Spring Fling 2014

Well I once again made the mistake of taking forever to update. But here I am to make amends and give a quick rundown of the events from Bristol on April 13-18. 

After about a 7 hour drive we arrived around 2am Tuesday morning, sleeping in line with the other early birds. From what I was told, the first person in line arrived Saturday! That's pretty intense...

We got through the gates and pitted with some others from our local track around 11am, where we unloaded and got ready for Tuesdays test n tune. 

After getting two passes in, the rain came and canceled the rest of the days events, which wasn't too bad considering we accomplished what we set out to do that day. 

Wednesday marked the first day, $15,000 to win. The weather was great and car count around 250. After our first time trial we went straight into racing. Andy as usual fared well, going a total of 5 rounds. I, on the other hand, did my usual and lost first round. It was a close race so I can't complain, just one of those races where you are lucky enough to come up on the losing end. 

Sadly it rained Thursday all day, canceling the entirety of the first of three $20,000 to win races. The Fling staff made the call to make Friday a $40,000 to win race and rented a bowling alley for all the racers to get out and have some fun. It really was a fun day, and we finished up the evening by seeing the premier of Godzilla in a theater in Virginia (seriously, the nicest movie theater I have ever been to). 

Friday's weather started better, everyone getting a time trial which took longer than expected due to some intermittent sprinkling. Halfway through first round (which I lost), the rain came and didn't let up. The track made the call to cease attempting to get the race in due to safety concerns, a call I didn't disagree with, and start the race all over Saturday. The decision following this was to make Saturday $40,000 to win, and roll Saturday and Sundays purse together making it $35,000 to win. 

Saturday the weather was overcast but nice. A cold front came through with the rain making dialing our cars tricky for the upcoming races, but we were happy just to get the race in at that point. Once again I went down hard on a race, losing to Mia Tedesco (who won the dragster shootout Wednesday night) because I just didn't lift enough at the stripe. Andy also lost first round, mis-dialing the car and wasn't able to cover on the top. I chose to forgo the $300 buy-back but Andy didn't. Unfortunately he didn't win his buy back either...

Once Sunday came, I was kind of happy it was almost over. Staying optimistic, I went into the day thinking, maybe all this losing will add up to one big win! ...but alas, I only got to second round before falling to Jeremy Jenson. It was a good race, I just didn't have quite enough on the tree to take it. Unfortunately Andy couldn't get past first round, despite being .001 on the tree his transmission gave up on life and nosed over shifting into second gear. 

And that ended our 6 day trip to Bristol. 

There were a lot of ups and downs with this trip...I am working every time we go out to get better, and I'm seeing my faults and where I'm going wrong. I am just hoping to get the tiniest smidge of luck on my side to just bring me to that winners lane. 

Which leaves us here with several weeks until our Maryland trip. Andy's transmission is at ATI racing getting repaired and will be back in action in no time. 

In the meantime I have been working on improving my mental game and studying some sports psychology. Our next race update will show if it helped or not, lol.

For Mom...

When I first decided to update my blog tonight, I initially was going to write about the upcoming Spring Fling bracket race and how nervous I feel to race some of the best racers out there...but then I realized...

This blog is Love, Family, and Horsepower. And tomorrow is Mother's Day.

So what would my mom say if I called her upset because I'm intimidated by the magnitude of this race...

First of all she would tell me to quit bitching because I am lucky enough to attend one of the biggest races in the country.

Then she would tell me I can drive the shit out of my car, and I'm just as good as everyone else there.

Because that's what great moms do. They put life into perspective. I mean the right perspective. Not just encouraging us and stroking us, telling us that we are the greatest most wonderful children to ever be born. Great moms tell you the real deal, whether you're right or wrong.

My mom's patience, kindness and diligence is what made me who I am today. Her continual love for me and way of talking me through everything is how I have gotten through the toughest times in life. Through her I have learned how to control my temper, respect myself, respect others, and the true meaning of love and how to give and receive it.

And now, even though I am married, I cant even imagine taking on her job of being a mother...it's hard for me to even imagine the never-ending job of parenthood. And only having one day out of 365 in celebration of a lifelong commitment seems awfully unfair...

But I am so thankful to have a mother who was so committed to her children.

Because of her, I can finally keep my head on my shoulders. I can use empathy instead of anger. And most importantly I know to cherish my family above everything else.

So...we have the Spring Fling coming up. We are leaving Monday to race one of the biggest 5 day races in the country. And I am going to leave with an open mind, thankful to have the opportunity that I know so many would love to have, and confident that I can drive just as well as everyone there. And even if I lose first round every day for 5 days in a row...I'll be happy to do it at an amazing event, on one of the best race tracks in the United States.

Thank you, mom. For your love and support, your life lessons, and always bringing food to the race track.



Richmond Dragway Pro Am

I know I haven't updated much lately...being a newly wed makes life kind of busy in a lot of strange ways.

 

I have spent the weeks since coming home from our honeymoon getting my new social security card so I can change my name, getting a new drivers license AND more importantly racing license and obtaining cheaper car insurance because I am 25 years old and married.

 

Being that today marks our "one month anniversary" of being married, I thought it would be appropriate to mention some of the more fun parts of being married...life is always harder for the females, I swear!

 

So in between all the joys of wedded bliss and rearranging my life, our first race came up on April 25-26 at Richmond Dragway.

 

Lucky for us, we were driving to Virginia from Pennsylvania so we got to experience the wonders of the beltway, rush hour traffic and a tornado watch while driving a 75' long 13' high truck and trailer. But in all seriousness, we did luck out that the only rainy day was Friday, which was only scheduled to be a test & tune. The rest of the weekend's weather was beautiful, and as usual better than that in Pa...

 

 

For me, the only good thing about the weekend was the weather unfortunately.

 

I drove better than I have in such a long time that it was really hard for me to take a first round loss on both Saturday and Sunday. Sometimes I have a strong love-hate relationship with this sport and sadly for me, I really hated drag racing this weekend.

I was so happy to see Andy do well his first time out in Quick Rod, an 8.90 index class that in my opinion looks more fun than Top Dragster. He made it down to 3 cars Saturday before red lighting -.006. Unfortunately he red lit Sunday first round -.008 for the first round loss as well. 

It wasn't the best weekend out, but it was a strong start for Andy who is currently 7th in points. We need to place in the top 3 in our division to qualify for World Finals in October. 

Our next stop is Bristol Tennessee for the Spring Fling, one of the biggest big money bracket races in the country. We are hoping to do some serious damage there, and I will hopefully be better about updating in the future!