Why Racing and Auto Shops Go Hand in Hand With Rob Howden of USF Pro Racing

Rob Howden is the Director of Business Development and Series Announcer for USF Pro Championship Racing. Known as “The Voice of the Series,” he has been a fixture in motorsports media for over 30 years. He’s also the founder of Howden Media Group and eKarting News, where he continues to cover karting events across North America. Rob’s passion for racing started in go-karts and has evolved into mentoring and following drivers from childhood to professional careers in IndyCar and beyond.

In this episode…

Motorsports is not just about speed — it’s about precision, development, and community, from grassroots karting to elite IndyCar races. Many young drivers begin their journey as early as age five and ascend through a structured ladder system that prepares them for pro racing. What makes a winning driver in such a competitive and mentally demanding environment?

Rob Howden, who directs business development and announces races for USF Pro Championships, says success comes from more than talent and equipment. Confidence and momentum are intangible but crucial elements that often separate the good from the great. Through decades of experience, Rob has witnessed countless young racers transform their skills and mindsets en route to top-tier success.

On this episode of Gain Traction, Mike Edge welcomes Rob for a conversation about the business and culture of USF Pro Racing, how tire dealers and shop owners can get involved, and what it takes for young racers to reach the IndyCar level. Rob also shares personal insights into his career, favorite race tracks, and where to find the best pizza on the road.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

• [02:20] The role of karting as the foundation of professional racing careers
• [03:18] How the USF Pro Championships serve as a development ladder to IndyCar
• [05:26] Why tire dealers are naturally drawn to motorsports sponsorship
• [08:05] What sets top-tier racers apart: confidence and momentum
• [10:24] The mental side of racing and the importance of coaching
• [11:42] Rob Howden’s love for race announcing and staying active in karting
• [13:05] Opportunities for young racers to shine at high-profile IndyCar events
• [15:37] How businesses can get involved with USF Pro through sponsorship and hospitality

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Rob Howden on Instagram | X 
• eKarting News
• USF Pro Championships
• USF Juniors
• USF 2000
• USF Pro 2000 
• Logan Leslie on Linkedin
• Main Street Auto
• Mike Edge on LinkedIn
• Tread Partners

Quotable Moments:

• “You can buy more tires, but you can’t buy confidence or momentum — that’s what really separates great drivers.”
• “I get to see a driver go from age seven in karting to winning at IndyCar — it’s the most rewarding part of my job.”
• “Every driver’s journey is different, but those who win usually believe they can — and that belief changes everything.”
• “Race announcing is just active spectating — I’d be talking through the race even if I wasn’t getting paid.”
• “Hospitality in racing is like being a VIP at the Super Bowl, but with way more horsepower.”

Action Steps:

1. Explore USF Pro Championships opportunities: Visit USFProChampionships.info to learn how to attend events, sponsor drivers, or host customers at races.
2. Support local karting initiatives: Connect with youth karting leagues to support upcoming racers from your area.
3. Integrate racing with business marketing: Use motorsports partnerships to build brand visibility and entertain high-value clients.
4. Invest in personal growth through sport. Reflect on how confidence and momentum contribute to professional success.
5. Follow the full ladder of racing talent: Track future IndyCar stars by starting with USF Juniors and watching their rise through the ranks.

• Gain Traction Podcast
• Mike Edge
• Rob Howden
• Tread Partners
• USF Pro Championships

Transcript

00:02
Welcome to the Gain Traction Podcast where we feature top tire and auto repair professionals, shop owners, industry executives and thought leaders and share their inspiring stories. Now let’s get started with the show. 

00:18
Hey folks, welcome to the Gain Traction Podcast, the official podcast for tire business. I am Mike Edge, your host. We have a special podcast for you today. Rob Howden, director of business development and series announcer for USF Pro Championship Racing, is also known as the voice of the series. But before we begin, this podcast is brought to you by Tread Partners. Tread Partners is the leading digital marketing agency that specializes in digital marketing for multi location tire and auto repair shops. Tread Partners works with clients that have hundreds of locations, down to even five locations. Get a professional review of your digital marketing structure from an agency that works exclusively in this industry. Let Tread Partners take a look under your digital marketing hood today. To contact tread partners, visit treadpartners.com my past guest shout out today is for Logan. 

