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The Protectors® Podcast
Welcome to The Protectors® Podcast, where the valor meets the storyteller. Hosted by Jason Piccolo, a seasoned veteran and retired special agent, this series is a must-listen for anyone intrigued by the courage and tales of those who pledge to protect us. Beyond the front-line stories of bravery and dedication, this podcast goes a step further, weaving in the perspectives of those who bolster and narrate the protector's journey—featuring a remarkable lineup including New York Times Best Sellers and acclaimed Hollywood actors.
The Protectors® Podcast offers a diverse array of voices, from those who wear the uniform to the authors and entertainers who amplify their stories. It's a unique blend that highlights not only the raw realities faced by our protectors but also how their sacrifices inspire the narratives we cherish in literature and film. Each episode is a testament to the interconnected worlds of service and support, bringing listeners an unmatched depth of insight.
Dr. Jason Piccolo is a retired federal agent, former U.S. Army Infantry Captain (Iraq 2006), and author.
Past Guests Include:- Sean Patrick Flanery - Andrews & Wilson- Mark Greaney- Stephen Hunter- Remi Adeleke - Florent Groberg - Clint Emerson - Travis Mills
The Protectors® Podcast
509 | Daryl Hornbeck | U.S. Army (ret) EOD | After Action Racing
Daryl Hornbeck, a retired U.S. Army EOD 1SG, reveals the profound impact motorsport can have on veterans transitioning from military to civilian life. Daryl, a fellow veteran and leader of the After Action Racing Team, shares his evolving philosophy on training drivers. The nonprofit transformation of After Action Racing into a 501c19 organization has paved the way for bigger support networks, emphasizing teamwork, leadership, and problem-solving. It's more than just racing; it's about building a support system that lifts veterans, fostering a nurturing environment where they can thrive.
Make sure to check out Jason on IG @drjasonpiccolo
Whoa, it's been three years. Welcome back to the protectors. Daryl Hornbeck, my good friend from Iraq 2006. Holy crap, dude, it's almost been 20 years. I know you don't look like you've aged at all. Holy crap, dude, it's almost been 20 years I know you don't look like you've aged at all. I have A lot we both have. We both have gray.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it's all gray Lots of gray.
Speaker 1:Hey, welcome back to the show man. A lot to talk about today, a lot to unpack, as people like to say. The After Action Racing Team has changed so much since the first time I went out there. What was that?
Speaker 2:2019, 2020 uh, it might even have been 2021. Um, yeah, we've transitioned and I think last time I was on your show, I I remember making the statement that I like putting new drivers in a in a faster car, because I, you know, then they're not you not driving a slow car, slow and in the very back of the pack. And I've totally transitioned now started actually racing little four-cylinder front-wheel drive cars and we're just having a blast at it. And I've kind of changed my view on that and I kind of prefer teaching people in an underpowered car now and and forcing them to have to carry more speed into the turns. Uh, just then, when you transition into the faster car, you're just, you're that much faster, you don't pick up the bad habits. So, yeah, we've drastically changed. Um, and, as you know, we've actually are a 501c19 nonprofit now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the nonprofit thing is great it is. I mean, it can bring so much more to the team than I mean, cause most of this stuff's like coming out of people's pockets. A lot of it came out of your pockets. A lot of it came out of, like your, your, your retirement fund, which is, like you know, being you retired as a first sergeant, right, correct, yeah, oh my gosh. And now here we are.
Speaker 2:I know you used to be a Captain Piccolo.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Many, many moons ago. Yeah, you know, brother. The one thing about the racing is I always try to explain to people. It's not circle racing, it's like endurance racing. It's. It's different. You like, you really have to be laser focused for however many hours you're behind the wheel. How do you describe the type of racing that you guys are doing?
Speaker 2:well, I mean, it's, it's endurance, road course racing, and I'll tell people that and they'll come back and say, oh, is that, uh, so asphalt circle racing? I'm like, no, there's left and right hand turns. Uh, it's road course, but you're not on public roads. Um, it's very similar to like if you watched ford versus ferrari. That style of track obviously not, you know cars that are that high end, but it's, it's budget endurance racing. So you go on these tracks. There's left and right hand turns, typically two to three miles for a lap.
