Well, all in all, I would have to say it was a great weekend at Gainesville. The fans were insane. I don’t think I have ever seen any race as packed as they were every single day. It was awesome! We also had Jegs on-board camera on the bike, as I am sure you guys may have seen on television, which provided some pretty cool shots of the bike.

We went into qualifying on Friday with high hopes considering our pass at Valdosta the week before. We knew it was going to be fast because the conditions were just unbelievable. We spun the tire on the first run and still managed to run my quickest elapsed time ever, which placed us No. 2. We knew we didn’t make anywhere close to a perfect run that time, so we were pumped that we ended up where we did. We actually never made a good run at all during qualifying. So, yes, we were mad that we never got the results we wanted, but happy to be qualified at the same time.

We started out in the sixth position on Sunday and we had Geno Scali first round. I knew he was running the new fuel injection and if he got it set up right, he was going to be on a killer pass. So I just went up there and did my normal thing, I tried to just race myself. I had a good reaction time and a great elapse time as well. We managed to be low of the round in the bike category so we were very excited that we finally got things hooked up right.

Second round we had Tom Bradford, who is always tough. I cut another great light and ran low elapsed time for the round again. My bike actually drifted so close to the centerline and came up off the ground three or four times, so I was just trying to hang on till the finish. To be the quickest bike that round and have those problems, we knew we had a heck of a bike.

In the semi’s we had Eddie Kraweic, the new Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson rider, who is capable of going very fast as well. I cut another good light and flew down the track to take the win. I knew the bike felt good when I made the pass, but I had no idea that it ran the kind of numbers that it did. We ran 6.921 e.t. at 192.22mph, the fourth quickest run in NHRA history. We were so excited that we figured out the bike and ran those numbers, and then to be in the finals made it that much greater.

I went into the finals telling myself to not chop down the Tree, to just cut a decent light and let the bike run. However the bike didn’t run as planned. I couldn’t get it to shift down track and it was just over from there. Karen is a great racer, so my hat is off to her. To come from the No. 16 spot and win is amazing, and at the first race at that.

We couldn’t be more thrilled with how we ran in Gainesville and can’t wait to get to Houston to take a go at it again. Hope to see you guys there!

***I want to let the Medlen family know that our thoughts and prayers are with them at this time. Please join me in praying for a full recovery for Eric.***