We were suppose to start our season on Saturday May 18th at Scotia Speedworld but when the weather man said it was going rain, the series cancelled the show, moving it to June 1st. I was disappointed to see the race cancelled. I get it that some racers in this series travel from New Brunswick and PEI, for them it’s a long day, and I understood how cancelling would be good for them. My issue was my weather app showed no rain, here or in Halifax area, and as it turned out, there was no rain Saturday or Sunday.
The East Coast International Pro Stock Tour will see it’s opening night at Speedway 660 on Saturday May 25th. It’s over 3 1/2 hours for us to get to this track. We will leave early in the morning and get home early in the morning.
We had our car out for our first off track event on May 14th at Mount Traber Bible Camp. It was a fun day spent with the kids who got to see and hear the race car. Shannon and Buttons were with me, Buttons was a huge hit 🙂
Race wise everything is set to go. Unfortunately we didn’t get to practice on May 11th, it was rained out. We sat at the track hoping it would clear up, but it was a cold day and drying the track would not happen. Just hoping we can get enough laps in during practice to sort out any issues….if there are any. We did take the car completely apart, stripped down to a bare chassis accept for the fuel cell, line and brake lines. The rest was all removed.
Wishing you all a great week. God bless.
Gary Elliott
Car Almost Ready For Practice Day May 11th….Scotia Speedworld
With the season fast approaching we only have a few things left to do. My crew have been awesome in the off season helping get things done.
Special thanks to Shannon Riley, Chris White, Jack Lynds, Bob Landry, Robert and Emily Sanford.
I will have my sponsor list on the right side updated for 2024 very soon, all the business logo’s and website addresses have been sent to my web server technician.
More to report soon, thank you for your patience.
God bless you all.
2024 Paint Scheme Done……Same As 2023 Some New Partners
We finally got our car complete as far as work is concerned. There are a few small things left to do that will be done in the next week or so, then our final set up for 2024.
Here is the picture of our new look.
More updates to come, sorry for being slow on posting, lots going on.
God bless you all and thanks for visiting our site.
We Finished The Body Installation…..Paint Next By Jerome Tracey Of Cape Breton
We started working on the car in late October and just finished all the fabrication this Saturday February 10th. We couldn’t work on it last weekend because of the big storm we had but did get work done Wednesday the 7thy and then completed it on Saturday. Thanks to Chris White, Jack Lynds and our newest crew member Ashley Harnish for their help.
The panels go out for paint early this week and once finished we can install them and then have Kirk Alexander letter the car. we will basically have the same paint scheme as 2023 as Quaker State will return for one more year….maybe more, but looks like this could be our last year based on the conversation I had with our marketing manager 3 weeks ago.
This season coming, my 56th will mark a few milestones.
* Quaker State 1974 to 2024
* Our 900th consecutive night on our 11th night of 2024
* Our 3000th career race on our 13th night of 2024.
Looking forward to this year, been trying hard to get new sponsors and we did get a few, I will make a post on our new sponsors soon. We still need at least 2 to 3 more sponsors to do what we plan in 2024…..18 races including 3 in Ontario.
Hope you are well, God bless….more coming soon.
Rebuild Continues With Good Progress….New Sponsors To Welcome Soon…..Looking Forward To 2024
After a great Christmas we are back at working on our 2024 rebuild. We have been making great progress getting the following done in the past 10 days.
* installed rebuilt quick change
* painted and installed lead
* installed driveline (engine and transmission)
* installed driveshaft
* installed driveshaft hoop
* repacked all wheel bearings
* installed new brake flex lines
* installed new brakes front and rear
* bled brakes
* bled clutch
* installed shocks and springs (shocks were tested with good results)
* installed rad and hoses
* hooked up electric fan
* hooked up power steering lines
* installed complete interior
Our next work list will include securing all the wiring for the MSD, alternator, gauges, temp sensor and fill with water. We hope to have all the chassis and ignition work done then start the car and let it run to make sure there are no leaks anywhere and all gauges are working properly.
