From GTI to Miata: Nisa Borghi’s Autocross Journey

This week on Late to Grid, Bill sits down with Nisa Borghi to talk about her path into motorsports—from giving her VW GTI a personality on Instagram, to celebrating 100K miles at her first autocross, to taking on the challenge of a rear-wheel-drive Miata.

Nisa shares what it was like stepping into the SCCA community, co-driving with her husband, flagging at Nelson Ledges, and learning the ropes as a woman in motorsports. From trackside lessons to social media connections, her story shows how passion, persistence, and community fuel the journey.

Whether you’re curious about autocross, looking for your motorsports tribe, or just love a good “late to grid” story—you’ll find plenty of inspiration in this episode.

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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Do you need friends? This week's guest moved to Ohio, wanted to make some friends, and decided to try autocross. And that's how her motorsports journey started. Let's throw the green flag on this episode. Well, Nisa, it's great to have you on a Late to Grid podcast. Thanks for being here. Thanks for having me. Yeah. So you and I met through the SCCA? Yes. But I really first found out about you because, you're all over Instagram specifically. Hands the GTI, which is your car. What? Before we get into motorsport stuff, I want to talk about that. What made you create an Instagram account about your white Volkswagen? Well, I don't know. I just kind of thought to give my car, like, a little persona of some kind. It. I always see faces in cars. That's a little bit weird, but, ever since I was a kid, I look at the headlights with, like, eyes, and the girl's like a smile, and I thought, oh, my car's kind of cute. I think I'm going to give it a little persona and start posting about it as if it were like a living creature. Yeah. And then I started posting memes on it about it, and people just seem to really enjoy it. It is. It is engaging content. I love it, and it's one of the ways we got connected. So let's talk a little bit more about your motorsports background. So you first got interested in racing because your brother and you would watch NASCAR and, rally events I think. Right. So what was it about watching that that said, I think I want to get closer to the car community. Well, you know, growing up, I've always thought, you know. Well, I guess, this kind of dates me a little bit, but, in the 90s, when I watched a lot of racing growing up, it was mostly men that were racing. And, you know, women started coming on the scene, and I was like, you know, how cool would it be to be a female in the racing world? And I wanted to see, you know, what steps it took to be involved in the racing community and, get more in the cars. So. And I always played video games with my brother, racing video games like Gran Turismo and stuff like that. So, yeah, it's just, I just kept practicing on there and just pretending I was a race car driver, and. Yeah. Well, it did get you behind the wheel. So when did you make the jump from playing video games to entering your first autocross? I actually got into autocross as kind of a way to, join some kind of community, make some friends. I moved to Ohio from Florida probably about seven years ago. And I was looking to, make some new friends, and I was like, what hobbies can I get into? And, then I found out by SCCA, and I was like, I'm gonna go check out, autocross and see what it's all about. And I was like, I could totally do this. Yeah, it's my car. And, another kind of weird reason was that, my car was approaching 90,000 miles, and I kind of wanted to celebrate the 100,000 mile, doing something cool with it. And I'm like, Volkswagen GTI is kind of like a, you know, a cool sports car. It's meant to be on a track or whatever. So I was like, I think I'm going to take it to to do some racing. Yeah. And did you happen to turn a hundred thousand miles? Yes. During our press event. I believe so because I remember posting a video shortly after, using, video footage from that autocross, and I, actually recorded it turning 100,000, so I was like, yes, your dad. Yeah, obviously I was parked and parked in the grid, so. Yeah. Oh my gosh, how cool. Let's go back to taking those first steps. With getting involved with, SCCA and autocross. I'm going to guess that was a Eastlake lot. We did a few in the Eastlake lot, but mostly at the IC center. Okay. All right. Yeah. Did you find it to be welcoming? Were you nervous rolling into the the, you know, the the facility the first time? How did you then learn how to autocross? So first, what was it like just rolling in, not knowing anybody? It was a little intimidating at first, to be honest. Especially since autocross. There's so many different types of vehicles. You know, everything from built up sports cars, like kit cars that get trailer in, lots of meters. And, you know, just their mom's, grocery getter Toyota Corolla. Like, there's so many different types of cars. And, I was like, oh, is this like, my competition thing or, you know, and, and there's all kinds of, like, nationals champions and everything. And I was