Today I'm going to type about some friends of the team who came to the track with us over the weekend to give us a hand.

First off is Anthony "Flapper" Dicero.  He got his nickname back a few years ago when he first came to work for us, we called him Flapper because he, how do I say this, talks a lot, a whole lot.  He's a cool kid who is now the crew chief for Bill Evans' A/Fuel Dragster.  He parked their rig at our shop after Richmond with plans to race at this weekend's Lucas Oil points race in Reynolds, Georgia and he had last weekend off so he joined us and took care of the right side cylinder head.  Thanks for everything Flaps...

Next up is Mike Stewart of Mike's Transmissions in Lancaster Calif.  He's known for his monster Powerglide transmissions but deep down inside he loves nitro racing.  He can do anything on the race car and he was a big help to us at both the Charlotte race and last weekend at Rockingham.  He did a lot of stuff including mixing the fuel, servicing the cylinder heads and anything else that needed to be done.  He said the best thing about the weekend was that he didn't have to work on a Powerglide, something he does every day of the week when he's home.

Then there's my bud "Captain" Edzo Preston who I've known since the late 60s.  He used to live right down the street from me when we both lived in Jersey and he moved to south Florida in the early '80s but we always kept in touch.  Anytime I was in Florida racing with either Mazda in the IMSA series or with a drag team Eddie always showed up.  Since I went to work for Gilby in 2003 he's tagged along with us at a bunch of races and he's traveled to Pomona and Texas on his own dime to help us out.  Ed is a sport fisherman and he always comes to the track with a cooler full of fresh fish he's caught and flash froze for the team.  This past weekend's special was Mahi-Mahi on the grill and the crew loved it.  He also makes lunch for the guys every day and also services the intake manifold between rounds and takes care of a lot of other trivial chores that need to be done.  Someday I'd like to have a cook-off between Ed and Chef Nicky from the Jegs team, maybe for a charity deal, make it seafood and my money is on Ed.

Last but not least is our major associate sponsor, Ron "Huh" Hammel.  He's a very interesting guy as he's been around racing of all sorts since the 50s.  Ron owns 10,000 RPM and was the first guy to experiment with nitrous in fuel engines working with his good friend AA/Dale Armstrong in the early '70s.  His primary business is clutches and he manufactures floaters that many of the nitro teams use.  Being that he's in his mid-'70s he doesn't work on the car but he's a lot of fun to hang around.  One thing you might not know about Ron is that he speaks fluent Chinese.  Ron helps us out with the budget and can always be counted on to buy us parts, tires and nitro.

That's it for now, more tomorrow.

BB