National Auto Sport Association

I don't think they exist anymore.

I think actually NASA took them over, NASA Northeast, Joe Casella.

But so he was doing that.

And I was drag racing.

And then that grew into wanting to wheel the wheel.

And...

So at the time, there was no NASA Northeast region.

So we were all into the American Iron aspect of NASA.

stuff like it was it's pretty cool to to have all these moments so

Yeah, and I'm, like, I consider myself very, you know, fortunate to have had the access to, like, people like you and your dad and a lot of the racers in the northeast and east coast because, like, NASA being such a big organization, we here in, like, SoCal and California in general are essentially on an island maybe because of the topography issues.

of the mountains and just being so far away from everybody.

So I feel really lucky to be able to say that I have places in the East Coast and people that I can go and meet and hang out with and truly feel at home.

yeah 100 and i think it's always gonna continue to be that way so yeah

so i mean i've i've seen um many times you driving that e30 to the limit even to the point where you're all four wheels in the air yeah um so like dude for 2026 when you first found out that nationals was going to be at um sebring how how much was this like a commitment that you were going to go

yeah i mean as as you know and i think a lot of the people listening that that are familiar with nasa it's like NASA tends to go back and forth coast to coast.

Sometimes they'll go to the middle of the country like they did for Ozarks last year,

Yeah

... exception of they have, like, a race car group where I think you have to have, like, a, a NASA competition license and still be approved by the people running it.

That was a, a un- unrestricted, uh, pass at any time, you know, race, if you will.

And there were, like, a couple of guys there in, like, Camaro, Mustang Challenge cars.

... what they were considering a racetrack.

So yeah, it was quite a deal.

Um, it is NASA sanctioned.

There's j- like, the local NASA, uh, group is the one that I'm assuming insures it, and the, the guy that was running it was clearly a guy who runs a lot of NASA events.

And the, the examples I was seeing were also very, very, very grassroots and small scale at a club facility, okay? It was like- Just something that established the foundation and then built relationships, because those relationships then opened the future doors.

Second, volunteer for everything, whether that's corner marshaling, event day volunteering, SCCA, and NASA, local club events.

These are not just resume-building exercises, but they are your access point to the community.

The people who show up reliably and do the work well get noticed, and that's how this industry works.

Yeah, come to a Hooked on Driving track day and get back into it.

I mean, you've done it all, Autocross, HPDE, PCA, NASA.

It's time to come to Hooked on Driving and just drive for the fun of it.

Agreed.

it was, it was a whole ordeal.

Like NASA champs, especially if it's a distant place, which for you, it'll be closed next year.

For me, it'd be distant.

Yeah.

They're

going to go back West Coast.

And NASA Pacific Northwest just launched this year.

So they

Yep, um, for the national championship, so all over the place.

Um, grid life events, um, NASA events.

When people-

Everything

Probably more like national level.

Yes.

Maybe not regional, but, um, any big stuff with SCCA or Grid- or GridLife or NASA, we would be, we would be there, at least walking.

Yeah.

time attack the way you guys explained it,

but it is the gateway drug, at least for the grid life, right? NASA has TT6, TT5, right? I don't know the SCCA classes for that stuff, but You know, you have to start somewhere.

And if it's all you got, it's all you got.

And you guys talked about you wouldn't know the difference on the live stream between HPDE and Time Attack session out there.