Larry’s Quest for the Runoffs update

BBT friends of da House Larry Mc Kenzie runs Formula Vee champion ship in USA, times to times we give You an update, to let you know about the subject, but especially to show Larry we’re all one big family of supporters behind him!  Go for a WIN! Larry! we’re behind You! All of us….

or in Larry’s own words…I did very well and finished 8th! 

There were three days of qualifying, the first day I just didn’t have my mind in the right place and was still trying different things and was 23rd. Day two I had electrical problems and only got in three laps. I improved my times but was 28th. Day three the track was greasy but I was determined to get a good time. Every time I was on a great lap someone would spin in front of me or crash. I got one ok lap and qualified 25th for the race.
On race day I was feeling confident and knew I needed to be cautiously aggressive. I wanted to move up but not be in any crashes get knocked off the track. I passed 6 cars in the first four corners, then the leaders tangled in turn 5. I made it through just fine. As I exited turn six at 90mph up the hill to the corkscrew, right in front of me was a car was upside down in the air. I had to slow and take evasive action, two cars got by me. There was a full course yellow with a pace car for four laps. When the green flag came out again it took me several laps to retake the cars that got by me. I worked my way up the field to about 12th and had a great battle with two other cars. There were a few more crashes and spins but I stayed clean. On the last lap I made my move in turn 5 to get around the other two cars, I got one and was bumping the other through turn 6 and up the hill to the corkscrew. I tried a pass on the exit of the corkscrew but could not pull it off. I got a good run off the last turn was next to him at the finish. I was 11th by nine hundredths of a second. I did not know I was fighting for tenth or I would have been more forceful in my attempt to pass.

 The top three finishers were torn down and were found to have illegal engines. So I moved up to 8th. Not bad for my first year of racing a Formula Vee. I finished 8th in the National Championship Runoffs. After having a bunch of crappy races all season I really was starting to doubt myself. This race I really was able to put down some good lap times and make some great passes and avoid other peoples wrecks. I didn’t spin or go off track once. I am very pleased with my result. Thank you all for your support. I’ll try and post up some pictures soon.

Larry

Antonio Fireball Lucente wins Historic Italian Championship in 1300 GTS class and reaches the second position in general classification of 1° Group (cars of any cylinder capacity made from 1947 to 1965).

Fireball drives a Volkswagen Beetle 1300 model year 1965, prepared for Special Grand Touring, managed by E.R. Racing team.

Engine is prepared by Antonio Russo, the man with the magic wrenches: It has reached top speed of 180 Km/h.

Chassis is prepared by technical staff of “Autocarrozzeria La Basentana”, a garage specialized in restoring of old cars.

The Historic Italian Championship, managed from Peroni Group Race, was composed from 9 races.

Fireball won 5 races; he didn’t take part in 2 races; he retired in 2 races for mechanical failure.

The cars against which he fought were the Alfa Romeo GT 1300 and Fiat 128 Rally 1300.

Sometimes, he was able to stay in front of cars of a cylinder capacity exceeding, like MG 1500, BMW 1602 or Alfa Romeo GT 1600.

On wet races, Fireball gave the best of himself.

In next year, he will continue to ride in this championship, with his super beetle.

“I would to dedicate the victory of this championship to all my fans and Maggiolino Club Italia” – Antonio Lucente says.

Special thanks to Compagnia Italiana Lubrificanti (Vanguard super motor oil), Mago Maggiolino (special spare parts for Volkswagen Beetle), Emodiva Academy, B-Controller, Very Consult, Arti Grafiche “Il Segno”, Pasion.de and ShedirPharma.

It seems this car sold only 3hrs after it appeared on thesamba.com, crazy cool real early body bumper 356…

Picture credit to my friend Tom Niedernhofer! Enjoy your Sunday!