The Day I Took Terminally Ill Kids Racing (And Why I Attend Every Year)

Welcome to Off the Racing Line. I am your host Carlos Espitia and joining me as always is Mike Moore. Mike, welcome back.
My pleasure as always. Nice haircut by the way, buddy.
You like it? Yeah. Styling in the summer.
I don’t know. I’m still kind of getting used to it. It’s for the summer. eventually you have to do it, you know, out of necessity cuz nature takes over. So, you hang on to that as long as you can.
I’m going to start wearing hats if if it doesn’t grow on me. But anyways, as I was getting ready for the podcast today, it dawned on me that we don’t usually introduce what the podcast is about. We introduce ourselves, but not the podcast. And I think as our viewership starts to grow, we should introduce it in the form of perhaps a slogan.
Do you have any ideas?
Slogan. I don’t know about a slogan. Um, you know, the the way I see this podcast is it’s sort of you’re familiar with proAM golf tournaments, right? You’ve got the you’re not familiar with proam golf tourn the way a proam golf tournament works is you’ve got generally a foresome of people, right? And you’ve got one pro, right? Who is generally our guest, okay?
Then you’ve got a couple of people that, you know, they sort of know what they’re doing and then that would be me. And then there’s always a hack that has absolutely no idea what they’re doing. They just sort of put the money in to to get to show up and hang out with cool people. So, you’re the only one left that I have.
Okay. What is the show about?
So, we are we are a we are a a pro-Aam uh grassroots motorsport podcast. We are, you know, we we get together, we talk about stuff that makes sense to regular people, u you know, car people that are just sort of dipping their toes into the motorsports HPDE uh experience. I think that’s a
good general summary. It seems like an awful slogan to be honest with you. It’s a very long
It’s a very long slogan. I don’t know if we can fit all that into, you know, under the logo.
Stay tuned for the next episode. Oh, do you have a suggestion?
We are working on it. No. Well, um along the same lines what you mentioned, uh a raw grassroots motorsports uh podcast for drivers, instructors, and racers.
Something along those lines.
For sure.
You know, if uh we have any viewers or listeners that uh you know, want to submit their favorite suggestion in the comment below.
Yeah. Uh, you could win a free trip to Boca Raton, Florida to the studios. All expenses paid. I’m just kidding. We do not have that kind of budget.
All expenses paid as long as you live in Palm Beach or Broward
County. Yes, I will pay for your coffee. Uh, you’re definitely welcome to attend as a guest. But anyway, let’s continue. We uh definitely have uh digress more than I wanted to.
Off to a great start.
Yes. Episode seven. Lucky number seven. Today’s guest is one of the most recognizable faces and hats at any Florida track day. He’s a senior instructor for every club in the state. And if you’ve driven a track day in Florida, chances are you have seen him. Victor Leo, welcome to the show.
Thank you very much.
It’s good to have you, man.
Yeah, I’ve been looking forward to this.
Um, all right, Vic. Um, you’ve pulled a gigantic American flag at a NASCAR race. You’ve taken terminally ill children for hot laps at Sebring and you’ve survived a one lap of America. Which of those gave you the biggest chills?
The children.
I thought you would say question.
Yeah, that’s a great event that uh that that that coordinates every year.
Yeah. Why don’t we dive into that?
Uh I mean, you’ve you’ve been there, you’ve attended it with us, you’ve helped out, you’ve helped feed the kids. Um, it’s just one of those things. I literally have considered it for the last 15 to 20 years. It’s my mental reboot every year in my life.
So, for people that are listening, a lot of people, you know, have never done a track day. So, kind of fill us in what exactly that is. So, it’s similar. We’ll call it like a Makea-Wish foundation where we take a group of families up to 50 families and we provide them a weekend um where we take the children, the families, uh siblings for rides in the race cars. Uh it’s meals, it’s activities, face painting. Um, we’ve painted a race car every year for the last I think we’re on 11 years of me being able to find a race car. David provided the second car.
I think it was a white Porsche 944. Was it?
No, it was a BMW. Uh, first couple years were BMW E30s. Mine was the first one. David’s was the second one. Uh, that’s a funny story. We were at the used to be the Chateau, now the seven at Sebring. And somebody’s like, “What are you going to do next year?” Like, “You’re going to repaint the car?” I was like, I can’t repaint it. There’s too much cool stuff on the car.
So, we
What happens to those cars, by the way?
Uh, they’ve just gone through the years. Some of the cars are still painted the way they were prints, right?
It’s handprints. And I mean, kids draw horses. One kid drew a dragon on the hood of one of the cars that kind of became the
the logo for, you know, what at the time was Kids Race for Life. It’s changed entities. Now it’s base camp goes racing. And um but uh you know so the second year somebody was like what are you you know what are you going to do for the kids this year and we were at the restaurant there at the chateau and I screamed across the restaurant at Davidi and I said give me one of your cars and he goes define give
and I said I need a car for the kids to paint this year at Kids Race for Life and he goes you come to the shop and pick the car. Oh nice. And it just started that rolling.
Yeah.
For event to event. And
you know, we’ve done Corvettes, Mustangs, Porsches, Mercedes, you know, over years.
So So the overview is it’s from what I remember it was kids racing for life. And I know it’s moved on to now it’s called Base Camp.
Base Camp girls racing. Yeah. So essentially the the club and and people that want to really essentially invest into this program, they they have families come out to the racetrack with families that have typically terminally ill children or life-threatening
or life-threatening to basically a weekend at the at the racetrack and right around lunchtime we give them the the kids and usually the family members rides around the racetrack.
Um and it’s it’s such a blast. Can you tell me what was like maybe the first time that you did it? Like what was what was going through like your your mind?
So first year I did it was 2007. Um and I had just I had leukemia and I just beaten the leukemia. So it really really hit me to to heart. Yeah.
And um so I just participated at the event and I was just and I just it just blew me away. It just so blew me away. And then you just I’ve done it every year since. I’ve have not missed a year. I won’t miss a year. And I now I’m kind of at the point where I’m you know really helping run it and you know I ordering helmets and just whatever it takes to make you know make sure caterers and stuff like that.
