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I can't really say when the first time was that I went
to a drag race and I said to myself that this is what I want to do for
the rest of my life. I have grown up with drag racing. I have been told
on many occasions about my first trip to the drag strip when I was only
two weeks old. It was from that day on that I have been attending drag
races.
As a kid growing up I would spend every weekend at the drag strip with
my parents. My first memories that I can recall are of going to a drag
strip in Beardstown, IL. I can remember the sandy pit area with a couple
grain silos that we pitted by. I can remember my dad letting me sit
in his car in the pits while I pretended that I was racing. I couldn't
have been much older than two or three at the time. I remember one instance
where I was playing in my dad's car between rounds and I was told not
to break anything. I ended up breaking my dad's line lock button off
the shifter. I felt so bad that I had screwed something up and was scared
that he wouldn't let me play in the car anymore. I don't remember what
the outcome of the broken line lock was, but to this day I have a phobia
about someone sitting in my car. I am so afraid they are going to break
something.
Racing has just been a way of life for me right from the start. I owe
my entire career to my parents. When I was young my parents would take
me to the races with them instead of leaving me behind with a babysitter.
I'm sure it would have been a lot easier to leave me at the grandparents,
but they chose to have me involved with them at the track.
My dad would race some AHRA national events in those days. I was your
average kid and played with my toy racecars in the pits. When my dad
would go to the staging lanes to make a run, I wasn't allowed to go
because I was too young. One time when we where racing in Ohio, we where
pitted next to top fuel racer Marvin Graham. (In those days they didn't
separate the classes) Marvin told my parents that when they had to go
to the lanes to make a pass he would watch me in his pits. I do believe
that might have been the day when I knew what I wanted to do for a career.
I thought I was so cool that I was hanging out with a top fuel driver.
All racers have their idols they look up to and that day Marvin Graham
became mine. I followed Marvin's career closely and would receive t-shirts
and pictures in the mail from him. Every time we were at the same events
I would spend my weekend in Marvin's top fuel pits.
As with top fuel today, Marvin couldn't stay ahead of the escalating
cost as an independent and retired from top fuel in the early eighties.
He might not have won as many races as some legends in our sport, but
I thought of him as the best in the professional ranks. He had taken
enough time out of his busy schedule to let me hang out and bother him
I'm sure. I lost track of Marvin Graham in the late eighties and early
nineties. He had worked on the Shirley Muldowney film, "Heart like a
Wheel" and now was involved in the movie industry. In 1995 he was invited
by NHRA to come to the 30th anniversary U. S. Nationals as a former
winner. I had left my pits to run an errand but when I returned my dad
said there was someone there to see me. Marvin Graham had come to Indy
and he was now hanging out in the pit area of the kid he used to baby-sit
when he was racing top fuel twenty some years ago. I was never so proud
to have someone in my pit area as I was that weekend. From the look
on his face I knew I had made the right career choice.
It has been little things like this that have kept me in touch with
the fans and the people of our sport. I can remember easily that it
was not too long ago that I was that kid on the other side of the ropes,
wanting an autograph. Ok, I didn't want an autograph. I wanted their
seat.
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