Late to Grid - Grassroots Racing

The Growth Season: 7 Essential Tips to Master Your Off-Season Prep

• Bill Snow

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Think the racing season ends when the checkered flag flies? Think again. Bill Snow returns to the Atomic Autosports studio to explain why he calls the winter months the "Growth Season". 

In this episode, Bill breaks down seven actionable strategies to ensure you hit the ground running for 2026. From deep-diving into your RaceKeeper video to find hidden tenths, to the "cardboard and magic marker" method for project management, this is your roadmap to a faster next season. 

Whether you are auditing your racing budget, shakedown-ing your car for Zero Mechanical DNFs, or hitting the karting track in NOLA to stay sharp, this episode covers the discipline and focus required to never be late to grid.

The season might be over, but the work is just beginning. Don't let your track, autocross or racecar sit idle this off season. Now is the perfect time to tackle those projects that get you one step closer to the podium. For upgrades, maintenance, or that big performance project, there's only one name. Atomic Autosports. Get ready to dominate next season. Find us at AtomicAutoSports.com and book a call with Bill to review your project and goals.

Ready to get more from your track days? Want to move to the front of the line for your track day prep? Then you need the Atomic Autosports Apex Club. From a merch pack and exclusive events to priority booking for your track prep essentials. The Atomic Auto Apex Club helps you get on the podium. Stop chasing lap times alone. Join the Apex Club to maximize your performance and share your passion. Sign up at Atomic Autosports.com

Atomic Autosports has some pretty big news! Track first now has a physical presence right inside Atomic Autosports. That means you can get your car Atomic prepped and grab essential safety gear, helmets, shoes, gloves, and more all in one spot. We can also have your purchases shipped right to our shop in Wickliffe, saving you on shipping. Stop by and check out the expanded selection.

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.

