Late to Grid - Grassroots Racing

From Pontiac Sunbird to Track Days: Jason Yard’s Motorsports Journey

• Bill Snow • Season 5 • Episode 13

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In this episode of Late to Grid, we dive into the motorsports journey of Jason Yard from Malco Automotive. From his unexpected first drag race in a Pontiac Sunbird to his current role supporting grassroots racing events, Jason shares stories that are equal parts hilarious and inspiring. We explore how Malco is making waves in the high-performance driving world, especially when it comes to keeping race cars and tow rigs clean, fast, and photo-ready.

You'll hear how Malco became a staple at tracks like Mid-Ohio, why clean windshields might be your best upgrade, and what products every racer should pack for track days and autocross events. Jason also shares insights into balancing motorsports with family life, lessons learned on and off the track, and what’s next for Malco in 2025—including their exciting acquisition of Auto Magic.

Whether you're a weekend autocrosser, a seasoned track day enthusiast, or just love a good car care tip, this episode brings the horsepower and the humor.

Clean cars are fast cars. And they photograph better too.

🔧 Topics include:

  • Jason’s first race in a Sunbird (and surprising second-place finish)
  • Mid-Ohio School tips and hilarious sandbagging stories
  • Must-have Malco products for racers and car lovers
  • SCCA partnerships and how Malco supports amateur racing
  • Car care myths, best practices, and professional-grade detailing tips

Do you have pit stop panic or trackside trouble? Not anymore!

Atomic Autosports, your trusted shop for getting your car ready for the track now brings you everything you need for race day success with their brand-new online store!

Essential trackside tools, top-of-the-line safety gear, and a full lineup of performance chemicals is now just a click away.

Plus, show your Atomic Autosports pride with their awesome swag! T-shirts, hats, hoodies, and stickers!

Track ready setups for time trial drivers and others 

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.

