901. Championship Mindset Ft. Ryan Hardwick: 24h Le Mans Winner

On today’s episode, Andy and DJ are joined in the studio by 1st Phorm Elite Athlete Ryan Hardwick, who is best known for his victories at the 24 Hour Le Mans, Rolex 24 at Daytona, and the 12 Hour Sebring. They dive deep into Ryan’s early life and the path that led him to become a professional race car driver, his entrepreneurial journey that paralleled Andy’s, and what it truly took to win the 24 Le Mans this year.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:16Andy Frisella?

  What is up guys, it's Andy Frisella and this is the show for the realist say goodbye to the lies, the fakeness and delusions of modern society and welcome to motherfucking reality. Guys, today we are doing something different. We are going to actually have a full-length episode today, which we haven't had in a long time, but I can promise you, this is one you are gonna want to listen to all the way through. So with the amount of negativity and stuff going on in the world and crazy shit, we thought we'd take an opportunity to give us a little breath from that and do a full-length and so that's what we're gonna do. Before we get to that, liking your new hat there, bro.

• 0:56Speaker 01

  Oh, thanks, man. I had a friend gave this to me.

• 1:00Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, it looks like you got extra brains.

• 1:00Speaker 01

  Is that what that is?

• 1:02Andy Frisella?

  Yeah. Is that what you're doing? You're trying to look smarter?

• 1:04Speaker 01

  It expands in there.

• 1:04Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, gotta fill up the hat?

• 1:07Speaker 01

  It's all up in there.

• 1:07Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, looks good. What's the sticker for there?

• 1:13Andy Frisella?

  Who gave you the hat?

• 1:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, a special friend gave me this hat and he's actually our guest today on the show. We got Ryan Hardwick.

• 1:22Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, what's up dude?

• 1:23Speaker 02

  Thanks, man. Yeah, it's going good.

• 1:24Speaker 01

  Ryan, what's going on, man?

• 1:26Speaker 02

  Man, a lot, actually.

• 1:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, a little bit to talk about.

• 1:30Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, so, yeah, man, dude, we've been talking about this for years. For those of you that don't know, Ryan is one of my best friends in the world. He's also a business partner of mine. We're partners in the race team. Fuck dude, we've been friends for a long time now.

• 1:47Speaker 01

  How long have you guys been knowing each other?

• 1:54Andy Frisella?

  Ten plus years.

• 1:55Speaker 02

  Yeah, I want to say it was around 2015. Yeah, we had a, met really through cars, through the car community. Yeah, mutual friends like, hey, man, you know, you know my friend Andy and I just, I'd found you online, you know, I was following you. These were Facebook days, I guess.

• 2:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, I know of them, you know, it's like, oh, why is a friend you guys should meet, you guys are both into cars and yeah. Yeah, so yeah, going on 10 years, I guess.

• 2:20Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, and then I came down.

• 2:23Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:24Andy Frisella?

  Dustin had, yeah, you guys had me come down.

• 2:26Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:26Andy Frisella?

  And I met you and Dustin and Justin.

• 2:30Speaker 02

  And Justin, yeah.

• 2:30Andy Frisella?

  And then, uh.

• 2:31Speaker 02

  Yeah, had you speak to all our salespeople?

• 2:33Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 2:33Speaker 02

  Yeah, I was.

• 2:34Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, man.

• 2:34Speaker 02

  That was probably 20, what, 16, 17, maybe?

• 2:37Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, it was fun. I think I was just down there for the day.

• 2:40Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, he skimmed down quick. Yeah, we, we asked you, we're, I'm in the motorcycle business, my, you know.

• 2:46Andy Frisella?

  So for those of you that don't know, just real quick. Yeah. Yeah, Ryan is gonna be humble, but Ryan and Justin and the guy, they own what is, I think it's fair to say, one of the largest, if not the largest motorsports dealerships in the whole country, one of the biggest in the world.

• 3:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, we're in the top three in the world, yeah.

• 3:09Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, so how many locations you guys have?

• 3:11Speaker 02

  I have 12.

• 3:12Andy Frisella?

  12, and these are not like little, uh, you know, they got a few motorcycles. These are like motorcycle ATV, four wheeler, superstores. And you guys have every brand, don't you?

• 3:25Speaker 02

  Yeah, for the most part. I mean, there's a couple of small brands, but you know, all the, you know, Japanese motorcycle brands, Hyundai Yamaha, the American brands like Polaris, Ducati, European brands. So, yeah, they're, um, yeah, it's a business that we, Justin and I grew up.

• 3:41Andy Frisella?

  Now, you guys started the same, the cool thing about Ryan and Justin is they started like exactly when Chris and I started.

• 3:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, with 99.

• 3:48Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, and we're about the same age.

• 3:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, about the same age. We don't have to say what that is, but yeah.

• 3:53Andy Frisella?

  That's right. Just keep it general.

• 3:54Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, no, yeah, we, that's where we kind of hit it off. You and I had a lot of similarities, you know, and, you know, business and probably, I think we both started, you know, probably two, I know me for one, I had no idea what I was doing, you know, just, you know, we're, you know, going after it as fast as we could and learning a lot, but, uh, making a lot of mistakes, but, um, yeah, we started in the same years and, uh, then as the businesses grew, you know, kind of our businesses were, you know, close in size, you know, wise for number of employees and things like that. We had a lot of common ground and stuff to, you know, we could share and learn from each other. It's nice knowing that there's someone else out there having a lot of the same struggles.

• 4:29Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, dude.

• 4:30Speaker 02

  That you're having.

• 4:30Andy Frisella?

  That's get their ass kicked the exact same way.

• 4:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 4:33Speaker 01

  You got hit in the balls too?

• 4:35Andy Frisella?

  Yeah. Dude, fuck, a lot of times it's like they come in waves. It's like the same day.

• 4:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 4:41Andy Frisella?

  You know?

• 4:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, you too.

• 4:42Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 4:43Speaker 01

  Oh, dude. How old were you there? That's dope right there.

• 4:46Speaker 02

  Oh, gosh, man.

• 4:47Speaker 01

  I went to the closet. I went to the closet.

• 4:51Speaker 01

  I'm like, damn, hi, Ryan.

• 4:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, yes.

• 4:54Andy Frisella?

  That was business Ryan. I like that. That's nice.

• 4:56Speaker 02

  LinkedIn picture.

• 5:00Andy Frisella?

  So dude, what was it like, you know, before we get into the, I mean, obviously most of the listeners here are, are success entrepreneurial minded. I mean, dude, just talk about that, you know, uh, they've all heard my story, but I mean, dude, you guys have an incredible story.

• 5:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, we, uh, like I said, we, we, Justin and I grew up together. We were riding dirt bikes, uh, all our lives. My, our, my father taught us to ride and so it was our passion and we kind of, uh, stumbled into the ability to, uh, submit an application to one of the manufacturers to, to open a dealership. And we were, gosh, we were 19 years old when we sent this application in and, um, you know, I spent a lot of time working on it about how passionate we were about the sport. And, uh, it was with American Honda and Honda, you know, s- sent us back, responded, said, hey, man, we really like your applications. Got a lot of passion behind it. You got a lot of really cool ideas, but, uh, you have no funding and you have no experience.

• 5:57Speaker 02

  You know, two important things to start a business and, uh, so, you know, you know, again, we, we knew no other way than to go and try to solve those two things. We were told no, you know, from, so we went out and tried to, you know, borrow money, you know, from, from others. And, uh, and then we went to go find a partner that had experience in, in running a motorcycle dealership. And we were, uh, we worked for, gosh, a couple of years, uh, to find both of those things. So, uh, yeah, man, back in the late nineties, early two thousands, you could, you could borrow a lot more, uh, with a lot less than what you can now. So I will say the environment was. Was ripe at that time, kind of dot com, you know, kind of turn of area to, to really, for a bank to loan a lot of money to two kids.

• 6:40Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 6:40Speaker 02

  That had, we had one other partner that, uh, he had a Yamaha Kawasaki dealership, you know, uh, near our town and we talked him into partnering with us and, uh, that was probably my first, you know, really good sales job, is trying to, you know, talk this, uh, this, uh, really smart, you know, entrepreneur into partnering with two young kids and, and that's how we got our start with a single line Honda store and we opened in 2000. Um, and fast forward, you know, now it's 25 years, you know, we're, uh, the third largest retailer of motorcycles in, in the world. Um, and, uh, you know, we sell thousands of vehicles a year and, um, we have, you know, gosh, now a little over 300, getting close

• 7:23Speaker 02

  to 350 employees and, um, so, uh, it's been a wild, wild fun ride and, and we, there was, there was plenty of times in there when, man, you know, uh, very similar to your sort of what we talked about, you know, wanting to quit, wanting like, man, you know, are we really cut out for this? Do we really know what we're doing? And, you know, competitors that were much bigger, but, um, yeah, that, and that's why I kind of, I was drawn to racing at a, at a young age and racing's got a lot of similarities with business in that, you know, you're constantly surrounded by chaos in racing, um, and business is much the same way, you know, there's, there's things happening to you and around you that you can't control and you're constantly adapting and evolving and, and changing. And so, um,

• 8:07Speaker 02

  that, I think, I think that's why I've really enjoyed, you know, racing throughout my whole life as well as business. I mean, obviously we're all competitors, you know, if you're not competitive, you have no, you have no business being in business.

• 8:18Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, do something else.

• 8:20Speaker 02

  Yeah, do something else if you're, if you're not competitive. So, uh, yeah, entrepreneurship and racing just kind of, you know, went hand in hand, you know, and I've been fortunate to be able to kind of do both. Um, you know, I feel like at a, a, you know, decently high level, you know, kind of at the same time.

• 8:36Andy Frisella?

  Decently high level.

• 8:37Speaker 01

  Fucking humble.

• 8:38Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, fucking wins Lamont, wins Lamont, wins day, uh, 24 hour, the Rolex 24 hour Daytona.

• 8:45Speaker 01

  Sebring.

• 8:45Andy Frisella?

  Sebring, yeah, like.

• 8:46Speaker 01

  Stop it.

• 8:47Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 8:47Speaker 01

  I'll, I'll toot the fucking horn for you.

• 8:49Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 8:49Speaker 01

  I do, I want to ask you this, all right? I'm being, I've asked.

• 8:52Andy Frisella?

  You want to ax him or you want to ask?

• 8:53Speaker 01

  I want to ask.

• 8:53Andy Frisella?

  I say ax this. I don't know what you said. I can't hear you. Ax. Yeah. Ax. There you go. Hey, there you go. All right. All right. I've asked Andy this a few times, but I mean 25 years and I'm not trying to date you at all. Right. But 25 years, that's a long time. Does it feel like 25 years to you? Like when you look back, first store in 2000, everything you've, I mean, did it go quick?

• 9:14Speaker 02

  I would say now it, it feels like it went quick. There, there were times I can really say about 10 years in that it felt. I remember looking back at 10 years and thinking, man, I've been at this a while with at that time. Not as much growth as what, you know, my partner, Justin and I wanted, you know, and um, that was coming out of the big financial crisis. Disaster 0809. I, I remember around 2010 thinking, man. We've been doing a lot of work for what at that time was a long time to us with, without, you know, that level of success and growth that, you know, we kind of thought we would be at 10 years in. And um, now 25 years, looking back, it seemed to all go by pretty, pretty quick.

• 9:56Speaker 02

  I remember those first days like it was yesterday, right? But uh, there were times along the way that, yeah, man, it felt, it felt.

• 10:03Andy Frisella?

  Just grinding.

• 10:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, grinding. Yeah.

• 10:04Andy Frisella?

  I think it just depends on when you ask.

• 10:06Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 10:06Andy Frisella?

  You know, for real dude, like I, I, I think it's the same for us, you know, when, when we were 10 years in dude, I was looking, we almost quit at 10 years in. Chris and I, a lot of you guys know that story. Um.

• 10:19Andy Frisella?

  It was, I, I think the point about this is that entrepreneurship really like recalibrates your sense of what a lot of time is. Compared to what you thought it was before you started down the journey. You know, a lot of people hear 10 years and they think, oh man. That's forever.

• 10:39Speaker 02

  A long time.

• 10:39Andy Frisella?

  But then when you're, when you're, you know, 25, 26 years in, you look at 10 years and you're like, man, I've known you for 10 years.

• 10:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 10:48Andy Frisella?

  Like that does, that feels like it was yesterday.

• 10:50Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 10:51Andy Frisella?

  And um.

• 10:53Andy Frisella?

  I don't know if it's the reward that comes with it, but I will, I do echo that. Like when I was 10 years in, I was like, fuck, what are we doing? Like, we're wasting our lives.

• 11:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 11:03Andy Frisella?

  And then now I look around and I'm like, well, this was fucking worth it. You know, like, like it, it, it's just, I don't know. I think people misjudge the, the amount of time that it actually takes.

• 11:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think it's easy. I mean, I know, I know you've said it for, you know, forever in that, you know, it's a problem with a lot of our, you know, uh, younger people, you know, but guys coming up through the ranks right now, whether it's you're starting your own business or you're working within an organization. It's, I mean, 10 years is, I mean, it's, it's not a short amount of time, but it's super easy to get frustrated around that time. Thinking like, man, I've done the work. I've put, I'm listening to Andy, I've done, you know, I'm doing the things, but it's still, it takes more time than that. Right. And the, it, it, the analogy of driving a race car, I mean, yeah, that's like, like I get a lot of questions like, man, Ryan, you know, won the, these big races, 24 hours on a mile.

• 11:58Speaker 02

  Like the, the amount of time, I just tell you in racing, the amount of cars I've crashed. Okay. Like properly crashed.

• 12:07Andy Frisella?

  Full send. Yeah, not, not, not bent.

• 12:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, not bent, like, like, like throw it away crashed, right? You know, lit on fire. Um, it, it, you have to crash the car. I mean, there's no way, if you want to develop the skill, we'll use a racing car for an example, to drive a race car like on the limit. We've just said like to find, if you're going to drive on the limit, you got to first find where that limit is. And in order to find it, you, you have to go over it. You know, this is part of, and, and business is no different, man. You gotta, it takes a long period of time of, of crashing, of making mistakes, right? You know, and having that ability to get back up and say like, I'm going to keep going. I'm going to take, I'm going to learn, why did I crash? What happened? There was a reason, whether it's physics stupidity.

• 12:53Speaker 02

  Someone else's fault in another car, whatever, whatever it is. You know, thinking you could do something the car couldn't do, whatever it is, you gotta learn from that. And then you gotta be able to apply it, you know, really quickly, uh, you know, again and again and again, you know, and so, there's that, there's so many, there's so many, I think it's why you were first, like when I, you know, when I was starting out in it, you know, first couple of years, I brought it to you. I'm like, hey, Andy, maybe this would make sense if first form was evolved and I'm doing this racing at this level. And, uh, you know, obviously you're a car guy, we're a car guy, we like cars, but there, there's just something about racing and I don't care if it's racing, you know, a motorcycle, a foot race, a car race. I mean, what the, of this competition, you know, you versus the next person, you know, right next to you thinking,

• 13:38Speaker 02

  you know, I'm better than you. I'm going to get there quicker than you, better than you. I don't know. There's, there's just some, it's like the purest essence of competition to me, right? You know, and then there's so much, you know, connection to business and, you know, I think, I guess, I know it's what drove me into it.

• 13:52Andy Frisella?

  Yeah. I mean, I think it's a hundred percent parallel. I mean, I think we just talked about it on yesterday's show, but it's confusing. How people could be competitive in other areas, but then not understand it in the business aspect. You know, I just think a lot of people don't really understand the rules of business because they're so parallel to any sort of competition. You know, team sports or individual sports. But yeah, dude, um, you know, one of the things that

• 14:24Andy Frisella?

  people, I don't know, people know, but I mean, you were, you were very, very high level water sports racer.

• 14:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 14:33Andy Frisella?

  Not swimming, but like, yeah. No, so stand up jet skis, right?

• 14:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. Jet ski. Yeah. Yeah. Jet ski. I have my, all my like teenage years, I was racing jet skis and, um, uh, all around the world. And that, that was an awesome sport. I mean, still, uh, I have a lot of friends in that sport. It's kind of what helped really get me, you know, cement it into the, the motorsport business and met a lot of the, you know, manufacturers and the marketing people and stuff. But that's a, that was a fun sport. I got to travel a lot around the country in the world doing that. And yeah, that's I I'm for sure. I do think I've definitely the only person that's won the 24 Hours of LeMans and also a jet ski world championship. So I think I think I have that one.

• 15:17Andy Frisella?

  That's pretty cool.

• 15:20Speaker 02

  I think I'm the only one on that one, you know, but uh, um, yeah, that was a fun swear. I mean, that's where I kind of learned, you know, the cut my teeth, but I'll tell you one big difference. Like coming from motorcycles and jet skis, I would say those are much more individual, you know, racing type things. It's kind. It's really about the the rider and and the bike or the jet ski. Or car racing, I think is even much more similar to like a business and an organization. It is for to me, car racing is like the quintessential team sport. The only thing even close to me is like football, American football. Like if, you know, the center isn't doing his job or the guard, I don't care how good your quarterback and running back are, right? Like it's it is it has to be a team.

