How This Mini Cooper Expert Found Success in Wheel-to-Wheel Racing

Bill Snow welcomes Adrian Willoughby, a Mini Cooper parts expert and avid racer, to the Late to Grid podcast. Listen as Adrian shares his motorsports journey from dirt tracks to endurance racing, including his first track day, his surprising start in wheel-to-wheel racing, and the importance of safety and community in the sport.

Get Adrian's advice on how to get started in racing, the resources he uses to improve his driving, and his ultimate goal of racing at the Rolex 24 Hours. You won't want to miss this inspiring story!

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.

 #LateToGrid #AtomicAutosports #motivation  #personalgrowth  #motorsports  #teamwork  #success  #influences  #challenge
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Atomic Autosports is a race prep shop in Ohio.

From prepping your autocross, HPDE, or race car to being the host of the Late To Grid podcast, we're here to help grow and support grassroots racing.

Atomic Autosports Website: https://atomicautosports.com/ 

The racing season may be winding down, but now is the time to start preparing for the next one.

If you’ve spent this season building a list of upgrades, repairs, or performance improvements for your race car or track car, don’t wait until the first event of next season is right around the corner.

Atomic Auto Sports can help you create a plan and get the work scheduled so your car is ready when it’s time to head back to the track.

Before you head out for your next track day, autocross, HPDE event, or racing weekend, make sure your safety gear is ready.

Track First offers the motorsports safety equipment racers and performance-driving enthusiasts need to get on track with confidence. Visit their showroom in Akron, Ohio to check out the gear in person, or stop by Atomic Autosports in Wickliffe, Ohio, where you’ll find a smaller Track First showroom with essential racing safety equipment.

You know me as the host of Late To Grid, but my biggest shift wasn't on the track, it was leaving corporate life to own a Rad Air location. It gave me the freedom to turn my passion for cars into a career and actually get to the track more often. Ready to own your future? Visit radairfranchise.com and let’s get you living life in the fast lane.

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.

Transcript

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Welcome to the Late to Grid podcast. This is your host, Bill snow. And I'm back in the Atomic Auto Sports studio to bring you another story of a motorsports journey. And this time, I'm really excited to welcome Adrian Willoughby into the studio to tell us more about his business, his racing background, but more importantly, his motorsports journey. So, Adrian, welcome to the podcast. Yeah, thanks for having me, Bill. I'm super excited to be here. As I told you before the show, this is my first show. So this is awesome. I'm looking forward to it. Yeah, so am I. So all week, as I've been thinking about today and recording this with you, there's two words I can't get out of my head. Yo, Adrian. Oh, my God, my entire life, that's all I ever heard. The first time I ever remember hearing it, was Boy Scout summer camp. Like. Oh, God, this is. I was probably, like, 12, 13 years old. And we had a old German as our mayor, badge counselor for shotgun, mayor badge, and he said that to me for the first time only. What does that mean? You know, what are you talking about? Because you hadn't seen the movie. I still haven't seen the movie. No way. I still haven't seen the movie. But everywhere I go, it's yo, Adrian. I'm like, yeah, yeah, that's me. That's awesome. So before we get into the main part of the podcast, you and I are just back from a Champ Car race at Pittsburgh International Race Complex. You were a busy guy. You raised five hours on Saturday. Every time I turned around, you were zipping up and down the paddock or the pit lane. How tall are you? 62. You're 62. You're on this mini quad going 100 miles an hour. Where do you come up with all this energy to be everywhere and put five hours in on Saturday? I don't know, man. I've. I've always been, like, super energetic. Like going back to when I was a kid. I've just always been go go go go go. I mean, I'm the same way with, like, with my business. Like, I just go, go, go. I don't, I don't stop. It it is a little bit of a sickness in a way. But also like, it helps me in a lot of different other things. So that's pretty cool. And that quad, by the way, is amazing. Is it? I literally just got it. And the start switch doesn't work, so I have to hop wired every. Need to get online for some very typical grassroots race racer vehicle. Literally. I keep like I pop the seat and I keep a wire stuck in between the battery and the and the, you know, the cover of the chassis. And I just pull it out and I touch it to the battery, touch to the starter, fire up. And that's like, oh, that's great. Let's you know why we have a minute. Let's talk about the race weekend. Because you were racing with money shift racing. Friends of ours. Yeah. In the same class that we run in with Raider Racing, you had a pretty stellar weekend. Yeah. So, the money shift guys, those people are like my family. I've really only known them for probably about three years now. I met Kevin through a mutual friend who has actually been a little bit of a customer and actually came and helped me out at the shop every once in a while. And he says, listen, I think you two would be great friends you need to meet. And so we did. And then, yeah, it just kind of led to where we are now. This weekend was fantastic. We had our best result that we've ever had. And not even, just, like, since I've joined the team since, like, that civic was built. Yeah. Four years ago, four, 4 or 5 years ago now. I think they built that, between 2019 and 2020. So, we finished third overall. Like you mentioned, I drove five hours on Saturday. It was, it was exhausting. I forgot my cool shirt at home. I'm usually pretty well prepared, and, I was not, so that sucked. But, yeah, we went out and we did everything that we had to do. And, this year, we've been fighting a lot of, mechanicals. So, like, we went to run Atlanta and our car didn't have Vtec, so we were going down the back straight at Road Atlanta, like 109 miles an hour, whereas everybody else is, you know, zooming by at 120, 530. We went to Ginger man, and we just destroyed brake pads. We couldn't keep them in the car. Then we went to Nelson. We chewed through three sets of axles. I mean, practice day was a set of axles. Saturday's races of axles. Sunday's race was a set of axles. And then we went to Mid-Ohio. We lost another set of axles, and alternator as well. And we just finally got we put it together. This, this, this past Saturday. Yeah. Sure did. And the team Friday night or Thursday night was in a panic. Yeah. Right. Because we there were some data, logger issues or dash issues. Yeah. So, we run a, a, CD seven dash, I think it is. And am they have a vehicle dynamics module, and it connects to the, the dash, and it provides GPS coordinates and track mapping data and things like that. It was also on the same circuit as our, fuel gauge as well. Right. So something had happened in the computer out. I'm like computer guy, so I don't know what's going on. Tony had that figured out. He's he's got that stuff figured out. But so we didn't have a fuel gauge. We didn't have a speedometer, we didn't have lap timing. And like, the lap timing. Yeah. We don't need, like. I mean, that's an amenity, right? Right. But that speedometer was when we have purple 35 or we have 20 mile an hour speed limit in the pit lane. Like we need to know what what how fast we're going so we, we don't get a penalty. Right. And yeah, we were paying it to I don't think we got the car loaded up

