Days of SandFlea

Its a new year!

2011-01-13T18:41:00.000-08:00

Well its been a while since this was updated. Good news I finally have Internet at the house again after not having it at home for over six years. So I guess its a new year and time to get back to blogging.

As many of you know I am now the Drag Racing Program Manager at Roush Yates Engines in Mooresville NC. It has been an interesting and exciting move for me. Numerous possibilities have come my way in the past few months and I just can't wait for 2011 to get underway.

One of the great things about my move to Mooresville has been the addition of a full sized race car shop for my personal drag racing. This is a picture of the new shop and the drywall being installed. Only four weeks until racing season begins so we need to get the ball rolling just a little faster in the construction department.

Next are a couple pictures of an intake manifold we are modifying at Roush Yates Engines. The pictures just go to show the extremely high level of fabrication we are able to accomplish at the shop.

The first picture is of the manifold after it was cut apart and placed on the new cylinder head and block combination.

The second picture is of the manifold after it has been welded back together.

And the third picture is after the dominator flange has been added and the manifold shot peened to look as original as possible.

Stay tuned for more racing news next week.
Sandy

The Bucket List..............Check

2010-09-16T10:01:00.000-07:00

Just as the title says, Sandy completed something from his racing bucket list. That accomplishment would be running in the 4.20’s. He actually ran in the 20’s on two out of the four runs with the best run of a 4.255 @ 168.20. That is a career best elapsed time and speed for the 462 cubic inch small block.

The ADRL race at Rockingham, NC was rained out before the first round but was considered a success for the Roush/Yates team. Yes, we ran in the 4.20’s for the first time, but more importantly, we made four passes in a row without having to abort. Sandy is finally sorting out the clutch combination and it could not have come at a better time.

Since Rockingham is a relatively close track, we had a lot of friends show up. Some of those friends were Sandy’s co-workers at Roush/Yates Engines. These guys got to see Sandy in his element. They got to see the truck and trailer with the awning out for the first time. He also had the new Roush/ Yates banner hanging up on the back of the trailer. This was a hot item. The banner stopped a lot of people, who would then walk into our pit area to see what was under the hood. This allowed for a lot of engine networking, which is what Sandy is especially good at. Not only can he build horse power, tune it and the clutch and pretty much do everything else, he has a way of communicating with the people. People want to do business with him because you can trust what he says. Just a quick thought. Sandy reminds me of the old school pro racer of the seventies, but the current day version. He drives the rig, drives the car, tunes and services his car, performs maintenance on everything, and does all the networking just so he can race.

Since the race was rained out, it will continue next weekend, September 24 & 25, at Norwalk, Ohio. ADRL does not race on Sunday, so this is why the race was not finished this past weekend. At the ADRL events, you park on Thursday with three rounds of qualifying on Friday and then one round of qualifying and racing on Saturday. So if the race is rained out, it is made up at the next event on Friday.

Sandy and I have great memories of Norwalk. In 2005 we won the IHRA World Nationals in Top Sportsman for our first national event win together. It was the first time we had run in the sixes on every pass to win. The dial in on the car was a 6.94. Small block cool. When we won that race, it was just the two of us and it was a lot of work. Now he has the 5-speed in the car, and if it’s just the two of us going this time and servicing the clutch, it may be a long weekend.

Sandy will have something figured out. He always does. It was great to see our friends at the Rock and it will be great to see some old friends at Norwalk. So, if you are not busy next weekend, the more the merrier.

Don

What's Been Going On?

2010-08-23T09:59:00.000-07:00

What’s been going on with Sandy Wilkins lately? Well, there has not been a lot of racing going on. Since taking on his new job, Sandy has only been to a hand full of races, which was the ADRL race in Richmond and a couple of Big Dogs. The last Big Dog at the first of August went pretty good. The first pass was a 4.42 and it was not a good pass. We came back for second pass and shook the tires to end up on the outside of the field. Sandy made a few adjustments and we went back out for a test run. The car ran a 4.30 @ 167 which was our best pass to date with the 5-speed, but watching the car and looking at the computer, it still was not a good pass. It’s funny how you are never satisfied. Now remember, all this is own 10.5 tires. This whole set up, which consists of a small block with nitrous, liberty 5-speed and 10.5 tires has been challenging, but Flea want quit until he has made it work. Small rewards with a lot of work.

As the photo shows, this is some of Sandy’s equipment from his old shop, loaded up and headed for Mooresville. His old shop has finally been closed up and there is no turning back now. Sandy has been in his new house now for about a month and some of the equipment will end up there. His shop beside his house is one we would all like to have. A 50 x 50 shop dedicated to nothing but your race car. Way cool. Finally being able to have a place of his own too work on the car will be a tremendous help. Even though working on the car at Roush/Yates is pretty cool, it is nothing like your own place.

Sandy has also been working with Justin Humphreys and his new Ford Pro Stock car. They tested at Budds Creek, Maryland several weeks back and it looks like they are going to do some testing locally this week in hopes of a U.S. Nationals debut. The engine is making competitive horsepower, so everyone is excited about the future. I hope everything goes good for these guys during testing so the Fleabag can relax a little. Relaxing may be short lived, as Sandy may be traveling out to Indy to help with the pro stocker that week as well as in Charlotte next month.

As far as Wilkins Motorsports, Sandy is looking at doing a little testing of his own in the next few weeks to get ready for the ADRL race in Rockingham, NC on September 10 and 11. He will be doing a lot of racing as I mentioned before, but it will be split between working and his own program. First, going to Indy for a long week with Humphreys, then running his own car at Rockingham, then to the NHRA race at Charlotte with the pro stocker and then he wants to go to the ADRL race in Norwalk, Ohio the next week. Sounds to me as if he is burning the candle on both ends. It is hard to keep the grass mowed when you are never home. But hey, he is doing what he loves.

Anyhow, I hope everyone is doing well and good luck at the track.

Don

Roush-Yates Open House.

2010-06-11T05:30:00.000-07:00

We haven’t been to any races since Virginia but the Sandflea has been busy. After Virginia, we came back with a wounded engine, but had to put that on the back burner due to the open house at Roush-Yates the following Wednesday. At the end of the day of the open house the guys pushed the car around back and started taking the engine out of the car. Sandy said he is not quite use to all the help. I mean these guys knew he had a wounded bullet and just took it upon their selves to get started on it. Service with a smile. The engine had broken some rocker arms and had backfired through the carburetors. Everything has been fixed, so now Sandy has to find the time to reassemble the engine.

The open house was an outstanding event. It was invitation only that included a lot of high profile racing people. It is in the heart of Nascar country, so of course a lot of Nascar guys were around. The open house was for existing and potential new customers. Sandy had quite a few of both there and from what I saw, I think they were all impressed. The picture of what looks like an office is actually the assembly area. You will notice an opening into each work area where a designated person assembles his engine. This may be drag racing, nationwide and cup, dirt track, or the 24 hours of Daytona engines. All this done in an area cleaner than my kitchen.

There was plenty happening outside as well. Along with Sandy’s car on display, there were world of outlaw cars, modified cars, dirt trackers, and an occasional cup car. But to me, the most interesting car on the grounds was the brand new Ford Mustang Pro Stocker of Justin Humphries. He and his family were in attendance enjoying the meet and greet with everyone. The car itself is a work of art and I can’t wait to see it go down the track. I think Sandy said they should have the engine on the dyno this week. If it produces the horse power they are predicting, it should be a contender from the very start.

Speaking of high profile people, this picture is of the three main people. You have Jack Roush, who spoke a lot about his drag racing in the early days. He talked about the Maverick he and Wayne Gapp ran in Pro Stock and the championship they won together. I myself still have, I think a 1973 Gapp and Roush Ford Pinto Pro Stock model car that is from back in the day. I also have a Barry Setzer Vega Funny Car, Don Prudomme’s Army Chevy Monza and his Army Top Fuel Dragster. I don’t think Prudomme actually had an Army Dragster but they did make one. I also have an Al Segrini Black Magic Vega Funny Car. Oh well, enough about that. Back to the three main men. You have Roush, then the general manger George Gable who brought Sandy on board and last but not least Doug Yates. Doug talked about where the company is going in the future and what fun they had getting there. His dad Robert Yates was also on hand.

There was a big crowd on that day and the main thing you had to worry about was the camera bulbs flashing. A lot of picture taking. Among the picture takers, you had Van Abernathy from Drag Illustrated taking pictures as well as Sandy’s mom Freda, who took this picture of the best looking guys on the grounds. There was great food as well as some signature Roush-Yates wine that was produced by Lucien Wilkins (Sandy’s dad) vineyard. It is Spencer Mountain Vineyards in Boone, NC. A fun time was had by all and Sandy thanks everyone who attended. See you guys at the races.

Don

ADRL Virginia!!!

2010-06-01T05:41:00.001-07:00

We went to Virginia for the ADRL race last weekend and oh boy what a fun time. This was my first ADRL race since I was on the injured reserve last year. We left around lunch time on the Thursday before the race from Sandy’s new work place, Roush-Yates Engines. This was pretty neat because I got to take a tour of the new place which is beyond awesome. I thought I needed to take my shoes off before I went in. It was that clean. Roush-Yates Engines had a open house yesterday and I will have some photos of that next week.

We finally got on the road and got to the track around 6:30pm. We got the awning up, serviced the car and had supper with Todd Tutterrow and friends. Friday we woke up to another beautiful day and the cars were on the track at 9am. Now here is where the fun started. When we had a power glide in the car, we made a run and then serviced the engine and were ready to go again. Now this 5-speed has added way to much fun to the program. This is how it goes. You make a run, come back and dismantle the car. We still do the engine maintenance, but now we have to pull the transmission and clutch out every pass. We also were trying to figure the rear gear out, so it came out every pass on Friday. So, you make a pass, disassemble car, put it back together and make a pass, repeat tear down until you have made 3 runs. By now we are all starving and ready to pass out. We don’t have people hanging out with us, wanting to fix us food and bring drinks. I suppose we are too far down on the totem pole for that. And all I brought was cheese-its, gold fish and pop-tarts. What? Is that not healthy enough for you? We did go to Chilies’ later on that night thanks to Brian King’s persuading. Anyhow, we made it through the day by making one decent lap of a 4.38 @ 159. It drove through the clutch, which is why the mph was down and it was only on one nitrous system. We think if we can get the clutch right it will go 4.20’s on one system.

Sunday the cars were back on the track at 9am. They wanted to start everything earlier due to rain coming in later in the evening. On our last qualifying run we broke two rocker arms that slowed us down to a 4.60. The 4.38 we ran the day before qualified us 16th. So now we get to run the #1 qualifier Chuck Ulsch who has been running in the 3’s @ 200mph. No problem. Long story short. We did not have enough air gap in the clutch and rolled the beams causing a red light. Sandy’s competitor goes up in smoke giving us a win if Sandy had not red lighted. The excitement doesn’t stop there. About 200 feet into the run it breaks two more rocker arms and backfires through the carburetors knocking the scoop into a position that doesn’t look too good. We have all of the sudden developed a rocker arm problem. I am sure the guys at Roush-Yates Engines will solve the problem.

Anyhow, we are not where we want to be but in time we will get there. The neat thing about the ADRL is you cannot leave the race until it is over. So after our loss we got to hang out and see some of the racing. Pretty awesome stuff. We got everything loaded up and hit the road toward home around 7 pm. About 30 minutes down the road the bottom fell out and it was pouring rain just as they had said. We stopped to eat around 9pm and with all the work we did over the weekend we could only make it to Burlington, NC before it was time to sleep. We did make it back to the shop around lunch time on Sunday to end a very exhausting weekend.

I think the next race Sandy will be attending will be the ADRL in Michigan in June. With all the work we have to do now, some of you guys need to go with us to the next one. Later.

Don

In Case You Missed It!!!!

2010-05-13T05:24:00.000-07:00

Yes sir. The Sandflea started his new job this past Monday at Roush-Yates Engines. It was a move that surprised a lot of people and even Sandy has had to take a step back look at what has happened.

Sandy has been involved with oval track racing for many years, beginning with his first job at Charlie Long Race Engines. While drag racing, he met long time sponsor Signal Seals and Fasteners in Mooresville, NC. Sandy was involved with their day to day process for about 6 months and while there, he made many contacts in the NASCAR comminutity that eventually led to his current position.

One of the people that Sandy created a relationship with was George Gable, the general manager at Roush-Yates Engines. George has a passion for drag racing and has helped steer Roush-Yates Engines into the drag racing market. George has put together somewhat of a super team of engine builders that will build and service every type of engine. Roush-Yates Engines is known for their superior Ford engines and Sandy will have his hands in their new Pro Stock Engine. What a lot of people may not realize is Sandy has several customers that have set NHRA and IHRA records in the Super Stock class with his own Ford engines.

I think George saw in Sandy what a lot of other people have seen. That his knowledge of making anything he touches better, along with a likable personality will make him a valuable asset to the Roush-Yates team. Sandy is excited about this new venture that has unlimited possibilities. So come join us at the races to share in the excitement. Plus, with this new 5-speed and all the work that comes with it, we could probably use the help.
Don

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Sandy Wilkins Joins Roush-Yates Engines as Drag Racing Program Manager
Mooresville, North Carolina based Roush-Yates Performance Engines recently announced heads-up racer and engine builder Sandy Wilkins will head up their drag racing engine program. Wilkins, a longtime drag racer, started his racing engine business in 2006 and recently expanded into lightweight wheelie bar wheels and other racing parts. Wilkins also has a knack for driving and has competed in IHRA and NHRA Top Sportsman and ADRL Extreme 10.5 classes. At the wheel of the Wilkins Motorsports Cavalier he has six Top Sportsman wins in twelve final rounds. In 2005, Wilkins was runner-up in IHRA Top Sportsman points and was the NHRA Division 2 Top Sportsman champion in 2003.

