Late to Grid - Grassroots Racing

From Spectator Drags to Baja: Jasper Drengler's Wild Motorsports Journey 🏁

• Bill Snow

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Join Bill Snow on Late To Grid as he chats with Jasper Drengler, a passionate racer who's taken on everything from dirt ovals to the Nurburgring! Get ready for a wild ride as Jasper shares his incredible journey of racing in all 50 states, the thrill of his first race win, and his upcoming challenge: the Baja 1000!

Key Takeaways:

  • Find your passion: Jasper's story shows how a love of cars can lead to an amazing life full of adventure and achievement.
  • Set a budget and stick to it: Jasper stresses the importance of financial planning and avoiding racing debt.
  • Never stop learning: Jasper shares how he sought coaching and continues to hone his skills through various racing disciplines.
  • Autocross as a training tool: Jasper highlights how autocross can help drivers refine their skills and improve their car control.
  • Support the sport: Jasper emphasizes the role of everyone in motorsports, from drivers to fans to mechanics, and the importance of supporting companies that back the racing community.

#LateToGrid #AtomicAutosports #Motorsports #Racing #Autocross #Baja1000 #RoadRacing #OvalRacing #Nurburgring #RacingInAll50States #RacingJourney #MotorsportsInspiration

Where to find Jasper Drengler: 
https://www.facebook.com/jasper.chimneymechanix/

There's never an "off season". There's an "on track" season and there's "getting Atomic Prepped Season". Get your appointment booked today to make sure that your car next season goes right "on track". 
https://atomicautosports.com/

Are you ready to get Atomic-Prepped? Upshift to the Atomic Autosports website to get your vehicle ready!
https://atomicautosports.com/

Thanks for listening and taking an interest in growing grassroots racing. The Late To Grid podcast shares the stories and inspiration that help listeners along their motorsports journey.

Find all episodes on the Atomic Autosports website.

You are back in the Atomic Autosports studio for another episode to learn more about a driver's motorsports journey. And this is actually the second time I'm recording with Jasper Drengler because the first time I had some technical difficulties, we didn't have Josh in the studio with us. And, he's been gracious enough to spend some time with us to rerecord his episode, and I've never had a guest pull off the side of the road outside Indianapolis to record with this. So, Jasper, it's great to have you, I guess back on the Late to Grid podcast. It's nice to be here this time. I'll try to not screw it up. The recording for you. That's all right. It's, browser, computer, whatever kind of stuff. So, you're sporting the continental hat. We'll talk about tires and stuff later. You're doing some business trips on your way to Pocono, right? Yeah. So I stopped in Indianapolis and saw a client this morning. I'm going to stop in Fort Wayne and say another one. Because, you know, every trip to the racetrack is a business trip. So you gotta make the most of it. That's right. So what kind of business are you in? So I own a couple of companies that, build clean and, service fireplaces, throughout the Midwest. And, that's what I do for a day to day job. And, I like to get my hands dirty. I do not do good sitting in the office. So I pop in the offices from time to time. I drive and whatnot. They shoot me out the door as fast as possible, and they give me something to keep me busy. And that's, that's a day. My day to day job. Well, that explains on social media, like pictures of fireplaces and stonework and all that kind of stuff. Yeah, we we built some pretty cool stuff. You know, our, our companies will do anything from just, fixing a water heater chimney to, you know, a six figure fireplace and, fancy hotel and everything in between. So, it's fun. I've been in this industry over 20 some years. I've traveled the world working on fireplaces and learning new techniques. And I have absolutely the best staff on the planet. The coolest people. I love the culture that we've built at work. A lot of my guys are into motorsports, which makes it fun. And, you know, every day I walk into work, there's smiles and, I'm happy to see my people. So I still love my job. That's great. Have you ever. We haven't gotten near motorsports journey. I love the business side of what people do. We'll get we'll get to motorsports in a second. Have you ever done a design of a chimney fireplace that somehow included racing? I built a barbecue grill and a Harley Davidson dealership, and I used motorcycle heads. You know, the jugs to sit on top of each frame, and I incorporate them into the brick work as I built it. And then, same thing on the facade of the building. We laid up all these antique brick from 1903, you know, 1903 zero Harley started. And so there's tons of different motorcycle pieces built into the masonry on this grill and on the facade of this Harley dealership that I helped build. It turned out pretty cool. That does sound really cool. And you have a lot of race car drivers as clients. And, you know, there's lots of cool ideas, but the man caves and, the bars get the coolest fireplaces. Oh, for sure, as they showed. Right? All right, let's jump in a little bit about your motorsports journey. And I know it's going to take us a lot of different places, but like most of my guests, family got you involved in motorsports. And