Drag Illustrated Issue 112, August 2016 | Page 61

D.I. COLUMNIST The Real Deal I with Tommy D'Aprile recently headed north from my home in Florida to Budds Creek, Maryland, to compete in the PDRA event at Maryland International Raceway. When I arrived at the airport there, I was shocked to walk from the terminal into 98-degree weather. I thought we must’ve landed back in Florida, where it’s 90-plus almost every day throughout the summer! Anyway, my hopes for a little cool weather were dashed as we experienced ultra-hot temperatures all weekend at the track. Regardless, no matter how hot and sticky it was, I knew I was going to enjoy the weekend. I mean, how many people would love to go racing at the level we compete at and get to travel all over the country? It always makes me appreciate how fortunate we are to get to do what we love. And when you unleash 4,000-plus horsepower and go 215 mph in 3.5 seconds, it’s like a dream come true. It’s a fun experience that I don’t ever want to take for granted. But when I was in Maryland I decided to look around and see how much fun everyone else was having. To my surprise it was few and far between. Now I know the stress of what we do can become pretty heavy at times and the reality of going fast and making perfect runs all of the time is at best seldom. The end results on a qualifying sheet can make you smile or cry, while the effort put forth by each team remains that of epic proportions—it just doesn’t always lead to on-track success. We all spend a lot of time and money for a few seconds on a race track and yes we want good results, but when we don’t get them is when our attitudes are tested. My question for you is: where is the fun? Most racers will say racing is fun, but when you see them at the track it looks like anything but. Anger, selfishness, complaining, whining, and an overall bad attitude seem to take over. I for one will not let that happen. I think we need to put the fun back into our sport. And if you say you can’t, then maybe you should think of taking some time off to regroup and forge a better attitude. You see, the fun stops only because we allow it to stop. We compare ourselves with others and see that they win more or they run faster and it leads us to thinking we can’t have fun until we’re number one. But the thing is, you may be number one from time to time, but you can have fun all the time if you could only get over yourself. Of course I know that blowing up engines and not doing well can be very frustrating and expensive, but please evaluate why you really are there. If you can’t afford it, then with all due respect please stop spending money you don’t have. Make a schedule that will fit your budget and lifestyle. Make it fun again. I’ve seen people cut their schedule in half and give up a championship and come out so far ahead and have the best time ever. People, if you chase the trophy and nothing else, then that’s all you will have. Build relationships; take your team out to a go-cart track; go watch the Jr. Dragster kids race and encourage them; just get over yourself and start having a good time again. I know for a lot of you this hits home, but I say this so our sport will remain what it was meant to be, enjoyable and fun. As it turned out, we wound up winning the Pro Extreme race in Maryland, the first win for our Mel Bush Motorsports team in over a year. It was most definitely fun and I enjoyed every moment of it, but I can honestly say I would’ve enjoyed it even if we didn’t win. Like everyone else, we always lose more then we win in drag racing, so the better attitude you have in a loss will do nothing but benefit you throughout your career. For me it’s about the relationships and fun we get to have as a team, as a family, and as very fortunate people who get to do what we love surrounded by some other great people. Sure, I’m always gunning for that race win, but no matter what happens on the track I’m going to have fun—and you can, too. As always, the choice is yours to make. Tommy D’Aprile tommyd@dragillustrated.com August 2016 KINSLER A HOND ® NEW REL 4 BAR Excellent Durability Monster MeshTM Filters T BILLE Huge amounts of We Do premium quality filter media for minimum It All pressure drop. S.S. Filter Mount Precisely Repeatable High Speed Bypass ifo an M e Mad ! Set Records OM Our CUST lds 12AN & 8AN Fuel Rail Largest on the Market HATS R E LOW Quick Disconn ect Bypass WORLD’S Largest Stocking Distributor Kinsler Leak Tester Check engine leakage; barrel valve setting. 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