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Nice photo of us on Speedzone: http://www.speedzonemagazine.com/index.html

200 mph!

We did it today, crossed the 200 mph threshold. The car is still shaking the tires all the way through first gear. So hard in fact I had trouble finding the shifter to shift into second gear to stop the shake, so with a late shift and bad shake we are happy with the 200 mph pass. We will make some minor adjustments tomorrow and see if we can get a handle on the shake and win some races. today was qualifying.

The morning coffee.

I got into Ashcroft late last night. Having stayed at several different hotels here, I have settled on one which is now my regular accommodation. It is clean, very comfortable beds, and has soft towels and a good shower.
I stay in a lot of hotels, and I have discovered that it doesn’t matter how premium the room is, I can’t pour the water into the coffee machine without getting it everywhere.  I apologize to all the chambermaids who have to clean up after me.

I just came across this photo, and I like it so I thought I would share it with you.

That Lucas Slick Mist sure makes the body shiny!

Ashcroft this weekend

We are racing Dennis Hicks’ Blown Alcohol Nostalgia Dragster this weekend in Ashcroft:  http://www.eaglemotorplex.com/ At the Lucas Oil 2nd annual Nostalgic Drag race, which includes the final round of the Blown Alcohol Series.

We are currently in first place in the Blown Alcohol Series, following and tied for a close second is Brent Murray and Gary Hough, so for me to remain in first place, and win the series I need to go one round of racing further than they do. This will be tough, without doubt, but we are certainly capable of the task. Our car has in the past been very consistent. But of course this is the first time we will be using our new motor in competition. We will also be without Steve Brandt, our Crew-chief, so I will be taking care of the tuning needs as well.

Ashcroft is a fantastic place to race. Joe Sye, the track manager is a great guy, and all the staff are very friendly and easy to get along with, yet, and this is the best bit, they are all very professional, the track is always very well prepared, and the program always runs very efficiently. I always have a good time in Ashcroft. You should all come up and check it out.

Motivation

Motivation and focus are a very important part of my life. I will be writing much more on these and related subjects. Drag racing is one thing, and that is what I am all about, but my motivation, and the techniques I use to stay motivated and focused can be crossed over into anything. You don’t have to be chasing a world championship to benefit from these techniques. The subjects I will be discussing over the coming months will delve deeper into these ideas. I will also be writing about my racing, and you will get all the latest news right away. I will also be writing about some totally unrelated subjects too, but I hope you find them all interesting, check back often it will be worth it or get an RSS or Atom feed to be sure you don’t miss any installments.

Do it now.

You can do whatever you choose to do.

People often say I am living the dream. I do in fact, I live the life of my making.

Many years ago I read about a survey that was conducted among the elderly, they were asked if they regret anything they had done in their lives. The response was most interesting, as most did not regret anything they had done. But. . . what they did regret, overwhelmingly so, (I wish I could remember the exact figures, sorry I don’t), were things they did not do.

Life can be short.  An errant bus can change our life in an instant. How many people do you know or have heard of, suddenly struck down with cancer, stroke, or some other debilitating disease? How many of them were your age, or younger? It can happen to any of us, we are all mortal. If you are hit by a bus today, (why is it always a bus? Mom always wanted me to have clean underwear because of that bus too, no offense to the bus drivers out there. They are professional drivers as well), end up lying in a hospital bed crippled or dying, what will you regret? What will you remorse over never having done? And now you will never be able to do it. I can think of no worse way to leave this life than to be wondering what it would have been like to do the one thing you always wanted to do, but never did. Why did you never do it?

Get started on it now, I mean right now. How long have you got left to do it? You don’t know do you? So why wait?

The very first thing you need to do, whatever it is you are going to do, is to decide to do it. Commit to it, seriously commit to it. Not just a wishy washy “I might try this”, but a real serious and loud, “This is what I am going to do!” If you start wishy washy, that is what you will get.

Now, write it down. If you can’t write it down, you can’t do it. Go ahead, write it down. This is where it can be tricky for some people. Be careful when you wish for a boat that you do not end up spending all your time scraping barnacles. Try to be specific in what you write down. Focus your direction. If you want to race cars, simply writing down “I want to race cars”, is pretty open ended. It could mean go karts, off road racing, formula one, Nascar, NHRA, or slot cars for that matter. Let’s be more specific. Here’s mine as an example for you: “I am going to race Top Fuel Funny Cars in the NHRA Full Throttle Series. I am going to be paid to do this and have written down the amount. I will do this for many years, with the objective of winning a world championship, or several.” That is pretty specific.

The universe can do some amazing things once you have decided to do something, and then committed to doing it. Things seem to fall into place, opportunities open up that you would not have noticed before. Coincidences happen, ideas present themselves, sometimes out of the blue in your own thoughts, other times people around you offer up ideas, whether they are aware of your objective or not. The key is to act upon these opportunities. This, unfortunately is where many people fail. You actually have to do it. The universe will put things into place for you, but you still need to do the work. Deciding to do it, committing to doing it, and wishing to do it are all fine, but it won’t happen unless you actually do the work to make it happen. But, and this is the cool part, “You CAN do it”.

