Late to Grid - Grassroots Racing

Track Heroes: How High-Performance Driving Heals Veterans' PTSD

• Bill Snow

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Luke Ryker from Track Heroes joins us to share his inspiring story of using high-performance driving to help veterans and first responders overcome PTSD. Discover the science behind this unique program, how it works, and the incredible impact it's having on the lives of those who've served. Learn about the different stages of the program, their partnerships with organizations like BMW Performance Center, and how you can get involved!

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Thank you so much for inviting me, Bill. You know, it was great meeting you at that event. And, I'm really excited about this opportunity. Right. Was never ex-Marine, right? It's never an ex-Marine. It's great. It's. Correct. So the process that we're doing is we're using to start off with the super nerdy, top level, using the anterior cingulate cortex to provide top down regulation of the HPA axis. And we'll get into that a little better and we'll explain a little bit more. But, essentially the HPA is part a dysregulation that's common in veterans. That leads to a whole slew of symptoms. And our program is an attempt to bring that system back into alignment, to give veterans a fighting chance. And first responders, veterans and first responders. Yes, sir. Okay. Correct. I mean, you know your body. You know you when you go to the gym, you work out, you do things a lot, you get better at doing it, and your body tends to want to do the things that it's good at. And so if for decades and decades, you're constantly putting yourself in a certain mindset, in a certain frame of mind, in a certain, you know, way of approaching things, getting your body amped up to do certain things. Your body gets really, really good at it and wants to continue doing it. And so a lot of guys, you know, it's difficult. The other end ends up being atrophied a bit because you don't use it as much. And then in the civilian world, you know, the, the, the amped up, sympathetic fighter, fight or flight side is not as, as revered, let's just say, and as in the civilian world as it is in the military world. So a lot of times, you know, guys have a difficult time, transitioning that way. That's a hard transition for a lot of guys and gals from our folks. Exactly. Correct. I mean, at the time, I never heard of it. I mean, high performance driver education going on the track with your own car. That just seemed far fetched. I mean, it just seemed an impossible thing, so I didn't even know to look for it. And so it was through the purchase of this car. I mean, I told the dealer, the Subaru dealer, I'm like, listen, unless you have two kids, I'm like, unless you got a four door car manual transmission. That's fast as heck. I'm not coming in. I thought that was an impossible task. And, you know, he said I got to. And then he introduced me to the STI, and, and one of his, one of his friends that actually does PhDs and was interested in doing one in the near future. So we linked up and, I went to my first one. I definitely did not know what I was doing. Anybody that's been to the track would know. I mean, like, I had my car full of stuff. I mean, I showed up a tech inspection without a helmet. My. And, like, the floor, like, everything was still in the car, you know, like, change in there. Like you've never been here before. How you have you. But they were awesome. They opened their arms, up to me. You know, they, I had a great first instructor, which was, you know, which was key, guy named Jackson Melly from, Big Dog Motorsports. He, he took me under his wing. And, once the first HPD. And I was like, wow, this is incredible. And I at the first one, I didn't really realize, you know, you know, how how beneficial it was. But I immediately wanted to do another one, and do another one after that and after doing it for a number of years, probably like three. It was about three years between my first HPD and what I eventually started, track cross, going to different events, meeting different people because, I mean, I was one person, you know, I didn't have any friends in that network. I was going in cold. But I eventually grew a network, a group of friends that went there, and it was awesome. And it was going there meeting with people, you know, they just wanted to go and drive and then actually driving itself. I mean, I never felt more at peace. And when I was in the driver's seat and at the time, you know, I was going, you know, a VA mental health program, I was I was seeing my counselor, you know, and I was kind of feeling like I was on a plateau. I wasn't getting any better. And so you came at the right place at the right time. And I was just, I felt significantly better. Better than I had felt in a very long time and better in a way that then, I felt like I had a chance of even feeling under the VA's thing. And so I just jumped in with both feet, started going as much as I can, and it eventually led to track here. It was like even. Well, I definitely wanted to get out to the track as much as I can. The problem is like, you know, as a, you know, disabled