My sister had asked me back in January, if she could write the blog around Denver. I think she is getting hooked on this ‘blogging’ stuff. I had to dig into my box of memories to provide some pictures. I hope you enjoy her story as much as I did.

Laura’s View

This weekend marks a milestone for Karen and Gary. It was 10 years ago they made their debut to the professional level of drag racing. Fueled by a regional championship and their dream, Karen and Gary along with a large group of friends and family converged at Bandimere Speedway with motor home, a truck and a trailer loaded with a collection of loaned, rented and borrowed motorcycle pieces and parts. As the group gathered and the bike was pieced together and parts and decals were purchased to meet the professional technical requirements, we all saw Karen and Gary start the next step in their quest for a professional championship.

With Mom and Dad’s motor home as base camp it was from there that we pieced together the first hero card from a photograph taken of Karen at the starting line by Dad, then to the one-hour photo store, then to Kinko’s to print the two sided paper hero card. I still have my copy of that first hero card.

I can remember purchasing and then applying the decal resembling a headlight to meet the technical requirement for the bike. With the collection of borrowed, loaned and rented pieces of equipment, the trailer had little room for movement, so it was a tight squeeze when we all had to hold different pieces of computer equipment while Karen hooked them into the bike for downloading and eventual analysis of the motor’s performance. It resembled one of those college pranks of how many people can you fit in a Volkswagen.

While Karen and Gary’s friends we all avid drag racing fans, we family members were only familiar with drag racing from experiences as Karen progressed through the bracket and regional races. So when I rode the hotel elevator with John Force; I had absolutely no clue and was duly chided by my son for not showing John the respect he was due. During these last 10 years I have learned and grown to love and watch the sport so if the opportunity should occur again, I will know better. Things of course have changed during these 10 years the motor home is now called a transporter and the team is no longer a ragtag collection of family and friends not sure what they can do to help, but a team with assigned duties. An added bonus during these 10 years has been Doug and Debbie and we love them and treat them as both friends and family. There are professionally printed hero cards. The transporter has extra motors, plenty of parts and tools along with a computer and recording equipment set up that can be managed by one person.

So as Karen and Gary meet this milestone weekend and progress to the future, Congratulations from both family and friends and thank you for the ride. We have loved watching the winning times and have held our breaths through the scary times, but thank you both for the experience.