Many people think that you can not get faster in the off season. That's not true. I have seven tips that'll make you faster. Let's throw the green flag on this episode. It's Bill with the Late to Grid podcast, and I'm back in the Atomic Auto Sports studio solo. This time to bring you a very important episode. Why is it important? Because we are in the off season now. If you've been following me for some time, I'm calling this the growth season because it's anything but off. We have a lot of work that can get done. Between the time that the checkered flag flew on our last event and the green flag on the next season. So what I'm going to talk about are things that are going to get you better organized, get your car ready to go, get you ready to go, and broke it down into seven actionable items. So let's get rolling on this. Number one, strategic planning and scheduling. Here's what I mean. You can't go into this growth season and get ready for next season without a plan, without a roadmap. It needs to be written down. It needs to be actionable. And I am a huge fan of a great date driven plan. So what does this all mean? Think back to this previous season. Did you take some notes while you were at to track? Did you take some notes when you got back? Did you take some notes while you were working on the car? Summarize those. Get them all in one place. It doesn't matter if you use pen and paper, an app on your phone, Google sheets. Whatever works for you is what you need to choose, and that's where you need to put all of that information. Did you make some ideas about upgrades for your car as you were moving along? Did you always seem to have an issue with your right front strut? Whatever the case might be? Make that into your plan. What goals do you have for this upcoming season that goes into this as well? One of the things that goes on right now is scheduling. Many bodies are putting out their schedules towards the end of the year. Take note of those. Put them into your calendar. Put them into your plan, and most importantly, share them with your partner. You know you never want to enter the next season with, I didn't know you were racing that weekend conversation with your spouse, partner, roommate, whoever it might be. Get them on the calendar. And there's another thing you need to pay attention up when you're putting together your schedule, this roadmap, this plan. Have your rules changed for where you're running? If you run in multiple organizations, compare all the rules. Is your car still legal in the class that you were running in or thinking about participating in? Double check those rules. You don't want to be caught off guard next year, next season with a car that is no longer in that class that you want to compete in. Also, one thing about scheduling and your plan is a budget. Racing is not inexpensive. We need a budget. Plain and simple. This money just doesn't fall out of the sky. If it does, love to hear from you. How does that happen? But for many of us, it doesn't. So what does that budget look like? Is it something you have to break into multiple purchases? Can you make one big group? I try to save some money for what you need. I like to personally plan things out. You know, this month I'm going to buy. This. Next month I'm going to buy that. This thing can wait till, maybe next season or a month before my first date. Plan the budget so that you don't fall behind monetarily. That creates a lot of stress. Can create stress on the relationships as well. So be sure to include the budget in your plan for the next season. We can't race without a car that's ready to compete. So that's number two. Get your car maintained, get it inspected and get it ready. Here's what I mean. Your car sitting somewhere. Maybe you participate in your daily driver, which is fine. This applies to that. But maybe you have a dedicated car that you use on the track, autocross or for road racing. Now is the time to inspect that car, and what you have to start with is washing it right. And the products are probably the best for that. Give it a good bath. Give it a good clean. Also, vacuum it out, even if it's a race car that does not have interior carpet. I'm going to guess it's got a lot of OPR other people's rubber sitting inside the car. Vacuum that all out. Wipe down everything that might be dirty. Here's why. A clean car is going to show you imperfections. Is there something damage you didn't know about? Is there something leaking you didn't know about? Plus, it's just better to work on a clean car and it's faster, right? Then you want to shake down the car. You want to check every nut and bolt on that car before you do any work. Did anything loosen up during the season? Is something worn out? What are the tires look like again? Are there any leaks that you can see on the vehicle? That's where you want to start. Full inspection. If you have any questions about how to how to shake down a car, reach out to me. Hit us up on the socials. Happy to have that discussion with you. Maybe we'll make a video in the future, but shakedown the car. And again, what that means is, is anything loose? Anything. Not like it should be. What? You're checking. You're checking the bearings, suspension, steering, the brakes, anything that has that held together on the car gets touched, gets checked. If you've been planning upgrades I talked about this a little bit in item number one, but if you're planning upgrades, now is the time to do them again. Double check the rulebook to make sure these upgrades don't move you to a different class. But this off season, this growth season perfect opportunity to put that cold air intake on. Maybe do a different exhaust system. Maybe you want to do a tune. Bigger brakes. Now is the time to do that rather than between events the next season. So now we're going to move on to item number three safety gear, equipment and inventory. Safety should always be at the top of our list. When I'm talking about talking about your helmet your harness. If you have one seat, any window nets your fire bottle. This offseason is the time to check those items. Your nets, your seat, your harness, your helmet all have date codes. Are those date codes still valid for where you participate? I'll give you a great example. So we compete. Radio racing competes in the Champ Car series. You have to have current date coded, window nets and harnesses. Absolutely. Well, I also participate in SCCA events with my rx7. Well, guess what? I'm still required to have a window nap. Doesn't have to be a current date coded window net so I can run an