Posted by: Melanie Troxel, In-N-Out Burger Funny Car
I haven’t updated my blog for a while, so I’ll give everybody a quick synopsis of what’s going on. Mel and I flew into Englishtown early. Since I won the Funny Car category last year, I was invited to participate in the NHRA press conference. After the press conference and media race concluded, we headed to New York to meet an old friend.
Earlier this year in Houston, I saw friend and fellow racer, Don Gay Jr. I hadn’t seen him in quite some time. He is now an FBI agent in New York City. I sent him an email prior to Englishtown, and we made plans to meet up and spend the afternoon in downtown New York with him. We took the train from New Brunswick, N.J., near our hotel, and got off at Penn Station in the city, and headed to the subway. I was a little hesitant because I had never ridden the subway before. We found the right train and got down to the right part of Manhattan and met up with Donnie.
We walked the streets of New York and he showed us some sights. Then he drove us around a little bit. After that we jumped out of the car and walked all through Little Italy, SoHo, and Greenwich Village and made our way back. He lives in the Little Italy area and his family is in Houston, so he had plenty of free time while we were there. He took us to a quiet little Italian restaurant where he goes to eat once in a while. They had great food and we enjoyed ourselves.
After dinner, we continued our foot tour through the city. He took us to the Empire State Building. I’m not a big fan of heights but it was fun to go up there and see the city, especially at night. Because he is an FBI agent, we got to go straight up to the observation deck. We had a great time reminiscing about our days driving alcohol cars and he said he pays attention to what’s going on in the drag racing world these days, but not so much that he gets the “bug” again. We agreed that once the driving itch is in you, it’s always there. He pays attention to the point where he knows he can’t watch any more without wanting to get back in the driver’s seat.
Donnie hasn’t changed any at all except that he has a wife and three kids now. They’ve been married 11 or 12 years. It was just cool to spend time with him. I think we left the city about 11 p.m. and caught the train back to New Brunswick getting back to the hotel about 12:30 a.m.
You lose track sometimes of all the friends you make out here on the circuit. When I was handed the “Don Gay, FBI agent” business card in Houston, I just had to come to New York to check it out for myself. It’s nice to see that he continues to be successful after racing. Once in a while in the midst of a busy schedule, it’s good to take a trip back in time.
On Thursday we played some golf with some of the Monster folks. I actually played one of THE best games of my life for 12 holes and on the 13th hole the wheels fell off and I reverted to my real self and finished up okay. It was fun.
Thursday night Mel and I went out and had a nice dinner and we’re ready to go for the weekend.
I feel sort of like Phil Burgess’ column, “Where are they now but,” I wanted to let everybody know what Don Gay, Jr. is doing now. Who woulda thought?