Photo Credit: Wilkins Motorsports
While known for his expertise in small block Chevrolet engines, Wilkins will soon be working his magic on small block Ford powerplants and heading-up Justin Humphrey’s NHRA Pro Stock engine program. Roush-Yates Engines is currently building Humphrey’s GM powerplants for the RaceRedi Motorsports GXP while developing the new Ford Pro Stock engine for a new Mustang scheduled to debut mid-year. Roush-Yates is also working with Steve Matusek on a turbocharged Pro-Modified Ford powerplant based on the 500 cubic inch Pro Stock block and heads.

“I look forward to the high performance technology that Roush Yates Performance Engine Group has to offer” said Wilkins. “I always wanted to have the means to do everything I think I can with an engine. Now with the help of George Gable at Roush Yates I have the ability to develop and implement these ideas.”

George Gable, General Manager for Roush Yates Performance Engine Group, is looking forward to having Wilkins on the build team. “Sandy Wilkins is a proven engine builder that can help take our drag racing engine program to the next level” said George. ”Introducing our engine program into drag racing is something that everyone at Roush Yates Engines has worked hard to achieve and we are very proud to have Sandy Wilkins join our team.”

The addition of Wilkins to the Roush-Yates team shows that Doug Yates is serious about expanding the NASCAR engine building powerhouse into new markets. Roush-Yates employees 170 engineers and technicians who design parts, build, test, and service over 1,500 Ford racing engines a year. The company’s engines compete in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, NASCAR Nationwide Series, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, ARCA, NHRA Pro Stock, Grand-Am, FIA GT3, Dirt Late Model and Sprint cars.

Testing/Racing Again!!!

2010-04-01T07:34:00.000-07:00

We went to Dunn-Benson Dragstrip last weekend to do some testing/Top Dawg racing. It was a long day for me. I live three hours from Sandy, so my day started at 6 am and ended at 3 am Sunday morning. I was on the road at a quarter till 7 and sitting in his drive way at a quarter till 10. Let’s head to the track. Well, it got real cold the night before and apparently the batteries in the big truck only last a year. So off to AutoZone we go for fresh batteries. An hour later we are on the road to Benson where our clutch advisor, the one and only Jeff Dobbins is waiting.

Sandy had already removed the clutch prior to arriving to the track. When we unloaded the car, Jeff took the clutch to his pit area to surface the clutch. We then assembled the car to get ready for our shakedown run. On the first run, Sandy was real smooth doing the burnout. He staged and brought the rpm’s up and dropped the clutch. It bogged again, but came to a stop with no problem. He backed it up and staged again. Same thing but it rattled the tires real hard. He shut it off and coasted off the track.

Back in the pits, we went over everything and made a few adjustments to the clutch and went back up for the 1st round of qualifying. Again, Sandy did a great burnout. I backed him up and check the wheelie bars and he is ready to stage. He drops the clutch, with a .034 light I might add, and the cars leaves better, but again goes into severe tire shake. He clicks the engine and coasts off the track. Once back in the pits, the service begins again.

Now Dobbins and Sandy both have a theory of what is happening with the car and the clutch. They know what needs to be done, but we can’t make those adjustments at the track. So, Jeff thinks we need to surface the clutch again so it want be so aggressive. We took the transmission out again to service it while Sandy made some engine adjustments. Just as we buttoned everything up for the 3rd run, Jeff noticed that the steering rack bar was broke at the weld. This is not good. So racing/testing was over for the day.

Even though we did not get to make another run, I do think it was a blessing in disguise. Sandy could have wadded his car up if he had gone down the track. He now has the steering rack fixed and has the clutch ideas he and Jeff discussed implemented, so testing may be in order this coming Saturday. Hopefully this will be the weekend he gets to pull the chutes.

Here is a recap of some of the pictures. 1. The first pic is of the new and improved hood scoop that had to be replaced after the first test session at Piedmont Dragway. We will get it painted after we go down the track successfully three of four times. 2. The second pic is where the steering rack broke. This is never a good look on a race car. 3. This pic is the world’s largest business card. This sign was along the wall in the staging lanes. Sandy didn’t even know that the sign had been put up and was a pleasant surprise. 4. Here are the two master minds, Jeff Dobbins and Sandy Wilkins, talking it over in the staging lanes. 5. This last pic is the winner of the Top Dawg that night, Brian Williams in his good looking Wilkins Racing Engines powered Pontiac. Congrats.

That’s a wrap. I will update you guys next week on how the testing went this weekend.

Have a blessed Easter.

Testing at Piedmont Dragway

2010-03-19T05:54:00.000-07:00

Let’s talk about some testing. The Fleabag loaded up last Sunday and headed to Piedmont Dragway in Greensboro, NC to test his new toy. What is his new toy you ask? No, not a new car. No, not a new big block engine. Sandy is still running the small block. It is the new transmission. How about a Liberty 5-speed. Sandy figured he wasn’t working enough on his car, so why not put a clutch in it. This thing is hot. If you are a gear head like me, just seeing the 5-speed in the car makes it look fast.

So, how did testing go? Once at the track, we went over everything with the clutch and we talked about what our jobs were. It was myself, Brian King and Phillip Belvin helping the Flea. The one thing that we emphasized was, if anything happens; make sure to turn the power off to the car. So, we towed to the line for our first run. Since I did not get to go racing last year, there were a few things I had to get caught up on. One was the R3 neck support. I had to hook the restraints to his helmet for the first time. Two, was the practice of standing away to the rear of the car during the burnout. This is the law in ADRL apparently. And then the third thing was to calm my nerves since I haven’t been on the starting line in a while. You would think Sandy would be more nervous than me since he was doing something different, but he didn’t show it.

His first burnout with the clutch went really good but the car died when he came to a stop. Sandy said that when he pushed in the clutch, the car felt like it picked up speed. He doesn’t have the drag of the convertor to slow the car down now. He has backed up now and Brian has set the wheelie bars. Sandy turns on the pre-stage bulb and Phillip turns the computer and shocks on. Sandy rolls in and puts it on the rpm chip and drops the clutch. The engine bogged a little and he went to 3rd gear and shut it down. A 4.82 come up on the board. Ok, so now he has the butterflies out and we will turn it up the next pass.

Without the help our clutch advisor, we went over everything the best we could while taking way to long. Now don’t think we are ignorant, we are just out of our comfort zone. But we got in touch with our guy and made the changes that we needed and headed to staging.

The burnout went even better than the first pass. Sandy backed up as I talked him into the groove. The guys did their thing and Sandy turned on the top bulb. He brought the rpm’s up and turned on the bottom bulb and put it on the chip. Sandy dropped the clutch again and the car bogged worse than the first pass. At the lowest point of the bog, KA….BOOOM. Off came the hood scoop in a lot of pieces. The engine had a major back fire that took out the scoop and cracked the front end as well as cracked an intake runner. The thing that caught my attention is Brian running up to the car and turning the power off. Smart move just in case there is a major issue.

Of course Sandy’s feelings were hurt, but I suppose it is part of the learning curve. He is already working on the car to see if anything else is in need of repair. As far as his return or debut, that has been postponed a couple of weeks. If you have an extra carbon fiber hood scoop lying around, we are taking donations. Other than that, work goes on at Wilkins Racing Engines while the racing program is hold until repairs are made. As far as racing, we will probably be a spectator at the Charlotte race next weekend. Hope to see you there.

Don

Not Ready Yet

2010-03-08T06:15:00.000-08:00

Sometimes when people get use to something, they can’t live without it. For me, it is my family and some drag racing. Apparently for Angel Miles, it is the Wilkins Motorsports Blog. After motivation from her, the blog continues.

As the headline says and the picture shows, Wilkins Motorsports did not make the Division 9 opener at Farmington Dragway. Why, use ask? Well, it seems that Sandy has been quite busy this winter working on new engines and refreshing the old ones. He has been blessed with a steady work load in this not so good economy. He has the engine down for a little refresher and the transmission out for a large upgrade. Other than that, when the time will allow, he will get it back together in time for the spring races.

Let me tell you about our NHRA Winter Nationals experience. Well, that’s it! Me, Sandy and Chuck Chapman were scheduled to leave out Friday morning February 12. When we got to the Charlotte airport, the sweet lady told us that all flights into and out of Dallas/Fort Worth was cancelled. Apparently there was a foot of snow in Texas. I was trying to save us a little money by having a connecting flight and it bit my in the butt. I am still trying to collect money from the nice hotel in California. What did I learn from this? Book a direct flight next time.

As you can see in the picture of Sandy’s truck, everyone has gotten some snow this winter. I hate snow. Because of it, I got screwed out of seeing the Circus and having my boy’s birthday party. I’m not bitter, just tired of losing money. Back to the truck and trailer pic. Look at how nice the trailer looks with the new Chapman Auto Body colors. I can’t wait to see the truck and trailer at the track with the awning out and the sun bearing down on it. You want hear me complain about the heat this summer. Damn you Global Warming.

Now if you need a complete small block top end kit, Sandy has some components for sale. It has Brodix canted valve heads and a sheet metal intake. If anything in the picture interest you, give him call. Sandy has deals going all the time.

I want to congratulate Steve Corker on his win this past weekend at Farmington Dragway in Top Sportsman. His uses Wilkins power in his cars. Sandy and I hated to miss the race, but at least Wilkins Motorsports was represented. It was a beautiful weekend for racing. The Flea will be there soon.

I want to say thanks to Angel Miles for helping move the blog along. That’s why she is in a leadership role. Because when Angel speaks, people listen.

Don

Is It Time to Go Racing Yet?

2010-01-22T12:05:00.000-08:00

Yes sir!! That is the question. Is it time to go racing yet? A racer starts to get itchy when the weather gets up around 65 degrees. After a couple of weeks with the weather in the teens, anything above 40 is a heat wave. With the start of the IHRA season next week, a lot of racers get to enjoy sunny south Florida. Good luck to all.

Well, as Sandy posted last week, you know he has been skiing and spending some time with family and friends in the mountains. He has also gotten his truck trailer painted. I have posted a few pics showing the paint guru Chuck Chapman performing his magic. Chuck did an awesome job in a short amount of time. Who says paint and body guys are slow.

Sandy, Chuck and I have decided to start the racing year off in new way. We are heading to Pomona, California for the 50th running of the NHRA Winter Nationals. I am kind of a history buff when it comes to drag racing and what better race to attend than the 50th Winter Nationals. We fly into Ontario on Friday around lunch. I think we are going to hit a couple of sites, such as the NHRA museum, maybe John Force Racing and we may take Sandy to Hollywood to get his star on the walk of fame. On Saturday we will head to the track for the day and that night we may go to a legends event at a nearby hotel. This will be drivers from the past 50 Winter Nationals doing a question and answer session as well as telling stories. Interesting to me, maybe not to the Flea and Chuck. Who knows what we will do. Fun no matter what.

Sunday we will be at the track all day seeing some great racing action. Hopefully that weekend will be rain free. Last year they had a ton of rain. They got one qualifying session, and eliminations were finished the following Wednesday. We fly out Monday morning, so racing better finish up on Sunday. Either way, we are getting our racing started earlier than usual and that’s a great sign for me. Every day is a great day for me.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Take care of you.

Don

2010

2010-01-12T17:06:00.000-08:00

Well here we are in 2010. It's a new year and i hope things are looking up for everyone!

My first day of 2010 was spent at JJ and Suzie White's house eating collard greens, fat back, and some black eyed peas. OK so this is the first time i engaged in the tradition of eating these items, but as bad as 2009 was i figured it couldn't hurt. As you can see from the picture JJ added some dimes to the collards. Supposedly if you get a dime in your collards you will have a prosperous year, therefore he made sure there were PLENTY of dimes!!!

This past weekend was spent taking care of some business and a little pleasure. I dropped off my tow rig at Chuck Chapman's body shop for a little touch up on a couple of items that needed attention. Chuck and his guys jumped right on the project and i expect to pick it up next weekend. This picture shows Chuck doing his thing.

I left Hickory and headed North to Boone. The North Carolina mountains had been receiving allot of snow and cold weather over the past couple of weeks so some friends and I decided to hit the slopes! We went to Sugar Mountain on Saturday and skied from 12:30 to 8:00pm on Saturday night. And yes....it was cold, exactly ZERO degrees when we finished Saturday night. The picture is from the top of Sugar Mountain while it was snowing.

Its a new year, new things to come, so keep your eyes out for upcoming announcements.

Sandy

All Is Well Here!!

2009-12-03T06:50:00.000-08:00

Hola my long lost friends. I hope all is well with everyone. It has been a while since we have talked. I think the last time I blogged was when I posted those delicious pics of my leg. Since then, the leg has improved a bunch. I can put full weight on it with out any boot or crutches. The only problem I do have is my ankle fills like a bad sprain and my knee hurts a little. There is also this old man limp I am trying to get rid off. But through it all, I have been blessed beyond measure and will tell you at random what my Lord has done for me.

Now what has the Flea been up to? From his last post he summarized the season for you. Everything is in one piece, so that is great. He is making some updates to the car for the upcoming season that should get your attention. As far as which association he will be running, I hope to post something in the near future. We are not happy with the direction the Nitro Circus is heading, but like a lot of people, it is hard not to run the races that are so close. We may run some division races and a Nitro Circus or two, but we are not going out of the way for that deal. Realistically, we will probably stay close to home and hit the Renegade series pretty hard next year.

