Bowling Green - Team BBNova Posted on 05/05/2008 7:51PM byBBNova Team BBNova showed up early Friday morning to a long line of trailers after a long ride. We met and spent some time with Susie of Team Midnight. We were excited and ready to go. Our first race of the season, and perfect blue skies with 75 degree weather. A few hours later, we made it to the gates and entered. In that short time, the weather had taken a nasty turn for the worse. While unloading Eric Kenward's new Mike Moran turbo motor, the skies had darkened, the wind picked up, and every one had to head for cover. Tornado weather had rolled in with a quickness and a fury. We headed to check in to the hotel and wait it out. A few hours later we headed back to the track and teched in. A few new stickers and we were ready to race, but the weather had different plans for everyone. After teching in, we took care of a few loose ends and drove back to the hotel. All of team BBNova had red eyes from sleep deprivation, but a hungry appetite for the track. After a frustrating 2007 year, we longed to be back on top. With 11 hours of sleep, we were refreshed and eager to get racing. Let me paint a picture for you. Two days of no showers, being trapped in a truck for hours, loading and unloading cars, equipment, sweating, dirt, food, smoke, etc, Team BBNova all took a much needed shower and were ready to go. Breakfast was great and provided and Team Midnight. Thanks guys! After heading back to Beach Bend raceway, it became clear that the track staff had a lot of work to do. Two days of powerful rains had left everything soaked. We knew we had a few hours to prep the car and get her ready for her 2008 debut pass. From pit to pit the intermittent rumble and roar of race engines, along with the sweet and crisp smell of racing fuel in the air, it was becoming apparent that after a long drive and bad weather, we were finally getting to get the car on the track and see the fruits of this winters modifications. Tucci was calling cars to the starting line class by class. It's always a bit of a guessing game which class is called in next. Team BBNova snapped into action and got the car ready to run for the first pass. Due to the amount of time it took to dry the track and prep it, the NMCA made the decision to limit Saturday to 1 test pass and 2 qualifying passes. It became clear that we had to do what we do best and make each pass count. We made the best tuning choices we could with the information that we had and towed the car up to the lanes for our first test pass of the season. After a big smoky burnout as Al Tucci would say, we staged the car. The car left a little lazy and finished the same way with a 7.82 @ 174mph. We towed the car back to our pit and I immediately got Hutch from Hutch's trans service on the phone to get some advice. After a long talk Hutch and I came to an agreement on what was needed. My crew and I made those changes and got ready for first round of qualifying. The call was made for first round of qualifying and we were ready. This time, things went a little better 7.65 @ 177mph. This put us in the #2 qualifying spot. Looks like we were going in the right direction but still far from were we needed to be. We went the same direction as last time and waited for our call for our 2nd and final qualifier. The call was made and it was dark by now. It was hard to see and we may have been lined up out of the grove a bit. I let go of the button and the car left hard. It also left to the right. I tried to get it back but it took nearly all the track to get it back without getting out of it. It ran a 7.61 @ 179.5 mph. Unfortunately someone had bested our #2 spot putting us in the #3 qualifying spot. We gathered all our info and made a couple changes for first round of eliminations for Sunday morning. We showed up at the track early Sunday morning only to find out we didn’t run till noon. We also saw the ladder which showed us against Barb Nesbit. Barb has been running strong lately if you are not aware. We prepared the car for first round hoping for the best. The call was made and we towed up to the lanes. Barb and I hugged and wished each other well. So it was on, first round and against an opponent that was no slouch. He pulled around the corner and lined up in the burnout box. Barb started her burnout first and then me. Barb’s burnout took her to at least the 330’ mark while our Red Nova stopped around the 60’ mark. I backed up and waited for Barb to return. Once we were both back and ready we both start inching forward to find the first staging beam. I was first to light the top light. Barb bumped in and lit her top bulb. We both lit our top bulbs and waited for the tree to come down. I was the first to leave and that was a good thing as Barb ran just a tad faster than we did. We both charged down the track with Barb just on my heals. The finish line approached and we were the first to the stripe. It turns out barb went a 7.615 to our 