Club Racer, Taylor Hyatt

Taylor A. Hyatt - Club Racer for WDCR SCCA

Taylor and her 1987 GTI "Big Bird" have several years of competitive experience, two years of road racing experience, and finished 2nd place in the 2021 WDCR H-Production championship, with two wins under her belt. Taylor Hyatt was the 2021 rookie of the year. If you're looking to invest in a growing race team, she's got some sponsorship opportunities for you!  

Contact: Taylor A. Hyatt at taylor.hyatt3@gmail.com | N/A | N/A

       

• How did you get into cars, and more specifically Club Racing? Did you come from a car/racing family? What made you into a Petrol-head, did it start as a kid? Or did you come into it later in life?
• Did you start in club racing, or use a “gateway motorsport” like AutoCross, Karting or HPDE to work your way up?
• Take us through the Club Racing experience, from School to Competition – what’s it like?
• What kind of car are you running, and Why? How involved are you in the build / maintenance of the car?
• How different is the H-Production GTI vs the ITA/ITB GTI?
• What tracks are you running at? So far, which is your favorite, which is the worst, what’s on your bucket list?
• What do you do to prepare for an event/race? Do you have a workout routine? How do you mentally prepare? Do you use simulators?
• One of your other jobs is “Charity Coordinator” at the WDCR, what does your role entail? How can people get involved in your work?
• Probably one of the most difficult things about racing (and often overlooked) is the funding needed to keep things going. Talk about your budget – and You have some opportunities for folks to sponsor you?
• What is your goal? Pro? SRO World Challenge > IMSA? LeMans? Where do you dream to be in Motorsports in the next 5+ years?

and much, much more!

[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to the Gran Touring Motor Sports Podcast Break Fix, where we’re always fixing the break into something motor sports.

Our guest tonight is a female road racer instructor and event coordinator with the Washington DC region of the Sports Car Club of America. She has had several years of competitive experience, two years of road racing experience, and finished second place in the 2021 W D C R H production championship with two wins under her.

Taylor Hyatt was the 2021 Rookie of the Year, and she’s here to share her motor sports journey with you. So let’s welcome Taylor to break Fix. Hi. Thanks for having me. And joining us tonight is Tanya, our executive producer of the Drive-Through series. So we’re looking forward to this little chat. Like all good break fix stories.

Everyone has a superhero origin. So tell us the who, what, where and when of Taylor Hyatt. How did you get into cars, more specifically, club racing? Did you come from a racing [00:01:00] family? What made you a petrolhead like many other S E C A members? My journey started by going to races with my dad. We spent a lot of time with the track when I was a kid, so I got involved from a really, really early age and actually maybe even before.

Born. So there’s a couple interesting pieces to my story that maybe some others don’t have. I’m a third generation road racer. My dad started at Summit Point in the eighties while he was supposed to be going to college at Shepherd. I say supposed to be . Once he was hooked, he got my grandfather involved.

He started racing and it really just became a family affair. My dad and my grandfather were racing, and then my grandmother was crewing and doing all that behind the scenes stuff as. Then fast forward to the late eighties, early nineties. My dad had kind of backed off from road racing a bit and become an E M T at Summit Point where he met my mom, who was also an E M T.

So they met at Summit Point. You know, both EMTs working there, parked right [00:02:00] there in front of Shay Summit as cozy and romantic as that is, right? Absolutely. So when people ask me if I have racing my blood, I’m. You know, I probably do , like we don’t wanna go down that road, but I probably do. They saw each other across a crowded paddock.

It’s a right, exactly. Yeah. And it’s a great story. I love it. And my boyfriend, Mike and I, we actually met at Summit too, so it’s kind of a cool story to have to tell others. My parents were involved for a long time and then I started attending S E C A Road Race. Probably around 10 years old, regularly going there with my dad and as soon as I started going, I was volunteering.

So I was the little kid in registration that’s like trying to help with everything. The kid in timing and scoring, like, you know, just running around trying to do anything I could do to help and just be there. One of our favorite pit stop questions to ask as part of the origin story, especially if you grew up around cars, is what kind of posters did you have on your wall?

It’s so funny that you say that. I didn. I [00:03:00] really didn’t, and I think it was because I was so involved that I wasn’t that kid that was like, Ooh, look at that car. Ooh, I need this poster. I need, because I saw them all the time. You know what I mean? So it just wasn’t like all the kids in my class, if we’d be out in recess, they’d be like, look at that car that just drove down the street.

I’m like, It’s cool, I guess, you know, I see better than that every weekend, so I really wasn’t that kid with a bunch of posters on their wall being involved in racing from a very early age. Were there cars that you were drawn to or that you gravitated to when you were at the racetrack? You’re like, man, that’s really cool.

Porsche’s have always been my favorite. If I had to pick, really, I wanna get my hands on anything. I wanna drive ’em mall, I wanna touch ’em all. I wanna be in the mall. I just love cars in general. and racing. So as you were stepping into your foray and club racing, what did you use as your quote unquote gateway motorsport?

Or did you have one meaning autocross or carting, or did you start in H P D E first? H P D E or autocross would’ve [00:04:00] totally made more sense than where I actually started again with my dad. He was rally crossing. He was on the rally cross board with S E C A and I went to a few rally crosses with him and.

Fell in love with the group of people that were out there doing that every weekend. The cars, they just pick stuff off the street and bring it and go rally crossing. So I did that a few times with my dad. We actually coro a couple of times over a span of a couple of years. It was great. It really taught me car control at that point, which I didn’t really know that I needed, but it helped a lot with.

After that, I did that around 2016, 2017, and then in the fall of 2017, I did my first H P D E with the Washington DC region of S E C A. From then, it was just a matter of time before I was racing. Uh, I really caught the bug. At that point, I wasn’t too sure that I wanted to go down that route. I had volunteered for so long and I love that side of it.