Speaker 2:Uh, one of our tracks is a five mile course and it's insane. Um, but we're taking a street car, gutting it out, putting a roll cage in it and, uh, you know, doing some, some modifications as far as coilovers and things like that. But, but you're getting in, effectively, a 2004 ford focus, uh, with 175 horsepower, and you're going out there and driving it as fast as you can around the track for a couple hours. And it's a team event, since it's endurance racing. It could be anywhere from a seven to a 24-hour race, but most of our races are.
Speaker 2:You know, saturday will be a seven-hour race, sunday will be an eight-hour race. You'll have four drivers per car and you swap drivers and refuel the car every two hours, but the car itself stays on the track the whole time, so it's a team format, which I think is perfect for getting veterans in the car. I feel like one of the things I was missing when I got out of the military was I wasn't a part of the team anymore, and so this brings that team aspect back into it. Even when you're not the one driving the car, that's your team's car and you're helping with the pits and you know you're either just got out of it or you're waiting for your turn to get in, and there's camaraderie with your teammates that I feel like is missing out of everyday civilian life, and I think that's one of the things that makes it hard to transition from military to civilian life.
Speaker 1:When you bring up that there's a lot that goes behind just getting behind the wheel. It's the preparation, it's the planning and it's who's going to be the lead of the team, who's going to be taking the next spot, who's doing this and that, who's going to be refilling, who's going to be the fire safety, who's this and that. So it brings you into this team dynamic. I was lucky enough to come out there. I miss it this year based on all sorts of personal obligations. But it really is life-changing to get behind that wheel and to me, I came out there two or three times and I was fortunate enough to bring my son out there one time. But it really is a life-changing experience and to get these veterans behind the wheel, even once they could see that there's.
Speaker 1:You know you're, you're behind that wheel for two hours and all you care about is your mirrors, who's on your left and right and behind you and you're just racing and you're going at the seat of your pants, you're going around those corners, you're hitting apexes and this and that in a straightaway and you're saying 170, 180 horsepower. But you're the real deal, man, this is like real racing, like there are cars next to your bumper in front of your side all around, so you have to be completely in that moment. So when you're in that moment, the world is somewhere else and you know, we know you know as being the real bona fide combat veteran, and a lot of the guys that you've worked that come on a team. They need that outlet, they need somewhere where they could be like, huh, there is more to life than just the trauma or there's more to life than just the everyday stressors. They need that. What do you call it? The wheel-to-wheel therapy?
Speaker 2:Wheel-to-wheel therapy yeah stressors or they need that, that, what?
Speaker 1:do you call it the wheel?
Speaker 2:to wheel Wheel, to wheel therapy? Yeah, yeah, man, yeah, and uh, I noticed, you know I would get back from a deployment and we'd fill out little questionnaires on what you saw while you were over there. And it was always were you close to somebody who died, did you witness somebody dying? And you know, if you answered yes to a certain number of those questions, they would send you to behavioral health and you would sit down and you would talk to a therapist. You know and you don't. You know, you don't know if this person ever served, like, if, if you start throwing acronyms at them, are they even going to understand, do they even care? You know that those questions and and I always felt like I'd be sitting there talking to this person and they'd be scribbling on their notes and I just I didn't feel a connection with that person, so I didn't really feel like opening up to that person.
Speaker 2:And then I ended up right before I retired, they recommended I go through an intensive outpatient program and it was a more of a group therapy and it was led by a green suitor. You know somebody in the military, um, who had a degree in, uh, psychology and really cool guy, a captain, but he just let the group do it. You know, and and we all, you know, course kind of started off you know, a little bit of ego measuring. See, I used ego measuring, that's a little more PC.
Speaker 2:But what we ended up finding out was we best any sort of behavioral health that I got while I was in the military, because it was veterans helping veterans. We were helping each other. And one of the things I've noticed in a lot of these programs for trying to help veterans after they get out, it's not veterans helping veterans, you know it's, it's people and it. I mean nothing against it, you know it's they're doing it through kindness, as far as I can tell. But I always miss that connection. So you know, and I, and also I, I don't feel like going on a weekend retreat somewhere and sitting in a circle and talking about the worst things that have happened in my life.
Speaker 2:You know, when I got into racing and I started bringing veterans into race with me, what I noticed was we weren't, we weren't focusing on the worst parts of our life.
