This is Jonathan, he is one of the awesome signatures on the side of my bike.

I hope you all have had as much fun over the past few like I have! It’s been a crazy couple of weeks with Houston, testing on Monday after Houston and heading straight to Hot-lanta I feel like I’ve just been going through the motions of life and haven’t even had time to stop to smell the roses.

You know when I started this year my business coach, Raelyn Van Pelt, had me list five goals that I wanted to accomplish this year in racing. The first thing was qualify for a race, second was make four consecutive qualifying passes, third was win one round of racing, fourth was make it a final, and fifth was win a national event. Now I know you’re asking yourself, didn’t you forget win the championship! I didn’t list that as one of five goals because with so many things new for not just myself this year but our entire team I figured if we accomplish the goals we originally set out for ourselves than a championship would come for us.

Bayard and Bergen are two of my biggest fans. Bayard has been to two national events with me now and loves him NHRA!

When I won two championships in one year racing AHDRA in 2006 I just raced and accomplished the goals we set out for ourselves at the beginning of the year.  So when it came time to count all the points at the end of the year I was on top. I tell so many people that the hardest thing about NHRA is learning how to race here. I mean you have to make every pass count and be perfect every time, by no means am I perfect every time but you got be on your game. That was the first thing my dad taught me when I started racing, practice being perfect and when you come up short the bike will be there to make you look good.  The past few weeks our team has been very fortunate to turn on quite a few win lights and achieve several of the goals we set for ourselves and it’s been a lot of fun. After the horrible outing at Gainesville to come back at Houston and go to the semi’s and then turn right around and go to my first final at Commerce was very surreal. I’ve imagined what it would be like 10,000 times over in my head like what I would say on the camera or if I would stage first all the things you have to do to be successful out here. There are so many things that happen on race day and your emotions are going, you’ve got to have a plan. So for all my sponsors and fans I hope you all have been proud of me, because without your support I couldn’t be out here.

Matt always does such a good job coaching me. He always makes sure to tell me to hit my shifts and have fun.

With Houston and Atlanta being back-to-back weekends I really didn’t have time to get much work done at the shop but I did get to put in a few days. I really have been looking hard to hire another full time parts sales person but I wasn’t getting any response from people trying to come to work with us. Then like an angel from the good Lord above I got one. I am going to get to rehire one of my best employees that had to quit last year to go back to school and I’m really excited. The Parts Department at our store is doing so good right now so getting to have Travis back will really help with the summer coming right around the corner and the racing season kicking up. Also he can just walk on and start working since he has worked with us in the past he knows our routine and what I expect out of one of my employees. It can sometimes be challenging to train someone new, especially with my travel schedule being so demanding I sometimes don’t have time to stop and teach someone every part of their new position. That’s really hard on me because I don’t any of my guys to feel left out or I don’t have time to help them. I remember when I started and the manager I had really wasn’t very helpful in training me so I just had to wing it and make mistakes to learn what not to do, but that’s not how I roll.

I’m really looking forward to getting a few weeks off from the track. The beach is only like two hours from my house so I’m going to my beautiful wife to the beach for a few days of rest and relaxation. Also I’m hoping that Matt and Angie take a few days off. That entire team for that matter has been full throttle since we left Gainesville and you can just look at them and tell there pooped. I love them so much, we have really become more than teammates I feel that we’ve become a big family. I remember at Indy last year when we showed up I was kind of intimidated by them because before they have such an accomplished team and I was still a rookie. But after about 5 minutes together we were like cutting up and just having the best time and it has been nothing but fun ever since. There are a lot of people that don’t know this but Matt is one of the drivers that signed off on my NHRA license in 2007, so it’s pretty cool that we are now teammates.

Well I am going to give your eyes a break now and let you go. I will update my blog again in a few weeks but remember you can always find me on Facebook and Twitter @michaelstingray.

I hope everyone has been enjoying the awesome racing that has been going on while the bikes have not been on tour. I know I have enjoyed seeing the dominating performance by Robert Hight and his JFR team. Robert is one of my favorite drivers and to see him win four national events in a row is really awesome. The competition in all the professional categories has been amazing this year and I can’t wait to get to Baytown next week.

