We pulled out of Seattle Monday and headed down to Kiezer, Ore. (near Salem) for the annual Dave Walery cookout. Walery’s Pizza has been a sponsor on Del Worsham’s car for years, and Dave’s son Terry is our clutch man. It was odd seeing three tractor trailers parked out on the street in a typical neighborhood, but we were hungry! Dave’s place is amazing, and he and Martha made all feel welcome (the steaks and corn didn’t hurt, either). Not to beat a dead horse (that in no way was a reference to the steaks), but I neglected to mention that we hit MORE road construction on the way to Dave’s. I’m so happy that July is gone, and we have eleven more months until “National Road Construction Month” rolls around again. No offense, but I was growing weary of the smell of fresh asphalt and the sounds of a steam roller (yeah, I know they haven’t been powered by steam for generations, but the name just sounds cool).

After dinner we loaded up and headed for Monaco headquarters in Coburg to get some work done on the coach (that would be our motorhome, not a guy like Joe Gibbs or Craig T. Nelson ...get it?). We arrived just past midnight, and I got up at 7 a.m. to be near the head of the line. They were incredibly busy, and you can’t believe how much workshop they have in there. While doing the work on our unit, I noticed they had us “pitted” next to WJ. Warren is so humorous and easy to speak with when he’s not working on his race car, but for some reason he wouldn’t let me look at the intake manifold or cylinder head on his motorhome. Something about “speed secrets”, he said. I was able to snap this spy shot of him posing amongst all of the RVs, so I may have some leverage with him next time I need help.

Because we had to be in San Francisco for the NHRA press conference the next day, Monaco got us out of there in one day, so we just had them do the “priority stuff” on our list. While mechanic Brian was doing his magic, Jenna and I headed over to the supermarket to resupply. Guess what? They’re repaving the parking lot! What are the odds? Anyway, Jason just loves tractors, so to him it was a special treat. Jenna and I were less than impressed.

We pulled out of Coburg just before 6 p.m., and we had a long trip ahead of us. Arriving at Infineon Raceway at 4:10 a.m. was bad enough, but someone had locked the gates that lead to the holding lot. Now we were stuck on a steep hill, couldn’t turn around or back up, and had to sleep like that. I suppose the benefit is that we had to be up at 8:15!

By 10:30 Wednesday morning we were parked, leveled, set up, and in the PT on our way into the city. It’s always impressive heading over the Golden Gate Bridge. Quite a feat of engineering for something that’s 70 years old. I wonder if the designers envisioned the amount of use and the type of traffic it would see.

The press conference was at Fior d’ Italia, a restaurant I am becoming very familiar with (more on that later). The conference ended about 1:45, and we had to be back by 5 for the Speedway Children’s Charities poker game. Infineon graciously provided us with tickets to Alcatraz, so that’s how we filled the down time. It was Jason’s first boat ride, and I don’t think I’ve ever held him so tightly as when we were on the loading ramp boarding the boat. We took the self-guided headset tour, and it was very interesting. I wish that we had about another 90 minutes, as I would definitely like to walk around the island more next trip. Jason’s head was too small for the headsets, so he quickly became bored and decided to nap through his term on “The Rock.”

The poker tournament consisted of eight of us. The local radio station had two D.J.’s on hand, and Rod Fuller, Cory Mac, J.R. Todd, and I represented the drivers. J.R. won, and I actually came in third. I’ll consider that a success, as my goal was simply not to be the first to lose!

Afterwards we all spoke briefly and answered questions from the audience. Jason just wouldn’t stay away from the microphone, so I sat him on my lap for much of the interviews. He tried a new technique of laying the mike on the floor, bending forward at the waist, and grunting. Maybe it was some new callisthenic routine. It just seemed weird to me. The evening was pleasant, and it always feels good to help raise money for worthy causes.

While going through all of the pictures that we took once we got back home, it suddenly dawned on me why Jason was behaving oddly. Seems that Cory Mac and his lady Debbie Dixon had left the wine bottle too close to Jason, and that kid will drink anything (Jason I mean, not Cory). I think I’ll pour some Rockstar into Cory’s tank next race to get even.