I just didn’t know if racing. [00:05:00] Gonna be for me, but it didn’t take long after that first H P D E event to wanna do more. So there’s plenty of people that go through that same experience that you just described and some cross that threshold and we never see ’em again. They end up in club racing and you know, we look fondly on the times that they spent with us at H P D E and then there’s other folks that are much more sort.

Timid about making that transition since you went through that whole journey, H P D E to competition school and now full-time into club racing, kinda walk us through that journey. What’s that like? One thing about H P D E, you can always get that constant feedback, so I really enjoy that part of the high performance driving, having coaches either in car, in class, combination of the two.

I really enjoyed that part and. That made a very easy transition into competition school, moving up through the ranks. Within H P D E, you’re starting as a novice, you’re moving on into intermediate, you’re solo, you’re advanced. It’s a very gradual [00:06:00] process that really sets you up for. Competition school if that’s where you want to go.

So competition school really teaches you that racecraft, that you’re not gonna get an H P D E, because that’s not the point of it. Competition school, having that racecraft, then again, an easy transition right into road racing where you just continue to perfect those skills. People make a lot of assumptions about what club racing is like.

I’ve also heard that, you know, everything you learned in H P D E, other than which way the track goes, sort of gets checked at the door, right? It’s very much apples and chainsaws is a comparison I like to make, because to your point, there’s racecraft involved in club racing. So what are some of the things that you kept with you or that you brought from other disciplines into club racing?

H P D E will teach you the basics and from those basics, A great head start into building that racecraft. One of the things they teach you in H P D E is you get to your corner, you do your braking, then you do your [00:07:00] turning. It is one step, then the next, then the final step. When you move into that racecraft, you’ve gotta be doing all of those things at one time, but controlling the car at the same time.

So I think you use all of those. You just have to get a little better at them. Start moving those things closer together that they’re teaching you, and not just step by step by step it, it all kind of comes together and you’re doing it all at the same time. And all of us on this call are H P D instructors as well.

So you kind of realize that H P D D is very tactical, right? To your point, step A, step B, step C, but club racing becomes very strategic. Not only are you doing all those things, you’re dancing with the car. Being defensive, you’re being aggressive, you are blocking apexes, you know, you’re defending corners, you know you’re looking for other people’s mess-ups.

Those are things that you learn pretty much on the battlefield of club racing compared to H B D E. They don’t teach that, I guess, aggressiveness until you get to competition school. Absolutely. And another big piece of that is even if [00:08:00] you are in advanced or in an open passing situation, it’s very limited.

People don’t wanna hurt their cars that they have out there. So even if you’re in that open passing, , it’s so limited that you don’t get the experience. And I will say that was one of the more difficult things to kind of get over. Moving into club racing, someone might be next to you and you’re not really aware of it until maybe sometimes it’s too late.

I mean, you really have to be aware all the time of your surroundings. You’re not just waiting until you get to a straight and that’s where everybody’s gonna pass you, or you come out of the corner and you know, to stay to one side or the other. It. Putting all of those things together, but then also car can pass you in the apex you’re defending, as you said.

I mean, you’re never gonna get that in H P D E, but all of those skills apply in club racing. Another big difference with H P D versus the club racing is even in those open passing groups, when you’ve become, you know, super advanced, the cars are. The same, like if you’re in a club race and [00:09:00] it’s club racing.

E 36 is okay, everybody’s got an E 36. The balance of power, they’re all the same. Whereas in an H P D E, you could have a Lamborghini coming down in on you and you’re in Honda Civic. That passing experience is also gonna be very different than anything you’re gonna experience in the club race setting. It is to a point.

So I race in a multi-class group. We do have some of that speed differential, especially on the the longer Straits . And one thing I will say, I drive a 1987 Volkswagen Golf with all of like six horsepower, right? So when I was doing H P D E, I was hesitant to move into intermediate, into advance because of the speed differential.

I’m telling you, I have a really super strong left arm from all the point buys that I had to give. I drove my line. I was great. I have the skills, but my car is never gonna. , one of the downfalls of H P D E that I would say there is that big speed differential, but you’re gonna have that in club racing at some aspect as well, just [00:10:00] because a lot of S E C’s multi-class racing.

But one of my favorite stories about H P D E is I had moved into intermediate and I’m really thinking I’m just great. Right? I’m doing good. I’m hitting all my marks and this Mustang in front of me. Not moving in the corners will not let me around on the straits. Nothing. And I’m like, man, I don’t, I don’t know what to do.

I’m gonna have to pit because I, I can’t learn anymore just following this Mustang. Seriously. 80 horsepower, keeping up with this Mustang. So we come outta turn 10 at Summit and I see this hand just ever so slowly move up the left side of the car and give me a point by, I still had an instructor in the car and I looked, I’m like, can I do.

And he’s like, absolutely, go for it. So I passed this Mustang in my Volkswagen golf. I had no idea what to do with myself, and he’s like, just keep going. So, you know, of course the Mustang had to back off going down the straits, but after that, I never saw that car ever again. . My point is don’t [00:11:00] ever think that just because you have a slower car that you can’t go do H P D E.

Everybody has a spot. A hundred percent. Now, in your journey, you became a coach at some point. Did you do that before or after you went to club racing? So I am a instructor for the comp school. Within, oh, DC Yeah, so I went through comp school, got my race license, did a year road racing. Then I moved into the trial run, being an instructor for the comp school, and then this will be my first solo year as an instructor for the comp school.

Do you see yourself going back to H B D E as an instructor there too? I get carsick, so I don’t know that that’s a possibility. The comp school. outside of the car because most of the cars don’t have passenger seats, but maybe at some point I just don’t know if I could do that. That’s a lot of trust in somebody that you don’t know, and I praise you guys for doing that.

I had a lot of really, really great instructors in the car with [00:12:00] me, and they were fantastic, but for me, I just don’t know if that’s an option. , but the instructing for comp school outside of the car. Absolutely. I’ll continue to do that. How does that work exactly? We meet Saturday morning, kind of just go over the basics with the students.