intimidated, but, as I quickly found out, people are so friendly and autocross, I mean, especially RCC chapter, Northeast Ohio SCCA, so people could tell that I was new and I was a little nervous. And so, you know, there were more experienced drivers that rode along with me and kind of showed me the ropes. And, shortly after I felt very comfortable with I made some new friends. My husband is also, our professor as well. He kind of got into I was into it first, and then he came and watched and was like, I think I want to try this too, so that's great. Yeah. So that's a couple sport. Yeah. So, we can be a little competitive, but, Yeah, he's a better driver than me, but now for not getting for now. For now. But, you guys. Drive different classes, though. Or in the same class right now, we're in the same class. Are you are you coach driving the same car? Yes. Yes. We are driving the same car right now. So, both of us have made some great friends through autocross. Even friends that we hang out with outside of autocross. It's it's been great. It's awesome. Yeah. We can tell you love autocross because of your cone earrings. I love it. What's one thing you wish you would have known rolling into that first event that you that you later learned? If you could share some of that with, with the listener? Well, I guess, I would tell myself, just go there to have fun. First few times you're there. You're not you're obviously not going to set the fastest time of the day, especially if it's like your second event or third event. Just go there to have fun. Don't even really sweat about your times. Everybody picks it up at a different rate. There's so much to learn. And autocross is just not. It's not just like, see how fast you can go or or anything like that. You're not just like a dragstrip going down the straight line. It's a lot of physics and understanding your cars, abilities and control. So, Yeah, it's a lot to learn, so it's okay if you're going at your own pace. Don't try to compete with others right off the bat, especially if you're around, nationals champions and stuff, who's probably been doing it for over ten plus years. So it's okay to start slow and just, you know, get the hang of it. Enjoy the company. Yeah. Enjoy your car. So, you guys are co driving the GTA? Well, we were co driving the GTA for a couple years. Then my car had a few issues that, were taking a while to fix. So, we decided to add a new car to our fleet. A, 1993 Miata. So that's what you're competing in. So that's what we're driving this year. We're hoping to get the GTI back up and running at some point. But right now, it's just the Miata, and, it's been a learning process. Yeah. Believe it or not, is the first time I've ever driven manual. No kidding. Yeah. And, autocross was the first time I've ever driven manual as well, so, and, first time driving a rear wheel drive car, which is significantly different than a front wheel drive car. Yes. If we could on that, what's one big handling difference that you've felt between the guy and the Miata? I find it. Well, obviously, the Miata is a lot lighter. It's a much smaller car, so, it's a lot more sensitive to inputs. So it's throttle, steering. You can definitely feel the weight shift a lot easier. And I would just say overall, the car is a lot more sensitive and less forgiving, but, you can kind of use that to your advantage once you understand the car more. Which I'm still kind of in the process of learning. You know, I've been driving that GTI for maybe 12 years now, so I know that car inside out. It's like an extension of my body. So going from that to a miata is, very different. Yeah. So I know Miata is always the answer, but why a miata? Why a miata? I would say every time I go to an autocross event, I would say like 70% of the cars there are meatus. And I was like, there's got to be something about this car that makes everybody choose it. And, first off, I think they're adorable. Yeah. I mean, I told my husband I was like, those flippy lights are bust. I need a name. Yeah, cause I love those headlights. So we did end up with a name, and, So. Yeah, I just thought they were super cute, and, I rode along, with a couple Miata, and it seriously felt like a big go kart. It's a lot of fun. You know, you got the top down and everything. It it feels like like a, like a race car, you know, more. So then I would say the GTI, in a way. It's small, it's nimble. Lots of fun. Yeah. So let's go down the Miata journey a bit. Yeah. How did you find it? For sale. Oh, boy. So I will say the car is a piece of work. Yeah. We, we joke about this all the time. Was amongst my friends that we basically got a free Miata with a hard top. Oh, so that kind of hints at, how much it costs and how much work it needed. Yeah. So, you know, we got, hit up by, Jonathan Staggs at Leeroy Engineering, who said, a client of his was looking to sell a miata, and they're like, we heard that you have someone, a friend looking for one. So, yeah, we we took a look at it, and we were looking for a second autocross car at the time, and we knew we wanted it to be a miata. So, like a lot of people, we look through Facebook Marketplace and, we didn't want to