Hi, blog fans! A bunch of us flew up to Norwalk last Thursday afternoon, including Jessie, James, Marty, his son Westin, my kids’ nanny Vicki and even Roy Hill tagged along with us. The airport is right behind the track, so once we dropped off all our stuff, Jessie, James, Westin, Vicki and I headed off to Cedar Point.



When I ran the IHRA circuit, I raced at Norwalk for years, but never made it to Cedar Point. The kids and I bought our season passes at Carowinds a few weeks ago, and they are good at Cedar Point, too, so we knew we had to go.



We got there in the late afternoon, and it was the perfect time to go. We pretty much got to walk onto most of the rides with little or no wait. That was the best! They have a ride called Top Thrill Dragster, and it is one of the best rides I have ever been on! It accelerates to 120 mph in less than three seconds, then shoots you up a 90-degree angle. It sends you more than 420 feet straight up in the air before it shoots you right back to where you started. Awesome! I would recommend the trip to Cedar Point in Sandusky , Ohio, to anyone.



On Friday, the kids headed back out to Cedar Point for the day while Big Brad and I visited our friend Billy Williams in the hospital. It was really sad to see Billy still in the hospital and in a semi coma more than five years after he crashed his Funny Car at Rockingham. The good thing was that he really seemed to know that Brad and I were there and he made a couple of smiles at us when were laughing about some of the old stories that we were telling him. I promised him that I would bring him the Norwalk trophy back if we won the race. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out, but I am still planning on winning a race and taking the trophy up to him real soon.



After visiting with Billy we had to head out to the track because it was time to go racing. My good buddy Paul Romine came in on Friday, too, so getting to spend some time with him was cool. Jessie and James also got to skip out on Saturday at the track, and went to a huge indoor water park in Sandusky. They had a really good time, and I wish I could have gotten to do that with them. Maybe next year we will come in another day early. One for Cedar Point and one for that big water park!



Saturday was Big Brad’s birthday. He’s our team manager and has been my good friend for 20 years (Billy actually talked Brad into helping me work on my Alcohol Dragster back in the ‘80s), and always makes sure things go smooth for everyone. Brownie had a really cool cake made for him that looked like a drag strip. The cake was pretty tasty, and I think Brad had a good birthday even though he did have to listen to us sing “Happy Birthday”. Thanks for everything, Brad!



Over and out for now,
Doug