Cathy McCause

On this week’s Speed Secret Podcast, Cathy McCause Fuss joins me to talk about why she got involved with running a race series, how to make a series popular, how to make endurance racing safe, her sponsors (Hankook and Hawk brakes), and giving back through charitable events. She shares about Lucky Dog races and Heroes Motorsports race teams for veterans. Cathy’s speed secret: Be able to see! Cathy has been involved in endurance racing since driving in the very first Lemons races at Altamont Motorsports Park, then co-founding ChumpCar & being their executive VP for 6 years, partnering with my Chump colleague Joey Todd at WRL when we started Lucky Dog. All this after leaving 25 years in software, most recently as VP Global Marketing for Oracle Utilities.  As North America’s fasting growing grassroots endurance series boasting over 600 teams & 3,000 drivers, Lucky Dog Racing League host events at bucket list track such as at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Charlotte Motor Speedway, Sonoma Raceway, Willow Springs International Raceway, Utah Motorsports Park, The Ridge Motorsports Park, Buttonwillow Raceway, Pacific Raceways, Thunderhill Raceway Park, Oregon Raceway Park, Portland International Raceway, Spokane County Raceway, Chuckwalla Valley Raceway, Canada’s exclusive Area 27 and the Wild Dogs Ensenada Grand Prix on the streets of Ensenada, Baja, Mexico. The 2020 season will culminate at Thunderhill Raceway Park, Willlows CA on the 5-mile track for the Dawg Days of Thunder Championship / 1000 Miles of Thunderhill. The 2021 season will include an event at Circuit of Americas (COTA)! Check out Cathy below! https://www.racelucky.com https://www.facebook.com/raceluckydog @RaceLucky @RaceLuckyDog YouTube: Lucky Dog Racing League

Cathy joins us on the podcast again to talk about the first ever Lucky Dog endurance race on the east coast that will take place in 4 weeks at Charlotte Motor Speedway on their Roval and we will be under the lights!  There is no way we would miss this race and it will likely be our teams only wheel to wheel race this season.  Cathy discussed how the Lucky Dog season has gone this year and what updates to the race procedures that they adopted to assist with COVID 19 compliance.  If you haven't been to Lucky Dog race yet, this may be a great opportunity.  There are still a few spots left to enter a car and there may be seats available on their website under the "Dog Pile" area.  We simply cannot wait. Dominating with Dawson covers the term throttle steering and helps us to understand what it means and how it can be used on track to add a little more to your driving repertoire. We hope you enjoy the episode! Best regards, Bill, Vicki, Jennifer, and Alan Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast and team members in the GHiT Immature Endurance Racing Team Highlights from the episode include: 1)  Cathy's history at the Charlotte Motor Speedway 2)  How COVID 19 has changes the Lucky Dog paddock procedures and how everything is still very fluid and changes day to day and especially track to track 3)  Changes that have been tried so far include no pitting on pit row, requiring a face mask or a racing helmet at all times, limited track access for kids and spectators/visitors. 4)  The details of the Charlotte race include over 18 hours of racing, The BBQ event is still a go for Saturday evening, and a 10-hour race Sunday. 5)  There is over $10,000 in prizes and awards available during the weekend, not counting the $10,000 in watches from Rebel Watches (We Are Rebels!) and the $3,000 d in tires from Hankook tires, hopefully our much preferred RS-4's. 6)  We may be able to debut the new 196 Honda Civic is all goes well with the prep and cage. 7)  Attendees will include traditional west coast Lucky Dog entries as well as many east coast and midwest teams. 8)  Horse trading seats as a way of trying new tracks and events 9)  Potential tracks that may appear on the 2021 Lucky Dog schedule. 10)  How Lucky Dog works with a flexible qualifying model to balance competitiveness and still allow for new and experienced drivers in a single event. 11)  Randy Pobst will be racing his Volvo at the Charlotte event.  He will be much faster than we are. 12)  The mystery of the Fuss Fantom E46 continues. 13)  Greg and Bill may have similar car buying issues.  But on the bright side, Bill may have solved a race car solution for both coasts.  Greg, call us. 14)  Bill is confused between goats and sheep and everyone is confused with Lucky Dog racing and racing dogs.