So I just I keep getting deeper into it every year and I love it.
Can you can you share maybe a moment that has really stuck with you like for for a while? Not without crying. Uh because you know, first few years, first year I did it, um there was this kid, Matthew, uh great kid, uh actually had the same leukemia I did and just
I had so few side effects, you know, I was like the poster child of leukemia and this kid was the polar opposite, right? And he had the greatest spirit. me and him became really good friends and um but several years later he finally said came and it that was rough. That was really rough. Um
I think Jim Boatman talked about Matthew. I don’t know if you watched that video that we had created when we were trying to raise money for one of the years. Was that is that the same Matthew?
Same Matthew.
No kidding.
Yeah. He that kid really he
cuz he he he really um you know he stood out to to Jim as well. Yeah, he did. He did. He was great. Um and so he the first year when I came up with the idea to paint the cars, um that was the year he passed. And um and that I remember, you know, I the only thing I painted on the car all weekend was Matthew, you’ll race with us always. Yeah.
On the back of the roof.
And um and it was just that was something that just it tore me apart. Yeah. But that’s what that event’s for. Um, and like I said, that’s why I call it my mental reboot. It makes you really take a lot of your life in inventory and decide, you know, what’s important.
I think it puts things in perspective, you know, especially for for us that, you know, have worked hard, you know, for what we have and um and then you go to the racetrack and and you see a child that’s stricken with with an Yeah. A disease like that is just it definitely puts things in perspective real quick. There there is a saying people don’t get cancer, families get cancer. Yeah. And this is their weekend that they don’t have cancer.
Yep. and we just try to do everything we can to provide everything for them for the weekend and just really watching them, you know, and it’s great when you see a child that like their favorite car is an S2000 and there happens to be one at the event and like you get that kid in that car. Yeah. You know, I I have actually over the years, the more I help run it, I have more fun. And you guys have attended the event, spend one of the days, this year, it’s a two-day event, spend one of the days getting the kids in and out of cars.
Oh, yeah. That’s what I did. That’s what I did last year. So, my wife was driving our car and I was helping the kids get in and out and and it was a great experience. They they come off just like the smile is eartoear and it’s fantastic.
What’s the only hand signal that matters? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, the thumbs up.
Yeah, but it’s great even then, even when you’re driving. Uh, so this last event I spent half of that lunch hour helping kids in and out and the other half actually uh driving and Yeah, it’s just you can see them smiling through the helmet. It’s a great It’s a great experience.
Yeah, the open face helmets are on purpose so you can see their face, you know, that you can talk to them. Uh when I ordered the helmets, they were like, “Oh, we can get you helmets at this price, so it has to be Yeah.
a threequarter open face so we can see them, talk to them.”
Yeah.
You know, um I participated when back when it was kids racing for life
with PBOC. And I remember that it was once I did it one time, I realized that I do not want to miss this event ever again. Like if I only do one track day a year, it’ll be that event. And then I took a little bit of a hiatus and stopped going to the track. But I just remember that it was very impactful, you know, like the the track time was really not even important that day for me. It was just getting a one of the the the kids, you know, to ride next to me and give them rides around the track. It was just fantastic. Um, this would be a great opportunity for for you to tell people that don’t know what the program is about, how to get involved, you know, who can drive the kids, who runs the event, you know. So, Terry Jones is who runs uh Base Camp. Base Camp is a charity. They do events throughout the year at, you know, various different types of events. So, Base Camp goes Racing is one of their events. Um, so Chin Track Days, uh, when PBOC, uh, finished business, uh, Chin Track Days opened up their arms, so to speak, to take on the event for the foreseeable future. Um, which is great, you know, because they’re such an established club. And, um, and part of that was because just I’ve done the event, I’ve done stuff with Chin, and it just it everything just fell right in everybody’s lap. So, it was able to continue with Chin with base camp. And so,
who can who can drive the kids?
Uh, really it needs to be an intermediate to advanced driver um or instructors, you know, accomplished racers, right? People that have got enough years under their belt to know how to be patient. You know, it’s, you know, we’re taking the kids. We’re moving. We’re hauling butt. But it there has to be a giant sense of patience with the other cars on track. Oh yeah.
That you know we want to give them a good time, but you know it’s got to be a thousand% safe.
Yeah.
Um so you got to drive way under your limits, your car limits, but still fast enough that they’re enjoying it.
You know, that reminds me. Um I have a story about that. Um I think it was the maybe the second time that I did Kids Racing for Life and I had a kid next to me. Um during lunch it had just rained, right? So I’m thinking, okay, I I got to take it easy out there. You know, I have this kid next to me. We go out there and, you know, in in Florida it could rain in, you know, in 30 minutes later it’s, you know, bright outside. So it was one of those deals. So I go out there and I’m kind of just, you know, judging the track as I’m moving along. I’m like, “Okay, it’s it’s dry here. It’s dry there. Okay.” So I’m like, “Okay, I think the track is fairly dry by this point.” So go out at 16. I’m I floor it down the back straight and there’s a huge puddle at 17. Like water collected like like nowhere else on the track. But at 17 it was a puddle. And Vic, I kid you not, like my my throat just fell to my stomach. I was like, “Oh.” Because the car started the car started hydroplaning, right? Like as I I’m breaking, I’m like, “Okay, I need to break like ever so slightly.” And again, I’m going into 17, you know, at 100 plus. I It still wasn’t floor, but maybe 120, I guess.
And so the car was like I could feel it like hydroplane. I’m like, “Please catch, please catch. Please catch.” And I’m I’m keeping the the wheel straight. And it finally caught and like I was able to turn. I’m like,
good good way to never get invited back to the charity event here.
No. Right. Exactly. I have never told that story publicly. So hopefully I’m invited again.
You know,
no, you’re always welcome because you you knew what happened and you and you
it goes back to experience. That’s why we want intermediate advanced drivers.
Yeah. I mean any drivers meeting you guys have both done drivers meetings. Uh and that’s the one driver’s meeting every year where I will physically tell people if you want to get excommunicated from the human race, yes,
go drive 10 tents.