get, like, a beautiful show quality, like, you know, brand new Miata or anything. It's because it's just going to get beaten up by cones and stuff. Yeah. So we wanted something we can learn to work on as well. So, we saw this car and we're like, oh, it has a hard top. Maybe it's a little out of our budget. But then he told us and how much you're selling it for and we're like. Oh, are you gonna sell the hard time? No, we're keeping it. Yeah. Yeah. No, we've gotten so many people ask us, like, do you want the hardtop? Oh, I'm like, yes, we do. It doesn't have a soft top either, so that's the only way. You can do it. Yeah. So what was the biggest surprise? So you bought the car. Got it back home. What was the biggest surprise. The biggest surprise about the car. That despite its appearances it, it has some little scuffs and bumps on it. Completely rust free. We were told it was completely, it was beautiful. Underneath was a few little scrapes, but we think it used to be, slammed. Okay. So, minus those little scrapes underneath it, it was fairly clean. Good. Body was in great health. It had some interesting, things done to it. Interesting issue. Just some questionable traces I didn't really understand. So we, you know, took it to engineering, had them take a look at it and make suggestions on how to tweak it to be more of an autocross car. Because I think the person before had plans to turn it into some kind of race car. It came with a roll bar, okay. And everything. So, Yeah, it's it's like a box. I call it an old box of chocolates. We find, like, something weird about it every time we open the hood or start the car. I mean, it has a check engine light button. Really? Yes. You push the the AC button and the check engine light comes on, and we're like, okay, it doesn't it doesn't affect performance or anything. It it's just a weird quirk of, the 30 year old car. Yeah. Me out of. Things. Yeah. Just me Miata things. Have you competed in it? I have, yeah, I have. Obviously I'm not, up there with people in my class yet. I'm not quite competitive with them yet, cause I'm trying to get used to the car. What class is that? Right now we are in the East class. Just because, you know, we're kind of driving the car as is. We've done some suspension work on it and got some new tires. We hope to be in the LMC class with the other Miata at some point, but, our car's currently not specked properly for that. Gotcha. So, Yeah, we're hoping by next year we'll be able to compete with, the other LMC Miata. Awesome. I know you're not across Sunday. Are you going? Yes, I am. Or maybe it's Saturday. It's this Sunday. Sunday? Okay. Yeah. All right. Cool. Good luck at that. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Let's talk a bit more about being a woman in motorsports. So, has has your journey been easier or harder than you anticipated? A lot easier than anticipated. I kind of wanted to dip my toes in different aspects of motorsports. Obviously I don't have the proper, resources or set up to go full track or, road racing club racing time trials. So I'm sticking with autocross for now. But, I have been volunteering as a flagger, for some of the other SCCA races at what is the track called? Nelson. Yes, yes. Nelson's ledges. And, you know, I've been shown the ropes of, like, and, you know, the behind the scenes of races and everything, which I thought was super cool. And everyone has been super accommodating to me and almost excited that I'm there. Oh, yeah. So, I guess I'm not exactly. A common, face that they see, especially in the flagging community. So I kind of stick out like a sore thumb sometimes at these events. But we appreciate this, though. The sore thumb, because. Yeah, when folks like you volunteer and to. So the listener knows, you volunteered at Nelson Ledges road course, Gatesville, Ohio, as a flagger. So you're working a corner station. Volunteers like you allow racers to get on track. So it's super refreshing to see a different face, a new face doing that. And so I want to ask you a question about that being that close to the action, what did you see or hear or feel that you're like, Holy cow, I never knew this sort of stuff happened on track. Well, as a flagger, you're not really behind the barriers like everyone else is. So the first time you're standing in a corner and you see a car go past you at 120, it's pretty shocking. Yes, it's pretty shocking. Obviously, you have to stand back in certain areas for safety. But, you know, there's still not a whole lot between you and the car. So, you know, that was very eye opening to me. Yeah, yeah. And, your role as a flagger, you're watching the race. You're indicating indicating things to the drivers with your flags. Your first event was. It was a boring, exciting. Did you have a lot to do? Tell us about that? It was fairly exciting. And the. It was new, but, you know, when they say at races, sometimes it's a good thing when there's not too much action because, that means people aren't getting hurt, there's no accidents. So at times it is a little uneventful. But it is fascinating because you're watching the race from a different perspective. A lot closer than people. You have to be, very