Hi everybody. For those of you that don’t know me, I’m Antron Brown; formerly NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle racer, now Top Fuel driver. I think it would be appropriate in this opening blog to talk about the transition of going from a 195-mph Suzuki motorcycle to a 330-mph Top Fuel dragster.

Before the fall Las Vegas race, I attended Frank Hawley’s Drag Racing School for TAD in Gainesville, Fla. The school took place over three days. I had six runs which earned my Top Alcohol dragster license. Frank was thorough on the procedures of how to drive the dragster and made me at home in a dragster. I owe a lot to Frank because he made my transition 10 times easier that it would have been. I can’t thank all the guys at Frank Hawley’s school enough.

I flew to Vegas for the race, which was kind of weird jumping back on the PSM after being in the dragster for three days straight. Then on Monday after the race I got into the Matco Tools dragster to get acclimated with the controls to make my maiden voyager in a Top Fuel car later that afternoon. I also learned how to mix nitro to the right percentage and the warm-up procedure for starting the car and seating the clutch.

I was in the staging lanes before the run and I got strapped in tight, by my right-hand man Rip Reynolds and it felt like I almost couldn’t breathe. On the bike, I’m not used to being strapped in and confined to a cockpit. That feeling faded once we got to the burnout box where we fired the car and the nitro kicked in. Once I got the car staged and the tree came down I hit the throttle and I felt the coolest sensation ever. It’s hard to describe unless you do it. I shut off around 150-feet out. My eyes perked up and in my mind, I was hooked like a big mouth bass.

After the season winded down and we got back from the award’s banquet in Los Angeles, I went to Disney World with my kids over Thanksgiving break. It was the first time for both Arianna and Anson at Disney. It was an incredible feeling to see the eyes pop out of my son’s head when he saw Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck in person for the first time. For Arianna to eat lunch with the princesses in the castle in the Magic Kingdom while she was dressed up as Belle from Beauty and the Beast was awesome. Even though Disney was like boot camp for the wife (Billie Jo) and me, it was rewarding to see how much our kids really enjoyed it.

Rob Flynn and I went the PRI show in Orlando for a few days in early December to meet and greet with many of the associate sponsors that support our race team. I got to shoot the breeze with Bill Simpson of Impact! Racing on new safety equipment that’s coming out in 2008, Mindy Stephens from Ringer’s Gloves, Carolyn Ashbee and many of the great folks from Goodyear tires, and the folks at the Valvoline, Strange Engineering, MSD, JE Pistons, FRAM and Autolite booths.

Once I got back from PRI, Christmas was right around the corner, but before the holiday break we did a photo shoot at the shop with Bob Hesser from Auto Imagery and went testing in Gainesville. We spent three days in Florida. It was an unbelievable feeling to run the car to 1,000-feet and going over 273-mph at half track was incredible. We made a total of eight laps. The first two days we did get a lot accomplished even though it was cold and it limited our time on the track. It was important to get our team to jell with the routine at the track. On our final day, when the temperatures got back into the 70s, we made four runs. When I took off, it felt like I was in a normal frame of motion, but once the car got to the 100-foot mark, it felt like somebody hit the fast forward button. Once it hit 330 feet, it felt like I got beamed to half track by Scotty in warp-drive. After the run, I was screaming, “That’s what I’m talkin’ about.” Like Flava Flav says, “Yeah boy!”

On Dec. 18 after we finished up at the track, the team and I met Matco Tools district manager Darryl Pritchett and his wife Shelly, and a group of local Matco distributors at the Ale House for dinner. It was a lot of fun talking to the distributors and learning more about what their jobs entail and how much Matco is a family oriented business, much like racing.

Once we got back home in Indy, it was almost time for Christmas and the holiday break. Thank God for Santa Claus. Luckily, he has a good elf like me because my kids got a lot of presents that needed to be put together. Christmas was filled with lots of joy with my mom being here in Indy. It really felt good with all the hustle and bustle to stay home for a change and not have to travel and enjoy the one-on-one time with the family.

That brings us to the New Year 2008. We’re all back in the shop today putting together new race cars and getting ready for testing later this month. I want to wish all the NHRA fans a happy, healthy and blessed New Year. I can’t wait to burn some more nitro.

Love, peace, and hair grease. And I’m out like shout.

Antron