We do some orientation laps, and then they’re basically sent out in their cars for an open session in their group, so the instructors go out to the corner stations and watch for certain things that early on in the day. , do they know the line? It’s as simple as that. I mean, you have to know the line. Car control.

Are they in control of their car at all times? Later on throughout the weekend, it’s, are they defensive? Are they too aggressive? You know, are they safe? Can they keep up? All of those types of things that. you want in club racing. The racecraft, you really can’t get to at that point. It’s a very short weekend, but you can see potential and see where there’s maybe some things that need fixed.

So it’s really just [00:13:00] outside of the car coaching, meet up with the students and give them feedback on what you think that they could do better or how well they’re doing on the track. So in this progression path, there is a sidestep and many people. Think to take it along the way to club racing, which is time trials, which is kind of my sweet spot because coming up through autocross and also through carting, kind of similar in the sense that qualifying is super important in carting.

Autocross is all about beating the clock. So you put the two of those together. , you get time trials and qualifying is very important to the race itself, not necessarily the race craft that comes after, but where you’re positioned on grid is really important. Now, granted, we can’t all win the race at turn one, but makes a big difference when you’re at position three and position 17.

Right. How do you feel about time trials? Is it a step that more people should take before going into club racing, or do you just. Send it and figure it out along the way. You know, I think it’s whatever they [00:14:00] feel most comfortable with and, and I will probably say this a lot throughout the evening, everybody has a place, whether that is Rally Cross Autocross, carding, club Racing, H P D E, or time trials.

Everybody has a place and you just have to be comfortable with what your skills are, what car you have, what safety equipment you have. You know, there are some people that don’t wanna take. Big step into club racing because there’s a lot of stuff that comes with that. A lot of safety equipment, a lot of car prep, a lot of rules.

It’s not as easy as, oh, I’m advanced in H P D E. Time to go to club racing. You really have to have the drive to do that, and I think that’s why. We see a lot of people not make that transition. They’re in advanced for a long time and just don’t make that move because I don’t think it’s for everybody. I think some people just really wanna drive their cars fast and not have that risk of as much damage.

You know what I mean? And club racing, it is wheel to wheel should be no contact, but we all know things happen. . There’s just [00:15:00] not that big of a risk with H P D E, which is great. I love that there’s that option Time trials again, that risk is increased a little bit, but not as heavily, I would say, and I don’t have a lot of experience with time trials.

But again, I think everybody has a place. And if that’s that next little bit of adrenaline you want. , that’s the place for you. So you’ve already talked about the car you drive, you’ve gotta mark two Volkswagen Golf. So welcome to the Volkswagen family. Yes, . You’re in good company here. And they do multiply, don’t they?

Yes. They just keep company . Why did you choose that car? Like how did you get into that? So, a couple of reasons. One, it was. Really, really cheap and really easy to fix. My boyfriend, Mike, he had picked one up in 2016 from a friend of ours and had completely redone the car and did his competition school in 2017.

So we already kind of knew what we were looking at. We had all the tools, all the spare parts, [00:16:00] so it, it was just a very easy choice to say, yeah, this car is like a thousand dollars. Let’s go pick it up. We already have all the spares. , we can just build another one. Another cool part of that is that’s what my dad raced when he was racing in the eighties before he moved on to mini’s.

So are you heavily involved in the car’s already built but continuing the maintenance, doing any other modifications? I know enough to be dangerous. Is what I like to tell people. We’re all YouTube certified mechanics here. You can, yes, . So when it comes to more of the fabrication side, like I can help figure things out, I can help put Windows in, I can help rewire.

The mechanical slide, that’s not gonna be a good scenario for anybody. So I let at least the people who think they’re experts handle that and my car’s still running, so I’m okay with it. Somehow I feel like I was left behind. My dad was involved in racing for so long, and cars and raced, and somehow I never learned anything about cars.

I feel like I got left [00:17:00] behind. I’m a little bitter about it, but at this point in my life, I should just leave that up to the profess. We’ve talked about club racing, we’ve talked about the car. The next big part of this is classing. We mentioned in the introduction, the H production class that you’re running in knowing the GTIs, the Mark twos specifically, they’ve been in S C C A forever, but they run in different classes.

So you’re in hp, but there’s also GTIs in ITT A and i, TB and other classes. How do they compare? What does that exactly? Specifically, I can speak to the difference between I TB and H production because my car was originally an I TB car that is very much, I won’t say stock, but pretty close to stock. I mean, you can’t do a lot.

You can make some minor improvements, but you’re never gonna get that speed, that extra horsepower. , less weight, things like that. You’re just not gonna get that. Staying in an I T B class, moving up into h prod, there are a lot more things you can do and you’ll see a [00:18:00] difference between the front runners and the back of the pack and what you can do to your car, which some people don’t enjoy.

You know, the, the spec racing has its perks of everybody’s doing the same thing, everybody’s driving the same car, and it really comes down to the driver. in H production or any production class, you’re gonna get that bigger difference of front of the pack, back of the pack. When it comes to speed again, there’s always somebody to race in mixed class racing.

In prod racing, you’re always gonna have someone. I don’t mind that so much. But as far as car prep, it just really comes down to the more you can do with every single piece of the. We’re always learning regardless of where we are in the stage of our racing careers. So talk about some of your biggest, what we call code brown, or oops moments, , but for the laypeople, your learning moments.

There have been several, as much as I’ve been around road racing my entire life. getting behind the wheel of that race car. It’s a completely different experience that just doesn’t compare to [00:19:00] anything else that I had done. So the first one, one time I went out on track with 10 pounds of air in the rear tires.

Hmm. They should be around, Hmm. 28, 29, depending on the weather. So I came in, I’m like, what is wrong with this car? It’s a completely different car. I don’t know what’s happening. Fix it. Somebody just was like, Hey, why do these tires look. . Oh, someone changed my tires and didn’t fill the air in them before I went out on track.

