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!  

  For Episode #37 of the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsports Podcast, Scotty, Ryan from DSX Motorsports, and Tasso from OTC Racing are all coming off of a big weekend of racing, and that is the topic for the day. Tasso ran the Continental Divide Hill Climb, and this was his first event back in over a year. We talk about how the car ran, what he had to get mentally up to speed again, and what his results were. Scott and Dussex were running with NASA at Pueblo Motorsports Park, and they both had a really productive weekend. Scotty is still chasing a fueling issue, but was able to get a good result, and Dussex had a good result too. They both drove Scotty's car, and it was an interesting comparison between that car and Ryan's Super Taikyu car. Thanks for listening and Stay Tuned!  

  For Episode #36 of the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsports Podcast, we got the crew from Professional Awesome to join us on our Podcast to talk about Records, Time Attack, and a lot more. We have been a fan of the Professional Awesome Podcast, and the parts that they have started to make for while now, and they have definitely inspired some details of our builds on a couple cars. Scotty's 2011 STI in particular. They have a fantastic Podcast as well (which you should check out if you have not already), and so we really excited to have the opportunity to join in on a conversation with them. We talk a bit about how the Professional Awesome Crew came together, and about some of their history. We also talk about what their approach to a build is, and we got a lot of good information about the consultation that they do to help their customers build faster race cars. And of course, we couldn't have the Professional Awesome guys on without talking about the significance of records. In Time Attack especially, winning is great, but for many of the competitors, the overall goal is to beat a record in a given class, or to set an overall track record. That kind of mindset is one that we are starting to embrace, and it is one of the driving forces for the whole Professional Awesome crew. This is a fantastic conversation, and we hope that you enjoy it. Thanks for listening and Stay Tuned!  

For episode #35 of the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsports Podcast, we sit down with our driver, Scott Crouch, Ryan from DSX Motorsports, and Scotty from the shop to go over our experiences running in the 2021 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. This was the 99th running of this race, and this was our 10th consecutive year running as well. We had made a few good changes to our 2014 WRX Pikes Peak Race car for this year, and we had some good signs in testing as we were headed into race week. The way that the Pikes Peak Hill Climb is run is fairly unique, and the testing and qualifying takes place for the whole week leading up to the actual race which takes place on Sunday. This year, a lot happened in that lead up to the race, and on race day itself, the mountain had another surprise in store for everyone as well. Weather can be a factor any year on Pikes Peak, but this year, it was a factor for every single competitor. Thanks for listening and Stay Tuned!

Ryan from DSX Motorsports was able to help crew for our Pikes Peak race car over a weekend of testing as we are getting ready to run in the 2021 Pikes Peak Hill Climb. And if you are reading this as it goes up, make sure that you tune in to the Mobil 1 Facebook page for the live stream of the 2021 Pikes Peak Hill Climb on Sunday June 27th! For episode #34 of the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsports Podcast, we start out talking about Ryan and Scotty's experience testing on the mountain, and then Ryan made the observation that nearly every part that is on our Pikes Peak race car is also on our web-site.  We have a great discussion about the build, and this actually inspired me to write up a blog post (which is now up on our site) that goes into detail about all of the parts that are on the car currently. We also have a good conversation about the cars that come to run up Pikes Peak, and about what drives some of the Hill Climb culture in general as well. Thanks for listening and Stay Tuned!

  When you are getting ready to go to the track for a track-day or even a race, does your car have to be perfect before you put it on the trailer? This has been a topic for discussion here lately, and it has broken down into two groups. Those that think that yes, the car has to be prefect and running 100% to go to an event, and those that say no, you just get it as close as possible, and then figure it out once you get there. We'll put them in the Send it camp. What became clear when we started to talk about this was that this is a subject that many people, customers and competitors alike, have run into. And because everyone seems to have a side that they fall on, we decided to talk about it for episode #33 of the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsports Podcast. Thanks for listening and Stay Tuned!  

  We all love to go to the track or to an event to drive our cars. It is one of the most fun things we can think of doing. But sometimes everything else about going to a track or an event can be stressful. Sometimes so stressful that it can take some of the fun out of the day all together. We have talked about this a bit around the shop, and we all sort of discovered that this has been something that we have all dealt with to one degree or another. And in finding out that so many of us here had wrestled with this, or developed a strategy to make the process of getting to the track easier, we decided we should have a conversation about it. A big thanks to Nigel, Jeanette, and Ryan for sitting down to have this conversation! We hope this helps, and thank you for listening!  