Clean cars are fast cars. I have Jason Yarde from Malco Automotive in the Atomic Auto Sports Studio to tell us about his motorsports journey and how to keep cars clean during the event, but most importantly, after the event so you're ready to go for your next race. Let's throw the green flag on this episode. Well, as I mentioned, I have Jason in studio to talk about his motorsports journey, and we're going to learn about keeping your car clean because he is with Melco. And, if you've been around the industry at all, you've certainly heard about Malco. You're probably hearing a lot about it because, Jason, you guys are you're hitting the pavement hard and getting the word out and I'm glad that you're here today. Well, thanks for having me. Yeah, we're we're excited to be, kind of in a bigger part of the motorsports industry with Malco. And, and I'm excited to, you know, get to talk to you on, on one of my favorite subjects. Oh, awesome. Let's first talk about your motorsports journey. You were 16 years old. Was Dragway 42? Yeah, yeah. And you just you drove, had it, and you went out there for an event. How did you even know to get there? Well, who invited you or drag you long? It's a funny story, because I grew up with, a couple of guys. I grew up in Wadsworth. And some of the friends that I had over there were in the auto, mechanic. Schooling. And and they were always tinkering. And so therefore, I was always just tagging along and tinkering. My one buddy had a 68 Mustang GT, you know, 289. It was automatic, but it was a hand-me-down his dad gave him. So it was a fun car to drive around town. And it was also a fun car to, to take to the track. And he was always trying to tune it up. And so we were just doing it was, you know, random Saturday and we were trying to do a tune and, he said, we're going out to Dragway 42. And I said, yeah, I've been there. Let's, let's do it. Funny thing is, I, I had wrecked my mom's car and I didn't have my own at the time. And so I borrowed her replacement, which my dad went out and just got this used Pontiac Sunbird. Total piece of crap. But it was like a stopgap to find something better for her. And, and I said, well, I'm going to take your car. You know, we got to put the coolers in something and and just, you know, snacks and whatever. A little bit of a fib, right. Well, no, I that was. No, I had no intention of racing that car. And so we we pull up and I'm behind him. There's like four of us and, and they're like, I can't remember the exact cost, but it was like $5 to get in an $8 to race. And I'm like, well, let's just see what this little thing can do. So I paid the eight bucks and got in and, and, and yeah, we, we started dragging it down the track. And that was my first experience of dragging my own car. In a, in a, you know, legitimate environment, not just on the street. And, and I fell in love. That was that was a lot of fun. And I took second place on the day, which was crazy because everybody's car was overheating. And I had this little four banger that, we were actually it was a hot day. It was no summer, and we were actually sitting in it in between. Staging, with the air conditioning on because it wasn't overheating like everybody else has. Everybody had, you know, bags of ice. And, so it was that was one of the and then I brought home a trophy and my dad's like, you did what you did, what with your mom's sunbird. And I was like, look, it it was a it was a whim of a thing. And I didn't intend to take home a trophy, but yeah. So we we did that a few more times, and, and I've always enjoyed kind of that quarter mile rush. I did a lot of street racing you know after that when I got into college and, and you know the fast and the furious was all the rage back then. So you know I had a few cars that I could, I could scoop up and really play with. So fun. So for sunbird. Yeah. For cylinder. Got you on track. Got you a trophy. Did you borrow a helmet that day? No, we didn't need one. It was. It was whatever class I was in, you know, it was like a 19 second quarter mile. It was so, but when you, when you're just, you know, trying to get your, your, know, your time and, and, you know, you're calling out your, your lowest time, it was much easier. So. Gotcha. So, was it the, was it the rush. Was it the trophy? Was it the camaraderie? What got you coming back? Yeah, all of the above. I, you know, I've always been a car guy. And love, love cleaning up cars, obviously, but I love, tinkering. I'm not by any means, garage mechanic, but I can definitely change oil and filters and tires and brakes and stuff like that. So, I've always enjoyed just doing what I can and and learning, and then, you know, transitioning to performance is the other fun part of it. If you can put on a cold air intake and you can get a chip tune and some of these easy things that just show you progress, it's it's fun. Yeah. And eventually moved into autocross. Right? Yep. What car did you first compete with and autocross. Was it this? Well. I, I honestly never competed. I've really just done, like, testing tunes. And, and just really played with it. I've got several friends that that have done it and do it still and, and, and just tagging along with them and just kind of learning, you know, best practices and, you know, the, the, the, I guess the best, autocross has been down at Mid-Ohio. So with, with Malco, we're we're a sponsor of Mid-Ohio, and they do a really nice job at their driver, their high performance driving school. So I've gotten to do that several times. And part of that training, that they do the first day is, is on the autocross course. And that's just a lot of fun. And I always like to, you know, crop talk with, with other, employees