From Firefighter to Finish Line: Scaling a 50-Year Open-Wheel Legacy with John Harkenrider

What happens when a 10-second drag racer and a 15-year fire service veteran takes over a 50-year motorsports legacy and decides to modernize the hustle? 

You get something bigger than a shop. You get a standard of excellence. 

In this episode of the Late to Grid Podcast, we dive into the career of John Harkenrider, General Manager of Havoc Motorsport. John talks about the transition from the high-stakes world of firefighting to managing one of the nation’s premier open-wheel arrive-and-drive programs at Autobahn Country Club. 

From building nitrous-fed Trans Ams... to becoming a team "gopher"... to now overseeing a fleet of F3 and Formula Mazda cars, this episode is about the relentless work required to run a professional racing organization. It’s about the evolution from grassroots drag strips to championship-winning Atlantic Open programs. And it's about why "Work Harder" is more than just a banner on the wall—it's a requirement. 

🏁 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• How John transitioned from 15 years in the fire service to leading a top-tier race team 
• Why LinkedIn has become the ultimate tool for landing international drivers and title sponsors 
• The reality of Arrive and Drive programs and why the "Bumble" model of sponsorship is changing the game 
• What happens when a renter "isn't vibing" with a car and how it affects lap times 
• The massive financial investment of scaling a fleet of six-figure F3 chassis 
• Why John’s favorite quote is: "Early is on time, on time is late, and late equals go home" 

This isn’t just a 9-to-5. This is a 24/7 commitment to precision and performance. A professional paddock built on discipline, leadership, and racing spirit. 

Havoc Motorsport blends a half-century of history with the modern necessity of high-level networking. Whether you are a karter looking to make the jump to open-wheel, a brand seeking a VIP hospitality presence at the track, or a driver wanting a "one-stop-shop" for coaching and data, this episode reveals what it takes to operate at the highest levels of the SCCA and FRP. 

And with Atomic Autosports focusing on the same "Atomic Prep" philosophy, the connection between technical excellence and shop-level discipline has never been clearer. 

Want faster laps and fewer headaches at the track? Atomic Autosports helps grassroots racers go from “I hope this works” to “I know this works.” 

From alignment and suspension tuning to track-day prep, Atomic Autosports is here to help you drive smarter, safer, and quicker. If you’re ready to stop guessing and start progressing, learn more at atomicautosports.http://www.atomicautosports.comcom

If you’re serious about getting faster, start at AtomicAutosports.com where you can find guides, information, and even connect with us to make sure that your motorsports journey stays on track. 

You know me as the host of Late To Grid, but my biggest shift wasn't on the track, it was leaving corporate life to own a Rad Air location. It gave me the freedom to turn my passion for cars into a career and actually get to the track more often. Ready to own your future? Visit radairfranchise.com and let’s get you living life in the fast lane.

Thanks for listening and taking an interest in growing grassroots racing.  The Late To Grid podcast shares the stories and inspiration that help listeners along their motorsports journey. 

Find all episodes on the Atomic Autosports website.