  Right as we were wrapping up recording episode #28 of the podcast, Tasso had a question that he wanted to throw out. He had just acquired a Miata shell that he intended to turn into a race car, but he wasn't sure what to do with it. It also turned out that Blake and Kelsey had also just got a Miata that they intended to turn into a race car as well. We had a great conversation about it, and I thought I would put it up as a short bonus episode. Thanks for listening!  

  For episode #31 of the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsport Podcast, we sit down with Bucky Lasek, and Texas Dave (Dave Carapetyan). The inspiration for this conversation was to talk to Dave and Bucky about their first run in One Lap of America in a Subaru STI S209, and to talk about Lasek Rallysport which they just launched as a part of the Rally Ready Driving School. One Lap of America is a truly unique event that places a unique set of demands on both the car and drivers, and Bucky is putting together a number of videos documenting their run this year on his Youtube channel. Bucky and Dave also have a lot of history in Rally Racing, and it was a lot of fun to talk to them about what they love so much about driving on dirt, and about how much they love the Rally community in general. That was the inspiration for Bucky to launch Lasek Rallysport in conjunction with the Rally Ready Driving School. Thanks for listening and Stay Tuned!  

  For episode 30 of the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsport Podcast, we have Scott Crouch, Andy Kingsley, Dave Kern, Stephan Verdier, and Victor Kuhns joining Tasso and Jon to talk about the Pikes Peak Hill Climb. As we are getting ready for the 2021 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, we had the idea to reach out to a few fellow competitors that we have run this race with over the years to have a discussion about their experiences running the race, and what it is that makes Pikes Peak such a unique event. Through the years, Pikes Peak has been a race run on fully dirt roads, as part of an SCCA rally event broken up into stages, partly paved, and then as its current state where the road is now fully paved. This group of competitors has run the race in all of these forms, so they bring a great amount of perspective and experience to this conversation. We really enjoyed sitting down with everyone to record this episode, and it is full of great information and stories. Thanks for listening, and Stay Tuned!  

For episode #29 of the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsport Podcast, we have the usual crew on hand with Ryan from DSX Motorsports, and Tasso from OTC Racing.We had not caught up with them for a few episodes, and Scotty had also taken his car to the track for the first time since he finished all of his winter projects, so that is the first part of our discussion for this episode.Nigel is on as well because he has been making a ton of changes/up-dates to his race car to get ready for 2021, and he has ran into the budget slaying monster called Scope Creep more than a few times in the process.This is something that pretty much anyone with a project car or race car has run into, so we decided to have a conversation about it. Thanks for listening and Stay Tuned!

  For episode #28 of the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsports Podcast, we have Victor, Blake, and Kelsey from the DM Rally Team as our guests with Tasso from OTC Racing. A few weeks ago, the SCCA Clifton Hillclimb was held in Clifton Arizona, and Victor was there running his JDM GC STI rally car, and Blake and Kelsey were running their N/A Subaru GC Rally car as well. We had not been to this event, so the first inspiration for this episode was to get everyone on to talk about what the Clifton Hillclimb was like. This sounds like a very fun event, and it is another one of the rare hillclimbs here in the US that takes place on paved roads (the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb being the other one of note). But since we had Victor, Blake, and Kelsey on, we wanted to talk to them about a hillclimb that they all were able to participate in a couple of years ago that was part of the Brig Hillclimb Series in Japan! Being able to travel to Japan to take part in one of the races in their Hillclimb series was truly a once in a lifetime experience for them, and we definitely wanted to hear as much of the story as we possibly could. But what really stands out is how similar both of these events are even being half a world apart. We hope you enjoy the episode and thanks for listening!  

Through 2020, Jeanette (Red Queen Racing) had started to work at Pikes Peak International Raceway, and one of the things that she organized there were some Women's driving clinics and track days in addition to the other events that were put on.  There was a great response from these, and we wanted to bring Jeanette on to talk about what she was doing at PPIR, and about these events.In talking with Jeanette, we decided that we wanted to talk about them under the broader topic of the culture of Women in Motorsports.To help us with the discussion, Jeanette brought in Kaitlin and Alice who she has been driving with at some of her events, and we brought in Lea Croteau who has been an instructor in many driving clinics and the Bridgestone Winter Driving School, as well as co-driven with us at Rally Colorado, and the Pikes Peak Hill Climb. We had a great conversation and we may well have to have these guests back to talk about this part of driving and Motorsport again.Thanks for listening and Stay Tuned!

