Johnny Barb: Pro Modified's warrior spirit
(7-26-2007) RALEIGH, NC - For those of you who long to pull for the colossal long shot, allow me to introduce Pro Modified's Johnny Barb. If remaining an underdog, however, is what's required to maintain your allegiance, you probably shouldn't get involved.
For several years Johnny Barb was known around the Don Plemmon's Quick-8 circuit as the man who drove the primered Corvette that was noticeably slower than the rest of the pack. Then came the paint job. From the moment Johnny Barb swung open the trailer doors in the spring of 2006 and rolled out his new flame work from the custom paint shop of Augies Art Works in Barb's own town of Raleigh, NC, people immediately stopped passing on by. Now days they stop and stare; a little while later they return and stare some more.
The paint job was the beginning of Johnny Barb's popularity around the drag strip. The paint you see, in and of itself doesn't necessarily turn casual onlookers into fans, but what it did do was cause people to stop and spend a moment with Johnny Barb and his team. Folks suddenly began asking questions. They'd ask questions about the car, the paint, the price of gas, you name it. Before you knew it Johnny Barb had an honest to goodness fan base that was growing all the time.
Any kid who is caught staring at Johnny Barb's race car more than 2 seconds gets scooped up and placed in the driver's seat as if they're going on a hay ride. "Do you like sitting in my car?", Johnny asks the youngsters. "Would you like to have one of these when you grow up?", he further inquires. After a series of head nods, and "yes sirs", Johnny goes straight into his advice of staying in school, listening to your parents and of course, eating your vegetables.
After Johnny tells them how a good boy or girl is supposed to behave, Johnny's partner in crime, Jim McCallum, goes over with the kids exactly what Johnny does during a run down the drag strip. This kind of attention is great for building lasting relationships, not to mention promoting respectful young fans who will likely grow up to be honorable, vegetable eating adults.
"These kids will never remember if we didn't qualify for this race, or maybe didn't win a round. Sitting in the race car is gonna stay with them though", says Barb.
People are routinely surprised by how approachable and incredibly friendly Johnny Barb and his whole team really are. Johnny himself is a true gearhead who loves the sport, and loves for people to stop by and say hello. The day this interview took place at Coastal Plains Dragway, Johnny was wearing an autographed Jerry Williams shirt. "I'm a big fan", laughed Barb. Ultimately that's what Johnny Barb is: A true and huge fan.
Spend some time with Johnny and the gang and you'll see that their operation is somewhat unique, low buck, and yes, extremely trick. You just have to remember to choose your topics of conversation wisely. Johnny easily comes across as "Ah shucks" as say, Bret Favre, and with it, just as much innovation when it comes to changing his own game.
Most people who ask Johnny to explain his manifold design for example, usually find themselves smiling and nodding and wondering where "Ah shucks Johnny" went.
Much like the band Styx was often referred to as "Thinking man's rock", the unique thought process of Johnny Barb is often just as intelligently off-beat as say, "Mr. Roboto".
As cool and unique as Barb's TM Race Cars Corvette is, it's the personality and approachability of the team that most folks are drawn to like a magnet. At the end of the day a stream of fans come by to tell Johnny how much they enjoyed seeing him again. They walk right up to the trailer door without hesitation or the fear of being run off. They poke their heads inside the transporter and extend their arm for a hand shake.
Johnny then scrambles to find any busted parts that he may have damaged that day so he can autograph and give away. No telling how many pistons have been turned into ashtrays or some sort of decoration for a den or office. Simply put, people rarely leave Johnny Barb's pit without feeling better than when they came. He's a deep thinking gear head who has highest hopes of changing his performance, but never the relationship with the fans.
Speaking of relationships, you'll never see a stronger friendship than Johnny Barb has with racing partner Jim McCallum. "He likes to stay out of the limelight, but this deal is every bit about him as it is me", insists Johnny. They argue like siblings at the drag strip, but would fight a grizzly bear over each other. "It's how we communicate", laughs Johnny, who routinely refers to Jim as "dad".
