Cars Yeah With Mark Greene

Jonathan Mill is the Senior Content and Marketing Director at WheelWell, the #1 social marketplace for the automotive enthusiast that helps you easily find and purchase the very best products for your vehicles. Jonny, as his friends call him, is a bit of an automotive renaissance man. He entered the industry as a product inventor, winning product of the year, SEMA Launchpad and eventually Gen III Innovator, The highest honor for under 40 in the aftermarket. After a successful exit from the company he built, he went into advertising, eventually taking the helm of Hot Rod Magazine as Publisher and GM. He recently joined the social commerce site Wheelwell where he heads their marketing and content.

Mark Atkinson is the founder of Speed of Cheese Racing where he builds some very unique, unusual, and bespoke motorcycles. Ever since Mark could ride on two wheels his passion for bikes has been burning rubber. From his Schwinn® bicycle to a Taco Mini-bike, and then a Yamaha YZ80, he has a life-long infatuation with motorcycles. Mark raced an old Yamaha RD400, a bike he bought from Ed Erlenbach who set world records on that bike. He has built street motorcycles most of his life, self-taught in fabricating, welding, and painting and most of his professional career has been machining hard core race car products. Just a few of his projects include electric motorcycles, race bikes, show bikes, café racers, land speed bikes, and more.

Michael Bodell is the Deputy Director of the Petersen Automotive Museum located in Los Angeles, California. The original museum opened in June of 1994 and since then has gone through several remodels, the last being in 2015 when it underwent an extensive $90 million renovation. The building façade is a massive statement toward the future. With over 400 vehicles on display, the Petersen’s mission is to explore and present the history of the automobile and its impact on global life and culture. Michael is a collector, motorcycle racer, and product developer. In addition to his role in growing the Petersen brand, Michael is a Lotus enthusiast and collector.

Peter Nielsen is the CEO of WheelWell, the #1 social marketplace for the automotive enthusiast that helps you easily find and purchase the very best products for your vehicles. Peter was born into an automotive family and his career has included equities trading, a record label, a business intelligence firm, a mobile payment solutions provider, and a Sonoma County winery. Before joining Wheelwell, he developed the automotive parts business for one of the most successful racing teams in North America, K-PAX Racing. In his spare time, you’ll find Peter on the racetrack clicking off laps in one of his racecars.

Dave Dell’Aquila is a Senior User Experience Designer who was the Product Designer for eBay Motors, a site all of us love to visit. He is the Founder and CEO of Sports Car Adventures, a company that provides tours in classic sports cars around the back roads of Northern California. Dave is also in charge of the Coyote Creek Concours Drive that takes place the day before the car show. As a life-long automotive enthusiast, Dave started with a 1968 MGB-GT his parents gave him in college. He and his family are regular participants in rallies around Northern California and they have amassed a collection of great driving automobiles including MGA Twin Cam, Triumph GT6+, MGB roadsters, BMW E36 M3 and E39 M5, and a 2.5L Mazda MX-5. 

Sara Dakarmen is the Co-Founder and owner of L.A. Dismantler, your source for quality late model Porsche parts for over 20 years. She is known as the “Porsche Queen” and since its conception, Sara has seen thousands of Porsches cycle through her company. The constantly changing inventory provides Porsche owners with over 100,000 parts that can be found at L.A. Dismantler’s website, on eBay, and at auctions. Her Co-Founder was her late husband, Todd Dakarmen, who was my 459th guest here on Cars Yeah on March 4, 2016. Sara continues to grow the company while attending car events and raising her four daughters. 

Mike Donick is the Senior Manager at Toyota responsible for their North American Ride and Handling R&D Activities. He and his Team are responsible for developing the ride and handling performance and hardware for all of Toyota’s North American developed vehicles. He has worked as a technician for the Skip Barber Racing School, spent a season in NASCAR and went into Automotive Engineering specializing in vehicle dynamics. Mike has raced sports cars and formula cars for over 19 years and participates in vintage racing, vintage car rallies, and hill climbs in his Allard K3, a ’66 Morgan Plus 4, and his latest project a Porsche 911 hotrod.