  For Episode #26 of the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsports Podcast, we sit down with Olly Clark from Roger Clark Motorsports to talk about all things Roger Clark. We start off by getting a sense where Olly and his brother Matt got started with racing and Subaru's, and how that turned into what Roger Clark Motorsports is today. We also get some great insight about where the first Gobstopper race car came from, and how that has now turned into 3 Gobstopper race cars. The first 2 of which have had huge success and become icons in their own right, and it looks like Gobstopper III might have the biggest impact of them all. A huge thanks goes out to Olly Clark for joining us on the Podcast. This is a great conversation and I hope that you enjoy it!  

  For Episode 25 of the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsports Podcast, we start off talking with Ryan from DSX Motorsports and Jeanette from Red Queen Racing about driving in the Global Time Attack event at The Ridge in Washington State. From there we open up a topic that has come up around the shop here a few times. Do you have to be humble as a driver to improve and get faster? Getting faster and being a better driver is pretty much a goal for all of us, but we have taken different paths to get there. One thing that we have been wondering is does your mindset have a big roll to play in how you develop? We decided to have a discussion about this and we hope you enjoy the conversation, and that it is helpful. Thanks for listening and Stay Tuned!  

  For Episode 24 of the Flatirons Syndicate Podcast, I had the chance to sit down with Dave from Rallispec and pick his brain about pretty much every aspect of the Subaru drivetrain. Dave founded Rallispec over 20 years ago, and he has a wealth of experience building pretty much every type of Subaru from modified street cars, Rally Cars, and track cars. He has more experience with just about any kind of Subaru transmission than anyone and I wanted to get his perspective on what works, and what doesn't and especially about options for the STI 6-speed. One of the topics that I particularly wanted to ask him about is dog-box gear sets, and sequential gear sets for the STI 6-speed because of the amount of experience that Rallispec has with those types of transmissions. We spent some time talking about this and Dave answered all of the questions that I had or could think of on these topics, and I think that this podcast is a great source of information if you are looking to up-grade your Subaru transmission. Thank you for listening, and Stay Tuned with Flatirons Tuning.  

The RPM Act has been stuck in Congress for a few years now, but with recent developments, it is more important now than ever. The main reason for this is that there is now a court case in Arizona Between Gear Box Z and the EPA that could set the precedent that you cannot convert a production vehicle into a vehicle built for race use.   The RPM Act would make it permanently clear that you are allowed to convert a production vehicle into a race vehicle and still be compliant with the Clean Air Act. That clarity goes a long way in helping to ensure that amateur motorsport events can still go on largely as they have for decades now.   Since the recording of this podcast, the case between Gearbox Z and the EPA has been closed, and in that case, the judge ruled that there wasn't enough evidence that the parts produced by Gearbox Z were used for race only vehicles, so the court declined to make a ruling in this regard.   Even though this case is now closed, and no ruling was made, the RPM Act is still very significant because it would clarify this issue going forward. At a minimum, we would recommend that you follow some of the links below and get more information about the RPM Act, and possibly contact your Congress Person to let them know that you support the RPM Act and what it does.   Here are some helpful links that are a good starting point if you would like to learn more about this issue:   https://www.sema.org/epa-news   https://www.sema.org/news-media/enews/2021/12/keep-pressure-congress-pass-rpm-act   https://www.sema.org/news-media/enews/2021/10/sema-continues-fight-protect-motorsports-parts-businesses-and-racers   https://www.sema.org/news-media/enews/2021/12/update-semas-legal-fight-against-epa-overreach   Thanks for listening and Stay Tuned!

For episode 22 of the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsports Podcast, we catch up with Ryan from DSX Motorsports to talk about his experience running Super Lap Battler at Circuit of the Americas a couple of weeks ago.   This was the first event that Ryan ran his new Super Taikyu STI, so there was a lot to discuss.   From there, we move into a discussion about what to do in terms of going through your car after you get back from an event.   For this episode, we have Ryan from DSX Motorsports, Tasso from OTC Racing, and Victor from DM Rally sitting in.   Thanks for listening and Stay Tuned!

