Mike Leeder is your 2019 D Street national champion. He piloted his 2019 Honda Civic Type R to the victory by over two and a half seconds.

Since then he sold the civic and now has a Camaro. That sounds like a big change but he had a Camaro before the civic.

You will learn that he doesn't use data and much more about his magical year.

www.AutorcrossTalk.com

The post Mike Leeder is your 2019 D Street Autocross national champion first appeared on Autocross Talk Podcast with Kinch Reindl.

Craig Wilcox is this episodes featured autocrosser.

Craig has 5 SCCA Solo Championships
2006 G-Stock
2008 G-Stock
2010 BSP
2016 STX
2019 SMF
6 ProSolo Championships and he said "Six painful 2nd place finishes for Solo Nationals".

On the first take we forgot about the crazy story of his Mini being stolen right before Nationals so we had another call to record that story.

Craig is one of the drivers with success in FWD and AWD. And unlike many he has gone back to FWD with a very fast SMF honda.

We cover all the typical questions relating to autocross including:
The metal side
What he actually does physically: looking ahead, walking courses to find the key elements
Tuning vs. Driving
Slower when overthinking
Tight line in the rain

He also talks about co-driving and the advantages of it.

The post Craig Wilcox Multi Time National Champion talks Autocross first appeared on Autocross Talk Podcast with Kinch Reindl.

Alex Piehl is on Autocross Talk.
He did it right for his 10 year anniversary with the SCCA H Street Pro Solo class championship, STH SCCA SOLO National Championship as well as a Triad award.

In a normal year he makes 50 to 60 autocross events a year.

He brings 6 Sigma thoughts to autocross. For example, he thinks about waste and likes to measure and analyze. He will often walk a course backwards.

I really like his comment "Use an excuse to improve".

For Nerves - or rather to get rid of them he focuses on what he has to do. I phrased this as "Focus on the plan".

He has thoughts about how playing in a touring band relates to autocross.

He suggests driving in the wet on the wrong tires and loved the Evo Challenge School.

He recommends Vivek's course Beyond Seat Time

Listen for these comments as well as other autocross tips and suggestions to improve your autocross racing.

His question is would your rather do a dual course ProSolo where one side is 35 seconds long but the other is 15 seconds (Possible Peru ProSolo for 2020) or 3 stale Chicken Nuggets from your favorite fast food restaurant?

He created Pittsburgh Autocross to list all the autocross events happening in and around the area (there are a lot and he needed to know where they all were so as he could make 50+ of them each year

The post Alex Piehl won the STH National Championship and HStreet ProSolo Championship first appeared on Autocross Talk Podcast with Kinch Reindl.

David Marcus has is the first Solo Nationals champion to win in an all electric car.

David shares his autocross tips and thoughts on this podcast.

He won both the BStreet Solo Nationals and Pro Solo class in a Tesla Model 3.

He also won the STX SCCA Solo National championship in STX.

He started his auto addiction with a Richard Petty Driving Day. Then he tried autocross and track days before dedicateing himself to autocross.

He explains how codriving with Darrin DiSimo helped to learn to get on the gas sooner by looking at Data and Video.

Fingers crossed that we will be driving his nationals course in 2020.

He talks about how he sees slaloms as muscle memory, exits are the most important thing to setup for, you can't fix going to fast into an element and position is more important than speed.

He also talks about the metal game of calming down.

A point I've not thought of much is how he looks for places where he under drove.

He mentions Vivek Goel's course being helpful as well as Andy Hollis's top ten tips to autocross.

He also watched videos of everyone who beat him.

And his question to the audience is what is your favorite element?

Thanks for the emails and comments!

The post David Marcus multiple time SCCA Solo National Autocross Champion first appeared on Autocross Talk Podcast with Kinch Reindl.

Mark Legg is on Autocross Talk.

He is a racing coach for cars as well as bicycle racing. He knows more than a couple of things about professional racing since he was a cyclist as well as a coach for his wife and others.

His wife Kate Compton is a 15-time national champion.

This episode is focused on how to get the best results by working on you. Your mental game as well as your physical game.

You will learn how the fight or flight response is good for strength but not for sports like autocross and car racing.

Mark will share tips to help us keep our breathing in check which can keep us out of the fight or flight when enables us to see more and have more fine muscle control.

Take a deep breath and keep doing it all the time

I really think this knowledge, tips and exercise can help you with your racing.

Thanks for your emails and comments!
www.AutocrossTalk.com

The post Mark Legg on Mental and Physical tips for Autocross and Car Racing first appeared on Autocross Talk Podcast with Kinch Reindl.

http://traffic.libsyn.com/autocrosstalk/Mark_Daddio_Autocross_Talk_2020_62.mp3

Mark Daddio is featured on this episode of the show.

12 SCCA Solo National Championships

11 Pro Solo Class Championships

2 Over All Pros Solo Championships

Hear Mark Daddio's thoughts on Autocross Coaching and Autocross Tips he uses.

I like his moto "just drive" when it comes time for his run. This is a great tip to drive faster when wondering how you can autocross faster.

We hear when he started left foot braking and why he likes to do it. He breaks down what the car is doing when skipping the lift between braking and accelerating.

You will hear his Autocross mental game to prepare for a run where he goes back through the course mentally until he gets it right. Then when it is time to drive, he says "I Just Drive".

When he is racing, he says "I rely on what I'm seeing at the time".

I'd phrase this as being in the present moment or being in the zone. Nothing to think about rather just taking the input of seeing the cones. He mentions how when he can’t see the cones he will DNF.

We talk about Mazda's Rev It Up which he won back to back. When he asked after the first win if he can compete again and the answer was "Yeah if you can win again more power to you".

