Flatirons Syndicate Motorsport Podcast

This would normally be where episode #47 of the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsports Podcast would be. But if you are seeing or listening to this, we need your help.We have run into a glitch that has created two iTunes Playlists. We couldn't find a way to combine the two, and going forward, we are only going to be putting new content onto one of the playlists, and this one is not it.So if you are hearing this podcast, please search for the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsports Podcast, and subscribe to the other option. The way you can tell the difference is all of the episodes in this list have a 2 digit number, and in the new list, all of the episodes have a 3 digit number.So the full episode with Dave from Rallispec is episode #047 on the new play list.We apologize for any confusion, and once you make the switch, you can hear all of the future podcasts just as you had before.Thanks for your help, and thanks for listening!Stay Tuned!

For episode 46 of the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsports Podcast, our guest is Farah Nanji from the Mission Makers Podcast.Farah has two separate, but successful careers.  She has a successful career as a Dj, but she has also had a passion for motorsports since her early childhood. Farah spent a couple of years racing karts competitively in her childhood, and then in 2011 she founded a group called Regents Racing which put on various types of motorsports events. On this episode, we talk with Farah about how she found driving and motorsports initially, how her interests in motorsports and music overlapped, and how both of those interests, coupled with her interest in business, form the basis for her Mission Makers Podcast.If you have not listened to, or checked out the Mission Makers Podcast, Farah has done some great interviews there, and they are definitely worth checking out.Thanks for listening, and Stay Tuned!

For Episode 45 of the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsports Podcast we catch up with Tasso and talk about his experience at the Lands End Hill Climb. There was a lot of tough competition there, not the least of which was Rhys Millen in his GRC Hyundai. Tasso, Rhys, and Dave Kern were all battling for the top step of the podium all weekend. From there we talk about how the open rule set for Rally AWD in the CHCA has let Tasso and Dave Kern (and a couple of others) develop their cars to the point where they were actually able to run times close to what Rhys Millen was able to do in his car. That shows how capable the Rally AWD cars are becoming in the Colorado Hill Climb series. So does the open rule set raise the level of competition? From there we talk about the differences in competing in a series with a very strict rule set (like NASA's time trials which Scotty runs in), versus an open rule set, and the benefits of each. Thanks for listening and Stay Tuned!

For episode #44 of the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsports Podcast, Dussex, Scotty and Jon sit down with Shawn Murphy to talk about his 2004 STI Time Attack car that holds the Outter, East, and West track records at Utah Motorsports Park in TT2, as well as the full course record at Utah Motorsports Park for TT1 and TT2. Shawn's current race car started out as his daily driver, but as is all too familiar a story, once he started to take his STI to the track, its didn't take long for it to fall into dedicated track car duty. The progression of Shawn's build started out focused on power, but then took a bit of a turn when he realized that he wanted to prioritize reliability over straight speed. And when he did that, and started to really focus on other aspects of the cars performance like brakes and suspension, he discovered that his car just kept getting faster. Thanks for listening, and Stay Tuned!

For episode 43 of the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsports Podcast, the topic is Time Attack. And we have 3 very special guests join us for a fantastic discussion of the origin of Time Attack in Not only the United States, but Australia as well. Our guests for this episode are Ian Baker who is the organizer for World Time Attack in Australia, and Jason Dienhart and Kiet Le who organize Global Time Attack and Super Lap Battle. We talk with Ian, Jason, and Kiet about what drew them to the sport of Time Attack initially, and how they started organizing events. The sport of Time Attack, and especially the cars that are running the event, have changed a lot since its origin in Japan in the mid to late 90's. As technology has improved, everything from the power that the engines can make, the tires, the weight of the cars, and especially the amount of aero added to the cars has changed significantly. And because of the mostly open rules sets in the unlimited class for these races, some of these cars are pushing the absolute edge of performance, and are setting times close to that of open-wheel formula cars. This is a great conversation about how Time Attack became established, about the iconic cars that helped these events make their mark, and the new cars that rolled onto the track and changed the game. Thanks for listening and Stay Tuned!  

