Going back over the many years, my first "banquet" (to be technical, I think a "banquet" includes a sit-down dinner, so many of our ceremonies have just been "shows," but everyone still calls it "the banquet") was in 1992, when I attended with Chuck Etchells and his crew (my first PR/management job with a team) and back then the banquet was held at the old Red Lion Hotel, by the Ontario Airport. I don't remember a lot other than it lasted a really long time, and the top three points finishers in each Pro class got to make a speech. I had to look it up to be sure, but Cruz Pedregon won the FC championship that year, and John Force came in second. What most people probably don't remember is that Al Hofmann finished third and therefore got to speak. He went to the podium first, and let's just say it was vintage Al because his "speech" was more of a rambling monologue about anything that was chapping his hide at the time. Nary a "thank you" or a sponsor mention included. We were, as a group at our table, alternating between laughing out loud and peeking between our fingers. After they made Al Hofmann, they broke the mold.

I recall the fact that Force came up next, and it was as if Robin Williams had just followed Andy Rooney to the stage. His "speech" was a maniacal out-of-control comedy act, full of veering tangents in a stream of consciousness, and at some point, we were all reaching for our napkins to dab away the tears running down our cheeks. Frankly, I'd never seen anything like it. I actually felt a bit sorry for Cruz, who had to follow that act, although I think they also had a hard time getting Force to stop.

Since then, we've had a wide variety of ceremonies, at places like the Cerritos Performing Arts Center, Universal Studios, and the Kodak Theater. Throughout most of those years, the CSK team would rent a huge limo and "commute" to the show, and despite the fact the car was fully stocked with any adult beverage you could think of, I recall all of us having some fun on the way there but then being sound asleep for the whole ride back. By Monday night, at the end of the season, there ain't much fuel left in the party tank...

Also, throughout those years, the banquet was more often a marathon of uncomfortable speeches, boring presentations, and lame skits or musical entertainment. My gosh, it seemed like they let anyone with an index card in his hand get up there and ramble on for 15 minutes. Sometimes the skits were funny (they did a video parody of "The Sopranos" one year, which included the Snake in a starring role, and that really was very humorous), but mostly they were groaners, followed by yet another executive with no public speaking expertise, stepping to the microphone to drone on for a quarter-hour about the history of his involvement with the sport, in a sort of "I started out as a child..." fashion. It was, quite often, a night of agony that would stretch on until we'd all taken four bathroom breaks and basically couldn't stand another minute of it.

Fortunately, this year's banquet was a concise, well-run breeze. We gathered in the lower level of the Hyatt for a reception first (although there were no signs pointing you down the escalators, so about half the group simply gathered in the lobby), and that hour was spent circulating, admiring each other's formal wear and congratulating each other on another successful year. There was also much talk of brief vacations or other off-season plans. Once the lights flashed, we all headed into the beautiful ballroom and found our tables. We were seated at A-22, at the back of the main lower level and right in the middle, and the Tasca team was next to us, although they needed three extra seats so Bob's mom and dad sat with us, along with my PR colleague Susan Pollack.

Almost immediately, the "sorry if you wanted rubber chicken because you have to take this filet mignon" dinner was brought out, and we all immediately made it obvious that we were hungry. Not a lot of talking going on when you wolfing down dinner and grabbing dinner rolls. As planned, I sat between Krista Wilkerson and my best buddy Rachel, who (as previously noted in the Wednesday blog) looked simply marvelous.

All during dinner, a slide show was showing on the big screens throughout the room, and I had been warned by ND photographer Jerry Foss that I was in it. As soon as he said that, I knew the photo he was talking about... Yup, I think we were in Phoenix when he walked right up to me and stuck the lens in my face, at which point I did what any insanely handsome man would do: I crossed my eyes. My mother would be so proud, but I'm living proof that they don't get stuck that way. Sure enough, about halfway through the slide show (which was on a continuous loop and therefore ran about 20 times during dinner) a 12-foot high version of me appeared, eyes firmly focused on the tip of my nose. Ah, my 15 minutes of fame!

About the fourth time it appeared, Tim turned to anyone near our table and said "There's our guy. We actually pay him..."

Once dinner was done, the esteemed Mr. Frey took the stage, and one of the first items was a nice season recap video, with all sorts of highlights from 2009 and a lot of great people shots. One of those included Neighbor Dave and I doing our "slap, slap, bump, explode" fist-bump behind the car, after which I turn to the ESPN camera, point at either Nelly or Dana (no clue which one of them shot the scene) and did a fist bump with him. Tack on another eight seconds to my 15 minutes of fame...

From that point on, the show moved quite briskly, with each of the four Pro classes being introduced. If you've never seen it, the methodology is for points finishers 2 through 10 to come out as a group, and then each driver is introduced with a very short video. They get to step forward and wave, and then it's on to the next one. Finally, the champ is introduced solo, and he or she gets to come out and make a speech.

For the record, Hector Arana's speech was from the heart and totally unrehearsed. So unrehearsed, he forgot a few people and actually asked Frey if he could make amends for that after he was done. From that point forward, throughout the night, Bob kept looking at Hector in the audience, saying "Anything else you need to add, Hector? Are we good? Forget anyone else?"

Mike Edwards' speech was about as motivational as you can get, full of meaningful messages. Robert Hight had the foresight to bring his whole crew up on stage with him, and his speech was also well- delivered. He only had a little emotional trouble when it came time to thank Force, his boss, mentor, and father-in-law. Finally, Tony Schumacher came to the stage, and frankly you'd think this would be old hat for him. He actually pointed at Robert and said "I can't believe you thought to do that and I didn't" about having the crew on stage, and then he calmly and seriously spoke of Fort Hood and how he was going to take his Wally down there for the grieving families. The Sarge did a great job.

{GALLERY_wb1120}In between classes, there were other awards to give out, including Spencer Massey's rookie of the year trophy, and a few key speeches from Tom Compton and the Coca-Cola folks. All in all, we were dressed up for about three and a half hours, then let all the youngsters kick up their heels at the after-party. Dave and I headed straight to our rooms, and I can tell you with no exaggeration that I then attempted to check my e-mail and caught myself nodding off at the desk in my room. Straight to bed it was...

I did have some time to kill in the morning, before my 3:20 flight out of LAX, so I took the rental car over to Santa Monica, then over through Brentwood and Westwood, down the El Segundo, and then finally to the airport.

Now... It's Friday and Dave just called with some marketing assignments we have to tackle RIGHT NOW, so I have to wrap this up and get to work. Enjoy the photos, enjoy the weekend, and maybe send a few positive vibes to our struggling hockey team. The Wild play the New York Islanders tonight, and we'll be there in our Row 2 seats, hoping they pick up the pace and look a little better than they have so far this season.

See you soon,

Wilber, out!

For the record, I slept late. My excuse was that my body was still on Pacific Time, but the truth is my body was still on the "really, really, tired" setting, and I just needed to recharge. Even on Sunday night and Monday night, out there, it was all still "on" and the sleep was never up to what I was looking for in either quantity or quality. Once I got home last night, and then joined both cats and my wife on the sofa to watch a little "Dancing With The Stars" it was off to bed and some total relaxation.

I spent a short morning (they are short when you sleep through half of them) wrapping up my expenses, printing out a few clippings, and answering 2,000 pounds (that would be a "ton") of wonderful emails, and then I took the dry cleaning up to Woodbury Cleaners and let the girls there know that I was dropping off the LRS shirts and the black slacks for the last time this year. I then went next door to Subway for lunch (Subway Club, toasted, with American cheese) and one of the regular guys behind the counter said "I was watching on ESPN 2 Sunday night, and I think I saw you. There were Funny Cars racing, so was that you?" It's possible...

Anyway, it's basketball night tonight (hapless 1-10 Wolves vs. the 6-5 Houston Rockets) so Barb will be home soon and we'll turn around and head for Target Center in Minneapolis. Then, we have Wild tickets (vs. the New York Islanders) for Friday night, which is also neighbor Nichol's birthday, so we're trying to figure out whether we'll have pre-game or post-game festivities in downtown St. Paul. On Sunday, our all-sports-all-the-time weekend will conclude when we attend our only Vikings game of the year, at the Metrodome versus the Seahawks. This should be a lot of fun.

Barbara and I are still debating whether we're going to try to get away for a few days, at any point, this winter. Sadly, the London trip now seems impossible. With all the grueling travel she's just been through, there's no way she wants to fly that far without being certain of a seat in First Class (okay, call us both spoiled rotten but until you've flown as much as we have you might not understand how totally unappealing a 10-hour flight in coach sounds) and for us to get guaranteed upgrades the full coach fare is well over $1,200 apiece. London sounds great, but that ain't gonna happen.

So, today I nosed around a bit for fares to various places we enjoy, and right now we're analyzing the options. Barbara is taking all of next week off, but I really don't feel I'm able to do that, so we're looking at someplace close by, with good food, and lots to do. Austin is on the list, as are a couple of other fun destinations, but we might just stay home and enjoy Thanksgiving with the Jacobsens and their large extended family. After all of the airports, airplanes, and rental cars we've endured this year, staying home sounds kinda nice...

Basically, my next deadline is December 16 when Annette and I will meet with LRS, down in Springfield, to recap the season from our marketing, PR, and hospitality perspectives, and then discuss how we can change, improve, or make any of it more efficient next year. For that meeting, I need to have all of my post-season review stuff done, and I feel the need to come up with an outline of the bullet points I want to talk about, so I can't be messing around too much over the next few days. This guy's got work to do!

And... The next work item on my agenda is this blog. Today, I'll go back to the weekend, and we'll wrap up all the racing news and photos. On my next blog, I'll show you the sights and describe the fun of the Awards Ceremony. You will no doubt enjoy seeing us all dressed up. I know we did.

I won't go into our on-track results in any great detail, other than to say we ran pretty well in qualifying and ended up 6th on the ladder. That brought with it a first-round match-up with our buddy, Fast Jack, and we knew that was going to be tough. What was also facing us, square in the eye, was the wide range of possibilities for where we'd end the season in the points. We entered the race 6th, with Ron Capps just a couple of points ahead of us, then Fast Jack and Tony Pedregon were 4th and 3rd, respectively. They were both less than a round ahead of us, so getting around Jack was a mission we had in our own hands, but we'd need someone to beat Tony and Ron if we wanted to get by them. Same thing for Ashley Force Hood, who was 27 points ahead, in 2nd place, when we started the race. 

Well, two out of four ain't bad.

We beat Jack, Matt Hagan beat Tony, and in well fell swoop we moved up from 6th to 4th. Ron and Ashley won, too, so we were still on their tail but running out of time. Sure enough, we beat Robert Hight in the next round, but Ron beat Hagan on a hole-shot to keep us at bay, and when Ashley won we knew she'd have to lose in the semifinal and we'd have to win the race if we wanted to retain the number 2 on our car for 2010.

There was a way for that to happen, and it went like this: Ron would have to beat Ashley in their semifinal, while we beat Mike Neff. Then, if we beat Ron in the final, we'd end up in 2nd place. Easy, right!  Well, not so much, actually. Ron lost to Ashley, we lost to Zippy, and we'll have a 4 on our car next year. Hey, how many other Funny Car teams would trade their number for a 4 next year? My guess would be all but three of them...

Other fun stuff...  My nephew Ewan now lives in So Cal, working for Pitney Bowes, and his sister (my niece) Lauren just happened to be out there visiting, so they came to the race on Sunday, bringing along Ewan's buddy Dave, who is a huge NHRA fan. It was great to see Ewan and Lauren, and to meet Dave, and it was even better to give them some backstage access during driver introductions, and let them see and experience what it's like to win a couple of important rounds on Sunday.

We also wanted to get our picture taken, as a group, so I grabbed the closest guy who ought to know how to work a camera and asked him to take one. Who was that? Well, I figured the Editor of National DRAGSTER and NHRA.com should be up to it, so I asked Phil Burgess. Dave and Ewan then said "The picture will be nice to have, but the real story will be telling everyone who took it!" Yup.  And, for the record, Ewan is a former high school and college basketball player so, no, I have not recently been reduced in size. He's about 6' 9" or thereabouts.

In case you missed it on TV, the Budweiser Clydesdales were also there, and that's always a thrill for a St. Louis boy like me. On Sunday morning, as we walked up the staging lanes toward the stage, the horses and the Bud beer wagon were getting ready to go, and two different people came up to me and said "Kenny doesn't know yet, but Budweiser is giving him a Clydesdale!"  My first thought was "Huh?" followed by "I guess that's pretty cool..."  It was cool, and talk about a heckuva gift!  I wonder if the Sheraton allowed him to take the horse to his room that night?

Rachel Wilkerson, my best buddy, saw John Force on Sunday morning and he took off his Castrol hat, autographed it just for her, and gave it to her. She was jazzed, as you might imagine. The autograph even said "John Force. Love you!"

Tim went up to his lounge to get his fire suit on before the introductions, and he came out wearing a Mike Edwards Pro Stock World Champion t-shirt. We all thought that was pretty cool...

As I mentioned in the last blog, once the day was over I just didn't have it in me to go to the post-race party over in Morgan Lucas' pit, despite the fact he got In-N-Out to bring over their mobile store (it's a truck with a kitchen, I guess) and he served 400 Double-Doubles. Instead, I got a good night's sleep, then took Finkster to the airport in the morning, and finally drove back over to the track. As promised in the last blog, I have included a "morning after" pic of the pro pit area. Plenty of trash, some teams (like ours) completely gone, some packed up and pulling out, and a few pit areas that had barely been touched yet. It's always a weird thing to see...

{GALLERY_1118}Then, as previously mentioned, it was off to the Hyatt via the scenic route. The first stop was to exit the freeway at Katella Ave. so that I could drive over to Angel Stadium. When I worked for Converse Shoes and had to call on the Angels, that stadium was one of the least appealing in baseball. Originally, when it was built between 1964 and 1966, it featured grandstands that only extended to the foul poles in each corner, leaving an open outfield, and that allowed them to place a gigantic A-shaped structure with a halo around the top of it, out in left field. The scoreboard was placed about one-third of the way up the big A structure.

But, when the Rams football team moved to Anaheim they "closed the loop" by fully enclosing the stadium, and at the same time they really did nothing to make it feel like much more than a giant concrete bowl. And, because the new part of the grandstand blocked the old giant "A" scoreboard, they moved it out to the edge of the parking lot so it could be seen from the 57 Freeway.

A variety of things happened to change all of that. 1. The Rams moved to St. Louis. 2. A major earthquake seriously damaged the upper deck of the newly enclosed part of the stadium, above the baseball outfield. 3. Disney bought the Angels.

Put all three of those things together, and what you got was a total refurbishment of the stadium, including the removal of the newest part of it out in the outfield (returning it to its original design, with an open outfield) and lots of cool new features, including the scenic rocks beyond the outfield wall and a lot of other stuff. Disney has since sold the team, but the new owner continues to spend money to make what is one of the older stadiums in the game seem fresh, fan friendly, and fun.  The giant "A" is still out by the freeway, but I'll never forget where it started, nor will I forget those classic old hats the original Los Angeles Angels wore, with the white halo stitched around the top... Where have you gone, Bobby Knoop?

I also drove over to the other side of the freeway, to Honda Center where the Anaheim Ducks play. My buddy Rachel Kaizoji (who used to work for NHRA) works for the Ducks, but I hadn't called to see if she was around so I didn't bug her. I just took a pic of her workplace from the parking lot. I'm sorry, but it's pretty odd for me to see an NHL hockey arena surrounded by palm trees...

Well, that's about all I have time for right now. I have to finish up one more small project, then get ready to go watch the Rockets destroy the Wolves, even without Yao Ming.

I'll be back tomorrow (at least that's the plan) with tales of the Awards Ceremony...

Wilber, out!

First of all, it's Pomona, it's the Finals, and the finality of that is inescapable the whole long weekend, as you're constantly aware of where you are. There is a certain unique quality to the natural light, and the air, in Pomona. It's unmatched anywhere else on the tour, from the mountains in the distance to the warm glow as the sun sets somewhere out there, beyond the Pacific Ocean. It's So Cal, it's Pomona, and it's unlike anyplace else we race. So... For about five days you know it's the Finals, and you know the season is about to end.

Unless you win the race (we came close, but no cigar) your day ends before the race does. As soon as we lost in the semifinals, to Zippy, we all got to work. I crouched in my corner of the hospitality area, and Annette did me a HUGE favor by having everyone start to tear the area down at the front end, so that I didn't have awnings, banners, and privacy walls coming down around me. It's not easy to immediately seat yourself at a table in the middle of a noisy pit area and put into 1,200 words what just happened, but it's a thousand times harder when people are disassembling the world all around you, and you know you're not only in the way but also taking up a table and chair that need to be packed up.

Then, after hitting the "Send" button, I changed into a work t-shirt and joined the elephants tearing down the pit, for the last time in 2009. Somewhere well after dark, well after all the final rounds, and nearing what felt like the middle of the night (but it was actually only about 8:00) we were done. There was a big pit party out there, since Morgan Lucas picked up the baton from Del and all of us former Team CSK members who had hosted the mega-party forever, but I just didn't have it in me. Our guys said "C'mon, you gotta come hang with us for a little bit," and all I could say was "Dude, I helped invent that party. Been there, been through it, been sucked-in by the vortex it creates like a black hole you can't escape, and tonight I'm going to bed."

On Monday morning, I drove back over there, just to get a look at the surreal scene that is the pro pit area on the morning after.

If you're wondering why I'm not mentioning a photo gallery, it's because I'm pressed for time and need to get to LAX to catch my flight home. We'll have reams of pics to look at all the rest of this week, I promise, including one of the worn-out looking pro pit area!

So, the season was over, but it wasn't over. I had to hop on the ubiquitous LA freeway system and drive to Century City, just east of Santa Monica, for the Awards Ceremony last night. I had time to kill, so I took the long slow route, down through Anaheim and then over to the Pacific Coast Highway near Redondo Beach, up through Hermosa Beach, Manhattan Beach, and El Segundo. Knowing I'd soon be heading home to Minnesota for the winter, I put the windows down, opened the sunroof, and basked in all the glory that is Southern California and the PCH. Another totally unique area, and it is so much of everything I think of when I think of So Cal. I even ended up passing through a bit of Hawthorne, Calif., where the Beach Boys all grew up, just to put the perfect bow on my mini-tour of the lower left coast.

Then, here to the Hyatt, into my room, then shortly after that into my monkey suit for the show. We all mingled, we laughed, we shared a lot of hugs, and all the stories and the pics will be forthcoming later this week. And Rachel Wilkerson looked FABULOUS!

Now, it's Tuesday. Is it over? No, because I still have to check out, get to the airport, turn the car in, get checked in for my flight, get through security, get on my flight, sit strapped to a seat for three hours, get my luggage at MSP's eternally slow baggage claim area, get to my car, and drive home. Then, once I walk in through the door from our garage, kiss my wife who I haven't seen in three weeks, and rub my little buddies Boofus and Buster, then... It will be over.

Much more to come, I promise. So many stories to tell and photos to share. I'll leave you with this view out of my 9th floor window at the Hyatt, looking eastward through a building that is designed to have the whole center part of it missing. Beverly Hills to my left, Hollywood in the distance, and LAX isn't too far away. Time to go home...

Wilber, out!
 

This race is already pretty "crazy go nuts" in terms of stuff going on, so I'm not sure how long or coherent this blog will be. It seems like every few seconds I'm reacting to some other different assignment or conversation, but the bottom line is I have some great pics to share so I need to at least tap a few words out here just to have a vehicle for the photos. This blog will play the part of the chips, and the pics are the good queso. You have to have a way to get the queso in your mouth; hence the chips...

I'm also about hyped to the max on coffee this morning. John Fink and I have eaten breakfast together over at the Sheraton each morning, and the waitress is always hovering over us to keep the cups full, then (of course) we still need to make our standard morning pilgrimage to McDonald's for another large one. Considering I don't drink coffee at home, and only have it sporadically at the races, I'm not saying I'm hyper but things sure are moving at a high rate of speed! LOL.

Okay, a few short updates:

1. The flight out was uneventful except for the 35-minute delay leaving the gate so that some sort of repair could be made to the Captain's seat in the cockpit. A mechanic made three different trips in there, and on the last one he was carrying a roll of duct tape, so that must have cured whatever ailed the pilot's perch. You can't make stuff like that up.

2. Hertz gave me a brand new (4 miles on it!) black Cadillac DTS. It's a pimp-daddy ride for sure, but a very nice car. Plus, I can make a few extra bucks at night driving teenagers around to proms or dances! All I need is the snazzy hat.

3. I'm in a nice room at the Sheraton. Originally, Barb was planning on coming out for the race and she likes to stay there because she can ride the tram over here from the Wally Parks Museum. She's still in Europe, though, so I could've stayed with the team, but I like the place too and Finkster wanted to stay there, so I bucked up for the big room rate and took it like a man.

4. On Thursday morning, John and I drove out to Ontario to pick up Jon Gimmy and Kevin Wilkerson, who flew out here in the morning. Considering they landed at 10:00 in the morning here, and had to fly from St. Louis to Dallas, and then to Ontario (and, of course, first had to drive the 110 miles from Springfield to the St. Louis airport) I was wondering what time they got up. According to Kevin, they didn't. They had to leave Springfield quite literally in the middle of the night, so they both stayed up and then slept some on the planes. No way in the world I could do that... No way.

5. The team was originally staying in San Dimas, just up the road, at a hotel that shall remain nameless, but which rhymes with Red Roof Inn. They checked in on Tuesday, and were immediately struck by the quaint way in which half the guests appeared to be actually living there, and how they so charmingly put their chairs out in front of their rooms and offered illicit pharmaceuticals to our guys when they arrived. Plus, Brandon had to ask for a different room because he just wasn't digging the way they had decorated his first one with a large blood stain on the carpet! The added bags of trash laying around the parking lot, and the guy hitting his "bong" with his room door open only added to the ambience. By the time I got here on Wednesday, they were fairly "over it" so I got on the horn and was able to move the whole team over to a brand-spanking-new Holiday Inn at Ontario Airport. If you're ever in San Dimas, though, and are looking for a hotel that provides all of the benefits described above, you know where to look. An Inn with a Roof colored Red. Sweet place...

6. We ran pretty well yesterday, but still nicked the heads a little in the lights, running a 4.15. Right now we're 5th, but today features cool temps and cloud cover, so everything could end up jumbled from here.

7. Barbara is still in Edinburgh, Scotland as I write this, but her day is nearly over and the hectic (crazy) business portion of her trip ended yesterday. Today she toured Edinburgh Castle, at the top of the Royal Mile, for most of the day, and she really had a good time. She's been all over the continent and basically reported that she can do without Zurich, she liked Geneva, The Hague was charming, and Edinburgh was really great. In the photo gallery, you'll see a pic of her next to a huge cannon in the castle, and she noted that it was installed there in 1457, it weighs six tons, and it took 100 men and horses to get it into place. Its cannon balls weigh 150 kilos each, and with 55 kilos of powder needed to fire them, the gun could only be used 10 times in a day, due to the heat it generated. It was last fired in 1681... You gotta love Europe! The part of Edinburgh known as New Town is the more recently constructed part of the city. It was built in the 14th century... Most importantly for Barb, she now gets to fly home!!! She's very anxious to get there.

8. Last night, Tim and I attended the Summit E.T. Bracket banquet at the museum, and let me tell you something... That was neat! Those guys are such dedicated racers, and just getting here to Pomona is such an enormous accomplishment it's hard to fathom. As Tim told them "You guys are the reason I'm a pro racer now. Beating people like you in bracket racing was just too damn hard!" One guy, who earned his way here running at Maple Grove, in Reading, drives a '68 Camaro, and when he won the division championship and earned the right to race here, he DROVE HIS RACE CAR from Pennsylvania to Pomona. How cool is that! We sat with the Summit guys, at the front table, along with Larry Morgan, Jason Line, and Greg Anderson, and a good time was had by all, due in no small part to Alan Reinhart's wonderful work as the Master of Ceremonies. Very neat deal, and a real honor for some fantastic hardcore racers. Best of luck to all them!

{GALLERY_fri13}9. I got a cool photo the other day, from Mark S. who lives (obviously) in Minnesota. He had seen the pic of all the sports tickets on my fridge, and thought that was a good idea, so he did it too and sent me a photo of his Golden Gophers and Minnesota Wild tickets on his fridge door. I hooked him up with my guy at the Wolves, Conor Noonan, and he's getting a good discount on some T- Wolves tickets as well.

10. My phone was buzzing throughout the banquet last night, with text messages from Dave Rieff. His favorite hockey team is the Tampa Bay Lightning, and they were hosting the Wild down in Tampa last night. Rieffer was keeping me updated, including the fact the Lightning scored with 15-seconds to play to tie it up, and then won in a shootout. Oh well... Rieffer lives in Omaha now, and we've been talking for a couple of years about him coming up to the Twin Cities during the winter, to go to a Wild game with me. His last text said "I am coming this winter!!!! Gotta see the rink" By "the rink" he means the Xcel Arena, of course, so we'll have to find a time for him to make the trek north and grab some hockey action this winter. That'll be major fun.

11. Speaking of hockey, Neighbor Dave has absolutely SHOT to the top of our big NHRA pool, and he said Rob Flynn and Jeff Arend both stopped him on the way into the pits this morning to comment on that. Amazing that his stats could outpace the rest of us by so much in a week like that, but his team did indeed do it. I'm 11th right now, and currently Mr. Ozubko has changed my name one more time, to Mariano Wilber. Apparently I'm now "The Sand Man" closer for the Yankees, after being Reggie Wilber - Mr. October and then B-Rod Wilber after that.

12. My direct contact at LRS, Shannon Heisler, sent me a photo she still had in her in-box from last year. I don't remember if I showed it on here or not, but either way it's worth another look. At this time last year, someone put a big electric highway warning sign on the side of I-55 near Springfield, and you'll have to look in the photo gallery to see what it said. Very cool!

Well, I'm sure there's more but that's all I have time for right now... Gotta run. Let's go racin'...!!! Plus, the coffee is wearing off. Time for a Dew maybe?

Wilber, out!

The NASA-speak headline must have been planted in my head because I watched "Apollo 13" on TV last night. I love that movie, and remember the mission like it was yesterday, including how many of my female classmates at Mary Queen of Peace grade school were crying, and how Miss Costello brought a TV into our home-room so we could watch what we all hoped would be a successful splashdown.

One of my favorite parts of the movie is right at the end, when the real Jim Lovell greats Tom Hanks (who is playing the part of astronaut Jim Lovell) on the carrier deck after they somehow miraculously got back to Earth. Great stuff, and a fantastic film. Roger that, Houston. And, did you know that during the scenes in the movie where the three astronauts appear to be floating around weightless, they actually are floating around weightless? It's true! Ron Howard directed the movie, and they built a complete set of the interior of the command module and lunar module, right down to the tiniest and most accurate details, and put it inside the big jet lovingly referred to as "the vomit comet" by astronauts in training. The jet flies elliptical up-and-down patterns in the air and the passengers then get a few minutes of actual weightlessness each time the jet goes "over the top" of the flight path. Pretty cool idea, and it makes the movie all that much more authentic, since faking weightlessness never really looks right.

Anyway, Tom Hanks, Jim Lovell, and Ron "Opie" Howard aside, I finished most of the yard work I had planned for the weekend, actually getting quite sweaty doing it since we had a gloriously warm Saturday and Sunday (highs in the 60s!!!) and by the middle of the afternoon I was rewarding myself by doing nothing more taxing than watching football from the living room sofa. It then struck me that this is going to be a very short week, since I not only fly out to LAX on Wednesday (a day earlier than other races) but I do so pretty much first thing in the morning. I'll be on the road to the airport by 7:00 a.m.

Once that thought hit me, my next reaction was that I didn't want to spend Monday and Tuesday in "thrash mode" trying to catch up and get everything done, so while I was watching the Buccaneers beat the Packers (what a stunner!) I grabbed the laptop and wrote my Pomona preview press release. I rarely do work like that on a Sunday, but the short week and the fact my wonderful wife is on the other side of the globe were reasons enough to get ahead a little bit.

I saved it as a draft until this morning, which is also rare for me. Usually, I write and then hit "Send" almost at once, but that often does lead to some slight remorse after the fact. Can't tell you how often I've read something I wrote and thought "Rats, I should have written that differently" as it finally dawns on me how a convoluted sentence should have been constructed, as opposed to how I did it in the first place. Sorta like that sentence I just wrote... Well, I had the chance to read it again this morning, made a few slight adjustments, and sent it off to the world. Now, my checklist for getting ready for Pomona includes getting a haircut, picking up my dry cleaning, doing some more work on the end-of-year projects, and getting packed.

The packing part won't be as easy as usual, because I'll be gone for nearly a week and have to take my tuxedo with me. I dug it out of the closet and tried it on yesterday, taking note that tux pants are great because they're adjustable. Fortunately, it still fits just fine and I noticed I must've even had the foresight to have it dry-cleaned after the last time I wore it. I thanked myself for that, and now I have to figure out a way to get it and an extra pair of black shoes out to the left coast, without mangling or wrinkling everything too badly. The last time I wore the tux must have been on a formal night aboard the ms Zuiderdam, last winter.

If you haven't seen my pre-Pomona story yet, it's all about numbers. Including the actual numbers that each team gets to put on their race car each year. As I mentioned in the blog last week, the top 10 teams all have the option of running with their finishing position as their number for the whole next year, so our LRS Shelby was sporting a 2 FC decal on each side this year. Right now we're 6th in the points, but we're only 27 points out of 2nd place, so we're still in the hunt for a nice low number.

To answer a question nobody asked, no you do not have to run the points number as your car number the next year. It's optional, but almost all teams do it. Every driver has a permanent number (Tim's is 347 FC) so you're allowed to either run that, or the Top-10 number you earned the year before. This year, the only driver to stick with his or her permanent number was Ron Capps, who is 28 FC. Ron has always stuck with 28, but one might suspect he'd change that up if he wins the championship one of these years. Can't imagine anyone wouldn't want to run that 1 FC for a season.

Rambling on...

Speaking of numbers, don't you find it pretty hilarious that a pro football player would legally change his name to the spanish version of his uniform number. Every time No. 85 catches a ball for the Bengals, the announcers have to say "Caught by Ochocinco..." and that always makes me laugh. Of course, Senor Ochocinco, that actually means "eight five" not "eighty five." Eighty five is actually ochenta y cinco. It's still funny though... I'll give the artist formerly known as Chad Johnson props for creativity.

And speaking of football uniforms, how 'bout those Tampa Bay Bucs! Not only getting their first win of the year, and beating the Packers to do it, but also wearing their "throwback" uniforms, complete with the orange "creamcicle" jerseys. The whole stadium was decked out in the retro look, right down to the big logo at midfield. I thought that was pretty cool...

I got a few great photos from blog buddy Kim, up in Vancouver. Kim's an avid photographer, and living in beautiful British Columbia affords him plenty of wonderful vistas to shoot, but the two I'll include in today's photo gallery aren't natural scenic wonders. One is a hilarious photo of a bunch of dogs tied up outside a coffee shop, looking a little mournful that they've been stuck out there while their owners sip overpriced beverages inside. The other is a field absolutely full of snow geese. We rarely see snow geese here, and when we do it's usually a single flight of a dozen or so of them, so it was interesting to see such a huge gaggle of the big birds, gathered on some unfortunate field in BC. According to Kim, snow geese may look prettier than Canada geese, but they produce the same obnoxious amount of you-know-what.

Speaking of geese... My wife was walking through Hyde Park in London over the weekend, and snapped a pic of some British geese. You have to wonder if they honk with a Cockney accent.. Whether they do or not, her caption cracked me up. The photo came on an email that simply said "They followed me!" LOL

Barbara had such a good time in London over the weekend, she wants to go back, so we're actually looking at going over there around Thanksgiving. I wonder if we can find turkey and dressing in London, on November 26? I bet we can if we search hard enough... I haven't been to London in a long time, probably since 1990 or so, but I've been there a number of times and always enjoyed the city and the United Kingdom, so I'm amped up to go if she really wants to. Plus, the way Delta awards elite Sky Miles levels, you get to roll-over all the miles you have in excess of the level you've earned, and since I'm already Platinum for next year, a trip to London and my trip to Pomona will put me about 11,000 miles over. I'll have that in the bank when I start flying in 2010. Yeah baby!

I got a call from Barb about an hour ago, as she and her CEO finished their last meeting in London and were heading for Heathrow to fly to Amsterdam. I think they're staying in The Hague tonight (a city that gets extra credit for the "The" in its name). She still has a whirlwind week ahead of her, with more stops in Holland or, more formally, The Netherlands (a country that gets extra credit for the "The" in its name) then Switzerland and Scotland... She's going to be exhausted when she gets home next weekend, here in The Woodbury.

{GALLERY_119}And for the countless number of you who always want more pics of Da Boyce, I'll throw a couple of those in the gallery as well. It was so nice all weekend we had windows open all over the house, and they had free run of the porch. I don't think they get it, though, that they better be soaking all of this up now, because they're not gonna want to be out there much in a few more weeks... I keep trying to tell them but they don't listen.

I did get a great shot of them taken just a split second before Buster pinned Boofus in one of their patented wrestling matches. It always starts out innocently enough, but you can see it in their eyes that they want to go. Pretty soon they're lining up a few feet apart and then running at each other full-speed, wrestling and fighting until they're exhausted. It's pretty much a scream to watch, and despite the weight difference little Boofie gets the better of it a lot of the time. The Big Fella won this match, best two out of three falls.

Well, what little hair I have on my head isn't going to cut itself, so I guess I'm off to Great Clips... Then the dry cleaners. The I have to eat something. Sounds like a Subway day to me...

Next stop, Pomona...

Wilber, out!
 

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?"

{GALLERY_1106}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!

As Tim said "We qualified 7th and went to the semifinals, so that's good. You'd consider that a pretty good day if this was May. It just doesn't seem so good in November." We are now officially in 6th place (how do you go to the semifinals and still lose a spot?) and we are 132 points behind the aforementioned Mr. Hight, who pretty much just has to remember how to get from his house to Auto Club Raceway in Pomona to wrap up the crown. For us to win it, we'd have to qualify No. 1, win all 12 possible bonus points, set the national record, and then we'd still need Hight's team to perpetrate such a felonious transgression that NHRA would kick them out of the sport. That's probably not going to happen.

The good news is the fact our semifinal appearance did help us tighten up the race in our quest to have the lowest possible number on our car next year. Fast Jack may have gone around us by going to the final, but the standings as a whole were ratcheted down tighter than a lug nut by the end of the day. We're in 6th place, but we're only 27 points out of 2nd!!! It's a total pile-up now, and there's a lot more than pride on the line. Whoever finishes 2nd in the standings takes home a check for $100,000, while the 6th place finisher earns $22,000. Plus we've had the number 2 on our car all year, and it would be great to not have to swap those decals out for 2010, if you know what I mean.

So, all that adds up to the fact we're not going to be the champions this year, and Robert Hight almost certainly will. Our goals remain the same, and the sense of importance and urgency remain pegged on the red line. We want to finish as high as we can for our pride, our own satisfaction, and the prize money, which comes in very handy for a team that watches every penny like we do.

