Drag Illustrated Issue 143, April 2019 | Page 55

D.I. COLUMNIST The Real Deal KINSLER with Tommy D'Aprile April 2019 TE OYO RD C O ver the years, I have been blessed with many wonderful friendships made at the races. I have met people from all over the country and even out of the country through my racing journey. It’s amazing to me how many people remember certain races and what we did at those races. All in all, I am always excited to meet new people and make new friends as we continue on this journey. Now, I will tell you that friends are a good thing to have, but the wrong friends can lead you down the wrong path, even to destruction. Have you ever heard the phrase, “Show me your friends and I will show you your future”? Well, if you haven’t heard it, start listening. Many people have been swayed by the wrong people in their lives but still choose to keep those people close to them and then wonder why they seem to always have some sort of trouble or drama surrounding them. When I was a boy, my dad told me to be wise in the friendships I choose. I knew people in school who were good kids but got involved with the wrong crowd and suffered the consequences. I think we all have people we know that have similar stories and experiences that wish they could go back and make better choices. You yourself might be one who chooses the wrong group of friends. The truth is that it’s never too late to regroup and make a change. A young man named Mike was just starting out in the world. He came from a home where his mother loved him deeply, but he of- ten choose to ignore her. He started getting involved with the wrong crowd, doing drugs and living life in the fast lane. As an avid fitness buff, Mike was selected to be a spokesperson for many fitness com- panies and traveled the world. He was still doing drugs, still living life in the fast lane and still ignoring calls from his mom quite fre- quently. From the outside his life looked pretty good and the sky was the limit. While traveling and in another country, a knock on his hotel room door woke him at 3 a.m. It was the hotel manager telling him to call home, there was an emergency! He called to find out his mom had passed away. At that moment, he felt a pain he could not de- scribe. You see, he would later realize that the only person who truly loved him was gone. All the money and fame could not help what he was feeling. All the friends he thought he had did not come to the funeral and he was completely alone. At his mom’s funeral is where he broke down and realized what true love was. It was the example his mom had showed him. Every time he shut her down she would never get mad, she would just say “I love you, son.” She always encouraged him and always held her arms out to give him a hug while he just walked by. Mike will admit he was a jerk, and all the so-called friends he had never loved him, they just drug him into their own pain-filled world, sucking the life from him. Mike is traveling again, but this time it’s to speak to groups all over the world about choosing the right friends. He uses the pain he went through to save others from making the same wrong choices. People, please evaluate the relationships in your own life. Are they healthy? Are they filled with genuine love? Or are they like Mike’s friends were, taking him away from the only ones that truly loved him? Mike regrets never telling his mom how much he loved her, but today he professes it daily. I’m sure we all have a little of the old Mike in us, but it’s not too late. You – and only you – can make changes in your relationships today. Evaluate where you are and who you are spending time with. These people can make or break you. As always, the choice is yours to make. Email Tommy at [email protected] FO ® NEW We Do It All REL 4 BAR Excellent Durability Our STOM CU Manifolds Monster Mesh TM Filters Made ecords! Set R T LS BILLE Huge amounts of premium quality filter media for minimum pressure drop. K-140 Pressure Relief Valve of NASCAR Used on 90% 500 cars Cup and INDY Quick Disconnect Bypass 12AN & 8AN Fuel Rail Largest on the Market WORLD’S HATS R E LOW Largest Stocking Distributor Kinsler Leak Tester Check engine leakage; barrel valve setting. Most accurate and repeatable on the market B Kinsler.com © ad e R his T Monster Mesh TM Filter 10/3 Element EXCELLENT FOR EFI We service injectors EFI Injectors, Lucas Metering Units, and all makes of Pressure Relief Valves need 3 micron protection, but 3 micron filters plug up too quickly, so most racers use 10 micron, which is too coarse. We made this new element for NASCAR Cup cars: 10 micron premium paper top layer to take out 95% of the dirt, with a 3 micron precision Fiberglass lower layer. Details: Kinsler.com home page. Tel: [phone] [email protected] Handbook/Catalog at kinsler.com Troy, Michigan USA DragIllustrated.com | D r a g I l l u s t r a t e d | 55