observant of positions and timing and everything and even just road conditions, making sure there's no oil or anything on the road. So, it's kind of a different way of watching racing. Oh for sure. You're going to have a huge advantage when you, get into track events because you see the track from a totally different perspective than the driver does. Even if you walk a track, you being watching the cars come through there, one after the other. You pick up on different turning points, different break points. So you're gonna have a little competitive vantage there. Yeah, definitely. But, yeah, I totally sidetracked for original question, about me being a woman in motorsports. But yeah, I everyone has been a lot more accommodating than I thought. I, I don't know why I kind of expected that there would be a little bit of, like, stereotyping or that people aren't gonna take me seriously or something, but it almost seems like people are excited at the fact that I'm a female racer and also a I think I feel like there's something to be said about being a minority as well. You know, in Northeast Ohio, there's, you know, not a whole lot of Asian people. So to see a female Asian into racing is, is pretty exciting, I think to them, which is awesome. Yeah, it should be right. Yeah. Yeah. So I haven't come across any people that were rude towards me or in any way, which is wonderful. That's great. Yeah. Yeah, I think you might be the second or third female guest. Okay. No. Third. Pretty sure. And and you know, as a father of two daughters, I have a daughter that race karts for five seasons. I get excited when there's women involved in motorsports because, and the fact that you and your husband do it together is even better for couples that, autocross together, stay together. So I like that. Maybe I should make a shirt that says that or something. Yeah. Yeah. No, I think it's great because our sport only gets better when we have more opinions, more thoughts, more people, diverse backgrounds. So I think I probably speak for everyone to say. It's good to have you here. Yeah. Thank you. I want to go back to autocross. So we're gonna jump back and forth a little bit, but I want to go back to Auto Crossing because there's going to be some listeners that haven't done anything yet. They're out getting the information about what car do I need to buy, what events should I be going to do? I go autocross in time trial, and I just jump right in the racing. So I want to focus on auto crossing right. Walk somebody through in your in your opinion, in your mind, what is an autocross event. So an autocross event I would say is I kind of look at it as doing an obstacle course with your car. That's how I describe it to people who don't know, autocross is and like, imagine it's like racing, but in a parking lot or a very good large open lot with cones. And the cones are kind of direct. You where to go. And, you know, it changes every time. That's kind of the cool aspect of the sport, is that the setup changes every time. So it's not like you're memorizing the track or you know, what lines are take all the time. So, yeah, I just look at it as like a, obstacle course with your car that you can literally do with any car. I mean, there are some restrictions, like such as, like vehicle height and, stuff like that, but, I always tell people, if you ever want to try it, just try with whatever you have. Right? You don't need a lot of people tell me like, oh, my car's not fast enough, or I'm worried it doesn't have enough mods. It doesn't matter. Yeah, especially if it's your first time and you don't know if you want to get into it yet. You don't want to invest a ton of money into mods or anything. Just come out and try it. Yeah. And I, I advise people not to do modifications of their car because, until a point because what ends up happening is you modify and now you're in a totally different class that you're going to be uncompetitive with anyways because the other people are modding 4 or 5 times the amount of money that you just did. Yeah. And they could probably out drive you anyway. So yeah, just show up, put a little extra air pressure in your tires, take everything out of your trunk and bring a helmet and go, yeah. Pretty much pretty much. Yeah. And if you don't have a helmet, we also have some for rental as well. So, you know, if you don't want to make the and you don't know, you want to make the investment in autocross yet, just literally show up. Yeah. Let's talk about the autocross day. Yeah. So you roll in, you check in at registration. And then they have sometimes drivers meeting and then course walk. But let's just say they have a course walk first. And that's exactly what it is. You are going out walking the course to learn it. What when you do that what are you looking for. So sometimes it depends on who I'm doing the course lock with. Sometimes I will go with the novice instructors. Because I still very much consider myself a novice, but, you know, they will kind of, coach you on, like, what lines to take? There's terms we use called back sliding the cones and whatnot. And, my personal favorite, term that helped me so much is, to scare the cone. So, you know, it