  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!  

Flatirons Syndicate Motorsport Podcast

We talk with Rhys Millen about Off-Road Racing, Rally, and of course the Pikes Peak Hill Climb

  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!  

The Continental Divide Hill Climb and NASA at Pueblo Motorsports Park

  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!  

We talk with the crew from Professional Awesome about Records, Time Attack, and a lot more!

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!

Our re-cap of the 2021 Pikes Peak International Hill Climb

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!

A Pikes Peak Hill Climb car in a box?

  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!  

The Send-It Mentality Vs. The Pursuit of Perfection

  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!  

Dealing with the stress of an event or track day

  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!  

If Miata is always the answer, then what is the question?

  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!  

We talk to Bucky Lasek and Dave Carapetyan!

  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!  

A Pikes Peak Hill Climb Round-Table discussion with Special Guests!

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!

The Budget Slaying Monster that is Scope Creep, and we catch up with DSX Motorsports and OTC Racing

  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!  

What do the Clifton Hillclimb in Arizona and the Brig Hillclimb Series in Japan have in common?

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!

A conversation about Women's culture in Motorsports - With special guests!

  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!  

Olly Clark from Roger Clark Motorsports, driver of the Gobstopper is our guest!

  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!  

Catching up with Ryan and Jeanette from The Ridge, and Do you have to be a Humble Driver to get Faster?

A podcast that is generally on the topic of Motorsports, Subaru's, racing, and car parts, brought to you by Flatirons Tuning

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Flatirons Syndicate Motorsport Podcast

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