What a crazy few weeks we have had here at Jim Yates Racing. Between driving, flying, working, and racing there haven’t been many free hours left in the day. After a great race in Vegas, a few days at the SEMA show, and an exciting time in Pomona, our 2009 racing season has finally come to an end. Jim, once again is in the rig making the long drive back across the country. On his way, he has to make a stop in Sioux City, Iowa, to get the truck worked on and then stop in Detroit to drop off the race engines to Dart Machinery. He is hoping that if all goes well he will be able to make it home by the weekend.

In the meantime, Jon and I are sitting in our first class seats on our Southwest flight (hey we were in the A group!) just passing over Phoenix and are scheduled to arrive in Baltimore in about five hours. OK, I’ll admit, I do feel just a little bit guilty so I figured that I would help Jim out and catch up on our blog writing. Not that driving 3,000 miles is equal to writing a blog, but it is the best I can do at the present time!

I’m sure that most of you have been following the last couple of races, so I won’t spend a lot of time giving you a race-by-race commentary. I will say, however, that we had a great time, and Ryan got to experience a lot of firsts on his trip west. He made his first ever trip to Vegas and got to enjoy the sights, sounds, and excitement that go with the city that never sleeps. He was able to participate in his first NHRA Fanfest on Fremont Street and have the opportunity to meet and greet hundreds of racing fans as well as enjoy the awesome light show that NHRA put on. He raced and qualified at his first trip to The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which is one of the finest racing facilities in the country, and he even had time to take his first trip to see the amazing Hoover Dam. We were hoping that he would get to experience his first race win, but unfortunately, that had to wait for another trip.

After the race, Jim and I spent a couple of days at the SEMA show, flew home for the weekend, and then back out to Vegas to pick up the rig and drive to Pomona. It turned out to be a fantastic weekend in Pomona with perfect weather, fast e.t.s and lots of excitement for everyone. If you have been following you know that the final champions in Pro Stock Motorcycle and Top Fuel were not crowned until after the semifinal round of eliminations. How exciting was that?! I do want to take a minute and congratulate Mike Edwards and his entire team for winning their first Pro Stock championship. What a feeling it is to finally win that first championship, and I can't think of a team that is more deserving. Great job guys!

Though Ryan had been to the LA area before, this was the first time that he had ever been to or raced at the Fairplex. The guys at Dart had been working on a new engine and had it ready for us to run this past weekend. Jon had the car set up perfectly, Ryan did a great job driving, and we were very pleased with our results. The Sunglass Machine ran faster every run and we were qualifying in the ninth position all weekend. Well, that was before the last qualifying session.

The session had already proven to be faster, and we couldn’t wait to get our pass down the track. The last thing that Jon does before I give Ryan the signal to stage is check the wheelie bar height. For those of you that don’t know it, this step is very critical because the wheelie bars determine whether or not the car goes straight off of the line. Well, Jon reached down to check the wheelie bar, looked up at me with a look of disbelief and gave me the signal to shut Ryan off. Are you kidding me?! Jon shook his head again, motioned again to shut off, and stood up holding the right wheelie bar in his hand… oh boy, this was not where the wheelie bar needed to be to make the car go straight.

So, we pushed Ryan off of the starting line without making our run. Luckily, we only dropped to 12th in our qualifying position but were still disappointed that we didn’t get to make our final run and perhaps bump up into the top half of the field. Unfortunately, no top half of the field, no lane choice first round, and once again Ryan found himself just 13-thousandths of a second shy of a round-win. It was still a great weekend, and we were very excited about the performance of our new engine. I think that Richard wants to work on it a little more and then perhaps go for an early December test session in Florida. That sounds good to me!

Well, as Jon and I are passing over New Mexico, Jim is probably on I-15 almost to Vegas on route east. I heard him mention something about making it to Salt Lake City tonight, but I’m not sure if he will actually make it that far. I told him to just take his time, but you know how those guys are once they start counting mile markers.

This is the first time in several years that Jim doesn’t have to be home in time for his annual trip to Kuwait and Germany, and I know that he is very disappointed that he and all of his GM teammates will not be going to visit the troops this year. That trip has always been the highlight of Jim’s year as it gave him the opportunity to show his gratitude and support to the thousands of men and women who are risking their lives, every day, for the good of our country.

