130 MPH Instructor War Story: ‘Is It Right or Left?’ (Sebring)

Welcome to Off the Racing Line i am Carlos Espitia joined today by my co-host Mike Moore and today with us we have a true motorsports powerhouse he co-purchased FAR Formula and Automobile Racing Association in 2023 transforming it into a top tier racing organization he has over 30 years of experience as a racing driver team owner and professional coach he secured the 2021 International GT Porsche GT3 Cup Championship he has racing victories in IMSA Trans Am World Challenge and more across the US Canada Peru Panama and Puerto Rico he is the co-owner and the T in TLM racing ladies and gentlemen David Tuaty after after an introduction like that I don’t know how to follow that’s pretty good i do my best i’m going to I’m going to take you everywhere with me david welcome to the show man it’s great having you here thank you thank you great having be being here uh doing this podcast with you guys super excited david let’s start with your journey into racing racing wasn’t always your full-time gig what were you doing before motorsports took over and was it a calculated risk or more of a necessity no no no you know like anybody that goes to school goes to college and realizes “Oh my god what am I going to do?” I’d made a a very smart decision and oh my god I haven’t told this story in a long time i became or or got not became I I got a degree in psychology in the University of South Florida in Tampa i don’t think I knew that all right fellow do you know do you know why I got that i decided to declare that MA major because it was easy nope nope nope nope i get I get to my apartment one day and there is this brand new This is 1992 there is this brand new Acura NSX parked outside i lost my mind it was the most beautiful car I ever seen i walk inside and it is the president of our fraternity the the national chapter he he knew that I liked race cars he threw me the keys and says “Here take it for a spin.” No way brand new it had paper tags red uh tan leather interior i took it around the block i I was like “Oh my god.” I I didn’t know what to do with myself i go back inside and I asked him “What do you do?” Because I wanted to do whatever he did so I can buy myself an accurate sex and he told me “I’m a psychologist.” Like that’s it i left the house i went straight to my counselor and I declared my major and she asked me why i go cuz cuz the guy owns an Acura NSX and and that was it that was the deciding factor fast forward two years later and I realized I needed to go get my masters go get my PhD spend another you know ungodly amounts of money and in a degree and I said “No this is not for me.” So I went back home uh my dad was already doing some commercial real estate so I decided to get my uh mortgage broker license and really was just I needed to make money to go racing um I did I did real estate financing for about 14 years and I loved putting deals together which has never changed because I love putting deals together with race cars buying race cars selling race cars putting guys and girls in the seats but my passion was just racing so real estate was just a means to be able to go racing um in 2008 when the market took a humongous dump I was left with a whole bunch of properties that we had to liquidate and no job and savings you know dwindling quickly um and I went to my the L in TLM David Lea and I said man I I got to do something i have an E36 BMW four-door with half a cage i need to rent it i need to start coaching out of it i need to do something and he did he he literally cleaned a portion of his desk and said “Here start twatti racing.” Which I did um with his help we build a car and I started renting it to my old IMSA buddies for a quarter of the price so all my buddies are like “Oh my god yes absolutely.” They were you know accustomed to paying some really large amounts of money to go racing so when I called them for a little fraction of the money they said “Yeah we’ll go race with you.” And that’s what started the business so Twatti Racing only lasted about uh a month and he quickly got renamed Twati Lada Motorsports which nobody could pronounce much less right so he became TLM and he’s been TLM ever since 2008 that was right around the time where you and I met mhm and I remember taking my then E46 M3 to your shop to to Lea shop and uh it was kind of scary it was like in a not such a good part of town the neighborhood the neighborhood was was very scary so to look at your where you’ve where you’ve gone since that since 2008 renting the the E 46 to now renting Cup cars and has two warehouses full of Porsches is pretty amazing well thank you thank you it took a long time to get there and we have some amazing customers um and we love racing it’s It’s so easy to sell something you love and I think that shows to your point i think people gravitate to that mhm i I enjoy what we do and we have gotten to the point that we pretty much pick our customers and we want to be with people that want to be with us it’s not a forced relationship uh all of our customers are are friends we hang out we go to dinner we do stuff together we’re looking forward to the next event um I mean I call it work because it is work but I haven’t worked since 2008 nice nice tell me um a little bit about the opportunity to buy Far how did that come about and um just walk me through that process um that was all Jose Deasca’s fault he he wrote me into it i you know I I didn’t come in kicking and screaming i I wanted to do it uh but because Jose and and we made a deal i go “Listen you you’re gonna be the one carrying the big load you know on the weekends and stuff like that and and we decided to to take it to the next level we we knew what we wanted to and I’m very thankful to F because in 2008 when David and I started TLM we took our program to F and because of the amount of track time and the atmosphere that it has then again it was easy to sell the product so because of F is why I have TLM today um so when Jose came to