outdated net. Make sure that you know what your sanctioning body requires or your track day organization requires before you show up. I've talked about it before. You don't want to be that person in tech holding things up, trying to negotiate a one event waiver for your out of date items. Plus, are they in good condition? Is your window net still good? Are your harnesses still good? Have they been, you know, drenched in the sun and starting to get a little bit weak? Is a seat still in good shape? You know, it's a padding where it needs to be. Is it still fit you properly? And, at the time of this recording, the SA 2025 helmets are now out. I just got mine from track first. Is your helmet still valid? Has it been dropped a couple times? Has it hit the roll bar? If you have one inside your car, inspect the helmet. Make sure it's ready to go. And, if it's not. Check out the Friends of Track first to, look at your new SA 2025 helmet equipment. Let's talk about that for a minute. So what I'm talking about is, you know, do you take Jack's a Jack, and Jack stands to events. Do you have a toolbox filled with tools? Do you bring any other equipment that you might need trackside? Is it in good operating condition? Did it give you any trouble? Have you lost anything? That ten millimeter socket. Where did it roll off to? Go through all of your tools and equipment that you normally use, not only at your shop or in your garage, but also what you use trackside to make sure that it's ready to go. It's not missing anything, and it's going to get you better prepared this off season. If you were constantly borrowing something at the track, now would be a time to make a list to buy that for your equipment. I talk about inventory, taking inventory. Quick story on this. I used to have a Triumph Spitfire, just a road car, and it required five brake fluid. Not sure why the previous owner switch to that five. Every spring I would go to the parts store and buy a bottle of five. Brake fluid, not cheap. Well, then I get home and realize oh yeah, that's right, I had some from last year. So you could argue that brake fluid, you know, you don't want to keep it at season over season. But I didn't take inventory. I didn't realize what I had. And I think about that all the time between races and in the off season. What do I have that I don't need to purchase? Maybe I just misplaced it, but then again, what am I missing and what I'm talking about? I'm talking about fluids, chemicals, perhaps it's motor oil. Any consumables that you use during the season, especially during your events. Are they fully stocked? Do you have enough to start the season with you don't want to wait till the night, week day before your event to realize, oh, I need zip ties. Let me see if I can throw a quick Amazon order for something like that. Now is the time to go through that. And then there's spares. So not everybody requires spares at the track or at the autocross event. But if you do bring spares with you, what does your spares box look like? Have you used up any of those items? Do they need to be replenished? Are they in good shape? Have you validated that they're good? I think it was Mike. Mike Pushkar from Carbo Tech brakes on his episode that once talked about getting a frantic call from a road racer who needed brake pads for that race weekend. Why that happened? Well, he had a carbon tech box inside his spares tote. Assumed they were new pads, pulled them out, and they were in fact a set of used pads. Not much better than what he was trying to replace on the car. So go through all your spares, make sure you understand what's in those boxes. If there's something missing or something you thought about during this past season. Now is the time to add it to the list of inventory. This next one. Number four. Probably the biggest one I can think of. And I've talked about it before. It's you. You the driver. This off season represents an opportunity to get you better prepared for the green flag next year. Here's what I'm talking about. Physical fitness, which leads to mental fitness. We've all competed. That's why you're listening to the show. Maybe you're just getting started. So this is applicable to you too. But we've all competed. We know the physical demands that come with being behind the wheel, whether it's a 62nd, 32nd autocross run or a two hour stint in an endurance car, you need to be physically fit. We're sitting around the holidays. Where, you know, there's parties, there's drinking. If you're into that, there's snacking, there's delicious cookies and desserts. Do you have a plan to make sure that you don't, you know, put on the winter weight? But also, do you have a plan to get in better shape? You know, do you have a gym membership? Are you going to get one? What can you do small every day just to do a little bit better? It doesn't have to be go in powerlifting. You can go and go for some outdoor walks, maybe jump on a bike if you have a time. If you enjoy running, whatever it is, whatever gets that cardio up for you a little bit, do that. But you also need to get some strength training. So that does is where some weights can come in. Things like push ups, set ups, working on your core. The reason physical fitness is so important in our sport is we have to be able to control this car, and we have to be able to do it for longer and higher demands and longer than you do. You would think when we have to overexert ourselves physically, we start to lose mental focus. That's where mistakes happen. So mistakes could be missing an apex, mistakes could be hitting somebody on track. We don't want any mistakes. So I can't say it enough how important physical fitness is for a clear mind, which leads to mental, mental fitness, but then also just being ready to take the demands of a racing event, racing weekend. If you have any questions, there's a couple great episodes. I talk about it before Trey Shannon, with Pit Fit, I think about that episode all the time. It's still extremely relevant. He shares some good nutrition items on there as well. And we also had some folks on from a company that's no longer around trilogy here in Cleveland, Ohio. They shared some some insights into physical fitness. Check those two out. And I guess the last thing I want to say about, you know, getting you ready mentally and physically is just start with something small. There's a lot of free resources on the web, things you can do. Maybe it's just ten minutes a day, but if you do that, that's a there's going to be a compounding effect. Day after day after day. And like I've said on some