The partnership between Johnny Barb and Jim McCallum is an unlikely one that started with tragic beginnings. Barb, who has strong ties dating back to his days of Pro Street competition was introduced to Jim after a crash at Bowling Green claimed the life of Jim's brother Craig McCallum in 1998.
Johnny and Jim met soon after the accident and took to one another from the start. "Jim's a real hard head sometimes, but I wouldn't want him any other way", laughs Johnny. "I really wouldn't want to race without him", Johnny admitted.
It's no wonder that Barb describes his drag racing journey as being "One difficult road after another". After partnering with McCallum, their first outing together resulted in a crash that left them with a totally lost race car. After an 8 month rebuild (and during their first race back) the unthinkable happened: Another crash that totaled another race car.
It bears mentioning that Barb was hardly accused of driving over his head in either crash, but rather, just freak back to back racing mishaps. First was the Englishtown, NJ test session crash in April of 1999 when Barb's parachutes came out, but didn't deploy. "A 3,200 pound race car traveling at 200mph doesn't stop very well without parachutes", said Barb.
The second crash occurred at Moroso when the race car in front of Barb laid down a strip of transmission fluid that nearly covered the length of the track. Ironically, no one saw what happened that could have put a halt to the racing. "The fans were all yelling, but we didn't know it", said Barb. At 1,000 feet Johnny hit the fluid, sending the car around backwards and into the wall. Ironically, Barb qualified 8th in a 16 car field on that pass as he clocked 7.44 while going across the finish line backwards!
Through it all, Jim McCallum has unshakable confidence in Johnny in every aspect, from driving the race car to the unique path that Barb is constantly trying to carve in the performance department.
Johnny Barb seems extremely "in touch" with a lot of things, namely himself, and of course with Jim McCallum. His fellow competitors call him passionate, and the fans call him friend, but it's the heavy-hitting local community of performance experts that hardly know what to make of Johnny Barb.
Rarely does Barb do business locally, even though his home of Raleigh, NC is right in the middle of a power house performance mecca. Sometimes doing business with the heavy hitters is financially out of reach, other times it's because Barb has been told flat out that his ideas of making power just won't work.
Never discouraged, never doubting and yes, always thinking a mile a minute, Johnny Barb has the uncanny ability to search to the obscure ends of the earth (and often finds) just the right person who's got just the right product for his particular, and often peculiar application.
Wanna hear obscure? Barb's choice for nitrous components comes from a guy whose mailing address is Armthorpe, Doncaster - followed by a few strange numbers, presumably a zip code. Oh yeah, the guy also authors books. To Johnny Barb though, Trevor Langfield of High Power International sells the best nitrous products on the market. "Trevor is like my brother and I'm able to get along with him, mainly because I understand him", says Barb. "But as a Brit he's very "matter of fact" and most of us in America would much rather have it sugar coated.
"Trevor Langfield could be described as a genius who's also his own worst publicist", laughs Johnny. I don't think you'll find many people in this business who have lifetime warranties on their products, but Trevor Langfield does", said Barb.
Next time you see Johnny Barb, ask him to give you the "drinking soda pop" illustration and how it applies to the dip tube, then you'll understand why he has his nitrous bottles mounted upside down. Even though nobody else in Pro Modified is known for the "upside down nitrous bottle technique", Barb swears that when Todd Tutterow came over and took a peek, he told him that he should never give up on this, and it was extremely trick and smart.
Other innovations from Johnny Barb include a manifold in which Johnny calls "his most proudest achievement". Using Trevor Langfield products (not to mention lots of Trevor Langfield advice) Johnny's intake is a result of many nights in the shop that totals 300 hours of design and development. The fuel nozzle is also completely custom made. "When you're doing something for the first time and don't really have anything to go by you have to sort of envision it", says Barb.
It also took vision, and maybe even a gamble when Johnny Barb decided on the idea that his motor was going to be cooled primarily by the oil, with no water used at all. "We had a special tank made over at BSR which holds 14 quarts of oil, rather than the usual 10. I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I am a thinking man, and I honestly don't think these things run long enough to overheat", insists Barb.