Transcript

0:19

Imagine building and racing a ten second drag car, then becoming a gofer for a race team, which leads to becoming the general manager of one of the nation's top arrive and drive programs. Let's throw the green flag on this episode. Well, I'm excited to have John Harkrider on the Late to Grid podcast. John, it's great to have you here. It's great to be here. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, I do like to tell the listeners how I meet guests, and you and I met on one of my favorite social media platforms, LinkedIn. You made a comment, uh, about a post I made, uh, and you said, hey, love the podcast, love to be on you. And I had a great conversation. And here we are. So, so tell me, uh, how do you use LinkedIn as it relates to your business? And let me tell the listeners, Havock Motorsports, we're going to get into that as the episode goes on. But John, how do you in the motorsports world use LinkedIn? You know, it's wild. I, I never really used it until about a year ago. Um, I got on there and I realized how many people were on there from the race community, um, you know, from team owners to mechanics to drivers to sponsors, everyone you need to know in the racing world has some form of connection to LinkedIn, and it's been great. Um, the contacts I've made have been far more than I've, I've been able to do just, you know, meet and greets and trade shows and stuff like that. So it's been really helpful. That's awesome. We talk about networking on this podcast quite a bit because racing is such a tight knit community. It's such an open community. So whether you network in person, you network online, it is super important as you want to advance through motorsports, is there a connection you've made through networking that helped maybe land a new arrive and drive customer, or helped you solve a problem, or got you to the next level? Yeah. We signed we actually for LinkedIn, um, got in touch with Ralph Hanson from Pegasus Marketing Group, and we hooked up with him and, um, got a lot of a lot of leads on some on some possible title sponsors for the twenty six season that we're we're nearing locking in and we got two drivers that were interviewing this week. Um, so definitely has been has been a help in that aspect. Um, and then just being able to communicate with drivers and teams in on the European side that normally we really wouldn't have that contact with. Um, one of the drivers is actually from Abu Dhabi. So, um, you know, regular, regular stuff I would have never, never met this driver had the opportunity. So it's been super helpful. Right. That's that's great. Uh, I want to tell listeners to that after you and I got connected, I was doing a little research on you just to, uh. Who is John? What's his Havoc Motorsport about? And, uh, I came across a picture of your shop, and it got me fired up that morning, because after I saw that, I was headed to the gym to work out. And it was. Work harder or nobody cares. Work harder. Why is that? Why is that hanging in your shop? Um, that's just one of those things that kind of my my father in law, uh, inspired it was, you know, he was he was old school. And, you know, it didn't matter what what it took or how long it took. You had a job and it needed to get done. So, you know, we've kind of just adopted that, you know, nobody cares. Work harder, just get the job done. You know what you need to do, right? Don't tell me about it. Just get it done. I don't care what's in the way. Get it done. That's awesome. Let's talk a little bit about your background. You've always been interested in cars, and a bunch of friends dragged you to a drag strip, and that's when you fell in love with racing. Tell us about that story. Yeah. So it was, you know, I was I was fourteen and it was a Friday night and a bunch of my, my buddies and their older brothers were going to the drag strip and they're like, you coming with. And I'm like, I, I don't know, like you're coming with. So we all piled in the car and we drove out to the drag strip. One of the older brothers had a had a car he was running and, uh, four and a half, five hours later of just watching cars rip down the track, I was hooked. I got a job at the local speed shop the next summer, and from there I started building a Trans Am, and I had a ten second street car that I raced at the track. And then, you know, it was time to kind of grow up. And I sold it and still, still regret selling that to this day. I should have kept it and just made an all out, all out drag strip car. But, um, that's that's where I got hooked into the world of racing. Was, was the drag strip and all of that stuff. What drag strip us forty one out in Morocco. Indiana. All right. And I'm gonna guess it was a first gen Firebird. If it was a drag car. No, it was it was a ninety four. It was the first year of the LT1. Okay. And that LT1 lasted about six months in that car, and we ripped it out, and, um, I was, I was I knew Pat Musee through his kids and, uh, he ended up having a, a motor that a customer decided they didn't want. And I was able to pay the remaining balance on it and pick up a Pat Muncie nitrous motor. And that was kind of all she wrote. That's that's when the money started really getting serious at, you know, at eighteen years old, but. Oh, yeah. So ten second. Man, that's pretty quick. Do you ever get the urge to do it again? All the time. Yeah. Do you ever just take the daily driver down there? No I haven't. I you know, I, I moved up to a pickup so that wouldn't, it wouldn't get me too far down the quarter mile. But there's, there's times I've, I've been find myself shopping looking at looking at