Besides working on the car for a thorough overhaul, I am reaching out to different companies to partner with us for the next 2 years. So far there has been great interest and I will soon introduce and welcome our new sponsors on here.
PS…check the update on 55 Years of Stats. We will hit 2 milestones in 2024. We have 2974 career races entered so far including, heats, semi’s, trophy dash, consi’s and features. We will reach 3000 on our 13th night this year.
Maybe even more of a record in our streak, something that has been tested many times since it started on June 5th 1987. Of our 1330 nights, We are at 889 consecutive at the end of 2023 and will reach 900 on our 11th night this year. That may have been the toughest and most demanding of all our stats making sure we didn’t miss a schedule night each year since it started. I thank God for providing me with dedicated family, crew, sponsors, friends and determination to make every race night.
More on our update soon.
Thank you for visiting our site, God bless you all.
Merry Christmas Everyone.
Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas and a blessed 2024. I am currently working on sponsors for 2024, as well, my team and I working on redoing our car. We’ve been waiting for parts for our quick change and getting it rebuilt. It’s taken a long time to get the parts, once it’s done we can start putting it back together again.
God bless you all.
Completely Stripped….We Will Replace All Wore Out Parts
We have stripped not only the body but much of the interior and all of the driveline to give our car a thorough going over in this off season. At the same time we are doing our best to resign new sponsors after losing close to half from 2023, all for various reasons. We are praying and working with Christian men to help us bring new sponsors to partner with us for the next few years. God is opening doors and we are very thankful.
I will be getting my 54 Years of Stats updated next week. Currently we are working on replacing wore out and broken parts and waiting for these parts to come in. Here is a list:
* quick change broke at Peterborough and is waiting for a new center section
* we have ordered gauges, our gauges are all cracked from heat under the hood. The gauges are on the dash, but the body is under the dash where heat is very high
* we have ordered new rear brake floaters that are wore out
* our shocks are all out being tested
* waiting for new doors, fenders, hood, cowl, rear quarter panels, rear trunk and windshield
* new front and rear brake pads
Also we are going over the chassis, cleaning it by hand, painting the lead, and cleaning a touching up the interior
My crew of Shannon Riley, Bob Landry, Chris White and Jack Lynds have been a true blessing in this rebuild. More soon.
Thanks for visiting our site and may God bless you all.
Rebuild For 2024 Well Underway
Thanks to my crew Bob Landry, Chris White and Jack Lynds for all their work on getting our car ready for a comprehensive rebuild. We do everything we can on our own and it sure helps financially.
WE are seeking a few more sponsors for 2024 after losing a few for different reasons. Let me know if there are any companies you may know that would partner with us in 2024.
We sure do appreciate those who stayed with us in 2023 and wish them a great 2024.
God bless you all…..thanks for visiting our site.
2024 Rebuild Underway
I always want to start the rebuild while the weather is warmer and travelling for my crew is safe. It was one of the nicest days of 2023 on Saturday, 75F. we stripped the car down and pulled out the quick change to have it rebuilt. I’m thinking my issues at Peterborough Speedway were due to something going on in the diff.
I am also working on our sponsors for 2024 and have responses from most. We have room to add at least 3 or 4 new partners, I am working on that now.
Bob Landry, Chris White and Jack Lynds came over to start stripping the body and parts we want checked or rebuilt. Before they came over, Shannon and I got our Christmas lights up. I saw the weather forecast for the future and it was cold and wet….I am not a fan of either, though God knows the need more than I do…..but getting the lights up on a sunny warm day was a home run.
*quick change
*shocks tested
*calipers rebuilt
These are things we don’t have time to do right now with the work load we do have. The one we could add to our own list here at the shop is the calipers.
More to come, thanks for visiting our site
Gods bless you all
Peterborough Speedway 30th Annual Autumn Colors Classic…..We Were Strong But Our Car Was Tired
The trip to Ontario was good and disappointing. The best part was the visit to Glendale Secondary School and our lap times at Peterborough Speedway. The school visit was a home run and very enjoyable for us, the students and teachers.
