#73 Limited Sportsman 04, 06, 09, 10 Sportsman Division Champions Thompson International Speedway Thompson Connecticut

- 1/16/12

2011 Results & Points 2010 Results & Points 2009 Results & Points 2008 Results & Points 2006 Results & Points 2005 Results & Points 2004 Results & Points Schedules Thompson Press Releases Track Weather Links Team  Leadfoot's Bio Crew Sponsors The Drive Band Taber TV-Get on the Car Be in the Ad's Nat's Racing Engines Rayline Racing Bodies The Joie of Seating Liberty Hill Home Inspections of New London Becoming a Sponsor        (Contact Larry) Photos Scott Nickel Photos (SmugMug) Leadfoot's Photos Photos of Thompson Speedway Photos By Cliff Moon Merchandise T-Shirts Pens Contact Leadfoot@barnett73.com To Order   Email Us      -Driver: Larry      -Web Master: Jon Comments

1-12-12 We have been making good progress on the Modified in preparation to run races in the Valenti Modified Racing Series.  The car has been completely Stripped down to bare metal.  We are making some preps such as the mounting of my Lajoie Racing Seat etc.  Then we will paint the chassis in our familiar Red, then start assembling the car. We hope to Sell some engines etc.  Locate an engine to install in the Mod, and somehow be ready for the season opener for the series at Waterford Speedbowl.  Sponsorship Levels will decide how many races we will be able to run with the modified, with the ol 73 Sportsman car being run some at Thompson Speedway if not sold prior to the season.  We are trying to locate parts, and convert the Waterford SK car into a competitive tour type modified. We are excited about the challenges that await us. Work in progress! Hopefully what it will all look like when done.  :) -Larry 11-10-11: We have purchased a Modified! We recently picked up a Troyer modified that was driven by Jeff Paul at the Waterford Speedbowl. SO…for 2012 season, things may change quite a bit for the 73 team. . We will prepare the 73 car as if we are racing it at Thompson Speedway to go for a championship.  We will focus only on going even faster. We will expect to race the first race of the season.  If no changes to the roster from last season occur, or at a minimum, to how the drivers compete, we won’t be racing very often at Thompson. The car is still for sale, but I have no intention to give the car away for pennies on the dollar.  If offered a fair price for the car, it will be gone.  Either engine could be sold also.  A seven race old crate engine, or the one race old open rules engine.  Once rules are released, we plan to do a cam swap that we hope will make the new engine even better.  I also have spares and spares for the spares for nearly every part on the car.   Keeping a car and racing once in a while for fun might work out well. . The modified was purchased complete.  It has a three race old SK engine.  Our intention is to do as many vMRS races as we can afford or fit into our schedule.  If Thompson races are as crazy as last year, we will prove the speed of the 73 car, then focus our efforts all upon getting the Modified ready to compete in the vMRS races.  Depending on resources, we may have the modified ready to go on the track for the first vMRS race on the schedule.  We will go wherever the fun is. . Feel free to contact us if you have any parts that will help us convert the 2008 Troyer design car from an SK to a vMRS competitive car.  We certainly can use a bit more help getting the cars ready, and to get our shop and trailer set up to run a modified.  And of course, we certainly will be limited on how many races we can do this season if we do not team up to work with several sponsors.  We do not expect to go out and rack up wins with a modified, but we hope to make some good clean runs. -Larry The 73 car has returned to Victory Lane! . After taking a much need break from the weekly grind at Thompson, we are back in form. . While we were away, daughter Michelle and Justin got married.  Great event.  Kim and I got Married on September 3^rd.  We had our wedding at the Mt Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge MA. My brother David is president of Mt Auburn, and performed our wedding ceremony.  David and Eileen organized much of our wedding, and it was a lot of fun.  Mt Auburn is an absolutely beautiful arboretum, that happens to act as a final resting place.  It is worth checking out.  It is a fantastic place to hold a wedding.  We also traveled out west in the Las Vegas area.  Death Valley was one of the “high” lights of the trip. . While away from Thompson, I was able to work with Mike Holdridge on the Valenti MRS series.  Mike drove to his first win in the series at Beach Ridge.  I also helped Dale Quarterley in the K&N series.  He recently drove to a second place finish at Dover. . The car.  With the craziness of the on track activities this year.  I was in no rush to go back.  The car had extensive damage to tend to.  Perry Lathrop auto body in Waterford assisted us in straightening the rear frame that was bent down 3 inches from getting hit by the 16 car.  The front horns were also damaged when we hit the wall.  