As is always the case, it's not so much the 27 points that separate us from Ashley Force Hood's team, in 2nd place, it's the gaggle of teams in-between us. It's one thing to earn 27 points more than Ashley does (it's not an easy thing, but it's one thing) but when you also have to deal with Tony Pedregon, Jack Beckman, and Ron Capps, who are 3rd, 4th, and 5th, it becomes very difficult to leapfrog all those teams. All we can do is our best, and that's what we'll be aiming for in Pomona.

We still have more than a week to look forward to the Auto Club Finals, so today I'll stick to the "here and now" as well as the past few days. The basic theme is as follows... You know what? Las Vegas is an exhausting place.

First of all there's the air. It's so dry you're constantly dehydrated, no matter how much water you drink. I had a one-liter bottle of water next to my bed each night, and I'd take care of that before sunrise each morning, but I still felt like I was stranded in the desert. I took extra-long showers each morning, just to enjoy the steam and humidity.

Secondly, there's the cacophony that surrounds you. No one goes to a resort on The Strip in Las Vegas to "chill out" believe me. It's 24 non-stop hours of noises, bells, whistles, screams, and general mayhem. The only way to relax is to lock yourself in your room and put the iPod on, because without that you STILL hear the constant flow of fun-seekers in the hallway, all night long. When everything is that "wired" all around you, all the time, it's very tiring.

Thirdly, nothing is easy in Las Vegas. The traffic is horrible, the crowds are everywhere, and just parking your car and getting to your room is a major undertaking. It's all fun for a day or two, but by the time you leave it almost makes you miss those cruddy little motel rooms we frequent during the rest of the year. Ah, to be able to park in front of your room, or at least be able to walk through a small cozy hotel lobby and be on the elevator in 12 steps...

Finally, there's the airport. Travel is a hassle, no matter where we go, and airports can be stressful places, but you start thinking about McCarran a couple of days before you have to leave Vegas. It can be fairly uneventful (as it was for me yesterday) but it's never easy. At its worst, it can be a nightmare. I gave Jon Gimmy and Kevin Wilkerson a ride to the airport on Sunday night, and Gimmy was right- on when he said "I've seen this place be no problem at all, and I've been here when the lines are out the doors and all the way down the sidewalk. You just never know what the Vegas airport is going to be like, but it's usually never good." Exactly.

By the time I got home last night, I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open at 9:00 p.m., as I watched the end of the World Series game. I was also only sharing the house with Da Boyce, because Barbara and I are doing one of our more classic "ships passing in the night" routines right now. She was getting on her flight yesterday, at MSP, right when I was getting on mine, at LAS. Right now, she's in New York for two days, then she takes off on a whirlwind business trip that would lay anyone to waste. She'll hit Milan, Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Zurich, Geneva, and Edinburgh in a little more than a week, and each day on the trip will be absolutely filled with non-stop meetings and travel. She does get a couple of free days over the weekend, in London (she's going to the theater!) and has also decided to stick around and tour Edinburgh, Scotland for a day rather than fly right home, but I do not envy her on this trip. I don't know if I even have the energy to do something like that... She'll get home when I'm in Pomona, and we're both looking very much forward to Tuesday night, November 17th, when I get home from the race and the Awards Ceremony.

Looking back, once more, on the weekend, there were plenty of fun moments. With it being Halloween, it was simply more outrageous than usual, both at the track and at the hotel. It finally got to the point where you even stopped noticing the crazy things people were wearing, and what was really odd was to be there on Sunday when almost everyone was dressed "normally" again, because that actually looked odd by comparison.

Perhaps the greatest highlight of the weekend came on Saturday, when Joe "Hollywood" Endzeles, who is a member in fine standing on Daniel Wilkerson's crew, showed up wearing a classic "Joe Dirt" mullet wig. It was funny enough on Hollywood, but once Tim spotted the brilliant hairpiece, the true laugh-riot ensued. He looked absolutely hilarious, and he immediately started running around our pit, the Tasca pit, and out in the general pit area, cracking everyone up. You'll have to see the pics in the gallery to really appreciate just how great it was... I still laugh every time I look at the pictures...

I'm also throwing a couple of other pics in the gallery, just for giggles. There's my friend, colleague, and esteemed editor Candida Benson, without whom many of these blogs would never get posted. There's longtime loyal blog reader Terry Mattis, who hails from the great state of Washington (we always see him in Seattle) and each time he comes to a race he brings along a new sign he's made just for that occasion. He then spends the weekend getting it autographed by as many drivers (or in my case, blog writers) as possible. As you'll see, he once again got it covered in Sharpie signatures.

{GALLERY_113new}I'll also include an up-to-the-minute Pond Cam shot, to show you how fast we're slipping from autumn straight toward winter. Barbara said the wind was blowing pretty hard here, over the weekend, and that knocked a lot of the remaining leaves off the trees.

Finally, it struck me that we've never had so many different sports tickets on the refrigerator door, as we do right now.

Way back in 2002, when we first got our Twins season tickets, we quickly realized we needed to have the next set of tickets in a highly visible spot, because it's easy to forget when your next game is and you can miss a game you had tickets for (trust me, I know...) So, we made a habit of always sticking the tix for the next game on the fridge, so we'd constantly be reminded when our next game was. Same thing with our Wild tickets, and now we have the Timberwolves season tickets as well. Add in the fact Barbara found some very good Vikings tickets (for their game against Seattle on November 22), and the fridge door is at 75 percent capacity. If the Twins had only been in the World Series, we'd have it all covered at one time...

Well, that's about all the blog writing energy I have today. Time to tally up my expenses for Las Vegas on my spreadsheet, and then I'm actually going to the bank to deposit a short stack of Ben Franklins, all "earned" in the Mandalay Bay casino on various slot machines. One particular "Bonus Wheel" machine was pretty good to me, and I came home a couple of hundred better off than when I arrived in Lost Wages. Cha Ching! Ya can't beat that...

Wilber, out!
 

Wednesday 10/28 - 10:10 p.m.

Okay, quiz time. We just got back from Target Center on a Wednesday night, attending our first game of the year played by a local team for which we now have full (yes FULL) season tickets. And they're GREAT seats too, in Row 7, just off the playing surface. Hmmm... Target Center? In Minneapolis? Full season tickets? Is there some new volleyball or lacrosse team in the Twin Cities? Roller Derby? Professional Dodge Ball? Nope, we are now the proud owners of two seats in the 7th row, just off the floor, for the Minnesota Timberwolves, our "rebuilding" franchise in the NBA. That's 41 games worth of season tickets, in seats that go for $125 a pop!

Did I win the lottery? Do I plan to score huge on a "Wheel Of Fortune" slot machine at Mandalay Bay? Did I lose my mind??? Answers: No, hope so, and yet to be determined.

Here's how it all went down, in just the last few days... It starts with that new car my wife just bought. Remember that? Well, she had her mind made up on that deal and was well into the negotiations when we discovered that the dealership was running a promotion with the Wolves, just for the month of October. Buy a new car, get two season tickets! I will say that although Barbara picked out her car and did the negotiations purely from an automotive and financial perspective, the thought of being handed roughly $10,000 worth of basketball tickets was sort of appealing. Ya think?

Still, I'll have to admit that both of us figured there must be a ton of fine print, a bunch of strings attached, and that the deal couldn't be that good and that easy. You know the drill: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. On top of that, the guys at the dealership were kind of foggy about the whole thing, and they just kept saying "Oh, don't worry about that. The Timberwolves will contact you."

A week went by, and nothing happened. Finally, I didn't know who to reach out to at the Wolves to investigate if this thing was for real or if we were going to be disappointed when we got a call saying "Oh no, they're absolutely free as long as you buy two more of equal value" or maybe "Well, the offer was good while supplies lasted, but we can get you some seats in Row Z on the upper level..."

Despite the fact our collective confidence level wasn't very high, we weren't just going to let the deal go without looking into it, so I went to the team's website and simply hit the "Contact Us" button to send them an email. I'm sure you know how those things work... My lone little email would be piling into some in-box at the Wolves' front office, along with others about the team, concessions, souvenirs, parking, whatever... I really didn't expect a response.

Just hours later, I didn't just get a reply, I got a personal note from Laura Meyer, the team's Ticket and Premium Seating Supervisor. She was instantly engaged, asked me a few questions (which I addressed in a reply) and by the next morning she was calling me on the phone, assuring me that the paperwork from the dealership had just arrived, and that we'd already been assigned seats in the 7th row of the lower level, in the corner. She told me that a young man by the name of Conor Noonan would be our personal staff rep, and he'd be in touch soon. Apparently, by "soon" she meant a minute and a half...

Conor was terrific, and he and I have now spoken or emailed close to a dozen times in the last 48 hours, getting it all sorted out. Since this was finalized yesterday, and Opening Night was tonight, he even agreed to meet me on the curb at Target Center this afternoon, whenever I could get over there, to give me our tickets for tonight's opener against the New Jersey Nets and for Friday night, when the Wolves play LeBron, Shaq, and the Cleveland Cavaliers. We won't be home for the game against the Cavs, but Barb is in charge of finding a good home for our tickets so that some lucky persons can enjoy seeing two basketball legends most likely dismantle our home team. I knew Barb would have a hard time getting away from work at a reasonable hour tonight, and I didn't want to have to stand in line at the Will Call window first, just to get our tickets, so we worked out the curbside delivery and Conor was standing there waving me down as I pulled in on First Avenue.

We don't spend much time in Minneapolis, as opposed to St. Paul or Woodbury, so as I was headed back home in the middle of downtown, I took an iPhone pic of the skyways that criss-cross the whole city. And no, the buildings in Minneapolis are not curved and warped, like they look in the photo gallery. That's just an illusion created by the default wide-angle setting on the iPhone camera.

By the time I got back home, a large envelope from the Wolves was in the mailbox, with the line "Welcome To The Pack" written on it. Inside were the remainder of our tickets (man, this is a LOT of tickets!) and a nice "Welcome Package" from the team.

Therefore, I've actually been all the way over to Target Center twice today. I drove over the first time around 11:00, to find Conor standing on the sidewalk, tickets in hand, as I pulled up. Tonight, I picked Barbara up from her office and we headed from St. Paul over to Minneapolis...

Conor even came by our new seats during the first quarter to meet Barbara and welcome us to the Timberwolves family. I'm tellin' ya, it's "service with a smile" and some real effort on the team's part.

Now, coming from a guy who has been the GM of some professional sports franchises that REALLY needed good customer service, I have to tell you that the last 48 hours with the Wolves absolutely pegged the meter. That was, simply put, the best customer service I've ever experienced from a sports franchise, EVER, and keep in mind we got the tickets FOR FREE!!! It's not like we personally spent a lot of money with them and they feel they have to smile and take care of us, like a casino boss would schmooze a "whale" at the poker tables.

The "let's get back down to Earth" part of the equation is that ever since Kevin Garnett was traded to the Celtics a few years ago, the Wolves have been "rebuilding" and basically starting over, trying to put a new young team together. This year, with a new GM and a new coach, they've done another major housecleaning, and are very young.

If you remember the great Lakers teams from the 80s, you remember Kurt Rambis who used to wear those thick-rimmed black glasses. Well, he's had Lasik eye surgery since then, so the glasses are gone, but he's the new coach of the Wolves, and they do have some energetic young players.

They were tonight, however, "the team that couldn't shoot straight" for nearly four full quarters. Yikes! I'm talking air-balls, bricks, missed lay-ups, wild 3-pointers taken from somewhere near St. Paul, and lots of other mistakes, but they played hard on defense all night, which kept the game somewhat close. Just when it seemed the game was mercifully over, and they were down 16 with a little over 6-minutes to play, they somehow righted the ship and went on a tear that defied belief. It was incomprehensible really, after the way they shot the ball up until then, but win it they did. A "dig deep" and gutty "never say die" effort, to say the least...!!! It could end up being the highlight of another difficult season, but you take what you can get.

During the game, the front office does a GREAT job of making the games entertaining. They have a constant flow of funny and interesting contests and promotions going on, many of which reminded me of my indoor soccer days. All that sort of stuff is sorta "near and dear" to my heart, as you might imagine.

One of their nightly promotions involves allowing two fans to sit in a pair of overstuffed recliners for the game, courtesy of a sponsorship from a local furniture store. I had to say to Barb "Neat idea... 15 years ago!" Back in the mid-90s with the Kansas City Attack indoor soccer team, we worked with a local radio station and furniture store to award two fans a spot on a big plush living-room couch (complete with end-table and lamp!) right behind the goal. We called it our "Couch Potato" promotion, and one of the winners was so good at razzing the opposing goalie we actually brought him back for all our playoff games. Worked like a charm.

The Wolves' halftime entertainment (this is one of those "only in Minnesota" moments) was actually a Chinese gymnast who rode a huge unicycle around while she kicked a series of about a dozen bowls onto her head, until they were all stacked neatly there. She actually was great... The Wolves' mascot, Crunch, is great too. He struts around with a tough Wolf-like attitude, but the kids love him, and I sorta caught a blurry shot of him flying through the air on a slam-dunk...

So anyway, the Wolves miraculously won, although they are sure to be on the short end quite a bit for a while before this young team gels a bit and adds some more talent with some more draft picks. Bottom line, we had fun (that's important) and we're absolutely honored to be full season ticket holders for the Minnesota Timberwolves, with GREAT seats. We're going to support them and try to give back a little effort to thank the team for the great service and the warm welcome we have received.

{GALLERY_1029}As for tomorrow, I'm packed for my flight but it's been an adventure doing it. Because my original flight schedule was altered when Delta and Northwest integrated their schedules, I now get in at 1:20, which is an hour later than my originally scheduled flight. That means I'm going to have to hustle to get to the track to hook up with Tim for all our promotional stuff, so for the first time in a long time, I'm not checking a bag. I found my old US Smokeless Showdown roller bag, which fits in the overhead, and somehow cut some corners, left a few items out, and rolled everything tightly to get it all to fit... This will be interesting. And if you see me on TV and my clothes are all wrinkled, you'll know I failed.

Okay, time to take a hot-tub and then go to bed. And hey, I was talking to Conor Noonan about what I do for a living, and he promised me that if any blog readers want to attend a Timberwolves game, I can send them straight to him for discounts and great seats. So, if you want to head to Target Center some night, for a little NBA action, just drop me a line and I'll hook you up with Conor.

Like a guy from New York, I can now say "Whoa! Don't buy those tickets from TicketMaster. I got a guy at the Wolves. I'll hook ya up." It's always good to "have a guy."

Thursday - 10/29 - 9:30 a.m.

Okay, back to my seat here at a work cubicle in the Sky Club at MSP. This whole carry-on thing had me a little out of my routine, and I kept wondering what I was forgetting... Turns out, I remembered as soon as I heard my car beep behind me, signaling the doors were locked, here at the airport. I forgot to bring a jacket. That might not be a big deal out in Vegas, although it does get cool at night, but I'm not really sure what the weather forecast is for here, when I return... Might be a chilly ride home if the temps drop, but the fact it was foggy and 53 when I loaded up the car made me forget I may want to warm up when I get back. Oh well...

Hey, I have another "first" to report, on top of the basketball tickets. I currently have 74,405 elite qualifying miles in my Sky Miles account for this year, and the target level to become a Platinum member is 75,000, so this flight to Las Vegas will put me over that goal and for the first time ever, I'll move up from Gold to Platinum. I probably wouldn't have made it if not for those 15,000 bonus miles Delta put in my account not too long ago, unless I would've headed to Europe for a weekend or something like that. One would think it's going to be nice to be Platinum...

I'm in the front cabin on this flight, and the return on Monday, as well as both directions when I head to Pomona. How'd I do that? I booked these two trips as "cash plus miles" by buying the ticket at a coach fare, but adding in 15,000 miles each way to guarantee myself a seat up front. These long flights to Vegas and L.A. tend to fill up with Platinum flyers, and since I'm not one yet I wanted to make sure. Three and a half hours in an airplane seat is a long time, no matter where you're sitting.

Looks like we're on time, so I should be off the plane and on my way to the rental car facility in good shape, once we get to the other end. If we don't fly right past Las Vegas by 150 miles and then have to circle back. I'm just sayin'...

Hey, here's something funny and coincidental. Remember that long and winding story I told a few days back, about Jayson Werth of the Phillies and how he's the stepson of my old buddy Herbie Werth, and he's the nephew of Dick Schofield, and the grandson of Ducky Schofield, thanks to the fact his mom is Kim Schofield... Well, a few hours after that was posted, I got a voice mail from Krista Wilkerson who said "Oh my gosh, I was just reading the new blog and I had to tell you. Tim and I went to school with Kim Schofield! What a small world."

Miniature!

See you Vegas. Send money.

Wilber, out!

Then, perhaps moments after another Steelers' length-of-the-field touchdown after a fumble or interception, it hit me that we're still in the running for the Full Throttle championship, but it's highly likely we can't make it happen all by ourselves. We're gonna need some help, in the form of some upset wins over people like Robert Hight, Ashley Force Hood, Tony Pedregon, Ron Capps, and probably some others, or no matter how well we do at the final two races we'll probably come up short.

Look at it this way. We're 82 points out of the top spot. If we run the table and win both Vegas and Pomona, we could still finish more than 40 points out of the lead if, say, Robert went to both finals and we beat him there. So, we need some help. We can get by with a little help from our friends. Ding, ding, ding! No more calls please, we have a winner!!!

Within seconds of having that thought, I heard Ringo Starr in my head (always a sort of jarring thing, I'll admit) and rather than wait until this morning to put it all into words, I grabbed the laptop and wrote it yesterday afternoon, right there on the sofa with a football game on TV. Since the song I'm referencing is from "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" I felt the need to position the lead paragraph in those retro terms, so I started it with the words "Drop the needle in the groove, crank up The Beatles, and cue Ringo Starr, if you dare..."  My twisted hope is that at least a few readers will think "Needle? Groove? Huh?" 

I actually heard Sgt. Pepper's for the first time on 8-track, but needles, grooves, and LPs are far more fun to remember... In college, I saved up the few dollars I earned as an usher at the old St. Louis Arena, to buy a top-of-the-line Pioneer turntable (totally manual, of course, because those were the best), a big powerful Marantz receiver, and Bose 901 speakers. We rocked! And, at the house we rented in Edwardsville, Illinois, we had to hang the turntable from the ceiling, with springs at the top of the chains we hung it from, to keep it from skipping. Those old manual turntables were VERY sensitive. Ahhh, those were the days. Listening to "2112" with the Bose 901s flexing their muscles. That album, and that stereo, actually provided me with my introduction to Rush...

Anyway, that "a little help from our friends" pre-race feature story issue is now taken care of so I'll turn my focus to getting a new blog written. Hey, lookie there! That's exactly what I'm doing.

Okay, so if you're going to be in Vegas, and you want to come meet Wilk and Tasca on Thursday, here's the scoop. As I mentioned in an earlier blog, we're doing an autograph session and "meet & greet" at Gaudin Ford on Sahara Ave. from 5:00 to 6:00 on Thursday. Sounded pretty simple to me, but I realized that Sahara is quite a long road so I did a little research to specifically find the dealership. It's basically in the middle of Sahara, sorta half way between I-15 and I-515, although to be technically correct it's a little east of center. In other words, it's a little closer to the east side of town, and therefore I-515, than the Strip side of town.

That will be a good thing when we're done, because we'll be fairly close to Fremont Street for the Fan Fest. I've already alerted the NHRA marketing people that we'll be a little late, and there's not much we can do about it. The Gaudin Ford appearance is an important one, for some important people, so we won't be able to get to Fan Fest until we're done there.

Sounds like I might get to see my niece, Rhiannon, and her little boy Joe, at Fan Fest. Rhiannon and her hubby, JJ, live in Vegas due to the fact he's in the Air Force and based at Nellis. He's away on a training program right now, but Rhiannon and little Joe are going to try to make it over to Fremont Street on Thursday night. That would be terrific!

In terms of the racing we're going to see in Vegas (and Pomona, for that matter) boy it's really going to be different to see so many cars. We've been dealing with tough times and short car-counts in Top Fuel all year, but not this weekend. I just checked again, and it looks like 26 Top Fuel Dragsters are entered for the race. Add in 20 Funny Cars, and it's going to take some getting used to, in terms of how long the sessions last... It's been a while since we've had anything like this.

Here in beautiful Woodbury, the trees are giving it their best shot to give us some color, but there are still a lot of them simply dropping their leaves (everywhere, I might add!).  This beauty is the "little tree" we planted between our house and the Jacobsen's, after the big oak that was originally there sadly died and had to be taken down. This maple was selected because it grows fast and is a hardy tree, and man we are constantly surprised by how big it's gotten in just a few years. It has to be closing in on 30-feet, I'd bet, and it consistently provides us a nice show in the autumn.

Meanwhile, I also figured I better get some more winterization done this weekend, and Saturday was the day to do that.

The first ceremonial act, signaling the end of summer, was the disassembly of the hammock, out back. Not a lot of hammock lounging going on when it's 10-below zero, I promise you that, so I always take it apart and stow it in a storage room downstairs.  Sniff...

The next key "drum roll please" ceremony is the annual "pounding-in of the snow sticks" which you may recall from prior years. Usually, early November is the time when the bright yellow or orange marker sticks start to pop up on curbs and along driveways around the neighborhood, but we've already had a couple of fluke snow storms, and I'm going to be traveling two of the next three weeks, so I went ahead and did it. They are all straight and parallel for now. Wait until the city plow comes screaming by, throwing up a wall of snow. You're lucky to get through a winter without completely losing a few, and all the ones along the street end up crooked and bent, but they're cheap and easy to replace (unless the ground is frozen solid).

While I was at it, I grabbed the thermal blanket for the air conditioner unit, and wrapped it up for the winter. I have no idea if that thing does any good at all, but if you feel better having done it, well... Go for it. Ergo, I went for it.

With the sprinkler system already blown out, the only real big winter-time move left to make will be turning off all the outdoor water faucets, to clear the pipes from any water that might freeze. We still have a few reasons to leave them on for now, so I'll probably hold off on that until I get back from Sin City...

As you'll see in the little photo gallery today, we're also in a really active wildlife mode right now. Lots of ducks, geese, eagles (sorry, no new pics of the neighborhood eagles), and other critters, all in a sort of pre-migration frenzy. They're very active, all day long, and I make a point of keeping lights on in the living room to help them spot the fact our big rear windows are WINDOWS, not passageways. It's always a little scary to have 24 mallards take off at once and fly within four feet of the back of the house as they move from the back pond to the front one. We've had two big splotches on the windows this year, but no dead birds in the yard so they must have survived the impact, as did the windows...

{GALLERY_1026}I mentioned the neighborhood eagles above (as in plural) and the new one is really kind of neat. We have a regular and majestic Bald Eagle, who has made this area home for quite a while, and he flies by looking for snacks on a regular basis. A few days back, though, I spotted what I figured to be an enormous hawk, circling the back pond and swooping down on the panicked ducks. He's brown, with darker brown splotches on his body and wings, but the grace with which he flies and the sheer enormity of him had me wondering, so I did a little bird-watchers research and discovered he's a "juvenile" Bald Eagle. He's as big as an adult, and just as hungry, but his head and tail feathers haven't turned white yet.

I didn't see him grab any ducks (a fact I'm sorta happy about, because I wasn't really all that amped up about seeing one get carried away) but he sure had them all in a tizzy.  Just another reason to make sure Da Boyce stay inside!!!

Speaking of the fur balls, and for all of you who consistently ask about them, they're doing well. Boofus is finally starting to fill out and get a bit bigger, after being so much smaller than his big brother since Day 1. He's still crazy and flies around the house at Mach 3, but he must finally be maturing enough to gain some weight. We even get them confused every now and then, if we can't see their collars, and that hasn't happened since they were really little. Of course, when Boofie gets really wired and crazy, he likes to run down the hall all stiff-legged, kind of bouncing as he runs. He looks like a little miniature newborn colt, all gangly and excited but not quite sure how to make those four legs work in conjunction with each other.. Crazy cat.

I guess that's about all I have for now... Time for lunch!!!

Wilber, out!
 

When you're in Englishtown, you know you're in New Jersey. When you're in Reading, you know you're in Pennsylvania. When you're in Vegas, you just know you're at a really big race with a lot of people who have come a long way to have a lot of fun.

Speaking of coming from all over the world, have you seen the Top Fuel entry list? It's the biggest European invasion since 60s pop music! We'll have Lex Joon from Holland, Urs Erbacher from Switzerland, Thomas Nataas from Norway, and Stig Neergaard from Denmark. How cool is that! I first heard from Lex a couple of years ago, and his wife Gerda drops me notes every now and then too, so I wish everyone good luck and I hope to meet a few of these great European racers next weekend. (Gerda wrote me most recently when she was able to translate that German newspaper story about Dan Wilkerson's crash.)

Tying into that, I was talking to Del on the phone yesterday and he was telling me how two of the Euro teams have rented space at the Worsham shop, in preparation for the two races (Vegas and Pomona), and both teams have actually leased the use of a couple of our old Team CSK transporters. That's pretty cool.

Irrelevant note: We have the local "Squeegie Squad" team here today, cleaning all the windows in the house. This is my semi-annual day of not wanting to watch a lot of what they're doing, because our house is basically all windows in back, and the highest point is a solid 40 feet off the ground (I'm guessing, since you won't find me on a ladder back there). The guy is doing all the inside work (yes, we could clean our own windows inside, although the huge living room windows are a real challenge, but they offer the "inside & out" package at such a good rate it's silly to turn it down), and his accomplice is a young lady with hip red hair who looks pretty much like the last person you'd expect to see climbing 35 feet in the air with a squeegie in her hand.

Just a few seconds ago, as I was typing the first paragraph, she was doing the outside of my office windows. I didn't make any faces at her, but it was kinda weird to have someone about two feet away, on a ladder, outside my window.

Second irrelevant note: Greg Ozubko, our esteemed hockey fantasy league administrator, has taken it upon himself to finally alter the "Wilberson" spelling of my name. In honor of it being the baseball post-season, he originally changed my name to Babe Wilber, for a few days. And he didn't even know that Babe was my dad's nickname when he played (you can look that one up). Just as I was getting used to the Babe moniker, I looked at the league yesterday and was simply thankful I didn't have a mouthful of Diet Coke when the page came up. As you can see, sitting in 17th place, is Reggie Wilber - Mr. Oct. That
cracked me up... Let us never forget Reggie Jackson's time-honored words "I didn't come to New York to be a star. I brought my star with me!"

Side note of some surreal quality: It's 1981 and I'm scouting for the Toronto Blue Jays, based out of Fresno. The team had me come down to L.A. for the World Series, Dodgers vs. Yankees, and I'm sitting at a rooftop bar at some hotel on Wilshire Blvd., with Pat Gillick (GM of the Jays) and Bobby Cox (about to become the Jays' new manager) when up walks Reggie Jackson. He sat for a while, chatted with all of us, and even asked me a couple of questions, because he was fascinated that a 26-year-old kid could be a Scouting Supervisor (I wasn't fascinated by that, I was over my head and confused). He got up to leave, shook our hands, and I clearly remember thinking "Holy crap. I just sat here and chatted with Reggie Jackson like it was nothing..." Keep in mind, I'd been around big leaguers all my life. As a matter of fact, Yogi Berra had actually jumped in the back seat of Gillick's car the night before, to get a ride back to the hotel with us, and he sat next to me asking how my mom and dad were, and that was all no big deal to me. But Reggie Jackson! That was bizarre.

Back to Vegas, briefly... Our Thursday afternoon and evening just got a little busier, as Ford is still wanting to video tape Tim driving one of the new Taurus models. They gave him a Taurus to drive at Indy, but somehow the logistics of making sure the film crew stuck around and got some shots of Tim driving it failed to happen, so basically he just had a free car for the weekend. Now, they'd like to somehow coordinate Tim driving the new car in conjunction with the "meet & greet" we're going to do at Gaudin Ford on Thursday afternoon. We're working on it...

I'm also excited to get back to Mandalay Bay, because the spring race in Vegas was a total "lost weekend" for me. I was having major ankle issues all weekend, to the point where I was in sheer misery most of the time and barely able to walk. If you've ever spent a weekend with a high fever, you know what it's like to look back and barely remember any details, other than the fact you were miserable. That's how I remember the spring Vegas race. I wasn't sick, but I was in terrific pain, I was really in the dumps about it, and I just remember trying to survive and get through the whole ordeal, wanting ever so badly to simply get home. No gambling, no nightlife, no meals at fancy restaurants... Nothin' but my hotel room and the racetrack, along with a lot of ice packs and pain pills.

To that end, I've seen one of the best foot and ankle guys in the Twin Cities in the last month, and he prescribed some new custom-made orthotics that I just got a few days ago. The orthotics guy told me it would take a long time for me to get to used to them, so I should be prepared to have them in for two hours, then take them out again, until I became accustomed to the feeling. Heck with that! As soon as I put them in, I could feel both lower legs shift into a much more comfortable position, and I haven't had so much as a tweak in either ankle since. Why did I wait so long to do this???

The inserts have large arch supports, and both force my ankles to roll out a little more, since my natural position has them rolling in and that puts all the pressure on the two medial tendons (the left one, aka "the bad one" is the one I injured way back when, sliding into 3rd base for the Danville Roosters). These things straighten me out, take all the pressure off the insides of my ankles, and make me feel like a million bucks. Well, a thousand bucks...

Okay, now let's talk about one of the most coincidental yet circuitous oddities I've ever come upon when it comes to knowing people, understanding family trees, and other such "degrees of separation."

If you're a Philadelphia Phillies fan, or have even watched any of the NL playoff games, you're probably aware of the Phillies' outfielder by the name of Jayson Werth. He's a very good major league ballplayer, and I even added him to my fantasy team last summer, because of his productivity. Here's the long story... Stay with me. You might want to take notes...

I went to Southern Illinois University - Edwardsville on a baseball scholarship, and one of the first guys I met there was a former SIUE ballplayer named Dennis Werth. He actually got drafted by the New York Yankees the summer before I began my freshman year, so we never played there together, but Dennis stayed in school between his professional baseball seasons in order to finish his degree, and he therefore hung out with all of us. Point to be made: We never called him Dennis. To us, he was Herbie Werth, although I have no idea where that nickname came from. He's also from Lincoln, Illinois, just up the road from Springfield where Tim lives and our shop is located.

Anyway, Herbie was a great guy, and he even played on our SIUE baseball players' intramural flag-football team. At that point, he was already on the Yankees 40-man major league roster and had made his big league debut in pinstripes (a fact we all found fascinating, to say the least). I can remember a late season flag-football playoff game, when it was about 20 degrees out and there was ice and snow on the ground, and Herbie was playing nose guard for us on defense. As the opposing team came to the line to snap the ball, Herbie was laying flat on the ground, with his nose about an inch from the tip of the football, snorting at it and growling, with his vaporized breath looking like something straight out of NFL Films and their "frozen tundra" shows. I think the other team's center was afraid to snap the ball...

At that moment, a couple of us (our whole team was made up of SIUE baseball players) looked at each other and laughed, saying "What in the world would George Steinbrenner think of that!" LOL...

Now, forgetting all about Herbie Werth for a second, skip back to the 1960s. As the son of a former Cardinal, I grew up at Busch Stadium and very much remember a fine infielder by the name of Dick "Ducky" Schofield, who played for the Redbirds throughout most of my childhood. Ducky was from Springfield, Ill.

Many years later, after my baseball career was over and I was a Regional Promotions Director for Converse Shoes, living in Southern California, the Anaheim Angels had a fine young shortstop by the name of Dick Schofield, who just happened to be Ducky's son. He also happened to wear Converse, so we got to know each other as I supplied him with all the shoes, hats, T-shirts, travel bags, and other branded stuff he needed.

So there you have all that. Dennis "Herbie" Werth went to school with me and is from Lincoln, Illinois. Ducky Schofield played for my dad's former team, and I watched him play when I was a kid. His son, Dickie, played for the Angels and I put Converse shoes on him. Got all that???

Okay, so when Jayson Werth came to the big leagues, as such a big strapping outfielder, my first thought was "This kid has got to be Herbie's boy, right..." I did the research and found this: Jayson Werth is not Dennis "Herbie" Werth's son. He's his STEPSON! That
seemed strange enough, that Herbie would marry a girl who already had a little boy and the kid would just so happen to be a great athlete and follow in his new stepdad's shoes, right to the big leagues. Then I saw who Herbie married... A certain Kim Schofield. Herbie married Dickie Schofield's sister and together they raised her son Jayson. Does this kid have some genes or what? Turns out, Kim was such a good athlete she competed at the U.S. Olympic trials, in both the long jump and 100-meters.

So... I've never met Jayson Werth. But, I knew his stepdad well and have that vision of him, snorting on the football, forever burned in my memory. I watched his grandfather play in the big leagues, and I kept his uncle in shoes that had a "star & chevron" on the side. Plus there's the whole Illinois and Springfield connection that ties into what I do today.

The whole thing is a big bowl of spaghetti; it's so intertwined, but there's Jayson, kicking butt in the big leagues. Amazing...

{GALLERY_wb1022}Okay, well that hurt my head just trying to explain all of that. Maybe it's just me, but I find the whole thing spectacularly coincidental, and it's odd I know so many of the people involved, except Jayson.

Barbara is flying home right now, after a two-day trip to Charlotte and, guess where? Philadelphia! She even snapped a photo out of the window at the office where she was having a meeting in Philly, and the new Phils' ballpark can be seen. The oddities continue...

Oh, and one last oddity. That night in L.A., when Reggie Jackson stopped by to chat...? Earlier that evening I was in the hotel lobby and had a chance to say hi to my former flag-football teammate, Herbie Werth. He was on the Yankees roster for the '81 World Series. World = Small.

Meanwhile, the window cleaner team is still hard at work, although the young girl has yet to tackle the most dangerous job. That happens when we have to put a sheet of plywood on top of our arbor over the patio, and then she'll have to place her tallest ladder on top of the plywood, in order to climb up to get our master bedroom windows. That's the moment I most avoid watching...

I know this was a long and convoluted blog installment, mostly about stuff that might perhaps only interest people with bent minds (like me), but I wanted to get it all written down so that I might be able to even understand the strangeness of it all, at least a little bit more. Herbie... Ducky... Dickie... And Jayson. Oh, and Reggie.

And hey, next week we'll go racing again, we'll try to win some more rounds, and I won't have all this free time to allow my brain to wander off in these strange and crazy directions.

Wilber, out!

I've felt just lousy enough to make it seem like an entire beautiful fall weekend was wasted, since I never did feel like being out and about much. On the other hand, my lovely and extraordinarily talented (and did I mention hard-working?) wife got something she richly deserved, on Saturday... A new car! I won't go into specifics or details, other than the fact it's a very nice hybrid, but she's been driving and taking great care of her previous car since 2001, and after weeks of exhaustive research, she finally found the make and model she wanted. At that point, the process shifted from exhaustive research to exhaustive negotiating.  I swear, my wife should make herself available as a "Car Buying Consultant" because nobody I have ever met works at it as hard as she does.