you attended your first Indianapolis 500. You were only seven months old. Who won that year? Do you remember? I can tell you, I used to know off the top of my head. I don't recall anymore. You know, the. I didn't mention Indianapolis 500 until I was 18 years old, so I went to, And I've been back a few times since, our line bike was always one of my favorite. I loved Eddie Cheever. You know, the year, you know, I saw some crashes and people get hurt. But I just love that place. And I was hallowed ground forever. And, when I started racing, that was a place that I thought I would never get to race at. And, now I consider Indianapolis my second home outside of Wisconsin. The state of Indiana. I think I've raced in the second most of all 50 states. And, every single time I drive past the stadium, I get tingly feeling. And every time I drive underneath the bridge into the paddock, you know, you're just. You feel home and you get a lump in your throat. And it's like you return to the Holy Land. It is a very special place. Magical. I think a lot of folks would say were, were your parents really big race fans? And they just went every year, or was it more about the ceremonial? Just something to do? So my dad was always, a race fan. We went to a lot of local dirt and asphalt tracks around Wisconsin. He owned a couple small businesses, and he liked to sponsor cars. So we would go to a track, and I always found it more interesting to go to a local race. When you have someone to cheer for and you've got a vested interest in the outcome of the race. And then, of course, a lot of Sundays NASCAR was on TV and, growing up, Alan Quickie was my hero. He was my the one I cheered for the most being, you know, Wisconsin guy. And, I, I loved racing. It was something that I could never do as a kid. You know, I have a large family in racing budgets are expensive. And so, the first chance I got to get on track and, in a car, I jumped at it and was hooked immediately. So what was that first car? So as a kid, I managed to save up my allowance and, allowance and, collect cans, and I bought a go kart, but I didn't have a motor on it. So for years, me and the neighborhood kids would push it up a hill and write it down the hill and push it up the hill and write it down the hill. And and that was all I knew. That was all I had ever done. But then the first time I drove on a race track, I was the Slinger Superspeedway in Wisconsin, and they had spectator eliminator racing. And so I took the car that I rebuilt in my high school shop class, and I went out there and raced it, and I won. And that was probably the worst thing ever. And that set the tone for the rest of my life. I was hooked from there on out. And, this disease of motorsports I haven't been able to shake ever since. What kind of car was that? It was a 1989 Chevy Beretta GT. It was a V6 with a five speed. I bought it from the local car dealership, Erickson's Auto, and there was no front end on it. It was completely demolished. It was almost cars that were going to ship off to an auction or crash and, my high school shop teacher let us bring our own projects into the shop. And I completely rebuilt this car. And it was fun. It was. I crashed it a couple of times. I learned a lot. I wish I still had it, but, it's long gone. But I could do great smokey burnouts. I just tried to clutch in it, so I had to learn. I did that, but it was a lot of fun for a spectator to let me in that car. For a couple of years all over Wisconsin. How cool that you had access to do that in high school. Shop class. That's a really neat opportunity. Did you work in it? I was really lucky to have that. And my high school shop teacher to this day is still a good friend. I mean, I go to his house regularly, we hang out. I didn't sell the fireplaces in his new home. He has in there is, an old Earl Indy car in his garage right now. He's a cool dude. And, he is responsible for leading me down the right path when I was a teenager. Not always making the best decisions myself. To this day, we're still friends. Wow. So that Baretta driving around, I'm going to guess that was an asphalt oval track. Yeah. Slingers and asphalt oval. And that was where I first race it. It. All right. What what what memories do you have? What was it like your greatest accomplishment in that Baretta at that track? So those races were, single elimination. So you line up two at a time from a standing start, and you'd make one or even one lap for the heat races and two laps for the future. And if you lose, you're done. And being a front wheel drive Chevy Baretta, the checkered flag paint. It was down the front stretch of that track was very slippery, so the rear wheel drive cars would spend their tires for 15 20ft until they got off the paint, whereas the front drive car only had to go a foot for had traction. And so while I wasn't the most powerful car, I had traction soon, and I worked at a tire shop and I already at that age knew what tires tread, where ratings meant, and, I would grab junk tires on the junk pile that were like 204 hundred tread wear. And I put them on this car and I'd have traction long before the Camaros and Mustangs and Corvettes. That and, that was my advantage. And once you got in front of them, passing was very hard to do because I just took up the whole track because I wasn't a good driver. So they were scared to pass me. And more than once there was contact, and then they'd kick you out of the track for two weeks. You're