till about 930, 10: 6:27

00 Thursday night to, to be out there. And I know there are some people that, you know, they load up a lot later than that, unfortunately. But that was probably the latest that we've loaded up in a long time. Yeah. It was awesome to see, you know, you know, taking not only the green flag but the checkered flag both days after kind of a, a rough season. So road Atlanta. So instead of Vtec yo it was Vtec. No. Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I mean it was you milks that that car for everything. It had you, you know, I mean it was like driving a miata really. Or an. M or. Yeah. There you go. Or it neon. And if anybody's been on the track with that money shift civic in the last, you know, 3 or 4 races, you know, that thing's not slow. Oh, man. And, at Road Atlanta, we were slow. It sucked, man. It really did. But we we managed through it, and we finished second in class that, that weekend, we would have been first in class, but we had a wheel bearing failure. And we actually saw it. It was, brake issues because we kept going into a braking zone and we had no brake pedal, and you'd have to pump it. Well, we were getting pad knock back, but we we were on fixed calipers. There's no reason we get pad knock back. But we had a wheel bearing sale. So you you turn the wheel and it would flex the wheel bearing and it would push the pistons and in the caliper, then you hit the next brake zone, you got to push them back out again. So explain pad knock back to the listener. So pad knock back is what occurs on a, I guess you could say a traditional style caliper that's got sliding pins. And, as you turn the car and put the side load into the, the, the suspension, it actually causes the, the rotor to push back on those side pins and send that piston of the caliper actually kind of back into it. So now you don't have, almost the immediate grab of your brake pad when you hit that brake pedal. So sometimes, like, you'll see people, they'll go down, straight away and you'll see them tap their brakes way before the brake zone, and then that's them checking to make sure that their, their brakes are there because a lot of cars aren't running fix calipers. All right. Very interesting. Yeah. So, any more endurance racing for you this year? Possibly. There, there's a team. And this was actually the first team that I ever worked with in Champ Car. They might be running the Sebring New Year's Eve race. And if they are, I might go down there, with our good friend. Less and less. Less has been a guest before. Less apps. Yeah, yeah. Lester, he, shout out to him. He's fucking awesome. I love that guy. He really is. When I went down to Daytona, to work with this team, he he really, helped me out and and showed me the ropes because this is my first time ever at an endurance race or at a at a Champ Car race. And, yeah, he gave me a lot of good pointers. And we've been friends ever since. We chat all the time. Every time we're at the track, we hang out. So, yeah, we might go race a mini down there with, John John Player Dano, John Allen, John Allen special. So, yeah, they run a, and 14 hour, 36 mini night. So we'll see if they're running. We might go run with them. That'd be fun to nuts, for sure. Yeah. So you got started in all this because your dad was a dirt track racer? Yeah. That's how you got the bug? Yeah. So growing up, my dad race before I was born. He raced, six cylinder, dirt modifieds. And when I was born, he kind of like he had to hang it up, you know? But we were still going to the track all the time. So we were at Sharon Speedway, Mercer Speedway, Lerner Ville Speedway. Anytime we were with him. And it was a weekend. That's what we were doing. Maybe not every time, but a large majority of the time. And, yeah, I fell in love with it. And I remember telling my dad I was like, dad, dad, I want to I want to go racing. And how old. Were you when you. Said that? Oh, God. I was like, 4 or 5, you know? I mean, there was a local, dirt go kart track, and I was trying to convince him when I was like 8 or 9, like, hey, can we put a kart together and just go run dirt carts? You know, but I remember telling, like, let's go racing. And Sharon Speedway is, home of the Blaney family, if you're familiar. And my dad is the same age as Dale and Dave. So he grew up watching them, you know, climb the ranks and everything. And first thing he said to me was like, if you want to go racing, you're going to have to wait till you're 18. And I was like, but why? He's like, well, if Dale and Dave Blaney had to wait until they were 18 to get in a car, you have to wait until you're 18 to get in the car. If it's good enough for the ladies, it's good enough for for the willoughbys. Yeah, exactly. So yeah. Then so we didn't go racing, but we went and saw all the races. Yeah. You know, we always, our favorite race we always did was, Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup for the World of Outlaws show at Lavell, watching the sprint cars. Okay, that's my that's my favorite. I could drive a sprint car. So if anybody out there, you got a sprint car, and, you know, you might want to give me a test. I would love that. But that's that's, on my bucket list is to drive a sprint car one day. Oh, that'd be a blast. Under under under. Yeah, yeah. Maybe I'll see you in the Chili Bowl or something. Hey, that was sweet. So, what was the very first time you had something on track? So first time I had something on track would have been 2019. And that would have been, the first Mini Cooper they were on. Everybody knows me, Froning. Mini Cooper. Yeah. The first one I ever owned, was the first car I ever took on track. I use when I bought that car, I did, a lot of very dumb things on the road. I'm sure as a lot of us young, teenage, boys do. Wait. The road is not the racetrack. No. Oh. All right. Yeah. So I was, I did a lot of things that, you know, I can laugh about now, but I'm not necessarily proud of. And, I put myself in situations, and I said, you know what? I can't keep doing this. And that's when I signed up for my first track day out at, Pitt race. Pitt race. They have their own, driver school, actually, you know, like, there's organizations that whole driving schools and stuff like that, but, Pitt Race actually has like their own program that they put on. And so I went out and and I did that for two. I did two days in 2019. And, what was what was your immediate reaction that first lap? So the first the first three laps was, I know how to drive a car. I know what I'm doing. And I loved it. And I was right about one of those things. The fact that I loved it, it was not right like that. I knew how to drive the car. Because the guy sat in my passenger seat after probably about third or fourth lap, he he got over the communications and he said, listen, if you don't start listening to me, we will park the car for the day. Oh, and I had just spent $400 come like I'm not. Parking the car for the day. Please repeat yourself, sir, I will listen. Yeah. So, Yeah. So I listened to him and that is how, I got on track. So that was that was a fun time. And I remember that after the first day, like, my buddy told me you need to get a rear sway bar on that mini. You need it for sway. I'm like. I looked him up online there. I want to say, like, $500. And I'm like, man, $500 for, you know, a little steel tube. And at the time, I was like, well, I'm not paying that. Yeah, I'll pay another five bucks and get on track for a couple of days. Yeah, exactly. You know, and I did that first track day and as soon as I got home, the first thing I did is I ordered a rear sway bar. Oh, yeah. Click. We need that, you know, but. Yeah. So. And then sickness started. So before you hooked up with Frank Schwartz, which we'll talk about in a minute, did you do more track days? You do more HPD things. What was your next couple of events after that? Yes. So, like I said, I did two days in 2019 and then obviously 2020 hit and we know how that year went for everybody. I did manage to get a track day out at Nelson Ledges, in November of 2020. Perfect weather to be at Nelson. Yeah. It was like 50 degrees. Yeah. And, I had no idea what I was doing. And actually. So my second track day ever. So that second day I didn't at Pitt race, I had upgraded my brake pads and I had upgraded my brake fluid, and I had put on that rear sway bar, and I went out, and every session I boiled the brakes. No kidding. And this and I didn't put, I just bought for I didn't realize, oh, hey, maybe I should buy Motul, you know? Yeah. I didn't ask the right questions to the right people. And at that time, I didn't have those people, which is so. Okay. And really quickly. Yeah. How did you find the right people? Just keep going to the track. All right? That's really how you do it. I mean, you just keep going to the track and, I mean, I like to think I'm a fairly personable person, and I like to put myself into other people's. You do talk to everybody. So, yeah, you are very personable, you know? So I put my I try to put myself out there. So that way I can, you know, get to meet more people and learn more things, you know, because the more I know, the the better I can be on and off the track. So that's the best thing that you can do is go to the track and just walk up to somebody that you see. It doesn't even matter if you like their car or not. Like if it looks like that they've been to the track more times than you go talk to them. And just, you know, ask them questions like, hey, what brake pads are you running? Or, you know, what should I do here? I'm a little confused. Everybody at the racetrack is a family. And, that's why I love going to the racetrack, because I can go there, and I know that I'm going to have the best time of my life every time. It doesn't even matter if I bring my own car. There's been talent. Like, this