Claude Denny Barnes

1950 - 2021

CLAUDE DENNY BARNES

BARNEY DANNY

March 3, 1950 November 17, 2021

Barney was born in Bakersfield, CA. His parents had their hands full raising him and his older brothers. While playing under a mobile home he was crushed when a stand was knocked down. Just 3 years old he spent the next two and a half years at the L.A. Children's Hospital. He lost his right lung. A year of his time there he was in an iron lung. His heart moved to the right side of his body, he often joked his heart wasn't in the right place. On Christmas Day when he was 9 years old he got out of bed and fell to the floor, he had polio. Barney wasn't supposed to live past 12 years old. He proved all of the doctors wrong, he was tough and stubborn.

Barney spent a lot of this young life in hospitals or taking care of himself. His parents were migrant farm workers following the crops. Barney would stay alone during the week. He would get himself up and ready for school. Sometimes on the way home from school he would stop at a market to get himself food to cook.

Barney first learned to work on cars helping his brothers. When he was 16 he bought his first car for $50. He spent most of his life being involved with everything that had a motor and could race!

We know he did so many things, here are a few, he was involved with races at Famoso Dragstrip, Bakersfield Speedway, Pomona Raceway, Irwindale Speedway, Mesa Marin Raceway, Irwindale Dragstrip, Minter Field Airstrip, and countless others.

He was the hauler driver and cook for Lucas Oil Racing with Mike Duncan and Sunrise Ford Racing. He was the hauler driver for the P-51D Mustang Strega, and hauler driver and manager for the P-51D Mustang Huntress III. He worked on Alkali at tractor pulls with Frank Del Papa.

Barney had many jobs in his life, potato shed worker, movie theater manager, oil field crane operator, truck driver, mechanic, sold VP Racing Fuel, and managed the souvenir stands at Mesa Marin Raceway. In the 1970's he even made a motor oil commercial to be aired in Japan.

Remembered by his wife Marty Barnes and his daughter Claudia Disney, his brother Sam Cox, as well as numerous nieces, nephews and countless friends.

Barney's ashes will be kept by his wife and daughter. Please celebrate his life in the way you most remember him.

In lieu of flowers, please visit Barney's memorial page for ways to donate to his family. https://m.facebook.com/barneybarnes1950/

If it doesn't have a motor in it, its not a real sport. ~Barney B

www.bakersfield.com/obits