We left out of Dick's pad in Rockingham about 8 p.m. Thanksgiving evening. Plan was to get some fuel then drive non-stop to Orlando where the racecar and trailer were parked at fellow jet racer Elaine Larsen's shop. Dick raced in Orlando last weekend so he left the trailer down there which allowed us to bob-tail down to Orlando, arriving early Friday morning.

After hanging out there for a couple hours and hooking up the trailer we then shot over to Fort Pierce, Fla., the home of Thriller Powerboats where I got to see with my own eyes the twin-engine jet boat that Dick has been telling me about for a long time. Dick built both of the Westinghouse J-85 engines for it and told me that I'd freak out when I saw it and that's exactly what happened.

Check it out: It's a 12-foot-wide, 55-foot-long Catamaran that's two feet longer than our Terminator Motorsports race transporter. It's so big it has to be transported on a custom-built trailer that flips the boat on its side. The engines have been started and it should be in the water in the next few weeks for sea trials, just waiting on some custom built rudders that should be arriving soon. If you want to know more about this project go to: www.thrillerboat.com and www.usmsg.org

It was then off to Palm Beach Int'l Raceway where Dick was running a match race against the aforementioned Ms. Larsen. We parked our stuff then took a ride around the track to check it out. Let me tell you, it's a work in progress but when it's finished it's going to be a world class facility. The track surface is all concrete and is smooth as glass.

Our deal was for two laps on Saturday and another two laps on Sunday. I made a bet with Elaine that if she beat Dick on any of the four runs I'd wear one of her pink female tank tops to the starting line. Didn't happen. Dick smoked her all four laps so the next time we race you'll see Elaine wearing one of my t-shirts all weekend. It was way cool to be a fill-in crew chief and win all four rounds After the races we left the track at about 6 p.m. and stopped at Bob Evans for some chow then we were non-stopping all the way back to N.C. We arrived back in Rockingham about 3 a.m. and I hopped in my truck for the 80-mile drive back to the Queen City and I got home two hours later at 5 a.m. and crashed and burned.

In other news. Gilby and the Trick Tank MX team did pretty good over the weekend at the Asheville, N.C.. Arenacross but that's a story for another blog after I get some rest.

Type at you real soon...

BB