We straightened some of that on the frame machine, then cut off the remaining damaged sections and replaced them.  We also replaced all of the ruined parts in the front of the car. We then made some long awaited adjustments and set up changes I wanted to try. . We returned to the track on the weekend of the north /south modified race.  We ran well, coming from deep in the field to finish 3^rd.  First time in a while that I had had a whole bunch of fun just racing. . More refinements were made, the car was loaded up in the trailer….and then the rainy season arrived.  On October 6^th we finally got to race again.  The car was fantastic from the moment we hit the track,  Jonny helped to make it even better as the night went on.  In the race, moose got out front early.  Then we had all of the wrecks, cautions, more carnage during cautions etc.  the full moon suddenly appeared in the infield.  When we finally got back to racing, I was able to squeeze by Moose on Lap 17 as his car began to fade a bit.  Win #62 over –all, and win #52 at Thompson Speedway. . Our new plan.  We will be running our new Nat’s racing engine at the world series.  I will be squeezing in the event while working the night shift at work.  Oh well. . We will be making an attempt to sell the 73 car, and are gauging interest for crew members and sponsors to purchase and run a modified car by next season.  Time will tell if we can pull it off.  Running some races in the MRS series is our goal.  Please contact us, as we cannot do this without some additional sponsorship help and crew help.  Another option would be to drive a few races in someone else’s car.  I would sure love to give a modified racing a try! See everyone at the track -Larry 7-26-11 How hard do you have to hit someone to cause this much damage? 7-8-11 We are all done with “Racing”? In the Limited Talent Division at Thompson Speedway for a while, if not forever. Car is repairable, but there is little point in rushing back. Once Dwayne Dorr is kicked out, maybe. Our next racing will take place at another track, where there is a chance of having some fun. If that even exists anymore. Meanwhile, I will be helping Dale Quarterley, and Mike Holdridge in their racing. AND>>>>> enjoying all those other things in life. I may visit Monadnock, Seekonk, Twin State , Canaan , or any other place that looks like it would be fun to at least run a few laps. Probably not attempt to meet their rules to actually race. Kim asked me why I seem so happy today. Quitting something you love would suck. Quitting something that sucks???? Makes you happier! And yes….at some point, I may sell all of this stuff and try my hand at another type of racing. Or make a deal to drive for someone else. Larry Race Team News: It has been a very busy beginning to the race season! Our finishes in the first four races have been all over the place. Race #1 We finished 6^th at the icebreaker when the car just wasn’t that good.  Race #2  May 12^th^. We came out of the dust on a lap #2 dust up between the 16 and 44 car with the lead.  Led the rest of the way unchallenged.  Win #51 at Thompson Speedway.  61 over-all. On the 19^th we got rained out. Race #3 May 26^th.  Could not find racing room to get around a slow car.  Suffered a bent rim and flat spotted RF tire when turned into.  Then got pushed into an accident that happened ahead of us. Pitted for bent fender to be pulled away.  Then got a flat rear tire.  Pitted again to swap it.  Then came back out only to get blocked for several laps behind a lapped car.  Finally finished 7^th.  Highlight for me was a racing a number of laps with the 7 car (Jason Chicolas).  I don’t think we ever touched racing side by side.  Very fun, even though I ended up losing the spot.  Seems the flat spotted tire was enough to upset my cars handling, and he wasn’t handling perfect either.  Made for a fun battle somehow. Race #4 June 2^nd An early accident ensued when the leader reportedly lost a power steering hose.  One of the spinning cars just clipped my right rear corner ripping the tailpiece half off, as I was trying to slip past the accident.  I pitted for crew to remove the hanging tailpiece.  Car was fast and we raced all the way back to second.  Highlight was passing so many cars under green flag conditions.  Good race with Bill McNeil, and Diego Monahan near the end of the race.  Did not quite have time to challenge Shawn Monahan for the lead.  May have been a good race, as we both appeared to be pretty fast. Outlook: We expect our new “Open Rules” engine to be ready soon from Nat’s Racing Engines.  Our first engine together was better than the crate engine, so we expect good things from attempt #2. Busy season approaches with our racing each week, plus touring races helping Mike Holdridge.  Hope to fit in a few races helping Dale Quarterley also.  Daughter Michelle’s wedding is next month.  I have a trip planned to visit my daughter Jenny’s second grade class.  She will complete her first year as a 2^nd grade teacher in VA.  That should be fun.  Toss in a wedding for Kim and I later this year….  