Time for change: Friday 18th September
Things have as usual been totally manic here at Bennett Racing, we never seem to get any time to do anything else but drag racing, working on the cars or attracting and meeting sponsors. I keep telling myself I must do these blog entries more often and from this one onwards I want to try and do one every week or so. Been having a good read of the NHRA blogs (thanks Robo) and the things that they write about are so different to the European blogs. They seem more personal and include there every day life. Obviously there full time and Pro’s so things are going to be different but drag racing in Europe is simply put a hobby, don’t get me wrong this is not really a hobby, it’s a full time job, the amount of time we spend on the race cars, if we were paid then we could retire! And by these comments I mean no offence to anyone racing in Europe but as far as I know were all doing day jobs and then finding the time to build and maintain our race cars or bikes, and yes there are differing levels of competition and work involved but I think that anyone with pride in there car or bike still spends a scary amount of time on them, well we do…..
Over the off season we have as usual a scary list of jobs to do. First up we are going to extend our workshop,
as people will see on the NFAA dvd when it comes up, we have an alarmingly small garage and quite how we
manage to turn out machines like the Relentless altered I don’t know, its such hard work out there with the space
we have and now we have got three cars its time for an extension, so the plan is to extend right out the back and
sideways which will give us some nice space to work with, were going to end up with an engine building room, a
machine shop and three bays for each car so it should make fabrication and building a whole lot easier.
One other project is our lorry, its been a good motor to us and touch wood, has never let us down, but the old girl
could do with abit of TLC so over the winter were going to re-skin the box, build new storage boxes under the box
and give the cab a much needed bit of modernisation, also we really want to fit a tail lift and if there are any
companies reading that would like to sponsor us with one please get in touch, it would make things so much easier and safer getting the cars and tools out at each event or show. Also the aim is to paint it in the teams colours and generally give it the once over so it looks more professional and updated. Its one thing that’s always been neglected as 99% of our time goes into making the Relentless altered the car that it is, you only get this with hard work.
Onto another subject, I just got the all clear for another three months which takes me to a year all clear of Cancer now which is a big relief, putting it bluntly if its going to come back then the first year is when it will so I was hugely relieved and happy to hear the news. Got one more check up just before Christmas and then I go to six monthly check ups for 3 years so its all heading in the right direction.
The other two cars should also hopefully be hitting the tracks in 2010 just collecting parts (and waiting for garage
to be built) before we can really get into the builds, one thing that I did sort today was the fuel tank for Adams
Darkside slingshot, again courtesy of Forge Motorsport, a big thanks to them, will sort out a photo for the blog
once we receive it.
Anyway that’s enough typing for one day my fingers are hurting, thanks for reading everyone.
The Relentless Topolino is all ready to go for the National Finals and got to be honest we cant wait for it, we didn’t attend the Euros, reasons for which I am not going to go into but needless to say we intend to win the National Finals and hopefully the NFAA championship. We have had a very good year, qualifying number 1 two out of three events and winning the last three events, but some how we only have a 15 point lead so we cant take things easy and will be going for it at the finals.
Talking about the Euros, I feel I have to mention Tony Betts crash, we were as always tuned into Eurodragster coverage of the event and when we read it our hearts were in our mouths, Tony is not just a fellow NFAA racer but a good friend, both he and Elaine popped round lots when I was on chemotherapy and considering some of my own family didn’t it meant a lot. We were gutted for Tony and the team, and hope that they get the car sorted for next year, have to say also looking at a few videos that have popped up on Youtube I think it was lucky that the tank didn’t ignite, plus the fire extinguishers got smashed off, maybe its time we all moved them? As not really much good in a fire if they’re not even on the car…..Again though a big well done to the safety crew as they were on the scene fast and got Tony out. At the end of the day we were glad he was ok, cars can be rebuilt.
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