1/2 a second or 1/2 a bushel, data is the advantage discussed with host Dave Orr and special guest Indy Pro Series race car driver James Roe Jr.
1/2 a second or 1/2 a bushel, data is the advantage discussed with host Dave Orr and special guest Indy Pro Series race car driver James Roe Jr.
Welcome to another edition of Topcon talks, agriculture. I'm your host Dave, or, and today we're joined by a very special gentleman that I have had the pleasure of meeting a couple times in person James row, Jr. Is a professional race car driver that competes in the indie pro 2000 class, which is part of the road to indie series James and his team is also proudly sponsored by talk on, thank you very much for joining us today, James.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Dave. Thank you for having me. I'm uh, I'm excited to jump on here and um, talk, talk, uh, talk everything from top gone to motor sport and ature this is gonna be exciting.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So, uh, let let's, let's start with motor sport. Um, obviously, uh, as our listeners can tell you, uh, come with a bit of an accent, but you are, are certainly racing here on the circuits in America.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So I'm Irish, um, from canal there in, in Ireland, which is a counted 20 minutes south of Dublin, which is the capital of, um, of Ireland and been out here racing in, in the USA since 2018, which, um, you know, it it's been a pretty fast and, and style career over here. Um, even my whole career in general, if I'm honest, I didn't start motor racing until 20 20 15, which is extremely late. Uh, you know, given your average indie car from low one driver starts go carting at a very one very young age. So I got into it quite late for various different reasons. Um, mainly down to, to funding basically due to the fact that the sport is quite expensive and uh, it's not like baseball or, or football where you go out and you buy a pair of boots and a ball or whatever. It may be in a way you go in motor sport. Obviously we got cars, you got engines, you got crews, you got transport just fuel, right tools, whatever it may be. So there's that lot of cost just to get up and running before you even go racing. Right. And basically, um, what happened was my uncle Michael Rowe was a professional driver over here in the states in the, in the, in the eighties and nineties, he won to Canam championship in 84 and done IA and, uh, a lot of indie car stuff and so on and so forth. And the family business, Ireland's a motor repair shop. So being ran it from a very young age with my uncle's connection, I wanted to get in motor sport. And then I love cars from, from day one, right? I was reaching to get at it. And basically, um, the cost factor was too much, but my, what happened was my uncle and dad turned around and said, well, look, here's a deal. You save up and buy the car. We had to resources here in the family repair shop to run you and your uncle has a knowledge from his career to if you were engineer and coach you so long story short, uh, took me to last 15 years of age to say up and purchased my first race car, which was the genetic junior. Um, and we went out and, and ran it on our first day. We were on the podium said, Hey, we better take this series. So that was, uh, 2015. And, uh, yeah, then two years in UK and formula for 1600, which is the first step of open wheel racing across the globe. It's what, you know, I and Santa Emerson, Foral Jacksonville and new, all these guys would've done, uh, many years ago, starting off in single seaters. So two years of it in UK with winds and lap records, then come out here in 2018 to a series called F 3000, which is the first rung of what we call slicks and wings class in, in American motor sports. So slick tires, um, with down force. And, um, that went extremely well. I was runner up on that championship with wins and lap records. And then, then got a scholarship from Honda and 2019 to compete in the, from a three championship here in north America, won in eight and then done a second year in eight. And, uh, now here in 2021, here we are in, um, indie pro thousand alongside, um, the indie car series racing all around north America. And, um, thankfully things have been going pretty steady in it too. So, uh, been a pretty fast journey. And, um, you know, it, it's just bit of a pinch yourself moment. When you think in 2015, you'd email a race car. Now here we are racing with Indy cars and being part with a company like top.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And, and so like, that's gotta be a bit of a whirlwind. I, I would have to take a, a stab at this, but I don't think six years is a normal time progression for a, a racer such as yourself to go from getting into the, into the cockpit the first time to following around the anti-car circuit and, and racing on the same track as you know, the, the big boys, the big class in, in America. Um, so that that's gotta be a little bit surreal for sure. For, for anybody.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is. Um, you know, as I said at the start, the reality is most indie car formula. One drivers, if you look at your career are professional race drivers for that matter start racing at three and four years of age in, in go-kart, you know, um, right. So I was 15 in the car. There's a, a 12 year gap there when I was playing football and playing rugby and whatever might be in engulf, right. Other guys are pounding laps on a racetrack. So of course there's a deficit there, but I'm a firm believer. If you really want something, you have a bit of a, an ability to do it, uh, with hard work you can get anywhere. You know, that's basically what it's been. I've been eat sleeping and breathing Motorsport 24, 7 for six years straight. And now here we are.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And, and I think something that a lot of people might not understand about the sport of racing, um, whatever level that is, um, is that it's a lot of training and it's a lot of, uh, a physical, uh, toughness and physical durability, but then also mental, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So like what, what would a professional race car driver such as yourself? What would the time away from the track be like for yourself?
