Jeremy is soooo busy working and taking care of his new family that he has become very part time in his efforts to work on his car. He is, however, making progress. If he has the time, he doesn't have the money. If he has the money, he doesn't have the time. This is a typical catch 22 for the dirt track auto racers who do this sport for the love of the sport and not for the love of the money (although it would be nice to be able to finish the car and earn some money).
He still has two modified cars in his garage. He is trying to work on both. One belongs to a friend of his who is having Jeremy help him build his new late model. The engine has arrived, and unlike Jeremy, his friend had the money to buy an engine costing around $25,000. This should make for a powerful late model. Jeremy will be putting in a regular engine just so he can get on the race track again.
In addition to working on these two cars, Jeremy recently helped his dad finish his modified and get back on the race track. Jeremy's dad is a great driver. In his last race he came from last to 10th in a field of 20 cars. He was last because he didn't get to the race track on time. That's what happens to you if you don't register on time. You get put to the back and it is so much harder to get into a top position. However, to his credit and after not having driven for quite awhile, Jim (Jeremy's dad) did very well.
Dirt track auto racing isn't unlike horse racing. Horse racing is true "horsepower", but you only have one horse. Speaking of horse racing, I came across this site talking about the Melbourne Cup in Australia. Now I am not much of a gambler, if any, but I did attend my very first horse race this past year with a friend of mine in the states. It was quite exciting. There was no roaring of engines, but there was a roaring of the crowd. The specators were really into cheering on their own jockeys.
I had to learn quickly what horse racing and horse betting was about. It did take me all day to catch on, but once I got the hang of it, it didn't seem to be rocket science. There were some surprises, however, as even though I did use the statistics to the best of my ability, there were races where the horses who were deemed to be actual losers, actually came from behind!
There do seem to be some parallels between the Melbourne Cup and dirt track racing. They both use "horsepower". They are both taking high risks to race. They are both exciting to watch and in the end, there is surely a winner who comes from behind. It's just a thought about the exciting things in life. You can check out more about the Melbourne Cup by clicking on this link.
I am getting more pictures together of Jeremy's progress. You can see the guts of the car in the pic on this page. The next blog will show what the outside of the car looks like now so you can compare the pic with the red car to the pic he has now. He really is working on it :) The black framed car still looks the same. The engine is sitting in the garage waiting to be installed but that won't happen until Jeremy's friend comes around to help. I'll keep you posted.