This past weekend I met up with Sandy in the mountains to talk over the 2010 plans and to also take in a game. We ended up going to the first round of the play offs at Appalachian State University. It was a cold but exciting game with the Mountaineers pulling away with the win, 20 to 13. After the game, we met up with his family and I enjoyed some good fellowship with Lucien, Freda, Joel, Elise, Banks and the lovely Miss Lowman. It was great to see you guys again.

I forgot to mention that hopefully this weekend, Sandy will be bringing his truck and trailer up to Chuck Chapman’s Auto Body for a little freshen up of the stripes. Sandy says he is tired of the green stripe on his trailer. The car is yellow, orange and blue, not green. The rig will be in my area, so I hope to post some pics during the process. You guys take care and I will blog you soon.

Don

So.....what's new?

2009-11-23T16:35:00.000-08:00

Well everyone it's the end of the racing season at Wilkins Motorsports and time to prepare for next year. So what's new for next year, hopefully a little more racing success and possibly a full year with Don heading up the crew chief position in full health!

But lets recap 2009. As far as IHRA racing i made it to one final round........ the rest of the year i was standing at the head of the suck line! Racing just wasn't the same without Don keeping me on track and in line! And with the chaos of the "so called" tournament of champions being a total disaster, Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder could have seen this coming, my IHRA season ended with the proverbial raspberry!

The good news is I tried out a new class at Piedmont dragway called the Piedmont Renegades. I went to Four races and qualified number 1 once, and won 2 races. This class is great for the top sportsman racer. The renegade cars have weight rules based on engine size and transmission type, but all cars can run only one nitrous system. This makes the competition fierce and many different combinations can be competitive.

Other good news is that I made my professional debut with ADRL in July at Dinwiddie VA. I qualified in my first attempt and even made it to the second round. In September I unveiled my new engine combination at the Rockingham ADRL race and ran a respectable 4.33 in the first round of competition.

All things considered, especially the economy, it was a great year for Wilkins Motorsports and Wilkins Racing Engines. The engine business has grown about 20% which is right on track with my business plan. And the race car and engines are in one piece at the end of the season. It would be hard to ask for more! Keep your eyes open for new things from us in the next couple of months including a NEW Wilkins Racing Engines website!

Enjoy the upcoming holiday weekend, HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Sandy

Sooo....What's been happening?

2009-08-18T15:59:00.000-07:00

Well you have probably been wondering where we have been recently since the blog has been few and far between. To start Don has started back at work and is putting in his 40 every week, YAY for Don...congrats buddy!!!

Racing wise i deceided to take a couple of weeks off from drag racing and spent some time in the mountains with family. And of course i had to find something to race! The picture is of Dad's lotus on the starting line of the eagles nest hill climb in Banner Elk, NC. Actually i didnt race, they would not take my IHRA license, so i drove the lotus as the pace car for the event. And of course i made some hot laps up the mountain, FUN TIMES!!! Dad and i shared the driving duties while also crewing for John Finger, who is a multi time world champion hill climber!

The next week it was off to the Piedmont Renegades race again. This time we were number one qualifier with a string of 4.43 elapsed times. Unfortunately our day ended in the semi finals when a spark plug failed. Thanks to Brian, Doug, and Herb for all your help! We will get em next time!

This weekend were off to the Dunn Benson Renegades race for the first time. Come by and check out the Renegades and Top Dawgs on saturday, gates open at 12. See ya at the races!

Sandy

A Leg and Project X

2009-07-30T18:20:00.000-07:00

We might need to call this the every 3 week blog now days. It so hard to blog when you don't have any pictures. I was the one usually taking the pics at the track, so since I'm not there, I have to rely on my friends. Sandy's mother is professional photographer, and I know when she is at the track, I am going to get quality pictures.

First, let's update you on my leg. Before I wrote the last blog, I had went to see the plastic surgeon. He said the muscle looks good and I need to start wearing a compression sock. A couple of weeks later I went to the orthopedic doctor and got more good news. He said that I have two spots on the bone that are healing slower than the other areas. But overall it looks good. He said he wanted me to wear a boot and start uses crutches. Put as much pressure on your leg as you can stand. I said , you're kidding me. Nope, I don't expect you to be walking in six weeks, but if you are, that's great. See you then. Well hot dog. This news is two months earlier than what they originally told me. That was about 3 weeks ago and everything is still OK. Just need to keep it lotioned up. Oh, the only bad news is I have a screw head trying to poke through the skin at my ankle. He said, we will take that out when you come back. Sounds painful. I hope he makes sure the drill is in reverse.

I wanted to show you a few pics of my injury. A sort of then and now. The first pic is two days after the muscle was put on. Now remember, this is a stomach muscle taken out and put on my leg. You can't really tell how big my leg was in this pic. But from the knee down, it's large. The second pic is from a couple of days ago. This picture is from basically the same angle. Everything has went down to about normal. I know, it's not a massive leg. I've heard them all. The only problem I'm having, is the swelling in my knee and ankle and also a little pain in each one from the therapy. But hey, things are great and I'm a happy man.

What's the Flea been into? After he won the Renegade race at Piedmont he took a weekend off to get ready for the race at Moorseville. It too had the Renegade cars there and Sandy would have loved to won it, but going in he new that would be tough. He had been working on Project X for sometime and looked to debut it that weekend. Project X was his new engine and he new it may take a little time to get it up to speed. Sandy is usually the guy that makes something work the first time, but unfortunately, a number of things prevented it from getting up to speed. He did qualify # 15 and had to run Doc Bilbrey in his small block, 5 speed ex Pro Stock Truck. Doc to the win light in 4.4 seconds while Sandy's car drove hard toward the center line forcing him to lift. Sandy came back for a shake down run and made a good safe run to give him some much needed info on his new engine combo for the next weekend.

This race at Moorseville was close to home and the doctor released me to drive a week earlier, so I had to go. When I arrived, I was pleasantly surprised to see Sandy's entire family. Lucien and Freda, Sandy's sister Elise and her husband Joel, plus those precious grand baby's, Banks and Lowman. Sandy had a full house and a full crew. Brain King, Doug West, George Gable, Kenny Majors and the entire family. You see me and Doctor Wilkins in the first photo. I knew my knee was hurting and a little swollen, but you can really tell it in this photo. Then their is Mr. Banks. He wanted to ride the golf cart. So while the guys worked on the car I took Banks and my youngest son Logan a ride around the pits. Logan loves to come to the race track and hang out with Sandy, and to have Banks there to play with made it that much more fun. I had a large time being back at the races and seeing everyone. The only down side was we had to leave.

Well Sandy left Mooresville and got the car ready for his first venture into the ADRL. He has wanted to do this for a while now and the timing was right. A new engine, new 10.5 tires and those long wheelie bars that he finally got on. So off he goes with high expectations. I did not get to go because I can't ride that far yet. Sandy kept me up to date as well as the live audio from the track. On Sandy's first run, Project X nosed over. But hey, he has a spare now. X is out and old reliable is in. Sandy qualifies # 8 in the 16 car field running low 4.40's. He has a first round competition break bye and sails down the track to a win with another 4.40 run. He had to run a twin turbo car, but problems came up after his burnout. The second round, Sandy has to run the #1 qualifier. No problem. Leave on him and turn on the W. What I didn't tell you, is that this guy ran a 4.01 to qualify #1. Sandy does leave on him, but this guy drives around him with another 4.0 run. That is awesome on 10.5 tires.

What are some things we learned at the first ADRL. Looking at it from the outside in, I can say: 1. Sandy can bolt on a 10.5 tire and go straight down the track, 2. Project X needs some tender loving care buy has a ton of potential, 3. A 5 speed might be in the future, 4. Heads up is a whole lot of fun. The thing that blew my mind was the attendance. I've heard any where from 35 to 60 thousand people were there. If going down the track with that many people watching doesn't pump you up, nothing will. Also, check out the ADRL pictures in the gallery on Sandy's home page. Lot's of shiny aluminum and a whole lot of fun.

Well, I think the next race for the Sandman will be the August edition of the Renegade race at Piedmont Dragway. Project X might be there and who knows, I might talk my ole pal Kelly Stevens into driving me down. See you guys at the races.

Don

Renegade Winner!!!!!!!!!!

2009-07-06T18:27:00.000-07:00

That's right. Flea Dog is a winner in the Renegade series at Piedmont Dragway for the second time this year. In the final, he took on Tim Lawrence in his new Camaro. Sandy was .002 on the tree and out run Tim on a hole shot. 4.45 to his 4.44 Excellent way to end the night.

The first round did not start the best. It was a win for Sandy, but his opponent Jay Zimmerman shook the tires hard and ended up in the wall. From what I was told he will need a new front end and maybe a gas tank and radiator. Jay and his team are good friends and we hope it doesn't take them long to get back to the track. Second round Sandy beat Doc Bilbrey and in the semi's he got past good friend Stacy Hall. Sandy's car performed flawlessly during the two days at Piedmont and that can only be attributed to the help. That was Brian King, Herb McCandless Jr, Jack Anderson and his son Kyle and Keri Arthur.

I do not have a winner's circle photo yet, but I do have a pic of the check he received from the last win. $1500.00 doesn't seem like a lot of money to win when you think of the investment that he has. But most racers don't think about the money. They would love to get more, but when you get the win and the trophy, that's is the fun. Especially when you do it with a bad ass small block. Remember, do what you love and the money will come.

The latest news to come from Wilkins Motorsports is the addition of a new sponsor. Welcome Locked and Loaded Grill in Garner, NC. These guys are a full sports bar and grill, serving you an awesome lunch and supper everyday, as well as a place to hang out with your spouse and friends. They have special events going on every weekend. So if you are in the Raleigh area, go check them out and tell them Sandy Wilkins sent you. Their web address is http://www.lockedandloaded.us/.

The next race will be in Jackson, SC at Carolina Dragway on July 17-19. Three races in one weekend. Looking for three wins. Come join the Sandflea.

Life Of A Super Star!!!!

2009-06-26T16:05:00.000-07:00

That last time we talked, Sandy was headed to Piedmont Dragway to run the Renegade race on a Thursday night. Some may ask, did he win? Well, not exactly. You see, Sandy unloaded off the trailer with a 4.46 to end up in the #2 qualifying position. Then the rain set in and the race was cancelled until the following Saturday night. How did he do? The thing is he didn't go back. No, he is not a quitter. He had already made plans to attend the wedding of one of his good friends in Raleigh, NC. To me, that just shows that when Sandy is your friend, he is a friend you can count on. I know a lot of people that would have said, I'm sorry your wedding is on the day of my race, you should have planned better. But Sandy attended the wedding and his friend knew he could have been at the races. That guy will remember what Sandy did and that is why Sandy is blessed with many, many friends.

I wanted to show you the cake that was made for Sandy for his 40th birthday party. It was a beautiful cake with a picture from Benson Dragway I do believe. Sandy sent this pic of some of the people in and around his garage having a good time. Above the garage is the hang out/game room. Their is a pool table and some games as well as many pictures from his days in racing. His dad Lucien, as well as Sandy use to be involved in road racing. I am not to familiar with the term here, but they had some cool cars. Sandy's dad use to own the former Nascar Skoal Bandit Oldsmobile as well as the former Skoal Bandit Indy car. He purchased these cars and ran them in some sort of road racing circuit. Now maybe I'm wrong, but that would be freaking awesome. Anyway, lots of cool pics to seen in Sandy's game room. I think their is even a hood scoop that was nitrous tested hanging on the wall.

Well, after the race at Piedmont/wedding, Sandy was off a week and then headed to Rockingham, NC for the rescheduled divisional race. Since I am healing from my leg accident, I get to sit in the comfort of my air conditioned home all the time. Which by the way, I'm tired of sitting. From my understanding, it was way hot at that race. But Sandy's thinking was, since it is so hot, let's drive two cars this weekend. The other car was the awesome wheel standing Ford Mustang of Mark Young. I don't know the story of how he ended up in the car, but it didn't take but a second for Sandy to say yes. You see, Sandy also builds the engines for Mark's cars, so it is a little easier to drive someone else's car when you know what they have. By the way, Sandy qualified #2. I would love to tell you he won with the Super Stocker, but a .010 red light in the third round ended his day. Our old pal Tracy Robbins had a .005 package against Sandy anyway. Tracy also went to get runner up honors that day. The Top Sportsman car did not fair as well as the Ford Mustang. While warming up the car Sunday morning, the starter broke. Thanks to help of Tommy Arthur, the starter was replaced while Sandy was winning 1st round in the Super Stocker. Sandy had to run Stacy Hall first round in TS and was on the losing end of the race. The margin of victory at the finish line, .001. To the house. We'll gett'em next time.

Sandy has this weekend off and has been working hard on a special project for the Cavalier non stop. Details later, but he hopes to have it at the next race. When is the next race for the Flea. You know what happens on the first Thursday of every month at Piedmont Dragway. That's right, the Renegade race is next week. Temperatures are supposed to be really cool for that race. Not. Come on people, we are getting close to the 4th of July. If you are a racer, don't go to the track and complain about the heat when you know you have to put on a fire suit and crawl into a car. OK, that's my tyrate for the day. Supposed to be the biggest race of the year for these guys. I think you qualify on Thursday and race on Saturday. Just like the last one, minus the rain.

One last thing, the bottom photo is the trophy Sandy received in Rockingham. You say he didn't win the race. Maybe Best Appearing or Best Engineered. Nope. It was the award handed to the first round loser. Thanks for the added pain. You see, Super Stock racer Ashley Parker's wife made this clever little iron man with a tire to present to the first round losers of their friends. Aren't we all thrilled. No, it really was pretty funny. Sandy took it in stride. Good thing they don't really hand these things out or no racer would have enough room. Ha Ha.