Go you do something dumb with one of my kids in your car. I’ve seen some of our drivers from the Super Lab series actually discuss, you know, when they when they they did that event and they would bring out their their price possessions, their their GT2s or RS’s, whatever the case is, like I’m just bringing this car out just for that event and that’s really like special to see that.
Yeah.
Well, the good news is that you can drive at 8/10 and because the overwhelming majority of them have never been in a car before, they think Yeah. One of the kids that I took last time, he had just both hands death grip on, you know, the the arm whereas just hang on for dear life and that was at, you know, 710. So, yeah, it’s good. It’s it’s really fun to show them a good time.
Yeah. Then then you lean over and you go like this, you know, you give them a thumbs up. You give them you give them the, you know, the thumbs up and how how are they doing? So, they love it. Not to dive into the the weeds of it, but I always wondered what what happened if there was a fallout between Kids Racing for Life, the ministry, and PBOC. Why? Why did that stop? Do you know?
I’m not exactly sure. Um Steven and Stephanie, bless their hearts. I mean, Stephanie’s, you know, bless her heart, she’s no longer with it, but Stephen, I mean, they ran it for so many years. Steven is 85 years old now, right? Um, so it’s I mean it’s moved on and I don’t know the particulars and then PBOC changed ownership and that didn’t work out. Uh, so it just it needed a home and uh Wayne Estus Sebring uh when he got wind of PBOC going by the wayside and all of that, he called Mark Hicks, you know, at the time the manager the general manager of Chin and said, you know, kind of you need to do this and Mark said yes. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Mark said yes and then told me what I needed to do to make it happen, right?
So, yeah, it it very much, you know, just good timing, Wayne, you know, the right group of people.
All right. Before we move, before we move on to our next segment,
tell us when that event is happening in 2025.
It’s the this year it is the first weekend in November.
Okay.
Uh so we at Sebring
at Sebring. Uh we’re getting it a little bit later in the year so the weather’s nicer families. did it in the summer. It was horrible.
Yeah, it’s it’s always been a September event and this year was October and Wayin Chin, you know, asked me the one of the things he asked me this year is like, “What does this event need?” And I said, “It needs to be in November.” And he said, “Done.” So, this year it’ll be in November, so the weather should be nicer.
All right, let’s move on to our next segment. You participated in the One Lap of America twice.
Yes. So, I wrote out a whole description or summary of what it is for people that are not aware of what the One Lap of America is, which by the way is on my bucket list thing of things that I wish to do before I die.
And it was on mine for many, many years,
I’m sure. Okay, so the One Lap of America is one of the toughest grassroots motorsports events out there. It’s a week-long endurance test. Drivers compete in time trials at racetracks all over the country and drive from track to track overnight. No support crew, no chase vehicles. Every car has to stay street legal and you’re on the same set of tires the entire time. That’s correct, right? All right. Uh cars are classed by original MSRP and number of doors, but you can modify as much as you want as long as the vehicle stays street legal.
Yes. The length of one lap of America has been as long as 10,000 miles in um in over 10 days to just under 3,000 miles in the span of 6 days. What was your experience like doing the one lap of America and what prompted you to do it?
Well, it’s been on my bucket list for 100 years. Everybody’s seen the movie Cannonball Run and you know and it is literally the cannonball one lap of America. Let’s get the the the the shirt in there. Um so, um Brock Gates, who runs One Lap, uh actually it’s the Cannibal One Lap of America, and he owns the rights to Cannonball, so it’s legit. Yeah.
Um so, it’s se currently these days, it’s seven racetracks in eight days, and it runs about 3,500 miles. Uh starts and ends at the Tyra Rack test track in Southbend, Indiana. And the one year I did it, we came all the way down to Sebring, you know, and back up. And the other year I the first year I did it, uh, it was 30° and raining for the first 4 days in an aerial atom.
I was just going to say, tell me that you had an open an aerial atom. We’re going to have to put a picture of what that is because that’s nuts.
It’s not the kind of car that you want to be driving around when it’s 30° and rain.
No, it was it was rough. It was really rough. And um and that went all the way up through the northeast.
Yeah.
You know, up at uh it went to uh Pit Race, uh Palmer Motorsports Park, Summit Point, uh NCM. So, it did that route. Um it’s one of those things that whoever you do it with, at the end of the week, you’ll either be friends forever or you will never ever speak to that person again. I did it with Jack Beum from Chin Track Days and uh
and I got lucky. Uh he did it two years before me with uh Charles Espinob and Charles got a deal to go race uh I believe it was Nurburg Ring and said sorry Jack I can’t make it and so about four days five days before the event he said are you available?
No kidding. And I so I got to do my bucket list vent that I’ve always wanted to do in a bucket list way and I mean an Aerial Adam. I mean it doesn’t get better than that. So that was really really cool. Um we did it two years finished second overall both years. But it it’s grueling. It’s grueling.
Well especially in an aerial Adam when it’s 30 degrees and raining.
Yeah. And honestly, the second year it was bright and sunny the entire time and somebody took a picture of me and Jack and put it on Facebook somewhere and my son-in-law had replied to it and said, “You look like tomatoes with eyes.”
So, it did rain one day during that year and we welcomed it because we had literally baked in that car for six days.
So, walk me through that because I really am very interested. I want to do this at some point. So, are you traveling over like through the night to get to the next track?
Not quite, but um I’ll just give you one. So, generally, let’s say there’s 100 cars. So, it’s three laps from a standing start.
Um and all 100 cars run through their three laps
at the racetrack
at the racetrack. And then they do it again a second time. When you’re done with your second round of laps, you pack your stuff back in your car and you start driving to the next track. The next track is anywhere between 500 and 700 miles away. So, if it’s one of those 700 mile runs, we went from Richmond, Virginia to uh Grand Haven, Michigan. We got there at 2 in the morning.
Now, there now it’s it’s not a race to get to the next track, right? And I’m assuming that’s probably frowned upon.