that go with me or some of our customers we'll take down there. And it's fun to to just see who's what people are made of and, you know, kind of trash talk as much as you can. Oh, yeah. Let's talk about the Mid-Ohio school a little bit. What were some of your key takeaways from the education that you got there? It's it's, you know, there's there's a lot the, the the biggest thing is understanding braking and understanding kind of the, the dynamics of the car and how to take a turn. And, you know, finding that apex, that perfect apex is is one of the key takeaways. And, you know, you don't you don't understand it until you're there, until you're on track and you're, you're figuring it out and you're doing it repetitively. And that's what it takes is just continuing to do that, that motion over and over and again and seeing that apex, knowing when to brake and figuring it out. The ideal, you know, path every time. Yeah. When you've gone and done those have is it a Malco company outing. Usually we take a few customers. Yeah. That's usually what it's been. It's it's kind of like a reward or, you know, a privilege if you're one of the one of our distributors, to be able to, to to go there and you know, it's one of those things that we, we encourage folks, hey, we're we're part of this. If you if you want to, join us on a, on a track day, or a school day, you know, we'll take you down there and, and the camaraderie with the customers is just. There's nothing that beats it. You know, when you can, get out there on a track and and, have fun with your customers. That's that's the best. So. Sure. And they're driving away big smiles, a lot of endorphins going in there saying, I gotta buy more. Malco. Well, that's. About. That's the hope. Yep. What's one of the funniest things that have happened during one of those events? Maybe has someone crash a car? Has someone, like, set fastest time of day or like, oh, my gosh, I can't believe this. Yeah, I think it was, it's probably the second time I was down there. And I don't know if you've ever done the high performance driving school. Not there. No. It's, they they do a great job. The whole the whole staff is great. The instructors are great. I think it was probably the second time I did day one, and I've done day one probably five times now just because we're taking customers and it's like, I don't want to do this again, but I'd rather do do day two and three where you're more on track. But but yeah, I, I kind of play dumb because I knew what the program was, but, none of the instructors remembered me from like, six months ago or the year before or whatever it was. And I just played dumb and said, you know, I've, I've, I've played a lot of GranTurismo, so I think I'm going to be really good at this. And then you go out and you do kind of a test lap to see what your skills are before the day starts. And that's that's such a baseline. And when I set my baseline of the fastest time in the group, they were like, you've done this before, haven't you? You've been here. And I was like, wow. Yeah, I've been sandbagging. Yeah. So had a little fun with the instructors. Oh that is yeah. And those are an integral or civics I think. I Alexis so the newer version of of a civics. Yeah. Acura. Yeah. Beautiful. And they do have some S2000, which if you are in the top couple, you get to actually take those on track, which is kind. Yeah. They're 20 years old, but they, they've only lived there at the track, so they're, they're still fun. Yeah. So what what is the relationship with Mid-Ohio and Malco is, is a partnership just sponsorship. How does it work. They technically sponsor the driving school. But with that sponsorship and it's mostly, an exchange of goods. So they have, you know, all their facilities need product, whether it's hand soaps or cleaning supplies or just, you know, to clean up the school cars, when they're not being used. So, so it's mostly product in-kind. And they give us, you know, so many, seats for the driving school and then and then also they, they announce us on, race weekends and we have, you know, billboards and stuff that, that they put us up. So it's been a great partnership. It's been, you know, before my time, I think it's been 10 or 12 years that that, Malcolm has been part of Mid-Ohio and Seth, the owner, of Malco and one of, you know, the president, he, he's been a big proponent of taking customers and having fun on the track. He he actually went to the Bridgestone, ice driving school, in Colorado. And he he worked there for a while. So he's, he's he understands the value of kind of that on track and that, that advanced level driving. So that's really cool to be able to combine all that. Now I know why the Mid-Ohio vehicles are always so clean. Despite them being a little older. They're getting up there and age. They still do keep good care of them. So yeah. Unfortunately we had a, we were there a couple weeks ago, had an off track incident. Oh, no. And now I'm thinking about it. So we get towed in by this Honda Pilot, right? Yeah. I mean, it's an Earnhardt pilot. Ridgeline. Yeah. And, yeah, that kind of thinking about it, it was pretty clean. It was shiny. Yeah. The guys there, you know, we I try to get down there at least once a year and show them what's new. And, and just chat it up with, with the, instructors. And they're the ones that also take care of the cars, you know, whether it's the the repairs and maintenance or cleaning them up. They they take care of them right there. So awesome. So let's talk about, what's next for you as it comes in motorsports. You have a VRC. Yeah. When are we going to see that on track? You know, I've been invited out a few times, so we have, we have a