Gary Churchfield   James Bertges ---  Church Soap Box  ---  Contact Form  ---

Race Team Churchfield-Bertges - No.5 Street Stock.

The Second Chance Fabricators...
So now the "Second Chance Fabricators prepare to return to Lernerville Speedway.  The track rules for our Street Stock have changed. Lernerville is allowing open motors in the Stock Car division this season. Bravo...someone has come to their senses. Lernerville combines Rush and Penn Ohio rules while blending in some rules of their own. The new mix opens up the pits to some of the Street Stock drivers who ran their prior to 2016. The Lernerville track is perfect for our 400 CID engine and we know the track well enough to adjust when conditions require.
Now the "Second Chance"  raceteam is back in the shop giving the old Street Stock chassis a once over and some additional upgrades. We will add a Bert transmission and improve the front suspension.
Once this is complete the car will be given it's new number. The No.5 Matt Machine, Arrow Automotive Street Stock will be driven by Gary Churchfield and James Bertges. The two, who have been long time friends have decided to team up for 2020 and compete at Lernerville on Friday with an occasional trip to PMS, Bedford and Blaney's Sharon Speedway on the weekends. 
The Churchfield.Racing site will be the home for news and features...you can follow Gary and James on their Facebook pages.

Thanks,
Gary Churchfield - driver/owner No.5 Street Stock
James Bertges - driver/partner No.5 Street Stock

The race team for 2020:
Gary Churchfield
James Bertges
Terry Churchfield
Jimmy Bertges
The No.5 Street Stock Crew:
Amanda Churchfield

Cheer Leaders:
Haley and Allie Churchfield

The Old Man's Soap Box

The 2020 race season is fast coming on:
The racing world is all a bustle over disequilibrium for the coming battle. Promise for a "better than ever" season is on the lips of every promoter on the planet.
The local tracks are setting dates and schedules are  popping up with exciting dates like "disco night" and "best of the eighties". Will we see mirror balls hanging
over the winners circle while track officials show off their disco-boots and three-piece suits?? Probably not, but the fans, most of them 70 or more years old,
they will enjoy the music if nothing else. Remember, back when we were "circle track racing" in the 70's...those were cars out of the 50's and 60's. Late models
were 63 Galaxy convertibles. Modifieds were actually modified and street stock was made up of old "claimers". Today's long lost "metric-chassis" was born in
the 70's, and racers only started to use them during the mid-90's. Why would we celebrate the 70's or 80's when we can't get our act together for 2020??

The new season will be the same season, just less cars and a new set of the same dumb rules. Begin with the top racing division...the Sprint Car series. There
are so many series that it is hard to determine what runs where, but it is easy to understand...they basically use the same chassis. Some have wings some don't.
I like the wingless, but hey that is my choice. I also like the midgets and the they too run with or without wings. But what controls these divisions is not the car,
Sprint-Car series are controlled by engine sizes and weight. There are very few specifics beyond the chassis. Buy an old chassis, clean it up and depending on your
local engine rules, do your thing.
Late models, pretty much the same...a chassis, an engine and a few dumb-ass tire rules and you can run Pro, Crate, Special, Semi, Beginner...whatever. You can even
run any old "barn-find" Limited Late Model with or without engine rules. This has become so insane that old Late Models are called "Pro Stock". There is nothing stock
about these cars. The foundation is built around the old late model chassis of the 90's. The engines are 30,000 dollar hammers or 8,000 dollar crate engines. The cars
themselves are a foot wider than a stock car and the only part of the chassis that is stock comes off the old 70's metric "G-Body" cars and they are so rare now that
Pro-Stock builders have to buy third-party front clips.
Gone are the "econony" Modifieds. There are far less "super" Modifieds today than two decades ago. The "claimer" Modifieds are almost totally gone from dirt racing.
They still hold their own on asphalt tracks, but the small venue asphalt arenas are in "wait and see" mode. The asphalt tracks survive on sanctioned racing and special
events. Even NASCAR can't fill the stands these days. ARCA has less people in the stands than most local dirt tracks on Saturday night. The "cars of the future" have
turned off race people, and old "stock car" fans. Hell, we have 250 lap features that require "stages" be run with intervals of dead racing periods so networks can feed
commercials to the "couch huggers, drivers and crew" (snore).