the Trans AMS and the Camaros out there just like, oh, that'd be fun to do again. Yeah. I've never been down the drag strip went to, you know, in high school, we'd always go out to, uh, the local drag strip on Wednesdays and watch some grudge matches, and it was always a good time, but just, I don't know, I never really got behind the wheel. Maybe it's something I'll. I'll have to try. Um, so other than drag racing, did you ever do anything else behind the wheel? Any autocross track days before you started working with havoc? No, it was. It was just the a drag strip. And, uh, working with havoc. I kind of. I kind of fell into it. Was thrown into it. Um, I was a fireman for fifteen years, and then I blew my knee out. Um, doctor wouldn't clear me to go back, so had to find a had to find a new career at twenty nine years old, which was not not in the cards. Wasn't planned, but it just kind of happened. And I was lucky enough my father in law, you know, offered me the spot. And, uh, I came in and I said, I, I know nothing about road racing. You know, I'm I'm from the world of as much power as you can put down and keep the tires from spinning and go straight. So it was a learning curve. And, uh, hopefully I picked up some of the stuff that, you know, he had tried to teach me over, over time. But. Yeah. And when you when you first came into havoc, you were working in the pits, you were refueling cars. Is that right? Yeah, I was, I was, I was basically a gopher. You know, I started just changing tires, going to get fuel, fueling cars, cleaning cars. Uh, slowly. Just trying to make my way up and finally get to start turning wrenches on cars and but yeah, started started from the bottom. And now you're running the whole show, and I want to we're going to get to that as we continue to talk on something I want to talk about in a little bit. But since you mentioned gopher, when I was in college, I was a gopher for a Formula Atlantic team. Jim Griffith out of Chardon, Ohio, built his own chassis, campaigned them in SCCA, Formula Atlantic. Um, a lot of great lessons. And I always tell people I wish we had Instagram and LinkedIn and stuff like that back then because, you know, Michael Shanks walking around the paddock, that's the time that he was involved in Formula Atlantic, you know, in regional SCCA racing. And, you know, you get introduced to him and, you know, had no way really to stay connected. Like like today's uh, today's opportunities have. So yeah, for those listening, we talk about networking. If you have the opportunity to be in a gopher, and if you don't know what gopher is, go for this, go for that. Get this done. Take those opportunities. Because, you know, in John's case, look where they led to running havoc motorsport. Uh, those those early days when you started working with havoc, were there some things you were able to bring over from being a paramedic or maybe even the drag race scene that you started implementing? Yeah. You know, it's a lot of this stuff carries over. You know, the big ones like discipline, time management, um, leadership, it all. It all carries over and gives you, um, a leg up. You feel more comfortable once you start taking on more responsibility. It's not not as overwhelming. Um, when I went from just wrenching to crew chief, that was that was a big step. And then shop manager, um, and, you know, that was I started taking on all the, all of our travel stuff, coordinating, you know, the cruise flights, making sure, you know, we had the trucks down there on time. Hotels, vrbos all that stuff and make sure the drivers signed up for everything and all the log books, everything that you don't think of anymore. You know, someone's got to do it. And I got to step up into that role. And it was it was daunting. But you know, after after you get your hands, you know, in there, get them dirty for, you know, do it a couple times, it becomes second nature. Right. Let's take a step back because listeners probably saying okay, who is Havock Motorsport? What does all the what is this all about? So I'm gonna I'm gonna kick it off and I want you to take it from there, John. But, uh havock motorsport, you are located at Autobahn Country Club. You're on the property. Open wheel car prep. Arrive and drive programs. Tell the listeners all about havoc. Yeah. This is, uh, this is our fifty first year, fifty first year in business. My father in law started back in, uh, seventy four. And it was he ran SCCA um, you know, he ran h broad ita American sport, you know, basically if it had four wheels and a motor, he was going to drive it. Um, and then he started bringing on customers and it started growing and growing. And then they got into the standard, the formula Mazdas the first gen's. And he maintained fifteen of them. And they they traveled the country with them. Um, slow progression moved over into the pro forma Mazdas when they were running the support series for Road Indy. And we had probably twelve of those in the shop for a long time, and we still have a good amount of those here now. Um, great platform, great learning platform. Now we've made the progression into the F3 car. Um, we currently have five of them in our shop. They have a Gen two coming out. We're going to have that here shortly. Um, so what we provide is, is complete arrive and drive. We have we have twelve members here at Autobahn that we maintain their cars. We do everything from. Maintaining them to trackside service, coaching, data review. Um, they'll go out when they're done. We prep the cars, get them ready, they give us a call like, hey, I want to come out Thursday. They show up, jump in the car, go. Um, same thing