Cars Yeah With Mark Greene

Michael Culver is the Chief Executive Officer, Managing member and Chairman of the Board of Skip Barber Racing School. Headquartered in Braselton, Georgia, Skip Barber is the world’s largest racing and driving school, operating in more than 20 race tracks across the U.S. and Canada. Michael raced for 12 years after taking a 3-Day Racing School in 1990 and he has won several Skip Barber Formula Masters Motor Racing Championships and he competed in the 24 Hours of Daytona. Prior to taking control at Skip Barber Michael had over 20 years as an entrepreneur in investment banking and as a manager specializing in aerospace and motorsports.

Dirk Layer is a guy who never really planned on a career in the automotive field, it was always about his love affair with cars and racing. But along the way he has found his life engrossed in collector cars, racing and much, much more. He’s driven at Le Mans, podiumed at the 24 Hours of Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring, was a race winning Pro, competed at numerous vintage races, autocrosses, driven Grand Prix cars plus GT and Sports Cars. He’s been a racing instructor and featured in automotive enthusiasts publications. Dirk’s been involved in numerous restoration projects and he is a professional broker, consultant, buyer, seller and appraiser of exceptional collector cars when only the finest will do. And he’s judged in many concours events, including Pebble Beach. Dirk has wrapped his passion for fine cars and the track in to an inspirational life in the car hobby.

Ingrid Steffensen discovered a passion for high-performance driving and a desire to write her first non-academic book about how a professor and dance mom found her inner speed demon at the racetrack. Fast Girl: Don’t Brake until You See the Face of God and Other Good Advice from the Racetrack is a funny, fast-paced, romp through the noise and stink of the male-dominated sport of amateur sports car racing. She went on to become an instructor with the BMW Club and when she’s not teaching men how to drive like Juan Manuel Fangio she can be found writing for a wide variety of publication including the New York Time, Popular Mechanics and others. Ingrid is a woman who stepped outside her comfort zone, shrugged off the shackles of suburban conformity, and changed her entire perspective on life through the unlikeliest of means: racecar driving.

Bob DeKorne has been involved in marketing classic car insurance since 1998.  He has been fortunate to attend nearly every major concours event in the country, as well as every major classic car auction for the past 17 years.  His career brings him into some of the finest private collections in the world, as well as many of the major automotive museums we all love to visit.  He’s part of the Heacock Classis Insurance team and has been an automotive enthusiast since he was about three years old. His earliest childhood memory was sitting on dad’s Zundapp 150 motorcycle every time he got his hair cut.

Chuck Beck has built numerous projects from dragsters to race cars to street cars and more. He is renown among automotive enthusiasts for his 550 Spyder, a replica of the iconic Porsche 550 Spyder from the 50s. He started producing the cars in 1982 and built 2,500 of those wonderful cars. In 1990 Chuck jointly developed the Shogun concept car and produced a competitive racecar with his replica of the Lister. In 1998 he developed the Beck 904 prototype, a replica coupe based on the original Porsche Carrera GTS that was launched in 1963. After selling his company Chuck continues to spend most of his time in the shop building cars and more recently a Lamborghini powered motorcycle.

Rob Angelo is spearheading content creation for a variety of different brands through his new media production company and YouTube channel, Roads & Rides. In addition to creating branded automotive content for high profile clients, Rob is also collaborating with numerous partners on various other projects. In 2014, he held a variety of positions ranging from Director, Assistant Director, Cinematographer and Producer on multiple automotive based TV commercials and shows. While at NBC Digital he worked on award winning interactive experiences for The Voice, Jimmy Fallon, and Saturday Night Live. Rob has also created and produced segments for Jay Leno’s Garage where he received an Emmy Award.