Speaker 2:We all we made the connection as we're, we're all veterans, we've, you know, all seen some stuff together and uh, but now we're here to race. So, instead of focusing on all the negative things in your life, we're coming together, we're working as a team, we're being positive. You know the car breaks, let's fix it. You know it's not the end of the world and we come together, we problem solve, we get the car back out on track and we take the checkered flag as a team and you start forming the bond with these people and you realize you know after you got done with a race weekend that that was insanely good therapy. I mean, I feel just better as a person after spending that weekend with those guys and getting that car across the finish line and lately, uh, being on the podium and bringing home trophies as well has been, it's been great. You know this is, this is therapy, probably more for me than it has been for anyone else.
Speaker 1:It's the teamwork man and it's the leadership aspect of it, because it's not only teamwork. You know a lot of people who have served. They miss being in some sort of leadership position or being able to just work as a team, a team man, a team and, like you said, getting that car across the finish line. If anybody follows your social media, there's always something going wrong with the cars man and being able to make a decision to fix it. But you're not only, and one thing I've noticed is you're not only working with your team. The racing community steps up too. So if you need part A, they're putting out like a text message. So let's get into the point of, like you're introducing veterans to the civilian community, civilian community seeing the veterans. So it's like there isn't disconnect anymore. You're seeing them as humans, like they're seeing you as a human.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's. You know, some of my best friends now are, you know, people that I've been racing with now for, I think, seven. I think we're finishing our seventh season that I've been racing fourth season since I started after action racing but this Lucky Dog Race League that we, you know, 99% of our racing is Lucky Dog races and Kathy and Greg Fuss, the series owners I could not have done this team without them. You know. I mean their contributions to the team have been vital. But in general, the rest of the Lucky Dog community is just amazing.
Speaker 2:You know, I mean there could be a team that you're competing against and you need a part, and they know that when they give you that part, their chances of winning go down. But they want you out there on the track. You know it's not a. We don't want other cars to break and not finish Like I would rather win with the other team being out there and it being a close race, you know, and if we come in second or third or fourth, you know we'll come back, we'll fix the cars, we'll improve on them and we'll go back out and try to win the next race. You know everybody has a very positive attitude. That way, there's not a. It's not this grudge racing where people are closing off their pits and there's all these secrets and you know, don't look in here, we don't want you to see what we're doing. Everybody's just so friendly.
Speaker 1:I like that aspect. You walk around and you're like huh, what's going on over here? It's take pictures me.
Speaker 2:I love going around taking pictures of all the cars and seeing all different people and stuff like that. It's. It's really cool experience. Man, yeah, yeah, and it's uh, you can ask somebody about their car and they'll just bring in and show you and they'll be like we started doing this with our springs and it dropped a full second off of our lap times and you know, nobody's hiding anything, you know it's. It's a very positive atmosphere now you.
Speaker 1:You came from a racing background, that right, your dad was a racer my dad's been a racer for a long time.
Speaker 2:Uh, I've been a car guy, I mean my whole life, you know I was. I. I built my first car. It was a jeep, you know. I built the engine in it and, you know, wrecked it and built another car. So I've always been a car guy.
Speaker 2:And my dad, you know, he started off in go-karts and moved up to legend cars and then started doing road course in the legend cars and realized, you know, road course is just the attention you have to have in road course. You know, with doing left hand, right hand turns, it's nothing like circle track. I've driven a car on a circle track before and to me it just was kind of, it was OK, but it wasn't that that riveting, wasn't that that riveting? Uh, the first time I drove a car around a road course track, I dropped every other hobby I had in my life and I said this is my hobby now, like I don't have room for anything else. So, uh, it's just the, the amount of of focus it takes, um, and the fact that you, you never, you can never perfect it. You know, it's like you're playing golf the better you get, the harder improvements come.
Speaker 2:And it's the same way with driving race cars on the road course track. You know you'll go out there and let's say you're at the ridge and your fastest lap the first time there is like two minutes and 20 seconds. Well, for you to get to two minutes and 20 seconds, down to two minutes and five seconds, that happens really quick. But for you to get from two minutes to five seconds to two flat, that's a much harder gain to have there. So as you get better, your improvements are smaller. You know, and we do video. We have SmartyCams in the car so we can go back and we have all the video and you can compare yourself to the other drivers. You can see what your speed is, you can see your predicted lap time the whole way around the track and it's a good learning tool, which is another thing that I did want to kind of go into about the team. If you're ready for that, yeah, let's do it out the team.
