As promised, a punctual update from the king of procrastinators. Friday night we headed up to Famoso Raceway in Bakersfield, as leaving early Saturday morning is never appealing when you’re part vampire. I towed Jenna’s car with mom-in-law Cindy’s dually, and they followed me in the motorhome. We pulled into the waiting area around midnight, which isn’t bad for us.

Saturday we pitted, unloaded, and helped new owners Chris and Emily Williams get everything teched and set up. Our plan was to get Emily four or five runs and show them the intricacies of running a throttle stop and timers. Things didn’t quite play out that way. Never in all of my years attending an event have I witnessed so much downtime. There were literally two-hour periods where there was more silence than running. It was cool, and apparently lots of cars had the wrong tune-up. Anyway, Em only got two runs in a six-hour period waiting in the lanes. I told her that though she had better get used to waiting; this was a very atypical day at the track.

Before you think I just sat around all day being sick, I did do my best to keep busy. In addition to getting the Williams up to speed, I made two test runs in the Ground Zero CIFCA Funny Car of Dennis Murphy. I drove this car for several years, and my good friend Jeff Tildahl does the piloting now. He was doing the clutch on Gary Turner’s Pedaler Nitro Nostalgia F/C, driven by our friend Kris Krabill, and so was too busy to drive. Actually, the way things ran he could have driven, painted, and rebuilt the car and still not missed a beat.

But wait, there’s more... I also got to make two passes in a car that anybody would kill to drive. Doug Rose has perhaps the nicest Nostalgia Funny Car on Earth right now. His Time Traveler Vega is immaculate, so clean it’s hard to believe it’s not a show car. It looks as though it has never been started, but Doug has actually made several short squirts in it. The first pass the car shook hard … hard enough to shake the burst panel off of the hood. I shut off and started looking for that bottle of Tylenol. Run two and it was getting cold and dark, quick. We were one of the last cars in the lanes, and it shook again. This time I pedaled it and was able to run a nice 6.36, 237 mph. Doug has these cute little parachutes that I think he must have got from Warren Johnson. I threw both of them, but one decided to stay warm and safe in the chute pack. No problem, this thing has great brakes; stopping wasn’t a problem. Chute number two will be ready for the next run.

Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you about the next run: I will be running at the 50th March Meet (or Fuel and Gas Championships for you old-timers) this weekend. The only downside is that I will miss Saturday, as Jason turns one and I won’t miss that. So we will have one shot to get in on Friday, and so far 27 (!) Funnies are entered! I remember attending the March Meets back in the '70s as a child. My Uncle John would take Ted and me up there, and that place has so much history that I love racing there. I really can’t wait to see all of my drag racing heroes and legends of the past, including Art Chrisman and Tony Waters, the winner and runner-up back at that first race in 1959. These two waded through huge fields of fuel cars that included a black dragster from Florida driven by some guy named Don. How’s that for history? Actually, from 1957 until 1963 NHRA had banned anything but gasoline from their tracks, and that helped launch the success of many nitro racers, also bringing incredible notoriety to the Fuel and Gas Championships.

Meanwhile, back in the pits... once the running had concluded, we went back to the pits to service Jenna’s (I mean Emily’s) car and show the Williams how to maintain things. Jason checked the front tires just to make sure they really were 22 inches tall. Someday I will look back at this picture and not believe that this little guy now is 6 feet tall and dating girls. Once he was satisfied with the alignment and tire pressure, he climbed into the cockpit one last time to make sure that the steering wheel met current specs. While he did that Chris and I changed the oil and ran the valves.

Chris and Em stayed Sunday and made a couple of good runs, but the Beckman family was done. All three of us were sick, had things to do (not so much for Jason), and I had four days of instructing to do for the Hawley School during the week. We got home Saturday night just before midnight (how consistent we are). Sunday I rested my voice the best that I could. Right now I am thirty-some-odd phone messages behind and nearly 300 e-mails, but I did get through what appears to be the last classes that we will run at Pomona Raceway. The Fairplex elected not to renew with the school, as they apparently are working on other financial deals with the area around the dragstrip. At some future date I will give you the numbers and stats on what I have done during my tenure at the school, which began in 1998. It really is sad, as the program that we offer is second to none and for the time being we have no West coast location. I also may need another part time job. Perhaps I can babysit Scelzi’s sons, or drive Capp’s motorhome to some of the races. Maybe I can moonlight at parties with the Rockstar girls......Jenna would love that!

On a more positive note, Saturday will be our little man’s first birthday, and mom and I can’t wait to celebrate with him and some of the family. Friday and Sunday I will be getting my fill of nitro fumes, and next week I take off for Florida.

Good stuff… stay tuned!