partnership with SCCA, and through that have been invited out a few times. I need to get my SCCA license and, and be a full member and really embrace it. These pesky things called kids keep getting in the way, but, it is my it is my goal to to get out on track, you know, at least once or twice a year to do a track night. Keep your keep my skills sharpened. Sometimes that depends on if we're taking customers down to Mid-Ohio and I get it out of my system there, or if, if that, you know, sparks me to do even more. And then, you know, like I said, it's it's, aligning my, my time as much as I can, but I love track nights. Done a couple of at Nelson's, and they're they're just it's fun camaraderie. It's it's everything from novice to, you know, intermediate and even even a few advanced people are usually out there, but just people, for the love of getting around the track, it's it's a lot of fun. Yeah. What size tires are on that BRC? 18. There I have a set of extreme, the extreme contact force. But it's, it's a 245 4050. Yeah. Brand new box. So it came with Seventeens, and I said, I want to fill out these wheel wells, and I want it to look nice more than I want to take it on track. And now I'm regretting that decision. So, I want to go back down, rim size and put some, some better tires on it, to be able to do that. Do you. Still have the 17 so. I don't I got rid of them. So yeah it's it's one of those round two. It's that's one of the things that's kind of promoting me because I know they're not I've taken it out as it sits and, and it just doesn't you know, there's not enough tire there. Yeah. It's it's a 225 I think. So it's it's pretty slim. Yeah. But we'll get you on track. Unfortunately there's no track nights at Nelson this year in 2025. Yeah. It's a go to pit. Yep. But there's plenty of opportunities. We'll make sure. Pits nice to I've been out there. Oh yeah. It's a great facility. They've they've definitely, improved. You know, the facility, the track, the pavement is great. So. Yeah. Good deal. Another option if you had to set a motorsports goal. So the first goal is get tires. You can run, right. Yeah. And then find a date it to run. But yeah. Is it just the casual experience you're looking for or you know, do you want to get in some competitive racing or time trials or even competitive autocross events? From from everything I know and what I've learned is that you really need to be it's it's like golf. I equate it to golf. I started golfing when I was 12 years old, and for a time I was pretty good at it. Yeah. You know, through high school and college and even into my 20s. And I've learned the less I play golf, the worse I am at it. And it's the same thing with racing. If you're not committed to doing it regularly, it's pretty hard to to do it competitively. So I want to get to a place where I can competitively say I'm all in on this, and I'm going to do it at least once a month, or, you know, every six weeks or whatever, at minimum. And until I can get to that point, I'm not ready to pull the trigger on, some of that, but but that's my goal. And like I said, with with the kids, coming up, my son will be in high school, in a year and a half. And so and then my daughter's, you know, an elementary school still. So the older they get, the more free time I may have. Depends on their activities. But. Yeah, that's that's that's been one of my goals, for sure. We just have a tournament to pick crew members, bring them to the. Track to be great. My daughter's definitely interested. My son. Not so much. But my daughter helps me wash the car, and she's, There we go. And that stuff. So. That's awesome. Yeah. Let's talk. One thing I really like is what people learn through motorsports that they can apply to their profession. And when I asked you earlier, you said patience and practice. So how has that, you know, learning that, at the track meet with Dragway 42 or some of the other things that you've done with motorsports, how has that helped you in your career? Yeah, it is, it is patience. You know, the first few times I was out on track, it was it was, it was with Mid-Ohio, on on a legit track, with, you know, a lot of novices. And even though I think I know what I'm doing, I was still learning. Obviously, I was still a novice as well. But, you know, you got to have patience for the other folks because they're not always at the same skill level or, you know, they might not have the same gusto that you do, yourself. And and that's one thing I've learned just through, track days and, and being, you know, mostly with novices and intermediate folks, is that having patience when, when you're going to pass and having patience with people who don't necessarily know all the flags or all the rules, you know, that that definitely translates into your everyday life with, with just coworkers and, you know, making sure that just because you know this or you're confident in this doesn't mean everybody else is. And it's it's important to have that patience and step back and say, okay, check yourself. You know? Yeah, for sure. Otherwise you can escalate a situation. You're getting frustrated because you think, hey, you should know how to do this. And they're just wanting to know how to do it. That's great advice. Yeah. All right. Let's let's talk a little bit more about clean cars. And I'm going to pull Josh into this because Josh and I have a confession to make. Okay. We both parked very far away today because we knew you were coming to the studio, and we did not want to be judged on how dirty our cars were. Good to know. I'll. I'll track it down. It's not that big of a parking lot. No, exactly. But in all seriousness, I mean, a clean car. You feel better driving