From Daily Driver to Track Night: Dexter’s First Step into Racing

In this episode of Late to Grid, we sit down with Dexter Shreve, who shares the story of finally chasing down his motorsports dream—starting with a Track Night in America event…in his daily driver Toyota Camry.

Dexter walks us through the nerves, the excitement, and the learning curve of getting on track for the first time. From buying his first helmet on the way to the event to pushing his Camry harder than ever before, Dexter’s story proves that you don’t need a race car to get started—you just need to go.

We also talk about vintage racing dreams, balancing family and business ownership with track time, and how even the smallest first step can lead to big things.

Whether you're still “thinking about it” or reminiscing about your first event, Dexter’s story will inspire you to stop waiting and just drive.

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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Are you curious what your first track day is going to be like? Or do you want to reminisce about your first track day? That's exactly what we do on this episode of the Late to Grid podcast. I have Dexter Shreve in the Atomic Auto Sports studio to talk about his first track, day, which was a Track Night in America event. He tells us about the car he took, which was a Toyota Camry, his daily driver, and how much fun and support he had all day long. Let's throw the green flag on this episode. As I mentioned, I have Dexter here and Dexter. A couple weeks ago, I had Josh, a producer, on because he asked about what am I gonna do to get on track? You are the guest that has the second least experience, because you have one event under your belt, and you're here to share all kinds of exciting stuff about how you got ready, how you learned about what to do, what you learned a lot about that. So thanks for taking some time to share your journey. Yeah. I'm excited. I think it'll be pretty cool to sort of help other people overcome that big first hurdle. Right. Well, one of the questions I always like to get started with is who got you in the racing? Who got you into motorsports? And it was your father. He had some Japanese cars that were two plus twos. And for the folks I don't know, that's a front seat, back seat, very small back seat. He even had a 944, which I love the teasers owners with my RS7. But what were some of those early memories of your dad in those sports cars? Yeah. So, before I was born, definitely had even even more sports cars. But my dad was always just a just a sports car driver. Not mechanically inclined. I didn't really want to fix something. Just wanted to drive it. And he kind of as he had us kids, and there's, three boys and, a girl. So four of us, he put us in the back seat of those cars because he still wanted to drive and have fun. So I think that was always what got me interested. And yeah, he had a number of different cars that, he has kindly put our reasonable sports cars. So. Sure. Thousand 300. Absolutely. Yeah. So, I mean, that's, So, you know, being in the back seat of those sparked my interest. And they were, you know, something that, you know, did make sense for our family to have some fun and, and, Yeah. And so get us, get us around the cars. So. All right, so you have three siblings, four kids total. How many kids? Maximum. Did you guys fit in the back of those cars ever? All four in the back? No, no, I mean, it was it was kind of a, before my sister came along. So we were still pretty young, but, Yeah, then we moved on to having to have a sedan and some, some minivans, but, you know, those those weren't the fun years, right? You mentioned he had an interest in racing. Did you guys ever watch racing on TV or head to the track and watch stuff live? Yeah. So I was probably more of my later teen years. Like I was I was probably driving by then. But we would go to Vintage Grand Prix at Mid-Ohio. That was something we did. Comes around mid-June every year close to Father's Day. So, we did that for a number of years. And so that was kind of my, annual touch with some racing. And it it's, it's an event my dad used to go spectate at years and years before, you know, back before it was really vintage. Yeah. So and you mentioned, as we're getting ready for a show that you have an interest in vintage racing as you go along your motorsports journey, is that what inspired that? Yeah, I think so. And I think I just kind of for me, it's an attraction to the simplicity of some of the cars. You know, there's a lot of a lot of technology in new cars. But the old stuff's pretty simple, and you really know what it is. So, you know, that's kind of an attraction from a, an understanding point and a maintenance point. And those are all things that are definitely going to be involved is, you know, you find a car and get behind the wheels. Oh, absolutely. So I know you're just getting into this, but as you think about vintage racing, is there a make and model that you've kind of got your eyes set on your heart ready for? No. So there's there's two issues with vintage racing. The cars now demand so much value. People aren't racing them. And you've seen that, you know, especially with the higher end stuff. And the other part is it's just it's less competitive. There's not as many people in it, quite like there used to be. But I do, I like the cars. I like anything. I like the mGUS. You know, I like, you know, some of the, the Trans Am racers, the Mustangs, the Camaros that, you know, racing, some