of these other topics, if you want to talk more about physical fitness and some of the things I do and some of the things I recommend, maybe even connect you up with some people, reach out. Happy to have that conversation. Love connecting with all of you, the listeners. So that was item number for you. The driver. Number five. This is the fun one. Karting and simulators. So if you're not behind the wheel during this off season, what can you do to stay mentally sharp. So let's first talk about things like iRacing. You don't need a fancy simulator or some simmering set up. And I'll tell you a quick story. I made a post on the late to grid socials this past weekend and I got a little shamed. Some people send me, some I am or some DMs and in some messages about. That's really your setup, man. We got to get you, get you upgraded a bit. Listen, it works for me. During Covid, there was an IndyCar driver. When they were doing some iRacing leagues, he showed a picture. It was of just a kitchen table with his setup right on there. So the point I'm trying to make is, although you got to have a good computer that can run iRacing or some of the other, simulation programs, it doesn't have to be fancy. Just start doing it. You'll grow into it. But here's what you need to do. You need to get started with it. If you're an SCCA member, get three months free came in your membership packet, so check that out. But just get started with it. You could do some practice events. There's hosted races and what it's going to do. It's going to allow you to stay not only mentally sharp, but you're going to start to learn the tracks that you're running at. If you're a road racer, a time traveler, and they're in the program you're using for simulation, it's going to help you get comfortable with apexes, braking points. It's more realistic than you think if you haven't done it. Plus, it's a lot of fun. I enjoy early morning, make a cup of coffee, head down to the basement, jump in there and, just run a bunch of laps. It doesn't have to be an hour. It can be just 20 minutes. So start with that. The other is, if you were lucky enough to have an indoor karting facility near you, check it out. If you haven't been there, you make a commitment once a month to go and just get some seat time. It's physical, so it's going to give you a little bit of a workout. Mentally. You're going to be back, you know, have the helmet on. You're going to you know, work on those reflexes. Stay sharp. It's absolutely fun. So just about every indoor karting facility I've been to there's restaurant, there's food, there's concessions, there's fun. Check it out. Go there. I've made a commitment to throw the helmet in my truck, back starting in December, because I have a lot of, drive time jump in between all of our stores in the, month of December. I'm going to find myself near two indoor karting facilities, potentially three. Hey, I'm going to jump in. I'm going to run a couple laps. Why not? Right. So, if you can use simulation like iRacing and, in karts also, I want to move on now to number six deep dive and learning through video. So I've done some episodes on data. I've talked about data bit. What are you doing with everything you capture? I know a lot of folks. They'll throw a GoPro in the car. Maybe they have an Aim device, perhaps they have a catalyst. Maybe you have an Apex Pro. I mean, I know I'm leaving out a bunch because there's other folks that just have, Harry's lap time or a track addict on their on their cell phone. No matter what your running at your events, go back and look at that data. So number one let's talk about video. Then we're going to do a data deep dive so to speak. Look at that video. Watch those laps. What can you learn from that. Also watch the laps of other people. Everyone loves sharing their laps on on YouTube. Go on, look at them. What are other people doing that are in similar cars? So if you're running a front wheel drive Honda, go and see what other front wheel drive folks are doing. We'll look at their laps. What kind of times are they running? Are they doing something the same as you or differently than you? And what can you learn from that? To maybe shave a couple of tenths off this next season? I recently talked to a driver. We were talking about wet weather events and he said, yep, I can't figure out the wet line to save my life. I know it's supposed to be different. I talk to people, but when I'm out there, I just have that muscle memory to stay in the same dry lane that I would normally run. Look for a wet weather video on YouTube. Ask the community you race with. Hey, who's got some video from the last wet event at Mid-Ohio, for example, or ver. Look at where they're running. Does that make sense for for your driving style? Does it look like they have a lot of grip? So let me just posted. Spec Racer Ford for Mid-Ohio was kind of wet. It was actually before the repave. And he had a camera facing out the back, and you could see he had grip through turn one very the other cars. Didn't you kind of see them dancing and, a little bit through there. So what did he do differently? Yeah, there could be a question. You ask that competitor with some folks. Even if you don't know him, you can reach out to them. They're going to answer your your email, your your DM, maybe even your phone call if you happen to have their phone number. But again, use use video to learn what to tell you a personal story on this. So November 3rd, 2025, the opportunity to do the second to last track day at Pitt race, it was the North Course only, which was the old Beaver Run. I have never run that configuration alone, just the North track, and I did so in a C5 Corvette. Never driven, C5 before, never drove something that much horsepower at pit race. But we installed my, carbon catalyst in that car, and, I looked at the data. I looked at the video when I got home. I didn't look at any video between sessions, and we had a lot of a lot of track time that day. Man, I wish I would have looked at it during the event and here's why. And I can't go back and do it because the track's not going to be there anymore. I was certainly late breaking into one, but there were some times I could have gone a little bit further. Also coming over the crest, to the backstretch, I realize I could have been in the throttle much more quickly. The data wasn't telling me that. I could tell that on the video. So look at video, especially off season. But also between events. And then let's talk about data. If you're running a data device, a data logger in your car, no matter how fancy or how