Sylvain Tremblay is the owner and a driver at SpeedSource. He’s raced since winning the first race he ever entered-an SCCA autocross at the age of 16. Over the years his love of racing turned in to a business, and in 1995 he established SpeedSource. Today he runs the Mazda Prototype factory program. 
After finishing second in the Grand Sports Championship several times in the late 90's, in a Mazda RX-7 Twin Turbo, Sylvain put together a winning season in 2001 scoring 7 wins on the way to the Triple Crown Championship. In 2004 he took home his second professional Championship when he won the Grand Am Cup Sport Touring title.

Randy Pobst is a road racing driver with over eighty wins on the track. He’s had factory driving contracts with Porsche, Audi, Mazda, Volvo, and he currently races with Mazda, racing a Mazda MX-5 Miata in the Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge. Randy is also a journalist and has been writing a column in SportsCar magazine for over ten years, and he conducts extensive testing with Motor Trend magazine. At the time of this interview Randy had just came off a victory in the Thunderhill 25 Hour in the Davidson Racing Norma sports racer and was preparing for another race as we talked.

Stacey David has his own custom shop called The Rattletrap that specializes in engine building, custom paint, suspension work, metal fabrication and everything in between. In the late 1990s he hosted and produced a new TV show called Trucks where he designed and built fantastic rides. That show became one of Spike TV’s highest rated shows. Today his successful Gearz television show is on the Velocity channel and MAV TV. His website and Stacey David’s Gearz Nation is a fantastic place for gear heads and automotive enthusiasts to go and learn tech tips, watch episodes, shop for cool products and have fun in the Gearz garage. Stacey's favorite catch phrase is “What are you working on?”

Jeff Braun is the Competition Director on the LMP2 Cars in the Tudor United Sports Car Series for SpeedSource Engineering and Mazda Racing. He attended his first race at the age of three and started karting at seven. He earned his Mechanical Engineering degree in 1981. After going to work to manage the Transact racing team he purchased the business after only two years and created a race engineering consulting business and Transact engineered has been a part of almost every kind of racecar in the world. He’s won 7 Sports Car championships along with the Daytona 24 Hours, seven Sebring 12 Hours and four Petit Le Mans. With fellow engineer, Paul Haney, Jeff wrote the racing engineering technical book, Inside Racing Technology.

Leslie Kendall is the Curator at the Petersen Automotive Museum. He was born in San Diego, California and has had an insatiable interest in automobiles and automotive history from an early age. After earning his MBA he entered mortgage banking, but left the lending profession after just seven years to volunteer full-time at the San Diego Automotive Museum where he was hired to be the curator after only eight months. He was invited to join the team responsible for creating the Petersen Automotive Museum in April 1993 and in October 1995 was named curator. He is a regular contributor to automotive media outlets (both print and broadcast), a concours d’elegance judge at events around the country, and frequently consults on automotive history related, public- and private-sector projects.

Jeff Koch has been the West Coast Editor for Hemmings Motor News for over ten years. He has been a professional automotive writer and photographer for more than 20 years and has written and taken photographs for magazines as divers as Hot Rod and Super Street. Jeff worked for the Johnny Lightning die cast car company, and he’s an avid collector of die cast cars himself and has collected for over 20 years. Which ties in with today because it happens to be Christmas 2014! So pour yourself some eggnog, sit down next to the fireplace and we’ll have some fun talking and playing with cars.

Seattle resident and racecar driver Don Kitch Jr. has been involved in motorsports for over 25 years. He is a veteran of over 200 professional and amateur racing starts. In 1987 Don and his wife Donna founded ProFormance Racing School at Pacific Raceway where he is the Chief Instructor. In 1997 Don founded Team Seattle focusing on the 24-Hours of Daytona Sports Car Race as a fundraiser for Children’s Hospital of Seattle and in the past 12 years they have raised nearly $6.5 million for the hospital. In 2009 Don teamed up with Patrick Dempsey and Joe Foster at Dempsey Racing in a Ferrari 430 GT2 at the famed 24 Hours of Le Mans. Don is always looking ahead down the road as Pacific Raceway expands and grows and he enjoys his involvement in Sports Television Color Commentary and the creation of Motorsports Videos.