My battery meter just blinked at me to let me know that I can’t play with my computer much longer, so I will wrap up this blog and try to get it sent as soon as I land this evening. I have to admit that I am looking forward to getting home so that I can get things ready for our Thanksgiving family dinner. The holidays are my favorite time of the year, and I can’t wait to get them started! I’ll make sure that Jim checks in when he gets back into town!

I really thought that I was doing a good job in keeping current on my blog writing until I realized that it has been a few weeks since my last post. I guess time flies when you are having fun.

As I explained in my previous blog, prior to the Richmond event, we spent a few days testing at Budds Creek, Md., racing in the MIR Pro Stock Open and then it was on to Richmond where the weather was cool and the ETs and speeds were record-setting. Ryan did a great job qualifying in the 13th position and recorded his quickest ET at a 6.605. Since the track is only about two hours from our shop we were treated to the company of lots of family and friends and everyone had a great time.

We weren't sure what our racing schedule was going to be for the remainder of the year but we are happy to report that Ryan will be driving the Sunglass Machine at both the Vegas and the Pomona races and we are all very excited about that. Ryan has never been to Vegas or Pomona so he is in for a real treat. There is no better way to wind down your first year in Pro Stock than Halloween weekend in Vegas and the World Finals in beautiful, sunny Pomona, Calif. Notice that I used the word "sunny"! We are very much counting on that part.

As you can imagine, with only a week before I have to leave with the rig, we have all been very busy making the final preparations for our last two races. Jon has been working, nonstop, on our GXP, Toni has been finalizing all of the travel plans for the team, I have been getting the rig ready to make the trip west and Ryan will be honing his driving skills racing his Sportsman cars at Maple Grove this weekend. Go get them, Ryan!

By the time we get to the end of our racing season, most drivers dread the long trip west, but I must admit, I really enjoy the drive this time of year. The weather is usually cool, the leaves are changing and the landscape is beautiful. I plan on leaving on Sunday, right after Ryan's first birthday party, go by Richard's shop to pick up the engines and then head to Vegas. My plan is to drive 2,600 trouble-free miles and arrive in Vegas on Wednesday morning. We will get set up and then Ryan and I will attend the NHRA Fanfest which will be held on Thursday evening right in the middle of Freemont Street. If you are in town for the race, you have to come and see the amazing event that NHRA puts on for the fans. It is absolutely incredible and a lot of fun too!

Did you notice that I mentioned that Ryan was having his first birthday party? I can't believe that it has already been a year. For those of you that told me that a grandbaby would change your life forever, I am here to say that you were 100 percent correct! That little guy is such a blessing and it is so much fun to watch him grow and change day to day. All you grandparents out there know exactly what I am talking about! Anyway, Jamie and Cynthy will be having a small family get together this weekend to celebrate his first year. I can't wait!

Speaking of birthdays, prior to the Richmond race, my baby brother Jason turned 50 and his wife Loren and their son Jason Jr. surprised him with a grand birthday celebration at the W Hotel in Washington D.C. It was awesome. There was a cocktail party on the top floor terrace which just happened to overlook the White House, then, there was dinner, dancing and socializing until the wee hours of the morning. Of course my entire family was there as well as many old and new friends. Everyone had a great time and I am sure that my brother Jason will always cherish the memories of a perfect 50th birthday celebration. Hey, I can't wait until he turns 60! That's a memorable birthday too, right? I'll have to talk to my sister-in-law about that. LOL

As you can see, we have had a lot of fun things going on in the Yates family lately. It has been really nice having an extra weekend off between races. Besides attending birthday parties, I have had time to work on and wash my boat, work on my yard and even monitor my new bird feeder. I am happy to report that we FINALLY have birds and a squirrel that visit every day! How cool is that? Since the bird feeder is "squirrel proof" I don't have to worry about them getting into the feeder, but I'm still having a blast watching all the birds. See what happens when a pro stock racer stays out of the race car too long?

Well, speaking of Pro Stock racing, I am going to wrap up this blog and get back to my unanswered phone calls that have been stacking up on my desk since I have been writing. Jon says that we are right on schedule as far as getting everything ready and loaded up by Friday so I better do my part and find him some parts that he needs! We are so excited to be racing with Ryan in Vegas – you never know, this just may be where his luck changes and he wins his first race. Viva Las Vegas Baby!
 