• 16:02Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, one person has the ability to fuck the entire thing.

• 16:06Speaker 02

  Entire thing. Car racing, like drivers get talked about all the time, whether it's the NASCAR driver, the Indy car driver, or the Formula One driver. All of those forms of car racing is a massive team sport. I mean, our team, the team that, you know, we won LeMans with this year, Manti, you know, Porsche. We we have 62 people within the team that are that are at the races, all performing different roles, you know, from engineering to mechanics. The, you know, car, you know.

• 16:34Andy Frisella?

  Now, is that per car?

• 16:35Speaker 02

  That this is total over.

• 16:36Andy Frisella?

  For the whole team.

• 16:37Speaker 02

  Yeah, so we we my car has a touch more 34 people of 62, so those running two cars. So 34 people on my car, you know, um, and man, one person, I mean, one person doesn't pull their weight. Whether it's the preparation of the car before it gets there, the pit stop. I mean, like in the 24 Hours of LeMans, we're we're doing a pit stop roughly every hour. Where we're changing tires, filling it up with fuel. Fixing anything that maybe.

• 17:03Speaker 01

  It is a wild thing to see. I had the opportunity of coming down and watching you at the 24 hour Daytona.

• 17:10Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 17:11Speaker 01

  And like, just the level of like, how zoned in everybody was, like, everybody on the crew was. Like, I remember I got a, uh, one of your, uh, one of, one of the crew. He was taking tires to go, I guess, like, you guys recycle them, right? And you gotta take them to the tire station, right?

• 17:26Speaker 02

  Yeah, to get changed.

• 17:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, to get changed out, right? That's why I remember riding, like, he was like, hey, you wanna roll? I'm like, yeah, I wanna go. Like, this would be cool. I'm like, what are we doing? Just dropping them off? And we got, uh, we got there and then we waited and then they loaded us back up. And we just sat there. I'm like, what are you doing? He's like, I got like 10 more seconds before I gotta go, cause I have to time it up with the net, like, even being early. Puts the other guy, but like, it was, it was a cra- like, dude, it's a wild orchestra of just like, everybody's in sync, man. I'm just like, dude, that's crazy to even think about. Like, you can't even, you don't even wanna show up 10 seconds early. Because it's gonna throw somebody else off.

• 18:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, you're in the way.

• 18:01Speaker 01

  It's crazy.

• 18:03Speaker 02

  Yeah, and these guys, like, the, our pit crews, like, the, I don't, I think a lot of people don't understand, like, how much of an athlete you have to be. Like, these guys that are, you know, doing the tire changes, or, you know, the fuelers, a lot of, they're all, most of them are athletes, you know, from some other sport growing up, whether it's football, you know, soccer, baseball, basketball. Um, man, they're, they train like unbelievably, you know, and every like movement is synchronized, right? You know, from where they place their knee, their hands, you know, the tire placement and all this. And like, at the 24 hour races, these guys are doing this at, you know, 3:00 in the morning and 4:00 in the morning and 5:00 in the morning. And like, the drivers sometimes when, you know, like, there's three drivers on our team, you know, for the 24 hour race. So.

• 18:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, I drive like 2-ish to 3, 2 to 3 hours at a time. And then I'm out of the car and I get to rest for, you know, 4 to 6 hours, right? While my teammates are going, these, uh, guys on the pit crew, they don't get to rest. I mean, they don't, they don't have backup guys. You know, they're, they're non-stop, you know, 24 hours. So, um, it's just like a, a well-run organization. That every single person within the organization knows their role, they're experts at their role, they, it, they. You know, we have authority as well within the race team. You know, you have your superior that you're listening to and you report to and right. And, and the best race teams have an unbelievable, you know, organizational culture. They have an unbelievable, you know,

• 19:25Speaker 02

  framework of who does what. And you don't question in that person next to you or you're, you know, trying to get to that next level because you play that key role within the team. And maybe the next season, you can apply for another position, you know, within the organization and train for that. But when we're at a race, everyone knows their exact job, their exact role, their exact duty. And, you know, things run very smoothly, you know, with that. There's other race teams where I've been a part of that aren't ran so well, just like businesses that aren't ran well. And you can see it, man, you can feel the culture when you walk in the garage, you know, of, man, is everyone not really wanting to be here. They don't like who they work for. This is just a job they're taking because they, they got turned down from that other team and they're, they, you know,

• 20:07Speaker 02

  they're really just trying to get to the next thing versus like this team that I won with this year with Porsche. I mean, this is, they're, they're highly regarded as one of the best teams in the paddock. And the reason why is every single person, they love what they do. They love who they work for. You know, as driver, you know, you want to, as a driver, you want to earn their respect, show all the pit crew that you respect what they do. And it, and it goes vice versa. Right? I've seen so many teams where no one respected each other. You know, the drivers didn't respect the crew members, the crew members didn't respect the driver and the whole thing. And the results tend to match, right? You know, that effort. So it's, it's another great example of how culture, you

• 20:48Speaker 02

  know, in winning organizations versus culture in losing organizations. It's a, it's extremely, it's extremely parallel.

• 20:55Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, I think a lot of people also misjudge how

• 21:03Andy Frisella?

  Fit you have to be to be on one of these teams. You know, like these guys who do the pit crew, these guys train for that.

• 21:11Speaker 02

  Every, I mean, yeah, every day.

• 21:13Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 21:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, every day.

• 21:14Andy Frisella?

  And by the way, driving the car is not easy. It is very, very physically intensive. I think a lot of people think when they see a race on television, they think it's like driving their car on the road sort of fast.

• 21:30Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 21:31Andy Frisella?

  You know what I mean?

• 21:33Speaker 02

  I won't lie, I misjudged it before I got into it, you know?

• 21:35Andy Frisella?

  Bro, you know I did.

• 21:37Speaker 02

  I remember.

• 21:38Andy Frisella?

  Remember my first 10 laps in a race car?

• 21:40Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 21:40Andy Frisella?

  Dude, I went 10 laps in this fucking.

• 21:43Speaker 02

  The Ferrari.

• 21:44Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, and the Ferrari Challenge car, I think it was.

• 21:47Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 21:48Andy Frisella?

  And first 10 laps I'd ever been in a race car. And dude, I got out of the car, I had to lay on the fucking ground. Like I was, it was legit. First of all, you don't know how to breathe. So you're like.

• 22:02Speaker 02

  Hold your breath.

• 22:02Andy Frisella?

  Hence the whole time, because you've, it's, I mean dude, you're driving. It's, it's just so different to, you have to like do it to understand how different it is. Even if you're a great driver on the road.

• 22:16Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 22:16Andy Frisella?

  It's just a different thing. Like for example, the braking.

• 22:20Speaker 02

  The braking.

• 22:20Andy Frisella?

  You know, like when you, when you go on the road and you see a light, you know, coming up and it turns yellow, you'll start to ease on the brakes, right? And then eventually you'll come to a full stop. Racing's the complete opposite. You're trying to basically shorten the amount of time that you're on the brakes to save time, which means you're going to go as close to that light as possible. Stand on the brakes as hard as possible, hoping that you will slow down enough to stop. And dude, it's just a completely different.

• 22:54Andy Frisella?

  Thing than driving than driving on the road. It's completely different.

• 22:58Speaker 02

  It's it's it's addicting. I mean, you saw it when I, you know, what Andy's talking about, we took him to this like racing school in Vegas. This was gosh.

• 23:05Andy Frisella?

  I was just when you were in 2017.

• 23:07Speaker 02

  2017. Yeah.

• 23:09Andy Frisella?

  It's one of NASCAR. That's right.

• 23:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just you can, like you said, I mean, you can take like, we all drive cars, right? On the street, right? So you think, you know, how hard could it be? You know, you go left, you go right, you know, slow down, hit the brakes. And one thing, a racing car, like you drove the Ferrari Challenge car, a racing car compared to a street car, I mean, the nicest, the greatest street car you can make. I mean, you've driven some of the best cars in the world, right? They're unbelievable. They perform really well. They usually go really well with speed, right? But with a racing car, the ability to stop at a tremendous fast, tremendous rate in a very short distance is unbelievable.

• 23:51Speaker 02

  And it's not just the brakes, it's the tires. It's like the the downforce. If you, the force that you have to hit to to stop a race car, you know, at speed, at pace, is so unbelievably hard. I mean, when, you know, like, I told Andy, Andy, you gotta hit the brake hard. You know, he was okay. You know, you look at Andy, you think like, this guy can hit the brake, right? You know, he'll be fine, you know? And he goes out there, his first few laps, and we, because there's a, there's a sensor on the brake pedal, it measures pressure per square inch. And we come back, we're like, hey, Andy, the brake pressure, you know, we need, you know, you can hit it, man. You hit it hard. He's like, dude, I am hitting it hard.

• 24:26Andy Frisella?

  Yeah. Yeah. Well, dude, you don't, like, you don't, you don't understand what they're saying. Like, you think they're saying, like, break it, hard on the road. It's like, dude, it's like, as far as you fucking can.

• 24:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, try to break the pedal off.

• 24:39Andy Frisella?

  It feels, it feels counterintuitive. Like, when you first start.

• 24:44Speaker 02

  Everything feels wrong. Because honestly, if you were in a street car, and you hit the brake as hard as what you have to on the racing car, you would probably crash the street car. It doesn't have the suspension and the downforce to just suck to the road. It would, you know, you could lose the car, right? In a race car, it's designed to, at the last possible moment, you go from, you know, zero brake pressure to, it's undeniably.

• 25:08Andy Frisella?

  And it's not like you're coasting when that happens. You're at full throttle.

• 25:12Speaker 02

  Full throttle.

• 25:12Andy Frisella?

  Okay. And then you're off the throttle and on the brake, full brake. And it's, dude, it's, it's

• 25:17Speaker 02

  It's aggressive.

• 25:18Andy Frisella?

  It's a thing, dude. Like, you get out of the car and your first time and you're like, it's disorienting.

• 25:23Speaker 02

  Well, the most, one of the most things like, and you'll see in Formula One, Indy car drivers, some of the toughest things in training that we're all working on is our necks.

• 25:30Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 25:30Speaker 02

  And obviously there's, there's, there's G-force side to side, but then also when you're racing, you have a helmet on, right? And this helmet, you know, weighs a decent amount when you're sitting still. Well, when you're, when you're traveling fast, it weighs a lot more. And the biggest is the, the G-force you have under braking.

• 25:46Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 25:47Speaker 02

  Right? Let me, and your head is, yeah, you're strapped in with your body with the, with the five point harnesses, but your head is loose, right?

• 25:53Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 25:53Speaker 02

  So the, the amount of force that you've got to be able to withhold with your neck from your face wanting to slam into the steering wheel. It takes some, um, it takes some time getting used to.

• 26:04Andy Frisella?

  Dude, it was awesome. It, it's awesome, dude. Like, and once you like, it's like golf. It's like you go out and you play golf. And for 17 holes, you fucking hit the ball all over the golf course and, and you're like, this sucks.

• 26:18Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 26:19Andy Frisella?

  And then like, there's like one shot that you hit and it goes straight down the fairway and it's like,

• 26:25Speaker 02

  I'm going pro.

• 26:25Andy Frisella?

  You're like, yeah, you're like, this is the coolest thing ever. And that's how it is with racing. Like it's, it's, you know, I'm very inexperienced in a race car. Okay. But I have enough experience driving, you know, like you said, the best cars in the world to have a good.

• 26:45Speaker 02

  You got, you got a great foundation.

• 26:46Andy Frisella?

  Perspective.

• 26:47Speaker 02

  You, you weren't that bad.

• 26:48Andy Frisella?

  No, we, it turned out good. Bro, we got some funny stories.

• 26:51Speaker 02

  We got some bros. Yeah.

• 26:52Andy Frisella?

  So, so I'm ultra competitive, dude. Right? Like, everybody probably guessed this.

• 26:59Andy Frisella?

  So the other thing I struggled with was the fucking spinning of the car. All right? Like, I think I spun the car over the weekend. It had to be some sort of record. Something. Yeah, dude, it had to have been.

• 27:12Speaker 02

  Remember we were talking about finding the limit, right?

• 27:14Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 27:15Speaker 02

  You gotta go past it.

• 27:16Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, and uh, it, uh, what's his name? Uh, Enrico?

• 27:20Speaker 02

  Enrico.

• 27:20Andy Frisella?

  Enrico was like, hey, man, you know, at least you're aggressive. Most people are not aggressive.

• 27:25Speaker 02

  They drive the whole time they ever spend, yeah.

• 27:27Andy Frisella?

  So, so dude, we're like at, like, we're at this race and like all these other dudes that are there are like guys who have been through the school already. And it's like their year end race. I had not been through the school. So like, we just went out there and like, I just was with all these dudes. So I was the least experienced person there.

• 27:49Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 27:50Andy Frisella?

  And, uh, we start doing these, we start, you know, running these practice laps and I got this coach, uh, I forget his name was JR, I think his name was. And bro, he's screaming in my ear, first of all, like, like dude, when people scream at me, I'm like, you know, and he's like, gas, gas, gas, brake, brake, brake. Fuck, like just screaming in your ear from this far away to telling you what to do. And from the first second you pull on the track, I'm like, bro, can I like go around once? Like, I don't even know what the fuck we're looking at. So we go around the track a whole bunch of times for like three days. And dude, I'm spinning the car and we get to like the third day, dude, and I don't remember what happened, but dude, so,

• 28:35Andy Frisella?

  so there's this guy who was my race partner. So they pair you up with a, with a, another guy, all right?

• 28:41Speaker 02

  And they, they. You're gonna run the first half of the race and they run like the second.

• 28:44Andy Frisella?

  They paired me up with this dude Craig, who was, you know, he was a little bit older than us. Fucking awesome dude. He's from Australia. Still, we're still friends on, on the internet.

• 28:55Andy Frisella?

  In fact, he runs a dream racing in, in the, in Australia.

• 28:57Speaker 02

  Australia, yeah, yeah.

• 29:00Andy Frisella?

  But. His son was there, his son's like 12, okay? So, like, do you, do you, we have a, what happened?

• 29:08Speaker 02

  Well, there was like a qualifying, right? It's a proper race. It's gonna be a proper race at the end of this, like, week-long deal that you only came for the last few days of. But, you know, you had to do a qualifying, so each driver could go out to try to set their one fastest lap time, just like we do a real race, and that would determine how you would start and line up, right? Well, you had a spin in like the last practice and got like completely down on yourself. You know, that you were like, you were, you were, you were ready to go do something else.

• 29:38Speaker 02

  You were the one that was supposed to qualify for you and Craig. Like, if you didn't qualify, then Craig would have to start like dead last. You know, so then the, his son comes over to-

• 29:48Andy Frisella?

  So dude, I come out of the car and I'm like, this is fucking, I'm fucking pissed, bro. Like, you guys see me like when I'm top level pissed, that's how pissed I was. And I'm, I'm like, fucking, fucking Ryan's like, yeah, just leave him alone.

• 30:08Andy Frisella?

  So dude, I go sit by my, by myself, like, way over there. And fucking this, Craig's son, who's 12 at the time, comes over and like sits next to me. And I'm like, I'm fucking mad, dude. And like- And choke a kid. No.

• 30:26Andy Frisella?

  But like, how can you be mad at a 12-year-old kid? You know? And he's like, he's like, hey, man, you're doing good. He's like, he's like, no, listen. No, he gives me like a pep talk. He's like, and he, he meant it, dude. He's like, hey, he's like, you're doing good. It's your first time on the track. He's like, you're doing really good. My dad said you're doing good, too. And like gives me this pep talk and like five minutes later, I'm like, alright. Yeah, I'm good, let's go. Yeah, so like out of all the pep talks I've given in my life, I get the best one from this, from a 12-year-old kid.

• 31:01Speaker 02

  Yeah, if I remember, don't get me wrong, but I-

• 31:02Andy Frisella?

  We won qualifying.

• 31:04Speaker 02

  Yeah, you, you qualified, you went out, you won qualifying. So you beat all the other cars, so there's like eight cars or something. And then, um- Yeah, you got you started the race.

• 31:13Andy Frisella?

  No, I finished the race.

• 31:14Speaker 02

  You finished it. You qualified, then Chris started from your position, then you finished. But yeah. And I remember you telling me like, man, dude, I took the kid came over and was like, Mr. Andy, you know, you're doing good and like that. Realized like, man, I can't let this get like, I can't get mad and leave.

• 31:27Andy Frisella?

  Dude, and and so in the actual race, bro, like, I don't remember how many laps we run or whatever. I don't know. I think it was, was it timed? Was it an hour?

• 31:37Speaker 02

  Yeah, probably.