Mark Perleberg is the host of The Sunday Drive, a video show where he takes you behind the scenes into the world of automobiles and racing. Mark talks with industry leaders, celebrities, and some times he has a co-host where they explore everything from concept cars, classics, motorsports, car shows, and events. For as long as he can recall, Mark has had a love affair with automobiles. At the age of 12, he began working at the family’s car dealership in Wisconsin that ultimately lead to an opportunity to work as a technician for a Formula Atlantic race team. Mark’s worked for Kelley Blue Book, and as a lead automotive expert for NADA Guides.

Bracken Helmes is the founder of Circuit SixFour, a premium, high-end art, and apparel company in Brentwood, the Bay Area of California. Circuit SixFour started as a small group of like-minded friends whose aim was to bring raw beauty, precision, and exhilaration to the automobiles that inspire them. He also conducts interviews and writes articles that have been published in Porsche Panorama magazine, on the Petrolicious website, and in other automotive related publications and sites. When he’s not enjoying spirited drives in his Porsche you’ll find Bracken at events including Rennsport Reunion, the L.A. Literature Show and a multitude of Porsche events around the Bay area.

Hannah Grisham is a young and upcoming race car driver who started driving at the age of 3, was on a motorcycle at the age of 4, and racing karts by the time she was 6 years old. At the age of 16 she was racing spec Miatas and today, at 19, Hannah has over 300 races from the club to national levels. She holds multiple karting class championships and she’s earned the IKF Expert designation. She is the second female to win the prestigious IKF Lake Speed Achievement of Excellence in Karting award. And she has earned the So-Cal Sprinters Driver of the Year and High Point Eagle awards as well. Hannah has earned the nicknames “The Closer” and “Hannah-Zillah”. 

Barry Rodenberg is the General Manager at Chevrolet of Stevens Creek, the Presenter of this year’s Coyote Creek Concours. He started working in the automobile business in 1979 as a salesperson, was promoted to Sales Manager and eventually partnering with John Anderson. They owned three Chevrolet dealerships and then six stores that were sold to Auto Nation in 1998. After a year off he and John partnered again and bought their old rival Courtesy Chevrolet and another store, then selling both businesses in 2011. He then worked at a Honda store in Palo Alto where he and his team built it up into a great success until his retirement in 2017. 

Myles Kitchen is the Emcee for the new Coyote Creek Concours. During his career as an engineer and entrepreneur, his focus was on electronics and technology for the automotive industry spending time at Motorola, National Semiconductor, Intel, and others. Today he owns a specialized consultancy assisting start-ups to Fortune 100 firms in automotive electronic technology. Myles is an accomplished vintage racer, instructor and a three-time Champion of the United States Road Racing Championship (USRRC) Seniors Tour. Myles is believed to be the only person known to have campaigned a Lamborghini Countach in a sanctioned race in North America. He is a past President and Director of the Ferrari Club of America, Pacific Region, and he is a lifetime member of the Society of Automotive Engineers, and member of the International Association of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. 

John Neff is the Global Editor in Chief at Motor 1 where they provide automotive news, reviews, features, and more. John is an automotive journalist who has helmed some of the biggest automotive digital publishing brands on the web. For 10 years he was Editor in Chief of AOL’s car site, Autoblog, and for the last three years, he’s been Global Editor in Chief of his new automotive news and review website called Motor1.com, which operates 10 editions around the world and is written in 9 languages. 

Carl Iseman is a Board Member and Concours Chairman for the Cincinnati Concours d’Elegance, an annual event that takes place on June 9 in Ault Park, Cincinnati, Ohio and has been an ongoing event since 1978. While his career included being a hospital CEO, and owner of several marketing research companies, Carl’s passion for cars, and Porsches, in particular, included being the President of The Drie Staaten Gruppe, a Porsche 356 and early 911 Club and a member of the Porsche Club of America and 356 Registry. His garage has included 12 Porsches, a Triumph TR4, MGB/GT, several BMWs, and a ’48 Chevrolet Woody. 