Well, come support Sandy this coming Thursday at Piedmont. Bring plenty of water, as well as food. Sandy has to eat. Plus, bring plenty of help. You can never have too much help. I hope everyone has a wonderful and blessed weekend and I can't wait to go racing. Take care of you.

Don

Renegades Tonight!!!!!

2009-06-11T09:30:00.000-07:00

Yes my friends, the Renegades are running tonight at Piedmont Dragway. The defending champion is our very own Sandy Wilkins. As you may remember, the last time out, Sandy defeated good friend Stacy Hall of Chesnee, SC. The great thing about that race was, it contained two small blocks running on one system. The winning time for Sandy was 4.45 and Stacy ran a 4.46. Close competition. Their will be a ton of cars trying to get into a 16 car field. You need to go to this race if you are in the area tonight. A must see. Plus, Sandy could probably use the help.

No, this pic in not my new dragster. It is Steve and Brenda Corker's new American Race Cars dragster. It is a beauty. They received the Best Engineered Award at Coastal Plains Dragway a couple of weeks ago. We all know that Steve is the defending World Champion in Top Sportsman but he is also a winner in Quick Rod. Steve wanted to start out the new year with brand new equipment, thus the American Race Cars dragster. The second thing he did was order a brand new 565 ci big block chevy from Sandy Wilkins @ Wilkins Racing Engines. Now most hard core fans know Sandy Wilkins as a small block genus. He has taken his 432 ci small block with a power glide to a best of 6.74 @ 204 mph. With those credentials, surely he can produce with a big block. Well, Steve Corker's car ran a 4.82 @ 141 on it's maiden voyage, and then it was converted over to Quick Rod mode. Both Steve and Sandy were pleased with all the numbers from the first 565 produced by Wilkins Racing Engines. Not bad for a small block guy. If you are looking for an engine, Sandy can build you what ever you need, from a 432 small block, to a 565 big block, to a 700 cubic inch pro mod engine. He can do it all. Just ask Brian Williams, the winner from last month's Big Dog.

That leads me to an engine that he has for sale. Well, it is actually mine. It is a 522 Par Racing Engine that I purchased from Scott Duggins new. I raced it in Quick Rod most of the time, but ran Top Dragster in the 1/8. It has run 4.90 @ 140 in the eighth and 8.90 @ 170 in the quarter. Because of my accident, I would like to sell this engine to help off set some medical expenses. My firm asking price is 8 grand. If you are not interested in the engine, you can buy me a dragster to put it in when I get better. Now that's a plan. Just contact Sandy if you are interested. Thanks!

Don

Happy Birthday Flea!!!

2009-05-26T17:54:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to the Flea. The man with the small block that does. Mr. Wilkins the engine doctor. The man that always smiles. That's right, the flea turned 40 this past Sunday. That's May the 24th so you can put it into your memory bank for next year.

This past weekend at Kinston Dragway, Sandy Wilkins reached a milestone in his life by reaching the big 4-0. He had a lot of friends come by and wish him Happy Birthday and basically give him a hard time. You will notice in one of the pictures that someone gave him an old fart hat with curly grey hair. Thank you Lisa Bingham. He also enjoyed the company of his parents this weekend since the race was so close to their Wilmington, NC home. He even had a birthday cake to share with his friends. If you look close enough in the cake pic, you will notice the end of the propane torch used to light the candles. When you do not have a lighter or matches, a torch is the next best thing.

So since it was his birthday and he was having a great weekend, Sandy probably went on to win the race. Well the fun stops here. The car ran good on Saturday and Sandy was stellar on the tree, but Sunday came and luck just wasn't on the Flea's side. Sandy was 20 on the tree and tapped the breaks to let his man back by him for a .004 margin of victory. To the house. So where does he go from here. Let me think.

In case you haven't heard, Sandy is having a 40th birthday

party/bash at his house this coming Saturday. Anybody that is anybody will be there. Of course I want be there. Something about a leg. Anyway, if you haven't let Sandy know, you better call him now. A person only turns 40 once and Sandy likes to celebrate, whether at winning or getting old. Ha

I personally want to wish Sandy a Happy Birthday and many more. Ive only known Sandy for four and half years and it seems like I have known him all 40. Thanks for the friendship Sandflea and I hope this is your best year ever.

Don

Piedmont Payout!!!!

2009-05-14T11:44:00.000-07:00

Tuesday I told you that Sandy had won the Renegade race at Piedmont Dragway the Thursday before the divisional. Well, Sandy sent these pics of the two winners checks. I think who ever come up with the idea two hand out these huge checks to the winners is awesome. It's just another way to celebrate what you have accomplished. Sandy also received a trophy that will go in the office. But the big check will go in the shop on the wall with the others to remind the guys and whoever else comes in that they are dealing with winners. Way cool.

Back in the day while bracket racing, I remember only getting cash for the win and a that a boy. You would come home jacked up knowing you had won, but had nothing to show for it. When I ran some IHRAI they gave you a plaque when you won a divisional. Now they give little iron men. I would like to do some trading. How many remember while bracket racing you got a business card for a time slip with only your E.T. and no reaction time. I have a few of those.

Anyway, I just think it's cool that racers get lots of "stuff " when they win. And having the trophies, plaques, pictures, checks and other " stuff " visible to people, makes them want to do business with you and just be around you. Everybody wants to be around winners. That's why I have decided to quit hanging around Sandy Wilkins. Only kidding! That's why Fleabag has so many friends. He is a winner in everything. By the way, this is not a paid advertisement. I better stop. I think the meds are kicking today.

The leg injury? I went to the plastic surgeon yesterday. He told me a few things I can do to help myself, but overall the leg is looking good. I do not have to wear my splint any more and he wants me to air the wound out more. I still have to keep it elevated for now. I have some good pics of the leg, but I don't know if you are ready for that. I go back in two weeks, so keep me in mind while I sit around and go crazy. Talk to you soon.

Don

Let's Try This Again!

2009-05-12T12:40:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,

I hope all is well with everybody. It has been a while since I have written and we have a lot to catch up on. As some of you know, I have been down for a while with a leg injury. You may ask why would that stop you from writing. I will explain shortly. As far as not writing in the blog over the winter, well that was just being lazy. Let's start with some racing

The last time I blogged was when Sandy was runner up at Farmington Dragway. That was my first and only race of the year so far. The next race was the Moorseville divisional and Sandy had a third round loss. Then it was onto the Spring Nationals at Rockingham. Coming into this race Sandy had qualified for the Summitt All Star race. Sadly he was a first round causality in that race as well as the national event. Not a good weekend. For me, all I could do was follow along on the web. We do have a photo of some of our friends hanging out in Sandy's trailer at the Rock.

From there it was on to the Renegade race at Piedmont Dragway the weekend of the divisional race. The Renegade class is a new class that Piedmont created this year to draw more race cars that have a hard time running the Big Dog race. It has the basically the same rules as Top Sportsman, but you can only use one nitrous system. It is also heads up, first one to the finish line, which Sandy loves. Finally, his first win of the season. In the finals, he ran good friend Stacy Hall. The neat thing is that it was an all small block final. Winning E.T. 4.45. The Piedmont divisional was not as good. A second round red light. The photo is our old pal Doug West working hard for the Sandflea at Piedmont.

Let's talk about a leg injury. That day at work was slow and I continued the cleaning out of one of our buildings. I was cutting all the metal up to take to the scrap yard. I had cut up some barrels and cut on one that had not been vented. Big explosion. Totally my fault because I did not prepare. Been around cutting and welding my whole life. Can't explain why I screwed up this time. But it happened. Moving on.

The barrel was laying down and the blast hit my left lower leg. I fell to the ground and was dazed. I heard my torch still burning and reached up and turned it off. I wondered how bad my leg was bleeding and when I looked, I could only see a couple of spots on my pants. When I raised my leg to see if their was a pool of blood (their wasn't) my leg went 90 degrees about half way down below my knee. That's when I panicked a little.

The next thing I wondered was where was my phone. By the way, I was there by myself. I realized my phone was in my jeep about 30 yards away. I crawled to my jeep and got my phone and called 911. I am leaving out a lot of little things that you can ask me later. But basically the first responders came and took care of me. Then I was air lifted to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, NC.

While in the hospital for two and half weeks, I received a titanium rod with lots of screws and staples. I lost the front muscle on my leg because of the blast. Believe it or not, they cut my stomach, leaving about a 10 inch scar while taking a stomach muscle and transplanting it to my leg. Ugly! Also a nice skin graph from my left thigh.

It has been 5 and half weeks since my accident. They say it will be 6 months before I can put any pressure on it. I still have to keep my leg elevated, so I only have three spots to sit. Bed, recliner and wheel chair. I went to the ortho doc yesterday and he said all is good. I go to the plastic surgeon tomorrow and I hope I will get another good report. But for now, I do a lot of sitting and surfing. I finally got everything set up so I can blog at will. Trying to get up to date . Even set up a Facebook account.

I want to thank everyone who has prayed for me, called, sent cards and came by to visit. I am truly lucky to be alive and my life has changed for the best because of it. The Lord has always been good to me, even though I have let him down a lot in the past. I will keep you up to date from here on out. My goal is to be at the Fall Nationals in Rockingham. Talk to you soon.

Don

Don Shuford and the Rock

2009-04-22T20:19:00.000-07:00

For those of you that don't know, Don was in a terrible accident at the end of march. Let's just say he is extremely lucky to be here but he has a long road to recovery. Don was working at the muffler shop, there was an explosion, and his leg was severely damaged. After spending a couple of weeks in the hospital he has finally made it home to finish his recovery.

First i want everyone to know that racing just will not be the same without Don's help. Of course everyone expects him to make a full recovery, it just going to take some time. Without a doubt the success of Wilkins Motorsports can be directly related to the team of Shuford and Wilkins. To quote John Furr, "If there's a picture to be had you can count Wilkins and Shuford to be nearby". So in Don's honor i am including a picture of him made after the final round at Rockingham spring 2008.

We love you buddy!!!! Get Well SOON!!!!!

Starting Out The Year # 2

2009-03-29T18:31:00.000-07:00

I hope the winter has been good to everyone, but I sure am glad it's spring. I know all you guys are ready to race. We finally did get to race last weekend. With Rockingham getting postponed due to rain and then the Farmington race getting pushed back a week, it seemed as though we would never get to race. Let's back up a couple of weeks.

In the last blog the car had just been painted at Chuck Chapman's place. Following that, Sandy assembled the car and I met him at Mooresville Dragway to test. Sandy has an eighth mile set up where he runs only on motor (no nitrous). While most cars just turn off the nitrous and race, Sandy changes the rear end gear, converter and other settings on the car to maximize performance and minimize problems. The testing went well. Sandy made three runs of 4.98, and back to back 4.97's. We loaded up with the outlook good and we were ready for Farmington.

The Farmington weekend started off with sunny skies and a little wind. It was about ten degrees cooler than when we tested in Mooresville, but hey, no rain in the forecast. Sandy made his two qualifying runs Saturday, which was a 4.88 and a 4.90. We thought about running the combo race but the temperature was falling fast. The track gets real tight when it gets cold and bracket racing a 4.80 door car in forty degree weather can get a little crazy. So we hung out with our friends at the Jay Zimmerman camp before calling it a night.

Sunday was sunshine and no wind. Temperature in the upper fifty's. First round we ran Mike White in his 63 Corvette. Second round was the Allen Racing Engines Monte Carlo. Third round was Tim West from Asheville, NC. He was going for the jugular. He was -.001 & dead on with a 1. That was about to be ugly. In the semi's we got around Mark Payne in his new Cavalier. Sandy had been in the zone all day with the car running the number. In the finals, we were matched up against Jeff Rudisill who was making his Top Sportsman return after a four year absence. Sandy and Jeff both missed the tree and both cars were one number over. But unfortunately for the Sandflea, the win light was in the other lane. Congratulations to Jeff Rudisill, but losing sucks. It was a hard pill to swallow after having such an awesome day.

After a person gets over the what ifs and emotional roller coaster of the day, you have to look at the big picture. 1. This was the first race of the year and we made it to the finals. 2. It was back to back finals after ending 2008 with a win at the Rockingham National. 3. We are second in divisional points. A top three finish in the division gets you in the shootout for the championship at the end of year. 4. The car performed flawless over the course of the weekend and 5. Sandy made his first driver error in ten rounds of competition. Going back to the fall Rockingham win to end 2008 and this race to start 2009, that is one mistake per ten runs. I will take that ratio every time.

As the title states, Sandy started out the year number 2. He has #2 on the window from last year and in our first race we ended up # 2. Now if we can only finish the year #1. Honestly, Wilkins Motorsports has been truly blessed this past year (other than the crash). But even in the crash we were blessed. Winning rounds is fun and winning races is great. It is why we race. We love the people, the competition and Sandy loves the challenge of taking a 432 cubic inch small block and making it run wicked fast. See you in Mooresville.

Don

What Have We Missed?

2009-03-02T14:07:00.000-08:00

How have things been? The last blog was about the awards banquet in Ohio and when we left it was snowing. As I write this, their is snow left on the ground from the snow storm we got yesterday. Very nice but I am ready for Spring.

Since last December my family and I had a wonderful Christmas and New Year. Sandy also got everything he asked for. He is especially fond of the 60 lb. bag of twenty dollar bills. But seriously, Sandy has been busy building engines and trying to get his car looking normal. Thanks to Chuck Chapman, that has been accomplished. More on that later. On the engine building side, I know he has built engines for Brian Williams, Josh Miller's cars, the champ Steve Corker and many more. While he has been staying busy, one always can stand a little more business.

