Here is a little about Go For Broke Racing. How we started, and where we are now, as well as a few short stories from our, umm, "experiences".

We have been actively dragracing for 9 years and watching for many years previously. At one time we called ourselves the RHRT. To date our best season has been 1993 where I was season runner-up in sportsman. I also finished third in the CCHRA all class points race. In 1994 I decided that racing for the points was too much trouble. So I spent the year racing just for the enjoyment. On a few of the Sundays I wish I hadn't. Sometimes Saturday night ended up tooo late. But the year was still a good one as I ended up in 6th in points.

As far as our rides go, our first car was a 1969 Dodge Dart GT. It is powered by a mild 360 engine and has run a best of 13.24 @ 101.58. It is fully equipped with full interior etc. and is of course street legal. It may not be a wild super street machine, but low 13's with a RV cam small block is not too bad. It is a consistent and fun car to drive. At this time, the Dart is at Daves, waiting to be returned to a cruiser. All the things (fuel pump, carb, gears, etc.) that were needed from it were returned to the Aspen. And with Dave being so busy with his company, it has been kinda pushed to the back of the list for now. Hopefully it'll make it back this summer!!

My new car is a 1977 Dodge Aspen. It is built as a full race car with roll cage and so on. Right now it has a mild 440 engine and has turned a best of 12.53 @ 107.32. Future plans for the Aspen is to put in a stronger engine to run NHRA's Super Street class. Well that is still the eventual plan. But first things first. It has to actually LOOK like a race car before worrying about going faster. At least for me it does. So that is the goal for now. Getting the looking part down, then worry about going faster. 'Sides, the budget is a little small right now to be adding enough go fast gooodies to run the 10's. But eventually.........

Since I wanted to finish my own car, I never raced in 1995, but spent the season helping Wayne with his Duster as well as helping Reg Deforest with his alcohol powered big block altered. On the last Saturday T&T I was able to bring out the Aspen for the day to help shake things out a bit. Good thing too. Since I had spring bind in the back which made for a rather interesting ride for sure!! On the gas went one way and off went the other!!!! I also found out that both the 906 heads I had were cracked... One seriously. So at least I found those problems out before the next season!!

In 1996 there seemed to be too many unnerving things going on at the track. So rather than bear with it all the time Wayne and I decided that we could do better. We traveled a little. Going to Calgary, and Saskatoon. We had a good year, took a little money home and most important had fun!! The Aspen ran fairly consistently so we spent most of our time working with the Duster. We never did make the 11's but it did run a 12.11 once. Awful close for a relatively mild small block!! Back at home, I found something out though.....Running a 160 mph super comp dragster in the king-of-the-hill race isn't a time to back out of the throttle!!

I did, however, manage to set a track record that year. No easy feat for a bracket car!! But the record is shall we say...Dubious at best....... In 1997, I ended up 25th overall. Not too bad considering that I had to miss two races. Just the points from showing would have placed me in 12th. Although for whatever reason Saturday seemed to be my day!! My overall round win/loss was 21W/9L. Saturday I was 16 round wins to only 4 round losses, but Sunday was 5/5. Go figure. But there was still a few trips into the money. And the Aspen ran great!! There were so many times the car did it's job running the number. One race was only a mov of .001 sec Kinda close if you ask me. Sorry Lance. I had ta do it. It never failed, each round Lance and I ran was a good one. I was able to take 2 of 3 against him.