• 31:38Andy Frisella?

  I don't remember what it was.

• 31:39Speaker 02

  Started in the day, but finished into the night.

• 31:41Andy Frisella?

  Yeah. So, but dude, I hadn't gone that long, the entire weekend without fucking spinning the car. Like, so somehow I I went through the whole race and didn't spin the car and we won. Yeah, which was, which was cool.

• 31:57Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 31:58Andy Frisella?

  But, uh, dude, the best laps I ran that race were when we went.

• 32:04Andy Frisella?

  I don't know if I should say this or not, but we were at the bar drinking, like having a couple of drinks. And then we had to take a helicopter from the hotel to the racetrack.

• 32:13Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 32:14Andy Frisella?

  For like a night event there. And then they let you like drive a.

• 32:19Speaker 02

  Take a couple of laps.

• 32:19Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, whatever car you want for a couple of laps. And I had a GT3 RS at the time, so I was familiar with the car. Fuck dude, I did fine in that car. I was, I had a couple of whiskies in me.

• 32:31Andy Frisella?

  But, you know, there was nobody else.

• 32:32Speaker 02

  Nice and loose, nice and smooth.

• 32:34Andy Frisella?

  I was, I was nice and relaxed.

• 32:35Speaker 02

  Don't recommend this.

• 32:36Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, don't. I don't even know I should say that.

• 32:38Speaker 02

  He's a professional.

• 32:40Andy Frisella?

  This is truth.

• 32:43Andy Frisella?

  But, uh, yeah, man.

• 32:44Speaker 02

  I'll never forget that weekend. Uh, uh, I didn't know when you were so upset after the qualifying. You know, we were just starting out like we were racing together that year. It was your first year sponsor.

• 32:54Andy Frisella?

  We were doing Lamborghini, uh.

• 32:55Speaker 02

  Lamborghini.

• 32:56Andy Frisella?

  Super Trofeo.

• 32:57Speaker 02

  Super Trofeo. Yeah. So it's the first time we had first form on the race car. And I was sitting there thinking like, man, this probably be the first and last time I have a first form sponsorship. Andy's gonna be, he's gonna hate cars so much.

• 33:08Andy Frisella?

  No, it was awesome.

• 33:09Speaker 02

  Dude, yeah, you you did great, man. That was a, that was a good time. Yeah, it's a great, great business out there. And, uh, we were at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

• 33:17Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, dude, and remember. I don't even know how to tell these stories dude. Enrico renting those two jettas?

• 33:23Speaker 02

  Oh yeah.

• 33:24Andy Frisella?

  So dude.

• 33:25Speaker 02

  Learning car control.

• 33:26Andy Frisella?

  Yes, so Enrico's like former F1.

• 33:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, he drove that.

• 33:30Andy Frisella?

  Okay, so this dude, I don't know, what do you think he is? Sixties?

• 33:34Speaker 02

  Yeah, probably, probably, yeah, early sixties now, yeah.

• 33:37Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, he's late 50s, early 60s.

• 33:39Speaker 02

  Italian guy, awesome guy.

• 33:40Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, super awesome guy, super cool. Like, exactly like every other race car driver that's like just fucking.

• 33:48Speaker 02

  He owned the racing school.

• 33:49Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, he owned the whole thing. And he's like, you know, hey, no big deal, like, duh, duh, duh, like, just not, doesn't give a fuck. The only thing he gave a fuck the entire time was where we were racing. He goes and he rents these jettas, bro. And he's like, alright, uh, we're gonna go do, uh, what do they call it? Where you follow him?

• 34:09Speaker 02

  Yeah, lead follow.

• 34:10Andy Frisella?

  Lead follow.

• 34:11Speaker 02

  Lead follows.

• 34:11Andy Frisella?

  So him and I went out on the track together and like raced each other.

• 34:15Speaker 02

  You're trying to learn how close you can be to another car in front of you or beside you. Like, we all drive on the road and you think, oh, I'm, I'm close to the car in front of me. You, when you really learn how, what close is, you know, like.

• 34:30Andy Frisella?

  Close means they touch you.

• 34:31Speaker 02

  They touch you. Well, don't hit, you know.

• 34:35Andy Frisella?

  Rubbish racing.

• 34:36Speaker 02

  Rubbish racing.

• 34:37Andy Frisella?

  That's right.

• 34:37Speaker 02

  You know.

• 34:38Andy Frisella?

  You know where the movie that's from?

• 34:39Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 34:39Andy Frisella?

  Days of Thunder, yeah, the greatest movie ever.

• 34:41Speaker 02

  Greatest movie ever, that's right. Uh, but yeah, so you are learning, um, you know, car control and car proximity.

• 34:48Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 34:48Speaker 02

  With lead and follow with two rental cars.

• 34:51Andy Frisella?

  So we're driving.

• 34:52Speaker 02

  Las Vegas airport.

• 34:53Andy Frisella?

  I'm just trying to picture Andy in a fucking jetta. No, bro. This is awesome.

• 34:57Speaker 02

  Some of the most fun.

• 34:57Andy Frisella?

  So we're racing these fucking jettas around the racetrack.

• 35:00Speaker 02

  And the coach is like, you can get closer, get closer, get closer.

• 35:03Andy Frisella?

  We're like, like bumping each other's shit and like we get done and I'm like, the only thing I'm mad about is we were going down the, we were going down the straight and I like, like fucking faked, and he's like, can't do that, that's against the code. Like, he got super fucking pissed. But dude, so we got done and I'm like, so, so dude, uh, I'm like, so, how come you don't use your own cars for that? And he's like, well, because we, we beat them up. And I'm like, so. Like the rental place doesn't care. He's like, no, we just get the insurance.

• 35:37Andy Frisella?

  He was dead serious, dude. He was dead serious. I'm like, so they have it caught on? He's like, no, I don't care. No big deal.

• 35:45Speaker 02

  Yeah, learning to drive a race car.

• 35:47Andy Frisella?

  But yeah, man.

• 35:48Speaker 02

  That was good times. That's what uh, we should honestly do that again.

• 35:50Andy Frisella?

  Dude, what we should do is get like some of our guys here that, you know, make them like, we'll do a contest or something and take them and get them in a race car.

• 36:01Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 36:01Andy Frisella?

  Cause like dude, you cannot appreciate racing. Cause here's the best thing that came out of that. It wasn't what I learned about driving, which I did learn a lot. I mean, you want to learn how to drive, you learn a lot in, in a very short amount of time in a race school. But it's when you, it's like playing a musical instrument. Like when you start to play a musical instrument and you realize how hard it is, and then you see like, somebody who's really good at it and you can appreciate it. It's the same with racing. The best thing that came out of that race school for me was how much of a fan it made me of racing. You know, because now I'm like, dude, these guys are really good. Like where you, you know, we watch, if you've never been through that and you watch racing, you're like, I could probably do that.

• 36:45Andy Frisella?

  You know, and it's like, dude, it's a different, it's a totally different thing.

• 36:50Speaker 02

  Yeah. I mean, if anyone's there, you're into cars. I mean, going out on a racetrack, uh, even just completely by yourself, it's, it's awesome to learn. You're, you know, you think you have limits, right? And then, uh, if you ever get a chance to be around a professional driver and as soon as you start thinking like, man, you know, like I'm, I'm doing good here, you know, I'm, I'm really killing it. If you ever get a chance to ride like passenger seat with a, with a top level driver, your, your eyes will really get open, uh, about what's possible, right? You know, in terms of braking.

• 37:21Andy Frisella?

  Yeah. And where, where the limit really is on a car. Like,

• 37:26Andy Frisella?

  dude, I mean, you know.

• 37:27Speaker 02

  It's so far past.

• 37:28Andy Frisella?

  It is what people think it is. When everything's right, like when your tires are right and like, what that car will do. Is like almost double or triple what you think it'll do.

• 37:41Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 37:41Andy Frisella?

  Like what you feel when you're in the car.

• 37:42Speaker 02

  Oh, it's, it's what takes people so, so much longer. Like I remember telling you the, uh, one of the wildest corners in, in all of racing anywhere is, uh, turn one at Sebring in Florida. Um, the race, the car here that we won, this corner is like, you enter the corner, uh, in fifth gear, uh, on a, the car, we do have one more gear, but we enter it at around 150 miles an hour from a really long straightaway before it. And there's bumps all the way through this thing. And this, there's a concrete wall that is, you know, marks the apex of the corner on the inside. And the, it's a, it's a virtually a 90 degree corner. So you're going straight and it's a hard left. That's a 90 degree.

• 38:23Speaker 02

  And this corner, our minimum speed in a GT3R is about 132 miles an hour. That's the slowest that you get in the middle of the corner. Um, and I remember walking you through that one and doing like, no way. 134 is like the slowest and like, believe me, when you first go at it and you're, there's also a concrete wall that you're staring at down the whole straightaway.

• 38:45Andy Frisella?

  Don't you start that on the, on the outside and kind of like try to cross a straight almost across?

• 38:50Speaker 02

  You, yeah. You start, you, any, any high speed corner, you want to start as far to the outside of, you know, the corner and, you know, uh, make the apex. And then utilize all the track on the exit. You try to open the corner up as much as possible. And that one's just wild because it's basically a, a hard right. There's a concrete wall on the inside, a concrete wall on the outside. So if you mess up, there isn't like a sand pit or some gravel or, you know, everything, if you mess up, like you mess up really bad.

• 39:18Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 39:18Speaker 02

  And like you said, the slowest, the slowest you get down to is roughly 130 miles an hour. And like that one, when you can wrap your mind around, like when you actually do it once, you have a whole new understanding, you know, of what's possible. And then like, That's probably one of our gnarliest ones here, but I'm sure you guys like, I know you and Formula One, big fan of Spa in Belgium.

• 39:41Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 39:41Speaker 02

  This is the greatest racetrack in the world. There's no question. And there's a corner there called Eau Rouge. It's actually a series of corners that are all tied together. And it's that, that is without a doubt, like the craziest thing I have ever done.

• 39:55Andy Frisella?

  That's the downhill one, right?

• 39:57Speaker 02

  No, you go uphill. So you, you enter this, this section of corners at top, top gear. So six, six gear as fast as the car will go. And it's a series of corners that you first go left.

• 40:10Andy Frisella?

  Is that it right there though?

• 40:11Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 40:11Andy Frisella?

  Like?

• 40:12Speaker 02

  All of these corners are it.

• 40:13Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 40:13Speaker 02

  This is all it. So there's, it's, it's a combination of like four corners tied together. And it's if you mess up here, again, there's no like runoff, there's no say, this is, it's also like, this is like the deadliest corner in racing. More, it's more, more drivers have died at this one corner than like anywhere else in the world. Because it, it can be done like in a GT3, it can be done flat without lifting. But this is like perfect weather conditions, you know, perfect grip from the tires, perfect weight balance with the car. And then if you, where most people make a mistake, if you lift, you know, your heart and soul and everything in your body says, hey man,

• 40:55Speaker 02

  we should, we should back off here a little bit. If you lift, you actually take downforce off the car and make the car

• 41:02Andy Frisella?

  squirrely.

• 41:02Speaker 02

  squirrely and move. And if you lift at the wrong moment in this series of corners, there's no saving it. I mean, there's no, there's no catching it. You're, you know, and it's a, it's a really bad crash. Now, I say all these bad things. When you do it the first time, wide open without lifting, it is the most exhilarating feeling on planet earth. I don't know anything any better. And maybe it's like, oh, you cheated, you know, this, you've seen all the massive crashes and stuff, but. There's nothing that I can't even like closely describe to it. And like when you first arrive there, you can watch it on TV as much as you want, but when you first arrive, one, it's it's going uphill. This hill is like you're climbing like three stories and it is, I mean, it's a hard left, a hard right and a hard left back again. And you're like, wait

• 41:45Speaker 02

  a second, this is flat? Like we don't. My first thought approaching it was we need to not only lift, we need to probably break and maybe consider a downshift.

• 41:54Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 41:55Speaker 02

  We should, we should consider all of the above, but this place like I've been telling you, like, you've got to go to like, watch a race there, one, and then they have like driving events, like you can go and like, like Porsche, Porsche and Manti, they do like track days where you can turn up and drive like a GT3 RS or whatnot. Like you gotta go drive at this track and that you don't have to do a rouge flat, but just to go up it, it's an experience in person, like as a car, you know, person, I like anyone, if you're ever into it, like go to Belgium, go to Spa, watch the F1 race. They have a 24 hour race there as well. I've won that race. I've probably one of probably my, some of my best driving ever done. I was on pole position there for the European Le Mans Series

• 42:38Speaker 02

  Championship one year. And that was, that was probably the best lap I've ever done in my life. But that place is cool.

• 42:45Andy Frisella?

  So dude, let's, let's kind of shift a little bit and let's talk about moving, you know, through the big races. You know, we started it with Lamborghini's series race.

• 42:59Speaker 02

  Yeah. Yeah. Super Trophaeus, a single make series where all the cars were exactly the same. And that's a great place to start as a driver because as a driver, you're the only difference. I mean, every, everyone's car is exactly the same with the rules and teams can make small adjustments like the rear wing angle and the ride heights, but not, not really a lot. So it's truly a competition of the driver where now and just like Formula One or what we race now in GT3, you're racing against other manufacturers. So, you know, there's always differences between a Porsche and a Ferrari and a Lamborghini. So there's more variables. But single make series like the Super Trofeo for Lamborghini, those, that was awesome because you know, there's no excuses, man. If you're slow, you're, you know.

• 43:44Andy Frisella?

  And every major, for those of you who are, you know, not familiar with this, so Porsche has one of these single makes, Ferrari has one of these single makes, there's basically one for every major manufacturer, and that's where most, uh, like what we would call gentleman racers that end up doing what you've done.

• 44:04Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 44:05Andy Frisella?

  Come from.

• 44:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's where you go. I mean, it's, it's one of the least expensive, you know, forms of racing. Um, a lot of, a lot of guys that do it for fun, they, they like that part of it, that, hey, you know, the driver's only difference, but, uh, um, yeah, it's where you go to kind of get your, get your start, I would say, you know, and, and racing, if you do well, like they have a championship with Lamborghini who's here in North America. Um, in our second year, uh, of racing that, we won the North American championship. And then you go to a world championship where they have a series in Europe and they have a series in Asia and America, and all those drivers come together at one race, they change the location, you know, and this is the same with Ferrari, this is the same with Porsche.

• 44:47Speaker 02

  Uh, and for Lamborghini in this, our second year, we won the world championship. Um, so once you do that, they kind of kick you out.

• 44:54Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 44:55Speaker 02

  Like, because they want it, they want it to be like, you know, a place for, you know, you know, drivers that are coming up, can it go to? So, yeah, that was.

• 45:03Andy Frisella?

  Well, plus you gotta realize, these are their best customers.

• 45:06Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 45:07Andy Frisella?

  So like, there's, you, you want to keep, yes.

• 45:10Speaker 02

  Yeah. You can't have one guy there winning all the time and they're, they kind of politely ask you, hey.

• 45:15Andy Frisella?

  It's time to move on.

• 45:15Speaker 02

  It's time to move on.

• 45:16Andy Frisella?

  Yeah. So then we moved in.

• 45:18Speaker 01

  That was 2018, right?

• 45:19Speaker 02

  That was 2018, yeah.

• 45:21Andy Frisella?

  And then we moved into IMSA.

• 45:23Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, the IMSA, WeatherTech Sports Car Championship. Um, we moved there in 2019, which here in North America, that's kind of like our top level of sports car and endurance racing. Um, it's owned by NASCAR, so the France family and all, and that's the home of our biggest races, like the 24 Hours of Daytona and the 12 Hours of Sebring. And, um, and that's where all the manufacturers come to compete against each other. So, you know, the Lamborghini races against the Porsche and the, against the Corvette and against the Ferrari. And so, um, yeah, that's, uh, the, our first year racing there was in 2019.

• 46:00Speaker 01

  And then the, you, we won, that was what, 2021?

• 46:04Speaker 02

  Twenty twenty.

• 46:05Speaker 01

  That was twenty twenty.

• 46:06Speaker 02

  Twenty twenty. Yeah, we won the twelve hours of Sebring, you know, and that was our first like big, well, it was. I mean, that was our first big, you know, kind of marquee, you know, race that the twelve hours of Sebring is one of the triple crown of of sports car racing, which is, you know, Sebring, Daytona, and then obviously the twenty four hours of LeMans being the biggest. But yeah, we won that race in twenty twenty. It was the last race of the year that year. And, man, that was a that was an awesome time with Andy. Andy was gonna come to that race. He had something coming at the last minute. He couldn't come. And I had a feeling we were pretty competitive in the championship that year. We had been on the podium a couple of times, but we hadn't won a

• 46:49Speaker 02

  race, you know, at this at this high level. And we were, it's a twelve hour race, and we qualified well. I think we were in the top three or so in qualifying. So I kind of knew we had a decent car and all. Started the race off. We were always kind of around the top five. We got up to the lead for a little bit. And, you know, then you kind of fall back, you know, it's, you know, obviously, there's lots of chaos. But I remember about halfway through, we were somewhere in the top five, and I'm I'm out of the car at this point. My teammates are in, and I'm texting with Andy. He's back here watching it. And, you know, he's what he watches like every minute. He knows everything going like he last like, why are we pitting right now? Like, is everything okay? You know?

