One, two, three.

Look at my shoes.

And that's the last six, seven, eight.

Feels great.

I'm gonna shine after I do it.

I'm gonna do it.

But do it again.

Yeah.

Look at this guy with off duty vocal about the marathon just for me.

So I got to share it with another.

I got to show you.

Give that out.

I wanna sing.

It sounds like a look at a beautiful party that turns to beautiful evening.

And to make beautiful.

And if you wanna see that, come along with me.

That's God.

Hello, everyone.

Welcome to Experience.

Christiana, Kourtney and Kelly here.

And I forgot his name, but you're going to find out his name on next week's show today.

Where and when?

A AMAT at the peaceable primate sanctuary.

And I tell you, we are so excited to bring that to you next week.

But we do have a great show for you this week.

We do.

And going back to my racing rose, I was able to check out Caesar Raceway doing slot cars, kind of indoor racing, if you will.

So we're going to be talking about that.

But also tire rex one lap America has been happening all week long.

Their final event is coming up this week.

And we want to make sure you get all those details coming up.

Phil, I heard about your little racing career here.

Yeah, I can't wait to see that.

But we're also going to be motivated to get a preview of be spoken.

And I tell you, you don't want to miss that.

It's a wonderful concert and the music is fabulous.

Well, first up, we're going to be entertaining, you tell your water sickness is also coming up this week and some really great stuff.

Check it out.

Right now.

I'm joined by Morgan, who is from Cirque Italia.

How are you doing?

Doing great things.

How are you, babe?

We're really good.

And, you know, I've heard about Cirque Italia because I know it's been around some of the Michigan area before.

So for anyone watching who doesn't really know what's unique about Cirque Italia, can you let us know?

Ha, ha.

The first traveling circus in the United States.

And so we have a brand new show this year brand new to this area.

We have a pirate adventure story.

So it's a really fun show, good for all ages with everything from aerialist acrobats juggler, contortionist.

And then we have our Dynamic Water Stage, which is a 35,000 gallon water tank underneath our stage.

The stage lights up and then we perform with the water is, well, nice.

I mean, that seems to be a very unique thing.

And can can the audience expect to get a little bit what to have a splash zone?

There is a splash zone.

Well, that's good.

So in what way do you use the water?

Because I'd never heard of a water circus before.

Cirque Italia so I mean, do you end up diving into it or what kind of things do you do?

I know you don't want to give everything away, but it just creates this really beautiful magical experience that you can't find anywhere else.

And that's something that I think is really unique about surgical.

Yet we are combining these amazing human performance is with our water.

Nice.

And what is it that you do in the circus or the sea?

I am.

I'm actually a mermaid and I do an aerial at my boyfriend and it's a mermaid pirate love story.

Oh, nice.

You know, I'm always curious about someone who becomes an aerialist.

I mean, how do you first know that that's what you want to do without risking your life?

I mean, are you just out in your garden jumping between trees or what?

Are you doing?

You know, most of our performers are generational circus performers, meaning that they learn from their parents to learn from their parents.

I am actually unique in that I am the only performer from the United States.

And I went to school to be an air.

I know.

I didn't even know that was an option.

So where do you go to school for something like that?

I'm so curious.

Not that I want to be part of the show or anything.

I'm just curious.

I actually I went to school in California to study, to be an aerialist specifically.

Nice.

Well, that is fantastic.

So where is the show going to be for people that want to want to go see if you're over at the University Park Mall?

And we have shows Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights and if people wanted to see anything about the show beforehand, is there somewhere that they can go just to?

Obviously, you've given a really good description so they can visualize it, but is there places that they can go to see more information about it?

Absolutely.

You can go to Surf Italia dot com.

All right.

That's See Air Q, UAE and Cirque Italia dot com where you can find out any and all the information.

So is there anything else in the show?

Is it just people that are in it that are an animal free circus, which is another thing that they Cirque Italia really unique when the owner of Cirque Italian when he came up with the idea he wanted to leave the elephants and the tigers in the jungle and he wanted to focus on the ability of the human body.

And so it's just it's a really unique show that you can't find anywhere else.

Well, I love that because personally I don't really like animals in the circus.