me with the opportunity to buy it we jumped at it and it’s been it’s been work cuz you have to put the events together and as you know it takes a a a big commitment of time and money and and more than anything brain power to make sure that everybody’s happy that you have the right people in place and I think my lucky stars you two are here cuz without you guys we would not have the SLS program or the academy and and we’ve been able to put good people together which is no different than TLM you want to be with the people that you’re with doing this podcast was the highlight of my week sorry to hear that uh one of the things I’ve definitely learned in in this whole you know trajectory of us running the academy is that it absolutely takes a village like to run an event you have to have the right people um let’s jump into uh something a little more personal uh oh when I first I’m just reading the question i’m already laughing when When I first met you 15 years ago you were more of a scrawny nerdy guy no offense fast forward to today and you’re you’ve pretty much transformed into a powerhouse at the gym i’m a hunk of burning love baby with arms the size of my legs tell me what sparked this shift in focus towards your physique and overall health especially as you approach 50 years old well thank you for that i’m 53 actually I’ll be 54 in December so I appreciate that uh and I had a wakeup call when one of my customers kids Stephen Hammond started beating me and it is the first time in the track on the track yeah physically no no nobody nobody’s bullying me motivation to go to the gym right but it was it was basically 30 years since a customer was able to beat me on a regular basis um I I every trick in the book I had when we first ran the 2021 when I won the IGT season is when he started doing it and he was doing well but he was coming in second a lot 2022 and 23 all of a sudden I think out of nine races he won like seven so I went to the gym I got a trainer and I said “Listen I got this 22-year-old kid that’s kicking my butt i This can’t happen.” And I felt I felt a little stiff and tired coming out of the race car i’m like “You know what i got to do something i got to do something i’ve always been thin but I got to do something.” So he put me on a on a regimen i I eat Oh my god you have the ungodly amounts of food and I don’t gain any weight which obviously some people hate me for it but it is what it is i eat so much just to try and and put muscle on but I feel better than I’ve ever felt before i I I think I look better than I ever did in my 20s um I have energy so yeah going to the gym has been a blessing so that brings me up to my next question you’re already in the spotlight quite a bit so how does your new physique come with its own set of challenges more specifically does it bring any unexpected attention from the ladies and how does Marlo your wife feel about all this no she loves it she loves it we’ve been married for 30 years she knows I I am I’m a fool i I’m always dancing i’m always I don’t know i try to not I don’t try to be I just like having fun and and people do gravitate to that but she’s very much like that too she used to come to the track all the time she used to be our hospitality person um but she has her own career um no you know what’s funny yes I do see some ladies you know giving me the eye but mostly is guys that that tell me “Hey Dave you look good.” Come on i swear to God i mean he does look good can’t deny argue with him yes so no no it’s never been an issue it’s never been an issue we’ve 29 years in January is going to be Yes and together like 31 so no it’s that’s never been an issue and you know what’s funny we do get you know uh the racing tailor one of our sponsors and he makes me a custom suit every year and because of that we have the measurements oh boy and all the all the suits that we’ve had from years past don’t fit me anymore the arms are getting bigger so I’ve always thought that in racing uh the car is a great equalizer meaning it doesn’t matter how old you are how tall you are short fat you can still be a great driver but as you climb to higher levels of competition especially as you get older physical fitness must play a huge role the heat alone especially here in Florida can make most people just tap out so what would you tell someone who’s looking to get started in club racing uh maybe a bit later in their life how important would you say exercise and eating healthy you know is to being maybe at the top level of this sport no that that it you have to have it you have to have control i mean you cannot go out there and and I’m guilty of it when we were in our 20s we would go out drinking way more than we should and show up at the track at 7 a.m no problem well in my 40s 50s I cannot do that anymore well listen I just to interrupt you real quick i when you said that in my 20s my 20s I was uh carrying an M16 we would do the same thing you know we’d go out drinking and show up to PT at 5 in the morning and everybody smell like a brewery and we’d run 5 miles no problem in the Marine Corps if I try running down the street you know after without drinking coffee I’ll pass out right you know hydration is very important try to eat the right food you know stay away from the fats and stuff like that especially if you want to race at a higher level and and at FA we do full 30 minute sprints which is more than any other sanctioning body a full 30 minutes at all out speed it it’s tiring not only physical but hugely mental yeah it’ll take it out of you big time so yeah no you got to make sure you hydrate you eat well you know try to minimize on all the junk food uh definitely go to the gym just healthy habits are are key i mean I hate to to be that guy but it’s true it’s true you as you get older you need to make sure that that physical aspect of the sport you keep on top of it because it’s really easy to go down the hill and you’re stuck yeah so that’s one of the things that I’ve noticed about uh not just FAR but other