Family tradition began by my grandmother Midge to always be on the run. We sit 2^nd in points currently even though the season started off a bit rough for us. We have gotten much faster the last few races.  Mostly by the replacement of some bent and worn out stuff.  Johnson chassis front clip installation took a lot longer than we had hoped.  New body installation was way over due.  Now we have spent a bit more time on Go Fast Stuff. Hope to help promote Speedway Illustrated magazine. Great magazine run by some true race people.  See link below. We also expect some additional team shirts soon.  We will be working on some stuff with coastal image tees.  Kids versions of shirts too.  Turning some ideas from my niece Molly into printable designs soon. We can always use more help on the car both at the track and in the shop.  Never quite enough time to do everything we wish.  And the competition gets tougher every year. I hope for good car counts to continue for our division.  And I hope for less accidents.  Too many cars have been torn up this year. Cheers Larry Speedway Illustrated Magazine is back! Yes racing fans, the great magazine that many of us received for years, went away for a while.  The same people that originally created this magazine, have come back together.  Use this link URL: www.themagstore.com/?KeyCode=ILEADSIL Then use promo code: LEAD (short for Leadfoot!) . I hope to help out my friends at the magazine.  I promised I could get 73 Thompson speedway / Leadfoot fans to subscribe using this code. If everyone helps me reach this goal, I will be able to run a free ad for my team sponsors in the magazine. . The magazine has great info, and is run by some really great racing people! Larry Car Update: Loading up and headed to track for tonight's Thursday Opener... See you all there! Icebreaker update: First off…Thanx to Jonny for all of his efforts, I would not even have finished the car enough to make it to the track, without all the extra time he put in.  Jonny, Amy, Wayne, Jimmy, and Sean all had to try to keep me in line at the track as well.  It wasn’t an easy event to do that this time around. . End result???? 6^th place finish….we will call it a draw. Due to our rushed schedule preparing for the icebreaker 2011, we were not quite as prepared as normal. Our results showed. . The change from our stock clip to a Johnson Chassis clip did not go as smoothly as we had hoped, and we got behind.  We were forced to skip some tasks etc.  We also could not show up with our new body parts mounted for battle. . Qualifying day I had to head to the track after working(at job) all night, without getting any sleep.  I drew a last row starting position, and then got a flat tire in each of the first two rounds of practice.  No sleep, two flats, and a new frame to adjust…then discovering how bumpy the track was from the crack sealer, put us way behind. We came from the last row to finish 4^th in our heat race.  Car just wasn’t handling as well as we hoped. We packed it up, and I headed home with the car.  Headed nearly straight to bed.  I got up at 5am to make all kinds of repairs and adjustments.  Ride heights, shocks, weight placement, new tires…..  The crew all arrived to help load things back up and back to the track we headed. . The race….Pole sitter Joe Coates would hold off all challengers.  I tried my best to advance from my 7^th place start position.  Briefly got to 4^th position before Shawn Monahan motored back by….watched as the 16 and 55 tried to destroy each other, then tried to hang on riding over the bumps caused by the pavement crack sealer.  I eventually faded to 6^th place.  Everyone else is able to keep making their engines better and better, while the crate engine stays exactly the same.  Tough to win unless my chassis is way better than everyone else’s.  Today we were just equal in the corners, and slower down the  straights. . We intend to solve both issues, and spruce up the car too!  We will have a new Rayline Body installed, and hope to have our new engine from Nat’s racing engines installed for the first Thursday night race of the season. 4-4-11 Update Way behind schedule in the 73 shop.  Not the first time! We have been busy trying to complete the installation of the Johnson front clip to our car.  We got a late start on this project.  The clip is turning out well, we think this will correct some issues we found with our car, but this has been way more work than we thought it would be. Adding to our challenges have been Jonny out of commission with pneumonia for a while, and I have had a nagging cough for about 7.3 weeks.  I have also had a crazy work schedule.  We could use some help finishing up this week, contact Jonny or I to find out when one of us will be working in the shop. We will finish enough stuff to attend the Icebreaker, all of the vital performance stuff will be completed, but we will not debut our new sheet metal until the first Thursday night show. See everyone at the icebreaker! Larry 3-1-11 Update It’s time to get this frame right! Speedway Illustrated Magazine is back! Yes racing fans, the great magazine that many of us received for years, went away for a while.  