year, I didn't take my car out at all. My car never drove this year. The yellow mini. The yellow mini. Right. I you know, I it never drove, but I still have been at the track constantly and I've loved every minute of it. The people out there amazing. The always help you. They never hesitate. You know, if you got a problem, they'll they'll make sure that you're taking care of. Yeah. So that's a pro tip right there. Yeah. Ask people talk to people. Engage with people. If there's a session after a session, you know, if there's like a classroom session go and learn mingle network. Great stuff. Yeah 100%. So but going back to yeah pit race that second time I boiled the brakes and I actually going into 17 oh I lost brake pedal going into 17. Not a place you want to be. No. With no. Brakes. No. And, I went into full panic mode, I really did. I mean, I'm on the comms. I'm telling. I were wrecking the car. Wrecking the car? Like, this is the brace for impact. Yeah, basically. And he's super calm, collected and, telling me, like, every input that I need to do, which is fantastic. Because I did listen to him, you know, he had gained my trust and before. And I listened to him then and, thankfully the car was saved and everything was okay. I was able to drive home because at the time I didn't have a trailer. So I drove track. Yeah. You know, but yeah, that was kind of about it. And then in 21, I did, one time trial with SCCA. Oh, yeah, I did NCM because my mom was down there. So I was like, well, let me do this event. Looks really cool. And I can go see my mom. So I did that. And so in that 2016 mini. Yep yep yep yep yep I that that was my first car and I didn't get my second car until. And the 22 and it didn't start campaigning until end of 23. So yeah I still have that car. Yeah I still have the car. Did you like the time trial format? At the time I did, yes. Yeah. And what I, I don't mean that in like a bad way. It's just, you know, as I have grown, my, my journey, I guess you could say, like, my motorsports journey, time trials is not, like, my favorite thing in the world anymore. I just love the people. And for that, like, I'll keep going back, but I don't, you know, I don't wake up in the morning and and look forward to going to the time trial. You know, John Hunter puts on an amazing event with the SCCA. So, if you want to go check out a national time trial event, really go do so, but, yeah, I just enjoy the endurance racing so much more now. I love I love it because it required, like, it requires you to be perfect for a much longer period of time. And to me, that that's a lot harder to do than to put down one fast lap. Right. That's my opinion. And everybody's everybody's entitled to their own opinion, but that's my preferences. So. Well, that's the beautiful thing about our sport is there's so many different things you can do. And I had a guest on Sareen Capelli. He raced with us. He's been a guest here. He said, you got to find your joy in motorsports. And for some, that's time trial. For others, it's endurance racing. For others, it's sitting on the pit box and maybe taking, you know, tire pressure. So whatever, whatever brings you joy and motorsports is what you need to focus in on. For you, it's endurance racing. Yeah. And that's 100% correct. You know, I mean, we have a guy on our team, j J does not get in the car. J just likes to help in the pit stops, and, J's awesome. I usually ride with him. Hey, we're we're in the tow vehicle together. Towing the race car. Yeah. And then the other guys who are towing the, camper and everything, but, Jay really enjoys, being a pit guy, and, which is amazing because you you can't do it without all these different people. You know, you need somebody who can do who wants to do the pit stuff, and you need somebody who can drive the car fast, and you need somebody who can build the car and make sure that it's ready to go. And you need somebody to be able to analyze the data, to know what changes to make. And you have to have that. If you don't have that, it makes it makes it definitely a lot harder than than it can be. Yeah, for sure. It is a team sport. Yes. And that's the other thing. I love the camaraderie with endurance racing. You don't get that kind of camaraderie anywhere else. So. So what is some early advice that you received that you still reflect back on today and use? The number one thing, my dad told me this, and, I tell this to all of my students. Is that if you want to go to the racetrack and you have a car that you want to drive, drive it to the racetrack and put it on the track. Do not go on line and put a dozen different things in your cart and spend a weekend. Put them on the car. Take your car in its stock form on its all season tires to the racetrack, and actually get to feel what's going on. The only thing is, definitely change your fluid and your brake pads. Yes. But other than that, leave the car 100% bone stock. Because now you're going to be able to you're going to go out there and you want that driver driver to car progression ratio. You know, if your car progression is so much further ahead than your your driver progression, you're you're going to stunt your growth. You're going to have a much harder time understanding what changes need to be made and how those changes are going to affect the car and you behind the wheel. So go out there, drive the car as it is, and then come back and say, hey, you know what? The car was super understeer and you were able to recognize that, okay, let me get a rear sway bar if it's a front wheel drive. Sure. And then the next time you go out and say, hey, it's doing this, let me add some more camber because my tires are getting really, Warner, you know, make small steps because that will allow you to progress as a driver so much faster. And the more you learn early, the more you can adapt, the more you understand. And as you get faster and faster, you're probably going to repeat some of those things again. Oh, 100%. And having that experience will help you overcome those quickly. Yeah, absolutely. And then especially to like, you know, if if you do that slow progression in if you're like me and you decide that you have to constantly build cars for no reason that don't run, you know, like the one car I'm currently building right now, we're going, you know, all the way out from first get go. We're not even going to take it out for testing. But that's because we have a lot of experience already. And understanding what a lot of different aspects of the car make. So if you if you build that knowledge base and, you, you fine tune that, but dyno the first time you get that car, you're going to be able to recognize a lot of the things that are going on, and you'll be able to build out cars a lot quicker. Are you talking about a TSX? Maybe, maybe, maybe there is a nice quick one. This past weekend, talk to those guys a little bit. That was fun. New, fun to see them on track. Yeah. That's, Charlie, Charlie's up. I want to say out of, the lower Wisconsin area. We've actually bought parts off of Charlie, for our car. Gotcha. He he, he does a lot of Honda valve cover, powder coating. He also, makes track car, bars, impact bars. So I did see those. And not only that, there's a toe strap that was really impressed by their design. Yeah, toe strap attaches to him and they have a jack point. So you can jack up carbon. The and he also welds bunks. So if you want to do a, a splitter in the front, you know, so like the bars we ordered, they have a, toe hook, spot in the front. And then they have, two bunks, threaded bunks for, splitter rods. So, and they're, they use inch and three quarter Dom tubing. And I believe everything is tig welded, if I recall correctly. And we lost, I think, 25 pounds by replacing the factory bars with his bars. Oh, impressive. And his bars go directly up against the bumper, you know, so a lot of these people who sell these track bars, you know, you put them on the car and you have a 2 or 3 inch gap between the bumper and the impact bars. So the minute that you hit someone with that bumper, like the bumper is destroyed. Yeah. Well, Charlie does a lot of really good engineering and, model scanning of, make sure those fit perfectly. So. And that cars fast. Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. The car. Is fast. So you mentioned earlier you're you're you were a Boy Scout. Yeah. Boy scout motto is be prepared. Yeah. How has that helped you make sure that you're ready to go for a race weekend or an HPD event and not forget anything but a cool shirt. You know, I, I prepare, well in advance, so, like, if I know I'm going to the track, say, you know, today's Wednesday if I'm going leaving for the track Friday after work, I'm already starting packing. Usually Wednesday, I'll start packing the trailer. I always have a list. And, that includes list includes everything from tools to spare parts to extra toe straps. Because one. You never know if one of them might break or, and I, I just go through and I cross off my list and, and then usually, Thursday night, I'll make sure that my, my gear bag and, my, my, suitcase is all packed and ready to go, and we get out there. Yeah, I, I am overly prepared sometimes. You know, bringing two, three, four, maybe even sometimes five of one thing that I maybe only needed two of. But I'd rather have it than not have it. Yeah. You know, especially with, like, it was possibly supposed to rain on Sunday. You know, I guess what, I bought, like 2 or 3 extra pairs of socks because you never know, right? Thankfully, I didn't need them. Exactly. It didn't rain. Well, I was hoping it was raining. You like driving in the rain? I like driving in the rain. It's front wheel drive, independent suspension. I mean, the rain is is to our advantage. A lot of my teammates would disagree. You know, they, they