having contact because it was a no contact class. But, I loved it, and I won a couple of them, and, I couldn't wait to build an actual race car. And so every year, at the end of the day, it was called the spectate or 200. And it was basically grab a car, knock the windows out of it, don't do anything to prep it and go race. And that was very feasible at that age. So, I had a 1994. Now this is, this is going to make your neons seem really fast. It was a mess. I claim iron block iron had a single cam automatic big heavy car. The only reason I raced is because it was the cheapest thing I could find that ran. And, it finished the race. I finished in the money, right? Was like fifth or sixth place transmission was destroyed because those transmissions actually came from Dodge pre destroyed. So you know any driving is going to finish it off. And I was kind of you know I was happy I finished in the money. But I knew the car was junk and I was a little disheartening. And that's when the next biggest mistake of my life happened, when promoter Rex Melius said, you know, we're thinking about racing little cars like this weekly at the dirt track down the road, you build one. I hope you get to the track. And, that was horrible. I ended up upgrading from that Plymouth Acclaim to a Dodge Shadow. Much better. This one was a five speed. So this car was a rocket. And, after that, that, that that shadow. I took the Slinger Speedway for their very first four cylinder front wheel drive class race. And I won that. So again, talked Lyons banker. And I've won a couple of the races and some dirt tracks that year. And then racing got serious. You know, I remember those cars because I worked at a, Chrysler Plymouth Jeep dealership in the early and mid 90s. So I remember those things very much. I bought a local dealer called the Transmission Room, the job security realm for the mechanics. Those transmissions were brittle. Oh, boy. So how long did you work at the tire shop? So when I was in high school, I had a I got to go to the tire shop as one of my classes, so I started working in different shops around town, specifically that tire shop, when I was 16. I work there full time until I was, 19 years old. And, the only reason I left was I had a baby coming on the way, and, a guy came in and told me I can make more money working on chimneys than changing tires. And I told him, these are stupid. No one wants to know. Grows up and wants to work on chimneys. Working on cars is cool. That's why I want to do it. Because I hear you got a kid coming and you're getting married. You're you're you can make good money doing it. And you know, he's actually right. So chimney paid a lot more money. But what that did for me was it saved cars as a passion. So guys like you who can work on cars and be around cars for a living and then do it as a passion, you're very rare. I know so many mechanics that go home and hit cars, and I know that if I were still at the shop renting, it wouldn't be the same as now. Now I go home and I work on cars. It's my way to win down from the day and to relax. And yes, most days I hate cars and cars are stupid to them, but I do. I'll call up some buddies and we'll go on Mirage and a couple friends and suddenly it's relaxing and it's it's it's fun when stuff isn't, you know, too expensive. But I think having a job that wasn't in the car world saved cars as a hobby and a passion for me. That's a great point. Too much of a of something is not necessarily a great thing. And you're right, you know, you do it for a profession, you might not enjoy it, and you just want to get away from it in the evenings or weekends. So that's great that you had that invitation to go into that industry. And it's now it's, you know, something that you continue to do and provides for your racing and family. Very cool. And how did. You how did you and when did you make the transition from oval racing into, road racing? So the mid 2000, I had raced at most of the oval tracks in Wisconsin, Northern Illinois, a couple others. And, you know, Road America is right here. And I was like, man, I would I would love to race there someday. That just sounds fun. And so at the time I looked and, and what SCCA license would cost and like it's, it's how many hundreds of dollars for the license that was not, you know, I came from I was racing at 1.4 or 5 nights a week, the entry fee to get into the track and the car and the registration and everything was 20 bucks, tops. Sometimes it was free and I would leave with a couple hundred dollars. So to pay hundreds of dollars and not get paid, and I shoestring budget, that just didn't make any sense. But I did get to race on the road, the Roval at the Milwaukee Mile with the Midwest Enduro Series, which doesn't exist anymore. And I'm like, this is kind of fun. I kind of enjoy this. And so, in the meantime, I started my own business and I started having a little bit more disposable income. And so I started looking at other series that race at Road America and, Champ Car, which was Champ Car back then, was just starting, and it looked cheap. You know, my buddies like, hey there, their cars are only $500 and I that doesn't seem possible. But yeah, we'll try it. And so I ended up with a, a mustang and and met the rules and we went to Road America and, I think we were around like some 600 tread wear tires, and they were skinny and Champ Car was not as, and it wasn't what it is today. They were there were a lot of beaters on the