First, oops is always check your car before you go out on track. That is a huge one. Not only mechanically, but safety. Always check everything before you go out. I believe the term is trust, but verify . I was gonna say the same thing. Yeah, absolutely. It will save you in so many cases. Doing that final check, we usually, you know, go through, qualify or practice and then come in, set everything up so we don’t have to worry about it until we go back out.

Even then, we just do a quick double check before we go back out on track. So that is my first piece of advice [00:20:00] from my oops moment. Another one, a, a bigger one that really just again, comes with the racecraft, is prepare yourself for those moments when you don’t know what to do. And I. Done that. I was racing my first National Majors race at Summit Point.

I found myself in a situation that I had never prepared for. I was coming into the fastest corner of the track, turn four, and the throttle cable stuck. Luckily, it’s got a safety that the throttle wasn’t actually accelerating, but I had no idea what to do. I mean, the. Was just shutting off. I had no power, but I couldn’t really comprehend exactly what was going on in the moment because everything’s happening.

You’re in your first big race, you’re in a car that you kind of know what’s happening, but you’re not a mechanic. You don’t know everything that’s going wrong. You have all these other drivers that you’re not used. To racing around and you’re new. I mean, it was only my second year, so I wanted to [00:21:00] get off track as quickly as possible because I didn’t know if I had blown an engine or you know, I didn’t know if I was leaving stuff on the track.

For my other friends, they’re all friends, which is the terrible part about it. Like I don’t wanna ruin anybody else’s race. So I tried to pull off the track and I was carrying much more speed than I thought I was, and right until the wall I went again, prepare. what you can’t prepare for, and just take a minute to breathe and kind of assess the situation before making any decisions.

It’s a good thing that those GTIs are tanks, so I know . Given those experiences, how do you prepare yourself now? How are you putting yourself in a mindset to be ready for something you don’t know? exactly is going to happen. What I do is just take that extra second. It goes by so fast, but take that extra second to just breathe before making a decision that you can’t take back.

You know, that was something I couldn’t take back. At that point. I tried, I tried really [00:22:00] hard, but I couldn’t take it back at that point. So it’s really just, there is time. It may not seem like it, but there is time to just take that breath. Think about all of your options. , make your best guess. And the other thing I will say is after you make that best educated guess, it is what it is.

And you have to just know that you did what you could in the moment or else you’ll never get back in the car. If you keep not thinking that you can make those types of decisions on the fly, you’ll never do it. So make the decisions as best as you can. Keep going. So what does your racing schedule look like right now?

This year we are planning quite the season. It’s very jam-packed at the front. So our main goal for this year is to race the S E C A runoffs at V I r. So that is in the fall. And to do that, you have to qualify basically to go to that race. There are several options of how to get there, but the option we are taking.

Is doing two national level events [00:23:00] and two regional level events. So I will be racing at Summit Point two times in April, v i r, once in April, summit Point again in September. and then the national championship runoffs at v i r at the end of September. So there’s a lot of months between April and September.

Yeah. So we are getting a new engine. It’s currently in the process of being built. We were hoping to get it in so we’d have it the whole season. But it’s just the industry right now. It’s rough and we don’t wanna rush it. That’s one thing we don’t wanna do. We don’t wanna have to put the motor in in a week’s time.

You know? We wanna take our time and really do things how they’re supposed to be. . We’re waiting for that at this point. It just doesn’t look like that’s gonna happen before April. So we’ve done some other things over the off season to take weight out of the car to give me a little more horsepower in some areas.

So we’ve done some little things, but the new motor’s gonna be the big difference. So we’ll race all of our April races as the car is now, and then spend the. [00:24:00] redoing the engine and getting that in ready for September. So then you have raced one car in April and you’ll be racing a completely different car, so to speak in September.

Yes. What are you gonna do to familiarize yourself with the new engine and the way it’s gonna handle and the way it’s gonna feel, and all those things? Are you just gonna go for it? That’s kind of why we’re doing the home. In September. Technically we don’t have to do that race because we did a race late in October last season.

That qualifies us for this year. So we don’t technically need that second regional race towards the end of this year, but it’s our test and as a lot of people find out that test weekend before the runoffs, a lot of things go wrong. So not only is it me getting used to hopefully potentially a faster car, , but also testing that it’s going to work the way we want it to and be reliable.

Yep. Uh, yes. As Tanya alluded to, you have a lot of time between April and September, so do you see yourself maybe filling that with some H [00:25:00] HPDs, checking some bucket list tracks off your list? Where are some places you’d like to go run your car? Let’s say if your car was running during that time, or borrow someone.

I would go anywhere and race any track I wanted. I wanna race them mall. I wanna see them mall. We all know that’s not possible and never gonna happen, but I am one of those people that when I go to a new track, it is like Christmas morning. You’re learning every single piece of that track. There are no expectations.

You are just out there for the very first time learning everything. And that to me is the best. you’ll ever have is that first time on a brand new track? I would love to go to all of the tracks. We are very fortunate where we live on the east coast that we have so many good tracks around us and history.

The Glen Daytona, v i r, they’re fantastic and have so much history this year. V i r will be new for me in April, so I’m excited about that. Obviously I’ve been. quite a few times, but never behind the [00:26:00] wheel. So I’m super excited for that. In the future, maybe indie. I think that would be really cool if S E C A goes back there for the runoffs.

Again, just the history. I love to combine the two racing and history and just get all of that nostalgia. I’m from years of being a motor sports fan. So have you done all the summit point tracks? I have never driven on the Shen. I don’t know that big bird, I call my car Big bird. I don’t know that big bird would survive the Shenandoah.

It is so bumpy. I think she’d just fall apart. I haven’t made it over to the Shenandoah. They’re Jefferson. I love, and I think it’s because it’s so much like a rally cross course that I just, I have a blast that is actually the track. that I did my first H P D E on in a Dodge Neon. So that was interesting and and really fun.

