Late to Grid - Grassroots Racing

Brock Yates Jr. on One Lap of America, Car Culture, and the Wildest Stories You've Never Heard

• Bill Snow • Season 5 • Episode 20

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On this episode of the Late To Grid Podcast, Bill sits down with Brock Yates Jr. — the man carrying on the legacy behind the legendary One Lap of America.

If you know the Yates name, you know the stories run deep. And if you don’t know Brock yet… you will by the end of this episode.

Brock shares:

  • Growing up surrounded by racing legends
  • How One Lap of America evolved from its Cannonball roots
  • Wild stories from the road
  • Driving advice that actually makes you faster
  • Why “look where you want to go” can change everything
  • What beginners get wrong about track driving
  • Why slow cars teach the best lessons
  • How the One Lap family supported him through personal loss
  • And what’s next — including a West Coast One Lap


It’s honest, hilarious, insightful, and packed with motorsports history.

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We do this to go fast. Along the way we meet some great friends and they become family. Then all the stories come and my guest this week, Brock Yates Jr. Has lots of stories to share. Less saw the green flag on this episode. Well, as I mentioned, I am here with Brock Yates Junior. Lots of great stuff to cover. If you don't know Brock Yates Jr, you will by the end of this episode. So first off, Brock, thanks for being here. Well, thanks for inviting me. I appreciate, appreciate the time. I want to tell a story about the first time you and I spoke. But first, let's cover how you and I got connected. Fred Wolfe from Nelson Ledges Road course, Garrett Saville, Ohio, reached out to me a couple of weeks ago and said, I think you need to have Brock on the podcast. Let me see if he's interested. So I know you've run one lap of America at Nelson Ledges. We'll cover that later, too. But how long have you known Fred? Well, I took over one lap, in 2009 for my father and we had God and Nelson ledges on and off for many, many years. And, we I met him when we when we went there in the early, teens, I believe, and the track was disintegrating to the point that, the pieces were actually we had an airbag prior offline, one of our cars, based on the bumps going down the back straight. And, let's see. And and I told him I'll be happy to come back when you get, when you get repaved and, sure enough, you know, life changed, and, the track changed, owners and ride was still there, and we're, and as soon as they were paved, I shut back up. So I think the last time you were you were there was during Covid. Is that right? Right after. Right after Covid. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. You know that those ledges about 35 minutes from my house and, I heard a couple people that I know of were going there. So I said, you know, let me let me spend the morning there and see, it was great. There was some really cool cars, some really good people. A lot of camaraderie and a lot of smiles. So thanks for coming to Northern Ohio with one lap. And the potholes and bumps are certainly gone now. After the repave. Well of course and, and and now and I the reason I called him the other day was because pit race had closed and I told me, get those to get that track upgraded so I could take the, you know, take all that business. Yeah, yeah. Their phones, even their phone's been ringing off the hook. No doubt. I, I was I'm sure I wasn't the first, but I wasn't the last either. Yeah. Will you be heading there with one lap? Not next year, but I will be back. Okay. Now that there's a big hole in the northeast that I need to fill out. Sure. It, it, Nelson Ledges makes a lot more sense. Is also the big, long time friends for Red. It gives me an option to add two other tracks. I won't sure how so? I want to tell the listeners. And you, you haven't heard the story yet? So after Fred connected us. Fred is very persistent. So when he gives me someone's name, or I agree to do something with Fred, I know he's going to follow up. He's going to follow up quickly. So I'm like, listen, I got to get a hold of Brock sooner than later so I can tell. Fred, listen. Yes, we connected. So I called you in the afternoon. I was driving to another meeting and, you know, it's one of those days, one of those business days, a little frustrations, a little challenges. You and I had a great conversation. You had me laugh and you had a big smile on my face. I think we probably talked for four minutes. Five minutes max. But I want to pass that along to you. That, that conversation, your laugh, your humor, certainly put a smile on my face that day. Well, I'm sorry your life is so boring that I put a smile on your face, but, or wretched or whatever. No, I, I mean, I, I try to bring a little humor into everything. It just seems to, you know, if I can make somebody smile during the day or, you know, say something really silly, I'm okay with that. Right. So let's talk a little bit about your history. I refer to you as Brock Yates Junior because everyone's going to make