The most exiting thing that has happened this winter is the birth of Lowman Elizabeth Wilson. This is Sandy's new little niece. She was born on December 9th, 2008 @ 12:39 am and weighed 7 lb 7 oz and was 20.5 inches long. In this photo she is two months old and is being held by her big brother, the King, Mr. Banks. Freda and Lucien are overwhelmed and very proud as well as mom Elise and dad Joel.

If you remember, Sandy's car did not win best appearing at the Rockingham fall race. That was when his car was given the nickname "Wilkemon." You know, it had the John Montecalvo front end on it. It was an ugly winner's circle pic, but it was a winner. Some people told Sandy he was crazy for painting a car that had just won a race. "You don't want to change your luck" they said. Well, I believe it was a winner when it looked good, so I will go with the fresh paint. It has a few tweaks to the paint scheme and I think it looks cleaner, shinier and meaner. It's just plain Hot!!!! Chuck Chapman does an awesome job.

As you know the Rockingham race was rained out this past weekend. Sandy was going to test on Friday for the first time this year and then go racing. Now this gives him another week on the car and I believe testing we be this Saturday at Mooresville Dragway. From there he will head to Farmington for the next divisional race on March 13-15. Hopefully it will be sunny and mildly warm for March. At least we will have the extra hour of day light from the time change.

Sandy has added a few things to the car that will make the 2009 even stronger. You can ask Sandy about that. Like most racers Sandy is trying to keep enough cash flow going so he can race all year. With the economy down, racing closer to home makes common $ents. Hopefully, Sandy can continue the momentum from last year and get one of the spots for the championship shootout at the final race of the year in Rockingham. All you have to do is Win! Sounds easy, right?

Don

Awards Banquet !!

2008-12-01T19:14:00.000-08:00

Hello to everyone and Happy Post Thanksgiving. I hope all is well.

As most of you know, the IHRA Awards Banquet was held a couple of weeks ago. It was in Mason, Ohio, about 20 minutes north east of Cincinnati. Teresa and I left out Friday morning while Sandy and his family came up that night. We all finally got together around 10 pm and hung out with our sportsman friends. They are always a rowdy crowd.

Saturday we woke up to a cold and rainy day. But we were staying at the Great Wolf Lodge which has a huge indoor water park. A lot of the people brought their children and that is where most spent their day. The kid came out in Sandy as he spent a few hours in the water with Case Stott. Teresa and I on the other hand left our kids in NC and went to downtown Cincinnati and had lunch at a fancy smancy restaurant. We all hooked back up that evening for the big show and enjoyed an excellent meal with our friends. Our table consisted of Sandy & Emily Stott, Lucien & Freda Wilkins, Tracy & Jennifer Robbins and Mr. and Mrs. Billy Wilson.

As you can see in the pic, Sandy was all smiles after receiving his second place trophy. To finish #2 after the year he has been through is really satisfying. This was the most wins in a season for Sandy. Let's recap! Rockingham National, spring and fall. The Maryland National. The Piedmont divisional win on Sunday and the bracket race win the night before. Pretty stellar year, only to be slightly tarnished with the crash in Pittsburgh.

While we all had a good time supporting Sandy, we watched as Steve Corker gave an outstanding speech after he received his Championship Trophy. Steve did not have the fastest car this year, but he raced smart and covered a lot of territory to win and will always be your 2009 Top Sportsman World Champion. Congratulations to him and Brenda and it was also nice of him to say thank you to Sandy during his speech.

Sunday morning we woke up to a light snow and decided North Carolina was where we needed to be. We said our goodbyes and headed south, arriving home around 5 pm. What do I remember most about the banquent weekend? 1. Sandy's mom looked like a hot rock star Saturday night, 2. Herb Jr. is constantly promoting/talking, 3. Linda Butcher was not happy with the bar closing down at midnight, 4. The way Allison Hall passed me on interstate, well, she may need to drive the vette.

Don

Post Rockingham

2008-10-26T18:56:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

Talked with the Sandflea today and he is still jacked up from the win at the Rock. The downside is he is not feeling to well. It seems he has been under the weather for about a month. He was feeling his best when he was at Rockingham. What does that tell you. The race track, plus a win, does wonders for the body. I asked about the car and he says it is still in the trailer. He is giving the car a break while he works on customers engines. He did tell me that he has us rooms for the banquet next month in Ohio. And believe it or not, I think my wife is going with me. Our ten year anniversary is next month. Do you think I can get by with taking her to the awards banquet only?

I posted the final qualifying sheet from Rockingham. Sandy qualified 31st with the smallest engine in the field. Our other small block pal Stacy Hall was 1st alternate and would have qualified deep in the field, but I think he had a some clutch issues. He got in as an alternate, but shook and lost first round. If you are having trouble seeing the pic, click to enlarge it.

On a side note, Teresa and I went to the Patton High football game and watched our niece become crowned the new homecoming queen. She is a beautiful girl with the sweetest personality. Very deserving of her title. The funny thing is that her name is Sandy. When I tell my boys that I talked to Sandy, they ask if I talked to the boy Sandy or the girl Sandy. Funny!!!

Don

WilkieMon To The Front!!!!!!

2008-10-21T20:41:00.000-07:00

Happy Tuesday to you all,

What a difference a week makes. Last week we wondered how the car would run. This week we are still smiling after the big win at Rockingham. We can't believe how the year has went. Sandy started out the season with a win at the spring national event at Rockingham followed by a divisional win at Piedmont dragway. Then he won the national event in Budds Creek, Maryland which was followed by the dreadful crash the second week of July. To sit out the summer with this car and come by in October and win the last race of the year is awesome. I can't be more proud of the Flea if I must say so my self. With that win, the Sandflea ends up in second place.

Thursday we went over every detail on the car to make sure it was ready. After that, we had supper that night with the Butcher's and it was wonderful. Thank you Linda and Glenn. On the first qualifying run Friday, Sandy ran one stage of nitrous to half track and ran a 7.21 to end up in the 31st position. He wanted to make sure from half track on that it was handling good. Then rain set in around 5 pm and we had supper that night at the Outback. Yummy!

Saturday morning it was still raining a little and they did not get on track until after lunch. Unfortunately, we did not get to run any that day because of the rain. We watched the ball of fire show and had supper with fellow Top Sportsman competitor Bruce Thrift. He had potato's, sausage, shrimp and stuff warming in a cooler. I forget what it was called, but I'll call it delicious.

Sunday it was still cool and windy when we finally made our 2nd qualifying run. Sandy ran one system to the stripe that produced a 7.04 and again that placed us 31st. Hey, we are in. First round Sandy ran Ricky Adkins and ran dead on his dial to save that round. Because IHRA was behind schedule, the sportsman cars were bumped to Monday to finish up. So off we went with the Stott's to Ruby Tuesday's. Good eating!

Monday was nothing but sunshine. Cool but pleasant. Second round Sandy defeated Jason Harris. Third round was Robert Jones. In the semi's he beat Josh Miller. Facing Sandy in the finals was Glenn Teets Jr. Both guys were .o1 on the tree and Sandy ran a little closer to his dial for the win. This was Glenn's first national event final round. He said he was happy with the runner up and that he would have to pay his dues. I thought that was pretty classy. Sandy was the runner up 9 times before he finally sealed the deal. Now he is a six time national event winner.

The weekend went flawless for Sandy and the car required little maintenance. He had a ton of help from people just to get to Rockingham. I will try to touch on those people in a day or two. A thanks goes out to Jeff Miles for the special WilkieMon title he gave Sandy. For those of you who don't get it. Sandy Wilkins car with a John Montecalvo front end. Aww!! Angel Miles took the first pic of us holding the trophy. If you notice we are holding up four fingers to indicate winning four iron men this year. The second pic is a little note that Lauren Jones and the team left us. They were parked three doors down and also our third round competitor. Good people. The last pic is what she was talking about. As Howie Dalton said, Uniforms look good, car not so well. I think it will be an excellent eye catcher hanging in the office.

Don

Rockingham Bound!!!!!!!

2008-10-15T19:20:00.000-07:00

Hey again,

It is finally Wednesday night. After working in the muffler shop all day and fixing a project at the house, I can now concentrate on leaving. It is 10:22 pm as I am writing this and clothes are in the wash. Hopefully in the morning I can throw everything in the suitcase and leave. Oh wait. I have to take kids to school first. Then go by the bank. I need to swing by Chucks. Wait. I need to run to the hardware and bring that stuff back to the house. It is three hours to the Rock. I'm thinking I will be there between noon and 8 pm.

Enough of that. Talked with Sandy a little while ago. Remember the pic from yesterday's blog. Sandy tells me that he is in the same spot from the spring race. And the same neighbor is beside us. It is already starting out good. He has the awning up and that is no quick task. When I get there tomorrow we are going into town to pick up groceries for the weekend. One last race to do some grilling. I looked at the points standings for Top Sportsman and Sandy is in a tie for third place. So yes we would like to go some rounds. The weather shows it to be cool this weekend. So you know that means fast racing. I need to go put some clothes in the dryer. See you tomorrow.

Don

Still On Go!!!!!

2008-10-14T20:34:00.000-07:00

Hello again,

Day #3 of the blog. I keep my word...most of the time!!! I talked with the Sandflea today. Everything is still on go for the Rock. The car is ready, but he tells me that he is having trouble with the 12 volt system on the big truck. He said no problem, he'll fix that too. Sandy is sounding more up beat. I know he is tired, but like anyone, the closer the race gets, the better you feel.

I also talked with Jeremy Creasman today. He is coming to the Rock with a whole new combination. I want give it all away, but I will tell you it is not the black GXP that he has been running. Different car, different engine combo, same two speed powerglide. I think he said he ran a 4.13 testing last weekend. Can't wait to see it. Jeremy told us his motto for racing. He goes to drink beer and hang out with his friends. He just brings his car so he will fit in. Love that guy.

The pic is from the spring race at Rockingham. No special meaning. I just thought is was a cool pic. Sandy did win that race and it would make a good ending to a rough year to win the last race. I know the odds are against us. But Sandy did win 3 races in a row earlier this year. That's 15 rounds straight and 3 Ironmen. But let's be realistic. Three or four weeks ago, he did not know if he was going to make the last race. Now that the car is together and he has made a few runs, let's go try to qualify. If he accomplishes that, then let's try to make a round. If the car runs good with no major problems and we happen to lose first round, I still think the weekend will be a success. But who's kidding who. Any racer knows that their is no need to go if you're not planning on winning.

Don

Nationwide Is On My Side...........

2008-10-13T18:37:00.000-07:00

What's up my people?

How about this back to back blog? Good news. I talked with Sandy today and progress has been made. With the help of Brian King this weekend, Sandy was able to test Sunday evening at Benson Dragway. He made four runs. Two with out nitrous and two with. Everything went well and it looks like he will be heading to Rockingham on Wednesday. Sandy said other than a few minor things on the car, the biggest project is making sure every thing is in the trailer.

This brings us to our title, Nationwide!!! My self and Chuck Chapman, (Chapman's Auto Body), were giving a chance to go behind the scenes at Lowe's Motor Speedway. Two garage passes thanks to our friend Amy Mosser who works at Haas-Carter Racing. Her team prepared car #61 for rookie Nationwide driver Brandon Whitt. He drove in the truck series last year and seemed to be a really nice guy. He only qualified 35th, but ran a pretty clean race and finished 21st. If not for a car checking up on him early in the race and a couple of bad pit stops, he probably was a top 15 car.

When Chuck and I were checking in at credentials, we run into NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Steve Johnson. Since there were not many drag racers around, we easily struck up a conversation. He was their hanging out with Mike Wallace and the Geico Toyota Camry. When the cars lined up on pit road before the race, we ran into him again. We talked about his up coming races, about sponsorships, and of course about the Sandflea. I gave him a card and he said he was going to check out the website. Steve-O was a pretty neat guy. He's a talker!

One of the neat things Chuck and I did was meet the guys from a new country band called the Williams Riley Band. They were first class. Big tour bus and a big grill. We ate with these guys and listen to how they have gotten to where they are. They have signed with a major record label and were at the race doing some networking. They gave us their brand new CD and we noticed that Bryan White sings on their debut single. Slash from G & R plays on one song and Edwin McCain sings on a another. These guys are going to be big and Chuck and I got to do some tailgating with them. Way Cool.

Overall we had a good time. It was a new experience after growing up around drag racing. We were their from 1:30pm to 1 am. I think I could have been happy with about 3 hours worth. Will I go back? Let's just say Rockingham is in a few days and I'm leaving Thursday morning. Four days of some serious fun!

All hail the Flea!!!!!!!!!!

Don

It's About Time...........

2008-10-12T19:51:00.000-07:00

Hey guys,

I am sure that title is what you are saying. I have no excuses, except for work and more work, a wife, kids in football and so on. Still, no excuses.

Let's get right to it. Sandy has been working furiously on his car to get to the World Finals in Rockingham, NC. As of Saturday, the car is basically together. The engine and drive line are in. The new stainless headers that turn out the side are on. These are hot! The main thing is the wiring. It just takes a lot of time. I have only been able to drive down one time to help, so it has pretty much been all Sandy. From what I can tell over the phone, he is worn out. I don't know if he will be able to test before the Rock. This Friday may be the first hit on the track.