Heck, the actual process of buying the car took over a week. She knew exactly what she wanted and what she was going to pay, and in the end even was a little disappointed that the final "back and forth" came a bit too easy. She figured she might have left a couple of hundred bucks on the table, but she got a great deal, a terrific car, and the pleasure of rewarding herself for all the hard work she puts in, day after tiring day. And the thing is so high-tech I'm surprised you don't have to go to school to drive it. The driver's experience is, pretty much, like driving the starship Enterprise. Cool deal!

We also sold her previous car (her beloved Audi A6) rather than trade it in. Who'd we sell it to? Dave and Nichol, next door!  Barb actually had a trade-in worked out with the dealer, but when we came home that night (Friday) knowing the deal was done but we weren't going to take delivery until Saturday, Dave asked if it was possible for them to buy Barb's old car. Badda boom, badda bing, that deal was done in a flash and rather than go through with the trade-in, we simply added that cash to the down payment. Pretty funny to see Barbara's car in their driveway, though... I suspect Dave has to sell something, too, because they now have five vehicles and four drivers in their household...

As referenced above, I did spend a few needlessly tense hours watching the Vikings/Ravens game yesterday. The Vikings' defensive players are all saying the right things this morning, about learning some lessons and needing to find that killer instinct that puts another team away after you have them down, but man that was a sickening 4th quarter. To blow a 17-point lead in the 4th, and then have to actually rally with yet another Brett Favre magic moment (with two minutes left) to go the length of the field and kick a field goal in order to take the lead again, was bad enough, but then to need Baltimore's young kicker to miss a pretty simple field goal of his own, as time expired, turned what should've been a rout into a lousy win. Okay, there are no good losses and no lousy wins, but that sure didn't feel like a win.  The Vikings and their new quarterback (that Favre guy) are now 6-0, but the St. Paul Pioneer-Press got it right with their big headline: "SIX AND... WHOA!"  And the Ravens taught the Minnesota guys that good teams never quit.  Speaking of routs and quitting, though... How 'bout that New England / Tennessee game! "Wow" if you're a Patriots fan, but "Gulp" if you're a Titans backer. Hard to believe a game like that can even happen in the National Football League.

You know what? It seems bizarre that we have another weekend off before we race again. There's stuff to do, and I figure I'll be busy enough, but man... After that non-stop 4-in-a-row string of races, it's kind of jarring to all of a sudden be home for this long, and then in just a few weeks the whole thing is going to be over. If I'm smart, I'll use this week to start the process of putting together all of my post-season wrap-up publications.... Am I smart? Probably not smart enough...

We will have a busy start to the Vegas race, once we all get out there next week. We're once again staying at Mandalay Bay, thanks to the deal Bob Tasca put together before the first Vegas race, so that's a nice thing.

I arrive at around 1:30 on Thursday, and I'm going to have to hustle to get my car, pick up Tim, and take him to a Ford dealership for a one-hour autograph session. We'll be at Gaudin Ford (2121 Sahara Ave) from 5:00 to 6:00 on Thursday evening, along with the aforementioned Mr. Tasca, and then will have to hustle straight from there to the Fremont Street Experience, to attend the NHRA Fan Fest from 6:00 to 8:00.  Since we don't have the capability to instantly tele-transport ourselves from Gaudin Ford to Fremont Street, I suspect we're either going to have to leave one event a little early, or get to the other one a little late. Maybe both...

I must, once again, go on record by stating that the Las Vegas Fan Fest programs are, by far, the best in the sport. We do a lot of these sorts of things, and none are as successful nor as heavily attended as the Fan Fest in Sin City, and that seems to be the case no matter where they hold it. It used to be at ESPN Zone, outside New York / New York, and when we'd arrive for that the line would stretch around the block. Since they moved it to Fremont Street, it's just as good or even better. Plus, it's just such a cool experience to be down there on Fremont with videos and images of Funny Cars and Top Fuel Dragsters zooming around on the canopy over the street. Very neat deal...

On a different subject, let me ask you this... What do you think of the new-look National DRAGSTER???  My first edition of the new format came in the mail late in the week, and I couldn't resist sending Phil Burgess a quick email to tell him how impressed I was, and how fantastic it looks. To flip through a glossy magazine and see page after page of color, after all these years of knowing all of that stuff was going to be in newspaper black and white, was stunning.

I officially toss out a "GREAT JOB!" to Mr. Burgess and the entire staff of the ND. It's gorgeous!

{GALLERY_1019}Well... I'm obviously out of practice when it comes to filling a decent-sized blog with nonsense on weeks when we're not racing. I can also blame the head cold, right...?  Basically, at this point on chilly but pretty Monday, I got nuthin'...

I leave you with a tiny little photo gallery, which starts with a Pond Cam shot to let you see how the seasons are, finally, changing around here. The green gunk is fighting hard to stay on the pond, but the cool nights are winning out. The only bad thing about this autumn is that we aren't having much of one. It was a very dry summer, a very warm September, and now a pretty chilly October, and all that adds up to lousy colors in the trees. Some of them are turning nicely, but a lot of trees are just dropping their leaves and going dormant, without the fanfare of the brilliant colors.

Also, a couple of additional pics of Da Boyce, who are a lot more lovey-dovey with the chill in the air... 

I'll be appearing here in the Blue Note Lounge, throughout the week. Remember to tip your bartenders and waitresses!

Wilber, out!

Dozer was asking me, a few months back, if I thought he should make the group more of an official fan club, and as much as I thought that was a neat idea I knew that creating and running a real fan club is real work. As in LOTS of real work. My suggestion, to him, was for him to simply create some new Wilk's Warriors t-shirts and sell them to anyone who wants to be part of the "group" (as nebulous as that term is).

So here you have it!!!  The little image, at the top, is the front of  the shirt, and the larger image is the back. Dozer has invested his own money to get them printed up, so you can buy them directly from him. Just email Dan "Dozer" Hough at: dozer1966@consolidated.net

The shirts are $25 up to the size XL, or $29 if you need XXL or XXXL.  That price includes shipping, so it's a pretty good deal, and if you actually live in or around Springfield you can save a few more bucks by contacting Dozer and getting the shirt straight from him, with no shipping involved.

Dozer is a good man, and he was the one who put together an almost spur-of-the-moment reception for Tim and the team last year, right after the Pomona race. Lo and behold, the banquet room was packed... 

You would expect nothing less from the dedicated group we know as Wilk's Warriors, and now you can be part of that group too!!! Wear your shirt with pride!

Here at the ranch, I think the general rule of thumb (or in this case, the rule of nose) is that you spend three days getting a cold, three days having it, and three days getting rid of it. Considering I've been sucking on Zicam lozenges since the start, I'm thinking I've got at least a couple of days lopped off that theory, and maybe today is my last day having it. Then, I'll spend the weekend making massive and rapid improvements. I've been sticking to my regimen, eating right, drinking lots of liquids, and using the Neti Pot two or three times a day, and at least I'm functioning at something close to my normal level (therein lies the benefit of underachieving, so that your "normal" level isn't that hard to match). Still, it's not much fun to feel like you have a cement block for a head while you're using a whole box of Kleenex a day...

On a completely different subject, a whole bunch of people have been sending me notes about the large amount of air time I've been getting on the ESPN shows lately, and I've kind of wondered why that is, compared to the previous 12 years. I think I figured out the answer... It's because of where I now stand, to shoot the video.

For a decade, with Team CSK, I knelt down a little behind and beside the car, right next to the guard wall. Basically, that kept me almost hidden from the TV and still photographers. Now, Tim likes the video to be shot from directly behind the car, so this year I'm right in the middle of the scene, and since the camera guys like to get Krista's reaction after a run, I end up in the shot a lot, when I hand the video camera to her. Hence, my ugly mug ends up on TV more than it used to... For that, I apologize and I hope it hasn't been too scary. Hope I haven't frightened the children.

Speaking of all that, I was trading notes with a regular reader, also named Bob, throughout the day yesterday, discussing all the rituals and superstitions we share prior to or between runs. That even extends to how Krista and I hand off the camera, although we never once spoke about it. All year, up until the Seattle race, I just carried the video camera with me, up to the lanes and then to the line, and then would hand it to her to take back to the pit (since I generally am the one team member who stays up there to see the rest of each session or round). In Seattle, after we lost a crew guy, we all picked up a few new duties and one of mine was to help push the car forward, for the burnout. I couldn't do that with the camera in my hand, so Krista offered to hold it while I helped push.

Within a couple of laps, we had a whole new system down, and we do it exactly the same way before every lap. When we're one pair away from running and are pulling forward to the water box, Krista approaches me and puts both hands together, palms up. I gently drop the camera into her hands, and she takes care of it until after we push the car. As soon as the car starts the burnout, I turn to her and she "presents"
the camera back to me, in the same palms-up way.  Once the lap is
over, I hand it back to her and she takes it back to the pit, so that Tim can download the video onto the race computer. Simple as that.

Oh, and yes I still hand the camera to Krista even if we're the last pair to run and I'm heading back to the pit anyway. We always do it the same way, even if we walk back to the pit side-by-side.

Hey, the sun is trying to peek out, for the first time since I got home on Monday. That's got to be sign that things are getting better, and I'll be back to 100 percent in no time. Until then, more Zicam!

Wilber, out!
 

Actually, I don't know about you, but I've always been conscious of my body's ability to fend things off when I simply can't afford to get sick. It was as if everything was put on hold until Monday morning, and then all the defenses were dropped at that point. Plus, that four-week grind could wear anyone down, so I know almost everyone was tired and beat up, and it's far easier to catch a cold or an upper-respiratory thing when you're not in top form.

Anyway, I came home and felt well enough to go out to dinner with my lovely wife, but then I hit the sofa and soon after went to bed. I headed up to Walgreens yesterday morning and stocked up on Zicam dissolving lozenges (they work wonders) and lots of other stuff, including the single grossest but probably most effective thing yet discovered for this crud: A Neti Pot. Totally heinous to use but very effective in clearing your sinuses and nose and just making you feel better. My actor buddy Buck was the first to tell me of these things, since he's around as many germ-infested people as anyone but has to be able to go out on stage every night, singing, acting, playing multiple instruments, and just being "on" without being sick.

{GALLERY_wb1014}I'll start today's photo gallery with a pic of the view I came home to. Yes, that's snow on the front yard. Even for us this is early for snow, and even though it wasn't much, it was just the thought of it that hit a lot of people in the gut. As we came down out of the clouds, on final approach into MSP, you could hear the murmur go through the plane, as all the people in the window seats were telling their neighbors "Look at that! Snow!!!"

The guy sitting at the window next to me was taking iPhone shots as we came in, no doubt to send back to his peeps in whatever warm climate he came from.

I had a bunch of post-race work to get done yesterday, so I spent most of it in my office but then had a bowl of soup for dinner and went to bed early. I expected to feel way worse when I woke up, but basically I feel the same so I think that's a "win" in my book. I slept in as late as I could, and now it's almost 12:00 and I'm back behind my desk. I'm pretty sure blogging isn't contagious, so don't worry about that.

When I was out yesterday, I finally got around to completing an assignment given to me by blog reader and prolific e-mailer Kim, the lawyer from Vancouver. A few blogs back, I wrote about the new "roundabout" intersection we have right by our neighborhood here in Woodbury, and the funny hieroglyphic directional signs the city came up with after first attempting to use normal yellow signs that were never designed to work at an intersection that's really a vehicular merry-go-round. Kim asked to see them a couple of weeks ago, but I just got around to doing it, so I'll include them in the gallery.

I particularly like the fact they officially call the intersection a "roundabout" instead of using the sanitized and Americanized term "traffic circle." I can hear Jon Anderson's voice every time I go around the loop (and Rick Wakeman's keyboards, and Steve Howe's guitar, and Chris Squire's bass, and Bill Bruford's drums... Why YES I can). I go around the circle on every trip to and from the airport, and with each passing week it's obvious the locals are getting a better handle on how to seamlessly get into the loop and back out of it, without stopping, panicking, staring, worrying, or going the wrong way. You can usually get through without even slowing down.

I'm also including some more pics from the Richmond race, in the gallery. You'll see a couple of shots of the guys, a shot of Tim being interviewed by Sheena Baker of National Speed Sport News, and in that shot it looks like Sheena has just shown Tim her "magic voice recorder" because he's staring at it like he's expecting it to do a trick.

We also had Gary and Sue Madden with us a lot this past weekend. If the last name sounds familiar, it's most likely because you're thinking of John Madden, but it may be because you remember my former CSK teammate, Matt Madden, who now works on Ashley Force Hood's car. Gary and Sue are Matt's parents, and Sue always brings FAR TOO MANY cookies, brownies, and other ridiculously tasty treats for us. We are simply incapable of having the self-restraint needed to keep from plowing right through plate after plate... I ate my entire year's quota of chocolate chip cookies in two days.

Oh, and I also got a pic sent to me from an LRS guest, who noticed the same sign we all saw just a few blocks from the entrance at Virginia Motorsports Park. I laughed every morning, when I passed the patched-together sign for "Wilkerson's Cafe" but never had the chance to take a photo of it. The bottom line on the sign, though, is the funniest part, since Tim's idea of "soul food" would be to go crazy and add bacon to his cheeseburger.

Then there's my buddy Jerry Foss, esteemed photographer for the National DRAGSTER. As I've written here before, Jerry and I have a ritual for the first time we see each other at every race. We play Seinfeld parts by approaching each other with skeptical looks, get right up in each other's faces, and he says "Helloooooooo Bob." I then use my best Newman voice and say "Helloooo JERRY!"

And, to the right, you'll also see a scan of a newspaper article we received from an LRS person who was working in Europe. Hard to believe, but we got major ink over there after Daniel's crash in Memphis. If anyone can translate any of the story, I'd love to know what they had to say.

Back in the world of the racing business, I had to check with Tim yesterday to figure out what our mutual "Plan B" would be for a hotel in Pomona. We stayed at a Residence Inn during the Winternationals, in exchange for doing some promotional work for them, but we're not doing that this time around. The team had always stayed at the Motel 6 in San Dimas, but our booking agent lost his contract with that place, so we had to choose from three other options. We could've saved a few bucks and stayed at a nicer place by going out to Ontario Airport, but Tim chose the one option in San Dimas because it's so much closer to the track. Good move, and I agree.

Of course, it's easy for me to agree because in Pomona I'll be playing my "pay for it yourself and you can stay anywhere you want" card. Originally, Barb was coming to the race and she likes to stay at the Sheraton, right there at the track, so I booked a room there. Now, it turns out, she won't be able to make it, but... I'm staying at the Sheraton. Expensive? Yes. Worth it? For me, also yes.

And... Annette, Dave, John Fink, and I are figuring out our plans to host the whole team for dinner one night in Pomona. Since we're the four new people who came in out of the blue this year, we want to thank Tim, Krista, and all the guys on the team for how much they've made us feel at home. We all feel completely part of the family now, and I'm sure the other three agree with me when I say "This is the place to be."

I spoke to Del for a bit yesterday, and he's still pretty charged up about his win in Richmond and still excited to talk about us racing each other in the final. He thought that was cool, and so did I. Sounds like he's going to the Dodgers playoff game on Thursday, with Robert Hight, and I know they're all hoping for a total So Cal World Series, which would no doubt be dubbed the "Freeway Series" by the media. That would be pretty cool, to see the Dodgers and the Angels square off.

Finally, since it's the end of the baseball season, it's the start of the hockey season, and I'm again playing in two fantasy leagues, just like last year. The "easy" league is the one we have the most people in (39 right now, but still waiting on a 40th guy's roster), including drivers, crew chiefs, crew guys, wives and/or sisters of the aforementioned, and a few friends (including a certain Broadway actor).

Greg Ozubko, as always, is the administrator for the league. I collect all the rosters and get it all put together, but Greg uploads it all and is the one who can go in and make changes when needed. That, for some reason, means we're back to my name being purposefully misspelled all the time. Greg is, obviously, hilarious. This time, he even extended the running joke to my wife, so whereas everyone else is listed with their correct names, I'm "Bob Wilberson" and Barb is "Barbara Doyleson" for no understandable reason. Greg's just funny like that. I guess I better not complain, or there's no telling what my name is going to look like tomorrow... Oops.

That league is the "easy" league because all you do is circle names on a sheet and that's it. You get points when your players score points, but you can't make any roster moves or trade players at all. What you start with is what you get, and it really helps if none of your players get hurt...

I'm also, though, back in the "complicated" league organized by Phil Burgess. This one, as you may recall from last year, is totally hands-on, from the way you draft your players (no two teams in this league can have any of the same players, whereas almost everyone in the easy league has about a dozen players in common) to which players you "activate" each night. You can add and drop players, trade them to other managers in the league, and you really have to be on top of it to do well. If you just walk away and don't pay attention for a week or so, you'll get spanked by the opposition.

Like the baseball league I played in all summer, this one works as if my team and another team in the league are simply playing each other for a whole week. We earn points on offense (goals, shots, assists, etc) and from our goalies, and as you can see I went 3-6-4 in the opening week, so I'm down there in 9th place.

For the record, "Top Alcohol Zamboni" is ND Senior Editor Kevin McKenna. "He Shoots He Scores" is Mr. Burgess. "Canuckleheads" is our blog reader friend from Vancouver, Crazy Jane. "Chuntys" is ND Managing Editor Juan Torres. "Woodbury Royals" is Neighbor Dave. "Slashers" is ND Senior Editor Steve Waldron. "Cosmopolitans" is actually my wife, a name I chose for her team in honor of both her dashing style and her favorite cocktail. "Colorado High!" is former ND staffer John Miller. I'm, of course, "Da Boyce." And, "CanAm99" would be Rob Flynn.

It's going to be a long tough battle this year. Blood will be spilled!

That's it for today. Time for more Zicam...

Wilber, out!

Let's get right to the heart of the matter... We had a TERRIFIC weekend in Richmond. Friday was kind of just okay, and we actually fell completely out of the top 12 in the second session, so we went into Saturday with no official time, as part of the "also ran" group. There were 18 Funny Cars in Richmond, so we knew we had to outrun two cars to make sure we were in, but boy did we do better than that.

Tim got an instant handle on things, and our two Saturday runs were, as a tandem, among our best laps of the year. We were 2nd after the first Saturday run, then had been knocked down to 7th by the time we made the last pass. So... We just plowed our way right back up the sheet to the 4th spot, and we even earned a total of four of the new qualifying bonus points. We all felt pretty good about our chances on Sunday morning...

Round one: We were low e.t. of the round. Round two: We were low e.t. of the round. Semifinal: We were low e.t. of the round. In a row, we took out Cruz Pedregon, Robert Hight, and Mike Neff, and none of the races were really close. Earlier in the day, I had looked at the ladder to try to grab a prediction of how things might go, and one of my thoughts included the fact we might run my buddy Del in the final. Bingo!

At that point, we were outrunning everyone and had made five consecutive near-perfect laps. If we went out there and just repeated, we felt we'd win. Well, apparently we weren't meant to run six consecutive near-perfect laps, because we hurt a piston early in the run, then knocked an oil line off and made a mess of things while Del went past to take a big win.

Disappointed? Sure. We could taste the win, believe me, and the car was so strong we all were very confident, but we all also knew that anything can happen with these machines...

I'm sure I'll write much more about it once I get home and get some sleep, but the bottom line is we won three rounds, moved up to 5th in the points, and kept ourselves alive in the Countdown. We're up against a steep mountain, with four great cars ahead of us, but at least we're alive... And we're running well.... Anything can happen.

We had lots of other fun highlights I can write about later this week, but one of the biggest was our special guest on Sunday. On Friday, I got an email from Bob Vandergriff asking if a good friend of his could be included on our Sunday hospitality list, to come in and enjoy some of the action right in our pit. As he put it "I thought of you because of who he is, and I thought you might enjoy meeting him. He's Justin Verlander from the Detroit Tigers." Cool!

Justin Verlander, in case you haven't been paying attention to the American League recently, is one of the best pitchers in all of baseball. He's the Tigers ace, and he has absolutely nasty stuff.

Justin brought his mom, dad, and brother to the game, and they all came by to hang out with us and get up close for our first warm-up of the day. Justin got his first official "face full" of nitro, and was simultaneously laughing and crying. My guess is that about 99 percent of you can relate to that!

Anyway, he's a great guy and it was a real pleasure to have the Verlander family with us. Maybe we'll see Justin again, someday, at another race... Seeing as how he's the best pitcher in the American League Central, I know I'll be seeing much more of him on TV and at the ballpark.

{GALLERY_1012}Rob Flynn just stopped by to chat, here in the gate area. I guess it's a good thing my trip home goes through Detroit, because there are a bunch of Delta travelers over at the next two gates, all trying to get home through Atlanta, and it's apparently not going well for any of them. Annette came by a few minutes ago, and said that their flight is delayed, the next flight is delayed, and earlier this morning they were here when Dave Jacobsen got on his flight but didn't leave for more than an hour, and he only had a one-hour layover at ATL... Yuck...

So far, my flight is listed as on-time, and my one-hour layover in Detroit looks safe..

Hey, cool. Just got a text message from Del saying "Fun race yesterday. I knew eventually it would come down to us in a final round"

I messaged him back and just told him that he and his team earned every bit of that one...

Well, I'm too tired to write any more. Can I just twitch my nose or blink my eyes and be home? If it were only that easy...

Wilber, out!
 

The Delta/Northwest integration is moving along, and our frequent flyer programs and miles were actually merged into Delta Sky Miles this week. Thanks to some bonus elite miles I got from Delta (for linking my accounts and for signing up for the Delta American Express card) I'm already on the doorstep for Platinum status next year, which will be a first for me. Some of those elite miles were part of a "Customer Retention and Appreciation" program, and now I can see why they wanted to soften us up.

I went to check-in for my flight a few minutes ago, and could only print the boarding pass for the first leg (MSP to ATL). The second leg, which I'm confirmed on and upon which I have an actual seat assignment, simply doesn't come up on the screen for printing. So... I got my first taste of calling Delta, speaking to someone on another continent (at least it sure sounded like it) and then finally being told there was nothing they could do about it and I'd just have to rectify the situation when I got to the airport. That's what we call "passing the buck" in a first-class way... Ought to be interesting.

Before I go any further, it's imperative that I mention the brief conversation I just had with Krista Wilkerson. She called to ask me if I might put a word in here about how grateful and appreciative she is for the huge outpouring of support she and Tim received after Daniel's crash. She said it was so strong you could feel it, like an actual presence or a blanket of love and support around them. She wasn't sure if that was blog-worthy or not, but I had to tell her it's probably the single most blog-worthy topic in the world.

All of us, at Team Wilkerson Racing, thank all of you. I know I didn't reply to every email, but I tried to get back to as many people as possible, and I agree with Krista: The support was enormous. Thank you! I hope you all appreciate just how much it has meant to us.

Now, heading back around 24 hours to Tuesday night and the Twins/Tigers "Tie-Breaker" game. Let me preface this by doing some math here. From the time I was born to the time I went off to college, my dad's jobs in baseball probably provided me with a chance to see upwards of 100 professional baseball games a year. I was, obviously, very lucky in that regard. Playing ball, through college and then in the minor leagues, I either saw or played in another 100 to 150 games per year. Then, spending four years as a Scouting Supervisor for the Blue Jays, I could count on seeing something like 200 amateur games, and about 100 pro games a year. Since then, I've remained a loyal fan, who probably gets to 25 games per year.

I've been lucky enough to attend eight World Series (1964, 1967, 1968, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1985, and 1987) and we've had post-season playoff games here in Minnesota during four of the years since we moved here. Make that five after last night.

I don't have a calculator handy, but I think you could safely come up with a round figure of something close to 2,500 professional baseball games I've been lucky enough to see, in-person.

Not a single one of those games comes anywhere close to the riveting excitement, the stress, the thrill, and the sheer exhaustion created by Tuesday night's 12-inning game, which took more than four hours to complete. Not a one. It was a night, and a game, for the ages and Barbara and I both felt truly privileged to witness it, and shake our "Homer Hankies" with 54,000 other Twins fans at the inflated stadium that just won't die...

If you saw any of the highlights, you know the Twins and Tigers went back and forth, trading leads and the momentum. Neither team would quit, even when faced with almost certain defeat. There were Houdini-like escapes by relief pitchers, game changing defensive players, and clutch hitting of the highest magnitude. In the end, the Twins got out of a huge jam in the top of the 12th, then scratched a run home in the bottom to win the American League Central. It was insane!

The Dome was also ROCKING. I've been to my share of rock concerts, and I stand at the startling line next to an 8,000 hp Funny Car, but the crowd was so loud, and so into it, for four solid hours, my ears are still ringing. I've also never before been to a baseball game, no matter how important, where the crowd stood for at least 80 percent of the time. Between innings, we'd take a seat and catch our breath, then it was back up again, screaming and yelling, through every half-inning.

Now, of course, let's be realistic. Less than 24 hours after celebrating on the field while we celebrated in the stands, the Twins will be hitting the field at a cozy little ballpark by the name of Yankee Stadium, to take on the Bronx Bombers in round one. Underdogs? Was David the underdog in his match-up with Goliath? This is sorta like me starting up a new software company and immediately taking on Microsoft.

Pick any four or five starters on the Yankees randomly, and they probably collectively make twice what the Twins entire payroll is. Plus, the Twins just played 4 hours of critical ball, after playing a solid week of "must win" baseball in what were all "eliminations games" so they must be gassed. They are the first team in Major League history to win the division after being three games out of first with four games to play. Amazing. I'm not sure I really understand how they did it...

They have to start a young rookie on the mound tonight. Almost their entire bullpen pitched last night. And, they got to their hotel in New York at 4:30 in the morning... But you know what...? Who cares. They don't have a chance in the world against the Yankees, but just the thrill of being at that game last night makes it all worthwhile, no matter what happens in New York.

We sat in front of a couple of nice young men, and by the lingo they were tossing around it was immediately obvious to me that these guys had played ball and been in their share of dugouts. I asked them, and sure enough they both played through high school, some semi-pro, and now play fast-pitch softball because they love the game. I never told them who I was or my background, but I told them I was getting a real kick out of hearing the sort of ballplayer chatter I've always loved.

Best lines: After throwing a pitch just off the corner on an 0-2 count (which is exactly what you want to do, in hopes the batter will swing at a bad pitch because he's afraid of striking out) they both said "Okay, good nibble. Now we go!" just like they were in the dugout. Or, after a Twins pitcher would make a perfect pitch, down low in the zone, they'd both yell "Live there! All night! Live there!" And when a Twins pitcher would come in tight on a Tiger batter, pushing him back off the plate, it was "That's my plate! Get off it!"  Great stuff.

In the end, I told them it had been a lot of fun and an honor to enjoy that game with them. It was...

{GALLERY_108}On the way out, we passed only two groups of Tiger fans. The crowd had to have been 99.999 percent Twins fans, but we saw these two dejected groups walking out and Barb and I both stopped to tell them it had been a great game, one of the greatest ever, and that they should be proud of their team. At first they seemed taken aback, that someone who rooted for the other team would say that, but it was clear they appreciated it.

Whew, I got all worked up just re-telling all of that. What a game. It's a night I'll never forget...

Now, I'm going to go get packed, then I'll turn on Game 1 from Yankee Stadium, and be proud of my team, no matter the outcome. See you in the morning!

Thursday - 9:00 a.m.

Welcome to the Sky Club at MSP, on my way to Richmond.

My check-in procedure wasn't without mishap, but it wasn't a disaster either. I ended up being able to reprint boarding passes for both legs of the trip, so that was taken care of, but then the agent behind the counter (who has to put your baggage tag on your suitcase) simply walked away. After a few exasperating minutes, the lady working the kiosks next to mine said "We can't check your bag, no paper here..." and then she walked away. I delicately said "Don't walk away from me, fix the problem." I just wasn't going to put up with that "Not my problem!" attitude we get far too much with airlines in this day of no customer service.

It took a while, but she finally found the original woman who had fled the scene, got her to grab a new box full of the paper they print bags tags with, and she installed that at a snail's pace, taking as much time as she could. Any slower, and she'd have been in reverse. Anyway, that's all behind me and pretty soon Dave and I will be on the flight.

We're on the same flights down to Richmond, but he's on a different flight back so we couldn't ride to the airport together without one of us needing to take a cab home. That meant that as I backed out of the driveway, Dave was loading his bag into the back of his car, and we got to the parking ramp at about the same time. Because of my baggage fiasco, he went through the security line about 10 people ahead of me, and the TSA guy checking IDs did a double take when he saw my TWR shirt, which is identical to the one Dave passed by wearing, a couple of minutes earlier. Consider us officially "branded" as we travel.

As for our Twins, they gave it all they had, playing on no sleep and no gas, but the Yankee steamroller flattened them. I don't know about you, but spending the most money to stockpile the most talent isn't something I can get behind. They're great players, and they work hard, so it's not the players fault. It just seems ridiculous that the Twins payroll is about $65 million, and the Yankees is over $200 million...

As I said before, though, who cares. We don't expect them to beat the Yankees, and even if they go out in three straight you'll never be able to take away the thrills we got in that tie-breaker game. Those memories will never fade.

As I left the house this morning, I gave Barbara a hug and a kiss, said goodbye to Buster and Boofus, and Barb said "Be fast, but be safe."

Exactly!

Wilber, out!

Anyway, heading quickly back to the end of the Memphis race...

Rain, of course, on Sunday. What was really miserable was that a third-grader with a rudimentary knowledge of colors could have told you, after a quick glance at radar, that there was no way we could run. All day. Period. But, for reasons that have escaped me since my first days in this sport, we got the unmitigated pleasure of being allowed to sit out there for most of the day, before they made it official... I think my feet finally warmed up sometime in the middle of the night, after being wet and cold all day.

We went to bed as fast as we could, knowing they’d made the intelligent decision (which we all wholeheartedly supported) to start the race at 10:00 on Monday. As long as there were no printed tickets or schedules that said 11:00, why not start an hour early if you can. So, we were rolling out of the hotel by 6:30 or so, but not before hitting that alarm and then looking outside to see the entire world still very wet. My wipers were on the whole way to the track.

We had torn down about half of our hospitality area on Sunday, leaving the poles and the big awning in place, along with half the floor, but putting nearly everything else away. Annette was kind enough to give me a small work space by leaving one of the rectangular tables out, which my computer and printer could share with the snack tray and the coffee pot. Just for the record, the snacks were for everyone, and I only had a couple of packs of peanut butter crackers. I did my share of damage to the coffee, though.

Throughout those early morning hours, we just went about our business as if this thing was going to happen on time, but there was no escaping the fact the air was 100 percent saturated. There were no tell-tale signs of rain on any windshield or in the puddles, but all you had to do was ride around on a golf cart to scooter and you got wet. It wasn’t looking too good, but they kept at it out on the track, running the jets and doing the best they could to get it dry.

Daniel and Ron Capps were the first pair of Funny Cars, and we had actually gone through various scenarios about how we were going to get his car serviced after he beat Ron in that opener. I think everyone thought the car was quick enough to do that, and we all knew Daniel would be fine at the Tree and just great getting it to the other end. His mostly volunteer crew, however, were going to have a hard time turning that car around in an hour.

We had hoped that he and Capps, being the 8th and 9th qualifiers, would get the last pair as their only choice, but someone else took it and they were saddled with being first. Had they been last, the idea was for the loser of the race between Tim and Bob Tasca to put their car in Daniel’s pit, and have Daniel’s team roll straight into theirs, and that team would pitch in and get the between-rounds service done. That was cool of the Tasca guys to offer, and our guys were up for it too, but when Daniel and Ron had to be the first pair, it kind of blew that chance. They’d be the first ones back to our gaggle of three pit areas, and probably wouldn’t know who had won between Bob and Tim.

We waited out a bit more mist, then finally Miss Tennessee sang the national anthem and we were off. Top Fuel was FAST, so we knew the track was every bit as good as we’d expected on a cool (almost cold) overcast day. Finally, Daniel and Ron pulled up to run, and we all got ready.

After his burnout, I took my position directly behind the car and brought the video camera to my right eye. The kid is so calm in the car, there was no way of knowing it was Daniel in there and not Tim.. They both staged together, and at the flash of amber the kid was away, and I mean “away in a hurry.” He actually left on Ron by two-hundredths, and his LRS Shelby was absolutely ripping.

It’s funny how, after a few years in this gig, you can get an almost instant sense for how good the car is running by how it leaves. Sometimes, if it’s under-powered, we say it just kind of “wallows” on the tires and slugs along, not really getting “up on the tires” with good pop. If it shakes, that’s easy to see, and if it smokes the tires, well that’s sort of an instant indication that you messed up (the same kid who could see green on a radar screen could spot tire smoke and know it’s bad).

Daniel’s car got right up on the tires and was tearing away. The whole thing only lasted a couple of seconds, but I could tell he was ahead, and I knew it was a good lap. And then… His car turned left.

I’ll try to explain this exactly as I saw it. His car was running strong, but it made a little “sashay” move out there a bit, and I can clearly remember thinking “This kid is good, and he’s going to keep his foot down and keep it in the groove” right before it made a complete and ridiculous turn to the left. That little rear-end sashay probably saved us more than you realize, because if the car had simply turned left without it, Daniel would’ve run right into the side of Ron’s car. The little wiggle slowed him enough for Capps to get by and, just barely, out of the way.

Unfortunately, when something that cataclysmic goes wrong on a lap, I have a tendency to immediately hit the “Off” button on the camera. Throughout all those years of big explosions and bodies flying 30 feet in the air during the CSK days, I barely got any of that on tape because I instinctively turn the thing off when bad things happen. This time, I got the car turning left, and we could see one of the wheels bouncing straight ahead, down the track, before the screen goes black. I did not capture the impact with the wall, and for that I’m sort of thankful.

Obviously, we’ve all seen it multiple times by now, on TV, and we can see that both wheels are off the car before it hits the wall. To be clear, because there was a little confusion about this, it’s not the tires that came off. It’s both complete wheel assemblies. The tires stayed attached to the wheels just fine.

The collision was, obviously, gruesome. We were all stunned for that first second or two, because they had taken down the big screen on Sunday and we had no replay to see, and with all the smoke and debris, we really couldn’t see where Daniel was with the car, whether he was upright or upside down, or what was going on. In a blink, though, his guys were already yelling “He’s okay, he’s talking to us,” and that lifted the weight of a universe full of worlds off all of our shoulders. By then, we could hear Bob Frey say “He’s getting out of the car under his own power and it looks like he’s fine...” It seemed inconceivable.

Just then (and keep in mind, everything I’ve just written since the part about the burnout took place in about 10 seconds), Sheila Cunningham yelled “Bob, go tell Krista,” and I turned to see Daniel’s mom walking, slowly, sort of aimlessly, up the track toward the scene, which was much too far away to walk to. I ran for her, put my arm around her, looked her right in the eye, and told her that he was okay. He was actually, amazingly, just fine. She was strong, but at that point I’m not ashamed to say we both needed the arms around us. I stayed with Krista from that point on, as we kept hearing reports that he was not just okay but perfectly great down there and really sad about ruining the race car.

Tim got out of his car, got on a scooter, and headed down there to see Dan, and not too long after that they both came rolling back on the return road, and Daniel literally leaped up onto the retaining wall to hug his mom.