  For Episode 21 of the Flatirons Syndicate Podcast, I had the opportunity to have a conversation with Clint from Turn in Concepts, and Micah from 3MI Racing. The inspiration for this came a few weeks when I called Clint to see if he might have a stock length rod in stock. His response was that he couldn't remember the last time that Turn in Concepts had built an engine with a stock length rod. If you have been looking for a built engine for your Subaru, and you are paying close attention to some of the details, you may have noticed that, especially with Turn in Concepts blocks, most of their engines are built using +2mm rods. And there are a number of other engines out there that are built using rods that are either 2mm or 4mm longer than stock. There are a number of reasons for doing this, and by sitting down with Clint and Micah, we were able to have a great conversation about why Subaru engines can benefit from a slightly longer rod, what building a long-rod engine involves, and some other options for builds that might be a bit less known. This is definitely pretty detail heavy but there is so much great information here I'm glad that we were able to capture this so that we could put it out for you to hear. Thanks for listening and Stay Tuned!  

  If you have been building your car for a while, and especially if you are starting to think about competing with your car, there is going to be a point where you will most likely have to add a roll cage and some other safety equipment to your car that will make it a full blow race car. But before you go past this point of no return, is it better to build your own race car? Or is it better to buy a race car that is all ready built. This question comes up from time to time, and we have been on both sides of this question. This is not a simple question, so we decided to bring Tasso and Dussex in to discuss their experience as well. Thanks for listening and Stay Tuned!  

  For episode #19 of the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsport Podcast, we first catch up with Ryan from DSX Motorsports, and we talk about the new race car that he has picked up. Tasso from OTC Racing is on the podcast as well, and we all discuss what 2021 might have in store. For this Podcast, we are trying something a little different once again, and we recorded this full episode on Zoom. So with a little luck, this episode will be up on our Youtube page as well as here soon! Thanks very much for listening, and for your support!  

  A little while ago Tasso asked if anyone had any questions for him on his Instagram account. He actually got a lot of good questions, and when he stopped by the shop recently, he brought some of those question with him and we sat down and talked about them. This was a great discussion that covered everything from what OTC Racing stands for, to how a lot of the lessons that Tasso learned from racing mountain bikes professional actually applied to how he has been able to find success Rally Racing. We also have a great conversation about sponsorship, how to find it, and what a sponsorship really means these days. Thanks very much for listening, and Stay Tuned!  

  Subaru has been hinting that the next BRZ was right around the corner, and they have just released all the details about the next generation car which will be available late in 2021 as a 2022 model. From the outside, the appearance of new next generation BRZ looks like an up-date or refinement of what the car currently is. But Subaru definitely made some significant changes to the engine and drivetrain. So significant in fact, we had to have a conversation about it. Ryan from DSX Motorsports and Jeanette from Red Queen Racing happened to stop by a few weeks ago, and we decided it was a perfect time to capture that discussion. For all of our thoughts and initial impressions of the new 2022 BRZ, Stay Tuned!  

  Scotty and Dussex are both using an App called Track Addict to collect data when they drive on track. They talk about it often, and I think that it is fair to say that they are somewhat obsessed with it. For a long time, collecting data about your driving was something that only race teams could do, but it did start to trickle down in the form of some devices that you could drive on track with, and then download the data onto your computer afterwards. But in recent years, some apps have been created for your cell phone that turns them into very powerful data collecting devices. Two good examples are Track Addict, and Harry's Lap Timer. For a few dollars, you can get access to a lot of information about what you are doing on track. But that data is only valuable if you know how to read and use it. This is something that Ryan and Scotty have talked about a lot, and we thought this would be a good topic to have a discussion on to help shed some light on how to use these tools. And it doesn't hurt that the newest member of our team, Nigel, is working on his very own track app himself. So he has some other interesting insights in to these programs too. As always, thanks for listening, and Stay Tuned!  

  For episode 15 of the Flatirons Syndicate podcast, we had just been looking at some of the work Scotty has been doing to build a rear diffuser on his 2011 STI race car. This is a topic that comes up fairly often around here, and Tasso from OTC Racing is always particularly interested in finding new ways to make his car more efficient in terms of aerodynamics. We had a great discussion about approaches for aero that you can make yourself, and how to tell if you are making worthwhile improvements, etc. And inevitably, the topic of seat time came up as well. Thanks for listening, and Stay Tuned!  

  For Episode #14 of the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsport podcast, we start out talking through the last NASA Rocky Mountain event of the season. From there, we talk about lessons learned from driving at the track. Overall a good conversation that also gives a lot of good tips and tricks as well as best practices for track days. Thanks for listening and Stay Tuned!  