it sounds weird at first, but it makes sense. It's like you're driving towards the cone, looking like you're about to hit it, and then you, like, kind of shear off, like, kind of last minute, like you're. I'm going to hit you like you're scaring the cone. So, I like that. Yeah. So when I'm doing these blocks, you know, sometimes I'll do them with friends and we'll talk about, like, oh, we should take this. Why? And we should, don't pay attention to this cone. It's just like a trick cone, which, you know, can happen at times. Sometimes the the track, the course designer will put a cone there. That doesn't really mean anything. Is just kind of a distraction. Or, you know, this is a Chicago box. You shouldn't, brake here. Turn here. You know, and, just kind of doing a little calculations in our head. But the course lock is super important just for knowing where to go, because it's helpful to walk it several times because, a lot of people get freaked out by autocross because, like, you might have heard the term before. See, of cones. When people look out in the parking lot, especially the IC center, because that's a massive lot, they just see cones scattered everywhere. And it's easy to get blinded by that and just be like, I don't know where I'm going. So, it helps to have the map pulled up on your phone or print out, run, walk the course and figure out where you're at. So, yeah, and it is very easy to go out there and get turned around and, you know, get confused. So it helps to do the walk. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And you want to be really diligent with that walk because you're probably only getting six runs. Yeah. Six chances to lay down your fastest time. And the more you can do to be prepared for that first run, the more you can get out of those six. Right? Oh, yes. Definitely. And, it varies per event. You know, it's how many attendance you have. And how long the day is, if there's any rain delays or anything with how many runs we get. I've heard as little as three runs, eat per session, I guess. And, which I typically prefer more runs because I always look at the first one is kind of a throw away. Yes. I know a lot of people feel that way as well. You're getting used to the course. You've never seen this course before. So, you're just trying to go the right way and not get a DNF, right? Yeah. So at a autocross event, you run and you work. Yes. So explain what some of the worker roles would be to somebody. Yeah. So, the majority of the people will do, they caught cone shagging at certain places, but, was I allowed to say that? Yeah. But basically, they're corner workers, so you'll have anywhere from four or 3 to 4 corners. There will be probably three or so corner workers and one corner captain at each. And, if somebody knocks down a cone, a runner will go and pick up the cone whenever it's safe to, and, corner captain has usually has a radio and they'll call in and, notify anyone of hazards or if somebody hit a cone, they get a plus one, added to their time, which is a second to leave. So and they usually have a red flag. So they're responsible for waving a red flag if there's any unsafe conditions. And there's also usually a fire extinguisher at each station as well. Just in case. Just in case. Hopefully I never have to use that. Never. You never know. Yeah, yeah. And then, we have, you know, another aspect of the day of not across day is, tech having tech inspection. Oh, yeah. That's right. In the beginning. So we have some people who work to inspect your car, make sure your battery is secure and not going to go flying. Yeah. Make. Sure you use the the most common batteries in that type. Day. Yeah. And make sure your tires are on or your wheels are on correctly. There's nothing in your car that can roll around, and injure you. Or a passenger. And, you know, there's the grid workers who make sure all the cars are in the right spots. Make sure that, you know, if you have a Co driver, they have to, do the timing a little bit different, and for scoring purposes as well. And then I always work at the trailer. So at timing and scoring. So this is an incredibly important job. It's a lot of pressure but it's a lot of fun. So you usually have two people in there that will, if one person's on the computer and they're looking at the line of cars coming in and they'll jot down the number of the car and, once the car goes past the start, it'll trigger the time. And once they cross, the end, it'll stop the time. So it's very important that you put the cars in order and not forget one. Otherwise it'll just. Everyone's time will be messed up. Yeah, everyone's time will be messed up. And the other person that's in the trailer has a radio with them at all times, and they're communicating with the corner workers out there to, let them know, you know, if they're if they see something that they should red flag or the corner workers will tell them, oh, car 32 x a hit a cone plus one or they went off track. So that's a DNF. And then we'll make note of that in the computer. All right. So, the neat thing about, autocross is at the end of the event, there's award ceremony, right? Sometimes, sometimes autocross is a long