Barry Goodman Plays In The Dirt On And Off The Race Track

SPRING CITY, TN – Barry Goodman of Spring City, TN has been playing in the dirt for 35 years. Goodman has been slinging dirt during the weekends at dirt tracks throughout the Southeast, but during the week, Goodman does it in the dirt in a way that might surprise many race fans.

Imagine parking your vehicle in a supermarket or other retail outlet parking lot in East Tennessee, and stepping out on to a clean asphalt surface. The chances are that clean asphalt parking lot surface is courtesy of the defending and three-time Mountain View Raceway Late Model Champion Barry Goodman.

The 58-year-old Goodman has been racing since 1986. He worked his way up from Go-Karts, to Super Stocks, to Late Models. He has won track titles locally, and he has toured with a national series. Goodman stays busy because in addition to his racing endeavors, he works a pair of “real” jobs.

During the day, Goodman works construction in and around his Spring City base, but when the sun goes down, and the stores close, Goodman climbs behind the wheel of a different looking vehicle with Goody’s Power Sweeping emblazoned on its flanks. While most people are home in their beds fast asleep, Goodman travels throughout East Tennessee power sweeping parking lots.

Like many East Tennessee dirt track racers of today, Goodman got his start in racing in Go-Karts in 1986. After a couple seasons in Go-Karts, it was on to the big cars with a Super Street machine competing at Spring City (TN) Raceway in 1988. On the track, most drivers are identified by their number. These are digits that many drivers, including Goodman, have carried throughout their entire career.

“My car number has always been 24, and I chose that number for a couple of reasons,” Goodman said. “Ever since my Dad started taking me to the races when I was a kid in the 1970s, I was an H.E. Vineyard fan, and his number was 24. The second reason I chose that number was that my daughter Heather was born on the 24th day of the month.”

Goodman and the #24 Super Stock were successful right out of the box. He finished third in his first race, and his first win came in his third race. Although he was in the “B” Super Stock Division, the guy winning most of the “A” Super Stock races was Marion Tipton of Spring City. Goodman caught Tipton’s eye and he took a liking to the Rookie driver.

Tipton said Goodman was one of the best young drivers out there, and he took the young driver under his wing. Goodman worked his way to the top of the “A” Division in no time, and he began to travel a little bit, running at Atomic Speedway outside of Knoxville, TN and at Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, TN, where he won a race in 1989.

Goodman moved up to the Late Model Division in 1992 and battled for the Championship at Wartburg Speedway in Wartburg, TN. He also competed in the Late Model Division at the track where he saw his first race as a young boy, the high banks at Atomic Speedway where he won the Track Championship in 1999.

By 2004, Goodman settled in to compete back at his hometown track, Spring City Raceway, where he won the Late Model Championship in 2013. It was the last season for Spring City Raceway which shut down after the end of the season.

After the 2013 season, Goodman decided to take some time off from racing in order to spend more time with his newborn daughter Lynsie. Goodman said that was time well spent and he said it also gave him time to regroup.

“I committed myself to running every Saturday night at Spring City Raceway, so after winning the championship there in 2013, I needed some time off to spend with my family,” Goodman said. “I got a chance to refresh my batteries, take a break from racing, and re-evaluate where I was going in the sport.”

Goodman found a new affordable National Touring Series in 2015 that fit where Goodman wanted to go in racing. The Chevrolet Performance Super Late Model Series was launched by the Crate Racin’ USA Founder Mike Vaughn in 2015.

The series featured Dirt Late Models powered by the Chevrolet Performance All-Aluminum CT525 Racing Engines that were built and sealed at the factory to prevent any expensive modifications. The engine was based off the Chevrolet LS3 Engine that came in the Corvette and Camaro. It cost less than $10,000 race ready, a third of the cost of a built Super Late Model engine.

“I had never tried a National Touring Series before because of the cost,” Goodman said. “The Chevrolet Performance Super Late Model Series was affordable with the CT525 engine, and the eight races on the schedule were all within just a few hours or closer from the house. This series just fit our racing budget.”

Goodman was a regular on the Chevrolet Performance Super Late Model Series from 2015 through 2018. The end of the 2018 season brought yet another change in Goodman’s racing program in two different ways. Mike Vaughn sold Crate Racin’ USA at the end of the 2018 season, and the new owners decided to discontinue the Chevrolet Performance Super Late Model Series.

“I really enjoyed running the Chevrolet Performance Super Late Model Series,” Goodman said. “The competition was tough on the race track, and I was able to learn a lot. It was also a close knit group of racers. We all ran up and down the roads together going to and from races and we all seemed to get along. I made many new friends in this series. It was so affordable, and I hope somebody will do another traveling series for Late Models with the CT525 Engine.”

Also, after the 2018 racing season, Barry Goodman suffered a heart attack.

“Everything changed for me after the heart attack, but not necessarily in a bad way,” Goodman said. “I had to make a change in my lifestyle, like what and how I ate. While I never lost my desire to race, I knew before I could race again, I had to get healthy. After running a Rocket Chassis for a few years, I decide to try a CVR Chassis when I was ready to return to racing,”

You just can’t keep a good racer down. Goodman recovered from the heart attack and got the green light from his doctor to return to racing in late spring of 2019. Goodman had to overcome new race car bugs while running at East Tennessee tracks in the Charlie’s Used Auto Parts CVR, a chassis manufactured in Lenoir City, TN by Chip Vineyard Racing.

“We only got to run 2/3s of a season, but once we got some electrical problems behind us, we had a pretty good race car,” Goodman said. “There was word that Kelvin and Susan Hampton were getting ready to reopen the Spring City track, now called Mountain View Raceway. They made a lot of changes to the old track and gave it a real face lift. I was excited about getting to run my hometown track again. When it opened, it was the nicest race track I had ever seen.”

When the 2020 season opened at Mountain View Raceway for the 2020 season, Goodman was there and became an instant front runner. By season’s end, Goodman had picked it up where he left off at the old track in 2013. He was the 2020 Mountain View Raceway Late Model Champion. So, how did he top that? He came back to win the Championship again in 2021 with four wins.

“I really like the new configuration of the new track,” Goodman said. “It raced a lot different than the old track, and it’s more of a driver’s track. It doesn’t take a lot of horsepower to go fast at the new track. Because of that, we’re going to try something different for 2022 and return to an old friend.”

For 2022, Goodman is going to drop a Chevrolet Performance CT525 in his CVR Chassis in quest of his fourth straight Mountain View Raceway Late Model Championship. Goodman feels this engine is built for a track like Mountain View Raceway.

“The Chevrolet Performance CT525 Engine produces more torque than it does horsepower, and with the tight 1/4-mile high-banked configuration of Mountain View Raceway, it takes torque to go fast,” Goodman said. “I really liked the CT 525 Engine. It’s not only affordable, but it’s also very reliable. About all we ever had to do was change the oil.”

Mountain View Raceway will host its first pre-season Practice Session on Saturday, March 5 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The second pre-season Practice Session will be on Saturday, March 12 from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. The first race of the 2022 season at Mountain View Raceway will be on Saturday night, March 26, and the first Points Race of the 2022 season will be on Saturday night, April 2.

Mountain View Raceway where you can get “Your Thrill By The Hill” is located at 20626 Rhea County Highway (U.S. Highway 27), Spring City, TN 37381. For more information, call 423-405-8490 or visit the track website at www.mountainviewraceway.com. You can also like the Mountain View Raceway Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/mountainviewraceway.