the connection to your father. Was it your dad that that really got you into, cars and auto racing, or were there other influences along with his? Well, obviously, growing up in a, in a, in a family that okay, we weren't we were race I got I was at Watkins Glen and it three years old and basically grew up there through the through the 60s. And my father race saddlers and tauruses and Dodge Charger or darts and launches and and they had a short term, Trans-Am career and but Marcus Stone was, you know, that was part of my being for many, many for most like growing up. Right. And and the house was always the driveway was always felt full of cars, both fun, utilitarian, stupid, ugly, awful. But there was always something fun. And, and also the, the friends he had with the Golden age of car driver, Charlie Fox and Steve Smith. Warren with, Terry Cook. I mean, they're, the people around the great names of the, you know, the late 60s, early 70s, car magazines and that was impossible not to enjoy and take advantage of. You have to admit that when I went off to college, I, my father and I remained close. But I did get away from cars, and I think that was partly because, you know, I can't write, but also, you know, it's a separation from my my father, who is incredibly famous and, you know, a certain amount of, rebellion. But it was hard to stay away, you know, he, he would, he would drop by college with a stupid car and she'd want to go drive for a while. And, and I got to drive the first turbo Carrera when it came out, which was, which was stupidly fast. Oh boy. And you know, it's not many kids that, you know, father shows up a 928. So let's go for a ride. No, no. And, and you know, that was it. And that persisted. I one day I got in a car and I. And I was a girlfriend and moved to California, and he was good enough to give me a job at the Portofino Inn and Redondo Beach, which is for those that don't know, the final entry point for the cannonball in the 70s. So I was immersed in the car culture there, with, you know, the, the great drivers would show up there, the, all the sprint car guys from Ascot, the Long Beach Grand Prix, Mario and Rick Mears and Roger Ward and people like that would stay there. Not to mention the, the car culture. That was all around Torrance and and Redondo Beach in those days. Saab, Toyota, Volvo, you know, all those all those people. Honda, became my friends. And, you know, it's hard. It was I never really left the car career for, you know, So we don't want to I'm not going to go into huge detail about the cannonball. You've talked about that quite a bit. You've been interviewed about it quite a bit. Written about it or been written about, but it was the cannonball that led to the one lap of America. And there was some concerns with safety and insurance and things like that. How involved were you in those early days of One Lap of America? I was not involved in the management. I was involved as, the first one was 84. And I as I mentioned, I was working at the Portofino Inn and one of the stopovers was there. And Mary Davis, the then owner of the Portofino, was one ballsy lady, and she decided her niece needed to enter the one up. Bob Sinclair, the North American president of Saab, offered us, offered her a car, and he and Mary looked over and said, okay, Patricia, you need a co-driver. Nobody in the building knows how to drive except Barack. So when the boss says, you got to drive, you got to drive, right? So much to the chagrin of my dead girlfriend. Yes. I got in the car and we and and and because of my name, every, every time they couldn't find a real bracket, I would get a phone call. So I was in an extra belly link to the management from the very beginning. Even though I had nothing to do with it. Guilty by name association. I'm a I'm a junior as well, I can relate. Yeah, you know it. It never ends like it. But anyway. Yet, you know, I ran most of them one laps, and, and towards round 96 or something like that, I started to take part in the, in the organization. It really took over. In those early days. I mean, you didn't have GPS, you didn't have cell phones, you had paper, he had maps. He had payphones. Right. How how did you how do you get to the next point? I mean, you knew where you were going, but how did you map that out? Well, we would we would be issued a, a rapport. And an 84. The route was actually pretty stupid. In the first page the route book said from Darien, Connecticut go to Boston, turn left, go to Seattle, turn left, go to San Diego, turn left, go to Miami, turn left and return to start. Which was essentially what we did. Yeah. We're not we're there for what we did. It's not essentially what you did it. But there were, there was a preferred one, or there was a route that we were supposed to follow because the premise, however stupid, is, at that point, I was to finish the event. The closest to Brock's mileage as you could, which, which made no sense because first of all, everybody's got a different car, and most of us spent like 4 or 5 days trying to get a speedometer error that would somehow fix our mileage. And then you figure it out. Let's