If there are people out there who say stupid things about how hard we work on the safety features in these cars, and how much we’ve done since we lost Eric and Scott (I know, you think I’m kidding when I say that, but I’ve gotten e-mails from idiots who write “This is ridiculous, they know it’s dangerous, just get in the car and go. I’d do it!”) Daniel Wilkerson is now your walking, talking, LIVING example of how far we’ve come. I don’t want to think what I might be writing about here, had we not had all those new features on the car. As he said “The only thing that hurts are my feelings. I ruined a great race car.”

He, of course, did not ruin the race car. When both of your rear wheels come off at that rate of speed, you are simply an unfortunate passenger, along for the ride. With a bit of a laugh, he recalled every split second of it like this...

“It was ripping, and then maybe for just a fraction of second I got the feeling that something might be wrong, because it did that little sashay move on me. Then, next thing I know I feel like my butt hit the track, and I’m going straight left. I cranked the wheel hard right and actually thought, ‘I got this,’ but the wall was right in front of me and then I’m thinking, ‘I don’t got this,’ so I just held the wheel as hard as I could, gritted my teeth, and got ready for it. Let me tell you, that split second right before you hit the wall pretty much head-on, that’s not a lot of fun. Then, for some reason I hit the brake and the fire bottles at the same time, which was dumb on two counts. One, I didn’t have any rear wheels, much less brakes, and I don’t know why I hit the bottles. That just added to the mess I made.”

{GALLERY_wb1006}The clean up, out at the scene, was a pretty long drawn-out deal, and Daniel felt bad about that as well. I took him up to the announcer’s room and put him on the P.A. with Bob Frey, and an apology to the fans and racers (which was, of course, totally needless) was one of the first sentences out of his mouth.

When Bob asked him if the wreck was a big hit on his wallet, Dan said “Not at all, for me. It was for my dad, though.”

The car was officially “wadded up” about as badly as any car I’ve ever seen. Basically, everything forward of the motor was smashed right back to the fuel pump, and it was hard to even make sense out of what you were looking at. The body was destroyed, too, but it mostly just looked like someone sawed the whole front third off it, because the rest of it was in pretty good shape.

By the way, that body was loaned to us by Bob Tasca so that Daniel could drive a Ford at this race. I guess we should take the pieces back over there and say “Here it is. Thanks a lot for letting us use it...”

As for the all-important question “Why did the wheels come off?” I don’t have that answer for you yet, and I refuse to speculate. In due time, when the team has the opportunity to go through it all, very carefully, I suspect we’ll find an answer. Until then, Daniel Wilkerson is still the same bright, funny, dedicated kid he was on Monday morning, and that’s all that counts.

Anyway, that’s about all I feel like writing today. So much to do, including that important ball game this afternoon, before I head for Richmond on Thursday.

I’ll be back in a day or two...

Wilber, out!

Now, I'm sitting here in our hospitality area at 10:00 a.m., on Sunday morning, watching the same rain that has been falling since sunrise. Where in the world did this come from? Perhaps it's just payback for how incredibly nice it was yesterday. The worst part is the radar screen, which isn't giving us much cause for hope. Grrrrrrrr....

Who knows what the eventual situation will be, whether we'll get this in today (doubtful) or tomorrow (hopeful) or some other weekend (geez, I hope not) but we'll just sit it out here, wait to see what will happen, and deal with it. You can't control Mother Nature, but she can sure be a royal pain in the butt sometimes... And expensive, too, since we'll all be changing our travel plans.

I'm also a tad on the chilly side. I looked at my LRS sweatshirt in the closet, when I was packing for this race, but had the foolish thought "Nah, the forecast is great! I don't need that..." and left it at home. It's in the 50s right now, and with this rain it feels far colder and pretty miserable, so I just went and donated $25 to the NHRA coffers by purchasing a long-sleeved heavy t-shirt from the big white Nitro Mall tent. Very spiffy flames on the sleeves, too..

Anyway, the key thing so far this weekend has been "the kid" Daniel. They got their car put together on Thursday, and with the other part- time teams not playing in the first qualifying session, Daniel was the first FC driver on the track on Friday afternoon. It was a bit warm, and no fuel cars had been on the racing surface, so we weren't sure what to expect... How 'bout a 4.149 right out of the box! When we saw that, we knew it was a good lap and it probably was enough to get him solidly in the show, but once we saw some of the big hitters running 4.19s and 4.16s, Daniel's lap looked better and better, and it even held on for the top spot until the final three pairs ran in Q1. By the end of the session, Bob Tasca had run a 4.145, Daniel had his 4.149, and Tim posted a 4.169. I took a pic of the dry-erase board to show the three red names in the top half... Pretty cool.

And (hopefully he won't read this and let it go to his head) we're all just as impressed as we can be by Daniel, both in the car and in the pit. He's a great guy, and one would have to think his parents had something to do with that...

Dan then ran an even better 4.118 on the second Friday lap, while Tim put a 4.130 on the scoreboard, and at that point everyone knew the kid was safely in the deal. So, they spent yesterday just making sure the car was ready to go for today, or tomorrow, or whenever... Qualifying 8th, Dan will face some guy named Capps in round one, whenever that may be...

In that second session on Friday, we got the coincidental thrill of having Dan and Tim running side-by-side. Needless to say, that was pretty cool and lots of people have been sending me pics. Dave took my camera to the line and got some great shots, too, so I've included a few in the photo gallery... And thanks to Brandon Mudd, who does the PR here and for Gateway International, for sending me a cool shot he took from the tower.

Mark Dowdy is here, and I've written about him on the blog before. Mark's a dirt track racer, but was paralyzed from the waist down a few years ago. He was justifiably proud to show me a big feature story on him, from his local paper, that tells how he has gotten back in the race car recently, with a new steering wheel that allows him to work the throttle, brakes, and gears with his hands, and he just beams when he talks about it. Cool deal, for a great guy!

{GALLERY_mt2}Yesterday, I was up at the line when Rachel Brunner, who works for the Kalitta team, walked toward me wearing a green ball cap with a Michigan State "S" on the front. I was only a little puzzled by that, knowing Rachel is a big University of Michigan fan, until she pointed out the sign she had made and taped on her shirt. It said "I'm wearing this hat because I lost a bet. Go Blue!" Typically hilarious, for Rachel. She's one of the funniest people I know, and between her and Todd Myers I'm not sure how anyone keeps a straight face on that team...

Speaking of Todd, though... He's a big Detroit Tigers fan and boy, the last few days have been pretty amazing. The Twins keep winning, the Tigers keep losing, and now here we are on the final day of the regular season and they're tied for first place. Lots of people were keeping track of the Twins/Royals game and then the Tigers/White Sox game, and I could barely stand the tension last night. The Twins managed to beat the Royals and Zack Greinke, who really should win the Cy Young Award in the American League, and lo and behold those crazy White Sox beat the Tigers. Depending on how things go today, one of them can win the division, or they could finish in a dead heat and play one-game playoff on Tuesday. They can't play it on Monday, because it would be in Minnesota and there's a previous commitment at the Metrodome. Something called "Monday Night Football" I think... Vikings vs. Packers. That ought to be interesting...

So, even with the rain here we're going to have some baseball to keep track of this afternoon. I almost wish I could fast-forward to tonight just to see how it all comes out. I'm still thinking the Tigers will win this thing...

Hey guess what... It's still raining... This really stinks...

Wish us luck here. We need a break.

Wilber, out!

Tonight is Barbara’s earnings call, at work, so whenever she’s finally done with that we’re going to try to meet somewhere for a glass of wine. Just so we can actually spend some time together outside the house and enjoy ourselves for a few minutes...

Meanwhile, I was just going through all my Dallas photos and it finally hit me that there’s one common thread running through a lot of them. If the subject in any photo is a member of our team, the looks on the faces are all very serious. I didn’t notice it at first, but then I was scrolling through shot after shot and everyone looks very intense, in every shot.

I’m going to call it focus, and it’s not like nobody smiled all weekend. We had a normal amount of laughs and excitement, but for some reason I kept taking pictures of people looking stoic. You’ll see a few of them in the gallery below...

Getting home on Monday was a nice thing, although a bit too exciting right at the end. They’re rebuilding one of the main runways at MSP right now, so in-bound delays are kind of common, but when we circled over southern Minnesota about five times the pilot finally came on and said it was a combination of the runway being out of service and the “high surface winds” in the area, and we’d probably be holding for another 20 minutes.

When they cleared us to land, we made a long slow descent in over the southern suburbs, and as we got closer to the ground the jet was starting to bounce, swivel, drop, and pivot pretty much all at once. You could tell they had their hands full as we neared the ground, making constant corrections and pulling it back in line as the wind (which was a sort of semi-crosswind) kept knocking us off.

As much as I fly, and as much as I’ve flown all my life, there really aren’t that many moments when you have an adrenalin-filled flash of “Whoa, is this it?” I’ve only had a few of those, but this time we were about 30 feet off the ground, the pilots were still really working it, and just as we were about to make that final flare-out and touch down, we hit a gust of wind that about tipped us sideways. In that micro-second, I wondered just what would happen if the wings tipped down about 15 feet when you’re only about 10 feet off the ground. They got us straightened out, and slammed her on the runway pretty hard, but it was a little thrilling there for a minute.

The next thing I noticed, when I stepped off the plane, was that summer apparently ended, up here, while I was in Dallas. I was beginning to wonder if this outrageously warm late-summer and fall would ever come to a close, and now that it’s almost October, it appears we’re done with it.

It was about 55 degrees when I got off the plane, and with the 35 mph winds it felt a tad chillier than that. The one very good thing about the wind was that it finally cleared the back pond of duckweed, at least for a while. I can’t remember the last time I looked out the back windows and saw actual water instead of a pool table of green gunk, so I revived the old Pond Cam theme by taking a pic. The duckweed is back today, but one of these nights we’ll get a hard frost and that will be the end of that... It was in the 30s last night.

Yesterday, I got ready to do my pre-race press release and it finally hit me that I had to do two. I knew, of course, that Daniel Wilkerson was racing in Memphis this weekend, but for some reason I never thought ahead and planned to write a second story. Badda boom, badda bing, both stories were done in short order and the Dan story even grabbed the headline at NHRA.com this morning. How cool is that!

Another massive project has been the hockey pool we all get in. I think last year was the first time I kind of ended up being “the guy” when it comes to putting this all together, and the whole Dallas weekend was a non-stop hockey pool thing, with guys from all sorts of teams handing in their sheets. A certain percentage will do something wrong, no matter how clear the instructions are, so then you’re running around getting that straightened out, and basically it all just came to an end a few minutes ago.

For the record, Susie Worsham beat Jimmy Prock by about a minute, getting her roster to me, so Jimmy is the official “last man in” this year. Your attention please... The pool is closed. I repeat, the pool is closed.

We’ve got drivers, crew chiefs, crew guys, media people, neighbors, actors (well, one actor anyway, since Buck is in the league), wives, and friends. We don’t have a butcher, a baker, or a candlestick maker, but we have just about everything else covered.

It remains to be seen who will win the coveted “Guido Antonelli Award” this year, for coming in dead last. His sterling accomplishment from last year has earned him the title rights to the prize for finishing last. Atta boy Guido!

One other thing I noticed when I got home is that the chill in the air changes the way Boofus and Buster act toward each other. They still love each other and play like raving maniacs (you can tell when you walk in the door and all the rugs on the floor are out of place...) but during the summer they don’t hang out as much together when they’re sleeping. The hot sun and black fur probably combine to make them a little more independent.

Now, though, with a few windows cracked open and the fall air in the house (it’s 60 in here, right now) they’ve instinctively started snuggling again. Two good boys, they are...

And now to Memphis... What are my most distinct Memphis memories? Well, there was 1996 when it was so brutally hot a young driver named Worsham came over to see me in Whit Bazemore’s pit area, asking if I could get his grandmother into the Winston suite so she could cool off. That’s really the first time we ever spoke.

And 2001, when Memphis was the first race we ran after 9/11. Reading had been postponed, so we went on to Memphis a week or so later and it was all pretty emotional. The drivers went out on the track and unfurled a huge American flag, and all of us were connecting with each other and trading “what were you doing when you heard?” stories.

Other than that, throughout the years I mostly remember lots of rain, muddy parking lots, and a near-flood in the pro pits that had Pro Stock teams scrambling to back up their transporters, with the awnings still out and attached, to keep the cabs from going under water. No rain in the forecast this weekend, though, so hopefully we won’t have to deal with that.

Oh, and one other Memphis memory, that is blog related. Way back in the beginning of the blog, I took a moment to snap a photo of the Steak ‘N Shake that was next door to our hotel. I think that, and maybe the first time I showed our cat Shasta, were pretty much what started the off-beat nature of this blog. I got comments from around the world about the Steak ‘N Shake pic, and it helped me have the confidence to just write about whatever was going on, rather than have to try to force this to be about any particular things or people. Before you knew it, this thing had evolved into the rambling mess it is today. You can all thank Steakburgers for that... With onion, pickles, and relish.

{GALLERY_930}Finally, the Bing.com addiction took me just a few miles north of the track, to the town of Millington, Tenn., to get a bird’s eye view of the ballpark there. As you may recall, I played a very memorable game there in 1989, when it was the official home of the USA Baseball Team and the semi-pro club I was on (the not-so-famous Sauget Wizards) traveled down to Millington to play them.

I wonder if Fernando Vina, Jeromy Burnitz, Bret Boone, Dan Wilson, and the other guys on that team that all went on to play in the big leagues still remember the night the Sauget Wizards beat them 6-5 and the right fielder hit a bomb over the centerfield wall? Probably not, but I bet they might if you reminded them.

I remember all three of my at-bats in that game. I felt very comfortable in the box my first time up, and not really all that nervous, facing Dan Smith from Creighton. I think it was a 1-1 count when I lined a fastball up the middle and drove in our DH, Jimmy Donohue, with the game’s first run. I actually remember being more nervous after I got to first base, because that was the first moment any of us wondered, for real, if we could possibly, just maybe, actually beat the national team.

I walked my next time up, which was pretty amazing considering I usually struck out about twice as much as I walked, then I came up again in the top of the 6th, and by then we were down 2-1. Erik Schullstrom, a hard thrower from Fresno State, was on the mound and I vividly remember not feeling comfortable in the box. My spikes weren’t digging in right, I wasn’t really where I wanted to be, and it was all distracting. I remember thinking “My feet feel weird, hey stop thinking about your feet!” to myself.

Then, he left a 90 mph fastball up in the zone and right down the middle and I hit a long fly to center, with two men on. As I ran to first I was hoping it might move the runners up, or maybe get over the centerfielder’s head for a hit of some sort. Much to my amazement, as I rounded first I looked out there and saw the USA centerfielder looking up just as the ball went out of the park. I tried to act as cool as I could running the bases, but needless to say I was out of my mind. Coolest home run I ever hit, I think...

So on that run-producing note, I bit you adieu... See you when I get to Memphis.

Wilber, out!
 

As you probably saw, heard, or read about, the track in Dallas, as great as it is, was a bit "out of balance" or something to that effect. It wasn't completely a one-lane track, but the right side was really having far more problems than the left and let's just put it this way: Nobody with lane choice was taking the right lane. That's just how it was...

In the first round, we were lined up against Ron Capps but our 4.204 in qualifying gave us lane choice over his 4.207. For 3-thousandths, we got 8th and he got 9th and that, right there, pretty much settled our match-up as long as we could go from A-to-B without messing up. We did, running a really nice 4.212, to pick up our first "W" in the playoffs. It was nice to hoot and holler (Texas terminology) again, and I'm not sure who patted me on the back really hard right after the win-light came on, but I watched the video I shot and just after the
4.212 popped up on the scoreboard, the whole scoreboard gets knocked right out of the frame! I loved it. But, there was only one problem...

As the 8 vs. 9 matchup, we were the final pair to run in the first round, so we had already seen No. 1 qualifier Robert Hight beat Leif Helander, from Sweden, in his first-round race. The winner of the 8 vs. 9 match-up faces the winner of the 1 vs. 16 race in the second round, so that was kind of important for us to watch. Robert won with a 4.202, so he had lane choice by a hundredth. I knew that as soon as I saw our time on the board, and I knew we really had our work cut out for us.

We were second pair in the next round, and as I wrote in my post-event report, the pair ahead of us brightened everyone's outlook. It was Jack Beckman against John Force, and Beckman won with a great lap, but Force made it down the right lane to give him a real battle, putting a
4.271 on the board. Literally, that was the first time any of us got a glimpse that it might even be possible for a Funny Car to run well enough to win over there. You still couldn't run as quickly as a car that made a good lap in the left, but it was indeed possible to get to the finish line under power. Until then, every Funny Car had smoked the tires over there...

I had talked to Tim before the run, and he had a wry smile on his face, saying "I know I can get down that lane, so this ain't over yet..." He did his part with the tune-up, and we did get down the lane. He did more than his part at the tree, grabbing a huge, gigantic, enormous 6-hundredths advantage in reaction time. The LRS car led almost the whole way and Tim later told us that he never saw Hight out the window at all. But, Robert had the steam to drive around us, and we lost by 26-thousandths. We got down it, and gave him a grand battle, but you had to tip-toe a little over there and therefore you had to hope they weren't totally on their game in the left. Close, but no cigar...

A couple of thousandths in qualifying earned us that lane choice in round one. A hundredth in the first round cost us lane choice for round two. And, 26-thousandths in round two ended our day against the guy who got into the Countdown last, by the tiniest hairs on his chinny chin chin, and now leads the points with back-to-back playoff wins. Did anyone really think Robert Hight wasn't going to be a factor in this deal? We knew it...

We just went back to the pits, collected ourselves for a bit, and then got to work. The crew guys did their jobs on the race car, while us other "non-crew" types began tearing the circus down in the hospitality area. Did I mention it was hot on Sunday? Hoo boy, it was hot... All of us pretty much just wanted to get it done, so we kept cranking on it, taking down walls, the big backdrop, and poles.
Once we got the big awning down, we were out in the sun, which made it ever so much more enjoyable, but by then Jeff and Rich had come overfrom the race car to help, and we had it all pretty much torn down and
ready to pack up before the finals ran. The trailer we haul the hospitality stuff in was parked out on the outskirts of the pit, and since you can't move a trailer until an hour after the finals, and I hadn't done my actual No. 1 job of writing all of my reports and highlights, I cleaned up as best as I could, put on a clean shirt, jumped in my steaming hot rental car still sweating profusely, and drove up here. The shower I took when I arrived in my room felt just a little nicer than usual... And no crickets at the Hyatt! Imagine that.

Well, I now have to get out of here and head downstairs to the lobby. I'll catch the Hyatt's shuttle and have the friendly driver take me over to terminal E, where my flight will leave around 12:00. I'm going over there with a couple of hours to spare, so my plan is to finish this at the gate and fire it off before we board... In a few hours, I'll be home. Barb told Boofus and Buster I would be home this afternoon, so I hope they're waiting for me. Sometimes, when I come home after a trip, they act like they're not excited to see me, but I can see through that act!

Back in a bit...

(30 minutes later...)

Well, that was easy. I arrived in the lobby at 9:55, got on the shuttle at 10:00, got off at Terminal E at 10:10, and now I'm in the Sky Club about 60 yards from my gate at 10:25. Can't beat that...

Anyway, I'm including a fairly large photo gallery, with various images from the Dallas weekend. I'll be home in a few, and Barbara is home this week, but with her company (Lawson Software) making its quarterly earnings announcement on Wednesday afternoon, I'm not going to be seeing her much. As Vice President - Investor Relations, my wife is the quarterback for these announcements, and the weeks leading up to each one are hectic, stressful, and LONG. I'm "on my own" for dinner each night, and she'll be burning the midnight oil at her office in downtown St. Paul right up until Wednesday. Then, of course, I leave for Memphis on Thursday. Such is the life we lead...

There will be some potentially interesting TV to watch each night. As bad as our Minnesota Twins have been all year, they are now only two games behind the Tigers with a four-game series beginning tonight in Detroit. I shouldn't necessarily say they've been bad, because what they've really been is just overwhelmingly average. But, for a team that was supposed to win the division, they've been a disappointment. If they just would've played decent all year, they would have run away with the AL Central, and about two weeks ago they were dead and buried in third place. Somehow, though, they've begun to click and have played great for the last two weeks, narrowing the gap between them and the Motor City Kitties... They really need to win three out of the four to have a chance, and a sweep would be the more realistic way to win the division, but I don't see that happening.

But, as Barb and I agreed last night on the phone, we can't get too emotionally invested in this, because the Tigers play far too well at home and what the heck, even if the Twins were to pull off a miracle and make it, they still would have to play some team called the Yankees in the first round, and that wouldn't end well anyway... But, it will be interesting to see if they have anything left in the tank beginning tonight at Comerica Park...
 
{GALLERY_bw928}One other side project I coordinated all weekend was the collection of entry forms for our NHRA hockey pool. This is the "pool for dummies" operation, which draws the most participants. All you do is pick your team and that's it, no fuss no muss, but a lot of people like being involved so I was the point of focus for all sorts of guys from various teams, who were all tracking me down to hand in their forms. We've got Bob Vandergriff, Jeff Arend, Brandon Bernstein, Dave Rieff, Rob Flynn, Chris Cunningham, Dean Antonelli, Ron Douglas, Dan Hood, and lots of others already in the fold... Now, I have to organize all the hand-written notes into one email, to help Greg Ozubko get the teams uploaded to the site that runs the league...

Just like last year, I'm also in the "hands-on" league that Phil Burgess organizes. We'll have just eight or ten teams, but it gets very intense throughout the season and you have to pick your lineup every night, bench certain guys, release guys who aren't playing well for you, and add new players where you have weaknesses. It gets pretty addicting, and my team ("Da Boyce" of course) is ready to go... Neighbor Dave joined the league this year, so we'll have an intra-Woodbury rivalry going on...

My mind is kinda blank right now, for some reason, so I guess I'll wrap this up and find a bite to eat. Then, in an hour, I'll be boarding my flight for home... Can't wait to get there!

Wilber, out!

We run in about 90 minutes, and I have a bunch of stuff I either still need to do or I'm in the middle of, so this is going to be brief. Not a legal brief and not men's underwear, just short. Not hot-pants short and not terse either, just brief. You know what I mean…

Trip down yesterday was as smooth as can be expected really. I got our press release out right at 9:00, to announce that we've extended our alliance with Bob Tasca and his team for another year, then headed for the airport, parked in my general typical spot on the blue side of the MSP parking ramp, and even had time to answer a few e-mails in the Sky Club before heading over to gate G-21. Lo and behold, when I walked into the club and headed back to the little semi-private "work area" cubicles, who was sitting right next to me but Nelson Jones, from ESPN. We chatted a bit in the club, and then he sat right in front of me on the plane. I threatened to kick his seat the whole way, but relented…

Nelly was the camera operator up on the ultra-high platform in Charlotte, and as fun as he said that was he also made it a point to mention that he's okay with never doing it again.

Speaking of that viewpoint, in the photo gallery you'll see a photo taken from just below Nelly's "crow's nest" location, by Kara Melia Waddell, the daughter of Ryk Waddell. Ryk had previously asked if he could join up with our team for the Charlotte race, in a sort of "Official Photographer" position, but I knew we were going to be really tight and really busy, so I suggested he contact our old buddy Berserko Bob over at Gilbertson's, since they had just announced that they'd be running there. I knew BB would do the guy right, and he did, just like I expected him to. Ryk got to hang with their team, shoot a lot of pics and video, and just get a taste of what it's like behind the ropes. Thanks BB, and I'm glad you got to do that, Ryk.

In the photo Kara took, all four cars are backing up from or just finishing their burnouts, but if you ignore the fact the roof hatches are open, you can almost convince yourself that Tim is in the lead and kicking butt... LOL. As slippery as that lane was, it's the only way you can look at that exhibition and think that.

We landed right on time, I picked up my rental car, and the one-hour drive down to Ennis was mostly uneventful, which is a good thing when you're driving through downtown Dallas. As for my car, it's an American-made vehicle from a company named after a planet in our solar system, and let's just say it's been "rode hard and put away wet" a few times. Rental car miles are like dog years. My rule of thumb is that whatever is on the odometer, you can multiply that by four to get an idea of the shape your car is in. This one, surprisingly and disappointingly, had 37,000 miles on it! Hertz usually rotates their
cars out of the fleet by 30,000, so I was a little mad about that, but I had already pulled out of the exit and swapping cars, therefore, was going to be too much trouble. Put it this way, it feels a bit like you're driving on a rumble strip, even on the smoothest road.

One of my first stops in Ennis was at the H-E-B grocery store, and that was the first thing that really brought back a few pangs of sadness, as I realized how much we enjoyed our years living in Austin and how much I miss that place. H-E-B was our grocery chain of choice down there, and I stopped at the one in Ennis to specifically buy a couple of 1-liter bottles of their store brand fruit-flavored sparkling water. It is dee-lish!!! We used to always have a few bottles in the fridge at our house in Austin, and it's the perfect beverage if you ever wake up in the middle of the night dying of thirst. Great flavor and just enough carbonation to make it perfect for a late-night guzzle.

Austin is a couple of hours south of here, and that's just too far for me to make the trip, but I sure wish I could. Driving around here, seeing a lot of the same sorts of plants and trees, brought it all back. We had the coolest little house there, on Love Bird Lane (I'm not kidding) that was built into the side of a small canyon. From the front, it looked like a really small little brick ranch-style home, but that was because the whole house was "upside down" inside. From the back, it was a full two-story, because the front of it was cut into the hillside. So, you walked in on the main level, with the living room to the left, my office to the right, and the dining/kitchen straight ahead. If you went downstairs, you found another living area, and all the bedrooms.

Our great neighbors down there, Robert and Barb McCarley, still live in the house next door. Robert and his boy Colin (who is a real kid now, but was just a baby running around outside with no clothes on when they first moved in) will be up here on Sunday, and I can't wait to see them. I'm pretty sure Colin will be clothed.

Things I love about Texas…

1) Tex-Mex food. The absolute BEST Mexican restaurant in Minnesota wouldn't stay open a week in Texas, especially in Austin.

2) Austin itself. A wonderful, quirky, artsy, funny town, with great food and more live music than you're capable of stopping to hear on any given night.

3) San Antonio. By far, and it's not even close, my favorite large city in Texas. Big D and Houston are just too big, too congested, and too everything. San Antonio, and especially the River Walk area, is terrific

4) Texas Martinis. Sometimes referred to as a Mexican Martini, it's just a top-shelf margarita that comes in its own shaker. Not to be missed.

Things I don't like so much about Texas.

1) Cedar Fever. There's a pollen given off by the trees down here, and if you're allergic to it you know it immediately. Aches, pains, and sinus pain.

2) The heat. I remember once, when mowing the lawn in Austin on 105 degree day, thinking I just might die. When we moved to Minnesota, people down here would gasp in horror and say "You won't even be able to go out of the house for four whole months." Well, four or five straight months of Texas heat is no better, and I've yet to burn the backs of my legs on a car seat in Minnesota.

3) Fire ants. I had successfully forgotten about them. When you live here, you fight them constantly, and it appears the fight remains on-going. They're everywhere.

4) Critters walking in your door when you open it. The crickets in my hotel room were no extra charge.

But I did mention the Tex-Mex…. TDF…

{GALLERY_bw925}This weather, that we have right now, is perfect. It was actually cool this morning, and the air is nice and dry. It is heating up, and it's supposed to be 90 by Sunday, but there's no rain in the forecast and we all know those weather guys are correct 100 percent of the time. They never miss.

Speaking of which, if you live in this area you can see one of my all- time best friends, who is also a former roommate and former baseball teammate. Pete Delkus is the weather guy at WFAA in Dallas, and back in the 80s we played semi-pro ball together (yes, on the famous Sauget Wizards team), then he signed with the Twins and I was his agent. Great guy... I wish we could've gotten together this weekend, but he's swamped and I have this whole racing thing to take care of.

Okay time to wrap up this brief, short, blog that ended up being neither of those two things. I did include two cool pics of the Motorplex in the gallery. One satellite view and then the very-cool Bing.com "Bird's Eye" view. Enjoy, and wish us luck down here in Texas, pardners…

Wilber, out (yee-ha!)

Yes, we were in the deal because we lost in the first round (to my buddy Jeff Arend, who I always say "scares me" because he and his team are so much better than their record indicates) and frankly we were not expecting to be in the 4-wide thing at all. The first round was so full of surprises and upsets that a long list of top-flight teams were available for the special exhibition, so we went back to the pit area and everyone got on with the work of wrapping things up and tearing down the circus. Tim and I talked, at length, about what went wrong on our lap, and we both figured that as cool as the 4-wide thing was going to be it was pretty obvious that we weren't going to be asked.

And then the NHRA officials came by and asked us! Tim said yes, the guys got to work, we put off tearing down the hospitality area, and it was time to get ready for another round. With such a lousy e.t. in the first round, we knew we'd be planted over there in the two right- side lanes, which had been prepped earlier in the week but hadn't been run on and were, therefore, certainly going to be the bigger challenge. We went up to the line after the semifinals and watched them drag those lanes numerous times, then spray them with enough glue to trap an elephant, but there was no getting around the fact they simply had to be inferior to the left-side lanes. That's where it comes in handy to either be Tim Wilkerson or Del Worsham...

Del was in lane 4 and we were in lane 3, and between the two of those guys they have about as much match-racing experience as anyone out there short of John Force. They both approached this lap as just that, figuring the conditions wouldn't be a lot better than some of the match-race tracks we've all visited and I think that was a very smart way to approach it.

We were all a little out of our element when it came to knowing what to expect in terms of the sound and the fumes and, frankly, by the time we got up to the line and started getting ready for this deal, there was a lot of excitement in the air. I turned to Buck Hujabre and said "Man, I'm actually pretty nervous right now." He thought that was really interesting, considering the lap was purely an exhibition, but I said "It's just because it's going to be such a spectacle, and everyone is watching us. The whole thing is giving me butterflies, but the good kind. It's exciting!"

I went the extra step and put ear plugs in first, then put my ear muffs on like usual. They brought us all out, the huge zMax crowd came to its feet, and there was a pure buzz in the air as our four cars lined up and then we, as the crews, stood next to our cars for a momentous photo op of four nitro Funny Cars, all lined up in a row.

I gotta tell you, the NHRA and the teams all banded together to take on what was really not an easy deal and then make it look like we do this all the time. Everyone started together, the four drivers did their burn-outs together, then backed up at about the same speed, and pulled forward like they'd practiced this. They hadn't, of course, but all the teams looked out for each other and the four drivers did an unbelievable job of getting staged within a couple of seconds of each other. Then... The amber lights flashed and everything you've ever experienced at the starting line was forever relegated to 2nd place in your memory bank.

Loud? That was obvious, but my ears were so protected it was very muffled. The most noticeable thing was the concussion. I don't know how to explain it other than to say I've never felt anything like it, and I stand a couple of feet behind a nitro Funny Car up to eight times a weekend, all year long. It shook the Earth, the air, and all of us. You could literally feel it in your chest, but also coming up through your feet, as if we'd just created our own little mini- earthquake in Concord, N.C.

As for the fumes; most of us hadn't thought of that. It was a tough weekend in Charlotte anyway, with not much wind and a lot of humidity making it difficult to see and breathe even when only one car was running in the pit area, but the nitro aroma created by four Funny Cars all running at once was really something. It's not easy shooting video tape when you can't see...

We did come in fourth out of four cars in the race, but Tim did an amazing job getting the car down what was clearly shown to be the worst lane. Basically, at the hit of the throttle the driveshaft shot up to the moon as the tires spun, and if this was any other lap he would have simply lifted, but he grabbed a handful of brake, feathered the throttle a little, and drove it all the way down there one-handed, with the car sashaying back and forth while it spun the tires but never fully smoked them. Between Tim and Del, you saw a pretty great exhibition of how to handle a couple of sketchy lanes.

Once it was over, everyone was mostly just laughing, smiling, and hollering down behind the starting line. We were all just blown away by it, and you saw a lot of normally stoic crew guys and crew chiefs giggling like little kids. And, I'm sure you saw the eyes and the smiles of the drivers, on TV, when they got out of their cars. Everyone thought it was a pretty cool and historic deal. We were proud to be part of it!

After that, it was back to work in the pit area. I finished up my post-event report, fired it off to the world, and then put on a t- shirt and got to it with Dave, Annette, Rich, and others as we tore down the hospitality area. I think it was about 8:30 when I finally was on the road back to the hotel, so all I could manage was a swing through the drive-thru at McDonald's to grab one of their salads with grilled chicken, and take it back to my room. Then, after a shower, it was time to relax, watch a little football, and sleep. I needed the sleep.

I got up in the morning and met Rich and Annette in the lobby at 8:30, since they were on the same flight home with me and I was giving them a ride to the airport. My Hertz car for the weekend was a small hybrid, and it was a ton of fun to drive after I got used to feeling the engine shut off and turn back on at every stoplight. I kept telling Dave and Buck that even on Sunday, the gas gauge was still on "Full" but when I stopped on Sunday night to make sure it was filled- up it took exactly 2 gallons of gas. TWO GALLONS OF GAS for the whole weekend! Amazing...

I had printed Rich and Annette's boarding passes when I did mine on Sunday, and as we headed to the airport they were still shown in Coach, but I had also looked at the seat map for our flight and could see three open seats in First Class, so I boldly predicted they'd be bumped up to join me in the front cabin. Not more than a few minutes after we got to the gate, we heard those wonderful words "Would
passenger Schendel please approach the podium ..."  They couldn't sit
together, but both of them were up front. And, as Annette said "We spend every minute of every day together, so I think we can survive being two rows apart if it means we get to sit in the big seats..."

While we were waiting at the gate, I looked outside and saw something that made me smile. US Airways is doing a thing where they paint individual airplanes in the colors and "look" of old airlines that US Air bought, merged with, or otherwise acquired over the years.  A
couple of months ago I was waiting for Barb at MSP when I saw a plane come in all dressed up in the old Piedmont Airlines motif, so I immediately checked with Chris Cunningham at the next race, since he spent many moons working maintenance at US Air. Chris told me all about the various planes they've dressed up, so I was aware of it but was still excited to see one of their jets painted to look like an old PSA jet, outside our gate in Charlotte. I used to fly PSA (Pacific Southwest Airlines) a lot when I lived in So Cal, back in the 80s, and all of their planes had a "smile" painted just behind the nose of the jet, and the nose cone would always be black, which combined with the cockpit windows to give all the PSA jets an instantly recognizable "happy face". It was great to see that old design, even if it was just a "dressed up" version of a new US Airways plane...

As for the flight home, I'll say this... I am always hot on airplanes. Not sure why, but I'm always the person who gets up after the flight with his shirt stuck to his back, and I'm constantly adjusting the vents to get as much cool air on me as possible. Maybe this standard internal warmth is what helps me get through the winters up here. Annette, on the other hand, probably has zero body fat. She may actually owe body fat. So, she's always cold and even goes so far as to bring her own blanket to use on top of the thin cheapo ones the airlines provide.