  Scott Crouch is the driver of the Flatirons Tuning Pikes Peak WRX, and he also happens to be the driver of the Flatirons Tuning Rally car. For our thirteenth episode of the podcast, we sit down with Scott to talk about how our 2020 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb went, and what it was like to run this year with all of the changes. From there, we branch out into a good conversation with Scott and Tasso about how driving a rally car relates to driving on tarmac, and we also talk about how to get faster on track. Thanks very much for listening, and Stay Tuned!  

  Our last podcast was from March of this year, right before everything started shutting down and all. A lot has happened since then, and the good news is that there have been a number of races and events that did find a way to happen safely, and both Ryan from DSX Motorsports, and Scotty from the shop here have been up to a lot since we last checked in. For this episode, we wanted to catch up with both of them about all that they have been working on lately, and it became a great conversation about how they have been developing their cars, seemingly in different directions. Thanks for staying with us, and thanks for tuning back in! We are going to do our best to get this rolling again, so more episodes should be coming out here soon. Thanks for listening and Stay Tuned!  

  For episode 11 of the Flatirons Syndicate Podcast, we are sitting down with Ryan from DSX Motorsports and Jeanette from Red Queen Racing, and we are talking right as things are starting to shut down, and events are starting to be canceled. For the first part of this Episode, Both Scotty and Viet were out at High Plains Raceway the previous weekend, and we have a good discussion about what each of their experience at the track. Viet had made the biggest change of putting in a Cusco 1-Way differential into his Civic Race Car, and we talk about that. This was now Scotty's second time on track with his car after all the work he put in, and we go into detail about that as well. I will say that we do talk about some of the corners at High Plains in some detail in this section, and if you are not familiar with the track, or that is a little too specific for you, please feel free to skip ahead to the second part of the conversation. For the second chunk of our conversation, we brainstorm about what you can do if you are stuck at home to stay in touch with Motorsports, and your passion for cars. There are a lot of Youtube channels that we talk about, as well as some racing series that you may have heard about before, but never actually watched. This is the perfect opportunity to go back and dive into some of those series! And we also dive into what video games we like, and how playing them can help keep your mind focused on driving, and can fill in for the real thing to an extent now that it looks like we will have to wait for a bit to head back out to the track. I hope you enjoy this episode, and as always, Stay Tuned with Flatirons Tuning.  

  For Episode 10 of the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsports Podcast, we sit down with Mike Pettiford from Go 4 It Services. Mike has been racing for a couple of decades now, and he has won an amazing 46 SCCA Championships. For this conversation, we start out talking about what Go 4 It Services does. We then move into how Mike got into motorsports, and what prompted him to create his own driving school. We also have a good conversation about sponsorship, and what it takes to find a sponsor to help you take your driving to another level and compete in a form of motorsport that you might not be able to afford all on your own. In general, this is a great conversation about driving, going fast, and what it takes to improve as a driver. We always have a great conversation with Mike when he stops by, and I'm glad that we were able to capture another one so that we can share it with you! If you want any more information about Mike, and his school Go 4 It Services, please check out the links below: https://www.go4itservices.com/ https://www.facebook.com/go4itracingschool/  

  For this episode of the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsports Podcast, we are just back from Cars and Coffee where we brought out a few of our race cars and project cars, and we brought a few friends with us too. We had a great time at that show and we even brought back a few people to sit in on the podcast with us for this episode. We had Jeanette from Red Queen Racing, Nigel from Unome Racing, and our friend Brett sit in with us on this conversation. We start off talking about what we saw at Cars and Coffee, and from there we talk about the new Livery that Nigel just made for Tasso's car. Jeanette is doing a ton of work to her BRZ race car to get ready for the season, and one of the biggest changes is that she is adding forced induction. We got an Edelbrock Supercharger kit for her car, and we talk about how she came to the decision to go with that kit, and why she decided it was time to add a bit more power to her car. From there, we went into a great conversation about heading to the track for the first time. This is another great episode that we had a lot of fun recording, and I hope that you enjoy it. Thanks for listening and Stay Tuned!  