01:07
Logan Leslie with Main Street Auto. Incredible company on an incredible growth journey. Please check out that podcast out at gain traction podcast.com that’s the one with Logan Leslie. All right, Rob, welcome to the Gain Traction Podcast. 

01:22
Thank you Mike. I appreciate it. Great to be here. 

01:25
Yeah, I’m glad Frank introduced us and I had fun talking to you the other day. Just getting to know a little bit more about usf. But let’s talk a little bit about you. Where are you from originally? 

01:36
I actually live up here in Ontario, just about an hour outside of Toronto. Spent my entire life up here. But I’ve been in the motorsports business as a journalist and announcer for about 30 years now. Started racing myself back in 94 and 95 and go kart racing and I do a lot of stuff in go kart racing still as well. It’s a big part of what I do. My company Howden Media Group, covering go karting online in publication form, magazine form, early or late 90s, early 2000s. And yeah, it’s a great focus. Getting a chance to work in the industry, work in motorsports, you know, a passion that I have now from my. 

02:09
Understanding, go kart racing is kind of like the starting point with a lot of these guys that make it either to NASCAR or open wheel racing of some sort or any kind of racing, I guess at some pro level. 

02:19
Yeah, I think if you look into the careers that, you know, they, the resumes of so many drivers, whether it’s Formula One, IndyCar, IMSA, sports cars, and a lot of them in NASCAR as well, they spent time racing in karts, that’s where you start because you can do it, you know, when you’re as young as 5, 6, 7 years of age in the kid kart categories, you work your way through cadets, through juniors. A lot of kids are now jumping into car racing. Their first four races, like our first level USF juniors in the USF Pro Championships, they’re doing that when they’re 14, 15, 16. So karting definitely the place to get started because you can do it at such a young age. 

02:53
So, you know, when were talking the other day, I thought it was so cool about your career. So USF basically is kind of like the, were talking about triple A, double A and single A in baseball where you, it’s really, it covers the gamut of all of a lot of racing. And you get to see these guys, I mean some of them from when they carted to what, NASCAR and open wheel racing. Indy. 

03:16
Yeah, yeah. So the beauty, if you look at what we are in the USF Pro Championships where essentially the development under the ladder, the lead to IndyCar. So yeah, single A, double A, AAA baseball is essentially what we are maybe a little more even focused on the development side. It’s almost down to when you’re a young kid because the drivers are anywhere from 14 to, you know, 22 years of age through our ladder system before they move into indie next, which is the one step away from the NTT IndyCar series. So we’re kind of that development level. But with what I do with my website, ecartynews.com I’m also, you know, trackside at a dozen or more karting events every year. So I get to know these kids when they’re, you know, young, super young and cadets. 

03:53
And then I follow them through the carding ranks. I’m there with them. Our website covers all the racing and then they jump into our program in the USF Pro Championship. So there are times that I’ll be with a driver essentially from you know, 7, 8, 9, when they’re cadets all the way through to when they get to the IndyCar series. And I’ve had a lot of fun watching a number of drivers kind of go all the way from karting all the way through the top levels of open wheel motorsports. 

04:17
I think that’s so cool that you’ve seen that because I mean, name another sport. Somebody like announcer like yourself gets to see that. I don’t know that exists really. 

04:25
Well, I’ll say that on back to back Weekends, like, literally I’m going to be maybe interviewing or talking to a young kid who’s, you know, 10, 11, whatever it may be. And then the next weekend I’m chatting with a Scott Dixon or, you know, a Joseph Newgarden. The top drivers indyCar. And again, I’ve known, you know, winners in the NASCAR program like a Michael McDowell, like AJ Elmendinger. I’ve known them since they were, you know, back 14, 15 running go karts as well. 

