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St. Louis NHRA

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Mondays after race weekends are tough. Especially when you have to drive 6+ hours after a long weekend.

This past weekend, I drove up to St. Louis to attend the 28th Annual MidWest NHRA Nationals at Gateway International Raceway with some friends. Though I had many times been to Gateway for the World Street (Ford) Challenge, I hadn’t ever seen an NHRA race there.

Friday was nice and warm, with plenty of good racing. But Saturday, the temperature plummeted and the wind was fierce, delivering the chill straight through you. We looked like a bunch of shivering puppies. It is difficult to be at races when you have been sidelined like I have for so long now, but it definitely helps to network and motivates to keep the progress going on my car.

Elizabeth and Ashley hadn’t ever attended a drag race before, so its neat seeing their reaction to their first Top Fuel encounters. The power of a nitro car cannot be appreciated or understood until you actually see, smell, and FEEL one in person. TV, HD or not, just doesn’t do it justice. Ashley said they weren’t too loud when they were doing burnouts (we were sitting at the 1/8th mile) but when they passed her under power, she hit the deck!

Its a long trip to St. Louis, and I’ll be repeating this trip in just a few weeks for Debbie’s race, the World Street Challenge.

Gator Nationals Day 4: Sunday Recap

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Great eliminations day! More beautiful FL sunshine left me more than a little sunburned, but I still had a great time! Even though Melanie Troxel didn’t qualify, the rest of the girls did pretty good! Gotta support that girl power!

We watched Scott Kalitta warming up the funny car, and it is surreal. You should see his face as he wops the throttle. Its the most intense thing…. he definitely gets pumped up!

Unfortunately, my good buddy Ben had some family emergencies come up, so he and Leanne ended up leaving early. I hitched a ride home with my friend Sarah and her dad, who live in Columbus, GA and then headed the rest of the way home Monday morning.

Gator Nationals Day 3: Saturday Recap

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After the rain drenched day on Friday, all of us were ready for some Florida sunshine. When I woke up Saturday morning, the sun was just starting to poke through the clouds. It looked a little iffy with the overcast clouds looming most of the morning, but by noon, the sun was out in all its glory.

There is nothing more exciting than getting your first whiff of nitro for the year. Frankie had us all hooked up with hospitality passes at the Kalitta camp courtesey of DHL, so we had a little VIP treatment with the team. Its also great to be able to get in from out of the sun at times as well.

 

Debbie, my Horsepower & Heels partner in crime, showed up for a bit with her family, but since our seats were not located together, we lost each other early in the day and never could hook back up. Not sure what it is about all that broadcast equipment, but when ESPN was filming, no cell phones were working.

 

The 1st Jeg’s Pro Mod Challenge event of the year kicks off in Gainesville as well, so of course I was excited to cheer on Mike Ashley’s return to Pro Mod. His first round run had him in #16 position entering the last attempt, and he was bumped out early in the round. We were all on pins and needles as he made his attempt to get into the show, but in grand Gotham City style, they moved straight to the pole with a 5.94! YAY Gotham!

 

After the final round of qualifying, we headed over to Max Naylor’s Vegas Fuel energy pit party. Max was kind enough to host the Nitromater.com meet-up at the Gators, and my sister and I had a great time meeting all the people who showed up from the Mater clan. They are all great people!

I really love what Max is able to do for VegasFuel. He’s got a great program together, and makes his sponsor proud! We did get to try the new Energy drink, and it tastes great!

On the road again

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A lot has been happening for our team lately. Namely, we dropped off the racecar in South Florida for its next steps toward completion. It has seemed like the list of roadblocks has been neverending, but I know that each step gets us one step closer, so I continue on relentlessly each day.

With my new job, I don’t have any vacation time off yet, so even though South FL is quite the hike from my current N. AL residence, the earliest I could leave was Friday afternoon after work. When I came home to hook up to the trailer, I discovered that the trailer lights were not working. So Porkchop and Skippy tried for several hours to find the culprit wire that was shorting out the entire system. Finally, around 9pm they got the fix. That’s 4 hours of roadtime lost, and it meant me driving straight through the night to stay in my time constraints. Thankfully, I was able to convince Porkchop to abandon his weekend plans and help me make the drive down. (what a nice guy!)

Our first stop was Jacksonville, FL to pick up Horsepower & Heels teammate Debbie. The plan had been for me to crash there for the night around 2am, but with my trailer nightmare, we arrived instead at 6:30am. A brief nap, and the three of us were on the road to South FL. About 20 minutes into the trip, we hit rain so hard we couldn’t see 10 feet in front of the truck. After some tense moments, we were finally out of the storm and passing through Daytona Beach. It reminded me that its been several YEARS since I enjoyed a REAL vacation… and how crazy my racing life has become that all my regular vacation time is rationed throughout the year to allow me working my butt off from one racetrack to another. Somedays I long to leave this crazy obession behind for a nice trip to a cozy little tropical island…. but then I remember that the sacrifices I make are all for my absolute passion and well worth it.

So we made the drop off and got turned back around at 4pm towards our 3rd stop on the tour… my mother’s house. Nevermind that Orlando is about an hour off-course, if that little 76 year old spitfire would’ve found out that her little one was in FL and didn’t come see her, I would be a dead little driver. But first, I had two passengers in the truck about to throw me out the window if I didn’t stop and get them food. So on the exit to Hwy 520, I see a sign for Olive Garden and decide that some Italian sounds good. Thinking that it would be just a few tenths of a mile off the interstate, I make the turn off and head toward where the sign pointed.

About 10 miles, 2 bridges over the Intercoastal, and a bunch of tight spots, we managed to find the Olive Garden and I get the trailer parked. Its packed, so the three of us sit at the bar as Debbie entertains us with stories about her past. Despite having less than 3 hours sleep, we manage to eat and make it to my mom’s before 10pm. After a far too brief visit there, we still have another 2 1/2 hours back to Jacksonville. We arrive exhausted around 1:30am. That’s more than 24 hours straight that Chop and I have been in a truck, and an impressive 14 hours for stir-crazy Debbie. (and she’s gonna be my traveling partner to the races? Whew… better break her in easy while I can.)

Now I managed to post a life best sleep in record of nearly noon… normally, I can’t sleep that long regardless of my level of sleep deprivation. So after a brief brunch…(can you still call it that at 1pm?) at my all time favorite (and sorely missed) restaurant, Bob Evans, we make the drive home.

We rolled into Grant at midnight Sunday night. I was also quickly assured that the next time I asked for a small “favor” and offered an exciting trip to FL in return, that the answer was definitely NO.