Mark Lawrence aka Pit Ho

[Rest In Peace]

Mark Lawrence aka Pit Ho
Passed Away on 3/29/2012

I first met Mark on a little league bench during tryouts.. when I was 8.. he was 9. We were both scared of how fast those 12 year olds were pitching.

We attended middle school and high school together.. friends, but not the best of… that would come later.

We went our own ways after high school, but reconnected when we were about 40, when he became a delivery driver for Action Reprographics and we spent some time chatting at Fred’s Place in Mt. View after that.

We caught up on life and after telling him about my racing career he was interested in see what that was about.

I invited him to a track day in 2000 and he dug it.. his one question before going was.. can I drink beer there? :laughing

He did that and little whisky too. He enjoyed the day pic attached.

As we became better friends barf came into my life. When I told him barf was starting a race team he had quite a few track days under his belt and wanted to help. Pit Ho was born… well sort of. Mark helped with the work to go to the races and became our logistics wizard and cook. SteveCo said to him you’re a good pit whore… and then Pit ho was named and a barf identity created.

He was the go to guy for setting up, tearing down and countless bbq’d hot dogs. He dug it.. came to events meeting lots of good folks along the way and his friendships expanded far into the community.

We did some video work for the Vision Well produced AFM 2004 movie. Antoine Miller and Jay Rosas became constants at the track that first race year and Pit Ho Samurai Chef for Barf Racing came about. Some of those early vids appeared in the AFM Movie in the extra’s. Fun times.

When Felipe Cabezas won the first trophy for the race team in ’05 Mark was proud as if he won it. He was hooked.

The following year (2006) when Bobby Fong and Andy Carman started to race for us his pride grew as fast as his friendships in the pits. Quiet for the most part, but always a big smile and willing to do whatever it took. We shared weekends traveling to the races, set up for barf bashes.. etc.

The Barf books:
For the barf bash in 2007 his boss made the big photo albums. He then began a legacy of gluing too. I called him “glue boy”. He would come to my office after his work and glue for a couple of hours creating the barf books. 99% of the pics in the books are there because of his effort. His pay.. a shot and a beer. Cheap rate.. enjoyable times as I would hear him laughing from across the room when looking at the pics I printed. Our friendship continued to grow. When I need something heavy lifted at my house because I was remodeling he would always say yes. His pay.. a dinner here and there.. a sandwich here and there.. a beer and a shot.

We had some great times at MotoGP thanks to Repsol and continued to run up and down the coast for races.
Helped film the Danny Pedrosa interview in the best of barf and we got a "Samurai Chef" classic.
http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/videos/Samurai_Chef/sam-chef-medium-QT.mov

When 1Rider started he was there to pack and support. He enjoyed seeing the kids look at our stuff and he enjoyed knowing that we were making a little ding in the moto safety field.

Finally my time at my real job got the best of me and we changed how barf racing worked. Berto would do his own thing.. carry the barf racing name and we just showed up on race day. No more hauling.. cooking.. but still the pride of watching the thrill of racing. Bill Swim became Berto’s mechanic and another bond was beginning to emerge as well for both of us.

When Siggy joined the Team and barf racing had a guy in full time Formula Pacific he was prouder than ever to be a part of it. When Chris won our first FP race three years ago now.. he and I shared the victory at the end of the day.. at Fred’s.. with a shot and a beer.. or two. ort

When Siggy challenged for the title and berto won the F1 Championship he was always talking up the racing team to whomever would listen. Damn proud.

When Siggy won # 1 last year.. it was time to revel in the success.. We did so at the end of the day.. with a shot and a beer.

He was proud of winning a barfie or two.. for all of his support. One is still in the race case at Fred’s in front of one of his other favorite past times. Getting a pic of him with Umbrella girls.. pit ho.. indeed.

When we started doing barf rallies again Mark was in.. he did not ride and many times said I love speed and I will die if I do it. He had a Ford Lightning for a while before we got back together at Fred's and always said he would kick my ass if we were in a cage on the track.

So he drove his BMW to the Rallies.. he loved making new friends there and as the cager on the first rally he was tasked with putting up signs along the route. He knew that seeing those would make barfers smile so he took off earlier than the riders to make that happen and indeed a nice surprise for our members on the rally. He got nabbed by a Ranger in Yosemite for doing it, but once he explained it was not the Hells Angels coming through the park the Ranger was cool with it just asking him to come back through and pick it up.

I am really glad he came to our High School reunion last year.. (My class as he was one year ahead of me). He did some good bragging about the race team and that made me proud because I knew because of his volunteering and my passion we shared something pretty special.

The last Rydther Rally (Sept. 2011) I had a back injury and Mark and I drove my truck there, but I had the tard in the back and when I unloaded to ride the good stuff with friends he would follow in my truck. I had a blast and got to do something I had dreamed of.. ride the Sonora Pass on a small nimble fun ass bike. We did this coming and going. He did one last Samurai Chef at the beginning of the vid I did before I hit the road... I think him and I laughed more than anyone at those dumb video's, but that is cool. We got to laugh our asses off doing them and he felt like a Hollywood Star.. :laughing

Here that is:
http://www.bayarearidersforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=381590

One last time.. he help me load for the Barf 10.1 bash..set up and enjoy the party. His classic line when loading for any event "If we don't have it, we don't need it"

That night he drove me home when I had one too many.

Godspeed brother.. will miss you greatly.
I am sure many others will do the same.

Thanks for all the help, you made barf better by being you.