see, where did Brock Cash, where did each turn the odometer off? How many passes per mile did he make? You know, if you had to just, you know, started going on and on. So the more we drove, which would we have way too much fun driving. I mean, everybody should circumnavigate the country for shits and giggles for one reason or another, but it, it basically was a giant crapshoot and, and and a stage cannonball at the same time, you know, we drive through checkpoint. We don't wait, you know, hours and hours early for the checkpoint because we'd all made great time and, Howling luck, local laws and regulations, I'm sure. We run nothing now, but, they're all arbitrary. Let's talk about that first experience in the Saab. How did you do in that one? I did, we did really well. Wow. Again, because it's the the winner was essentially chosen arbitrarily by a, a random odometer reading, won by four guys in a, in a, station wagon from Vermont. I it really, really didn't matter so much as it was. It was fun. I got to see parts of the country that I had never been to. You know, the vastness of, of North Dakota, the, you know, the emptiness of Texas. You know, all those. Yeah. All those great places. Sure. But it was, you know, other than my co-driver, I'd never given a five speed before, and I and and the, But obviously Claire had decided that we should all be able to sleep in our cars, so we had the rear fold down seat cut in a 6040 configuration. So he could put a mattress on the 40% side so we all could sleep in the back. Which, by the way, was the first time it was ever done. And now we take it for granted that split seats are, the norm. Oh, yeah. But anyway, I remember waking up on the first, and I was exhausted when we finally got on the road. And I remember waking up in the middle of nowhere and pat, Pat shift into fifth. And I must have done that about 14. Oh, my. Yeah, that. But no, the shop. I mean that the Saabs are actually lovely cars for you know, it. I mean were still well I guess were, lovely cars for almost any, any situation. It would run really quickly. They're very safe and well. Very well. No, I love them. And when you got back to California, still had the job, still had the girlfriend. There's actually the the LA times, has a picture of the two of us embracing, at the halfway point, like I had just come back from a six month Arctic adventure. Oh, no kidding. She was a little bit jealous. Yeah, but she was, Yes. I still had the job. And the girlfriend, and actually, I worked there, four more years until. Until I get thrown out for different reasons. Gotcha. And we'll save that for another episode. Well, let's talk about what one Lap of America is today. It's autocross drag race and time trial. It's, It's whatever I can fit in a week. Yeah, yeah. In your early days. Yes, she she was involved, and they were very hesitant about letting us actually go over, like, 45 miles an hour. Obviously, we were street cars. Yeah. And and this is my the story I tell most of it, but it how it in 89 totally are turned off. And Brock decided that this is all bullshit and we should run these cars. So we've had our first SCCA point to point, time trial. Nobody died. And everybody had a great time. And that allowed us to find a and another sanctioning body that allowed us to have more fun. Right. But it also allowed us to expand the one lap point to point to a two lap and then three lap format that we're in now. So it it we will visit in the course of a week. Several road courses. We will do a drag strip providing it doesn't rain. Both are low heat and bracket racing and and bracket racing is we don't score heavily, but it's part of the sport. A a sport with automobiles that most people aren't comfortable with don't understand. And it makes it more fun because it's more of a crapshoot. But at the same time, you know, we're we used to be 600 drag strips around the country, and every one of them, we're running, bracket racing. Yeah. And, next year, if I can get a little racetrack in Wisconsin to say yes, actually, township to say yes, we'll be running an oval. Oh. And, you know, and I, we our favorite was the running to dirt ovals, but the clean car crowd gets crazy. Yeah. What for the listener that doesn't know what type of cars when you some you go to a one lap event, what type of cars are they going to see. They're going to see most everything. All right. So far for next year we've got GT3 Rs and we've got Vipers and we've got corvettes of course. We've got a bunch of Camaros. Maybe a Dodge or two. We've got, a K5 blazer. We've got, similar we've got a, a plaid, a, Tesla plaid, that is vying for the overall spot for the last 2 or 4 years. It's 1100 horsepower with, you know, giant tires and aero and everything. We had good. We'll have, maybe, Hyundai, electric car. We'll have whatever people think is fast, whatever. If it's in real class, it, well, you know, fast cars, you know, slow cars. Good drivers, bad drivers, but mostly, mostly a lot of people having fun. Yeah. When I attended the one at Nelson Ledger's a couple of years ago, there was an MGB that was prepped and was just having a blast on track. It