Hi to everyone from Jamie and Toni. Sorry to inform you that Jim has been running around like a crazy person so we decided we would just sit down and collectively write a new blog. Of course I (Toni) am typing while Jamie adds his ideas and puts together a rear end for this weekend’s race at Gainesville.

Let’s see, where did we last leave off? Oh yes, Jim was just getting home from Phoenix and I had just gotten back from Clemson visiting Jon. Well, I won’t bore you with stories about long hours at the shop and trying to play catch up because that is what everyone does when they get back from a race.

Jim, Jamie, and I actually had a chance to spend some time at home and I for one really enjoyed myself. I cleaned out closets, cleaned and rearranged our storage room and basement, collected a lot of “Goodwill stuff,” filled up seven trashcans of old junk, and even remembered to take the trash out. (Yes, I actually remembered what day trash pick-up was).

The weather was pretty cold at home so my snow mound on my front porch from the ice storms of a month ago was still alive and well. It has shrunk to a respectable 18 inches but I am beginning to believe it will be there long after spring arrives. We really thought the cold weather was going to give up but as you can see from the picture of our deck, Old Man Winter just wouldn’t give up. The snow only lasted a few days; long enough to delay schools and snarl D.C. traffic but it really wasn’t too bad.

After Jim got home from Phoenix Jamie had a pretty busy week at the shop so on Jamie’s first weekend off he and Cynthy enjoyed just hanging out at their house, having dinner with us a couple of times, and renting some of the latest movies at Blockbuster. He said he made out pretty well. He only had to watch one “chick flick” and the rest were the typical male action movies. What a weekend! Since Cynthy is busy working on her second masters degree as well as working full time they both really needed a weekend to just chill out.

Well, that was short lived as they had plans the following weekend to fly to New Hampshire to visit Cynthy’s family and spend time with their young nieces and nephew before the racing schedule got too hectic. They also had a chance to have a family spring birthday celebration (which included Jamie’s 30th, by the way – April 28th!). They had a great time, but unfortunately, Jamie had to leave on Sunday and fly to Bradenton so that we could test before coming to Gainesville.

While Jamie was visiting the Alsups in New Hampshire, Jim and I decided to visit my Dad for a day or so. We met him and Evelyn on Friday night for a great dinner at one of our favorite restaurants -- Outback Steakhouse -- and had an awesome time. Since he lives over an hour away, Jim and I decided to spend the night and then head to the shop early on Saturday morning. We still had to stock the trailer and then leave that afternoon to drive to Bradenton.

It is really very nice to be able to visit my Dad and just hang out talking and catching up on what has been going on. With our busy race schedule, we don’t get to spend as much time visiting my Dad as we would like so we really enjoy the time that we have. Many of you already know that my Dad is the Webmaster for our website so he really keeps up to date on what is going on in the world of racing. Besides, he has known Jim since the first time he went to a racetrack…need I say more!

Well, on Saturday morning, Jim and I left Dad’s and went to Sam's Club to stock up on supplies for the trailer. As you can see from my pictures, he had his GMC Denali loaded to the max. It is a good thing he has an XL or I don’t think all of the stuff would have fit! He told me that since he usually goes by himself he had not figured on my sitting in the front seat into the loading equation. I wonder what he really meant by that! Anyway, loading the stuff in the truck is one thing, but unloading and loading it back into the rig is yet another. It took us an hour or so, but we got it done and by 3 p.m. were in the rig heading for Bradenton.

Jim and I arrived Sunday, picked up Jamie at the airport, and by Monday morning, we had Bill Jenkins and Jake and we were ready to run down the track. We made about nine runs in two days (pretty light schedule for us) and really learned a lot so that equates to a great test session. Sometimes you can learn so much from a quality test session and it doesn’t mean you ran the fastest E.T. of your life. It just means you gathered some great data from the changes you made. So, with that, Jim, Jamie and I headed to Gainesville and Bill and Jake flew home to finish working on a new engine that they are very excited about.

We arrived at Gainesville Raceway at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday. We washed the rig, parked, set up the awning, and then Jim had to run over to Sea Ray at Merritt Island for the day. Sea Ray Boats has a huge plant at Merritt Island and we are very excited that Sea Ray will be the major sponsor on our GTO for this race. We are even more excited that more than 250 employees will be attending the race! Jim not only had to deliver the tickets, but he also had to meet with Wilson and Steve from Sea Ray and take a peek at our newly upgraded boat that will be ready for a test run the week after Gainesville. Fun times!

We are looking forward to a great Gainesville weekend – we have been bringing Jamie to this race since he was 5 years old (as a spectator) so he has a lot of fond memories of this track. Well, we will check in with you next week and let you know how our week of “spring break” with Jon is going! Happy St. Patrick’s Day!