7.616. That round win put us up against Mike Schmidt for round 2. We got the car back to the pits to make some adjustments and then we heard it, Nostalgia Pro Street to the lanes. I was in shock, as were the rest of the NPS Class. We hurried as fast as we could and got the car buttoned up and up to the staging lanes. We paired up with Mike and pulled up the front of staging. Mike and I got in our cars and fired them up. We pulled our cars into the water box and heated up the tires. After bringing the car back from the burnout and staging the cars, Mike and I were ready for this battle. We both left and the Nova charged down the track to its second round victory. The car was a bracket car, we ran a 7.601 to Mike’s 7.653. This win earned us a bye into the final round. We had a bye run which allowed us to try a thing or two this round. The NMCA made the call for our class and we headed up to make our solo pass. Just before our pass, Jim Widener had taken out Billy Joe Gordon, which meant we were up against the #1 qualifier in the finals. We made our pass and gathered the info that we needed to prepare for the final round. We waited around for what seemed like forever; savoring the day and the fruits of our hard work. It was just getting dark and they made the call for all final round opponents to make their way to the staging lanes. We met up with Jim Widener and wished him well. Jim and I followed the Extreme Street class which had just ran. We fired up the cars and pulled up to the burnout box. Jim did a small burnout and I did my normal burnout. I backed up and my brother Chris opened up the NOS bottle. I purged the remaining air from the supply line. The car shot NOS into the air snorting like a bull ready to charge. Jim staged first and then I pulled in. Both bottom bulbs were lit and Jim bumped in to light his top bulb. I shortly followed and depressed my trans brake button. I pushed my accelerator foot to the floor; engine roaring I waited for the tree to come down. A short moment later it happened. The tree activated and I released the trans brake button. The motor rev’d and the car left strong! No Jim in sight. I thought to myself "cool, we put some tree on him", and from the times Jim was running we needed every advantage we could get. I pulled 2nd gear and then 3rd gear and still no Jim in sight. I thought "we have a chance here". I pushed my foot harder to the floor as if that would help and waited for the finish line to come. Here it came and I started to lift my arm to reach for the parachute lever while still looking out the side of the car for Jim. I reached the finish line first and pulled the chute. I couldn’t believe what just happened. We won and no Jim in sight. I pulled the car around the corner and brought it to a stop on the return road. I got out of the car after purging the remaining nitrous out of the supply line and started jumping up and down and yelling, “We did it!!!!” I got a phone call from my crew informing me that Jim had a rear end failure on the starting line which made me glad that Scott Marrison of Scott’s Crap had built mine. My crew finally showed up to congratulate me, and me them. After doing the contingency thing, which we had done for too long, we loaded up and started to head out. We stopped by the Nesbit pit and celebrated with them for a moment. Charlie Harmon was there and asked if had been by the winners circle yet? Gee, I guess it had been too long since a first place finish, because we completely forgot about the winners circle. We unloaded the car and got it to the winner’s circle and had our pictures taken. We loaded up again and headed out to get a victory meal. We all met up and had a couple drinks and some decent food. Having been a very long day, we decided to get some sleep in Bowling Green and head out Monday morning. I have to thank so many people for this victory…. First, my lovely wife Colleen for being patient and understanding. Chris, my brother. He and I have become a lot closer because of racing. I wish I could have been able to afford to make my 2 boys Alex and Brandon part of it, you were missed all weekend. Hutch of Hutch’s trans service for a trans that just won’t break and tuning advice that gave us round and round wins Brian Mullaney, who couldn’t be there but is the man behind the scenes. My Uncle Alex and Duane for driving all the way down to help crew. My step daughters Alexis and Marissa for moral support and crewing. Team Midnight for all the support and food. And lastly my sponsors, Hutch's Trans Service Mickey Thompson NOS Pro-systems Scott’s crap custom rears Diamond pistons Dart Neal Chance Racing converters EC1 race cars Torco race fuels Isky lifters Moroso GRP MSD Powermaster Harlow Tires

Addition to crew Posted on 02/14/2007 12:06PM byBBNova Chris Parent will be joining team BBNova for the 2007 racing season. I look forward to having him there. It means allot to have his support and I look forward to what he brings to the team.

