Denver Blog

The Denver race is always challenging for all the teams because of the change in altitude which has a big effect on our cars so you never quite know what you’re going to get when you go down for the first qualifying round. This is why I was pretty excited when we went A to B our first lap out and continued to run pretty good through out the weekend. I’ve been trying different things with my staging and actually two stepped on our final qualifying run which I’ve never done before, and even though it’s not something you ever want to do, thank goodness I did it in qualifying. Plus, if I am trying different things then I’m learning different things, and qualifying is the time to do it, especially before The Countdown begins. There is a famous quote I read recently by Albert Einstein, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” My lights have always been pretty consistent but not where I want them to be so now is the time to try different things and maybe hopefully I can be where I strive to be by The Countdown.

We pulled in to track Wednesday and I got a great photo of our El Monte RV with the racetrack in the background (and my cat Simba in the window) and was really excited to be back on the side of the mountain for the Mile High Nationals. We parked next to Jack Beckman and played a little football with him and his young son Jason while setting up. The cats came up to the race trailer a few of the days during the event to bring us some luck (and so that some of my younger fans who were animal lovers could meet them as well.) They seem to bring our teammates luck as Simba was in Courtney’s first winner’s circle picture in Seattle last year, and Simba and Gizmo were in dad’s pictures at the Winternationals in Pomona when he won earlier this year. The fans were great this weekend despite the very hot weather and one young fan even drew me a great picture of my racecar which I hung up on my cork board in my lounge for inspiration.

We had a great team meeting before first round and were really pumped to get ourselves back in a final round like last year at this event however that was not to be. I lost first round to Jack Beckman when he got me on the light and I couldn’t catch up. I never saw him out my window and truly thought I won and was crushed to find out that we’d lost and that I’d been left on. Jack came over at the end of the track and gave me a hug and told me I was doing a good job and not to get down about the staging and reaction stuff. He was my teacher back 10 years ago when I went to Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School and raced my first racecar and he continues to be a great teacher now. He was busy with interviews and getting ready for the next round after his win and I really appreciated him coming over and talking to me, as I felt a little more hopeful after that.

It’s amazing how one moment a loss can be so upsetting and then a moment later God reminds us to keep things in perspective. The ride back to the pit after first round my whole team told me to keep my head up and forget about the race and to look forward to doing better in Brainerd. That’s why I say I have the very best team in NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing…because, well, I do! We got to the pit and I went inside to change and minutes later heard Guido yell for a medic and my stomach dropped. Losing went right out of my mind and I rushed outside to see my crew guy Matt Archer on the ground holding his head with blood gushing. The track medics arrived and they bandaged him and he ended up going to the hospital and getting 16 stitches! When he came back later we told him we wouldn’t have wanted, or really been able to have gone rounds with out him. Things always happen for a reason but thankfully Matt’s all right, Robert won the race and dad runnered up and we clenched our spot in The Countdown.
Drag racing is very tough and very challenging and anyone who says otherwise has never raced before. But we are all out here trying as best as we can, to cut a good light, to find a good tune up, to sign every autograph and to put these cars together perfectly. When you do all of these things, you are still not guaranteed a win, but you try anyway. And that’s what we’ll go and do at Brainerd, our next race. We’ll try to get ourselves a win, and go in to The Countdown with smiles on our faces.