Speaker 2:OK. Um, that's a very good question. And, and the reality is it varies for each individual given on their circumstance in which they're going racing or what it takes for them to go racing. So for me, me, um, it's very much, um, a split between the business side of motor racing and what it takes to go racing with the partnerships and sponsorship deals that are going on continuously, right? To working with your team, negotiating with your team. Then once you have your deals done, working with your engineer and having that bond, where is there like a brother or a family member, and you guys go to war essentially, you know, he's the guy setting up your car, you're the guy racing that car and right, anytime there's a bad day, you're relying on him to, to make your day better, whether it's through data or, or visual, um, data analytics or, or, or visual analytics or something you can just clearly see is wrong. You guys have to figure it out. And, uh, that's, that's a huge part of, of, of what you do during the week is, is, is work with your engineer. Then, you know, you're bond with your mechanics. And then you go into training side of things. It's extremely physical in the car, you know, and it only gets more physical as you progress, but in a race car, you know, you withstand loads of up to two and a half GS. And the level that we're in right now. So that's, you know, under break two and a half times, my body weight pulling me forward or pulling my head forward. So you have to be able to withstand that load.
Speaker 1:So how do you train for that? How do you, how do you train your neck or your body to be able to withstand two and a half times your weight?
Speaker 2:I live in Indianapolis, um, or is where my apartment is, and not there a whole lot.<laugh> with a lot, but I have an apartment in Indianapolis. And, uh, the reason I have an apartment there is that obviously a it's it's the hub of indie car racing in north America. Um, a large percentage of teams are based there, team owners, team managed and so on, so forth. But what drew me there is there's a gym there called pit fit. And, um, it's a gym that's designed purely for motor sport, only drivers train there. Um, that's all you see there drivers and maybe the odd crew member from a team and everything that we do is solely focused around motor sports. So everything that a driver goes through in a race car is what we train. So the gym, if you walked into it, you may laugh at some of the stuff we're doing. It's not your conventional gym of guys on a bench press trying to lift as much as they can. It's very, very targeted to muscles that I didn't even know I had. Right. Um, that are triggered in the car when you're in that seated position, when you're strapped in with a six point harness. And when you have a helmet on your head yeah. And your body can load a certain way that obviously activates certain muscles. So there's a very targeted program there at pit fit. And, um, it's a huge benefit to what we do. We do a lot of heat training. So there's a sauna at the gym and you spend a lot of time in it with standing the heat, cuz you know, you're racing, uh, during the summer in, in Elkhart lake and Rhode America, Wisconsin, it's 80 degrees, FHE, and maybe feelings like 90 or 95 with humidity. And you're putting on a fireproof suit and the helmet and you're strapping yourself in for 45 minutes. You know, it's pretty warm in there. So,
Speaker 1:And obviously no air conditioning to the, to an extent, right?