• 47:25Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, I'm definitely that guy.

• 47:27Speaker 02

  Yeah, you know, and

• 47:28Andy Frisella?

  Like, dude, when they're racing, it's on TV. I'm I don't sleep.

• 47:31Speaker 02

  Yeah, he gets that. He wants to know like the inside, like, well, we're pit now because we're saving some fuel. So I have to explain to him the strategy, what's going on. And I remember it like with six hours to go, he's like, dude, we're gonna win. And I'm like, ah, you know, this is a long way to go. There's a lot that can happen.

• 47:48Speaker 01

  Six hours, bro.

• 47:49Speaker 02

  He's like, no, man, I feel it. We're gonna win this one. And I just dismissed it. I'm like, okay, I'll keep you posted, you know. And I went in for like another stint or so. I come back out. There was like two hours to go or so and we're in the lead, you know, we're going, it's getting, it's dark now. Sebring always ends at night and I'm done with my drive time. My teammates are gonna end. Um, Patrick Long was our teammate that year, um, uh, who's in the new F1 movie. You get a chance to see his, uh, he's got some plays himself in the movie.

• 48:16Andy Frisella?

  Was it Corey on the team that year?

• 48:18Speaker 02

  No, Corey wasn't on, that was the, um, the, the next year. Yeah. Um, but yeah, no, uh, we were, we were leading and we were in this battle with the Ferrari. Uh, I remember and that, the Ferrari was faster than us that year. They just had pace on us and we were, you know, we were scrappy, you know, and, uh, Andy's texting with me. We get down to the, that, the hour that's left and he's like, dude, I'm telling you, we're gonna win. And I'm like, don't say it, just don't like, don't jinx us, man. Like, you know, you never know. And, um, man, there was a, there was a yellow flag because there was a crash with like 15 minutes to go. And so that bunches the whole field back up. So now it was just kind of us and the Ferrari up front.

• 48:59Speaker 02

  But then now there's like, the whole field is now bunched up and they cleaned the wreck up and then you're, it's a green flag again. There's like 30 minutes left in the race and man, we had a, we had an awesome battle, but, uh, we won the race, crossed the line and finished. It was a super close race and man, I just, I can't, you know, it is like, I'm not a guy, I mean, you're texting something like, I'm not gonna say I told you so. But I did tell you so.

• 49:24Andy Frisella?

  Dude, what was that race that we won that, oh, fuck, there was like a, was that the one, was that the race where there was like a wreck right at the end? Like right at the end?

• 49:33Speaker 02

  That was Sebring, yeah. And that's what.

• 49:35Andy Frisella?

  That, the AMG car fucking wrecked?

• 49:37Speaker 02

  I think so. Yeah. Yeah. I think so. I mean, it was Mercedes. I can't remember. I just remember this Ferrari we were battling and, uh,

• 49:44Speaker 01

  You guys recycled that engine. Cause that car's in the lobby. Then that, that engine, the same engine went to next year and won the 21 Daytona.

• 49:52Speaker 02

  No, it's like, we, no, the, no, different engine. The.

• 49:55Andy Frisella?

  That engine is in his house.

• 49:56Speaker 02

  It's in my house. Yeah.

• 49:57Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 49:58Speaker 02

  Porsche did a cool gift. Andy, we got to keep the car, you know, from Porsche. It's here at first forum headquarters. Uh, but they had told us at the time like, hey, we have to take the engine out to. Do some maintenance before it like goes into, you know, storage or, you know, display. But, uh, yeah, Porsche made a really awesome gift for me. They, they took the engine out that we won. And they made the engine, the whole block and everything into a coffee table. And they gifted it to me and they took the six pistons out and they gave like the two other drivers. They made the piston with like a frame and everything and like our lead engineer and the lead mechanic. So six people on the team.

• 50:36Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 50:36Speaker 02

  Like a piston, you know, in the rod. And then they gave me the, uh, it's still in my basement, my man cave, you know, today. But, um, yeah, that, that was, that was, I had one other time that Andy had a, you know, I told you. So when we won Daytona, uh, two years later in 2022, won the 24 hours of Daytona. Um, he was again, like during the race, like, bro, I feel we're winning this. And I'm like, oh God, not again.

• 51:00Andy Frisella?

  We got the text to prove it.

• 51:01Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. We got the text. So we were like, dude, we're, we're gonna win. Like I'm telling you, we're gonna win. And, you know, every time I'm out of the car, I'm.

• 51:07Andy Frisella?

  No, we were talking about that before the fucking race.

• 51:10Speaker 01

  We were, cause you.

• 51:10Andy Frisella?

  Cause remember we put believe on the back of the car.

• 51:13Speaker 02

  On the back of the car. Yeah. I had this whole, yeah.

• 51:15Speaker 01

  That was a FaceTime call too, in the locker room before that.

• 51:18Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. With the team. Yeah. We had Andy called to the, we always have a, a team meeting, you know, uh, before the race, you know, day. And, uh, Andy called in on FaceTime. He'd spoke to all our mechanics, all our, you know, guys and gather around. And he said, guys, you gotta, you gotta believe. Like, and he said, I already believe, I already believe we are going to win. We, we're prepared, we're ready and we are going to win. And it got everybody pumped up, you know? And yeah, we had, out of that, the team made a little sticker right on the back of the bumper. We just put, uh, believe.

• 51:47Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 51:47Speaker 02

  And that was kind of our inner mantra that before you can do anything great, you gotta believe. And that all came from Andy. And, you know, the race went up and down again, you know.

• 51:55Andy Frisella?

  Now we had to try to win that race a number of times before this.

• 51:58Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 51:59Andy Frisella?

  And it was.

• 52:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, four, four times before it, you know, and, uh. You know, I'm like, Andy, this is one of the hardest races in the world. You know, I'm just,

• 52:07Andy Frisella?

  Some dudes will race their whole lives and never win that race. Same with LeMans.

• 52:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 52:12Andy Frisella?

  In fact, most people.

• 52:13Speaker 02

  Most people, yeah, yeah. It's, I mean, the guy who owned the team that we were racing with that year, John Wright, he spent his entire career.

• 52:21Andy Frisella?

  Awesome dude.

• 52:22Speaker 02

  Yeah, awesome, awesome guy, owns Wright Motorsports. He started as a mechanic for a team for Porsche, worked his way up, got to own his own team. And I mean, he's been racing professionally as a mechanic and team owner for 30 some odd years of his life. And done Daytona, every one of those years, he never won. And you know, I'm telling Andy like, hey, man, most people spend their career trying to win this race. And he's like, well, we're, we're gonna win. And dude, and I'll never forget, we still have it to this day. We crossed the finish line, we won. And I was, you know, obviously, it's very hectic and all of this. And we were going up to the podium, I checked my phone, Andy had texts. He goes, hey, man, you know, I love you, brother. And I want you to know, I always

• 53:04Speaker 02

  believe in you. And one other thing, we're gonna win the 24 Hours of LeMans. Like immediately, we hadn't even gone to accept the trophy from Daytona. And Andy's already telling me, we're gonna win the 24 Hours of LeMans. And again, I'm like,

• 53:22Andy Frisella?

  Which started a whole new journey.

• 53:26Speaker 02

  Yeah. So next year, off, we went to Europe, trying to start to qualify for LeMans. And it took a couple of years.

• 53:32Andy Frisella?

  Yeah. The first two LeMans did not go very well.

• 53:35Speaker 02

  Did not go very well.

• 53:36Speaker 01

  What happened, right?

• 53:38Speaker 02

  I mean, you know, that, a lot, a lot of shit can happen in 24 hours, let me tell you.

• 53:45Andy Frisella?

  Or the first hour.

• 53:48Speaker 02

  Gosh, we, the first year, we crashed out. I mean, I think I made it into like hour two or something, but. I was in the car, we crashed and actually another guy crashed.

• 53:59Andy Frisella?

  Hit you.

• 53:59Speaker 02

  And I, I arrived at another crash going on and I joined that crash.

• 54:06Andy Frisella?

  It looked like a good time.

• 54:07Speaker 02

  Thought we, thought we would all, you know, you know, things happen like, that's why these 24 hour races are so difficult to win. I can't explain to you, when you put, there's, this year at LeMans, there were 62 cars in the field. We're in a couple of different classes, but there's 62 cars out there running around. And you put 62 cars with type A personality drivers who all think they're the best in the world and are all, you know, trying to win the biggest race in the world. And man, shit happens.

• 54:34Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 54:35Speaker 02

  And, and you're, you're constantly in this environment of, of chaos that is uncontrollable. And, you know, it's so easy for you to do everything right. Like our first year at LeMans, I, I like, I was at the right spot on the track. I was looking, I did the right thing and just this other guy, he crashed literally right in front of me. I mean, there was, and everyone's like, oh, Ryan, don't take it so hard on yourself. Like no one could have done anything. Max Verstappen couldn't have avoided that crash. You know, you always think that there's something better you could do, but a lot of times, you know, you can be prepared and, and something happens out of your control. And, and that's it, man, you know?

• 55:12Andy Frisella?

  I, I think people, you guys got to understand, like you, you can literally, like to finish a 20, even a 12 hour race or a six hour race, much less a 24 hour race.

• 55:25Andy Frisella?

  Without a car, without the car braking, without, without you slipping on something on the track, without.

• 55:32Speaker 02

  Flat tire.

• 55:33Andy Frisella?

  Flat tire, without, uh, you know, I mean, dude,

• 55:38Andy Frisella?

  there's so much shit that has to go right. It's, you know, like you said, somebody could crash in front of you. Somebody could make a stupid move. Oh, by the way, you're in GT3 or GTD class, which is the slowest class out there, but also the hardest class to win in.

• 55:55Speaker 02

  Yeah, biggest class.

• 55:56Andy Frisella?

  Yes, because the, these, you've got all these other cars, like the prototype cars that are $10 million apiece. Flying by you and like it's.

• 56:10Andy Frisella?

  Dude, you, there, there is an element, and I hate using this word, but there is an element of pure luck.

• 56:18Speaker 02

  There, there is, without a doubt. I mean, without a doubt. You have to, we say all the time, like, these big races, you have to be prepared.

• 56:25Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 56:26Speaker 02

  Right? I mean, and because you're going into this uncontrollable situation, you have to execute on every single thing you can control. Like, for the driver, like, my fitness, I can control that. I can, I have to execute. I can't be fatigued. I can't be overweight. I can't be, you know, I have to be perfect. I can control that. We can control our pit stops, right? We can control if we make sure that the wheel guns are working properly. We can control that if we practice that and choreograph that. We can control that. The tire pressures are set correctly in the tires. There's, there's lots of things we can control, and we have to execute on all those things because you're gonna go out on track

• 57:07Speaker 02

  with these 61 other, you know, idiots, all that you can't control, right? You can't control the weather. You can't control track conditions. You can't control, you know, safety cars when they come out. So there's all these things that you just have to focus on the things that you can control. And so you can be perfect on all those things and have a run of bad luck.

• 57:28Andy Frisella?

  People don't understand, dude. Like, there's guys out there, like, there's a, you can basically buy your way into these things. So in every race, and this is no knock, but I mean, this is just the way racing is. Like, you're gonna be on the track with guys who are super professional, F1 champions, the best drivers in history, and you're also gonna be on the track with the dude next door that has a medical device company that fucking has enough money to run the race, who doesn't know shit about racing. So it's like, dude, it really is chaos.

• 58:02Speaker 02

  There, there's, there's, there's always, you know, a handful of those guys.

• 58:06Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 58:07Speaker 02

  You know, um, yeah, that, you know, that's what a lot of it, it takes to win. I get, I get a lot of those questions, you know, what, what, what does it take? And like, how, how do you pull it off? And honestly, you gotta have... The thing that I think is rare is one, there are definitely better teams than others. So you've got to get to a position as a driver that you're on the radar of some of the best teams. If you're shit slow, or you don't have, there's a funny, there's a financial element.

• 58:35Andy Frisella?

  Right.

• 58:35Speaker 02

  For, for, for me, you know, the rare combination that I've been able to spend the time to develop the skillset in order to drive the car fast, that's one thing that is rare. And then also I've been able through my business life, through my relationship with you, sponsorship. You know, some driver has to bring financial element to the deal. Whether that comes from your own money, whether that comes from outside sponsorship. You can find either of those two, you can find super talented fast drivers that don't have a penny to their name, or no sponsorship, or no connections, right? They're not that valuable because the car, someone has to pay for the car to go around. Or you can find guys that have tons of money.

• 59:12Andy Frisella?

  To catch rides.

• 59:14Speaker 02

  Tons of money.

• 59:14Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, right.

• 59:15Speaker 02

  You know, a bit of a liability, you know, a bit, you know, a bit not with the skillset. So I've been able to devote a lot of my life, you know, on the business side of things to be able to bring some own financial, you know, means to a team. Been able to make great relationships with guys like Andy and have bring sponsorship to our team, our team first forms the title sponsor. And still you can have all that, you can bring all that stuff, but someone has to drive the car, right? At an extremely high level for, you know, hours and hours on end without a mistake. So like the first year when we arrived, I had all this, we had the, everything was there. We had a good team. I felt like I had done the work. The car crashed with me in it. So I, you know, I can't, it wasn't my teammate's fault.

• 59:57Speaker 02

  I got, you know, and yeah, you can say, oh, wrong place, wrong time. I was in the car, man.

• 1:00:02Andy Frisella?

  What's that like, dude? Like, how's that feel? Like for real?

• 1:00:05Speaker 02

  It's, when you do it, when you crash, it feels bad. Like when your team, I've been where my teammate crashed and you're like, shit dude, I didn't even get to drive like, you know, so like.

• 1:00:14Andy Frisella?

  I wouldn't have crashed.

• 1:00:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, I wouldn't have crashed, you know, there's easy, then that feels bad.

• 1:00:18Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:19Speaker 02

  But dude, when you're, when you're at the wheel dude, and like you crash it, not like, oh, we gotta come in and fix it, like you're out. Like I've been, I've been, because that's the first radio call is. We're out. Yeah, you're, because they engineer, they don't know, they have sensors and stuff on the car. They can tell the car stopped, right? You know, but they don't know what happened. They were like, oh, maybe he can get it back.

• 1:00:40Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:40Speaker 02

  Like when you properly crash it.

• 1:00:42Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, it's not like how you see on F1 TV on the, on the show where they, the guys have so much data, they know.

• 1:00:47Speaker 02

  They, they, they know. Yeah. They, I mean, our guys have a tremendous amount of data, but they.

• 1:00:52Andy Frisella?

  They know if you stop, it's not good.

• 1:00:53Speaker 02

  Can you get the car back as you, you know, can you get it back to the pit lane? But when you're sitting there and like the whole front is smashed off or whatever, and you gotta tell them like, we're out. All the, you know, and that all this work, all this money, all this time, all this preparation, it's all, you know.

• 1:01:10Andy Frisella?

  And the preparation is for a year. Like that's like, you start prepping to run the Daytona, the, the minute after the Daytona finishes or the LeMans finishes.

• 1:01:23Speaker 02

  Like, obviously we have other races throughout the year, but like.

• 1:01:25Andy Frisella?

  They're all tuned up. Yeah.

• 1:01:27Speaker 02

  I mean, everyone wants to win. LeMans for sure is the biggest race in the world. I mean, like, or like, you can ask like any driver, any Formula One, I mean, look, right now the talk in Formula One is, uh, like McLaren is making a new car to come to race at LeMans, like Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, Verstappen's talking about, he wants to come to LeMans, like every, every driver, I don't care who you are, you want to win the 24 hours of LeMans. The Indianapolis 500 is up there, you know, the biggest race, the Monaco Grand Prix and F1, but it is, LeMans is one of, I would say the top three races in the world that everyone wants to win.

• 1:02:00Andy Frisella?

  It's the most viewed. It's the most viewed motor race ever.

• 1:02:05Speaker 02

  So that amount of pressure, you have like everyone from F1 to NASCAR to IndyCar, like everyone wants to be at this race. So the, the preparation that goes in, if you have, and one, you can't just sign up to come to LeMans, you have to be invited. So even as a driver or a team, there's only so many slots that, you know, cars can physically fit into the, uh, into the pit lane. So you have to earn an invitation. And so even then to earn the invitation, the amount of preparation that goes into being ready, you know, for the race, both from a personnel standpoint and the car, like I can tell you our, our car at Porsche, they work on that car. I mean. Every single part of that car has been gone over time and time and time again. And like, we have like a splitter, like the front splitter that's in the front.