organizations typically the the guys I would say maybe 50% or more are older and this probably comes in line with they have the means to to go racing it’s a very expensive sport and so that’s why I wanted to pose that question is okay anybody can come and race but to do it at a higher you know at a high level and consistency and not kill yourself you know and be in bed for a whole week afterwards you know you should you should stay in in shape you know or do some sort of physical fitness to get ready that’s your message 100% stay active stay you can’t you can’t expect to be sitting in a couch 24/7 and then be able to do a 30 minute sprint you know in the heat of the summer in Miami so with all the attention that comes with racing and the lifestyle and the traveling um has it been tough to balance the spotlight and your personal life and everything that comes with that how How do you balance that because you do a lot of traveling i I don’t I don’t balance it i I Well I hate exposure i That’s why my car is dayclo orange i I love it i love it i I thrive in it some people get shy i don’t i I absolutely love it i love the traveling again because we go and we race with very cool people and amazing cars i’m leaving here in two days to go race a new M4 at Road America i just raced the Aston Martin at Sebring before that the 992 Cup car it’s a tough life i am extremely blessed and and not a day goes by that I don’t pinch myself because I cannot believe what I do every day we’re at the track all the time so we try to at home to make a vacation you know nice vacations every year um we’re planning I think we’re planning to go to Spain this year you know for I don’t know 10 days or so so I got to make sure I do that with the family and and every time I’m home I cook with my my 14 15 year old we cook every night my wife doesn’t cook we cook i love cooking to me it’s a huge distresser i get home and we do everything from scratch spend a couple hours in the kitchen with my my 15-year-old who’s amazing and and just have fun and cook and put music on and enjoy the the night cuz I know that I you know I’ll be leaving on Thursday for 3 4 days so you got to you got to put the family time in absolutely so for someone looking to start their own racing team uh what advice would you give them uh what do you wish someone had told you when you first began and what are the biggest challenges that come with owning a team especially when you’re managing the logistics and crew behind the scenes you know that is a really good question and I think that if you put 10 people in this seat they’ll give you 10 different answers but I can only tell you what worked for me and and what I’ve seen that has not worked for many others and it is to avoid the glitz as soon as you start there’s so many teams that order the brand new to home with a brand new trailer they are mortgaged to the eyebrows and then they’re try to sell seats and cars and you just can’t do that and and you know that saying right to to make a small fortune in racing start with a big one wrong 100% wrong if you do it right you can make very good money in racing and that’s one of the things that I avoided from day one and I always have the crew and the friends that tell me “You need to buy this new thing.” And I’m like “No my old one is just fine.” And we use the old one for an extended period of time and then when we have the cash in the bank then I might buy a new one but knock on wood I have not financed anything so that was going to be my next question and so to reiterate your point is use what you have try not to use credit use what you have in the bank grow that and then move on to the the nicer toys it’s we all want instant gratification and maybe in my 50s then I would have done it a little bit different because let’s say I don’t have time to build it but we started this in my 30s and we had a small trailer that we outgrew and little by little we bought a slightly bigger trailer a newer you know uh uh DY and started building it like that i didn’t buy 10 10 GT4 Cayman’s i had the E36 M3 u E36 325 that we built into a race car then I bought an E46 M3 that we build into a race car and we had those two for a long time then a customer came in and he paid to build a Honda Civic for World Challenge which is the World Challenge car um and little by little we build the fleet we have 25 cars at the shop right now out of which seven or eight are ours but all the other ones are customer cars but that did not happen overnight that’s one of my biggest pet peeves when people tell me “Oh Dave must be nice.” Like “Well 20 years worth of work nice.” It didn’t happen overnight so if you’re going to start a team and avoid having to be the absolute best looking one today and mortgage yourself you know out of out of profitability sure and that makes a lot of sense so that goes to my next question which is do you focus on you know club racing or a particular you know series um where do you see as far as the the money in endurance racing you know where would you where would you tell them to focus their attention well as a as a team as a team growing up we always enjoyed going to uh endurance racing because you’re able to rent the car to multiple people divide the cost of the race so it’s let’s say four people want to do a race and it costs you know a dollar then it’s 25 cents each instead of having to charge one person a dollar uh and it’s more affordable people are like “Oh 25 cents i’ll do it i would do it for 25 cents i had no idea sign me up.” You know right and and when you do the endurance racing you’re able to divide the cost of the entire weekend because you have some f fixed fixed costs which are you know your transportation your crew um stuff like that uh so if you’re able to divide all those into four people instead of one then more people can come race with you and then those four people might do an endurance race with two different cars or four different cars and you grow from there um so endurance racing has always been uh our