vet, you know, just doing your normal 9 to 5 job, you know, I there's guys out roads with six figure cars and like an even higher budget just to get them out there. Just see the trucks and trailer. So like you know and the entrance fees were sometimes, you know I couldn't get into it. So I mean I would love to have gotten more into it, more more access. But I felt like there wasn't really it was difficult for me to find more time to get there. So, I mean, I would have I wanted to get into it a little bit more, and I tried to share, you know, my my feelings and, you know, the experience I was having with the VA and they didn't seem very responsive to it, didn't really fit into their their program for me. And so, you know, once one side was working, one side wasn't. So I ended up tending more towards, you know, what I could afford on on the high performance driving side. And it wasn't until, you know, around 2020, where were this, you know, this cross section was really happening, where I was getting a lot of help on one and not much on the other, that I reached out to a friend. He was, another veteran who was getting his doctorate in behavioral, behavioral health. I think. And you just a good friend that had worked with a long time on the, on the the, military, the defense contracting side, which is where I was working at the time. And I asked him, I'm like, you know, hey, I'm really struggling with mindfulness and the stuff that they're pushing at the VA, but when I'm on the track, man, I am feeling great. It lasts a long time. Like like that plateau is gone. I'm feeling an upward trend. I'm like, is this mindfulness? Because that I find a different way to get into mindfulness, you know, through the track and, you know, he was like, wow, that's a really interesting question. Let's see what we can find here. And you know, he he's super, you know, nerdy when it comes down to it. And his name was West Power's great friend of mine. And, you know, we started between the two of us. Mostly him, honestly, because, like you said, he had access to all the research journals, getting his doctorate, whatnot. You know, he wasn't just Google. Google searching things. And basically he just has a researcher's mindset. He just loves doing that stuff. And so we were over the next like year or so, we were going back and forth and looking at different journals and different studies, and he just seemed like a lot of researchers look through their their question through a straw. They never see what's connected to it. And so we, you know, we were looking at these different things like, wow, all these things seem to associate and it looks like all these things lined up. And we think that, you know, if we do this, we could possibly help this issue. And, you know, we developed what we call the adaptive control program, which basically uses the ACC, the anterior cingulate cortex to address this HPA dysregulation. And so, we were like, wow, this is something completely different. And we found a way to use specifically motorsports, motorsports as a, a very, it affects very specific parts of the brains and, of the brain, you know, it strengthens certain parts. And then when that goes in, drive the car, you can tell, it just happens to be the right spot. Yes, we did the majority of it. Yeah. It was just a curiosity, you know, just trying to self-discovery, you know, this was working for me, and I wanted to know why, you know, that this had to be there had to be a reason why this was helping. And there it couldn't just be like, well, it helps. You know, I felt that there had to be, a bit more to it. And honestly, because I was feeling so good about it, I wanted to, you know, make sure that I could continue feeling this good. And then, you know, I felt like there was a lot of friends of mine that, that were doing the same stuff. And we, you know, we always the same conversations about plateauing or about, you know, just not getting what we want, you know, just, the V or being frustrated with the VA's mental health support. You know, I'm not I'm not badmouthing. They have a very difficult problem. I mean, every trauma is completely different, and they're all trying to figure it out and do it through bureaucracy. So I mean, they're already behind the eight ball, and the people on the front line, they definitely try their best. But, you know, sometimes you just you can't. One size fits all doesn't fit everybody. So on the weekend, on the track. Weekend to the veteran, to the hero. It's a facilitation of access to high performance driving. They're like, wow, I could never have gotten to this point on my own track. Heroes help me out. They hooked me up. Here I am doing this awesome, amazing event. I am driving a high performance vehicle. We have multiple stages like a crawl, walk, race, and then maintain phase of our program. And at every phase, you know, it's a kind of a different interaction, but but each time, the hero just feels like they're just having a great time. You know, we we tell them, hey, hey, this is a mental health benefit program. They're like, okay, but to them, they're just driving, you know, we just put it in a very specific sequence that hits certain neurological