No, it’s not a race to get to the next track, but there are giant bragging rights if you’re the first guy at the hotel.
Now, do they rotate the I assume they rotate the order of the hundred cars.
Well, yes and no. Um, generally they run in order of fastest to slowest. And the idea behind that is so when we would go out, we were one of the quicker cars. So, we were in one of the first two run groups all week because you don’t want
Right. Right. It makes sense.
You don’t want a car that’s running a 219 at Sebring on the track at the same time with somebody that’s just Oh god, I wish I could show you the picture. There was a guy that did it. He built a National Lampoon’s station wagon, the green woody station wagon, and him and his buddies just did it for the week. Obviously, it was
one of the slowest cars there. You know,
not if it was running a 219 at Sebring. That’s
No, no, no. We were running a 219. He was running like a a 419 at Sebring. And so, but so just to so we’re not running over each other. They try to keep the cars somewhat. So, um, so like we got to be at the track at 7 in the morning,
right? And but the guy that’s running further back in the pack, he doesn’t need to get to the track till like 9:30 or 10:00. So, he could sleep in. So, it’s, you know, it kind of flows. There’s, you know, there’s no drivers meeting at the given track that everybody has to be there at 7:00. You just get there in time to get into your run group. Uh, talk to me about the the tires, the 200 treadware tires that it it says that you’re supposed to run. Is that something that the organizers mandate a particular tire or is it up to you guys to decide?
Uh, any uh there’s a giant list of tires that are on tire rack because it starts and ends at tire rack track. So,
but you so you can choose
you can choose um they stamp the tire at the beginning of the week so they know you if you change a tire which you can you get a flat or something on the road you can but you better bring that shredded tire back with you that shows a you know something on the road went through the sidewall or something you better not just say oh no I had a flat because uh conven I conveniently had four flat tires halfway through the event
exactly so you can replace a tire if there’s an incident there
if there is an incident yes you can replace a tire but you’ve got to kind of be able document it a little bit.
Okay. Cuz I have seen pictures of of these cars and I think one of them was might have been yours where you’re you’re towing all your equipment in the uh
and we have a front and a rear hanging on the hanging on the side of the trailer.
So because the tire car was, you know, different tires front to rear. So we had spares, you know, um just to get us through the week, but we can’t use them, right?
We can’t just decide to put that tire on the car. So, what was your tire of choice?
Uh, it was a Yokohama A008. Okay.
Yeah.
So, you want something that’s going to last the entire road trip. And also,
it’s got to last 4,000 mi. It’s got to last 4,000 miles. It’s got to
still not kill you in the rain if it rains on the last day. You know, it can’t be that. And there are a lot of guys that, you know,
they want
with the with the heavier cars that could be running the same tire as us, but the Ariel Adams only, you know, 1500 lb. Yeah.
You put that same tire on a 3,300 lb Z06 or ZR1, you know, or Viper, you know, they’re getting sketchy at the end of the week. They’re they’re moving tires around throughout the week, moving them. They’re running a square setup. My my guess uh a good tire for something like that for an event like that would probably be like uh the Continental ECF. Yeah.
Right.
RT 660.
Really?
Falcon Falcon. You know, they they hold up pretty well. They’re they don’t want to kill you in the rain,
right?
Um you’re going to get rain at some point in the week. I mean, we did
Yeah. Like I said, that year that it rained all week. I mean, we did I drove some at point. Jack drove the couple tracks before that. I drove Summit Point and uh I mean I was sixth gear down the front straightaway with the rooster tails 30 ft off the rear tires at 130 mph. You need tires with tread. So it it helps that you can work on your own car because you cannot have a support crew, right? So it it’s a it’s a good thing if you you’re mechanically inclined.
Oh yes. And by the way, I mean, in general, it’s a great group of people that will stop and help you. We had a breakdown
in the middle of the night driving from NCM, National Corvette Museum to Road America, had the suspension fail.
Ended up uh went by a guy’s shop that, you know, they were working on other onelap cars, you know, just to get him to the next event. And we went there, had to rebuild a suspension arm, you know, reinforce it, put it back on the car. And um when we left that shop and we were driving up to Road America at one point, you know, we were just so tired. It was three o’clock in the morning and Jack reaches over and he, you know, he hits me and he goes, “What?” And he goes, “Was that a lane change or a nap?” Oh, okay. Time to let him drive.
Yeah.
So, it it’s it’s grueling. It’s grueling. So, tell me what you think about the uh the car selection because I was going over I was looking at the list of of the previous winners. Now, I didn’t really get to look at everybody who’s entered, but I’m looking at a lot of Porsches. Uh again, again, these are the winners, right? So, I’m looking at a 911 Turbo, a GT3, a Corvette 01, uh Nissan GTR. How does how do you go about choosing like a good car? It obviously depends on your budget. Um I mean GTR turbo Porsche an all-wheel drive car is sort of like spec one lap of America,
right? You want an all-wheel drive car.
Pressing the easy button. Yeah. It’s kind of pressing easy button, but there’s a lot more there’s a lot there’s a lot of cars that are a lot more fun to do it in.
Like an aerial Atom.
Yeah. I mean I want to do it in my Cobra. So I mean it’s not the brightest thing in the world to do, but I want to have fun laughing my Cobra.
I see.
I just got to find somebody dumb enough to do that with me. I see a few Vipers here on the list of winners.
Yeah,
that seems like a crazy car to do that in.
Yeah. And it’s uh Oh, what’s his name?
Uh it was a Brian Smith and David Zilcowski. Spectacular drivers.
Yeah, guys.
That was going to be my next question is, you know, I see on this list of the the past, I don’t know, 10 years of of the winners of the one lap of America, there’s a lot of repeat names on that list. And so that’s my question is are these are just they have it the whole system dialed in or are they just really that good?
Both. Both. You you got to have your stuff together um and be prepared. But you know a lot of people would say like oh it’s a bunch of Larry’s with a bunch of money. And from let’s say eighth place, 10th place on down to 30th place. Yeah.
Yeah. It could be a people with money to have a good car, decent drivers, whatever. The guys in the top 10 can wheel a car.