• 1:02:49Speaker 02

  And I can't talk to you about a lot of the secret things, but I can tell you like, they're the front splitter we have, the rear wing that we have, there are certain parts on the car that are LeMans only. And I mean, they are, they are designed exactly for this one race, right? To make, LeMans is kind of interesting because we have these super long straightaways like the Mulsanne Straight, where we're going top speed for a really, really long time. And then there's also super high speed corners and then some very, very tight first gear corners. So the track, when you first look at it, looks kind of simplistic. When you're there, it's like the combination of everything. You have to have a car that's fast on the straights because if you're not, you're just going to get passed and it's the easiest place to pass. You have to have a car that has enough downforce to be stable in the really high speed corners.

• 1:03:34Speaker 02

  Like these ones down here at the end, corners like 20 and stuff through here. Those are called the Porsche curves. You enter those cars, like those corners in fifth gear and you're going through there at 140 to 130 miles an hour. And then you have corners like the final chicanes, those are called the Ford chicanes. You're, you're in first gear, in first gear, you're barely crawling. There's these huge curbs that you gotta climb and go under. So the car has to perform at low speed, medium speed, high speed, and it also has to be fast, right? So it's from an engineering standpoint, it's super hard to have a car that's good at all of those things. And you'll never have one that's perfect at all of them. You'll always have some, you know, inadequacy.

• 1:04:17Speaker 02

  But yeah, that's what's so kind of special and unique about, you know, developing the car that, you know, can be good around that track. But if you can be faster, you can be fast anywhere.

• 1:04:27Speaker 01

  Let me, let me ask you this, how, how hard was it for you to learn that skill of just trusting? Your other teammates, right? Like whether it's pit crew, whether it's like your, your engineers, like having to have that faith, trust in somebody else to control something you can't control.

• 1:04:43Speaker 02

  I mean, I, um, I think, I mean, to beat the business analogy horse, but I mean, I, I've been a part of large organizations for so much of my life that you have to trust that if anyone, if Andy Frisella can run all of first form completely by himself, there'd be no need for these hundreds of employees here, right? You know, so no one can do anything this complex and great, you know, on their own. Um, in the racing car, there is something that is just, I won't say it's balls or blind faith. Like when the engineer is telling you, hey, um, the Porsche curves, you can enter that, you know, at 140. And you're

• 1:05:25Speaker 02

  like, okay, that sounds good. And then you arrive there in the real car and you're, or I'd say even first on the simulator, we do try things first on the simulator. And like, okay, engineer says 140 miles an hour at this corner and you arrive there and you're like 160, 170 flat. And you think, oh my, let me tell you, it's a hard corner and you brake and you downshift twice and you turn, you look down, you're like 110 and you're, and you're thinking, oh gosh, I'm on the limit here. And you go back to your notes and goes, wait, 140, he said, um, okay, let's try again. And you, and you crash and you crash and you crash and you're like called engineer back like, hey, man, um, questioning.

• 1:06:04Speaker 01

  I know you said.

• 1:06:05Speaker 02

  I know you said, you know, so the simulator helps with these types of things. Then you arrive to Le Mans and you get there for the first test day. Cause this, this track is mostly country roads. It's, there's, there's only a small bit of it. That's like a proper racing track. And then you're using the rest of the country roads in France. Uh, and this, again, the race is a hundred years old, right? Um, but a hundred years ago, they only raced on, on the country road. So. You can't just go here and practice anytime you want. They only close the roads for this, you know, one race a year. And so you're flying down the road the first time, like the first practice day, and the track's always dirty at the first time because it's a, it's a, it's a normal highway. There's trash on the sides and stuff, right? And you go flying towards that corner and man, let me tell you, you know, yes, you do have to have a lot of faith

• 1:06:50Speaker 02

  in, in your engineers and what they tell you is capable of the car and, and that takes some time. I mean, that, that takes, you gotta, you gotta make like, is he lying to you? Is he sure? Like, how sure is he?

• 1:07:02Andy Frisella?

  Dude, I

• 1:07:02Speaker 02

  Takes a little bit of time.

• 1:07:03Andy Frisella?

  From an amateur, very amateur perspective, I found it very helpful to have someone telling me what to do when I was

• 1:07:11Speaker 02

  100%

• 1:07:12Andy Frisella?

  When I, when I was, because like dude, for me, at a very amateur, very, very amateur level now,

• 1:07:23Andy Frisella?

  you, you almost have to have someone telling you what to do because you have no idea what the fucking car will do. And if you trust them,

• 1:07:29Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:07:30Andy Frisella?

  You'll be fast.

• 1:07:30Speaker 02

  We, we have a ton of data, you know, these cars collect like you and I, when you and I drove, you can, I'm, I'm just like you. I'm much more comfortable if I can see that, okay, another driver on the same day, on the same car, he broke at this point. I'm braking earlier. The guy didn't crash. He made it, you know, so I, I'm, I'm, I've been able to just get myself wrapped around rather quickly what one man can do, another man can do.

• 1:07:54Andy Frisella?

  Right.

• 1:07:55Speaker 02

  So, but I'm usually not the first person to go do it.

• 1:08:00Speaker 02

  In some of these situations, I let, you know, my teammate does. And now the good thing is there's a lot of like amateur drivers that you can show them the data over and over and they'll spend a week, a day, like going there and they'll never make it to the braking point, right? I've been really quick. I like, I'm real quick. If you show me, hey, Brian, your teammate breaks here at the 50, it doesn't take me four laps or three laps. Like I go the next lap, I will.

• 1:08:23Andy Frisella?

  The learning curve is short.

• 1:08:24Speaker 02

  It's very short. I inherently know what one man can do, another man can do. So that's, whether that stupidity, bravery, you know, I don't know, but I just, I've arrived.

• 1:08:33Andy Frisella?

  Wouldn't you say though, like that's one of the most important elements to, I mean, To becoming a great driver, quickly.

• 1:08:42Speaker 02

  It's easy to say it. Let me tell you, when you, like in this world of simulators, right? They're awesome, by the way. I mean, these simulators are actually really, really good. But there's always that element on the simulator. You can always just hit that magic reset button after you crash and it costs no money. You don't have to go to the hospital, you know, and you can reset. When you arrive at the real car, there's real consequences, you know, and that's real speed and that's a real concrete wall right there. You know, that's the difference. Everyone can say, oh yeah, brake at the 50 meter mark, no problem. You know, easier, some people can do it and some people can't.

• 1:09:23Andy Frisella?

  I mean, dude, it's a parallel to business too. I mean, how fast can you learn?

• 1:09:27Speaker 02

  How fast can you?

• 1:09:28Andy Frisella?

  How fast can you, can you watch someone else do something and then know that you can do it too? Or do you say, oh, but he's an anomaly? Or that's a special circumstance? Or we're not them, you know, because none of that shit is true, dude. It just isn't. You've got to be able to learn quick.

• 1:09:44Speaker 02

  Another thing in business that relates is a lot of people don't realize a race car, if you drive it for one hour on one set of tires and you see a racing driver who can run virtually the same lap time for over the one hour or very, very close to it. That is such an unbelievable skill set because the tires are consistently wearing out. Every lap that you go, the tire has less grip. And when you go for one hour, let me tell you, those last five laps at the end is so incredibly hard because it's like driving on ice. There's literally like no grip left in the tire. And for you to achieve anywhere close to the lap time that you did at the first of the few laps is really, really hard.

• 1:10:27Speaker 02

  It is possible because when you start at the first lap, you have a full tank of fuel. Fuel weighs a lot when, you know, you have it all. The fuel is burning off over the hour. So the car is actually getting lighter as the time goes on, but the grip is going away. So you start with a lot of grip, super security, but you're just slow because it's kind of heavy and sluggish. Then the car gets super light and nimble, but you have no grip towards the end. The best drivers can achieve. Similar lap time all the way across. There's a big parallel in business, right? When the conditions are perfect and everything's fine and everything's and you can achieve one result in you're in sales in the month of May and you can achieve a good result. Being able to achieve that same result maybe in the month of January, you know,

• 1:11:12Andy Frisella?

  When it's a different trend.

• 1:11:13Speaker 02

  It's a different trend. This is more difficult.

• 1:11:16Andy Frisella?

  Right.

• 1:11:16Speaker 02

  Takes a skill set. So there's the only constant is change, right? And that's for sure in racing and for sure in business. You know, it's just another reason why I love it so much in life. Right. You, what you can do now doesn't mean you can do it later. And if you really, if you really develop the skill set, it is possible.

• 1:11:35Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:35Speaker 02

  Man, it takes.

• 1:11:36Andy Frisella?

  And the really, the really, really great championship people actually perform much better when the circumstances are much more difficult.

• 1:11:48Speaker 02

  So dude, the best drivers.

• 1:11:49Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:50Speaker 02

  When it rains.

• 1:11:51Andy Frisella?

  They're great.

• 1:11:52Speaker 02

  They're, everyone talks about Ayrton Senna.

• 1:11:54Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:55Speaker 02

  Man, in the, I don't care what driver you ask, driving a race car in the rain with like slick tires. You, we do have rain tires you can put on, but a lot of times it's dry. And then the rain comes, but you have the dry tires on. Let me tell you, dry tires on a wet track. I can't explain to you how slick it, I mean, you, you can think to touch the gas pedal. You don't actually do it. Just your brain thinks, I wonder if I should hit the gas now. Bam, you're spun out backwards in the wall. I mean, it's so difficult. And Ayrton Senna was like, he was the man, you know, in the rain and the, the feel that it takes. I don't, he was unworldly. Okay. Um, but man, that's a, this is also like a, you know, another analogy.

• 1:12:37Speaker 02

  Like sometimes, I mean, out of the blue, it can, it can rain.

• 1:12:41Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:41Speaker 02

  You know, and.

• 1:12:42Andy Frisella?

  There's chaos. It goes from fucking.

• 1:12:44Speaker 02

  Everything's fine.

• 1:12:45Andy Frisella?

  Perfect conditions.

• 1:12:46Speaker 02

  Everything's good.

• 1:12:46Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:12:47Speaker 02

  And then it's chaos. And a lot in the driving world, a lot of drivers are so, oh God, it's raining and we have to pit. We have to pit now. And you know, the pit crew is like, dude, you can pit. We're going to go to last place. Like survive, you know, can you survive? In Le Mans, it's super specific. Le Mans, the racetrack is like over eight miles long. It's almost nine miles. All the time, when it rains in LeMans, it very rarely rains the whole track. The track is so big, it can usually rain only in one section. And the pit crew, they all know that they have radar and everything coming. So you arrive and you're like, I've done it. I've arrived like, oh my God, if we have to pit now, it's like monsoon. They're like, ah, you gotta survive, Ryan. If you can make it past Tetra Rouge or what the next sector, it's actually dry. And you're like, and I remember this was last year.

• 1:13:33Speaker 02

  It came huge rain at towards the end of the lap. And I mean, I was surviving, I was surviving and a lot of the guys I was racing with, they all peeled into the pit lane. And, and our guys told me to stay out like it's going to dry up. And I mean, I didn't question them, but I did ask like, are you sure? Everyone's going in and they're like, no, trust me. And sure enough, we cycled to the lead. Everyone came in for wet tires. I made it, you know, several corners later and there, then it was the sun. So we kept going and man, we made a big lead right then because all the guys that came for wet tires, guess what they had to do? When the rain stopped, they had to come back into the pits again to get dry as again.

• 1:14:11Andy Frisella?

  So It's such a good parallel for business.

• 1:14:13Speaker 02

  It, it

• 1:14:14Andy Frisella?

  Because like

• 1:14:14Speaker 02

  Things can change.

• 1:14:15Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, dude, because the people who truly get ahead in business and who win are people that when the chaos comes, they don't freak the fuck out.

• 1:14:24Speaker 02

  Stay the course.

• 1:14:25Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, they keep moving and actually, you know, if, if there, I think, you know, there is an element of being wired for that. But the best operators that I've seen and probably the best drivers that you've seen are very similar. And that they will make a ma- like,

• 1:14:45Andy Frisella?

  it's kind of, it's kind of a paradox. People who are truly great at what they do, when things are perfect, will usually be hyper, almost.

• 1:14:59Andy Frisella?

  Insane about how much better it should be.

• 1:15:02Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:15:02Andy Frisella?

  But then when shit gets fucking crazy, those people calm down, dude. They're suit, they're like ice. Super calm. Chaos is happening. Tragedy happened. The storm came out of nowhere on the racetrack. The storm came out of nowhere in your business.

• 1:15:18Speaker 02

  But it's here.

• 1:15:19Andy Frisella?

  And those people, they, they go from being like almost hyper aggressive and like annoying and intolerable in terms of like their aggressiveness and their, you know, like,

• 1:15:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:15:33Andy Frisella?

  Fuck, we gotta look out for this or that or this to like, hey, everything's good.

• 1:15:36Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 1:15:36Andy Frisella?

  We're good. We just gotta do this and this and this. And I think that's a trait. I don't know if that's something that, I don't know if that's something that people can learn, but I do believe you can get better at it.

• 1:15:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, because it, it takes an actual effort.

• 1:15:50Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:51Speaker 02

  Everything in your body says panic.

• 1:15:52Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, like you, I don't know if it's something you can become great, great at without having it be wired into you. But I do think it's something that people can get better at.

• 1:16:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, I would agree. I mean, I would agree. There's like, um, like, you know, we all, Ayrton Senna, for sure, this guy was born with some things that, that other humans just haven't been born with. Um, I tell you like, and I'm this way in business, on the racetrack, when it starts raining, I immediately get excited.

• 1:16:24Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:16:25Speaker 02

  Deep in. I know this, it's about now I can make a difference.

• 1:16:29Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, dude. And the business is the same.

• 1:16:31Speaker 02

  It's the same.

• 1:16:31Andy Frisella?

  Like fucking, everybody's getting, like dude, in a bad economy or a, you know, uh, like, like COVID, like COVID comes. Everybody freaks the fuck out.

• 1:16:41Speaker 02

  What are we gonna do?

• 1:16:42Andy Frisella?

  Bro, my, my main thought when COVID happened, and I know it was yours too, because we talked through it, was like, all right, dude, everybody else is gonna fuck up.

• 1:16:51Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 1:16:51Andy Frisella?

  We can jump miles ahead.

• 1:16:52Speaker 02

  Yep, we can pass a lot of people.

• 1:16:54Andy Frisella?

  And by the way, both of us did in our businesses.

• 1:16:56Speaker 02

  That's right. Yep. Uh, it's, it's, uh, man, it's, it's, there's, we always talk about, there's two types of drivers. I think there's also two types of entrepreneurs.

• 1:17:05Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:05Speaker 02

  When the rain comes, it's either, oh shit. We have to pit, we like, oh God, what are we gonna do? And then there's those that smell the blood in the water.

• 1:17:14Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:14Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:17:15Andy Frisella?

  And let's be fair, we, we both have tremendously talented and skilled people around us too, that are also that way.

• 1:17:21Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 1:17:22Andy Frisella?

  You know.

• 1:17:22Speaker 02

  There's, there's.

• 1:17:23Andy Frisella?

  You got Justin, I got Sal and Jason and Chris and.

• 1:17:26Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:17:26Andy Frisella?

  And then each other.

• 1:17:27Speaker 02

  A common trait amongst all those people.

• 1:17:29Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:29Speaker 02

  They're all great operators that I think they also, if they were on the racetrack and it started raining.

• 1:17:34Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, they'd be like, this is it.

• 1:17:35Speaker 02

  Yeah. You know.

• 1:17:37Speaker 01

  Well, I've heard Chris is a terrible driver though.

• 1:17:39Andy Frisella?

  Chris is. I don't know, I, I can't tell if Chris is a great driver or a terrible driver, but I know this, I hate riding with him. I fucking hate it.

• 1:17:49Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:17:50Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:50Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:17:51Andy Frisella?

  There's something about his, his casual nature of driving very fast, that almost, I'm like. Yeah. You don't know what you're doing here, do you?

• 1:18:04Speaker 02

  I'm, I'm not a good passenger almost with anyone.

• 1:18:06Andy Frisella?

  No.

• 1:18:07Speaker 01

  Do you drive, like, okay, like, how, how, how hard is it for you to leave the track at the track when you're, you're driving down?

• 1:18:13Speaker 02

  I'm, I'm, I'm always pretty good. I, I, no, I'm always pretty good. I, I tell you, I, there's, there's two people around me, uh, they're usually with me at the racetracks all the time. The one's my father, he's, uh, comes to a lot of the races and he's the worst at this. Uh, the other's Justin, he's there. They'll be at a long race, you know, whatever, eight hour race, 24 hour race and no matter what the situation is, usually I'm a bit tired afterwards. And so I'm not driving the rental car back to the airport or wherever I'm going.

• 1:18:40Andy Frisella?

  I already know where this is going.