04:48
That’s so cool. Well, and I want my audience to know this because I know my audience is pretty much tire dealers, auto repair shop owners, you know, managers, etc. One of the reasons why I wanted Rob to come on here is because a lot of you guys are involved in racing, whether you’re sponsoring your local racing or some of you guys I know race yourselves. So I thought this would be a cool opportunity, just tell you a little bit more about USF Championship Series and get to know Rob and just, you know, me and you just shoot the bull. And if they want to get in touch with the organization in some way and be a supporter. 

05:24
Yeah. Again, USF Pro Championships, the program we have. But again, going back to what you said simply about just the fact that a lot of tire dealers are so connected to motorsports, it’s obviously tires is what we do, right? That’s what we put, that’s where we put the horsepower from these engines and get it onto the asphalt or onto the dirt, right? So I remember as a kid growing up going to all the stock car races and almost like every, almost every race car had a sponsorship from the local tire dealer, right? Somebody had Jones’s tire, Brad’s tire, whatever it was. I literally, when I first started in karting, a good friend of mine, Jason Zagato of Mississauga, had Mississauga Tire and they actually sponsored me when I was racing. We were on Bridgestone Go Kart tires back then. 

06:05
So, yeah, I even have my own sponsorship. But yeah, I know a lot of guys that come from a tire background or own tire shops and they go racing because, listen, it’s. When you’re in the automotive world, it’s not that big of a step to want to race, wanting to go racing. Right. Really have a passion for it. 

06:20
Now. My, I’ll give him a little shout out. Bill Snow, a guy I know up in Cleveland area with Red Air, he races and, and I think he does some sponsorships as well, but he has a lot of fun promoting it on LinkedIn yeah. 

06:33
See our big thing is because it’s one of the core components of our program. So let’s. We talk about the sports reference. Right? We’re not a stick and ball sport. This is obviously motorsports at our level. Unlike Formula one where they, you know, they build their own cars. Nobody has their own cars. We have. It’s. We’re a spec series. So we have one chassis that’s built in Italy. It’s called the Tatis. We have one engine supplier. We run an MZR 2 liter inline 4. We have one company that builds all the engines for our teams. Elite engines in Wisconsin. So, you know, they dyno every engine to make sure it comes out within that window. And we’re all on exactly the same tire, right? We’re all with. With Continental tire. It’s our second year working with Continental. We did 13 years prior to. 

07:12
With Cooper tires. So we have such a deep connection to the tire business because they’re such a big part of what we do, right? 

07:18
Oh yeah. Well, I think Frank told me that you guys go through like 18, 000 tires a year or something like that. 

07:23
Yeah. Well, you think. Yeah, you think about on a race weekend, you know, they get. Officially they get four sets of tires for a race weekend among these 60 cars we have on track. Right. We had a race in New Orleans just a couple of weeks ago. We had 60 cars over the three different series. And of course they’re testing all season. We’re banging through tires left and right. It’s, it’s. They’re designed to last. Our tires, they don’t go off as much as maybe an IndyCar or NASCAR, that kind of thing. But we’re still burning through tires because you always want fresh rubber. 

07:51
So you got so much experience in racing. I’d like to ask you this question. You know, what makes a winner? What sets the winners apart? What. What makes a good race? What makes a really good race car driver, even at the lowest levels? 

08:03
Well, that’s the beauty. We get to watch that. Right. Even through card and carding and then through the. Yeah, through. What we do in our series is you see the drivers develop and they get better and better as they go on. You’ll. You’ll talk to a kid who’s been in our program for four years and he thinks back of what he was like when he was 15 and getting started and really didn’t know anything. So it’s. A lot of the stuff we do is about development, whether it’s. It’s the driving ability in the seat, sitting and talking to your engineer. Because after every session, you come back, you download all the data, they download all the video, and they go over all, you know, they have coaches they go over video with, they go over data. 

