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 a year.  Fancy term for a geek who replaces computer hardware!  It involves some travel, mainly to Atlanta and San Antonio with the odd trip to Hampton, Va or Tulsa, Okla. thrown in.   If you are a racer type person and live in or near these cities, drop me a line and maybe we can get together or at least talk on the phone. I haven't been able to devote as much time to the web page as I'd like.  I have created a new webpage for Playland Speedway.  Check it out in the links at the bottom of this page. 

The other half of B.R.T. is my oldest son, Jeremy.  He is a mainframe computer programmer for a large company in Omaha. He has been there for about five years. Attending school part time has cut into his racecar time. We certainly would like to attend more races in 2003.  Anytime you are in the Omaha area, give us a jingle via e-mail.  race66@gotra.com We'd love to get together and bench race something!

My youngest daughter Anissa, now 17, 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, 10 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!

Our Backyard Racing Shop

 WE NEED SPONSORS!! IF you would like to sponsor a car that thousands of people see in a three state area (see the 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. Backyard Racing would love to do an appearance at your event or place of business!! Contact Dan Franks via e-mail at race_66@yahoo.com. Let's talk about what Backyard Racing can do for you!!

SUPPORT BACKYARD RACING....

If you want a homepage but don't know how to go about it, contact us to help.  Obviously we ain't geniuses when it comes to web page design.  But we have been there and done that.  We can help and we are cheap!! We will get you signed up for free web space, get your account created and build you a page or two to get you started.  We can even scan your first pictures for you, all for a reasonable fee based on the amount of work you want us to perform.

Car #66, is the car Dan raced in '98 and Jeremy has raced since '99. It is a 1934 ford Sedan with a Chevy 327 and 9-inch Ford rear. This car has a 5.14:1 gear ratio.

Jeremy's baby.....car Number 66. Here you see the skinny kid thrashing away, trying to get the car ready for a race. You can almost see the sweat from here!!

Jeremy's car.... returned to the shop after the battle. Unfortunately the motor did an impression of a hand grenade and scattered the bottom end all over the track. We knew that winch would come in handy!!

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

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 Franklin quick-change rear, and a 3 speed transmission. "Old Blue " was 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 re-engineered for GOTRA rules. I have taken a ton of pictures during the process of rebuilding this car.

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 rafters of the shop.

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, Hmmm, something about money.....

Have you ever been at a swap meet and wondered which shocks you should buy? Or what part number is used for which corner of the car? Check out the setup page.