when we go on the road. Everything we do for the travel is all arrive at drive. The drivers show up, they get in, they go, um, we're a one stop shop for everything. Open wheel. So I want to go back to something from my the days I was around Formula Atlantic. Can you talk about drive and drive? I vividly remember, so I was in my early twenties, college student, no money. And I remember this, this tall. He was probably late twenties. Young man. Wrecked the chassis. I remember him being in the tent, flipping over, open the checkbook and write in the check. How many times does that happen during a season for you guys, where somebody has to write you a check for the whole chassis? We've only had recently only once. And that was that was at the June sprints, uh, two seasons ago. Guy was renting one of our pro, our FMS, pro forma Mazdas and lost it in turn one and got T-boned by a Swift. Um, so that car was a complete write off. And, uh, that happened on Sunday. And by Wednesday I had a wire transfer from him, so. Okay. Um, but I mean, throughout the season traveling, there's, you know, guys take take lumps. And that's the one thing with open wheel cars is you make contact with that suspension and you can just write off that corner. It's it's all done. Mhm. Um, so it's, it's a risk with racing and the guys know it. But there's been some expensive weekends for some of these guys unfortunately. I would imagine. So let's we're going to go down and talk about arrive and drive. I want to talk about formula cars in general and a few other things regarding your program and where you play and work. Arrive and drive. Let's first talk about arrive and drives. So is this a growing part of the sport? Is it something where someone tries it out and then says, all right, I'm ready, I want to purchase it? What sort of arrive and drive customers are you seeing? I think that's that's exactly what's going on right now. It's it's it's growing. Um, the whole open wheel field is growing. I think, you know, the Netflix series has, has made that way more popular. Um, but yeah. So we have a legit F3. Uh, we rent and a lot of guys have open wheel experience. They want to see if they're, you know, ready or they, they want to move to the next level. And so they'll rent the car here at Audubon for a day, or they'll rent it for an SCCA weekend. And, um, we've had a couple guys that have rented it and they loved it. And they're like, hey, find me a car, I want my own. And then we'll go out and we find them a car, and sometimes they'll fly us out to do an inspection, or sometimes they'll just buy it. Yeah. But that's that's what we've seen is a lot of the arrive and drive guys will go and they, they rent the car and then they basically fall in love with it and move on to owning their own car. What what do you see as the biggest jump. So some people might start out in open wheel, but most of us start off in karts and then we get into production cars with fenders. And then if we're good enough and have enough money, we move into open wheel. What's the biggest obstacle moving from a production car into an open wheel car? Or maybe the biggest challenge that you've seen? I think it all comes down to funding. Um, open wheel is obviously it is not a not a cheap hobby. Not a cheap sport. Um, racing isn't obviously. But when you look at the tears open wheels definitely up there near the top. Um, I think I think once, if they come from a wealthy family, that that always helps. Or if the drivers network themselves and they're able to land sponsors, the rest of it is is pretty much icing on the cake. Once, once the funding is there. Um, we have seen an uptick from the karting. Um, these kids are coming in from karting at thirteen years old and test driving F4 and F3, and it's crazy. Um, but what they spend in karting weekend, some of these teams, it's less than, than it costs to run an F3 for a weekend. So, um, once they can afford the the big time national karting, sometimes moving to an open wheel car isn't that big of a jump financially for some of these families. Yeah, some of these karting programs are off the rails. Expensive. All big rigs, big money. Um. Oh, yeah. So while we're talking about arrive and drive, I asked you before the show what was the weirdest or oddest thing that came to you from a renter? And your response was you had somebody as part of the program that showed up and didn't like the vibes the car was given how from a business perspective, how do you deal with that and how did you handle that specific situation? Oh, I when he first told me, I thought he was joking, um, because he was he was kind of a jokester, the guy and he'd rented from us before. And uh, so when he was saying that he wasn't liking the vibes of the car, I was like, okay, yeah, cool. All right. And he's like, no, can I can I run one of your other cars. And I was like, you're serious? He's like, yeah. I'm like, well, you know, we're gonna have to do some changes to the cars, you know, pedals and belts and seats and make sure everything's right for you and for your setup. So it's gonna it's gonna be extra. And he's like, yeah, no, that's fine. Just tell me how much. I just don't like the way the car. The car's not vibing this weekend. I want to try something new. Wow. Okay. Right. Pull out the checkbook. So, uh, how did his weekend go? How did his weekend go in the car? That did have good vibes. Uh, he was he was three seconds slower. Hahaha. Trust. So. Oh, wow. Yeah, yeah. Same setup, same car. He was. He was just slower, so. Yeah. Gotcha. Uh, let's talk about, uh, open wheel and specifically formula classes. Um, you're doing a lot in SCCA. Where