It’s been a little while. I have to apologize to everyone out there. Let’s bring you all up to speed from Phoenix. We got to Phoenix on Thursday, and I went to hang out with a couple of cool Matco distributors. The first guy I hung out with was Ed Sopher. He had some cool spots for us to visit. We went to a race shop called Arrow Lane. They had some really cool mechanics at Arrow Lane. It was cool to go in the shop and see some historic racing and road cars. They had a full-blown restoration and fabrication shop like I had never seen before. On my second tool truck ride with Gary Innis, we went to a Pontiac/GMC dealership. It was neat to see how all the mechanics and employees were really into drag racing. A lot of the technicians gave me high fives and told me that they expected nothing but the best with the Matco Tools dragster. That night, we had dinner with the Matco group at a really chill Brazilian steak house in Chandler. They kept bringing every kind of meat known to man on skewers. It was an excellent choice by Matco district manager Kent Holladay. It was an A-1 choice. It was superb.
The Phoenix race started with a boring day on Friday. We didn’t even get to fire the race car due to the rainy weather. The weekend as a whole was another good one for the Matco Tools team. We qualified No. 5 and had a tough first-round match-up with Doug Herbert and the other tool car. Our Lee Beard-tuned Matco dragster got us by the round with room to spare. We had to race the world champ in the second round. The track conditions changed, and that threw us a little curve ball. We lit the tires up and had a pedal fest with Tony. I let that round slip by, but it was good to get my first pedal run down the race track. With a little more seat time and the help of Lee and “Hot Rod,” I feel confident that I will do a lot better next time.
Sunday night our team got together and had a nice dinner at a place called Café Boa not too far from our hotel. Needless to say, my brother from another mother, TY (PR Ted), was the highlight of the night. He was in rare form. I mean he was in line with Chris Rock, but it was all good. We had a lot of fun and laughs. That brings us to our fast and furious road race to the airport to make it to our red-eye flight on time so we made it to Expo. We made it with about 10 minutes to spare.
We got on the flight and got into Orlando before 5 a.m. on Monday morning. We were all lagging just a little bit. We got to our rooms, took a wake-up shower, and were down stairs in less than an hour for the Expo to start at 7 a.m. Boy, I am so glad we have Go Fast as our sponsor. Kelly Kel from Go Fast brought us some Go Fast energy drinks, and if it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t have made it all day long like I did. Thanks Kel for the hook up.
Expo was great. It was good to get back out there with the Matco Tools family. The turnout was awesome. They had more than 900 distributors. This was my fifth Matco Expo, and everyone welcomed me with open arms being the flagship driver of the Matco Tools dragster. Having all the support has me pumped up get to Gainesville and to go some rounds for our Matco distributors. We’ll have a huge turnout of Matco guests at GVille. I also had a good time hanging out with my teammate, “Hot Rod,” and got to know him better on a personal level. He’s a real chill dude. We got to work out together twice and try to stay in tip top shape to drive the Matco and Caterpillar missiles. I can see this year is going to be full of fun with my CAT brotha “Hot Rod.” I have to send a blog WOOOOW!!! out to my boy “Hot Rod.”
I got home around noon on Wednesday, Feb. 27, just in time for my wife and I to go to the doctor and check on baby Brown. We got the final go ahead to have Adler Carson Brown this Saturday, March 8, at 9 a.m. Please everyone keep our family in your prayers for a healthy delivery on Saturday.
Friday night, we had a pre-birthday party to celebrate with my right-hand homie Rip. We have the same birth date, March 1. We had a get together at Rip’s place, and a bunch of our team members were there to celebrate the occasion. We’re not exactly sure how old Rip is since he won’t tell anyone his birth year. Me, I turned 32.
That brings us to Saturday and our voyage to Columbus. Lee and his son Nick, myself, “Lil” John, Gary from the CAT team, and Ted all met at the shop at noon. We loaded up in our black Toyota Sequoia and went east. A few hours later, we made a pit stop in Easton. We hit up Nordstroms and then had my birthday dinner at Smith & Wollensky steak house. Let me tell you something, they can cook a steak, and Lee hooked it up. The funniest thing was when the smallest guy on our team, “Lil” John, ordered chicken and they brought him an entire bird. On our way out the door, we took this picture; From left is Gary, Ted, Lee, myself, “Lil” John, and Nick. By that time, it was off to our final destination, Nationwide Arena for UFC 82. I hope ya’ll watched on the PPV cause it was awesome.
My man Craig Darling hooked us up. The experience was all that and a bag of chips. If ya’ll have never seen UFC in person, you have to. It’s like drag racing. We have to thank Donna Spalding and Craig for the tickets and hospitality. Now, I’m hooked on UFC. I’m so revved up that I want to race just as good as Anderson Silva fought on Saturday night.
I’m off to take my daughter to the dentist, so I’m out like shout.