A motor racing broadcaster, commentator and journalist, Will Buxton has had the rare pleasure of turning his great passion into something resembling work for the better part of 20 years. His career has taken him around the world countless times to report on everything from Formula 1 to World Rally to Indycar. While the happy mistake of falling into television as a Formula 1 pitlane reporter in the United States for the SPEED channel and later NBC Sports, followed by his current role as the first Digital Presenter in F1 history, has made him one of the most recognized faces and voices in the sport, his first love was and remains writing. Will lives in Oxfordshire, England, and he’s here today to talk about his new book: My Greatest Defeat: Stories of hardship and hope from motor racing’s finest heroes.

John Ficarra is an automotive historian and professional automotive enthusiast. He bought his first car at the age of 14, restored cars in his garage to help put himself through college, owned a picture car company called Creative Film Cars in NYC, ran an illegal cross-country Cannonball event called The 2904, was the marketing director and in-house historian for Bruce Canepa at his amazing facility in Scotts Valley, California, wrote and researched 72 cars for the Porsche’s historic tent at Rennsport VI, and has been ill-advisedly building and racing cheaty cars in the 24 Hours of LeMons. An accomplished researcher, writer, and storyteller, John’s work has appeared in magazines including 000, Vintage Racecar, Classic Porsche, and Speed Sport; on the Luftgekühlt website, and his VINwiki Car stories have over a million views on YouTube. 

Bruce Kessler had a short but sweet racing career from 1953 to 1959. It started when he borrowed his mother’s XK120 Jag at the age of 17. He raced all over the world and Sports Illustrated called Bruce “Daring young Bruce Kessler.” He was sent to Le Mans in 1957 to drive for Porsche and tested for Centro Sud F1 250F Maserati in Modena. He drove for Scarab, raced Ferraris, and ran at exciting venues including The Cuban Grand Prix, the Nassau Classic, Sebring, Silverstone, Lime Rock, Watkins Glen, and Riverside. A serious accident ended his racing career and he landed in Hollywood where he became a film and television director. His film The Sound of Speed represented the USA at the Cannes Film Festival in 1962 and won the first Golden Eagle awarded by the American Film Institute. Just a few of his many other credits include The Monkees, The Flying Nun, Mission: Impossible, Marcus Welby, MD, and The Rockford Files, to name just a few.

Katie Hargitt was born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana, a city that lives and breathes two things: basketball and racing. She never mastered a jump-shot, but she was hooked on horsepower. At just nine-years-old, she began racing quarter midgets across the country. Just two years later, Lyn St. James invited her to attend "Women in the Winner’s Circle” and driver development. After racing for more than ten years, Katie stepped out of the driver’s seat and in front of the camera. She scored her first job in local news in Terre Haute, Ind., a city rich in motorsports history. She worked her way back into motorsports as a pit reporter on NBCSN’s IndyCar series broadcasts. In the spring of 2018, Katie established “Fuel the Female,” an organization dedicated to empowering women to achieve their dreams. She has also worked as a reporter for Fox Sports Midwest in college football, basketball, the Indiana Pacers, and NCAA.

Rob Howden is the ‘Voice of the Road to Indy’, and he works on the IndyCar Radio Network broadcast Team. For the last 25 years, Rob has dedicated his life to the coverage of kart racing and open-wheel formula car racing in North America as the Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of past publications such as Shifter Kart Illustrated and FormulaCar Magazine, and most currently, the industry-leading website eKartingNews.com. He’s been the trackside play-by-play on the PA for the primary karting series and events across the continent and he is considered the primary announcer in the North American karting community. Rob will call 26 different racing events this year, which will take him to all four corners of the country. Shout out to Chris Pantani at Cooper Tires for introducing me to Rob.

David Ankin, AKA “Doghouse” Dave, is a hands-on entrepreneur, former stunt man, motorcycle racer, and custom motor vehicle fabricator. He founded his business, ToyMakerz, in 2014 where he and his business partner, David Young, along with their team specialize in one-off custom builds and OEM enhancements. In addition to building unmatched rides, David is the host on the reality TV show ToyMakerz that just completed its third season on the History channel after two successful years on Velocity. The show is shot with aerial cinematography and thrilling drive sequences featuring VR technology and concept animation and includes a companion app, available on iTunes, that connects fans to the show.