I don't have any current pics of the car. But I will give you an idea of what it looks like. Look at the car on the home page and imagine a few scuffs from the wreck with a John Montecalvo front end on it. I mean red, white and blue. Sandy says if it goes straight and we don't have any major problems, who cares.

The first pic is what the car looked like when Sandy picked it up from Bickel's. The second pic is the car at Chuck Chapman's being prepped to have the front clip painted. The third pic is from Jerry Bickle Race Cars. If you notice the chassis in the lower left hand corner on the jig, Sandy's car was taking off that jig two days earlier. These guys waste know time in building a car. The fourth pic is a not so pretty pic of a blown rear trailer tire while coming home from the Carolina Dragway divisional. A 12 hour stay on the side of interstate 85 with a corner of the trailer in the highway. Not good.

I haven't talked with Sandy today, so I am not sure if the engine has been fired or what the progress is. I will talk with him tomorrow and try to up date you tomorrow night. I know you don't believe that, but I will try my best. I would like to blog every night this week up until I leave for the Rock on Thursday. That is only three more blogs. I can do it. I hope everything goes well for the Sandflea so he can race at the Rock. Talk to you tomorrow night.

Don

Z-Max Dragway

2008-09-15T18:52:00.000-07:00

Hope all is well. As you can tell I went to the new dragstrip in Charlotte, NC. And what a beauty it is. It is so cool to have a state of the art track an hour from home. Some friends and I only went down for one day. We all had a blast. The neat thing is their were a lot of NASCAR people walking through the pits. Rusty Wallace and his son Steven, Geoff Bodine, David Green, Joe Gibbs, Rick Hendrick and I'm sure many more I did not see. When we arrived Friday morning it was overcast and looking like rain. As the day went on it got extremely hot, but it turned into a beautiful evening. The only problem is we had to sit in the hot sun. Our good friend Chuck Chapman was in the air conditioned tower all day Sunday. Sometimes life is not fair.

Since we are on the Chuck Chapman subject, he is going to start on Sandy's car in the morning. As I am writing this now, Sandy is about four hours away, heading home with his repaired Cavalier. After a brief stay at the Shuford Estates, that's funny, he will head to Chuck's place in the morning to drop off the car. Actually, Chuck will paint the chassis from the fire wall forward and touch up a few things while Sandy waits. Then Sandy will take the car back to Raleigh and start putting it together. Once Sandy gets the car pretty close to being ready, he will then bring it back to Conover, NC for Chuck to finish. It will only be a month till Rockingham from this coming weekend. A lot has to be done. Can't promise a trick paint job. But Sandy only wants to be back at the track with his own car, so I know he will work now stop until then.

Z-Max Dragway had lots of good looking women on hand. And it seemed that my buddy Scott Dennie wanted his picture taken with them all. He is the guy you want in your group. Not afraid to say anything or talk to anyone. He kept us laughing the whole day. We seen a lot of our IHRA regulars racing. Matt & Kelly Cooke, Robert Holloway, Cameron Manual, who got down to the quarters, Steve Furr (quarters), Jeff Edmonds, Danny Waters Jr (semi's), Scott Lawton, Tracy Robbins, & Mark Young. Their were a lot. I also saw the always lovely Lisa Bingham hanging out in Pro Stock pits. The cool part? I will get to see all these guys and gals at Carolina Dragway this coming weekend. See you there!

Don

Charlotte & Carolina Dragway!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-09-08T18:48:00.000-07:00

What does the new Charlotte Dragway in NC and Carolina Dragway in Jackson, SC have in common? I will be at both. This weekend is of course the NHRA race at Charlotte. Myself and four other friends are going down on Friday to catch some sportsman eliminations and to see some nitro night qualifying. We are taking a rookie to see and smell some nitro. I am going to put him right behind a fuel car during a warm up! Sandy says he might go to the ADRL race at Rockingham on Saturday and then to Charlotte on Sunday. Or he said he might work all weekend. If I know Sandy he will probably be working all weekend.

Good news from the Sandflea this week. First, he tells me that Jerry Bickle is working on the Cavalier. They are finishing up on the engine mounts, which sounds like they are not far from hanging the front end. Hopefully by the end of the week it will be ready. Now that I think about it, I hope Flea is driving to Missouri this weekend. Love ya Sandy. Second, he tells me that he has the green light to race Nicky Miller's 67 Camaro in Jackson, SC next weekend. You probably figured that out by the title. Why else would I go? I mean, I have no car or no where to stay. I'm just a bum looking for a ride. Anyway, Flea bag will be there and it is going to be large. Why not? This will be our second to last race of the year. Well, if we get to race in Rockingham! Looks like Sandy is mathematically out of the championship hunt. Let's go racing and just have fun. We have the car that can do it.

Speaking of. Here is Nicky's car again with Sandy behind the wheel. Picture this now. When Sandy is in his 434 cu in small block Cavalier, we are doing a burnout around 9000 rpm. With the 565 cu in big block Camaro, he is around 6000 rpm. You know his foot wants to go to the floor. Sandy's Cavalier sixty foots its rear end off to a 4.80 run on motor. The Camaro carries the front end 100 feet and makes an easy 5.15 run. With the Darlington runs under his belt, I wouldn't bet against him in Jackson. But of course I am kind of bias.

Regardless, the next few weeks are going to be B.I.G.- large. I hope all of our regular IHRA guys and gals that participate in Charlotte do well. My friends and I will be cheering for you on Friday while Sandy is freshening up your engine. I mean somebody has to work. Later

Don

Darlington !!!!!!

2008-09-02T18:59:00.000-07:00

Hello my friends. Finally made it back to the blog. Hope all is well with everyone.

It was good to be back at the track after a month and half away. We got to see a lot of our friends and everyone was happy to see Sandy back behind the wheel. Sandy borrowed Nicky Miller's 1967 Camaro, which Sandy said was awesome to drive. The car was consistently in the low 5 teens. Nicky is the father of Top Dragster and Top Sportsman driver Josh Miller, who also happened to win on Monday. The Miller guys are a great group of people and Sandy is extremely grateful for getting the opportunity to drive their car. As far as the results from driving their car. Not so good. A red light in the first round ended race one. And taking too much stripe ended race two. Over all, just happy to be racing.

Our next race is up in the air. Sandy is trying to get a car lined up so he can race at Carolina Dragway in a couple of weeks. After that, it will probably be Rockingham if he gets a ride. If not, we will come down and support our friends. That may be the best plan yet. We can bring Club 660 and park beside you.

Sandy's Cavalier is still setting at Bickles waiting to be repaired as we speak. Apparently this will take a little longer than we first expected. Speaking of taking longer than expected, Jeremy Creasman debuted his new GXP this weekend at Darlington. How about going a couple of rounds while running low 4.30's. I will have his car and the other pics of Darlington up in a couple of days.

Thanks again to the Miller's and congratulations this weekend. Darlington was a good inspiration to get back to blogging. I have plenty of things to blog about. 1. Sandy back at the track. 2. Friends and their new car. 3. Supper and wine with our friends. 4. Lots of whining from Ronnie Proctor (only kidding Ronnie). Someone told me I was not blogging enough. See you in a couple of days?

Don

Stopping By The Flea's Shop!

2008-08-12T19:39:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone! Hope you are doing well. It has been a little boring around here. The car is still at Jerry Bickle Race Cars and racing any time this year is not looking good. Soon we will have to start preparing for 2009, but I did not want this early of a start.

I stopped by Sandy's shop the other day to see how things were going. Of course they were hard at it. His number one man Josh was working on one of the lathes while I was there. Josh has been their around a year and a half and continues to do an outstanding job.

You will notice the front end hanging on the wall in one pic. That was the nose that was on the car when Sandy eased it into the wall at Piedmont Dragway. Beyond repair. So he spends a thousand bucks on a new used front end. That nose is in a small box in the trailer, thanks to a steel guardrail at Pittsburgh Raceway. Someone sent Sandy some action pics of his car wrecking in Pittsburgh. I hope to have those up in a day or two.

Another pic is of the office area. T-shirts and parts for sale. Ladies, check out those hot pink Wilkins Motorsports tank tops. A must have for all the females. Also an engine shop would not be complete without an engine for sale. Sandy has this very nice used but not abused PAR 522 BB Chevy. Call for details.

If you are in the Raleigh area, stop by and see the Flea. Better yet, bring an engine by for freshening up or let him build a new one for you. It's not like he's going racing this weekend. WOW! Sorry Sandy! That was my Smart A.. getting the best of me. Talk to you fine folks in a few days.

Don

Nitrous Wrench

2008-07-31T19:06:00.000-07:00

What's up everyone? Can you believe it! Two blogs in one week. Working from daylight to dark and then trying to have a little family time makes writing a blog difficult at times. But I do enjoy it. Since I do not race any more, working with Sandy keeps the adrenaline going. Plus it is alot cheaper.

Most of you know that Sandy manufactures a successful line of wheelie bar wheels as well as wheelie bar wrenches. These products are used by many IHRA and NHRA pro stock racers as well as many sportsman racers. Some of Sandy's customers include Jerry Bickle Race Cars, Tim McAmis Race Cars and Rick Jones Race Cars. You can view these products from the home page. Sandy is always thinking of new things and now he wants to introduce his Nitrous Wrench.

This is a 4 in 1 combination wrench that can be used on all nitrous applications. It is made with the same aircraft quality material as the wheelie bar wrenches. Removal and installation of the -12an bottle nut, the -8an blow down tube, and either a -4an or -6an nitrous line can now be accomplished with one tool. It will only be available in blue. Get yours today for $39.99.

If you are interested, give Sandy a call at the shop or email him with your info. He has the first batch of wrenches ready to ship. As quoted by Sandy Wilkins, "Be the first on the block, because the Nitrous Wrench is hot".

Don

Stage 2

2008-07-29T18:39:00.000-07:00

Since our last blog, Sandy has been burning up the highways so he can get his car repaired. He traveled to Maryland International Raceway this past Saturday to pick up a front end, tires and wheels from pro stock racer John Montecalvo. With those parts strapped down in the bed of the truck, he arrived back home late Saturday night. With little sleep, he left out Sunday morning for Jerry Bickle Race Cars in St. Louis, Missouri. After a brief hotel stay Sunday night, he dropped off the car around 8 am Monday morning. Once business was taken care of, Sandy departed for North Carolina at 11 am. He arrived home around 2:30 am early Tuesday morning. That would be 2400 miles and $800.00 in fuel at about 11 miles to the gallon. Isn't racing so much fun?

Now that the car is at Bickle's, hopefully their will be a quick turn around. Sandy said Bickle had one jig specifically for repairing cars. Their was one car on the jig and Sandy's would be next. Sandy also said that their were so many cars in his shop, that he should leave his car in the trailer until time to work on it.

It looks as if Sandy will have to have a pair of front struts. If anyone has a line on some good used ones, let him know. Preferably Lamb so his brakes will work. Thanks for every ones help. I will try to blog again before the weekend.

Don

STAGE ONE

2008-07-23T19:06:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. As you can see, Sandy has disassembled the car to get it ready to take to Jerry Bickle Race Cars. He had to take everything off both sides of the fire wall so it could be replaced as well as the front end. It also broke the left lower frame rail at the fire wall which will need to be replaced. The car has more damage than we originally expected, so you know what that means. More time and more money.

Pro Stock driver Jeff Dobbins has helped locate a used front end, front tires and wheels and possibly some front struts. Sandy would like to leave for Bickle's this Sunday so he can be there on Monday morning when he opens. The drive will take around 15 hours. Hopefully Bickle can turn the car around pretty quick and Sandy can start the rebuilding process.

Sandy is still complaining of neck pain that may require a doctor visit. Hopefully just a lot of stress, if that is a good thing. He wanted to thank every one who called and emailed concerning the wreck. The racing family is a truly a great bunch of people. Someone asked, "When will he race the car again"? He would love to have it ready for the fall Rockingham race. As you know this is an expensive sport. If you would be interested in helping out in any way, please contact us.

Also, if you have any questions that you would like answered on the blog, shoot us an email. Sandy's is on the home page and mine is don@carolinatools.com. Thanks again to everyone who keeps up with our web site. Stay tune for STAGE TWO.

Don

Pittsburgh--Home of the Steel Guard Rail.

2008-07-15T20:43:00.000-07:00

We finally made it back from our not so exciting trip to Pittsburgh Raceway Park. We arrived home around 1:30 am Monday morning. The sad news is we did not bring back cash, trophies or women. Only a badly damaged race car.

Sandy was racing in the first round of the Sportsmen National Event. His opponent was Chris Nyerges who was coming off of the divisional win the day before. Chris went red while Sandy had a .005 green. Both guys make full passes. After Sandy went through the lights the chutes came out late. Sandy went to apply the brakes and the car began to skid hard left in front of Nyerges.Chris turned right to miss Sandy and went under his chutes, ripping off Chris's hood scoop. Sandy had a hard impact with the guard rail and it sent him back across the track barely missing Chris again. He had another hard hit with the right side guard rail and ended up near the last turn off.

As I watched from the starting line, the only thing I could think was please let him be OK. And just like the pro that he is, he came across the radio and said, " I'm OK buddy". That is all a person can ask for in that situation. We know all to well with what can happen. Our buddy Doug West is going through months of rehabilitation on his arm after his crash. And of course the Kalitta crash. Sandy's car may not look seriously bad for a 190 mph crash. But at that speed, all that has to happen is for the car to hit in the wrong spot and it's ugly. We are very fortunate for the out come.

So what are we going to do now? Sandy is planning on taking the car back to Jerry Bickle Race Cars in Missouri as soon as possible. He unloaded the car tonight and is doing his on evaluation. Sandy is second in the Top Sportsman points with 4 races left to claim. He wants to be on the track somehow, someway. The problem is that this car will probably not see the track again this year. We will see what happens.