• 1:18:41Speaker 02

  My dad, my dad is like, when he gets in the rental car. It's like, it's his stint, man. He's in, like, he is fired up, dude. I mean, we are like breaking every traffic rule. He slams on the brakes, like, coming into the corners, you know? And we're like, dad, bro, like. It's easy. It's like, no, it's, it's fine. I've just, you know, and he says it, he goes, I've been watching racing the last 24 hours. I'm ready to go, you know?

• 1:19:04Andy Frisella?

  You should take a turn like this. Oh dude, that's hilarious.

• 1:19:07Speaker 02

  Apexes, you know, I'm like, dad, bro, like, if the race is over, man, we're, it's all good.

• 1:19:11Speaker 01

  That's funny.

• 1:19:13Andy Frisella?

  That's hilarious.

• 1:19:14Speaker 01

  Good looking car though, man.

• 1:19:15Andy Frisella?

  Oh yeah. Uh, well dude, that's a whole nother thing we could talk about. We, we developed that, that was our, that's been our strategy.

• 1:19:22Speaker 02

  I mean, the blue, you know, obviously it's the first form blue in our Pinto. But I mean, I'm sure everybody drives any kind of race car says, oh, mine's the best looking car. But I mean, we, we get so many compliments from fans that this is the badass ass looking race car. And we get so many compliments on like how bright it is and the sun, it shows up so bright. You can see our car like on TV. It just, it picks up the light so well.

• 1:19:48Andy Frisella?

  And you could definitely see even when it's just panning across.

• 1:19:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, you see the first form car, you know, this year, my wife and son got the opportunity at LeMans to ride in the Goodyear Blimp. They got to go up during the races going on. And they have these videos from the blimp of, you know, the cars coming by. And dude, you can see our coming, our car coming like all the way down the molesault. It's so bright, you know, but it's become iconic now. I think, you know, we're building something that'll be looked back on, you know, especially now, we're going to have three different Porsches that have won the three largest races in the world. You know, and the fact they were all blue, they're all slightly different in design. We changed the design a little bit, but they're all the blue first form Porsche, you know?

• 1:20:32Andy Frisella?

  Well, dude, it's like we talked, you know, when we first started, the first few years, we switched the livery every year. We were kind of trying to find our way about, you know, where we wanted to be. And then I can remember you and I talking extensively because we're both hyper detailed about this, that like, we wanted specifically to develop a look and feel to the car that would be lasting and iconic. So for Richard Petty's car. Yeah. So like, if you know NASCAR, everybody knows the number 43 STP car from all the way from the 60s till now. And that was kind of our goal is to create.

• 1:21:17Andy Frisella?

  A livery that, yeah, it might change a little bit.

• 1:21:20Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:21:20Andy Frisella?

  But, you know, 20 years from now, they're gonna have Hot Wheels and models and, you know. Right. Everybody knows that car, dude.

• 1:21:28Speaker 02

  Yes. No matter what driver ever drives that car and livery, that's the, that's a Richard Petty.

• 1:21:33Andy Frisella?

  That's right.

• 1:21:34Speaker 02

  STP, you know, car. But I think we're doing a good job. I mean, I can tell you now, we're racing. We raced in Asia this year. We raced in the Asian Le Mans Series, raced in Abu Dhabi, you know, in the Middle East. And in the World Endurance Championship was, which is what Le Mans is a part of. Um, which that's the next goal, by the way, you know, ask what are you doing after Le Mans is to win the world championship? Uh, but in this championship that we're in, you know, we're racing in Europe. We race once here in America. We race in Japan. We race in the Middle East. And this car, even when we arrive, even if people aren't as familiar with first form or, they know, they like, oh, this, that's the blue first form Porsche. They do, they know about it. That's the first form Porsche. That's what, you know, fans, Japanese, it's so cool to be in Japan or to be in the Middle East.

• 1:22:18Speaker 02

  And people associate it, you know, that's why I knew that, man, we've created, you know, we're not done.

• 1:22:24Andy Frisella?

  No.

• 1:22:25Speaker 02

  But we are doing a good job along the way.

• 1:22:28Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:22:28Speaker 02

  Of creating a brand and a association. Porsche is a big part of it.

• 1:22:33Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:22:33Speaker 02

  You know, but we're creating this association of the bright blue.

• 1:22:37Andy Frisella?

  Well, dude, and what a better, I mean, there's not a better brand to be attached to. I mean, Porsche is the most, the world's most valuable luxury brand. A lot of people don't know that.

• 1:22:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, I, you know, to me, they're, I mean, obviously I have a biased opinion, but, uh, and you and I are both fans of lots of cars.

• 1:22:53Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:22:53Speaker 02

  I mean, I, you know.

• 1:22:54Andy Frisella?

  But I don't think we would, I don't think either one of us would debate over who makes the best car.

• 1:23:00Speaker 02

  I mean, for me.

• 1:23:01Andy Frisella?

  From line to line.

• 1:23:02Speaker 02

  If you were gonna only have one car.

• 1:23:04Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:23:04Speaker 02

  If there could only be one, I truly think a Porsche 911, we can all.

• 1:23:08Andy Frisella?

  We, we, you and I would disagree on which one.

• 1:23:10Speaker 02

  Which one, maybe. There's.

• 1:23:11Andy Frisella?

  But I agree.

• 1:23:12Speaker 02

  Versions, but if you had to, you know, go to the grocery store and, you know, maybe, you know, and also turn up at the racetrack and do a good lap time and drive a back country road and somewhat be comfortable, drive across country. What I would, I would choose a.

• 1:23:26Andy Frisella?

  There's no question. The design hasn't changed since the, since the early seventies, late sixties.

• 1:23:31Speaker 02

  People like our racing car. I mean, it's.

• 1:23:33Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:23:34Speaker 02

  It's gotten longer, wider. There's some different things, but yeah, it's the same formula, basically.

• 1:23:39Andy Frisella?

  Now, just while we're on the topic, cause you've owned all the 911s. I've owned most of the 911s. Which one's your favorite?

• 1:23:50Speaker 02

  It's a tough one, but if I had to pick one, I do really like the 997 model, which was my favorite is the last year it was made, 2011, 2011.

• 1:24:04Speaker 02

  I like both the GT3 RS 4.0 that year and also the GT2 RS as a turbo, but those two cars, the physical size of the car was much smaller than what we have now. And to me, it was just the most balanced. You know, the 2RS with the turbo is the fastest, it has the most power, the 3RS, it's naturally aspirated. I just, either one of the, I would say that's my favorite.

• 1:24:29Andy Frisella?

  I think they're, I mean, those are both justifiable as top picks.

• 1:24:32Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. They've gotten more comfortable, bigger, but to me, that was the best.

• 1:24:36Andy Frisella?

  I've also owned both those cars and I,

• 1:24:41Speaker 02

  Yeah. So what's yours?

• 1:24:42Andy Frisella?

  Dude, you know, I, I, I think the 991 2RS, my, you know, my acid green car. That, that to me, even though, you know, the purists will say, oh, it's PDK, it's not manual.

• 1:24:56Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:24:57Andy Frisella?

  The amount of power that the car makes and the nimbleness of the car. For me, feels right. Um, you know, the other cars.

• 1:25:07Speaker 02

  They can be underpowered.

• 1:25:08Andy Frisella?

  That's what I'm saying. They feel slow to me and, and you know, that's not, that's just because of the, the other shit that we get to drive. Right? Like we both have the fastest cars in the world. You've got a supersport Chiron. I've got the pure sport. You know,

• 1:25:24Speaker 02

  Everything feels underpowered.

• 1:25:25Andy Frisella?

  Like once you're, once you've driven a P1 and once you've driven a supersport or a pure sport, everything feels slow. Like slow, slow. And then like, but that, but that 911 still feels quick. And, uh, and that's what I think I like about it. Cause even with the 2RS manual, uh, the 997, it's still felt, you know, people are like, oh, the Widowmaker. To who?

• 1:25:48Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:25:50Andy Frisella?

  That's how it felt to me.

• 1:25:51Speaker 02

  At the time, maybe.

• 1:25:52Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, right.

• 1:25:52Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:25:53Andy Frisella?

  I still like them. I think they're great cars.

• 1:25:57Andy Frisella?

  But yeah, that's, that's what I would pick.

• 1:25:58Speaker 02

  It's, it's impossible. I get that question all the time. Like, what's your favorite? Or can you only pick one? I mean, that's what's so great about cars. They're all, they're all so different. And hopefully no one has to pick just one, you know, or whatnot. But it's a great question, you know?

• 1:26:10Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:26:11Speaker 02

  Man, they're just, they're, they are so different. There, there are so many.

• 1:26:15Andy Frisella?

  I think we both agree on what the greatest Porsche is, though.

• 1:26:18Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean.

• 1:26:19Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, probably the greatest car.

• 1:26:20Speaker 02

  Carrera GT.

• 1:26:21Andy Frisella?

  Which is cool because I actually own his old Carrera GT. That's where I got mine from. And then he got a different one.

• 1:26:28Speaker 02

  I had to get a different one. Yeah. I made, you know, we all make mistakes. I made a, I had a lapse in judgment once. Yeah, no takesy backsies. Yeah. But I was fortunate to be able to, you know, years later, get another one. I realized, you know, how great of a car. But yeah, you called me like, man, I'm wanting to buy a Carrera GT.

• 1:26:45Andy Frisella?

  You're like, oh, so, you know, shit, man, I was thinking about selling mine. I'm like, done.

• 1:26:49Speaker 02

  Done. Yeah. Shortest call.

• 1:26:51Andy Frisella?

  Yeah. Cause it was, dude, it was the color I wanted and everything. Yeah.

• 1:26:54Speaker 02

  Black and black. Yeah. No, that car's, that car's special.

• 1:26:57Andy Frisella?

  So dude, you know, switching from, you know, really what we, what we came here to talk about.

• 1:27:05Andy Frisella?

  Let's talk about Le Mans, dude. You know, this, a week, two weeks ago.

• 1:27:09Speaker 02

  Yeah. Yeah. So this was our third year, you know, attempting it. And I'll say I came into this race. I don't think you ever expect to, to win a race like this. I mean, you, you know, we surrounded ourselves with what I think is the best team. They were the defending champions from Le Mans the, the year before.

• 1:27:27Andy Frisella?

  Did the Grelo car win last year?

• 1:27:28Speaker 02

  No, it was, it was, it was just, it wasn't the Grelo. They said the Grelo car only, they run with only top factory drivers like at the Nürburgring. So no, it wasn't the Grelo, but it was, it was their team. And I was with a different, you know, bronze driver who was, who was the best. They, they, last year, they won the championship, you know, Manthai Porsche, and they also won Le Mans. And so my teammate, Richard Leets, who was also my teammate in Daytona when we won the 24 Hours of Daytona. He won Le Mans last year with Manthai. And when I came, you know, back, had the opportunity to come back with Manthai and bring, you know, first form. Richie was available to come be my teammate.

• 1:28:10Andy Frisella?

  So he's won two in a row.

• 1:28:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, so he's won Le Mans two years in a row and Richie's the guy in the middle there. Um, he's now one of the winningest drivers ever at Le Mans. He has won Le Mans six times.

• 1:28:21Andy Frisella?

  Holy shit.

• 1:28:22Speaker 02

  Won it six times. Um, he's been on the podium several other times, but I think the winningest driver has won it seven times.

• 1:28:29Andy Frisella?

  Dang.

• 1:28:30Speaker 02

  So he's one away from tying that record. Um, but yeah, he's won two years in a row. So anyway, I knew like.

• 1:28:36Andy Frisella?

  Now, how old is he?

• 1:28:37Speaker 02

  Richie is just about our age.

• 1:28:40Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:28:41Speaker 02

  He probably won't like me, don't he? He's like, he had a great response in the press conference, like Richie, what do you have to be to, you know, win Le Mans six times in a row? And he said, well, the first thing you have to be is very old.

• 1:28:55Speaker 02

  Been doing it so many times, but uh, no, man, Richie, uh, you know, having him is special, you know, where I won Daytona with him. And then I was able to have him as my teammate, you know, come in here. Man, I knew I had the co-drivers. Um, also the third driver we have on our team, uh, his name's Ricardo Para. He's a silver rated driver. Um, we, I mean, do we, we went after this guy trying to get Ricardo as our third driver, you know, uh, pretty ambitiously. He, he's been, uh, the last couple of years, he's been one of the fastest drivers at Le Mans specifically. So like he's a bit of a specialist. I mean, he's a great driver. He's Italian, has won many races and championships around the world.

• 1:29:35Speaker 02

  But at Le Mans, he's like, he's like the man on sheer speed. So, uh, we put this team together, uh, with, with this race, like specifically in mind, you know, Richie's won it the most. Ricardo's one of the quickest and, and then me coming in. I've as, as bronze drivers, you know, I've been one of the top in the world the last few years. So, um, any team, I don't know if you know, the rules in Le Mans, uh, all drivers are rated by category and it's based on experience, right? Uh, you know, we're all professionals, but it's based on experience. You gotta have one, uh, uh, gold or platinum rated driver. It could be either one. Platinum is reserved for like Formula One, you know, drivers, or if you work directly for a manufacturer.

• 1:30:16Speaker 02

  Um, Richard Leets is platinum. Uh, you have to have one silver rated driver and you have to have one bronze rated. Driver and exactly what you mean I'm the bronze rated driver. I would have the least experience of these guys on the team. Ricardo's a silver and the trick in racing is you we're all trying to be the absolute best in our category, right? If I get a little too like for me, if I were to ever become silver one day, I would not be very valuable as a driver because there's lots of really, really great silvers. Same with Ricardo. Like when you go kinda you step to that next level. You're still on the bottom tier. You kinda could be on the bottom tier of the next level. So every team's trying to get the absolute best bronze and the absolute best silver and the absolute best platinum,

• 1:30:57Speaker 02

  you know, at that specific time. And I think we achieved that. I think I've I think my performance, I've been right up there in the top three or so bronzes in the world last, you know, few years and Ricardo, I think is definitely on that verge of probably becoming a gold real soon. And so we got a good combination here. But yeah, the week started like we we were decent. There in our class is the largest category. There's 24 cars in the in the class, all different manufacturers. And we were kinda in the practice sessions hovering around the back half of the top 10 really. We were each time between like fifth to 10th. Better

• 1:31:37Speaker 02

  than the average, but dude, we were like, everyone knew it from the start. The Ferrari and the Lexus, which is actually a Toyota, but the Lexus were just like so fast. I mean, they had they had more top speed than everybody else. Their lap times were the best. Like everyone was talking about it through the the practice sessions. And I mean, they were a lot faster than us and we were pushing. I mean, we were all out, you know, and you kinda can never tell in practice or or everyone just or people holding back. They don't want to show their whole cards just yet, you know. And so you don't really know. We were kinda leaning, we were, we were kinda showing it and we, the talks just went into, hey, this might not be our year, you know, Porsche won last year, this year, let's get

• 1:32:22Speaker 02

  good points for the championship. Even though these guys are fast, you know, like we said, in 24 hours, a lot of shit can happen, a lot of fast cars can have issues and break. But our goal for sure was the podium. We, we thought if we executed perfectly and we made no mistakes, we would have a shot at the podium. But that was realistically the goal. I definitely wasn't calling you or calling homes like, hey, man, this is the year, but we're, we're gonna smoke these guys. So that, I mean, that was our mindset, you know, going in. And we got to qualifying, um, uh, we, we had a good qualifying. I, you, each driver has to qualify. The, the bronze has to qualify, then the silver, then the gold, and you, you kind of, it's an elimination style, kinda like Formula One. Um, I qualified

• 1:33:01Speaker 02

  P3, um, and was really close to the top, you know, was a bit surprising, you know? Um, Ricardo did the same. He qualified P3 out of the silvers. Uh, and then Richard went with all the platinums and golds and he was P5, but they were all like, like, super, super close. So that was actually like the closest we had been, you know, uh, to the, to the front. Um, so that's where we started the race was from fifth. You start where the final, um, where the platinums, you know, qualify. So, yeah, we started from fifth. So, yeah, that was our goal. I mean, we just, we thought the, the podium would be kinda the, the goal. But I would say we spent the first six hours of the race.

• 1:33:40Andy Frisella?

  Well, how, how, how close, just so people understand, it's eight mile track.

• 1:33:46Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 1:33:46Andy Frisella?

  Okay. How close are the times from qualifying first to third to fifth?

• 1:33:53Speaker 02

  Oh, um, I mean, we can pull it, uh, but, uh, just off the top of my head, a really fast, uh, qualifying lap time, if you're going under four minutes is, is, is really fast. I wanna say our pole laps were in the, uh, close to 355.

• 1:34:10Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:34:10Speaker 02

  Okay. And the, I mean, the top, I know in my qualifying that I was P3, the top 11 or 12 were all within the same second.

• 1:34:20Andy Frisella?

  Okay.

• 1:34:20Speaker 02

  So we're within tenths, sometimes hundreds.

