GHIT 0236: Tim Fokine - Pilot/Racer, Instructor and Racing Instructor

Garage Heroes In Training

Tim Fokine is a commercial pilot and also involved with the training of pilots, as such it was no surprise that he is involved with the training of drivers and instructors within NASA Great Lakes and a few other groups. Bill first met Tim in HPDE 2 at Mid Ohio and Tim was further motivated to progress quickly, lol. This past week however, like a bad penny, Bill was back and Tim was his mentor in his prep weekend sessions for next month’s MSF Level 2 instructor certification weekend. During our discussion with Tim, we go over how being a pilot and a racing driver can be sometimes complementary and at the same time directly opposite in some ways. We also go into the NASA endurance racing series (TREC) as well as the transition from being an HPDE student to becoming a driving instructor. We barely scratched the surface with Tim and hope to have him on again soon.

We did have a bit of microphone echo at some points that we could not edit out. Our apologies.

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A link to the episode is: https://tinyurl.com/TimFokine

We hope you enjoy this episode!

PS Please don’t forget that if you are looking to add an Apex Pro to your driving telemetry system, don’t forget to use our discount code for all Apex Pro systems you will receive a free Windshield Suction Cup Mount for the system, a savings of $40. Just enter the code “ghitlikesapex!” when you order. They are a great system and truly invaluable in safely increasing your speed on track and/or autocross etc. The recently released second generation systems and app increases the capability of the system greatly.

Best regards,

Vicki, Jennifer, Alan, and Bill

Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training Podcast and Garage Heroes In Training racing team drivers

Highlights from this episode include:

1) How Tim is introducing his entire family to our sport and how we are going to help coerce his beautiful bride next.

2) We received a message live during the recording from the HPDE student Tim and Bill worked with at the last Mid Ohio event together

3) How learning on a lower power/momentum car can benefit your learning, especially as a relatively new performance driver in HPDE's

4) Some of the benefits of learning in a lower power car on the track.

5) It sounds like we can expect to see Tim and a few friends joining us at endurance races in the coming seasons.

6) Vicki and Tim have a great discussion about the importance of being present, in the moment when driving on track.

7) Our first ever Joey Pollack flight training story. Hopefully we can have Joey on a future podcast.

8) Tim discusses the use of checklists and some of the better ways that they can be used in aviation and racing. Tim describes several great examples of how to use checklists in endurance racing.

9) We discussed the relatively new NASA TREX endurance racing series and may be able to finally start racing next season. There are several differences to the series we have competed in to this point.