Somewhat unbelievably, today is September 1. Where on Earth did the summer go? Is it really time for the U.S. Nationals? Is that slight ache in the pit of my stomach a reaction to seeing school buses on the streets? Will it snow tomorrow? Can the “Infield Fly Rule” be applied if the pop-up drifts foul?

These are all pertinent questions. The answers are: Summer went where it always goes. Yes the U.S. Nationals are this weekend, with eliminations on Monday. Yes, the slight ache in my gut is a reaction to school opening again. No, it will not snow tomorrow (at least not here). And, no, the Infield Fly Rule only pertains to fair balls.

It’s also Minnesota State Fair time, wherein 100,000 people or more (per day!) stroll around looking at animals, butter carvings, and various foods on sticks. Barbara has spent the week out in Spokane, but hopefully we’ll have a chance to get out there this weekend.

As for my week, it’s Thursday Blog Day but it’s already been a big successful effort on the writing front. On Monday and Tuesday, I spent each morning doing research and then spent the afternoons cranking out the pages. Chapter 30 is done, and it gets us halfway through the Worsham-CSK era, so that means I’m on the home stretch. Or in drag racing terminology, I’m at the top end making a charge. Or in terms of baseball, I’m rounding third and heading for home. It’s pretty exciting.

It’s also interesting how the need for deep research increased once I got into the NHRA years, with “Bats, Balls, & Burnouts.” At first I thought that was odd, because this is the most recent stuff I’ve been writing about, but it didn’t take long to figure it out. With more than 20 races each year, for nearly 20 years, it was hard to remember specific locations or stats, and I wanted to make sure it was all correct (or as correct as my research would allow.)

So, each morning I flip the page on my note pad and start another year of digging. On NHRA.com, I hit the “Results” archive and go race by race, starting and ending at Pomona, writing down all the stats, qualifying positions, opponents, and final results from the season in question. When I need to remember what certain special-edition bodies looked like, or where we ran them, I go to AutoImagery.com and click back through their photo archives. The result of all that research is specific information, but it also usually triggers other thoughts and other memories, turning them into deeper stories, which is a good thing.

I wasn’t even aware that Del had a fairly well-detailed Wikipedia page, but once I found that I printed it as well. It has year-by-year records of round-wins, points positions, and race victories. It’s all handy stuff.

My editor, Greg Halling, is now only a few chapters behind me, in terms of “cleaning up” what I share with him. I think one of the things I’m most proud of is how well I’ve been able to not just understand how he tweaks what I write, but adapt to it and instill a lot of that into my style. He just finished Chapter 25, and it might have been the least amount of real editing he’s done to any chapter yet. Because, I’m learning. You’re never too old for that.

Another piece of the ongoing research is to go back and read my preview stories and post-event reports from races over the years. When I got back to 1999, when email was becoming the preferred way to communicate, my stories startled me. I had no formal training in PR or journalism, in college. I was a TV/Radio major in the Mass Communications school at Southern Illinois Univ.-Edwardsville. I had plans to be a Major League ballplayer and then possibly a radio play-by-play announcer, but no plans to be a PR guy.

I was always a good creative writer, and actually had my first feature published in a magazine when I was just a junior in high school, but I was clueless about structure and format. I was definitely clueless about AP style, and how real journalism worked. I just wrote what I felt.

Those early stabs at it for the CSK team were pretty amusing, as I dug back and read some of those stories for the first time in more than a decade. I wrote very conversationally, kind of like this blog, and in a lot of cases the stories were heartfelt but amateurish. As I got a little better at it, I started to pay attention to what the real pros were writing. People like Phil Burgess, Todd Veney, Susan Wade, and others I admired, wrote with panache and style, but in a cohesive format. They were actually following rules, instead of just writing what they felt. I tried to learn something from every story I read, and I picked up those writing rules through osmosis. Today, if I were to write a press release or a feature story, it would bear little resemblance to my post-event report after Team CSK won Seattle in 1999. That’s not to say my story then was bad, or hard to read, because it was actually a pretty fun one, but it rambled and it broke about every AP rule in the book.

And, watching Greg tighten things and improve my writing now, I’m still learning. That’s a good thing.

