Well, a few races have gone by with no update from yours truly, so let’s turn back time a few weeks. The Englishtown race was a tough race emotionally for everybody on our Kalitta Motorsports team. We got to start off the race with a single run in the left lane and I did an extra long burnout to honor Scott. We didn’t make a great run but we made up for it later Friday night with a good, solid lap.

Saturday, right before we were getting ready for our fourth qualifier, the skies opened up and it started to rain. I think it was Scott’s way of saying, “Let’s get the party started, so you can all start telling your stories about me!” We had a great private party in our pit Saturday night to remember Scott. We had a lot of team owners, drivers and crew members drop by to share their stories. We all drank Scott’s favorite drink and we all smoked his favorite cigars...I think he would have been proud. We also dined on about 100 Maine lobsters as well as tuna, salmon and 40 pounds of French fries that were all wonderfully cooked up by Joe Poulin and his family. We all had a great time and I think it was good for the healing process.
 
Sunday, first round, we had to run Bob Tasca III. We made our best run of the year and I managed to get almost a four hundredths advantage at the starting line, but we came up two inches short. Yes, I said a lousy two inches, or four 10 thousandths of a second. It was definitely one of the closest races I can ever remember and by far the closest I had ever been in. I was hoping that it was finally going to be the day for our DHL Toyota, but I guess it’s going to have to wait. After the race was over, we drove over to stay with some friends in New Jersey for a few days.

Vinny and Debbie Ferrone from VF Trucking are some of the nicest people that you would ever want to meet. I met them when I was racing with Paul Smith and the CMKX team, and VF Trucking was an associate sponsor on our car. Ever since then, our families have kept in touch and we always try and make an effort to spend some time with them when we can.

A few years back I got Vinny interested in golfing and let’s just say he is definitely hooked on it now! On Monday and Tuesday, Vinny, his buddy George, Alex and I drove down to the Poconos and played some golf. We all had a great time and I managed to give Vinnie a few tips to help him improve his score. Don’t ask his accountant, Alex, how much better his chipping was though because I personally witnessed how much more loft Vinnie got on his ball, right about at ear height for Alex, OUCH!

We played at a place on Tuesday called Mt. Airy and there was a beautiful new casino there. The course was an older course, but a lot of fun to play. I even managed to shoot an even par round of 72 there so I am sure that I would go back ... well maybe I shouldn’t, I am probably not going to shoot any better! Vinny and his wife had a nice little get together for some of their friends on Tuesday night and we all had a good time.

Wednesday was a nice relaxing day hanging around the pool and then we went home on Thursday. I am glad that I don’t live full time at the Ferrone’s, because Debbie is such an excellent cook and with all that homemade Italian food I would weigh a LOT more than I do now! Thanks again Debbie and Vinny.
 
Less than a week later, the family and I hopped on the plane and flew to Detroit. Jon O picked us up at the airport and I brought my wife and daughter over to see the race car shop. They were thoroughly impressed and found out I wasn’t exaggerating when I said you could eat off the floor in there.

The whole facility is in excess of 60,000 square feet. Inside you will find a full machine shop capable of fixing our blocks and cylinder heads, a fuel flow bench, a blower dyno, a clutch dyno, and even a lever dyno. It’s quite obvious that Connie had built a race shop with one thing in mind: to be competitive and run for championships. We have the best of the best in parts and personnel and while it is taking our DHL Funny Car a little longer to find our tune up than we would like, it is slowly headed in the right direction. Later we headed out for a nice dinner with Jon O and his family.
 
The next day we made the short two-hour drive over to Norwalk. We stayed at this hotel called the Kalahari. It boasts the largest indoor water park in the entire United States and the rooms are fantastic. You never really have to leave there as there are great places to eat and drink and tons of stuff to do in the water park. Everything from huge wave pools to places to surf and wicked tube rides. I was amazed at all the racers and their families that were staying there and partaking in the fun. I know for sure that the Norwalk race next year is already on my wife and daughter’s schedule. It is nice when you can take your family to a race that has more to do than just hanging out at the track. 