track and, very first race to run America, field of like 60 some cars. And we finished fifth and again had a little success and was hooked and hotline and sinker. So then we decided we took the year off from the oval stuff, and we built a couple of Mustangs because they match, because if we're having fun with one car, why not bring two cars to the track? Sure, I I'm still not very smart at this point. And so we started doing some Champ Car races. We're down to the very first race at Nola, the track was brand new. It had no amenities. It was just blacktop ribbon and, and the swamp. And that was fun. And we went to Brainerd and we did the rover, Iowa. And we were in the first national championship race, as they called it back then. And finished like 25th. And, I just suddenly loved road racing. And then, you know, we went back and we did some series, some traveling endurance series that did road courses and ovals. And then I decided to go late model and, dirt oval racing for a year. And then I thought I wanted to race something a little bit different. And I saw an ad for someone, renting out Pirelli World Challenge be spec cars. And I'm like, that looks really cool. I would like to just do one professional race once and find out what the budget was. And I was shocked. But the car owner and I came to an agreement that I could race in at Road America for X amount of dollars. As long as he didn't fence and rent the car for the whole season. And of course, he found someone to rent the car for the whole season. So I was on a ride and so I found a car for sale. And, you know, you do a quick budget, you search how much you cost to enter the race. And, of course, mathematics. I had a ton, but I ended up buying a B spec car and going Friday Road Challenge racing for a couple of years and after traveling with that, then I decided I wanted to try racing in all 50 states. I just love the traveling. I no longer enjoyed going to the same track every single weekend, racing the same people with the same drama, and nobody likes it when you win all the time. I learned, so we decided to travel and so we did that for a few years. I won an SCCA, conference championship, and I just started checking off tracks and, yeah, man, 2023. I succeeded in racing in all 50 states. That is phenomenal. Congratulations. Which a lot of fun. Oh, I bet which state was the hardest to, get to in racing? So Rhode Island doesn't have, normal track that runs, cars. There is a dirt oval that a guy has on his private property and calls it the barn yard. I'm going to go race there next year. So when we did road in Rhode Island, we rented out a go kart track, and we did that. Alaska was actually super easy. I found a guy online willing to lend me a car. We flew up there and we raised football. That was fun. Hawaii was probably the most difficult because I started sending emails out to people and I said, I want to rent the car. And I think I came off as like a Nigerian prince. No one believed me and I was trying to send them money and they didn't understand. So track promoter at Maui Speedway reached out to me and he said, are you serious? And I said, yes, because, well, let me see what you can do it. So I instantly wired up $1,000 because you are serious. Am I? Yeah. I want to race. So I found me a car and he kept to this house and I flew out there, rented a U-Haul, went to this house, loaded up the car, and the craziest thing happened. You know, when you buy a car from a thousand some miles away and you're set pictures of it, it's amazing how it magically isn't the same car when you get there. It looks weird how that happens. There were on it and a bunch of other stuff that weren't in any of the other photos. So I raced at that night. I spent a half a day in the Walmart parking lot fixing it, and, you know, trying to make it resemble a car and the roll cage was something that I would never let any of my children get in and drive. Because they just do it with what they can on the island. And, bamboo. I raced it, it was it was rough. It was rough racing. I had a good time, finished third. I got it, and I'm like, I don't know what to do with this car. So I took it back to the motors house, and a few weeks later, a check arrived. In my mailbox. You found someone to buy it? Because I guess the car had never finished any better than last and certainly finishing third place. The car was seen in a different light and, sold really quick after that. Look at that. If, folks, if you have a race car you want to sell, contact Jasper and he'll get it sold for you. The promise people trying to sell me cars every single week, and we're on a, not zero, regimen right now. The goal is to actually make more space in the shed. So, I've turned down a lot of really good deals recently, and it kind of hurts. Yeah. Of all the tracks you drove, folks, 50 states. Did you hear what he said? He's raced in 50 states. That. That's amazing. Jasper. What's the most memorable track you went to and why? The Nurburgring. That was. I've never been so intimidated by anything in my life, you know, you know, the first time I went to Bristol, that was pretty cool, too. Hi, banks. My car tried killing me. The first time I felt the rumble of the Brickyard, crossing, you know, the art of bricks. I was very emotional. I was scared at the Nurburgring. Nurburgring scared the crap out of me. And my instructor said, as soon as you feel comfortable, pull off. You're done for the day. You're the thing that you