D . I . COLUMNIST The Real Deal with Tommy D ' Aprile
I
recently returned from the first race of the PDRA season at South Georgia Motorsports Park , where we were fortunate enough to win . While taking home the trophy is always rewarding , there is something far more rewarding to take home with you after the race is over .
Most people judge a successful outing as it relates to the car ’ s good performance or race win . If all went well on track then all was good , but if the racecar struggled , so did our attitudes about the whole weekend . For years , I struggled with the right attitude about success . If I won I was happy , but if I lost I had a pretty bad attitude for quite a while . You see , most will tell you success is everything going right , winning all the time , making more money , or having more stuff . That simply isn ’ t true . Most of us are at the track for three-to-four days at a time , sometimes longer , so approximately 72-to-48 hours . The time we actually spend going down the racetrack in that span of time on a race-win weekend would be about 24.5 seconds . So now that you have that in perspective , let ’ s think about how you spend the other time off the track .
Many of the best stories in racing have very little to do with what happened on the track . Most of the incredible stories happen in the pit area . While we were in the semifinals we had a large backfire which lifted the blower . We got back to the pit area and found that we had very little time to get it fixed . Suddenly , we had people all over the place . Parts were being removed and reinstalled , and we did manage to get it fixed at the last second , arriving in the staging lanes to applause by many , including our competitor , for the final round . It ’ s moments like this that really make me smile to know that we did what many thought could not be done .
If you really think about it , there are feel-good stories all over the racetrack at any given event . The thing we need to do is start focusing more on the good that ’ s happening around us rather than crying about not getting what we want . Many of our Junior Dragster kids have the right attitude in racing . I have seen countless Junior Dragster drivers who have already lost but keep going up to the staging lanes to encourage their friends and celebrate with them while making great memories . They choose to let go of the loss or problematic weekend with their own cars and focus on having a great time while they are there . Some of my best memories at the track were when I didn ’ t even bring a car . I focused on helping and building others up , and when the race was over the impact it had was far more than I could even imagine .
Next time you go to the races , I want you to think about how you are going to spend your time . Knowing that the time on track is few and far between , we need to make choices about how we can maybe look for others who need help , or maybe just strike up conversations with new people . You see , in the beginning I raced just for me , me , me , me . But now I want to make a difference in others ’ lives through racing . You can have such an impact in this wonderful sport of ours , and not only win a trophy here and there , but win hearts and change lives . If you ’ re going only for the win , I hope you realize that even the best racers still have a losing record , so if I were you I would decide ahead of time to make sure you ’ re going for the right reasons . I know first-hand what it ’ s like to race for the wrong ones . The choice is yours to make .
Tommy D ’ Aprile tommyd @ dragillustrated . com
February 2017
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