Well said Kramer. There are multiple stories of Ed jumping in to lend a hand to
the Texas rabble when our Triumphs have broken down or hauling back to his shop
in Arlington for a part (in fact, he was there in May at MSR Cresson when
Glenn?s spitfire lost its starter). It was shocking to see the news on Facebook
as Ed and I chatted quite a bit over the spring while he was getting that
red/white spitfire ready for Cresson.
My first meeting with Ed was as a newb driver with a new to me spitfire that
the alternator had just exploded on a race right before lunch at TWS. I had
just finished driving school and Ed saw me being towed in. Instead of eating
lunch with the other corner workers, he was over there immediately and had me
back on track.
He will be missed.
Derek
Sent from my iPhone
FOT
I?m not on the FOT list so I do not know if this news has made it to the
community. I saw on on Facebook last night that Ed Barnard passed away
unexpectedly Monday night. I knew he had a complicated medical situation but I
don't know what happened. He leaves behind a blended family including Willie
and Josh who we've met many times at the track and a bunch of folks who relied
on him for everything from tech advice to restoring cars. He will be missed at
the track and in the Triumph community.
I first met Ed via the South Central VTR Regionals. I was still in the start up
phase of the Hill Country Triumph Club, and combining roles as club president
and doing the dot matrix printed RAGTOP monthly. I didn't know Ed at the time
as but all the clubs shared newsletters and Ed handled the duties for the Red
River Triumph Club. We had occasionally communicated about the various events
going on around the state. I think he worked for Jeff Sloan?s British Auto
Specialists at the time and was still racing his Spitfire. Anyway, in the RRTC
newsletter, Ed had said some disparaging things about TR7's and being a
defender of all things Triumph I called him to task for it. We were still a
very small club at the time. Austin was in the early stages of massive growth
and our younger demographics meant that we had a number of members with TR7's
and 8's. We met and talked it out at the regional held in Houston and became
friends. He was mostly kidding about the TR7's. I'm sure they grew on him over
time as they have for pretty much everyone else.
I really didn't get to know Ed until I started racing with CVAR. He was always
at TWS helping in a variety of ways. He helped racers, helped the club and
having an affinity for Triumphs he migrated to the Triumph pits daily. I always
found it humorous, and I hope I don't offend anyone here, that some guys loved
the work that Ed did on their race cars and some, rightfully or not, blamed
him for the stuff that went wrong. The same guys, in a different year, might
trade places and opinions about Ed's workmanship. The truth is he was a great
resource. It's racing, stuff breaks. It isn't easy and you know what, if we are
honest we know that we screw stuff up all the time in racing. Move on and
smile, that's what Ed did.
As the years went by I drove many a lap around TWS knowing that Ed was on a
corner cheering on the Triumphs. We are not pro racers. Nobody is keeping
stats. We race mostly for our own satisfaction and maybe to earn a little
respect inside our clan. If you haven't ever raced you don't know the how it
feels to get a race car with competitors all around you. Even after you've done
it a hundred times the doubts and nerves still creep in. You get a little sick
to your stomach; probably from influxes of anticipation driven adrenaline. The
whistle blows, we start the cars and during the pace lap it all gets replaced
with focus. We are supposed to check out the flag stations on that lap but I
don't ever recall seeing Ed, but on the cool down lap there he would be,
clapping his hands in approval.
That's how I will remember Ed.
Bob Kramer
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