In six days we'll be qualifying at the Auto Club Finals in Pomona. In nine days we'll be racing, sorting out the year's last winners with our final eliminations ladder of 2009. On Monday, we'll all gather at the Century Plaza Hyatt where we'll get to dress up and shock each other with how we appear when we get all cleaned-up and purdy lookin'...

Then... Boom! It's over and the 2009 Full Throttle season will be relegated to the memory banks and history books, just like 2008 when Tim lost the championship on the final day. Just like 2006 when my former boss (and still great friend) Del Worsham did his double-flip/ half-gainer in the tuck position after plowing into the Pomona sand trap at a high rate of speed. Just like 2005 when we "doubled-up" at Indy and all got beautiful Wally trophies, a chance to hold the briefcase full of money, and nice bonus checks. Just like 1999 when I got to jump around and go hoarse after the first win I was officially part of, in Seattle. Just like 1991, when I entered this sport as the GM at Heartland Park. Not only does time fly, in the long run, but it absolutely screams by in the "here and now" as well. I simply can't believe 2009 is about to be over.

About a year ago, I flew down to Springfield, Ill. to meet Tim for lunch. If I was going to work for the guy, after 12 years with Del, I wasn't going to agree to do it over the phone, so I hopped on the little NWA Saab turbo-prop and flew to Peoria, then drove down to the shop and we went to lunch at Panera Bread, across the street. At the end of lunch, we shook hands and I entered a whole new phase of my professional and personal life.

10 months ago, I flew to West Palm Beach to meet up with my new team for pre-season testing. Of course, I missed my Delta connection in Atlanta and had to spend the night there, but what the heck (just a sad sign of things to come...) John Fink came over to West Palm that weekend, too, from his winter-time condo in Fort Myers, and it was at that time he decided to come along for this wonderful ride with me. Up until then, while we all tried to absorb the harsh fact that Worsham Racing and Team CSK were no more, John wasn't sure what he wanted to do, or even if he still wanted to be involved. After that weekend with Tim and the team, he signed up for more of this stuff, and that made me very happy. I think it's made John really happy, too, and that's what's important.

Exactly 273 days ago, we finally got to do some qualifying at the Winternationals, but a big black cloud formed over the race track and washed out the final session. We'd also been rained upon both Thursday and Friday, so that first session on Saturday was all we got. We were 17th after that session, and therefore started the season with a stunning DNQ. I could only hope it wasn't me...

Throughout this year I've come to know all of the men and women who make up this team. John, Dave, Annette, and I have gone from being "the new guys" to being a real part of this, real teammates, and this is now our home in every way. Annette, of course, had a jump on us, being married to Rich. She may have been working over at Schumacher's for the last few years, but she always stayed with Rich at the Team Wilk hotel and rode with our guys to the track each day. For John, Dave, and myself, this was the first time we'd ever done much more than say hi to these guys in the staging lanes.

As I look forward to next week, and the end of this season, I can only say it's been a marvelous experience. Getting to know Tim so much better, having the sheer joy of becoming real friends with Krista, and just really feeling like we're all one group now, has been beyond rewarding. It's been everything I possibly could have hoped for, and more. Winning a couple of races didn't stink, either!

All of these things I've just written are the reason why John, Dave, Annette, and I are taking the whole team out to dinner on Friday night. It's our way of saying "Thanks for letting us be a part of this" and we all look forward to doing it again in 2010. I just still can't believe the season is about to be over.

In preparation for Pomona, I did go to Bing.com to take a few "birds eye" aerial views of the track, and I discovered one fascinating thing. As I've mentioned before, when you zoom in on Bing and look at something, you can spin around and see it from four different angles. When you do that with Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, you see it not only from four different angles, but from different times in its history as well. Some of the views show the new suites atop the main grandstand, and some don't. The pic I'm including in the photo gallery today not only shows the suites, but you can tell that it was taken in either 2007 or 2008 just a couple of days prior to the Winternationals. How can I narrow it down that far? Well, the suites are there, and the Carquest logo is behind the starting line, so that narrows it down to the Winternationals in those two years. Then, you can see the big "Top Eliminator Club" tent is up, and you can see that the track has no rubber on it, but the actual device they use to put rubber on the track is out there, getting started with the track prep. I don't know if it's '07 or '08, but it's just a couple of days before one of those two Winternationals races.

I mentioned the other day that my two immediate big projects, as soon as the season does actually conclude, will be my 2009 "Year In Review" book, where I recap the whole season in one tidy publication, as well as a complete documentation of the publicity highlights we generated throughout the year. I believe I recently blogged something along the lines of "If a guy was smart, he'd start working on this stuff now..." but then alluded to the fact I've never been that smart before, so why would I expect to be that intelligent this year? Well, maybe I'm not only older but also wiser.

I spent almost all of yesterday diving into the deep end. For the publicity stuff, I have been collecting that all year, so it's really just a matter of creating a cover for the binder, making copies, and sorting it into four different sections. The first section is "Major Feature Stories" and it will be full of copies of all of those exact things. Anything that appeared on-line or in-print that wasn't one of my pre-event or post-event stories, goes in there.