Cathy McCause Fuss of the Lucky Dog racing series returns for the 8th or 9th time.  Unfortunately, only one episode has ever been published due to connection errors and other computer issues.  Why she puts up with us, we don't know, perhaps it's because she is one of the best people we have met since we started racing.   During this episode, we go over a lot of the Cathy's history and her perspective of racing from the Series perspective.  We also get into her thoughts of how racing and endurance racing are progressing and helping to grow our sport. On this episode's Dominating with Dawson, Ben goes over what is an "Arrive and Drive" and the details of racing in that situation.  We go over a lot of the options, concerns, and advantages of being an arrive and drive driver, as well as being the team renting to the arrive and driver. We hope you enjoy the episode! Best regards, Bill, Vicki, Jennifer, and Alan Hosts of the Garage Heroes In Training podcast and team members in the GHiT Immature Endurance Racing Team Highlights from the episode include: 1)  Bill felt like he was going down the hill into turn 12 at Road Atlanta when Cathy's connection went robot a few seconds in. 2)  What the impact of the COVID 19 has been so far and speculative hopes and expectations for the rest of the season. 3)  the Lucky Dog i-Racing league and it sponsored, you can even win race entries, and other racing supplies from the Lucky Dog sponsors 4)  We develop the exchange rate between Clairol hair color and Hankook RS4's. 5)  We go into the process of working with the tracks, rescheduling, and the potential impact of the current COVID 19 related impact and issues on the tracks and the series, and the drivers, as well as some of the amazing steps Cathy and Lucky Dog have done to help the overall racing population, including paying 2021 track rental fees. 6)  Bill shamelessly plugs the upcoming Lucky Dog race at Charlotte in mid-August. 7)  Cathy threatens us with bringing the 196 car out to the race for us.  We much rather like her alternative bonfire idea. 8)  How several members of the Lucky Dog racing community, and the overall low cost endurance racing community, have helped in dealing with the COVID 19 pandemic. 9)  We brainstorm a bit, well really a mild drizzle, on what options we can come up with to help save the 2020 racing season 10)  Bill apologizes for his black flag digression earlier this year at the Lucky Dog race at Laguna Seca in January 11)  Cathy even was kind enough to go through our "Usual Suspects" but this time from a race series perspective and how her series has progressed through Miatas, into BMWs, and recently into Hondas and several Fords. 12)  Self ejecting starters as a way to save weight 13)  Speed creep and its concern as we progress to including more modern cars where horsepower increases seem easier and easier, especially with all the recent time people may have had with the stay at home orders. 14)  Cathy's strategy for classing cars in Lucky Dog and addressing the variability in car and even individual driver capability. 15)  As expected, we eventually reviewed or last race at Laguna Seca and our other Lucky Dog race in Portland. 16)  Brakes and brake pads were a big discussion point.  One way to get to a faster lap is to be able to slow down even faster.  Hopefully, we have an upcoming guest from Hawk on the show. 17)  Hilarity ensued when we started talking about the spares being brought to the track. 18)  Rally Dogs?  And yes, we had an East coast rally dog volunteer. 19)  Also, a rookie time attack challenge option came into being. 20)  How Lucky Dog is working to partner with the local Club racing, especially for the HPDE and learning aspects, hopefully raising the tide for all. 21)  How our team has been invaded by two of the drivers we know from Lucky Dog 22)  Opportunities for arrive and drives at the Charlotte race abound with teams and drivers looking to come east for the race. 23)  How the Lucky Dog racing series came to be. 24)  Cathy fears answering what car she would love to start with as a race car. 25)  How Lucky Dog's i-Racing league is helping racers scratch their itch. 26)  She is still looking for the known unknown E46 Greg has hidden.  Somewhere. 27)  There seems to be a potential for an east coast west coast race car exchange program.  Greg, Call us!