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Thursday, May 10
No vacation on open weekend
By Chuck Etchells
Special to ESPN.com
For the first time in a month, the NHRA schedule has an open weekend, and it couldn't have come at a better time for Etchells Racing team. You'll notice that I didn't call it an off weekend, because it will be anything but that for all the teams in the Winston Drag Racing series.
However, while most are simply preparing for the upcoming stretch of three races in as many weekends, every member of our team is busy making sure everything will be in order for our two-car effort to be fully up and running by the time we hit Englishtown.
It's not an exaggeration to say we have things going on in almost every corner of the country as we work to complete our midseason transformation. For example, as I told you last week, the race transporter which carries my Funny Car is at the Truck Fleet Painting Center in Charlotte receiving a fresh coat of Sunoco blue and yellow Sherwin-Williams paint, while about an hour away in Denver, N.C., the Mötley Crüe body has been sanded down and re-painted with the colorful Toys R Us look Jim will run in Englishtown and Topeka. Body Dynamics Racing, who is doing the work, offers fans a unique chance to watch the changeover live via web cam at their Web site www.bodydynamicsracing.com.
|  | | Sunoco has picked up sponsorship for the remainder of 2001. |
At the same time, in Sparks, Nev., a new 2001-style Camaro body is being readied with a Sunoco/Matco paint scheme we will debut next weekend. Making our way to the West coast, Simpson is not only making new uniforms, but also modifying some of our old ones. I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea.
The team's role during all this is to monitor all these activities to make sure we stay on schedule while still tending to their normal between-race workload. Terry Manzer and Larry Meyer are also busy getting the two-car crew back to full strength.
It's a lot of work, but our goal is that starting with the Matco Tools Supernationals, you won't be able to tell we were ever anything but the Sunoco/Matco Tools Camaro Z28 Racing team.
However, none of this would have been necessary or possible without the support of a myriad of outstanding companies. Most of you know our major corporate partners, Sunoco, Matco Tools, Chevrolet, Mighty Auto Parts, Sherwin-Williams and Fram. You see their name on our race car, you see their names mentioned in our press releases, and you'll often hear me mention them in interviews. As our team so painfully showed earlier this season, without them, we couldn't be out there.
But there is another network of companies deserving of credit. They're the ones that supply us with the great parts we need to do this job whose names you might never hear simply because they don't sponsor any cars.
In our case, these people have been behind us the last few months just like a sponsor, and were a huge part of our being able to survive. I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge them. Companies like Alan Johnson Cylinder Heads, AFT Clutches, Boninfante Enterprises, Bill Miller Engineering, RCD, Keith Black Racing Engines, Manley Performance, Moroso Performance, Jack Crisman Enterprises, Beth & Tim Hyatt, James Stewart, Brooks Rods, and KMS Industries -- each one of them helped to keep us in business during a very difficult time.
To them, Etchells Racing owes a great deal of thanks.
So for now, our attention may be turned away from the track, but I assure you, our focus remains squarely on our racing. What we do now will go a long way towards our performance over the next few races. It's an extremely hectic period, but at the same it's very exciting. After the last few months, I can tell you one thing, it certainly beats the alternative.
Chuck Etchells, driver and owner the Sunoco/Matco Tools Camaro Z28 Funny Car, provides a diary to ESPN.com throughout the NHRA season. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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