Hi everyone! I just got back to the shop yesterday, unloaded, unpacked, cleaned and am ready to start getting everything ready for our next race. Unfortunately, we will not be attending the race in Dallas or Memphis but we are very excited about Ryan racing the Sunglass Machine at Richmond. Since Richmond is only about two hours from our shop, we expect to have lots of friends, fans and family in attendance.

For those of you that watched the coverage on ESPN2 you know that the race in Concord was amazing. How about the four side-by-side Top Fuel and Funny Car passes? That was really something to see. We couldn’t get a very good picture of those passes so you will have to go to the NHRA website and check out the great pictures that are posted. I know I'm probably dating myself, but I remember back in the day when we used to watch the cars run four wide at Budd's Creek. We were hoping that NHRA would run four Pro Stock cars but for some reason they decided not to. Maybe next time! 

We had a great time in Concord this past weekend. Besides being in a fantastic facility we were treated to lots of family, friends and sponsors. Myles Freeman from Wiley X and a couple of his friends traveled all the way from California to spend the weekend with us and I know that they had a great time. What better way is there to spend your weekend than watching Ryan qualify the Sunglass Machine? OK, I guess watching Ryan put the Sunglass Machine in the winner's circle would be a little better; we are confident that with his driving skills it won't take him too long to accomplish that!

Besides some great racing, the event in Concord gave us an opportunity to catch up with family as well. Toni's dad, Don, was in the area visiting his brother so they decided to come to the race on Sunday. I know that Don hasn't been to the track in years and Toni's Uncle Ed had never been to an NHRA event. They certainly weren't disappointed with what this facility had to offer and everyone had a great time.

Speaking of having a great time, Toni and I decided to take an extra day and, while on the way home, stopped by the race shop of Richard Childress. Melissa's friend, Chris, works on the #07 car driven by Casey Mears, and he gave us a private tour of the entire facility. All I can say is, "Wow!" It was absolutely amazing! Everyone there was so nice; many of them had attended the race, and most of them follow NHRA Pro Stock. I could have spent a week there just talking to all of the employees and admiring all of the technology that goes into an operation of that size. Hey, I offered to unload the Sunglass Machine (which was parked in the parking lot) so they could look it over and offer up some speed secrets! OK, so they were a little busy with their cars – I get it.

We didn't leave the facility until they were turning out the lights and locking the doors. I really appreciate Chris taking time out of his busy day to give us a tour and answer a million of my questions. I know that after a Sunday race, all of those guys have a lot to do to get ready for the next weekend and every one of them took the time to talk to us and answer all of our questions. I have to say, that after spending a day in such a premier racing facility, it was a little depressing to come back to my little shop. 

Since we won't be traveling for the next couple of weeks Jon and I are looking forward to having the time to fine tune our GXP to get it ready for Richmond and Richard Maskin, Craig, and the other guys at Dart are working really hard to find us some more horsepower. Prior to the Richmond event, we will spend two days testing and then race in the U.S. Pro Stock Open at Budd's Creek, Md. The Pro Stock Open will be held on Wednesday, Oct.7 and the Pro qualifying starts at 7:30 p.m.

Believe it or not this is the event where I debuted my first Pro Stock car back in 1988! I can still remember the butterflies I had when I rolled my Ford Thunderbird into the water at my home town track in front of all of my bracket racing competitors. It all looked so easy when the car was sitting in the garage – it was sure a different story when I pulled to the starting line and let the clutch out for the first time. Of course, I don't think that the car went 60 feet for the first few hits and I was so frustrated. I remember coming back to the trailer, sitting in the lounge and I said to Toni, "I'm not sure if I can do this." She looked me straight in the eye and I will never forget what she said.

She said, "Jim now is a great time for you to decide that you can't drive this Pro Stock car. We didn't spend all this time and all this money for you to doubt yourself now! Now you need to get back out there, get your butt back in that race car and drive it to the finish line just like you know how to do!"

What could I say to that? She was right. (Well, she might have been right just that one time! LOL)  Was I going to prove to everyone at my home track that I couldn't handle this car? Well, I went back out there, strapped myself in my new Pro Stock car, did a pretty nice burnout, drove it to the finish line and qualified in the top half of the field. I made six runs that night between 7.47 and 7.51 and then ran 7.50 in the final against the reigning world champion, "Tricky Rickie" Smith. That's right, my very first race in Pro Stock and I went to the final.