was a chilly craft. It had a 302. It. Yeah, it was as I remember, it was a chilly morning. And, Oh my gosh, that just had my attention the entire morning. Oh, I mean, it was a death trap, but it was so fast and he had so much fun and it was, you know, just off the wall. Which, you know, it's one of the things that I really appreciate, appreciated by one lap is the, is the imagination venture allowed. Since we have no rules. So I mean is it the cars, the clashing of the cars based on what it started life as. And then you can just take it up from there, whatever your budget will. Allow or whatever you whatever, whatever you want to do. No kidding. And is it, Am I remembering this correctly? No support vehicles, no trailers? No. You can have trailers if your clutch can handle it. Yeah. You're, allowed one set of tires and no support vehicles. Gotcha. I mean, you can get help along the way, but if we find out that help has been shadowing you for three days, we're going to be really upset, right? Why is it F-150 keeps showing up to every event and just parking off in the distance, right. We have had that situation happen. Yeah. And as I recall, the tires get stamped from tire rack. Yeah. So you have to how? The tires have to be sourced from car wreck stamped at the, at their, distribution centers, and half be within two years of the manufacturing date. Gotcha. So they, you know, what we're worried about is obviously old tires are unsafe. Whether or not people understand that or nowadays, it's something else. But as tires age, they dry out. The volatiles go away. Not only do they get harder, but they get more brittle. Sure. And then how do people sign up for this? Just not like anyone. I mean, there's a limit. There's a waiting list. How does that happen? There's a. Waitlist. Yeah. Well, it's we're we've been blessed with, a lot of, recidivism, some good coverage, friendly atmosphere, a good event, and somebody that runs it, that stands back and let us see it happen. And, you know, I've got a great crew that make it happen, and I just, I just kind of. There's a picture of me somewhere. I, I think it's in, Hemmings of me just sitting on a chair, watching everything going by, and you know, it wasn't Hemmings. It was, Hagerty. Just not doing anything, which is way it should be. Yeah, I love that. Oh, my gosh, I just had a question I want to ask. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I, I love the aspect of funny things that happen, unforeseen things that happen at events. So I have a couple questions along those lines. So over the years that you've been running One Lap of America, what seems to be the thing a competitor forgets? The thing that bothers me most that they forget is it's an eight day rally and you have to finish to win. And we all have the overzealous that will decide that they're going to win the event and the first day or one of the other day, and it usually doesn't go well. The as far as what they forget, typically it's like tarps and things when it rains. They forget the fact that rain has less traction. That sheet perhaps it the other thing they forget is that yes, rain happens and perhaps they should choose their tires accordingly. But no it I think, I think there's so much knowledge and willing to share through the event through to, you know, veterans and no quick no stupid questions that people, if anything, tend to overpower, repair and bring too much, and I suggest to people that they're only, only should bring what they're qualified to use. Yeah. Which in my case is a ham or tie wraps and duct tape. But. Yeah. There you go. And then what's the keep in mind is I'll call this a family show. What's the oddest thing that has happened during one lap? Something that you're like, oh, I didn't think we'd have to deal with this. Oh, God. I know that I've shaking my head a lot of times. As far as. I mean, little things like, having to stop the event to go rescue and an endangered turtle, the Corvette Museum racetrack, No kidding. I mean, the I mean, I've been guilty of most, you know, most infractions and most stupid things. You know, photographers dumb enough to stand out in impact. So, of course, I taught them a lesson by driving Adam off the racetrack as if I'd gone off the track and cured that, I don't know, I mean, just like any other racing series, you know, we've had, you know, things break that, you know, you wonder about it and things happen and, but the I think the thing that separated it most surprises me every year is the amount of, sportsmanship and the way we can get away from everything for a week. Yeah, that's got to be a blast. Was it 1400 miles or 20? Oh, it's typically about 35. 