else do these cars run? Uh, so we ran, uh, Formula Race Promotions last season. FRP? Yes. Um, we took the championship in that and, uh, we kind of walked away with it. We took we clinched. We clinched the championship with still three race weekends left to go in the season. So, um, that's why we decided to run the super tour this year with SCCA and, and see if we can get these f3's to find a way to keep up with those. Oh, sixteen swifts there. Those things are rockets, and we're going to do what we can. The new the new F3 that we got coming. They're predicting two minute lap times at Road America. So. Wow. That would that would keep us up there with them and make it competitive. What what cars did you take to FRP. Because there's multiple classes that run at FRP right. Yeah. So we ran in the Atlantic Open class and we ran the F3 in the pro forma Mazdas. Um, they have everything. They have sixteen hundreds. They have f two thousand. They have F one thousand. The oh sixteen. And it sounds like next year they're changing their format to mirror SCCA, where basically all the Atlantics will be lumped together in one field. All right. And is that everything Atlantic? Anything that's had an FA, you know, sort of build in the past? Yeah. Anything that qualifies under FA, under SCCA guidelines is what FRP is going to run with. So all the oh sixteen zero fourteen, the zero eight. F3's all of them are all going to be bunched together again. It's like alphabet soup. Mhm. What's the biggest challenge. Um trying to figure out where to put the car. What class as you're looking to, you know maybe going to SCCA weekend or an FRP weekend or even something else. Um, you know, gotta look at it whether it's going to be, you know, are we going to be competitive? Is it going to be worth it or is it going to be an expensive lapping session? Or are we over, you know, over horsepower for what we were at, like FRP, that F3 was just it was a menace out there. Um, our driver podiumed in every single event and I think, uh, he only took second twice. So, um, with them dropping the oh six down, uh, the new F3, I think will give it give it fits. But the first gens will still be a little little under horsepower and overweight compared to those guys. So it'll be interesting to see where we fall. It'll mix things up a little more for us. Okay, so those those f3's, we're talking six figures on a new chassis, right? Oh, yeah, I used one. You're looking one ten, one twenty. Wow. So without getting too into your finances at havoc, you're going to be buying some of these for arrive and drives, right? Correct. Uh, so does does it give you any pause? Like, man, I'm going to buy two or three of these. I'm going to shell out nearly a half million dollars. Do the banks look at you and be like, man, you're crazy. Um, again, without sharing too much personal information, you know, how does an organization sort of make that sort of investment? Um, that's a big thing we're working with, um, with the marketing team about looking for title sponsors for for the team for the season and offering that spot for, for networking, you know, have it's not just a name on the car anymore. You know, that's companies that they care about it, but they don't um, they want to know what they're going to get out of it there, you know, And, uh, so it's it's inviting them out to the tracks, having the VIP hospitality areas from letting them network with other teams at the track. Open up doors for them that they might not ever had seen the market availability. Um, so that is that is a lot of the way we're looking to fund the purchase of new cars is is with those title sponsors. Um, and that's how we've done it in the past. So hopefully that continues this season. We can lock in one or two title sponsors for our cars and get those, get those companies some some network ability at the racetracks and get them some views online and, and just keep getting new cars here and getting people in the seats. Right. One of the things we talked about, uh, you coming from, you know, your background as a paramedic coming into havoc and then growing through the organization and now leading it. What was the biggest? Well, I asked you what the biggest aha moment or eye opening, and you're like, it's no longer nine to five. Yeah. So you know, you're open I think six days a week because the track's closed Mondays up at Autobahn. Huge demands. You're always traveling, you're always working. You're always on as a business leader, always on. It doesn't matter if something comes, you know, you get contacted late at night. Text message. Hey, what's the status of my car? Are we ready to go this weekend? Early morning. You're right. You're already grinding. So let me put this into a question for you, John. How do you balance all that? You've got so many balls in the air, and you can't let the important ones drop from a business owner business leader perspective. How do you how do you address that? That's that's probably been the biggest challenge for me is learning how to balance the home life with the work life. Um, I got five boys at home, so. Oh, man, we're just as busy at home as I am at work. So, um, luckily, we have a great group of clients here. Um, I've really started doing my best. Where? Five o'clock, six o'clock, five o'clock hits. My phone goes on silent. Um, send me an email. You know, if it's if there's something, you know, life or death, get Ahold of me. But otherwise it can wait till tomorrow. Um, that doesn't mean I'm still not in complete work mode in the back of my head. You know, like, you wake up at two in the morning staring at the ceiling because you got a whole list of