of the other faster groups, if you will. And then, you know, one of the other interests I had was in some of the open wheel, the Formula Ford Formula V, and sort of that spec class, if you will, so that, you know, there's you really get to learn to drive. So you're not just going faster because you're in a faster car, you're in the same car as everybody else. So yeah, those are just some of the interests that I have. But, at this point it's finding out, which route I want to go. So. Right. And you mentioned formula V, and, my recommendation always is if because we get to slap on the endurance racing side, what kind of car should I get and go racing with? I said, find out what car race is the most in that and and try to get one of those. So when we show up to the track with neons, there's not a lot of other people who have neon, so we can't go borrow whatever, which is why we have to bring like two of everything. You got a miata, you got a, formula V, you have a BMW, you know, E46, those are everywhere at the track. So you need something. You just go and, hey, can I borrow this? And as you're going to learn and I think you kind of witnessed this when you did your track night in America. Everyone's there to help you. Yeah. So that's one thing to consider too. But I think the Miata is the any some of the name that is are now vintage. Yeah. They, they do run a class. At the SVR. I know they, they have that. So, but yeah, I mean, that's, you have to look at the things with affordability and reliability, especially if it's something that, you know, you're going to take time and spend on it, so. Right. And as a recording this the SVR is at Mid-Ohio this weekend. Yeah. Are you going down the. Watch I'm not able to this weekend that that is that is the weekend that, I had typically gone in the past with my father, but, no, not not this year. But there's a couple other events on the calendar that, might try to get too. So gotcha. Is, before my real car life, I used to work for sprint, the telecommunications company. We were a big sponsor of that event, so it, Yeah, has used to go through my father. And then in the corporate world, we used to do hospitality down there. Always a great weekend. So I can see why you're attracted to it. Yeah. I mean, it's a it's a fun place to be. And then it for me is, is special because it has, you know, meaning of getting the track, being there with my dad and, you know, last year I actually took my, oldest son. And so, you know, the three of us were there. So it was real fun. And, this year just didn't work out, so. All right, like we always say, there's next year, right? Yeah, exactly. I'm gonna try for that. And we will get, later. I want to talk about work life balance with the family. And you're you own a company. So we're going to talk about that because that's something that's really important as we as we get involved in motorsports, because it's demanding on the time. It's demanding on the resources. You and I got connected on LinkedIn and, had a great conversation and we started talking about, you know, getting on track and this whole motorsport journey. And you did it. Yeah. You took your daily driver, your Camry, you did a track night in America at Pitt race, right? Yep. So what gave you the itch to do this? Now? Yeah, I don't know. It's a biological clock, a timing, you know, motivation that if I don't go out and do something, will I ever do it? And, I think there's sort of that reality check of, you know, do do something. And so in talking to you, I got a lot of confidence of, hey. Yeah, you need to do something. Try this. And and it was, you know, it's true, talking to people that I actually learn what the avenues are. You can look stuff up all day long on, on the internet and say, oh, how do I do this? What do I need to do? What a 20 minutes we spent on the phone said, hey, here's this thing, sign up for it. Go. And, a month later, I was at the track, Not in America. And, yeah, that just kind of clicked for me was like, hey, I'll know something at the end of this. Whether this is something I want to do or whether I liked what I was doing and, I did. I liked it a lot. I could tell by the smile. Yeah. So that was it was definitely something that I would say I put off for far too long. Yeah, I could have done this five years ago. I probably could have done this ten years ago. But now I had to do something and I went with it. So. So yeah, folks, listen to Dexter. Just go out and do it. Do it now. Yeah. I mean, I will admit there was, you know, a little bit of nervousness, you know, driving there and and getting there and, hey, I'm bringing my daily driver Camry in this kind of embarrassing. And I pull up and and. Drive it. Home and I gotta drive home it and but, I mean, I pull up and there's some real nice cars there, and, some people who spend a lot of time and energy, in motorsports and, I think it was maybe a mature enough at this age to kind of put those blinders on and go, I'm here for me. I'm here to see what I can do and what I want to do. And, and everybody once I started talking to them was encouraging and and helpful and saying, you know, hey, this is you got to start somewhere. So yeah. So I'm going to explain for a second what track night in America is to the listeners. And we talked about on the show before, it's the Sports Car Club of America, and these are hosted at tracks all over the country and the whole idea is that somebody can work the first part of the day, and then they can go to the track in the afternoons.