kind of were like Adrian, shut up, shut up. Quit like and that's broadcast. We don't want to know about it. You know jinx it. But I hope we race in the rain one day. We just have it. It hasn't happened yet. Well, not for me. Not not for me. In the money shift car. I think the last rain race we did was pit two years ago. And that was when it was red flagged. Yeah. Like we didn't even have a chance to really race in the rain. Yeah. It was I mean, I think it rained for five minutes and then after it rained or it rained harder and they red flagged it and they called the race. Right. So we it, I was on the car at Watkins earlier this year and, it started raining and I got maybe like five minutes. They took us down a purple 35 and called the race an hour and a half early. I, I, you know, every time I'm like, man, I really hope it rains. So apparently I need to go down to Daytona because it always rains at Daytona. Yeah. So that's on our list. We might go down there this year. We might go down there next year. We're not sure yet. All right. We're thinking about it for 2025. So maybe we should coordinate on that. Yeah. To us it's going to depend on how the car is because, we boiled our brake fluid, at pit, for Saturday's race. And Sunday's race. Wow. And we've changed masks, cylinders and bias valves. And, I mean, we've done a lot of work on that brake system to try and, you know, get it more dialed in. And by the end of the race on Saturday and the race on Sunday, we had 800 psi to the front and 1100 psi to the rear. So our, you know, we're not quite sure what's exactly going on and causing our, you know, pressure to flip flop because obviously you're supposed to have higher pressure in the front. Yeah. So if we can get that dialed in where we might go to Daytona, this, this, coming year, if not, we'll we'll probably go in 26. All right. So, yeah, yeah, I want to shift gears a bit and talk about you and your business. So you are in a mini Cooper business? Yeah. Flipping mini Cooper's fixing mine, and Cooper's to a certain extent, partying out. Mini Cooper's? Yeah. So did you get into this because your first track car was a mini and you have an affinity for minis? Had this all come about. So, there's a, gentleman by the name of Jonathan Dresser over. And, actually right here in Cuyahoga Falls, he runs a mini Cooper shop, strictly service. And, he had been servicing my car for me, because I had to. So I bought my first one, and then I bought my second one, and I was driving three hours a day for work. Like, I just didn't have the time or the car. I had to have an oil change done. Every, every month, you know? So to me, it was like, you know what? Saturday mornings I'll stop, I'll have my oil changed on him and I'll go grab lunch, hang out, you know, whatever. And after hanging out with him, I was like, man, I, you know, I kind of want to start my own business. And I didn't know what it was going to be. I was just like, I want to do it. How am I going to do it? And I bought a house and East Lake, which you're familiar with, East Lake. Yeah. Okay. Right over there by the Walmart. On off of Vine Street. And I had a six car detached garage and a one car attached garage, and now was only five minutes away from work. I was like, man, I need a project. So I went out and I bought a mini Cooper Clubman that I was going to turn into furniture for. You know, I was going to make it. I was going to take the, the suicide door and, and the front door off, and I was going to make like a four person couch and I was going to have the hood open and, and have the, the engine block be a grill. I mean, I had this whole thing planned out. I mean, I really did, and I was like, well, wait a minute, I have a mortgage now. Like I can't afford to just, I mean, fling money around at projects that really have no value to them aside to, for for me. So I said, well, I need to go. I need to figure out how to do this. So my buddy Jonathan, he calls me, he says, hey, I got a guy here, he's got a mini. He wants like 400 bucks for it. I was like, okay, he's like, you want it like, oh, 400 bucks. Yeah. Okay. Sure. I'll take it. So I got it. And then I started stripping it down, you know, and selling the parts off of it. And then I bought, after I finished that one, I bought two more, and then it just went downhill. I had ten cars in my driveway at one point, city knocking on my door, saying that, hey, you can't run a business out of your house. Business. This is a fun hobby. Right. And so that's kind of how, like, the business started, like, I mean, it wasn't like I went out and I said, I'm going to sell used Mini Cooper. I just one day, it just kind of took off, and and, now there's a lot of people that they, they give me a call and they say, hey, I'm having a hard time with my money, I need help. And I say, I have the parts for you, and and I'm thankful for them. Yeah. You know, there's a lot of really great people that I've met along the way doing that. All across the country, the Mini Cooper community, if you don't know, which I'm pretty sure you do, since you've owned one. Yeah. The Mini Cooper community is actually probably one of the best, community brands that there are. I mean, Jeep is really strong. But when it comes to the Mini Cooper, they're also pretty strong, too. Yeah. I mean, and, you know, like mini USA puts on massive events, you know, like they do mini takes the states every year, right? And 99% of the people that are doing that event that many USA is putting on are people that did not buy their mini brand new, which means that they did not give mini USA their money. Right? They gave somebody else their money and mini USA is still supporting them. Mini USA supports a lot of racers. They they, if you have, you know, kind of like Mazda contingency. Yeah. I think Nissan has a contingency as well. Mini USA has a contingency when it comes to I think it's only SCCA racing. I know they don't do it for NASA, and, I'm almost positive they don't do it for for endurance racing with Champ Car either. But, But yeah, mini is fantastic. So a lot of great people. Yeah for sure. So does the business help your racing to give you the flexibility needed, the funding. How does the business fit in the racing. Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of people who are in racing would know that, being a business owner is kind of the the easiest step into racing because it is very time consuming. So I'm able to make my own schedule in that way. You know, if I say, hey, you know, like this past weekend, we we left, Friday morning. So I had to take Friday off. And, I usually work Saturday mornings, and I took Saturday morning off. So I have that flexibility. Whereas, I mean, I'm probably at the racetrack 15 weekends a year. And, a lot of those include Thursdays and Fridays. Right. Most jobs you would not be able to get that kind of flexibility. So definitely being a business owner allows you to be able to do that. And it does definitely help fund it. But I mean, regardless of whatever the job I had, you know, we'd find a way to fund it. That's right. You know, I mean. Scratch it. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. You got an edge. You'll find a way to scratch. Yeah. For sure. So while we're on the topic of minis. How did you get connected with Frank Schwarz to get that first wheel. The wheel race. Yeah. So, Frank, Frank, was a customer first. That's actually how a lot of, a lot of my connections, you know, like the guy who taught me how to drive on the track, I met he was a customer. Evan Lewis. Fantastic guy. I love Evan, he's one of my best friends now, actually, but. So Frank, like I said, yeah, he was a customer. He came in and, I'm trying to think what his first order was. I want to say his first order. He came down to the shop in Willoughby Hills because that's where I was originally. And I'm now in Sebring. He came to the shop and Willoughby Hills and he bought a factory LSD transmission, I think. Yeah, I have a six speed swap for a convertible project. This was back in spring of 21 or maybe end of 2020. Can't remember exactly. And he is just now starting that convertible project, actually, because he keeps himself pretty busy. He is a busy guy. Yeah, he's very busy guy. So that's how I met Frank as a customer. And then, then. So actually. Yeah. So what does it actually would have been in 2020 sometime? Because in 2021, when I started going pretty heavy with my car to set it up for the time trials and, Frank was helping me out with some of that stuff, you know, giving me pointers and, and, stuff like that. So, then Frank knew that I loved racing. And he called me. This probably would have been, I want to say it was February or March of 2022. He called me and he said, hey, I know you want to get out onto the track and do some wheel wheel racing. And if anybody knows about Wheeler racing, it's very difficult to get into if it is not your own car. Because you, the people need to trust you. Right. And so he called me and he says I have this car, it just got wrecked pretty bad at Vir. Somebody maneuvered it, and it got sent sideways into a guardrail, the Armco barrier. And he was like, do you want to repair this car? And I was like, well, what's in it for me? You know, like, am I getting paid? Or, you know what? What's how are we going to do this? And he says, well, there's, SCCA, enduro, the, inaugural one, the one that they held at Nelson Ledges. Actually, I think it was the only one that they've held. They might have held a second one at Nelson last year. Right. So 20, 22 and 23 were races, but 24 got canceled. Yeah. So the 2022 race, he said you fix this car. This will be the car that will race at Nelson for that race. And you will be one of the drivers. And I'm like, okay. Yeah. I mean yeah. So I mean here he comes. I mean it's pouring down rain outside.