You know, because I feel bad for them even though I enjoy what they're able to do.

I know that's not what they're meant to do.

So that's something that I love.

I also love water.

So it sounds like Cirque Italia has all the correct ingredients.

So Surrogate's Hollywood.com, we have it on screen right now.

That's where you can get all the information.

And it sounds like it sounds like a really fun time.

So are there shows when you say those shows over those days, is there certain times?

Is there more than one show, Britney or have one shown Thursday at 731 show on Friday at 733 shows on Saturday, one 3430 and 730 and two shows on Sunday, 130 and 430.

Nice.

So have you traveled all over the country like do you where do you go after this now we are in the Indiana and Michigan area, but yes, we've traveled all over the United States.

It's nice.

All right.

So because we've got audiences who cover such a wide area as well, so Cirque Italia economy and all the information, even if you can't make it to University Park Mall and there's probably other shows coming up that you can make it to as well.

So and Morgan, thank you so much.

I really appreciate you coming on the experience.

Michelle, today we're checking out a really cool place here in South Bend, Indiana.

These are Raceway is an awesome place where we can actually do slot car racing.

This is a really unique thing because this is like the only place in the region that you can do something like this, correct?

Yes, correct.

Where are the other closest places that you can do this?

This I mean, because this is really a worldwide slot car racing thing.

It is.

We are the only slot car drag in this region.

With that being said, you go to Fort Wayne, Indiana, you go to Columbia City, Indiana, or your next best bet would be Chicago.

Illinois.

So Faisal Raceway, pretty much so has it covered for whatever reason in that particular area unless you want to travel.

So, yeah, and in Fred, people come from all over.

All over.

We've had just recently, we had a guy come in, he's from Sweden or Switzerland sports guy came in town for work and he so did he drive on the right side or the left side?

And, you know, he just stopped by and he continues to stop by whenever he's in town.

Oh, that's amazing.

So you never know who's coming through the door.

And we have you know, as far as people's backgrounds, we've got all kinds of different, different backgrounds of people come in and race.

Sure.

And then people can bring their own car in here, too.

And in Dallas, can they also rent a vehicle?

Yes.

If they wanted to race, we offer rentals for their $6 or 15 minutes.

OK, and then people can build their own.

And if they need some of the supplies to we have everything in there we have everything in here.

You need to build a car for the classes we race.

That's awesome.

Is that something that you can help someone learn how to build a flat car of their own?

If we wanted to rent one and decide that, you know, over time I just want my own, we help people build it.

It's important that we do help people build because there is more to this than what you would think OK. And the help they do need, the help when they're first starting out.

And if you help them, it makes it easier on them and they'll keep coming back.

Sure, sure.

And you know, tell us more about Dave, the people who come here year after year.

How long have you been doing slot car racing?

I've been doing slot cars as much as I hate to admit it, probably close to 50 years.

50 years.

I mean, I'm a I'm a Lifetime fan of slot cars.

I got my first lottery when I was 11 years old.

Amazing.

So you do the math that tells you how old I was.

But anyhow, it's a hobby that I have always been interested in as a hobby.

It's only a hobby I've ever had, and it's the only hobby I will ever have.

At this point in time.

I've got way too much time and money invested in that to ever get out of it.

So I'm a, I'm a lifer.

I'm slot first for life, slot cars for life.

What exactly are the dynamics of slot car racing?

What goes into it?

Fred a little bit of skill, a little bit of luck, OK?

And pretty much that's it.

I mean, a little bit of patience.

OK, OK. And it tell us more about the track that you guys have here.

OK, this track was built about five years ago, OK, by a gentleman named Chris, Chris, Chris, Dad's OK. And this track, particular track was designed by the previous owner.

And Chris Dad's built the track for him.

So really fits well in this space, too.

Yeah, awesome.

When he built this track, he built it by halves in his garage.

Oh, so this track did not get fully assembled until it made it to this building.

So he did not know until we actually assembled it whether or not it was going to fit and how long is the track?

140.

One foot.

OK, and how many times do people go around?

Everything is controlled by the computer.

Once we start the race, generally you run 2 minutes on each lane, OK, and the computer stops.

You change lanes and there's an order you follow to change lanes.