Shenandoah is a great place to shake down a car because as one of my longtime friends used to say, it will show you everything that’s wrong with your setup and if you can get the car perfect there, it’s perfect everywhere. [00:27:00] Yes, I would believe that. I do a lot of flagging as well, so I flag a lot of events on the Shenandoah and it is a wild track that’s for.

So I’ll get over there at some point. I just have to find the right car. You got your racing season, you got the schedule all laid out. You’ve got the car ready for round one . It’ll change at round two. What are you doing personally to prepare for these events? . So one is getting back into shape from my winter.

You know, however many I won’t say, but I think that’s something we all have to do is like, okay, we have to realize as racers we have to fit back into our driver’s suit that we paid a lot of money for every year. So we can’t let the winter get to us too bad. I keep up with some strength training and cardio and stretching.

Anyway, just I feel that it helps. Make those Mondays a lot less painful after being in the car all weekend if you already are kind of in tuned to having those muscles work like that. Anyway, so I do keep up with that. [00:28:00] We do have a sim rig here in the basement that we use. You know, I have a love-hate relationship with that sim rig.

I am one of those people that I need to feel every little bump and tweak of the car. SIM rig just doesn’t give that to me. So I find it very difficult. But as far as learning a new track, it’s the best way to go. So I used two years ago now, when I went to N J M P for the first time, I used the sim rig a lot to prepare for that.

And it absolutely helps, at least with learning the track layout. So those are my two things, kind of getting myself back into a decent shape and then, you know, getting some time on the sim rig. So any mental rituals. , did you go through to kind of prepare to get in that zone to get Zed out, or as soon as you put your suit on and your helmet on, you just the calm washes over you and you’re good.

Are you implying that racers are superstitious as well? , everyone is who they are. . [00:29:00] I will answer both of your questions actually. Mentally, I try to think about racing as little as physically possible for the entire week leading up to the event. If I think about it, I am so stressed out and so overwhelmed that come race day, I perform terribly.

So I really and truly try to not think about, like, I won’t even pack my bag for the weekend, or I’ll pack it like three weeks in advance because I can’t think about it. I just need to live my normal, everyday boring life. And then, Friday night, then I go to the track and start the whole process. Before that, I just get so worked up mentally.

I just really try to not think about it. And then the morning of I do, I kind of have to get myself in the right head space of, okay, this is what’s happening. And it kind of goes back to what we were talking about earlier with getting yourself in that mindset of, I’m gonna have to make decisions really quick.

I’m gonna have to concentrate. Like this is not your everyday life. It is so much different than. [00:30:00] You are trained to think it takes a lot. It is not easy to get yourself in that mindset. And then as far as superstitions, I actually have a pin that goes on my race suit that my grandfather had for a very long time.

It has been through. My grandfather’s comp school, I gave it and put it on Mike’s suit. When he went through comp school. I had it on my suit and then my dad just went back through comp school last year. After 37 years of not racing, he wore it on his suit. So it’s pretty cool. We do have a little superstition that everybody wears it on their suit.

Outside of all this, one of your other jobs is the charity coordinator at the W D C R, the Washington DC region of S E C A. So what does that role entail and how can other people get involved in helping you with your job? I took that on, last year was my first year as the charity coordinator. I really just plan charity events during our regularly scheduled.

To bring a little bit of giving back to the [00:31:00] community. I like to say that most of us live, work and play in. I think getting that many people together as many times out of the year that we get together, we should really be giving back to our communities. Last year I planned three events, one at a road race, one at an autocross, and we actually did a virtual event and those funds went to the boys and girls.

the local chapter near Summit Point, and then to the S E C A Foundation. We raised over $8,000 last year between those three events, so that was really, really cool to see that everybody kind of came together. In a world where racing is not cheap, people are still willing to give to good causes and our local communities.

So as far as helping, I. always, always, always looking for people to help me plan the events, help me staff the events, but also just get the word out there. It’s really hard with how social media is and the algorithms to get this kind of stuff in people’s faces, so [00:32:00] just spreading the word when you see it.

is more helpful than you can even realize. Also, if you are a business or know someone who is willing to give products or services for raffles and things like that, that’s a huge help as well. Really just about donations and help and spreading the word. So if a young girl walked up to you today and asked, why do you race?

what would you say to her? I think I race because that’s where I fit in. It’s where I’ve always fit in and I think everybody needs to find that place. And if you walk around the paddock at any motor sports event, you will see we are all alike. It doesn’t matter what you look like, how old you are, what you do for work, when we step into that paddock,

We are all so like-minded. It’s crazy. So I really just think that the motor sports industry, it’s where I fit in. It’s my people. They’re my people, they’re my family. I have made so many lifelong friends through racing that some of them I’m closer with [00:33:00] in my own family. . So to me, racing is about a place where you fit in.

Not everybody plays other sports. Not everybody fits into those clubs or things in their schools. So this can be an outlet for anybody, male or female, to find a place to fit in. I think sometimes people have a preconceived notion automatically that motor sports equals. Science, tech, math, engineering. And so you have to have that kind of mind background to be involved in it.

And that’s really not the case. I think there’s people of all walks of educational background that get involved in motor sports. I mean, obviously there’s a financial aspect to it that can be quite burdensome. So if we set that aside, , is it obtainable no matter what or is it really geeky and techy like some people might think, no.

I think, like I said earlier, there’s a place for everybody, and if that is you are a super tech, smart, geeky person that can be the person behind all the electronics or the data, [00:34:00] all of that stuff that I want nothing to do with, there’s a place for you if you are that mechanic that wants to get your hands dirty and knows everything there is to know about an.

There’s a place for you. If you’re the crazy ones like us who wanna be behind the wheel, there’s a place for you whether you have a car, rent a car, find a friend, go buy a $500 car on Craigslist. Is that even a thing still? I don’t know. But there’s a place for you. And if it’s not actually racing or. Being hands on with a car.