gateways that guide them down the path through the adaptive control program. But it's completely to them. They're just driving. They just think they're having a blast. And it isn't until the end when we explain to them how we essentially bio hack their brain to get them to this state that the blinders come off and, and, gives them, the ability to understand what we're doing in the walk in the run phase. And I believe we ran into you guys in the the walk phase during an HPD. Yes. Thank you. Yes, sir. Thank you for asking. So basically on our website, we have a registration page for heroes that they get going. They basically click says register here on your mobile. It shows up in your bottom and follows you around annoyingly wherever you go. But when you click on it, it brings up a form. And in that form you basically write out your, your, your personal information, contact information and get give us the right to contact you. And then, you know, information about your service. And if you have a track vehicle and essentially what that ends up doing is it adds you to a, our large database or database of all the heroes that we have registered through our program. And whenever a new event pops up, you know, whether that's a crawl event, you know, the BMW Performance Center, where, you know, we do the intro, it's like a full access. You just need to show up. Not as often. I wish you could do more of those, or the walk events where we get BMW club, Porsche Club, Audi Club, different car clubs who donate free HPD slots to us, or even race opportunities with our race program, with, you know, high performance heroes. And, was the other one, and the follow on mission. Those guys are awesome. You know, we basically put out a blast email to our people in our network, you know, who are who have registered with us and that's attached to our, our, our database, essentially says, hey, this is the opportunity. This is what you need to have to be able to be, to, to to accept this slot and this is the date. And you have to be able to commit to accepting the slot. You have to show up. Are you interested. And then basically they click. They're interested in it. We usually open registration for about a week or so, sometimes a little longer depending on the event. And that all the people that click. Yes. All the heroes that click yes. We then, you know, put that on a separate list and we reach out to them and say, hey, we have this amount of slots first come, first serve. And the feeding frenzy begins. And we typically try to assign a primary and an alternate to each of these because, you know, life does happen. You know, life does happen. And we don't hold it over your head challenging for us sometimes. Please let us know earlier the better. Because we have to fill that slot. But yeah, that's the best way. That's the best way. Just, sign up through there and, just start to show up. Absolutely. I mean, on our website, we have an events page, and that shows all the events that we have on the calendar coming up, you know, and so that'll list all the, the driving events, the track events. And a lot of times it's always better to have more hands and less, you know, there's there have been a few where I'm the only one, you know, working it out. And I got, for veterans trying to drive two of their own car to drive to share our car. And, you know, just making sure everybody has a good time. Like Cirque du Soleil. I'm running behind the scenes, making sure everyone has badges and everyone has all the things that make their weekend completely smooth and fun. You know, while they. So they can just focus on the driving, you know, it's always good to have an extra set of hands, whether that's, you know, running the deal with Murphy. I mean, that's the biggest dude. He's the guy that's always uninvited but always seems to find his way to our paddock. I have a perfect example. I and this guy is just one of actually 2 or 3 that are the same sort of ways. A guy named Brian Ellis, he's a former, green bean or Green Beret guy. He actually still teaches at, he still teaches his craft, let's just say, and, you know, I ran into him through, another charity. I think it was, you know, I don't know, something to this, the Special Forces, like, they had a, a support group, and they he was recommended to us, like, hey, you should try it. You should try talking to Brian. Brian. He's a great guy. He helps us out. You know, he might help you out. And so we we met. We, I gave him a free slot to, a BMW or. No, actually, to an HPD event. He had a crazy, like, Shelby Mustang. Way over horsepower, you know, to, you know, just crazy. He's out there. I'm like, hey, man, let's go on the track. And so, you know, we took him to a track and he and I explained the program to him. He was like, wow, this is amazing. You know, I want to get more involved in this. And so, he signed up, eventually got salon, chosen for, BMW Performance Center slots. We got right into the science behind it, and really wanted to start volunteering. So he started volunteering and also was, you know, had his own vehicle, started driving with us as well. Got a number of slots and then, you know, through our program, you know, and through the