Nothing proves my point better than the 2020 NASCAR pre-Daytona 500 commercials. They can't draw attention to their "snore-fest" so they use old clips from the
hey-day when Earnhardt, Wallace, Gordon would scrap it out with the Petty boys, the Allison family, Jarrets and Yarborough. The 79 Daytona beating and banging is
still a classic. I remember that shove-fest of drivers swinging their fists during and after the race. NASCAR tries proving its entertainment value with old clips that have
not represented NASCAR racing since those "long-gone" Winston Cup days.

The real shame...racing was born with "stock cars". Cars that were purchased on Monday and raced the next weekend. That was the appeal then and remains the appeal
today. The people in the stands, they want to believe they can do that if they try. They want to see their "daily drive" going fast and turning left. They understand exactly
what happened to the NHRA. The drag racing game, once a Saturday night or Sunday afternoon event that packed local quarter mile straight line facilities, is now limited
to "rich-ass-gear-heads" who "prep" or "no-prep" the local track. Try your local drag-strip...there is no one there!! AND, there is no one showing up at local circle tracks
for the same reasons. The people are not interested in seeing one or two "high-dollar" dudes win every week. They care less what is under the hood. They come to watch
locals who they meet and talk to everyday beat and bang with their neighbors. They spend a few dollars at the gate, they eat a hot-dog, swallow some beer and some
dust too! This is what makes them regular fans. They don't care if your track celebrates "disco night", they want good racing. Why is this so damn hard for promoters to
understand the simple "grass-roots" basics of local dirt racing?? Saturday night fever has lost its shine, because promoters have lost their will to present "stock cars"!

Please say whatever you want, but you do the math...if your largest weekly car count is the "four bangers", and pits are filled with family and friends racing these beaters,
what ever got into your head to make you believe the fans come to watch a half a dozen Pro-Stocks?? The only other class you can control is your Pure Stock because
above this division, it is all about sanction rules...and rules are the death to automobile racing. Yes we need regulations, but they are worthless if they cannot be properly
enforced. Four cylinder "Hornets" and pure stock "Charger" racecars are about as close to "street stock" as it gets. That is until the regulations get in the way. For every
single rule in these divisions there are at least two ways around it. For every new rule added, but never enforced, there is one or two seasoned racers shutting down and
selling out. Rules are rules, over-officious-jerks are ego-maniacs. The offset motor, for example, engines may only be offset 2 inches to the rear. But it would be easier to
enforce an angled plug rule. Angled plug heads must be located in stock position. Transmission rules simple, external clutch only; an automatic must use torque converter.
Body rules...simple, 67 inches wide on a 108 inch wheel base. Front nose and rear tail panels may be stock or two piece plastic (66 inches wide) . No flat aluminum panels
will be allowed. Nose piece should match engine manufacturer. Interior rules...simple, floor pans must be visible between frame rails, fabricated fire walls may be set back
for engine clearance. No flat decking panels front to rear. Engine rules simple, steel head, steel block 358, any crate motor is allowed, 400 cubic inch must be iron block.
No wet sumps allowed. HEI distributor and 600 CFM carburetors on all open motors. Allow MSD, but limiters must be set to 6000 RPM. This will tighten up your racing.
Make the cars look like stock cars. No, these bodies are no longer available, but kits are. Aluminum panels fabricated in shops look great. Local body builders, why not??
How about driveshaft must be steel and tube must be at least 46 inches in length?? Rear end...KISS, stock rear end in stock location, 9" Ford in stock location, may use
adjustable arms but wheel base cannot exceed 108 inches with 1 inch offset left to right. There are a lot of regulations that impair safety. One is the "weight jack" rules.
Weight jacks on the rear only is down right dangerous. Maybe not so bad on slick tracks, but PA dirt, drivers need control of weight and it offers better racing all around.
Take a better look...most of your Pure Stock racers have some kind of front weight jack system. Your tech people are not looking in the right place. Trust me this is fact!
Weight jack rules...all four corners allowed. Now, maintain stock spindles and ball joint locations. Shock absorbers must mount to the lower control arm. Vehicle weight is
more a friend than an enemy. Most racers who run on the low side of weight, they can't run on the edge. On an 8 inch tire, adjusting weight is essential. You must have
a weight rule, but start it out at 3200 pounds. This is the fair way, not their way, not your way...the highway is how they get to your pits...welcome them.