Speaker 2:No, no, I wish I would<laugh> there times I'd cry out for it. But uh, no. I mean the only air condition we get is if there's a safety car period, we can crack open our visor for a lap or two that feels like, um, AC, but no, when we're running nothing, what whatsoever and um, yeah, between pit fit and, and, and what we do there, you tend to be in pretty good shape. The guys really know what they're doing. The owner of a guy called Jim Leon. He used to work for Penske, um, racing back in the day in their health department. So he, um, he takes a Penske way to, to his business. And um, it's translating into, into the guys that he is working with. So well, that's been huge and the rest of the week then is, uh, just busy with travel and, and, and then on track, uh, when we are on track. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so, you know, we've chatted a couple times in person and then over different medias, but you are constantly traveling, doing, uh, traveling, sorry, doing sponsor commitments and, and appearances and, you know, trade shows even for the talk on agriculture, you've been to a couple of trade shows for us. Um, what do you do in, what do you do in your true downtime? What does James row Jr. Do when he has a couple minutes? Uh, you know, just to sit back and relax,
Speaker 2:I gotta be honest with you. I don't, and please don't take this away, but there actually isn't a lot of downtime, mean it's all to do with motor sport. You know, like my last two weekends off, I was actually gonna say a one for an I, so race weekend network and I'm meeting people right. Last weekend, I was just weekend gone by, I was gonna say for an indie car race weekend, um, with, with clients and guests there. So, you know, you're, you're always doing something and that's the reality of sport in general. You know, you speak to you speak to any, any sports person and you're always doing something for that, for that sport, that industry, whatever it is, you know, whether it may not be actual from my case, driving on track, but 98 or 99% of your time, it's something related to that, to that job. Um, or you're traveling for that job to be somewhere and right. Don't get me wrong. There's nothing I love more than a day or two off or a weekend off. It comes pretty seldom. But when I do, um, you probably find me at the lake on a jet ski or, or somewhere like that. So speed is, uh, is always on.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I was gonna say doing something with speed and, and fast sharp turns, I guess. Hey
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. Well, you gotta, uh, you gotta keep the adrenaline up when it is up. You can't let it die down too much.
Speaker 1:<laugh> may maybe try to catch odd football game on TV or something. Hey
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I, I actually, I do, you know, I went one of the first NFL games ever went to my life, uh, was green bay Packers in, uh, okay. There you go. So that was pretty cool. And uh, yeah, that's, um, that's something that I enjoy and it's something that I'm trying to get into more and more is just the American culture in American sports. Uh, it's hard when you're so busy with so much going on to, to really sit down and follow it. But sports in this country is obviously a huge part of the country's culture and, um, how passionate, uh, everyone in north America is about sport.
Speaker 1:No, something that, that kind of, you know, strikes me about the sport of racing. Is that on any given weekend, uh, when you go to the track to compete, you're actually, uh, sharing facilities with the top of your sport and you are racing on the same track as the, as the best in your sport, you know, the likes of, of polo and, and PNO and will power and those guys, right. Um, so some of these guys must have been, you know, idols or, uh, you know, somebody to look up to and you kind of got into this and realized you were coming over to America. Um, a lot of other, a lot of other American sports, you don't do that. You, you, you train as a football player at your own facilities. You go play at maybe at common stadium, but a college guy doesn't really get a chance to interact. Um, so I know you've mentioned a couple times that you gotta stop and, and have a chat with these guys, or one of the guys is asking you how you're doing. What's that like as a, as a upcoming inspiring driver to know that the top class is right there watching you and, and you're able to chat with them kinda as they come and as they go.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You know, it's, it's a huge, huge bonus. I mean, just to American motor sport in general, the fact that the open comers are on that platform, not only from us as drivers and racing alongside those guys in front of team owners and team managers and, you know, crew chiefs, but even from my partner's perspective, you know, that my partners are getting the exact same return on investment, their exact same exposure as any indie car sponsor, because you're raising the same day, same track, right? So there's a huge amount of, of, of bonuses, um, in front of the exact same fan base where the, essentially the undercard fight to an indie car race, you know, on track an hour before they go an hour or go on track. Um, but to answer your question, what it means, yes, it is. It was pretty surreal at the start. I'll be honest. I mean, you know, growing up in Ireland, racing in the UK, following indie car, you're looking at guys like Scott and windy indie 500, you're looking at winning indie card championship. The guy's just a beast on track this year. He hasn't had much look, but in usual years, he's, he's, uh, he's a force be reckon with. And then, then you come over and, you know, you, you start training him pit fit and you see him walk in there and one day, hold the door open for you. Then you're at the racetrack and you're welcome by him as you're going to the restroom or on your way to the grid or having that IV. And all of a sudden he is looting you. He says, all right, mate is what he says to everyone. Um, and it's just, yeah, it is pretty surreal. I mean, obviously like anything you get used to it after a while and enough weekends and it becomes norm, but right. Yes, it is. It is a huge advantage, um, to us young drivers, because we now can align ourselves with our role models. You know, it's one thing looking up to our role model, but it's another thing being alongside them on the same track and the same weekend and yeah, cuz it's seeing how they themselves, on what they do.
