POSTED Jnauary 15th, 2012| EMPIRE RACING LLC
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Now that its 2012 that means it’s almost time for race season again. Time to start to dust off the race cars and get ready for another exciting race season! Empire Racing has been working on the Super speedway cars for a while now and we have even found that our backup car from last year beat our primary car from last year in the open ARCA test about a month ago. So for the 2012 ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards Slick Mist 200 at Daytona International Speedway I am going to have a brand new car and even a new crew chief. Ben Leslie has come on board for this year. He has been making some changes that have really seem to make a tremendous difference in not only the cars but the team as well. John Bellesfield of Excel Motorsport Services, Crew Chief for most of the 2011 ARCA season, is going back to being team manager and even has taken on some of the public relations work.
Ben took a look at our superspeedway program before the ARCA test in December and noted certain issues with our superspeedway car from last year. Putting the team’s efforts into the backup car, the team’s efforts paid off as the car was the fastest Ford in single car runs at the test. I am really looking forward to the drop of the green, as I believe we will have a very competitive Ford for the start of the 60th anniversary season for the ARCA racing series
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I haven't been sitting around all off season though, I drove the team hauler up to NY and had some body work done, fixed the lights that have gone out during the season and painted it. We serviced the truck and are all ready to go into Daytona looking sharp.

At work Trans Tech Bus has built the first all-electric school bus on a Smith truck chassis that was unveiled at the National Association for Pupil Transportation's (NAPT) annual conference in Cincinnati. I was lucky enough to drive the zero emission school bus giving demo rides through the city of Cincinnati and around the Bengals football stadium. The bus had a surprising amount of power for a vehicle that makes as much noise as an electric golf cart. I had to laugh though when I saw a switch that said Man Up in the bus.

The dirt car is put away and the snow plows are hooked up ready to go. It should be snowing any day now up here in New York. We got hit with a good snow storm in October and had a white Halloween and a fall Christmas. I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, and everyone has a safe winter. See you in February in Daytona!

- Sean