But for a few, the dreams simmer for years. No matter what they do, it’s always in their mind and they know that eventually, their dream will be fulfilled.

Enoch Love is one of those people.

When Love decided to stop racing in the mid-1970s, he did it because he thought racing would be a distraction and that he’d be better off devoting his time and energy to his career and family.

"I started racing in 1968. I purchased a 396 Camaro," Love said. "I was working for General Motors at the time. Pro Stock was just coming on at the time and I was racing the Camaro in A Modified."

After racing his Camaro for a few years, Love put drag racing on hold when he got a new job and married his wife of 31 years, Shirle.

"I got a new job in 1971 and got married in 1974," Love explained. "I had a new wife and a new job and I thought it would be best to concentrate on them, so I had to put racing aside."

For 29 years, Love worked for United Parcel Service (UPS) in a variety of positions, including human resources, labor relations, contract management and training. But even though Love was not on the track, drag racing was still on his mind. "I got the bug real bad," he said.

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As Love saw his retirement from UPS drawing closer, he began to think more and more about getting back into racing, But by then, more than 25 years of working for UPS had taught Love to approach each task with planning and discipline and that’s exactly how he approached his return to drag racing.

"At UPS, we learned that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail," Love said. "In 1996, I knew I had my retirement coming up. I just couldn’t get Pro Stock out of my blood. So I decided to spend some time looking into it and doing some research."

Love spent the next four years researching and planning his return to drag racing, and he also began to set aside money to fund his venture. Through all his planning, Love worked to make sure that he was covering every detail of running a successful drag racing operation.

"That’s what we’re all about," Love said of his attention to details. "It’s the small things that count. That’s the way we were taught at UPS."

With his retirement scheduled for 2000, Love called chassis builder Rick Jones to commission the chassis for a Pro Stock Chevy Cavalier that he planned to race in NHRA competition. The more involved Love got in building his car, the more he began to think that racing in NHRA Pro Stock would not be the best option for him, so he began to re-evaluate his plans.

"At first it was a cost factor," Love said of building a competitive racecar. "Then it became an engine factor because no one would sell me an engine that would qualify."

"I tried with several engine builders but none would sell me an engine that would be good enough to qualify," he said, adding that he was not planning to go put out the time and money to build a car that would not have a good chance of qualifying for every race.

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"After that, I decided to look into IHRA," Love said, adding that it was a decision he does not regret.

"IHRA is more family friendly," he said. "There’s no one you can’t go to if you have a problem."

One of the people Love approached for help was John Montecalvo.

"I went to the Spring Open at Dinwiddie (Virginia, in 2000) and I saw John Montecalvo make a run that really impressed me," Love said. "I asked John if he would sell me an engine and he said ‘Not only will I sell you an engine, I’ll sell you the engine that’s in this car.’ He told me the engine would qualify 12^th or above."

With chassis and engine in hand, Love got his race car together in time to make it to the final four events of the 2001 IHRA drag racing season. Love’s original plan called for him to handle the driving chores but it did not take long for him to decide that he would not be the most qualified person to get behind the wheel.

"That was my intent," he said, "But when I went to the Spring Open at Dinwiddie, I saw the young talent and thought that I didn’t have the skills to do it."

Love had different drivers in his car for the last four races of the 2001 season, the 2002 season and the 2003 drag racing season. "In 2002, we qualified for all IHRA races and won in the first round at Budds Creek," he said, adding that in 2003, he came back to IHRA racing with a new driver and a new crew chief.

For the 2004 season, Love named Bert Jackson as his new driver and Chris Johnson as crew chief for his "Lucky Draw" Chevy Cavalier. Though the team qualified for only one race in that season, Love plans to stay with the same combination for 2005 in the belief that consistency will breed success.

"2004 was the most disastrous year I’ve ever had. It almost made us want to give it all up," Love said. "We’ll have the same driver and crew chief as last year. It’s nice to have some continuity."

In addition to continuity on the driver’s seat and crew chief position, Love also wants continuity for his engine and chassis procurement. After getting his initial engine from Montecalvo, Love had difficulty purchasing a second engine for his car.

"We needed a spare engine, so I bought another car," he said. "To get the engine, I had to buy the whole thing. I had a lot of trouble finding a reliable source of engines that were good enough to qualify."

Rather than continuing to search for engines, Love decided to take matters into his own hands. "I decided in the middle of last year that since I couldn’t procure engines, I’d better start an engine program of my own," he said.

"The toughest thing in the past has been getting the power to make us competitive," Love continued. "The way I’ll get around that is to make the engines myself. It’ll take about a year to start our own program but then we’ll know what we have."

Love said that when he decided to return to drag racing, his wife was one of his biggest supporters.

"My wife was surprised that it took me so long," he explained. "She never asked me to quit. I just thought it was the best thing for me to do."

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During the 2004 season, Love did not attend a couple of races because of family events. This year, he said, his wife told him that he should skip the events and go to the races instead.

"She told me ‘That’s what you want to do. You should be there (at the track)’," he said.

While Love was busy planning his return to racing, his wife, Shirle, led a busy life of her own and returned to college in 1995 to pursue a Bachelor of Science degree. Now, she is just a dissertation away from earning her doctorate in divinity from Regent University in Virginia Beach.

"I’m real proud of her," Love said, explaining that when his wife made the decision to return to college, she was not able to carry over credits from classes she had taken in the past and had to start over.

Love decided to skip the first two races of the 2005 IHRA season and set the Memorial Day weekend as the target date for his return to the track. That weekend, IHRA will hold its national event at Virginia Motorsports Park in Dinwiddie, Virginia.

"If we go there, we want it to be our abilities that keep us from being competitive, not our equipment," he said, explaining his decision to skip the first two races of the season.