  For episode #42 of the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsports Podcast, Jon, Scotty and Dussex have a chat about some of their recent trips to the track. First, we had just taken the Pikes Peak car to High Plains Raceway for the first time it far to long to shake it down, and get a sense of how much (if any) we had improved the car in terms of cooling and handling. The day didn't exactly go to plan, but we did learn some really important things. One of the main ones being that a lot of the small things that you can do to make the car better, can make the car a lot faster. Then, Scotty is in the process of re-building his engine after having a catastrophic engine failure. At this point, he is just starting to piece the car back together again, and he is in the middle of the decision process of what he can and can't re-use. This coupled with balancing the wants and needs that you have to get an engine back together, and a budget that was not prepared for that level of a failure makes for a lot of tough choices, and we dive into that. And at the end, we break down how much progress we have really made with the Pikes Peak car, and try to bring a little context to what those improvements amount to. It turns out that making a lot of small improvements and not jumping down the obvious path of more power has landed us in a place where a seemingly unattainable lap time might just be attainable? Thanks for listening and Stay Tuned!  

For episode #41 of the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsports Podcast, we talk with Preston Osborn who is now the Competition Director for the American Rally Association, or ARA.  We talk about this new roll, and some of the changes that he has made to make rally in the US better and safer.  And we talk about the direction that the ARA is going, and the vision that they have for the future of Rally racing in the US. We also talk with Preston about how he got into Rally in the beginning, and about the years that he competed and won a couple of championships, and how that prepared him for his switch from competitor to Competition Director. Preston has had a few Subaru's, and he has long been a fan of the WRX and STI.  Stick around to the end of the conversation, because we have a great talk about the possible direction that Subaru is going with the new WRX and STI. Thanks for listening and Stay Tuned!

  For Episode #40 of the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsports Podcast, we sit down with Ryan from DSX Motorsports, Tasso from OTC Racing, and Scotty from the shop to catch up on the events of the past few weeks. Tasso and Dussex both drove at Gridlife Alpine Horizon, Dussex in Time Attack, and Tasso in the Rally Sprints. The Rally Sprints were a new addition this year, and they were run by Rally Ready Driving School as a bracket elimination. This format created some great racing, and it is safe to say Tasso had a lot of fun running that weekend. Dussex was driving his Super Taikyu car in Time Trails, and even though he didn't get exactly the result he was looking for, he still had a solid weekend. Scotty took his 2011 STI race car out to run with NASA Utah at the Utah Motorsports Park, and things did not entirely go to plan. Thanks for listening and Stay Tuned!  

  For Episode #39 of the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsports Podcast, we sit down with Cole Powelson from Sierra Cars and Lyfe Motorsports. Cole is a driver that we have followed for a number of years now, first because of all that he did with the Lyfe Motorsports GTR Time Attack car. He has competed in that car in a number of Time Attack events, including the World Time Attack event in Sydney Australia, and he still holds a number of track records here in the US as well. He has even brought that car to the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, and we have raced with him there a few times. Then Cole started Sierra Cars where he is now building an open-wheel race car from the ground up. We had the opportunity to drive a couple of the Sierra Cars on the ice at Georgetown Lake and they were so much fun. These cars were so easy to drive, and so predictable, it was clear that a ton of development had gone into them. We talk with Cole about Sierra Cars, Time Attack, the Pikes Peak Hill Climb, and even a couple of really cool projects that he is working on as well. Hint, one is a very cool Subaru, and the other is an iconic Time Attack legend. Enjoy the conversation and thank you for listening!  

  For episode #38 of the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsports Podcast, we have a conversation with Rhys Millen from Rhys Millen Racing. There are few people that have run as many different types of cars in the Pikes Peak Hill Climb as Rhys Millen. He has run front-wheel drive, rear-wheel drive, and all-wheel cars in the Pikes Peak Hill climb from when the race was fully dirt, up to the present day where the entire road is now paved. Not only that but he has also run both internal-combustion engine cars as well as fully electric cars in the race as well. And he has been very successful in all of them. When we reached out to see if we could talk with Rhys about his experiences running the Pikes Peak Hill Climb, he was actually getting ready to run the Norra 1000 race in Baja, California. He was racing in a car that he has designed at Rhys Millen Racing, the 4 wheel drive Jackal, so we definitely wanted to find out more about the development of that car as well. We had a fantastic conversation with Rhys talking about all aspects of the Pikes Peak Hill Climb, off-road racing, rally, and we hope that you enjoy it. Thanks for listening and Stay Tuned!