motorsports community, he ended up meeting with, another the team called the follow on mission. And they facilitate veterans getting into Champ Car races. And so, they, they have this amazing 64 Chevy Malibu, that AJ had as a kid, and him and him and Rebecca, they, they, they transformed into, an amazing car. I mean, if if you've ever been doing a race that that there and you'll see it. I mean, it's the only 64 Malibu out there. Great people. Yeah. And so, you know, through out through that, you know, Brian and Andy and a few other guys that, they're interested against the racing side. You know, we were able to facilitate that. You know, there's also another one with the high performance heroes when they get into the vintage racing. We've had a couple of veterans also drive with them just doing some, some vintage racing. So some introduction re stuff. And then we've had some we haven't had the full program yet, but there are some race teams, IRL that we have spoken to in the past that were interested in, you know, kind of using some of our guys to, you know, for, for their program. So, those things are still to come, but we've definitely got some racing seats, for those people. And honestly, it's helped us expand our network, you know, part of our program, you know, we're the the adaptive control program, the the, the high performance driving helping mental health. You know, those, those programs, you know, follow our mission and high performance heroes, they, they partner with us. And so we work with providing them heroes. We also provide them with, verification and quantification that their program and the stuff that they're doing does help these guys. And so, you know, it helps. It's one hand wash and another, you know, they provide us with the capability we provide them with, you know, solid evidence that their their program is actually doing beneficial things. And I think together we work together and, help each other out. Yeah, we're working on that. Yep. It's it's definitely going to get there. I think that there's definitely room for more. You know, there's definitely if there's other programs, other high performance driving things that help with veterans. You know, it seems like a lot of these things and a lot of guys have a lot of heroes. Veterans have felt this, this benefit that I felt, and they're like, wow, I want to share this with my community. And, and a lot of times it's a lot of ones and twosies out there with whatever energy and passion that they individually have trying to accomplish and share what they've they've experienced. And, you know, we've been successful. We've had some some good supporters, you know, we've had it. We have a good mission, message. But not everybody has that. And so we kind of want to help those guys. And gals out, those other veteran support programs out because I think, you know, the need is out there. That's there's definitely a lot more need than there is support. And so I don't feel like this is, you know, it's a big grow the pie. I mean, we could grow this. And I think we can all help each other out. So. Oh, man. I mean, I can think of a couple. I mean, there were there was one where, I mean, I'll he was, let's just say he was a veteran. He he came in and, you know, we did, you know, our whole, you know, screening on him. And, we got into the event and the guys, the BMW performance Center are awesome. They've dealt with all types of people, all types of people. We had we had one guy, that we called Full Throttle because, I mean, his BMW was amazing when you put on the traction control, if you're going 80 and you want to go left, like, okay, well, we'll go left, but we'll put on all these crazy things to make it happen in the car, like breaks and drags and it does all the calculations. So let's you do that left hand turn. And so like, we'd always call in full throttle to go and use the brakes. But the second guy and the guy that really cracked me up, like every turn is we call them the no brake Dave like, man, why why are you not even braking before these turns in? Like the next day when we're sitting there talking about it afterwards, she had not mentioned it to anybody. He was like, yeah, well, I'm like mostly blind in my right eye. We're like, it's not no brake Dave and Blind Dave. But Dave, why are you driving on this track? You should have told someone. He's like, oh, this good over for like, everybody, like, fell down like it was a car. And everyone really just want to follow him for like why that's important information and obviously that cause it was in the beginning and we we found some little more probing in our questions. We also mentioned it to the, to the folks there. And everyone was like, yeah, well we had provisions for that. But, you know, they pass if he's got a driver's license is good enough. And truly, yeah, we thought he was crazy. We just found out I'm not just brave. He's like, I think the terms here. But, you know, funny stuff. But, you know, that's just veteran stuff. I mean, and then the stories that we shared in between, I. Far more hilarious than that, you know, because the brotherhood, the sharing, the I mean, honestly, gallows humor. But like most stories on the veteran