forte and FA because they have you know four 30 minute sprints and the uh enduro we were able to always rent a car to two guys that come and share a car so if a car let’s let’s say for use real numbers if it’s 10,000 a weekend then you and you come for 5,000 each which is a lot more affordable than 10 every weekend so that’s what we did when we started the series TLM and and why we fell in love with Far originally was because we had the ability to use their time to sell our product going beyond the driver’s seat mhm as a team owner what’s been your biggest triumph or moment of pride something that stands out to you more than any other victory you’ve had as a driver um client or something lately it’s been able to not be as involved during a weekend and knowing that my my team manager uh Trish has done an unbelievable job um making the crew the best they could possibly be extremely proud of i think for the past two maybe three years we have had penaltyfree pit stops in WRL which they are extremely picky i mean you drop you drop a a fork and they’ll penalize you so penalty-free and and and being able to see my team run without me having to be in there has been extremely satisfying um you know the having people that care as much as you do in your team it’s it’s it’s wonderful so that leads us directly into my next segment which is the FAR Academy all right something that Mike and I uh are managing i wasn’t your first choice or your second choice to manage the Farah Academy when you and Jose took it over took over FAR that makes sense since there were other more experienced people with you know higher qualifications or what have you um what what did you see in me okay that made you believe that I could manage and grow the academy and why do you think that I was able to succeed where others didn’t and here’s why I’m asking okay not to put you on the spot um you just need to you just need to stall a minute so we can come up with a good reason yes let me think of one i got I got like seven right now okay the reason I’m asking is because I think this could really benefit somebody trying to make their mark into motorsports so when you’re looking for someone to lead an important program like you know HPDE what qual qualities do you look for go beyond just the resume what really matters when selecting the right person for a leadership position um I’m going to say it as a joke but I mean it okay one of the things that really like about you is that you’re very anal okay about how to get things done and our experience with Track Weekend which is a website that he started um showed me that you have very strong ideas of what you want to do what’s right and what’s wrong and you are self-motivating which is me i I can’t stand having to tell somebody to pick up a piece of you know debris if you pick it up while nobody else is watching that’s the guy I want i want somebody to do because it’s the right thing to do and and I’ve because of our experience together I knew that you were very diligent in what you wanted and how you wanted it done um and you always gave me the same sense that I just spoke to about Trish and and my crew guys Mariano and David Lea and all those guys is that you work whatever you do as if you were the absolute owner of it you take ownership of the decisions you take pride in in when something comes out good and you get extremely hurt if something comes out bad to me that is the absolute best quality because an owner cannot duplicate themselves so if you find somebody that cares as much as you do and and I’ve told you this before you don’t work for me we are partners uh the academy is yours i I want no part of it you you guys you guys make it happen the same way that Yakaban makes the formula happen and Mario now is doing the drift happen uh you know we need to put good people in place to be able to run the programs like they are their own and the academy is yours so when you run it when when you show me that you care as much as you do that’s all I need to know and I appreciate you saying that David and I think from a corporate standpoint right anybody listening you know that makes a lot of sense you want you want to put people in positions where they care about you know the organization in general which is um really it it was such a great timing when Mike reached out to me shortly after I took over the academy um Mike reached out to me and said “Hey I just talked to David on the phone he said you’re the guy to talk to and I was just looking for a chief instructor.” I said “Mike would you like to be the chief instructor?” He says “Yes.” And after a couple of bouts maybe not actually not a couple the first one and I saw I saw Mike put together the the the PowerPoint presentation for the academy i was like this is my guy so I I look at things the same way that you do is I I can’t I can’t run the academy by myself so how do I replicate you know that enthusiasm and drive that I have and I’m very thankful that we found you Mike in that process yeah no and I appreciate the opportunity and you know it it just adding to what you said like you look for people that are passionate about it you know we were talking a little bit off air before we started about how you know you just or at the beginning of the the the taping of how you don’t feel like you’ve worked right i’m the same way like it’s it doesn’t feel like work when you’re doing something that you love right everybody says that you find what you love you never work a day in your life and it’s true yep absolutely okay um this next segment I’m going to call what’s next okay i’ve always been wired to think about what’s next right so when I started my HPDE career you know you it was pretty obvious you start as a novice then you move up to intermediate now you become solo great what’s next right then you become advanced what’s next always looking ahead so the next thing for me was you know becoming an instructor so once I became an instructor what’s next i remember listening to um Ross Bentley talking about