As I am sure all of you know, my predictions of mid 70s and sunshine didn't come to fruition. Instead we got rain, rain and more rain with a dose of FREEZING (at least for me) temps thrown in. After raining Thursday and Friday, the racing gods let us have one qualifier to set the field. Seeing as we were about 1 for 18 in testing for full runs, I was pretty happy when our DHL Toyota Funny Car made it to the finish line on our one shot. It was a little slower than we thought, but we were only the second pair to run and couldn't learn much from the other cars. We ended up in the 10 spot and had Gary Densham for round one.

Come Sunday, more rain on and off. After being in the staging lanes a few times we finally got our turn. Gary was nice enough to remind me that his would probably be his last race ever and to take it easy on him. Sure Gary, I think I have heard that line before … ha ha. Anyways, at the flash of the Tree, I didn't cut him any slack and had over a four-hundredths advantage. We both had to pedal our cars out of shake and we were probably just ahead of Gary when our car spun the tires just before half track. It ended up putting three cylinders out on the right side at the same time. That's probably why it ended up pointed at the right wall at over 200 mph. Luckily we missed the wall but Gary won the round. There was only one car that won in the right lane and had a full run, so our odds weren't looking too good anyway. My teammate Doug Kalitta made a highlight reel lap against his first-round opponent for the win. There was LOTS of fire but Doug legged her through for the win.

Fast forward two days later. Finally a great SoCal day, albeit 15-20 degrees cooler than normal. Doug ran a stellar 3.82 to take care of Cory Mac in the second round. All you have to do now in insert Morgan Lucas and Antron Brown in that same line as like a bracket car, it ran 3.82 again both times. He also dug deep in the final for his best reaction time of the day! Credit Jim O, Connie and the entire Kalitta Motorsports crew for a job well done. It was awesome to be on the starting line to watch them win. My family and I hung out for the photo shoot and the celebratory team dinner. There is nothing like seeing Connie get all excited as the car was going rounds. You couldn't wipe the smile off his face after the win!
 
Now of course we can't wait for Phoenix. Our DHL Funny Car is starting to respond to the changes that we are making. I am praying for dry weather and four qualifiers. Now, our team is looking for the Wally … would a double up Kalitta victory be too much to ask?
 
Here are a couple of pics from the race. My wife picked up this lab coat for our good friend Rick Fischer. Rick mixes all the fuel for the teams (as well as the drinks, after racing is over) and has the nickname of Raul. My wife and I decided to personalize it a bit for him and here you see the end result!
 
Next is a picture of our team PR/ Graphic Designer/ Web page guy Todd Myers and myself. Nice job on the handout cards, Todd!
 
Saving the best for last is my daughter celebrating her first appearance at a team win with no other than the man himself, Doug Kalitta.
 
Looking forward to Phoenix and more wins.