side, the the teller is the key of the story. So I would just do it a terrible and just enjoy justice if I've ever tried to give some of them out. But I will tell you that some of the the greatest times I've had, I've had sitting around, you know, the, the dinner table or the, or around, like the lunch table after a track session with these guys and just seeing, like, these normally stoic, you know, veteran faced guys, you know, that, you know, don't have time for anything. If, you know, that's because that's rare or like, just don't have any time for nonsense. Just sitting there like kids, like little boys and girls with giant smiles on their faces and just going to town. I mean, that's so gratifying. And personally, you know, that's that's what we do it for, honestly. Correct. Yes. I'm personally. Yeah. We're personally based out of Summerville, South Carolina, right outside of Charleston. But, and right now, our largest event that we do, the crawl event is at the BMW Performance Center in Spartanburg. And so typically, the people that come to that event, we cover the full event, you show up, we cover food, lodging and, the cars, the instructors. I mean, you just show up. It's turnkey. It's amazing. But you got to get yourself there so that we tend to pull from people that could drive. But anybody could show, and, anybody is eligible for the slot. They have to get themselves there. And we're working on finding additional regional training centers so we can expand this to other regions. But we also, for the track stuff for PDS. I mean, we've gone as far north as Nelson Ledges, you know, that's, probably our furthest north so far, or at least furthest in northwest. We've done, multiple events. I think this this weekend I'm going to Vir, with the, the Audi Club. They've provided us with, like, six slots, you know, three instructor, three driver slots, you know, so that's, you know, six heroes driving, you know, that's awesome. That's a lot of therapy going on, therapy sessions going on. And then a couple weeks after that, we're going down to, Road Atlanta with the, the Audi or the BMW club, for a Road Atlanta event. So, that's about where we're at. We do role playing. We did, I think, Summit point, Roebling, Carolina motorsports Park. But we're always looking to expand to new things. You know, a lot of times it's just, just getting the stuff and fitting it on the calendar. But we're we're primarily in that region right now. Yeah. So that was really cool. Gordon Friedman and his boys and girls at the, at Auto Metrics. They're they're just one of the the best shops here on the East Coast. I don't have a Porsche, but I hear that when it comes to Porsches, they're that they're the people that go to, They learned about our program. We ran into them on the on the on the track a couple years back. We ran into a sand quarry in them, introduce track girls. They're interested in what we're doing. We ended up getting an opportunity to to get some space. We're looking for a permanent physical location to keep our vehicle, to store all the event gear and kind of, like, hold meetings. We need to. And just perfect happenstance. Ran into him at the right time, told him our need. And he's like, hey, you should, I have a corner. I have a corner of a warehouse that I could give to you where you can store your stuff and set up a really cool little, little desk and so on. And so we worked it out. We ended up working out a deal where, now we have a physical location at one of his, you know, sites near the auto metrics, garage and warehouse. And then from there, as we're talking more, we're showing more about the program. We once we got the car, that he's helping us maintain. I mean, they help us out so much, the need to be able to get it from point A to point B so that the heroes could actually drive it. You know, that was became a big expense, right? To rent the trailer, rent the truck. And he had a trailer, a van, an old Burgundy z10, van that I call Ron Burgundy, and they, and, an aluminum trailer. And he was like, hey, whenever you need it for free use, you could use it, get it, get your car, get your stuff wherever you need to. And that has been an amazing godsend because, I mean, that opened the door wide open. I mean, it made our budget or our event costs, go down significantly a lot. I mean, a huge chunk of that percentage is probably even close to like 30% of the cost was trying to get transportation again, the vehicle from point A to point B, when it came to, you know, event costs, you know, per event costs. And so that that was a huge game changer for us. And so we're we're very grateful to Gordon and the guys at Auto Metrics, you know, both for giving us a resource that we could use to to bring more therapy to veterans and heroes. But also for, you know, just doing a great job maintaining the car. You know, I'm I don't want to blow things up. I'm a bomb squad car mod, you know, I can take it apart and I can take it apart real fast. But putting it back together, making sure it doesn't fall apart, that's not really what my area of expertise and. And I'm always a fan of finding experts to do the job that they're the expert in, especially when it comes to something like