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EP Minerals' Global Technical Services Director Larry Galberd and his team use EP Minerals' Floor-Dry Absorbent to clean up fuel spills at the racetrack
It's time to check in on our resident racecar driver, Larry Galberd! EP Minerals' Floor-Dry, the #1 absorbent for the racetrack, is one of Larry's sponsors.
If you'll recall from a previous blog post, EP Minerals’ Global Technical Services Director Larry Galberd leads a double life. By day, Larry could be anywhere in the world helping our diatomaceous earth or perlite filtration customers optimize their filtration processes and solve problems. By night and on weekends (and any other chance he gets) Larry is driving hell bent for leather at 140 mph for his Blew-By-You race car team in the ChumpCar Racing Series. Larry and his team are “sponsored” (I use that term loosely) by EP Minerals’ Floor-Dry absorbent, the #1 automobile oil spill cleanup product that can be found at all the major auto supply stores today.
Go Larry! And keep promoting our #1 absorbent at the racetrack - Floor-Dry!
By Larry Galberd
A few weeks ago, we raced our new car at Daytona International Speedway. This was a 14 hour race and we finished 9th out of 126 cars entered. We were really pleased with our top 10 finish! We had three drivers in the race, and a friend helping in the pits (and managing the Floor Dry - our sponsor - to absorb the oil spills from the car.) We're still racing in the Chumpcar Series, an affordable series with real racing and real cheap “Joe Average” type cars. Our new #112 is a better, faster car than I've had in the past.
Larry Galberd crossing the finish line in his Floor Dry absorbent sponsored car
Then, this past weekend, we were at the National Corvette Museum racetrack for and eight hour and another seven hour race. We placed 10th on Saturday and 12th on Sunday. In the two day races we had four drivers and another good friend to help in the pits. Lots of EP Minerals' Floor-Dry was used to soak up the spills during refueling!
We have three more races this year - Virginia International Speedway, Atlanta Motorsports Park, and Barber Motorsports Park. Hopefully the car will hold up to these long races. Virginia is a 24 hour race!
The premise of endurance racing is to finish the race, and placement is based on how many laps are driven in the race. The faster cars with no problems will complete the most laps and prizes are awarded for the first three places. Driver stints last 2 hours after which the car must pit for a driver change, fueling and any repair work to the car. Best case scenario you are in the pits for the mandatory 5-minute pit stop and then the car re-enters the race. During the pit stop any spillage of fuel or other fluids leaked must be cleaned from the pit area. We use Floor-Dry granular diatomaceous earth (DE) absorbent to soak up these spills, and it does a great job.
Larry Galberd always has his bag of super absorbent Floor-Dry ready to soak up oil spills at the racetrack
By the way, our racing team is called Blew-By-You. We drive fast as hell, back straights over 135-140 and through the turns (these at road tracks with lots of turns) some at 80-100 mph so slower depending on difficulty. It’s all about lap times.
I also own a Porsche race car with one other friend and we run this car in HPDE (High-Performance Driver Education) events. These events are not full on racing, but we run on the premier Road Tracks around the Southeast ( Road Atlanta, Barber Motor Sports Park (Birmingham, AL), Virginia International Raceway, etc.). We are typically on the track with 25-30 other cars with unlimited passing allowed, and these are typically much higher speed events that the Chumpcar races (higher horsepower cars).
All of our cars are badged with EP Minerals’ Floor-Dry stickers, and the oil absorbent is used in the pits. Other teams are seeing us using Floor-Dry and asking where they can get it!
