Paradise is in the eye of the beholder.

In “real” life, Dave Richards owns a swimming pool company in Florida. Not a bad gig at all. It’s the select weekends of the year, though, when Richards gets to live the dream of piloting a nitro Funny Car at NHRA tracks around the nation.

A small-budget driver in a big-budget sport, Richards’ personality shines like a beacon. Driving for his brother, Paul, and raised in racing by his father Gary Richards, a match racer in the 60s and 70s, he raced his first Funny Car event in Epping in 2013 and hasn’t looked back.

Money is an issue but Richards is confident, both in the car he bought from Tim Wilkerson and in his own talent behind the wheel.

“We have funding, but we’re still racing against these big teams,” he said between rounds Friday. “I feel like we’re very capable to run real close to what they’re running now. I feel really confident in my team and the equipment that we purchased that there’s no reason we shouldn’t be able to run right there with them. They’ve got tons of runs and data but I feel like our team worked real hard and we deserve it. 

“Before I used to be standoffish, but now I’m like ‘we’re here, we deserve to be here.’ I don’t get intimidated by them anymore. I just want to race with them and we are.”

This season has been different for the second-generation racer, as a two- to four-race season turned into a ten-race schedule thanks to new equipment.

“This year, Brian and Janie Mahoney stepped up and helped us with the purchase of all this equipment,” Richards said. “They’re the reason we’re coming to ten races this year. Normally we went to four or five races if we were lucky and even then, it was going to start to be like one or two because it was just out of reach as far as cost to run this thing.”

This weekend at zMAX Dragway, the team is racing with the decal “Hurry Back Janie” on the car. The Mahoneys were in a serious automobile accident leaving Indy and Janie, while stable, is still in rough shape.

Despite the incident, Richards’ positive nature comes out when talking about the differences between his “real” life and “dream” life. Reality means having to work to make a living. While the “dream” may not be in his hands yet, that doesn’t mean it’s not enjoyable when he lives it on a limited basis.

“The reality is everybody has to work and make a living and I wish I could make a living racing but that’s not happening right now,” he said. “But you could work all day in your regular day job and just get bored doing the same old stuff everyday but then you come to the race track and we’re here from sun up to midnight working long, long hours and you don’t even think about how hard you’re working because you’re doing something you love. 

“It’s all good.”