So, what do “You” want to do?

I would love to hear from you, your thoughts, ideas, and anything else you may want to add. You might even want to tell me what it is you want to do. . . that would be really cool.

Video

I still have not been able to work out how to get video onto my website, but it is coming. For now I did work out how to use You Tube. Go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZevaxHVLUi8 to see a video from Mission Raceway last weekend. I have some more, just need to fine tune them and download them.

A brief word on Sponsorship,

A very big part of my job as a race car driver is sponsorship. I can handle a race car better than anyone else  in the world, but if I don’t raise the sponsorship to run the cars chances are that I will never get the opportunity to go anywhere.

Sponsorship to me means so much more than signage on the car and the trailer. First, and most importantly, I will not be sponsored by companies or products I do not believe in. This is particularly important for you, the people who follow my career, my fans. You can know that if I have a sponsor’s name on my car I believe their product is good. Plain and simple.

We have two sponsors on Dennis Hicks’ dragster right now. CV Transport, and the Big Rig Group. CV Transport are wonderful people, with a commitment to hard work and getting the job done right and on time.  The Big Rig Group are retailers of Lucas Oil Products, and supply our oil needs. I truly believe that Lucas Oil Products are the best on the market. Their engine oil, and additives, help keep our engines in one piece with the horsepower we are generating these days. The Lucas Product I like most though is “Slick Mist”. It is a shine enhancer for your paint. I use it on the race cars constantly, it is why we have such a deep shine on our cars. I also use it on my personal vehicles, not just for the shine, but it makes the car easier to clean next time it is washed. And bug splatter from those big road trips I do clean up way easier. I use it on plastic trim that has lost it’s shine too, Slick Mist brings it up better than new.

Ok, back to the original subject. I want to be sure that my sponsors see a return on their investment. Sometimes the return for them is as simple as the satisfaction of helping me to reach my goals and knowing they are a part of it, and they really are a part of it, I can’t do it without them. Other times the return is in an increase in sales. My objective then is to tell everyone about their fantastic product, and encourage them to try it. Other times it is an increase in productivity. This one is a little different, but it can be hugely successful. A company getting involved with my racing team has so many benefits that usually go unrecognized, one is team building amongst the staff. It gives the staff something more to talk about around the water cooler. The staff can come out to the races and see “their” car race, and they are a part of it. Another side to this is peronal growth and motivation. For me to do what I do, and be successful at it, takes a huge amount of drive and commitment, and focus. These are all techniques that I work on every day, even in the off season, to be the best that I can. In future posts here I will go into some detail about my training and techniques that I use to maintain my high level of focus and enthusiasm. A more focused and enthusiastic staff is more productive, and far fewer sick days.

An extension of sponsorship I have is the donate button on my website. I want to be clear here that I am not looking for handouts for nothing, I actually want to work for my money, even the money that comes from donations. Let me explain. You are reading this blog and website, you are getting pleasure from it, a benefit. I invest much time and effort into this website, and blog. To write an entry like this takes me a great amount of time, and it comes from a whole life of experience and effort toward becoming a better race car driver in the overall sense, not just in handling the car. I am also investing a huge amount of time in learning how to use this blog and website to offer you, the reader, even more benefits. This website will be one which you can come back to regularly and see changes, learn things, become involved with, and enjoy. It will not be one of those websites that never gets updated, and is out of date. It is my belief that you will see the value in that benefit you receive, and use the donate button.

I am still learning my way around this website and blog, so it will certainly take me some time to really get it up to speed. I have much to say, many very interesting blog post ideas, which I know you will enjoy and benefit from. So please, keep coming back.

I encourage you to leave comments, send an email, or start a forum topic on anything from the environment, to racing, personal development, your pets, or your hobbies. If there is something more you would like to see on my site, let me know, I will make it happen.

And, very importantly, if you know of a company or own a company yourself that may want to get involved in my racing program, please let me know. I would love to talk about the many other benefits there are to sponsoring Jim Obalek Racing.

Yes that was brief, sponsorship is a huge subject to me.

Thanks for reading.

A teaser for you too.

There was talk last week that I was to drive a nostalgia top fuel dragster this weekend. As I suspected when the car arrived at the track it was no where near ready to race.

But. . .

It looks like we may put a program into place to run this car and another original Woody Gilmore top fuel dragster which are both owned by the same person. We discussed the preliminary arrangements over the weekend and we will be meeting in the near future to finalize details. This could be very exciting. Watch for updates. The California Hot Rod Reunion is at Bakersfield in October, it might even be possible to be ready by then.

I will let you know as soon as things can be confirmed.

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