Since we have not been testing and not been racing I have been spending some time at the local track with my team owner’s son, Harry Gottsacker. Harry is 12 years old and getting his feet wet in his new junior dragster. It’s so much fun watching him learn all the little things that it takes to turn the win light on and with it being Rugger’s son watching the father/son tandem at the races just brings back so many memories of my dad teaching me how drag race. Harry has been doing really well in the car as far as his reaction times goes but he is struggling with the bracket racing format a little, he keeps saying “ But dad I don’t want to let off if I’m winning.” Rugger has been doing a great job coaching him and Harry is really enjoying himself so you never know, you might see him blasting in a fuel car one day. His car is really cool it’s all camouflaged out and is painted like an old World War II fighter plane and since his name is Harry, H-Bomb just had to make it on the car. I actually got to go back in time a little bit and live a child hood dream of mine and drive a junior dragster. Since I’m a little guy and Harry is my size at 12 (CRAZY!!!!)  Rugger threw me in a car and let me make a lap. It was a lot of fun but I’m not ready to give handlebars for a steering wheel just yet.

I’m really excited about this weekend and this week leading up to the race next weekend. With all the new and exciting things going on with the Riding for Kids campaign we are having a party at the shop where we are going to unveil the bike to our customers and the charities that this campaign is helping. We are also giving away some two tickets for the event next weekend. The fun part of all this is Matt, Angie, and the whole team is going to spend a week here in New Braunfels hanging out and more importantly getting a break. That entire group has worked NON-STOP since Gainesville and every time I talk to them they sound beat. So I’m glad they will get to take some time off and float the rivers, go ride, and recharge their batteries before it’s go time. Especially since immediately following Houston we go right to Atlanta for our third race of the season.  This is the best time of the year to live in South Texas. The weather is perfect, there are wild flowers growing everywhere. But in about 4 weeks in turns HOT and that’s when I really want to head north and enjoy some cooler temps. So getting our schedule going wide open makes it nice to have to suffer through the brutal south Texas summers.

Please make sure and stay up to the minute with what is happening on and off the track via Facebook and Twitter @michaelstingray between my blog posts. If you are at Houston please come by and see the new bike and remember to text unclehal to 80888 to donate $5.00 to an amazing charity and help out some really great kids.
 

Well it’s been a few weeks since my last blog so I’m going to get everyone up to speed.

I’m sure everyone knows about my little run in with the wall before Gainesville. I’ve been rehabbing trying to get my foot ready to get back into a pair of Simpson driving shoes and most of all get my mind ready to get back on the bike. I’ve had some close calls and even put a few in the sandbox at the end of the track, but that’s the first time that I’ve been injured racing in a LONG time. It really shook me up, I usually don’t admit to being scared to get back on the bike, but I was a little timid. You always have to be ready for anything to happen but for something like that to happen that was completely out of my control always leaves that thought in the back of your mind. But my team really has been so supportive while I got myself up to speed and comfortable behind the controls of my bike. I have been seeing a great podiatrist in New Braunfels who last Wednesday gave the go ahead to get back on the bike and see how I feel with my foot. So I called Matt and told him the good news so he got us set up to head to Charlotte to go testing for 2 days this past Tuesday and Wednesday. After a few weeks of not riding and getting the nerves set aside all I can say is it felt great to make some full pulls on the bike. After 2 days of testing I made 14 passes and got to get comfy again. It was hot, the air was bad, and the track wasn’t really ready for all the horsepower that we make so we really didn’t run any magical numbers. As always we keep great records of conditions for every race and looking at how the air was in Charlotte compared to Gainesville and we would’ve run really well for the conditions if we were racing against all the other bikes in the class.

I am really looking forward to the next few weeks. The bike is going to get wrapped with our new marketing campaign and will be looking great for Houston. The owners of Gruene Harley Davidson and Javelina Harley Davidson founded the charity For the Love of Kids and Harley’s which over the past decade has raised over a million dollars for several different organizations on the San Antonio are such as YMCA, Easter Seals, and St. Jude’s Ranch for Children to mention a few. So we have put together a text to donate campaign where you can text unclehal to 80888 to donate $5 to get some national awareness for these amazing young people who are less fortunate than you and I. It’s really nice to give back after my life has been so full of blessings and gifts. I’ve always said everyone needs a chance to live their dream, and I can’t wait to help someone live their dream just like I am. Also the weekend before the Houston event we are having a huge kick start party where we unveil the new bike to all our employees and amazing customers. Matt, Angie and the rest of the team will be out with both bikes on display, which I can’t wait to have them back at the shop. If you can make it out to the shop Saturday, April 24th we are going to have a great party and give away 2 tickets to the event in Houston the following weekend. I’m really excited to have this party and say thanks to all the people to who have made this dream of mine come true.