3500. Oh, blast way off. What a blast to be away. Hopefully away from the work, away from the responsibilities, having fun with other car people, pushing the limits. That's gotta be. Well, it's also away from the politics and the bullshit and and yet. And get the the things that normally divide us are, are no longer a part of the part of the week. Right. And you'll have incredibly wealthy and, and you know, people scraping by and and cars, stupidly fast cars and great drivers and, and awful drivers and everybody's kind of collected and enjoying it. And there's sharing and there's smiles and there's Hodgson. There's that was my big fear during Covid. We you know, I did open it up. You know, in 2001 we only canceled one year. My big fear of that was we're going to just, you know, move like a cruise ship through the country and just sheer Covid everywhere. And I was pretty serious about the masking and distancing, and we didn't have any problem on that that year at all the next year, because I dropped all the requirements, we had all these everybody's, you know, shaking hands with everybody in it. And now it's just, it's an incredibly, supportive, friendly family. I'm not trying to, you know, elicit any kind of, sympathy or anything, but my wife died three years ago. I'm sorry. Cancer. And make sure everybody get you. Get your cancer test. But anyway, obviously, I was devastated, and I went to one lap. And. It was a renewal. Because there was all my watching your family and friends to support and, you know, be there and, and I think most people that that that have had a loss feel the same way when they come back to win that because it's it's incredibly supportive. And in the end it's you know, it's it's true remarkable friendships. Yeah. There's nothing like the track family. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And I really hope more people that want to get close to our sport come to realize that how much love and support friendship that, unconditional. Unconditional. And all you got to do is not put you, not put stuff on again. I'm sorry. Your family show. Yeah, that's all right. We'll put a warning out there. You're good. I can, but. Before we move on to some other stuff, let's wrap up one lap discussion. Folks can search the web, learn about one lap. When does it start? For 2026. We'll start in South Bend on May 2nd. And I haven't released the route yet, but suffice it to say, we'll go around 3500 miles and we end up back up on in South Bend on the night. And that's a T-Rex headquarters, right? Yeah. Very cool. And there remarkably, supportive, of the Bradford now. Got 25 years, I guess. That that's great. Again, before we move on, anything that you. We didn't talk about one lap. You think the listener would want to know? You know, show up. Bring what you bring what you. Yeah, it. The biggest misconception people think is have is they can come to win one lap. It's a little bit more difficult than that. It takes a great deal of self-control. Yes, it takes horsepower. But doesn't take a lot of horsepower. Takes more of a, a better driver. We had a Cayman win it last year at a relatively Chautauqua. Because the drivers were good, they were smooth. They made no mistakes. And, you know, just dumping it, you know, ton of horsepower in the car doesn't make it fast. No, not at all. Now, if you can't control, let's talk about because you're doing driver coaching now, right. All right. You I've heard you quoted as saying look where you want to go. And I love that because my very first track day was at Nelson Ledges before the repave. So there was the the pothole over in the carousel. But I think I had a right seat coach, and I can still remember him telling me as I'm making a trying to apex a turn. I was I was on run flat tires. That's how new I was to to track and everything. Just man. That's right. That's and that's a big thing to just show up, just go do it. And that and that was his advice. He says, just look where you want to go and it'll start to smooth out. Everything will start to come together. You've said those words. Why do you believe that's really important for someone who's driving on track? We know it's not just driving a track. I, I, I stopped driver coaching, sitting second seat on a racetrack and the cars got to pass and the drivers got stupid. So, you know, I know you go out and buy yourself a stupidly fast car and show up in your first track day and say, teach me how to drive. You know, you old days, all cars were slow. And he was, you know, he wasn't gassed at every corner. That's the opportunity at every corner. I now teach for corporate driving school. That that teaches the same thing. Because whether on the track or on the highways, if you look there, you go there if your eyes you're high and you're looking to where you want to end up, everything becomes available. Not only do you see your lines, but you see everything around you. You're much more aware. And as you look down, you know, people can try this at home, look down in front of you and try to see beyond that. And you can't be sure peripheral vision only works down. So if your eyes are up, you can see everything between where you are and. And your horizon. So, you know, it's an easy check to see how your, where your eyes are. You know, if you're driving on a highway and your hands are motionless or relatively spartan in their movement, you're looking far ahead. You're making constant corrections. It's probably abuse. You know, the license plate of the car in front. And I was, I was lucky I was invited out to California for a Hemmings motor rally, and we had three