{GALLERY_char}As we were enjoying (and I don't toss that word around lightly in terms of airline food) our Thai Chicken Salads, I turned to look back at Annette and she was wrapped up in blankets from her chin to her feet. This plane was COLD, daddy-o, but I was loving it. I kept my vents going full force and then finally, about 90 minutes into the flight, I did something I almost never do. I closed the vents. Believe me, if I'm feeling chilled, the plane must be colder than a meat locker...

We landed 30 minutes early, worked our way to baggage claim at MSP, and were stunned to see our bags come down the chute just as we arrived there. I wished the Schendel's well, as they headed back home to southern Minnesota, and then I headed home to Woodbury. As tired as I was, I still was fully aware that Charlotte was simply the first of these four races in a row, so I'm trying to pace myself and keep up the energy.

Part of the process of pacing myself is the ongoing effort to minimize the pain I have in my ankles. I've had chronic issues with the inside part of my left ankle for many years, thanks to a slide into 3rd base as a member of the Danville Roosters in 1977. It hurt like hell back then, but if you wanted to stay in the lineup you just taped it up and went back out there. If no bone was sticking out, you kept playing...  Now, I'll be paying for that for the rest of my life.

Today, I had an appointment with a new foot specialist, and he was really great. Mostly, we just talked and I gave him the whole history of all the baseball, and now my current career which keeps me on my feet so much of the time, whether it's at the track or to and from airports. It's all made worse by the air travel (are you ever really comfortable in an airplane seat?) and the different rental cars, which all have different places for you to put your left foot. He analyzed some MRI reports I have, and concurred with the diagnosis: "Mild to moderate tendinopathy and mild tenosynovitis of the posterior tibial tendon. An area of intrasubstance longitudinal splitting/scarring of the posterior tibial tendon is noted occurring at and extending below the level of the medial malleolus. Also, mild peroneal brevis and peroneal longus tendinosis."

All that means I have a partially torn tendon right under the ankle bone on the inside of my left ankle, as well as a lot of surrounding tendonitis, and it's not going to magically fix itself. So, we're working on some new custom orthotics, which I'll get fitted for tomorrow, and the most important thing is simply mapping out a strategy to keep the problems from occurring as best we can (when it's really bad, it's REALLY bad and I can hardly walk or sleep), and to make the process of "getting better" happen as rapidly as we can whenever it does flare up. Sounds good to me...

Now, I gotta get back to work getting ready for Dallas. As disappointed as we were to mess up and get our butts spanked in round one at Charlotte, the good news is we are basically exactly where we were prior to the race, in terms of how many points we are out of the lead. We can thank all of those other first round upsets for that situation, and basically only Robert Hight made a really big move at the first playoff race. We just have to get back after it in Dallas, and make up some ground, because we're all still bunched tightly enough together that any team can leapfrog well up the standings with a good weekend or two.

Off to DFW on Thursday, so if I don't have time to do anything tomorrow I'll make a point of writing something at the track on Friday. See ya then...

Wilber, out!
 

The weather forecast for this whole weekend was bleak, and it's been raining all over the southeastern part of the country the whole time we've been here. It's been raining in Charlotte and Concord the whole time we've been here too (Sheila Cunningham drove to the track yesterday, incredulous that we could be running, because she had the wipers on until a few blocks away from here) but we never missed a session. Talk about luck!

One of the first things we did on Friday was honor the Countdown drivers. To start that, we had them all gather in the staging lanes to pose with the championship trophy, and I immediately noticed that a lot of them touched it, moved it around, and otherwise made contact with it, and I thought that was interesting. Maybe it's only a "hockey thing" but there's not a hockey player in the world who would ever touch the Stanley Cup if he hadn't actually won it. That's an unwritten rule, but every hockey player knows it. Come to think of it, I believe it is pretty much just a hockey thing...

After that, it got interesting. To coin a phrase from a classic movie, the next step was where you could say "What we got here, is a failure to communicate..."

After the pose in the staging lanes, we went out to the track and they began to introduce each driver to the crowd. One by one, starting with Robert Hight who is 10th, they came out, walked about 40 yards down the track, waved to the crowd, and line up as a group. We noticed that the first two Funny Cars (Bob Gilbertson and Andy Kelley) had pulled up to the water boxes, but that didn't concern us at the time. Notice I said "at the time."

Once they got down to the 4th place driver, our perception of order in the universe took a tumble, as the starting line official signaled the two teams to fire 'em up! With seven of the greatest Funny Car drivers on the planet standing in the middle of the track! No one really knew what to do, and the event marketing guys were frantically trying to have the cars shut off, but by then it was too late. With famous drivers running for cover, and a lot of people looking very confused, they let them run and do their burnouts. It was crazy, and the crowd never did get to cheer for Ron Capps, Ashley Force Hood, or Tony Pedregon. Oops. The left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing, and apparently also the left hand didn't notice a gaggle of drivers lined up in the middle of the left lane.

Bob Tasca's team has a wonderful body on their car for one race, in support of research for Juvenile Diabetes. It's a cool body, designed by an 8-year-old boy named Liam (who is here) but our teammates are still having gremlins in their camp when it comes to things being damaged. They broke a strut on the first Friday run and that cracked the body for the third time in the last few races, so they had to run the standard red one in Q2. They got it fixed overnight, and replaced the vinyl where needed, only to have a wheel hub come apart on their last run. Bob did a FANTASTIC job controlling what was truly an "out of control" race car, and it didn't look like that issue hurt the body, but it surely gave the guys more to work on, over there. They've been putting in some long nights lately.

Yesterday, we had a really fun moment in our pit, and we were all in cahoots on it. I got an email from a guy named Mark, who is a big backer of ours and a longtime follower, and he asked me to do a huge favor for him, since he'd be one our VIP guests for the day along with his girlfriend Laura. I filled in Tim and the guys, and when it got to be time to warm up the car, I got on our P.A. system and gave my standard "We're about to warm up and it's going to get pretty smoky and smelly in here, so be prepared..." speech, but then all the guys on the team stopped, looked at us, and I said "But first, Mark has something to say." I handed him the mic, and as he got down on one knee to propose, Tim held up a sign he'd made that said "Just Say No!" on it.

Laura was shaking, Mark was nervous, the guys were all clapping, and she did say yes... It was a great moment, and a lot of fun.

As mentioned in a couple of earlier blogs, we also have Buck Hujabre with us here, and he got in yesterday. I guess enough people out here read the blog, because I hardly had to introduce him to anyone. Tons of racers, crew guys, NHRA officials, and fans spotted him and said "You're the guy from Jersey Boys!" and Buck had a great time. Basically, he had (and continues to have) the time of his life.

The ESPN cameras followed us to the starting line, Bob Frey introduced him over the P.A. and then came over to our pit to spend a solid 20 minutes talking with Buck (Bob is a big fan of the show and has seen it multiple times) and basically we just had a great time. Buck is a huge drag racing fan, and he's been following the sport for so long, and so intently, there's not much going on out here that he's not aware of.

The wonderful news in the Hujabre family is that Buck's wonderful wife, Mary, is expecting their first baby on December 1. We wish Mary could've been here, but we're all excited for them. Next time we see Buck and Mary, they might just have a little bundle of joy with them. And by the way, Buck finally gave me a way to remember how to pronounce his last name correctly. Everyone has heard of Zsa Zsa Gabor, and can make that half-Z and half-S pronunciation, and that's what you use to pronounce his name. Basically, it's "hoo-ZSA- bear"... So there you have it.

{GALLERY_char}Buck just presented Tim some Jersey Boys items and an authentic Jersey Boys bowling shirt, which was way cool, and I actually just took a moment from writing this to snap a pic I'll now download and add to the gallery.

9:15 now, and the nerves are starting to build. We ran great in all four qualifying laps here, getting better and better until we ripped off a huge 4.100 on the last run to move back up the ladder and land 5th. We have my buddy Jeff Arend in round one, and that always makes me nervous... And how come a 4.099 seems so much better than a 4.100? One little thousandth, but an .09 would've been a bit cooler.

Today, all that matters is the win light.

The guys are all pretty quiet, and they look very focused. It's all business around here...

Let's go racin'.....!!!!

Wilber, out!

Then, as I listened to the sounds of birds chirping and very fat squirrels chomping away on the smorgasbord of acorns our big oak tree has provided, it struck me. I don't need to come up with anything today, because it's already been provided! All I have to do is scan back through the last month's worth of emails and pick out the six or seven best questions I've gotten, and spread the answers around for everyone to read.

So let's begin...

Question No. 1 comes from Sherry B. in Santa Clara, Calif. Sherry asked "Why do teams spray that white paint on the wheelie bar wheels?"

The stuff is actually kind of like spray-on chalk, and almost all the teams use it so that they can see how long the car is actually running with the wheelie bar making contact. The spray-on stuff leaves a mark on the track wherever it's in contact with the track, and the guys will take a look at that and gauge if they've "been on the wheelie bar" too long, too short, or just right. The wheelie bar is part of the overall tune-up, and we expect to run on it for a short while right after the hit of the throttle. You probably also have noticed a crew guy adjusting the height of the wheelie bar just before the car stages, as well, and that's to get it in the right position so that we don't hit it too hard and unload the rear tires.

Question numero dos comes from Billy H., in Bowie, Md. Billy asked "You never really hear fuel crew chiefs talking about engine development all that much. Seems like that's all anyone talks about in NASCAR and in NHRA Pro Stock. Why is that?"

The short answer is "Because we have more power than we can handle right now" but it's a little more complex than that. There are some brilliant minds at work in the fuel classes, and they do continue to make improvements in areas like cylinder heads, blowers, and fuel pumps. But, unlike the circle track guys and the Pro Stock guys who are always looking for another 5 hp here or 10 hp there, when you're up in the 8,000 range, those little increments really don't mean anything. The hardest part, in our class, continues to be finding a way to transfer all of this power to the track without spinning the tires. Hence, good crew chiefs make big money.

Our third question has come in from various parts of the country, in various forms, for a few weeks now, since we're about to head into the Countdown. I've actually lost track of how many people have asked a variation of this question dating all the way back to when we started the Countdown concept a couple of years ago, but still have the notes from Carla W., Randy H., and Maureen Q., who basically all wondered this: "Does the Countdown unfairly hurt the teams that aren't in it, in terms of keeping their sponsors happy?"

Speaking from experience, as a guy who was on a team that failed to make the first two Countdowns, it's not the part about missing the Countdown that will generally disappoint your sponsor. It's the part about not being good enough, all year, to be in the top 10, that disappoints everyone, including every member of the team. Whether there was a Countdown or not, if you're finishing 11th or worse in a season, you're disappointed.

A couple of assumptions I've heard somewhat regularly, that I believe to be false, are these... A. What's the motivation for a non- Countdown team to continue race? And... B. If you're not in the Countdown, you're done for the year in terms of TV coverage.

As for the first of those two assumptions, it's the same motivation every team has had forever. Pre-Countdown, it was usually pretty common for only two or three teams to really be in contention by this point in the season, and in some cases the championship was already pretty much locked up by now. But, we all still kept racing because it's what we do, it's what our sponsors have contracted for, and we still want to win races even if we can't win the championship.

Regarding the second thought, I actually think the Countdown may increase the publicity opportunities for a lot of teams. By this time of year, whether we have playoffs or not, the key stories are going to be with the contenders, and in the past that might have only been a handful of teams. We know for a fact that 10 teams are now contenders, so that spreads the coverage out to some teams that ordinarily wouldn't get much. But, because our playoffs go on while the non-playoff teams are still racing alongside us, the odds of a non- Countdown team playing the role of spoiler and upsetting one of the contending teams are pretty high. In the past, if the 13th place team in the points beat the 8th place team at the 19th race of the season, that wouldn't mean much. Actually, it probably wouldn't mean anything. But if it happens this weekend, or if any non-playoff team beats a Countdown team, it's going to be big news.

Fourth in today's lineup is this question, from Sandy H. in Des Moines: "When is Daniel Wilkerson going to race again, and when will he begin to race full-time? Also, is he single?"

LOL, I'll answer the last part first. Daniel is not married, but he has a wonderfully charming girlfriend, and the two of them are obviously smitten with each other. The term "goo-goo eyes" gets tossed around a bit. :-)

Regarding Daniel's driving career, he is going to be racing in Memphis but that's all the plans we have in place right now. He's closing in on his Bachelor's Degree from the University of Illinois - Springfield, and that's going to need to happen before he goes racing full-time. Once he dons the mortarboard and walks across the stage to accept his diploma, it will all just be a matter of sponsorship. Dave Jacobsen and I have developed some terrific marketing materials, and have put together a wide range of very cost-effective programs for potential sponsors, and Dave works tirelessly to pitch those deals. Time will tell, of course, but we remain confident in Daniel's ability to not just drive a race car, but to drive a great sponsorship relationship, too.

Today's next question comes from Rob H. in Newton, Mass. Rob asks "Do you guys think you'll ever race in New England? We're dying for NHRA racing up here..."

Well, we'd LOVE to race in New England. The only trick is, we need a track. Epping, N.H. really would need far too much work to be brought up to NHRA national event standards. A certain Mr. Smith now owns the Loudon, N.H. circle track, and if I had to guess I'd probably assume that he has considered adding a drag strip to the property, but as far as I know nothing is in the works yet, nor do I know if anything will ever be in the works there. So... As soon as we have a track to run on, I would imagine you'll see us there. With bells on.

The final question actually came from my nephew, Ewan, who reminded me that I haven't done a "What's playing on my iPod..." segment in far too long. The reason for that is twofold. 1) Without an office at the track, I no longer have my iPod playing through speakers while I work. 2) I have simply forgotten.

I do play music non-stop on flights, and often in my hotel rooms, and lately the band Incubus has been getting the most airplay. I think I might be the last person at the Incubus Appreciation Party, but man they're good. Maybe it was their name that kept me disinterested until a series of great songs finally busted past the gate keepers in my head. When I work out, it's mostly Disturbed to keep me pumped. You don't, however, want to put Disturbed on when you're trying to wind down to go to sleep.

If those two companies named Apple (Apple Records and Apple Computers) can ever work out a deal, I'll download the entire newly remastered Beatles collection. I may still go buy the box set, but it sure would be a lot easier if I could just click on "Buy Now" and watch it all appear on my iPod...

To wrap this up, with the photo I mentioned at the top, check this out. Yes, it's another in my long list of webcam shots of the new Target Field, but if you look in the lower left-hand corner, you'll see another large building with a greenish roof. That would be Target Center, the arena where the Minnesota Timberwolves play, and I've been wondering what they're doing with the roof there, since the ongoing process has been visible on the Target Field webcam all year.

Yes, it's green and it's green in both color and in terms of being environmentally friendly. What I didn't know, until this week, is that the green on the Target Center roof is actually GRASS!!! Talk about a green roof! The whole thing is made up of growing layers and irrigation, and it will make the building more efficient in a totally natural way. Okay, maybe it's not natural to have grass growing on the roof of an arena, but you know what I mean... I have no idea if they plan to mow it or what they're going to do in terms of maintenance. Perhaps goats...

T-minus 25 hours until I take off for Charlotte...

Wilber, out!

Say what you will about the Countdown (and there has never really been a lack of bombastic statements out there in internet-land) as racers we not only accepted it when they devised it, we also embraced it. It adds a ton of excitement and drama to the season, it makes every race and every lap all that more important, and it creates a thrilling championship chase, just like in the stick-and-ball world. The regular season is what it is, and now we're in the playoffs. I've never understood how a small minority of drag racing fans can firmly understand that concept when it comes to football, baseball, basketball, and hockey but then can't get their heads around it for racing. If you're one of those people, believe me I've heard every complaint and twist on the thinking, but I'm sorry... I think it's great and I long ago got tired of hearing the chirping.

I was working for a different team last year, obviously, so I only witnessed Tim's deal from afar (although, trust me on this one, people from all sorts of other teams were not only following Tim's season and Countdown, but rooting for him as well), and I thought he handled it perfectly and with great dignity. Could he have squawked to high heaven that he "wuz robbed" because he would've wrapped up the trophy
well before the end of the season had it not been for the Countdown? Yes, I guess he could have, but he never did because that would've been completely out of character for him. From the time they announced the creation of this playoff system, we all knew how it worked and we all knew the rules. Tim and the team knew it, and understood it, but they came up one day short of making it happen. Another team got hot at the right time, winning the last three races, and that's how it ended up.

And look at it this way: An NFL team can go 15-1 in the regular season, and just dominate all the teams they beat. If they then go on to lose in the Super Bowl, no one protests that the wrong team got the Lombardi Trophy. Those guys all knew they needed to win one more game, and they didn't. In the end, on that day, even if the other team in the Super Bowl was a 10-6 team in the regular season, that other team got the win and the trophy. That's just how it is.

So now we're in the playoffs, and we awake to find ourselves not 350 points behind Tony Pedregon, like we were at the end of the day in Indy, but instead only 70 points back. It would only be a bit hypocritical for us to say '08 wasn't fair, but this works just fine, thank you very much. LOL... And if it makes anyone feel better, at least in the racing world we are separated by a few points to begin the playoffs. In the stick-and-ball world, everybody starts the playoffs basically even, and all you have to do is win. It's not like the Yankees will take on the Wild Card team and be spotted two games in the first round. Tony Pedregon, however, does get spotted some "wins" to start with, since he finished the regular season in the top spot. Compared to us, he's been spotted four rounds, and we all understand that.

So anyway, it's the start of a very exciting stretch of racing, and it all kicks off with Charlotte followed by three more races in a row, as we swing through the lower right quadrant of the country. The "Lower Right Quadrant of the Country Swing" just doesn't seem to have the same ring or allure as the "Western Swing" but we'll work on it...

For the rest of this blog, I shall simply ramble. I can "Ramble On" like Led Zeppelin, or be a "Ramblin' Man" like the Allman Brothers, I suspect. Tough call...

Here's the latest addition to the walls in my office, just back from the framing shop up the road and already hung. The guys at Auto Imagery put this cool collage of images together, from Seattle, and Tim bought one for each of us. I'm proud to have it on the wall as my first bit of Team Wilkerson memorabilia from a big race win. It's very cool, and since it's in front of me all day, I can glance up there and get a jolt of "winner's adrenalin" whenever I need it...

We have a special guest joining us on Saturday and Sunday this weekend. My buddy Buck Hujabre, who is in the touring company for the "Jersey Boys" show, will take the weekend off (they're in Boston now) to fly down to Charlotte and hang out with us. Hopefully, he'll get a chance to enjoy some of that same adrenalin for at least a round or two on Sunday.

I been in touch with the agency that is handling pre-show publicity in Charlotte for "Jersey Boys" (they'll be there for a couple of weeks in early April) and we're discussing how we can help each other in terms of getting a boost from having one of their actors with us. We're working on some ideas...

I hope everyone had a great weekend, and I can easily state that it was one of the better weekends you could have if you're a sports fan in the Twin Cities. The Univ. of Minnesota Golden Gophers opened their new stadium on Saturday night, and they beat a tenacious Air
Force team in the first outdoor Gopher home game in about 30 years. Barbara and I have never been big Gopher football fans since we moved here, for a couple of reasons. 1) They haven't ever been very good since we moved here, and 2) The Metrodome is as bad a place to watch college football as it is to watch baseball.  With the new stadium and a better team, there's a lot of buzz about them, and sure enough we were all watching the game over at Dave and Nichol's on Saturday night, while we were celebrating Dave's birthday. I won't say how old he is, but it rhymes with forty nine.

Then, on Sunday, the Vikings opened the regular season in Cleveland, with some guy wearing the number 4 at quarterback. It took them a half to get it together, but their overall strength and another guy, who wears 28 and goes by the name Adrian Peterson, finally wore down the Browns and they got a big "W" to start the season. Me thinks Mr. Favre is going to enjoy handing the ball off to Mr. Peterson...

And, to cap it off, our beleaguered Twins, who have been playing like Twinkies, finally actually won a game on Sunday, too. The Detroit Tigers have been doing all they can to allow the Twins to catch them, but our guys have matched them loss for frustrating loss. It's the division nobody wants to win, I guess...

Plus, our Wild opened preseason workouts on Sunday, at the same time the Vikings were on TV and the Twins were at the Dome, and lo and behold about 2,500 people actually drove down to the Xcel Arena to see them skate around. We do love our hockey in these parts...

Here at the ranch, I've had a much better summer in my ongoing battle with mole critters. As opposed to years past, when it was a pitched battle that took all year and often featured a plethora of little digging maniacs all tearing up various parts of my yard simultaneously, this time it's just been two quick battles. I got one out front a couple of weeks ago, to make it Bob 1 - Moles 0, and then a few days ago I spotted a destructive trail coming up into the yard from the pond in back. Badda boom, badda bing, the score goes to 2-0. You can probably even see the yellowish trail I used as the target point in my relentless pursuit. It's visible because the little jerks plow right through the grass roots with their tunnels.

As for my method, the traps gently and pleasantly embrace the little moles until I can free them, rehabilitate them, and give them the confidence to lead good productive lives without harming people's property. It's mostly a self-esteem thing. Yeah, right... It's a bit more like BANG, and it's over. It doesn't appear to me that they feel a thing...

Barbara has been in Chicago since Sunday morning, on a business trip, and tonight a bunch of them are going to the Cubs game at Wrigley Field. It will be Barb's first time at Wrigley, and I'm sure she'll enjoy the experience. Wrigley and Fenway are two stops every baseball fan should find a way to make...

I leave you today with this perfect illustration of just how nice it was on Sunday. A certain Big Fella was reveling in his ability to come and go as he pleases out on the porch... Nothin' better than just hanging out in the breeze, listening to the birds and smelling all that nature... Okay, doing all that while someone gives you freeze-dried salmon treats would be better, but a cat can't have everything.

Now, let's keep getting ready for Charlotte and the Countdown, and let's start growing our playoff beards. Actually, I suspect we won't partake in that last item, but maybe one of these years I can convince Tim to take on that Stanley Cup Playoffs tradition, just to see if it might not work in drag racing...

Wilber, out!
 

September 11, on the other hand, is still an open wound and the date itself has more meaning than any other on the calendar. It happened yesterday, didn't it? It seems like it... Now that eight years have passed, I notice more and more television programming about 9/11, but I still have a very difficult time watching any of it. It's still too vivid. As the current young generation grows up and has children of their own, September 11 will be just a date again. An important one, taught in school just like December 7 was taught to me, but the connection will be broken. Time heals...

This year, 9/11 falls on a Friday and is followed by my last weekend off until October 17-18. Barbara and I discussed some ideas as to how to enjoy this early-autumn weekend and even thought about taking a trip to the north shore of Lake Superior, or maybe to a Bed & Breakfast on the St. Croix river, but then she remembered that she actually has to leave town on Sunday morning, on a business trip, so we'll focus on having a nice dinner tonight and a relaxing day on Saturday. I'll just have to watch Brett Favre's regular-season debut as a Viking by myself, on Sunday. With chips and dip by my side, I'll be camped out in front of the big screen.

After this, it's Charlotte, Dallas, Memphis, and Richmond all in a row, and as noted above it will be mid-October when this four-in-a-row swing is completed. By that time, the championship hunt will be taking firm shape, the leaves will be beginning to turn, a little crispy chill will no doubt invade at night, and winter will be just around the corner... It's going to be a very interesting four weeks.

Before I look forward, I want to look back to a few more Indy memories. At the race, we got to spend some time with Krista McGilvry and her boys, Preston and Rayce. Krista's husband, Ryan, was my teammate on the CSK team, and he is now enjoying his job working on Tony Schumacher's Army TF Dragster. We only get to see Krista and the boys a few times a year, so it's always great to catch up a bit and see how much the boys have grown since the last time we laid eyes on them. What happened on Monday, though, is just the latest example of how great this sport is. Here's the story, straight from Krista:

"I was so excited for the Army team to get this Indy win. When we got there on Friday, Rayce told Tony it was going to be his birthday on Monday. Tony asked him what he wanted for his birthday and Rayce told Tony he wanted a Wally, so Tony told him if he won he'd get him a Wally. Well, we won and I couldn't believe it but Tony gave him the actual one from the race and the winner's circle! I was floored, and I told him he didn't have to do that, but he insisted and said, 'I promised him a win and a Wally for his birthday.' Talk about WOW. He gave it to Rayce when we did pictures in the winner's circle, and he had all the other winners and Tony Stewart sign it for him. Then, we got back to the pit and the whole team sang Happy Birthday. It was an amazing weekend, and Rayce loves his trophy... He rode home for 8 hours in the car with it right by his side and he had his arm around it the whole time."

There's really nothing quite like NHRA Drag Racing, folks. That's pretty neat, and the photos from Rayce's big birthday are in the gallery, including one of the McGilvry family with Tony Stewart.

Another interesting/touching thing about Indy is the attraction it has for Team Wilk backers and alumni, new and old. St. Louis may be our biggest race, in terms of people attending, but the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals has its own magnetic powers, and it's like a Wilk Warrior reunion. I can't profess that I know all of the familiar faces that were floating through our pit area, but I'm trying to get to know them all as fast as I can, and just having been around the sport for all these years makes most of the faces easily recognizable. It seemed like my whole Indy weekend featured a constant stream of "Hey, I remember that guy" thoughts...

And, you all remember Big Mark Benson, the greatest Wilk Warrior of them all, who passed away early this summer. Both his sister and his brother were there, and I am honored to be counted as their friend. I entered Mark's life at a very late stage, but I will always treasure the friendship, and I'm humbled by how wonderfully I've been treated by his family. We had more than a few heartfelt conversations throughout the weekend.

Okay, now let's look ahead... First off, Charlotte. We're all looking forward to heading back to zMax Dragway, and I imagine just about every crew guy is as excited as I am about the 4-wide exhibition runs that are going to be made on Sunday. Here's the thing, though. All of us are looking forward to it, but none of us really want to be in it. Why? Because the four teams that will participate in the 4-wide deal will all be losers from the first round. So, here's hoping it's as great (and as LOUD) as we expect it to be, but here's also hoping the four cars involved all have something other than Levi, Ray & Shoup on the side!

And speaking of Levi, Ray & Shoup, we announced yesterday that LRS has extended our deal another year, through 2010. As great as that is, I imagine some people still reacted with a "Well, of course they did" thought, but we know we earned this extension in a very tough economic climate, and we're absolutely thrilled that Dick Levi and all the people at LRS still see the beneficial return-on-investment this program delivers. Times have been tough since last fall, and motorsports sponsorships are often seen as one of the first things that can be trimmed from budgets when the bottom line is suffering, so we are absolutely THRILLED to know LRS will be with us again in 2010 and hopefully far into the future.

We have some more exciting plans and new elements on the drawing board for next year, but all of that will come out in due time. The bottom line is this LRS/TWR relationship is one of those classic "win/win" situations you always hear about but rarely actually see. We'd make a great case study for a college marketing class...

Looking further down the road, we'll have a full plate when we roll into Memphis. No, I don't mean a full plate of barbeque (although in Memphis that is highly probable). I mean at the racetrack, we'll be doubling-up for the second time this year. Yup, if you look at the entry list for the Memphis race, a young man by the name of Daniel Wilkerson is entered in the Funny Car class. Another guy, by the name of Leif Helander, is also entered, but I have to admit I'm going to have to do some research on him. Hang on one second while I Google...

Okay, there you have it. Leif Helander is from Sweden, and he's done enough good racing to be easy to find on Google. I'm not sure whose car he will be driving in Memphis, or who will be tuning it for him, but it's going to be fun having Leif with us at Memphis.

As for Daniel, he's excited about making his second NHRA Pro start, and we're all pumped for him, as well. He was with us all weekend in Indy, and as much as he's chomping at the bit to get his career going, he's also grounded enough to know he needs to finish school first. He's close to his Bachelor's Degree from the University of Illinois - Springfield, and of all things he's actually a numbers guy! You wouldn't think a kid who grew up around race cars would study accounting, but perhaps his goal is to always have a good handle on his finances after he becomes a full-time Professional Funny Car driver. Smart kid!

I chatted with him a bit yesterday, because we're trying to get a handout card made for him as fast as we can. We didn't do that for his Topeka debut, and once everyone started asking for his autograph and he had nothing there to sign but Tim's cards, the elder Wilkerson decided to pull the trigger on getting a card made for the kid. Yesterday, I gathered some fun details (favorite food, favorite music, favorite movies, etc) and wrote a new bio for him, then Dave found some good photos of Dan and his car that we've been using in our marketing presentations, and I think we have enough art and copy now to create a nice card for him. I guess you know you're making it when there are boxes full of hero cards in the trailer, and they have your face and name on them... Go Daniel!!!

Finally, today, I shall once again succumb to the pressure exerted by dozens (multiple dozens, actually) of blog readers who send me notes on various subjects but always include the request for me to show more pics of Boofus and Buster. You really wouldn't think that a couple of crazy cats could be that popular (and I'll never tell them) but it's amazing how often I get that request. Today, we'll wrap up the photo gallery with a couple of new shots, taken just minutes ago.

{GALLERY_wb911}I mentioned a year ago that Buster has an infatuation with strings. I figured he'd grow out of that, but instead the obsession seems to be getting more and more intense for the Big Fella. He just loves strings! He loves to create them (he pulls most of them out of the edges of rugs, and has now discovered an easy buffet table of potential new strings that can be easily removed from the white blanket that sits on the sofa) and then he stalks them, carries them around, and tries to get us to play with him. Every morning, and I do mean every morning, we wake up with a couple of strings, a ribbon, and a long shoe lace in bed with us. He brings us these gifts in the middle of the night. Or, perhaps, he just sleeps better knowing he has them with him.

All you have to do is pick one up, and his eyes go fully round, his ears perk up, and he's in hunting mode. If you walk away from him, holding the string, he'll go nuts chasing it and grabbing it with his teeth, and at that point the tables are turned as he pulls against you and takes you for a walk, growling all the time... We play along, of course, and let him lead us all over the house as if we're the ones on a leash and he's taking us for a stroll.... He's working hard at getting Boofus in on the game, because if they'd both have an equal obsession with the demon strings, they could play for hours. Boofie likes it, and will play for a bit, but he's just not as totally consumed by it as Buster.

Once they're done playing, they crash and sleep for hours... A cat's life is pretty good. At least the life these two guys lead. I don't think they want for much around here.... Ya think?

Have a great weekend, everyone. Be safe, enjoy your families, and do something special. After all, the next four weeks are going to be a blur...

Wilber, out!

Barbara and I flew back home last night, enjoying one of those rare moments where we were actually traveling together, and finally walked in the door to a couple of purring boys just before midnight. This morning, I think I could've slept until this afternoon. Indy will do that to you. Instead, I allowed myself the reward of sleeping in an hour or so before dragging myself out of bed, and now I will admit to having "messed around" as much today as I've been seriously working. Truth is, though, that the work never stops so you can't avoid it completely. That's the thing with having a job that "happens" on weekends. The rest of the work still has to happen during the week, even if it's your first day home from the Indy marathon.

Anyway, I'm not going to waste time talking too much about our disappointment on Monday, after we dropped a cylinder and lost in the first round. It was our first truly uncompetitive lap in a long time. Probably since Denver, I guess. If there's good news, it's that we're headed to the playoffs and if we get hot now, our timing will be just fine.

We were all frustrated, and a bit angry, I think. But, because we work for Team Wilkerson and we take our cues from the guy at the top, it didn't take long for all of us to file it away, put it behind us, and start to look forward to Charlotte. It's easy enough to look forward to Charlotte, just because the track is so amazing and the fans are unreal, but with the Countdown starting and the playoffs upon us, it has even more buzz going for it. Speaking of buzz, I think I'll just ramble on with some Indy reflections...

We were back in the pit and already beginning to tear down the circus when the FC semifinals ran. Most of us heard about the drama at the top end secondhand, from those who did go out to watch or saw it on the big screen, because at the time we were more focused on folding up tables and chairs than watching what was going on out there on the track. It didn't take long, however, for word to begin to filter in about all that went on, and before long we felt like we were pretty up- to-speed on everything.

Since Team Wilkerson is not involved, and we really have no horse in this race, I don't have anything to say in any official way, about what went down, what happened after that, and all the yapping that was going on. Therefore, anything you read here is simply my opinion (for whatever that could possibly be worth) and is not meant to be reflective of any official TWR views.

My opinion: Buzz is good. In the PR world, the old saying is "The only bad news is no news" and it's hard to argue with the absolute fact that people are talking about us. Good or bad, right or wrong, our sport was the fodder for water cooler conversations this morning, and considering the people involved all have legions of fans, who are extremely loyal, just makes it all more feverish. That's not a bad thing. Just ask NASCAR. Just ask Vikings fans and Packers fans. Or ask Yankees fans and Red Sox fans. While you're at it, pick up the phone and ask any sports fan whose team has a bitter rival. Controversies, disputes, and rivalries can be deep-seated, and they can be heated, but they also inject real passion and life into a sport. I have good friends who live in Vancouver and support the Canucks, but I'm happy to admit that most of Minnesota gets pretty amped up when our Wild beat those guys. When the White Sox come to town, there's nothing better than to turn their traditional "Na, na, na, na, hey, hey, hey... Goodbye" song around on them and send them home defeated. It's the difference between simply appreciating a sporting event for what it is, versus getting deeply and emotionally invested in the outcome. And that difference is huge...

Now, the only caveat is this: The buzz has to be generated by something real. This isn't wrestling, and you can't fake a rivalry by acting out a script that has good guys and bad guys. First of all, most of our drivers aren't very good actors. Secondly, the public may not all belong to MENSA, but they're generally smart enough to spot a phony uproar (well, at least the part of the public that doesn't watch wrestling...) This was real. It was emotional, and it was strongly and vividly played out by players who meant what they said, said what they meant, and weren't willing to back down.

Let the buzz continue. Let the participants use the open forum to express their thoughts, or even trade barbs. There will be a time when the people involved will have to face each other, side by side with a lot on the line, and you can't tell me that moment won't be bigger, badder, more intense, and far more interesting, because of all this.

Plus, if they all want to get distracted by the name-calling and the rivalry, that's fine by us. We'll just go about our work and try to win rounds... Go at it boys!

Other Indy reflections...

You should have seen Tim, cooking up some bacon for breakfast BLT's, wearing an ever-so-stylish apron with the word "Mom" stitched on the front. He pulled it off nicely, and the bacon was great...

Fun to see the real live honest-to-goodness Goodyear blimp at the track! You know you're somewhere important, somewhere on the real sports radar screen, when the Goodyear blimp is gliding overhead.

With all the improvements made at O'Reilly Raceway Park, the joint looks better than ever, and far more befitting of its status as a special race. For too many years, it was simply the history of the U.S. Nationals that had to carry the banner of importance. Now, more and more, the track itself is beginning to fit the role as well. I'd be happy to introduce any potential new sponsor to our sport at O'Reilly Raceway Park now, but I couldn't say that about the place a few years ago.

And since NHRA has invested so heavily to make ORP a special place, it's time for the folks at Verizon, AT&T, and the other wireless carriers to step up, as well. Our signal there was so bad, for both phones and internet air cards, I was nearing a certain level of insanity a few times. After moving around our pit area for nearly an hour on Saturday, trying to find a spot where I could even upload my work, Annette finally fashioned an "old school" way for me to boost my signal. LOL... Check it out in the gallery...