adding tools to your instructor toolbox um so when new opportunities came up I just said yes to everything um whether it was the instructing for the Ferrari Club of America being a mentor for Chin’s instructor school uh or even participating in pilot programs like the taste of the track uh again with Chen I was constantly looking forward for for ways to improve and add to my toolbox so I ask you what’s your what’s next now that you’ve come this and and been able to achieve so much what’s your what’s next h that’s a really good question what what’s next for Far what’s next for you for me i don’t know i’m I’m in a good place you’re happy right now i am super happy but I never stop adding things uh well we’re growing we’re growing far farah is growing and we’re going north and that that’s what’s next in the in the business side of it uh we just expanded the TLM warehouse so we are looking to build that and and get some new mechanics some new blood in the in the team so that’s expanding um you know on the on the personal side it just I want to continue to have fun with with the family make sure you know I got two kids one already two of them are on their own one’s in New York City the other one’s in Philadelphia they’re both working actors i have to send very little money that way which is very nice that’s good uh so I you know just more of the same more of the same on the business side is where yes we want FA to grow bigger and go national uh you heard it here first TLM is expanding um but I want to make sure that with with TLM we only do things that are fun like I don’t I don’t care to go back to a pro series anymore um unless the funding to be able to do it is right i get the phone calls probably on a on a weekly basis hey can we put a program together for this and the numbers are pretty astronomical uh so I you know they either think I’m crazy or I’m trying to steal something but it is what it is and I won’t do it for pennies on the dollar because then everybody’s going to be unhappy right so right now the club racing program is fantastic um but we’re always looking to to do you know better nicer different we have the the Porsche Cup cars the Aston Martins so a whole bunch of GT4s M4 Cayman’s and then our BMW M2s are are most affordable options to to rent out and and keep adding keep adding to that stuff you can’t stop me on that one what’s a car that you don’t currently have on your stable that you you’d say “You know what i would like to add that one as a race car yeah or something to rent.” Um the BMW M2 has been fantastic car uh I like that i would probably want to have an M4 GT4 um and and really just the the cop cars are unbelievably good cars and people always think that that I’m trying to sell them a car that they don’t need but when you drive a cop car you realize that’s the only car I need it does everything well so a a mere motoral can drive the car at 95% and be okay cuz the car does not bite you i mean if you realize what too much power is you know you’re going to spin it but you can spin any car if you add too much throttle the cop car does everything well and it does everything well for a 100 laps the brakes feel the same way the oil temperature the water temperature water pressure oil pressure on all the cup cars and I’ve driven 25 30 cup cars they’re all the same so when you see the temperature rising on one of them you know you have a radiator that’s clogged something’s going bad they’re unbelievable machines so um yeah I I new cup cars that’s probably what I wanted more more cup cars do Do you have a favorite generation or they just keep getting better they do keep getting better i mean Lobster Mac was our 991.2 that was my favorite car cuz that car was you know tuned and power package and it was faster than the than the GT3 RS uh but now I raced the 992 and I’m getting to grips with it um it’s a lot of fun to drive and it’s just the new generation is that much better you Cuz the first time I ever drove a cop car was a 996 and a 997 and they were unbelievable machines then the 991 came out and you’re like “Wow.” Now the 992 I’m like “Oh my god how much front grip can you possibly have?” Right now the limiting factor on the 992 going fast is me like around Atlanta turn one m I know I could go quicker but my body says “No that’s it.” So I have to like tell my body “No you got more but I’m like holding on for dear life and I know I can push it more.” And you just have to you have to get out of your brain to be able to drive that fast and you know when you’re 20 years old and you do it at 53 you’re like I’m okay being you know half a second slower yeah at 20 years old you can pretty much throw caution to the wind because you know you’re bulletproof and Well you think you are anyway yes in in your mind you nothing can hurt you um I don’t know if last last show that we did we kind of touched on you know why uh Mike became a Porsche owner and and how much Porsches are uh are cheater cars you know on on the track so I’m going to make a new segment called why do Porsches are the only cars that you need on for the track right exactly new segment it warmed my heart to hear that you started off in BMWs and slowly transitioned over to the better brand so good for you smart smart and good-looking who knew who knew i think that’s the the natural transition you just you start at the bottom and you work your way up i wouldn’t say the bottom well you know um you know when you mentioned you mentioned uh you know my my body you know just is saying no no mass um not to compare a Miata with a Porsche but uh when I was testing the the new Miata that we got with with Jonathan uh I remember asking him “How far do you do you go into uh turn six at Homestead before you start breaking?” You know I’m used to breaking at the the three marker and he says “Go you go one or or past the one.” I’m like “No no way.” So that is it had been a long time since I’ve had that fear like that that you need to protect yourself because you’re I don’t think that you’re actually