Meet "Bruce Bob" and "Cosmo Curt" as we like to call them!

I have no idea how these two met but it probably was in an accident as they raced against each other at one time. I know they are great friends and always show up at the track together to help our team, even when it means parking their own race cars that day just to be there for us when we are short-handed (which is most of the time these days).  I always thank them for putting their own careers on the back burner that day but they usually laugh it off and say "we really don't have careers and we take great pride being part of The Dion Bros. Team even if only at the track".  I know it must be hard to go from driving and running your own team to being part of another team and I probably don't show as much appreciation as I should in" the heat of the battle."  Both these guys own their own business along with their own race teams so the time they take for our race team is greatly appreciated by all of us. Bruce grew up in Pelham so it was inevitable as a teenager he would find his way into the Dion Bros. race shop one day.  I believe it was in 1984 during the team's worst slump so he truly started at the bottom and worked his way up during some really tough times.  We told him we were a pretty good team and had won some races but I'm not sure he really believed us at that time.  I remember him being a very polite boy willing to do anything to fit in and most of all willing to humor all the old guys when we talked about the "good old days" when we really were a good team unlike what we were going through in 1984.  Having a young impressionable boy on the team really made a difference at that time and all of us took that responsibility very serious.  Our current situation and dwelling on the past wasn't going to set a very good example for Bruce or accomplish very much so as a team we started to turn things around.  I know to this day Bruce is as proud of his contribution as are we for his part in making The Dion Team once again one of New England's best teams. For the next twenty something years Bruce worked with the team and was a key part in it's success, including the 1996 Nascar Busch North Championship and even today on a part time basis is still a key member.  Time has moved on and now Bruce is married, has his own business and runs his own race team so we only get to see him on race day.  I will always consider him a member of our team regardless of his future contributions because he was there when we needed him the most.

Curt just showed up one day with Bruce and I don't remember where or when but life at the races has never been the same for any of us.  It was like a tornado touched down and none of us knew what to do or where to go to escape it.  It didn't matter where I looked or where I went, Curt was there.  A lot of people have showed up at the races over the many years wanting to be part of the team but no one ever dove in the way Curt did.  There wasn't anything he wasn't willing to do to help the team succeed that day and wasn't the type of person to just "pass the buck" thinking he was too good to do "the crappy jobs".  To say he was hyper would be to put it mildly but his energy was refreshing and his ability to work hard was really appreciated.  For me, as an old timer, some of this stuff can really get old after forty plus years and having a person like Curt just dive in and do all the things that need to get done just makes me that much more confident that we will run good.  I know I should know more about Curt than I do to share with you but I tend to know all my guys more from a racing stand point and only know personal things that are told to me in casual conversation.  I do know he is married with children, owns an electrical company and his wife owns a candle company.  I do know his race cars look so beautiful that they shouldn't be raced, and we tease him constantly because of it.  I plan on gathering more in-depth info about my team to post at a later date but for now just an "off the cuff" introduction to the members.