They generally start around 3: 10:51

00. So we're kind of trying to go after that golf crowd. You know, they leave the office early and go golfing. But it's for novice, intermediate, advanced. You bring your daily driver, you can bring a dedicated track car. Supposedly no race car should be out there, but sometimes they do allow that. But walk us through. Pulling up to pit race, going through registration. Was it a smooth process where there's still questions had to go for you? Yeah. So, I'll start even a little bit before that. Join the SCCA. Made that kind of my point of commitment. So, gets a discount on the, fee for the track night in America, but it kind of reared me and said, okay, committing dollars. So now I'm. Now I'm committing something. Signed up for the event, marked it on my calendar. Your car and a helmet while I didn't even have a helmet. So on the way, I drove past, summit down in Talmage. Stopped in and tried on 4 or 5 different helmets. Picked the one that felt the best, put it on, bought it, used my coupon from the SCCA. Oh my gosh, that's awesome. Got another 10% off, I believe. And then drove on into the track. So, even before I got to the track, I was, you know, calculating, hey, I got to get invested in this. And, you know, that's kind of a last minute investment to go get the helmet. The thing they had your size. They had all the sizes. So I got to try a bunch of different ones on find. Find the best fit. And. And that's probably the best way to do that, too. If you're going to go spend time behind the wheel, you want to be comfortable doing it. But yeah. So then pulling into the track, it was a, it's definitely a different experience because I was there to do something, not just watch. And so, that was outlined. It was easy to, fill out the waiver. Do your, your tech sheet for the car. I had everything that I needed, so. Did you learn anything during the tech sheet process? Anything you didn't know about your car or something that was interesting to you on the tech sheet? No. I it's pretty straightforward. The kind of routine maintenance things you should be checking on your car anyway. And for me, as you mentioned, it's a Toyota Camry. So there's really not a lot that goes wrong. With your. Toyota Camry. So, I wasn't, you know, unpacking to find something wrong with it. So, And it did. It did great once we got out going. So. Yeah. Not a race car by any means, but it was fun. So that's great. And you didn't do anything to the Camry before? The tires that you drive on every day, the brake fluid drive on every day, the brakes you drive on every day. That's how you rolled up to pit race, right? Exactly how I roll up. I love that. And I think that was a that was a testament to what track night in America for a novice is and in my own personal view, it's an absolutely wild concept that that's I was driving on the track that night. Yeah. I mean, that's and it really did scratch and itch that I had to say, what is this like? And so, yeah, I mean, I couldn't have been an easier process. That's great. So throughout the day, did you get any coaching? Did you do any classrooms for the novice group? Yeah. So there was, in between, the track sessions, more or less rules of the track. Flags. What to look out for? The point to pass some of the, you know, somewhat simple, rules, but, no, no real coaching on any driving. It was just kind of go, and I did. Start our first lap. The instructor went out and drove the racing line and I was 4 or 5 cars back, so I could kind of see where we were headed and, you know, trying to keep that. So know where to go. When I got to start on our first outing, I started at the back, just out of respect to everybody else and the nerves. You know, I didn't want to have to be the car getting passed and not pointing at the right time and everything else. And so it gave me an opportunity to kind of feel it out, which I was able to do pretty much do right away. And so. Okay, now I know how to do this. Yeah. So that's great. Did you do any sort of drills or, probably not. It was probably just running laps all day. No. No drills. Yeah. Just laps. So I will say the, it's it's a great experience to get out there and get going, but that can't be it. If you want to start pursuing something and want to train and want to learn, that comes with all the other opportunities that they offer. And, you know, through the SCCA and through other organizations as well. So, I think it's a nice break into it. Hey, do you even want to do this? And yeah, I've invested now a mere total of $500, and I have a helmet and, you know, a track night under my belt to, you know, chauffeur at this point, and, Yeah. So, so really, for not a whole lot. I think it was a smile driving back to Ohio. It was big. I was excited. It was. It was a rush. It was nice to drive back kind of slow and just take my time. Yeah. Because I will say I'm a I'm a competitive person by nature and and not