My First Race EVER in Vintage NASCAR Monte Carlo!

And just trust me that when you take the green, they're going to stay right here. So, let me frame what's about to happen for you. I have never done this before. Pretty much what's happening here is a real life example of somebody from the grandstands that thinks, "Oh, this is easy. I could do this. I could do that." pluck somebody from the grand stands, put them in one of these cars against people who have 20, 30 years of experience or have been professional at some point and see what happens. That's what you're going to watch right now. I am the test dummy. I'm not going to hide anything. If I do something dumb, I'm going to show you. I'm going to tell you what I learned from it. That's how this is going to go. I have only drag raced and driven like a maniac on back roads, which if my dad's watching, this never ever happened. And yeah, that's not that uncommon nowadays for somebody with no experience to hop in one of these. But the story you always hear is, "Oh, well, you know, iRacing this, iRacing that." Not me. I've never played iRacing. I've gotten on there to somebody else's and mess with it for 5 minutes to be like, "This is freaking weird." And then I stop. I have no iRacing experience. What I do have is a mechanical understanding of how this car works, how it's supposed to work, and what it does. because I've spent the last 2 years on every single thing inside this car from the bondo to the suspension. There's nothing on this car that I haven't messed with yet. And if I don't completely understand it, I'm in the process of learning about it from people who are willing to teach me. Now, I have always had the belief in myself that I would be able to do this. So, I'm testing myself here, too. I was never able to. I never had that exposure. I didn't come from a racing family. I wasn't even allowed to have a go-kart as a kid. That was off the table. So, here I am, 28 years old. Everything I've done for the last 10 years, whether I knew it or not at the time, was building equity to be able to do this at all. Once I decided I did want to do this, it took me 5 years to get to this point. We went out for the first practice session on Friday, having never been on this track or seen it before, and was like, "Okay, this is pretty cool." Starting to get the hang of it. I ran about 20 laps until the old tires I was on started to get hot and a little bit slippery. The same thing it was doing before where it would get a little free on entry. Now, this is where an experience comes into play. I did not notice in turn one there was a weird which that thing right before that patch there is water coming out of the racetrack from the recent rain. I saw the discoloration there, but there's so many patches and scuffs and things going on on this old surface that I never thought anything of it until it was too late. And really, I didn't even realize that was why that happened until I went back out for the next session or I walked over like, "Hey, that's freaking water." I just thought it got loose on entry and maybe the the change in direction from the banking just accelerated the sensation. So, I locked it down and let it stop. Now, I realize that it was loose on entry cuz the tires were getting hot. And then I hit a freaking banana peel in that water and there was nothing I could do. So, note to self, if other people say track is fine, go look for yourself anyway because it might not be. Either way, after that, I called Mike Beam and told him that it was free on entry again, which had been happening when we would go testing at Hickory the couple weeks before this, and he said, "Okay, do this, this, this, and that thing." So, I did. That's what I'm working on right now. After making those changes for the second practice session, the car felt way better, and it didn't get squirly when the tires got hot. Three and four feels really good, especially coming out of four. This car really likes to wrap the bottom. Um, but going into one, coming out of two, not quite as secure feeling. I got to, um, it's just a driver problem. I just need to find new ways to drive it. I realized I wasn't I could carry more center speed in the turns, but I wasn't even pushing it cuz I didn't think the car could do it. And then I'm like, well, let me just try to see what happens. I just just did it. Wow. So, I had to readjust how I was braking and all that to not slow down too much. So, we put Mitch Stan to work. He's over here with a degreaser cleaning things up. Show me. No. Getting ready for the first practice session here. Make sure the car is in neutral. Turn the power on. Do this again cuz I'm paranoid. working hard, living large. I can't hear whatever you're trying to tell me. Making excuses, I can't hear them. Okay, now I'll let it run for a bit and I get it up at least off the peg so I know it's above 140. I see it kind of in the middle 150. Then I'll run it or something. Oil pressure will come down