day. There is supposed to be, a little award ceremony at the end, but, sometimes people just kind of rush to get out. So, we're just like, oh, just forgo it. But yeah, usually there is an award ceremony at the end. They do get awards. So, whoever's listening to this in autocross, make sure you stay in case you win and all. So it usually consists of a gift card to, Summit Racing. Oh, nice. Yeah. So, just various levels. Sometimes we'll have, like, you know, fastest overall time, fastest in different classes, and sometimes just, something random, like most cones hit or something or, we had one, one time for, the oldest auto crosser. Oh, really? Yeah. How old were they? Do you. Remember? I believe it was in the 70s. Mid 70s or so. That's awesome. Yeah. I mean, obviously he like, joked around. It was like I'm like 90 or something, but we're like, they're not 90. That sounds fun. What what's been the most rewarding part of autocross for you? The most rewarding part is, I would say, obviously I'm not the fastest driver yet. And, I would say the most rewarding part of autocross is seeing your time in the beginning when you're still trying to get you familiar in the course and everything, and seeing the massive improvement you make throughout the day. And, you know, that's kind of why I like it when you get a lot of runs, because you can see yourself improving throughout the day, which is really nice once you get used to the course. You know, sometimes the conditions will change throughout the day. So if, yeah, we still autocross in the rain. Yeah. So, Yeah, unless there's thunder. Lightning, we don't. But, you know, sometimes the track will dry out throughout the day, so that affects times as well. I was true, so, Yeah, it's just cool seeing the results change throughout the day. Now, when you go to an event, you have to take things. You got to take, you know, water, some tools, maybe food and snacks. Is there something you always forget to take? Oh man, I always forget to take. I'm really bad about this one, but. Snacks. Yeah. So I bring my lunch, I'll make a lunch for my husband, and I, It's always a whole production. We'll have, like, we'll make our lunches the night before just because, there's not too many options around the center. And not enough time to just run out and sit somewhere and eat. Our lunch breaks are typically 30 minutes to an hour, depending on attendance and how things are going. But sometimes while I'm working at the trailer, I can just hear my stomach growl and I'm like, I should have packed something like a little something. So sometimes, you know, autocross is even though you're in your car, it is still very much a physical sport. Yeah, it's a long day. It's a hot day, usually because it's the seasons, usually summer. During the summer. So you need to stay super hydrated. Eat lots of snacks so you're not hungry. Because if you don't, if you don't feel great, you're not going to do great. That's right. So there's been times where I haven't eaten enough, haven't hydrated enough in my time, suffered because I just wasn't feeling the greatest. Oh, so there's a pro tip there. Bring bring hydration, bring snacks. Yes. Tons of hydration. Yeah, I mean, I, I'm really bad about remembering to drink water, but when I do autocross I will easily go through like an entire case of water. It's it's. Yeah. Yeah it is. It is demanding no doubt about it. Yeah. And I love the fact that you chose a trailer job because if it's raining, the sun's beating down on you. You are safe inside the trailer. Oh, yeah. That's another pro tip. Yeah. I mean, it's not, I guess initially it's not really a job that you can choose. Typically the, event, leader will, you know, kind of determine over time who they think will be good at it. And, I was kind of surprised. I originally I was the one picking up cones. I was running around outside. It was not the most fun because there is no shade there. It's hot. It's, you know, you get worn out easily, which can also affect your driving. So I guess there's kind of an advantage of being in the trailer. You get to sit down and everything, but, they've trusted me with the the timing and scoring, which I think was super cool of them. And now now it's kind of become like my thing. So I automatically get assigned to it every time, which I think is awesome. That is for sure. One of the goals you have is is to get faster and get better at auto crossing. What are some of the tools and activities you need to do to get there? How will you get faster? How will I get faster? Well, there's, you know, auto, if you're like a data nerd, autocross is a sport for you. Yeah. There's so many little things that you can tweak in the car to affect your times to do better. Everything from tire pressures, even temperature. I've seen people bring. I haven't done it personally, but I've seen people bring temperature guns and, like, you know, do that to their tires, you know, make some tweaks. And, my husband's a huge data nerd, so, like, you know, he records his times, and he's even have he even has, like, this little, OBD kind of reader thing you plug in your car and it puts data in your phone and, you know, and we even record sometimes