So and you run a heats that way.

And obviously the one with the most laps wins, OK, and everything's computer controlled.

You're going to watch your progress on this race on each of our TV screens one at each one of the tracks.

So in between lane changes, all the racers can see where their standings are in the normal race, so on.

So far so but at the end of 16 minutes of racing eight lanes times two minute he's the one who has the most total laps is the official winner OK and they get the bragging rights.

They get the bragging rights.

I love it.

And you guys have tournaments here sometimes too, right?

We we host ourselves along with a one of the traffic pro slot who builds who builds motors for the slot car community.

We run a series race in the wintertime.

One month we'll race here, one month we'll run up, we'll run up there and it usually runs for several months.

And at the end it's the same thing.

Total point, everything's done point system.

And that's why we we run it and we have different other groups come in the see you OK and we're also hoping to get another sanctioning body to come in maybe next year.

And there's different kinds of vehicles that you can build too.

Right.

Tell us about the different kinds.

Well, right now in this particular area, hard body racing is especially hot, OK?

You take a model body from the market and you mark to a slot car chassis and it's it's a heavy car.

So it takes a little bit more skill to drive the car than such as the cars we have on the track here, which are relatively light compared to a hardbody.

So with that being said, you buy a model of the amount to the slot car chassis you put a motor in it and you can add lead weight to it and make it handle better.

So but over the last I'm saying seven, eight years, hard body slot car racing in this particular area has been extremely hot.

And like Fred said, you know, we do have a race series with a pro slot in Hartford, Michigan, in our Hardbody series, and the following is phenomenal.

We have a great following.

That's great.

And I love that it's an indoor hobby too.

So you can do it all year long.

Yep.

Right.

There's a lot of them and a lot of people consider it a seasonal hobby.

OK, I personally can race lockers, winter, spring, summer, fall.

We're circus spring, summer months.

A lot of people are doing outside activities as opposed to doing inside activities, but it's great even for a rainy day, you know, in the summertime for the winter.

Yeah, for a simple fact, we are an inside hobby.

So if people don't want to be out in the cold, then go inside your nearest locker track and race a cars in the heat, huh?

Now, Denis, tell us more because you guys are open to certain days of the week where people can come in or they can make reservations.

How does that process work?

We are open on Friday nights we open at 6:00.

We usually run two or three classes of racing on Fridays.

Saturdays we open at one, and some days that will be a practice day or a test in turn day where you just come in and test and tune.

And then on Sundays we call that our Bikram Day.

We open at 1:00 there and we race the really detailed Bikram cars.

Once we were talking about a first and have the great detail, it look like a real car coming around.

Oh yeah.

And what was the scale you were saying?

124 scale.

That's OK.

So that all happens on the weekend.

And if somebody wants to have a birthday party here or maybe a bachelor party, they could do that too.

Yeah, we have business cards with our phone numbers on there.

They can call us and get the details, you know, they can, you know, find out what day they want to come in, let them know how much it costs and then go from there.

That's awesome.

Are we going to get a chance to race?

Yes.

OK, so now I don't have experience flat car racing, but I've done auto cross like real auto cross racing.

Is that any comparison to it?

I'm still going to be slow around the turns.

Yeah, OK, super slow and fast.

Or on the terms, do you get used to the track?

Once you get used to this track, and you know, a lot of guys adapt to this track like the duck to water.

OK, so with that being said, you know, take a few laps, get used to the track and you know, basically you're off to the races all right.

Let's get to the races.

All right.

All right, guys.

And you're going to give me a little bit of a grace here because this is my first time doing this, OK?

Just ease into the trigger of the fast season.

The harder you pull the trigger, the faster the car will go.

OK, so I'm the yellow car.

Yep.

You have blue.

I got blue this and I've got the green.

All right, here we go.

Ready?

Ready.

Like I need a flag.

No, just so we can go where we start for you.

Don't stop, right?

No, oh, my God.

This place.

I'm going to go into town here.

Yeah.

No, I'm getting busy.

This is fun and exhilarating, actually.

Oh, I must say that around that corner, Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.

I've got the slowest car, but I'm staying on I go.

There we go.

Oh, off again.

