Thanks for visiting our humble website! 

Dan Franks here,  half of the B.R.T.  I have been at my hardware engineering job a little over four years.  Fancy term for a geek who replaces computer hardware!  

The other half of B.R.T. is my oldest son, Jeremy.  He is a computer programmer for a large company in Omaha.  Anytime you are in the Omaha area, give us a jingle via e-mail.  race_66@yahoo.com We'd love to get together and bench race something!

My youngest daughter Anissa,  is a good little helper and sometimes serves as my pit crew.  She is willing, although  much too petite to help with the heavy work.

My youngest boy Chance, has a similar problem.  He is an eager little helper but too young to get into the pits.  He will be a good pit man someday!   Here he is with a few friends.

We have made some additions to the racecar line-up at Backyard Racing.  I recently bought the 34M  B-Mod from Bob Matson that raced at Blackbird Bend in Onawa, Iowa.  Here it is in racing action..

It has new skins on it since these pics were taken and looks a little better.

The "NEW" Backyard Racing Shop 

Race Cars and Parts for Sale

We finally have the new shop.  It is 30 miles away, but we own it.  No longer do we rent ANY space!  This puppy is big!  At 5100 square feet, it's more than three times the space we had before.  No adjoining renters or parking issues to bother with. The shop will house all  of our stockcars.  The 00,  the "new" 66, the model "A", and the '70 Chevelle (Sunset car).  It will also be home to my '41 sedan and '47 pickup projects. 

Here are some interior pics  of our shop, taking a pic in there is like photographing a cave!

The deuce is traded off, the 64 Chevelle is Dave Kaut's now,

Having a dedicated shop to work on the cars has helped. We finally have some overhead space, the ceiling is about 12 feet up. Working out of our backyards for years really sucked!! That is where the BACKYARD RACING name came from by the way.

Jeremy bought the 11M car from Rocky Fagen.  It is a 46 Ford coupe.  He swapped in a 327 and we may paint our coupes to match. 

 Here it is in 1967 at Playland Speedway in Council Bluffs, Iowa. It was built and raced by Don Ronk. Rex Baller,  John Ferguson, Paula Bonney and Rocky Fagen all raced this car. More Pictures are coming soon! This car has been raced for over a 25 year span.

 Here she sits on the dead-end stretch of blacktop in front of our old shop. "Old Blue" was reborn as the  "Devil Woman"  named after Marty Robbins coupe that he raced in the Nashville area in the late '60's and early '70's.

The Devil Woman on her first date at US 30 Speedway in Columbus, Ne. in 1999.

She had a slight fuel supply problem. She was very fast, starting at the back of the heat, she went right to the lead ....for a few laps. The engine kept dying and restarting, dying and restarting.... you get the picture. I had to leave the race.

We tried a few things and got her to Webster City Iowa for the 1999 Vintage Reunion there. She ran real hard. We climbed to 4th and the power steering died, I started going backward and came in 8th out of 24 cars. I finally bought the video tape. I have a photos page with Webster City pics from 1999. Look for your favorite car there. I may have of photo of it.

We raced at the US 30 Speedway in the "Abe" Lincoln Memorial 9-25-99. We won our heat and the trophy dash before missing the "A" feature with a flat tire. It was still a good night. I had never won a trophy dash before. What a thrill!! The folks at U.S. 30 are very good to GOTRA. We would like to thank them for a wonderful season and can't wait to return each season.

She has a winters aluminum wide-5 quick-change rear, rear disk brakes (front are still coming) and a 3 speed transmission. "Old Blue " was originally raced with the "Nostalgia Stock Car Racing Association". It was set up with coil overs, pull bar and other no-no's, and had to be removed for GOTRA rules. I have taken a ton of pictures during the process of rebuilding this car.

Here's the  early Chevelle (64 I think), that raced at Playland Speedway by Roy Foote.   I found parked along a gravel road where it sat for over 28 years.  We washed two inches of rotting leaves off the body.

Yeah, she's a little rough.  I sold her to Big Dave Kaut.  He is restoring her for vintage racing.  

If you're keeping track, (wifey sure is!) I have a '46 coupe,  the '70  Chevelle Sunset Car (no pics yet) and the remains of the Model A.  Oh and an old supermod or more likely "hoo-doo" car. No pics of it yet either.  

Car #1, was a 1931 Model A Coupe, powered by a stone stock Chevy 327 with a 500 cfm Holley 2-bbl carb. It had a Ford 9-inch 4.56:1 rear and 4-speed. Unfortunately I crashed the coupe in '97 at Thunderlake Raceway, and it is currently slated for re-construction. All that remains is the shell, stashed in the new shop, a frame I picked up along the way, a seat, and enough miscellaneous parts to piece most of it together.

Building a car right can take a long time, we hoped to have it back in 1999. Hey, that rhymes!.... Of course it still hasn't happened.

DAN'S COUPE PAGE...   ....Pics of my Model "A" before and after crashing it.

Backyard Racing Team  NEEDS SPONSORS!! ----  IF you would like to sponsor a car that thousands of people see in a three or four state area (see the GOTRA schedule page), then this is it! These cars are very popular and kids love them. Backyard Racing takes part in car shows as well as an ever growing race schedule. Your sponsorship will help us attend more races. In return, we'll build your  website, help you through the entire process of becoming a DOT Com business. In addition, if you are local, Backyard Racing would love to do  appearances at your event or place of business!! Contact Dan Franks via e-mail at race66@gotra.com. Let's talk about what Backyard Racing can do for you!!

SUPPORT BACKYARD RACING.... Members of GOTRA, the Good Ol' Time Racing Association is a group of good ol' racers dedicated to preserving and racing vintage dirt track race cars.

Links:

Back to the GOTRA Page

  Jeremy's 66 Car Build Page ....Build pics of the old 66 car, see what we did to get her race ready.

Click here to see racing pics of the Backyard Racing Team (more coming) 

Webster City 1999  pics from Webster City..

Webster City 2003  pics from Webster City..

"Devil Woman" Build Page ....Build pics of the 00 car, and the 89 car.