There are so many other ways to get involved with volunteering or event planning. So many things, especially when you move into club racing, that is all volunteer. Most people don’t know this, that these events are staffed by volunteers. There’s a place for you, no matter how techy you are, how non-techy you are, budget, low budget, high budget, there’s a place for you.

And it dovetails off of what we talked about earlier. You know, the transition from H P D E into club racing as a coach. You know, you see all walks of life come [00:35:00] through the H P D E. For some people it’s a bucket list. They just got their new Corvette and they just wanna drive it like it was intended to be driven and things like that.

And you got the guys that are aspiring club racers and everybody in between. And what’s funny, What you mentioned about different people from different backgrounds, it comes through in their driving style a lot. I’ve had students that are art teachers and they’re very passionate about how they drive and whatever.

And you got these super techy guys from the IT industry and they’re overanalyzing their laps and yes, I even had one student, I’ll never forget, I turned them at one point and they said, you fly airplanes, don’t you? And he goes, how do you. I said, by the way, you hold the steering wheel. And he was like, oh.

You know, and, and it’s just, it’s sort of funny, these little things that you pick up on. But at the end of the day, we’re all behind the steering wheel. We’re all out on track together, communicating almost like bees in a way, right? Where it, it’s non-verbal, but it’s happening and it’s, it’s such a beautiful thing to get everybody together like that, in that type of arena.

It really is. And that again, just goes back to what I was saying earlier with once we step into that paddock, we’re all [00:36:00] the same. It doesn’t matter. And I find this. entertaining that I can really tell people like I know a rocket scientist. I’ve met one because he raced with us . Like you would never think that these people come out and race these cars, and some of them are racing like Miatas.

Some of them are racing. Ferrari, Corbetts, Porsches, it, it doesn’t matter. They just wanna be in the car no matter what it is. I love it. That is probably the part I love the most, just everybody really having the same mindset and wanting to go out and achieve the same thing. . We all either wanna go fast, learn how to go fast, control our car race, we’re all moving towards the same thing.

And you know, to expound upon that a little bit more, and food for thought for listeners who are thinking about getting involved are still unsure, unclear how they can be involved. Even if you don’t wanna be a driver, like you were saying, there’s so many other things. Pit crewing, flagging, e m, ting . Right?

But even beyond that, if you have local racing [00:37:00] organizations like the S E C A, you can be. in the club itself on the committees. There’s plenty of newsletters that go out in artwork. If you’re a graphics artist, things of that nature that you can be doing. The event coordination, like you said, journalism, even writing articles, recapping the events.

I mean, maybe you can even get into broadcasting. There’s commentators during the races. I mean, probably about every profession in the world can somehow be tied into motor sports. And there, like you said, there’s a home for everybody depending on what you’re interested in. Those are the people we’re looking.

all the time. We have racers. Could we have more? Yes, absolutely. We could have more. But it’s the people to run the events, we need them. And I think the problem is people come as a volunteer and they get hooked and now they wanna race and we lose them as a volunteer because now they’re racing. That’s what happened to me.

I’m not nearly as involved as I used to be because now I’m racing. You know, do we want racers? Do we want volunteers? I don’t know. We need everybody. So I think it’s so [00:38:00] great that there really and truly is a place for everybody. And like you were saying, all of these professions that they’re doing outside of Friday through Sunday, they can come to work with us as.

So this next question is kind of specific to you being a lady in racing. Just to preface it for everyone, the listeners included, it gets asked a lot when we have lady guests, and it’s not necessarily to poke at the male gender, anything like that. The question’s really twofold. On the one hand, a lot of women can have a negative experience and often it’s men aren’t accepting of.

in this motor sports world, and I think there needs to be an awareness of, is that still happening? We need to continue addressing it. And the men folk listening need to be aware that that’s still happening. But the other side of the coin is there’s been a lot of ladies that have said, well, I haven’t experienced anything like that.

All the men that I’ve come across, or whoever it is, have been. really wonderful and accepting great friends and family. And so ladies also need to be aware of that [00:39:00] because if that’s a barrier to their entry, it’s good information either way. So what has your experience been? Have you had any of the negative, has it all been positive?

I feel like I have been so lucky to have probably 98% positive. I feel very fortunate and part of that is I think growing up around it, I know the language, I know the vibe. I. . I know the people to be around the people not to be around, like growing up in it or being in it for a long time. You just kind of get a feeling of that, so it’s a little easier.

That’s not to say that I haven’t had those experiences. I have had someone come at me in tech after a race and basically tell me, I don’t know how to drive. I won’t go into everything that was said, but really putting me down without saying that’s. . That was why, and you could tell. So I’ve definitely had those experiences.

It happens, but I don’t think it’s happening as frequently as it did decades ago when we weren’t in motor sports nearly as [00:40:00] much as we are now. And I mean, if you are a motor sports fan and you look at Instagram, there are so many female racers that are popping up all the time. They’re everywhere. And social media, Buzzing with this women in motor sports movement right now, and that’s thanks to a lot of really great women racers that came before us, some of which you’ve had on your show here.

I think we’re very fortunate. My generation and those coming after me, these ladies have really walked the path and made that easier for us to get involved. I do think you still need to have a thick skin. Unfortunately, it’s a male dominated sport, and to go in thinking everyone’s gonna accept you. It’s unfortunate, but that’s not gonna happen.

And the way things are, they’re catered towards. and one of the biggest complaints I had about doing my competition school, everything’s really close together. You’re out on track, you are in the classroom, you are talking with your instructor, and then you’re right back out on track. You have [00:41:00] got no time to even go to the bathroom.

Being a lady in a race suit, it takes a while and that turnaround time, they’re like, you can’t be late to grid. You can’t be late to grid. I’m like, well, then I need to leave the classroom early. You know, it’s those kind of things that don’t affect. Men that do affect women that just aren’t being addressed.