know what you’re doing right now the mind talking to the rest of your body and I see the three cones fly and the two cones I’m like this is absolutely insane like no way this car is going to stop and the one goes by and I just slam on the brake and the caroop and it turns i’m like this is unreal so Miata is always the answer miata unbelievable un okay um let’s segue to the next topic uh David you’re clearly uh been forwardthinking individ individual throughout your career uh always pushing for the next challenge and opportunity but sometimes raising racing presents moments that shake you to the core and make you pause to reflect you’ve had to endure deep personal losses in the sport the incident at Daytona a few years back certainly had a profound impact on you can you walk me through what happened that day and how that experience affected you um yeah we we were we were at Daytona for the International GT race and uh our friend Mark uh Matthysse uh I think he blew a tire lost control the car spun and was stationary sideways on the pit exit and this is before turn one before turn one but but uh if you know Daytona the pit exit goes around turn one and he was hidden by the wall if you’re looking straight but if you’re on the track you can clearly see him um actually no let me let me rephrase that when you’re on the track in the race car you cannot see him you’re looking this way and I didn’t know he was there but the black flag came in yellow came in we were not doing fast laps i came in and parked it and waited for the yellows to go away before we go back out during that time uh our other friend Marcel Fen lost control behind Cayman and spun right into Mark’s parked car mark lost his life right there and then and Marcel was very very hurt and is still recuperating he’s doing much better but it’s it’s a long road ahead so going into that turn one he must have been doing about how fast 170 175 170 so yeah by the time he saw him parked there it was just and I and I doubt that Marcel even saw him i didn’t know who where was the flag i kept seeing a I saw a yellow flag for two laps in a row and I didn’t see a car um so I came in waiting uh it wasn’t until I heard the boom that I knew something had happened and of course everything got quiet after that and it was miserable so how does how does something like that you know impact you and how do you how do you move past it how do you put your helmet back on and and go back racing after something like that you know it it it’s two ways i I had just met Mark the year before and we were actually trying to put a 24-hour Daytona ride together in an Aston Martin so we were spending a lot of time on the phone trying to put the deal together uh I didn’t know him in a personal level i knew him just at the track but at the track he was our buddy and always had a nice thing to say he always came around and uh and uh said hello and we always used to go over there his whole crew was family um like brother-in-law and all kinds of cousins and so it was a very much a family affair and so we felt it um and funny funny I mentioned this but I said before that our customers are our friends right so we went with the Hammonds to their ranch and to blow some steam we were you know shooting practice in the ranch and we spent the the night there just basically talking and and shooting his arsenal of stuff and you know in an actual range safe um next morning we did not know what was going to happen so we talked to the race official and they said yeah we’re going to continue [Music] um I hate to say it it took me two laps to get over it that’s great because either either I park it and go home or get over it if you don’t get over it you cannot continue on the track and it wasn’t over it as in I forgot it my wife always tells me that I am really good at compartmentalizing and I did i had to compartmentalize i go I am sad for Mark in the back of my brain but I have a job to do and I I would I would be lying to tell you I didn’t lift a little bit going into turn one every time and it probably took me quite a few Daytona races to to be able to go in as you should um but you have to you have to and you see that you you see that in in unfortunate death in Formula 1 and you have to you either get over it and go or go home you have no choice the the gentleman that ran into into him um how do you still talk to him how’s he doing yes yes I saw him he came to the last fight race at Homestead actually um him and his dad are very good friends of ours he’s doing much better unfortunately he had to basically go through rehab and learn to talk and walk and everything again yes he was it was very bad but thank God he is he is alive and he is doing much much much much better as a matter of fact we were talking about you know when he’s going to get back into the race car so been two years it’s been two years and he’s doing much better much better than than we all thought because we have not seen a lot of them uh but I saw him at the Miami Grand Prix when we were doing the Carrera Cup he was there and he waved to us uh and then he came to the last fight race uh the one in March that we had in Homestead he came and and we had a conversation he was there you know as as if nothing i mean you could see the he had limited movements on one arm uh but other than that he much better than we anticipated so no he’s he’s he’s going to make a full recovery it’s just going to take time yeah and he’ll be back racing with Fon hopefully all right hopefully then all right let’s lighten up the mood uh my favorite segment which Mike completely disappointed me at the last well I prepared this time oh good i I somebody reminded me of a couple of stories so this segment David is called instructor war stories so I know that you’ve done your fair share of coaching you have to have one or two that just stick out like this was this was a crazy story i have I have a few i have a Oh my god i have more than a few now that I’m thinking they all They all going You have to name names