07/30/07 Update

As many of you know, we lost Marty, Mike's mom, in June. It was a great comfort to us that so many of our friends were able to come to Vassar for her services. Thanks again for all of your love and support. [Marty's obituary (scroll down)]

Marty loved racing and was a familiar face at many events we have competed in over the years. She always wore a big smile and I think she recruited roughly half of the folks she sat next to in the stands for our team.

The remainder of the Buckley Racing 2007 Season schedule:

Illinois State Fair: Sunday, 19 August 2007-Tentative

Milwaukee Mile: Sunday, 26 August 2007

Duqoin: Monday, 03 September 2007-Tentative

Toledo Speedway: Sunday, 14 October 2007

Milwaukee and Toledo are planned and we are still considering the dirt tracks.

07/06/07 Site Update

Our company server crashed in June, which is the reason we have not posted any updates in some time...I had data backups, but a chip on the system board actually blew up, so I had to scramble to configure a new IBM server (which I've never actually worked with before), reload all the websites, reconfigure our smtp server, etc. I am finally able to update my websites again after some problems loading my html editor. We will post another update soon.

5/22/07 - After Toledo:

5/21/2007 - 2007 St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin sponsorship powers a 9th Place finish at Toledo!

Buckley racing is pleased to announce the St. Croix Chippewa Tribe's backing of our team for a limited 2007 season.

We ventured up to the St. Croix Casino and Hotel in Hertel, Wisconsin (near Rice Lake) this February, during the coldest weather they'd seen in many years, to visit with our friends from the St. Croix Chippewa Tribe. We had a great time at a large get-together for dinner and got to listen to friends' of our hosts perform at the casino, a brother and sister that are really great singers. The whole band was very talented and we enjoyed ourselves a lot. It was so cold, we opted for the shuttle rather than walk across the street to the casino because air that cold is so harsh to breathe. When that part of the country gets a 'cold snap' it's more like a 'frigid assault'...your car tires freeze to the ground and your car battery goes absolutely dead. Luckily our hosts gave us a hand, got us back on the road where we headed south, preparing for what seemed like a long wait for spring.

But spring arrived faster than expected...the team was really crunched for time and space but marched forward and put together a really solid race car that we tested with Mark Dimitroff at Toledo last week.

Positioned for a great run from the 18th spot on the grid, with the backing of the St. Croix Chippewa Tribe, the efforts of our wonderful, hardworking crew and the skill of our engine builder, Joe Rhyne, we launched our 2007 season with a hard-fought 9th place finish at the Toledo Speedway. Unfortunately our great run was marred by the heavy damage our car sustained on the finish line of the last lap at the hands of Billy Venturini. Depending on who was asking, Billy gave different reasons for plowing into us, but the end result for us is a severely damaged race car.

Practice laps video

Background of Milt's classic car raced by Bob Brevak

1/16/2007 - Good bye Metty - Hello new year

Buckley Racing is greeting the new year saying 'good bye' to our shop on Metty Drive...A lot of work - a lot of stuff - a lot of help - a new chapter.

Thanks to those of you who helped pack and move. It was an emotional task. Some of the equipment has been graciously relocated temporarily. Thanks to those of you who offered space. The Monday night yoga class has moved to our living room.

Unseasonably warm weather has our race trailers (aka temp storage) waiting on our road for a solid and less obstructive place to park.

Now that the move is complete, preparations continue for Lakeland.

We attended the 19th annual PRI show in Orlando with Mark and Michelle Dimitroff in December. We attended this show many times when it was in Indianapolis, where it dazzled with a display of epic proportions. This year it was certainly pared down compared to previous years in Indy, with more of restrained tone perhaps reflecting the current economy.

A visit to Daytona Beach confirmed it's continued, sad decline. Hard hit by hurricanes and the social ills of poverty, it is a bleak patch in the sunshine state. We visited DIS during testing and 'Racing's North Turn Restaurant'. The North Turn was a real treat...it has the most interesting racing memorabilia collection I've ever seen. We were also graced by an acoustic guitar player that covered a bunch of Neil Young songs for me (not a very large crowd for sure, mostly locals). It really gives you a feel for what it was like back when the cars raced on the beach in the north turn and racing folk were just folk, not NASstars.

On the way back we were fortunate to have enough time for a brief visit to the Cape Canaveral Wildlife Preserve which, ironically enough, you tour with your car. Pics

Other stuff: recent ice storm

12/28/06 - Happy Holidays to all

We have just broken ground on the future home of the new Buckley Race Shop. This long range project will squeeze us for space in the short term, but ultimately will provide a nice place for the race team, yoga studio and ETS offices.

As our days in the Metty Drive shop dwindle down, we're moving to temporary locations and making progress to finish up the repair of our intermediate car.