Get back to racing again. Stop with the crazy-ass promotions. Promote your racing by eliminating your un-enforceable rules and stupid sanction body regulations. Sanction
bodies are money pits for promoters and racers alike. Give in to reality, let the racers do what they must to make you look good. That ain't happening if the same schmuck
wins week in and week out. The promoter takes the heat! Now you adjust the rules and instead of fixing the problem, you chase competitors away. After all is said and done,
keeping it simple...you will have higher car counts, better racing, more fans and higher promotional profits. Your fans care less about dressing up like "disco-ducks". They pay
to see good racing, so why not focus your attention to the track and the pits. The rest will take care of itself.

Sanction Bodies...continued:
It is mid-August 2020 the year of the "mandemic". The pandemic virus that has killed more than 175,000 Americans, mostly senior citizens who are not as lucky as I am to
still be active at the age of 77. There is a lot of quality life left in some of us and we intend to "get it on". For those who are sitting in some senior care home, I feel for you.
Most seniors have nothing short of a big screen TV located in a dirty cafeteria where you sit around tables, eat shit and are forced to watch CNN or MSNBC. It is worse than any
virus could be, but the worst is yet to come...most of you may never again see, smell or feel the life that lives inside a sport stadium, inside an arena or at a race track. This
is a direct and deliberate attack on your favorite lifestyle pastimes. You folks don't have much time, so why would anyone render your passing as a good reason for suicide.
It is not bad enough that track promoters have reduced themselves to SANCTION bodies for racing, but now the professional sports organizations are shutting down and not just
for COVID-19, they shut down for #BLM or #DEFUNDBLUE. This is insanity! There are no fans at baseball games and scheduled events are cancelled because one player tested
positive. That same mentality is shuffling through small business operations as well. If someone "sniffles or coughs" at work...they are sent home. In the state of Pennsylvania
if you cannot afford to take off work, you head over to a "testing" facility, where you are invited to get sick. You sit in your car waiting to be called. You go in for the test and
shell out more than a day's pay to get a test that comes back in 24 hours with an 9% failure rate. Think about that! One political party insist this is the way it should be done...
Now the college SANCTION bodies are shutting down collegiate sports. No football, no basketball; we had no softball or baseball world series, so now all scholastic sports are dead!
In a time when fans at sports venues are locked out, why are we insisting that race promoters maintain these oppressive SANCTION rules?? Damn the extra cost to register a racecar
for a single event. If you are a regular at a track, if you spend thousands of dollars so you can compete in front of a few hundred loyal fans every week, why are you being penalized,
chastised and disciplined by some SANCTION body for your devotion and honor to the sport of auto racing?
This is a direct result of poor management and the instability of track officiating, and only the promoter can change this for the better of the sport.
Stop demanding the circus clowns pay for your mistakes...get together with other area track owners, create a balanced set of NON-SANCTION rules and let the green flag drop.
The promoter who does the most for his competitors, that person will fill the pits and the stands alike...stop praying for fair weather...race weekly with the same rules and the same
set of standards that made racing so much better without NASCAR or the UDTRA. Consider what professional organizations are mandating...grass roots racers cannot afford to pay
for it all. Just consider this...the NHRA basically killed drag racing when they shortened the "quarter mile".