yes this is an anonymous subject okay okay no names no names the funny thing is that I’ve told this story before so whoever’s listening is going to know who it is you want to keep your clients i will i will i have to I have to tell you this one i’m coaching somebody in a cop car his cop car i’m coaching them at Sebring full day coming to the last session so you know 4:30 in the afternoon Sebring and all of a sudden going into Bishops the fastest part of the track going into Bishops all of a sudden he’s like “Is it right or left?” Oh jeez i’m like “What?” About 130 through there is it right or left i go “Stop park it go into pit lane right now.” And I’m like “Dude are you kidding me?” He goes “Oh no i I just got lost i’m like “We’re done we’re done we’re going home we’re done.” I could not believe I thought he was kidding for a second he was not kidding he got lost i I mean everything flashed in front of my eyes i was like “What?” I mean literally going into bishops is it right or left i’m like “Wait.” Yeah and you need to make that decision very quickly oh my god if you make a right no nothing good is gonna happen we went we went through at a much slower pace and I said pull it in we’re done for the day we’ll regroup and do this again another time i mean to his credit I’ve had more than one person do that you know with me after a full day of coaching we’re talking like the fourth session this is the afternoon like we’ve been doing this for two hours now and they’re like yeah wait where do we go from here i’m like really we’ve been doing this for two hours exhaustion is a real thing when you’re I mean all day it’s it’s harder than it looks for sure and you know you you lose that little bit of an edge it requires 100% concentration so you get to that point at the end of the day you’re tired you’re thirsty you’re just mentally physically exhausted does not surprise me yep yep i had a guy um a student one time uh we’re approaching turn 16 at Sebring and you know how we sometimes coach you you kind of go a little bit left make a big arc and make that right right and so I said “Okay you go left.” meaning I thought he was going to understand go left meaning go take a big arc and then you know go right so I said make a left and he took a left like now we’re heading off the track stop what what are we doing right he said go left right just doing what my instructor told me to do so I I learned to modify my instructions after that one but you said you some another one came to mind so so and again I don’t know that it it it counts quite as a war story I was never in danger It actually happened before we even started the car i want to say we certain certainly still sitting in the paddic so and this this story should uh resonate with um hopefully it’ll be helpful to some of our beginners before they come out about how how you mentally prepare yourself right but also how you prepare the car so um uh hop in the right seat you know we encourage people not to have anything loose in the car you don’t want you know phones flying around and that kind of stuff and this particular driver uh still had the uh the USB plugged in for his phone cord um you know in the center console so I thought look you know it’s a manual transmission car like we don’t need that thing flying around while we’re trying to shift um so I said hey you mind I’m just going to grab this out and throw it in the glove compartment so you know younger kids said sure no problem so I unplug the thing i reach the glove compartment i open the glove compartment and there’s a loaded gun in the glove compartment just in case thought to myself you know I really don’t think we’re going to need this out on the track you know right i just I it was astonishing to me that somebody would do uh something like that so we took the gun out obviously uh put it in my car was he apologetic or like what happened um you know it he seemed to be relatively nonchalant about it and the conversations that I had with this guy in advance he he was one of those guys we talked about my my war story last week was or last episode was that how I’ve been very fortunate and that the majority of my my my war stories have been that the people were too timid um and this this this guy was I was a little bit worried going in u with some of the things that he was saying you know how he was talking that kind of stuff um after we got the gun out of the car and threw it in my car and locked it um he very quickly you know two three laps in realized that this was going to be harder than he thought so fortunately uh he settled down the rest of the time we had a great day right on right on all right uh we’re going to do a quick listener Q&A i told several people that uh Touati you were going to be our guest and so right off the bat I had several people ask me to ask you a few questions this is going to be great we have a few minutes left so oh boy first question and I am not lying this is the first question that I received ask him why are you so crazy now let me follow up with was this your daughter no it was not my daughter it was another driver okay and I said what do you mean uh like on the track or in life he goes both i I I don’t know if I’m crazy i just I enjoy life i wake up every morning and it’s going to be the best day ever and people think that I am it’s like a facade no this is the best podcast I’ve ever done in my life tomorrow is going to be the best day ever and I I truly believe that i’m sorry if it sounds pompous or I don’t know what but I don’t care first of all I love it i love what I do i I when I enjoy the drive home just everything like I you know when I have my own life I do like this was the best coffee I’ve ever had by the way great coffee the you know everything so I don’t know if I’m crazy I just I don’t know I I want to enjoy everything I do so yes I I might walk into a room and you know what’s up people but I don’t do it for attention I do it because it it comes out like I want other people to enjoy and I I learned that in