08:38
So they learn so much, even to the side of the business side, social media and sponsorship and marketing. Right. They have to learn all of that stuff as they work their way up. But one of the things that I see that separates drivers and it feeds itself, to be honest, it’s confidence and momentum. It’s those two things, right? You can’t buy, you can buy more tires, you can buy more testing, can’t buy more horsepower because we have our spec engines. But you can’t buy confidence, you can’t buy momentum. It’s the minute you start winning a couple of races and you believe you can win, you just go out there and hustle the car a little bit more. That’s, that’s one of the intangibles that race car drivers will have, is they’ll have that massive amount of confidence in themselves. 

09:17
That’s interesting. So it’s a little contagious for yourself then, in a sense that once you get going, it’s like. And once you know you can do it, I guess. 

09:23
Yeah. Well, I, I, I say a lot of times, what a young driver who hasn’t won yet. Because a lot of it’s mental, right? The mental side of it. Remember, you’re 16, 17, or even 15 years of age, 14. You’re on the ragged edge going 130 miles an hour, Road America or whatever it is, or 150 in our higher categories. It’s a lot of it is 100% mental, right? And I say a lot that once that driver gets the first win, the floodgates almost kind of open sometimes. It’s getting that monkey off your back, right? 

09:49
Yeah. 

09:50
All of a sudden. Believe in yourself. We’ll see a driver who won’t win, and then they’ll win one, and then they’ll win four in a row. 

09:55
That’s awesome. 

09:56
Because they go out going on, I’m here to win. I can win here right now. 

10:00
Now they know they can, right? I mean, that’s, yeah, that’s so cool. And, you know, I think you can experience that in your own life. I mean, I know some things I’ve competed in, and once I bust through the bubble of that first victory, it was just like, I can do this. You know, I can compete with these guys. Yeah. 

10:14
I Don’t care. What is it? I don’t care if you’re playing baseball, basketball, golf, whatever. The minute you’re hitting those great shots and you’re sinking some long putts, you think you can slink every long putt, right? 

10:21
Oh, yeah. 

10:22
Yeah, it’s there. It’s a confidence thing. Racing is such a mental game, and that’s why a lot of racers at the top level, they have a driver coach, and they also have a mental coach a lot of times or they. Or they come together because the mental side of it’s just a split second decisions which are. It’s just. 

10:38
What’s your favorite thing about calling races? 

10:42
Well, here’s. I call myself an active spectator because I absolutely love. I love watching racing. I just love racing. I still race myself a handful of times every year I’m in the cart. I still go do. Go kart racing. I don’t do any car stuff because I’m busy. I’m too busy with that. But I love watching. When I come home, I’m watching racing on TV. Whether it’s. I’m watching Formula One, NASCAR. I love MotoGP like you. I. I’ll watch it whenever I can. So for me, it’s active spectating because I’m literally just watching this race happen and I get to talk about it the entire time. That’s. I think it’s. One of the big things I love about it is the fact that I get Just to get. Just to talk. 

11:16
I mean, you’d be so. Basically, you’d be doing it anyway. 

11:20
Yeah. On the couch here. My fiance will tell me to shut up sometimes during a race because I’m like, oh, I started announcing a race, or I call. Or because we’re announcers, I call something before, like if something happens and I’ll call it. And the announcer will say exactly the same thing. Because we all say the same stuff. Right? 

11:35
And she’s sitting there looking at you like, well, she’s. 

11:38
I’m okay. Because she’s a racer, too. 

11:40
Oh, that’s awesome. That’s awesome. 

11:41
She raced carts when she was younger. Much better than I am. Way more trophies than I ever got. So, yeah, she gets it. 

11:47
That’s fantastic. Anything exciting, race wise, coming up here shortly. 

11:53
The beauty of what we do right now and when we talk about the USF Pro Championships is we race a majority of our races with IndyCar, right? So we get to go to the month of May. We’re part of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the road course weekend. We’re not there during the big race, the 500, but just six miles away west at Indianapolis Raceway Park. We have our Carb Night Classic there. So our drivers run the Freedom 75 and the Freedom 90. So we just love being part of the IndyCar races. Like I said, a couple weeks ago, were in New Orleans. It was a standalone event. It was our own race. We had a couple of ESAC series there. We had the Skip Barber Racing School there with us as well. 