• 1:34:24Andy Frisella?

  Okay.

• 1:34:25Speaker 02

  Of a second.

• 1:34:26Andy Frisella?

  So that's what I'm trying to, the perspective I'm trying to let everybody understand.

• 1:34:29Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:34:30Andy Frisella?

  You're talking about an eight mile course.

• 1:34:32Speaker 02

  There's 32 corners. So 32 opportunities to brake and accelerate, you know, or not, right?

• 1:34:39Andy Frisella?

  And the top 11 cars are in the 355 mark.

• 1:34:42Speaker 02

  Within the same second.

• 1:34:43Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:34:44Speaker 02

  Yeah. So we're, we.

• 1:34:47Andy Frisella?

  I got it right here.

• 1:34:48Speaker 02

  We're constantly pushing for, yeah, tenths of a second.

• 1:34:53Andy Frisella?

  Yeah. So that's, that's just so you guys that don't know racing.

• 1:34:58Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:34:58Andy Frisella?

  That's how close it is.

• 1:35:00Speaker 02

  And we get a lot of questions. I get a lot of guys like, hey, what's the difference in a bronze like Ryan versus, you know, a platinum like Richie? And LeMans is a bigger track, obviously at three minutes. Most of our tracks are much shorter, right? Um, but you know, the difference from me to Richie was probably one ish second.

• 1:35:22Speaker 02

  Man, Ty, I did a 357.2 and Richie did a 355.1. Yeah, Richie's the last. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, within two seconds.

• 1:35:34Andy Frisella?

  That's crazy.

• 1:35:35Speaker 02

  Yes. Cause most tracks, I'm within one second of Richie, but that's also about a two minute lap time. So this is a four minute lap.

• 1:35:41Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:41Speaker 02

  So here I was under two seconds, I was 1.9 seconds from the guy who's one of the greatest drivers in the world, you know? So that's what it takes to, you know, be a, be the least experienced guy. You gotta still be within like one second of, of the, of the top, you know?

• 1:36:01Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:36:03Andy Frisella?

  Oh, bro. And but here's the thing. How long has Richie been racing?

• 1:36:07Speaker 02

  Oh, his whole life.

• 1:36:08Andy Frisella?

  Okay.

• 1:36:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:36:08Andy Frisella?

  So you got a guy.

• 1:36:10Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:36:10Andy Frisella?

  Just so we understand, just, I think this is important to point out. You've got a guy that's probably been racing since go-karts.

• 1:36:16Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:36:17Andy Frisella?

  Okay. His whole life.

• 1:36:21Andy Frisella?

  And you have a guy who's been racing for less than 10 years.

• 1:36:24Speaker 02

  Nine, nine years.

• 1:36:25Andy Frisella?

  Who's one within, you know, right there next to him. So like what most guys will spend, this is the point that needs to be made. Most guys will spend their entire life trying to make that time up. That gap between Richie and Ryan, they will spend their entire life to get to make up that less than a second or, or one second or two seconds.

• 1:36:47Speaker 02

  True, that's most, most, you know, never will.

• 1:36:49Andy Frisella?

  That's how close, that's how, that's how precise and close racing really is.

• 1:36:54Speaker 02

  What, what I've found, what's so crazy, what I've found is, you know, through like, you know, nine years.

• 1:36:59Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:36:59Speaker 02

  You can get, I mean, I'm so, I can get within a second.

• 1:37:02Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:37:03Speaker 02

  Over two minutes and, and dude, we're talking one second spread out over 20 corners.

• 1:37:07Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:37:08Speaker 02

  I mean, bro, it's a

• 1:37:09Andy Frisella?

  It's

• 1:37:09Speaker 02

  Less than like hundreds of a difference in the braking and the acceleration, right? And in each corner, right? Less, obviously less than a blink of an eye.

• 1:37:18Andy Frisella?

  If you were watching a video of their feet right next to each other, it would look virtually identical.

• 1:37:22Speaker 02

  Look identical. Yeah. Look identical. Um, and then what I've found is you can get within that second, but let me tell you, the last half a second, the last five tenths, this is what takes a lifetime.

• 1:37:35Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:37:35Speaker 02

  These, the guys that, that do this at that, at that, that have dedicated their life, they've dedicated their entire life.

• 1:37:43Andy Frisella?

  To a half a second.

• 1:37:44Speaker 02

  A half a second more than what someone who could come in much later in life can do it. And let me tell you, that last half second.

• 1:37:49Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:37:51Speaker 02

  It's hard.

• 1:37:52Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:37:52Speaker 02

  It's very hard. It's very, very hard.

• 1:37:55Andy Frisella?

  I just think, I just think it's important to point that out, but cause like as an average, you know, I flip on the television and then there's a race cars going around the track. You don't think about it like that.

• 1:38:04Speaker 02

  Yeah. Yeah. We're, we're going, a lot of times, you know, you watch the video back and you look at the data and you're like, golly, I'm, you know, one second or nine tenths. Like where could it be? It's never in one spot or two spots. It's, it's fractionally around, you know,

• 1:38:20Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:38:20Speaker 02

  You know, each corner. And then to be able to do that and execute it, like we said, over an entire hour with tires changing, fuel changing, weather changing, temperature changing. That's one hour.

• 1:38:30Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:38:31Speaker 02

  Then times 24.

• 1:38:32Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:38:32Speaker 02

  But in the middle of the night.

• 1:38:34Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:38:34Speaker 02

  It's, it's, that's where the skill set comes in.

• 1:38:38Andy Frisella?

  So we start the race.

• 1:38:42Speaker 02

  Isaiah, I can break down pretty soon. This was honestly a pretty straightforward race. You know, when it's kind of going your way, you kind of, it's kind of going your way. We spent the first six hours, I would say, in the top five and kind of, I don't want to say

• 1:38:56Andy Frisella?

  You ran four hour stint to start the race.

• 1:38:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, I started around four hours in a row. I did the only quadruple stint in the entire race. No one else did a quadruple stint. I'll say it wasn't planned. The plan was for me to run a triple, which that's about

• 1:39:10Andy Frisella?

  It's pretty hard.

• 1:39:11Speaker 02

  That's pretty hard. A lot of, a lot of guys, most guys will run double stints, so like two hours at a time. It was planned for me to do a triple. My physical fitness has been strong, you know, I'd say compared to most other drivers. So, you know, it's been a strength of ours. And they knew the, the more I could drive towards the start saves our fastest drivers for the end and saves them more fresh, right? So, they called me at hour three and I was, we were hanging around that top five, you know, and they're like, hey Ryan, you know, how are you feeling in the car? I'm like, man, I'll be honest with you, like, I'm feeling pretty good. Like, we're, and I, you know, it's fun when you see the, you know, you see the leaders and we're doing well. And, and I'm like, man, I feel great. You know, if you guys, if it helps, like, I'm good to do another one. And they, they said, let us

• 1:39:54Speaker 02

  come back to you. And they rummaged around, I guess, for a little while. And they came back like, hey, man, if you're okay, like, it would be a big advantage if you could do, you know, four. And so, man, if it's an advantage, let's go. And I did it. It was, it was awesome. We, we gained a lot of space there. And what that did, that set off, I think, what had eventually helped us win the race.

• 1:40:14Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:40:14Speaker 02

  A lot of the other teams, as we got towards the night, they had to put in their bronze drivers in because they were running their faster drivers early, where we had saved, we put in our, you know, platinum, you know, and silver drivers against a lot of their bronzes. So, that enabled us to jump up quite a bit. And then, the next thing that did a big difference was the nighttime. I mean, the night at Le Mans is some of the most difficult. You can ask any driver. I mean, it's not like Daytona, the 24 hours of Daytona, I'm not going to sit here and tell you it's easy. It's not easy, okay? But as far as driving in the night, it's extremely well lit. It's damn near the daytime. I mean, all the big, you know, from the Speedway, you've got all the lights from NASCAR, and it's basically

• 1:40:58Speaker 02

  like driving in the day. Let me tell you something. The back country roads in the Midwest of France are not well lit. My first year when I went up for the first night practice, I came out of the pit lane. The pit lane, it's all lit up. So it's like the racing track there. So it's like Daytona. It's all lit and you go the first three corners. It's all lit and then you, you merge out onto the Mulsanne Straight and this is where you leave the, the racing track and go on the, go on the country roads. And I was, you know, radio silence for a little while and I'm driving down the Mulsanne Straight. I went to the first chicane and I'm on my way to the second chicane and I called on the radio and I'm like, guys, it is dark.

• 1:41:42Speaker 02

  I can't explain to you guys.

• 1:41:44Andy Frisella?

  Is it supposed to be this way?

• 1:41:46Speaker 02

  You can watch all the video. Like we have video. You can go on YouTube and watch. My videos are on YouTube right now. You can watch, uh, you know, my laps and stuff at night. And you have a like, oh yeah, it kind of looks dark, but it'll probably be okay. Like, bro, what, what got me is that, you know, we have headlights, but the headlights, obviously they shine in front of you, right? Well, when you're on a racetrack and you're about to come to a corner, the front of you is fine. You can see out there, but all the time like during the day, you, you need to see where you brake, but then your eyes are going to the corner. So let's say it's a right-hand corner. Your eyes are going over to the right, looking for the apex. Well, bro, it is, it's pitch black, dark, you know? So you're, you're braking and you look and you're like, um, I think we turn now.

• 1:42:31Speaker 02

  So you turn and then the headlights move and they're like, nope, too early. You know, further. So you have to, it's nothing but time. You have to develop time and you have to look at things on the road that you can see like right in front of you to give you visual clues of where the turn-in spot is. You can see the brake points. Like there's, you recognize signs and different things on the road to where you know where you have to brake, but the turn-in point, this has to come from just muscle memory and, and feeling and stuff. So, uh, anyway, back to my original story. Driving at the night is very difficult. Most bronze drivers don't drive at night. Most teams, they drive their bronze drivers a little bit in the day at SART and then they put in their silvers and their platinums to go back and forth, back and forth all night long. And then when the

• 1:43:16Speaker 02

  sun comes up the next day. The bronzes go in, you know, when it's the sun is back out. I drove those four hours to start that helped to get us ahead. And then I drove, it gets dark kind of late there around 10 o'clock at night. Actually, it's pretty, it's the summer solstice, so longest day of the year. I drove going into the night. So as the sun was going down, I drove from 10 to about midnight. Where no other bronze driver was out there then. And I came out for just a couple hours and I went back in at 3:30 a.m. And I drove from 3:30 into the sun coming up. Sun comes up kind of early around 5:30. So I did like a, it was a triple stint. That went into the sun. And again, no other bronze drivers out there. We were in the top three, both those times we were in third, second, first.

• 1:44:02Speaker 02

  And like the team was on the radio like, Ryan, your pace is, is doing great. Um, like the Ferrari had caught me. We were in second. The Ferrari caught me. It had their platinum driver in it. And they're like, Ryan, this is the platinum. Don't, don't fight, like no, don't risk anything. If he's faster, just don't fight, let him go because they still have to do like four hours of their bronze driving.

• 1:44:24Andy Frisella?

  We'll catch him.

• 1:44:25Speaker 02

  And you're done in the next hour. Like you're, you know, so I did the most driving at night, which ended up being like a major step forward. Because then when the sun came up, I was done. Uh, like I had completed all my, I have to drive like seven and a half or eight hours of the 24. I was done. And every other team still had their bronzes had to come in. And bro, we went straight to the front. We passed with a lead when the sun was coming up. Uh, and then we led the entire rest of the race, you know, so.

• 1:44:54Andy Frisella?

  Which is a huge advantage because it keeps you out of the shit.

• 1:44:57Speaker 02

  Oh yeah. Oh, leading is always better.

• 1:45:00Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:45:00Speaker 02

  And in the back, but yeah, that's pretty much how the race went.

• 1:45:04Andy Frisella?

  So dude, what was it like, you know?

• 1:45:08Andy Frisella?

  When we won? I mean, I know what it was like because for me, but like, I mean, what was it like, dude?

• 1:45:12Speaker 02

  Man, that dude, the, I mean, I had a similar feeling in Daytona, you know, but when, you know, we were leading, we had a big lead, but you're constantly counting down every minute, every hour. And the, the, the factory Ferrari was in second and they were the only car towards the end of the race that really had the speed. They were, again, they were the fastest since we had turned up. And man, I'm like, golly, if anything happens to the car and this Ferrari is super fast and, but we had this kind of manageable about one minute lead, you know, that we just kind of managed all the way through. So you're obviously worried about something just like by chance happening to the car, a flat tire, a mechanical issue, but our car was perfect, you know, the whole time.

• 1:45:54Speaker 02

  Again, back to that preparation work, but dude, I would say the last stint for Richie, which was right at an hour, like probably 50 minutes to go, we did our final pit stop and our engineer was so super good on the team. He's talking to the pit crew before, you know, Richie was coming in for the final pit stop. It's like, guys, this is the last one, you know, for the whole 24 hours. Make sure every wheel gun is perfect. Fuel man, make sure, test the fuel, the fuel flow. Make sure it's perfect. Take your time. We're normally trying to do it as fast as we can, right? He's like, we have a one minute lead.

• 1:46:29Andy Frisella?

  We gave up at like, what, 20, 30 seconds?

• 1:46:31Speaker 02

  We gave up almost, almost 25 seconds because we re, he said, take your time, make sure the wheels are torqued. We even added a bit of oil to the engine just to, we didn't have to, just, just a precaution, you know, took our time with the fuel flow, looked over the car, just, and then set them out, you know, so we, we lost some of that minute lead, but on purpose, right?

• 1:46:52Andy Frisella?

  Right.

• 1:46:52Speaker 02

  Just keeping everyone calm. But yeah, I was there with my, my son was sitting right next to me, my oldest son, and my wife, you know, Whitney was there. My dad was in the garage, Justin, and man, dude, I was like, I was, I mean, you know, I couldn't stop shaking my feet. I'd stand up, sit down, walk around, go back up, drink an energy drink. I'm like, I was pacing.

• 1:47:11Andy Frisella?

  Cause that always helps.

• 1:47:12Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. Calm me down, you know?

• 1:47:14Andy Frisella?

  Definitely not an ad.

• 1:47:15Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. But dude, it was, it was, it was awesome. I mean, I, you know, I, I'd never thought. You know, we could win this race. I mean, just, just to come and compete in it, you know, is one thing, but uh, yeah, when he, when he crossed the line, I mean, dude, it just, the garage erupted. Uh, you know, I lost it. Those, I give my son and my wife, you know, it's just, it's, you know, for me, it's like, you know, you dedicate your life to, you know, perfection. And we all want to be perfect, right? You know, we're all trying to leave a legacy and, you know, and for me, having my son there that I, I, it's my hope, like seeing his dad do something at that level. I mean, dude, as a, you know, it's, you know, it hit me and I like, no one, no one can ever take that away from us, right? We're in the history books.

• 1:48:00Andy Frisella?

  No, bro. You're etched in, you're etched, your name is etched in history.

• 1:48:05Speaker 02

  Yeah. All those posters like you have in your garage.

• 1:48:08Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, we'll have that.

• 1:48:09Speaker 02

  Where, where there's gonna be a poster of our car, right? You know, now, so, um, yeah, man, it's hard, hard to put into words, but yeah.

• 1:48:15Andy Frisella?

  It's fucking awesome, dude.

• 1:48:16Speaker 02

  Yeah. And, and you sent me the screenshot. You were like, oh, by the way.

• 1:48:21Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:48:21Speaker 02

  From back in, however, me three years ago, that we were gonna win the Mott, you know? Yep. You were right again.

• 1:48:26Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, dude. Well, I mean, look, uh, winners fucking win, bro. And, you know, it's, it's, I think people, I think people think there's a, there's a magical

• 1:48:40Andy Frisella?

  element to it. And I don't think that's what it is at all. I think it's being meticulous and relentless towards whatever it is you choose that you want to go towards. And I don't think that success in business or success in racing or, or obviously there's limitations, you know, uh, a five foot one person is highly unlikely to be the MVP of, of the NBA, right? Um, but outside of that, I really think it comes down to like just an obsessive commitment

• 1:49:15Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 1:49:16Andy Frisella?

  to achieving whatever it is that you've decided you're going to achieve. And, and it's not, it's not a, oh, I'd kinda like to do this. It's, it's an obsession.

• 1:49:26Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 1:49:26Andy Frisella?

  And for you guys listening, you know, I can't, I can't articulate the amount of hours that Ryan and I have spent on the phone talking about winning this race. I mean, over the years, it's. I wouldn't even know where to start.

• 1:49:44Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:49:44Andy Frisella?

  And uh, to see, to see you do it, bro. It's just, it's one of the coolest, it's one of the coolest moments of my life. I can't imagine what it's like to actually have done it, you know, and, and to stand out there on that podium with fuck, what, 100,000 people?