Let's talk about the people at Pittsburgh Raceway. The track owners were great to us. Not just because of the wreck. From the day we arrived until we left these guys were super. Sandy had met one of the owners, Carmen Tedesco, at the PRI show this past winter. Carmen and his brothers went out of their way to make sure we were happy this weekend. This is the only race where we left with more food than we came with. Thanks Carmen. After the wreck, everyone was their to help us. Greg and Gina Slack were out pit neighbors this weekend and went above and beyond. Mark Malcuit and crew. Jeff Solyan, Alan O'brien, Shannon Waycaster and many others that I can't remember. Thanks for all your help.

We hope to see you guys sooner than later. If I know Sandy, he has something brewing as we speak. Their are more pics of the car in the photo gallery on the home page. Drop Sandy an email with a word of encouragement if you have the time. Later.

Don

Winner X 3

2008-06-18T19:12:00.000-07:00

Now we are having fun!!!!!!

What a way to start off 2008. Sandy started the year not knowing if he was going to race much due to his engine building business. Wow, how things change.

With his third win of the year coming at the National Event at Budds Creek, Maryland, Sandy is ready to go anywhere this weekend. Actually, this is his fourth win if you can't the win in the combo race at the Piedmont divisional. If you are doing the math, that is 15 round wins and counting. See why he wants to go racing this weekend.

I would say we had a pretty flawless weekend. We didn't have any problems traveling to the track. You know, he does have CDL's now. (some may get that) Thursday we did maintenance on the car. Friday we got our two qualifying shots which were a 7.19 and 7.20. Pretty consistent. The only thing was we were qualified 26th going into our last run which concerned us. So we stepped it up to a 7.01 @ 203 mph to end up 22nd. Sandy won a close round one race and other than the rain that washed out pro qualifying, Saturday was fun. On Sunday, Sandy drove both ends of the track great and ended up with his third Iron Man of the year. Did I mention that was fun?

We did not get to take a lot of photos because only Sandy and I went. That is a poor excuse but the one I'm sticking with. We will try to have some photo's up on the gallery in the next couple of days. Where are we racing next? Sandy called and asked if I had a passport. He must be taking us all to Aruba!!!!!! Did I mention we had fun!!!!!!!!!!

Don

Big Pimping, A Win and Doug West!!!

2008-06-10T19:25:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Let's review what has happened in the two and a half weeks since the last blog. Sandy crashed the car. Doug West was seriously injured while testing a car (goods news on Doug later), and Sandy spent about 1500 miles on the road getting the car repaired. That pretty much took care of the month of May.

We did have the make up race at the end of May on Memorial Day weekend. That resulted in a second round red light. Fun weekend, but not real productive on making rounds.

Before we go any farther, I wanted to show you the pic of Flea that will be in Drag Illustrated next month. Big Pimping!!!

That brings us into June. We roll into the Big Dog race at Piedmont Dragway on Thursday, the 5th. We end running a 4.357 with the bump being a 4.32, I think. Anyway, we run the consolation race. Win on a hole shot first round and lose because of too much wheel speed when the second system came on. Fun night though.

The great thing about the big dog race falling on this Thursday night, is that we can leave the trailer parked in the same spot due to the IHRA race here this weekend. So after the Big Dog we do our routine maintainance and also change the rearend, converter, collectors and tires. Now we did all of this about 8 hours ago when Sandy arrived. It has made for a long day.

On to the Piedmont divisional race. I was unable to attend this race because of prior commitments. So we had our old pal Jeremy Creasman help the Flea this weekend. How can this turn out? Two crazy personalities who also like to party. Can't be a good combination. How about a win on Saturday in the combo race and a win on Sunday! Can you say Iron Man! Chuck Chapman said I was fired but Jeremy said he could never take my job. Jeremy followed up by saying, I (Jeremy) am damn good help though. I have told Sandy a number of times that it is not as much about the help as it is him being a hell of a driver. But a lot of thanks does go out to Jeremy Creasman for his big help this past weekend.

Our buddy Doug West is supposed to get out of the hospital today. They did discover a fractured knee when they tried to get him moving. He does have a badly damaged arm that will require a lot of work. But he is going to be OK. What a blessing. I know he thanks everyone who has asked about him and prayed for him and also contributed money. Sandy thanks you.

Well, we are off to Budds Creek, Maryland tomorrow night. Hopefully the June hot streak will continue. Sandy did get to the finals there last year. This is also where he ran his quickest and fastest time. 6.78 @ 204mph. The weather may not allow that this year, but fun we will have. See you in Budds Creek.

Don

Doug West & The Month of May?

2008-05-25T18:17:00.000-07:00

As everyone is aware Wilkins Motorsports did not start the month of May off the way it would have liked. To recap, Sandy wrecked on his first pass at Piedmont dragway at the Big Dog race. Then he found a used front end in Ohio and went their and back on a Saturday while using a lot of that high priced diesel. He then traveled to Chapman's Auto Body in Conover, NC to drop off the race car. A week later, (today), Sandy arrived by at Chapman's to pick up what appeared to be a brand new race car. As always Chuck did an outstanding job in a minimal amount of time. Now we are ready for Mooresville.

That leads us to our buddy Doug West. Doug began helping us at the beginning of the year and has been a great help in every area. He eventually went to work for Sandy at his engine shop. Last Thursday night while testing a friends 87 Camaro at Benson Dragway, Doug was involved in a single car wreck. We still do not know what happened. He made a pass in the 4.80 range at 145mph and the car ended up wrapped around a light pole at the far end of the shut down area. He was unconscious and had to be cut out. He is in a Raleigh hospital in intensive care. Doug is in a drug induced coma with a shattered elbow, a fractured eye socket and swelling on the brain. We did get excellent news today. They say that while he is still in a drug induced coma, he is giving the thumbs up to the doctors commands. That is wonderful news.

As you have read, the race car has become the least of Sandy's worries. His main concern now is to see his buddy get better. I can not believe I don't have a pic of Doug in my archive. If you go to the photo gallery on the home page and click on the first place at Rockingham gallery, y0u can see him there. Doug's pic is #28 and #30. Please remember to say a prayer for Doug West today. Come by Sandy's pit and ask about Doug this coming weekend in Mooresville, NC. See you there.

Don

A MOTHER OF A WEEK! Part 2

2008-05-21T05:38:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, i'm finally able to finish my story. As posted in the last blog we spent 15.5 hours and 1045 miles on the road last Saturday. Well of course Sunday was mothers day, and you have to spend mothers day with your mom! So i hopped back in the truck and headed two hours east to Wilmington. I arrived in Wilmington at 10:45 and headed straight to the surf club in Wrightsville beach. The entire family met at 11:00 for a wonderful mothers day lunch! It is always great to spend time with the family, but holidays and special occasions are my favorite. Mothers day is always special but my sister had some incredible news! She informed me after lunch that i was going to be an uncle again, YAY!!!!!!! The picture above was taken just after she told me. I'm a little red in the face. Lol. She had obviously kept the news close to her chest, as she was now in her 10th week. I am sooo excited for her and her husband Joel and son Banks. As you can see Banks is a precious nephew and will make a great big brother. That afternoon my mom, dad, and myself went downtown to visit my aunt Jane and uncle Dave. My cousins were there also and we had a great, but short visit. That evening it was time to head back to Raleigh, so back in the truck and west bound i head. Next weekend "Road Trip!"

Stay tuned
Sandy

A MOTHER OF A WEEK! Part 1

2008-05-12T06:14:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone, Don normally handles the blogs but i decided to get everybody up to date with whats happening. Like the title says it has been a mother of a week, literally. It has been busy at the shop which is great, but trying to juggle work and play is extremely hard. Wednesday was my scheduled day to take the CDL driving test. My instructor made it seem like i was taking the SAT all over again! Good news, i passed on the first try. Towards the end of the week Mark Malcuit called and let me know that he had a 2003 cavalier nose for sale. It just so happened i was in the process of purchasing a new nose from GM so the call came at the perfect time. Mark and i made a deal over the phone, so off we go!

So here it is Saturday morning 4:45am, Jeff Whitley and myself head off towards Strasburg Ohio to pick up Marks cavalier nose. We make one stop for breakfast and arrive in Strasburg at 12:30pm. Mark Malcuit is a fellow top sportsman racer, and as you can see has a top notch operation. He is also one of the only other guys running a small block in top sportsman, therefore we have allot to talk about! The front end looks like what we need, so we load it up, grab lunch and head back to North Carolina. It was a marathon trip but we were back at my house at 9:45pm Saturday night. Ok so here are the stats!

Travel distance - 1043 miles

Travel time - 17 hrs. total 15 1/2 driving time

Miles per gallon - 9.5

Average mph - 67.3 mph

So we made it back in time to watch the last 70 laps of the Darlington race, very exciting. Believe it or not i was not tired, but i decided to head to bed around 11:30.

Sunday morning 8am, ROAD TRIP! but i will have to let you know about this one in another blog.

Sandy

Hero to a Zero!!! Ouch!!!

2008-05-04T19:39:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. If you keep up with Sandy, you probably know he crashed the Cavalier last Thursday at Piedmont Dragway. Sandy was OK, but car will need some plastic surgery. We will call this blog, Hero to a Zero.

I say Hero to a Zero because this was the first race after the big win at Rockingham. Sandy was still flying high with emotions and this was the first pass down the track. The car drove toward the center line and when Sandy lifted, the car bit hard left toward the wall. Sandy corrected and the car came around on him. From the starting line it looked as if he was going to save it and then the concrete wall jumped out at him. The front end supports were bent and broke along with pushing the fuel cell into the radiator. One of the fuel cell bars also broke. After checking everything out, Sandy said let's fix it.

With help from Chuck Chapman of Chapman's Auto Body, the front end was reworked and bandaged up to make another run. Everyone performed their routine maintenance while Sandy worked on the fuel cell situation. Can you believe he made it up for the first qualifying run. A 4.39 pass after crashing an hour before. On his second pass he stepped it up to a 4.34, but that fell short of the record 4.27 bump. Sandy ended up 14th and had to run Todd Tutterow in the consolation race. Sandy goes 4.36 to Todd's 4.18. Race over.

While the wreck could have been worse, Sandy estimates it will cost around five thousand to repair the car. He chose to sit out the Madd Dog race at Farmington Saturday night to go over the whole car. He is looking at six weeks on a 04 Cavalier front end. So he will probably miss Milan, Michigan. It will take some time, but he will get it fixed and come out strong as always. If you want your name on a new front end, now is the time to help. Sponsors needed.

Don

A WIN AT THE ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-04-22T05:33:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

What a great weekend we have had. Sandy has finally gotten the monkey off his back with a win at the Rock. He has a few runner-ups there and has even put a car on it's roof, but a brides maid no more.

The weekend did not start as we had planned. Our first qualifying run produced a 7.14 @ 191 mph. While doing routine maintenance we found a leaking head gasket. That required the removal of the cylinder head and replacing the gasket which took less than 30 minutes. The second and third qualifying runs were back to back 6.81's @ 199 and 203.06 mph, which put us in the 6 th position. This year IHRA shortened the field from 48 cars to 32. Sixth is not bad for a 432 cubic inch small block.

Sandy drove like a mad man this weekend with his worst reaction time being a .020. We were looking back at the runs and noticed the finals were the only time Sandy ran the car all out. The first round was our lucky round when Mike Westmoreland red lighted and we shook the tires. Second round we ran Stacy Hall and he had ignition problems just past half track. Third round was John Benoit who when into tire shake. Benoit was dialed 6.67. Crazy! In the semi's we ran our friend from Ohio, Glenn Butcher. Sandy was .008 to Glenn's .042, giving Sandy room at the finish line. And in the finals he ran Travis Harvey in Russ Farmer's Race Tech 68 Camaro. Sandy was .012 and Travis was -.003 red. Sandy ran it out to a 7.16 @ 191 mph. And the crowd went wild. I know myself, Lucien and Doug went wild.

Like I said, we had a great weekend. It seems like the race weekend takes forever to run, but once it's over the celebrating goes by to fast. Sandy's dad Lucien was able to come down for Sunday and he could not have been any more proud of his son. He took a boat load of pics that we will have up on the photo gallery in a day or two. This was Doug West's first national event helping us and I think Sandy may have spoiled him. This was also the first national event with the new race support transporter (Jeff :). Again, this is the best investment Sandy has made.

Sandy said his phone has been ringing off the hook with congratulations and he wants to thank everyone for that. We all had a blast and we can't wait until the next race. See you there.

Don

Runner Up @ Big Dog! Sort Of !!!

2008-04-13T18:46:00.000-07:00

What's Up!

Our last blog was from the rain out at Mooresville. Since then we had an off weekend and prepared the car for the Big Dog at Piedmont Dragway. It is usually held on the first Thursday of every month, but it was postponed a week due to rain.

How about that runner up? Well, it was sort of in the consolation race. We ran a 4.35 on the shake down run. Then came back and ran a 4.35 on the first qualifying run. Going into the second and last qualifying run, the bump was a 4.31. Sandy tuned it up a little and it went straight down the groove with a 4.33. Unfortunately that did not get us in and the bump ended up being a 4.30.

In the consolation race Sandy out ran Jack Gaddy and Jason Harris with two more 4.35's. In the finals against Robbie Kiziah, Sandy ran his best number of the day. A 4.32 against Kiziah's 4.34. Hole shot loss. That will hurt your heart.