12:29
But now we get into the run, where we’re at Indianapolis, right? We’re at Road America. We get to go to Mid Ohio, the streets of Toronto, up in Canada, where we’re with IndyCar. And that makes for exciting weekends for our racers because they get a chance to hobnob. They get a chance to meet some of the big guys. And if they win a big race, those team owners are. Team owners are often on the, the. The pit stalls, on their pit wagons because we’re. We’re right after them, right before them, and they’re watching guys race and they want, hey, that guy just won five in a row. Let’s make sure we know that kid because he could be in my car in like two or three years. 

13:04
That’s fantastic. That’s got to be exciting for these kids. Then when they get their shot to do something like that. 

13:09
And they’ll get it. A lot of times they have connections, whether through a manager or through a coach or whoever it may be. Maybe, maybe they knew. Maybe they know the guy because he still races Go karts. Because a IndyCar guys still race down in Mooresville at Trackhouse Motorplex. They get a chance to go karting, you know, midweek and keep themselves fresh for their road racing. So they get a chance to meet some of these guys, these top drivers who all came through our ranks, by the way. That’s the beauty of it, too. When I watch an IndyCar race, over half the field have come through the USF Pro Championships. When you, when you do the Indianapolis 500, it’s usually between 24 and 28 drivers all came through our program. 

13:43
That’s insane. And you’ve met them all? 

13:45
Yeah, well. Yeah, well, again, yeah, back when they were just kids. 

13:49
Right, right. That’s so. That’s so freaking cool. 

13:52
It is awesome. Yeah, it’s awesome. Just. 

13:54
Just curious a little bit more about yourself. What’s your, you know, like, you got any funny story that’s happened in racing that you’ve witnessed or that you’ve been Part of or a story that you just want to share. I mean, anything that stands out to you over the past because you’ve been doing this so long. 

14:10
Yeah, you know, for. For me, it’s. It’s. I. I really rejoice in watching the success of. Of the drivers that come up. Right. And watching their parents, because, you remember, it’s unlike baseball, and I know that a lot of parents spend a lot of money putting their kids on travel teams, whether it’s hockey, whatever it is, basketball, baseball. This racing’s not. There’s nothing like racing in terms of cash. It costs, like, the very. The very first level of our program. Families probably are investing 300, $350,000 a year to go racing because it’s expensive. Cars are. You know, these cars are worth 130, $140,000. We talk about the tires we blow through. You know, we burn through tires. If you want to go fast, you got to spend money. Right? 

14:53
We know that the events cost a lot of money, so to see the success of a lot of these drivers when they get to the top, I love it. And it’s sometimes it’s not. It’s. Sometimes it’s not even the drivers. It’s the parents, right? They’re just beaming with pride when they see their kids winning these races. That. That’s a big thing for me, getting a chance to see them have that success because they all want it so bad. And when they get there, it’s just really fulfilling to see them get. Get those victories. 

15:17
Well, if. If. If a dealer or somebody wanted to get involved, I mean, what’s the easiest way to like, start learning and say, all right, you know, I. I like this. I like the sound of this podcast. I. How do I get. How do I get there? What’s the first step you take? You know what I’m saying? 

15:33
Let’s say, well, yeah, listen, again, we’re. We’re a racing series, right? So like any racing series, we have all those different levels. Yeah. Half. It’s competition. The other side, we leverage, you know, for sponsorship and stuff like that. Not only for the drivers who have sponsors, but for us as well. And we have our own hospitality programs. So if there’s a shop out there that says, man, I really love racing, I’d like to come out and check one of these events out. A lot of the times when you go to an IndyCar event, they have their own hospitality. We have the hospitality in the same areas. The suites up on top of the grandstands, in St. Petersburg or Toronto. 

