Greetings blog faithful, and welcome to another installment of “As The World Turns” or as I like to call it, “Bob’s Blog.” Let’s get right to the big stuff first. Tomorrow, the 4-Wide race in Charlotte kicks off its pro qualifying. I am not there. That’s not huge news, because I didn’t go to Houston either. What’s important is that Del Worsham and the Worsham & Fink team aren’t there either. It was a tough decision, but I support it 100 percent and I know Del made the right call.
When Del contacted me a couple of weeks prior to Pomona, asking if I’d consider helping him out with some PR work, he told me up front that he had funding in place for the first four races. He hoped to make enough inroads and progress with some potential new sponsors to go further than that, but he wasn’t about to make the same mistake a lot of other racers have made before him. He wasn’t going to keep running out of his own pocket just based on hope. This is what he does for a living and it’s how he supports his family and will put his daughters through as much school as they wish to attend. I’m very impressed with his level-headed and realistic take on this, and very supportive of it.
After the fourth race, in Las Vegas, he wanted to take a few days and analyze everything. With the help of our longtime friend Frank Gilchrist, who lives in Houston and has his Frank’s Car Barn there (his phenomenal collection of all things auto-related) he put enough funding together to get to the Houston race.
On Friday, between sessions, I put out a press release. A few people had noticed that he wasn’t on the Charlotte entry list and were asking questions, so he wanted to get it out there and explain the situation. If you haven’t seen the release, here’s a link to it:
http://competitionplus.com/drag-racing/news/worsham-announces-planned-hiatus-from-racing
I got it out to the world that afternoon and guys like Alan Reinhart and Dave Rieff were fantastic about spreading the word and letting the NHRA world know that Del is working hard at securing some more backing for the rest of this season, but he would not be attending the Charlotte race. After that, we’ll just have to see. It’s entirely possible his next race will be Sonoma, but if something comes together sooner the race car will be ready to go, and for now he’s keeping everything at Dexter Tuttle’s shop in Texas, so the equipment will be centrally located. That serves the purpose of having it within driving range of just about any track on a moment’s notice, if we do put something together, while it also serves another purpose: Without the race car in Southern California, Del removes one huge distraction and he can focus strictly on the sponsorship search. That race car has a way of whispering to you, saying “Hey, come to the shop. Come work on me…”
Yesterday, I did something I’ve never done before, in support of this effort. I’ve been a member of the business networking website LinkedIn for a long time, and it has been a terrific avenue for promoting my book over the last year. I’m directly connected to about 3,300 people on the site, and every time I’d put up a post or an update about the book, I’d sell a few more. That’s all I’ve ever posted about there. Yesterday, I posted about Del. Here’s a link to a copy of my post: Del LinkedIn
So far, in about 48 hours, 530 people have viewed the post, and when I look at the analytics I’m happy to see that 23 of them have the title CEO or Executive Director, while 19 are Marketing Specialists, 16 are Business/Corporate Strategists, and 11 are Business Owners. That’s a great demographic to reach. Will a new marketing partner miraculously appear from that post? Who knows, but just like in Public Relations the key is to get the word out, tell the story, and reach as many people as you can. I can guarantee that no marketing partner will want to team up with us if we don’t tell anyone we’re looking for one.
Brent LaBrie, who has been backing Del since last year with his companies Kramer Service Group and Hi-Tec Finishing, is really going after corporate America for us, digging in and tirelessly contacting as many companies as he can, so working together I hope we can make this happen and do it as soon as possible. Plus, Brent and I have a lunch meeting scheduled for next week, with some gentlemen who are well connected in terms of this sort of stuff. The work continues. A guy as successful, as popular, and as marketable as 2-Time NHRA World Champion Del Worsham will be a great fit for someone. We just have to find that company.
Here in Woodbury, it’s finally spring. It’s hard to even conceive of the fact that just 11 days ago we had a major “historic” blizzard. In our backyard, snow was piled up three feet deep in drifts, and a foot deep where the brisk winds couldn’t move it around. It looked more like January than April, and boy was everyone getting sick of it. There are still some piles left in yards that get no sun and in parking lots where they push it all into giant mountains, but all of our snow is gone now and I’ve started the process of making it look like spring. I turned the water back on yesterday, hosed off the patio, and set up the chairs.
We also got all the windows professionally cleaned a couple of days ago, after a long dark winter of snow and sleet, and they needed it. You can actually see out of them now!