once it's warm warm. I didn't let the oil heat a super long time. It'll idle around 25 or 30 when it's hot. Something a lot of you probably don't know with these cars. If you see a power cord and plugged in behind the seat there, that's not to charge the battery. That is going to the heater on the oil tank. These cars hold about 5 gall of oil. So, what you do after you let the oil heat for about 20 minutes. You have to do this every time you start the engine or you will hurt it. You have to slide the oil pump belt off, which takes a little bit of work. Then I use this angle drill here with a/2 in bit and spin the oil pump over to prime the system because the dry sump creates a vacuum. Eventually there's no oil in the engine. Kind of get some fresh stuff in there. And I run it until I can put my hands on the lines and feel that all this is hot, you know, from the hot oil that came from the tank. And sometimes if I have extra time, I'll let it get hot and I'll put some warm oil into the engine and I'll wait another 10 minutes and then I'll do it again to kind of let the oil temperature start to heat up the block. Because these race motors, this is a real R5P7 Dodge engine from the truck series 20 years ago. The tolerances inside them are so tight. If you start them with cold oil and nothing is expanded yet from the heat, you can cause damage to it, premature wear, all that stuff. You see people buy cars like this just to show off to their buddies and they just want to crank it up and fire it up and rev the piss out of it and turn it back off. It's gonna blow up. You have to do this. It's not like a normal car. You also might be wondering, well, there's probably not actually Pens oil in that car. Oh, it's race motor. It's like, no, there actually is Penso in this car, and it's the same stuff that you can go buy at the parts store. It's ultra platinum 0W40 SRT recommended, which is ironic because I have a Dodge engine that was not planned at all. It just worked out that way. Yeah, I know. Did not like that shock change. The shocks. Oh, wow. I lost all my drive. We got tight in the center. Really? Yeah. I'm still running all that on the old tires. These ones got some stickers on here we'll put on before qualifying and race on those. Hopefully that makes it a lot better. I've never run on sticker tires yet. My main focus needs to be can I run laps consistently with the car under control where I don't have to be all focused on the driving in the car and I can be aware of my surroundings a little bit without worrying about losing the car. That's the most important thing is to bring this thing back in one piece. And if I go out there and I start overdriving it, when these tires get hot, get sliding around, it is so easy to hit the brakes a little too hard or a little too long and get this thing to go sideways into the turn. Really? Yeah. Very easy. From the tires getting hot or is it like that when you start off? Tires get hot, it does that. Yeah. Okay. Well, I'm curious. I wish we would have been able to test with a set of new tires. so that you can feel the the difference like cuz this will be completely different with a set of new tires. Yeah. I wish I could try that too, but that's the thing. Once once you test them and they're new, then you come back in, they're not new anymore. Yeah, I know. Exactly. But hopefully these will be even once the new tires are used. I would think they would still be better than these tires that have I don't even know how many heat cycles on them. Do you have a minute to explain to me how you drive this place? Yeah. I'm I'm struggling over here. here. The patch going through the patch. Yeah. I come in. I'll show you right here. I always lay my left front right on the There's a spot here I try to hit. Mhm. And then as soon as I start hitting to the patch, it slides up a little bit. Come off the wall right there. Where do you leave the wall at? Let's see. Probably right a little bit past the flag stand. Okay. Like when I'm at the flag stand, I'm already starting to look down here kind of the point. I try to hit my left front right here. Right on apron right here. You're actually touching right here. Yeah. I want to touch like about right there where that little rough spot is right there on the thing. Okay. So, when you up there, you leave the wall. Do you move your eyes to this spot? Yeah. I'm already I'm already looking to that. Like from back there, I'm already looking down here. As soon as I get here, then I already know as soon as I hit there, my left front hit right there. I hit this patch and it's pretty slick. So, then I slide up a little bit. It goes about probably 4T off the my left front probably 4T off off the apron right here. Let it drift and slide and I'm right back to the gas. And I break till I get right here. My left front touches this, then I'm off the brakes. Okay. I tell you what to do, too, to help you when you come off the wall. So, try try to drive as straight as you can that