think you're comfortable in this car. You're going to get hurt. So you're not. And, he was right. The first two hours of training, it was nothing but watching crashes and watching other stuff go bad on the track to contract a sport and respect that. Wow. What what kind of car did you, do that. And it was a it was a 2010 BMW sedan of some sort, fully cage race car. Signed my life away. I bought the insurance on it. But it was fun. That was a lot of fun. Oh. I bet how did that come about? Just. Hey, I'm going to go there and do that or be over there vacationing or business. A lot of guys that write race cars over there, I was over there for work. I, I was in Europe for a couple of weeks, and right in the middle of the trip, I had some downtime. And so, of course, let's find a race track. And that's that's on everyone's bucket list. So that was a no brainer. Wow. Very cool. So you're on the way to Pocono right now. What do you what are you going there to race? I'm going to race a 2017 Honda Civic. As I, built this car to, the ruleset for probably World Challenge, now SRO or TCR America. And I never raced it there because it's so ungodly expensive. Set amount of track time. I just never made it back to SRO. But Pocono has been on my radar forever. You know, watching NASCAR as a kid, the tricky triangle. And so there's, series out there on the East Coast that has, attractor and instructions. And we'll be racing this weekend. And so I signed up. Then they and they invite anyone with any competition license to come. So I've got a few of those. So we're going to go cross token off my list. Oh that's awesome. We do have a crew meeting you there. Some support folks going completely. So on this trip. Wow, I definitely want to circle back and hear how it was. I'm sure it's going to be a great weekend. You're going to have a lot of fun. Probably come home with some hardware. What's the rest of the season look like for you? I do want to talk about Baja later, but the rest of the car racing season, what's that look like for you? Any other big, big events? So we are going to do the Champ Car race at Road America in October. I've got an E36. It's a retired IndyCar, and we're going to take that. We race it in the X class because it it's a real race car. And, I don't like counting points and being told that I'm cheating. So we just ran the EC class. Car's been pretty reliable. We've got a brand new transmission in it, and we were renting seats out in our cars, and trying to make racing a business. But with this new transmission, I was invite some buddies and some guys that I like to hang out with. And we're going to go to Road America and test out this car in its new form. And it's either going to break in the first hour or it's going to finish pretty pretty much at the pointy end of the EC class. Oh man, that's that's a great opportunity. My listener tends to be someone who is taking the next step in their motorsports journey. So maybe moving from autocross to track days, or maybe moving from track days into racing and to a certain extent, trying to get a little bit better. So what advice would you give somebody that wants to get faster, that wants to get better and wants to get safer on track? So the two biggest tips I would give anybody is all seat time is good seat time. And don't be ashamed to be driving. The neon, the Cavalier, the Miata. All seat time is good. And set a budget and stick to it. Because the first thing that will take the fun out of racing is not being able to afford to race. So, you know, you meet guys that, go out and they buy a fast sports car and they get frustrated because they're getting beat by something else that, there's no shame in starting off of something at 100 horsepower and just getting the car control down and getting as much seat time in as many cheap, slow cars and as many tracks as possible, and learning all of the skills before you get too much horsepower and spend too much money. That's great advice. The thing is, I'm my first track day was a mini Cooper and run flat tires, and I remember at the end of the event saying, man, I said to one of the event organizers, I would have had a lot more fun. I probably would have been faster if it wasn't on these run flat tires. He says, no, you should have come on the run flats. Important thing is to get here and just start driving. And then and then you figure out what you need. So folks, listen to Jasper's advice. Set a budget. Your partner or spouse is going to be glad you did that too. And just get out there and do it right. Absolutely. One of the things, I know you've said is kind of the most memorable race or most memorable experience had to have come when you raced with your sons. Tell us more about that. So I've got four kids. Three of them have raced, and so far I've gotten to share the track with both of my boys, and that is that brings me more joy than anything. Right? My oldest son, we were down south at some dirt track, and I won the race, and I was shocked when I see him finishing third right behind me. And I'm like, that's incredible. You know, you're in a car that does not have the power I have. And he goes, yeah, I just didn't rest and followed you. And he said, I knew that if your car could take the corner that fast, this car should going to take the corner that fast. I mean, you just that's smarter than 50% of the drivers. You meet out here for the first time, and then, a few months ago or last month, I was at a double elimination race