necessarily, you know, competitive against everybody else. But, you know, within myself. So I, I pushed I mean, I wasn't just, you know, parade lap. Yeah I was, I was pushing, I was, you know, hitting it on the streets and breaking harder than I should have been braking. So yeah, it was, it was fun. Well, you mentioned that the brakes were pretty smelly. They were. Yeah. They were heating up real good. Yeah. But I but I wasn't holding back. I was, I was trying to drive and see if I like doing it, so that's awesome. Took the car seats out I did. Yeah. The car seats out. So, to that the night before, so I didn't have to drive down with them. But, I will say, there were some people with car seats in, so, it's for everybody. So absolutely. One thing you mentioned, that you forgot for the track day for the track Night in America was a chair. Yeah, yeah. So I got a chance. I mean, they had the little classroom section, with some chairs when they were talking to us, but then you walk back out and, set on the curb a little bit there and, you know, kind of lean on the car, but, but I was beat. I mean, I did I worked a half day in the morning and drove two hours. I didn't really want to, you know, you know, sit too much, but it kind of made me tired a little bit, too. So, But that was news new for me. So, what, are you glad you brought? I mean, I brought a tire gauge, so I was able to check the, you know, the the tire pressure that was recommended. And, I mean, and I brought, you know, the, the little metal stick tire gauge, because that's what I had. So. Yeah. So, you know, no, nothing fancy, you know, and that's kind of my approach was this wasn't supposed to be fancy. So in addition to a chair, what else are you going to take next time? Well, so I was thinking maybe a stopwatch, you know, tape one on the dash. And, you know, I said that competitive nature. Hey, you know, am I getting better? Am I doing things right? So you know that that's something else I might, you know, bring in, But, yeah, I don't really have much. You know, I made it, you know, make sure I, you know, bring the triple A number in case I don't bring it out of there. So. Yeah. Do you have a phone holder in your car? No. No, I actually, no, I didn't even drive with my phone. In the car. So. Yeah, there's some good free apps that can practice lap timers. Harry's is one track, attack is another. There's a couple other ones. I don't remember the names too, but if you have a secure mount. Yeah. So a lot of times they, like clear, GPS. Okay. Yep. Great way to get some some initial data to kind of show you that. I'm, I'm not a very techie guy. That's all right. My dad, they're easy to use. I say I did did that. I said I didn't. You didn't even have the phone in the car. So I kind of did the, you know, everything out of the pockets, you know, put everything out and, you know, just just the key. So, yeah. One thing you mentioned earlier about just running laps versus, you know, I think where you're going with that was instruction. And there are a lot of great organizations out there, like auto interest is one of the ones in our region where there is a lot of instruction on track. You can have somebody sit next to you, you got a radio set up, so you can talk to one another. They guide you through things, you come back, you do some classroom. I was just out with them a couple weeks ago at Nelson Ledges and in our group, you know, we were doing different drills and how close can you get to one another? Just leapfrog each other, passing and unfamiliar territories. And what was really interesting is, as the day went on, our group in the morning was giving tours of probably two car lengths or two car widths to pass. After we did our drills, everybody was staying a little tighter and not making it difficult, but just feeling confident that they could still stay where they needed to because they should be on the racing line. But giving just a little bit to let you through. But as one of the organizations, I think that's doing some really nice work with HPD. So I'll make sure you get some info after, after we record about that. Yeah. And I think and I think that's, sort of the progression. Right. You know, you have to start thinking, you know what? What is next? And what are the steps to get to what's next. And that for me is, a nice baseline to not start building bad habits. And really, I think my key is I want to learn how to drive on the track, and I want to learn how to race, and I want to do those the right way. So I think that's the, you know, maybe that's the that's maybe that's a little bit more of that maturity that I waited so long to get on the track, because I understand that, you can get some more horsepower and go faster, but are you getting better as a driver? So that's that's kind of what I want to target as a goal is if I'm going to, you know, get back out there. How do I get better? So right, a lot of people we talk about