MANY POSITIVE CHANGES FOR BARKLAGE RACING IN 2008

Zach Barklage to Race O’Reilly Super Chevy Show at Memphis Motorsports Park

MEMPHIS , Tenn. (April 17, 2008) – The 2007 World Championship team of Barklage Racing has regrouped, rebuilt, and is ready to begin 2008. After suffering a devastating race trailer fire at the end of 2007, many doubted the full return of Zach and Cody Barklage until late in 2008. The team now has a new look, new second car and new crew chief to begin their season.

“We’ve worked very hard all winter to be ready,” stated Zach Barklage. “We spent a majority of our time working on a new race rig, and putting together our new Firebird. We pretty much had to gut the GTO too and put it back together. It’s been a lot of work for us, but I think we’re about ready to hit the season at full force.”

Zach Barklage will be behind the wheel of the teams current Pontiac GTO, but the look will be different then when younger brother Cody drove the car. Bringing back Zach’s signature look from his Grand Am several years ago, the car now in black, has “Skully” prominently featured on the hood once again.

Cody Barklage will be behind the wheel of his Lucas Oil, 1968 Pontiac Firebird. The new car, which was recently finished at Chris Duncan Race Car’s, is receiving the finishing touches and will soon be ready for competition.

“We’ve had a lot to do to be ready,” said Cody Barklage. “My brother [Zach] is taking the GTO and I’m getting the Firebird. We just picked it up from Chris Duncan up in Illinois recently, and now we’re getting it put together the rest of the way. It looks great and Chris did a great job!”

To increase their productivity and success for the season, Barklage Racing acquired a new crew chief. Chad Wilson, who was with the team during their most successful year of AMS competition in 2004, is back leading the team. His impressive resume includes work on Del Worsham’s funny car team and most recently the AMS Pro Mod team.

“This was coming home for me,” said Wilson . “My family lives here in the area and it all seemed to work out. We’ve had a lot going on to be ready. There were several blown up engines from last season we had to rebuild, not to mention the mess after the fire. We had to prepare our new rig for our purposes, and basically build two new cars. We also had a lot of stuff to sort through at the shop and lots of messes to sort out.”

Wilson went on to comment, “We took Zach and the GTO to test last week at Ozark International. We weren’t sure what to expect with the track conditions tricky. The weather was very cool and it was the first race of the year, so we knew the track would be a little green. We exceeded our expectations by a lot! The car ran great and not only did we win the race, but we set a new ET and MPH record.”

The first event for Barklage Racing this season is the upcoming Super Chevy Show at Memphis Motorsports Park . Running only one car for this event, the team will concentrate on strong start for the remainder of the year.

“We know we can run very well with our existing GTO this weekend,” said Wilson . “The team has done well in the past in Super Chevy Show, and we hope to perform in our usual winning way. With the format changing this year to 1/8 mile, we feel we may be able to step up our game a bit and hopefully win a race.”

Barklage Racing would like to acknowledge Lucas Oil, Taylor Cable, Torco Racing Fuels, NGK Sparkplugs, Goodson, Goodyear, Lake Race Products, P & A Drywall, Mark Barklage Drywall, Moreland Well Drilling, Weld Wheels, and the United States Marine Corps.

Notable

• Cody Barklage is the 2007 Super Chevy Show Aeromotive Fuel Systems Nitro Coupe World Champ
• Zach Barklage is the 2007 Super Chevy Show Aeromotive Fuel Systems Nitro Coupe Runner Up
• The team is based in Lake Ozark , Missouri .
• The team is owned and operated by parents Mark and Cathy Barklage, and operates a large family owned large drywall company in the Ozarks area of Missouri .
• Zach Barklage had his best ever finish in NHRA AMS Pro Mod in 2004 with an astounding 4th place finish.
• Zach Barklage just set the 1/8 mile ET and MPH record in Pro Mod at Ozark International Raceway, and currently has the ¼ mile ET record at Tulsa Raceway Park with a 6.01.

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