HAPPY 50TH BIRTHDAY LB!

Leadfoot's friends and family gathered over the weekend to celebrate the BIG 5-0.  Here are some of the photo highlights.  His actual birthdate is today, May 29th.

"It's my 50th birthday but I'm partying like I'm 73"

LB got a new walker for his birthday. 

 LB's neice Molly sure knows how to make the cupcakes!!!

For more photos, visit LB's 50th Birthday pixs

Happy 50th LB!

Thompson Race Photos

Here are a some links to photos taken during the Thompson event. 

From Howie and Mary Hodge's collection at the Chrome Horn:
Heat Race Action:

73 & 9 cars

55, 9 & 73

73 & 2

Feature Race:

Mike Holdridge & LB

Accident that broke LB's right front

Ah, the look on LB's face says it all. 73 on the hook

Thompson Speedway Race Recap

Crewmen's legs sticking out everywhere as they work to replace the ring gear that broke during practice session one.

LB finally got to experience a vMRS race – even if only for 22 laps!  Here is his recap of the event.

PRE-RACE
Preps for this event included moving components for weight balance, many adjustments, and even building some shelves in the car trailer. With every event we continue to be better prepared.

PRACTICE SESSION I & II
Once at Thompson Speedway, we prepped for the first round of practice, I head out and give the car the shake down, all pretty decent. The car stalls again as I head towards the pits from the infield, I hit the starter switch, and crap, a tooth breaks on the ring gear.

After being pushed into the pits, another major project is under way. Jonny, Jimmy, Rob, and Alan begin pulling the transmission out of the car, while I head out in search of the needed Flywheel / ring gear. I find one from Jack Bateman (thanx Jack), and the crew makes the swap. We lose the rest of practice session, and part of the second session, but do make it back onto the track to make sure everything is OK.

HEAT RACE
Time to prep for the heat race, in which I must start on the outside pole. Why not there when I need to qualify to make a race???? With limited practice time, I decide to take it kinda easy the first couple of laps. I lose quite a few positions, but then settle in and run off the remaining laps.

SPOTTING FOR 16 SK MOD
After the heat race, I decide I can fit in a spotting task to help out friend Todd Ceravolo in his Sunoco Mod. I get a few looks as I head to the spotters area in my fire suit, but Todd would have a great run. Todd Starts 5^th, runs to the front quickly, and paces the field. Late in the race Ryan Preece is able to run with Todd, but can’t quite mount a serious bid for a pass. Heading down the back straight for the last time I tell Todd to go for one more quick half lap, Todd gasses his Pettit engine just a bit too much off of turn 4 and breaks the tires free a bit. 

Ryan appeared to be just trying to keep it really close, riding right behind Todd’s left rear corner, and when Todd bobbled, he could not avoid the contact that sent Todd to the grass. It sure didn’t look intentional to me. Spotters opinion….. Todd saved it to come in 5^th. It sure felt better to me than finishing 5^th a couple of times last year, when only 5 cars were running at any speed at all. The 16 car looked so much better than it did most of last year. 

FEATURE RACE
The features for all divisions dragged on quite a while. It seemed we sat in our cars for a week waiting. And then the “in car intros”. They are nice, but add to a long day. I just wanted to get this first race underway, I suppose. The race finally starts, I get a few “how do you do” nudges, but start to get the 73 going after a few laps. I started the race in 26^th, lost a few spots, then started gaining back a few. I was in 21^st at one point during one of many cautions. Soon after, I felt a few engine misses on the straights, then it was OK etc. then all of a sudden it just quits. One big backfire / boom through the exhaust while on the front straight. I manage to get to the bottom and roll towards the pits.
I cannot re-fire the car, and have no clue what happened. Jonny quickly spots the coil wire has fallen off, possibly had been bumped during the tranny removal work. He removes the panel, reconnects it, reinstalls the panel and I am off towards the track. I blend in and had only lost a lap (as they had just restarted the race). A lap or two later another caution. Even without the Aaron’s Sponsorship, I hear we are getting the lucky dog free lap back pass. I have no idea where to line up, we cannot hear the officials (if they even ever said where). When the race resumes, the big one happens up front. I had just firmly planted my lead foot to get all I could from my Jack’s Competition Engine and I tried like heck to get the car stopped. I could not get it wooooooed down before running into another car, as the entire track was blocked. Broken RF suspension. Our race day was over at Lap 22.