things, you know, have to get done and the time to do it. And so those, those don't really ever go away. Um, you can do your best to balance it by just kind of you get home, you shut the phone off, you walk inside. Now you're dead. You're no longer the business, you know. Manager. So that's what I'm trying to do. I'm still learning. I haven't one hundred percent figured it out yet because my phone literally rings all day. Um, and, you know, people, you know, it's an expensive business. They've invested a lot of money and they have questions. They expect answers. And I understand that. So it's just finding that happy balance to make sure everything gets done on both ends. Yeah. It's never ending. We have uh, in our karting days, we had Dan uh, the nickname either was Dan the cart man, as we called him in our household. But a lot of people call him Hey, Dan, because it's always, Hey, Dan. So in your world we've got hey, John, either people are yelling across the paddock, the pit, your facility there at Autobahn. Hey, John, people are blowing up your phone. So it's it is tough. And for those that aren't business owners, for those that aren't business leaders, they don't they don't necessarily understand that it's constant. You can't shut the light off and just go off and do something else. So let's talk about the the family and the boys. You got five boys. You got a basketball team right there if you wanted it. You got you got a pit. You got a pit crew if you wanted it. Yeah. Have they shown any interest in motorsports? Uh, so my oldest, he did for a while, and then, uh, he found hockey, and that was the end of that. Um, he's he's a sophomore in college playing hockey right now. And my youngest, who is two, is obsessed with cars. And I got three in the middle. And, uh, one of them wants to work on cars, and the other one wants to own the company. So I got a big mix there. Yeah, well, it sounds like a few of them are interested, so. Yeah, it's it's been the family business, so to speak. It sounds like it may continue on that, but I know being a father myself, as long as they're happy doing what they love, that's the most important thing. Yep. Um, I'm going to go back to the Formula Atlantic, uh, stuff before we start talking about advice. So I mentioned working with Jim Griffith back in the day. He built his own chassis. Do you see those anymore? Showing up at events. The Griffith chassis? I can't remember the last time I did see one, but I know they're out there. Um, you see him? You see him on the forums. You see some of them pop up for sale every now and then. Or someone looking for parts. So they're still out there racing, but I can't remember the last time I saw one personally. Yeah, I think I want to say they're running a Volkswagen engine. Would that be right? I think so. Yeah, that's what they were. So. All right. Yeah. Good times for sure. Uh, since we talked a little bit about Mazda, um, are you doing the in-house engine build or do you send those out? So the. We do everything in-house except for the engine builds. All right. Um, the rotaries we have, we have an engine builder we use. And then the f3's are still a sealed system. Still have to get shipped out to be rebuilt. Gotcha. So my race cars in FC Rx7, I've got a couple. I have one complete engine sitting around that I know runs but probably needs to gone through. And then I've got rotors and housings just piled, so I need to at some point come up with a spare engine. So maybe I'll talk to you and get some advice on on who can help with that. Um, yeah. Is there has there been any any interesting trackside, uh, things with the rotaries either issues or people complaining about noise or people saying, I love the brass, bring me more, uh, out here. It's great because we're the Audubon. We're in the middle of nowhere. Um, so they can be as loud as they want to be here. And everyone here loves them. Um, some of the people say it sounds like an M80 going off when they downshift and. Yeah. So yeah, the the rotaries are one of the fan favorites out here at Autobahn. Guys love hearing them rip around the track and it's such an open area. Everything echoes. So you always know when one's on track. Oh yeah. Do you ever get the opportunity to take one around the track? Yeah. We have. Well, we just sold our our PFM rental to a customer. Um, but we used to take that out all the time, you know, for testing reasons. And then, uh, we had our new, uh, F3 out on track the other day doing some rollers for some video for some new stuff. So we need to get him out here and there on nice days. And if if we're not too busy. Gotcha. Well, let's transition into some of the things I like to call, like the advice and the learning and things like that. And, um, I asked you, uh, a little bit about the firefighting and bringing it over and for some quotes and things like that. And I love this saying, and I gave a version of it yesterday to a group of automotive students. But I like I like your version a little better. Early is on time. On time is late. Late equals go home. So why is that? Why do you love that quote? Um, it's just something we learned at the fire service. Ah, one of my battalion chiefs. That was the first thing he taught us when we walked in the door. Um, you know, and it wasn't as much of a time as money then, but it was more of, hey, get here on time. On time is early. Respect the guys coming off shift. They want to go home and see their families. You know, shift starts at seven. Don't get here at six fifty. Be here at six twenty. So when that late call comes in, you can jump in and take it for them. Um, and we kind of rolled with that here. You