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Win an Empire Car Cover!

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We’re glad to be back, and helping to kick off the relaunch of the new Horsepower & Heels Website is Empire Covers!

EmpireCovers.com specializes in both affordable high quality car covers and truck covers, and Horsepower & Heels has been given the opportunity to test out their Titan Car Cover on a 2005 Mustang GT.

The best part, Empire Covers wants to give all of you a chance to win your own cover too!

Empire Covers

Here’s what you can do to boost your chances to win:

  1. Let’s be Facebook friends.
    Like Empire Covers on Facebook!   [+2] And while you’re there, be sure to Like Horsepower & Heels too! [+1]
  2. Tweet That.
    Follow @Empire_Covers [+2] and @HorsepowerHeels [+1]
    Retweet the contest posts on either to your followers [+1]
  3. Blog this contest.
    Talk about this contest to readers on your own blog with a link back to this post!  [+5]
  4. Subscribe.
    Subscribe to the Horsepower & Heels RSS Feed [+3] or the Horsepower & Heels e-newsletter (in the sidebar) [+4]
  5. Comment here.
    Comment below with your name, vehicle (year/make/model)  and which cover you like from the Empire Cover Website.
Contest will end at 11:59PM on October 6.   Winner will be chosen at random from entries.

Have helmet, will travel

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Erica in a FiresuitAs is the case in the drag racing world, you always have to stay prepared.

Have helmet, will travel.

I received a phone call of a possible driving opportunity that may be coming in the near future, but since it’s been a few years, my NHRA Advanced ET Competition license has expired and I will need to complete the licensing procedure all over again.

That means I need to find a car capable of running 7.50 or faster, and complete my 6 runs (one half pass, 3 moderate runs, and 2 full passes faster that 7.49).

That wouldn’t be a big deal normally, except that my own car isn’t running at the moment, and I can’t afford a trip to a place like Frank Hawley’s just to get the license again.

So, I’ve put out a call to all my racing friends to see if someone would be willing to let me make a few passes to get my license again.  I can’t offer any cash right now to “rent” their car, but I can provide great crew slave labor and awesome PR help for their team!

So far a few people are checking for me, fingers crossed I find someone so I can get this key roadblock out of the way.  If you know of anyone or have a car you’d let me shoe, please send me a message!

I’ve got some ‘splainin to do

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For someone who has always been described as a “driven” individual, I really have some explaining to do on my absence from all things Horsepower & Heels the last few years.

Believe me, its not from lack of missing the sport of drag racing, and all things Horsepower & Heels that took me the better part of 8 years to create.   But, life happened.

When I finished my rookie season in Pro (2006), I was on top of the world and felt that I had momentum to carry me through all the dreams I had been working so hard to make reality.   I had made in-roads towards Top Fuel, had secured funding for an upgraded body for my pro chassis, and had upgraded some critical engine parts for the following season.

But then I learned that the business of drag racing was a bit more cut throat than I had imagined.  I made some costly mistakes.  I trusted people who led me the wrong direction.  And ultimately, I suffered in this economy with the rest of America.

For the first time in my racing career, I felt defeated.  Jaded almost, from all the roadblocks and hardships and dishonesty I encountered.    I let this negativity penetrate, and it resulted into several years away from the sport I love so much.

The website hadn’t been updated since 2009, I felt that it was the starting point for a reignite.  But working two jobs to stay afloat meant there wasn’t much time to devote, and wanting something completely different meant I had to learn from the beginning.

I listened to my friends and fans ask me over and over:  “Where are you?”   “When was the car going to be done?”   “Are you racing?”  It should have fueled my desire to push forward as it always had, but instead, a small part of me died each time.

Every once in awhile during these jaded years, someone would call with a promising development.   Every time it seemed it was a dead end.   The effort and the money I spent chasing these dead ends started to add up.    Pretty soon, I was so jaded that I stopped even trying to validate these leads.     I had let the agonizing chase beat me.

I saw other ladies out there struggling too.   I friended some, thinking if I couldn’t help myself then at least I could help them not make the same mistakes.   I have always believed in Women in Motorsports.

But the truth that was always there during these years away from the sport:   I love drag racing, and everything I do to fill this gaping hole in my heart stops miserably short.   I wasn’t happy.  I knew I missed this community, this family, and everything that racing means beyond the finish line.   I knew that giving it up was something I let others dissuade me into believing was my only option.   But its not.

So I’m giving it a Round 2.   It may never be the dreams I had at 25, but I can find balance and with supportive family and friends, I will return!

9/11 Attacks | Ten years later

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Today is the 10th Anniversary of the attacks on our nation.   Its a day we will never forget, and the only day that my generation has ever truly felt that terror of war brought to our homefront.

As most all Americans, I will never forget that day and the feelings of shock and disbelief I had when I learned of the attacks.

9/11 Attacks – 10th Anniversary

I was just arriving at the shop (Lugo Performance), and was online working on the website when I saw something hit AOL news about the attacks.   I immediately turned on the radio to listen in as each station broke in reporting the latest in the terrifying events.   Just minutes later, I could hear the agony as the world watched the second tower hit.   It was a scary and helpless feeling.

I didn’t know anyone in Manhattan, I didn’t know anyone in DC, but tragedies of this magnitude immediately make you recheck your own life.  I called my family, I called my best friend Heather in California and woke her with the news.   We all sat glued to the televisions.   Tears flew down my face as I watched the towers collapse.    4 different planned, malicious attacks on our soil.    It was unfathomable.

Florida, was eerily quiet that day.  No planes in the sky.   No one running around.  Everyone was glued to the TV, the radio listening and watching with horror.   It was though those attacks had stopped the world from spinning in this country.   I wanted so bad to jump in a car and head for NY.  I wanted to help dig those poor people out.  I wanted to do SOMETHING.  ANYTHING.

I remember the address that President Bush gave late that evening.

“Today, our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts…

…These acts of mass murder were intended to frighten our nation into chaos and retreat. But they have failed. Our country is strong. A great people has been moved to defend a great nation.”

If anything good came out of that day, it was that at least for a brief time, we all were one.  One nation.  Under God.  Indivisible.   We were a proud and patriotic country that day and for the months after that we united to fight back.  To not be afraid.   To honor those we lost.   There was no political agenda.  No conspiracy.   I felt as though I was experiencing the patriotic dedication of our forefathers, that I always imagined life was like during the Allied battles of WWI and WWII.   Where we all came together to help our fellow countrymen, where bravery was honored and respected.

Of course, that faded with the settling dust, but at least I was able to experience that patriotism in my lifetime.   If nothing else on today’s 10th Anniversary of 9/11 Attacks,  I want to be sure that I remember the brave souls that fought on the front lines that day- NYPD/NY Fire/Rescue, Pentagon, and all those who took this fight off our soil and continue to defend us today.

We will never forget.