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for months before that first run, and there are just certain routine things. Any driver will tell you when you do the same thing enough, you get in this certain routine, and that’ s part of what makes you successful. You kind of let your muscle memory do the job for you, and boy, did that get thrown all out of whack in Gainesville. It very much took a discipline that I’ m not used to having.
I keep joking with Steve – I told him when the thing ran good, I said,“ I can’ t tell you how many times going down the track I went through my head and said,‘ Gee, I wonder what that was.’” Because I’ ve never driven an injected nitro car before, it’ s like starting over for me.
My goal right now for Steve is to be a quick learner and be able to provide as much info to him as quickly as I can because we’ re kind of all learning this together, but it’ s that communication that is so important.
Ok, the hard questions are out of the way, and now for some fun ones. Who did you look up to in motorsports when you were growing up? Bellemeur: The very first one is my dad. I know that’ s the answer everybody says, but I mean my dad raced. I saw my dad as that blue collar, roll up your sleeves, work
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on the race car every night, kind of racer. He’ s the guy that didn’ t have the funding to just go out and have people do it for him, so he did it with hard work, with prowess, and with outsmarting his competitors. That work ethic and that level of success that he obtained, the way he did it is, to me, a true American motorsports love story. My mom and dad raised me to be that style of racer myself.
Now, for drag racers, Darrell Gwynn was my hero. When I was a kid at Pomona Raceway, watching the drag races, I saw Darrell Gwynn win a race, and he had the Wally in his hand, and that’ s the first Wally I’ d ever seen in person. I’ ll never forget it. It’ s like I saw the pot of gold.
Darrell Gwynn had his white fire suit on, and he was holding that Wally down by his side, and I couldn’ t take my eyes off it. That’ s when I became obsessed with being a race car driver. He was very nice to me. We talked for a minute, and I probably asked him the questions a five- or six-year-old kid asks a race car driver, and I was a fan for life. I am a fan of Darrell Gwynn’ s to this day. Any chance I actually get to see him at a race, I will remind him that he changed the way I look at drag racing forever.
I was brokenhearted when he had his accident, and I remember that
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day, I remember that lump in my throat when I was a young kid and my mom and dad had told me about Darrell’ s crash. He was, to me, the ultimate role model for what a young race car driver should want to be.
If you could look back and give yourself one piece of advice when you started your career, what would it be? Bellemeur: Shut up and listen to the people that know what they’ re talking about.
I was very fortunate and very lucky to be involved and raised around alcohol Funny Cars. My dad was partners in alcohol Funny Cars when I was a kid, and that’ s why I fell in love with them.
My parents got me a Jr. Dragster, and then out of Jr. Dragsters,
“ Darrell Gwynn was my hero... That’ s when I became obsessed with being a race car driver.”
BELLEMEUR WAS A NATURAL SITTING BEHIND A BLOWN ALCOHOL MOTOR,
BUT HE’ S LEARNING THE NITRO- INJECTED A / FUEL COMBO REQUIRES
ITS OWN UNIQUE DRIVING STYLE.
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we took a little different route. We went nostalgia racing, blown alcohol dragsters, and then into nostalgia Top Fuel cars, and then got into alcohol Funny Cars. As a kid going through high school and then into my early 20s and driving some fast cars, I look back on that now and thought,“ Boy, I sure thought I knew everything and had I just closed my mouth and listened to some of the legends of the sport that I was lucky enough to be around, I probably would have been more successful.”
I try to speak with a lot of Jr. Dragster kids, too, because I was that Jr. kid. One thing that I told Jr. kids is don’ t be afraid to take advice because there’ s a lot of it out there, and people are willing to help. At 43 years old, I look back at 25-yearold me and go,“ Geez, Sean, if you’ d have just shut up and listened.”
Was Alcohol Funny Car the be-all and end-all for you, and is it now? Bellemeur: When I was a kid, I just wanted to drive a Funny Car. I thought they were so cool, being around them, and I used to sit in the seat all the time. I used to ask my dad to let me drive it into the trailer at night with the body down, and I just fell in love with the“ fabulous floppers.” So, when I had that opportunity to learn the difficulty of driving one, I fell in love with driving them. I am absolutely obsessed at being a good clutch / blown / transmission alcohol Funny Car driver because it’ s a very difficult thing, and they throw a lot of challenges your way.
When I was 25, 26 years old, and in a pretty darn good alcohol Funny Car, I had those meetings with fuel teams, and I was very interested in going nitro racing. That didn’ t work out, but the thing is, now today, I’ m a paid race car driver. That is the coolest thing in the whole world to say.
At 43 years old, I have a family at home. I’ ve got three daughters, a wife. I’ m being paid to drive for one of the legends of the sport, to work with Steve Boggs, who could be argued as maybe the best crew chief in the history of our sport, alongside the crew that I consider my best friends. Why would I go anywhere else?
I get to look out the windshield at one of my heroes, Steve Boggs, and
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