days at just Lovely Road to south central California, places I'd never been starting in, thankfully, in the in the, near San Francisco in a redwood forest. But somebody asked, you know what? I you know what? I was getting most out of it. And I said, well, it's an opportunity for me to practice on my eyes because, you know, we get lazy and we forget about where we're supposed to look. And when you look, you'll see through the corners. You'll see, you know, see far ahead you. Everything will smooth out. And you'll get be. You'll be faster and safer. Oh, absolutely. The listener of the podcast there somewhere along their motorsports journey, either starting out or, you know, doing some amateur racing, but they all have one goal and that's to get better on track, whether that's autocross, time attack, wheel, the wheel. So from a coaching perspective, what advice do you have to folks as they get additional seat time? And I always say see time is great, but you need see time with instruction. See time with coaching, seat time with feedback. What advice do you have for the listener about making sure they're getting the most of their seat time? Start with a slow car because in a fast car, you're never going to approach 10/10 comfortably, and usually when you do, it's going to be really expensive. A slow car you can trash beat up, be it be at the limits of adhesion. It relatively modest speeds. Most people start out with two plastic on and the learning curve is is steep and expensive. That should your eyes. Like I mentioned, the key to driving. They have to be, they have to be looking as far ahead as possible. And with their. That'll give you the opportunity to be smooth. Most people have trouble with heel and toe. Most people have trouble with smooth brake and throttle application. So you know choppy steering, everything that you do, everything that you do to upset the balance of the car slows you down. So everything should be done like you're my first instructor said like eggs behind the pedals. Oh yeah. That's great. And you know, and in it, it's. You have to study your racetrack. You have to you don't attack it. You drive up to it and, you know, there's certain corners in racing that everybody should, should experience turn nine. And Willow Springs is one of them because it's an incredibly late apex and stupidly fast. And once you see that, then they all become second nature. But it it is. You really. Have to force your eyes around and see the whole picture and the thing I think about racing and I was never particularly good. I was I was one of those guys that languished at the back and everybody looked at the, you know, the results and and I beat him to. Yeah, yeah, I was I was okay with that. I had that's. It. That's the key. You had fun. Yeah. And so I never set any records, but yeah I, I also at different time, relished the rain. I waited for the rain. Why is that all right? Yes, I was smooth. Okay. I mean, I, every shift I made was, was matched. Everything I did was. Yeah, the the input was, was gentle, not slow. It was firm, but not abrupt. And which made me naturally faster in the rain. Oh, that's that's good advice right there, folks. So if you're running in the rain or slippery conditions, rock smooth as fast, right? Right. There you go. Put it in your smoothest gear. Gives the tires time to react to what you're asking them to do. If you if you, are abrupt with the steering, well, you can initiate your own skid. Sure. You know, that typically doesn't work well on a racetrack, let alone in a public highways. Yeah. How often you get behind the wheel anymore? Not very often anymore. I mean, I drive every day. I, I hit my cars are slow and fun. I, you know, I always try to, you know, be smoother and, you know, shifting a lot of clutch and, you know, and practicing stuff that you know, nobody does anymore. All right. I think I know the the question to this, the answer to this next question. What is your favorite car to drive? Right. My my answers tend to be a better out of step. First of all, it's whatever I'm in. I don't, like I mentioned, I was out for the Hemmings Motor Sport or, Motor Club, amongst these Porsches and Audi's and BMW s and Mercedes, and I'm in a Hyundai Elantra. Yeah. Did did I have fun? I bet you did I yes I did, yeah. Was it a base? It's not what you drive is how you drive. It is I believe AJ 41 said. Yes. Was that, a base Elantra or Elantra N. That was just a just a base rental. Now or even better. It was awful. All right. But it, I, I am of the opinion that, an enthusiast, somebody that enjoys driving. Is always frustrated in a fast car. Why is that okay. Because you're, you drive it in the highways. You can't you can't run quickly. No I mean without, you know, seriously jeopardizing your license or everybody else around. Yes. And I think the I the ideal car for an enthusiast in an environment where there's a lot of traffic is something slow with shitty tires. There you go. You know, a little, little Fiat 500 with 175 tires and a six speed would be kind of the ideal. Let's go have fun. And you had really slow speeds. Because every corner would be. Yeah. Be