Wow, these last three weeks flew by for the Stoffers. Gary made sure he had his time scheduled to play with all his toys while he was home. (Well, really not home, but on the West Coast.) That’s probably why is seems like time went by so fast.

What some of you may not know is that he (Gary) is the reason I become a NHRA Drag Racing fanatic. Growing up, there was a group of us that hung around together on the same block. By group, I mean eight or so kids that used to ride bikes and motorcycles together. As we all started to creep up on 16, and some before that age, cars started to be the toys of choice. The cars of choice were sport compact style. They were cheap enough for a 16-year-old, and great on gas. It was easy enough to modify them to look fast by dropping them, tinting the windows, and adding some cheap horsepower.

The house I was raised in was situated at the entrance of the block we grew up on, so I had a great vantage point of all the groups comings and goings. Often, I would see five or six of our friends drive by in their lowered, sport compact-style vehicles. They would be in a perfect line as they cut the corner (NASCAR style) all five inches from each other’s bumper. I don’t remember if they went to the dragstrip with those cars or not, but they did as they all progressed to their muscle cars. We all started to grow up, make more money, and spend more on toys. There were Novas, El Caminos, Firebirds, Chevelles, and Camaros to name a few. Even mopeds weren’t safe from the addition of nitrous and the need to go fast from Point A to Point B (yes, I did say nitrous on a moped).

Okay, so getting back to Gary’s ability to play on his toys these last few weeks; the first weekend after Houston, Gary went to Sand Mountain on his quad. It was Easter weekend, and that’s when it’s packed with enthusiastd. I didn’t go with him because he was only going for the day, and all he wanted to do was race people up Competition Hill, and see how much he gained by his improvements. He had a good time, and, in fact, a few racers came by and commented on what a great sleeper he had. That’s another of Gary’s specialties. He likes his vehicles to go fast but not necessarily look like they do.

The following weekend was a point’s race at Top Gun Raceway. This was the first time that Gary was taking his car to the track with the new motor in it. You may remember it was the motor that Hewes Performance helped him with. I went with him as we loaded up the camper and trailer to spend the weekend at the races.

Gary was very happy with his car’s performance as he raced the Quick 16 and qualified No. 6. Unfortunately, he was not quite as happy with his, as he red-lighted in the third round (see, he did teach me everything he knows). There was going to be another points race on Sunday, but as the rain and snow flurries began on Saturday night, we were pretty certain that the following days event would be postponed.

Gary wasn’t discouraged because he had his sights on a race in Central California in a few days. They would certainly have good weather there! He left on Wednesday, and returned this past Saturday. He was supposed to return today; however, the rain chased him back home. Today we will prepare for our three weeks on the road.

I had told you in a previous blog that this is the busy time for me at work, and it’s not going to stop with the upcoming back-to–back events. We will be traveling to Atlanta, then St. Louis for the NHRA events, then from there to Washington D.C., for a couple of days, over to Virginia Beach for a day and further south to North Carolina for the weekend. Gary and I will be back on the West Coast around the second week of May. Hopefully, the weather will be good for that points race, however, you never know if Nevada.

Well, that about wraps it up for this blog.