How so few know about this is beyond me, but these guys have created over 200 Podcasts talking to Racers, and to me, these are phenominal. I've only listened to a few so far maybe twelve, the ones with Linda Vaughn, Derek Bell, Don Garlits, Bob Varsha, Dr Terry Trammell, Robin Miller, Joey Saldana, Ken Schrader are absolutely wonderful... If you liked Jim Clark, you want to listen to Derek Bell's - he has a thought on how Jimmy crashed, and it makes a lot of sense to me. Each one is from one hour to two hours long, most were made in 2015-16, and I'm hooked. https://dinnerwithracers.com/episode-guide/
I love DWR. Listened to every episode..some more than once. The Level 5 episode was what got me hooked. Some of my favorites: Mike Shank Jeff Braun/Level 5 Special Robin Miller Ryan Lewis Boris Said Ben Keating Eric Foss Graham Goodwin Towsend Bell
I've listened to the Level 5 episode at least 4-5 times now. They also did one with Scott Tucker, that even they seemed surprised to be granted. My favorite ones are the Ex F1/Indy/IMSA drivers who lived through the 80's and 90's. Some absolutely classic stories. If you're my age and have a rose tinted, Miami Vice inspired, glamorized view of IMSA in it's International Marijuana Smugglers Association days, there's also interviews with Don Whittington and Randy Lanier. I don't listen as much the more recent seasons as they seem to have somewhat run out of true legends, at least in my eyes, but certainly worth picking through them.
There are so damned many good ones, I love Rick Mears but really had no idea of his background, his 2-part one is great, I am not quite thru the 2nd part yet. Just some of my favorites. Ken Schrader Joey Saldana Jack Hewitt Terry Trammell Derek Bell - good theory on Jim Clark's death - he was there. Bob Varsha - had no idea he was training for the '76 Olympics Kenny Wallace Paul Tracy Linda Vaughn Don Garlits John Morton I still have a ton to go thru...
You also need to watch the Randy Lanier one he did on the 'Dale Jr Downloads', I think it has a few things added. As far as 'running out of legends', these cost money to do, and some folks do not want to do them. I have made quite a few suggestions to them, Cary Agajanian, Mike Curb, Richard Petty, Muldowney, Connie Kalitta, Brian Redman, Billy Moyer Sr, Prudhomme, Don Schumacher, Johnny Rutherford, Sneva, and many others. And some folks won't 'talk', I cannot imagine Richard Petty disclosing much, but I'd love to hear from Cale, Dave Marcis, Bobby and Donnie....
I’ve listened to them since pretty much day one. When I travelled for work every week, there was no better way to spend a few hours in a plane. A few favorite moments that still stand out were Katherine Legge being asked who her least favorite teammate was, and without missing a beat said Sebastian Bourdais. Said he was a “total *********” and would say the same to his face if he was there. Edit: That episode was recorded just a few months before the Rolex 24 when Legge had brought the Delta Wing to the overall lead, handed off to her teammate Andy Metrick, and watched him fly through a double waved yellow to completely total the car running straight on to a disabled car stopped at turn 1. Lucky he didn’t kill someone, and even luckier she didn’t kill him. A few months after the podcast, maybe Sea Bass wouldn’t have been the least favorite. Another was David Hobbs. He went to interview for a TV commentator spot, and the guy in charge asked whether he had done any racing. After saying that yes, he had won Le Mans, he was asked “Is that a big deal?” Some time later he did a guest spot on a radio show where he admits he was “three gin and tonics in” and the booth and crew people were in stitches laughing. When he came out of the booth, the big guy that had turned him down earlier was sitting in the lobby. One of the on air people asked why in the hell aren’t you on the air? Hobb-O pointed across the room and said “Don’t ask me. Ask Him!” Then, Hobbs’ story of going to Japan with a group of Honda dealers, and as they were doing the tour one of the executives recognized him. He was on the race team when Hobbs’ car failed to finish, and stopped the tour to apologize to Hobb-san for failing him. These are the kind of stories that I don’t think you can get anywhere else.
For anyone that was watching Indycar over the weekend here are the Will Power episodes...he is truly nuts! https://dinnerwithracers.com/ep190-will-power-pt-1/ https://dinnerwithracers.com/ep191-will-power-pt-2/
You want nuts? There are two Bobby Unser ones, and a third one later, HE was nuts! Landing a private plane on a road so he could get out and take a piss? LOL I've listened to maybe 125 of them, have not found a 'bad' one yet, but have found one or two that were kinda boring. You want more 'crazy'? Dorsey Schroeder's was nuts. There are far too many great ones to pick 'the best one', but I have a list that if you could only listen to a few, it would be: 1) Derek Bell 2) Ken Schrader 3) Dorsey Schroeder 4) Linda Vaughn 5) Bobby Unser's and I could add two dozen more, Garlits, Mears, Kenny Wallace, Paul Tracy, Dr. Terry Trammell, Yunick's daughter...
I have listened to all of them The most disappointing was Will Turner. I thought it was going to be really entertaining and it was basically just an infomercial for Turner Motorsports.
Have you heard any that were more nuts than Bobby Unser or Dorsey? I learned a helluva lot with Rick Mears' ones.
DWR is fabulous and I have listened to most of them. Lots of great ones have already been mentioned and I will add a few: Willy T Ribbs - Some fantastic stories both on and off the track Bobby Unser - The turkey story left me laughing for days
I just listened to and really enjoyed Kevin Schwantz' episode. And like folks above have said, they range from the very thoughtful (Derek Bell) to the outright wild (Bobby Unser). A great podcast.
RJ Valentine episode is another quite entertaining one. https://dinnerwithracers.com/ep-150-rj-valentine/
If you want to listen to a VERY smart businessperson, listen to Linda Vaughn's. Brian Redman was scared to death of the Porsche 917... Tube frame, if you had a heavy crash, good luck... Garlits' stories of going to the west coast in the 50's are epic....