well. Yeah. You're holding on. You're doing everything. Yeah. Exactly. You you're going to learn that, you know, torque steer and you know, pulling yourself out of corners and everything else really quickly. We're not, no, I, I have a, an old, Mini Cooper works. See, that's what I thought you were gonna say your favorite car was. Because it's an hour 53, right? Yeah. What do you. Yeah, and it's A22. We had a 2002. Ash and somebody turned left in front of me after a couple of years ago, and, and a friend of mine had a, 2003 works that we replaced it with, and it, it really the ideal car for, you know what? I, you know, I think, anyway, you know, Perry's people got his bonnet it with unlike the newer ones, it's not cushy and big and soft and you know, and with self matching revs and all that other stuff. Yeah. So that first car I had on track I talked about earlier was oh five, 53. And we ended up I love that car. Traded it for a lifted Wrangler for my daughter. But you're right. It was. It is it's a perfect car. It's great for running around. There's more cargo room than you think. When she raised go karts, my oldest daughter, we would stuff that thing full of everything. We put a trailer hitch on it. We would tow her cart. For a while, I was. I got to tell you, every so often I'll, I'll rummage around the internet looking for a clean. You know, that generation, To find I'd like the. I'm. I'm a firm believer the first generation or. Well, the really the second gen. The 50 threes with the supercharger or the. I agree because they're they they there was no cushy ride. You actually was you were driving the car. You could feel all the bumps and you know, and if it had a, if it turned off, you had to turn off the, the traction control or not. The rear brakes in a matter of minutes. But it had enough trailing throttle oversteer that it was quite neutral. It was great handling, no doubt about it. Yeah. Now that we've talked about it, I'll probably be looking at them again tonight. My the one I bought from my friend who didn't know it, but it turned out to be a flood car. Oh, and I haven't researched the title. I don't know which date it came out of, but I was having some starting issues and I lifted up the back. Back carpet where the battery is for the first time was all kind of a silty brown. Yeah, that's. I don't care, I really don't. Yeah. If it runs and puts a smile on your face, keep rolling with it. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Let's talk about advice. For a moment or two. What's the best motorsports advice someone has shared with you? Well, I have to say that the the eyes up part is probably the thing that changed my driving the most. I mean, it it I thought I was pretty good up until that point. I mean, I had done stupid things with cars my entire life, and and somehow lived through it. Yeah. Some. And I'm sure at some point I was doing that. But when it became part of my conscious driving, I became better. Right? The, even my father, who's a very good driver, you know, said, just kind of look out, keep your eyes moving. But that wasn't really what I needed to to know. And other than that piece of advice, you know, look where you want to go. What advice do you like to give to people about? Maybe it's one lap or getting better on track, or getting better at driving in general? Well, like I mentioned early on, I most it's track time, okay. There's no question about it. And but you have to understand the dynamics of the car. You have to understand what it's telling you. I had a friend of mine show up several years in one lap and he stupidly fast track. You know, which is not you know the joke is they're self-driving. They're not. But you still have to steer. But sort of but at the same time, you know, he was, he was way too exciting out there. You didn't even in a car that's remarkably easy to drive. And I looked at him and I said, Bob is going to kill yourself, and you really need to get to the basics. You need to get something slow. They need to feel the tires. You need to understand when you know when that tire's slipping, what that means. You know what to do when the car starts to move. You know you don't. You can't always rely on that little yellow light coming up and telling you what's got that saved your life again. Yeah. And sure enough, he got himself at 246 and went raced and had some fun. And he came back a far better driver. Sure. Yeah. You really do learn a lot. You know, we'll just call them slower cars. That's not, being, you know, an insult to those cars. But, you know, it's just. Yeah, again, you you're much more comfortable about stuffing in with the economy. Yep. And I mean, and learning I. Mean, you, you know, my favorite day teaching was the rain at, new Jersey. And, you know, nobody would go out because it's raining. And a guy brought it at him instead of his neon shirt for 800 horsepower. He brought his little Dodge Shelby Shad, and Dodge Shadow was a big shot. Yeah, yeah. We had so much fun because even when he went off, it went off like ten feet. I mean, you know we got to see you know what. You know what kind of inputs did what what you know, you know