The same people that originally created this magazine, have come back together.  Use this link URL: www.themagstore.com/?KeyCode=ILEADSIL Then use promo code: LEAD (short for Leadfoot!) . I hope to help out my friends at the magazine.  I promised I could get 73 Thompson speedway / Leadfoot fans to subscribe using this code. If everyone helps me reach this goal, I will be able to run a free ad for my team sponsors in the magazine. . The magazine has great info, and is run by some really great racing people! Larry Update 2-11-11: BBRRRRR -4 degrees in Moosup CT today. This has been a trying winter. I even had to shovel off snow from the roof of the car trailer recently. Racing at Daytona starts this weekend, and so does the bulk of the car work getting ready for the 2011 season. Yikes….only 58 days until the icebreaker! Last week we finally brought the race car back inside the shop. January had the shop getting overhauled by Geno Champagne and Doug Corkhill. I had upgraded the insulation, and electrical stuff, they came in and finished up the sheetrock, and gave it an awesome paint job. Floor to ceiling looks great. Todd Ceravolo supplied some new lights. Special 73 watt bulbs, that start up 16x faster. He has connections to the good stuff! Assorted racing news: Mike Holdridge reports things are shaping up well for the Holdridge #0 Valenti Mod Machine. I will be Spotting for him again this season. They will have two engines ready (so no missed races). Todd Ceravolo will be back racing full time at Thompson. I look forward to having their team back (getting the fun levels at the track up a bit), and helping him out when possible. Dale Quarterley has more K&N Pro Series events planned for the 2011 season. I expect I will be involved in some way. The guy is just plain fun to be around. And no driver gives his all more than Dale does on the track. Hopefully he will make a few more Modified starts as well. Last season I helped him out at Lime Rock (win), Dover (5^th), Loudon, and Bristol. He has a race shop in NC now, and is a master with setting up race cars. Bobby Santos will be back in the Mystic Missile again this season. 4^th championship could be theirs come October. I will most likely sub a time or two as spotter for them, should the master spotter “Greg” miss an event. My Modified Ride???? No news yet. Jenny Moving to Virginia recently, Michelle getting married this summer to Justin, both affect Dad’s bottom line some. Still hopeful that I can possibly drive a few races with someone else’s car. Maybe the open shows at Thompson???? Buying a car is just not possible right now. The 73 car: I will be heading to Nat’s Racing Engines today to pick up the freshened Crate Engine. Most likely will start with that engine again, then swap to a new Open Rules engine when that is completed. We had made 15 HP more with our first attempt at open rules engine vs the crate, but had issues. Look forward to the potential of Nat’s second version of the open rules engine. We also will be making the decision on re-clipping the car with a Johnson chassis front clip this week. We are a bit short on funds, and time at the moment. The shop work delayed making progress on the car, but should pay dividends quickly. I am hopeful, that crew work (yes we could use more help), sponsors(is that a line forming outside?), and Mother nature (melting of the snow surrounding the car trailer) will all come through to have us race ready by late March. Although a bit behind schedule, we are looking forward to a very successful season! Give us a ring if you want to be a part of our possible 5^th championship! Larry 12-29-10 update: It has been a busier than needed beginning to the racing off-season.  Everything is now coming together as the 2010 year ends.  Kim and I even escaped to Arizona for some time away.  (PS. The mountain pass / historic HWY leading to Jerome AZ was almost as heart pounding as racing vs. my friends at Thompson). First news is that there are no major changes in our racing plans for the 2011 year.  No offers were made on the 73 Limited Sportsman car, no bargains found on a modified either. I also have discovered a few other non racing reasons to spend volumes of money! …... SO WE EXPECT TO RETURN TO THE THOMPSON LIMITED SPORTSMAN DIVISION IN 2011. I will have an extremely busy work schedule in 2011.  Will be assisting some with Michelle’s wedding in July.  Will be making more trips to the DC area where Jenny recently moved to.  Trying to fit in spotting for Mike Holdridge in the Valenti Mods, and possibly working more with Dale Quarterly. We have already begun preps for 2011.  We have found a few things to improve our chassis with.  Our crate engine will be freshened, and we will focus our attention on the open rules form of an engine by springtime. I have made a list of 73 items that can be improved on our car; we hope to get back to victory lane often in 2011. Cheers Larry Click to Enlarge Click to Enlarge Any problems viewing the Website E-mail Webmaster

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