Is It Time to Go Racing Yet?

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

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!!

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?

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?

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

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!!!!!!!!!!

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.