My name is Terry Bivins and I drive the #53 Grand National at Lakeside Speedway. Did a lot of racing years ago, and after a 30 year lay off [no typo error], I am so happy to be back racing again. Racing has always been the love of my life.
We got the car ready late in the season last year and only made the last three races, with less than spectacular results. Had a few chassis problems and a couple of driver errors. I'm batting a thousand though, three races and hit the wall 3 times, actually 4 times in 3 races [Do I get extra points for this?]
My first goal of the 07 season is to run the whole night of racing and NOT HIT THE WALL, that would be like a win for us.
The race car is ready to go with all of the new safety upgrades [which I will be fussing about in later blogs] but no sense stepping on anyone's toes right off the bat] If I started out griping I might not get through tech until mid July.
Now a few questions for the fine gentlemen who set this deal up.
1. Do we have spellcheck, can't do without it?
2. Do we get comments back on what we write?
3. Can we use low-key cusswords without losing points and being fined?
4. Can we put up pictures, [I might catch a big fish and want to show it]
5. Are we going to edited so to be politically correct, or can we tell it like it is?
6. How many words can we use, is there a limit on space?
Need answers to the above questions posted by one of the racing boys so readers will know what's up.
Now for the first item on my list of things to address.
Lakeside Speedway does a super fine job of running the race night through quickly, not like years ago when sometimes it would after be midnight when the show was over. But these 6 lap heat races are 2 laps short. Such short qualifying heats seem to make drivers take high risk moves to try to get qualified for the feature. I think there would be a little less pressure on us drivers if we had a couple of more laps to pass cars and I'm sure there would be less cautions. I really don't believe the show would be that much longer to run and the fans would get more racing for their buck. I hope the powers that be at Lakeside take this issue under review and make a change.
Last but not least I want to thank Racin Boys for inviting me to be a part of their new blog page, I feel honored to be asked.
Reader Comments
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Dec 11, 2006 09:54:24 AM by kirk
Welcome Terry!
Answers to your questions:
1. Do we have spellcheck, can't do without it? Not yet. But in the meantime, we'll fix the mis-spellings.
2. Do we get comments back on what we write? You bet. That's the fun part.
3. Can we use low-key cusswords without losing points and being fined? We don't take points away here at RacinBoys, and we'll leave the fines to the promoters. Keep it clean though. We're a family operation here.
4. Can we put up pictures, [I might catch a big fish and want to show it]? Absolutely!
5. Are we going to edited so to be politically correct, or can we tell it like it is? Politics and racing seems like a bad mix. Please tell it like it is. I love constructive criticism. Honest opinions are what we're looking for without getting personal. Name-calling and naughty words or language does not add to good healthy debate about racing.
6. How many words can we use, is there a lmit on space? No limit. Posts can be as short or as long as you like. We do like the blogs to be updated at least once per week or everyday if you like.
Dec 11, 2006 10:23:38 AM by sudewa
it's nice to mr. Bivins racing again. i remember watching him back in the "shack packer" days coming out of the fourth turn at the start of the races. i also remember NASCAR screwing him out of the "rookie of the year" award, after finishing 9th in the datona 500. i think they were afraid you would re-write the record books. can't wait for the season to start. good luck.
Dec 11, 2006 10:23:50 AM by sudewa
it's nice to mr. Bivins racing again. i remember watching him back in the "shack packer" days coming out of the fourth turn at the start of the races. i also remember NASCAR screwing him out of the "rookie of the year" award, after finishing 9th in the datona 500. i think they were afraid you would re-write the record books. can't wait for the season to start. good luck.
Dec 11, 2006 12:58:48 PM by kimberlyjo
Terry is my uncle, and i think it is great that he is getting into racing again, it has really brought all of our family closer together again and we are having a great time watching him race.
Dec 12, 2006 03:00:20 PM by debzdoo
Congrats on the position, Terry!
For the spell-checking, if you use Internet Explorer browser, I can recommend a great, free tool. It works with your browser (is added to "Tools" menu), checks and corrects the stuff you've typed in an online form / comments/text boxes included. http://www.iespell.com/download.php
Dec 12, 2006 05:10:21 PM by Shackpacker
Thank You Debzdoo for the link, downloaded it and it works great. Us two finger typers definitly need spellcheck cause we can't look at the screen when we are hunting letters. Terry Bivins
Dec 13, 2006 08:15:51 PM by spaz
Hi Uncle T its me old tennis shoes decided to get an account on the count that there free and now i can post comments
Jan 11, 2007 08:04:06 PM by faletti
Hi Terry, I was a big fan of yours in the 70's, I'm glad to see you getting back into racing. I build scale models, and am doing your Monte Carlo from 1971/72, I was wondering if you could remember any of the sponsors you had at the time, especially on the quarter panels behind the rear wheels. It looks like they varied from time to time, but I haven't found any pictures that show them clearly. Thanks very much. Tom Faletti
Jan 22, 2007 09:33:00 PM by plankton
I remember about 35 years ago when you got off the highway to go to i/70 there was a barn that had something with 53 on it. Can you help me with this?
Jan 29, 2007 07:31:14 PM by Shackpacker
Yes I do the Barn had a sign on it in Big letters saying[ 53 GO TERRY GO 53 ] We loved it but the Speedway made them remove it..
Terry Bivins #53
Jan 30, 2007 08:54:42 PM by plankton
Hi Terry,Do you know where I can see some of the old i/70 and lakeside pics online?Would love to relive some of those days! Thanks,plankton
Jan 30, 2007 10:35:19 PM by Shackpacker
This is a good site to see a lot of the drivers of the seventies. You might want to browse around at this site.
I hope that the readers realize what a phenomonal ,championship caliber fisherman Terry is, besides being a super race car driver. We went out last year together, and in a matter of 2 hours, he had caught 17 nice fish. I could only watch in disbelief, as I didn't catch one (I let my ass overload my mouth that day). I think they were smallmouth bass, but I'm not sure. Terry decided to fish for a different type of fish (probably bored with my complaining), and on the FIRST cast, he caught the type of fish he was looking for! I sat in the boat trying to see who was underwater hooking fish on his line. We were using the same bait, and I'll never know how they knew which line was his, and which line was mine! I had never "gotten into racin' " 'till I started watching him go at it at Lakeside, but it didn't take long to get hooked. The Princess and I are excited to get this season going, and plan on watching every rece we can get to. Hope everyone reading his blogs do the same, and come out to root him on!! The King of Rock and Roll.
