Albert Hammond was right … it poured, man, it poured! Okay, I’m dating myself by quoting those lyrics but everybody was thinking it. Come on, admit it, you were thinking it, too! The Winternationals came, and so did the rain. But it’s all a memory now, wet, soggy memories, but the Winternationals champs have been crowned and we press onward!

Congratulations are in order for my teammate, Ron Capps. It has been awhile since he has seen the winner’s circle and is as nice to see him back there again. You can’t help to notice not only the good job done by "Ace" and the crew, but the driving job that Ron did. Remember all of the problems we were having in that right lane? Everybody was chattering the tires at about 200 feet. Ron was racing John Force in round one and peddled when he hit the trouble spot while Force was able to keep in on the floor. Ron not only peddled masterfully, he stayed ahead of Force for the win. Good job Ron; good to see you hoist the Wally!

We qualified the Fram dragster in the number three spot and went from A to B every time we ran. That is very impressive considering the crew is all new. I am proud of the new Fram team. Everybody works well together and are as enthusiastic as I have seen. I am looking forward to working with everybody during the coming year. Remember the crew blogs that I did last season? It was very successful and I am going to do it again with these guys this year. All I have to do is get some pictures of everybody in compromising situations and I will start writing. ( J Edgar Hoover did that to keep people in line, we’ll see...) Stay tuned!

The Nordic Boat sweepstakes finally came to a happy conclusion for the Hoovers of North Carolina. They came all the way from the east coast to Pomona to take possession of their new Nordic boat. I think if it kept raining at the rate that it had been, they could have driven it all the way back home. As fate would have it, they had been looking to buy a boat and had been shopping for some time. We got to spend some time together and they enjoyed their opportunity to show off their new boat in front of all the Pomona fans. No, the water wasn’t that deep, the boat was on a trailer! Congratulations again to the Hoovers of North Carolina, and thanks to Randy and Sandy Davis of Nordic Boats for offering such a generous prize.

We are starting to thaw out here in the Indianapolis area. They tell me that we have a couple more months to endure the possibility of snow, wind, ice, sleet, hail, freezing rain, ( I thought that is what hail is but they tall me it’s different) freezing temperatures and more snow. Get the idea? You guys out in Phoenix are lucky, you don’t have to endure those kinds of things this time of year. I’m that much happier to be headed out to Firebird

Raceway in a couple of days to soak up some of that wonderful Arizona sunshine¬–and go 300 mph!

The weather forecast is calling for rain. JUST KIDDING! I wanted to see if you were paying attention. In fact the temperature in Phoenix is forecast to be around 80 degrees with ZERO percent chance of rain for Friday. Mostly cloudy with only a 10 percent chance of precipitation for Saturday and Sunday. Hmmm, warm temps and a bit of cloud cover for eliminations on Sunday. Dry, comfortable and fast! It looks to be a great weekend and believe me, you can’t buy a better weather forecast.

By the way, many of you have been asking Tori the Top Fuel dog and she is doing fine. She is still thought of as a canine Top Fuel queen and wears her Fram collar proudly. She has greatly improved her reaction time, especially when a rawhide bone is waiting at the finish line. She has grown like a weed and still acts like a puppy. Isn’t it great when full-grown dogs think that they can still jump up on your lap and not knock you over. Doggies, ya gotta love ‘em!

Time to book a flight for Arizona. Firebird Raceway is waiting. Come on over and say hello this weekend. It’s going to be one to remember. I have a feeling everybody’s going to be on their game.

See you in the fast lane...it’s the one we choose!