Melanie and I spent most of our unexpected weekend off working around the house. We got all of our patio furniture out of the attic and got the patio ready for a relaxing outside. We bought a few new plants and shrubs and planted them. We had an early spring in Indy, but also got a blast of cold air in April so some of the plants didn’t make it through that late frost. We also got to see Melanie’s baby birds she had been watching take their first flight from the nest.

Tuesday we went out to ORP to test a new chassis and get ready for Topeka. There were several teams out testing Tuesday. The track temperature was pretty high (133) so it was a little tough to get a hold of it. We ended up making five runs on Tuesday. Snake even flew in to watch, plus check on his new building he is putting up next to our shop. We finally made it to 300 feet on our last run before smoking the tires and that was after the track had cooled down a little. We made our last run about 7:15 and ORP has a Tuesday night street legal program so they got a little extra show. Jack Beckman made a run in their Top Fuel car and then us in the Funny Car so they got to see what real power was. We got the information we wanted so we decided not to test on Wednesday. The guys needed a break. They have worked like crazy and putting in five runs in one day wears them out.

Melanie played a lot of golf on Tuesday. She played in a USAC tournament Tuesday morning and then went and played 18 more holes at the Brickyard with Lyn St. James and friends. Snake and I went to dinner after testing and Melanie met up with us after her golf game. I think we finally made it home about 10:30 Tuesday night.

We got up Wednesday morning and headed down to the Brickyard Crossing to play in the Rollie golf tournament. Melanie played with the people from Tommy Bahama Rum Company and I played with Chad Head. This is a busy time for Chad with the 500 going on, but I had no idea how busy he was. I’ve never seen anyone’s phone ring so much in my life. He must have got close to 100 phone calls during our 18 holes. I hope he has a big-minute program on his cell phone. I really don’t know if the race would be able to go off without him. I was pretty happy with my golf game since I haven’t played since last year sometime. When you only lose two balls all day it is a good day. For me. that is. My foursome played good enough to get fourth place.

When we got home I took a shower and fell asleep for a couple of hours. I woke up for a little while and watch to see who won American Idol. Then it was back off to bed. I was beat from pace we had been on so far this week and it isn’t over yet. We are going to Carb Day at the speedway on Friday and then I am doing an autograph session for UST downtown on Friday night. They have several guests coming in for the 500 and are having a dinner for them Friday night. On Saturday we are going to the May Day concert here in Indy with our neighbors. Then on Sunday we are going to the race. We’ve never been home for the 500 so we thought since we are home this year we ought to go at least once. I don’t mind going to the race, it is just fighting the crowd of people that I am not looking forward to. Hopefully it doesn’t rain. We could use the rain since it has been so dry here, but not this Sunday.

I’m ready to get back to racing. I like my time off, but I get a little stir crazy when we don’t race for this long. I’m going to be ready to hit the road Wednesday for Topeka. I’m sure by the time Sonoma is over I’ll be begging for a little time off.

TJ