Speaker 2:If you're ready for that, yeah, let's do it. So, uh, when I started looking into doing a non-profit, um, one of the first things we had to ask ourselves was how are we different from the non-profit race teams there already are? Because there are some other teams that are for putting veterans in race cars and you have to differentiate differentiate what you're doing versus what the already approved non-profits are, because if you can't and you're just doing the same thing, you don't really need separate non-profits for it. So the thing that that we are focused on is not just being an experience. You know, you come to the track, we throw you in a race car. You get to drive some laps. Come out, hey, you drove a race car. How was it? You know?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Um, we want to develop the drivers, so we're we're trying to establish a tiered driver development system where you're going to show up and you're going to get some practice experience on the track and then we're actually going to sit down and go over your driving videos with the track map and we're going to do comparisons of you know, uh, an experienced driver's clean lap versus the laps that you're running right now and we're going to go over, like corner entry, speeds, braking, trail braking, threshold braking, what all those mean, and we're going to try to train drivers to become better drivers. You know, and my, my ultimate goal is we can take a veteran who's never been in a race car. We can take a veteran who's never been in a race car and, you know, within a couple of years of development with that person, they can be a licensed in SCCA, licensed in NASA, and if they want to move on and start doing, you know, driving in other organizations, they can do that. You know they're a bona fide race car driver and that's what the ultimate goal is.
Speaker 1:Competition is huge. It is If you can get someone into the competitive world, man. It's like it's not just that, having that joyful two hour run. It's like, hey, you know what I can make myself better. Maybe I could latch onto another team, here and there I could be a force I hate that word, force multiplier to another team, but you know what I mean. Like you become part of something else. And it's not just that hey, you know what? Here's a joy ride. It's like, hey, you know what? I'm really learning how to race.
Speaker 2:Well, and on top of that, you know you spend your first race. You're I call it driving your mirrors. You know you're so worried about not being a rolling chicane out there, just a speed bump and slowing the other cars on the track down. So so you're constantly driving, you're constantly watching your mirrors, you're as people get up, you're wanting to give them point by so that you're not screwing up the leaders of the race and all that.
Speaker 2:And you really spend your entire first time racing, not enjoying your racing as much as you eventually will, because as you become a better driver, you're not glued to your mirrors as much. I mean, you'll pick up motion in your mirrors, you'll know when the cars are coming up on you, but you're much more focused on what's ahead of you. You're focused on your driving and when you get to that point, the racing is much more enjoyable. And and you've probably noticed it because you've raced with me a few times you know your first time on the track it was cool, but you were probably a little overwhelmed by the fact that there were 60 cars on track. And then, as you have done it a couple of, as you get out there, your lap times start getting faster, there's less cars coming up behind you, you know, and you're able to get more involved in the racing and passing other cars and and the fun part of racing I love the fact that you guys are podiuming them now, like back in the day.
Speaker 1:It was just like, hey, you know what, maybe the car will end, maybe we'll make it the whole race without something blowing up. I like this aspect of not putting a veteran in the fastest car to see how they handle it well putting in a car that they can handle, but that they could push as hard as they can yeah, we've transitioned from rear wheel drive to front wheel drive.
Speaker 2:Um, which kind of happened by accident. I was visiting another racer. I just happened to be driving through Yakima, and I messaged my friend, dan Layton, and I stopped by and visited him and he asked me if I knew anybody that wanted this old Lemons car that he had behind his garage. And I went out there and I looked at it. It and it's just 1998 ford escort zx2 painted up in the um buzz lightyear theme. And I asked you know he said he wanted to try to get 1500 bucks out of it and it was already caged and you know, I think it had been parked there for a few years. And I asked him what it would take to get the car running and he fired the thing up, it started and ran and that's 1500 bucks.
Speaker 2:So I bought the car. I put minimal work into it. I didn't want to waste a bunch of money on a car that was just you take it out on track and it's just a turd, no fun to drive. So I put some tires, some brakes, changed all the fluids and we took it to the track to test it out and we had an absolute blast. We were the slowest car, on the straightaways at least, but the car handled really well, you know, and I had so much fun driving it because these cars would blow by me on the straightaway and we'd head into the turn and I would be so much faster in the turn that I was passing these cars back in the turn. Now, of course, as soon as we came out of the corner they would walk away and leave me again. But I had the most fun driving that car at that point and I had been in some really fast cars and driving this super slow S-Cord around the track. I just had an absolute ball.
