Gallagher Racing Adds New Crew Chief and Looks Forward to Strong 2023 Modified Campaign at Bridgeport

For Gallagher Racing, the 2022 started out as a what can go wrong will go wrong season. In the final month of the season the bad racing karma skies began to clear with the addition of a new crew chief Jim Dallett and the 31J team began to find the consistent speed that they have been looking for to carry into the 2023 season.

Jimmy reflected “2022 was our second season in modified and we started the season out trying to figure out the setup for our new 22 Bicknell car. We struggled in every way possible and ended up breaking about everything we could from motor(s) right back to the rear. We were not having any success in setting up the new car until towards the end of 2022 when dad and I put our minds together with Jim Dallett and found changes that got us immediate results and speed. One of our key days of the season was a practice day later where we found over a half of a second of improvement of our lap times. We finally got a setup that could come forward through the field instead of falling back through the field. Later in the season things really started to come around and for us and we got a 3^rd place finish which was our best finish of the season. At the Danny Serrano Memorial we had our best car of the season and quickly moved forward from 12^th to 5^th until we fell out with a parts failure.”

Jimmy continued “I think we have a great baseline to head into 2023 with Jim Dallett as our new crew chief the team behind us that can win some races this year. My goal this season is to get a modified win for my dad. I was 27 years old when I started racing in 2017 and was able to get five wins in the Rookies division and win the rookie championship at Bridgeport. We picked up six more wins in the 602 Crate division at Bridgeport before moving to modifieds in 2021. The move from crate to modified was incredibly challenging just from a competitive level standpoint since any mistake you make is immediately capitalized on by modified competitors, but in the end, it makes you become a better driver. We started out on bars and a right side pan hard which had worked fine in the crate division, but we quickly found out we needed to update our technology and suspension setup for the modified division. It took us nearly two years to find a setup that works for us and is competitive with the modifieds. We race against guys who race for a living and have larger budgets then we do, but I consider it a privilege to be on the track with them and able to competitively mix it up with the best in the business.”

“We will again be racing weekly at Bridgeport this season and looking for a top five finish in the season points or better this year. We also plan to make some trips to special year end shows at New Egypt and Georgetown.”

For the 2023 season Jim Dallet will be the crew chief for the 31J Gallagher Racing and Jim will also run a limited schedule with his 602 Crate Sportsman entry when the 31J modified schedule permits.

Jim Dallett commented “This is a tremendous opportunity and at the same time very humbling because of the immense responsibility involved. Jimmy and I share a similar work ethic, expectations, and view of how we should get things done, which makes for a good working relationship both in the shop and at the track. Gallagher Racing is a primarily a family funded race team competing against much bigger teams which seriously motivates me to get our best results possible in whatever we do. Our goal is simply to win some races and if we happen to find ourselves as a contender in the points chase that would be great, but our main goal is feature wins in 2023.”

Dallett continued “I found that Jimmy is particularly good at providing the driver feedback necessary to make car adjustments that will improve our performance. We really started to click toward the end of 2022 at some test sessions when we try some stuff and found a new baseline setup that was comfortable for both Jimmy to drive and me to work on. Our improved results at the end of the 2022 season were encouraging as we look forward to the 2023 season. At the last race of the season the front of the field knew we were there. We plan to keep it that way in 2023.”

We could not do all this without support of an excellent group of sponsors:

All County Garage Door

Belmont’s Garage

Keen Compressed Gas

Lombardo Racing Engines

The 31J Gallagher Racing Team has two fresh Lombardo spec motors ready to go and are just a March test session away from getting their 2023 drive to Bridgeport’s modified victory lane underway.