About Lightning Racing Carbs

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jmarkaudio
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Joined: Wed Sep 26, 2007 11:26 am
Location: Florida

About Lightning Racing Carbs

Post by jmarkaudio »

First a brief history of me. I grew up in the 60’s, my dad was an Air Force mechanic and had a passion for race cars. I was the oldest child, grew up working on cars with him. After high school I worked on cars for a living, eventually becoming ASE certified in most categories at the time. I learned to rebuild automatics, studied flow charts, eventually understanding fluid flow to make my own changes to valve bodies for performance. My dad started bracket racing around 1979 on a weekly basis, I started in 1983. Over the early years I was track champion 3 times, runner up once. In 1988 I married my current wife Wanda, this year will be 31 years for us. At was at the point we met I was introduced to TV broadcasting for live sporting events, shortly after I quit my day job to be freelance in the industry starting out learning basics by volunteering at a local TV station and helping on remotes. Paid jobs came as I learned more. I later took a class in audio engineering at Full Sail and some electronics classes at a local vocational school. I’ve worked my way up to the point that I now mix audio for most anything, mixing MLB, NHL, And NBA for over 20 years. I’ve worked with all the major networks, traveled to several countries for work, and worked Olympics, Superbowls, World Series, Stanley Cup, and NBA Finals.

LRC grew out of frustration of the way my 8896 HP Dominator ran out of the box. If you dig deep enough here you will find my original post in the archives in 2007, looking for answers that you couldn't find in any of the traditional books. With an answer from Tuner leading me to convert it to a two circuit carburetor the deal was sealed, I had to learn more. Subsequent help from Tuner and Bruce Robertson (RIP) AKA Shrinker, the forums Motorsports Village and the old Innovate forum I found more info on the subject. I was impressed by the improvement that was fairly simple to make, and challenged myself to learn more about the mystique of a carburetor. Tuner and Shrinker gave me books to key on the subject of carbs, fuel properties, and combustion properties. I started with my own carbs, then my brother, then helped out some friends. I kept it small, trying to stay relatively local so I could work first hand if needed. As I learned more I started giving advice on a variety of forums, and still do although my free time is I bit more limited now. I believe anyone serious enough to attempt their own mods should have info to help them, and I still give advice to help when needed.

Being close to BLP and growing up with my dad buying parts from the original company Bo Laws Performance is was an easy choice for me to get parts from. I became friends with Mike Laws as our age was similar, and found there were things to learn from the resources there. I also found the parts were always built with quality in mind, and still are to this day. Any company can have issues, but they still strive to make the best parts and take care of any issues. In 2011 Mike came to me while I was there and asked what I thought about a carb shootout, similar to an Engine Masters, I said it was a great idea and it would be a fun thing to participate in. Open mouth insert foot, he said great you are in. With some luck, testing fuel and calibrations before the event, I won the small block portion of the shootout despite extremely close numbers from all the competitors. The big block portion was a bit more challenging, the engine gave a few of us fits with distribution. 2012 I had open heart surgery, my recovery gave me less time to prepare but I still ended up 3rd with the small block portion. With the PRI moving to Indy in 2013 the shootout ended, but my customer list grew. I went from buying most parts as needed to now stocking most everything we need for what we work on most. I currently have Tony Morris working with me, Tony has experience working for Undercover race cars, worked his way up to carb shop manager at BLP, and worked building twin blades for Get’m Garage. Tony is also an avid Drag Racer, growing up learning and working with his father as well.

We stock parts from several companies, rebuild any Holley design race carb, build new using billet bodies from APD and BLP, build from 2 barrel to 2.800 throttle blade 4 barrel carbs, blower and blow thru, gas, E85, and methanol carbs. We have built in the 2000 HP range with blow thru, and recently 1500 HP with a single carb NA engine. Our motto is simple, we build a quality carb with the best parts we can for the application, and follow thru with service to ensure your success. We have all bought race parts that don’t fit correctly, don’t run well, or don’t work at all. I try not to sell anything a customer doesn’t need, or anything that is inadequate. Everything we build new is fully adjustable, and we build so that it responds correctly to metering changes. With our backgrounds and resources we rival any company out there, maybe not in size and partially because of my split job with TV, but in service and quality as well as performance and consistency. Our experience allows us to help even when issues are not carb related. If there is anything we can help with feel free to call, if I don’t answer right away I’ll get back to you as soon as possible, you can also text with questions or email us.

Mark Whitener
Lightning Racing Carbs
lightningracingcarbs@aol.com
407-421-1405
Mark Whitener
www.racingfuelsystems.com
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Good work isn't cheap and cheap work can't be good.
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