BBNOVA's 2005 season Posted on 10/12/2005 11:48AM byBBNova OUR 2005 NSCA NPS CHAMPIONSHIP SEASON What a season for team BBNOVA. Brian and I finally wrapped up a championship and met our goal from 5 years ago. I remember Brian and I showing up at Silver dollar raceway 5 years ago getting our first real taste of heads up competition. We were a green team then and it showed. The chassis was also a challenge as it was not built for the punishment we put it through. After a brand new EC1 25-5 back half and a new Lukovich 632 engine let us fast forward to the year 2005 and the long track to Belle Rose, La. back in March. The weather was beautiful and so was the track. We showed up with a motor that hadn’t been fired and lots of work to do. After working all day finishing everything up and firing the motor on Friday we looked forward to qualifying on Saturday. We ended up qualifying #1 dipping into the 7.5’s. We went to the finals where we met Dave Beeson. If you are not familiar with Dave Beeson, he is a hitter in the NPS class. We got lucky enough to put some tree on him and got our 1st NPS victory ever. Our heads were in the clouds as we made the long journey home. That brings us to NSCA race #2 in Atlanta, Ga. Unfortunately John Schroeder and team BBNOVA were the only NPS cars to show, so we made the best of it. With the motor mods that were made over the previous off season, I made a change to the motor that unknowingly allowed oil into the intake runners. During our last qualifier, we hurt the motor. We qualified right behind John with a 5.57 to John’s 7.55. We were unable to make the call on Sunday and John took the win. After we got home, we pulled the motor and I tore it down. I found it needed a set of pistons and still hadn’t figured out why the oil was getting in the runners. I did everything I could to try and seal the runners and set out for NSCA race #3 in Cecil County, Md. There were as usual the East coast big hitters there. We qualified 4th. On the 3rd qualifier, I had a brain fart and downshifted as I went through the traps at 180mph. I rounded the corner and looked the car over to see if there was any fluid or visual sign of failure from my mess up. Everything looked good. I fired the car and drove back to my pit and everything seemed good. We drew Henry Jackson first round. As I staged the car and stabbed the gas peddle, the car lurched forward and I stabbed the brakes as hard as I could and waited for the tree to come down. The car left hard in first gear. As I grabbed second, the motor zinged on me and I lifted as I had no 2nd gear. Still leading the points, we headed home and pulled the trans. Hutch of Hutch’s trans did his magic on it. I got my hand slapped and said I would try and never do that again. That brings us to NSCA race #4 in Milan, Mi. Milan is our home track and we wanted to do well there. We qualified #1 with Rob Golobo right behind us. We made it the finals to meet Rob. Wow, de-javu, we met Rob in the finals in Milan back in 2004. We red lit against him in the finals then. Unfortunately, this was de-javu to the 2nd power. As I left, I saw the red light come on and felt that I wanted to drive the car into the wall for doing that again. The runner up finish gave us enough points to give us a commanding lead in NPS. That brings us to the 2005 CFSC shootout. We have attended this event every year and fully enjoy ourselves. This year was no different other than this year it was held at Toronto Motorsports Parkway instead of Grand Bend. We ended up qualifying #3 and went to the finals against Sandra Grella. We didn’t have enough steam to get by her and we ended up runner up. We made the journey home and prepared for the next NSCA event. We showed up at Quaker City in Salem, Oh. for the NCSA’s 5th race and qualified #2 behind John Schroeder. We showed up on Sunday for eliminations only to have rain cancel the day. That was actually a good thing because that oil problem had showed its ugly head again. We pulled the motor once again and found 4 pistons had lost their eyebrow, totally gone down the top ring. After getting the motor back together and finally realizing what was causing the oil problem and correcting it, we were on our way to Mid Michigan Motorplex for the 6th race in the NCSA series. We had a new big hitter show up