The second section is full of all of those pre-event and post-event stories, all written in support of each race. Those appear in multiple places on the Web, but it seemed a bit self-serving and ambitious to include copies of all the various incarnations of each one, so I just kept copies of the NHRA.com versions.

Section 3 includes all the daily updates I send out after qualifying each day. Again, those pop up at multiple sites, but I'm only going to include one version of each. The object is not to "pad the book" but to just show the work.

Finally, the last section will simply be a recap of our social networking efforts this year. No, I'm not going to include copies of every Facebook post or every Twitter "tweet" we generated, but we'll make it clear that this new tool has been effectively used by Team Wilk, on behalf of Levi, Ray & Shoup, throughout the season.

Then, on December 16, when Annette and I fly back down to Springfield to meet with LRS, these binders will be plopped on the conference room table, and I can only hope they make a big enough "thud" when they land. Maybe I'll use a heavier stock of paper, since I'm not going to pad the book with multiple versions of each story. Nah, I don't think we have to do that. Frankly, this is the first time I've ever compiled all of my work for a year, and it's apparent I've had a lot of good stories and people to work with. The best PR guy in the world can't generate much publicity if the stories and the people aren't worthy of the coverage.

I think the thing I'm happiest about is that the first section, with all the major features, is the biggest section in the book. Section 2 is a set deal, because I write two major stories for each race (one before, and one after) and those are automatic. I know I have 48 of those in the bank. I write and "pitch" many of the feature stories, but a goodly number are simply the result of getting a reporter interested and then letting him or her carry the ball. They're all things I work hard on, and do my best to get planted somewhere, but in the end an editor somewhere has to think "Yeah, I want to run this story" and I can't control that. Like I said, Tim and this team give me a LOT to work with, and I've had a ton of great stories to tell this year.

Today, once I'm done with this blog I'm going to get back to work on those two projects, and then head back over to Target Center tonight, to watch the Wolves play the Milwaukee Bucks. If you saw the score from the other night, against the Celtics, you may have seen that the Wolves did lose, as expected. What you also might have seen was that the score was 92-90, and they even had the last shot with a second to play. The Celtics are one of the best teams in all of basketball, but our young guys really battled them and never gave up. For a losing effort, it was one of the most exciting and gratifying games I've ever watched. If they can take all the good things they did in that game, and keep doing all of that, they're going to eventually turn into a fun and talented team. I'll give 'em this, they work their tails off. If you're simply not as talented as the opposition, the only chance you have is to outwork them, especially on defense. It's not easy to keep that work rate up, night after night in the NBA, but so far they're impressing the heck out of me.

I just took a break to talk with Barb on the phone. She's on a plane ready to leave Frankfurt for London. So far, she was in New York for two days as part of a big analyst meeting her company hosted, and that deal was webcast "live" so I got to watch her introduce Lawson's CEO, Harry Debes, right here on my computer. Pretty neat to watch your wife stand at the podium in front of a room full of Wall Street analysts and experts. Can you tell I'm proud of her???

Then they flew to Milan, Italy on Tuesday night, and had meetings there all day yesterday before flying up to Frankfurt. Same routine today, having meetings throughout the day in Germany before getting on her current flight, up to London. She and Harry have two free days in London, and have some plans (other than just catching up on sleep). Harry has a niece in London, so they're all going to the theater on Saturday afternoon. Then, on Sunday there's a small chance they'll get to experience one of those things you simply have to do if you ever get the opportunity...

Before the trip, Barbara and I were talking about what she might be able to do in London this weekend, and then next Saturday when she takes another free day in Edinburgh. One of my ideas was for her to find an English Premier League soccer game to attend, but she didn't seem that jazzed about that concept. Well, when Harry found out that Manchester United was playing Chelsea on Sunday, he immediately started the gears turning to see if there's any way they can get good tickets. Man U and Chelsea is like Yankees vs. Red Sox, but even bigger. I'd love to experience that! I hope they get to go... Once Monday rolls around for her, Barb still has Amsterdam, The Hague, Zurich, Geneva, and Edinburgh left on her travel agenda. It's no wonder she just asked me, on the phone, "Is today Friday?"

It is Friday and it's a beautiful day here, especially for November, but tomorrow is supposed to be even nicer so that's my day to pinch- hit for my wife, who is usually in charge of the pruning, chopping, cutting, and general gardening that needs to get down before Old Man Winter bears down on us. I always help her, but she's the one with the knowledge of what to cut, where to cut it, and how much to leave behind, and I just follow the instructions she gives me each fall. This time I'm going to have to do it all... I've been studying on- line, believe me. Just Google "Hydrangea pruning" and you'll be on some of the same sites I've been visiting...

Okay, enough of this rambling. I gotta get back to work. I'm enjoying this new-found sense of intelligence, getting started on all this post-season stuff before it's even the post-season. That will be here before you know it.

Have a great weekend!

Wilber, out!