from over there. Like when you're going down straight, when you come off the wall, you're looking for that point I was showing you right here. Try to drive as straight to that point as you can. Okay? You don't want to here. You don't want to be out here like this to late apex stuff. You know what I mean? You want to get straight as you can. Run from about stand to here almost straight. So when you're braking you your wheel is straight or almost you you pick a you pick a direction and you are not moving the wheel while you're breaking right Z you're saying you barely turn the wheel you're breaking and then you know right here make to finish this corner cuz of you're kind of early apexing right here but to finish this corner you need to be off the brakes. Okay, but if it slides the nose when you do that just come off a little easier a little longer just you know like a couple milliseconds longer. Okay, you know hold on to them and then so now when you're off the brakes and now you're rolling through the middle of the corner and it's sliding a little bit. It's gonna slide on a little bit through here. Then while you're sliding, you're trying to pick the throttle up. But don't if you got wheel into it, well, don't pick the throttle up yet. Just kind of ease into the throttle. Make a turn. And then soon as you get turned, go and you feel do this. Feel it turn for you. When you start seeing straight, start looking at that valve where that Y is on speedway. I mean, right here. Okay. And then start looking at it run straight off. Well, that helped a lot. I wish I made the time to ask him that yesterday. But hey, best uh second best time to plant a tree is today. I was actually I was faster yesterday with a spark plug wire off. I mean, I'm like seriously thinking about pulling it back off. I do it every day. Never since I've done that. So on your lap when you go out, start scuffing them right here. You know, back and forth, back and forth. Go down the bike stretch and just kind of do this and then run into three and four about probably half. They're going to be about half not half throttle but about 50% of what you can run through there cuz you want to speed up and just run out through here running in here hard as you can one time you they'll get better every time you go with the next time running there be better trust me that when you take the green they're going to stick right here when it's stuck down here then down that corner you can really go down okay then when it go that corner good now your confidence is you really go from this corner you see what I mean yeah come in okay look get that on there Nice. I signed your hat. Should we sign his hat? He's more famous than I am. Sign. Yeah. I wish Shaya was here. I know, man. I told her to come. I was looking for She could drove up today, but she she gets all stressed out during work and all that stuff all the time. So, she likes probably I stress her out, too. So, she likes being what's out me, you know what I mean? I hear you. I hear you. Hold on. Feel good though. What? Solved anyway, aren't they? Feel good. Thank you. First time I've seen it. Attention all drivers. It's been a work in progress. Yeah, it has. Major work in progress. How do you think new tires feel? Really, really good. Good. Oh, yeah. Game changer. You looked great. Oh, totally. I tried to run the line better that Jeremy was explaining to me and it felt way better. I mean, that car with the tires, I was like, "Wow, I can if I ran 10 laps like that to get used to this first, I could do even better." But I was like, "Damn, I can really I can lay into it with confidence now." Good. I'm glad you take her for a ride on the electric bike. Yeah, she's excited. Do you like it? I love it. We brought our electric ebike to the track and this thing is awesome. It's just like a normal bike, except it's got a motor. The electric motor is really powerful right here in the hub. You don't even notice it. It's got disc brakes on the back and the front. Good shocks. They're adjustable, too. Got a shock on the seat post as well. Pedals fold in for easy storage. As you can see, it folds up super easily. You got a key down here, too, so nobody can ride away with it. Charging port right there. It's even got a nice place to put your phone. Seven-speed gear set. You can change the assist level. Setting two is more than enough to move me around. It'll go up to 28 mph. Super customizable. We can put a basket back here. I really like to do that in case we got to run it around in the pits. So far, we love our electric eBike. It takes up so little room. We can take it almost anywhere. Click the link in the description or scan the QR code on the screen to check out their rides. Add a bike cover to your order and get it for free with the discount code Stapleton at checkout. Luckily, the prayers got answered and May 29th, I'll be getting my kidney transplant. This is be my final race before transplant. There's one thing I say to the camera. Thank