Friendship is a bond that reaches beyond death.
That’s certainly the case for resident Brian Randall, who spent the weekend racing at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis in a 2006 Dodge Ram 2500 diesel truck that belonged to his friend Dennis “Tunk” Fritz.
Fritz, a Wever resident who was known through the area as an enthusiastic gearhead, died almost one year ago at age 20 due to a rare type of cancer known as thymic neurodocrine carcinoma.
Randall, of Gladstone, Ill., met Fritz about a year before his death, on the same day Fritz purchased his treasured Dodge Ram.
“He brought it over and put some performance items on it, and then he just kept adding and adding to it,” said Randall, who owns Randall’s Performance and Accessories in Gladstone.
“When he passed away, I purchased the truck to keep his memory going,” Randall said.
Fritz put more than $10,000 into the truck, including a rebuilt transmission, injectors and twin turbo chargers that could rocket the truck to over 120 mph. His love for drag racing was contagious, and these days, Randall is a pretty regular drag racer himself. He recently won a NHRDA diesel drag race at Cordova Speedway.
Shortly before leaving for Indianapolis, Randall installed a rear window in the trunk with an image that consists of Tunk’s truck, his image, his racing number (99) and a short sentence that reads “In Loving Memory of Tunk.”
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