That was my.

Sorry, my bad.

Normally in a race will have her stay out of her stool over in the infield.

Four, four, four track.

Marshall, what you said on it, put your car back on when you fly off oh, that was a big crash.

How am I doing?

Oh, I got last place.

No.

Oh, I didn't get last place that you did are.

Oh, no.

I went again.

Wow.

That's hard.

It's a lot harder than it looks.

There is a lot that goes into it, huh?

Yes, there is.

There is.

Oh, sorry.

And this is really all ages I mean, you could do this probably at five years old.

You could do it at 95 years old.

Probably better than me.

I'm coming around oh, so this gets pretty competitive then.

Yeah, very competitive.

Oh, yeah.

I don't know.

Why is it beeping at me now?

This this is just our rental cars now.

We got cars that race here to two to three times faster than the garage.

So what goes into making your own vehicle?

I guess you want to give away all your secrets.

Well, what makes one better than the other?

What do you need to do to yours?

Well, you know, motors, tires, bodies, chassis it.

It's all a package.

You know how you want to build a car and what class you want to run.

What's OK, what the what the specs are for said class way.

And, you know, there are certain criteria that you have to meet if you build your own car, if you want to race in.

I said class.

So and we pretty much all carry everything here in house.

We have your own car so the car your car is the you know, if if you're if you're not too handy a building your own car sometimes you buy a ready to run car out of our case or sometimes the fellows that come in here are more than willing and able to build you a set car.

OK, so that you guys can help us to assess the caliber of people we got correct.

To offer their assistance for your.

So you guys who have really even seen it, Dan Dennis has got one of the fast ones out there right now.

So you can see the difference between our rental cars and what he's running right now.

Yeah.

Holy moly.

That's insane.

The eight of these on the track at the same time, it's exciting.

That's a retro class car we call Rover, go out.

Retro Cannon.

Oh, that was my last one.

All right.

All right.

Well, thank you guys for letting me play.

And if anybody wants to set up an appointment or if they want to swing on by, they can check out all the information on your Facebook page.

Yeah.

Awesome.

Well, let me get you a car, too.

Awesome.

Well, thank you guys for joining us.

I hope you come on out here.

Two things are raised.

We where you can also have some fun with slot car racing spray anybody.

So if you're into cars and one of the favorite things that you might have is hopping in the car and taking a ride and you see nothing more enjoyable than that.

Well, the one lap of America takes things to a whole nother level.

And here to talk about the tire rack, one lap of America is Brock, Yates and Brock, thank you so much for being with us.

For those who don't know what it is in a nutshell, can you tell us what is the tire ach one lap of America?

Well, it depends on who you ask.

I mean, these people here where there's about 80 teams running around, it's a whole race season in a week or it's an adult vacation with cars.

But really what it is, is a eight day rally where we do time trials at racetracks all around the country and it's a pretty competitive advantage.

And we visit all kinds of wonderful racetracks.

So what's neat for us here in Michigan is that this starts at tire track in South Bend and ends there as well.

But you guys are all over the place.

How many different facilities do you visit in that week?

Well, I just like to point out that we've been starting a tire track for 20 years now.

Our 20th anniversary, we we run an event at Target Rack and there are what's get banned to start off the event on Saturday.

And that afternoon we went down and worked a an auto crossing Griff's Ressam Arab section.

And then the next morning we race well we raced at Nashville Superspeedway on our little road course yesterday we were at Carolina Motorsports Park in Kershaw, South Carolina.

Today we're at and then we went to a little short track in Atlanta called Linear Race.

Today we're at Barber Motorsports Park in Birmingham, Alabama.

Tomorrow will be at Hallett Motor Racing Circuit in Howlett, Oklahoma, oddly enough, which is the other side of Tulsa.

Then we'll be at Topeka at Heartland Park for the day, and we'll do Road Course and a drag race there.

Then we'll be at Putnam Park in Greencastle.

Lovely Little Green Castle, which one used to be one of our favorite stops.

And then we'll be back on track on Saturday, bright and early.

So as you guys are hitting the open road, that's part of the experience getting from one place to the next.

But then each individual stop has its own unique feel as you are either on a track or, like you said, drag racing.