it? We we joke at the shop that, you know, clean the person's windshield before the car leaves because no matter what we did, when they look through a clean windshield, they feel better, too. What a what ignited your passion to be in this industry? Like I said, I'm a car guy through and through my my, my family, you know, not my my dad and mom necessarily, but my uncle and my grandfather were in the automotive industry their whole lives. And, I think I inherited some of that or just kind of watch what they were doing. So I've been a car guy my whole life. And having an appreciation for automobiles, whether it's on the track or at a car show, translates to, you know, kind of enjoying the, the industry, enjoying kind of what's, you know, taking it all in, appreciating, the vehicles, whether, like I said, whether they're out of track or, you know, they're just a boulevard cruiser, but that's that's something that I've always done. And and taking that to kind of the detailing side of it has been, has been fun. I early in my career, I taught people how to rap cars. So I, I, I worked for a company in Stowe, Mach Tech that, that made vinyl films for everything for, you know, vehicle graphics, wall graphics, window graphics, you name it. It was all wide format type stuff that I was dealing with. And so I, we put together this program that I ran called Application Nation, where we went around the country teaching people how to install vehicle graphics and do raps. And that, was something that was very interesting to me just to, you know, see all the ins and outs of a vehicle and taking off door handles and taking off emblems and being able to put them back on and and tinkering with in that regard, gave me a, even more appreciation for it. So I knew I liked being in the automotive industry. And when this opportunity with Malcolm came up, it was a perfect fit to just get get more in depth with the automotive industry and, you know, be racing adjacent and, and car show adjacent and all these cool things. Yeah. Let's continue to talk about clean cars, because you can't go into a town and not see 3 or 4 car washes. Sure, everyone's running their cars through car washes. People are buying products like crazy YouTube and TikTok, videos of detailers, Asmr videos of, you know, guys, clean guys and gals cleaning cars everywhere. Yeah. What differentiates Melco in that space? Yeah. So for me, it's it's pretty easy story to tell because it's it's a cool one. For the better part of 70 years, Malco has been a family owned business, fourth generation now. And they, they've really prided themselves on professional grade, cleaning and detailing products. And so, the, the quality and the performance of those products was always first and foremost, and because we were selling through, warehouse distribution and dealers, the marketing and the, promotion of it wasn't as important until recently. So, that's something that, I still to this day, I love telling the story of coming in, you know, my first couple of weeks and learning about the company and then really trying the products out because I never had tried them. I'd never seen them before. You know, this was 8 or 9 years ago. And, why have I never heard this company? I've been in this in this space for a long time and used to detail cards on the side, you know, as a side hustle. And I've never heard of this brand, and it's because it was only available at a dealership or, a professional detailer or something like that. I used car lot and, and so we've set out to change that. But the, the, path remains that we're professional chemical company and we make the professional grade level. We're not going to water it down just to, to sell more in the retail space. We're going to continue with the performance aspect and making sure that's first and foremost. Right. That's and that's what sets us apart. Yeah. And folks, if you're wondering why are we talking about clean cars on a motorsports podcast? We're we're going to get there because a clean car is a fast car. And, if you want to look good on track, I still want to talk a little bit more about about the industry and distribution. Of course, there's really only three places you could buy Melco, am I right? There's probably well, there's your local distributor if you have one okay, I gotcha. Yeah. And so we have a finding your distributor on the website. Not all of our distributors want to sell to the average Joe. Right? Just because it's harder to track down that guy that wants to meet you at the corner. So they don't all, sell to the general public. However, more and more of them have retail, storefronts because they have a warehouse, because they already have that brick and mortar. They're putting up more displays in the front and being able to be more accessible. And but and for the listener, these are, these are businesses that pretty much sell to shop body shops, dealerships, things like. Correct. Okay. Yep, yep. Yeah. They're all independent distributors and they all have kind of their own little territories. So they have, you know, their small territories that they manage. Some of them are as big as the state of Ohio, and some of them are just, you know, two counties wide. So it depends on who it is and where they are. But to your point, the the other places you can find us is, is our website, Malco automotive.com and Amazon and Summit Racing. Summit Racing has been a good partner for the last two years or so, of, of helping us promote the brand and not, you know, over saturating it. Sure. Yeah. I'm, I was looking for a car care bucket that we were using for a contest, and, I just gotten back in town from a conference. I told my wife, I said, I need this for for Monday