2014 RESULTS
Steven and I started off the year crewing on a car at Citrus County Speedway. Rex Engineering sponsored Johnny Gilbertson's car that was driven for the evening by Aaron Pierce. Aaron won the feature too!
3-15-14
The TBARA season opened by returning to Auburndale Speedway. It was the club's first race there in many years. Fun! What a great track for sprints. Some track officials estimated that this was their biggest crowd in a year.
We had 14 cars, and I finished 7'th.
3-22-14
The next week, we rolled into De Soto Speedway with 16 cars. As much as I like driving at De Soto, it is not my best track. I finished 9'th out of 16. Actually I was 8'th, but I think the scorers made a little goof. No big deal!
4-19-14
Race #3 for our season was at Orlando Speedworld on Easter weekend.
I got my first "top 5" by finishing 5'th out of 13.
The was lots of good company in my pit area all night. Its cool when old friends get together, and that is what went on for hours. Doug Heveron, Don Heckman, David Hollinger, Matt Mercer, et al.
5-10-14
21 TBARA cars at New Smyrna! It was great to be back at a better car count.
Steven had a broken kneecap, but of course he was on hand to supervise, and to celebrate his 12'th birthday.
I was a little off all night and finished 9'th. But it was still lots of fun, and we finished off the night with dinner at Denny's with the #23 Gimmler team.
Andy celebrated 10 years in America today!
Tonight's message on the wing: "Happy Birthday Steven!"
Rich Golardi provided this cool shot from inside #16.
Memorial Day weekend.
Our TBARA friends and family were shaken by the sudden loss of a long-time competitor, Bobby Rose. He drove the yellow #56 for many years, and had just turned the seat over to his son Blake.
He was part of a 3 generation race team with his dad and son. Bobby was a friendly guy and we are all going to miss him!
Steven changes the gear in the racecar, and he refused to let his cast stop him!
While I was waiting for the next TBARA event, Steven and Christian did some racing.
Steven made his first two starts at Orlando Speedworld in a rented Bandolero. He finished 3'rd and 2'nd.
Both boys raced their karts on the pavement at Ambassador. It was Christian's first non-dirt race, and he loved it! My young man parked it in victory circle after both the heat and feature.
Citrus County Speedway 7-26-14
It was a hot and steamy day, but it still felt great to be back in action. There was plenty of traffic, yet the driving was clean, so this was a fun one! I ended up with a sprint car career best....4'th place. More pix coming....
I love this picture!
Coming to the green flag, as seen from Tommy Nichols #55.
8-30-14 New Smyrna Speedway
Tough night! I made some big changes to the handling, and missed by a mile. I actually pulled out of the feature race after about half way. I nearly wrecked myself and wasn't going very well, so I thought I need to get fixed and do better next time.
October 18, 2014 De Soto Speedway
This was a dazzling night for TBARA: we showed up with 31 cars, and put on an excellent race! My car was going pretty well, but around half way, I had a drive line failure that put me out.
11-1-14
Well, I didn't see this one coming.....
We were on the way to De Soto Speedway for the season finale, when I got one of those calls. There was a death in the family, so my plans had to change. Instead of racing, I turned around and went home to be with my family. This brought an end to my run of consequitive TBARA starts. Prior to tonight, I had not missed a race since I started in July, 2011.
Gone, just like that....
Our friend Bud Howell was lost in an on-track incident in September of this year. Bud was the starter for TBARA, and was working at another track when tragedy struck.
He was such a cool guy: a life-long racer, and a friend to all.
His last race with us was at New Smyrna. Steven gave him a flag rack that we made. Bud loved it and made Steven so happy.
I am going to miss this unforgettable guy!
