Since I started racing about 10 years ago I have always dreamed of racing full time. Sometimes you think your dreams are never going to come true and that they will always be dreams. I will tell you one thing that dreams do come true!

Karl and Kim Klement have been friends of ours since they started racing several years ago. They were always very nice and would always come by to check on us to see if we ever needed anything. At the end of 2008 the Klements decided to take a break from racing. During the 2009 season they still kept in close contact with Matt and myself. During August, Matt and Karl had conversations of running his bike at his local track, which is the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas. Little did I know that this was happening. I will never forget this moment. We were on our way home from Charlotte at a restaurant and Karl called Matt. He said, "I want Angie to ride my bike for the Dallas event." I was so excited I couldn’t finish my meal. I didn’t care. I want to tell everyone so bad but I didn’t until we did the press release.

I raced the Dallas event and I think we did well. Prior to the event I had never been on the bike. On Saturday in qualifying we were fighting a couple of issues with the bike. We were not in the show going into Q4. There were a lot of people coming by to see Karl and Kim. Two of those people were JD and Terrisa. They were so nice to all of us. At that moment when we got into the show JD told me he got chills over his body. He knew he wanted to be involved in racing again. Karl and JD talked several times and decided to put this team together. I was the lucky person that gets to ride the bike.

In December Matt and I flew down to Texas and signed my contract with the Klements and Coffmans. I also went over and spent time with JD and Terrisa learning about there business. Matt and I both were intrigued by the business. JD and Terrisa own Coffman Tank Trucks out of Chino, Texas. What they do is haul salt water from the oil wells to another well, which is owned by the company. They have five wells. One of the wells is more than 10,000 feet deep.

On December 10,  my dreams of being a full-time rider came true. JD, Terrisa, Karl and Kim have all made this happen for me. Matt Smith (my husband) will be doing my motor program. He has been working really hard on finding more horsepower. I will be racing full time this year with Coffman Tank Trucks as my sponsor. I am so greatful for this to happen. This is a blessing from God. Thank you to the Coffmans and to the Klements for helping me live my dream!!!

Since our last blog, Matt has left the country. He is in Qatar teaching someone how to race Pro Stock Motorcycle. It’s been really hard. He has been gone for three weeks and I have had to take over a lot of duties. We have done everything from stripping the wrap off the trailer to getting it prepped for another one to cleaning everything inside. On our agenda next is to rearrange everything so we know exactly where everything is located. Our trailer is getting wrapped Jan.25 so I will have pictures up soon. It’s going to be beautiful. Matt is suppose to arrive in the U.S. on Saturday evening so he will write a blog about his trip in Qatar for three weeks next week.

Talk to everyone soon.
 

It’s been really busy since we arrived home from our honeymoon. We are not that far away from the house being complete. Currently they are painting all the rooms and putting the tile in the bathrooms. They are also putting in our granite countertops. This house project has been a huge deal for me because I have been very involved during the whole process. Ang is the one that picked out a lot of the interior colors. There a few things that I like that she didn’t like and vice versa. We did good coming to an agreement. Everyone always tells me if you can build a house together then your marriage will last forever.

Last weekend the weather forecast was calling for a light snow. Then it changed to a moderate snow. Changed again to a heavy snow. I don’t think they knew what it was going to do. It started snowing on Friday. I called Ang and made her come early from work. It snowed from noon on Friday until Saturday morning early. We had six inches by 8 p.m., which is a lot of snow for the N.C. region. We eventually had eight inches of snow. On Saturday we couldn’t get out of the house much because we both have cars. We stayed around home and Michael came to visit us. We got some bad news about 8:30 a.m. Robby called and said his carport had collapsed on all of his personal belongings. He had a Mustang that he raced along with a trailer and a toy hauler under it. It damaged all of it, including the lawn mower and some other things. It was devastating to see it happen to such a good person. We were just happy that no one got hurt. The carport must have collapsed during the night when the snow was heavy at times.

The Smiths had planned on Christmas dinner on Saturday. The snow was so bad that all of the restaurants were closed. So my Grandma Dot decided to have it at her house. I was so glad that the whole family was able to get together. My grandma is one of the best cooks and I love to eat her home cooked food. After dinner all Ang wanted to do was go sledding. That’s all I heard all day Saturday so I promised to go. Amanda, Ang, Rex, Tristan and me went to Michael’s house sledding. His house is on a big hill. Michael and his kids had already been sledding so they made some good trails. They iced over that night so they were pretty fast. Michaels neighbor has an even bigger hill in his yard. So we went over and it was hilarious watching everyone go down. There was another hill half way down that would send the sled in the air about two feet. It hurt when you hit but it was fun. We did that for about three hours. Amanda drove her 4Runner over so she would drive us back to the top of the hill after we went down. That was much better than walking. We had a blast but now I am ready for the snow to melt. It’s a big mess on the roads here.