Well, that is sort of how we got runner up. We can say we made it to the finals of a race. Of course the pay wasn't as good and we didn't get any press on Piedmont Dragway's web sight. You still need to go to their sight and check out all the hot photos Van Abernathy took of Sandy's car.

That's it folks. Rockingham is this coming weekend. Hope to see you there!

Don

Love That Awning!!!!!!!!

2008-03-30T16:27:00.001-07:00

It is Sunday evening and we are back at the house. The race at Mooresville was called off this morning at 10a.m. It was rescheduled for Saturday, April 26th , the week after Rockingham.

As the title says we love that awning. The thing is we were thinking of how nice it would be to have all that shade. Well, we have used it the last two races and it's main purpose is to keep us from getting wet. The other plus is the heated trailer. It has been extremely cold and windy these last couple of races. I am so glad Sandy stepped up.

Friday it was perfect. I believe it was around 78 degrees and no wind. Everyone had shorts on and we all sat around outside socializing. Jay Zimmerman was parked next door and these guys brought us breakfast each morning. Thanks Tommy! Keri hung out with us and helped entertain my son Logan. He will be six on April 2nd. He thinks Sandflea is the bomb!!! Sandy's friend Katie from Huntersville met us all at the Texas Roadhouse Saturday night. She was way cool but has never been to a drag race. Maybe next time. Rain, rain go away!

We are going to the Big Dog at Piedmont Dragway this Thursday, April 3rd. We qualify on Thursday and race on Saturday. Hopefully we will be their on Saturday. The competition is going to be tough this year. I have already heard of someone going 4.11 @ 182 mph in Big Dog trim. If you have never seen a Big Dog race, it would be well worth your time and money. The crowds are huge and cars are crazy. See you there!!

Don

Weekend at the Farm!

2008-03-19T14:29:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

It is a rainy Thursday evening as I start this blog. I usually write on Mondays but I did not make it to Raleigh this week. This blog is hard to keep up with. If you put it off a day, it is Thursday before you know it.

The weekend at Farmington started off normal. We made two uneventful runs Friday. Saturday we made two great qualifying runs and then the rain set in. What we noticed was that the reaction times varied a little. If we have any doubt about our runs we usually enter the combo race to make sure ever thing is OK. Not today. Rain, rain go away.

Sunday we awoke to beautiful Carolina Blue skies with a slight head wind. We took three thousandths out of the delay box. In the other lane was Ronnie Procter in his beautiful Ford Mustang. I was introduced to Ronnie at the IHRA World Nationals in Norwalk Ohio in 2005, where Sandy defeated him in the finals. Large day for Wilkins Motorsports. But today Sandy goes .027 red. Where did that come from? The only thing Sandy could figure was that the front end was still set up tight from last year. He ran the Big Dog series at the end of last year on a pro tree. He had the car set up to react quickly. It was perfect at Rockingham. Any how, Ronnie Procter went on to get runner up in Top Sportsman. Congratulations goes out to Frank Teague on his win.

We tried out the new awning this weekend and it went up pretty quick. It is lowered in the pic because they were calling for high winds Saturday night. We will have it out next week at Mooresville. Sandy's sponsor, Signal Seals and Fasteners, is from that area and the owner Don Gray will have employees and family there. We want to look as good as possible. See you in Mooresville, NC.

Don Shuford

Monday Night in Benson!

2008-03-10T20:07:00.000-07:00

Don again,

Good evening to everyone. I made it to Raleigh once again to help Sandy work on his race car. I always go by his shop when I get into town. He will usually close up early on Monday's so a bunch of us can go out to eat. We left the shop around 7 pm and headed to Outback Steakhouse. Tonight it was only myself, Sandy and Brian King.

After supper Sandy needed to run by one of his pro mod customers, Brian Williams, to help out with some routine maintenance. You may know Brian's name because he and his dad own The New Dunn-Benson Dragway in Benson, NC. These guys have a huge shop as you can see in the photo. Sandy not only works late at his shop, but also makes house (garage) calls.

We got back to the house around 10:15 and decided to relax a little tonight. All the other Monday nights have been super busy getting the truck, trailer, and race car ready. The car is still in the trailer from the Rockingham race and the few things needed for the hauler are completed. So I suppose Flea is ready to head to Farmington this Friday.

One last thing. I set up a comment page below each blog. Tell us what you think or what you would like us to post. Come by and see us at the Farm. The more the merrier!

Don

Thursday after the Rock! My bad!!

2008-03-07T13:36:00.000-08:00

Hello again,

It is the Thursday after the first division 9 race at Rockingham. I know I said I would post the results Sunday night, but guess what! You know how it goes. After you lose, you are in a mad dash to load every thing up so you can get out of there and get home at a decent hour. I got home around 7 pm Sunday night. When I got home I had to make nice with the family and all that jazz. My excuse for not blogging is my job in outside sales that takes me down east everyday and an exhaust business I inherited due to my father's death. I get to do that every night. So their, I'm busy. But it is Friday. Yea!

So how did we do? As I posted in the Saturday blog, Sandy was on it this weekend. Two great runs Friday. Two great runs Saturday within two thousandth and .01 on the tree. First round we have Tracy Eddins in his 68 Camaro. Sandy is .01 and dead on, killing 6 mph if I might add. Great finish line driving. Second round we had to run the always tough Gary Bingham. And to make it even tougher, he always has his gorgeous daughter Lisa helping him. Focus Sandy. Well, Sandy is .o1 and one over on the breaks to barely get by the Binghams. That leads us to our last round of competition for the day. Round 3. We are running Mike White in his 63 Vette. Both guys are .01 on the tree and one over the dial with a .005 separation at the stripe. Not in our favor. It was good race, but looking back we might have let a round get by. The weather station told us it was going to run a 4.865 and we dialed an 86. We did not take in effect the sun on the track and it not getting any better. Should have held one. Regardless, congratulation goes out to Tim West on his win in Top Sportsman.

As you can see I posted one more pic of the race car transporter. (Happy Jeff?) It is kind of like here is the last pic because the new has worn off. Not! The trailer's hot. We were all hanging out Saturday night and when we finally ventured outside, we realized it was cold. Maybe not that extreme, but the trailer does have central heat and air and it was set on 65 degrees. Pretty sweet. The only trouble we had the entire weekend was the radiator hose on the generator busting. With the help of Jimmy Flint, Stacy Hall and IHRA starter Mr. Josh we were up and running in less than 30 minutes.

Over all I think it was a very successful weekend. The car ran flawless. I think Sandy has a good eighth mile combination and his driving was on with excellent finish line decisions. The trailer has turned out to be a very good investment and a great asset to the program.

We are looking forward to the next race which will be next weekend at Farmington Dragway near Winston Salem, NC. The dates are March 15 and 16. This is a great eighth mile track that Sandy got his first IHRA win on. We need to repeat that next weekend. The winner's circle is the only thing acceptable. We are looking forward to a lot of friends coming by. So make sure you stop by and hang out.

Later,

Don

P.S. Thanks to our new crew guy, Doug West, for his help this past weekend. Also thanks to our honorary crew member, Kari Arthur, for brightening up the pits!

Saturday at the Rock!

2008-03-01T17:34:00.000-08:00

What's up everyone,

What a great way to start the 2008 racing season. It was a sunny 66 degree perfect day. It is Saturday evening at the Rock and we are finished for the day. It is about 8:45 and we are waiting for pizza to be delivered. The last thing Flea needs for his Big Dog program.

Sandy arrived Thursday night and did not have any trouble with the new big rig. I came down Friday around lunch and Sandy had the car out and ready to go. We made two test runs in the right lane and were within one hundreth. Everything looked good, so we loaded it up and headed to the Outback with the Jeff, Angie and Angel Miles and also Robert Holloway.

Saturday as I said turned out to be perfect. We had our new crew guy come down to help us this weekend. His name is Doug West. He is from the same town as Sandy. With the new trailer and all the extra work, his is a welcome addition. So we made two more runs today, lane to lane within two thousanths. His lights were .007 and .015, so we loaded everything up and hope those runs transfer over to tomorrow.

The cool part is we have had a ton of people come over to check out the truck and trailer. As you can see Angel Miles stopped by and Sandy said all girls get a free tour with three hugs. Of course tonight is supposed to ladies night here at club 660. I have a good story about the club 660 in the future.

We will try to let you know what happens tomorrow night after eliminations. Tomorrow is supposed to be another perfect day as far as the weather. We would love to have some winners circle pics for you to cap the perfect weekend. Talk to you soon.

Don

Ready For The Rock

2008-02-25T22:18:00.000-08:00

What's up everyone,

It's Monday again and exactly one week since I last blogged. Can you believe it. Rockingham is this coming weekend and we are trying to get everything ready. When I got into town today we left for the shop and went to Sandy's garage around 4 pm . While Sandy removed decals I continued to load and stock the trailer. This brings us to were we left off last weekend discussing the new trailer.

Here is the brand spanking new slightly used but not abused truck and trailer combo. The trailer is a 1996, 49 foot Dynastar trailer. It has ten times the room as Sandy's other trailer. We have loaded everything from the other trailer and everything from the garage and we still have room. The car is kept upstairs as is the spare tires, awning and other misc. items. Below we have the golf cart and everything Sandy owns in all the C-Tech cabinets. Sandy felt that the trailer will allow him to serve his customers better with the ability to bring engines back and forth form his shop.

We did put the engine in this evening and fired it up. We ran through the gears and everything checked out fine. We put it in the trailer and actually finished up early tonight around 12:45 am. Sandy will pull out Thursday night headed for the Rock and I will show up around lunch on Friday. We plan on doing some testing Friday afternoon and learning the ends and outs of the new rig. What ever the outcome, we plan on having a good time this weekend. Come by and check us out. Hopefully in the winners circle.

Looking great in 08.

Don

Glad Monday Is Over!!!

2008-02-18T01:41:00.000-08:00

Hello Again,

Yea, I know. We haven't kept up the blog. Can you say busy. Flea has been busting it every day at the shop trying to get customers engines finished. He is on the phone alot in the mornings and assembling engines in the afternoons. When he is not there, he is at the garage at home working on the race car. That is Monday through Monday with an occasional social life. So he says he is ready for a little R & R at the race track.

That leads us to the new rig for the season. Sandy went out on a limb and purchased a slightly used but not abused truck and trailer. As you can see the truck is sweet but we love the trailer. That is next time. The truck gives Sandy more living space and also more ammentities. A definite step up from the little rig.

Why are we glad Monday is over? When I got into town we loaded up the engine around 6:30 and headed to his house to put it in. We left the midplate at the shop, so we decided to take the big rig for a practice run back to the shop. Never happened. Stuck in mud beside the shop. Flea was pissed. We worked an hour and half just to get the truck out. We made it back to the shop around 11 pm to finally put the engine in. Did I say he was pissed. LMAO. Maybe aggravated. You know Flea. He has a permenant smile. With time being a precious commoditie, we do not need any unexpected delays.

As you can see, the pic of the car is right before we installed the engine. The Rockingham divisional is less than two weeks away. We are still waiting on the transmission, the tires, and a few other items. Donations greatly appreciated! Like all other racers, we will problaly finish up right before we leave for the track. Hopefully we can do a little R & R at the Rock.

We will try to do better with our blogging. Bear with us. If you have any comments, email sandy on his homepage or contact me at don@carolinatools.com.

Don

Late nights and big Horsepower!

2008-01-29T21:16:00.000-08:00

Ok everyone, this is my first attempt at blogging. Is that even a word? It's currently 12:20am on wednesday morning and i am just getting ready to head home and work on the race car. Ok by the time i finish this and get home it will be 1am, and i probably will not get much accomplished on the car. This is definately crunch time in the engine shop. Late hours, and supposedly alot of work completed so everyone can make it to the first race. Just moments ago i completed the finishing touches on another bad small block. Picture included. Only 20 more to finish in the next six weeks, by my caculations that's 25 hours a day until march.

As far as the race team goes, alot is happening. I put Lisa Bingham to work on my advertising and public relations, Don Shuford has started his "looking great in 2008" annual get to the track raffle(more to come on this) and is currently courting some popssible new sponsors, and i am trying to make enough money to afford to put fuel in the new transporter(more on this later). The cavalier is not ready, the engine is not ready, the transmission needs a freshen, the transporter needs completion, and the driver needs a rest. Cant wait until the Rock! Stay tuned.

Welcome to the first Blog!

2008-01-25T08:53:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Wilkins Motorsports Blog. This is something Sandy and I have wanted to do for some time. The question is, will we take the time to make consistent entries? Sure we will.

My name is Don Shuford and I live just outside Hickory, NC. I have been helping Sandy at the track for about three years. I also help with the website, but I am not the designer. That title goes to my friend Chad Austin. He doesn't know anything about drag racing, so that is where I come in. Chad is the lead guitar player and singer in a band called The Logic as well as a web design guru. Very talented. We we do a blog on him in the near future.

I drove my wife Teresa down to Colombia, SC last night so she could attend a seminar for her job today. That leaves me with a lot of free time to make this first entry. So like all sports fans, I drove down to the South Carolina Gamecocks football stadium to get a few pictures. I walked into the office to ask if I could take a few pics of the stadium and out of the elevator walks coach Steve Spurrier. He looks at me and says, Good Morning. I reply, Good Morning Coach! And he walks away. What an idiot! I had my camera in my hand and could have easily asked the secretary to take our picture. What an idiot I am! So here is a boring pic of the stadium. What an idiot!

Time to go eat some lunch. Sandflea will probably be doing the next blog now that we have it up and running. Who knows what to expect from him. The man's crazy. I will fill you in on him later. He does have some big news! Stay tuned!

Don