see time and see time and see time. But if you're just repeating the same bad habits, you won't learn from just getting to see time. So that's what I always like to say, see time with some sort of coaching and that, you know, we talked about data devices even as simple as the ones we discussed. But if you go a little bit deeper with like Apex Pro, the Garmin Catalyst, there's the aim solo, you can send that off to somebody, a remote coach. Even so, even if you don't have some in the right seat and you're going out and doing some, some events, they can look at that data and say, hey, here's here's what you're doing right, and here's where you can improve. So, you know, that's something you can do for your next event, but maybe do high road some something to consider. And I want to talk about your next event. I know you had one that you weren't able to attend. Yep. But what do you have planned for the rest of your first season? Yeah. So I mean, right now I'm still kind of building out a plan with, you know, what my schedule allows and, timing of everything. I'd like to definitely do another track night in America. And there's a few more here this year at at Pitt Race, which is a pretty short drive here from us in Cleveland. Yeah. And then from there, anything else I can do to get to the track? And I know we talked about, you know, not being in the seat, but what else can you learn? Being in the pit, being around somebody else and, you know, so I think that's leveraging connections of people that are at the track on the weekends and say, hey, let me just join you. And so get around the other aspects because it's it's going to be all encompassing, you know, before you kind of get all the way there. So yeah, you'll see a lot just hanging at the track and whether that's just being there as a closed spectator. So what I mean by that is you're not off in the grassy mound or grandstand watching. You're behind the pits, or you're at the trailer with the team and you're kind of seeing, what are they? What are they doing? How are they doing it? Why are they doing it? Or you embed yourself with a team and you know, what do you need me to do? You need me to hand you something over the wall. You need me to help. Help you fix this. And as we and our endurance team, we have some folks last season that said, I want to get into Champ Car. I don't want to race yet, but I want to hang with you for the weekend. See what is this all about? Because it might be more than I'm willing to bite off. So you bring up a great point, Dexter, that if you just sort of observe and look and see what's going on, you're going to learn a ton and you're gonna learn from others as opposed to having to learn it at your own time. I think I invited you already to our, our race here next weekend at, Nelson Ledges. I'll send you all the info over the weekend, and you're welcome to come and hang with us. And when I think that's that's one of those next steps that, hey, you know, you've been behind the wheel on a track check, now you need to figure out, do you want to be around everybody else and everything else that's going on, check you out. And then it's, hey, have you got some coaching on what you need to do to get better check, you know, so, yeah, it's kind of going through that list and say, hey, what's your timeline look like? What do you want to do? And, I have to answer those questions for myself before I can ask people for help. And, but I think it's it's doing something. It's planning that next step. It's saying, yeah, I'll be there next weekend, you know, and trying to find a way to make that happen that will allow me to kind of progress. So right between now and your next event, what do you generally doing the learn or research. Do you have any sort of things that you're working on? I'm always just interested. So, I try not to do too much mindless scrolling with interesting, cool facts about things and more. Hey, what do I you know what? What do I need to look for? What do I need? What do I look out for? How do I afford parts of this? You know, those are sort of the questions that I'm asking now. I'm not a big YouTube guy. But I know you don't get caught watching some of those videos, and. Okay. Yeah, I'm learning stuff from this, but, really, really, for me, I think it's going and talking to more people. It's going and being around things. It's going and, you know, sitting in a few cars, you from home, not driving home just to say, hey, this is what this one feels like. Or that feels like that's where I kind of want to get to. So it's, you know, probably to get to the track. Right. So, I don't know that I, I'm not much of a reader. I'm just a doer. So, you know, I'm not really, you know, you know, reading up on anything. You know, I kind of just want to see what the next opportunity is to to go do something, so. Yeah. Let's talk. We kind dance around it. It's balance. You got a young family, one year old, four year