone at school in my grade was like I could not just get a moment to just relax. Everyone was just coming. Were they asking for your signature? Not yet. Right. A couple of my friends did take some selfies with you. Like, this could be worth a lot in the future. Could be. Could be. With your help, brother. Well, that’s why I’m bringing you on the show early before you your name blows up on the headlights. Might as well get you in right now. All right. Make it big, sir. Okay. So, we talked about your your process of getting ready. Uh you visualize the track. You close your eyes. You kind of go turn by turn. You start spotting your breaking points, your turning points. Do you visualize other cars around you as you’re doing that?
Sometimes if if I know I have like a very competitive race tomorrow, I think about all the competitors because I’ve raced around these guys for years, especially in carting, right? I’m like, “Okay, this guy I I seen him drive. I know he’s going to do this. So, if I want to try to pass him if there’s like this much of a gap, what should I try in this corner to try to, you know, pass him?” So, maybe I like take a wider entry or something, you know, that kind of stuff. So tomorrow is going to be very different because you don’t know any of those drivers. You’ve never been on the track with them. So it’s going to be a learning experience really on the job training, my brother. That’s his That’s his new office, dude. It’s on the job training. Absolutely. I listen, I am super excited for you. Again, as I was thinking about this, I I started feeling more and more, you know, like nerves, you know, for you. So, I’m going to be uh I’m going to be running the show tomorrow with the academy, but I’m going to definitely be keeping my eye on on you and listening for your name, you know, from the the announcers. Uh Peter, talk to me a little bit about your background because you do a a lot of uh you do a lot of really cool stuff. Yeah. You were a part you were also a part of Vinwiki. Yes, that’s correct. So, what other projects have you been involved with? Well, the long story short of it is I’m your perennial entrepreneur. Uh was in corporate America in the late 90s uh for a while as an engineer developer. Figured out that I could build my own projects and I had enough gumption and enough assertiveness and enough hard work ethic to do that. And so I left in 2004 and I built my first company that got acquired in 2014 and then I built three venture funds. And so I’ve had the real blessing to be able to deploy capital and invest in amazing projects and amazing people. Um, and the Lord has been good to me in many ways because in my last venture fund, I’ve been able to deploy capital into technology startups in the racing and motorsports world. You’re wearing a hat of Garage ID, which is a web 3 technology platform for racing. So that’s one of our investments and and uh God has been really good to allow me to move from an entrepreneur uh an operator to a venture capitalist to support many different amazing projects and even better people. Awesome. Awesome. Well, I love having you guys here. Like I said, it’s been a long time since I launched the podcast. You were one of the first people I thought of of bringing on the podcast. Obviously, the distance was an issue and so we we’ll do more. I brought it here. This isn’t going to be the last time that we’re going to be talking off the racing line. I hope not. Okay, so let’s move over to the guest challenge. Okay, this is the part where you guys challenge two of your friends to come on off the racing line. So, who are you challenging? If you want to look at the camera. Oh, you can look at the camera. You can do talk straight to the camera and let them know, hey, you are being challened. Challenge you. Center Smith, if you are watching this, I challenge you to come to this podcast. All right, that’s one. There you go. Need another name. Oliver Patek. Oliver Patek is a Williams Esports sim racing um pro driver. Uh he has been a great friend of ours. He raced with my son back national racing and carding. He went to uh Spec Miata and now he got a Williams drive as a pro sim driver. So he’d be a great addition to your off the racing line podcast here, Carlos. All right, guys. You heard the challenge. Peter and Joseph laid it out there. If you’re interested in coming on the podcast, simply go to off theracingline.com, fill out the form, let us know when you want to come in. All right, guys. That is all the time we have for today. It’s been amazing finally chatting with you. Good luck tomorrow. Remember, everything interesting happens off the racing line. Everything happens off the racing line. I took the hard road. 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 brought receipt from my truth between the stars and this piece. This ain’t love. I burn the seat off the racing line where my story begins. I brought receipts. Throw my truth between the stars and his peace. This ain’t love. I burn the seeds of the racing line where my story begins.