After the "mandemic".
Things are looking up for a full season of racing. Our main track this season will be Lernerville. This amazing facility seats 10,000 plus and even with "social-distancing" there will be a nice crowd of fans.
Don Martin's track opened in 1967 and has hosted some of the greatest drivers from alll over the United States. Lernerville is not just a "race track" it is part of Pennsylvanias heritage. You don't pass over 50 years of success. Back in the early 90's the Friday and Saturday punch teamed up Don'r Lernerville with Jack Lentz and his Challenger Raceway. These two tracks ran every weekend and area racing enjoyed some of the best racing available anywhere on short tracks.
Things have changed since the passing of these two classic race promoters, but their legacy stands alone and lives on.
Dirt racing in Pennsylvania is alive and well in spite of the politics that has taken over Harrisburg. That probably makes little sense to many fans, but to drivers politics can change the game overnight. It did this season when Governors in several states decided to "lock down" sports and gatherings like race tracks and stadiums. It will go down in history that the "lock down" destroyed sports. Literally destroyed baseball, and basketball. Not many of us will attend the NHL playoffs simply because Hockey is a winter sport. As for baseball, the players association is playing politics. This is not the time to send your fans off with a bad taste in their mouth. Dirt track promoters on the other hand, they challenged the rules of law. The local dirt promoters understand that local racing is nothing like NASCAR. In fact NASCAR is playing its own politics now using the Confederate flag as a pawn for change. Politicians have gone so far as to condemn the Duke's "General Lee" while protestors tear down statues of our past. Our track owners know what it cost to maintain a racecar. They know how much time owners/drivers have in this sport. There is no Saturday Night without the cars and the drivers. Without local racing all you will have is NASCAR or ARCA and to be sure...asphalt racing is boreing.
I am looking forward to the 2020 season. We bring a rebuilt racecar to Lernerville. This year the No. 5 Street Stock will appear as the "lone dog" in the pack. The car is a full metric chassis Street Stock, very much like the cars of Kelley and Lambert from seasons past. The 5 car will stand out in a crowd of "nothing like stock" cars. Our body is very similar to your father's Monte Carlo from the 80's. The engine is "iron" and the wheels hang outside the 67 inch body. This is a "throwback" to the classic Street Stock racecars that made Friday night at Lernerville the area's finest "action track".