Thursday night was our Eric Medlen tribute night. Same restaurant, hence my familiarity. I spent some time talking with Mimi, Eric’s mother, about life and all kinds of stuff. Talking with her and John, it’s easy to see why Eric had such a great personality and way with people. Robert Hight, Ashley Force, Ron Capps and I answered questions from emcee Bob Frey and the crowd. The amount of support for Eric’s charity was terrific, as the place sold out for the second year in a row.

Jenna headed back to the track in the limo that Infineon provided, but I still had work to do. Rodger and Karen Comstock and I headed into Oakland to do our MTS terminal visit. I wish someone would have told us that they were going to close the Bay Bridge BEFORE we waited 45 minutes to get on it. Just seems to fit my travel odysseys of late. The visit went well, but it was plenty late before we got back to the track. Before you think I’m complaining, I realize that I wasn’t the only one that had work to do that night. As Jenna’s photo attests, Capps and Danny Hood (Ashley’s fiancée) had plenty of tough tasks to perform on the limo ride back to the track. Seems those video games could cause calluses, myopia, or silly faces if one isn’t careful!

We got to spend time with many of our Sportsman racing friends during our stay, and we were fed like royalty over at the pits of Eric and Terri Maass. Damn can that man cook! Eric even loaded us up on leftovers that kept us fed for two more days … you go boy! Terri, along with Kitty Cordeiro and Kathi Vander Meer, watched Jason while we were at the Medlen benefit. It’s so nice to just be able to hang out with our longtime friends, as my racing schedule seldom puts us in the same place at the same time anymore. We even cranked up a Journey DVD and watched Jason dance. Seems Journey has a new lead singer, a Philipino who was picked from his performance on YouTube! If you look at this guy, you can’t believe that voice comes out of him. Very powerful. They have a new album which also features remakes of many of their hits. One of my favorites is “Stone in Ruv”. Get it? How about “Fraithfully”? Okay, not very funny.

In addition to getting to visit friends, I had a couple of reunions while at Infineon. My former next door neighbors came out. I haven’t seen Margie or Madelyn for probably 25 years, but Jason took an immediate liking to them. He’s pointing at Margie, who used to babysit my brother and me, as he wants some free sitting. I can’t believe how fast the time flies, as I had even looked after Margie’s daughter Samantha many times before I went into the Air Force. Hopefully they will come down to Pomona and get to see my brother Ted and my dad. The guy at the far right in the group shot is one of my childhood friends, Glenn Godinez. He didn’t look that serious when we used to ride our minibikes together. There was a group of about 10 or 11 of us kids who did everything together. It was such a tight-knit group, and I have great memories of all of our adventures and experiences. I lost track of Glenn when I went in the service, and I couldn’t believe it when he came up to the pits and told me, “We used to ride our Honda Trail 70’s together.” I looked at him for about five seconds before it hit me. He brought his daughter Christina with him, and I would love to catch up with him soon. Junior High bud Chuck showed up with his daughter Danielle, and high school friends Chris and Tim Viau (with daughter Stephanie) made the drive.

We ran pretty well in qualifying, though we weren’t fast in the good session Friday night, which relegated us to 13th. That meant a first-round date with the all-timer, John Force. I can’t tell you how important each and every point is from here on out, and sitting in the car in the lanes, watching most of the right lane passes ahead of us result in tiresmoke, wasn’t exactly confidence inspiring. To make matter worse, when I went to roll in to the stage lights, the car crept another couple of inches, the result of the idle being too high. There aren’t many options when that happens. If you red-light you have thrown the race away. Normally there is NO way to redlight a nitro funny car unless you guess on the tree, but I was fairly deep and I didn’t want to chance it. To try to slow yourself down mentally is impossible, as you would end up a couple of tenths late. So I tugged the brake handle as hard as I could and tensed my whole body. This usually is worth a couple of hundredths in reaction (slower), and it worked. My .049 probably would have been a .029, but that is cutting it too close. Beating Force is big anytime, but with the points situation right now it was enormous.