morning. We're going to summit. Did you find it? We sure do it. Well, I made sure it was on the site first. And, the funny thing is, the line is so long, it's summit, you know, and I love my wife, and she's like, she promised me lunch. How what are we going to be here? And, I said, hold on. I ordered it from my phone and just went and did pick up while I was at the store. Yep. And I got to tell you, it was a very popular giveaway. People. Yeah, people love that. And we appreciate it. I do want to talk about that because there's a lot of things that can happen to a car during an event. This is true for autocross. We all the wheel racing track days, time trials, you name it. There are things happening to cars. We've got brake dust, we've got dirt, we got rubber chunks. Big bugs love to hit the windshield in the car. So if you could kind of step through, maybe some of the products that someone who's competing in motorsports would want to have in their arsenal and their track pack, what are those? It's. We do have a kind of a go to, suggestion when we're talking to the SCCA folks. It's it's just what you said. It's it's a bug cleaner. And that's not not only true for your your track car, but your your tow rig. To get there, you know, you're going to use a lot of these same things on your tow rig. But, the the bug cleaner, helps keep, you know, the front end clean. But most importantly, the windshield, or glass cleaners don't always get those bugs off. And especially the real blasted on guts. They don't always clean, though, so sometimes a little, stronger bug cleaner will do the trick. And then you follow it up with a glass cleaner. But, to your point, glass. Glass is important. Making sure you can see where you're going and making sure you know that. That even if you start the day with a clean car, you're going to get road grime, you're going to get, you know, the kicked up rubber and and debris on your window, throughout the day. And, you know, the more you can clean it, the better off you'll be. And you know, for the those of you that are doing the endurance racing, you know that more than anything, it just builds up and builds up. And eight hours later, you can barely see through it. Right? Yeah. That's a that's an easy one. You know, we always recommend a good wheel cleaner. And we have a great wheel cleaner called completed that allows you to take the brake dust off, and a lot of that road grime in Greece, and, and, you know, you don't have to do it, you know, multiple times a day or anything like that. But at the end of the track, day after wheels, cool. You know, it keeps it helps keep your, your hands cleaner. It helps make, you know, cleaning up your, your calipers or, changing brake pads that much easier when you're dealing with a cleaner wheel. And that stuff builds up quick. So, that's, that's another one we have. We have a great, rubber and tire, cleanup product. It's spray set are clean, and we we've, we've promoted this product for, like, an interior, spot clean type product for years because it's safe on, you know, your interior vinyl and plastic and, whatever components. But we've found through our racing partnerships that it is fantastic for just loosening that rubber and that tar that gets caked up around the wheel wells and, and the other thing is cone marks. You know, people always ask me, what can I use for cone marks that's not going to damage my paint and more importantly, not damage my decals, because that are often on those cone marks are often on the decals or wraps for wraps. So, that product won't won't damage those. And that's, that's another one keeping your car, you know, free of all those marks is is a nice, nice to have for sure. So, those are the go to, you know, we have car washes. Another another one if you know, if you're especially endurance racing or, or going out on a track day when it's raining, you know, ceramic coating your, your windshield is a good idea sometimes. So, the, the, Department of Transportation doesn't like people using waxes on their windshield because, carnauba wax can get hot and run. And I found that out through, you know, just talking to different folks that I've never seen that happen. But I can imagine if you put enough wax on your windshield and it gets hot enough, it will start to streak and run, and but a silicone based product, like a, like a ceramic won't do that. And it beats the water and wicks it away a lot quicker and easier, and it's not going to melt and run. So it's. A pro tip, right? Yeah. It's, it's it's something that I've passed onto a few, few racers that, that have appreciated that when they're getting wet, on the track because it makes a difference. Oh, yeah. How about clay barring a windshield? Is that. Yeah. Recommended if you're full of little nibs and stuff in your windshield, for sure. Yeah, you can, you can definitely. Clay bar and and there's, there's new products like a climate. So if you've ever used the clay bar, you know that if you drop it, it's done for because it picks up every little thing it's going to then scratch or paint. But a clay mitt you can actually wash off and it has the same effectiveness. But it's a little more user friendly, and you get more use out of it, I think. So I like the clay mats over the clay bars, but either way, that will help clean up the imperfections in your glass and your some of your pitting. You can also polish your glass with, with, you know, a glass polish or a paint polish that you would use to polish your paint. And then I'll take away a lot of the oxidation, the pitting, all the little sections making it clear. So I learned two things. I got to throw my clay bar away. Wow. Because you dropped it. I'm drafting. Yeah. It's, it's