As for my racing plans they are still up in the air right now. There is a lot of news going to be released in the next two weeks regarding Angie. I can’t say what’s happening but just make sure you check out all the racing Web sites everyday for some new and exciting news with Ang racing in 2010.
 

Two weeks ago while heading out to Pomona for the last race of the season Matt decided to tell me that we were going to Sandals resort in St. Lucia. I was ecstatic. I wanted to go somewhere warm and sunny. He teased me many times about going to Alaska. Day 1 of our honeymoon was on Sunday Nov. 23. We left our house around 3 a.m. to get to Charlotte airport on time. We boarded the plane and as we got onto the runway the pilot shut the motors down. Matt and I looked at each other and said, “This isn’t good.” We sat on the runway for two hours because of inclement weather in Atlanta. We knew there was only one flight a day to St. Lucia. Needless to say we missed our flight and had to stay overnight in Atlanta. Delta rebooked us the next day.

On Monday we got up early and made it to the airport. Matt and I had a great flight to St. Lucia. We arrived around 4 p.m. then had to take a one-hour ride to our resort. Our ride was really interesting because they only have a few roads there. The countryside is absolutely beautiful. There were areas where you could see the Atlantic side of the island and then the Caribbean side of the island. We finally arrived to our suite. Our butler was waiting on us to get there and help us with all of our luggage. We had room service for dinner because we were exhausted from traveling. We enjoyed the rest of the evening together and exploring our new home for the next 6 days.

Tuesday we had decided to wake up at 5:40 a.m. to watch the sun rise. It was stunning. Matt and I had breakfast at the buffet and got some chairs by the pool. We researched what we had to do to scuba dive. I got signed up for the class the next day. Matt and I enjoyed our 85-degree weather and our sunshine that day. We stayed by the pool most of the day. Our butler had scheduled us to have dinner at a restaurant at one of the other Sandals resorts. It’s the nicest restaurant out of all the resorts. We both had lobster and it was unbelievable. Matt and I didn’t stay out too late because I had to be in class at 8:15 a.m. for scuba diving.

Breakfast was around 7:30 a.m. so I could make our scuba lessons at 8:15 a.m. I was in a class with six other people. The class had to watch a video and then had to get into the pool to learn the skills. At first I didn’t think I was going to make it. I was having a lot of trouble breathing. I felt like I wasn’t getting enough oxygen. I would go down for about 20 seconds and start to panic. Matt was sitting by poolside. He kept encouraging me. The instructor knew I was having problems so he worked with me one on one. He got me to relax and I finally figured the technique out. I was excited. All of us got approval from our instructor that we could go diving in the ocean.

We loaded up on a bus and headed to the marina to get onto a dive boat. On the boat ride over to the dive site I was reviewing my techniques that I had learned. It was time to get into the water. I tensed up when I jumped in. I tried to go down and couldn’t do it. I was getting upset. The instructor came over to me to check on me. I finally relaxed, took a deep breath, and opened my eyes to a whole new world. Words can’t describe how beautiful it is under the water. It’s so peaceful and relaxing. We got to see so many different types of fish. Before I knew it 30 minutes had passed and our dive was already over. I already wanted to go again. On our way back we discussed diving the next day. We had lunch at the buffet and Matt didn’t feel well. Matt and I went back to the room and he was having severe stomach cramps. We got dressed to go to dinner but didn’t make it because he was miserable. He finally got really sick during the night. I felt so bad for him. All I tried to do was take care of him.

On Thursday I rescheduled our scuba diving for Friday. I didn’t want Matt to do too much because he was dehydrated from being sick. We had our own pool in our suite so I lay by the pool on a float while he relaxed. He was tired of staying in the room by the evening so we had dinner at Kimonos, which is the Japanese restaurant. It was awesome. After dinner we visited the Sandals Grande resort to get some souvenirs for our family. When we arrived back to our room we had rose petals in our bed and our names written in flowers. It was so beautiful. It was early to bed because the next day was diving again.