It was neat to watch Jim Greenleaf, from Summit Racing Equipment, work with the ESPN2 guys to find good spots for their logo in terms of the in-car cameras we carried for them. At one point, they brought in a small monitor and turned on the cameras, moving small decals around to see how they'd look on-screen before they stuck them on. We were honored to do it for Summit, and would be willing to do it again, anytime they want to make it happen.

How about the weather... It was a dodgy challenge all weekend, but it looked the bleakest as we nodded off to sleep on Sunday night. I clicked around to a couple of different local Indy weather people, and their predictions for race day ranged from depressing to bleak. In the end, the rain stayed away and Monday ended up being a fine day. This is also why you don't jump right in and believe the forecasters when they tell you the next day will be beautiful. I think about the best you can do, as a weather forecaster, is to take the old George Carlin approach, in his classic role as the Hippie Dippie Weather Man. "Tonight's forecast: Dark. Continued dark throughout most of the evening, with some widely scattered light by morning..."

Back here in Woodbury, despite how tired I was when we arrived home late last night, I was also ever so pumped to see a small box waiting for me on the kitchen island (Alexa, from next door, came over throughout the weekend to watch Da Boyce and get our mail). You may recall when, back in June, Barbara bought a set of fantastic mini- guitars for me, for my birthday. At the time, I firmly stated that if the company in question were to ever produce a miniature set of Neil Peart's drums, from any era Rush has gone through, I'd be the first in line to buy them.

Well, I don't know how close I was to the front of the line, but I went to their website as soon as I heard they had produced his "Snakes & Arrows" drum kit (most of it) and it arrived over the weekend. To be fair, it's actually just the front part of his fully-circular actual kit, which contains a second set of electronic drums behind him (the whole kit is on a riser that spins around when he plays the back kit, so that he's still facing the audience no matter which part of the enormous set-up he's banging away on) but that was still fine by me.

{GALLERY_indy}Earlier in this blog I mentioned that I'd been "messing around" for a bit of the day, today, and my first order of business was to unpack, assemble, and set up my cool new drum set. I rearranged a bookshelf just for this occasion, putting my Geddy Lee bass and Alex Lifeson guitar next to the drums, while carefully arranging the toms, snares, and cymbals into something close to the actual kit... It even came with a miniature set of sticks, foot pedals, and a stool... Too cool... Now, if I could just shrink myself down to about 1/24 scale, I could go to town trying to play "Far Cry" or "Workin' Them Angels" from the brilliant "Snakes & Arrows" album and tour...

Guess that's about it for this one. Since blogging is working, technically speaking, maybe it's time for me to go mess around a bit more. After five long days in Indy, a guy needs a little R&R before he dives right into the Countdown...

Wilber, out!

We asked her if she wanted to go for a ride, and like any good trouper (and yes, that's spelled right) she said "Sure," and off we went, headed for the infield of the circle track where the drivers' motorhomes are parked. Once we dropped Krista off, Candida jumped in the front seat and we had a nice chat about all things Indy on the way back. She even grabbed her phone and took a pic of me driving her around, and that photo is already up on her Indy blog. It's all cross-blogination, I'm tellin' ya... But the question remains... We know, very well, of her writing and editing abilities, but can Candida can-can? Look out Folies Bergere!

(45 minutes later...)

I started this thing with the distinct impression I'd have all sorts of time to kill before anything got too hectic out here, but then a couple of quick issues popped up and now I'm starting over. One of the key things that's been going on since late yesterday is the fact we're running an in-car camera for ESPN2. Actually, a pair of them, with one cam facing forward and the other pointed back up at Tim, in the driver's seat. So, what's the key benefit of in-car cameras??? Quick, tell me. That's right. It's "additional sponsor exposure" with space on the firewall and roll cage being in view of the cameras. Plus, it's a lot of fun for the viewers at home, so it's a dandy little win/win situation.

We actually are not in the possession of any LRS decals that would fit in any of the applicable spots (it's a small amount of space to work with), but I did find the decal we normally put on the lower edge of the nose of the car, which says "www.LRS.com" in its entirety but which worked just fine when we cut both ends off and made it simply LRS. So, that's front and center on the firewall (aka "dashboard"), and we put a Summit Racing Equipment decal just below that. Sprinkled around, are other associate sponsors. All part of the gig...

Man, this event is crazy. I can't seem to go five minutes without either spotting, or being spotted by, someone who is very important to talk to, whether it be blog readers, vendors, old friends, or former racers, because EVERYONE comes to Indy. Two seconds ago, I "sensed" the presence of someone behind me, and immediately turned to find Rob Flynn and Mike Guger, from the Bernstein team. I knew, immediately, what that was about! Yup, time to get the NHRA hockey pool up and running again. They're both convinced they can get even more people to play this year, so it's up to me to get to work on the entry form. To make sure everyone picks somewhat different teams, we break the whole NHL up into three groups, and you have to pick X number of players from each group. Before we did that, everyone would typically all pick the same superstars and it was hard to make a move in the standings when we were all earning roughly the same amount of points each week.

Now, Group A is made up of the 12 best players in the NHL, and you can only pick three of them. Group B is made up of 12 very good players and again you can only pick three. Group C is the whole rest of the league, so it behooves you to find those little-known guys who are primed for a breakout year. I better get cranking on this deal, I guess...

And now, just as I'm proofing this blog my buddy Matt Madden (former Team CSKer, like me) who works on Ashley Force Hood's car, just came over to say hi. When he saw what I was doing, he said "Tell everyone Matt said hi." Hey everyone, Matt said "hi"...

Working back to yesterday, I was about 90 minutes late landing on my Delta (DELTA!!!) flight, so I missed the deal where Tim picked up his Taurus for the weekend, but I was able to meet Cole at the curb not long after he landed. My first words to the lad were "Welcome to the big leagues, kid..." He's met everyone and has pitched right in, asking questions and listening carefully. I think he's going to be a great addition to the team.

Also, here's something very new and different about Indy. After all these years, all these many decades, we now have permanent grandstands on the Pro pit side of the track! Hard to believe, isn't it, that the stands on the Pro side of this facility were always temporary and had to be completely built and then torn down each year! Now, these new grandstands are not only here for good, they're also very nice and downright huge. So see, you can teach an old dog new tricks!

Hey, I almost forgot about this. On my flight down (I was in First Class on the regional jet), the flight attendant came by and asked for my drink order, and I requested a Diet Coke. When she came back and handed me a glass with some ice, and a can of soda, she said "I know this looks funny, and I've never seen a can like this, but it's what they gave us and it looks like Diet Coke." The can, which was identical to a Diet Coke can, instead said "Coke Light" on it! Hmmm... I was wondering how I could possibly have missed the roll-out of an entirely new Coca-Cola drink (those sorts of things usually don't happen under cover of darkness) when I turned the can to read the ingredients. Well son of Deutschlander, it was all in German!

Best I could do was grab a lousy phone pic for proof, but it's in the gallery and once I was in my room last night I Googled "Coke Light" and found out that Coca-Cola markets Diet Coke as Coke Light, in most parts of Europe. All I can figure is that some flight, at some point, got catered in Europe, took on a bunch of Coke Light, and that container of soft drinks finally made its way onto my regional jet. Kooky, eh...

We do have a primo pit spot here, as the first rig parked behind the new main grandstands. If you're out wandering around, looking for souvenirs or a burger, you can't miss us...

Also, we're far enough downtrack that we're nosed in against the hillside that surrounds the circle track, so rather than look at another team's pit all day, we look out on a grassy bit of land the light towers for the roundy-round venue. It's a nice touch of nature out here in this asphalt jungle.

Finally, we had a little surprise for John Fink when he got here today, and by telling this tale and showing the pics I'm scooping Candida, who also took pics when we were on our golf cart trip, but then wrote in her blog that she couldn't show the pics yet (since they were a secret).

Tim called me a few days ago and said "I want to do something for Fink in Indy, since it's his home race and so many of his friends from Auburn come down." He asked me to think it over, and within minutes I was firing off the concept to our vinyl guy in Springfield, with a broad smile on my face.

{GALLERY_wbsept4}I decided the best thing to do was have some decals made that look just like your standard-issue associate sponsors, so that the average person would walk by the car and think nothing of it. But.... If you read the decal, you'd know something was up and if you knew John Fink, you'd crack up laughing. We have two different ones, with one on each side of the wing, and I think Johnny got a big kick out of them... Check 'em out in the gallery.

Guess that's it for today. It's finally closing in on 3:00, so the elusive 7:00 p.m. hour, when we actually get to race the car, is slowly approaching. Minute by minute. Second by second...

See ya later, gang. Let's have a GREAT Indy.

Wilber, out!

I think I'm ready. Pre-event press work? Check. Dry-cleaned uniforms ready to be packed? Check. New pair of track shoes to replace the pair I wore in Reading, which left me almost unable to walk? Check.  Form of payment for my current American Express bill? Check. (rim shot)

Oddly enough, Thursday is probably going to seem like a far more frantic day than Friday. My flight down to Indy is at around 10:00 tomorrow morning, and I'm due to land around 1:00. I'm going to try to hustle out to the track to pick up Tim and take him over to the John Force Racing shop in Brownsburg, because he's involved in the cool "Ford. Drive one" campaign this weekend, and for that he gets the privilege of driving one of the brand-new redesigned Ford Taurus sedans for the weekend. If the guys at JFR can't hold off delivering the car until about 2:15 (I'm waiting to hear on that subject right
now) I suspect Krista will be the hired driver in charge of getting Tim over there.

Then, right around 3:00, I'll head back down to the new Indy airport to pick up our newest crew member, Cole Nance. If you scroll through your memory banks, back to the Denver race, you might recall that I included a pic of Steve Chrisman's Top Fuel team, and a couple of his crew guys, because they were pitted directly in front of us, but cross- ways. Cole was one of those guys, and I told the story of how he contacted me a few years ago, asking all the right questions about how he could live out his dream and be a professional crew member. The difference between Cole and the other thousand or so guys who have asked me that sort of question is that Cole is the one who went out and did it, no matter the obstacles.

I put a few good words in for him with Tim, basically saying I wasn't able to vouch for his mechanical abilities (although Steve Chrisman obviously could) but I could easily and confidently vouch for his drive and determination, and for his attitude and ethics. I made sure Cole got to meet Tim in Sonoma, and we all left it at that.

With the crew situation on our team taking a hit during the Western Swing, and with people on our squad having to pick up extra jobs and duties, Tim must have thought about it quicker than I anticipated, because he just offered Cole a position for the rest of the year. I actually heard about it first from Cole's mom, who posted on her Facebook page about how proud of him she was. He's a good guy, with a huge amount of determination, so I'm thrilled to have him on-board with us. His life changes this week...

Friday, I'm sure we'll get up and head out to the track in the morning, but we only make one qualifying pass and it's not until around 7:00 in the evening. That's how Indy starts every year, with a very long day, and it's a fitting way to kick-off the whole huge thing...

I seem to be messing around with satellite images a lot lately (oh yeah, for those of you who did not contact me directly, the answers to the most recent geography quiz are at the bottom) and have stumbled upon a site called Bing.com, which really has some neat images. Their satellite view is really no different than the other sites, like Google Maps or Maquest, as you can see with this image of the tower and starting line area at Indy.

But... Here's what's really cool... Once you get fairly zoomed in on your target, you can click on a button marked "Bird's Eye View" and it switches to a much closer, and much sharper image. It's REALLY pretty neat stuff.

As you can see, these shots must be made from airplanes or helicopters, because they look like digital photos. What's the coolest part, though, is that you can click on little arrows next to the image and move around, seeing it from four different angles! How they managed this is beyond me, because it's really an enormous data base of images they have accumulated. It's one thing to have the closer and sharper views, but to make sure you have each one from four different angles is baffling.

Of course, I went and found our neighborhood and did the Bird's Eye View thing for our house, and it's so clear we're able to almost exactly pinpoint the day it was taken. It's early winter (ice on the pond but no hockey rink yet) and our new porch/patio project was caught about midway. The new patio and pergola are done, along with the fire pit, but the deck was only partially demolished at the time, to make way for the new porch. Oddly (sadly) no actual people are visible.

I'd love to have an inside contact at Bing, who could tip me off as to when they'll be shooting scenes like that. A guy could have quite a bit of fun if he knew where to be and when!

Back to the concept of the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals...  I'm happy to see that the ND staff is all gearing up for daily updates and blogs.   Between the esteemed Mr. Burgess, and his talented staffers Kevin McKenna (K-Mac Daddy), Candida Benson (Can-dee-DA), Brad Littlefield (B-b-b-Bad Brad), and Kelly Wade (no nickname has stuck yet, but she's the smiling-est writer on the staff!) we're going to have lots to read about.

Phil, the main man, started his Indy blog off by mentioning that this will be his 27th straight U.S. Nationals, and he also mentioned a "Super Fan" by the name of Bill Nelson, who will be attending his 50th straight!!! Wow... Just when I start to feel like I've been around in this gig a long time, I realize I'm still a puppy in the big scheme of things.

My first Indy was 1992, when I was working for the guy who represented Chuck Etchells. I attended again in '93, and by '94 I was actually the General Manager of the Kansas City Attack indoor soccer team, but I swung through St. Louis to pick up my dad, and he and I went to the race, where we hung out with my Pro Stock buddy Lewis Worden, while cheering on the Ash & Worden team. That was a lot of fun, to hit the road with my old man again...

I was still in KC in '95 and had to miss that event, which is really too bad because my boy Lewis Worden almost accomplished the unthinkable, making it all the way to the final round in Pro Stock before some guy named Warren Johnson took him out. You might have heard of him... Lewie's biggest day, and I wasn't there... Rats.

In '96, when I attended the race helping out my old British Funny Car buddy, Norman Wilding, I began my consecutive streak. From '97 to '08, I was with the Worsham team, and now in '09 I'm with Team Wilkerson. This will be my 14th consecutive Big Go, and my 17th in the last 18 years. I have a few memories, as you might imagine...

How about the 2000 race, when Frankie Pedregon was driving the CSK blue car and Del had recently crashed at the Norwalk match race when we punctured a tire. Del was in the Big Bud Shootout in '00, and as we looked forward to that we didn't realize we were about to have a Saturday to truly forget.

During the second qualifying session, Del punctured a tire at the finish line again, and although this time he didn't crash, it did destroy the body and it put us in a precarious spot because the Norwalk thing had cost us a body too, and we were running short of CSK lids to put on our chassis. After Del's deal, early in the session, the decision was made that he'd compete in the Bud Shootout with Frankie's blue CSK body on his car, and the blue team would sit out qualifying because they were solidly in the field. Frankie pulled up to make his run in that session, right at the back of the pack, and what happened? Of course, we blew it up, caught it on fire, and made toast out of the body Del was going to run the next day. That was a tough 20 minutes, let me tell ya.

Del immediately ran over to Jerry Toliver's pit, and bought a black body he had as a spare. We got to work on it that night, and at 2:00 a.m. we had printed and installed every decal we needed, creating a really cool and shiny black CSK car. It was gorgeous, but alas it didn't win, in either the Shootout or the race.

A year later, Frankie had also earned his way into the Bud Shootout, and with no fires, no crashes, and no broken bodies to contend with, he won the thing. That was a great Indy memory, including the part where we went to the Shootout Winner's Circle for pictures, right in front of the tower, with Top Fuel still running its final qualifying session. You are confronted with a choice at that time. You can either look cool and go deaf, or wear your ear muffs in all the photos...

Then, of course, 2005...

Hurricane Katrina was happening when we got to Indy, and there was a somber pall over everything. Most guys didn't even feel like racing, but it's what we do and we went on with the show. Del was in what was, by then, called the Skoal Showdown, and son of a gun if we didn't get on a hot streak and plow right through that deal. We really weren't having the sort of season we'd grown accustomed to, especially coming off five wins and a 2nd-place points finish the year before, so the Showdown thing really felt good, both emotionally and in everyone's wallet.

Monday was surreal. I had just started the blog, back then, so I got to write about it as it all happened. Well, not during the actual race on Monday, as I was far too busy (and nervous) to blog during the day, but at least I could update each night. Winning the first round was cool. Winning the next one was awesome. Winning the semifinal was unbelievable, and then waiting for the final round was, by far, the most stressful experience I've ever gone through at a race track.

I think most of the guys felt like I did, and it was absolutely hard to breathe! I'm not exaggerating and that's not a cliche'. It was physically difficult to breathe, and the moments before that final round moved in ultra-slow motion. To be faced with the chance to win the U.S. Nationals is exciting and stressful enough, but to be on the verge of doubling up, which signified an enormous amount of money for a team like ours, well that was just off the charts. As you know, we barely beat our old buddy Frankie Pedregon in the final, and all went suitably insane. It was CRAZY, and it was one of those moments where, as you're experiencing it, you're not really sure if it's real. I have the Wally right here in my office, so I know it was real.

Indy... I may just be a mere rookie, with my 17 trips to The Big Go, but I've got a ton of great memories...

And, I know a certain Mr. Burgess is already making plans for his initial pilgrimage to Steak 'N Shake. Yes, boys and girls, I did indeed do the Bird's Eye View shot of the Steak 'N Shake that's right near our hotel. I can practically taste the steakburger, with onion, pickle, and relish, right now... It's all good...

So let's have a great Indy, eh! Cole Nance starts his full-time racing career with Team Wilk (he's packed and loaded, since he won't be going home again until after Pomona), Tim and the guys are feeling good about the car, we're ready to take 'em on and do the best we can, and hopefully we can even move back up a spot or two in the Countdown, before it begins in Charlotte. Let's do it..

Finally, the answers to the most recent geography quiz:

1. Dealey Plaza in Dallas (site of the JFK assassination). That would be the infamous "grassy knoll" just above the winding road.

2. Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport.

3. Mount Rushmore (parking lots in the lower right, visitor's center just up and to the left from there, and the monument itself is in the upper left corner, but it's hard to recognize looking straight down on the presidents).

4. Dodger Stadium.

5. Alcatraz Island. No place to spend your vacation!

6. San Francisco International Airport, right alongside San Francisco Bay.

7. The University of Notre Dame, home of the Fighting Irish.

8. Infineon Raceway at Sears Point.

9. Durham Athletic Field, the former home of the Durham Bulls and the site of filming for the classic movie "Bull Durham".

10. Woodbury, Minn. Large pond is the one in front of our house, and the little pond in the middle of the image is out back, aka the "Pond Cam" pond.

Great work, everyone!  It was obvious that a whole lot of you enjoyed that...

Let's go to Indy!!!!

Wilber, out!

And as much as it seems odd to start a blog on a Monday morning by posting a photo of a brilliant sunset, we'll just stretch the analogy to illustrate how the sun is setting on yet another summer of our lives. Okay, for all of you in the southern part of the country I know it's hard to yet even envision the coming autumn and for the sizable group of you in the southern hemisphere (g'day down there) it's actually about to become spring, but the whole September thing has me in a sort of mixed-up mood. I love autumn and winter up here, so I'm excited for that, but it seems like these summers fly by so fast they're gone before you're even accustomed to them, and each one represents another year on this planet for me. My 53rd such summer is ending... Gosh, I hardly knew ya, 53rd summer.

Let it also be noted that I did not take that incredible sunset photo, although the same view would've confronted me from our driveway had I been home on the night such a spectacular view presented itself. Dave knew Barbara and I had gone to the Twins game, so he went out front and took the shot, then e-mailed it to me. The colors are stunning, but the swirl of the clouds is the key, I think.

Well, it's not only the last day of August, it's also the first day of Indy Week, and I'll be heading down to the new Indianapolis Airport on Thursday. This will be a first for me, since we missed the opening of the new terminal by just a few weeks last year, and I'm looking forward to seeing the new place. It's on the same property, but was simply built on the other side of the runways. Wonder if it still has that "new airport smell"?

Once I'm there, I'll have plenty of things to do upon arrival, but it will be a while before we have some real fun. Indy, of course, is an extra day long, so we make one qualifying pass on Friday, two on Saturday, two on Sunday, and then race on Monday (duh, like I'm telling you something you don't already know). Our lone session on Friday isn't until 7 p.m., so it's gonna be a while between arrival and blast-off.

Looks like 19 Funny Cars are entered, with the likes of Justin Schriefer, Brian Thiel, and my old Kiwi buddy Grant Downing in attendance to provide the added competition. In terms of the points, fans of the nitro classes will have their eyes firmly focused on the battle for the last spots in the Countdown, both in Funny Car and Top Fuel. Here in the FC class, Mike Neff has given himself a large enough cushion to be safe (he's in 9th, with a 102-point lead on the 11th-place driver, Matt Hagan) so it's really going to come down to Cruz Pedregon in 10th, trying to fend off Hagan and Robert Hight, who come into the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals 31 and 38 points out of the 10th spot, respectively.

For Cruz, all he has to do is qualify and maintain the status quo. For either of the other two, they need to go two rounds further than Cruz to overtake him, and Hight's challenge could be made even harder if Cruz were to out-qualify him by enough spots to pick up another three points. That means, if Cruz were to qualify in the top four spots, and Hight were to end up in the bottom half, the lead would be at least 41 points, and Hight would have to go three rounds further than Cruz. The Advance Auto Parts team is in a pretty strong position, but this thing could easily come down to crunch time on Monday, and what if either Hagan or Hight were to be matched up with Cruz in round one? That would be huge...

In Top Fuel, there are only two drivers in the fight for the last spot, but the difference is razor thin, over there. It's Clay Millican in 10th, but Joe Hartley is only three measly little points behind. Their positions could easily be reversed, or they could be tied, after qualifying. As tight as it is in FC, it's microscopic for those guys. And, it all just adds more drama to the greatest spectacle in drag racing. That's why we call it The Big Go.

I'm making a sharp turn here, so hold on... This is a note about the economy and things that bring us comfort. It certainly looks to me (and to a lot of economic experts) like we've turned the corner and have seen the worst of our near-implosion with the economy, but there's still a lot of ground to make up and things remain tight in a lot of households. Perhaps, if there is a silver lining to what we've all just gone through, it's that most of us were forced to take stock in how we handle our finances and what really is important, in terms of spending. I'd like to think those lessons will carry forward with us, but I'm also a realist and I suspect many of these hardships will be forgotten once the economy is roaring again and everyone starts singing "We're in the money, we're in the money..."

Anyway, what's noteworthy about these times is the desire for people to find places and things that bring them true comfort, instead of instant yet hollow gratification that fades too fast and leaves us hungrier than when we started. Witness the Minnesota State Fair, going on right now here in the Twin Cities. It's a wonderful event, and probably is the world capital for all kinds of food that can be served on a stick, but it's also burned deep into the DNA of countless Minnesotans who have been attending for generations. So far, blessed with good weather, the fair isn't just breaking its attendance records but obliterating them. It is (I just learned, by visiting the Fair's website) the most highly attended state fair in the country, but even by Minnesota's standards the crowd on opening day was mega-large. 114,439 people stepped through the gates last Thursday, and that's an opening day record. This past Saturday, 189,077 fair goers were on-site. It's all just further evidence that people find and hold onto what's most comfortable to them, in times when they need to feel a little better and smile.

Okay, back to the subject so many of you have been waiting for... The satellite-image geography quiz from last Friday. Based on the number of e-mails I received, and the answers listed on those e-mails, I can deduce two things. 1) A lot of people really enjoyed challenging themselves to figure out what they were looking at. 2) I made the images and the clues far too easy.

I have no trouble believing the reports we read that say today's elementary and high school kids, by and large, can't find Canada on a map. Since Canada rarely text messages them, they have no need to befriend it or know its whereabouts. But adult folks like us, who weren't text messaging the kid sitting right next to us in geography class (I actually communicated by writing notes on scraps of paper!), apparently paid attention and had little problem with the quiz.

Kevin Hill was the first to respond, and, like the vast majority, he aced the test. Plus, I do believe his 11 correct answers arrived no more than a few minutes after the blog had been posted. Many others got 'em all right, as well, but I do give extra credit to those who went with the longer and more "official" answers for a couple of them. Gold stars for all of you. Here are the correct answers:

1. The site of Woodstock (many correctly identified it by its current name, the Woodstock Performing Arts Center, and a few included its original name, Max Yazgur's dairy farm near Bethel, N.Y.)

2. The White House

3. The 18th hole at Pebble Beach

4. Holes 11, 12, and 13 at Augusta National (home of The Master's) collectively known as "Amen Corner"

5. Wimbledon (full name: The All-England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club)

6. Pearl Harbor, with both the USS Missouri (now a museum) and the Arizona Memorial visible

7. Central Park, in New York

8. Statue of Liberty

9. Fenway Park, in Boston

10. Niagara Falls

11. EPCOT, at Disney World (almost everyone knew it was a Disney attraction, but only a few specifically noted it was EPCOT)

{GALLERY_wb831}So, whattaya say we try this one more time, and make it a little tougher? I'm going to aim the clues at a higher level, and the shots themselves are a little more obscure, but none of the images are impossible to figure out. Best of luck, and the first person to get all 10 of these correct will win a Tim Wilkerson T-shirt! Best of luck, and good hunting...

Well, time to get cranking on my pre-Indy feature story. I'm in that mental space where bits and pieces of concepts are floating around in my head, but nothing has coalesced into anything "real" yet, so I'm still waiting for inspiration. Maybe lunch will help, as a catalyst for creativity.

Obviously, the theme will be about the points. It will be a huge race for us, after having lost those two microscopically unlucky races in Brainerd and Reading, and we need to enter the Countdown on a high note, that's for sure. Right now, we sit in 6th place, but we're only 14 points behind Fast Jack Beckman in 5th, and only 26 points behind our teammate, Bob Tasca, who is 4th. Looking behind us, Del Worsham is in 7th, and he's 53 points back, while John Force is 63 behind us. That's three rounds for Del to make up, and possibly four for John, unless he picks up a few qualifying points on us. Either way, we just have to go some rounds and we'll accomplish two things... We'll have a good shot at moving back up into 5th or 4th, and we'll keep Del and John behind us.

I think you can sum it all up by admitting that calculators are going to be readily at hand, in a lot of pit areas, all weekend.

Finally, many of you non-cat lovers may find this hard to believe, but the single most common request I've had, over the past few days, is to post something new of Da Boyce. Like any father with adorable kids, I easily take more pictures of Boofus and Buster than I do of any other subject, and I'd love to put about 400 of them in a mega-gallery for you, but I shall instead select one new photograph, taken yesterday as both guys hung out with me in my office for a while. They were extremely busy sniffing the cool air and watching the birds, but they agreed to look my way for just a split second, so that I could click off one photo, before returning to their instinctive pursuits. Buster, who is closer to the camera, is featuring his standard and overly bored "Oh come on, enough with the paparazzi stuff" look, while Boofie simply has his normal "What? Huh? What's goin' on?" face. Such different personalities, but such good boyz...

Take a shot at today's quiz if you like, and we'll blog again later in the week. If you get stuck and want hints, just fire away.

And then keep those calculators handy once qualifying begins on Friday.

Wilber, out!

First off, with winter coming I knew I had to get new tires on the thing, because you don't head into the dark/snowy months up here with less than a quarter-inch of tread. If you've ever put tires on an SUV, you know they ain't cheap. Secondly, on the way home from Brainerd I noticed the steering had a slight "shimmy" to it at 70 mph, so I wanted to make sure we got it aligned when the new "shoes" went on. Thirdly, I had been wondering if it was my imagination that the horn sounded weak for the last month or two, and then in Brainerd I was confronted with a driver who was so creative with his approach to driving that his technique bordered on the revolutionary, as he turned left from the right-turn lane across four lanes of traffic, directly in front of me. As I hit the brakes I instinctively hit the horn as well, and (I'm not sure I can type how it sounded, but...) it went "BEEEEeeeeppp..." and then nothing. The sound of a horn actually going through its own death throes is a little disconcerting...

In addition, I also decided I'd rather not go through the winter attempting to peer through the smears on my windshield every time the wipers were running, so I had the worn-out blades replaced and I asked them to change the oil while they were at it.

So let's see... Four new tires, two new horns (and the labor involved with removing the grill and bumper to get at the old horns and replace them with two new ones), wheel alignment, new wiper blades, and an oil change... I am well more than a thousand dollars poorer than I was yesterday. Sweet! Most of that was tied up in the tires, of course, but the horn deal was about $350 and that would've been free... Six months ago! That's when my warranty ran out.

What does all of that have to do with anything? Absolutely nothing, but I had to vent...

I'd love to be blogging all about the Indy test session, but we didn't go. I'd love to tell you how I'm going to head down to Cordova for the match race this weekend, but for a variety of reasons well beyond my control, I won't be going. And, it would please me to no end if I could tell you almost anything race-car related, but all is pretty quiet right now... Okay, here are a few miscellaneous details, and then after these tidbits I have two new never-before-attempted themes to inundate you with, and both are accompanied by photo galleries.

Tidbit No. 1: In Indy, Tim will be taking part in a Ford "Drive One"
campaign by taking temporary delivery of a brand-spanking-new and very much redesigned Ford Taurus, which he'll get to play with throughout the weekend. Mike "Zippy" Neff has the vehicle right now, and he'll be handing it off to Tim when we all get there.

Tidbit No. 2: Tim has been invited to be a part of the NHRA pre-race press conference when we get to Memphis. One suspects some sort of barbeque will be on the menu.

Tidbit No. 3: Tim has also been invited to be a guest speaker at the Summit ET Bracket Finals dinner, at the Wally Parks NHRA Museum, on the Thursday night of the Pomona race. It's a big deal for the bracket racers who are part of the event, and he's excited to talk to them, get them amped up, and then join them for a nice dinner.

And that's about it for tidbits. Should you not care to see a really cool "insider's view" of Target Field, the Twins new ballpark still under construction, and should you care not one bit to take a satellite view "geography quiz" after that, well... Thanks for coming and have a great weekend!

For those of you still here, let's get to these two new concepts...
Suggestion: You might want to click on the little magnifying glass icon, next to the words "larger image" to view all of these in a larger format...

Let's go to Target Field! Yesterday, just after noon, I met up with my blog-reading cohort (who has access to the ballpark) about two blocks from the construction site. I donned my official hard hard and yellow vest, slid on the cool safety glasses I bought the day before, and we walked over to the main construction entrance. We were on "official business" baby, or at least we aimed to look like we were, and in we went. Seriously, he was on business and my presence was approved, but we were certainly not there to get in anyone's way and since I'm not a real construction worker (and don't even play one on
TV) I had to do my best to blend in and stay low-profile, so as not to get anyone in hot water (myself included).

I'll start off with today's current webcam shot of Target Field, which not only clearly shows that they have completed installation of the grass since I was there yesterday, but also gives you a sort of overview and "lay of the land" to compare to the shots I took.

First point: The place is STUNNING. I'll be brutally honest and say that most of us really don't equate the Twins with any kind of extravagance, as they are one of the most fiscally conservative (also read as "penny pinching") teams in the game, but the attention to detail, the materials used, and all of the truly unique features they've come up with for this place are just perfect. From the Minnesota limestone that is everywhere, to the fact the wide concourses were designed to be warming spots on cold spring or fall days, to the new plaza that will greet fans coming into the stadium from the parking areas near Target Center (the Timberwolves arena that sits next door) it looks like they thought of everything...

Also, after watching the construction for the last year or so on the webcam, I was not prepared for how huge the place feels when you're inside. I think it's because its overall footprint is so tight (it sits on barely two square blocks) and the grandstands, therefore, rise pretty much straight up from the field. It seems to visually engulf you when you're inside. I've heard the lower level seats with be the closest to the action of any park in the big leagues, and there's very little foul territory.

We strolled in, walking by scaffolds where sparks were raining down from welders doing their work, and found our way to the main level concourse, where hundreds of workers were sealing the floor and finishing out a myriad of projects. Everywhere you looked, there were workers busily attacking whatever assignment they'd been given for that day, and my first thought immediately clanged in my head... How do you manage all this? Thousands of workers, all completely focused and busy working on things ranging from bolting seats in, to grooming the new field, finishing out concession stands, doing electrical work, adding hand rails, you name it. What an enormous management project this is... It boggled my mind.

{GALLERY_bw1}And I smiled when I saw all those men and women working. Well over a thousand construction jobs are involved here, for far more than a year, and those jobs are all putting food on the table in so many households. In times like these, it's great to see. And we all know how much money is generated for businesses throughout the city when the Twins play 81 home games in downtown. To be brutally frank, had the Twins and Hennepin County not gotten together to partner on this new ballpark, it would've meant the Twins would have been stuck in the Metrodome, it's highly unlikely the team would be here for more than a few more years if they couldn't get out of that place.

I wanted to actually sit in our new season ticket seats, but section
103 is complete and it looks like once they finish a section they rope it off. Since we were trying to blend in and not draw attention to ourselves, climbing over ropes or going where the signs said "No Entry" was out of the question. Still, I could get close, and I was thrilled with the view from where we'll sit.

We went from the right field corner over to the left field corner, where the stack of suites they are building is topped with the ultra- cool Budweiser rooftop party deck, complete with fire pit, a bar, and a couple of rows of bleacher seats. Everything looked terrific, and I really appreciated this rare chance to get in there and check it all out, eight months before it opens next April...

After about 90 minutes, we worked our way back through the maze of scaffolding and workers, and after a fun chat about all things drag racing ( as my host called it "Questions I've wanted to ask for 20
years...") I headed home, still excited about what I'd been able to see.... I hope you enjoy the pics.

Now, on to my second new never-before-attempted theme...

I was messing around on Google Maps and Google Earth the other day, to get those pics of Indy I used on the last blog, and a fun thought struck me. Why not find some famous locations, landmarks, or other places and put them in a photo gallery, just so all of you can test
your own geographic knowledge? Satellite pics can be a little
confusing sometimes, because they show famous places from a perspective almost none of us are familiar with, down here on the ground. For instance, everyone knows what the St. Louis skyline looks like, with the Gateway Arch towering over the riverfront. But, if you look at downtown St. Louis from above the Arch disappears, because it's such a skinny monument. Same thing with the Washington Monument in D.C. The only way to spot them is to see their shadows cast on the ground.

{GALLERY_bw2}I'll have to give you a hint about the first one, just to get you started, but then you're on your own. Mind you, this is not a contest, nor are there any prizes for figuring out a certain percentage of the images. It's just for fun, to help us bide our time waiting for Indy next week, so there's no need to send me your answers, although if you have any questions I'll try to reply to your email as fast as I can this weekend...

Okay, back to that hint about the first one... It is the site of something very famous, which happened 40 years ago. After more than three decades of blending into total anonymity as an unmarked location out in the country, it now has been developed as a full-time arts center and concert venue...

Best of luck! There are sports facilities, cities, landmarks, famous buildings, and natural wonders of the world included...

I'll post all the answers in the next blog... And again, Barbara and I do have some plans for the weekend, but if you get stumped or have any questions, I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can...

If you think you've got each and every one of them nailed, and feel confident about your answers, what the heck, go ahead and send me your list. I'll be surprised if anyone can get them all...

Have fun, and have a great weekend!

Wilber, out!