the vehicle that you're putting heroes in. And their guys are just top notch, top notch guys. We feel absolutely safe, you know, getting into into that car because their, their expertise, they will not let her out of the shop without it being buttoned up and good to go. Exactly. I mean, because at the end, it's still a rental car, you know, and, I was told one time. Very funny. Is like, if you ever like, letting someone borrow your your car on a track there or letting someone borrow your race car is like letting someone borrow your popsicle on a hot day. Just don't expect to get it back. Same condition. It's not going to happen. So, you know, having guys that like I'm not chasing problems from two events ago, you know, they're solid every single time. It's making everything so much easier. Okay. Well. Thank you. So maintain is is the newest one that we're building up. We're we're expanding that portion of the program, and essentially, that's what it is. It's if you can't get out to the track every single day, there are certain perishable skills, whether that's social skills or, you know, driving skills that, you know, will eventually go away. And so at, so for maintain we work with the, a couple of other programs, other, event organizers like charities or, fund drive events, like there's a car club called Role Models that we're working with right now. They have annual car drives, like the tail, the Dragon. They have car shows, car meets, you know, fundraisers and like, social events. And essentially we provide, our heroes with free access to those events. And so they'll have an opportunity to maintain their social or their socialization skills, you know, getting out and seeing the car club, seeing the car enthusiast see the people that you know are really passionate about their vehicles, you know, and honestly get off the couch and see different things. So to maintain your, your, your social, you know, your social skills and honestly just growing a different network. A lot of veterans tend to hang out with other veterans. So by integrating with and hanging out with the car, the motorsports enthusiast club, you know, the the people that are, you know, appreciate those. You'll you'll find a lot of like minded people anyway. But they're going to be different people and will be different conversations and it'll get you out of your rut. Essentially. A lot of guys, a lot of heroes, find themselves in a rut. We're also working to kind of expand our, the maintain on the driver side, too. Sim racing, part of our studies, we found that it's like 85% effective, not 100. You know, you're never going to get 100. You're not going to get the GS. You're not going to get the. My boat is actually on the line here. Feeling in a video game no matter how hard they try. But there still is a lot, you know, the, the, the mental aspect of approaching a turn, your break point, your turn in point, your, you know, your apex, your track out looking at the next one down the route, you know, you can develop the, the, the, the, the mental routine of driving the track, you know. And that part is also very important to to our program and not only to just, you know, help you help you get into the zone, essentially. And so we have, multiple of our heroes, many of our heroes really get into the, the sim racing side. And so they set up and organize, you know, weekly or monthly meets where, you know, online, they get online and, do some races and we have some other partners, partners like, Operation Motorsport, and other charities that do have a much larger online presence. And they open their doors to attract heroes, guys that want to come in and participate in their events. And typically there's no charge. And if there is, you know, just let me know and I'll I got you covered. I'll talk to them for you. And even though the people at speed ology. Tamara, Tamara and, Tamara Thumb, man B Roth. Yes, Tamara Samson, B Roth and the speed ology people. She's been awesome. We just met them, and they invited us to a couple events, and we just went to our first one this past weekend. So. Brand new partner. But we're already doing, you know, planning on doing some stuff with them, in 2025 and, you know, that that'll be another opportunity for our heroes. Of course, see some really great cars. So anyway, yeah, we're out there. We're all over the place, you know, we're we're hoping to expand and, and be in the actual, sim racing this year. We're looking to get a rig so that as track heroes corporate, we can actually participate, organize, and do them. But I mean, you know, again, that's a that's an investment. We're in a charity. So we're we're always looking for a supporter for that side. But yeah, that that's the maintained side. You know, try to maintain the things. And in between track sessions, you know, maintain your, your relationships with people and then maintain some sports, you know, you're motorsports with some, you know, friendly link up on, some racing events. You know. Right. Yeah. Think you start reverting back to the mean. