I love Bob Wilbur's blog. His two kitties, Boofus & Buster are adorable. I like to hear about the other side of their lives. You know, they do have one!!!

Now, if we could just get Todd to update the Team Kalitta blog!!!

__________________
It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Well, THAT would really inspire a Sponsor!

These guys are supposed to be professionals. I don't doubt for a minute that some have (and sometimes ARE) eating bologna, I don't think that's exactly the image one would want to portray to sponsors or potential sponsors.

We can hear the "fake-it-'til-you-make-it" stories AFTER they make it.

:::::GASP:::::

He DID!!!

...well with a little delegation I suppose.

__________________
Jay Smith
www.fantasydragracing.homestead.com
www.myspace.com/styxboy

what i am getting at is you never hear any of these drivers talk about how they were out in the shop cutting clutch disks till 2 in the morning, or worked all weekend servicing cylinder heads. or the long drive in the tow rig from vegas to gainsville because THAT is what they do in order to race at the level THEY are at. todays drivers are soft!.! who wouldn't want to ride around with their family in a giant motorhome all over while someone else busts their ass. but do we need to hear it from 10 - 15 different ones. how about someone like Robert Height. i bet he is still out in the shop at this moment working on something that has to do with the cars and I don't mean some go cart to race in the local parade. or sitting on the couch eating soft serve ice cream after a hard day of putting decals on the new body.

Sorry Bruce, but I know for a fact how hard the drivers and crews work at Kalitta Racing. I think you should know that they all came from humble beginnings doing ALL of the things that you have listed. What is different now is that THEY MADE IT!!! I don't know why you are bashing their success. They have earned the money to buy a beautiful house and a fancy motorhome too! Believe me.........they have all slept in their pickup trucks and stayed in the "Bates" style motels a time or two!!!

I am not trying to be mean, but really, the have earned it.

Thanks!

__________________
It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Suzie,
In all due respect I think if you ask the head man at Kalitta racing, That would be Conrad,how easy it was barnstorming the country back in the day, Trying to make a name for yourself so you could pick up a few extra bucks match racing Than I think you would know where Bruce is coming from. Please report back after talking with Mr. Kalitta.

I don't have to. My dad was on the same circuit!

__________________
It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
Niccolo Machiavelli

They are still barnstorming the country!!! It is even worse now!

__________________
It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
Niccolo Machiavelli

Obviously you haven't been reading Beckman's blog!?!?

Between teaching at the school, working on his sponsors cars... and his own, doing the maintenance on his motorhome himself, and doing most of the "dirty work" around his house, Jack is about as "everyday guy" as you get. His life is hardly one of a pampered professional. And if asked, he would gladly jump in there with the rest of crew to do what ever was necessary to make the next race.

__________________
Greg Stanley
2007 NorCal Top Comp Champion

Suzie,
So are you speaking for Connie or did you call and ask him? I do not mean to sound like a jerk but I have talked with Connie, Garlits, The Greek, and many of the pioneers of the sport about the early years and it was a really tough way to make a buck. Again, no disrespect to you or any of the pro racers but I think the pioneers of the sport had it a lot tougher. Just my opinion!

please add a thick british accent in your mind while reading.


[ from the album Live At Drury Lane, 1974 ]

The Players:
Michael Palin - First Yorkshireman;
Graham Chapman - Second Yorkshireman;
Terry Jones - Third Yorkshireman;
Eric Idle - Fourth Yorkshireman;

The Scene:
Four well-dressed men are sitting together at a vacation resort.
'Farewell to Thee' is played in the background on Hawaiian guitar.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
Aye, very passable, that, very passable bit of risotto.
SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:
Nothing like a good glass of Château de Chasselas, eh, Josiah?
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:
You're right there, Obadiah.
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
Who'd have thought thirty year ago we'd all be sittin' here drinking Château de Chasselas, eh?
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
In them days we was glad to have the price of a cup o' tea.
SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:
A cup o' cold tea.
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
Without milk or sugar.
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:
Or tea.
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
In a cracked cup, an' all.
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
Oh, we never had a cup. We used to have to drink out of a rolled up newspaper.
SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:
The best we could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth.
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:
But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor.
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
Because we were poor. My old Dad used to say to me, "Money doesn't buy you happiness, son".
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
Aye, 'e was right.
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
Aye, 'e was.
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
I was happier then and I had nothin'. We used to live in this tiny old house with great big holes in the roof.
SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:
House! You were lucky to live in a house! We used to live in one room, all twenty-six of us, no furniture, 'alf the floor was missing, and we were all 'uddled together in one corner for fear of falling.
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:
Eh, you were lucky to have a room! We used to have to live in t' corridor!
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
Oh, we used to dream of livin' in a corridor! Would ha' been a palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish tip. We got woke up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! House? Huh.
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
Well, when I say 'house' it was only a hole in the ground covered by a sheet of tarpaulin, but it was a house to us.
SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:
We were evicted from our 'ole in the ground; we 'ad to go and live in a lake.
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:
You were lucky to have a lake! There were a hundred and fifty of us living in t' shoebox in t' middle o' road.
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
Cardboard box?
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:
Aye.
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down t' mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad would thrash us to sleep wi' his belt.
SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:
Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at six o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of 'ot gravel, work twenty hour day at mill for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would thrash us to sleep with a broken bottle, if we were lucky!
THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:
Well, of course, we had it tough. We used to 'ave to get up out of shoebox at twelve o'clock at night and lick road clean wit' tongue. We had two bits of cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at mill for sixpence every four years, and when we got home our Dad would slice us in two wit' bread knife.
FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:
Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah.
FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:
And you try and tell the young people of today that ..... they won't believe you.
ALL:
They won't!

__________________________________________________ _______________


I mean no disrespect to anyone. I just think this Monty Python skit illustrates the futility of comparing the old days to today.

__________________
I'm still DamnYankee

"A Friday night run in a Funny Car is just really intense" - Whit Bazemore

No, I am not speaking for Connie. What is your point? I think you are missing my point that if you are out there on the circuit, you are working your a$$ off! The difference between then and now is that it is on a different level. Just check any one of the drivers schedules and you will be amazed at how they can function on no sleep for 10 months out of the year!

__________________
It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.
Niccolo Machiavelli

You don't have a clue!!! If you don't think the drivers do anything try keeping up with one for two weeks much less twelve months.

it appears Angelle has joined the NHRA Blog community and it looks like EE and Richies Stevens have been dropped.

Good for Angelle, bummer for Richie, I kind of liked his.