Yeah. They can get in anything and just drive it in any conditions. Um it it was really humbling to me. I mean, I I’m a really quick learn at new tracks and I just But I found Yeah, I met 20 people that were as good as me at learning a track in the rain. I’d never been to Summit Point. I finished third out of 100 cars, but there were other guys in the top 10 with me that were, you know, for there was it was their first time, too.
Uh Randy Popes has has done that, right?
Yes, he has.
Yeah.
I didn’t see his name on the
I mean, Ry’s done it. Uh Shane Lewis has done it.
Oh, really?
Ian Stewart’s done it. I think Stewart did it last year. I think he finished
I think last year he finished SE. I’m not sure, but he did it last year and, you know, had a pretty good run at it. Is that something you’d want to do, Mike? Not with you.
Why not?
And not in Vicks Cobra.
So, you know.
Yeah. I I would need like one of those comfy like a Panamera or something with heated and ventilated.
You know what? Your your Cayman Your Cayman would be
It would be It would be good.
I did see on the list. I don’t think it’s part of the ones that I uh I printed out, but there was an M5 like I think in the ‘9s that that won it.
Yeah,
that kind of makes sense. I mean, for for driving long distance. Comfy.
That would be perfect. Yeah.
All right. Awesome.
It would definitely be something with a roof. I will tell you that if I’m doing
Yeah.
Yeah. What every year when they finish one lap, everybody starts, you know, they get on the forums and the chats and, you know, what’s your improvement next year? So, the first year Jack and I did it, it just rained and rained and rained for all three days. We were we were actually ducting the air off the radiator back into the cabin of the car just to warm us up a little bit. So, at the end of the year, like, what like what are you going to do for next year? Jack just typed out there, bigger drain holes. It was just because the car was just full of water the entire time.
Yeah. Yeah. All right, let’s move on to uh our next segment, which used to be my favorite segment. Instructor war stories.
Well, see, now you’ve got the right you’ve got the right guest for instructor war stories now.
What do you mean?
Well, guess Victor’s been instructing, you know, since came out of the womb. I think
I’m hoping that um and I’m pretty sure you are not going to disappoint us with some good stories from
I I’ve got some good I’ve got some good ones. How many am I allowed to tell you?
Tell tell us one that just stands out.
First first of all, we need to point out that this is an anonymous segment, so you’re not allowed to mention anybody’s name.
Okay, I will not mention names. Uh well, I might mention one person’s name because he’s actually a really really good friend of mine
as long as they’re a good sport.
Uh so so I’ll start with that one. So, I was at a chin event and I was assigned uh this guy Tony uh with a supercharged Viper, a first generation Viper, so before any ABS or any of that in the Vipers with a,50 horsepower.
Oh, and he informed me in the morning that he didn’t need an instructor. And you know, but Chin said he had to have an instructor, so I was just going to have to sit there and ride with him for the weekend. And I’m thinking, I’m going to die today. And so I had to work really really hard to like sort of befriend this guy so he’d so he’d you know listen to me.
And um I actually remember at the end of the orientation lapse,
you know, sitting in my chair staring at the ceiling of the garage at Sebring thinking, I got to dig deep. I got to dig really deep to work on this guy. And so
was he a difficult student or was it just a car? Um, well, at the beginning it was both. Okay.
Because he just, you know, he initially said, you know,
I’m not listening to you.
Yeah. Just, you have to ride with me. That’s fine. Whatever. Do, you know, sit there and sit there and be quiet.
Sounds like one of the personas from our uh Crazy Carl. It’s Crazy Carl. It’s Crazy Carl. And so I we So we go out for the first session and he’s rip rare and ready to go. And this is this is a this is a hack for all instructors out there. And I probably shouldn’t say this because students might be watching too, but um if you’re not sure of your student and you’re, you know, kind of don’t want to be the first guy in line, start messing with your communicator and act like it doesn’t work. And hold on, stop here and like jump over the wall and, you know, change the battery or in your communicator, you know, so eight or nine cars pass so you’re not the first car leaving pit road.
It’s a great idea.
Yeah. But now that the cat’s out of the bag,
cat’s out of the bag. But uh when it happens for real, you know the
and so the students going to be like, “Yeah, I know what you’re doing.”
I did that and um so it got us a few cars back in line. So by the time and you know that first novice session every weekend is always a little bit of a freight train and I was counting on that. So by the time we got three or four laps in and I could see he was moving up the line of people. I picked turn 16 at Sebring and I said, “Hey, let’s let’s try something. let’s like swing way out to the left, kind of park it, turn it, and just, you know, let the gas pedal do its job instead of trying to fight the exit of the corner. Tell me how it feels. And the guy loved it. I dead silent for four laps. Didn’t say a word, and I picked the one thing. And then he started listening to me. By the end of that weekend, we were having so much fun. We were laughing. At one point he missed two or three corners, like turned three to five at Sebring, that little complex there, and he missed it like three laps in a row to getting frustrated with himself because we really had it going good earlier in the weekend. And I like looked over at one point like, “Do you have Alzheimer’s?” or something like that. And we laughed so hard we missed turn seven,
but it took it it took becoming his friend. Right. Right.
And so and we’ve been friends ever since. It’s that was that was 15 plus years ago.
And building rapport with your student is key. Yeah. It’s it it leads to a much better outcome for everybody if you build that trust, you build the rapport.
Yeah. So, that was that was great. Um,
have you ever been involved in a uh significant incident at the track with a student? Yes. Yeah. I uh uh you know NASA promotes a lot of these kids coming up through go-karting and you know various you know other sorts of like you know motocross and whatever but young kids coming up through you know into Spec Miata and so they have the the youth I forget what they call it the youth spec Miata series or whatever and um so they’re they promote those kids coming up and so I had a kid assigned to me one day that uh just wasn’t understanding that, you know, his go-kart had more tire contact patch at 400 lb than his now with me in the car, 2800 lb spec Miata, and he tried to turn into turn three, thinking it was his go-kart, and buried us windshield deep in the in the tire wall. Is it at Sebring or home?