if you overcook a corner this is what happens if you, you know you know don't turn your head distributor. What happened. And it was a fabulous you know the only downside was we're coming. We're just came out of the front straight. We sing as best we can, maybe approaching 80 miles an hour. And and he looks in the rearview mirror and he says, oh, shit. And I said, oh, okay. What? And I look at my little mirror and and I see a, a new gen GTO spinning. I'm catching this. Now what you want to see? But yeah. Yeah. Anyway, no, no. You're good. So you brought up a great point, and this is something that, I think the listeners need to know. So if you've got a track day or a test day scheduled and the forecast changes and it's raining, you still need to go for a couple reasons. That's great. Great practice, great seat time in the wet. You learn a lot about your car. One thing I heard recently from a driver is I don't know the wet line. And there was feedback at an event they were just at. I don't know how to drive the wet line. Well, why not learn during a practice day and other people are staying home. They're not showing up. You got more track time. You've got more safety with less cars on track. Not only that, I think the lesson is lost on people is that rain just means there's less traction. So whatever inadequacies you have in smoothness or and weight transfer are only going to be exacerbated or more recognizable than in the wet. True. Very true. Okay. So if you're if you're abrupt, you know, in the, in the dry and because you're nowhere near the limits of adhesion even or you think you're going really fast, the car can save you when you do that in a wet, you don't have that luxury. That's great advice. Well, we are coming up towards the end of the show. Brock, a couple of last questions. Is there anything we haven't talked about that you wish we would have covered? It's your show. I'm. I'm. I know I'm into it. Tire rack and, Yeah, grassroot motorsports and, you know, all the other things, but, no, we're not. I'm good. I'm not going to stand up and say really dumb stuff, but go ahead. Oh, you're great. A couple, a couple quick questions. Will you be at PRI this year? I have been to I want to PRI for years and found out that I never made any connections that really benefited me. However, I got to see a lot of friends. Good. Yeah. And sadly, as I age, most of my friends get to. Yeah. Amazing how. That happened. So no, I, I, I, I don't walk as far these days. I don't want to walk as far and I it's more of a social time and I and I and also Indianapolis is not my favorite place in the wintertime. Yeah. But can can be rough for sure. Two more questions. What's next for Brock Yates Jr. So well we're going to experiment and run a West Coast one lap next year. And we've got to we tried it this year, but we didn't have enough lead time. And so we're going to do a, a Western version, starting and finishing in Vegas, five day event. And these are some great tracks out there. And based on the years ago, for one lap we would drive 750,000 miles at a night shopping at racetrack. And most people these days don't think that's a good idea. And not to blame them but at the same time it you know kind of takes the fun out of. Yeah. We, you know leaving we had the best route we ever had. The best transfer we ever had was we left Pikes Peak International and the afternoon and, and ended up driving over the Rocky Mountains into Utah for a gorgeous sunset, a full moon leading us across Nevada and a sunrise at the Donner Pass so we could run Sears Point the next day. Unbelievable. And in the modern format, and no whiny people, we're not gonna we don't do that. And, so it, but, but anyway, we were you're Willow and Willow and Sears Point and Laguna Shaker are tracks that, you know, we'd love to get to. Oh, and, that's the plan for the fall and next year. Yeah, I think that's awesome. We're going to keep tabs on that, for sure. So I've got one more question for you. Have you ever been late to grid? Millie? No, no, no. I don't think so. I mean. So at one lap at one. Oh my. My biggest problem was when I did race badly that I was racing the SCCA, show shocked me near, and I would fall asleep listening to radio on grid. Oh. Someone did. Someone stick their hand through the window net and shake you a little, wake you up? You know, my wife was, she was an SCCA flagger, and and, it made her it made her crazy that I would do that. Oh, my gosh. You know, I mean, I was never really stressed about it. I mean, I would, you know, angst. And I wasn't even anxious. I mean, going out and having fun, you know, it's like I'm done proving stuff to anybody. That's right. Well, it's been great to have you on the late great podcast. Thanks for sharing. Your journey, a little bit more about your background and, and giving us a little tidbit there, a little outlook on what's going to happen with the Western One lap of America. Thanks again for being here, Melissa Bell. Thank you for having me. And I and I hope we didn't bore the people too much to tears. Folks, are you are you still listening? Are you sleeping? Everybody wake up. Wake up!