One evening, however was interesting to be sure. It was the "Hot August Night" which is a feature event run midweek in the evening. The racing starts fairly late, after the feature cars have run, so it was not dark, but getting there. Anyway, first round comes up, and I am paired with Lance. Well we head to the water, and do the smoky thingy us racers like to do. Slide to the line, stage, and we're off!! I have a slight handicap start, and cut a very nice light. It was a 5-teen as I recall. The car ran well in time trials and I felt confident. Watching Lance, I see him closing on me out the back, and by around the 1000 foot mark, he is beside me, and gaining. Not much to do then but hope for the best, as we cross the line. (funny how those last 320 feet take sooooooo long to cover in a close race!!) I look to the win light, dark....arrrrrgh, glancing over I see Lance's light shining brightly, Lance smiling broadly, and my night ending!!!! It was close, but a loss is a loss and they aren't ever easy to take, and losing to a friend always seems harder for some reason. So then comes the unusually long drive (seems to be longer after a loss) down the return road to get my time slip....I reach out for my slip, thank the girl at the booth, and glance at the numbers....nice light, close to my dial, mov-.001. Argh, double argh, triple arrrrrgh. Ok, lessee, first I lose, second it is to Lance, and lastly it is by 1 one thousandth of a second!!!!!!! For pete's sake, that's not a loss!!! Oh well, time to load up. I usually stick around after losing to get in a couple time trials between the later rounds, but since it's Wednesday night, and I have work tomorrow, I decide to load, and head back. Nothing special there, (or so I thought) cars's buttoned down, so I fire up the 'Doba and head out.

1998 was another off season since there were too many things going on here to be able to make it to any races. I did manage to head to Calgary to watch the National Open. That was great, to get back to a track, even if only as a spectator. Not the same, but still a lot of fun!!

This year (1999) looks to be another off year. But this time it is for different reasons. The major one is that I want to actually FINISH the car and "infrastructure" (can you call it that?? *LOL*) Mechanically the car always worked well, umm 'cept that brake thingy thing mentioned above!! But there are only so many seasons you can run a race car in grey primer with a red spot on the door! So this year I will be working on finishing all the body work, getting the paint, and detailing things up nicely. Also, if time and the budget permits, I also have a new cam, heads and such to install. The only hitch with that, is the engine would be coming apart again to notch the pistons. The clearance would be a bit tight. Those "stocker" racers might not worry about it, but a budget conscious bracket racer can't afford to be making left hand valves!! (btw, I'm not knocking stockers, just teasing a couple fellows I know who run 'em) As for the "infrastructure" part, the Cordoba I used to use to tow the car succumbed to "ferrous cancer" Yep, it rusted underneath!! The stub frames at the back, where the rear spring hangers are, rusted to the point that there is nothing left to hold them in place. I'm thinkin' that losing a rear spring locator at speed while towing a car CAN'T be a good thing!!! So it's time to try and find a decent affordable truck or something. Any offers?? *grin* Hey, but on the plus side, I finally have my bike running again!! Major cool!! It's nothing tooooo wild or crazy, a 1983 Honda CBX550F. The coolest part about that bike, is that it was only exported to Canada in limited numbers. So it's a little uncommon to have ever seen one, let alone see one these days. Another thing is that mine is the less common red/white/blue color scheme.

Anyway......what is happening with GBR this year. Well things are finally (albeit slooooowly) getting going here again. I finally have a truck, although not a real winner. But since the old 'Doba finally vanished into a sea of ferrous cancer, I had to get something. This one has had a few, ummmm, farm incidents. Seems one day, while the door to the trick was open, another vehicle was backed into the door. Not a good thing! Also, the box had a little trouble as a bull lost it's footing and splayed the box sides a bit. Nothing a new box won't fix. But at least it is a solid start. With the car, the body is closing in on completion. The bad fenders and door are already replaced, and there is just the one rear fender area to fix the rust on. Then a few minor dings and a major sanding and it is finally ready for some real paint. Finally, no longer will it be one of the ugly ducklings of the track! It may not go any faster right now, but at least it will look like something! I do have some go fast stuff to, like a NICE solid lifter cam, but since I would need some good heads, and a better intake, that will have to wait. Also, this new cam looks like it will for sure need the pistons notched for valve clearance, so it is going to have to wait till the engine gets a full top to bottom freshing. My goals for this year, are to try and make it to the track before the end of the 2000 season, and to try and run the full 2001 season. So watch out racers, GBR is coming back!! Ok, so since 93 I really haven't been serious enough to be a threat, at least on Sundays, but on Saturdays, I'm gunning for the cashola!! *big S.E. grin* Well that is about all for now, but hopefully there will be some good news in the coming months with GBR!

Thanks to David Foley Commercial Photography, from Edmonton Alberta, Delta Tech , also from Edmonton, and Harold Didluck of General Paint in Wainwright for their support. If you would like to contact us, we can be reached by e-mail at bakewell@gbracing.org

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