Breakfast buffet again before diving. Matt and I had about an hour to spare before the bus left to go to the marina so we decided to go sailing. It was a blast. Of course Matt tried to make the sailboat go as fast as possible. Time to go diving again. I didn’t have any trouble going down this time. We actually went deeper on this dive. I looked at my gauge and it said 30 feet. My ears were giving me some trouble so I knew we were deeper than on Wednesday. We saw some new fish and we even saw a flounder. Flounders are hard to find at first. They blend into their environment very well. Again it was stunning under the water. Friday evening we just enjoyed our time together and had dinner at the Arizona restaurant. After dinner we laid in the hammock for about an hour. It was so peaceful listening to the crickets and the ocean waves while lying with my hubby.

Saturday was our last full day on our honeymoon. We got up early and decided to go snorkeling on our beach by the resort. Matt snorkeled by himself for about an hour while I was sunbathing. He was scoping out all the cool places to take me snorkeling. He wanted to take a break so we went sailing again. When we got back from sailing I geared up for snorkeling. Our beach cove was pretty wide. We swam from one side to the other looking at all the cool fish under the water. It was amazing to see all the rocks under the water and how the ocean floor drops off. After about an hour I was tired of swimming and we were ready to get some lunch. We participated in a game of Pictionary with the resort. They separated us girls vs. guys. Of course the girls won. Matt and I took the shuttle back to our room and decided to finish our last day on our patio by our pool. While we were outside the butler came to our room and prepared me a bubble bath with rose petals. It was so romantic and soothing. We had dinner at the La Toc. The restaurant had the best filet migon on the island. Matt and I came back to our room and enjoyed our time together.

Sunday we packed up and headed to the airport. We had a safe flight home and I will have to admit I didn’t want to leave. I didn’t want our honeymoon to be over. I had an amazing time and I have the best husband in the world. I can’t believe he kept a secret from me for six months. Thank you, Matt, for the best honeymoon ever. I love you.
 

I will have to admit that I am happy the season is over. During the season we had a lot of ups and downs. Steve and I also learned a lot along the way. We started off the season with a bang with a final-round appearance in just our first race together. Then after some struggles we managed to go to many semifinal rounds but couldn’t capitalize on a win this season. I was really disappointed that we didn’t get a win for Steve, my team, Don, Nitrofish, and myself.

In Las Vegas we were in the semifinals again but lost to Andrew Hines in a close race. Steve and I were pleased that we had a great bike the last couple of races. In Pomona many of the top teams including us were struggling with the starting line. Steve had to make some drastic changes to the bike for us to be able to have good 60-foot times. On Saturday we made a fast pass that moved us to the No. 3 spot. Saturday afternoon our luck changed somewhat when I clicked 4th gear and the motor went away. Sunday approached and all I wanted more than anything was to win this last race of the season for all of us. We wanted to go out with a bang. Well, we went out with a bang just not the right kind. We blew another motor in round one of eliminations, which ended our season. Its one of those things were you just don’t know what to say. You’re disgusted and disappointed and didn’t want the season to be the way it turned out but you have to be thankful to be in the position to ride for a caliper team as DSR. I want to say thanks to Don, Steve, and Kenny for standing behind me this year.

On a lighter note I want to say congrats to Hector Arana for winning the 2009 Full Throttle Championship. I know what he is feeling every night. It’s the same feeling I had in 2007. He did his homework in the off-season and rode well all year and capitalized on it in Pomona. Congrats, Hector!!!

As all of you know we are still in the process of building our new home. It has consumed every waking moment of my time when I am in town. It’s coming along awesome. We now have everything inside laid out. My two best friends, Michael and Robby, have been helping me do so much of the work, including the electrical and plumbing. All of the doors and windows are in the house and next week it should be ready to insulate and sheetrock. We are so excited about the house and can’t wait to move in. Our estimated move in date is mid January. We are only moving about an eighth of mile down the driveway but it still is a lot to do.

On Sunday we were leaving for our much-needed Honeymoon. I got bored in the airport on Wednesday when we were heading to Pomona and decided to tell Ang where we were going. I have kept it a secret for six months. We are going to Sandals Resort in St. Lucia for 1 week. We have an awesome romantic suite and Ang has her own swimming pool. She is going to love it. My sister Amanda went to another Sandals resort in St. Lucia for her honeymoon and absolutely loved it. I got some good insight from her when I decided to book it. We will write a blog when we get home to share our honeymoon with everyone. Talk to everyone soon.