You have the new Chevy Impala body in the shop. How much GM factory involvement is there? How much support do you get from a company like GM to run that body or are you just buying bodies?
Del: Those were from GM, the two that are down in the shop right now. From there it’s kind of on us beyond the two that they’ve given us, one for each car. They built the body, they do all the work, all the research, all the aerodynamics – they made sure it’s a competitive body, so that’s all offered to us, but as far as factory backing it’s just very minimal anymore.
So you are buying bodies from GM?
Del: They supply us with two, beyond that we are buying them.
So what do those cost?
Del: I think they were $21,000 just for the bare shell. I have not got a bill yet. We just have the two that came in from GM, but then you’ve got to tin them, paint them, letter them, mount them. I’d say it’s about a $50,000 project per body by the time you get them out on the track.
Do you still have fun doing this?
Del: Not as much as I used to, but there is excitement there. Yeah, yeah, I am. I think about what else I could be doing or what else would be more fun and I can’t think of anything else that would be better. I think if we get the car running better and get over the Eric Medlen tragedy. Obviously its a huge bummer for everybody and that definitely didn’t help out. It’s not as much fun as it used to be, but hopefully it will be again.
Does Eric’s death make you think more about safety?
Chuck: Yeah, you try to make the cars as safe as you can and don’t do anything really stupid. We are all hoping this is just a fluke accident that is not going to happen again, because nobody really knows what caused anything yet. So we are just hoping it was just a fluke.
Just our standard couple of quick questions to close. What kind of music to do you listen to?
Chuck: The Rolling Stones
Del: I like alternative. I always seem to end up with Offspring pretty regularly.
Boxers or briefs?
Del: I normally wear briefs, but I have boxers on today. I have both in my drawer, but for some reason I put on boxers today.
Chuck: Briefs.
Thanks for your time, you guys.
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