The day after arriving home from Qatar I flew to Indianapolis to help the guys mount the new Hayabusa bodywork. I got there Sunday night around 10p.m. and Tom Patsis picked me up from the airport. He took me to Jason Jones' house. We just hung out and chatted about what has been going on since the last race.
 
The next day we went to the shop bright and early. We got the second bike out of the trailer and we began stripping everything off of it. This was going to be a big project for us. About an hour after we arrived Steve Tartaglia come in and brought us all doughnuts. They were yummy. We soon got back to working. A couple of hours had passed and it was already time for lunch. We went to Jimmy Johns for lunch. It’s a little sub shop they have in Brownsburg. It was nice because it was just the guys and myself.

After lunch we went back to the shop and continued to mount the new body. We had a tough time mounting the belly pan and the front fairing. It's a lot of cutting, drawing and measuring every time you take on a project like this. Then it was about 6 p.m. and I went to Tom Patsis’ house for dinner. His girlfriend Amanda cooked us dinner. Jason and Kim came over so it was fun. After dinner we sat around and talked about old stories of racing. All of the guys lit a bonfire and we “played” in the fire. We were pretending to be teenagers again although Tom is not far from it now. Ha-ha. I went back to my Schumacher Suite at DSR. At the shop they have apartments for out of town people. That was a great idea whoever thought of it.

Tuesday had arrived and it was pretty much the same story. We continued mounting the body. After lunch we had it mocked up and we had the Aerodyne folks come over to check it out. We had got one of our measurements a quarter-inch off and we had to fix that.

By this time it was already 6 p.m. and I had to go to do some charity work for Riley’s Charity Hospital. They had a bowling tournament for several NHRA drivers. Fans were paired up with drivers so it gave them time to ask questions. It was a great thing. Cory Mac and I were on the same lanes. We bowled with eight other fans. One thing they did in the tournament was if you got nine pins on your first ball then it was a strike. Needless to say Cory and I battled. I beat Cory the first two games. I bowled a 206 and a 237 and Cory beat me the last game. He bowled a 227 to my 222. We had an auction at the end of the third game. I auctioned off a Nitrofish crewshirt. The auction raised over $9,000 so I am so happy to be a part of this.

The next day it took several hours to fix our quarter-inch screw up. We got everything right and we put a motor in the bike. After lunch the Aerodyne people came back to see what we had fixed. We had everything right and there were a few things that Aerodyne had to fix. We dynoed some new parts and we hurt the motor. I helped Steve disassemble the motor. He was not a happy man. Steve had plenty to do now for a couple of days.

On Thursday I made wheel spacers for all the different wheels we have. Not one single wheel takes the same amount of spacing so it took me a while to do this. I did it for both bikes. We made a new set of wheelie bars for the new bike. At the end of the day all of us got together including Steve and decided to make Jason’s car a convertible. Steve wanted to get some anger out and this is a good way. We had a very big cutter and we cut the top off. We had to clean up all the glass and then we went for a ride.

Friday had arrived and it was my last day at DSR. We made a new dash and an air box for the new bike. That project consumed the whole day. The bike is ready to go back to Aerodyne to make the necessary changes. After that is completed then it will be redone in carbon fiber. We are hoping to make some laps on the new bodywork after Norwalk so stay tuned for pictures. I had dinner with Steve and Janie at O’Charleys. I went back to Steve’s house and hung out. He has a really cool slot car track at his house. Steve and I played with it for a couple of hours. We also talked about our goals for the next couple of months. We watched the World of Outlaws on TV which was going on in Charlotte. I went back to get in bed because my flight left early.