with, my younger son, and I watched him win a couple rounds, and that was the coolest thing ever. A lot of the local people weren't real happy that I showed up with two cars and that my boy, the, you know, my 17 year old son was beating a bunch of adults and one of my cars. But, I just I love that that was that was the most fun I had. The track all year was seeing my my youngest son, my little baby go out there and beat adults. Yeah. But what a great opportunity to share, you know, the track with your son. Share the podium as well. Do you think they'll they'll be doing the same kind of stuff you're doing, trying to, you know, create, bucket list of all 50 states or this particular track or, you know, let's go Semi-Pro. What? Where do you see this going for them? So my oldest son, I think it's just, something to do with dad once in a while when it's convenient. My younger son, I think, wants to do something in motorsports. He's get he's 17. He's working at a machine shop part time. He's in the same school, the work program I was. And he wants a mechanical job. He wants to work with his hands and he wants to race. But he very much knows that he needs to have a job and that dad will help him. But that's not just going to deliver a car to the track every week. And he of all my kids, he's the one that would show up in the track at the shop during the week and help work on stuff and help me load stuff. And he understands the costs associated with it. It doesn't take anything for granted. So he'll end up racing and he'll probably keep racing a race or two with me when it's convenient. But my oldest daughter just changed your mechanic, her, major, to mechanical engineering, and she's got so many lofty goals of where she wants to end up. I've dragged her to the 21st Daytona and Sebring, and she's worked with and worked part time for, a motorsports company. And and I've introduced to do a lot of people and, we're going to go to, Lamar this year, and she wants to be at the track in some capacity as an engineer, not sure exactly what she wants to specialize in, but she wants to use her skills and be in and a racing job, not necessarily in a car driving, but she she's got a little beamer and she collects speeding tickets. But I don't, you know, she enjoys, like, the occasional autocross day or just a lapping day, but I don't think she's got that fierce wheel to wheel desire that, the boys do. Yeah. And and that's okay, because as one of my previous guests, Sorin Capelli, said, you have to find your joy in motorsports. And for you, Jasper, that's behind the wheel for your daughter. It's being at the track, engineering things, making things better, faster. And if we all find that joy, not only will we enjoy life and our career a little bit, but we'll find, maybe even a hobby that keeps us happy. And, you know, and we need fans in the stands. You know, not everybody is going to be the driver. We need fans in the stands. We need the slow cars on track, the field fillers. We need the mechanics. I've got a buddy who just, enjoys going to tracks to work corners, and he's got a goal now of just working at every pro track in the country and he's checked off. Missed him so far. And motorsports needs all of those people. We need the guy that loves working in cars and going to the track, but not driving. We need the guys that I love coaching. We need all of them for the sport to continue. And, you know, not so much in road racing, but in the tracks where they need the admission dollars. We need fans and the fans. Yeah. You know, you mentioned coaching and it made me think of something I want to talk to you about. So there's no doubt you have some natural ability because you hopped in the car that Beretta and you just started doing really well. But there's probably been times over your racing career where you wanted to get better, you wanted to hone a little bit. Did you seek the advice of coaching, or what resources did you use to make yourself an even better driver? I never had any training or coaching until after my first year in, World Challenge. That's when I realized I can drive. So I went down to Arizona to band around, and I started, I had some coaching and I started working on some fine details and, you know, if you don't use it, you lose it and you have to stay sharp. So I finished the class, and the very next day I went down to Indy Motorsports, park and rented a Porsche for a LeMans race and had a blast. And, you know, I had so many bad habits from all the years of oval racing and and dirt, and I didn't understand why. And the road course, things that happen. I didn't understand the physics of the car as well, because they're completely different creatures. And once I had someone sit down and point out the very obvious things I was doing wrong and teach me what trail braking was, and teach me how to not destroy my tires. In the first three laps. I found myself wanting some, you know, on the podium a few times and world challenge. So, I'm actually planning to go back and and freshen up again. And I think everybody should. And I've never really cared for any trash. It's never been my thing. I just love the wheel wheel stuff. But I live one block away from and track as drifting and autocross almost every single weekend, and I'm going to go there with my kids, mostly to teach them some technique and. But also because I think the autocross will help me focus and be more in tune with what the cars actually doing. I've never been