old. You own a company that puts a lot of demands on it. How do you fit motorsports and racing and track time into your life? How do you make that balance? Yeah. So as I think that and plan for that, it's, where the hours come from. Right. So, you know, you can reduce your sleep by a few hours and get a few more hours out of the day. But it becomes time management, like anything else, and and it's prioritization of, of those things. And, you know, Family First has been a pretty big mindset for, myself and my wife. And, we have that obligation to, you know, be there and, and provide for our kids. So, you know, that's that's first, the business demands a lot. It keeps me up. It makes me think it, but it but it excites me. It engages me. And then sort of that motorsports falls in that outlet. Hey, how do you how do you do something for you? How do you escape? You know what's you know, what's your real passion for, you know, hobby, activity, whatever, whatever it is. And so I think that's kind of that route. And I, I've always had something in that realm. I, you know, former athletes. So I was always playing sports and, you know, got into doing some, you know, different types of hobbies. You know, when we bought our home, I became a handyman for about two, three years and still doing some of that stuff. But I really, you know, immersed myself in it. And, you know, that was how I spent my time. So, you know, it's like those are sort of the things that's like, okay, where now if I focus on this aspect, here's my allotted time for it. And, you know, prioritize the other things first, and it kind of, you know, fall in line. But, it's definitely going to be challenging. So. You know, for me, putting that helmet on the rest of the world goes away. So the work doesn't enter any issues. I'm dealing with, you know, in a personal level or family level, they go away at that point, that helmet comes on, the world goes away. So it's a great outlet, I think, for for men and women to sort of say, hey, this is my time. I'm going to get out there. I got to be 100% focused on what I'm doing, and the world just goes away for a little bit. And I think that was that's the mindset I want to use to approach it. And then, you know what you also said, you know, 100% focus too, is I like directing my focus and getting behind the wheel of a car going fast. You need to have your focus, so you have to mentally block those things out, especially if you want to be able to succeed. And so, maybe that's a driving force for it with, you know, the busy, chaotic life that goes on. And, the other thing that's, that's cool about having a four year old and a one year old, both boys, they're very into cars. They like to go fast. They're running all over the place. They're, you know, biking and, be karting and whatnot before long. So, they really love it. So. Yeah. Your built in pit crew right there. Yeah, I hope so. We'll, we'll we'll see what the, what they aspire to do. But, right now that's I've watched the movie cars a billion times. I don't think we'd go anywhere without a few, Hot Wheels or cars or something in our hands. So find them everywhere now. So it's kind of the thing in our house. So. Yeah. Let's talk about business. For a minute. Business ownership day piston company. You make pistons for mostly industrial sort applications. You got the automotive client. We were just talking about here for the show. Started. How does owning a business fit into this Motorsports? Does it help support it? Does it give you an outlet for advertising? Do you see a connection between the business ownership and where are you going to be taking your racing? Yeah, I mean, I, I don't think that was ever intentional. But I think what happens is when you do get to a point of being entrepreneurial and having a business and you want to promote yourself, you want to promote your business, you want to take those, those opportunities. And when it is your own business, it's your own advertisement. It's it's free. You don't get to pay yourself for it, per se, but, you know, you can sticker yourself up all you want. And, you know, that's a that's a fun route to go. And, yeah, as you mentioned, you know, we make pistons primarily for, pumps, compressors and, you know, casual engine. So probably not your, your go to guy for your racing pistons, but hey, that can all change down the road too. And I think that'd be a cool story to tell someday. As in, not only am I, you know, racing, but I'm running. Running Pistons I made in in the car. But you know, that's, that's that's further down the road and that's sort of that fun dream. So that's pretty cool. I want to go back to the first track, Nate, for a second. Is there something you thought may have happened or something you thought you might experience or see that you didn't know? I mean. I honestly, I and I touched on this earlier. I, I, I just think it's it's kind of crazy. I mean, I did, I did see, you