Going into St. Louis we were definitely pumped up. We had been working on a lot of things and after racing there last year, we wanted to try and dominate again. It looked like things were going our way in qualifying, so we just needed it to stand up on raceday.

First round, we ran a pretty good number. Second round, I was rolling up to the beams and I could hear we had a problem. I was doing all I could to get up there as quick as possible. We got to the end of the track and sure enough the throttle body had come off. In the semi’s we had a header break and in the finals it wouldn’t come out of third gear. And man, were we on a pass. We would have probably run a high 6.86 if it hadn’t of got stuck. It would have been an awesome race, but what’s done is done.

As far as Angie’s bike goes, I know many of you are wondering what is going on there. She is just having a few problems right now. Everyone goes through this and she will get out of it soon. We are working real hard on getting her back where she was last year in Pomona and at Gainesville this year. She will be back and kicking butt in no time, believe me. She is too strong to hold down for long.

We have a few weeks off before Chicago, so in the midst of all of the work we have to get done at the shop, we are also going to take some time off and do some fun things like go to the NASCAR race. Angie and I are headed to Charlotte Friday night for the Truck race (where my sister Amanda works). We will probably end up staying for the All-Star race the next day as well, because she got us HOT passes so we can go in the garage and sit down on pit road. The next week we are going to the Coca-Cola 600 as well, so we should have a ton of interesting stories coming up.

As far as the past week has gone, man has it been amazing. Like I said, I flew out early Tuesday morning from Raleigh, NC to JFK then from there to Bahrain to meet Dad. I have never flown overseas, so I really didn’t know what to expect. The flight I was on from JFK to Bahrain was so cool. I had a screen in my cubicle that showed you when you took off, while you were flying and landing as well. I am assuming it was hooked up to a camera on the front of the plane. It was awesome! A little nerve-wracking, but awesome!

After I got there it was game-on from then on out. Over there they do not race or test during the day, because it is over 100 degrees then. They only race at night, from like 8pm till 5am. Crazy!!!

Dad was tuning two racecars and then racing one on his own. He has been over there numerous times, but to tune not to race himself. He ended up blowing them away. He qualified No. 1, set the new track record and won the race. It was so cool to see those guys’ faces when he did all this. He is definitely the man over there. They also had a Pro Mod bike division over there as well, so I figured what the heck let me go check it out. I ended up helping tune one of the guys’ bikes and he ended up winning too.

I will have to say it was one of the greatest experiences I have ever had in my life. They are the nicest people over there and after their race season ends I think dad’s team (Popeye Racing) is going to fly over here and come to one of our races, which will be very neat for them. Dad is going back over there in a few weeks to race again, or should I say to kick butt again, so we will keep you all up to date on how he is running as well.

You can go to his website (rickiesmithracing.com) and check out some reports from across “The Pond.” He was on the front of their newspaper after he won the race. It’s pretty awesome!

Catch up with you all again soon. Next time we will have some great pictures from Charlotte.