one to look at data. I've got a catalyst. I've had the race keepers, I've had access to it all along. But I've always been, what does the car feel like at my feet? Kind of driver. And I know that there's a lot of times I'm getting beat by the guy that she's doing more homework than me. And so I need to. I need to do that. I need to pay more attention to the data. I need someone in my ear reassuring me that I'm. I need to go through the process and focus on it. And, you know, everyone needs something. There's there's nobody, no matter how talented you are, there's always room for improvement. Yeah. I mean, think about if we go to stick, ball and stick sports, they all have coaches. Even though they could be the top of the game. They got a free throw coach. They got a short game coach. They've got a hitting coach. Whatever sport they're in, it's the same for us. You know, we might not be in IndyCar, NASCAR, formula one, IMSa, but we can still benefit from whether it's reading, hiring a coach, watching track videos, you know, in-car videos to learn a track. We can all take some step. The steps to make ourselves better. Absolutely. So as you want to learn more, and it can be about getting better. It could be about vehicle dynamics. It can be about tires. What are your resources? Jasper, if you want to learn more about our sport. So it's only been in the last couple of years that I've started listening to a lot of podcasts, and there's some really there's some really good information and better advice and some of these podcasts and some are so boring. And, you know, it's my attention span deficit. And, but I can't listen to attack thing for hours at a time. And I'll go in one year and out the other. I listen to an amazing one about sharks and how they work and the history of them, and is great, but I couldn't just concentrate on it. So, you know, how do you get an elephant? One bite at a time. And so just little bits of I, I pick up a nugget here, go to the track and prove the theory, but I can go grab another one, prove a theory and work on myself. Work on the car. But there are other guys out there that just soak it up like sponges and they have their attention span to, you know, go reading an arrow and go to wind tunnel and then go sprint to track and try ten different spring rates. And I don't have that attention span. I don't have that much time. So I'm still not the most, I'm not the best driver in the world by far. I still drive too much by the seat of my pants, and I am well aware that a lot of times I'm getting beat by the person that has taken the time to go through those details, and I respect them for it. You know, they're they're able to do that in a big way every single day until I someday take the the time to hone in on the fine details. Yeah. We talked earlier about the advice you would give to somebody, but what's the best advice somebody gave you for motorsports? The best advice I did get was actually from a race car driver who just said, go buy a house first. And, I have a budget. And when the budget's gone, you're done for the year. And I never actually listened to that advice, but it was at least made you aware, you know, I know guys that, well, raced all summer on a credit card and then worked all winter to pay it off. And I just. I haven't been that bad, but, you know, it's really hard when you're at the track and you're like, you know, a set of tires. I think I could win this weekend. And I noticed that tires. I've got that okay, tires on the car. But, you know, and since I haven't been chasing points anywhere, I've just been racing for fun when I want. How I want, I don't go buy that new set of shocks. So that extra set of springs. I'm okay. Just going out and experiencing the track and finishing second. And like anything, it's it's a money game. And money will get you far to get you far. The combination of the both is deadly. So. A couple more questions before we wrap it up. Jasper. So as a as a business owner, as someone that's, very involved with their kids lives, traveling, all the motor sports, how do you balance how do you plan to get it all done? For a lot of years, I didn't that was a problem. So this year for 2024, my goal was just to go to a track once a month. And that was enough. Concentrate on business. I did set a budget. So, I'm going to race the Baja 1000 in November, and that is so over the top expenses that it has forced me to tone down a lot of other racing throughout the year. Like this weekend at Pocono. It's a it's a cheap weekend, you know, it's entry fee. And I've got the continental tires last so long and gets so many weekends that I don't have a single stick or tire in the trailer this weekend. So, you know, sacrifices like that, but I can afford to go check off that really big bucket list. Items are just what I have to do. Yeah, that's a good segue to talk about the Baja 1000. That is your big goal. That's what you want to do. How does one even get to get ready for prepare? Enter the Baja 1000. For the kid that was always, you know, the Iron Man stewards and, Off-Road trucks. There's just something amazing that draws every gearhead to these amazing machines that can fly over ditches and big bumps at 100 plus miles an hour. And one day, a gentleman that I met at a Champ Car race said, hey, I run a pit at Baja and I need help. Do you want to go? Absolutely. I'm in. I wasn't paying, but I didn't care. I wanted to go for the experience. And so for the last four years, I've