Barb's opinion received a shot of encouragement at a race last year when Ken Regenthal needed to borrow a head to compete further or his night was over. "We offered our head to Ken, but I told him that the thing was sealed and had no water in it", said Barb. Ken replied, "That's fine, I'm not sure you need it anyway". Regenthal promptly mounted the borrowed head right along side his conventional head and went racing.
More recently, Barb points to the "semi-hemi", Sonny Leonard-built power plant that's between the frame rails of Steve Vick's Corvette, another engine which uses no water. "Steve talked to me about it extensively last year, and you see what he wound up doing". "To his credit, adds Barb, Steve Vick really put us in the right direction with our clutch set up earlier this year".
It was right about the same time frame that Johnny made a trip to Spartanburg, SC were the Corvette had a little "Mauney Magic" performed on it. "The car is working so much better after Tommy made some important adjustments for us", said Barb.
Sometimes Barb's way of thinking takes time to sink in, other times it takes nothing more than a 10 minute chat on the phone. Such was the case when Barb spoke with Ricky and Brent Dyer of 02 Technologies in Texas. The Dyer's (a father and son team of performance gurus) were immediately convinced of the potential of Johnny Barb's set up, and immediately contracted Dave Cook to build a pair of carburetors used in conjunction with the E-85 ethanol fuel that Johnny switched over to in 2007. The Dyers incidentally, are so enthused at the possibilities that the two are traveling to Mooresville next month to take in a Quick-8.
As far as the E-85 fuel itself, Barb immediately gained 50 more horse power when he made the switch. "We actually use a mixture of E-85 with a 13% mixture of racing gas. They're not allowed to ship it as 100% because that would be white lightning", laughs Barb. "Next race we're at come over and smell our fuel", invited Johnny, further bragging, "It's got a real sweet smell when it's burning!"
With all the trick pieces, odd ball components and specialized engineering, Johnny Barb readily admits that he's behind in performance. "I know our ET's doesn't reflect that we're onto something great, but just wait. I'm also not one to make predictions, but I'm going out on a limb by saying that by the end of the year I'm not just going to be a fill-in anymore. We plan on having this car competitively running in the middle of the pack", say's Barb, citing that he thinks 4-teens are very possible with his team's current set up.
Barb's plans for 2008 are even more radical with the hopes of acquiring a new bullet in the form of a larger cubic inch motor. "I've been talking to several people about the possibilities", say's Barb. "The main thing is just finding someone who'll be completely open to working with our set-up, and be ready and willing to build a custom engine", Barb explains.
"Most people who have plenty of money just do things and really don't even know why - they just do it because someone else does it that way". "We're low buck and that certainly has something to do with our decisions, but at the same time we are really trying to further advance nitrous", say's Barb.
"We have good components, we're just lacking in a motor right now", says Barb. "Until we recently replaced them, we probably had the oldest set of 5 inch welded heads in existence", laughs Barb, confessing that the heads actually date back to Tommy Gray's Undertaker car of the mid-1990's.
Pioneering this road in the Pro Modified division hasn't been easy, nor has it been terribly successful to date, but Johnny Barb is man full of ideas who just keeps on coming. He's getting quicker, hurting less parts and is without question the happiest when he's at the track.
Along with the steadfast friendship of Jim McCallum, and a great working relationship with Robbie Ward at Magna Fuel, a 2-year sponsor, Johnny Barb's volunteer crew consists of Jeff Rye, Chubs Honeycutt and Chris King.
Special thanks to Tommy Mauney; Dan and Jamie Schwardpkopf for providing the E-98 fuel through Wyoming Fuels; Bobby and Danny Perry of B&D Automotive; Rich Garner for ring and piston support; Robbie Ward of Magna Fuel; Jeff Rye Performance Parts; NRC Oil Pumps and Augies Art Works in Raleigh, NC for the amazing paint job.
Story and photos by:
Van Abernethy Press Releases
3898 West Hwy 10
Newton, NC 28658
(828) 302-0356
writevan@yahoo.com