9/1/06 - Toledo Speedway

With our good friends Lee Harpe and Howard Perkins on the box, our run at Toledo was great.

With some fine tuning during practice, Mike was able to place a nice-handling car 18th on the starting grid, in an always tough ARCA field.

I think the Toledo Speedway is such a fun place to see an ARCA race. True, the facility is old, but it's as close as you can get to old-fashioned racin' these days (excepting of course, Salem and Winchester). Scott Schultz and his crew really know how to host these events with the fan in mind. We enjoyed meeting people during the leisurely autograph session under the backdrop of a dramatic sunset that concluded with a wonderful college marching band. This set the stage for an exciting night of racing under the bright lights.

Unfortunately for us, after Mike worked his way up to 11th at lap 74 (of 200) or so, we got a punctured tire and went 4 laps down under the green. Mike went back out for a few laps when some puffs of smoke preceded a spike in oil temperature that parked us.

For me, racing at Toledo is like going home. Getting to see so many people we know, some from way back during our Flat Rock days. Remembering Jimmy Jones, our dear friend, who has been gone a few years now, it felt like he was right there racing with us. I smile when I'm at Toledo.

8/28/06 - Milwaukee Mile

The trip to Wisconsin began on Friday morning with a stop at Joe Rhyne's engine shop in Gary IN. Mike replaced valve springs and got some help repairing a broken exhaust manifold before we continued on to Milwaukee. Thanks to Joe and his really nice staff for their help and hospitality. At Joe's.

It was warm and humid, crawling through the construction zones with the hauler in Chicago, giving the night a thick, surreal tone.

Practice on Saturday was amid a garage that was fielding 3 shows that weekend. Track officials were really official, many of them were police officers, and the place was jam packed. I managed to get in trouble only once...for standing on the pit wall to take a photograph of our car during practice (the one that shows 'Milwaukee Mile' on the wall.

I got some shots of Brad's practice too...we were garaged next to each other :  )

We dodged local teams' golf carts and 4 wheelers the whole weekend as they seemed to not want to walk Milwaukee Miles in the garage. After practice and some careful consideration, we decided to make some ARCA sanctioned adjustments that put us in the back of the field on the starting grid.

We were honored to host our sponsor, David Merrill, tribal chairman of the St. Croix Chippewa Tribe of Wisconsin, for the race. David and I joined Kitty and Joshua Perkins in the 40th row of the stands for an amazing view of the race. I'm glad it wasn't any higher! Joshua sat on my lap and once the race started, fell sound asleep. He didn't wake up for 100 laps.

Quicktime video: One of Mike's race laps (clip 46 seconds long...aka 'why I make a bad scorer')

other pictures from the 40th row

We had a great run, qualifying 26th and finishing 14th.

After the race, we got a chance to unwind before the long ride home...our sponsor generously treated the entire team to a very nice dinner before everyone hit the road.

6/23/06 - Pit Stops at MIS

Quicktime video: Pit Stop #1 (clip 30 seconds long)

Quicktime video: Pit Stop #2 (clip 60 seconds long)

5/25/06 - More MIS Testing

I'm (somewhat) getting the hang of the video feature on this camera. Quicktime video: on the front stretch

5/24/06 - MIS Testing

Our sponsor's decals are now in place and she's lookin' real good.

In preparation for the June MIS race, the Buckaroo Crew ran the test session yesterday at the speedway yesterday. The guys were able to pick up a good 3 seconds and have plans to find more for the race.

4/3/06 - St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin Marketing Partnership Announcement:

We were very excited to announce our new marketing partnership with the St. Croix Band of Lake Superior Chippewa at our open house this weekend.

St. Croix Tribal Enterprises operates the St. Croix Casino and Hotel, the Hole in the wall Casino and Hotel and the Little Turtle Casino.

Our open house ( pics) started Friday with a steady stream of visitors. Friday's open house ended with a bang - a tornado warning and some very soaked open house signs. Saturday we were fortunate to see many old friends and meet lots of new ones as well. It was a pleasure to meet so many new people from right around our community. As usual, we received so much help from our team members for this event. They helped clean, helped set up, brought food and helped tear down. Thank you so much. A special thanks to Mike Schneider who really pounded the pavement to get the word out. He passed out tons of flyers and warmly greeted guests both days. Also thanks again to Patti for all your help.

It was very nice of Ron Drager to take time out of his busy day to come up and see us on Friday. We were so pleased to see Jackie Franzil, from the ARCA Media/PR/Marketing staff and her dad Jack on Saturday as well as Bobby Thomson and his wife.

3/24/06 - Making progress on the short track car, the cut off body is now on the chasis.

QuickTime video: Watch the body get positioned on the chasis.

We made a trip down to Sweetwater, TN a little while ago for a cut-off body (thanks again Paul and Bertha!). The guys are in the process of starting to hang it.