With Indy, comes Labor Day. With Labor Day, comes the official end of summer, and school-age kids around the country are gearing up to head back to classrooms. Frankly, the ones who are excited about that are the types of kids I was always very wary of. LOL... As a much younger version of me, back in the grade school days, I counted off the three precious months of summer by noting the trio of key birthdays that came in succession. On June 19, my birthday, summer had still just begun and I was oblivious to the fact it might ever end. When we got to my sister Mary's birthday, on July 25, I felt the first pangs of fear, and realized that this whole wonderful thing would not, actually, last forever. By the time we got to my sister Cindy's birthday, on August 17, I was counting the days until it was time to trudge back over the Mary Queen of Peace in beautiful Webster Groves, Mo., to find out if Sister Mary Agnes or Sister Gertrude Marie might be my home room teacher. Those were the days, let me tell ya... Khaki pants, white button-down shirt, blue tie. And mass in the morning, next door at the huge green-roofed MQP church, with Monsignor O'Toole. Oh, and the yellow school bus that was in such disrepair you could look through holes in the floor and see the road go by... Not to mention the time our brakes went out and my classmate Mike Milford volunteered to leap off the still-moving bus and place a 4x4 log under the front tires!!!! I could not possibly be making that up. Hard to believe, I know, but true nonetheless.

Thinking about Labor Day and "back-to-school season" got me thinking about school in general, earlier this morning. I'm happy to say I have long since stopped having the recurring dream in which I discover it's the end of the quarter in college, and I have forgotten to drop those three classes I never went to. I had that one for years after I graduated... Anyway, it hit me this morning that I spent a goodly portion of my life in classrooms (nearly all of my life, right up until I was 21) but I only attended three schools in my life. I wonder if that's common, or does the average person attend more than three schools? Especially if they went to college...

I spent kindergarten through 8th grade at Mary Queen of Peace, then four years of high school at St. Louis University High (an all-boys Jesuit prep school, but at least we didn't have to wear uniforms there) and then got my degree in Television/Radio Broadcasting at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. I got my four-year degree in only six short years (that whole pesky baseball scholarship and my ever-so-brief minor league career got in the way for a bit). There you have it; my entire educational career... Somehow, I survived it all.

I had not planned on that digression when I began this blog, so now I'll get to the meat & potatoes portion of our installment. To begin, we shall address yesterday's big news: The 2010 NHRA Full Throttle schedule! What did you think of it? I'm pretty happy with all the changes, although we've all "been there and done that" in terms of running the Memphis race in August, so I'll start mentally psyching myself up for that one by the time we hit Pomona for the Winternationals... Yowza, that's got a chance to be just a tad warmish...

Key schedule item 1: We'll now race in Charlotte twice. Great! If any track owner/promoter can make the tricky leap from one race to two, it's Bruton Smith. And, who wouldn't want to race at the Bellagio of drag strips twice? It's awesome.

Key schedule item 2: Denver moves to the last slot on the Western Swing. Result of this move still TBD, but it's worth a shot. Considering how hot and stormy it is in Denver during the early part of July, I'm not sure if moving the race a couple of weeks will offer any relief, but it's worth the try and it can't be any worse than it has been.

Key schedule item 3: Reading moves to October. Hip hip, hooray! With our luck at Maple Grove, they will probably suffer their all-time worst October in recorded history, next year, but when you look at all the options this has to be the best.

Key schedule item 4: The summer crunch. From Atlanta, on May 14-16, through Denver on July 23-25, my Mary Queen of Peace math skills tell me we'll be running nine races in 11 weeks. We've done it before, and we can handle it. Just get your travelin' shoes ready and get after it. It will be one of those very compressed segments of the season that ends up feeling like a blur, but it will be enormously important. Atlanta will still seem very much like an "early" race on the schedule, but it actually will be the 8th race after next year's shift moves it out of the 6th position. By the time you're done with the summer crunch, it will almost be playoff time.

There are some other tweaks to the schedule as well, including the fact we will be heading to Richmond for the last time this October (I guess you should never say never, considering this is actually the second time we've run for the "last time" in Richmond), and we'll just have to get a handle on all the new stuff as we go.

For now, though, our focus is strictly on 2009. And Indy. And then the Countdown. We're ready, we have a fast-running car, and we're all ready to rock... If we can find a way to get back on the good side of those incredibly tight side-by-side deals in the first round, we'll be right in the thick of this thing.

Speaking of Indy, since we are speaking of Indy, I was messing around on Google Maps and Mapquest this morning, taking a little tour of the town I once lived in for a couple of years, and I'll post some of those pics in the gallery today. There's a crystal-clear shot of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and an interesting shot of Indianapolis Raceway Park. It's one of the few satellite shots I've seen, of one of our tracks, where it's instantly obvious that a race is going on. By the way the transporters are kind of haphazardly arranged in the pits, and the fact there is no one in the grandstands, it's obviously not the US Nationals, but there is a race going on and it even looks like two cars were at the line ready to go when the satellite snapped the image. Kinda cool...

I also cyber-cruised over to downtown Indy, and noticed that Google Maps has an image that is old enough for the spectacular new Lucas Oil Stadium to not be there at all. There's just a big parking lot there, south of the old RCA Dome. I then went over to Mapquest, and their image is slightly newer, with Lucas Oil Stadium appearing in mid-construction.

In terms of mid-construction, the last couple of nights have been pretty huge in terms of Target Field. The grass is arriving!!! As Dave St. Peter (Vice President of the Twins) said on TV last night, up until the grass arrived it was a building. Now, it's a ballpark. The grass is cut at the turf farm in Colorado very early in the morning, then loaded onto refrigerated trucks and driven directly to downtown Minneapolis, where it arrives each night around 10:00 p.m. For the process to work best, they like to install it at night, so the whole process is taking four days. Right now, about half the field is in place. Cool!

And, I mentioned this before but bad weather curtailed my plans and a very interesting trip is now re-scheduled for tomorrow.  One of my blog readers is the guy who handles Fast Jack Beckman's website, and he has access to the new stadium and the ability to bring guests to the new ballpark whenever he wants. I'll have to don the always-attractive hard hat, yellow vest, and safety glasses, but somehow I'll pull off the fashion side of things. Our goal is to meet just after noon, and then head into Target Field for a good look around. I'll even make my way over to our seats, and check out the view. And yes, you better believe the camera will come along with me... I'm REALLY looking forward to this...

On to a completely different subject... My mother-in-law saw an author on Larry King a few weeks ago, discussing his latest book about auto racing, and she went to a great deal of trouble to buy the book on Amazon and have it sent to me. It's entitled "Go Like Hell" and when it arrived I was a little skeptical, since it's about the 24 Hours of Le Mans race back in the mid-60s, and even though I was aware of and interested in that sort of racing as a kid, I wasn't sure any of the subject matter would be relevant to me. I took it with me to Reading, finishing it on the flight home, and let me play Oprah for a second so that I can fully, completely, and whole-heartedly recommend this book to everyone.

It's about racing, and that part of it is fascinating in its own right, but it's more about personalities, wills, and egos with the main stars of the story being Enzo Ferrari, Henry Ford II, Lee Iacocca, and a bevy of drivers who raced in a time when tragedy and death stalked them at every turn. It's frightening to read about how many talented drivers they lost, year in and year out, but mesmerizing to ponder the mentality that made these guys sign up to do it, and attack the job with abandon, despite the obvious and overwhelming risks. The main theme is about Ford and Ferrari fighting for Le Mans dominance, no matter the cost or the effort, but the entire story makes for a brilliant read. It's a classic "page turner" and I loved every one of those pages. It's the sort of book that makes you a little sad when it's over...

That ties in neatly to one of the last photos I'll show in the gallery today, since I finished the book while we were making our approach into MSP. I looked out the window as we came in from the east, passing over Woodbury but a little further north of here than the usual approach. As we came in toward St. Paul, I quickly realized we were on a flight path I'd never before been a part of, and I had a brief moment of wondering if the pilot knew what he was doing. We ended up landing on a cross runway I'd never landed on before (nor did I know it even existed) and the whole approach took us right over downtown St. Paul (I was quick enough to snap a pretty neat shot with the iPhone) and straight into the airport, flying in over neighborhoods I'd never seen before. Weird, but cool...

{GALLERY_bw826}Finally, one of my other assignments yesterday entailed a drive around Woodbury to see if I could find a No. 4 Vikings jersey (that would be a Brett Favre jersey). Reebok is making them as fast as they can, but they're flying off the shelves non-stop and are still a bit hard to find. I needed to grab one as a favor for my good buddy (and former CSK teammate) Tom Abbett, who is now Team Manager for Mike Ashley's organization. Tommy Nitro knows a Lend America staffer who is a huge Favre fan, and he wanted to surprise her with the jersey, so (Oops!) I hope she's not also a blog reader! I found one at a local sporting goods store and have sent it off to New York...

As for Tom, it bears mentioning that he's a sharp guy who has now successfully made the rare transition from crew guy to management type. He was always one of our hardest working guys on the CSK team, but our conversations over the years made it clear to me that he aspired to use his brain as much as his hands, and he surely had the smarts to do it. It's kinda cool to see how far he's come and how well he's doing on this side of the fence...

Well, I guess that's about it for today. Barbara and I are off to the Dome tonight, to provide the kiss of death for the Twins. They've won five in a row now, most of them thrilling come-from-behind victories, so our attendance at their game versus the Orioles will almost certainly cause the end of the winning streak... Fingers crossed, of course, but I'm pessimistic...

See ya later, gang.

Wilber, out

Getting right to the crux of the situation, let's talk about Sunday.  I awoke around 6:00 a.m. and walked over to the window expecting to see pouring rain, flooded streets, and perhaps an ark full of pairs of animals floating by. Instead, the sun was beginning to brighten a partly cloudy sky! Hooray for small miracles.

We all convened at Maple Grove not long after that, and then spent the morning preparing for round one while the endless deep-throated roar of sportsman racing was going on right behind us. The schedule had gotten so far out of whack, with all the bad weather and water seepage, the large sportsman contingent was probably close to two full days behind where they should've been, and almost all of the Sunday morning professional pre-race stuff was scrapped to run as many sportsman racers as possible. We were only a bit late getting started, but it was pretty obvious after just a couple of Top Fuel cars ran in round one that we had some challenges ahead of us with the track.

The fact Sunday was sunny was the prime reason behind this good news/ bad news scenario. It was great to be dry, but the heat from the sun was causing the water in the saturated ground beneath the track to bubble up right through the asphalt. This wasn't a deal of water coming up through expansion joints or cracks, mind you, it was bubbling straight up through perfectly groomed asphalt. The Finkster and I rode around to the other side of the track during one of the delays, as the relentless Safety Safari did all they could to give us a good track. A track-drying vehicle would pass in front of us, leaving behind a dry surface, and within seconds we could see small dots appear, as water worked its way back to the top.

The Top Fuel cars were dropping cylinders like crazy, down track, and it only took a couple of laps like that for us to realize what was going on. They were spinning the tires down there, but not smoking them, because the moisture in the track was causing them to lose traction. A loss of traction causes the load on the motor to lessen, of course, and the next domino to fall is the one marked "dropped cylinders". Seeing this, the Funny Car crew chiefs were making wholesale changes in their tune-ups, taking as much spark and fuel out of the car as possible down there after the 660 mark. The cars were going straight, and staying upright, because of the huge amount of downforce they make, but the Goodyear slicks didn't have a lot to adhere to down there.

We were seventh pair in the first round, racing against Mike Neff, and when that moment finally arrived I knew Tim and (car chief) Jeff Jacobs had a good plan in mind. I knew, absolutely knew, that we'd go A-to-B and I fully expected us to win the round. As I watched it unfold through my tiny viewfinder, I firmly thought we were winning.  When I heard some yells from behind me, I was sure we had won. Turns out, the yells were from Neff's guys, and he beat us by an eyelash.  Two weeks in a row, we raced brilliantly and would've beaten every other car in the class, with the lone exception being the one car we were matched up with. If I had any hair left on my shiny head, I'd be pulling some of it out, but that's the way it is... We have a car that's just as good and just as quick as it was in Seattle and Sonoma, but in Brainerd and Reading we just had no luck in the "who do we get to race?" department.

Oh well (or, as they say in Scotland, "Ach, aye...") we move on...

Well, this is a mini-blog, so I have to start wrapping it up. I've included a photo gallery, of course, and in it you'll see all sorts of pics, ranging from Maple Grove shots, to a pic of the A concourse at Harrisburg's airport, and all three gates that populate it, then the disturbing specter of landing in Detroit to see that an actual majority of the planes on the ground now are painted in Delta colors (sniffle) including the mammoth 747 that is always parked at the first gate in the middle of the gargantuan main concourse, ready to fly to Tokyo. Also, if you've ever been here at DTW you've probably seen the magic fountain that always draws a crowd that is most accurately described as being made up of "kids of all ages" because everyone loves to watch the little streams of water fly through the air and land in precisely the right spot. It's almost impossible to show in a photo, but at least this way you'll know what to look for if you're ever here. And in the background you can see the "Whoosh" train going by overhead. The NWA logos have been removed, but at least the train remains bright red...

{GALLERY_bw824}There's also a pic of Brandon, moments after he dove into one of the hellishly hot peppers my blog buddy Skal dropped off. Brandon started small, kept going after bigger pieces, and then went for the gusto.  For the next 45 minutes he was actually on fire. Burst into flames he did, right before our very eyes, in a moment of pepper-induced spontaneous combustion. Okay, he didn't burst into flames or catch on fire in any way, but he said he felt like he did. Pretty funny stuff...

Oh, and there's also a pic of Tim talking to another Funny Car driver, on the back of our Ford Flex in the LRS pit area. This other driver caused such a stir among our hospitality guests, who were only a few feet away, the flash of cameras and the whole sense of activity and interest caught the attention of the Al-Anabi guys, who were pitted nose-to-nose with us. They thought a rock star might be in our pit, but it was just... You'll see.

Gotta go. Back with more throughout the week, but right now I want to go home... Take me home, Delta.

Wilber, out!
 

I'm trying to remember the last time we came to Reading and were high and dry. I'm trying, but I'm drawing a blank. Year after year, race after race, whether we come here in September or August, the weather finds us, and the combination of these hills, the jet stream, and what's going on out in the Atlantic Ocean seems to conspire to make things difficult to predict (well maybe not that difficult, because if you bet on rain you have a good chance at being right) and it seems that whatever bad stuff comes in is very difficult to get rid of. Whereas, in most parts of the country, storms tend to move in lines that go from west to east, every time we come here we seem to attract a spinning and rotating mass of rain-producing clouds that never leave. This time, I hear we have a guy named Bill to blame, because Hurricane Bill is out in the Atlantic and its presence is blocking our weather. If the weather can't leave, we can't stay dry...

Anyway, we managed to dodge a couple of hairy moments yesterday, when most teams hurried to put their cars away after dark black clouds came over the hill from the south, the temperature dropped 15 degrees, the wind began to gust, and you could smell a storm coming, but a few hours later we were getting the cars out again and we did manage to get one session in. That's a good thing, and I'll get back to that in due time...

Working backwards since the last time I logged-off, Thursday was another in the long list of adventures. My rebooked flight to Atlanta was delayed an hour, and my scheduled layover at ATL was 50 minutes, so I was expecting the worst when we finally pulled up to gate A-30. As soon as I got off the plane (after sitting cramped in a coach seat next to a guy who was determined to use all of his space, half of the guy on the window's space, and two-thirds of mine) I saw that my connecting flight to Harrisburg was delayed 30 minutes, so if I got out to D-35 in a flash, I could make it. If you've been to ATL, you know that getting from A-30 to D-35 in a flash is a laughable idea.

I did make it, thanks to a perfectly timed underground train arrival followed by a sprint down the D concourse, only to arrive (soaking wet) to see that the regional jet to Harrisburg was delayed another 20 minutes. I did my best to stand very still and dry out in an airport that seemed like a sauna, and we finally boarded the flight. I did get a seat assignment, and I think my elite status was the reason I actually got the bulkhead seat on the aisle, so I wasn't nearly as cramped and with the guy next to me leaning against the window, it almost felt expansive. We pushed back, then rolled down the taxiway for a few yards before we stopped. The pilot came on and said "Uh folks, welcome aboard Delta Connection flight blah-blah-blah up to Harrisburg. As you can see there's a little bad weather here in Atlanta, so we're pretty stacked up for departure. Make yourselves comfortable back there, because we're number 40 for take-off." FORTY!!!! Never in my 45-some years of flying have I been number 40 for take-off.

They must have opened another runway after a while, because it ONLY took an hour and 15 minutes to depart, and finally, at around 9:30 or so, we landed in Harrisburg. I got my bag (nicely done Delta, and thanks for not losing it) and grabbed my rental car, then hit the Pennsylvania Turnpike for the one-hour drive over to Reading... I'd love to say that was relaxing, but it was a very dark night and if you've ever been in this part of the country, you know you have to be on "Full Deer Alert" at times like those. There was no "one hand on the wheel while text messaging" going on in my car... Thankfully, there were no deer, no delays, and I finally got to the hotel and in my room just before midnight. My dinner? A pack of peanut butter crackers from the vending machine.

We came out here yesterday knowing all about the forecast... There were some peeks of sunshine from time to time, but we weren't scheduled to run until about 4:00 and every on-line weather service showed the storms arriving around 1:00. They were all correct.

After the thrill of putting our cars away quickly, then getting them back out, we did get that one session in and we had a problem on our lap. With all of his invaluable and vast experience, Tim could feel something wrong with the car at the hit of the throttle so he shut it off almost immediately and coasted down the track. Knowing we probably were only going to get that one lap in yesterday, and also knowing there's a great chance of rain today, we all figured it was possible that the one Friday session might be the only one we'd get here, so most of the drivers were pedaling like mad to get whatever e.t. they could grab out of a bad run, but Tim just idled it down there. Until we got back to the pit, none of us knew why...

The guy is amazing... When we took the motor apart, there was the exhaust valve from cylinder number two, bent and hung open. How many drivers would've tried to leg that thing to the finish line and ended up looking at a lot of broken parts afterward? Probably a bunch, but not our guy.

We were 15th best in the session, and usually that would just mean that we have no official time on the board, since only the top 12 times are recorded on Friday. However, and it's a honest "however", if we don't get to run today they can set the field off that one run and we would be 15th. If they do that, it's going to be a bad weekend for Ron Capps, because he's the 17th car on the grid (there are 17 here). I know we want another shot at it, and I guarantee Ronny does too...

Oh, and in case you're wondering about the old "Top 10" rule (wherein any driver who is in the Top 10 but is not in the field when we only get to make one lap, gets inserted into the field at the expense of the lowest ranked non-Top 10 driver) we have been officially told that rule is no longer in effect. I got that straight from my boy Todd Myers, who had a specific interest in that information since Jeff Arend is sitting 16th right now.

Who knows, maybe Hurricane Bill will move on up to Nova Scotia, this weather system will get out of here, and we'll make one or two laps today. It could happen!

It was so foggy when we left last night, the drive back to the hotel was a total white-knuckle deal. It was raining, it was pitch-black, the humidity was so high it was impossible to keep the windows clear, and we were driving on the winding treacherous (also slick) roads near Reading. On top of that, the local gendarmes were directing traffic however they pleased, forcing cars to go directions they didn't want to go just to get them off the property. It was a sort of "Get out of here so I can leave, and I really don't care if you're totally lost going that direction..." sort of thing.

Dave was following me in his rental car, and we had to leave in the totally wrong direction, stuck in a gridlocked line of cars that certainly had to be driven by a sizable percentage of people who had no idea where they were headed. I mean, it's not like being detoured in New York City where all the roads run in basic squares and you can simply work your way around it. If you have no local knowledge and are forced to leave Maple Grove in the wrong direction, and you can end up in Lancaster, Allentown, or Philly before you figure it out.

We waited until we were out of the line of sight from the guys directing traffic with the flashlights, then each pulled in a driveway and turned around, attacking the exiting traffic from the opposite direction. They still forced us to go a way we didn't want to go, but we ended up (about an hour later) headed in the general correct direction, and then we battled the fog and the misty windows to pick our way back to the Days Inn as if on instruments. I've driven in London in the fog, and in San Francisco when you can't see 100 feet, and even though this wasn't nearly that bad the winding nature of the incredibly roads made it just as difficult. Miss a turn here, and you'll end up in someone's living room. It felt good pull into the hotel and put the whole thing behind us.

This morning, we met in the lobby at 7:30, just as the overnight rain came to an end, and headed back out here. The sun is burning the fog off now, and that's a good thing, but it's been gloomy and not-so- positive looking since we got here. We'll just have to see how this goes... Think positive!

I spent most of yesterday as the "guy to see" in our pit area, in terms of weather forecasting. We had a couple of websites and radar images on the screen, and it was pretty impressive how accurate they are. As a matter of fact, Tim specifically joked to me "Go on the blog tomorrow and tell them all you made a tuning call for us" because he asked me if I thought we'd get two sessions in last night. When I said "No way, unless we get a miracle" he switched from scuffed tires to new ones. He was laughing about it, but hey... I gave him my recommendation and he went with it.

{GALLERY_822}Anyway, I've attached a bunch of general Maple Grove pics to give you a flavor for what this is all about. We've had a ton of fans here, supporting us and standing near our pit, and that's aided by the fact we have a terrific pit spot that you can't miss as soon as you walk into the place. The blog readers have been plentiful, including a bunch I correspond with regularly and some other old friends from the sport, like Bob Weickgenannt (former nitro FC driver), and Jim Tomek (current PBA pro bowler) not to mention my blog buddy Skal Loret, who spent most of his life as a real live honest-to-goodness rock 'n roll roadie. He worked with a plethora of bands, though he also spent the longest time with Bob Seger. Oh the stories he can tell...

Yesterday, Skal brought us a zip-lock bag full of various hot peppers from his garden, and Dave tried a tiny slice of one of the orange ones (he said it was the size of a pencil eraser after he chopped it up) and put it on some Mexican food leftovers he had, last night back at the hotel. At around 11:30, my phone rang and it was Dave saying "Oh my gosh. I can't feel my lips!!!" I'm ever so happy to have passed those along to Dave and The Finkster...

Well... We wait. And we hope. And we really really want to get back on the track here. Major props to these amazing Maple Grove fans, who came out in droves yesterday but hung in there, waited out the weather, and stayed until the end. I hope they stay dry today!

Wilber, out!
 

At least I didn't have to talk to any cranky humans on the phone, since I could rebook my itinerary on their balky website (why does the Delta site forget who I am and what flights I have booked, every time I go back there, while the Northwest site always has all my info front-and-center each time I log on?). So now, instead of leaving at 10:30 to connect in Cincy, I'm leaving at 1:20 and flying to everyone's favorite airport, Atlanta, where I'll have less than an hour to connect to another Delta flight up to Harrisburg (which is overbooked and I don't have a seat yet). Instead of landing in Harrisburg around 4:00, which would've gotten me to Reading just after 5:00, I am now scheduled to land at 8:00 (if I don't get bumped off that flight from ATL). This is GREAT!!!

The only good thing to come out of this is the fact I'm at my own desk typing this blog. If things had gone smoothly, I wouldn't have had time today... Oh geez, just remembered I'll need to change my Hertz reservation, or they'll figure I no-showed for my car. Remind me to do that when I'm done with this.

First things first, in terms of blogging... Got a funny note from my boy Jeff Arend the other day, after I showed my new NHRA FC license plates on the blog. He sent me a pic of his California tags on his GTO, which also read NHRA FC, and asked if my choice was simply a matter of me being unoriginal, or do I just want to be like him? I, of course, wrote back and told him I always want to be just like him. :-)

Let's see, how do I connect Jeff Arend to Brett Favre? Well, Jeff is originally from Toronto, where the Toronto Argonauts have long been members of the Canadian Football League, and just to the south of the CFL is a little league called the NFL. One of the best players to ever suit up in the NFL is Brett Favre. You might have heard that No. 4 arrived in the Twin Cities the other day. It was in the news, I think...

Hoo boy, let me tell you. It was like The Beatles landing in New York for the first time, and then a little like O.J. and his car chase. The Favre drama seemed to end here three weeks ago, when he told the Vikings he was going to stay retired. Then, in a matter of just a couple of hours on Tuesday, a rumor on ESPN turned into an actual private plane with a Vikings logo on the tail landing in Hattiesburg, Miss., where it picked up the aforementioned "former" QB and brought him to St. Paul.

By the time the jet got here, TV news choppers were hovering overhead to catch every moment of it, even as Favre came out of the plane to get in a black Escalade driven by the Vikes head coach, Brad Childress. Every TV station broke into their regular programming to follow this deal, and the choppers stayed on the Escalade's tail all the way from St. Paul to Winter Park, where the Vikings complex is. By the time they got there, word had spread and hundreds of people were running down the street, trying to get close enough to get a glimpse when the SUV arrived. It was insane!!!

Anyway, there's no telling how effective the old dude is going to be on the field, but the Vikings sold 3,000 new season tickets within 36 hours of his arrival, and Reebok is running the presses 24/7 to make purple No. 4 jerseys... It's nuts around here, I tell ya... The Pioneer-Press didn't just run a huge pic of Favre on the front of the Sports section... No sir, they ran it on the front page of the paper!

So... That's been our sports drama over the last couple of days.

Then, yesterday, we had more drama on TV, where once again all the stations broke into regular programming for about an hour. This time, it was weather-related, though, not Favre-related. There were showers in the forecast, and we had been having some nice soaking rains throughout most of the day, but there was little reason to think we'd have any violent weather. Imagine my surprise, then, around 2:30 in the afternoon, when the storm sirens all went off. I turned on the TV to see what was going on, and sure enough there was a tornado touching down just south of downtown Minneapolis!  That one was no danger to us, but then another cell popped up directly south of us, in Cottage Grove (where Shorty has his car bar) and it was tracking due north...

When the announcers start dropping the word "Woodbury" into their excited delivery, once per sentence, you sit up and take notice. Da Boyce were agitated as it was, because the sirens had gone off five or six times by then and they knew something weird was going on. I needed to get them to the lower level, and I figured they'd run away and try to hide under the bed upstairs, but I guess they were smart enough to realize I was there to help, because they acted like they were running away, but they let me grab them within a step...

I took them to the lower level, put them in the bathroom down there, and went back to the TV. Fortunately, the Cottage Grove storm weakened by the time it got to our neighborhood, and all we got were some strong winds for a few minutes. After it passed over us, it got stronger again to the north, but I don't think it did any major damage. Way too much drama, though...  And it was funny how Boofus and Buster knew something strange was going on. They must have sensed a weather shift in the air, because their fur was standing straight up, their tails were all fat, and they were meowing like they were scared. Scaredy cats...

Hey, here's something new... I was cruising thru the iPhone "App Store" at iTunes late yesterday, figuring I'd download a few new games to pass the time on planes, when I stumbled onto an official NHRA application! Cool!!! We'll see how it works at the races, but it looks like it provides "live" timing and scoring, and it's got a ton of information on it. I suspect it's brand new, and probably still a work in progress, but if this app delivers what I hope it will provide, life is going to get a lot better at the track.

This ties in with a bone most of us PR types have been picking for years, and in this day and age it's almost impossible to believe this issue still exists. After each qualifying session or round of eliminations, the timing department issues "the sheet" which is just a list of the qualifying order after that session or an updated ladder after a round. On the back of the sheet are the incremental times for each driver in that session. At the last two races, in Brainerd and Sonoma, we've been dealing with the worst-case scenario when it comes to getting our hands on the sheets (and most of us aren't simply waiting for them just for our own purposes, but are also charged with the responsibility of getting those incremental times back to our crew chiefs and drivers). In both places, it went like this: At some point after the session, the sheet was printed out in the timing room. From there, a human needed to run it from that room in that tower, over to the Media Room in another tower, where it would be run on the copier so that each of us could have a few copies...

How long did that take? Oh, anywhere from 30 minutes to almost an hour! That's ridiculous in an age when information is instantaneous and everything is wireless. We sat there waiting (and in the case of Elon Werner, who does PR for JFR, it was Austin Coil who was also waiting, wondering where in the world Elon was with the sheet he needed) while who-knows-what was going on with the rest of the links in the delivery chain... It's one thing when the people involved simply show no urgency to deliver the sheets from point A to point B in any sort of timely fashion, but it's also a little hard to believe we still even rely on someone to print a sheet, walk it a hundred yards, hand it to someone else who might be busy, then copy that 50 times so that everyone in the Media Center can have one of their very own.

If this iPhone app shows promise, we might be able to have all that information right in our hands, as soon as the session ends. Hope marches on...!!!

{GALLERY_bw8202}Finally, a little fun with geography (and then I have to change that Hertz reservation and finally go to the airport)... I was trading emails with good friend and long-time blog reader, Kim Campbell from Vancouver, yesterday, and the subject was Lake Mille Lacs. Since Mille Lacs actually translates into "thousand lakes" the name is pretty redundant, and while we were e-mailing about that I mentioned to Kim that we have an even odder bit of geography here in Minnesota.

Are any of you aware that a piece of Minnesota actually lies completely within Canada? It's ever so true. I'll show two satellite pics of Minnesota in the gallery, in the wider shot you can see there's an odd little "notch" on the northern border between Minnesota and Canada. That notch is mostly over water, as Lake of the Woods is up there. But, at the top of the notch there is a bit of land that falls within Minnesota, but you can't get there on land without going through Canada...

Kim wrote me back and explained that they have the exact same situation out there, in British Columbia. Rather than a notch, their border situation was created by a straight line, because when the US/Canadian border was drawn, the southern tip of a Canadian peninsula was bisected by the line, and the lowest edge of that land area ended up below the border. So, the people who live there are Americans, but to get to the rest of the USA they have to cross the border into Canada, then drive toward Seattle and cross the border back into the USA. Seemed to us that some people with a little more common sense probably could've worked that out a little better, in both cases...

Okay, time to go. Thanks for reminding me about the Hertz thing. Hopefully I'll get to Reading at some point tonight...

Wilber, out!
 

On Sunday morning we had more delays and rain drops, and even though the boss was very confident he'd fixed the issue that was slowing us down, we were still going out there sort of blind, trying to pick up a huge amount of e.t. in one big swing. When you just qualified with a 4.32 and have to race Ron Capps in round one, you know you're going to need to jump higher than an Olympic pole vaulter to take him out, and it's just not that easy to turn the knobs and dial a 4.11 or a 4.12 into a car that just ran 4.32 on its last lap. We were kinda swinging for the fences, a bit, but that's how Tim works. Easing into a 4.20 would've been a lot simpler, but a 4.20 would only beat Ron Capps if he had trouble, and we never plan to win with that strategy. So, we went for it.

Basically, the boss, the crew, and the car were all flawless. When you run 4.12 and lose to a 4.11, you smile and walk away with your head high. When the 4.12 would've beaten every other car in the field, you don't dwell on it or pout, you know you have a great race car. When it ends up being not just the second-quickest run of the round, or the day, but the whole event, you quietly shift gears to the next race and get a few goosebumps, because you know you have your bad-ass hot rod again. And that's exactly how we all felt.

When the racing is that tight (and it's been tight for us all year) you can't expect all of the side-by-side ones to go your way. Let's not forget, we won eight laps in a row in Seattle and Sonoma, and almost all of them were extremely close races. We beat the Tasca boys by six-thousandths of a second in Sonoma, in a race that almost looked like a tie on the instant replay. This time, the margin of victory was again six-thousandths, but it went the other way. That's racin'... What would've stunk would be to have smoked the tires and lost 4.29 to 4.30.

So, basically that's how it all went down on Sunday. Looking back over the Brainerd weekend, the things that stand out are the weather, the company, the food, and Tim's magnificent effort out there in round one. Plus, he was as terrific as ever on NHRA Race Day, Sunday morning. We walked up to the set with umbrellas, and since you had to wade through huge mud puddles to get backstage, Krista and I just stayed out in front with the sign-waving crowd, enjoying how absolutely comfortable Tim is on-camera. As my Barbara says "He's great because he's just so real." That he is.

As for the weather... Well, it just plain (insert favorite negative and derogatory word here). All of us Minnesotans were saying "We picked a fine time to finally have summer" all weekend, and basically the atmosphere ranged from lousy to downright miserable, as the humidity stayed near 100 percent for a lot of the race. The freaky part about it all was that the weather we got wasn't part of some big front or a line of storms. We did get one storm that came through as your classic north/south frontal line, showing up as green, yellow, and red on the radar, but once that was gone the radar basically showed nothing. You could stare at the screen all you wanted, and according to radar there was no rain within 100 miles of us, but one look at the puddles on the ground told you a different story. It's hard to prognosticate, or even get ready to race, when there's no way of knowing when, or if, it will ever stop.

Sunday was a bear as well, because it finally stopped misting just after we were supposed to have started the race. They got the track dry, and called Top Fuel and Funny Car to the lanes, and we all made the long trek up to the starting line area. Just then, the first drops fell again, and we all made the dash back to the pits. We got wet, but those who dallied a little got soaked, as another paranormal "ghost" rain shower blanketed the area, despite the fact the radar image showed that it did not exist at all. A couple of hours later, we finally got to run. Then, 4.12 seconds after the LRS car left the starting line, our day and our weekend were over.

All in all, though, we had a great time in Brainerd, despite the lousy weather and unfortunate outcome. Our guests, many of whom were family and friends from Minnesota, had a wonderful time, and the food (thanks to Shorty, Dave, and Annette) was unbelievable. We had lasagna, chicken alfredo, salads, tacos, pulled pork, chicken & wild rice soup, a hearty eggs & potatoes Sunday breakfast, a purely Minnesotan "hot dish" of potatoes and vegetables, and so many other great things I can't even remember it all now. Basically, we were eating like royalty all weekend, and as Krista and both I said on Sunday afternoon, "I could get used to this." We can't, though, because this one-time-only menu won't be repeated again (until next year, hopefully), but it sure was nice for three days. And I only gained 57 pounds!

{GALLERY_bw8181}Once we got back after our first-round loss, we kept everything status quo for another round of racing, then we all pitched in to tear down the circus. With Barbara and Nichol with us, along with Dave and Nichol's kids Alexa and Justin (and a whole crew of Justin's buddies), as well as numerous family members from both sides of the Jacobsen family, we had plenty of help. In a blink, we went from our full hospitality set up with everyone eating one final delicious meal to having it all torn down like it never existed.

Then, right before the final round, Barbara and I departed to go do something special. I'm not saying that the Red Roof Inn (formerly the Ramada Inn, and before that formerly the Holiday Inn) wasn't nice, but it really wasn't very nice (I'm just sayin'...). I can survive well enough in shabby surroundings, but on Saturday, when thinking of putting my wife through two nights in that place, I came up with the idea of staying at one of the area resorts on Sunday night.

There are a number of great resorts on the nearby lakes, and the Grand View Lodge is one of the best. They were sold out, of course, right through Saturday night, but we were able to secure a wonderful cabin-style room, on the golf course, for Sunday, and we were both REALLY looking forward to that. The place would have ranked as spectacular no matter when we stayed there, but coming one night after the Red Roof, it seemed like the ultimate lap of luxury. We had a huge living area, a massive stone fireplace, a gigantic king-sized bed on a frame made of logs, a full kitchen, an enormous jacuzzi, and a bathroom that was bigger than some hotel rooms I've stayed in. It was perfect!

