Posted by: Doug Herbert, Herbert Performance/BRAKES
Hi everybody! It’s been a while, so to get caught up from the last blog, a bunch of good stuff has been happening.
That win in Norwalk kicked it off. When we were in Denver, the issue of National DRAGSTER that came out that week was awesome. It has me and Jessie on the front cover so she’s already a cover girl! After we won we did all the pictures and interviews and stuff. I thought Jessie would be into it but she said to me, ‘You’ve won the race, so can we go home already?” Ha!
When I tried to get her to go to Denver she asked if I could win one without her there! Norwalk was just really a great day; we’re really looking forward to making more great days like that.
Something else fun at Denver was that I took a great Harley ride. We went to the top of Mt. Evans, which is actually the highest paved road in the U.S., about 14,000 feet. We saw a bunch of neat stuff. We went with a bunch of Snap-on guys. We all just took off and went up there and that was really cool. When we got back we went and did the John Boy and Billy radio show. It was good to see those guys. I hadn’t been to see them for awhile and they’re right here near me in Charlotte so it was good to catch up with them. And I got a chance to talk about B.R.A.K.E.S. on there. It’s pretty cool that all those guys want to help me get the word out about the program and safe driving.
There’s a bunch of good stuff going on with B.R.A.K.E.S. right now, there will really be a lot coming up in September around the week of the first race at the new dragway in Charlotte. Right now we’re doing an online auction, it started this week, July 21. You can go to www.gomotorbids.com to see everything and bid on stuff. The week of the race we’re working with Speedway Children’s Charities to have a golf tournament in Charlotte, if anybody wants to sponsor a team or a hole, they can e-mail us. Then the Thursday night before the race, Sept. 11, we’re having a charity dinner over at The Speedway Club and we’re doing a live and silent auction during that.
At the track we walked around and talked to a bunch of the other drivers about donating stuff, I’ve really got to thank all of them for helping us out. On Thursday we went up to the space needle for a media lunch with me and some of the other drivers. Antron Brown came over and sat with us for awhile. He’s a pretty funny guy. We got to talk to him about B.R.A.K.E.S. and he’s going to give us some stuff for the auction so that’s cool.
Thursday night Ginger and I went and ate at Salty’s. It’s across the Puget Sound so you look back over the Sound and see downtown Seattle, that was awesome. I had some good crab legs. On Saturday night we had really good seafood again. Don Schumacher invited us and the whole team over to his pits to eat these gigantic crab legs. I mean, whoa, I thought I had seen big crab legs and lobster tails before but that was unreal!
The team did well last weekend. We made a good run the last qualifying session and then went all the way to the semifinals. We pulled within 13 points of taking seventh-place; it would be really good to move up this weekend in Sonoma. I’m actually riding my Harley down to Sonoma, that’s real fun to do. I’m just throwing my girl on the back and heading down to California. I think that’s a really good way to see the country. And I figured it made sense because by the time I went back east and then came back out here, I’m really only taking one day off and getting three extra days so that’s a good deal! We’re taking a bunch of pictures so you’ll see those next time I check back.
Take care,
Doug