going to do more damage than good. Probably if you've dropped it on the floor. Yeah, I probably had that thing too long as well. But my wife did, she did pick up, but. I'll get, you know. I claim it. Yeah, but then polishing the windshield. That's that's a great idea. One of the things we learned in Ohio when we were there was, we had no way to get the fog off the inside of the window, and our trailer was empty because we were transitioning to a new trailer, and we were stuck. You know, we would have had, you know, maybe done something like you're recommending ahead of time, could have the inside of the windshield treated and not have to worry about anything. And there is a difference in glass cleaners. I like to point out that, there's generally ammonia based and non ammonia, glass cleaners and ammonia does clean better in some, most instances just a little bit better. But that ammonia will affect your window tint. If it's aftermarket window tint it'll turn it purple eventually. And it's not always great for your, any of your screens. It's not great for Lexan or plexi. It can, it can scratch and leave. Leave residue and stuff like that. So I like to use our, non ammonia window cleaner for, for any of those surfaces. So that's good to know. Yeah. Yeah. You'll drive around, you'll see purple tenant cars. That's now we know a lot. Well sometimes it's, it is just cheap tint. It's been faded from the sun but I've seen it where it's repeatedly used on, on aftermarket tint and that turns it purple. Great. Let's talk a little bit more about Malcolm's involvement in motorsports. What I know you want to get a little bit closer to the enthusiast and the motorsports, but what was the genesis of that? Would that come up in a in a in a boardroom? You guys were all kind of, how are we going to grow this or how are we going to have more fun? What? Yeah. What led to engaging with SCCA and other groups? Well, I can't take the credit from way back because I to tell the full story, I probably need to start in the 50s and 60s when Malcolm sponsored Ohio, George. So Seth's, grandparents or grandfather, worked with Ohio, George Montgomery. And if you don't know that name, he was he was. You know, the who's who of drag racing in the 50s, 60s and even into the 70s. He was an innovator. He was one of the one of the guys that really led, you know, innovation on the track and doing different things with, with, regards to drag racing. And he and we sponsored him from, from the get and I don't know how that, that, conversation or that relationship started. But I know it was to and still to this day, it's one of our most popular or most requested, you know, throwback, retro type, discussions, as. Do you have any of those Ohio George decals or really t shirts or stickers or whatever? Because people are still fans and they, they know us for that and they know the retro logo from Ohio. George. So that goes back, like I said, 60 plus years. And through that, we, we, helped, promote, Ohio, Georgia's induction into the Motorsports Hall of Fame. And since then we, we were, we've been part of Ohio, of the Motorsports Hall of Fame in Daytona. And then, you know, through the through the last several years of figuring out how do we want to promote, how do we want to reach the average enthusiast? Because for so long it's been that professional. How do we how do we, reach these folks that love their cars? They're already tinkering with them. They're they're most likely cleaning them at the end of the day or hopefully before, and so we started just looking at different opportunities. And SCCA was, was to me a no brainer because I've been in and around it. In the past, I've started talking to the folks and, and, and figuring out that we can reach this audience through, you know, promotions through, just, just, you know, social media through, being at some of these events. And it's a great group. They're all very engaging, which I love, engaging with, with the, the average SCCA folks. But through that, we've, we've, met some, you know, semi-pro drivers. And we've also sponsored a few pro drivers and, you know, some other teams, just because it's, it's word of mouth and we start getting the word out there. So it's been it's been fun to, to just engage and, and get to know some of those folks. Yeah. For sure. One of the I won't tell you a quick story. You had to help this out. The radio racing team, with some product. This had to be, I guess it was last year. Yeah, we were at the Nelson Ledges event, and that was the first event where we had some stuff. And one of the things we like to do is race. Morning. Let's wipe the cars down the track, make sure they look good. We're gonna take some pictures and our guys start using the Malco product, and they're like, where do we get this? How do we get more that, you know, this is easy to use. It's never worked. You know, we've never had the car is so clean, so little testimonial there that it is great stuff. Thank you for everything you do for our sport. Yeah. And the SCCA convention, which is now all digital, it's all online. It used to be an in-person event. I happened to tune in one day, and there you are giving a presentation on, getting your car cleaned and all that. And, you know, for the listeners, if you can find them, maybe we'll find a link to it. It was very, very interesting of how you walked folks through. Good that. Yeah. So certainly appreciate the support because the more support from organizations like Malco, our sports going to grow, it's going to get better, more inclusive, get more people on track. Yeah. What's next for Malco? Where are you guys headed? What are you doing? The big events in 2025. You know, the we're we're going