We talk about him doing endurance karting and how much fun as well as how much of a workout karting is.

Pat Salerno rode with him on an Autocross Run and commented: "Your Nuts".

You will hear what he has gotten out of Autocross Coaching as well as having co-drivers.

Once again, we hear "Lifts have a place" meaning he left foot brakes but also will only lift at times.

We hear some about how he sets up Autocross cars which is often the opposite of others.

Like Bob Tunnell he will tap the brakes in between slalom cones. He notes he only does this for tight slaloms to put weight on the nose of the car.

I asked about his preference for a harness and he said he only uses a seat belt because he needs to be able to move around to see around the A Pillar.

He mentions how he learned how important it is to put down power coming out of an Autocross turn (think sweeper and any other place where we get to accelerate).

We touch on road racing. And briefly we talk about using video and data as it relates to him Autocrossing, I say briefly because he doesn’t use them.

And we talk about competing at a high level at Autocross and age. How much time is needed to prep a car to win at Solo Nationals as well as the seat time.
He also talks about tires and how they feel at Lincoln Airpark when it is hot and when it is not.

And we talk about splitting the Run Days at SCCA Solo Nationals...

The post Mark Daddio Talks Autocross racing in this episode first appeared on Autocross Talk Podcast with Kinch Reindl.

Glen The Hurricane Hernandez is on Autocross Talk

20 Plus National Trophies

ProSolo Championships

It was great to catch up with Glen to hear about how he got into cars, his stories and thoughts on racing.

You will hear how he got started autocrossing.

A lot of you will be looking for a job at Boeing.

And some of you will have advice for "Autocross Mecca" when it comes to where would you want to live for great autocrossing.

Thanks for your emails and ideas!

If you want a TShirt you can get Autcross Talk TShirts on Amazon.

www.AutocrossTalk.com to contact me and to find all the previous shows and show notes.

The post Glen The Hurricane Hernandez is on Autocross Talk first appeared on Autocross Talk Podcast with Kinch Reindl.

Adam Benaway SCCA Autocross National Champion talks racing with us on this show.

Adam is the only champion so far in the 2 year old Solo Spec Coupe class. That is 2 national championship in 2 years.

He has been blazing fast each year. You will get to hear his thoughts on how his military training help him plan for and execute at Nationals.

You will hear how vehicles influenced his choice of Scout for the Military.

You can't miss the "Racing For Heros" stickers on his car. We chat about how this charity helps veterans and how you can help the charity.

https://www.racingforheroes.org/
on Facebook @racingforheros

You will hear about his good friend and fellow fast autocrosser John Wolf who he met in the Military. Lots of Racing tips and thoughts in this episode along with some stories to get to know him better.

We also talk: ChampCar, Line Choice, Plan A and Plan B, mental game, rallycross, course walking as well....

We even talk Sri Lanka racing which looks like a lot of fun!

I had not thought about his thought of keeping a slight bit of load on the car at as much as possible even if only 10% throttle.

The post Adam Benaway SCCA Autocross National Champion talks racing with us first appeared on Autocross Talk Podcast with Kinch Reindl.

Jennifer takes this podcast where this podcast has not been before....Horse talk and comic book store talk.  The horses we had in common.

Her comic book store is www.AtomicEmpire.com

We talk a lot about Autocross as well! As usual I think you will learn some new racing tips and ideas to try at your next autocross to drive faster/better.

I mentioned Autocross Talk T Shirts now being available on Amazon and they are even Prime.  As of early August we have not uploaded the new designs but they are almost finalized. Check out our facebook page and you can send me notes and comments on via this website as well. Thanks for listening!

The post Jennifer Bedell is this weeks guest first appeared on Autocross Talk Podcast with Kinch Reindl.

This show features Dennis Sparks and Jordan Towns.

Learn what drives them and their journey to championships, Pro Solo Challenge wins and Fletcher Cup wins.

"Anything worth doing is worth trying to be the absolute best at" Jordan Towns.

"You want to go faster drive with someone faster with data" Dennis Sparks

You will hear about codriving - Hint if your car isn't setup and you can drive someone's who is then you can really see how your driving style measures up.

Hear how they look at data to get faster and what they are working on now which is the transition between elements.

You will hear "The Best Story Ever" - Jordan's first Pro Solo

Since 2012 they have been doing 9 plus national races each year.

You'll hear about the benefits of fast codrivers.

For video once again you will hear that it is best to see the drivers hands to see how much input and when the inputs on the steering wheel are being made.

And you will hear about the WRXs they have been driving and winning in.

Question Dennis - where will the SCCA go with Spec Class(es) - will SSC be the only one or is it only the first one?

Question Jordan - what are you thoughts on how to increase the participation of women in autocross?

The post National Champions Dennis Sparks and Jordan Towns are the guests first appeared on Autocross Talk Podcast with Kinch Reindl.

Thomas Thompson is on Autocross Talk he runs the site National Autocross News NAXN.org and you can find them on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/autoxnews/ They are always looking for contributors who would like to write about autocross!

He shares his stories and insights ranging from XP to STH.

He would live to hear what you would like more of on his site NAXN.org - and would you like to contribute some stories??

Autocross STF Audi TT Thomas Thompson

Thomas Thompson and Friends

Thomas Thompson Autocross Cars

Thomas Thompson Autocrosser of NAXN.org

Thomas Thompson C7 Corvette

Thomas Thompson Corvette

Mario Andretti and Thomas Thompson

 

 

The post Thomas Thompson of Autocross News Network is on the show first appeared on Autocross Talk Podcast with Kinch Reindl.