Raise your hand if you've heard one of these three popular/tiresome-by-now media tidbits about Eddie Bello (probably most widely proliferated and repeated by yours truly): 1) He drives his '93 Porsche 911 drag car to and from the track, whether it's 2 hours from his home in Riverdale, New York, to Atco in New Jersey, or two days to Moroso in Florida; 2) He races on Toyo Proxes street tires; 3) He does Tsunami-sized Second gear wheelies.
So far, that's all that's been printed about him. For as big a name as his is, I'm probably safe in assuming that these are the first photos you've seen of him. About time for some more rampant proliferation. Let's start off by saying that Eddie Bello is quiet and shy. Hands in pockets, slight slouch, that sort of thing. Mellow is the best generalization. When he speaks, he has a slight hint of the Bronx in certain words. He doesn't look at you, and any eye contact seems accidental and brief as he quickly turns away. He is also very aware of everything around him, that he chooses not to speak about it is his choice, not his ignorance. For instance, his soft-spokeness is something he recognizes. He knows it worries his sponsors.
"The interviews are kind of hard," he says. "I've got to break this shyness. My girlfriend hates that I'm shy when it comes down to interviews. She knows I can expose myself more [in the media] when I talk more. But I don't feel comfortable. Eventually, it will come to me, but not right now. Once the camera's on me, and you got people watching me, I start worrying about how I look."
Right now, that's not really a concern. He's in a rumpled T-shirt and jeans with a baseball cap pulled over his short-cropped hair. He's wearing glasses and hardly looks the part of a proper Porsche owner. Right now, I'd nab him for more of a Camaro guy.
We are inside a Ford Expedition at Raceway Park in Englishtown, New Jersey. I have jutted my microcassette recorder within millimeters of his face. My knitted brows are the consequence of equal parts interest in what he has to say and concern that the recorder's condenser mic isn't picking up his words over the din of air conditioning and the muffled commotion coming from outside. And what is exactly going on outside? Let's see, apart from the usual ear-bludgeoning roars and rumbles indicative of any NIRA race, there's an ESPN2 camera crew circling the Porsche, swallowing shots from every degree, and a self-feeding mob scene surrounding and swallowing them.
Just 16 months ago, the Porsche would have never drawn this kind of attention. It was a novelty act, an oddity among the hundreds of Japanese imports. The car was plain (as plain as a Porsche can be) and white with a single Bellotech banner (advertising his shop) pasted across the windscreen and little else. But then came the 10-second timeslips and his eventual season-ending best of 9.51 at 162 mph. Numbers like that draw attention, the kind that lures big-time sponsorships previously reserved for the likes of Adam Saruwatari. In this case, the trail of drool leads to Toyo Tires. But somehow, one gets the feeling that this is only the beginning. With more horsepower and weight reduction in the chassis (most of it from in the front end) for this year, the car is now more than shouting distance from street-legal and thus trailered, which will, at least, put to death Media Tidbit Number One.
By Richard S. Chang
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