you. I hope this sees a lot of people. Thank you for everyone's support. We plan on just taking the hood off, uh, clearing it, save the signatures, and keep it memorabilia to know, look back on it and be like, I beat it, man. I love videos. I'm glad we did meet you because this is my first race. I have almost no idea what I'm doing. I've I've driven that car for less than an hour cumulatively since I finished it. and I'm going to go out look like relatively dumb compared to all these people that have years and years of experience are semi-professional. But it doesn't matter because it's about the people. It's not about what you do. It's a it's a people thing and this is this is why we do it. I agree with you. You want to sign it? Do I get to pick the color? Thank you. No problem. This is Aiden. He's my spotter today. Hello. How many races have you spotted, Aiden? Just today. Just today. Okay. Well, I've raced just today. So, we're on the bush car. It was a Bobby Labs car originally. Yeah. So, we're lined up for race one about to start. I've never been on the track with this many cars before or been in this scenario at all. So, in my mind, I am prepared for the green flag to come down and every single car in front of me to start hitting each other and crashing. That's uh kind of where my head was. Obviously, that's not going to happen, but I didn't want to be in the beehive. I wasn't prepared for, so I just kind of let it go. My confidence after that last practice session where I um changed the shocks and [music] then messed with the tire pressure was not good. The car did not feel good. Had I started the race the way I was the day before, it would have been a lot better. But I'm kind of like, okay, something's up here. I need to take it easy. So, the way these races work is they are 50 lap races and there is a competition caution at lap [music] 20 no matter what just to kind of bunch the fuel back up. Now, not only have I never been in a race environment [music] before, I have never passed a car before. So, I'm going, okay, I'm going to pass this guy now. I know I can. I just want to see if he's going how much space he's going to leave. And now I'm being completely transparent with this entire process [music] so you can get the best idea of what it's like to have never done this before and go do it. I'm not cutting things out to make myself look better or anything like that. As you can see in the mirror now, Jeremy and AJ are the leaders. They're coming up behind me. And at this point, I probably don't even know they're back there yet because I told Aiden, my spotter, I just want to know if I'm clear or not clear or I got to get out of the way. And when he told me to get it that they were coming, I didn't know where to go because Jeremy was kind of low, AJ was kind of high. So I just sort of slowed down where I was and they went around me on both sides. Immediately after that happens, my brain goes, "Okay, now is your chance to learn something. Pick it up and try to keep up with these guys if you can. And hindsight's 2020. Now that I'm watching this, [music] I'm kind of wondering if AJ's line would have worked better for me than the line that Jeremy described to me before the race. probably would have. I wish I would have tried it, but that's just something to add to my mental notebook for next time. Now, I'm restarting behind the 75 of Bob Shack and I'm thinking, okay, here's another good opportunity for me to follow him around and learn something. So, that's what I'm going to do here. Well, again, keeping my distance. And I'm watching this cluster in front of me kind of turn into what looks like may develop a three-wide situation with those three cars there that are real tight. Now, there is rarely contact in this series, but when there is, it usually happens after a restart before the field gets settled out. Um, and exactly what I was anticipating is what happened. So, there was more than enough space for me to not get caught up in it. Now, I still have no idea where to line up on these restarts. I was just doing what I was told to do. But, I don't know how the 62 was in front of me again. I feel like I passed him at least four times already, but kind of like whatever. It doesn't matter. I'll just pass him again. Now, I'm going to follow Bob around and see if I can learn something. And it was at this moment I decided whatever battle them two have going on is something I do not need to be a part of today. [music] So I'm just going to stay right here and try to learn by observation. What I do start to figure out here is that the bottom of turn one, if I get off of the bottom quicker where that patch is, I don't hit that bump. it goes away. And that kind of goes back to originally what Jeremy explained to me where by that point you should probably be two, three feet up off of that, maybe four feet, [music] and then your left side tires don't catch that bump. It's a lot smoother and you're more settled back on the…