Speaker 2:So I brought the car back and decided, okay, I'm going to put some work into this you know, electric power, steering and, uh, coil overs and making sure the brakes were better and getting the suspension set up better. And, uh, the car ended up. Just you know, I, I show up to the track and I've got an LS swap Mustang with, you know, 340 horsepower at the wheels and I've got this beater Ford Escort and everybody wanted to drive the Escort, nobody wanted to drive the Mustang. I was blown away, and so I ended up eventually picking up a Ford Focus to use the parts out of it for the Escort and the Ford Escort itself. The body was really clean on it.
Speaker 2:So I made a decision in the off season and at the beginning of this year that we were going to go ahead and turn that Ford Focus into a race car. And so I started building the car in February. We brought the car to its first race in April, went through all the new car gremlins at that race in April, uh, got it sorted out and then turn around and immediately took it to a 24 hour race in May and we won our class by 50 laps. Wow, you know, the car just stayed on track and was awesome, you know. And since then, you know, we went and raced Portland. We finished first in class both days and then this last race at the Ridge. We didn't podium Saturday, we ran into a couple little gremlins but got the car fixed up and podiumed Sunday. So we have finished in first place in class in four out of our last five races how does a 24-hour race work?
Speaker 1:is it like 12 and 12, or is it? I mean?
Speaker 2:it's straight through it started at uh, it was 10 am and this was not a lucky dog race. This was through, uh, some guys that we know from lucky dog, uh, like advanced auto fab out of spokane, uh, and, and we did it at the spokane raceway, which is now the uh, callis b raceway, the, the callis bell indian tribe now owns it, and uh, it was, I mean, the most grassroots race I've done yet, because we showed up, there weren't a lot of cars, car count was kind of low. But you know, basically, hank and Tom, they both said hey, everybody here's got racing experience, right. We said yeah, I said Okay, so you don't need us to go over the flags, right? We're like no, all right. Well, you guys know.
Speaker 2:So the rule was in that, you know, there wasn't a, there wasn't a classing by what your car speed is. The classing was by how much fuel you were allowed to use in the restarts or in your pit stops, and so there's a 10, a 15 and a 20 gallon class and we entered the 10 gallon class and your driver's tank can be as long as you want it, you know, as you can go on fuel. So you know, for us it's like an hour and 40 minutes on 10 gallons. But yeah, the car did amazing. We ended up finishing third overall. We had two 15-gallon cars that finished ahead of this. I don't think a single 20-gallon car finished the race, but it's 24 hours straight of just nonstop racing and it is a true test of a car, of an endurance car, if it can make it through that race.
Speaker 1:I think it's the team too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we got lucky. I've got a friend, a young guy, who comes and hangs out with us sometimes at the track and he came with us to that race and he did every pit stop that entire 24 hours.
Speaker 1:He put every drop of gas in the car awesome and that freed up our drivers to actually get some naps and things like that between their driving stints well, that's the other aspect that the military people don't understand, and I hate when people say that word embrace a suck, but it's like when you're in a shitty situation or a sucky like just that that, that feeling that tired, exhausted, but then it's like you look at each other and go this is awesome, man, oh yeah, that's that feeling, that's the feeling you want to get back.
Speaker 2:You know that was the feeling that we're having 24 hour race. You know it started at 10 AM. So you know I forgot what. When sun up was. It was probably 5, 30, 6, 6 am that the sun was coming up and and everybody kind of roused from their slumber and everything. And I was actually in the car, uh, for the sun up stint, and uh, when everybody kind of woke up, everybody had their things to do. We do the pit stop. We had to do a brake pad change during that pit and we all kind of started or stood around in the circle when the car went back out on the track and it was like, wow, this is, this is pretty cool. We're, all you know, pretty exhausted but like, holy crap, we're, you know, 20 hours into a 24 hour race and and winning our class, and this is pretty cool.
Speaker 1:And then trying to keep the car going for that last few hours. You're like, please, please, god, make it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's you know you, you have to go into a race like that Understanding that you know the car needs to make it 24 hours so you're not driving the car at 10 tents the whole time, cause you know cars don't last when you're driving them that hard. So you have, you have to take it a little easier in the brake zones, keep your RPMs a little bit lower overall, watch your temp gauge a lot more. You, you know, become a little less important with a race that long, because you know that saying of to finish first, first you must finish uh, really applies.
Speaker 2:You know you've got to take care of the car the other thing we had in that was we were only allowed to bring two sets of tires. Huh, and you're only allowed to change one tire per pit stop.