  For this episode of the podcast, we have Ryan from DSX Motorsports and Tasso from OTC racing back with us. For the first part of the episode, we catch up with everyone about what they have been up to for the last couple of weeks. Tasso got his engine fired up in his rally car which is awesome. Scotty got his car running again and took it to the track. And Dussex took his car out to Super Lap Battle at Circuit of the Americas. There was a lot to discuss here. Then, somehow, the conversation shifted to differentials. We have a great talk about the difference between open, limited slip, and welded (for Dussex) differentials. And we talk about the fact that not all limited slip differentials are actually limited slip differentials. Hope you enjoy the podcast, and Stay Tuned!  

For Episode 7 of the Flatirons Syndicate Podcast, we sit down with Ryan from DSX Motorsports, and Tasso from OTC Racing to talk about how the 2020 season is shaping up. Both of them are getting pretty close to having their cars back up and on track. For Ryan Super Lap Battle at Circuit of the Americas is just a few weeks away, so he is starting to finalize his plans for the race... And find an engine And for this episode, we have a special guest! Matt from Motul USA was in the shop, and we had him sit down with us to talk about Motul, and how involved Motul is with racing and motorsports. Hope you enjoy the episode, and Stay Tuned!

For Episode 6 of the Flatirons Syndicate Podcast, we sit down with Ryan from DSX Motorsports and Tasso from OTC Racing to talk about Hill Climbs and Time Attack. Since those are the Motorsports that each of them are involved in, we wanted to take a deeper look at each of them from both a spectator and competitor point of view. Tasso competes primarily in the Colorado Hill Climb Association series. Ryan competes primarily in the SCCA Time Trials, and the Global Time Attack and Grid Life Time Attack series. In both cases, we wanted to get a better idea of the strategy and development involved and it turns out that there are a lot of similarities between the two. Thanks very much for listening, and Stay Tuned with Flatirons Tuning!

  This is our first Podcast for 2020, so we sat down with Tasso from OTC Racing, and Ryan from DSX Motorsports to talk about plans for the year ahead. We had a good conversation here about a number of topics, and there were a couple of common focuses that came out. The main one was reliability. There is also a good discussion about changing out a brake master cylinder to go to manual brakes, and we also talk a bit about our experience with twin-scroll turbos. Thanks for listening, and thanks for your support!  

About a year ago now, we sat down with Ryan from DSX Motorsports, Jeanette from Red Queen Racing, and Scotty from the shop here to talk about their experiences competing in a variety of forms of Motorsports such as the NASA Time Trials Series, SCCA Autocross, Pikes Peak Time Attack series, Global Time Attack, and Grid Life. We had a really good discussion about what it was like to participate in these different events, and they were able to discuss what they felt were the benefits of each type of event, and what they liked about them as well. It was a great conversation, so I wanted to include it with our podcast's here.Thanks for your support, and thanks for listening!

Ryan from DSX Motorsports was just in Indianapolis for the 2019 Performance Racing Industry (PRI) trade show, and he saw a lot of cool things that we talk about.  Some of the things discussed are stand alone aftermarket ECU's and PDM's, sequential transmissions that are coming out for the STI 6-speed transmission, and bolt-in roll cages. Then we move to the subject of Roger Clark Motorsports Gobstopper 3.  Roger Clark Motorsport has been releasing one picture a day for December to reveal various details about their Gobstopper 3 build.  We have a blog on the Flatirons Tuning site that collects all of these posts, and to say the least, this build is really impressive.  All of us have been taking a hard look at what RCM has been doing, so the second half of our conversation revolves on that. Thanks very much for listening, and Stay Tuned!

  For this episode of the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsports Podcast, we sit down with Ryan from DSX Motorsports and Tasso from OTC racing, and we take a deep dive into Subaru aerodynamics. Scotty here is in the middle of building a splitter for his 2011 STI race car, and Ryan just built a splitter for his 2003 WRX race car not too long ago. When you throw Tasso into the mix, who is continually playing with adding aero elements to his WRX Rally car, aerodynamics quickly became the topic of the day. Thanks very much for listening and Stay Tuned with Flatirons Tuning!  

  Two of the drivers that we sponsor are Ryan from DSX Motorsports, and Tasso from OTC Racing. Neither of them are strangers at the shop, but they both happened to stop in a couple of weeks ago at the same time, and we had a really good conversation with both of them about their season, etc. It was such a good catch-up session that we decided that if we were able to get everyone together again, we should record it and put it out as a podcast. So that is just what we did. We brought Ryan and Tasso back and for this first episode of the Flatirons Syndicate Motorsport Podcast, we take a look at the 2019 season for each of them. What went well, and what some of their struggles have been. Thanks for listening and Stay Tuned!