So one of the things I did last year when I was in session, I made sure those sessions got out on time every single time we were in the classroom because they needed that time. And we have at least two females going through the school this year, and I will be doing the same thing, making sure that I can help accommodate them in whatever.

Is necessary. You hit on something really important about what’s going on, not only in this sport but other sports. But one of the things I like to remind people is Motorsport is one of the few, if not the only, like truly, I wanna say, non-discriminatory sport in the sense that it’s co-ed. It doesn’t matter your background, your ethnicity, your [00:42:00] beliefs, your faith, whatever it is, it’s accepting of everybody.

Because again, going back to the earlier part of the conversation, when you’re behind the wheel, You’re an object on that track with other objects buzzing around you. So it’s really interesting when you look at that from that perspective, which brings up a conversation about how to invite more people to the paddock.

You know, a lot of people say, well if, if I see you, I see me one of those, you know, see, you see me type of situations, and that’s important. So how would you change racing if you were a queen for a day to. more inviting to people, especially women. That’s a really, really tough question and I think that’s why , no one else has figured this out yet.

Like I, you know, I don’t have any groundbreaking ideas, but I think we just have to be more inviting overall period to everybody. I think some groups are set in their ways. And have the longer term, longer generation members who just aren’t really accepting of new members at all, male or female, [00:43:00] some of those things come into play.

I also think some of the barriers are safety equipment, racing suits say that is something very new to the market, that racing suits are being made for females. Nomex underwear being made for females. If you’re not comfortable in that race car, you are not driving to your best. I will tell you that right now I bought a race suit that was like six sizes too big for me because that’s what my friend was selling and that’s what I had the money for.

And I have been so uncomfortable for the last two years and I finally, OG racing just helped me get into a brand new lady’s suit and I can’t wait to be in the car with that. So I really feel like a lot of these issues that are specific to women need to be addressed before they’re gonna wanna come race with.

But I will say that suit was on the higher end of the suits, even though it’s maybe the same quality as some of the lower end suits on the male side. And it’s funny you bring that up because it’s actually a systemic [00:44:00] problem across motorsports in general. And we actually interviewed Paige and Kelly McReynolds from McRay Motorcross, and they saw the same thing.

In off-road motorcycle racing and they’d started to develop their own suits and gear and things specifically for women. So that’s also kind of cool that that sort of transition is happening in the industry as well as more and more women are coming to the paddock, you know, every weekend. So it’s an excellent point that you bring up.

Absolutely. And I think several decades ago when the Lynn St. James of the World, Making this path for us. They didn’t wanna stir up anything more than needed to be stirred up, right? So they weren’t gonna go and say, Hey, I need this suit especially designed to fit me because the male figures in the industry would’ve laughed at her.

Some of those things are just coming to light because we’re living in a different world, we’re living in. I like to think a more accepting world, trying to get there. And so people don’t look at you funny when you say, I need something that fits me better. That wasn’t the. [00:45:00] 20 years ago. So circling back around to your career now as a racer, obviously racing, it’s kind of a business, right?

In a way it’s, it’s your business , you’re trying to be successful in whatever that means, depending on the, the type of racing you’re in it, there’s hard money on the table and things of that nature, and that’s really difficult. It takes a lot of money sometimes to be the number. , you could be the most talented driver to ever grace the asphalt, and yet somebody inferior with buckets, ton of more money, they’re winning.

Then that’s a huge challenge. So, you know, getting that funding is really critical, you know, to keep things going. So can you talk a little bit about that? Like how do you budget yourself or you know, how are you dealing with trying to get sponsorship? I think you’re spot on. There are definitely some drivers.

They have the money to be at the top of the class, so they’re at the top of the class. But if they didn’t have that money, they wouldn’t be at the top of the class. [00:46:00] Absolutely. Money is a huge factor. Maybe I should go back to my prior question. I think that turns a lot of people away. So maybe if I was queen for a day, I would just say racing is free and that would cure everyone’s problems.

Right. , but money is a huge factor. It’s unfortunate, but it’s a huge factor in racing. So me personally, I have to pick and choose maybe some years even in H P D E, do more events than others. It just all depends on also what’s going on in your personal life. Most of us, especially in the regional level, . We all have other jobs.

We’re working full-time jobs to pay for our racing habit. . So there. There are worse things to be addicted to, right? That’s what we keep telling ourselves. Everybody says that there’s worse things to be addicted to . I know, I know. I question that sometimes. Like is, I don’t know. I think this is pretty bad sometimes, but it shows how fun it is because we keep doing it and paying all of this money to do it.

There’s a reason and it’s that feeling you get. Grab that steering wheel and put your belts [00:47:00] on. I don’t know how to explain it. You can explain it if you’ve never been there, but it’s definitely, it’s a good feeling. Having to pick and choose your events makes that really hard. And watching the bottom dollar, it makes it really difficult.

So sponsors do certainly help that. I think getting sponsors is becoming more and more difficult because the market is so saturated with really great drivers. It is crazy the amount. So, so talented people that are out there all fighting for the same dollars. Mostly. When looking for sponsorships, we find a brand or a company or business that we enjoy working with.

We enjoy or use their parts. We have worked with them for some time and we reach out to them and just say, Hey. , we’ve been buying parts from you for three years. Do you wanna help us out? Do you wanna sponsor our team? Do you wanna give us a discount? Like most of the time, what you’re getting is discounts on either products or services, which is great.

It is fantastic if you [00:48:00] can get those parts at a discounted cost or safety gear at a discounted cost, that helps every little penny. , and then you can put that towards your entry fees and your gas and your tires. I just really reach out to those businesses that I believe in. I’m not gonna work with someone who I don’t believe in.

I don’t like their parts. I don’t like how they work. I’m not gonna do that. So find somebody you really like and just see if they’re willing to work with you. . And then once you build that relationship a little bit, they might be more willing to give you more the next year. Or maybe they’ll sponsor your entry fee for the weekend.