know, time is money. Be here be here early. So when we do start, we're ready to go, you know, shop over the winter. We work seven to five, four days a week. So it's not get here at seven. Figure out the day. Let's get here at six forty five and have a plan. So it's seven. We we hit the ground running. Um and I've always I've always been just huge on punctuality. Like, if you can't show up on time, just don't bother. Right. Has that, you know, being a business leader, has that been something you had to deal with? And hey, you're not showing up enough. See you later. Yeah. We had. We've had that a couple times. And unfortunately, it's just it is, you know, it is what it is. It's it's nothing personal. But when you're running a company and time, time is money in a race shop. And if you can't, you can't get here on time. Then it's, it's you got to find something else. But luckily, the crew, the crew I have now is. They're outstanding. Um, I used to be able to get here half hour, forty minutes early and have a little bit of time to myself to plan the day. And now these guys are getting here, and I'm like, I either I have to get up early or we got to figure something else out because I don't have that quiet time in the morning anymore. These guys are already here. So it is it is precious to have that time. And in our sport, things are always changing. We have to deal with so many, you know, technology changes and updates. Things are getting better. Things are getting lighter. From your position, how do you stay on top of everything? And what resources do you go to to to learn the latest and greatest in the technology that applies to formula cars. Yeah. So I mean, PRI was great. PRI is always a great time, always so many innovative companies and ideas out there to just take in. And it it never feels like it's enough time when you're there. Um, it's always so overwhelming, but different forearms. Different forearms. Um, there's so many race forms out there. People just, you know, ideas that may seem off the wall, but once you start looking into them, they really have some value and they start to make sense. Um, RF three it's a little tough right now because there's still a spec series sealed motor sealed, you know, pretty much almost everything. Um, so there's not a lot we can do with those yet. Um, the pro Mazdas, we basically will we throw everything at those things, remake rear diffusers, change up wings and anything we can to get get a little extra bit out of those cars. You know, port the motors, everything. It's it's where the f3's will go eventually. Once, once. They're not a series motor series car. And we can cut all those seals and really play with the car. Um, everything now, all this current stuff, it's all tuning. Um, so if you know, if you know how to tune a motor or if you want to learn how to tune a motor, do it because you can get so much horsepower with with the computer. Now putting the car, put the car on the dyno and plug in and these kids hit a couple buttons and all of a sudden the car's got another extra hundred horsepower. So isn't it amazing? You know, they're looking at the graph, they're looking at the chart, and you're my eyes are just glazing over. They're like, they do this, this and this. Hey, there's an extra, you know, couple foot pounds. Here's some extra horsepower. I'm like, okay, sure. Right. Yeah. It's great to have, uh, smart people around us that can, uh, that understand this sort of stuff. As you've been hanging out at havoc, as you've been hanging out in the paddock, what's the best motorsports advice you've overheard? Uh. Stay humble. Um, you know, there's a lot of egos in racing. And whenever you see a driver leave a team or or something happen and it's not in a positive way, I feel like ninety, one hundred percent of the time, there's there's an ego involved on one side or the other. Um, so I try to remember that. I try to remember, you know, where we, you know, where we started with our grassroots, you know, and for me, you know, it was twenty one. I went to the June sprints with a twenty four foot enclosed trailer and one car. Um, this last June, we were up there for free. We had two haulers and nine cars, so. Wow, Now. It's been a quick climb and it's just it's good to, you know, every once in a while, hit that reset and remember like, hey, we were not always able to do this. Yeah. What's the best advice you give? I'm sure you have folks coming to you all the time. Hey, how do I build a business like this? How do I get an arrive and drive program going? How do I get involved in your program? Maybe a younger person is asking you that. What? What's your favorite go to advice other than if you're late, go home. Um, for, you know, someone trying to put together a business and arrive and drive, I think the biggest thing you have to do first is you have to find a good crew. Um, my guys, now, I can. I don't have to worry about being out on the shop floor, or if I have something conflicting about taking a day off, you know, literally give them, hey, we need this, this and this. Done. I don't care how it gets done or when it gets done, but it's got to be done today and I don't have to check back in. I just it'll be done. Um, so I think that is probably the foundation of getting an arrive and drive or motorsports is is having a crew that you can trust and you don't have to micromanage. Understood. How do folks learn more about Havoc Motorsport getting more involved. Maybe just following you to see all the cool action. Where are you most, um, driving people to check you out? Yeah. I mean, um, find us on Instagram. Um, I got my kid running that now because he does