At Sebring, turn three. Just Yeah. He lost it. Yeah. Car got sideways, came back on him and just went, we went dead straight off in the grass and I mean just buried the car in the tire wall.
Yeah. What did you say to him?
Uh, don’t take your seat belts off. Relax. We’re fine. You know, you know, he was starting to freak out to get the belts off and I just shook up. Yeah. Yeah. Just sit down. We’re okay. You know, I first I made sure he was okay and I said, “We’re just going to sit here till the safety truck gets here. We’re fine. You trying to restart the car and I just just sit.
So, um, and you you’re trying I mean, I was as uncomfortable as you could get, but I’m trying to talk, you know, he always talks like Mike always yell so monotone, but I was trying to like just, hey, we’re okay. Sit here for a minute. Safety truck will come to us. It’s not on fire. I don’t see any smoke.
Yeah. Yeah.
You know, but
have you ever been on a offtrack excursion with a student? I have never been more I mean we’ve dropped two wheels off you know with somebody that’s really starting to to push the envelope and find the edge but thankfully I’ve I’ve never had an incident where I thought that you know I I was ever in any grave danger or we’ve never done anything really
where you have to take uh Todd’s advice and just go
right yes
relax I I had one at Circuit of the Americas a guy in a Cayman club sport and uh I had done a check ride with a guy. Got out of the car, kind of gone over, got him his armband and whatever. And while I was standing there, this they had a guy that was going to one of the other instructors was going to do this check ride, but didn’t fit in the car.
Mhm. And they’re like, “Hey, do you mind doing the check ride?” So, I grabbed one of the just the chin laner helmets. You was my garage was, you know, a quarter mile away. So, I just grabbed the helmet, jumped in the car, and we went out and it was wet. And the guy was driving really really well, but he was like using a lot of the paint on corner exits. Oh yeah.
And having already driven the track earlier that day, the paint had an amazing amount of grip. Not like the ice at Sebring. I was
But I did make a comment to him. I said, “You you have a lot of faith in the paint. You know, you’re doing great. You just, you know, take it easy.” And one lap he came up out of I forget which corner. I forget the numbers, but came up out of the like that last as you come through the S’s that last
lefthander that kind of pops up onto the straightaway and he went out a little bit and got into the astroturf and the car made a 90 degree left-hand turn and as the as he’s losing it I’m thinking my Hans is sitting on the hood of my car in my garage and I’m like, “Oh boy, here we go.” And the car does a 360, noses into the wall, does another 360 and hits the wall again. And uh and we’re sitting there and again this guy’s you know this car exploded the front end the radiators steaming everywhere you know and I just told him don’t move we’re fine whatever fortunately is built with such safety in mind I mean we hit the wall the mall the wall moved 4T
it just moved the wall you know the way it’s constructed
so in the rain man it wasn’t the hit that I initially thought it was going to be
thankfully
um corre yes thankfully And uh so that one was like another one of those. Okay, move on.
I have a video of you driving in the rain. I believe it was a chin event at Homestead and it was it was downpouring so badly that there were no cars on the racetrack and all of a sudden you see these two massive SUVs go whoop. That was you driving one of those. Who was the other driver?
Renee Badia Jr. Renee.
Renee Badia.
Yeah. Nobody massive. Nobody would go out and we pulled up to pit out and since it was a chin event and I was wearing a chin shirt, they just went
Yeah.
and just let us go out and uh
everybody was in the garages just watching you guys laps.
I forget who was in the truck with Renee, but uh Abby was in in my truck with me. And um we actually I actually found a way to get that truck to go flat through turn 10 in a monsoon. I think the tires were working more like rudders than they were tires.
Not sure if that’s brave or stupid.
Yes.
Right. Yes.
All right. You know what? We’re going to move on to my new favorite segment, which is the rapid fire questions.
Not so rapid.
Except no, there we are going to make them rapid because we are running out of time. This is going to be the pick a club edition of the rapid fire questions. So, you have instructed for all the Florida clubs essentially. So, I’m going to put you on the spot. I’m going to ask you um I’ll throw out a category and you name the club that comes to mind. You got to make it quick and snappy. We’re going to go counterclockwise so you can be involved too. Mikey, here are the the track day contenders. Okay? So you got to mention one of these as I give you the category. FAR Chin NASA PDG PCA and Track Day Experience which is the formerly known as HOD Hooked on Driving uh Southeast Steve’s Club. All right, you ready?
Yeah.
You ready?
So
you got I’m going to give you a category and you’re going to name one of those track day uh clubs that I just mentioned.
All right.
All right. We’re going to start with you. Best or most organized club? Chin. Chin by a wide margin.
Yeah, I’m going to say Chin.
Yes.
All right. Number two. Best paddic food and atmosphere. Um, it used to be PDG because he used to cater lunches, but he doesn’t anymore. Damn. Uh,
it’s got to be Farra, right? You get free. You got the food truck. Not only do you get the food trucks, you get the the mission food free chips and salsa.
Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Yeah, you’re right, Farah.
Got to go far. And now and now we got the uh the drifters coming in Saturday night and it’s a car show. It’s like it’s an event
for sure. All right, number three. Most budget friendly club. Uh PDG.
PDG. They do give you
PDG or TDX. They’re really close, but PDG, Henry Gilbert, they they definitely
Okay. What do you think?
You throw like a right in Track Night in America. I mean, you get what you pay for, but you got to go you got to go you got to go track night in America.
Track night of You’re right. That is
not that I would go track night in America, but you have to at least Yeah, it’s a right in.
I should have wrote that one in there. Yeah, it’s kind of tough because it’s outside of our loop because they don’t have instructors. They don’t allow passengers. It sort of misses our, you know, our radar.
That’s why we never actually go to Track Night in America. I did one of their events at Daytona and the only reason it was because it was Daytona and I showed up and they’re just like, “What group do you want to go?” I’m like, “Really? That’s it?” Anyway, so um yeah. Yeah. I’m going to go with you as well. Track night America. Okay. Uh number four, best swag and club shirts. I I have an answer here. uh PCA because they get a you get a new they do they design a new shirt for every event.