Speaker 1:You weren't allowed to change two tires in the same pit, which was a pretty interesting, you know rule to throw in there yeah, but you mix it up more and it adds a pressure to it, and then pressure is like that's where the fun comes in. Man, you can't just have like an easy race no, and there's a lot of fun in strategizing.
Speaker 2:You know, when we do a, when we do an eight hour race, uh, everything's you kind of fun in strategizing. When we do an eight-hour race, you kind of have to follow the format. You've got an eight-hour race, two-hour max driving stint. Every two hours you're doing a pit stop. Well, when you have a seven-hour race and a two-hour max driving stint, now you've got some strategy that goes into it of when you have the pits and we have you know the pit window is going to open at this time, so we're going to try and catch a full course caution when we do our pit stop. And that, to me, it makes it a lot more fun because you you get a different teams try different strategies and you know we ended up up this last race when we finished in first place.
Speaker 2:On Sunday, I think, when I got into the car to run the last stint, we had a three-lap lead going into the fourth stint because we had capitalized on pit strategy. We weren't running faster laps than the other teams. We just our strategy worked out well. Well, that's the thing. It's more, too, than the other teams. We just our strategy worked out well.
Speaker 1:Well, that's the thing. It's more, too, than just running fast. It's way more than just running fast. Now you have the nonprofit now, and how do people help out the nonprofit?
Speaker 2:Well, at our website, you know, afteractionracingcom there's a banner across the top that says donate and if you click that, we have a donation page we're using. We've switched. We started off using a different donations manager, but now we're using a. Givebutter is our portal and you can make a donation with a check. You can use PayPal, venmo, credit card and you automatically get your tax form emailed to you as soon as you make the donation and then, if people don't feel comfortable using that, if they want to send us a check, that's you know, and we can get the tax form to you. That's acceptable as well.
Speaker 2:We haven't started doing a huge push yet. I'll probably wait. Probably next month we'll probably start doing a fundraising drive because we're going to try and take our cars to Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, alabama Hell yeah, for a race in December, a race in December, and the way we're going to do that is English Racing is going to be. They've got a semi that can haul, I think, eight race cars and it's going to cost about $3,000 a car to get them transported and they're going to take all of our fuel jugs, our tools, our spare parts, all that included in that price, and we're going to try to to go to alabama for an endurance race uh, I have a trip in my future yeah, you want to come race, hell yeah.
Speaker 2:So, uh, well, and you know john um ryle, so he bought a mustang and uh couldn't find a shop that wanted to finish off his roll cage and things like that, so he shipped the car here to my house and I finished building his roll cage and everything and we're getting his car prep for that race and uh, so we're going to have the car transported there. John and his dad are going to travel down from Virginia and they're going to haul the car home after the race. So, uh, john gets to drive his own car at the racetrack there and we're going to bring the focus as well.
Speaker 2:We got to try, we got to try for a podium, at least you know.
Speaker 1:Oh, of course. Okay, this is going to be a tough question, man, you're uh, you're damn near what. How old are you now? 50, 49, 40. Damn near what. How old?
Speaker 2:are you now?
Speaker 1:50? 49., 49. You're close to 50. 60? What was that? You know? Just kidding. So you've been driving for a long time now.
Speaker 2:What is your favorite car?
Speaker 1:Favorite car that I've raced, just your favorite car in general. We'll get to the racing thing in a minute.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, I have so many different likes and, uh, I like different cars for different reasons and you know different moods and different driving styles. If, uh, if, I was filthy rich I would, the first car that I would buy would probably be a porsche gt3 rs. Um, just because I've seen them on track and I've watched them and I've looked the cars over, my friend Adam has a really nice one that he absolutely flogs on the track and they just look, I mean, that car is built for that. You're not taking a Ford Escort or a Ford Mustang, a car that's meant for driving on the street. I mean you're getting in a car that's purpose-built for that, you know, and it just it looks so great.
Speaker 1:You know that brings up a good point how much does it cost to field a car? So you get the Ford Escort $1, 1500 bucks. But how much does it cost to actually get that car up and running?
Speaker 2:so up and running isn't that bad, I mean to podium, the podium that car uh, that car I probably only have.
