I did my first tool truck ride with Matco on Jan. 7 on the Southwest side of Indy with Matco distributor Chuck Wakefield. It felt really good to get back to the grassroots of things; seeing all the mechanics greasy and dirty and working hard on diesel equipment, fleet vehicles, and transmissions. We even got to stop at a few Army compounds to see their mechanics working on tanks and various different vehicles and I was there with Chuck to supply them with the Matco tools they needed. It was pretty cool to see the surprised look on their faces when I came in to ask them what they needed. The day went by rather quickly jumping from stop to stop.

After my tool truck ride I had to scamper back to the shop to get my custom-fitted seat insert done by Mark One Composites. The process takes a couple hours so they can mix the resin and Styrofoam beads and then for the seat to take shape. I had to put my firesuit and helmet on and sit in the seat for about 30 minutes in and out. I got in and out of the cockpit several times for the seat to take shape. That evening, we had dinner at the shop with some of our sponsors from Matco and CAT.



On Tuesday, Jeff from Mark One returned to the shop to cut and shape my newly cured seat. After looking at the finished product, it’s kind of funny to see how really small I am. I have a really narrow waist with a little junk in the trunk and very broad shoulders (for my frame). That concluded the seat project. Overall, I was very impressed and pleased with how it turned out.

After the seat project, I had to sit in our sponsor summit at the shop and talk to them about the Army Y.E.S. program, which I will again be participating in this season to help motivate and inform high school students on career opportunities. That is one thing I always really enjoyed doing because as I grew up, I wish I could have had more information about the opportunities out there. That night we had dinner with John Torok of Matco Tools and some of my team members at Boulder Creek restaurant in Brownsburg.

Before we left for the day on Thursday, I decided to get brushed up on some of my go-karting skills by driving our supercharged floor scrubber. Some of you may have seen Lee Beard driving it on the Geiger Counter a few weeks back, but I wanted to show Lee how to put some serious racing lines down.

After an eventful day at the shop -- it’s always eventful around here working with Lee Beard and the gang -- our team met at Fast Times go-karting facility with a few other characters that included Andrew Hines and Eddie Krawiec of the Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson team, and Chip Ellis, soon to be at DSR, and my old crew and boys for life, Tom, Jason, and Matt.

The go-karting was a pretty cool event. We showed all those circle track boys we can make right and left turns and not just go straight down the drag strip. I’m going to have to raise my game because Andrew Hines got me by a couple hundredths for fastest time on the track. It kind of made me feel a little like the ’06 race season. We already scheduled a rematch next month.



That brings me to Friday. We ended the week with a team meeting with Lee, Rob, and Ted, our upper management; to give our team some insight on what’s coming up for the next few months. This is pretty cool to have a team that’s so organized and have a "one team, one mind, one purpose" concept.

Love, peace, and hair grease. I’m out like shout on a new Matco Tools truck route.

Antron