It’s been up in the high 50s and even in the 60s for a few days, and that combined with a lot of sun to do some major melting. We’ve even stayed above freezing at night, so that keeps the process moving. Last weekend, we got the bikes out, pumped up the tires after a long cold hibernation in the garage, and went on our first ride of the year. It was just a 3.5-miler, on the paved trails around Markgrafs Lake, not too far from home, but it felt good to get out there even if the quad muscles in our thighs kept telling us it was a terrible idea. Feel the burn. It’s always like that on the first ride of the year, but it gets better in a hurry. I might go for a solo ride this afternoon, as a matter of true fact.
Before the blizzard, when it seemed like we’d melted it all and spring was upon us, I even put new grates on the grill and cooked some steaks one night. Apparently that was what jinxed us. I apologize to everyone in Minnesota for that move. I think we’re in the clear now.
To that end, I also put the umbrella up on the grilling deck, which means it absolutely has to finally be spring. Yay for me! Yay for all of us!
My next chores are to mop and clean the floors and railings on the screened porch, and then do the same for the front porch. We got everything stained again last year and they did such a good job we can skip doing it this year.
In just a couple of weeks, the HOA’s contracted landscape company will come by, house to house, to fire up everyone’s sprinkler and irrigations systems. Note to self: Turn the sprinkler valve on before those guys arrive. #ThingsYouHaveToWorryAboutInMinnesota.
Coming up this weekend, there will be yet another celebration in the Wilber/Doyle home, and part of it will be held with many of our “Woodbury Gang” friends, although Scott and Barb Meehan have tickets for the Bon Jovi concert so they won’t be able to join us.
It’s Barbara’s birthday on Saturday, and like any good husband I got her exactly what she asked for, in terms of a birthday present. She, quite honestly, said to me, “I know what I want for my birthday. If the Twins are in town, I want to go to the ballgame!” That’s reason No. 12,566 on the list of reasons why I married her. As it turned out, the Twins are in town and on her birthday they are playing a 1:00 afternoon game at Target Field. We will be in the 13th row, just past the end of the Twins dugout.
And the 1:00 start means we can meet all of our friends (sans the Meehans) at one of our favorite Woodbury restaurants. We have a 6:00 reservation for 12 at Crave. There will be cake. And maybe some wine. I suspect there may be a Cosmo in Barbara’s future. On my plate there will be a steak.
I’ve also been having fun on Facebook this week, after Greg Halling, my editor for “Bats, Balls, & Burnouts” roped me into a challenge. I almost never do these sorts of things where you contribute and then ask others to do it as well, but when Greg puts out the invite I have to say yes, and I do so happily. The challenge was to list the 10 albums that made the biggest impact on me when I was young (or younger) and you do that by making one post per day. The impact made by the 10 albums had to have been so great they still shape your tastes and your musical experience to this day. You’re supposed to include a photo of the album cover with each daily post (Thank you, Google Images!) You don’t have to explain why the album meant so much, but I thought that added to the overall experience so I’ve been doing that. Plus, those explanations and background stories go a long way toward explaining my crazy musical tastes. Today will be Day 8 of my 10, so I’m almost done.
I started by jotting down a list of at least 25 albums, and then whittled it down to 12. I wasn’t sure which two weren’t going to make it, but yesterday when I was on a long walk I made that final call. And I’m saving the most influential and important album for last, although the other nine are in no particular order. Each one of them, though, really did change my musical taste and, as hyperbolic as this sounds, they changed my life! Music is that important and critical to me.
My first seven were:
Day 1 – “Fragile” by Yes
Day 2 – “Crime Of The Century” by Supertramp
Day 3 – “Genesis Live” by Genesis
Day 4 – “Aqualung” by Jethro Tull
Day 5 – “Every Good Boy Deserves Favour” by The Moody Blues
Day 6 – “Signals” by Rush
Day 7 – “Aladdin Sane” by David Bowie
Day 8 will come later this afternoon. I think I’m even going to do an Honorable Mention list for Day 11. As a maniacal music fan, I’ve got a long list of albums that could’ve been on my list of 10, but just didn’t make it. Feel free to play along, on Facebook. I’ll be watching.
So that’s about it for today. Even though we’re not racing, I’ll still keep an eye on the Charlotte race. Here’s hoping we’re back out there on the Mello Yello tour again soon.
As always, if you just finished reading this and enjoyed what you read, please hit the “Like” button at the top. The more likes the merrier. See you next week!
Bob Wilber, at your service and betting that at least one of you thought “I bet all 10 of his albums are by Rush.”