know, we we were very early into our first session, you know, saw a car ahead of me drive off the track. Oh no. Well, that doesn't that didn't affect me because I was doing what I need to do, and, you know, but, you know, I think I think that was might have been some of the, you know, kind of pushing ahead. Hey, this is real. This is something this is scary. This is dangerous. This has implications. It could be bad for you, for, you know, not done the right way, but, you know, I just it was just a it's such a cool experience that, No, I, I wasn't prepared for anything, so it was, you know, it exceeded expectations. I didn't even have, so. Oh, man, that's so exciting to hear. Before we start wrapping up here, is there anything we didn't talk about that you wanted to. Know? I mean, I guess I just I just hope that I can help share my experience and and use that for somebody else to get it on a track maybe a little bit earlier than I did and and say, hey, you know, don't don't be afraid of what's going on. And, yeah, don't be embarrassed. It's, I mean, let this you feel how you feel, but, it's doing something for everybody. So that's, that's what's really cool about it. And so that's what I was happy to do. And that's what I want people to know that, hey, you can do that too. So, know that's yeah, that hopefully is just the beginning for me. So yeah. Did the wife give you any pushback about, I'm not sure you should be doing this. Well, the camera used to be her car, so she was like, you're going to take my car? But otherwise, no, she was. She was pretty cool with it and kind of that understanding of, you know, the outlet mindset of, hey, is this going to make you, you know, happy? And it's like, yeah, I think this will be something that'll be really fun. Yeah. Maybe she doesn't know what she's in for down the road. We do have, a spare bay in the garage, so, always ways of thinking and how to do things and how to keep it happy all around. Yeah, I know that's probably, a hard conversation for a lot of families. Yeah, but it's, Yeah, hopefully a fun conversation and, hopefully get the chance to have her come out and either, take part as a spectator or, you know, do a few parade laps or something, to see if she has any interest in, you know, being around something like this. And if not, there's plenty of things I'm sure she wants to do with her time that we could barter back and forth for. Yeah. That's right. I got to share a quick, personal Dexter story. So after you and I had a phone conversation a couple weeks later, I get a rant. Just a text and a picture of you standing in front of your Camry at the track, and I. That absolutely made my day. And I don't remember I was having a bad day or just an average day, but when I saw that come through, I think I was even my text back to you like this made my day. Yeah, because, I mean, just we we hadn't been on track and now you're on track and that is awesome for you. It's awesome for our motorsports community. And, Yeah, I mean, I think that was a month or two after our phone call and it was like, you know, and that's that's part of this process is what what's your next step and what are you doing to get somewhere else? And, our phone call could have ended and we'd have had some back and forth about business stuff and doing these race and follow along. But, I wouldn't be sitting here if I didn't go take that step and I think our conversation here is part of our relationship building for the next step. I have an invite to come come hang, next weekend. So, I don't I don't think that happens if I don't do something. So I think in, in working relationships. And this goes for anybody in, in business, in motorsports and whatever hobbies, art, you know, there's, there's a little bit of give and take, but people want to see you do what you want to do. So, our conversation started with, check this thing out and do it, I did it, you set up. That's awesome. And you did it. You want to do this thing? Yeah, let's do it. And so here we are today doing this. And, so I think it just, it just compounds a little bit and so, I'm glad that made your day. Yeah. I said I was smiling from ear to ear the whole time. So that's really made my day. Yeah, well, we've come to the last question and this goes back to your first track, Night in America. They line you up in grid to go out. Were you late for any of your sessions to grid? No. That's awesome. I was anxious enough, so I was early. That's right. It sounds like it might be one of the first ones there. Yeah. So, Yeah. So that was up late to grid, so that's great. I know you're going to be on the podcast again because I want to hear how your journeys going as you progress, when you're doing the vintage racing, all that kind of great stuff. So Dexter, thanks so much for being on the podcast and sharing your journey with us. Yeah, just getting started. So hopefully a great story to tell down the road. Thanks. Yeah, you you.