I am at Atlanta Dragway and have just returned from a meeting with the Dean of Mechanical Engineering at Clemson University (Don’t worry, Jon hasn’t done anything wrong, at least nothing the Dean knows about). Actually Jon and I had a meeting to discuss some available opportunities for Clemson’s engineering department and our NHRA Pro Stock program. With the ever-expanding field of motorsports engineering you can only imagine how far engineering technology has progressed since I graduated from the University of Maryland.

While waiting for Jon to finish class, I had the opportunity to walk around this beautiful campus. Kids were walking from building to building, some were jogging, some were resting on the lawn, many were on cell phones and others were running to catch the next CAT bus. Most of them were happy and laughing and probably didn’t realize they were having the best time of their young lives.

I looked around and realized that the scene was probably very much like this just moments before the terror unfolded on the campus of Virginia Tech last week. Since I was driving the rig home from the race in Las Vegas at the time the news broke, I had a lot of time to think about the consequences of such a senseless and horrible act. Besides Jon attending Clemson, I have two nephews attending the University of Virginia and the realization this could have happened on any college campus almost made me ill. Today, I felt very blessed to be meeting my college student for a meeting, but there are 32 families, from all over the country, whose lives have changed forever. I can only keep them in my prayers and hope that God’s grace will eventually give them peace.

It was a long drive home but I finally made it to the shop Thursday morning. We unloaded the racecar, unloaded engines to be sent back to Jenkins Competition, and went about our normal routine of cleaning out the trailer. Thank goodness I had Jamie and Terry in the shop because I was a lot more tired than what I thought I was. Anyway, it was great to be home and I was looking forward to spending a nice weekend at home with my entire family. Toni had planned a birthday party for her Dad and Jamie on Saturday and everyone was coming over for a “beach party” cookout.

Jamie’s 30th birthday is April 28 and Toni’s Dad Don's birthday is April 21 so Toni planned a family cookout with a beach party theme complete with leis, sand buckets, paper lanterns, and beach balls. We had family, friends and neighbors in attendance – Jon and his girlfriend Allie came home, as did Melissa. I think everyone had a wonderful time as nobody left before 2 a.m. Even Don didn’t go to bed until the house was empty of partiers.

Jon and Allie had to leave Sunday morning to drive the eight-hour trip back to Clemson as they had early Monday morning classes and Melissa left Sunday afternoon to travel the five hours back to New Bern, N.C. It meant a lot to Jamie that his brother and sister both came home for his special day.

Speaking of Jamie’s special day, even though we had a party for him last weekend, we will still try to make his actual birthday a special one. Sometimes, when we are in the heat of battle at the racetrack that task can prove to be a little challenging. Of course, it sure makes the mood a little more festive when we are running well and solidly qualified in the field, so our plan right now is to make sure that Jamie has a great birthday weekend.

Before driving here to Atlanta we spent a couple of days testing at MIR in Budd’s Creek, Maryland, and had one of the best test sessions we have had in a long time. Even though we have been qualifying well, we have been frustrated with our performance in the first 330 feet of the racetrack. Bill Jenkins has found a lot of horsepower this year but Jamie and I feel we haven’t been doing a good job of getting that horsepower to the track. So, we spent two days testing at MIR.

Dave Northrop of ISC Racers Tape fame brought our old GTO down to join in the fun. Dave and his family purchased the GTO we used last year and will be leasing a Bill Jenkins engine for about 10 of the next 17 races. We each made runs, compared information, tweaked our GTOs, and shared ideas between the two teams. I could not have been any happier with the results. It really helped us by working closely with another first-class Pro Stock team, and I can see why the multi-car teams have an advantage in our sport. Based on the results of the test session and the chemistry between the two teams, I am really looking forward to racing here in Atlanta.

Well, I guess I best get this long overdue blog sent out to cyber land. I will try to be a little more diligent in keeping up with my blogs in the future. I want to say thanks to everyone for checking in with us each week and I really enjoy reading all of your comments that you post on my website. I’ll check in with you soon!