Speaker 1:You're not just watching them race their race. You, you also get to see them on the Thursday mornings and what they're doing to prepare themselves for a Saturday afternoon or the Sunday Indy 500. Right? So you, you actually get, see their work. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Or, or even, even even more as a bigger, bigger eye opener is, you know, I remember earlier this year we weren't racing with them, but they were racing in Texas. Um, later Sunday, Sunday night race on Monday morning, I'm in the gym and 3d Indy car drivers walk in. And I'm saying to myself, I watched them on TV a couple of hours ago in Texas, right back and outta here, they're in the gym and Monday morning getting ready to go again. Yeah. That, that gives the idea, you know, of, of what they do and how committed they are. And for, for a young guy, that's what you need to be seen, you know? Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it, it really puts into perspective what you need to do to get to that level. Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And that's, that's, that's what I mean to your point, what you do in your off time, there doesn't tend to be a whole lot of off time, but, uh, yeah. Especially when you're taking their mindset, but uh, it's, it's pretty cool. I gotta gotta say
Speaker 1:No kidding now, you know, like I've, like I've mentioned, we've been able to catch up at a couple of different events, um, with Topcon. Um, but one thing that really struck me, uh, not only in your story, but then also through our conversations is, um, a lot of people probably think that a Topcon sponsorship would be natural with the race car, from our construction side of things. You know, you guys are racing on either roads, um, across America or on, uh, courses. And those courses need to be well maintained and, and well taken care of, uh, on the surfaces and, and Topcon is leading in that. Um, but when you step back and you look at James Earl's story of how you got in, and it was a family way of getting in, you know, your uncle and your dad said, Hey, we'll take you under your wing. You, you kind of finance some of the stuff up front and, and we'll put in some of the manual labor and, and labor of loves. That's a lot similar to how a lot of farmers in the next generation are getting there. Starting the farming world is, you know, kind of, let's put it all together. Let's see how we can get the young guy back on the farm and make sure that he's staying on the farm. So that succession plan is there. So in a way you can kind of look at your, your uncle and your dad having a succession plan for you.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1:But the other thing that, that we've talked about quite a bit is, is the repetition of what you need to do on a race car track and, and how you can become, uh, the best race car driver, uh, in your series to be able to move up a series or, or whatever it may entail, but you are, uh, very, very big advocate of the way to get that step up is something that's very common in farming and that's collecting data, correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, it's, I gotta be honest. It's to be a, be all an end all in what we do, right. I mean so much. So in our program, we have one individual who's a designated data engineer. Like his role is purely to download that data,
Speaker 1:Right?
Speaker 2:For every run on track, analyze it, come up with a list of things that he thinks could be better and then discuss with the performance engineer, how we're gonna implement that. Now some of them may not be able to implement there and then, but that goes into his file of things we need to figure out when we're back at the shop and we've bit of downtime. But to your point, I mean, everything that we do is recorded on that race car from the minute the power is turned on to the minute it's shut off everything from gas, um, position, brake, pedal, position, brake, pedal, pressure, steering, angle, oil, pressure, fuel pressure, damper movement, um, wheel travel, uh, you know, water temp, oil temp, uh, across the board. I can go on and on and ons about 120 channels of data being recorded, any given moment. Wow. All goes on to a data logger, which is in the car. It's a little black box and in it is what looks like USB stick. Um, and after the session, the engineer pulls that USB stick out, plugs into his laptop, analyzes a run. That's gone by there, obviously there's hundreds of channels. And then not only makes sure that the engine's running right, and that it's performing well, the right fuel flow rate is there that the right fuel pressure is there, that the oil temp is at the right target number. So what, whatever that may be. But even from my point of view, I can analyze my driving. You know, I have an idea of what a good brake trace should look like or what a good smooth throttle application should look like or what my steering angle should look like. Or if there's too much under steer, I can see that on the steering trace or if I'm just too much overseer in the cars, hanging out in the rear lot, I'm catching it. I can see it on the steering trace. So I analyze it for my own performance too. Um, and then if I have a teammate who's faster than me, I can overlay my data versus his data and see where he's better or see what he's doing different. So it's, it's, what's required to be better, you know, and that's the bottom line, right? And to, to be better and to perform better and to push boundaries and to look for more and to bring everything on a notch, it's what we do.
