James Bivins Factory Stock Driver Page

April 22, 2011: Well, we missed practice again this year - no motor! Same thing for the first race, we had the motor, but it was sitting on the shop floor... Fortunately (for us!) Lakeside was rained out this Friday. But we're ready now! Fred Pullen and Tom Moore came by and started the Demon, had to break-in the mostly new motor... James' Uncle Curt came by to watch the festivities too. And it went off without a hitch! Vandenberg Motor is a GO!

April 29: Our first race of the season! We were all anxious to try out all the changes made during the off season, James rebuilt the car, all but the roof! Seriously, it's a brand spankin' new Demon. Terry and Claudia came over before the race and helped James put on the finishing touches - and brought along 5 newer tires, courtesy of Jay Bailey. Terry grooved and ground them - Trailer lights gave them fits - but finally we were on the road!
It would be so awesome to report that The Demon ran hard and won the heat, maybe even the feature - but that event will have to wait. Demon was smoking like crazy, come to find out it was oil blowing out of the breathers. Terry "McGivered" them for the feature, we were crossing our fingers for the feature... Third lap into the feature the oil ring blew out from the side of the engine block, dropping four quarts of oil onto the track, right on the path of the right rear tire - the Demon spun out in a cloud of smoke, and was tapped on the nose by the T2 Monte. The oil caught fire on the headers, causing the Safety Crew to extinguish the blaze - leaving the Demon looking like a powdered donut. We're done for this night.

Five weeks later (this includes 3 rain-outs) June 3: We fixed the breather/oil leak problems, straightened the sheet metal, and James decided to put a 5.67 gear in the rearend to turn the rpm's up on the motor. No rain in the forecast, which was awesome for Lakeside and the Kansas Speedway - this was the first year Kansas has had two Cup dates, and the Outlaws were the show for Saturday night at Lakeside - we wanted to make a good show for the large crowd that was expected. A lot of Factory Stocks showed up, which added pressure to make the A Feature (top 5 out of each heat go to the A). James started 3rd row inside, and raced his way into the main event! Demon looked AWESOME - no smoke, no spins, and the new gear made the car pull hard. James was up against a dry-slick track due to the extra Modified A Feature they ran before the heat races (one race was called for rain before the A Mods ran several weeks before). The 3s was holding it's position on the track, missing two big wrecks while racing hard - when coming out of turn 4, we got plowed in the right rear and slammed against the frontstretch wall. Son Taylor happened to be sitting right where his Dad and the Demon came to rest, and ran over to check and see if James was alright. He was, but the Demon was limping into the pits once again. Broken brake petal, and sheet metal damage front and rear - our night was once again cut short. But man, they sure looked good out there, massive improvement over last season - all James hard work during the off season paid off. We'll fix it and be back in a few weeks - dirt racing is brutal!