As they say, the rest was history. I was on the top of the world that night and I was hooked for good. My good friend Carlton Phillips (who also raced Pro Stock at the time) came over to congratulate me on my runner-up finish. I was so excited to have gone to the final and on top of that had won $1,000. Carlton just laughed at me and said, "You might have won $1,000 but you just cost yourself about $500,000!" Now what in the world did he mean by that? I didn't quite catch the meaning then, but I sure have come to realize what he was saying now. Looking back, I think he misplaced his decimal point!

Well, enough of my reminiscing. If you are on your way to the Richmond event and have some free time on Wednesday evening, stop by Budds Creek and watch some great drag racing. Things have come a long way for me since that first Pro Stock Open in 1988, but I always look forward to putting on a show for my home town fans at my home town track; and yes, even now, I occasionally feel those butterflies when I pull into that same water box.
 

Remember in my last blog that I talked about all of the "extra" things that we always wished for while racing Pro Stock? Well, I didn't realize how true those words would come to be. If you followed our progress while in Indy last week you would know that if we had just had an extra thousandth of a second Ryan would have advanced to his first semifinal round! Don't get me wrong, we were very excited to have qualified in the top half of the field and then to make it even better, Ryan scored his first round win - it was an awesome weekend. 

I have always compared Indy to a marathon. By the time we have gotten to the track early for setup, completed five qualifying runs and then added an extra day for racing most of us have been at the track for a week or more. Throw in some rain and delayed qualifying sessions and that makes the week seem even longer. But even with long days, we still found time to have some fun and fellowship with our good friend Cliff Moberg from Moldstar. 

After Sunday's qualifying sessions we serviced our Sunglass Machine and got it race ready for Monday. We then headed over to the Raceview campground where Cliff and his son Scott had grilled steak and Australian lobster tails waiting for us.  All I can say is Wow! Dinner was absolutely amazing!

While we were relaxing and enjoying each other's company, someone in the campground started playing live music so we all walked over to check out the entertainment. As it ended up we had a great time mingling with the fans while we stood and listened to some great music. What a fun evening it was for all!

We left Indy on Monday evening very happy with our weekend. Ryan did another great job driving the Sunglass Machine, the guys from Dart had picked up the performance in the engines, and Jon made some awesome calls with the gear ratios and clutch. Me, I just stood around and relaxed! Right! Believe that one and I'll tell you some more!  LOL

Though racing is my main focus during the racing season, I've really learned to appreciate my weekends at home. Of course the first thing on my list of things to do is visit little Ryan. He is growing up so fast and is almost ready to walk. Don't get me wrong, he can crawl faster than most of us can walk so he doesn’t have any trouble racing around the house with me. He is such a little blessing and I love every minute that I get to spend with him.

We did spend some time working on the boat this weekend but didn't really have the opportunity to take it anywhere. With the boat docked behind the house, we have to be more mindful of high and low tides. I don't want to take a chance of "dinging" the props so I usually like to go in and out on high tide. Sometimes the time of high tide just doesn’t fit into my schedule; like 5:00 a.m, so we elected to keep it tied at the dock and work around the house instead.

I did finally get a chance to hang up my new bird feeder that my father-in-law, Don gave me for my birthday. This is something new for us, we have never been home long enough to see the birds let alone feed them! Anyway, Toni went out and bought a big bag of sunflower seeds (as recommended by Don); I hung the feeder and waited to see the birds flock to it. Well, I am still waiting; so far, there have been no birds visiting our feeder. I told Toni that I was going to put it in the middle of the yard and each day move it closer to the deck. By the time we leave for Charlotte, I will have the birds right where I want them. She only looked at me and rolled her eyes. Hey, I thought it sounded like a great idea!

Anyway, Don assures me that if I am patient enough, the birds will soon find their new food source and be visiting it regularly. Unfortunately, as many of you know, patience isn't really one of my biggest attributes! I will admit that I have scattered seeds all over the deck in an attempt to lead them to the new feeder. I'll let you know if it worked!

We are leaving early tomorrow for Charlotte and right now Jamie and Jon are busy getting everything loaded up. Jamie came down to the shop today in between his morning and afternoon classes at Maryland and it is such a big help to all of us when Jamie is around. Well, it sounds like they are getting close to loading our Sunglass Machine so I will wrap up this blog and head back downstairs. I'll keep you posted on my bird sightings as it happens! If you have any suggestions, just let me know!