Speaker 1:But it it's, it's so scientific down to the fact of, you know, if you, you have a, your engineer could tell you that if you broke 15 feet shorter, you actually would save maybe this much time. And that could be the difference between starting ninth and second, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we got, what's called it time Delta, uh, when the two data sets are overlaid and if one guy's doing something better than the other, you'll see what that was worth on the stopwatch. And that's all done via GPS. You have a GPS beacon on the car and it's, you know, via GPS is tracking where we are across the lap. Obviously when we break one car slows up and that kind of breaks later, slows up fraction sooner, the GPS coordinates can, can, um, can take that and then I can see what that is. It's measured in feet. So the, to your point, I mean, I gotta be honest if we didn't have data or don't have data, our rate of improvement would be far, far less. And that's just a fact, um, so much so, as I said, we rely on it so much that I don't actually know how we'd get through a weekend without it, you know, you can get to a certain point just on feel and, and, you know, intuition to get down to the real nitty gritty. And you're talking about saving tens of seconds or half a 10 of a second per corner, right. Or even hundreds of seconds, the visual eye can't spot that I stopwatch. If I get to tell you to take out a stopwatch and stop at at two hundreds of a second, it's not possible the human body physi can't do it. So, so we rely on data to give us that those measurements. And, um, I think the more and more I learn about Topcon, the ag business, the construction business, it's no different if I woke up in the morning and I was a big player in the construction industry or a big player in the ag business, and I want my company to succeed, or I wanna go forward, you know, why wouldn't I use data if that's there? And this is on the market to further my business, either today, save time on, on my harvest or, or B save, save money in the sense that I have to do less work for more result through the understanding of data. Why wouldn't we do it? You know, that it's, it's there. And it's, it's a no-brainer I think the biggest hurdle that most people have, right, is the fear of using it and the comp complexity it has when you initially look at it and, you know, they have this data and every matter and tractor or harvester has it on, it is okay, what do I do it then? But I think once that first hurdle is jumped, it's no different than me. When I first started using data and Motorsport and data loggers, right. It was gibberish for the first day and a half. But then once I realize how beneficial it was, it becomes your Bible. You know, you're like, this is phenomenal. So I think the biggest thing is just coming O getting over that first hurdle. Um, then once you see the results, no momentum and our bank can's looking healthier and your crop is up better. And your, your, your harvest is over a couple of days before it usually is because you use technology. I mean, then, then it's, uh, a no-brainer. And also the fact that, you know, this technology nowadays is so secure. I think a lot of people, especially when I was doing it too, when I first started using late, I'm wondering, where is this going? You know? Yep. Who, where's my data going? Or who's, can everyone see my data? You know, it's, it's private property, essentially. Yep. And, um, I think with all the, the servers that are up there now, and the cloud bases that are all so secure, that you don't even have to have that worry. I mean, it's, it's a legit worry, but technology and, and cyber security and, and protection of data has gone onto such a, a new level, even in the last year and a half. I mean, with all these companies that, that have so much stuff in the cloud, it's, it's very safe and, and that's, that's the fact.
Speaker 1:Right. And, and it's, you know, the parallels is, as you continue to discuss, they just continue to go on, you know? Yeah. Um, you can look at a team, you know, you said that it's a lot better when you have a teammate so that you can overlap right. Against your teammate or, or vice versa. Um, if you're by yourself, you know, that that might not be as readily available, right. Yeah. So, you know, when you have multiple sources at harvest time, if both combines are collecting the same data, then you can at least overlap that data instead of only capturing half of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. And you, you gotta, you gotta capture it all. I mean, that's the absolutely. Yeah. You paint to paint a true picture, you know, they'd be like me only gathering half a lap right. On a roll track. I mean, it's kind of irrelevant course I'll get some sort of benefit. Yeah. But we always have saying, well, what if I gathered the rest of the lab?
Speaker 1:Right, exactly.
Speaker 2:You know? Um, and yeah, that's, that's, that's really the reality of it, you know? Yeah.