Just about every event. Yes. I was just going to say every event
Porsche Club has some really good shirts. I have a handful of them and I enjoy them.
I didn’t know that.
PBOC used to have a lot of really cool shirts. My favorite
shirt I’ve ever gotten from a club was uh PBOC the Winterfest the 6-hour Enduro. Really really cool shirt. I love wearing it. But a Porsche Club is right there. The Porsche Club 48 hour. Really good shirts. I didn’t know that about PCA. Yep.
So, I’m gonna go with Far because I really like those shirts that they’ve designed. Okay. Uh, number five, worst instructor shirts.
You’re wearing it. I mean, those things are Oh, they’re made out of like some combination of wool and paperiermâché. They’re just
This is nice.
But but that is that is a vintage tin shirt.
That is a vintage tin shirt, if I’m not mistaken. If I’m not mistaken, uh, Pomeroy is is searching for a new vendor or a new supplier because they are really terrible.
I like this shirt.
No, it’s awful. It’s heavy. Worst worst instructor shirt.
NASA. Thank you.
Holy cow. Ugly.
I have never been to a NASA event, so I can’t I I can’t speak for it. But let’s just give props to any organization that gives instructor shirts. Yes. You know, if you’re if you’re an organization, you got people in that case. In that case, we could say PDG because they don’t give Right. Exactly. There you go. Come on, Henry. True. Um, yeah, the the the NASA shirts for the instructors, that’s the only club that I will not wear their shirt just cuz it was it was so ugly. Like, I’m not wearing that. Any other club I I’ll wear it. All right. Uh, number six, sketchiest tech inspection. Well, you have to go to the clubs that have no tech inspection. So,
well, which is
PDG, I assume. Track night in America.
Yeah, Track Night in America. PDG.
Yeah. I tried that. It was just like fill in, you know, fill in the blank.
I I have to say that I I think that fart does a great job. John is fantastic at that. Like he really generally has like people’s best interests in mind and doesn’t want to send people out there that, you know, have beat on tires or break. So, it’s a good balance of, you know, on the one hand, you’ve got PCA that makes you go to a PCA approved shop and you’ve got to fill out all kinds of forms and all do all kinds of crazy stuff. Um, and then on the other hand, you have people that just don’t do it at all. Uh FAR does a really good job right in the middle. Yeah. And I mean Chin, you where you sign all you you’re signing that waiver that you are verifying that your car
and um so they they’ve kind of
move the liability responsibility
the responsibility over to the driver or owner of the car.
Makes sense.
Um and Chin will hunt you down if you don’t fill it out right. Let’s say you sneak through and it’s not right. They they check every single sheet
really
and they’ll Okay. Hey, you didn’t fill this part out or you didn’t sign that part. And they will they will double check. All right, let’s move on. Number seven. Best track etiquette versus Survival of the Fittest. Best track etiquette is Chin. I’m going to go with Chin. Uh Porsche Club is a is a close second there. They
they care. Um Survival of the Fittest.
Uh PDG and TDX. Really?
Yeah. They just they they don’t have the manpower.
Yeah. to to police it properly. Um, Farah does have enough manpower, NASA has enough manpower, Porsche Club has plenty. Um, and but TDA and Track Night in America, they just they don’t have the manpower that when somebody passes without a point by or somebody’s being,
you know, you know, Crazy Carl out there, they don’t have somebody to go over and say, “Hey,
sure. Hey, everybody, don’t terrorize people. Everybody deserves to have a a fun track day.
Agreed. Yeah. Chin is the best. Track night in America is presumably the worst. Yeah. Yep. I’m going to go with the same answer as you guys. Okay. Number eight. Most likely to attract influencers that cannot drive. We We should just call this the track night in America session.
No. No. No. That
No, not for that one. No, not for that one. Um, and I’m going to have to say uh Farah and NASA.
Yeah, I I I would say I would say Farah just because like David is the pied piper of of social media and
right and he brings people in some people and and it’s a and it’s a good thing and a bad thing. It’s it’s a double-edged sword. You’re bringing a lot of people in, which is great for the club. And if you know you could just police those people that have no idea and get them in the rhythm, you’re fine. Um,
and I’ve seen them. I’ I’ve seen them even when they’re checking in. I’m like, “Oh, it’s it’s one of those.” And they usually come in with a whole entourage and they have the the cameras
360. Yes. That’s always a bad sign is when they have the 360° like selfie stick thing. Not one of those. And then NASA, and it’s no fault of their own, but they have the Toyota program, the GR program. Yeah.
And so they just get this influx of people that, you know, they bought a GR
Toyota of some sort and give, you know, they get a free track day and no clue.
Yeah.
And so they’re just just not aware. But and I’ve seen a lot of those people really surprise us and some are I mean they’re racing with NASA now
and they you know but they bought a Toyota Supra and did their first track day and you know got you know got hooked. All right. My answer is far as well for for the influencers cuz I’ve seen it. Yes, we’ve all we’ve we’ve all seen it. Yeah. Um but because it’s a whole show, you know, so it attracts them.
It works, right? Yeah. Yeah.
Okay. Anyways, uh number nine, Snavius Paddock. Sorry.
And I love those people. They’re they’re friends of mine, but they they love their Porsches, and they don’t like when a Camaro shows up. So So I will I will one up your answer and say the only thing worse than a bunch of Porsche people in his paddic is a bunch of Porsche and BMW people in a paddic. So I got to go PBOC, but they’re not around anymore. So, but I agree.
Well, this is a living or dead segment. Really? You thought PBOC was was snobby?
Yeah, they they but it was but it was all Porsche Club people.
I mean they were at both events.
True. I
I mean they used to they used to even encompass their registrations together. Yes, I remember back in the day. So
I remember that.
So yes.
Okay. Uh yeah. Okay. I was going to say PCA, but I’m going to retract my answer and go with PBOC cuz it’s usually the same people anyway.
All right. Uh number 10. Most likely to have an exotic worth more than your house. I go I go Chin there. Me too. There’s somebody that shows up with like multiple Paganis.