Two weeks remain...
Before I head off into the final sunset. This will be my last entry into this website. I have had a good time ever since we brought home the Street Stock racecar that we now call the 5 car. Where that number came from may refer to the number of stock cars we have built and raced over the years.
The whole thing started in 1998 when Gary and I built the 35 Pure Stock "Charger". That led to the 35X that finished 4th in points at Latrobe on a 305 2BBL. That same car with a 350 power plant won Fallfest at Challenger back in 2001. During that same year we built the 23K for Gary's girlfriend Amanda. He married her after a high-school romance. They have two really great kids now, both are girls.
The 3X (triple X) was my favorite street stock. It represented a chassis buy that Gary and I turned into a real racecar. The "triple" was my rehabilitation from cancer. I have been cancer free for more than 17 years now. I remember working on the chassis, cutting out old bars, welding in our changes all while I was carrying around a porto-potty tied to my waste.
So after a few struggling years in Late Models, we decided to hang it up for a while. That was 10 years and back into the shop for one more trip around the dirt ovals of WPA. This car, this time we brought home a toilet. There was more rebuilding to do...we could have started from scratch and saved money. But in the long run things have worked out ok. The revised 2c turned into the 5 car. The total transformation took two years and almost 12,000 dollars. There was a lot of bumps along the way. The track we wanted to run at took a hard left turn and went sanction on us. We pleaded with them to keep it simple but our voice was never heard. So we threw away the 2019 season while I converted the car to "pure stock". There was still no place to run when the track we opted to build for decided not to open. Engine rules were in our way until, low and behold, Lernerville decided to go "open motor". That was not totally in our favor, but we have done well in the past running under-powered, so the 5 car was polished up and made raceable again. Lernerville, our favorite track, was our 2020 home track. Even with China Flu and politics of the "mandemic", Lernerville managed to open and operate with their usual sense of safety, cheerful geniality and Don Martin's legacy for great racing. We were going to be there...
Gary's long term friend James Bertges came along for the ride and shared expenses and driving. James is a 2020 rookie, and he is chip off the block. The 5 car is in 9th place in points as of this writing and we have a couple of points nights to advance if possible. We are 11 points out of 8th...so lets get it on. We will wrap up the season October 9th.
As for me, I see this as the end. Gary plans to retire and focus on his family and work. He is finding his way up the ladder at Matt Machine. If he concentrates his effort into the company this will be his life career in machining. Today's machine shops are more computer based than ever before and Gary has mastered the wire EDM systems. This is the technology of the future. So as Gary moves into middle age, I move into the winter of my life. I will spend my time "puttsing" and keeping myself busy. If James continues with the 5 car, I might visit his shop from time to time, but for me the race is over. At the end of this season I will begin the transition from race shop to garage. The shop will be home for my loving wife's car and my lawn tractor. Most everything will be sent to my son's garage where they will join the machines he owns, simply to remain silent.
I have had a long life that has been filled with thought, question and doubt. My love for electronics, automobiles and baseball has followed me throughout some 68 years of my life. I started with Little League baseball as a pitcher at 9 years old. That same year I was on WQED TV in a half hour program dedicated to KDKA radio and the first commercial election results ever broadcasted nationally. I managed to get my first FCC amateur radio license at 14 years of age. I built my first radio transmitter at age of 15. I bought and my first car at 17 years of age, a 1937 Packard 120. I rebuilt my first carburetor at the age of 17, my first transmission (1955 Chevy 3 speed) at 18 and my first engine at 19 (235 GM in-line 6) all while I was playing baseball. I raced my first drag strip (New Castle) at age of 18, the Packard ran in "L" stock. No one knew what cubic inches the old straight eight had, so they guessed and put me in a class with six cylinders and old flat-head motors. I had 3 no hitters during those 10 years playing ball, my last game ever was for the American Legion Post 305. Went to work for Forest Hills Ford at the age of 20. Raced straight line at Keystone and some circle track at Schmuckers and Heidelburg till I married in 1967. Raised three kids, taught my boys some baseball and then divorced my first wife (the logic behind it all is not worth publicizing). After seperating I chased a few dreams and then found Maureen. She saved my life. She honored me with my son Gary. I was still into cars, but Gary was beginning to play baseball. For a decade I coached him till  one day we went to Challenger Raceway, and from that moment in 1997, we became Churchfield Racing. Now after almost 25 years it comes to a close.
In my final entry I offer you my TIPS PAGE for all to review. These were the last technical entries made while we prepared and repaired the 5 car for competition. I want to personally thank Jeff Henry, Al Sivick, Dave Fairman, James Bertges, Don at Dakota Engineering, Mike at Matt Machine and so many others for their support over these many years. I have one last special thanks to Simon Racing Supply. It has been frustrating, but it has been fun and I can't imagine doing anything else.
My number one love of my life is Maureen and my amazing family. My passion for being a winner will never be realized, but racing was part of that passion to live. My family put up with me for my foolishness and for them I leave my ever-lasting love. For Maureen I leave my never-ending devotion. Love, Me

Terry Churchfield
1943 -



I sugest you visit www.speedwayandroadracehistory.com

Your feedback is welcome...
Church -1/16/20

Contact Email:
Church - terry [@] churchfield [dot] racing
Gary - gary5 [@] churchfield [do] racing
James - james5 [@] churchfield [dot] racing
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