"A champion needs to acquire a taste of defeat, in order to hunger for, and truly appreciate the sweet taste of victory..!"

Thursday, March 22, 2012

GOOD & BAD NEWS ....JUST THE LATEST

Hey everyone how's it going? I hope all your weeks are going great!

As many of you may know it's been kind of a unexpected unfortunate month with all the circumstance's that have taken place with my grandfather passing away along with everything else.  He always told me he was going to be my co-pilot, and iv always been told not to drive faster then my guarding angel can fly so I have full faith hes gonna be right there with me watching over my safety and progression every step of the way! 



I definitely wouldn't be where I am with out him today! I love you Wito and you will be forever missed!

As far as things with my car go, they are pretty much in the same condition as the last time I posted an update.   The transmission arrived in back last week finally after waiting 2 1/2 months for it, unfortunately though when it arrived the shipping company had dropped and destroyed it, so we had to reject the shipment and send it back to the builders.  The tranny isn't suppose to arrive back to them until Monday, so I won't have any kind of answer as to how long its turn around time will be until sometime next week which really sucks!  Hopefully it won't take them long to fix what all broke and it will be shipped back quick and reliable! 

So I went up to Infineon yesterday to talk to the guys at works to try and see what our game plan is now and we have a few new plans but for the most part everything still hangs on the transmission.
On a different note this does give us some extra time that will be needed to modify my steering set up and fabricate my controls I designed to be able to fit in the car.  Were going to hopefully try and get the cage all install and my custom control setup installed and all legit before the next race but for the most part really things are up on the air until we hear what is going on with my tranny.

I ended up going on the perfect day and because if you Gus didn't know they have drift and drag competition every Wednesday for anyone to come to so that was kind of cool to get to check out.




I was connected with and introduced to a guy named Randy Simmons that built this crazy old race truck to set the land speed record, race pikes peak, and several other events as well.  The truck is a 1947 Hudson with a 7.3 liter fully built power stroke diesel engine he swapped into it.  Right now Randy said the truck is making about 950hp & 1,400 foot pounds of torque boosting 60+psi which is ridiculous and should be insane to drive!  






The coolest part about the truck though is that it is completely equip for someone with limited, to no mobility at all to be able to drive.  He has a mouth piece that you can control basically the whole truck with, which is pretty amazing if you ask me!




I went down to SoCal last week to check out the truck and finally meet with him in person.  He specializes in robotics as well as building race cars so when I approached him about being able to build my controls he answered with a non fazed look on his face that it would be no problem at all, so that is awesome! 






Our plans for the truck as of right now is to take it out to the Long Beach Grand Prix next month on April 13-15 to do a few laps out on the track on press day.  This will in turn hopefully help to gain some exposure and hopefully attract a few more sponsors to help off set cost and really start turning dreams into reality!  


As most of you know my ultimate goal is not only to get back on the track and  chase my personal championship dreams once again, but I would also love to help and see others with disabilities out on the track as well!  I want to be able to provide those that have the desire the chance to be able to come out to the track and enjoy activities that they once enjoyed participating in before there current disability, what ever extent it may be.

I have been working on putting together a track day business which would host's days for racers that are able bodied as well as disabled alike.  I would like to start with 5 - 10 cars with several different diving accessibility options for people to be able to come out & use and in turn Hopefully get other differently abled people back out having fun and competing once again!

Recently I have been working on starting a racing team called Keep Em Spintnin Racing to help kids that have been injured, as well as up and coming racers that have the potential and hunger but don't have the support and financial backing.  Or even something as simple as someone there believing in them and there talents and abilities is sometimes all people need.  I just want to help them get out there pointed in the right direction and on a straight path because the worst thing in life to waste is talent.  This would also include an Adaptive Athlete Development program as well. Which will basically be a program where athletes  injured to whatever extent it may be will be able to come in and be tested and evaluated.  It will posses a full engineering department working specifically with the mobility that each individual client/athlete has to show them life's far from over after an injury.  They will work on capitalizing on there strengths and weaknesses and what they can and cant do in order to be able to get them back out on the the track again doing what ever it is they love once again.  I would like to help other racers with the same passion and dream i have to pursue and achieve there racing or competitive ambitions they have for them selfs in all different avenues of racing and extreme sports.

This is the ultimate goal so hopefully well be able to draw In Some support and funding from the connections and networking we do down at the grand prix!

Anyways I'll get back to you guys as son as I know more about what's going on with my car and thank you all for the continued support and encouragement! 

Keep Em Spinnin & God Bless!

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Thank you for your Prayers

Hey everyone how's it going.?
Sorry it's been so long since iv updated this, thing have just been crazy the last couple of weeks...

We finally received the tranny back and all the other bells and whistles to get the car all finished and ready for this weekends race.  We have the seat and everything in the car ready & good to go minus the cage.  It's been a long time comin but it's really cool to finally see it all come together and actually get to hit the track again!

Like i said & Most of you know I was suppose to be racing this weekend on the 10-11th at Infineon raceway but do to some severely unfortunate circumstances I'm not going to be able to make it this weekend.
A couple weeks ago My Grandfather slipped and fell down a flight of concrete stairs on February 15th and suffered a major brain Injury as well as a few other broken bones and such...  He was instantly knocked on conscious and remained in a coma up until this weekend when he finally was revealed from all his pain, and completed his ascension up to heaven...  

This came as a huge shock and was completely unexpected but it just shows that our next breath is never promised and anything can happen to anyone at any given time.
Everything happens for a reason and at times like these I know those reasons maybe difficult to see so if you could keep my grandma and family all in your prayers I'd dearly appreciate it.!

Your condolence's and blessings are all appreciated very much & I wish you all the best!

God Bless and have a great rest of the week...

I'll post further updates next week about the season...

Thank you all for your support and always Keep Em Spinnin.!

Mario Bonfante Jr.