The Race Car

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Text Box: Two days after Christmas in 2005 we picked it up and put together a game plan for the off season for the new to us race car. The ideas were starting to come together, the race car was bodied as a mid 70’s gremlin. This lasted all of about two weeks. My Dad had cut all the old body panels off and I was busy at home cutting up a 1977 Bronco. We decided that would look good on the new race car chasis. After all the old panels were off we were ready to start test fitting the Bronco skins. Once the Bronco body panels were tacked in place it was time to start fabricating the new engine and transmission mounts, because when we got the car it was actually set up for a small block Chevy and Muncie 4 speed. With all the old motor and tranny mounts cut out it was time to set in the bare 302 block and tranny to get the mounts placed. With the new mounts in place the ‘71 302 and T5 transmission went in for good. We had a new driveline cut, shortened and balanced. With the drivetrain in place it was time to start putting together our-one-of –a-kind 1/4 mile dirt track Bronco. The rear quarter panels were the easiest to install but the half cab. Windshield frame and tailgate had to have 16” cut out and welded back together, the center of a stock Bronco hood was cut and bent to fit the old hood mounting pins, the door skins were form fitted to the outer roll bars. With all the body parts in place it was time to start picking out the new colors and again this was not a tough choice. My father, good friend Gordon H. and myself had just finished a two year project: a Denver Bronco Special Edition Bronco and we had some left over paint...it was a perfect choice for me. With the new paint applied it was time to stop by one of my long time sponsors, Fallon Glass and Sign, to get my racing numbers and sponsors decals cut. With all the decals and numbers in place it was actually starting to look more and more like a race car. After almost 4 months of blood, sweat and gears, it was time to start the new racing/points season. Over 6 months and 13 point races and the end of the year 2 day Dirt Track Championship, it was going to another long year for our FAMLEE racing team. The first 8 races went pretty well with 2 wins and 4 second place finishes… it was looking good for my rookie year in the 318 open wheel modified class. Race number 9 didn’t go so well for our race team. The engine started missing in my heat-race so we changed out the spark plugs in between then and the main event. The car was running pretty good at the start, but this is what they call the calm before the storm. The car and I were checking out on the rest of the field and with three laps to go, the engine made a very large Ka-boom and was making all kinds of noises. I coasted one more lap until I got the mechanics flag to leave the track due to large amounts of smoke billowing from the Ol’ Bronco. We only had about 10 days to get a new motor together for the next point’s race. Mike H. and Dan S. at Hughes Machine did all the machine work, rebuilt the heads and assembled the short block on the 302 and my dad put the rest of the goodies back on it in about 6 days or so and had it back in the Bronco with about two days to spare. The 11th race didn’t treat us well that night with about 7 laps to go in the main event something in the right front steering broke and the Bronco turned very hard to the right and the next thing I knew I was in the wall (about 65 mph). I gathered up my senses and limped the car back to the pits to check out the extent of my damages. The inside of the right wheel was the same shape as the spindle, the spindle was actually broken in two, the right front tire was rolled back onto the headers and was melted, bent the right rear bead lock and peeled the tire off the wheel like a banana, bent the right rear axle, broke the rack and pinion steering and bent both right side shocks. Oh yea, I had to replace my shorts too as they were “terminal”. I looked at my dad/mechanic and said “well, can you save it?” His famous line to me is “you’d better drop it off at my shop and I’ll see what I can do.” He got the Bronco torn down the following Monday and we took the major broken parts to another one of my great sponsors; MSE Welding and Fabrication. Arne Martin is a master fabricator and he had everything done by the following Monday. Dad had the Bronco back together by Wednesday so we could go racing on Saturday night. The last two races went off without any major problems and we finished off the points season with a 15 point margin over second place. And to top it off, at the racing banquet in November 2006 I was awarded the rookie of the year award along with a 4 ft. tall Rattlesnake Raceway points acing, championship trophy. I would like to personally thank all of my sponsors for our Awesome 2006 racing season… Mark and Ruby Lee, Tom and Lily Coulthard, Dan, Debra, Eric and Sheila Clifford, FAMLEE racing, Ed Laca at our local NAPA store, Arne Martin at MSE Welding and Fabrication, Rhino Linings of Fallon, Skip and Lou Carrica at Fallon Glass and Signs, Brad Smitten at Smitten Oil and Tires, James Palmer at Snap-On, Jerry and Kathy at J&K Llamas Nursery, Deco Rock, JOP Mike Richards, Toms Bronco Parts out of Medford Oregon, Rick at BHI, Malon at COD Diesel. And a very special thanks to my beautiful and understanding wife Elsie and my 3 greatest fans, Glenda, Shaw and Cooper And to my DAD, MARK LEE, thanks again for keeping this bucket of bolts together.

Text Box: This was and article from BRONCO DRIVER MAGAZINE ISSUE 25 ONE OF A KIND DIRT TRACK RACER I’ve been racing on and off for the last 5 years now in a front wheel drive 4-cylinder car in a class called Gen-X. After winning two Rattlesnake raceway points championships in this class I felt it was time to move on. I decided on a V8 powered open wheel class. Our local dirt track was under some “Major” track facelift changes for the 2006 racing season (guaranteed today as the fastest 1/4 mile track on the west Coast with speeds clocked at 109 mph in the IMCA division). They also started up a new class of open wheel modified cars called the 318’s. The basic rules go like this...no more than 323 cubic inches, flat top pistons, no roller drivetrain, a stock 2 barrel carb or a 4412 carb. And the car must weigh 2000 lbs “wet” at the end of a race and it had to look like a production/assembly line vehicle. For my father and me this is the fun part of this story. After we heard they were going to bring these 318’s to our track for the next racing season I had talked to a couple of brothers who are into to the racing pretty heavily in our town and surrounding states. Malon and Jesse Gonzales had called me about a car over in Portola, Ca that was for sale and it was a complete rolling chassis car that had about two years on it.

Text Box: 775-427-7744 Glenn@broncohunting.com