It's like 8 or 9: 38:39

00 at night. And here he comes. Pulling in the car wasn't even tracking straight. Like I don't even remember how I got it in the shop because I only have it. I only have a single wide car garage door. I have a forklift. I could have picked it up and put it in, but like I crash was not wide enough to get it in. So I don't remember what we did, but we got it in there. And, as soon as Frank left, first thing I did is I called my dad. I said, dad, we're going racing. And he's like, what are you talking about? I said, well, I have us a project. And he's like, what do you mean, us? But my dad's a frame technician. All right. So. And he's been doing bodywork all of his life, so I've done some of it, but not a lot. And I was like, dad, I need your help. We got to do this. And, so we put a quarter panel on the car. We. New rear subframe, new rear control, two lower control arms. I think we put a new front subframe. Either that or we just changed. No, we put a whole new front subframe in it. New fender, new hood, repaired the radiator support, new bumper, new wheel bearing, new strut, fresh set of brakes. And then I had to do rear brake lines because when the rear brake lines, they attached to the rear subframe like, that's like the hard line and the soft line connect. When I went to go disconnect on, drop the rear subframe, the, fitting was like almost froze to the line, as you know, you know, and repair business. And so it just twisted the line. So I had to put a new rear brake lines on. Well, I couldn't get them to save my life. I probably bled those rear brakes. I probably went through, like, 4 or 5 bottles of RBF. It was. It was a nightmare. And what actually ended up working was vacuum bleeding them. Oh, yeah. Because I was trying to pressure bleed them. I was trying to do the, you know, pump the pedal, somebody else crack it method. Yeah. And, for whatever reason, it was just building up too much pressure and wasn't able to get all the air out. So. Yeah. And that was that was how I got on track. And actually, that car got blow it blown up on a test day. Got a hole through the block. Oh that's right, because didn't someone go back up to Michigan and pick up. Yeah. So this again goes back to Frank and you know, his stubborn determination to his customers and his clients and, his friends, Frank. Frank does not like to let people down. And, that's an amazing trait that he has. And so that car blew up. I think they had a track night in America is what the. You know, the test was. Yeah. You know, and, it blew up there. Put a hole in the block. He loaded the car on the trailer and drove three hours back to Detroit. Dropped that car off, picked up another car, brought it back down so that way we could race Saturday and Sunday. That's awesome. I think I do remember because we were at that, that was our first endurance race at The Neon, and I remember him rolling in really early in the morning. Yeah. And I was like, all right, these guys are racing. Yeah, I don't think I think he probably left some time around like nine, 10:00 I want to say maybe a little bit earlier, but it's a six hour round trip drive. You know, and then it's just him, you know, he had nobody else helping him at the time. So, you know, he's got to push the car off the trailer. He's got to get the new guy on the trailer. So, yeah, I don't think he got back until, like, 2 or 3:00 in the morning. And, Yeah, but he made sure we were ready to go, and, he made sure we had a car that that made it to the made it to the end both days. Yeah. That's that was that was awesome. Right. So. And you getting in the car wasn't just a, putting around the track. You were laying down some pretty fast laps, and your first wheel, the wheel race weren't you? Yeah. There wasn't a lot of traffic at that race, though, so that counts, right? Eight entries? Yeah, something like that. Or I think there might have been 11, but the handful of people broke, like there was that factory Toyota Corolla, if you remember that, I do. They blew up on the practice day too. And then, I think Tim Lally had a car that, ended up in the wall. The Corvette. Yeah. Right. And they came back the next day with the BMW, I believe. BMW or GTO. Maybe it was the white GTO, man. One of them. Yeah. Yeah. But. Yeah. So. So that definitely helped get, like, up to terms, up to speed because, you know, there's a lot going out, a lot going on out there on the racetrack. And so, that helped for sure. And yeah, I was going out there, I, I set ftdi for the team in my first race. Everybody else had race before, you know, and that was. Yeah, that was my first race. And, I did not be frank, though. But can't let the car owner, you know, be slower than you, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Sorry, I. I don't I can never be slower. But, you'll have to ask Kevin about that. Yeah. You're faster than Kevin. Yeah. So to kind of, like, lean into the the next race I did, the next opportunity I had after that was, the Nelson led just 24 in 2022 with Champ Car. And like I said I'd done Kevin you know a little bit, a little while before then. And I had already told him that I was going to crew for him. You know, I'll help you out. I want to be involved. Well, I just got done doing that race of Frank, and I'm like, man, I need to drive again. Like, I can't, I can't just. Turtle on the high. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I called Kevin up. I'm like Kevin, like, do you have a seat that I can, I can pay you for to to drive at the 24. He's like, I can give you one step, 700 bucks. One stint. I said I'll take it. Yes, I don't care. Something is better than nothing. And so I'd never driven their car. I had never even seen their car before. And I show up and, they say Kevin gives me the walk around. I mean, everybody else, Chris and, Tony J. Everybody that was there and, you know, my family now, which is awesome. Yeah. And Kevin gets me into the car, we get strapped up to go, you know, for me to run some practice laps. And first thing he says to me is like, listen, just go out there, turn some laps. If if, you're fast, you're fast. If you're slow, you're slow. If you go out, you run 20 threes in 24. Is it Nelson? I don't care. So if you want some coaching when you come back in, I'll be happy to give it to you. It's like, we got Adam Roberts out here. He'll be running 16 and I'll be running 17 and 18 and Tony, JP and, I'm trying to think you the other driver was. I think it was just the five of us. Well, Keith got in Keith Stepanek, he got in first stint, accidentally, but I they're he's like, yeah, they'll be running twice, incidentally. Yeah. We'll we'll get to that. Okay. All right. So. I go out and, and I start running my, my laps and getting used to the car and everything like that. And at that point, Nelson, I had the most track time, too, and and that also, at that point, I only had 12 track hours. I mean, between the races that I did at Nelson with Frank, the track days, the the time trials, I had 12. Hours. Yeah. Not very much. No. Still. No. No. And so I go out and I start clicking off 16, nine, 16, seven, 16, four, 16, four, 17, one, you know, and so like I was like, man, I want to keep driving. Like, this is fun. Like, I really like their car is just so fun to drive. You know, Chris and Kevin have done a fantastic job of prepping that car, and I just love driving it so much, that I wanted to keep driving. But I'm like, no, no, like, I'm I'm putting I'm good enough like that. Like we are comfortable. There's no reason to keep doing more laps for no reason. So I pull in and, parked the car and I'm on unstrap and and everything. And Kevin comes up and he's like, oh, I had the car feel. I was like. And a car felt amazing. I love the car. It's great. Oh, what kind of lap times did you do? And I was like, oh, you know, I did a 16 four. He's like, you did a wait. And he reaches over it, flips, flips the kill switch that way the dash will turn off so you can see the number. And he turns and he yells at Tony. He's like, Tony, get over here and pull the data out of his dash. I want to see what he was doing. You know, and that was fantastic. That's awesome. You know, so I, I'm very proud of that moment. I'm very thankful for that moment because Kevin didn't have to put me in that car. Yeah. You know, he he had no reason to put me in that car, and he did. And so, you know, I, I tell Kevin and the guys this after every race that, you know, I thank them for the weekend and, and, you know, I thank them for their presence and how amazing they are and everything like that. And, you know, I do it because of, like, I really am grateful, you know, I don't have to be there. They could invite somebody else there. Because I'm, I mean, I am a team member, but I'm not invested into that car. And they keep calling me and asking me, which is. Awesome. Well, it's at times like that, you're always going to be invited back. Yeah. So, that was awesome. And, I tried to set FTD for the race, but, Adam Roberts went out at like