The shops have been SUPER busy which is nice considering all the people that are without work or sacrificing their hobbies for food to put on the table. If I’m not mistaken our 2 dealerships, Javelina H-D and Gruene H-D are up 58% over the past 12 months. We have such an amazing group at both stores, especially my team in parts here at Gruene. These guys, Thomas, Carlos, Bud, and Austin keep this place running while I’m out playing racer boy all over the country, and I couldn’t do it without these guys. So thank you team.

Please make sure to keep updated on the day to day by following me on Twitter (@michaelstingray) and Facebook. It’s been so cool to meet all my new friends after I started doing this blog. I’m such a huge fan of the sport so for people to come up and tell me that they read my blog is really cool. Thank you again and shake it easy.

Well I know it has been a while since I have updated my blog but I’ve been as been wide open, not that fast but wide open since the start of the month.

As mentioned in my earlier blog we were going to head over to Valdosta for a week of testing before the Gators. We were really looking forward to the first race of the year and since bike week was going on in Daytona after the race was over we loaded up a few bikes and headed east. The trip over went really well. We were pulling the new camper loaded with bikes and had no troubles along the way, which was very nice. I am always scared to open the trailer doors and check on everything after traveling. Monday morning we were up and ready to go fast and start the week off but the bike had other plans. Somehow the bike developed an electrical problem that causing the entire ignition system to turn on and off for no reason. Obviously that was a problem, but after several hours the team got the bike going.  I made 330-foot pass just to make sure everything worked, also it was WINDY and since they weren’t giving out Wallys at the turn off I didn’t want to take any chances.

Tuesday morning brought the same windy conditions but it was sunny and so beautiful we ready for some fun and fast times since the air was so good there. I made my first pass and in the shutdown area I was blown around and ended up tagging the wall and cutting my foot pretty bad. I went to the hospital and got checked out and cleared to race again by the doctors. With my foot and my only pair of boots not being in any shape to ride I elected to sit out testing and let Matt ride my bike. I’m really glad he did, Matt is a machine and rarely makes mistakes so he really helped get the bike going in testing. Thanks again, Matt. 

Gainesville brought more troubles for my bike. First round of qualifying the bike would not shift into third gear so I had to abort the run. I was a little upset because it’s very important to make every pass down the track every time. The bike stepped up and made a great pass second round and third round my same old friend was back, the transmission gremlin.  Unfortunately we got didn’t run fast enough to make the show for the Gators this year which was really unfortunate, but there was a lot of strong competition out there so we stayed positive and will keep moving forward. Matt had a great staging battle with Hector Arana second round which so cool. I have seen so many on television it was kind of surreal being on the starting line watching. It felt like a old western stand off, which Matt came out on top. Matt unfortunately didn’t have luck on his side Monday after the rain out to hold off those fast Harleys to make it the final. Matt’s dad Rickie won Pro Mod, which was really awesome.

Gainesville marked a new chapter for Gottspeed Racing and the Gottsacker family. Viper Motorcycle Company has come on board with our dealerships Gruene Harley Davidson and Javelina Harley Davidson. The Viper Diamondback is the most beautiful and most powerful, American made v-twin on the planet. Please go to www.vipermotorcycle.com and check out this amazing machine. The Diamondback is also being used as our push bike and is always on display at our trailer, so make sure that you come by to check it out.

My doctors here in New Braunfels have been really working hard to get my foot back 100 percent as quick as they can. Since I had such a deep cut on my foot my doctor had a wound vac ordered for me to accelerate the healing process and decrease the chance for infection. On a positive note, I should be good to go in a few days and not going to need the wound vac, which will be ice to get back to wearing two shoes again. I am going to Charlotte to test in a few weeks.  I want to make as many laps as we can to get me in a rhythm so I can be on point when we come to Texas at the end of April.

March has been rough on me so I’m looing forward to moving on to April and the chance to start over fresh. Talk to you soon and remember to follow me on Twitter @michaelstingray and on Facebook. Shake it easy…