Speaker 1:And the other thing that really, uh, stuck out to me was, um, how you use that data and, and you touched on it again, but you know, not only how you use it, but how other people can use your data to help you. Um, like you said, you look at a different data set than maybe your engineers looking at, or your fuel tech is looking at right. Mm-hmm<affirmative>, but you get to look at another set, but it's all being collected at once. And that's, that's a big thing in the agriculture industry is we aren't just collecting data for our agronomist or are trusted, um, provider of, of fertilizers or, or crop inputs. But we also can find other things from there. Right. Um, it's not just, it's not just meant for one person. There's so many different layers. There's so many different aspects to the data. We're collecting that a lot of people, um, trusted, of course, you should be able to sit down and, and help you continue to make better decisions for your farming practices or better use of the land. Um, and that that's truly what data is, you know, um, it's evolved so much even over the last five or 10 years from just collecting a yield monitor yeah. Uh, data and saying, okay, let's go see more there or less there. Um, there is a, there's a ton of information that can be taken out of the simple data that we're collecting throughout the crop cycle.
Speaker 2:Oh, no, for sure. And I mean, it's honestly, uh, I think the hardest thing, and I keep reiterating cuz I was no different, you know, and I actually come from a farming background to a degree where my, my grandfather in, in our, in our town in Ireland, um, is, uh, is a local cattle dealer. And cattle marts in our, in our area in Ireland are, are owned by my family and grew up on a farm around 20 acres and some livestock on it. And my grand used to S and stuff. And as I said, understanding his mindset and my family's mindset in the ag side of, of the world to when I started in Motorsport and using data, it's actually very similar that, that, that, that cautious factor where you kind of take yourself, what am I getting myself in for here? What is this, what are these squiggly lines? You know, how can I use these? But the biggest thing, and I, I sound like a broken tape recorder going over is you just gotta reach out for the right a, have the right guy explaining it to you for the consultancy, if you wanna use that, that word and, and the right product knowledge. But once you get into a bit of a rhythm and start seeing the benefits, your life changes, you know, I mean, all the guess work has gone out of it, and it's now factual evidential basis,
Speaker 1:Right? And the data you collect this year at every given track that will actually help you next year at that same track, right. It it's not,
Speaker 2:Oh, so for example, there's a very good point. You know, I raise, um, two weeks time in mid Ohio and we raced here earlier this year in July, right? It's the first time ever with this team that I'm going back to the same track twice. So later this week, we have a conference call where they're analyzing our data from the last weekend back in July, and we're gonna discuss our strong and weak points based off the data, the data comparisons, okay. This is when we, the car set up this way, this is what we could see you could do when we, the car stuff this way, this is what you could do when you've done this with your feet. This is what you could do. Um, I think there's room for improvement here. I think we're very strong here. I think we need to focus here and we analyze it just to make sure that we're better prepared for this race coming up, that I know where I gotta work on, where I gotta do to ultimately get a better performance. And it's, it's no different in the ag business that you do a harvest in 2021, and you gather that data and over the winter, you analyze it in 2022, you're gonna have a better game plan. Right. You know, or know what to change, to have better results. And absolutely, it's just what you gotta do. And I think people gotta get on the train, you know, I mean, imagine if I didn't have data, I'd be going back to Midio no. Better off. Just wondering. Yeah. I have a good idea what I need to do and I'll be there thereabouts. Right. But I wouldn't be any better, you know? Yep. Because it's just guesswork, you know, or I wonder this, or I wonder if I done that or I wonder if we ran the car this way. Right. That's just missing, you know, data takes out the guesswork and becomes evidential work. And that's what I mean.
Speaker 1:And, and that's a huge advantage. And, you know, I would imagine that all the racers are on a similar platform, but for,
Speaker 2:Well, that's, that's the unfortunate thing everyone's doing it out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. But you know, it, it is good for a, a driver such as yourself. Who's relatively new to the series until a lot of these circuits that, um, that you can start gathering that data cuz it's gonna be, you know, some of the stuff will be lessons and, and information that you'll carry with you for, uh, the longevity of your career.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. No, you're, you're dead right there. Um, that's a, that's a, that's a fact. Um, and we'll just gotta see, um, see where it goes to. I mean the data world is, is obviously, uh, not done progressing and right.