When we tow back to the pits at Infineon, we wind up and down the hills of the stock car track, which is used for sportsman pit spots at the race. Jenna took this shot from inside our motorhome, so you can see how far away it was parked. She and Jason would be standing in the windshield area when we towed past, so I would lean out of the Durango and wave to the little guy.

That damn Densham did it to us again in the second round. Gary and his team are doing such an outstanding job this year, and I never root against them, unless he’s in the other lane. We spun the tires at the top end, but after losing to Wilkerson in Denver when the car did the same thing, this time I just legged it out and let the rev limiter and dropped cylinders keep it from over-reving. I never saw Densham until just before the finish line, and it was so disappointing. We really had a chance to cushion our position, so now we need to win one of the next three races to solidify our Countdown position.

Sunday afternoon after the race we all had ice cream down by the winner’s circle, another tribute to Eric Medlen. Robin Crosby – a member of the Safety Safari along with her husband John – gave Jason some quick tips on operating the “asphalt Zamboni”, just in case he needs to fill in part time. It was all okay with him, as it looked close enough to a tractor to excite him.

Monday we stuck around the track most of the day, as we had a wedding to attend that evening in Berkeley. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Greg Stanley, this was a big day. The joke used to be that the only person more likely than me to remain a bachelor was Greg. Well, if you took that bet, you’d now be wrong twice! Didi is a remarkable gal, who currently is undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer. She and Greg are perfect together, and she’ll even let him have a race car. Didi and Greg tied the knot on a daycruiser boat in the harbor, but we had to duck out before the “three hour tour” for the reception. I don’t know how Jason would have been once we left dock, but I’m not that big of a gambler. We bid farewell to our married friends and hit the road for Southern California.

We pulled into the Beckman Manor at 2:45 a.m., quite an early night for us. You can’t believe the pile of mail that was awaiting us! Jenna tackled it the next morning, and this shot was taken after she’d got more than half way through everything. I did an NHRA teleconference with Morgan Lucas that day, and we even had a 5.4 earthquake to welcome us home. Fun!

We had a huge list of things to do, many of them included the motorhome. Typically in a situation like this you would prioritize the list, and hit the most important items first. Or you could be like me, and do the completely unnecessary but challenging stuff right off the bat. Our unit has a combo washer/dryer that has never been used, takes up lots of potential storage space, and weighs a ton (okay, more like a tenth of that). It looked pretty easy to get out. Eric Maass told me he removed one once and it was fairly easy. Wrong, and wrong! The dresser top counter prevented any normal extrication process, two broken screws hampered the wood removal phase, and lack of another strong body precluded brute power as a means of action. No, for this I would have to rely on cunning, innovation, and improvisation with some brilliant calculations to get this job done … okay, who am I kidding? Jenna helped me, I did put a couple of scratches in the back of the washer, but I only cut myself once, so I consider it a success. Now where the hell am I going to store a washer?

While knocking out the “list” for the RV, it was time to tackle the entry door. A gust of wind had tweaked one of the hinges earlier this year in Vegas, but that thing is a monster. I couldn’t fix the bend without removing the entire door, and it must weigh 125 pounds. Yeah, Jenna helped with that too.

We seem to have the only motorhome that lists port or starboard (those are sailing terms for left and right) whenever it wants to, and even some adjustments at Monaco didn’t seem to have long term improvements. I decided to do it myself this time, so we’ll see how it works. While underneath I noticed a broken exhaust hanger, so that got fixed. Same with the generator exhaust.....a tweak from parking at Dave Walery’s house needed to be straightened. Done. Monaco gave me a new sending unit for the gas guage (I know, technically it’s a diesel fuel guage), so now seemed the time to get it done. Check. I am so damn sore right now from sitting, stretching, bending, and pulling while underneath that thing. After that it was time to wash the entire unit (throw in the PT for good measure), and that list is mostly done. We still need to take it to the Cummins shop for a new exhaust gasket next week, and I’m sure that we’ll find other things to tinker with soon.

Well, I think that the “superblog” (all rights reserved, trademark of Beckman Motorsports, LLC) is done … at least I am.

Stay tuned.