But everybody gets to test their skills in their car.

Right, exactly.

People a lot of people don't play.

And many of the different types of motorsports and this is not only an opportunity to to enjoy them and to see what short track people do or drag race people do or the auto Chryslers do, but it's also, you know, a skill set.

So we test everybody skills at different types of events.

So coming up this Saturday, you're back at tire track and this time it's the dry skid pad, right?

Yes, it is.

And the reason we do a wet skid bad first is the tires are fresh and tire rack actually gets usable numbers when they get back.

Tires are worn, but not so much that they don't still get usable in numbers.

And it's also another skill set and it provides wonderful data for direction.

So for for this whole week, are they expected to have the same tires on their car from beginning to end or what what is what some of the restrictions for the teams?

They you have to have the same set of tires from start to finish.

The only way you can change a tire is with my approval you the other restrictions are you have to stay with the car.

You have to drive it the entire way.

And we have some other ones, but most of those are just perfunctory or to keep things moving.

So I know you have some people who are involved that are beginners.

Like as far as with you first couple of years and then you have people who have been doing it for decades.

What is that community like?

Because from what I hear, that's really what it is.

It's a community.

It is very much a community.

People are absolutely wonderful.

There's sportsmanship is key people was one of our drivers had a problem and I think one car stopped making makes use of gas and ultimately another one lapper who wasn't part of the event drove up from Alabama to pick him up and take his car to get fixed.

So that's that's one of the reasons probably the most important reason they continue to run the event because the people are so special so from place to place our spectators welcome to come out and see you guys in most places.

Yes.

And they're encouraged in and we're pretty relaxed about access and things like that.

So, no, first, they're more than welcome to come out at the racetrack or the Atlanta area.

So where can people find out more about what you guys are doing and where you guys are at the website?

One lap of America icon all spelled out is probably the best place to get the timing and scoring.

And and some of the and a little primmer on the Facebook page are tire track.

One lap of America is also key.

And then once you're there, you find about 400 little peripheral pages of all the competitors announcing their problem.

Their successes, their joys, their stories.

Well, we thank you so much for taking time to share a little bit about Tiger Act One Lap of America.

And we're excited about Saturday the seventh I think things kick off at 830.

Is that right?

That's right.

And if your people are bored and have nothing to do, they're welcome to drop by the Radisson by Wyndham on in north of South Bend.

Well, that's our host hotel and we'll be part of that car three parking lot and on Friday after Friday night in the or the tire rack on Saturday morning.

Very cool.

Well, we wish you all the best of safety as you continue your trip throughout the week as we're recording this.

It is just Tuesday, so you've got a lot of miles to go.

But thank you so much for the time.

Just 700 miles tonight.

Nothing nothing too bad.

But tha Oh, oh, I'm looking at it.

You don't care at all.

How will this be loaded?

You two are great.

No more.

No more.

How long did this fight go?

A long way to take ten steps and do you love doing this?

So great for my position in no in my life.

But this position, this one.

The moment I commit a crime.

So when you go free, did it sound like this training of line?

You know, somebody didn't know that it was something that was sick.

I was going to say that I was finally going to say I deserved it, even though we had a chance to go and be spoken live at Notre Dame.

And it was wonderful.

So glad that we're going to be able to bring that concept to you on W and it's OK if you love those things because you don't want to miss that.

And we have so much stuff going on.

I know spring is here, even though we're still cold, we're still worried about I promise spring is on its way and I know there's plenty more things.

You guys are getting ready to head outside.

There's lots to do.

I miss Gianna, so make sure you tell us about it because we'd love to share it with the whole community.

So you can go to our Facebook page and share with us with the hashtag W in Michigan.

And hopefully we can check some of those places out to at least can't wait to share with you feasible primary strength.

Yes, actually.

So I've found I remember I know his name is Sammy.

Sammy outside here.

He's got me going on those long, beautiful the way and Sammy let it flow.

So we'll see you next week.

Experience Michiana is made possible in part by the Community Foundation of St Joseph County and the Indiana Arts Commission, which received support from the state of Indiana and the National Endowment for the Arts.

This WNIT local production has been made possible in part by viewers like you thank you.