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. I'm sure, I'm sure. His name was, you know, shared a confidence. I'm sure. But, yeah, there's there's, when we first started, you know, our reach, our network was, you know, friends and family, you know, people that we had known before. And as a Air Force EOD guy, a lot of, people in my network were other Air Force EOD guys. And so when we put out our first offering, hey, free brand new BMW event, come on out. You know, everyone's like eyeroll like, yeah, right. Sure it's free, but you know the a few you know the friends are like okay let's see what's out. When they signed up for it and I was like, man you got to slot first one man. This is all you. And, you know, on my and it was like, awesome. Cool, man. Can't wait. You know, this is this is going to be the best ever, you know. So I'm like, yeah, it's your typical response to somebody cool like that. At the event itself, you know, I ran into all man, he looked great. He was all smiles. He was all, you know, and in high spirits. And everything was great. And afterwards he was like, hey, Luke, you know, you saved my life. I like, why don't you like I had? I didn't realize how bad things were. I was really trending in the wrong direction. I was it was there was nothing to look forward to. And then when I got your email saying, you know, you're in something happening on this thing, I became like, so excited. I started, you know, there was a light, there was something to aim for. There was something to look forward to, something that I didn't realize. I hadn't felt that a long time. And then from the realization of realizing I hadn't been looking forward to a lot of things that caused me to kind of shift my perspective, shifted his perspective, and looking at, you know, all the all the other things in his life. And I was later and he's like, you literally saved my life. And, I, I had no clue. I had no clue. Later I ran into friends of his, because he became very involved with the program. The big volunteer did a lot of it, does a lot of thing. Did a lot of things for us. His friends came up, was like, you know, there was like a, there's, like, before track heroes and after track heroes, like, his his whole mentality, his whole disposition, his whole, life seemed to change just by that realization, by getting selected for something. And then after the event, you know, the, the skills that we teach them. Plus, you know, there's some exercises that we teach that help you know, with the program that you could use motorsports to help, you know, regain control. If you find yourself out of control or if you feel over overstressed out. And he had a lot of anger issues. He had TBI, you know, he had, traumatic brain injury from, you know, being blown up multiple times in Iraq. He said the third time he landed, he saw everything from 100ft up in the air and landed with a donkey brain. You know, you know, typical veteran gallows humor. You know what I mean? Great. Dude. But yeah. And then, you know, after that, I mean, I was I was just completely shocked. I had no clue. I mean, he was always a funny and happy guy, always going out there seemed like that. At least he's my perspective of him was my guess is, you know, behind the door, you know, life was a lot, a lot darker. So you never know. You never know the the veteran happy, cheery out there, go getter veteran. Externally it might be, you know, really struggling on the inside. And that could just be his brave face or her brave face. And I've had multiple guys come up after that. Guys and gals actually come up to me. You know, since that, you know, we've done a number of events, since that and, yeah, it's surprising every single time I'm like, really? You, man? Glad. I'm glad your name came up on the random slot thing. And it makes me wonder, like, you know, which names are not being picked, that you know, that. That we just don't have the funding yet, to, to give these things to. And so, yeah, it feels good on. Great. I want to and feeling like, you know, I feel like I'm playing with house money. I mean, I'm one guy that came up with with this concept, found it out, you know, and like I said, I have like, over 70 heroes. We've we've, served already, you know, those expensive slots that I was finding is a huge, impediment to me getting out there. You know, we've over 100 and 130 of them now. I mean, jeez, that's a lot of slots, man. That's a and I'll tell you, that's a lot of coordination. That's a lot of great people. That's a lot of organizations that that that want to help heroes. They want to help veterans. They want to find a way. And so, you know, the program grows every year. I mean, honestly, this is probably this is definitely going to expand the people that hear about us and please give us reach out to us, track heroes.org, you know, check us out. There's an info info at Track heroes.org. Just give us a shoot us an email if you want to help or support us. I mean, because, there's there's so much need. There's so much need. And, I want to hear all those stories, about how I help, but, you know, I also want to, you know, I just feel like there's a lot there's a lot. There's a lot of meat on the bone. There's a lot of guys, a lot of more people. We can help out. We just need some more support. If you go on to our website, there is a place to subscribe to get information