Posted by: Bob Gilbertson, Rinnai Chevy
Hey race fans, Gilby’s niece Casey here. Berserko asked me if I'd like to write a guest blog so here you go...
The Gilbertson family had an eventful weekend here in Charlotte with heavy hearts. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Kalitta family and the racing community.
My little brother, Cian, graduated this year from West Meck High School and it was nice to have the whole family together to celebrate with Cian at his graduation party on Sunday. Cian has enlisted in the United States Air Force and we are all very proud of him
While on my parents’ patio at Cian’s party, I noticed their redneck rigged out BOSE system. It brought back a memory of my days at West Meck. Back when I went to West Meck, in 91, Uncle Bob and Aunt Sally were the coolest Aunt and Uncle ever. Because they are so fun I would usually sleep over at their house several nights a week during High School. This meant that Uncle Bob would drive me to school. On one particular morning, Uncle Bob decided to set the child locks on his Mercury Sable with the dragging muffler and a blown out factory stereo. As he drove up to the front of West Meck, Uncle Bob turned down the treble and fronted the base on his piece of crap stereo as Vanilla Ice statically bumped out of the car in the front of West Meck High School. While I was locked in the back seat and horrified, Uncle Bob began singing along to a little Ice, Ice Baby. It was then that I realized just how cool my Uncle Bob is.
Here's a shot of my parents’ BOSE system, maybe a redneck stereo will bring back some sort of memory for you race fans. .
I know that Double B has some things to say so I am going to leave the rest of this blog to him. God Bless.
Thanks Casey, now if I could get other members of the family and the race team to write a blog I'd be a happy guy.
Real quick I want to tell you about what our crew chief Nicky Boninfante Jr. has been doing in his spare time.
As you probably know the nostalgia Funny Car craze is growing by leaps and bounds. Nicky's Dad "Nitro" Nick decided that he wanted to join in on the fun and build a replica of the '72 Mustang he campaigned over 30 years ago. It took a year and over $100,000 to do it but yesterday the car made it's maiden voyage at Atco Dragway with Paul Lee behind the wheel.
With Del and Chuck Worsham on hand to help out they fired up the car for the first time and it was towed to the line.
The first lap was a short squirt to make sure all was okay. Lap number 2 was to half track and the third and final lap was to 1,000 feet and the end result was a 6.30 at only 169 mph. The computer numbers told them that it was on it's way to a 5.90 which made the entire crew really happy.
The car will appear at Englishtown three times this year, July 9th, and August 6th for their big Wednesday night shows and at their Funny Car Reunion on August 10th. All three times they'll match race "Crazy" Jake Crimmin's new nostalgia '74 Mustang and both of them will also be at the "Geezers at the Grove" at Maple Grove.
Plan is to then haul it out to Bakersfield for the California Hot Rod Reunion in October to do battle with the left coast guys and I'm going to tag along.
That's it for now, type at you L8R...
BB