way better at it than I ever could. Um, we're on Facebook, I'm on LinkedIn. And then, you know, our shop's got a website. We try to keep all of them up to date with, with what we're doing and what we got available. And, uh, I think he does a pretty good job. So if there's any questions, you know, people can find my email on the website or send us a message on any of the social medias. We'll get back to you pretty quick. Yeah, I've been on your website quite a bit. It's absolutely up to date. I love the For Sale page, although that could be a little tempting at times seeing what's up there. And um, so we'll make sure to put links to all the socials as well as the web page in the um, in the show notes. And folks, if you have an opportunity, get, you know, connect with John on LinkedIn. Scroll past his previous post because one of his customers got him a custom watch with the Havoc Motorsport logo on it. I thought that was pretty slick. Are you wearing it today? I actually don't have it on the day. I try not to wear it when I know I'm going to be in the shop, because I don't want to scratch it. Yeah. Um, he was actually that customer was was great enough and he was he was so impressed with the crew. He actually got it for me and the whole crew. He got all of us watches. That says something. That's awesome. Yeah, man, you're surrounding yourself with some good people. And that's good advice right there, too. Yeah. Yep. Find the right people. And once you find them, find a way to stay connected. Mhm. John, is there anything we didn't talk about that you wanted to. No I don't think so. All right. It's time for the final question. So as, as your awesome crew there at Havock Motorsport gets cars ready, get them into the paddock and get them to grid. Have you ever had one of your drivers not be ready for grid? All too often. Really? What's the story? Our drive. We have a couple drivers that I've literally when we have the printout of of the session times from SCCA or whatever series it is, I go in and I change them and I make them ten minutes earlier than they actually are. And that worked for a while. And then they kind of caught on when they would get their emails and see that I was changing it. So now I literally bought a countdown clock that goes on the side of the trailer, and that is the countdown to when they have to be in their car, because some of them, they'll just sit there and they'll start talking, and they're in another world and like, you are going to be late to the grid like we have to go. So that is that's what we've implemented. Now. We have we have a countdown clock for the drivers. Oh, man. Well, it sounds like you're preventing them from being late to grid, but they, they can't, uh, they can't follow suit. So here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna mail you some late to grid stickers. So some for you. But then also, you can slap those on the helmet when the guys are late to grid. Absolutely. Yeah, we'll definitely do that. I love it. Well, John, it was great having you on. Um, I hope to be able to connect up with you at an event, maybe at Audubon this summer. At the very least, we'll connect at PRI here later this year. Thanks so much for sharing your journey and more about Havoc Motorsport. Thanks for having me. It was great. John from Havoc Motorsports shared some great insights into his career in our industry. Some of my big takeaways include how he's using LinkedIn to network with not only people in motorsports, but people want to become in motorsports. We hear the story with him. Getting connected to a driver who's overseas would not have happened without diligent networking and LinkedIn. If you look at Havoc Motorsport, they started off going to June sprints with one car in a twenty foot trailer this past season. Nine cars, two haulers. Some of the team members flew there, some drove there. That's huge. When I asked him about how he learns and where he goes to get the latest on technology and our sport, pry. Wow, right. If you haven't been to PRI, get there. So much to learn. So many great people. When he became the general manager of Havoc Motorsport. He quickly realized it's no longer nine to five. You're always on. You got to find ways to disconnect. He shares those in the episode. He also shares a great quote. Early is on time, on time is late, and late is go home. True words. Think about it. If you're not ready to show up and work, what are you ready for? Time is money in all of our businesses, especially motorsports. You can't be late to grid, and if you are late to work, you're ultimately going to be late to grid. If you're late to get your projects done, you're going to be late to grid. I loved when I saw a photo of his shop. It had a banner in it, that black banner white writing no one cares. Work harder. Think about that. Sure, we care about other people, but at the end of the day, no one cares. Just get it done. Keep working through the problems. Find solutions. Find a way to win. No one cares. Work harder. I loved his response to the question of what advice do you give people that want to put a business together in our sport? Have a good crew. Surrounding yourself with the right people, whether they're advisors or your employees, is so key. Having the right crew in your corner helps you work on the big things, helps make sure the little things are taken care of and helps execute your vision. Have the right crew. Thanks so much for listening to this episode. I have a favor. Share the podcast with either someone you want to get involved in the sport, or someone that needs to get faster and learn more. Oh, and one other thing don't be late to grid.