our sessions and see, like, what we could have done better. Sometimes we'll have people ride along with us. I've had the most helpful thing was I had a nationals champion ride along with me. Okay. And, you know, had him critique my driving. And that's been one of the most helpful things, because there's a lot of things I didn't know I was doing. Until he told me was like, oh, wow. Okay. That's really helpful now. So. And did you notice a difference? Oh yeah. Really? Definitely. Especially with the Miata, because, I didn't realize it. At times when I was nervous or anxious that I would sometimes tap the throttle a little, like, just kind of, I don't know, kind of pump it a little or something. And he was like, don't do that, because it can actually like shift weight on the car a bit. And like, that's never really been an issue with the GTI just because it's a lot less sensitive. But with such a small, nimble car like that, any input you do is a huge deal. Yeah. Yeah. Very. So and other than the ODB two reader, do you use any sort of data during your runs? Not really. Sometimes I just kind of like to go for fun and just just take my time. Yeah. And just try to beat the time I had before. I know some people are really hardcore about it. I mean, I've seen people running computers and they're just sitting there typing away, like, things and whatnot, but, I know I've been more casual when it comes to it. I just like to go fast. I just like to drive my car in a way that I normally can't on the highway. Yes. So. Yeah. Where do you hope all of this leads? I really hope that it'll, between auto crossing and flagging and just getting involved in SCCA in general, I hope it opens doors to other opportunities. Such as maybe joining a racing team of some kind. I think that would be really awesome. I would like, a goal of mine is someday to flag for IMSa or F1. We are huge fans of IMSa. I've been to maybe six. Rolex 24. Oh, wow. We're actually about to go to, the Indianapolis race in a couple of weeks. So I always thought it'd be so fun to flag a long race like that, but, I'm just hoping to meet connections, through SCCA that can help me meet some of those goals. And, I always say that my, like, I don't want to say impossible because nothing's impossible. But a dream of mine is to drive a Porsche race car of some kind. Yeah, I think so. Yeah. So I'm hoping that someday I will be able to, I really look up to the Iron Dames. I think, the all female racing team. Yes. I think they're super cool. And, I don't know if I'll quite get there, but I'm hoping I can at least do something similar. Yeah, yeah, well, it sounds. Like you're on the right path. You're doing the things that are advancing your motorsports journey. I think if you just continue to do that, you'll you'll get there. Yeah. No doubt about it. Yeah. Hope so. Let's, jump back to women in motorsports. If a young lady is listening to this or approaches you, end of that and kind of says, I want to do something like this, what's the advice you'd give her on something to do first? What's that first step? Well, I would tell her, you know, just don't be too hard on yourself if you don't pick it up right away. I have a tendency to be very hard on myself. But racing is not easy. If it was easy, everyone would do it, you know? And, it requires a lot of practice, a lot of seat time. Don't let any, fallbacks get you down. Just dust yourself off, get back up again, and, you know, you'll do better next time. It might take a while to get to where you want to go, but just learn and realize that everybody goes at different paces, and it's okay if you're not, you know, going as fast as everyone else. The fact that you're trying is awesome. Yes. Oh, for sure. So, yeah. Just, don't be too hard on yourself if you're not exactly where you're at right now. It does take time. Gotcha. When you are looking to learn more about autocross and our sport, what are some of the resources you go and look at? I'm not sure that I exactly look at any, resources, but, I mean, I'm a huge social media junkie. Probably on it a little more than I should be, but, there's a lot of, you know, racing accounts and whatnot that I follow, like IMSa, F1, even some other smaller autocross ones and whatnot. And I just like to watch your videos, study what they do. Yeah. I've, I've even been in contact with some, racers from other states and stuff, and they've given me some very helpful tips and advice and even things I can do to my car, you know, for autocross that I would have never thought of. So. Yeah. Yeah, it's it's really kind of a social experience for me. So. And that's there's if you think about, there's so much more we can see behind the scenes than we ever could even ten years ago, five years ago. As drivers and teams post content on social media, we get the behind the scenes look. We get some of the, you know, some reels now are turning in the how tos. Of course there's TikTok and YouTube as well, right? The content is there if we want to consume it and learn from it. And you talk about, you know, the social media aspect and the whole idea behind social media is to be just that. And you said one of the things you love about our sport are the people, and you found a way to connect them by, you know, being at the events, interacting with people, making friends, but then staying engaged with them online. Do you find that the social media part helps you continue building relationships between events, helps you build relationships? You think that'll help you progress on your journey? Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. You know, even if they're not in autocross, I've met some, other racers, particularly ones that have Volkswagen Gtis as well. And, you know, just talking to them about their experiences and everything. And, knowing that, you know, some of them have even offered, like, you know, if you're ever in the area, like, let me know. I can give you a ride along or we can drive together or something. I just feel like the more people that I meet through social media, that kind of opens more doors. Like, you never know who they might know that can get you in XYZ. Yeah, I have even, at one of the Motorsports Day events. I've even met a, a flag chief there from another region that said, like, you know, if you ever want to flag in the year or anything, let me know. I might be able to get you in there. So, you know, I just feel like, inviting people to have conversations with you and, you know, just making sure that, you know, you're there if people want to talk about racing and stuff and just being receptive to their advice and everything. Yeah, yeah. Is there a piece of advice that somebody gave you about autocross saying that was like, you think about often you're like, that has helped me so much. Is there an example of that? Am I allowed to mention names? Oh, absolutely. Yeah. So I mentioned this earlier, but I feel like one of the most, helpful things that I've learned was from another autocross or, trip manual. Oh, he taught me the term scarring of the cone, and I just that term just stuck with me for some reason because I didn't really understand that that concept very well until, like, I had this funny picture in my head right after he said it of literally like, I'm going to hit you. And then just like last minute, like, like routine kind of thing, like, so, you know, that that really helped me understand it way more than I thought it would. So. Well, that makes a lot of sense. I'm going to pull in something personal here. So, last week I was talking to an auto interest instructor, and he had helped a driver. I was talking to shave 5 to 5 seconds off his lap time. That day. So I said, how? And he said most drivers turn into early and and that's exactly what Chip I think was explained to you is mentally you need to avoid that cone because there shouldn't be a point where you don't see it. Yeah, because it's hidden by the hood, but you still have room to execute the turn. I think that's great advice. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. And it kind of helps me, get a little more comfortable with getting closer to cones. We used to have this joke. I mean, obviously they weren't like, making fun of you in a negative way, but they were like, whenever they would see, like, videos of me or something, they're like, you're like a zip code away from the cone. And I'm like, great, thanks. But I noticed as I'm getting more comfortable, with the car, with the course, I am getting closer to the cones. And I learned that it's not necessarily a bad thing. If you hit cones. Sometimes it will take some time off your overall time. But, it means that you're getting very close to the color. You're getting comfortable getting closer to the cones. And, Yeah. So it's okay to get get close to them? Absolutely. Yeah. Is there anything we didn't talk about that you wanted to, I'm not really sure. Yeah, well, I. Have one final question. But before we get there, I'll make a note. So we're going to share all of your socials, including Hans. Okay, in the show notes so people can get Ahold of you. They can hunt you down, learn more about you. You can make even more connections in the sport. Awesome. But the final question. Yes. Have you ever been late to grid? Yes. What's the story? Oh, man. This is kind of a a weird one, but good. Maybe mildly embarrassing, but, so there's kind of this rule on where you put porta potties and auto cars. Okay. Unfortunately, was an accident not too long ago. Regarding a Ford of potty in the grid. So they are spaced pretty far. All right. So, like, I'm always like, should I? The question always is, like, should I go now? Should I wait? Should I go now, should I wait? But I'm like, I think I'm gonna go now. And then of course, like, everyone was already lined up at the grid and I was like, oh, no, that's not like people would always laugh because sometimes they'll see me in my helmet just running across, oh man, the grid. And I'm like, I'm coming, I'm coming. So, you know, there's there's that there's only one I can really think of. I'm generally pretty good at being on time. Yeah, well, that's a good story for sure. Yeah. Well, nice. It was great having you on the podcast. Love your journey thus far. Can't wait to see where it goes. Thanks for spending some time with us. Yeah, thanks for having me on here. Good luck.