• 1:50:00Speaker 02

  I'll never forget that. I mean, I hope, I haven't rewatched the, the TV yet. Yeah. I hope they showed it and hope it did it justice. When we walked out on the podium, it's a, it's an F1 style podium that's elevated, you know? And when we walked out, they opened the track up after the race for all the fans can come down like on the, the front stretch.

• 1:50:19Andy Frisella?

  There was no end to them.

• 1:50:20Speaker 02

  Bro, it was as far as I could see.

• 1:50:23Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:50:23Speaker 02

  Wall to wall people. I, I mean, the race is one of the most, uh, highest attended sporting events in the world, right up there with Indy 500. And um, I think it's like 370,000 people or something. I, and it looked like they were all right there, you know? And I, you know, you talk about, I mean, you know, for, you know, like you and, and this company, you guys, you know, believed in me like at a super early stage, when I was just starting out and racing into, I can't tell you the amount of pride to stand up there. Um, we had some screaming freedom, you know, energy drinks with us and we didn't know if like the officials were going to try to take them from us or whatever. So we, we kind of snuck them within our suits like as we went up, but to stand there like with the can, you know, wearing our hat, you know,

• 1:51:05Speaker 02

  with our logo on top of the podium at, without doubt, one of the world's largest, take out racing.

• 1:51:12Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:51:12Speaker 02

  It's one of the world's largest sporting events, you know, it's, it, for me, it was that Superbowl type of moment, right? You know, and to be able to do that, when I walk back in this building, you know, too.

• 1:51:22Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:51:22Speaker 02

  And see all these employees and all these team members, same with Mountain Motorsports, our motorcycle dealerships. The amount of pride, you know, that we were able to, you know, help create for all of these employees.

• 1:51:35Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:51:35Speaker 02

  Customers, how many customers that have reached out and like, dude, we've all loved First Form or we've loved Mountain Motorsport. But like now we know someone who's won, you know, I mean, that's just, it's a tremendous amount of pride.

• 1:51:47Andy Frisella?

  Well, dude, and I, you know, we have never talked about this publicly, but in 2022. 2022, was it 2022 or 23?

• 1:51:55Speaker 02

  What?

• 1:51:56Andy Frisella?

  That, you know, there was an opportunity for you to invest in the company. And Ryan's actually, people don't know this, but like, you know, you own a small purse, a small portion of the brand at this point.

• 1:52:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:52:08Andy Frisella?

  So, you know, to get up there and be a part of the brand after all these years of being a fan of the brand.

• 1:52:15Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:52:16Andy Frisella?

  Had to be fucking, I mean, dude.

• 1:52:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, yeah, it means, I mean, it means a lot. I mean, to be able to, like I say, you gave me that opportunity a couple of years ago. Um, you know, I'm a small part, you know, this big massive thing that you.

• 1:52:30Andy Frisella?

  Well, actually a really big part because, you know, having you as a partner for the, for the, the knowledge and the experience and the strategy. And all of those things is invaluable. So, you know, it's, it's a, for us to go from, you know, where we are now to where we're going. It's.

• 1:52:50Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:52:50Andy Frisella?

  It's fuck, the skills needed.

• 1:52:52Speaker 02

  Yeah, well, we're, we're, uh, yeah, this, there's, uh, there's gonna be a long story, you know, written about first form one day.

• 1:52:58Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:52:59Speaker 02

  Where we still have many more chapters in that story to write, but, uh, yeah, no, I'm, I'm, I'm super gracious of, uh, of mostly the friendship, right?

• 1:53:07Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 1:53:08Speaker 02

  You and I were friends, you know, before anything else and Sal and, and, uh, Jason and Chris, I mean, all you guys give me the opportunity to be more involved with the business. It's, uh, there isn't a business, you know, um, that I believe in more outside of the one that, you know, I started with Justin. Um, but, uh, you know, if I could have, you know, if you asked me a question, hey, Ryan, you have the opportunity to invest in any company in the world. Any company. Man, there's not one that I would want to and see more promise and upside than first form. I mean, I.

• 1:53:42Andy Frisella?

  Well, dude, it wouldn't feel right. It wouldn't feel right doing it without you at this point. I mean, that's what it comes down to. You know, we've been, I mean, fuck, how many conversations have we had? Over the years about the, the company strategy, not just the race strategy. You know, I think, I think people, you know, like you've been one of my biggest, you know, uh, I don't know, you know, sounding boards, advisors, you know, partners without officially being part of the company for a decade.

• 1:54:09Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 1:54:10Andy Frisella?

  You know, and people, people, um, you know, people don't know that, but. You know, I, I, I wouldn't feel right. I don't think anybody here would feel right doing it without you.

• 1:54:20Speaker 02

  Well, that means a lot. I'd say, I get one question all the time about, uh, you know, we have so many fans and people that look up to First Form and I get a question like, Ryan, how, how on earth did you get First Form as a sponsor? And I have the same, you know, uh, answer back to them. And I think this is a great thing for a lot of young people to hear. If you're ever looking to get investment or a sponsorship from a company, the number one way you can do that is to give more than you're asking to receive. And you said this a lot. I've always tried from the first time that you and I became friends, and this is in any

• 1:55:00Speaker 02

  friendship that I have. I, I try to give and share more than I asked in return. And I do it in a way that I'm not even hoping or expecting or anything. I do it just to try it selflessly. And I think if you can truly master that ability to, in any relationship you have, whether it's, you know, uh, you know, friendship, whether it's business related, or whether you're trying to build some, attract a sponsor, you have to find ways that you can give. A lot of people say, well, I don't have money or I don't have, you know, giving is, is a lot of ways. Like you said, I, I was there as a soundboard a lot of times. You just needed somebody to talk to or somebody to bounce somebody's ass off of. And that

• 1:55:42Speaker 02

  was valuable at the time. And yes, eventually you decided to invest in racing with me. But hopefully it was always, and I think that's what

• 1:55:51Andy Frisella?

  Oh dude, yeah.

• 1:55:52Speaker 02

  There was, yes, I received, but I always felt that I was, I was giving in a way that made it, made sense.

• 1:55:59Andy Frisella?

  I mean, I know that. I know that, but I don't think, you know, it's never been talked about in public. You know what I'm saying?

• 1:56:07Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 1:56:07Andy Frisella?

  I mean, it's, look, bro.

• 1:56:09Speaker 02

  Pretty awesome to see.

• 1:56:10Andy Frisella?

  It's fucking awesome. It's the coolest thing ever. I thought this was Sixer. I just found this online. Uh, the, the video game, Gran Turismo?

• 1:56:17Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:56:18Andy Frisella?

  Somebody has that livery in the game. Yeah.

• 1:56:21Speaker 02

  Oh, it'll be, it's already everywhere. Yeah.

• 1:56:23Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 1:56:24Speaker 02

  Yeah. People are making it in Gran Turismo and all the, the cert fours. And I get all, you know, cause these are individual designers that, that, you know, make their graphic designers. Yeah.

• 1:56:34Andy Frisella?

  Do they sell those skins? Like you buy the skins?

• 1:56:37Speaker 02

  And some.

• 1:56:37Andy Frisella?

  Some guys make them in the.

• 1:56:39Speaker 01

  Some people just open source it.

• 1:56:40Speaker 02

  Yeah. Most people, it's free. They build them and yeah. It for, you know, it'll be a very widely used.

• 1:56:48Andy Frisella?

  Yeah. Yeah.

• 1:56:49Speaker 02

  After this win. Yeah.

• 1:56:50Speaker 01

  It's freaking sick, man. Um, but I want to ask you this, Ryan, because you know,

• 1:56:56Speaker 01

  you, you put them all together. You got Sebring, Daytona, Le Mans. Like that's the pinnacle. Like what, so what, what's next? Like, how do you, how do you reset a standard? How do you not celebrate too long? What's the next? What, what's next? Like, I mean, how do you, how do you top that?

• 1:57:10Speaker 02

  That's a great question. I mean, uh, without a doubt, um, uh, any competitive person, you know, I think no matter how big the mountain is that you climb, you know, there's, there's always another mountain, right? You know, you start thinking about, you know, what, what else is there to achieve? Uh, for me, I got a short term and a long term answer. You know, the, the short term is simple. Um, we're currently leading after the win in Le Mans, we're leading the world endurance championship, uh, which is ran by the FIA and that's the highest form of, uh, sports car racing in the world. There's Formula One. FIA runs two series. They run Formula One and they run the world endurance championship. Every manufacturer is involved with the world endurance championship. So we are racing with the factory effort from Porsche.

• 1:57:53Speaker 02

  We race against the factory efforts from Ferrari, from Corvette, from BMW. So it is, it is the top level, you know, sports car racing. And, uh, it's a series that goes all around the world all year. And the best, you know, the team that, you know, has the most points at the end of the year is world champion. So outside of the Formula One world championship, this would be the next highest level of, of a season long championship in the world. So that's the goal. Uh, we're currently leading the championship, uh, after Le Mans. Le Mans is worth a lot of points. We've won one other race. We won in Italy. We're the only team to have won two races so far this year. Um, we're in a pretty close battle with the factory Ferrari, as it was probably the, I'd say strongest team. They're strong. I mean, without a doubt, they're the next.

• 1:58:36Andy Frisella?

  Well, bro, they, they, I mean, that's their whole thing.

• 1:58:39Speaker 02

  The two of us. I mean, it's, it's, we're, I would, I wouldn't want to say head and shoulders, but there's great competition amongst Corvette has a strong, you know, racing team. Toyota, BMW, there's a lot of great teams, but Ferrari and us are the leaders and we have the lead and so that's the short-term goal. I want to be world champion and have that as a title here. That's the short-term goal. Long-term, I just start now, I always said my whole goal was to win Le Mans, to try to win that race and win the trifecta. Believe me, my wife is asking like, hey, so you've won Le Mans now. Time to retire.

• 1:59:17Andy Frisella?

  Well dude, it's a big commitment from the family. People, yeah, I mean, look.

• 1:59:23Speaker 02

  Sacrifice is a lot, you know, and I'm super fortunate with her, my kids, you know, it's a lot of time away from home. But to answer your question, my long-term goal is legacy. I'm starting to think about legacy and like I look at, you know, is there, you know, how many times could I win this or how many championships could there be? And so I would like to leave a lasting legacy, both in the racing world and as well as the business, community world. And I think, obviously associated with.

• 1:59:58Andy Frisella?

  They're parallel.

• 1:59:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think.

• 2:00:00Andy Frisella?

  Because we have to continue to grow the brand if we're going to continue to have the legacy in racing.

• 2:00:04Speaker 02

  Yep. Yeah. So I think about legacy, both for the brand personally and, you know, so.

• 2:00:09Andy Frisella?

  It's actually pretty cool because like when we talk about, when Ryan and I talk about the business, like it's funny because a lot of it correlates to, and if we could do that, we could do this.

• 2:00:19Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:00:20Speaker 01

  Do this over here.

• 2:00:22Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's possible.

• 2:00:25Andy Frisella?

  Yeah. I mean, you know, my long-term goal, like, we're going to be in F1.

• 2:00:31Speaker 01

  I was about to ask, I didn't want to like break no secrets.

• 2:00:33Andy Frisella?

  I mean, that's where you're going to ultimately see our car, our livery, everything that we're doing. You will 100% eventually see that in F1.

• 2:00:44Speaker 02

  We're making, we're making all the right headways, we know the connections. Yeah, let me tell you, we are first form and like that blue livery, we are, we are on the world map. And it's what it takes. I mean, you can't just turn up and Formula One, even the team, you know, they, you know, obviously these teams want to be associated with great brands. And yeah, we're on the way.

• 2:01:07Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, we will be. Owners, maybe, I don't know if Ryan will be driving at the F1 car.

• 2:01:14Speaker 02

  I think we may need to find maybe a driver.

• 2:01:17Andy Frisella?

  Twenty, you know.

• 2:01:19Speaker 02

  I may be like the Brad Pitt character in the new F1 movie.

• 2:01:23Andy Frisella?

  I mean, we might sneak in a couple laps, you know what I'm saying?

• 2:01:26Speaker 02

  We can go do some test. Boy, that'll be an expensive, um.

• 2:01:29Andy Frisella?

  That's, that's alright.

• 2:01:30Speaker 02

  Lesson if we.

• 2:01:30Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, don't cross that, don't cross that line.

• 2:01:35Andy Frisella?

  But yeah, man, uh, well, dude, look, um, fuck.

• 2:01:40Speaker 02

  It's been awesome.

• 2:01:41Andy Frisella?

  It's dude, I, yeah, I, there's no other way to say it, man.

• 2:01:47Andy Frisella?

  You know, the whole, the whole thing, dude, like our friendship, seeing, you know, you guys grow your company, our, our company, now our company, um, you know, the partnership with the, with AB and Dana and the guys like.

• 2:02:04Speaker 02

  Yeah, super fortunate.

• 2:02:05Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, the rate.

• 2:02:05Speaker 02

  You text all the time, like, man, it's a pretty good life.

• 2:02:08Andy Frisella?

  It's weird. It's fucking surreal, bro. It's like, it's like, you know, and we were, it circles back to the thing that we were talking about. You know, what, you know, the time, right? Like 10 years in, you're like, fuck. Like, it would have been so easy for you or me to both been like, yeah, I'm gonna do something else.

• 2:02:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:02:28Andy Frisella?

  You know, and now here we are.

• 2:02:32Andy Frisella?

  Fucking doing it, like for real doing it. And it's just, uh, I know for me, dude, like as much as I expect to win, you know, because people ask me a lot personally, they're like, dude, did you ever imagine? And I'm always like, yeah, dude, I fucking wanted to be here 10 years ago. But like now that it's like real, real, it is kind of surreal. Like it's like to stop, you know, just for a second and be like.

• 2:02:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:02:59Andy Frisella?

  The, the brands.

• 2:03:00Speaker 02

  Summer Smash at Anheuser-Busch at the distillery.

• 2:03:04Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, you know, we've, we've, we've transformed more lives than any other company ever.

• 2:03:11Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:03:11Andy Frisella?

  You know what I'm saying? Like, it's just, it's surreal, dude. It's a surreal thing to sit, to sit and think about and look at and the time invested, you know, it's not like we're 70 years old, bro. You know, we're, we're, you know, early side of 40s, not, not backside and, um.

• 2:03:32Andy Frisella?

  It's just, it's, you know, I, I think you guys should all remember that. I think you guys who have the dreams and have the goals and I think you guys gotta, you know, not, don't get caught up in the short money. You know, think about the big picture, what you can do, you know, the one thing that these guys have, turning it back to entrepreneurship for just a second, that we didn't have, is they had the ability to generate capital doing side hustles that were not available to us. And what I see from a lot of the young guys is they get addicted to this side hustle shit and never actually build it into a real fucking brand. And dude,

• 2:04:13Andy Frisella?

  I hope you guys remember, like, it's not just about the money. It's not just about, you know, making a few dollars and, and making some cool Instagram posts, like, the journey, the time, the friendships, the, the stories, the, that's, that's your life, dude. Like, it's not a balance statement. It's not a, it's not a number. It's, it's, it's the story created through that journey and, you know, when I stop and think about it, dude, I wouldn't trade that for anything.

• 2:04:44Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's, that's it. I mean, that's very well said. It's all, it's all in the journey. That's where the magic happens. It's not at the finish line.

• 2:04:50Andy Frisella?

  No. Well, bro,

• 2:04:54Andy Frisella?

  fuck, man. I'm proud, I'm, I'm, I couldn't be more proud of you, dude. And I couldn't be more proud to see you do that.

• 2:05:03Andy Frisella?

  The whole thing, you know, everything that we've done, everything we're doing and, and just, fuck, it's,

• 2:05:09Andy Frisella?

  it's one of the coolest things of my whole life, man.

• 2:05:11Speaker 02

  Proud, proud to do it with you, buddy.

• 2:05:13Andy Frisella?

  So, yeah, I love you, man, for real. That's real shit. Yeah, so.

• 2:05:20Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 2:05:21Andy Frisella?

  All right, guys, I know that was a little different for a, for a Tuesday show, but I thought you guys might enjoy it and, uh,

• 2:05:29Speaker 02

  Couple of car guys just walking cars.

• 2:05:31Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, and, and a story. And there's so many parallels for any of you guys trying to achieve anything. You know, the endurance, the, the persistence, the, the perseverance through the hard shit. You know, the time that doesn't go fast enough. And then when it does go fast enough, it goes too fast. Like, it's just such a, It's, it's just, it's, it's fucking crazy way to live your life, but I wouldn't trade it, man.

• 2:05:56Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 2:05:57Andy Frisella?

  Yeah, so, alright guys, well Ryan, thank you, bro. Thanks for coming on the show.

• 2:06:02Speaker 02

  Been a long time, been here.

• 2:06:04Andy Frisella?

  Yeah.

• 2:06:05Speaker 02

  Been awesome.

• 2:06:06Andy Frisella?

  Alright guys, we will see you later on this week and, uh, don't be a hoe. Enjoy the show.