to continue supporting SCCA through, I'm pretty sure we're doing the, solo nationals again, in Lincoln. We've been invited to Pitt race for a few different events. And then, you know, I'm, I'm looking at things where I can supplement and get get to, I'm not necessarily hard penciling them in on the calendar, but I'm trying. But then, then we're doing a lot of car shows as well. So we're a sponsor of Canton Cars and Coffee and the Minority Motor Club. And so, you know, they have a big event coming up this weekend, but they have a few others coming throughout the summer. And then good guys, you know, everybody's heard of good guys, car shows. We're, we're doing the Columbus one, here in July. And then Sema obviously is our big one. We we, just acquired one of our competitors, brand called Auto Magic. Legacy brand like Malco been. It was a it was a family owned business. It was purchased about 15 or so years ago. By, by a much larger company. And then they wanted to, you know, unload it, here recently. So we had an opportunity to, to pick up one of our competitors, basically, and, and bring them back from the ashes. And that's what we're currently working on. So there's a lot of behind the scenes going on with that. Well, that stay the same brand or you guys fold it in. To be determined. I think for, for the short term, we're the brand has a lot of equity and they have a lot of great products. It's a matter of can we make them the right way and continue supporting the folks that have been buying auto magic for 50 some years? So we're we're definitely weighing all options, you know, combining some, some of the SKUs maybe, but that's, that's it's a heavy lift right now. So that's, that's one of the things will be sort of unveiling at Sema is kind of a refreshed auto magic. We refresh the Malco brand this year. So, that's that's an ongoing push. And we're we're continuing to evolve. What that looks like. But yeah, those are those are some of the big, events and projects that we're working on right now. Yeah, I know I saw you at Sema last year. You and your booth. Pre you guys supra. I'm going to go this year. I've been in the past when I was for my, my short stint in the tire industry, I went, because, you know, several of our drivers that we sponsored were there. And so this year, this past year, I plan to go and didn't make it. I don't know that we'll exhibit, but I'm definitely going to make it to, to, to walk the show because I think it's valuable to, to just connect and, and have that networking ability. It is a great show. Yeah. It's one of my favorite shows to go to. For sure. If folks want to learn more about how to use Malco products, do have a YouTube channel. Okay, so, everything is at Malco Automotive, whether it's, you know, meta or YouTube. And we have a number of, training videos on there. Also on the website, we have several things and several blogs. To just, you know, how to's. And we're, we're always trying to create new ones, you know, so that's, that's, continual, you know, live to, to come out with new tips and tricks, but we're always trying to, to help people understand, and like I said, clean cars go faster. So, you know, it's it's best to educate yourself. There's a lot of falsities out there. But I will say there's a lot of good information to on on just tips and tricks and detailing and, and having fun with your car. Yeah. You know, there's this there's an adage that, you know, you start to let something slip. You know, maybe we'll use the car as an example. You know, you get a couple nicks, you don't clean it as often, you get some curb rash. When you let stuff like that go, you start to overlook other things. So where I'm going with this is if someone stays on top of keeping their car clean and after an event, they make sure they get all the cone marks off, all the rubber marks, all the bugs. They're going to have more pride in their car. The car is going to last longer. It's going to have a higher resale value. Anything to add to that? No. You hit the nail on the head. You know, one of the things I like to say is, you know, for, for that, post, post win, photo op, you you want your car looking like it, it's ready to fall apart. Or do you want it to look its best? And, so that's, that's one thing to just take pride in your car. And the other thing I'll mention is, you know, you're inevitably always working on it. Right? So, or you're taking it to a time to work on. Thank you. Either way, a clean car is much more enjoyable. And I can attest to this. I'm sure any of your listeners can, clean cars more enjoyable to work on than a dirty one. And so whether we're talking breaks or whether we're talking, you know, muffler, replacements or, you know, under the engine, under the hood, it's all easier when it's a little bit cleaner. So for sure. Is there anything we didn't talk about that you wanted to know? I, I appreciate, you know, all the all the, support from your team and from, you know, SCCA and your involvement there. No, I, I, I think, we had a a good run about there. Yeah. For sure. So I have one final question. Think back to those days at Dragway 42 or where you were helping friends at autocross events. Were you ever late to grid? You know, because I'm not, you know, the ad, the, you know, big time racer that a lot of your folks are. I can't say I ever was. It is if it was, late to get to the, you know, the autocross when they. When they started. That would be the only time, but I can't I can't recall, being late to grow, that's for sure. Right. Well, thanks for being on the podcast, sharing your perspectives or motorsports journey and most importantly, how to keep cars clean and fast with multiple products. Thanks. Well.