MIKE HOLDRIDGE GAINS 25 POSITIONS
We get towed to the infield, and grab our pom poms to cheers for cousin Mike in the mighty Holdridge number zero. Dale and Matt know how to turn a mean wrench. And Mike, sure can wheel a race car. Mike had had a flat tire at the start of the heat race, started way in the back, had had to dodge the wrecks, pitted a time or two, and still was running near the front by mid race. What a show he was putting on! He once again gets a 4^th place finish driving a damaged car. Nice work Mike , Dale, Matt, and Spotter John Cleary.

LOOKING AHEAD TO SEEKONK
We fully expect to have all the damaged parts replaced in time for Seekonk race on June 9^th. I feel that I am actually ready to race the car now, so do not be surprised if we run quite a bit better in the very near future.

THANK YOU TO….
Thanx to my Spotter Kim, crew members Jon, Amy, Rob, Jimmy, Laurie, Alan, and Jen for all the help and support. See everyone at Seekonk on the 9^th.

PS
See many of you this Friday at Stafford as I will be Spotting for Bobby Santos in the Tinio 44. Once the mod is repaired, we may finally get the sportsman car into the shop. A guest appearance at Thompson Speedway could soon follow. Send boxes of well wishes, sleep, money or race parts to our Moosup shop ASAP!
Larry

Barnett Racing proudly welcomes

East Providence Cycle

as Sponsor of the 73 Modified 

EP Cycle is a family-owned business located in East Providence, RI, stocked floor to ceiling with bicycles of all types, equipment, accessories, clothing and much more.  Stay tuned for more details about this new partnership!  Welcome - Foulkes Family to Barnett Racing!

East Providence Cycle
414 Warren Avenue
East Providence, RI
401-434-3838
www.eastprovidencecycle.com

Update from Leadfoot & new graphics

New hero cards by Denise Bass Photography & Design (front)

Leadfoot sent me this update to post to the blog after a long night of working the graveyard shift:

"Results, not excuses! I am a bit embarrassed by our team results so far, I could probably come up with 73 excuses if it mattered, but it doesn’t. Two race events, no race starts!

Updated modified logo

There are some good things to be proud of though:

We were 11^th quickest of 28 cars in practice at Waterford.We were running good lap times at Monadnock after making huge adjustments.

The car looks damn sharp!

We have accomplished a tremendous amount of work converting our car from an SK mod to a tour type mod. Quite frankly, it was a miracle we made it to Waterford at all.

We also have yet to have anything actually fail that would keep us from running. 

New Hero cards (back) designed by Denise Bass Photography & Design

What has happened is: a poor draw for start position, a little love tap that cost us the one position we needed to qualify, a broken spark plug, a gapless spark plug, a panhard bar bracket that slipped, a…..you get the idea!

Mostly, we are still trying to do some of the fine tuning adjustments that only time & money will allow us to get it done.

It has been a huge undertaking building the car, but also collecting the proper tools, equipment, parts, and setting up a car trailer and shop to service the needs of a tour type mod.

Updated Web Logo by Denise Bass Photography and Design

I have a lot to learn about driving a modified at tracks I have never been to. If I had a perfect car, learning to drive it would be that much easier. We will get there quicker than some may think, if money will allow us to do so, that is.

I am thankful for all of the work our crew has done so far, and we will show some results on the track soon. That I can promise.

Coming soon for the 73 team:

Possibly practice at Thompson May 10^th (if I can arrange with work schedule)
Race on Sunday May 20th
Possibly get the sportsman car back on the track either May 31^st, or June 7^th.

Cheers,

Larry

Valenti Auto Mall Car Show 5/5/12

On Saturday, LB and Jonny participated in the Valenti Auto Mall car show in Mystic, CT.  Quite a few kids got to sit in some of the cars and they all seemed to get a kick out of it. 

This week, LB’s new marketing cards came in the mail – many, many thanks to Denise Bass Photography & Design for all her hard work in designing the new graphics & integrating it into a new version of the logo.