You know, you can just build upon that relationship and, and hopefully get a little bit more, go in a little bit more detail if you can. Like, so you’re actively looking for sponsorship right now? Yes. , is that involving like cold calling places or you know, how does that side work? And then also like how do they get involved with you?

Like is there a means if anyone’s listening out there, right? Like how could somebody reach out to you if they wanted to sponsor you? Yeah. Help us. Help you, right, ? [00:49:00] Yes, absolutely. And you already have actually. So like I said, most of what we are doing, Cold calling. For the most part, we’re working with businesses that we buy parts from.

Again, OG racing. They have helped the DC region for years and they always help the drivers out if they can. So we’ve been buying stuff from them for years. They help us. So it was really just reaching out to those businesses that were already. Buying parts from or getting services done from, we did reach out to a couple local places.

I think that tends to be the best option as well. Um, if you’re calling up like Napa, you’re not really probably gonna get a sponsorship from them or even a discount because they do the higher level sponsorships. Right. But your local parts store down the. , they might wanna get their name out there. So go to them.

And especially if you have someone in your local community that you know that has a business, go to them. You can never get anything but a [00:50:00] no. That’s the worst that’s ever gonna happen and I really had to learn that and, and be okay with asking people for money. It’s hard, especially knowing the economy we’re living in right now.

but you also have something to give them. You have an endless amount of people that you can advertise to every single race or H P D E or Rally Cross. I mean, how many people are there that are gonna see a sticker on your car or follow you on social media? You have an endless amount of people that you can advertise their business to for them.

So, and do events, you know, take your car out there, do events with them, that sort of thing. Companies really, really enjoy. I don’t do as much cold calling. I just don’t know that that works. It might work for some people. I, I do know some people that do that. You have to have a lot of time on your hands to do that.

That’s not for me. But as far as if people are listening and really like my story, , I thank you for that. And you can certainly reach out to us. We would be more than happy to speak [00:51:00] with you about what we have to offer to you and what kind of partnership we can build. So with all that comes goals. So what are your goals?

Do you want to go pro? Do you wanna go to World Challenge? You see yourself in ims, a maybe at LA’s one day. Where do you dream to be in Motorsports in the next five years? Uh, so listen. I’m 30, right? Like no one’s knocking down my door for an IMS aide, or I’m, I’m not gonna be running the next Indie 500.

Okay? So my goal is yes, to do some fun racing things, but really my goal is to help ease that path for other racers. That’s what I feel that I can do. I feel like I can build my experience, build my racing skills by racing myself. Like I said, my goal this year is to go to the runoffs and hopefully do well there, but really I just wanna help other people and not specifically.

Females. That obviously is a big goal of mine as well, to help the younger [00:52:00] females that are coming into the club have a place to go. But even just the younger generation, they need people that can speak their language, can really get them, listen to them and give them what they need to, because their needs are totally different than the racers we currently.

My overall goal is to help build the club, help build the industry, and really just pave that way and make it easier for the younger generation. Well said Taylor. And with that, any shout outs, promotions, or anything else you’d like to share that we haven’t covered thus far? Yeah, I would really like to give a huge shout out to my crew, chief car owner slash boyfriend Mike at Mad Mike Motorsports.

My skills are wonderful, I will say that, but without his skill work on the. , it would mean nothing. So I can only do what I do because of him and his hard work and the help of all of our friends. So as far as sponsors, we have some really great businesses on board this year. So OG racing for all of your safety gear needs, of [00:53:00] course.

Uh, new German performance, Autobahn, Autoworks, half-ass motorsports. And then Conig Wheels are all on board to help us already this year, so we appreciate. and then we just hope that everybody can tune into the 60th running of the S E C A National Championship runoffs at v I r that will be televised via YouTube.

So you can certainly watch that look out for us, uh, during the H production class. , do you have any charity events coming up? We will have our big road racing charity event during the Labor Day Spectacular. At Summit Point. We’ve been doing that charity event, oh my gosh, probably 15, 20 years. So that is our big event.

That’s where most of our funds come in, but then we will certainly work to get some other charity events thrown in there with Autocross, rally Cross, and at least a virtual event as well throughout the. Well, we definitely need to continue to encourage young drivers of all walks of life and especially the ladies.

This helps keep the various disciplines of motorsports we love [00:54:00] intact and growing. Currently, Taylor’s goal is to build relationships with businesses and products she believes in, in turn, helping them to increase exposure and drive sales. All of this while also keeping her race car in tiptop shape to compete at the highest levels.

If you’re interested in sponsoring her or want to follow her progress, find her on I. At Taylor do a.hyatt and on Facebook, be sure to check out other interviews she’s been featured on, such as on the podcast inside the SCCA and Taylor, I cannot thank you enough for coming on Break Fix and sharing your story whether you believe it or not.

You know, you talked a lot about the women that came before you and how you look up to them and you know some of the ones that have been on this show. But remember that there’s young ladies out there. That are looking up to you right now in the same way, and I think you’re setting a very good precedent and a great example for those young women.

And hopefully we’ll see them in the paddock alongside of you racing out there. And we wish you the best of luck in this season and the ones to come. Thank you so much.[00:55:00]

If you like what you’ve heard and want to learn more about gtm, be sure to check us out on www.gt motorsports.org. You can also find us on Instagram at Grand Tour Motorsports. Also, if you want to get involved or have suggestions for future shows, you can call our Texas at (202) 630-1770 or send us an email at crew chief gt motorsports.org.

We’d love to hear. Hey everybody, crew Chief Eric here. We really hope you enjoyed this episode of Break Fix, and we wanted to remind you that G T M remains a no annual fees organization, and our goal is to continue to bring you quality episodes like this one at no charge. As a loyal listener, please consider subscribing to our Patreon for bonus and behind the scenes content, extra goodies and GTM swag.

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