3: 47:56

00 in the morning and did a 15, nine, at 3:00 in the morning. Right. Justin? Probably fog, right? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Of course. No, some ledges and fog. Yeah. I mean, that's like two peas in a pod. But. Yeah. So the keys, I can't I'm trying to remember exactly what it was, but Keith was like our reserve driver, I think, or he was there. Wasn't planning to drive, but, you know, you don't show up to the racetrack without your gear. That's right. Rule number two. Right. Versus have fun. Number two is always bring your gear. Yeah. You always bring your. Yeah. I mean, it doesn't matter if you're getting in the car or not. You bring your gear because you never know who might ask you. And he had his gear with him and how he might even been helping us with pitstops or something but. Oh Tony. Tony went out and his his horns thing on his, his helmet had fell off. Oh the like what screws into the helmet. It fell off and we caught it on our livestream camera. So we called him in because, like, we're not we're not letting somebody out there with a defective horns. I mean, I would never go out without a horn, right? You know, I try to encourage all my students whenever I hop in the car with them and they don't have a horns and they have, you know, safety belts like you need to go by one. So we called him in and Keith was dressed and ready to go. So we sent out in the car, he went out and he did like an hour and a half. Stanton two hours and something like that, and came back and felt bad for Tony. He lost some seat time, but, Our safety first, right? Yeah. And, yeah. So when I got out of the stand, I did stint number two. That race. I got out of the car and I, like I said, I only paid for one. Stanton and Kevin, he's like, you're going back in again. And I was like, oh, okay, cool. Awesome. Thanks. And, he put me in at night. So not only was it like, you know, my first, you know, big race, I guess you could say, you know, a 24 hour, he said, hey, you're hopping in the car at 430 in the morning with Nelson Fog. Wow. You know, that was that was awesome. That was fun. And somebody had clipped a groundhog so sharp throughout the night. So the kink going down the back straight, that groundhog was, like, sitting on the outside of the back straight. And it was the perfect turn in marker. Really for the kink. Yeah. Like I can't remember if it was like you saw it and immediately turned if you saw it. And he went one Mississippi and then turned. But yeah, you saw that groundhog and it was like, okay, cool the kinks right here. Yeah, it was awesome. Right? Do you enjoy driving at night? I do, yeah, I love driving at night. So when we, we did the R 24 last year, which I loved, the team does not, no, no, I'm the only one that likes the 24 hours. Unfortunately. But I did two stints at night at Vir. The one stint was at the dead, and I want to say, like, 2 or 3:00 in the morning. I say, I think it was about 2:00 in the morning, because then I got in the car at, I want to say like 435 a I did two stints, I know that. And, and I drove into the sunrise. I like driving into the sunrise. And I know, like, Kevin and Chris, they have a hard time driving into the sunrise or the sunset just because, like, the way the sky. I mean, a lot of people do. Yeah. You know, it's not just. I mean, a lot at. Low sun that can bother you. Yeah. And and just like the transition from super vibrant to super dark, you know, it's actually happens a lot quicker than you think. Yeah. And so I like, I like driving into the sunset or into the sunrise. It's beautiful. And I love getting up early and watching the sunset or this or I mean, getting up early, watching the sunrise and staying up late and watching the sunset. Oh, those are my favorite things. Yeah, I things some. Life, no matter what. They are magical. No doubt about it. Yes. So what's the big goal with all this? Where do you hope to end up with the racing? I don't know yet. I'm still figuring it out. I, I have aspirations, I don't think that they are achievable, but I will continue to work towards them. So like my, my highest goal is to race at the Rolex. All right. That is that is my dream. It is going to be a lot of money and and I understand that. And, Just sell more old mini parts. There you go. Right. So simple as that. Yeah. Just sell so many good parts and it'll be okay. That is my goal is, is to go race it to Rolex one day. That's probably at the top of the list. Well, now that you've publicly stated that every listener is going to hold you accountable for that. Well, so actually, it is in my best interest to put it off a little bit longer because, if you were under 27 years old, you are considered a silver level driver. Regardless of anything. Regardless of anything. So you are not able to go run the GTD Pro Am or. Well, I think it's GTE, GTD is the Pro Am, and then GTD Pro is all pro. But so right now I would have to run an GTD Pro and it'd be much harder for me to get a seat in that. But if, you know, I'm 28, 29 and I'm now considered a bronze level driver, it'd be much easier to get a GTD seat. I mean, not that much easier. It's all relative range. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So that's, that's on my bucket list, and I don't know how I'm going to make it happen, but, I'm trying like hell yeah. Yeah, yeah, I'm. I'm trying to get to the racetrack every chance I can. And, you know, we're trying to build a, a race, a little bit bigger of a race program at at money shift. And we're hoping that that's going to work out well for us and work out well for our customers, too, that that we plan to bring in with that. And, maybe that will help with that. I don't know, but I can't. Hurt and I'll tell you that. No, no, it can't hurt. So that's kind of also one of the things that we're you know, I'm trying to do in my racing journey is, you know, kind of in a way be like Frank. Frank, Frank, leads by example. You know, he is one of those people that like, if you look at Frank, you say, I want to be like Frank. I want my kids to be like Frank. I want my kids. Kids to be like Frank. You know, nobody's perfect, but Frank does his best to be as perfect as he can. And and, that says a lot. And so, if I can give back, you know, if I can provide opportunities to people that have never been in a car before, and they want to get that, that availability, I want to do that. That's why I instruct now, you know, I started that this year. And it is scary, let me tell you that. Sitting in the right seat. Yes, I bet. It is sitting in a seat, especially with somebody who has never driven a car or driven at that track. Like my one student this year. He's like, I've never been here before, but I've done it on the same. And I'm like, oh, great, I bet you. He lights up the tires and here we go. Yeah. And, like turn ten, that downhill left hander after the S's, like he was not turning. I'm like, I'm like, dude, the track goes left. They turn the wheel left. Please, please, please, please, please, you know, but then, like, you know, I got to experience, you know, and this was my first student ever, and this guy had never been to the track before, and he hops in the car and, we go out for the day, and he wanted to. He wanted to make a vlog for the day. So, I mean, he he interviewed me and we did all these different things and he had all sorts of cameras and stuff like that, whatever. And so it was more about the video than it was driving. No, no. I mean, I mean, he definitely wanted to get it all on video. Yeah. But, he definitely really enjoyed the driving. Okay. Like, we got out of the car for the last session, for the last session, and he said, can I ride in your car? And like I said, I wasn't driving my car this year. So, no, actually I was, I did I drove my white car, that weekend. So he hopped in the passenger seat of my white car. We went, did some laps. When we get out and he says, this is the best weekend of my life. No way. That was I mean, he got out of the car and that's what he said. And, you know, it's it sent chills down my spine because, like, I remember when I was there and that was me. And to be able to provide that to somebody else was amazing. And then he quickly followed it up with, please don't tell my wife that I said that. So maybe my wedding was the best day, and this is my second best day. That's a real pinch me moment for you. Yeah. I mean, think about you had a part of that. Yes. That's something that you didn't remember forever. Exactly. And so, you know, that's where, like, I want to try and be able to give back to those people that want to be in this community, any way that I can, whether that's instructing them, whether that's, helping them with car setup or giving them, you know, ideas about how to drive a track or learn how to drive a truck. These every track is different. You know, you have to be able to show up to a new track, you know, especially if you're driving, like Champ Car or something. You have to be a be able to show up, put in a 20 30 minute practice session and know that track, you know, at least be able to know it at 90%. Yeah. And so if I can teach people those things or, you know, get somebody into a weird a wheel situation, I would love to do it. That's that's what I want to do. A giving back and teaching. It's the best thing that we can do as a society, right? Is, is to give back to the younger people and help them do things that they want to do that we have done. Yeah. You know. That's what it's about. Yeah. So I have a few more questions here before we we wrap it up. So somebody comes to you that's never been on track before. Wants to take that next step. What advice do you give them on how to get started? He did. Cher, don't modify the car. Just get out there. But what else would you share with them? So the first thing that I would tell them is I'd say, hey, go check out Auto Interests. That's who I instruct with. They're a great organization. I like working with them. I like driving with them. And so I would tell them, hey, go check out auto interests, look at their schedule, and sign up for a day. Don't hesitate, you know, just go sign up. That's the first thing that I'll tell somebody, the real quickly. What do you like about auto interests? Above other days, you've done, I like their instruction. Because you're an instructor? No. So I actually joined auto interest. Not as an instructor. You know, I've been driving with auto interest for. I think this is my third season now, and, they have a large base of knowledge between their instructors. You know, one of the instructors there is an ex tire engineer. I can't remember what the company was he worked for, but he was a tire engineer for 30 years. Right. So guess what? If my student gets out of the car and he's got questions about tires. You know, I know some stuff about tires, but guess what? That guy knows a lot more stuff about tires. So I'm going to say, hey, go talk to this guy or, you know, and we have a lot of instructors that have different strengths. You know, so like we have instructors that are really good with people that are first time in the car, and we have instructors that are really good with people that, you know, they've been in the car a few times, but they're just trying to make that next extra step. I like their format the, the way that they have it set it up, the way they have it