for this race. John Baio and his wonderful wife were looking to put the rest of on the trailer. John went out first round of qualifying and laid down a #1 qualifying pass with a mid 7.5 pass and hurt the motor doing so. We qualified #2 and looked forward to eliminations on Sunday. Sunday came and we managed to get to the finals were we met John Baio. We staged the cars and waited for the tree to come down. Unfortunately, John didn’t wait long enough and gave me the win. After Mid Michigan and having a commanding lead we looked forward to the Finals in Columbus Ohio. We had the championship wrapped up and could relax and have fun. Unfortunately for our team, a few days before departure, Brian, my crew chief called and said he would not be able to make it. I was devastated. Our winning season, everything we had worked so hard for. I told him I understood and if there was a chance for him to make it to please show up. I put out a post on this site for help. Glenn and Bob answered the call and we were off to Columbus for the 7th and Final NSCA race for 2005. After our first qualifier and some motor popping, we got the car back to the pit and found the positive wire going to the coil had come lose and the fastener was backed out so far as I grabbed the wire, the fastener fell out. I tightened the fastener down and went out for another qualifier, which was the first round for the Salem make up race. We had Doug smith first round and as it turned out, he had something for us. He treed me with a .004 light and ran a 7.54. That was enough to send him to the final round for that make up race. Unfortunately, team BBNOVA was still having ignition problems and went over everything once again. We had one more qualifier and went over everything and went out for another try. The motor still popped and banged down the track. I found a coil thanks to Dave Laurer and replaced mine with his. We went out first round on Sunday and I did my normal first round long burnout. As I was backing up, there was some confusion on our team as to backing me up. Unfortunately, we were out of the grove as the car left and made a hard left turn and sent us home with a bittersweet 2005 NPS championship. This 2005 season gave us another year of learning and experience. The older I get, the more I find out I don’t really know. There are so many people to thank for this 2005 Season. First Mr. Tony Depillo for giving all of us a place to race and for the lead on the 2005 Norwalk Night Under Fire Show, The other guy didn’t stand a chance…HE HE HE…. I would also like to thank Brian Mullaney; it has been proven this season that without you none of this would have been possible. Thank you Glenn, Rita, Colleen, Shannon, Bob, and Jeff for all of your support this year. Thanks to my two sons Alex and Brandon for putting up with a dad that loves this sport maybe too much. Thanks to my dear friend Hutch. Without you my friend, we would still be hurting parts and running high 7’s instead of a consistent 7.5 and 7.6 car. Thanks to Ernie of EC1 race cars. You built me one of the badest hot rods out there. Thanks to Jeff Lukovich for all you have done. It goes to show that sometimes friendship and business can go hand in hand. Thanks to all my sponsors. Lukovich racing engines and parts, Hutch’s trans service, DTS parts and service, NOS brand nitrous, Mickey Thompson tires, Corteco for sponsoring our organization, Moroso for their parts that just keep doing their job, Neal Chance racing converters, Patrick at Pro systems, Powermaster for their starter that just keeps cranking, and lastly RPM performance products for the data logger that unfortunately I only got use this last race. It did help me narrow down my ignition problem and worked flawlessly. It is a very nice and easy to use tool at a very affordable price.

Welcome all to my new site Posted on 01/04/2004 6:35PM byBBNova This is all possible because of the time and effort my brother Chris Parent put into it. I truly appreciate all you have done and are doing. The best part about this is, he did the site so I can make a lot changes to this site by myself now. And lets face it I am not that computer savy.If anyone is interested in having a website designed please contact Chris or me. Chris's contact info is at the bottom of this page. Thanks again Chris!!