Oh, what a feeling! I know that has a familiar ring to it, and some of you might relate it to our Toyota-bodied Funny Car team, but actually I’m referring to the first qualifying pass last Saturday in St Louis. Yep, it’s me, Grubby, and what I’m describing was our No.1 qualifying run of 4.46. We actually came into that session No.1 with a 4.51, and I watched my teammate Hillary Will take it away with a 4.50, two pair in front of me. The next car after that was Tony Shoe, and then he took the top spot with a 4.49. Now that just left us on a single with Connie’s look-out-we’ve-got-a-60-degree-racetrack-and-a-get-out-of-my-way-tune-up gleam in his eyes. Well, lo and behold, he did not disappoint as our car rocketed down the race track for the No.1 spot and also posted the quickest e.t. for the year so far. It’s been a while since we’ve had a Kalitta car take the top qualifier spot, and believe me; it was a great feeling being there again. Thanks again to all the fine folks from the St. Louis Carpenters’ Union for supporting us in St. Louis. Those guys were a blast, and I’m glad we gave them something to cheer for.

The other exciting thing to happen in St. Louis was on Thursday night when I got to participate in a dirt race at the local Tri-Cities 3/8-mile track with some of my fellow NHRA drivers. Now, the only dirt experience I’ve got is with two wheels on my motocross bikes. I’ve only ever raced four wheels on dirt once before in Sedalia, Mo., for a similar event back in 2006, so this was going to prove to be interesting. The cars we were slated to drive were late models with crate motors that produce about 400 horsepower. That doesn’t sound like much compared to what we do, but they can still be a handful if you’re not experienced at one. There was a funny twist to the night which I found out about later. James Riola, Jeff Leister and Andy Cetwinski from our Kalitta Motorsports crew decided to come out and watch. So, I explained my situation to them, and they all had some dirt racing experience so they gave me some well-needed and welcomed tips.

So the car I’m driving belongs to a well-known local and successful racer Ed Dixon. Ed actually had two cars there that night. The one I was driving looked exactly the same as his super modified car with an 800-horsepower motor which he was racing that night. The boys see me get in my car and then head to the stands to watch me practice, not knowing there’s another car that that looks exactly like mine that has 400 more horsepower and a 500-plus feature winning driver in it as well. Instead of sending the NHRA drivers out on a green race track to practice, they send the super modified out first. So James, Jeff, and Andy see this car come out that looks exactly like mine blasting around the race track with the inside front wheel two feet in the air and throwing dirt into next week thinking either I was sand bagging it or the fastest learner in history. Not being one to disappoint, when we finally did made it out for our practice the boys soon realized that there was more than one car that looked like mine, and that I would need further coaching.

After a lot of coaching from not only my own guys but from Ed Dixon’s crew, I did manage to come in second place in my heat race. I wish I could say the same about Main, however my lack of experience and an overly excited right foot spun my chances goodbye early in the night. Now, spinning myself out is not a big deal to me but taking out one of my fellow racers is not cool. Ron Capps was right behind me when I spun and unfortunately he had nowhere to go except on to the hood of my car. Ron’s pretty good at driving those cars and he had a good shot at winning it.

I have to send out a very special thank you to Ed Dixon and his crew. Those guys where great and a lot of fun to be around and they were very supportive. They even wanted to send me back out after my spin and tangle with Capps in the Main. Believe me; this was an experience I will not soon forget.

Take care all,

G.