organized. They also provide insurance for you. You know, because that's a lot of things that most organizations or series don't do, like Champ Car, we get into an accident, Champ Car like we're Sol. Yeah. You know, you get into an accident with auto insurance. Auto insurance? I believe the flier they just sent out says they cover up to $10,000. SCCA is also one of those organizations as well that if you get into an accident, they will, take care of your hospital bills due to the accident. Which, thank God for some of those people out at, Road America this past weekend. So those are all really, really good things. That auto insurance does. All right. Advice tip number two. Advice tip number two is safety. You know, I try to tell people that safety is the most important thing. I have had conversations with people that when I hop into a race car myself, the first thing that goes through my mind is, how can I make sure that I make it home this weekend? How can I make it make sure that my family is able to continue saying hello to me. But the days after. Right. And, I was like I said, I said that to a guy that, on a forum, we were talking about safety equipment and he says, well, I don't know about you, but the first thing that I think of when I hop and race cars get in first place, I'm like, all of us do, man. All of us think about winning. That's why we race. Like nobody goes to a racetrack and says, man, I can't wait to finish last. What you like? No. Like we're we're we're show up. We want to win. Right? That's why we do this. Yeah. Part of it. Right. But safety should be the number one thing on somebody mind, because, you know, like Evan, when I first met Evan, I told him I was like, yeah, I'm going to the racetrack, I'm going to go racing. And he's like, yeah, yeah, okay, sure you are. You know? And I was like, no, serious, I'm going racing. He's like, well, make sure you buy safety. I was like, oh, I will. And he's he's like, it's expensive. I said, I know, but I'm going to buy it. You know, like I went out and sorry friends over at track first. Tim and Sally, fantastic people. By the way, if you need any, any type of safety gear, to get on track, they just are the people, but I went over there and I bought a harness. I bought, what else did I buy? I, I, I bought belts, I bought seats, I had a roll bar installed on my car. And because to me, you know, I spent what I think it was like 4 or 5 grand on all that safety equipment. And, I mean, that's a lot of money, right? When you kind of think about five grand, four grand, it's a lot of money for safety equipment. But what is your life worth? Right? You know, what is waking up tomorrow worth to you and to me, it's worth a hell of a lot more than $4,000. And so I was going to spend that money. And I encourage everybody to spend that money. You know, like I said earlier, I have a lot of students. I get in a car and they don't have a horns. I'm like, you're out here, you know, going back, you know. Yeah, I mean, not literally, but, you know, like, you're going to really fast down here, you know, you have an incident, you know, you could be in that wall, you know. So like this year was my first year instructing. So what I did is I went out and I bought the Simpson Hybrid S. Right. The one that straps around your chest. So you don't need the harness. Yeah. So that way when I hop into a student's car that has a three point harness, I know that I can be protected with my hands. You know that that is so important. I know a lot of people right now. And NHRA just changed some of their rolls. And the Hunt's device was required this year for certain classes that haven't been traditionally. And everybody's all in an uproar about it. Oh, I've been racing all this long without a horse. So I'm like, yeah, I guess what? Dale Earnhardt said the same thing 25 years ago. You know, and unfortunately, look at where he's at, right? Like, you know, don't be dumb. So any other bits of advice? Those are probably the two most important ones. Yeah. Is go, go talk with an organization, get on track that they they want first timers and beginners out there and invest in your safety equipment. Those are the two most important things. Everything else can wait. Got it. Now when you need to learn more about improving your driving, picking your car faster, learning more about the sport, where do you go? What resources do you use? I watch a lot of video. So, like this past weekend, I've already rewatched the five hours from Saturday. No kidding. I've already rewatched the two hours from Sunday. I've already rewatched the live show that Champ Car put on. Do you fall asleep on the part I was on? Of course not, Bill. Of course. That, I do, I watch a lot, and I'll probably watch that again next week. You know, and it's just like football players or basketball players. You're right. You study film because that film can teach you so much, you know? So like I had I had two incidents this weekend. One incident was not my fault. One incident was 100% my fault. And I can look at those incidents and I can see what I could have done better, right, in those incidents. But then the other thing that I can look at, too, is, when I watch my video, I can, you know, I know the track line, so I don't need to worry about the track line. What I need to worry about is racecraft, you know, is, should I have taken this pass? What could I have done better to set myself up better for that pass? Or was there a better time that I should have taken that pass than when I did take it? You know, so I do a lot of that. And then also watching other people's race footage, like watching the Champ Car live broadcast. What that allows me to do is to see what other people are doing, because I know what I do and what I like to do and what's comfortable for me. But just because it's comfortable for me doesn't mean it's comfortable for others. And what is comfortable for others may be faster than what's comfortable for me. Right. So, you know, so I spent time watching them, and, I don't do them, believe it or not. I've never done the same. No, I take that back. I actually did, Sam Thursday night. Tony, one of our drivers. He loves the sim. When we went to Road Atlanta, he told me. He said he put about 500 laps at road laying on the sim. Wow. Before we went to Road Atlanta, and, it showed because I did the sim at Road Atlanta, and I couldn't turn a clean left to save my life. Oh, yeah. Like I could not keep it on track. He went out there and I mean, he putts around and I mean, he was running 40 flat, you know, so but I don't typically do the same. I don't like the dynamics of it. I have a very hard time. Like I said, everybody can do it. Yeah. And I drive based on the feel of the car. Yeah. You know, like, I feel what's going on on my. But I feel what's going on on the steering wheel. You can't do that on the sim. And the sim will try to do a lot of that for you and recreate it, but it doesn't do the best job. No. Even like Tim, they have a, sim place in the same building as, some experience. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, before I went to Watkins, the, the owner of the team that I drove with at Watkins was a maker for team. And he says, I would really prefer that you can get on the sim. And I was like, oh, I got NASCAR. He back at home. He did not. Have a Snickers car around Talladega. But, so I went out over the track first and, I put some laps in on that sim. I mean, that's like a 30, $40,000. Yes. You know, I mean, that was a nice sim, but even then, like, it was still very difficult to understand, like what the car was actually doing in the sim. So, to me, it's a great benefit to learn a track. I don't think it's a great benefit to hone in your craft, in my opinion. All right. That's just my. Opinion. All right. Two more questions. What's the forum verbal input links to to what we're about to talk about. Yeah. What's the best way for folks to, follow you and connect with you? So I am very heavily involved on Facebook. Believe it or not, I have a lot of people laugh at me about that. Because apparently Facebook is for us old people now. So you can find me on Facebook, Adrian Willoughby, you can also find my business page on there. Well, Mac, mini Cooper parts. You can also find me on Instagram at. Yo, Adrian. That's four O's. Double underscore. Adrian. And, and then, my YouTube, I don't know, the the exact handle to my YouTube. I know I'm on YouTube and I try to post a lot of my personal videos from my cars on YouTube. I have a link to it. Yeah. You have? Yeah, you have a link. So share it. Yeah. But, yeah, I'm pretty active on social media. I try to be, you know, I try to make a lot of posts, and I always do race recaps. That's kind of like my thing when we get back from a weekend is I go on and I put in, like A56 paragraph race recap for for the team. So nice. All right, time for the last question. Have you ever been late to grid? You know, I thought about this on the way here. Yeah, because I've watched, like, your podcast, and I know you always ask that question. And I was like, have I ever been late? And I sit back and I think about it, and I do not think that I have. Comes back to being prepared. The only time that I was ever late was because of mechanical. So I don't know if you can count that, but, my. Hey, as the grid marshal would say, late is late. There you go. So in 2021, I did like I said, I did my first time trial with SCCA in my white mini, and I had never towed before. I had never driven a big truck before. All right. I had never strapped a car down before. And I said, hey, let's go drive eight hours to National Corvette Museum towing a trailer with a car on it. And, it's actually a lot of bad things happened that weekend. Like the truck that my truck that I had bought, the engine, it had gone bad. And it, it had rod knock. So then I had to rent a U-Haul. Oh my goodness. And then they I couldn't rent a 2500 U-Haul. So I didn't take my trailer because I had a 24ft and clothes and yeah, I could have towed it with a 1500, but I like I want to be, you know, way above what is capable or way below what's actually capable. And so I towed, my buddy Brandon Anderson. He's a great guy, too. He actually helped get a lot of things happen. And so I put my car in the trailer and I strapped down and on the minis on the on the third gen, many stiff chassis cars, there's not really anything to, like wrapper, strap around or anything like that except for the wheels. So I rap through the wheels. Well, the brake caliper has a brake line that goes on the bottom of it. Yeah. And during transit the wheel shifted with the strap and it caught that brake line and bent that brake line like 90 degrees. Oh my goodness. So but I still had brake pressure. It wasn't leaking or anything because I pulled the car off the trailer. I went through tech like everything was fine. And my mom lived 15, 20 minutes away from the track. So as soon as we got done, it was, hey, like, let's head home. I, you know, I made a real nice homemade meal and I'm like, mom's cooking. Let's go. Yeah. And I started driving out the exit of NCM down that long road. And I started hearing, like, this. Shit. And like, what is that noise? So I get out, and that's when I see the bent brake line. So hitting the wheel or the rotor though. The wheel. Yeah. Because it bent in front of the caliper. Gotcha. Yeah.

