My pick for Racer of the Week is Derek Cesari from Warminster, Pennsylvania. Derek was recommended to me by our friend Rich Panicaro. Thanks, Rich! Derek is an outstanding drag racer and has been in the seat for 14 years. His accomplishments and history in the sport are right at the top of his class, and I’m proud to feature him tonight.
Derek started racing in the NHRA Summit Points Series in 2001 at Atco Dragway. He was named rookie rider of the year there. Since then he’s won 5 Track Championships, the last 2 back to back in 2013 and 2014. Derek won 9 National Dragster Challenge Wallys at various tracks; his 10th Wally came last year at the Division 1 bracket finals when he Won the Race of Champions.
What's cool about Derek’s bike is that George Bryce had the late great John Myers ride this machine in 1990 at a Dragbike meet in Gainesville where he went on and won the race on this bike!! It still has the original paint from 1989.
Derek is very excited for the 2015 season which includes one of his lifelong dreams: a chance to ride a Pro Stock Motorcycle. Between April 13th and 23rd, Derek will compete in The Star Racing Riders Challenge, with George Bryce at the controls. There will be 30 Riders in the Challenge where one champion will win a prize package worth over $25,000 and the opportunity to be a teammate to 3-time NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle World Champion, Angelle Sampey at the NHRA event in Atlanta..There is a Facebook page with all the details, and Derek is entered. Go to Facebook.com/The Star Racing Riders Challenge. George put together a great event, and I expect that Derek will finish at the top.
As far as Derek’s current bike, He races a 1989 ex Pro Stock Motorcycle built by Star Racing. It has a 1428 Kawasaki engine, 5 speed trans. He runs 1.18 60ft. and a clip of 8.40seconds @ 155 MPH in the 1/4 mile. Derek’s team consists of his team mate and brother Jeff, crew chief Tom Tapper and sponsor Brad Nash from the RPM Shop in Delmount New Jersey.
Derek said he texted George Bryce today to remind him to listen to the show. Thanks, George! You’re the best, and I hope the Star Racing Riders Challenge is as successful as everything you do is.
That’s Derek Cesari, Racer of the Week. Good luck, safe racing and best of times in the future, Derek!
I finished reading the book about Led Zeppelin over the weekend. I decided not to talk about it much other than to say it was one hell of a party while it lasted. Robert Plant has had a great career by himself, and John Paul Jones is still very active as a producer and performer. He’s playing in the Dave Rawlings Machine nowadays after spending some time with Them Crooked Vultures, among many other projects. Jimmy Page is as cryptic as ever…sometimes it’s hard for me to figure out exactly what he’s saying.
I had the same problem trying to figure out Robert Fripp in his interviews. As we know, Fripp was the mastermind behind the band King Crimson, and over the years he’s gotten a reputation as being the ultimate enigmatic rock star. He spent years avoiding the limelight, but his playing, songwriting and methods were undeniably beyond cutting-edge and he couldn’t help being famous because of it.
I kind of found out why one night. I happened to stroll into the neighborhood record store one evening in the late 70s, and of all people, there was Robert Fripp, setting up his tape machines, guitar and sound system which consisted of 4 speakers running off of his amp, and he was getting ready to demonstrate the process he had invented called Frippertronics. It’s a delayed series of tape-loops that repeat on separate tracks and is timed to follow a pattern that Fripp enters at intervals with his guitar. A somewhat complicated but totally mind-blowing musical trip when it gets up to full steam.
You can dial in that stuff in in about 20 seconds now on a guitar synthesizer, but this was the before the technological boom and he was the guy creating it. I was standing there watching him set up and he stopped what he was doing and came over and shook my hand and introduced himself. He said he saw my face on a poster for a local band gig I had coming up. He was friendly, talkative, very excited about his project, and he thanked me for showing up to hear it. We chatted for several minutes. He asked all about me and I told him that I’m a musician and artist and I had admired his work for years. He wished me the best in my career and gave encouragement when I told him that I was spending some time writing original music.
I asked him how he came up with Frippertronics and he told me that his idea was analyzed, processed and completed by Brian Eno. And they did it over the phone. There was no internet then, ya know. He said if it hadn’t been for Eno, he’d have never been able to produce the sounds he was hearing in his head…I couldn’t believe that this was Robert Fripp talking to me; this incredible musical genius who behind the media image he had, was just as down-to-earth as my jam buddies were, and he said the same things they did, the same way they did with no pretense whatsoever.
He didn’t have to say anything to me, ya know, but he went out of his way to hang out and discuss music, his and mine, with me. I’ll never forget that. I highly recommend checking out anything Robert Fripp has done, and he’s done more than most have. Everything from apocalyptic rock, through jazz, funk, blues, into techno, acoustic guitar, new age and collaborations with numerous names, both well-known and unknown. Fripp has my vote for living legend, and that encounter with him that night sealed the deal for me. He was precisely the opposite of what I would have expected. By the way, when he played Frippertronics that night, it was the most amazing sonic experience I’d ever had. He took that place into another world altogether and brought us all back again and he had fun with everybody. He’s still at it, never complacent, never stopping to sit on his laurels. I always look forward to Robert Fripp’s next recording. It’s never the same two times in a row.
Y’all be sure to tune in tomorrow night at 7 PM Eastern on Racers Reunion Radio for Racing Through History. I expect that tomorrow night’s show will be a lively Goat Rodeo, with all that’s been happening this past week in the world of on-track motorsports. I’ll be listening to the Legendtorial and the panel discussion preceding and following it. If you want the unvarnished truth about what goes on with NASCAR, don’t miss Racing Through History. Thanks, I’ll see y’all next week.