GnB Racing History

The Old Bulldog

How and when I got such a late start in racing.

   When I was a young man, I thought I wanted to drive a race car.  I married young and started a family.  Many years later at the age of 55, I began to realize my dream.  I started getting the itch while watching my youngest son work on the track safety crew.  Then he started racing and I was there to help him.  The itch became even greater and finally I gave in and found a partially completed ford mustang mini stock.  We worked several weeks to get it race ready.  At last I was at the track to make my racing debut at New Paris Speedway.  I must be honest here, as they almost needed a calendar to time me that night!!  In my defense, I had not been on the track in a race car until I pulled out to qualify.  I ran two regular season races and the blow out that year.  I went on to run mini stocks for four years.  I won several heat races and a few C and B features during that time, but never was able to capture an A feature win. 

   In 2006 I moved up to the Street Stock Class.  I ran a full season at New Paris and a half season at Plymouth.  I finished a dismal 33rd (out of 100+ cars) at New Paris and 16th (out of 80+ cars) at Plymouth.  I won a few heat races and a few B features along the way.  The following year I only ran at New Paris and improved enough to finish 12th.  In 2008 I was set to finish 13th, but had mechanical difficulties on the final night and slipped to 16th.

   In 2009 New Paris Speedway made some major rule changes to the Street Stock class and also created a new class called Pure Stock.  The cost to make my car competitive was a little outside our meager budget, so I opted to make the changes necessary to move into the new class.  The only problem with that decision was that not too many people did the same.  As a result due to the low car count on most nights, the new Pure Stock class had to run the B Street Stock feature and some nights also the Street Stock heats.  This put us at a definite disadvantage, but as luck would have it, I was able to win I believe six heats and three features.  I was able to post the fastest qualifying times for the Pure Stocks 15 out of the 20 nights we raced.

But, all was not roses the whole season.  Week 5 saw me running in the Street Stock B feature in first place as the race was drawing to a close.  I had been fortunate to pass the only street stock that was faster than me and thought I had the race wrapped up if I didn't make any mistakes.  Well, as luck would have it, I was lapping a street stock car for the third time and he turned right into my left front tire as we were going into turn three.  The result was I hit the exit gate post nearly at full speed and ended up totally destroying my car.  I wasn't hurt other than a very sore back for a couple of weeks.  The shining part of this story is that in the stands that night was another racer who was unable to race this year due to not being able to afford a motor for his car.  He was in my pit by the time the ambulance dropped me off and offered me the use of his car for the remainder of the season!  I thought my racing for the year was over, but this young man stepped up and made it possible for me to finish the season and win the Pure Stock Track Championship.

We built another car during the offseason (see the slide show of the car all during the building process).  While we don't have it fine tuned to where we were last year before the big crash, it has been the fastest pure stock almost every night so far.  We are riding along in first place, but there are several cars that are performing quite well and the chase will be nip and tuck all season.  We hope to capture another championship.  Follow our progress in the results area and the points area.

As always, if you are in the area, please patronize any of my sponsors that you can.  Also, tell them how much you appreaciate their support of local short track racing.  Thank you in advance.