Okay, here’s a trip back in time. Just a chapter or two ago I wrote about our Hot Wheels promotion from the early CSK days. A guy approached me in the pits at Pomona, and he told me about the plans McDonald’s and Hot Wheels had, for the Happy Meal. I thought he was either kidding or an imposter. He was neither, and within 24 hours we’d nailed down our participation in the program. We were the only NHRA team to be a part of it, while the other Happy Meal cars were from NASCAR, IndyCar, or Formula 1.

Eight million (yes, eight MILLION) Del Worsham Funny Cars were given away. Each came as an interactive kit, and the kids had to take the custom decals and apply them to the cars in the right places. I was surprised that all of the other teams did very little to promote their sponsors or their drivers with the program. Maybe they were all such “big shots” they just approved the promotion and let Hot Wheels do whatever they wanted. I made sure CSK was accurately represented, and I made sure Del’s name was above the windows. I even managed to get small Mac Tools and Auburn Foundry logos included.

Each car in the program came in two versions. There was the current car, in our case the CSK Funny Car, and there was a “future” car, which allowed the Hot Wheels people to dream up what they thought a race car would look like far into the future. In our case, that meant a 12-cylinder rear-engine thing.

With my heavy involvement in the design, I built up a great relationship with the guys at Hot Wheels, and when it came time to design the paper bag the Happy Meals came in, they used our car on those as well, as a “thank you” for all the help I’d provided. It was a fun deal, and it was even more fun to go into a McDonald’s to buy a Happy Meal, with the actual human version of Del Worsham alongside me. The whole thing took us to the next level. And, I was still a relatively unknown PR guy at the time, so it pretty much put me on the map, as well.

Another fun thing that happened in the last week is shown here. Ruth Williams has been reading my blog pretty much since Day One. She lives in Santa Rosa, Calif. (which is not too far from Sonoma) and I’d often get to see her out there each summer. She sent me an email recently, wondering if she could have our home address because she had “a little something” she wanted to send Barbara and me.

When it arrived, I was blown away. There was a wonderful quilt, made by a friend of hers featuring lots of cats, two t-shirts, a bottle of lavender, and a pillowcase.

The quilt is already a favorite of the boyz. The pillow case will soon be on our bed, and it features photos of Boofus and Buster on both sides.

The t-shirts were the capper. She had my name and Barb’s name put on the front of the shirts, and the cover of my book put on the back.

What a marvelous gesture and a wonderful gift. Ruth included a heartwarming note, as well. Thank you, Ruth!!!

Tonight, I’m going to be heading to downtown Minneapolis with our friend Scott Meehan. We’ll be attending the Vikings final preseason game, and getting our first in-person look at US Bank Stadium, the Vikes’ new incredible stadium. Our friends Mary Beth and Joe Gillis have season tickets, which they couldn’t use tonight, so I jumped at the chance to take them off their hands.

Sadly, it’s been a startlingly bad week for the Vikings and Minnesota football fans. The team’s young quarterback, Teddy Bridgewater, appeared to be on the cusp of stardom, and great things were predicted for this season. As you’ve probably heard, he dislocated his knee and totally tore is ACL at practice on Tuesday. He’s out for the year.

He’s such a good kid, and all the coaches raved about how well he learned and what a sponge he was when they were coaching him. A lot of people expected the Vikings to make a deep run in the playoffs this year, and a Super Bowl appearance wouldn’t have surprised many of the experts. Now, we’ll just have to see. And the injury cruelly happened with no contact whatsoever. He was just on the field at practice, took a step, and went down. Once it was obvious how badly hurt he was, the coaches called off the rest of practice. Ugh.

Scott and I would be going down early no matter what, just to stroll around and explore the stadium, but the sports schedule in the Twin Cities tonight, as well as a ton of construction on major highways, make it imperative that we go very early. The game is at 7:00 and I’m picking Scott up at 4:30.

Why so early? Because the Vikings, Twins, and Gophers are all playing home games tonight, at roughly the same time and within a few miles of each other. It’s going to be gridlock, I suspect.

I guess that’s it for today. Chapter 31 will begin tomorrow. Here’s hoping for a fun time at the game and a chance to get to the State Fair this weekend. I need a pork chop on a stick.

Bob Wilber, at your service with Hot Wheels cars and many memories.