Eric Cook, is the face and voice behind Eric The Car Guy. He’s created a website filled with massive information, detailed instruction, and fact filled answers for all things automotive. His videos will help you with all your automotive repairs and service needs. Not only does he cover basic service issues but Eric goes in-depth in his instructional videos on repairs, diagnostics, frequently asked questions, tools, what it’s like to work in the automotive repair field, and he has a cool forum. He’ll even show you what to look for when you’re shopping for used car. Eric’s motto” Stay Dirty” is all about learning how to have fun under the hood of your vehicle.

Jeff Zwart is a commercial film director, racer, photographer, cameraman, and author. He’s shot commercials for Porsche, BMW, Cadillac, GM, Huyndai, Ford, and many others. He’s a graduate of the Art Center of Design and has enjoyed an exceptionsl life and career around automobiles. He’s traveled all over the world shooting, directing, racing, and photographing cars. He’s collaborated with David Bull Publishing on many automotive books. He speaks and lectures and has driven in numerous races and rallies including 7 championships at Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, the Panama-Alaska Rally, the Baja 1000, and the TransSyberia Rally, to name just a few. I like to think of Jeff as the ultimate car guy with a keen eye in the camera.

Mike Renner is a professional driver for BMW and is responsible for corporate sales and the BMW Performance Center in Greenville South Carolina. He began racing in 1983 and Mike has competed in a variety of classes including GT, showroom stock, improved touring and sports racers for the past 27 years. He started instructing at the BMW Performance Center just after it’s opening in the fall of 1999 and his list of trainees includes new drivers, racers, F.B.I agents and Secret Service members who are assigned the task of presidential protection. Mike received international instructor certification in basic, advanced, advanced M vehicles, intensive, perfection, and racetrack. Included in Mike’s duties as a driver for BMW is the opportunity to drive BMW racecars from their historic fleet.

Traci Hrudka’s name is synonymous with drag racing and the Mr. Gasket Company that was founded by her father Tom Hrudka and Uncle Joe Hrudka. She’s started working in the company in 1982 and after the company was sold in 1997 she moved to Intermec Technologies. Today she operates the Quarter Mile Foundation along with Project 1320. Traci has set out to preserve drag racing’s history from the views of its pioneers and legends. Traci epitomizes the term “Life in the fast lane”.

Ross Bentley is a racecar driver, a driving coach and high performance driving instructor. His website Speed Secrets, is a landing page for anyone wanting to learn how to be a better and faster driver. He’s raced against Michael Andretti, Al Unser Jr, Bobby Rahal, Emerson Fittipaldi, Paul Tracy, Rick Mears, and many others. Ross has driven Indy cars, GT sports cars, and he won the 1998 U.S. Road Racing Championship and the 2003 Daytona 24-Hour race. He’s passionate about helping others perform better in a car and on the track. He’s written nine books under the Speed Secrets title and all focus on how to be a better driver. Ross’s passion is to share with others what he does best.

J.G. Francis is the owner of Mercedes Motoring in Glendale California. He fell in love with Mercedes-Benz living next door to a Mercedes mechanic who taught him how strong and enduring the marque was. His passion for well-built and well engineered cars combined with his entrepreneurial spirit drove him to launch a business where he takes well loved old Mercedes-Benz cars produced between 1968 and 1985. He carefully and lovingly restores them to their original grandeur. Driving one of his comfortably worn-in beauties is like going back in time. I’ve seen his work, driven in his cars, and they are absolutely wonderful.

Sandra Button has been the Chairman of the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance since 2002. She was the Executive Director for decades prior and has helped to inspire and guide the growth of the collector car hobby in to a truly global celebration of the automobile. Sandra participates and officiates automotive events from Asia and the Middle East to South America. She and her husband Martin have an eclectic collection of automobiles that they drive in events including the Mille Miglia, the 1000 Millas Sport Argentina, the London to Brighten Veteran Car Run and others. She’s a member of the Royal Automobile Club, the Classic Car Club of America and the Motor Press Guild along with the Society of Automotive Historians