Overall t wasn’t what I had hoped for in many ways. The down side was parts breaking or fatiguing at Flamboro, not including the damaged parts from the accident. We lost a drive shaft, twisted from torque, plus the loss of the clutch operation when the clutch master gave up. These parts were over 5 years old. We also came to Ontario after completing 1900 laps in the Maritimes. Pro Late Models in Ontario would have accumulated much less. Racing all 9 APC races would give 1000 laps, and running 8 nights at Flamboro with their Twin 30’s would be another 480 making 1480 laps for a team that ran all those races.
We had 3 flat tires, all on the trailer. One 4 hours into our trip, another heading up Westover road heading to Jim Sweers when construction workers guided us around a narrow hole but missed another one. I could not see it and dropped the wheel into a foot deep hole, bending the rim and flattening the tire. The third happened on our way to Shirley and Derricks on one of the country side roads.
We also were rained out at Peterborough for their ACC event. Friday and Saturday were great weather wise but Sunday was canceled. The race was rescheduled for the next Saturday, October 14th . That meant Shannon had to fly back home to go to work. Shirley helped us get a good deal on a flight but not having Shannon part of the crew meant us possibly missing something, plus we were going to miss each other.
The good side was very good. Special thanks to my children David and Jeannie, Shirley and Derrick for giving us amazing hospitality. Also thanks to my best friend and long time crew member Jim Hulzinga for providing tries for us and hotel rooms for the ACC race. Jim Sweers was a huge help with maintaining the car for the Flamboro race. John Van Wyngaarten fixed the bent rim for us, John Casale provided 2 tires for Flamboro and Ben Freiburger helped Shannon and I get the car maintained at the Freiburger shop in Walkerton allowing us to use his shop and welding up the broken exhaust. Peter De New for his help getting us back into Glendale Secondary School. Thank you so much to all these family and friends who helped us make this trip possible.
Peterborough Autumn Colors Classic
The bright side for Peterborough was how good our car handled in the beginning. This track is much like Petty International Raceway, one of my favorites in the Maritimes. We had good practice lap times every session. Qualifying was Saturday. Prior to the group qualifying we turned our fastest lap ever at this track…14:04. Not as fast as the young guns with no qualifying trim applied, but really good for us. We were 7th fastest on the final practice Saturday morning. However most all cars did things to their car for qualifying and we did nothing and ended up 15th of 21 for the feature.
On Saturday we had another good practice session turning 14:15 with OSCAAR Modified racer Tyler Liscum spotting for us. Jim would make it in lots of time for the race. Not sure why, but things went terribly bad for us in the feature. Our car was suddenly not drivable. The handling was gone after only 10 to 12 laps. We were tight in the middle and loose off, something we hadn’t seen in practice.
I spun out on lap 28. We tried to make adjustments but it was worse. We went down a lap but got the lucky dog. We pitted again to try and fix the handling but something was wrong we were not going to be able to fix. Our crew of Jim Hulzinga spotting, Ken Stenhouse, Ken MacLennan, Lloyd Lariviere and Dave Wickens did the best they could to get the car right but we would spin out again and back into the wall hard. The boys noticed oil leaking from the quick change cover, a fairly big puddle the first time I came in, but it got worse as the race went on. Not sure if we spun in our oil, or something else.
I parked the car around lap 75 for good, could not drive it let alone race. A disappointing day for sure. It was our last race of the season with much damage front and rear. In the pits we were smiling knowing we had a fast car early and something changed. I thanked everyone for their awesome help. Ken MacLennan and I left for Nova Scotia at 6:30 right after the races and got home around 3:30 the next day, we drove straight through. Ken had family in Truro and wanted to visit them. I surely appreciated him helping drive back.
Season #55 is over. I will post highlights of the season soon. Our regular crew will get on the car soon to rebuild for 2024.
God bless you all.
Picture courtesy of Derek Smith from Race Pulse
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