16:04
We have the same hospitality, but a lot of times we can do a little cheaper than if you’re with an IndyCar team because they obviously want a little more because you have access to their drivers. Yeah, we still provide the same kind of experience at these awesome races. Plus we could provide even more because if you come on board, let’s say you want to sponsor a race or something like that, or you want to be, you want to come and bring some guests or some of your customers, you want to do a deal to bring some customers to the races. We can do it on a little cheaper level, but we have a lot of experience as pace car rides. Every, at start of every race we do a gentleman start or driver start. 

16:35
We can’t say gentlemen anymore because I’ve got three girls in our USF Junior. So driver, start your engines. In our USF Junior series we can do that command. We can get you on the flag stand at the start of a race being part of the victory lane celebrations. There’s a lot of stuff that we do experiential wise that a lot of great companies come are part of our program year after year because they bring out 30 or 40 guests, full hospitality, you’re having a nice cocktail, you’re watching the races, great lunch. It’s an awesome experience to come to a race and get a feel for what it’s like because it’s like nothing else. Right. It’s like being a super VIP at the Super Bowl. But you’re right. Hands on in an event that has. 

17:13
So much energy, man, that’s fantastic. So the website though, I mean they could learn a lot. Just going to the website that you guys gave me originally, which is USF2000.com. 

17:23
Well, that’s one of our series. We have USF juniors.com USF2000.com and USF pro2000.com those are our three series and you learn a lot about the drivers there as well. But if you just want to learn more about our program, if you go to USF Pro Championships.info that has a lot of information just about racing with us as well. Our cars, the level of safety, the program itself. Because one of the big things we have Mike, and it’s unlike any other form of motorsport or any series. If you win, we have a scholarship program. If you win a championship, let’s say you win USF Juniors. Very first step coming out of go kart racing to one of the schools you go to USF Juniors if you win that scholarship, you’re winning over $260,000 to move up to the next level. 

18:06
So the scholarship takes care of majority of your budget the next year. Literally, if you win our very top level, USF Pro 2000, the amount of money you’re taking, a scholarship to go to IndyNext, which is the next level, is what has allowed a lot of drivers to continue. And that’s one of the dreams about our series. You can spend a boatload of money, go to Europe, do F4, F3, F2, but you’re dropped. You know, it’s $2 million for F3, it’s three and a half million dollars for F2 to try to get to that Formula One dream where we’ve had a lot of drivers. Kyle Kirkwood out of Florida being one who just won down at the Grand Prix of Long Beach. 

18:40
If it wasn’t for the scholarship, I don’t think Kyle would be an IndyCar because they didn’t have the family money to do it. But he won every level. He won all three championships in succession to make it to IndyCar and now runs for Andretti Global. 

18:50
That’s such a great story. That’s awesome. Yes, that’s awesome. 

18:54
Yeah. 

18:56
Well, just to give. Give folks a little bit more about who you are and personally, what’s your. You know, were talking about a couple things the other day. What’s. What’s your favorite food? What do you like to eat? 

19:06
So, sadly, it’s, you know, you’re not supposed to eat carbs, but every carb is what I love. So when we’re on the road. We try to go to chains. Right. Because I’m on this year, I’ll do 27 race weekends. In the past, I’ve done even more. You got to find the best pizza wherever you go. Right. So we’re always looking for the best pizza. I’m always looking for the best burger as well. So there you go. Burgers and burgers and pizza out of the gate. I love sushi, too, but steak and the whole deal. But you’re. We’re always trying to find the best pizza in the city. That’s kind of the key. 

19:35
That’s kind of cool. What is it? Barstool, sports? They always do that. 

19:40
One bite. Yeah. 

19:41
Have you. Have you tried to rate places like he does? 

19:44
Well, we’re date. We’re. Dave Portnoy goes a lot of times. We’ll go there for sure. 

19:48
Oh, so you. You do follow that. That’s cool. 

19:50
Oh yeah, 100. Yeah, I’ve had a couple of good ones already this year that he has recommended. So that’s very. 