I’ve seen a Pagani there. Yeah. But that that same Pagani that they talk about on Chin has been to Pharaoh events. Yeah. He’s a friend of mine and the cars. It’s spectacular.
Is that the guy that has the one hanging the wall in the condo or is that somebody different?
No, it’s him. Okay. and he uh he was at one of the fair events pre David when Tikica was still running it at Sebring and something got somewhere out on social media that this Pagani Zonda R was at Sebring and there were people driving down from Georgia just just to look at the car in the paddic and he was so great I mean people would walk up and they’re trying to take pictures of it and he took the rope down let them take pictures around the car he he was so great with that he was just really made, you know, a lot of people’s days.
Yeah. Genu genuinely seems like good people.
Yeah. All right, we got six minutes and I got a whole bunch of other questions that I want to get to.
We’ll have to have this Vic back.
Yeah. Okay. Uh, last one for rapid fire. Okay. Most likely to have a self-proclaimed HPDE champion. I Every club, every club has that guy. I mean, every Come on. You remember, you guys might remember the video from a bunch of years. I drive flat out,
of course.
Yeah. I mean, everybody knows every club has that guy.
Um,
but I would have to give the nod I’d have to give the nod to Chin.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I’m going far just because with the Superlap series, you can actually be the HPDE champion.
Yeah. But not really.
But I know what he’s talking about. A novice guy that shows up.
I am the fastest, you know, in HPD. Right.
I’m going to go with NASA because I’ve heard that when I drove with NASA years years ago,
people had they show up with some great equipment and they just they’ve read a lot and
but we work very hard at, you know, bringing those people
back to reality, but they show up in the morning,
you with their with their red suede shoes. Full driver suit.
Full driver.
I won the HPD. All right. Um, let’s say Hollywood is making a movie about the Florida track day scene. They’re casting bigname actors to play each club. Who do you pick to play Farah? So, you’re talking about a person from Farah?
No, an actor to play the club in general.
Cuz that answer would obviously be David Twatti if you were talking about somebody that’s actually there. Yeah. Um,
bigname actor. They would play Farah. I got somebody for far. I think it’s perfect. Again, I’m going living just like PBOC. We’re going living or dead, right? I’m going Robin Williams because
really
fun. Let me listen to my listen to my explanation.
All right. What?
Listen, I don’t know. This makes sense. Fun, right? Super energetic, but at the end of the day, can pull off the goodwill hunting of we’re it’s serious and we’re going to get down to business. So, I’m very good at this rapid fire. Good answer. Robin Williams definitely got enough energy.
Good answer. All right, I’m going to go with Robert Downey Jr. He seems like a far guy. And if you’re out there, Robert Downey Jr., you’re welcome to come compete with us. All right. Um, who would play Chin?
See, I’d go Robert Downey Jr. for Chin. Really?
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah. A little more subdued, but still out there, you know, but uh No, Chin. I would say uh really just because there’s so much under control of Morgan Freeman. Oh, good answer.
One of my favorites.
Yeah. Oh, what would you think?
I’m going I’m going Clint Clint Eastwood here. The the wy old the wy old veteran. Been around for a while. You know, everything’s calm, everything’s under control, but also, you know, can really bring it when it comes time to
I have Clint Eastwood, but for somebody else.
Oh, well.
Uh, for Chin, I have Tom Hanks.
Okay.
Okay.
You know, just steady. You know, you know what you know what you’re going to get when you when you see Tom Hanks. Okay. Not not as good as my answer, but okay. Okay. NASA. Who’s going to play NASA? NASA.
NASA, Florida.
I’m friends with a lot of the American Iron guys, and they’re a hoot. So, I’m going to go with like Jim Carrey.
Like, if you if you want if you want to get that American Iron side of stuff, those guys. Yeah. Jim Carrey could definitely uh fulfill like, you know, Bruce Berley, Pat Meyer. Okay, I can see that. I got Liam Niss for for for NASA. Okay, let’s continue. We got two minutes. PDG,
Sammy Jackson. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Okay.
You know, the first thing that came to mind was Sly Stallone, but
we’re there.
Wait, right. Right. Maybe if the two of them got together.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. For PDG, I got I got Clint Eastwood for PDG. Um or Alpuccino. Yes.
Okay. PCA. Last one.
Oh, PCA. Um, it’s got to be somebody that thinks that their stuff doesn’t stink.
Yeah.
I hope you guys I got Hugh Jackman.
Tom Cruz. Oh, yeah. That’s good.
Good answer.
Rob Low. Rob.
Good answer. Rob, I’m awesome at this.
Write that one down. Rob Low for PCA.
Did I Did I win?
Yes. You won that. The lightning round.
Yeah.
Uh, oh my gosh. Okay. Good. That Yeah. Sam Jackson was very good. Too many. Too many. We’re going to have to go over. Okay. Anyways, uh if The Florida Track Day Scene was a reality TV show, what would be the drama and who would start it? What would be the drama?
And who would start it? I’d definitely say it’d be like I not exactly sure where you’re coming from with this, but you know, like it’d be it’d be a novice person that, you know, starts the drama, you know. not not obeying the rules of whatever.
I mean like between clubs.
Oh, between clubs.
Yeah, it was a reality show and and our characters are are playing this reality show.
I I have to What is it? The Track Day experience. I think they’ve stirred up the I think they’ve already caused some drama, right? Oh, yeah. You’re right. So, I’m
They would be the the culprits.
Yeah, they would be the culprits.
All right. All right. Well, listen, it’s been awesome having you. I have another page of stuff that I wanted to go over, but we are unfortunately out of time. So, I’m going to wrap up this episode. Remember, all things well, everything that’s interesting happens
off the racing line. See you guys next time.
Thank you.
Right on zero. Bam. Hey, if you liked what you heard, be sure to click like and subscribe. If you are an HPDE driver, instructor, racer, work at the racetrack, EMT, and you have interesting stories that you would like to share, be sure to reach out to us. We would love to have you on the show. I took the hard stripes.