in college i was I was I was actually very timid not self- assured at all in college and this is this is a seriously I mean stupid personal but personal i had a big breakup with my high school sweetheart and it messed me up for like six months i was like you know a turtle i was like just hiding in my own shell until I realized I just want to have fun and the second I started having fun for me then friends and girls and everything started to happen you know I totally believe in in good energy so if you walk into a room with a sad face and oh this is horrible i just woke up and it was too early and and you’re grumpy you get grumpy back so I I refuse to live like that i want to project I am having the best time ever and little do you know the best time comes back it’s a great way to attract clients yes yes people people have told me uh uh customers have come to me uh Brady Burman who who and Scott Blind really fantastic guys have become really good friends they both came to me for the first time ever we’re at Homestead in a in one of BMW M2s and Brady starts doing a video and he puts a camera on me and I go “Hey.” And he stops it he goes “David really?” I go “What do you mean?” He goes “I came all the way over here why did I come?” And I go “Oh you want WhatsApp people right?” He goes “Of course.” He wanted to do a video and a whole bunch because we were raising a whole bunch of different serieses and I always do the the grid walk and and really just for my own self somebody told me the other day “You post a lot of pictures of yourself.” I’m like “Yeah abuse i love myself i love myself look at this face why would I not do that?” Because nobody else loves me as much as I love myself true but so I do the videos really cuz I want to do the videos and and people come and and and mention a comment like if I take the camera out now at any gridlock anywhere you’re going to hear people scream different things and and and somebody came to me uh Sarah Montgomery at at Kota came to me and says “Oh my god I’m in a What’s up video video and she was like super excited and she’s a really good friend and an awesome driver we’ve had awesome uh battles usually at Kota but you know people people like it yeah I’ve seen videos of you guys at Road America at Kota and and somebody in in behind will come up and say what’s up people.” It’s like that’s your trade yeah for sure that’s awesome um what’s the wildest thing you’ve done at the track that you are not proud of oh I don’t know if the statute of limitations is done on that one i can’t say see I I thought for sure we were going to hear the story of qualifying at uh the Grand Prix the Miami Oh well that was just a mess up right that was just a mess up you want me to tell that story i’ll tell the story that was horrible we were We were at the Miami Grand Prix Formula 1 you know Greg Kramer is uh announcing for for the Conquerors Club i mean you know everything people are I’m signing autographs like you wouldn’t believe they saw the Peruvian flag and all the Peruvians started chanting i have a video all the Peruvians started chanting some Peruvian thing to me it was like wild so we go out and qualify and and I know I can beat those guys i’ I’ve beaten them in different serieses i know I can beat those guys and I’m in the Mast’s class over 50 years old um and Trish gets over the radio and says “Dave you’re like 0.5 behind.” And I look at my Bbox and I’m like 7 ahead i was like “Oh I got this.” And I go around i think it was like the swimming pool area thing and I just clipped the inside wall a little bit just a tin tiny bit but like Monaco you’ve seen those when they hit a little bit and then they crash on the other side that’s what I did i just nailed it a I hit it just a little bit on that side of the car there was just a little scratch mhm the other side went straight into the wall i That was the end of my my race you got pretty banged up didn’t you no no no no no no no banged up that was just That was it i mean the car the car got seriously banged up no they they take you always anytime you hit a wall they take you to the to the medical center and they check me out and that was it but yeah that was that was pretty stupid that was pretty stupid you know one of the things that I do I I don’t necessarily regret it was fun i took the crew we had a a minivan and I took the crew for a ride around road Atlanta cuz you know the crew is always in the pits they don’t go anywhere else so I took them for a ride around road Atlanta show them the the back side of it and well there’s a skid pad back there and I have a I have a probably a Dodge Caravan or something full of crew uhhuh and bags and you who knows what else and I start going around this kid pad and I think we were on three wheels pretty much the whole time and just so you know there’s cameras everywhere i did not know this so I’m I’m getting out of this kid pad we’re all laughing right oh we get stopped that was not good yeah they were upset he rimmed me a new boho it was It was bad it was He wasn’t saying what’s up no no no no no no he was not impressed at all i was like this this this short of like calling the cops and they wanted to charge me $5,000 and all kinds of stuff and I don’t know how we talked ourselves out of it but nothing happened but yeah that was that was stupid yeah that was that was pretty stupid all right listen that’s the end of this episode i want to thank you David yeah that’s it unfortunately I we can go another hour but unfortunately uh we’ll have you back all right you’re going to kick us out of here we’ll be glad to be back thank you so much for joining us Mike thank you for being here my pleasure i always close it with this always remember that what’s interesting happens off the racing line but let’s finish with a What’s up people together what’s up one two three what’s up people [Music] i took the hard road it’s the world from dreamer to driver ain’t always straight kept my head down fueled by faith i lost some time but found a diamond out of me