Over the last year, my family has dealt with a lot of new experiences in unfolding everything my father had left behind. While he had many skills and did a lot of different things, documenting and keeping records was not his strong suit. The little documentation he did have were more personal reminders for himself. Deciphering and figuring out what and how he did certain things has been quite the task. If you didn’t know him and had never seen him do the task he had created “work instructions” for, there was no way you would ever figure out what he was describing in that document. I struggled to decipher many of his notes for everything from how to build certain products in the shop to posting these blogs.

 

Although we knew the day would eventually come, we didn’t really have a good plan as to what we would do with all his ventures after he passed. We fumbled our way through a lot of it while trying to manage expectations, both from ourselves in what we thought he would have wanted us to do and our customers. We have been juggling the majority of those expectations while also trying to look towards the future and what our lives will look like moving forward. Things like the intricate fabrication work, motorhome hitches and trackside welding fell off on the first cut. I am just not as skilled or dedicated in that department as my father. Parts of the Drag Racing Action Online have also fallen away as I don’t have the time to attend the races and visit advertisers to write anywhere near the level or amount of articles my father did. Luckily for that aspect, Phil Hutchison has been holding down that fort as much as he can.

 

Earlier this year, we started focus on our costs and if any of this was profitable in the way we were running it. For the DRC side of our operation, we were a little lean and regrettably did have to raise our prices on items. Luckily, our customers have been understanding and we appreciate their continued business. Unfortunately, when looking at Drag Racing Action Online, it has been a cost sink. While we do have some advertisers that have stuck with us and we thank them, it is just not enough to cover the costs these blogs and the website.

 

This is not a cry for help, just a blunt explanation of the facts of the situation. We unfortunately do not have the time needed to devote to making this operation sustainable. John kept a lot of that work for himself and we just do not have the skillset or insider knowledge to continue on. While I do enjoy the sense of community and the feedback I get from these weekly musings, it is just not the same without him. He was one of a kind and the fact that it took us this long to figure out how to do half of what he did proves it.

 

While this will be the last weekly blog I write, we will keep the website (www.dragracingactiononline.com) going for the foreseeable future. I sincerely hope to see many of you at the track when I do get my stuff together and go. This blog has helped me to be closer to my father and bring some closure to this chapter. Thank you all for reading and being a sounding board for him over the years. – Franklin DiBartolomeo