The race went pretty well for us. On our first lap the “safety box” went off for some reason just after I hit the throttle so we lost that run. Then on the night run racing my buddy Del our DHL Toyota started to vibrate pretty bad just before half track. I stayed with it for a bit but shut it off a couple of hundred feet early. It was running well enough to stay in the top 12 if I hadn’t shut it off early, but we found a broken rear body strut after the run that probably caused the vibration, so it was probably a good thing that I did shut it off. Saturday we were able to make two good runs that were in the upper half of the e.t.s posted for those rounds. Sunday we had to race Ron Capps. The weather threw everybody a bit of a curve but we ended up smoking the tires right about 400 feet to end our chances of winning the round. Ron ran a great 4.27 which was third quick of the round, so at least we made him earn it.

Jon O’s daughters Jessica and Julia also got a lot of their hair cut for a good cause at the race track in Norwalk. The Locks of Love folks were there getting donations of hair. I know it must have been tough for Jessica and Julia to cut off 10 inches of their hair each, but it’s for a really good cause and I’m sure they’re glad they could help. I know for sure that their dad is very proud of his daughters for their donations!
 
We ended up driving back to Detroit Sunday night and on Monday morning went by the shop for another visit. Some of the guys had their kids there and even Hillary Will dropped by. My daughter had fun playing with all of them and especially Jon O’s dog Nitro. My wife, Windy took the time to take a bunch of pics around the shop so that I could use them in this blog. At lunch most of our team and Doug’s team went out for some lunch.

After that Jon O arranged for my family and Nicky to go over to the Willow Run Airport and check out Connie’s 747 simulator. This simulator is one of the best ones in the world and has every switch and gauge that you would find in a real 747. They even had to build a huge building just to house it. It is probably 50 or so feet off the ground and had all types of hydraulics on it to simulate what you would if you were really flying.

We all piled in and our simulator instructor told me to hop in the left seat! I have never seen so many switches, gauges, and gizmos in one place. Long story short, I got to take of from Kennedy airport in New York, smoked it over and really close to the Empire State Building and then went on a little strafing run over the Hudson River at a pretty low altitude. So low in fact the computer was saying PULL UP, PULL UP and OBSTRUCTION AHEAD at an annoying volume, ha-ha. After I got back up to a normal altitude, my instructor told me to give it a shot at landing at night. He pointed out the runway which was probably 20 miles away and way over to the left and told me to make my way over there. Now, I was basically just operating the stick and the rate of turn and descent. He did the rest with the throttle, flaps, and landing gear. I managed to actually hit the runway … notice I didn’t say land!  Actually we would have been okay, but it was a bit rough and it probably would have been a bit worse without a little expert advice from my instructor, Leon. What an experience it was though and I am looking forward to giving it another try.

We dropped by and saw Connie in his office and there he was reunited with Nitro the dog. Nitro was Connie’s dog for many years before Jon O ended up with him, but Connie hadn’t seen him in a few years. Well, you could never tell as Nitro jumped up on Connie’s lap and gave his face a good lick. You could tell that Connie really missed the dog and vice versa! We left later that day and flew back to sunny California.
 
Tuesday night, I went by the Worshams' shop to do a little bowling with Chuck. I hadn’t been bowling in a few months and it showed. While Chuck and his buddies were averaging 210 to 230, I was down in the 165 range. They gave me a little handicap but not enough, at least not until the last game when one of Chuck’s buddies, Eddie, wanted a little side bet for the last game. Eddie and I always talk a lot of smack, and he was bowling well over 200 in the previous five games. He even had bowled a perfect 300 game the night before at a local bowling alley in league play. I got him to ante up 50 pins and the game was on. How did it end up? Let’s just say, that true to form, Eddie folded up like a cheap lawn chair and I went on for the win. I even beat him scratch. Now I won’t tell you what I bowled ‘cause I don’t want to embarrass old Eddie anymore than I already have!
 
I am going to hang around with my friend Ray Donahue from DHL a little later this week. We are going to play some golf Thursday and then we are going to his place for a Fourth of July party. The family and I are really looking forward to that as I am sure it’s going to be a fun time. Then next week it is off to Denver. We actually have four races in a row and we go to Denver, Seattle, Sonoma and then back to Norwalk for a match race. There is going to be a lot of racing and hopefully some round wins for our DHL Toyota! I’ll check back with you with some more updates in the weeks to come.
 
Thanks for reading!