from us. You know, we're we're getting better at it. You know, we, we're we're getting out a lot more information. You know, our program before was a lot smaller. The last couple years has grown significantly. And so, you know, catching up with the with the growth, you know, there's just so much good information out there. But we're active on Instagram or active on Facebook. We also have a TikTok. You know, one of our, our heroes run each of the accounts. And so, you know, I take pictures, they take pictures, and then they put those things up there and, but it's a good idea. It's a good place to follow us to, where comes to events coming up? We often, post, you know, upcoming things that we're doing here soon. And so, you know, it's a it's a good place to check us out, follow us on all those things. We have a YouTube channel. I mean, it's all linked on the on the, on the website. So if you just head on out there, we'll have links to anything you want to do, whether that's events, whether that's links to, socials or even opportunities to donate. Because we're all we always need more of that. Yes. So our premier sponsor is folks lubricants. You know, they we reached out to them or they reached out to us. Actually, it was awesome. One of their, employees ran into us, and the track a loved what we, we had to do, and they're like, is there any way we can help? I'm. I can't everything get help? I mean, that's usually my answer. And so he ran it up the flagpole and, the the corporate up there. Love what we did. They want to support us, and they, became a premiere sponsor. Not only do they provide us, you know, a pretty decent sized donation. You know, they also provide us with all our lubricants. So that track car that we have out there, every single oil change we have to do, we do have to every track day, you know, all the other stuff, folks. Lubricants, they're, they're, they're the OEM product and all the, all the, all the, the big factories, like, you know, Porsche and Mercedes is a big one that they came out with, in a Volkswagen. You know, they're they're the OEM parts for all these high end cars, but they're not in the garages. They're not in the racetrack. So, you know, they they feel they have a great product, but nobody knows about. And they feel like we're a great program that nobody knows about. So we're all working together to help kind of get things out. But also James Clay and Bimmer world guys, you know, they give us discounted parts on, for the car. You know, they're they're awesome. James has done a couple interviews with us. He's a great dude. Big supporter of track heroes OG racing. They've they've, given us great discounts and often some resources for the car safety wise. You know, they're a veteran owned business. Not a lot of people know that OG racing, and then, so much more like Big Dog Motorsports auto metrics. You know, those guys help us out performance, apex graphics. I mean, I could go on for, for a very long time. We actually have a donors and sponsors page, that that has a long list of all the people that help us. Beauty Warrior Foundation is a big one. They actually sponsored an entire event, a crawl event where they basically fundraised for us to, to raise the money for an entire iteration of that event. And since they picked it, they funded it. We let him pick the participants, you know, they're like, hey, we have a ton of other guys that want to go with your program. Like, if you fundraise for it, you can pick the participant as long as they meet our our charter of just being a veteran or first responder. And that's been a great partnership and a program that we hope to expand. Other organizations that support, you know, certain groups of veterans. And we can do that for you guys, too. So, we're all we're open, man. Yes. It has it has good. I mean, it's just like we we are always dealing with, with a lot of green. Green guys. And so there's, you know, sometimes, like, we wind up going back out again already, and I thought I had an hour, so, like you did you, you had a full hour, but that disappeared like that because, I mean, anybody that's been out to the track knows that it's just like, wide eyed, overwhelming sensory overload, just, an amazing time. And so you combine that. Plus, you know, all the, all the other fun that we add to the event, just, just hanging out and have a good time and, and, you know, telling war stories. It's often like the instructors sitting there tapping their fingers like, hey, we're late. But, you know, it's always a good fun. Thank you, sir, I appreciate that. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. And and obviously, if anybody's interested in getting really nerdy in the science, you know, reach out to us to. We'll get as nerdy as you want. And thank you so much for this opportunity, Bill. I mean, it was great meeting you guys at nine for four fast. You know, when you offered this opportunity, it was I mean, I don't do very many of these at all, so this is very cool, man. This is, a cool experience. I appreciate the opportunity. And, like, you know, if there's anything that we could do for you guys, we hope to see you on the track. See you guys out there and, hang out, say hi.