simple, if you don't understand it, find somebody who does and hire them. It's not going to cost you a ton of money. It's going to cost you a couple dollars, but you're going to learn a lot that's going to help you get faster next season. So here's what I mean. Remote coaching is extremely popular in our sport right now. There are people that that understand a lot of different platforms, and there are some that specialize in a platform. So let's let's use the Garmin Catalyst, for example, find someone who's extremely proficient in the Garmin Garmin Catalyst. Send them your data, ask them what they need to see out of your catalyst, and listen to what they have to say. I share this story before we have a, ECU, a masters, standalone ECU, and one of the Dodge Neons for Champ Car. We get a ton of data out of that. And what Chris Ludwig said, and you can look for some of his previous episodes where he's talked about data here in the podcast. He said, you're not pushing the pedal down all the way. The throttle pedal. I could have sworn I was yes, I have, I have height issues, vertically challenged, some might say. Apparently I was not extending my foot all the way that I was, but the data showed otherwise. And before you say, well, maybe it's not calibrated correctly. No other driver's driving that car where 100% throttle where I was in the upper 90s. So you can learn a lot from data. The last thing I want to say about, video analysis and deep dive learning is find some resources online. There are great ones. Speed secrets. Ross Bentley's been a guest on the podcast. He has written some awesome books. Former IndyCar racer, awesome coach that travels the country helping people. He's not really doing the podcast. I don't think anymore a lot of videos. So you can go out and look at, historical podcasts on that, a lot of information on YouTube, a lot of information on his website. He does some coaching sessions paid. There are some free recorded ones you can listen to go out and check check that out. But there's a lot of other resources too. That was six. Let's move on to the seventh tip. And this might apply to you. It might not. But it's getting your business and your sponsorship stuff in place. So here's why I mean business. You don't have to own a business. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the business of your racing. Is this something where you are entertaining sponsorships, where maybe you have a couple sponsorships, maybe some folks are giving you discounted products. That's the probably the most popular form of sponsorship we have in our industry is bigger, bigger than normal discounts. So what does that look like for you coming off of the season and heading into the new season? Have you done your follow ups with the people that have given you deep discounts? Have you, are you rewriting your proposals for, you know, the next season? Are other people you want to reach out to? At this event, at pre-race, I mentioned there was some talk about some folks that have opened up some pretty neat sponsorship opportunities to help them get into the next season. They're not promising big TV deals. They're not promising, you know, super exposure. But what they are is if we can work together this other conversation went between the driver and the sponsor. If you can help me with these parts, I need to build this. This car will compete at this level. You'll be able to use that to help sell more of these parts. Sounds pretty simple. The thing is, the driver that's having these conversations can absolutely deliver that. He can deliver the results. He can deliver the build, he can deliver the value. So if you're thinking about going after sponsorships, you have to be able to do those three things I just mentioned. While I'm thinking about it, head over to Atomic sponsorships, dot com, atomic sponsorships, dot com sign up. We've got some stuff coming out very soon that's going to help you. If you want to track down some sponsors and help get your money paid for or your. I'm sorry, you're racing, paid for, but think about it. If there's any partnerships that, that you want to create in the coming season that help you pay for that. And if you did have any this past season, it's an awesome reminder to follow up with those folks and say thank you. And some folks that really need to be thanked are the people that support you, not financially. That buddy that comes over and helps on the weekends, maybe drinks a little bit of your beer in the fridge. But he also make sure that your breaks are blessed and helps you with the heavy work. Thank them. Thank your family that you're allowed to head off for the weekend and go do what you enjoy being at the track. Thank those that helped you along your motorsports journey. Remind them that whatever they said, whatever they did, got you to where you are now. So all right, let's those are the seven tips. Let's review them again really quickly. Your planning and your scheduling, your car, your safety gear. Number four was the driver upgrades. That's you. Number five karting and simulators staying sharp. Number six deep dive video analysis. There's a reason you have those data loggers in your car. Use them. And then number seven the business and partnership preparation. One thing I didn't talk about with that is networking. Who do you want to meet? It's going to help you along your motorsports journey. Maybe it's, somebody that you compete against. Maybe it's, somebody that works at a company where you have a lot of questions about their products and how you can help your car make it a point to talk to one person a month. It's going to help you, get a little bit better, a little bit faster. And that's that's what this podcast is all about. Make this offseason an intentional period of growth, focus, discipline. That's what's going to get you ready for the green flag this next season. I hope what I shared helps. And if you want to learn anymore, search for previous episodes later. Grid podcast wherever you are listening to this. Just type in later grid and whatever topic you want to hear about and episodes are going to pop up. You can also head over to Atomic Auto Sports.com. We have blogs out that cover a lot of great information about getting ready for the track, getting your car ready, all kinds of great information there. Plus you can contact us. So if you have a question about anything about your car, maybe even getting you ready for track events, hit us up. We'd love to have a conversation with you. And lastly, if you follow these seven tips, you won't be late to grid next season.