Speaker 1:I'm exactly,
Speaker 2:I'm curious to see where it is in three years time, you know, when new products and services come out from all these precision type companies that's fascinates me or makes me curious is where are we going?
Speaker 1:Yeah. Cuz you say that right now you have, let's say it's 150 different metrics that you can measure, you know, in five years that might be 250. Right. And
Speaker 2:Yeah, might, that's only gonna do it one way and that makes our life easier as the end user. And in my case, I'm the end user of Motorsport data set. Right. And the ag business is the farmer is no better off, you know, or different.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. So, you know, just looking at your season overall, um, I think we could say that, that the data has helped in, you know, looking at your results, you, um, seem to have come a long way and improved and I believe you even won your first, uh, poll couple of weeks ago. Correct?
Speaker 2:Right. Yeah. That in St. Louis and, um, Illinois on the oval. That was pretty cool. Yeah. Uh, to get, but yeah, no, you're right. I mean the year started off very, very strong in preseason testing with a shaky mid part. Um, then the summer break made a few changes, um, shipped to some things around and uh, came out, uh, with our, uh, fist swinging at, uh, St. Louis and got the pole. And uh, then we're in New Jersey following weekend, qualified in the second row should have been on pole. I made a slight error, which is still, uh, boing me today, but you get over that. And, uh, yeah, other paces are very strong. I mean, it is all done to date because the margins that we deal in are so small, you know, over a two mile lap, we could be looking for one 10 of a second.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Like how, how is that possible
Speaker 1:Exactly.
Speaker 2:With an eye with eyeballs or would feel one 10 of a second over two miles. Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's absolutely.
Speaker 2:Without data. We wouldn't, uh, we wouldn't be where we are and we wouldn't be going to where we want to go.
Speaker 1:Right. And so I believe you have one more weekend of racing left, correct?
Speaker 2:That's right. We got mid Ohio, uh, October 1st and third, um, which, uh, there is tickets of pro grab 400 Topcon social media channel, if anyone wants to check it out. Um, and, um, surprise giveaway, anyhow. Yeah. We're racing there. Awesome. In mid Ohio and, um, the double letter gain. So looking the end strong and then we head into the, the off season, which usually isn't much of an off season, but, um, it is classified as the off season and, uh, we get ourselves set up for 20, 22 and see, uh, see where we'll end up.
Speaker 1:Nice. And will you be able to, to sneak home for the off season for a little visit?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I get home for two weeks. Um, my first time home all year, I get home on October 8th, nice for two weeks, which I'm looking forward to seeing some family and friends, but it'll be two weeks at home. Um, gotta sort out one or two things and I'll be straight back out here. And, uh, yeah, I, I love what I hear. I, I, I love Ireland, but I also, um, love what out here in north America. It's pretty
Speaker 1:Cool. Absolutely. Awesome. And do you have any, uh, social media that, uh, our listeners could maybe look you up on or, or follow you on?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. So Instagram is, um, at James row. Facebook is the same on Twitter is at James row 10. So, uh, you can get me in all of the above and reach out any time with any questions or, or, um, queries and, uh, I'd love to love to answer them.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And that's, that's J a M E S and then Roe is R O E correct. Right. Awesome. Well, James, thank you very much. I, I, I truly appreciate this conversation. I love drawing the parallels between motor sport, um, and agriculture. It's something that you, you know, I never realized was there. I, I do consider myself a motor sport fan. Uh, not obviously to the knowledge that you, you have and some of, uh, some of my colleagues down in the states, but you know, sitting here on a Sunday, whether it's watching indie NASCAR or, or F1 from, from Europe, you never realize the similarities, um, to a, to an air seater or a combine going up and down the field, but they certainly are there. And, and I thank you for, for helping me show that, that, that, that to parallel.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no problem. It's my pleasure. We all have the same goal at the end of the day, whether it's a, uh, a farmer or a race car driver or a formula one team, we all wanna be better and we all want to succeed and, and just be better. Absolutely. So, um, that's, uh, that's what we have in, in, in common. And, um, and the other thing you have in common is the data that we can use. So that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1:Perfect. Well, James, thanks once again for joining us today, uh, to our thank you, Robin. Yes. And to our listeners. Thanks for joining us. And we look forward to, to chatting with you guys again soon. Uh, this has been another episode of Topcon talks, agriculture.