actually gone and worked for Bfgoodrich Tire at the Baja 1000. And at the first time I went, I'm like, I got to figure out how to do this. And I was there. There's motorcycles and hours know there is four wheelers and the trophy trucks and some funky bugs. But I didn't realize how many crazy classes there are that race there and how soon we're actually attainable. Not really affordable, but attainable. And so after the first year, I said, Someday I'm going to do this race. And, a year ago, I finally found, a YouTube, a Polaris Razor for sale race ready and looked like a good deal. So I scooped it up. And so for the last year, we've been putting the wheels in motion and planning for this. And, you know, we're bringing 16 people to Mexico to make this happen. For drivers, for pilots, three chase trucks, two trailers. And that starts to rebuild the entire machine twice. And it's a big deal. You know, all of the hotel rooms, the airfare there, it's, it's a big list. And, the guys are coming with me are all pretty much volunteering their time. They. We've all worked together in the desert. Some of them I know through business, there's going to be, like, four chimney professionals on this trip. Everyone else I know actually, and I've spent time with them in Vegas, so they're not rookies. And we just want to finish. I know we're not going to win and you're not going to see me on ESPN and December, but, I just want to add to my collection one of those 1000 finisher medals that that's my goal for this year. Wow. That is a huge undertaking. But everything you've been doing up until now has gotten you ready for that. You know, being the logistics of getting to different tracks in different parts of the country, the different parts of the world, learning how to drive and adapt to different conditions and vehicles. So man, I wish you so much luck with that. How did the listeners follow along that Baja 1000 journey? So, I've got my page Wrangler racing. Got me some stuff on there. Our team name for the Baja 1000 is Flying Ghost Race team. It's the same team name and Facebook page that we used for, Champ Car road racing over the last few years. It's a little bit stuff on there. And then, it'll probably be a month or so until the race. After the race that, I've got a buddy that's going to make a video. We're going to send him all of the photos and videos from the whole racing's gonna put together one, you know, 30, 40 minute presentation because no one wants to sit and watch our in-car camera for 42 hours. So, condense it down to maybe 30 minutes, something that's palatable. Otherwise, now, with the computer and satellites and everything that they have, you can actually watch the entire Baja 1000 live tagging for everybody in the field. The helicopters are in the air during the day, so you can see the live feed, and then there'll be some drones and some other stuff during the night if the live timing's available. And scores website to anyone to watch and follow along. Man, that is exciting. We'll be follow along for sure. We'll put links in the show notes to, not only how to, you know, keep tabs on you and the racing, but also, the Baja 1000 stuff. Before I get to my last question, is there anything we didn't talk about or any sponsors you want to plug? So this weekend's obviously, Tractor Tire weekend. I know some people put snow VIP they get their discount for. If you want to use Wrangler VIP, you know, get your first tire free. That'd be awesome. I really want to. They've been amazing the last couple of years. Otherwise we've got Mobil one oil and, the road racing cars, parked brake pads and frozen rotors. I'm sorry for breaking everybody and the brakes on that. You will not be getting into the corner if you're not on frozen rotors and hot brake pads. Everyone knows torque. The frozen rotors. We started using an endurance racing. They're way more expensive than the crap at the star, but, they last twice as long. You can get an entire 24 hour endurance race and know you're rotors are probably good for a couple more practice sessions. Actually, afterwards. And then, you know, like I said to me, mechanics, I'm a Jimmy guy and warm sensation. All my employees. That makes this all rate a passable. Yeah. For sure. We'll put, Well, let me quickly say, listeners, the companies that Jasper just rattled off support them. They're supporting the sport. They're making products and offering services that allow us to have the best experience of the track. So whoever that is, make sure you support them. So, Jasper, last question. Have you ever been laid to grid? Not in a long time. So when I used to race at a little track called Beaver Dam, Speedway, they made the cars line up to races in advance, and if you weren't there to stare you in the back. And so I've been closed a couple times. But I've never been completely in wait for grid. And I guess with that, is there a tip you have to keep folks from being late to grid? Just set up a routine. Set up a have a regular routine at every track. I leave my helmet here, I leave my gloves here, I leave my receiver here and have a routine, use checklists, and you'd be amazed how much better a weekend goes when you're not looking for something. Organization is key, and, it'll make the race weekend go so much smoother. That is great stuff. Well, Jasper, not only I want to say thank you for being on the late, great podcast, but wish you much luck at Pocono and especially in the Baja 1000. Thank you sir.