And so, we stayed up till 11: 1:11:27

00 and that night and we, we went out, we bought a brake line. Nobody had a brake line tool. So we had to rent, you know, that crappy one from AutoZone or whatever and took like 2 or 3 tries to get some good flares. So this is a little difficult. We made that happen. And then we went to go ahead and start bleeding. It and the bleeder broke. So this is Wednesday night. Practice is on Thursday. Competition starts on Friday. And where do you find a mini Cooper caliper? Right. Or at least try to back to the easy out the circular. That's what I did. So I got up at 630 in the morning. AutoZone opened at seven. So I drove straight to AutoZone and I picked up a easy out kit and ESP I believe it is, they were on site. We're doing tires and selling gear and stuff like that, and they had a bleeder. So I bought a bleeder and then the bleeder broke. Or I mean, the, they, easy out broke inside the bleeder. So then I'm like, go, now I'm screwed. I got nothing. And at the time, I did not have one of these calipers on the shelf at my shop. So I made some calls to some other people in the business. Nobody else had some used calipers on the shelf. So then I called many of Nashville, which I was only like an hour south. Yeah. And they said, oh yeah, there's not even a single caliper in the country. Let. Adrian. Yeah, yeah. Lucky me. Right. They're five weeks out from Germany. So then there was a guy. Oh, God. And I feel bad because I can't remember his name now, but Brandon Anderson hooked me up with him, and, he he he fixed all the go karts for NCM, and so he ran that shop there. So we took the caliper off the car, went over there, and we tried to weld ten different nuts to this bleeder. The welds would not hold. I'd like to think this guy knew what he was doing. Yeah. And if the track trusted him to take care of his, their go karts, and and we could not get the, the nut to hold. And so then we, we tried to dremel it out, and we're like, wait a minute. This caliper is still technically sealed. Yeah. You haven't left anything out of it. Yeah. So we're like, why don't we bleed it through the cross pipe on the bottom of the caliper? And so then that's what we did. All right? Is, because we tried to dremel it for like, an hour. I still have the caliper on the shelf. It's one of my trophies. And I went, oh, yeah. Yeah. And, so we got it back on the car and we put the brake pads in the caliper, and we stuck a 27 millimeter socket in between the brake pads, and we took the caliper up at an angle, and we bled the caliper the best we could. Through the fitting for the crossover line on the brake caliper. And, I was able to run the weekend and I was the final session on the practice day I was able to make it to I was ten minutes late. They have already gotten ten minutes on track, but I was able to get out there and actually drive. Oh my goodness. So I'm glad you're able to get it all figured and sorted and run some laps. Yeah. Yeah. Well Adrian, thanks so much for being on the podcast and sharing your motorsports journey. I can't wait to see where it leads. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having me. This was exciting.