Speaker 2:I probably have about 5 000 in that car now. Um, I've got about 14,000 in the focus, which you know part of it. I had a plan when I started building the focus I wanted to take this 2.5 Duratec engine out of a. I got it out of a 2018 Ford escape bone stock long block. The only performance thing on it really is a header, but they don't have a factory computer. You can just slap on that car and have it work with a manual transmission. So I ended up putting quite a bit of money into Haltech control system to manage all that with the electronic dash, all that stuff. Electronic dash, all that stuff. So, yeah, I probably have about 14,000 into getting the focus on the track. Um, which is a little bit higher, you know, I mean, I, I could, I could, probably, I think I could build a a race ready, podium capable C-class car for a little under $10,000.
Speaker 1:what is a typical weekend cost to get a veteran team out there?
Speaker 2:about 2500 a car, and so that 2500 is good for four veterans, so yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1:That's where I was going with. This is like it. It's not cheap to it's not like you just show up and throw some 87-octane gas in there and go. This is like the fuel of the tire.
Speaker 2:So bringing two cars to the track every race, I figure, you know, with the gas, with the fuel to transport the cars there, the tires, the brake pads, the brake rotors, you know you have a lot of expendable shit. Uh, you know, your uh safety harnesses expire every couple years. Your fire system you know 500 fire system that's in each car expires every couple years. You know it's. It comes out to probably about $2,500 a car per race. You figure six to eight races a year. So for two cars, $5,000. So you're looking at about $30,000 a year, and that's a very conservative outlook, that's if you're not breaking transmissions.
Speaker 2:nobody crashes the cars. I don't think you've crashed one of my cars.
Speaker 1:I'm knocking on wood, knocking on wood, there we go, not yet, not yet. It happens it does it happens, man? The first race I was there was that pouring rain one and someone crashed a car.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's right. Yeah, the green Mustang got it got wadded up pretty good. I cut the whole nose off of it, tubed it out, had it back at the next race five weeks later. I think, yeah, so yeah, and I do miss that car. Finally it got wadded up again, put into the wall at Portland and I had to retire the chassis on it. Put into the wall at Portland and I had to retire the chassis on it. But yeah, that that was kind of the. It was the second car, that that my dad and I were racing and that became kind of the flagship car of AAR when when I started the veteran team. So I do miss it, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, it's time to race again, brother, and I'm hoping December comes around, I can make a trip out to Alabama.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would love to have you Anytime. We got one race In between. Then we are going to Thunder Hill, california. Thunder Hill Raceway in Willows, california. It's a five mile track. It's utterly insane. It's a very tough track. There's a lot of really high speed corners. Which is probably the hardest thing to teach new drivers is high speed corners to just get them to keep their speed up through there, cause you know and you know this the first time you get out there on track it takes you a while to understand just how much grip those cars have. You know, you do not think a car should be able to take a corner as fast as it actually will, but they stick pretty well. So, yeah, we're really looking forward to Thunder Hill. We're qualified for the championship, so if we can win our class at Thunder Hill, we will win the 2024 Class C champion in the Focus.
Speaker 1:Well, brother, I appreciate you coming on the show. I'm looking forward to racing with you and you know, and everybody you can support. After action racing it's. It's such a great idea. It's a. It's not even an idea anymore, it's a reality, because the idea of the non-profit's been around for a while, but now it's a bona fide one.
Speaker 2:So it's taken. It's taken four years. Uh, last year I got a couple new people on the team Nathaniel, who's running all of our IT stuff he's the one that's doing the website and then Justin and Ellie have been crucial. Ellie did all the paperwork for getting it submitted and kind of keeps me out of trouble because I have huge ideas that aren't all practical. Kind of keeps me out of trouble because I have huge ideas that aren't all practical. So I'm really thankful that she kind of keeps me grounded and making sure I do the right thing. But yeah, we've come a long way and I really have to thank you know people like you. You've you've helped me quite a bit. Jason. You've made us some promotional videos. You helped us out with a swag store, all that.
Speaker 1:If I could only do more, if I was only rich.
Speaker 2:Just a matter of time, right yeah?
Speaker 1:Well, you know, just so people know, daryl was a retired US Army First Sergeant, EOD. Decades of service to the country and I do appreciate your service man. I do appreciate you so much.
Speaker 2:I appreciate you as well, Jason. We've been friends since 2006.
Speaker 1:Yeah, six months We've been in. Iraq together it's been a long time. It's been a long time, brother, I was going to say, since you had hair. But yeah, you've never had hair.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:I was bald then.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I still have these beautiful locks my friend, I know there's a lot more silver in them now, though there is, there is as if I can talk.
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