19:55
Have you ever, have you ever gone to God? What’s the show? Divers, drive ins, Dives and diners or something? Yeah, that’s it. That’s it. 

20:04
A lot of those places too, man. 

20:07
Some of those are home runs, man. I’ve done a couple of those. 

20:10
Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can’t go wrong with those either for sure. 

20:14
No, they obviously pre selected. They know what they’re giving you before, you know, but. 

20:18
Yeah. 

20:19
So pizza, you like toppings? Are you just a Dave Portnoy type guy? 

20:23
You know what? You know, I can go any way to be honest with you. I like a kind of a traditional pizza for sure. I like, you know, on the Neapolitan pizzas as well. But you can play around. I’m not, I like Detroit pizza too. I’m not, I’m not one to judge. I like Chicago Bar style pizza too. 

20:39
Yeah, you’re like. I am. I think I like every pizza out there. 

20:42
Exactly right. 

20:42
And I, and I hate to say this, I mean, but I like bread like crazy, you know, I mean, any kind of bread and you know, if you’re at a restaurant and bread, they bring out, you know, the olive oil with the herbs in it and bread, I’m sopping the whole bow up. 

20:57
I mean, I know, I know. Mexican’s the other one. We always try to get a good Mexican place. We all, we all do. Good. There’s a couple, there’s a couple of really hole in the wall Mexican places we go to on the road. Mid Ohio has one where they’re every, you know, we’re there every week. It’s a small little place, I think it’s called Los Chorito. And literally on the Thursday night of the Friday night, There’s at least four or five IndyCar drivers in there. They come every year. 

21:18
They got good chips and salsa. 

21:19
I’m sure they got great chips and salsa and queso for sure. 

21:22
Because that’s one of the ways you got to judge it by, you know, there’s a spot in my town that got. I don’t know why, I don’t know why everybody can’t have the same chips. I mean, you know. Anyway, well, I gotta tell you, it’s been a pleasure having you on here. Is, is there anything else you’d like to say to the audience that you think would be important for them? 

21:39
You know, Again, we. The beauty. The beauty of what we are, you know, we’re, again, I said, a multifaceted program, right? Our first and foremost, the goal is to get these young drivers, these young men and women, get them into our program and watch their growth and how they learn. And again, I always say these are the future stars of motorsports, right? I try to, you know, when you’re at a race somewhere and you’re watching an IndyCar race, and I like this guy, it’s my favorite driver. Like, can you imagine if you would have connected with this driver back when he was 15 or 16 and at the autograph session, maybe got one of his hero cards, his autograph cards and really connected and followed him through the ranks, Right? That’s something I think is really a beauty of what we do. 

22:15
And then the other side of it, again, as I said, is that business side, that hospitality and entertainment side that we can bring to shops like the ones that listen to your podcast. Right. There’s a lot of stuff that we can do in the different venues, you know, the different areas we are. We’d love to connect with you. You know, we do. We’re St. Petersburg, New Orleans. We’re going to be indianapolis for the month of May. Next couple weekends away, we’re going to be in Birmingham, Alabama, at Barber Motorsports Park. The Augusta National Motorsports, a beautiful place. We’re at Mid Ohio, so that’s Columbus area Road America, which is Milwaukee, up in Toronto, of course. And then we wrap things up out in Portland in the Pacific Northwest. 

22:50
If you’re a shop around there and you want to do something different, whether you want to come out and have an experience yourself with you and your family or bring out some customers or clients, whatever it may be, we would love to talk to you about, you know, let you see what we have in terms of providing an experience like no other. 

23:04
Man, I gotta tell you, Rob, I love your energy. I love your passion about it. You make it sound extremely exciting. And I’m very happy that you came on the podcast. Thank you for being here, Mike. 

23:14
I appreciate the opportunity. 

23:16
So to all our listeners out there, thanks for being on the podcast. You know, we love you. Till next time, have a great day. 

23:25
Thanks for listening to the Gain Traction podcast. We’ll see you again next time. And be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.