2026 RACE RESULTS

2-6 & 7  Hendry County Speedway

The season kicked off with a Thursday night practice in George Sands' Mod Lite.  Steven drove and I worked the pits.  Racing started on Friday night.  He finished 4'th or 5'th in the heat, but we made a change and ran better in the feature, advancing from the back to 7'th.

It was cold at Hendry!

Florida City Speedway survivors

Jerry Paquin (left) was the son of Ron Paquin, a long-time TQ racer who also assisted in construction of the track.  Jerry has raced vintage TQs and midgets for many years, and recently bought his first pavement sprint car.

On the right is Dwayne King.  His step-father was TQ racer Gene Barfield.  Dwayne lived in Key Largo and grew up at Florida City every weekend.  Currently, Dwayne is a part time driver and full-time crewman on George Sands' Mod Lite cars.

The ASCS sprints put on great races this weekend!

Steven and his employer, Arial Sign, got together to wrap the racecar in the style of a 1940's Piper Cub!  That is typical of the planes they use to tow banners, and most are painted this way: yellow with black lightning bolts.  

We took the car out to the airport where Arial Sign flies, and had our first ever photo shoot, complete with a "TEAM 85" banner!

3-14-26

Roslynd and I took the racecar to a show at our local Moose lodge.

Look who we ran into!  An ole racing friend from karting days, "Sideways Sid" Stites.  He was Steven's first ever car owner back in the kid cart days at Hurricane Speedway.

3-14-26

We made our first start of the year at Auburndale Speedway with the Southern Sprint Car series.  Steven finished second in his heat, and was running well in the feature; I think we were headed for second place in that one too.  However, he was running in traffic when someone kicked up a big traffic cone onto the track.  My car hit it right about the same time as the brakes quit working, so we were done.

Our racing year is off to a pretty slow start!  We fired the car for practice on April 25, but rain moved in and ended the night.  Showtime heard about this and offered us a race.  We were headed west to run there, but they cancelled too.

On 5-2, Steven was practicing in George's Mod Lite at Hendry when the engine blew.  

I was supposed to drive an E-mod at New Smyrna that night, but that track rained out.

Steven is also working two jobs, so his availability is limited.  Hopefully our event pace picks up!

5-9-26

We rained out at New Smyrna again, but this time I at least got to take out this new E mod for two practice sessions.  It had the "new car blues" and the engine did not run correctly either time.  I found and fixed problems after each session, so maybe it is ready to go; we'll see.

The problem was that I never got to full speed in either session, then the rain moved in.

5-16-26

Rex got to drive 85 tonight!  Steven was buried with flying work and did not want to take off.

Practice and the heat race went well, but it was a hot day, and I guess I got a little behind on my hydration.  In the feature, both hips were cramping from the start and getting steadily worse.  After about 15 laps I decided to get out before I did something wrong. 

5-22-26

Friday night and I was back at Orlando Speedworld!  Some racers got together and leased the track for a weekend, so I took the E mod out for some practice.

6-6-26

What a great surprise!  I had the opportunity to drive one of Scotty Adema's cars at Showtime Speedway.  Michael and I headed over to meet the team and start in on preparations.  

Scotty and I started on the front row of the heat race.  He went on to win it, but I put up a fight for a half a lap!

I was running ok in the feature and looking forward to finishing it, however I started to smell the engine running hot, and with 5 laps to go I saw it was around 250 degrees, so I parked it before anything bad happened.

Steven was towing banners in Tampa all day, but he made it to the track about the time the heats started.  Overall it was a fun and relaxing night.  We were surrounded by nice people and the cars both ran trouble-free!

6-13-26

Citrus County Speedway

This was Steven's second race of the year, and our first trip to Citrus since last November.  He was working and arrived late, but we just did manage to get 3 laps of practice.

We had a great draw, and Steven blasted from the pole to win his heat race.  He was a straightaway ahead and pulling away.  More good luck in the feature, he ended up on the pole again and led for the first 20 laps or so.  I believe we had the race under control and would have won....but there was a yellow flag.  On the restart, our car bogged down a bit and the second place car got by, then went on to the win.  We ended up second on a mostly trouble-free night.

The track claimed "there was weather in the area", so they did not take pictures on the front straight.

6-20-26

New Smyrna Speedway

I took the E-mod to New Smyrna to give it a try.  Naturally, I had problems from the start and missed practice.  Eventually, I did get the latest fuel problem fixed, and I ran the heat race.  The car was pretty slow, but at least I finished.

There was another problem with the ignition wiring, and I hoped the car would stay running for at least a few laps.  However, it became a nightmare scenario: the second that the starter dropped the green flag, the ignition quit entirely and my car coasted to a stop about 10 feet past the starting line.  So frustrating....

My E-mod experiment is over.  I took it back to its owner on Monday morning.

6-27-26

Auburndale Speedway

Sad to say the race rained out, but it was cool that they used our car in the advertising.

8-22-26

CITRUS COUNTY SPEEDWAY

We are finally back at it after a long summer break.  We fought with a throttle linkage problem all night, and got it fixed just before it was time to roll out for the feature.

Steven started on the pole, but was running a strong second for the first 10 laps or so.  The restart went badly and he fell back to 5'th, but he got to 4'th and ran down the 3'rd place car.  Even though we made a kamikaze move on the last lap, we ended up 4'th.  No problem.  Everyone was running well and driving hard, so that is what it's all about.

ANOTHER broken helmet visor!

Like an army, this team travels on its stomach.  We started the day with a team lunch at Humpavelli's, and ended up at Coaches in Inverness after the races.

9-19-26

Orlando Speedworld

It's been 12 years since sprints ran at Speedworld, and we were so happy to be back!  Scotty and Lauren were staying at our house, so we rode over together to set up for Friday night practice.  Steven ran two sessions and said that the car "needed nothing".  We ended up going to River Lanes for a late dinner with Michael Gimmler, Steven, Scotty, Lauren and me. 

We started race day with a team lunch at Humpavelli's: Scott, Lauren, Roslynd and me.  

The Orlando event was a big one: the pits were packed with cars and so many old friends.  We had a mob at our pit area all night.  It was cool, and the fact that the car ran great meant I had time to enjoy the crowd.

I think there were 19 sprints tonight.  Steven ran second in the heat race, and we made what we hoped was the winning changes for the feature.  But it was not to be.  We started 7'th or so, and it was pretty chaotic.  Yellow after yellow, and the restart line-ups were out of control.  We lost 3 spots in one of them.

Around lap 6, Steven could feel a tire going down, so he hit the pits on the next yellow.  Our new right rear tire had a slice in it, so we put on an old one and he returned to the fray.  We were told we lost 2 laps during this, but Steven put his foot in it anyway and had a good time passing several cars.  In the end, we ended up 10'th.

Bruce Lizotte and Gary Gimmler

We had a whole crew from Blue Origin.

Mike Blake made a surprise visit.

Back at the track: Scott Hiel!

We had pit help from Michael and Nick.

Gary Balough was back behind the wheel of a vintage LM this weekend.