Once we got there, and cleaned up, we headed down the road to another of our favorite spots in the Brainerd Lakes area for dinner. The Sherwood Forest Inn is a couple of miles down the road from the Grand View, but it's part of the Lodge and it's such a spectacular place to have dinner I'm not sure I can adequately describe it. From the outside, it looks like a small log cabin, but inside it features one large dining room and two long porches, all set up for an elegant dinner. The building is made of logs, and some of the main beams are full tree trunks that have to be 48 inches in diameter. It's truly a jaw-dropping place, but it wouldn't be as good as it is if the service and food weren't on a par with the atmosphere.

I save the word "sublime" for use only after dinners that truly rank among the best I've ever had. Dinner at the Sherwood Forest Inn was sublime. Period. We both had filet mignon (mine with bernaise and asparagus, Barb's with peppercorn sauce), and everything about the meal was a 10 on 10-scale. Perfect. So perfect, we hated to see it end.

All good things must come to an end, though, and that includes wonderful dinners, so it was back to Lodge for a wonderfully good night's sleep. On Monday morning, we got up and both did some work, finally leaving the Lodge around 10:00. Grand View is about 11 miles north of the track, so we had to drive right back by BIR on the way toward the Twin Cities. We were in two cars, since Barb had driven up there on Saturday, and once we passed the track and saw how many race team rigs, motorhomes, and campers were still pouring out of the place (so many they still had the State Troopers directing traffic as if the race had just ended), I made the call to take an alternate route home.

Most of that traffic was going to be heading down Hwy 371 back to Route 10 and then to I-94, so you knew it was going to be slow going on that route, which is the most direct and most popular. We stopped at McDonald's to have a Sausage McMuffin while we strategized, and I explained to Barb that I thought we should head straight east out of Brainerd, over to Lake Mille Lacs, and once we got there we'd buck the averages even more by going around the north shore of the lake, instead of heading south along the western shore. We'd go all the way around to the eastern side, then stay on little Highway 18 until we came to I-35, about 80 miles due north of the Twin Cities.

As it turned out, that plan worked like a charm, and we hardly slowed down the whole way, often going miles without seeing another car. The trip around Mille Lacs was beautiful, and since the north shore of the lake is less of tourist area and more just full of privately owned lake cabins, it was almost serene. And the owners of those cabins take it upon themselves to put signs out by the road, with either their names on the sign or the name they've given their cabin. We saw cabins called "Northern Chaos" and "AARP Heaven" and a family that designated themselves "The Scalliwags"... Just reading the names and laughing made the trip all the more enjoyable.

As an added bonus once we got on I-35, Barb had a straight shot to her office in downtown St. Paul (she had to go to work for the afternoon) by staying on 35E after the interstate split into 35E and 35W (which goes to Minneapolis). At 2:00, I was home.

And, HOORAY, one of the things waiting for me in the mailbox was my new set of license plates! I've been pumped about getting the new ones since I ordered them a few weeks ago, but the disclaimer from the DMV is that it could take six to eight weeks to get them, so I really wasn't expecting them yet. That made it an even nicer surprise, and when I tore open the envelope and saw them, I couldn't wait to take the old FUNNYCR tags off and put the new ones on.

{GALLERY_bw8182}I was never really happy with the FUNNYCR tags, because of the restrictions they had in place back when I got them. Minnesota has just shifted from the old embossed (stamped) plates to ones where the numbers and letters are printed on, and when they did that they allowed us to add spaces into our personalized plates. The old ones were a maximum of seven characters with no spaces. The new ones are still seven characters, but you can use one or two of your characters to leave blank spots, so that opened up a whole new realm of possibilities. Without a doubt, my new NHRA FC tags look way better than the old ones. If you see me cruising around the Twin Cities, make sure to honk!

Tomorrow, I have a real treat in store for me. I won't let the proverbial cat out of the theoretical bag just yet, but here's a hint. In the next blog, there will be photos of our new ballpark, Target Field, but they won't be screen captures from a webcam. This is going to be FUN!

And speaking of cats, although in this case I'm referring to real ones, not proverbial ones, Da Boyce were ever so happy to have us home again. After a frantic couple of hours of play, at Mach 7, they settled down in a sunny spot on the floor and slept the sleep of the truly happy. They're such good little guys...

Well, lots to do in just a couple of days, since I leave for Reading on Thursday... I better get to work.

Wilber, out!

Yesterday was pretty much miserable. It was hot. The sun was blistering. The humidity felt like a big wool blanket. And, despite the fact I really wanted to write a blog installment, the very act of typing induced so much perspiration I couldn't keep the keyboard on my MacBook dry. I resigned myself to short tweets, Facebook updates, and an end-of-day report, and saved the shiny surface of the laptop for today.

Right now, it's not quite as hot and if you get outside of our hospitality area there's actually a decent breeze blowing. Sadly, our hospitality area has proven to be a world-class windbreak, and none of that delicious breeze gets in here. Looks nice out there in the rest of the world, though... As for the forecast, well... We've known all week that Saturday and Sunday were listed as pretty much 50/50 days in terms of thunderstorms, and before I logged-off last night at the hotel I could see a strong line of storms stretching down the eastern borders of both North and South Dakota, on Accuweather radar. They way that line of yellow and red was forming, I figured I might wake up in the middle of the night to the sounds of thunder, but instead the line was still pretty much in the same place when I got up this morning. The forecast, like the line of storms, hasn't changed much either. It's still calling for showers, later on...

Yesterday's oppressive weather had a direct effect on the racing, as did a fairly green race track. That's a bad combination, really, and in the first session all we saw was tire smoke. Some teams really stepped up in Q2, and we made a much better pass ourselves, but our tune-up was too soft from the get-go, and once we saw some of the teams ahead of us running 4.20s, Tim knew we didn't have enough in it to be up there with them. As it turned out, our 4.35 has us 10th, going into today's sessions... As I'm writing this, it's 10:00 and Top Fuel is due to go at noon...

In the photo gallery, I've included some pics of a couple of local sites. There's a quick shot of the booming metropolis of downtown Brainerd, and another shot of a beautiful little stream that runs through here. It's shallow, not too wide, and so crystal clear you can see to the bottom almost all the way across. What's the name of that little stream..? Wait a sec, it will come to me... Oh yeah. It's the Mississippi River! For a boy born and raised by the banks of the Muddy Mississippi down in St. Louis, it's almost inconceivable to think this is the same river...

In terms of our hospitality this weekend, it's really quite different and pretty busy. We only have a few LRS guests coming, but since Rich and Annette are from southern Minnesota, and Dave and I are from Woodbury, we've chosen to use this as an invitation-only gathering of family and close friends. It's kinda strange to have so much commotion in here, but all the people are familiar to us... Barbara is on her way now, and should be here soon, so Nichol and Alexa Jacobsen stayed home an extra day, as well, and they're riding up together in Barb's car. I do believe they're brining Bauer the dog with them too! If you're wondering why a family would name their dog Bauer, just think of hockey equipment. I guess they could have called him CCM, but Bauer seemed like a better name...

Well, I really have to wrap this up as quickly as possible, but in terms of the photo gallery you'll also see the following:

1. Daniel Wilkerson is here this weekend, helping out and working on the car.

2. Shorty, our buddy from Cottage Grove, Minn., who owns the All- American Motorsports Bar & Grill (the guy I donated a Wally and starting line shirt to) is here, and he's actually handling some of our catering for the weekend. The pulled pork he brought yesterday was TDF, believe me (for those of you without teenagers in the house, TDF stands for "to die for").

3. Tim did a brief interview, yesterday, with the local TV station

4. My special guests yesterday were Jeff Russell, his boys, as well as a friend of his and his boys. Jeff is the contractor who built our wonderful porch and patio set-up, and we've remained friends well after the work was done. I know a lot of people have horror stories about contractors, and I can tell you a few about some other people we've hired for work at our house, but the fact we share Jeff's season tickets to the Wild (he's the guy with the 2nd row seats!) and stay in touch should tell you he's a heck of a guy. It was the first time to a race for all of them, and they couldn't get enough. "Blown away" would be putting it mildly.

{GALLERY_bw815}5. And, walking through the pits yesterday causing quite a stir, were a pair of Minnesota Vikings cheerleaders. Turns out, one of the young ladies is from a racing family, and has known Tim since she was a young girl. She was always interested in dance, but never considering being a professional cheerleader until friends talked her into trying out. Much to her surprise, she made the squad! Talk about some good PR for the Vikes... The girls were so gracious, and were selling their calendar for charity, and there weren't too many people in the pro pits who weren't aware that two Vikings cheerleaders were here.

Guess I've got to wrap this up, now. We're getting ready to warm up the car, Barb will be here soon, and once all that happens I'm not going to have any time to do this...

Here's hoping for fast racing, good results, and lots of family fun in beautiful Brainerd...

Wilber, out!

For the racers, though, it's simply known as "going to Brainerd" and much of that no doubt comes from the fact very few of the NHRA touring pros would ever venture to central Minnesota if there wasn't a race there. So tomorrow, I'm going to Brainerd.

I'm sure the big rigs are rolling in right now, pit areas are being set up, the mass of fan humanity known also as on-site campers are dutifully waiting in long lines at the main entrance, to pay for admission and get whatever other camping credentials they'll need, and the local residents are fully geared up for what has to be the single largest influx of visitors they see all year. Make no mistake, the Brainerd Lakes area hosts lots of tourists, since it's a mecca for fishing, boating, golf, and all kinds of summer getaways, and the region doesn't shut the doors and turn out the lights for the winter, either. Ice fishing and snowmobiling simply take over then. But, the very fact you can book a standard motel room, with one of the national chains, for about $45 a night during the rest of the summer, but you'll need more than $150 per night and you'll have to sign up for a four or five-night minimum on this particular weekend, tells you that the area fully takes advantage of this event.

I was compiling some advice and directions for a first-time Brainerd attendee this morning, and ended up on Google Maps to find some self- explanatory overviews, and as I was zooming in and out it hit me that you can really see how Brainerd and BIR mark pretty much the southern edge of "the rest of Minnesota." We are the "Land of 10,000 Lakes" and we have plenty of lakes and ponds "down here" in the Twin Cities, but it's no exaggeration to point out that once you get north of Brainerd, there are lakes everywhere. And by that I mean like a hundred yards north of Brainerd, and right on the edge of the BIR property. So, in today's photo gallery, you'll see two satellite shots. One is more of a close-up, so that you can recognize the shape of BIR, and the second is a wider shot, so you can see just how close to all the lakes the track really is...

I'll make my drive up there tomorrow morning, and depending on how certain airline flights go I'll either be driving solo or I'll have a co-pilot in the car with me. You see, Mike Cunningham is flying up from his home and is landing at MSP right about now. He's trying to get on the same puddle-jumper up to Brainerd that Marc Denner, Tom Leskovan, and Mike's son Chris are on, but since Mike still flies "non- rev" as a perk from his long career at US Airways, he always has to go stand-by and that means he's dependent upon the existence of at least one empty seat. When the flight you're trying to catch is a little turbo-prop, those empty seats get to be far more scarce.

So, the plan is for Mike to let me know if he can't get on the flight, and if that's the case I'll drive over to MSP and pick him up, then I'll bring him back to our crib for the night, and he'll ride up with me tomorrow. Only time will tell, but the mother-in-law suite in the lower level is prepped and ready, just in case. And, since he'll probably be hungry, his arrival will give us all the excuse we need to have dinner over at Bushwood, the country club down the road (which, of course, is actually Wedgewood, but Bushwood is far more apt and more fun to say). Be the ball, Danny.

Yesterday, right around 5:00, my phone rang and a very animated Del Worsham was on the line, quickly dispensing with any formalities so that he could get right to the important part, by saying "Bob. We're just leaving the airport now, which way do we go? Toward Bloomington or St. Paul???" He was with Chad Head, and Chad's wonderful lady Michelle, in a rental car, so I quickly directed them out of the MSP area and onto the freeway. What I should've said, if I would've thought quickly enough, was "Get right back off 494 and pull into Mall of America. Go in there for two hours, do some shopping, ride the rides, and eat dinner, then get back on 494 and head toward 94 on the northwest side of Minneapolis. You'll get there at the same time and you'll have more fun at MOA."

The reason being, of course, that although the Twin Cities "rush hour" scenario is not bad, compared to most cities the same size, it's at its worst on the south and southwestern sides of the metro, which is where they were, and it's very concentrated between about 4:30 and 6:00. I didn't think of that MOA idea until after we hung up, but Del had a map on his lap (I suspect Chad must've been driving) and I walked him through a bunch of options. We finally settled on Hwy 77 north to Hwy 62, take that west to 35W, then take 35W north to 94, just on the edge of downtown Minny. Stay on 94 and you're on your way...

Also got an email from Dave Dobson, one of the ESPN2 producers, who will be handling Sunday morning's "Race Day Live" program. They want Tim on the show, so I was multi-tasking, text messaging Tim (who has Krista and Daniel with him, driving a family car from Springfield up to Brainerd today) and emailing Dave. We're all dialed-in, and Tim will be at the set, ready to get wired up and go, at 9:10 on Sunday morning. We have to do some juggling with the way we do our race-day warm-up, in order to make that happen, but Tim never hesitates when they ask.

That's about it for the racing news, but here are a couple of other nonsensical tidbits.

1. I saved the life of the "Marsh Creek Monster" yesterday. What? Well, probably not the true and legendary Marsh Creek Monster, but more likely one of his children. I know, you still have no idea what I'm talking about. Well, we live in a subdivision called Marsh Creek, and the big pond out front is the reason for that name. Before the development was built the pond was strictly a marsh, but they put a small dam in place and it filled with water to create the scenic view we now enjoy out of our front windows. In said pond are many forms of wildlife, including a couple of absolutely HUGE and scary looking snapping turtles. We dubbed the biggest one the Marsh Creek Monster, and we'd see him a couple of times a year as he'd make a portage from the big pond out front, across our street (bringing traffic to a halt and causing both kids and adults to leap from their cars in awe) and then down the strip of grass between Dave's house and mine, where he'd enter the little pond in back to gorge on whatever different food we have here that he apparently couldn't get out front (it would be an awfully long and dangerous trip for no good reason).

Anyway, I was working here at my desk yesterday when I saw a car stop in the road out front. After a few minutes, my doorbell rang and very polite 6-year-old girl said "Mister, there's a huge scary turtle thing we saw coming across the road and we stopped and looked at it and it came into your yard and I thought it was going into your garage so my mommy asked me to come tell you but now I think it's just going to stay on your yard" all in one breath. He was a big one, alright, but Dave seems to think he's actually the Son of The Marsh Creek Monster.

I grabbed the camera and followed him between our houses, prompting him a little so that he wouldn't head back toward the road. When you get down near the pond back there, we have an open trail you can take right to the water (so that Dave can get the 4-wheeler down there in the winter) but Son of The Monster veered right to plow right through Dave's bushes, most likely because he was tired of the big human following him. Unfortunately, there was some old wire garden fencing hidden in there (most likely a previous attempt to keep the geese at bay) and Son of The Monster barreled right through it. He got seriously caught, with his head and one arm through a hoop and the rest all tangled around him, so I set the camera down and tried to help. He was pretty mad, and not too happy about me being all up in his face, but I think he was also smart enough to know I was his best hope, and after a few minutes he just relaxed and let me do what I could. He did finally figure out that he needed to put the big old turtle shell in reverse, to back out of his predicament, and once he did that I yanked the rest of the fencing away and he was free. Had he pulled all of that fencing into the pond with him, he most likely would've drowned.

In case your wondering, the old boy REALLY smells. Picture one of the zombies from Night Of The Living Dead and then imagine what it would smell like if one of those creatures blew a hot stinky breath in your face, and I think you're close. And, as proud as I was to have saved him, I guess I should also balance that with the knowledge that his dash through the bushes, rather than following the trail down to the pond, was probably induced by the large person with the camera, walking right behind him. Well, at least I was there to fix the problem I caused...

2. Speaking of trips and even MSP, my poor wife is dragging a bit today. She spent Tuesday in Boston, and was due to fly out of Logan Airport at 6:20, scheduled to arrive back at MSP at around 8:30 last night. My plan was to track her progress on-line, then drive over to the airport a few minutes early, where I'd wait in the cell-phone lot until she landed. Then, some fog rolled in at Logan. Then, her in- bound aircraft was delayed. Then, once they boarded, the maintenance guys came on the plane to huddle with pilot. Basically, they had an engine problem that at first was going to be okay, then needed some work, then finally, they hauled them off the plane and brought another one over. The problem was, it was pretty late by then at Logan, and Northwest doesn't have a big presence there, so most of the ramp crew guys and catering people had clocked-out and gone home. It took officially "forever" for them to clean, cater, and prep the other aircraft. At around 10:45 she finally sent me a text saying they were on-board, and that she'd take a cab home when she landed. I sorta remember her climbing into bed in the middle of the night, and this morning I asked her what time that was. She said it was 3:45... The unmitigated joys of air travel!!!

{GALLERY_bw812}3. I know I post webcam pics of the new Target Field a lot, but I'm consistently surprised by the number of people, baseball fans and non- fans alike, from all over the world, who ask me to keep doing it. I guess you just don't often get to watch a major edifice like a stadium rise from the ground, take shape, and turn into a ballpark, right before your eyes. Today, in the gallery, I include an important photo. Look closely, and you can see an actual infield taking shape! I've been impressed by all that's gone on, in terms of building the actual playing surface, because I know next-to-nothing about such things. To watch the various layers of different colored soils go down, as well as subsurface materials, drains, and irrigation, has been sort of fascinating. Now, it appears to me that the dirt part of the infield will be made of one kind of soil, while the grass part will grow on another kind... I bet Assistant Greenskeeper Carl Spackler could fill me in on all this stuff. Buds for life, I think... You gotta pool over there, Ty?

Today, I wrap this up by quoting the final answer in today's great Q&A feature on NHRA.com, with Kurt Johnson. When asked if he had any advice for first-timers on their way to BIR, he said "You have to go out to 'The Zoo,' check it out, and have some fun.  Bring some peanuts for the animals and something to wash it down with."  Brilliant  advice!!!

See you up Brainerd way...

Wilber, out!
 

Speaking of Tiger, he's now won the last two weekends in a row. So, I guess it's all a matter of perspective when you analyze his chances to win his 15th major (and his 71st tournament) this week. Is he peaking at the right time? Or, did he just make his odds a bit longer, considering how tough it is to win on the PGA tour at any time, much less to win two in a row, and then finally to win a major as the third in a row. I guess Tiger will let us all know over the course of this week. If it was anyone other than Mr. Woods, I'd figure they had no chance.

And think of all the golf-loving Minnesotans who will have the chance to scream "GET IN THE HOLE!!!" exactly one microsecond after Tiger's club has made contact with the ball, even if he's teeing off on a 550-yard par five.

Well, speaking of Brainerd, that feature story I facilitated last week, with the reporter from the Brainerd Dispatch, was in today's print copy of the paper up there. The online version is here, so let's make their "hit counter" hum with activity from all over the world: Click here for the story.

That feature, written by sports writer Jeremy Millsop, ended up being very similar to the pre-race feature I wrote today, although I wrote mine before I clicked on his so I didn't realize that until after I'd sent mine out. Not similar in a word-for-word sort of way, but more just a similar theme, in that both stories are about the LRS team staying consistent as the regular season winds down. If we just stay consistent, we'll have as good a chance as anyone. To do my part, I have to consistently write about staying consistent.

As for these last three races in the regular season, it's really going to be nail-biting time for a lot of teams, and in my story today we talked about how the Countdown rankings can really be broken up into three groups right now. You have your top group of Tony Pedregon, Ron Capps, and Ashley Force Hood, and they've pretty much successfully broken from the pack. Tim is in 4th, but 135 points behind Ashley, and that's probably too many rounds to make up in three races because you know Ashley's car is too good to go out in the first round three times in a row. There are only 12 rounds of racing left, and we're seven behind her.

Then, you have your "middle group" made up of Tim, Fast Jack, BT3 (that would be our teammate, Bob Tasca III), and Del Worsham. Jack is only 30 points behind us, so that's nothing. BT3 is just 78 points behind us, so you'd like to think that if we just go a round or two at each race, he'd have to really go on a roll to catch us. Del is 95 points back from us, and that's a big hunk to overcome in three races, but it still shows just how close this four-driver group is. Basically, all four could end up in a different spot by the time Indy is over and the Countdown field is set.

Then, you have the real gut-wrenching, nail-biting, ulcer-inducing group. Let me ask you this... If, before Pomona, someone showed you a list that contained the names John Force, Mike Neff, Cruz Pedregon, Matt Hagan, and Robert Hight, and they asked you what segment of the Countdown field that group would make up, what would you have thought? I imagine most people would've answered "Well, I guess that's the top five." You've got the greatest Funny Car driver ever, his young protege who has a very fast car, the defending Funny Car world champion, a stout rookie with all the resources of DSR, and another Force protege who has consistently been in the top two or three since his career began. Who'da thunk that group would be the 8th through 12th-place pack? I doubt anyone. That's five great teams, and five very fast cars, fighting for three spots. Wowza... It's going to be wild.

Just before I started this blog, I got a press release from NHRA informing me that the '09 Full Throttle Awards Ceremony will be held at the gorgeous Hyatt Regency at Century Plaza in L.A. I plan to be there, in my monkey suit, and will enjoy going suitably "uptown."

Speaking of uptown, or downtown, or Beantown, or things like that, I showed a pic of Buck Hujabre and his wife Mary in the blog last week, and just today Buck fired off a few pics of him and his cast mates from Jersey Boys singing the Star Spangled Banner at Fenway Park. They look to be in full-throat, and very much enjoying themselves. If you've seen the show, you know what great performers all these guys are.

Buck later went 4-for-5 and drove in six runs for the Sox. All of that is true, except the part about going 4-for-5 and driving in six runs. He only drove in three runs. Seriously. Not.

In the meantime, Buck flew down to Charlotte today, to do some advance press work to prep the locals on the fact the show will be headed that way soon, and he spotted zMax Dragway from the plane. Here I am thinking how cool it is to see the guys singing the anthem at Fenway, and Buck's note simply ended with "I can almost smell the nitro!!!"

Side note: Yesterday, as I headed up into Woodbury on an errand, a very swift moving Ducati motorcycle flew by me and then practically skidded to a stop at a red light I'd been aware of for about 50 yards. On board said Ducati was a muscle-bound dude, wearing the following (and you'll notice the word "helmet" does not appear in the list of apparel): A skin-tight tank top, to show off those bulging muscles, nylon running shorts; and flip-flops. My first instinct was to consider the guy a moron, but then it hit me... Heck with him. I feel sorry for his family! He appears to be playing the Darwinian version of Russian Roulette, and the odds are decent that Ducati Dude will be winnowing his idiocy from the gene pool at some point in time. It's his family who will bear the weight of his own foolishness... Hope he doesn't have kids.

Today, I was back up to the same intersection but no Ducati. Who knows... I was there, however, to get my hair cut and boy was it time. It was actually time between Seattle and Sonoma, but I just ignored it during my short turnaround here at home. Then, once back, I figured I'd wait as long as possible and just get it cut before Brainerd. Now obviously this long of a wait between trims has no impact on the sparse few "Last of the Mohican" hairs on the top of my shiny head, but the back gets really shaggy. I was, indeed, feeling shaggy, like the stoner guy in Scooby Doo. Now, I'm feeling more itchy than anything else. Guess I've traded in Scooby Doo for The Simpsons, and now I'm hanging with Scratchy.

Another side note: When I got the issue of National DRAGSTER that has Antron on the cover, I was guilty of being too eager to see the Sonoma Funny Car coverage. That's a 10-yard penalty and loss of down. Instead of carefully perusing each page, I flipped ahead to the pertinent section and managed to miss two key things. For one, the fine folks at Ford had taken out a full-page congratulatory ad for Tim and our team. Way cool, and much appreciated! Secondly, my esteemed mentor mentioned me and "PR Ted" Yerzyk (who is Antron's publicist and an all-around good guy) in his "Staging Light" column. Also way cool, and I'm honored. See, it pays to do more than just flip ahead to what you expect to be the meat & potatoes of the issue. You can miss all sorts of good stuff if you're too impatient.

Yet another side note: Barb was watching one of "her shows" on TV last night, so I went downstairs to the home theater and was watching guy stuff (mega-machines, World War II history, crab fishing in the Bering Sea, home redecoration... Oops) on the big screen. About an hour later she came down to see if I was crying! What? What are you talking about??? Well, little did I know that HBO was running their documentary about the 1980 "Miracle On Ice" USA Olympic hockey team. I simply cannot watch that documentary (I've seen it maybe a hundred times) or the fabulous movie Miracle starring Kurt Russell as he absolutely becomes Coach Herb Brooks without a Kleenex. Can't do it. Sorry, I know that makes me worthless and weak, but it's just a fact.

Final side note: I've mentioned the Twins new ballpark, Target Field, many times on this blog and shown you quite a few updated webcam shots of it as they build it on the west side of downtown Minneapolis. Well, to steal Bob Frey's term "Did you know..." that it's not the only new stadium in the Twin Cities, and did you know that the other one is essentially complete and will host its first event very soon? Yup, after far too many years in the Metrodome, where they played second or third fiddle to the Vikings and Twins and had to hope their student fan base could make the long walk or short drive to the crummy indoor stadium, the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers will be moving to their stupendously beautiful new on-campus stadium this year. Go Gophers!

That's it. That's all I got... I am a bachelor tonight, since Barb headed off to the east coast for a day of meetings tomorrow. It was the trip to the airport that triggered the thought about all the racers flying in this week while all the golf people do the same... Go Tiger...

See ya later this week, because you know what it is... It's Brainerd Week!!!

Wilber, out!

Well, today is "Sample Day" here in my office, and a big sample day it is. I know a LOT of blog readers, Wilk Warriors, and just plain drag racing fans will be excited to take a peek at this photo...

Now before you get too excited and start to whip out the credit card or check book, remember I said today is sample day. This sample proof of the LRS Shelby Mustang arrived on my front porch yesterday, and another landed at LRS headquarters, where Shannon Heisler and her marketing staff will take a look before we either approve or ask for more changes. Made by Motorsports Authentics, it's a fantastically well-detailed car, and I know it will be a great addition to anyone's collection.

We had hoped to have the actual first shipment of cars by now, but the artwork process took a lot longer than I had hoped, and I learned a few lessons along the way, in terms of making that process more streamlined in the future. The company didn't have the digitized artwork for some of our associate or contingency sponsors, and it took a while to round up actual decals and ship them off to them so that their people could scan and digitize the art. Finally, I was told, the best thing to do was to get these samples made, even with a few "empty holes" where yet-to-be-digitized decals will go, because the sample production process takes a while and the cars have to come from China. So, that's what we did, and I'm hoping the last few missing logos will be on there when the actual cars are produced.

I'll keep you posted, as to production, shipping, and projected arrival, and we will set up a system for selling these through our timwilkerson.com website. At least we're making progress, and I think a lot of folks are going to be excited just looking at this photo of the first sample.

Another eagerly awaited package arrived on my doorstep the other day, as well, and it was fun to open and get excited about. Once the Seattle race was behind us, I knew I wanted a couple of really good professional photos from the big win, so I went online at AutoImagery.com and perused their massive selection of pics. Dave Kommel and Richard Shute, who take the pics and run Auto Imagery, have been shooting photos at national events since Fred Flintstone's first foot-powered Funny Car was on the track burning rock (as opposed to rubber), and between them and another great pro photog, Les Welch, I've purchased dozens of photos over the past decade.

I love it when one of the guys keeps his camera aimed on the crew in the hope he'll be able to get a great "reaction shot" from us when the win light comes on, and the Auto Imagery guys did just that. Those shots are priceless, because you can instantly feel the thrill again, just looking at all of our faces. I also figured a good solid winner's circle pic was a necessity, seeing as how this was my first win in an LRS shirt. Dave Kommel was even nice enough to send me low-res versions of the two photos I ordered, so that I could include them in today's blog. If you're ever in the market for great pics of your favorite car, driver, or team, you now know where to go... And they're great guys, too.

Heading back to the last blog I did, where I mentioned it was a beautiful day in Woodbury and even included a pic of the bright blue sky over the front pond as proof, today is just about the opposite, but in a sense it too makes for a beautiful day in this part of Minnesota. When Barbara and I awoke this morning, we heard the strangest and most alien sound. What was that? What's happening? Why do we want to sleep for five more hours??? Oh, wow. It's RAINING!!!!

We are so dry here, more than nine inches below normal, ponds are drying up, creeks have disappeared, and all sorts of plant life and wildlife (that would also be known as flora and fauna) are struggling. Granted, I travel a lot, but I cannot recall another single day similar to this one in 2009, when the rain is coming down gently, but in good quantities, and the ground is having time to soak it all up. We've been saying for months that we need some good long "soaking rains," and that's what we have today, so despite the fact it's gloomy and overcast, it's actually a beautiful day in Woodbury! Let it rain...

And how lucky are we that this rain arrived today? Yesterday, after months of planning and organizational work, Dave put on the big annual fundraiser golf tournament to benefit the Woodbury High girls hockey team (of which his daughter, Alexa, is a stellar member). Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous with some puffy clouds and temps topping out around 80 degrees, and we had a wonderful time playing 18 holes of scramble golf and raising a lot of money.

After the round (Dave, his wife Nichol, his brother Jeff, and I were a foursome), we had a fantastic dinner in the banquet room at Eagle Valley Golf Club and then raised some more money with a silent auction of some fantastic items, all donated for the cause. In the end, I ended up bringing home an Easton Synergy hockey stick, five coupons for free Papa John's Pizzas, as well as a photo and puck autographed by one of the most popular players on the Minnesota Wild, Cal Clutterbuck.

I actually wanted all three auction items, but I also wanted to make sure we ran the price up a bit to help the team out, so I was pleased to write the check for the total amount and bring my precious items home. The stick gives me one more reason to actually do more than just talk about skating this winter, the free pizzas will always come in handy (large pizzas, too, with one topping), and the Clutterbuck stuff was meant to head directly to Barbara's office. Like a lot of fans, she loves Cal and thinks he's one of the toughest and most high-energy guys in the league. Not blessed with phenomenal skills, Cal has devoted his career to simply skating as hard as he can the whole time he's on the ice and hitting anything with an opponents jersey on. You probably wouldn't want to sit behind the Wild's bench wearing a San Jose Sharks jersey because he's apt to fly right over the glass and lay a huge check on you.

As for the actual golf that preceded the dinner and auction, that was more of an adventure. Not only had I not touched a club all year, I'm pretty sure I didn't touch a club all of last year either. In baseball, I always found it interesting that the first day of spring training, and my first round of batting practice, was always way better than I expected, and I think it was because all of the bad habits you invariably fall into with your swing have disappeared and you're back to operating on instinct alone. I was hoping the same thing might hold true for golf, but I forgot that pesky little detail about how you need to have played enough in your life to actually build up that instinct. Oops...

I hit a small bucket of balls on the range (and some of those little white orbs actually moved in a forward direction when I hit them) and we then dove right in and hit the first tee. I'm not going to go into the gory details, but let's just say it started off horribly (thank goodness Jeff was there to carry us early, and Nichol drained a couple of long putts), but lo-and-behold, my game started coming around on the back nine. Usually, when playing golf, I start off strong but then the wheels come off around 12 or 13, and by 18 I can barely play at all. This time, the more I played the better I got and the same went for Dave, who found his swing pretty quickly. On the back nine, I was actually quite pleased with my stroke and was playing okay, and we used more than a few of my shots in the scramble format. For the record, we ended up 1-under par, but the winning foursome (made up of four Woodbury High girls hockey players, who all play for the golf team as well) was something like 9-under. A grand old time was had by all.

{GALLERY_aug7}And that's the beauty of golf. No matter how bad it can be, it always throws you enough bones and gets you just enough excited to make you want to come back. And we raised a good bit of money for the girls hockey team, too, so it was all good. Go Royals! And, as an added bonus, when we got to hole No. 10, I was stunned and pleased to see that Dave had bought the hole sponsorship there on behalf of Team Wilkerson. Pretty cool to see our TWR logo on the tee-box marker!

Well, with the rain still coming down steadily I'd love to keep cranking on this blog, but frankly I've run out of material... Hmmmm... Other than the fact that by the time you're reading this, it's highly likely the Minnesota Timberwolves will have announced that Kurt Rambis will be their new head coach. Yes, that Kurt Rambis. It's not official yet, but all signs point to it, and I think that will get Wolves fans excited. If you're a Lakers fan at all, you know all about Kurt Rambis.

Guess that's it. When I'm reduced to writing about Timberwolves head coaching rumors, I should probably hit "Send"... LOL.

Have a great weekend everyone, and I'll keep you posted on the die- cast progress.

Wilber, out!

How many books worth of material have I written in four years? Enough for a few hardback publications, I imagine, and that's actually a major reason why I haven't attempted to write a diary-style book, about a year on the road in this business. There are only so many hours in the day, and so many words I can write, and this blog comes first, so the book concept remains "out there" as a possibility somewhere down the road... But what the heck, you get this rambling blog for free, so who would want to pay for a book to read the same sort of stuff?

But four years, though... Wow. That's amazing. I was in my 40s when we started this blog!

Anyway, when I finally got behind my desk this morning I had the feeling that I was obligated to get something written today, but absolutely nothing was spinning around in my head. I was at loggerheads, stymied, flummoxed, and clueless. So, I did something I have never done before in these past four years... I grabbed a notepad and started a list of things I could write about. Before long, it had 11 entries on it, including such cryptic notes as "Abbett @ game" and "Buzz Aldrin" so I felt we probably had enough material to start with, and here we go. More miscellaneous and unconnected nothingness, taking shape in the form of a blog...

It actually took me a while to get behind my desk today, but not because I slept late or because I slept in the lower level suite instead of our room. No, I'm not banished or in trouble, and as a matter of fact Barbara is actually out in San Francisco for a couple of days of business meetings, so it was my choice to sleep down there. The reason I had to make that choice was due to the fact that yesterday was the day the big carpet-cleaning van pulled up in the drive and the guys in the crisp looking suits hauled all of their big hoses and attachments in here. I had to put Da Boyce, along with their food and litter box, out on the porch for a few hours, and I had to relocate my computer to the table downstairs, while the dudes went at it, room by room.

Note: The carpet cleaner guys are really good at moving furniture and other stuff, to clear the floor for steam cleaning. But, since you have to wait 24 hours before you use those rooms again you have to move it all back yourself. And you have to vacuum all the floors one time before you do that. So, I spent much of the morning being a domestic servant and furniture mover. The cats were of no help whatsoever... They were, however, never more than an inch from the window, out on the porch, throughout the cleaning process, just staring inside as if this was the place they REALLY wanted to be...

So anyway... It's a beautiful day in Minnesota, so let's ramble!

First topic... Believe it or not this is an actual snapshot, and yes it was taken with a phone. Earlier this morning, my former teammate and longtime friend Tom Abbett, who was a crew guy for years (including a long stint with Team CSK) but is now a marketing guru for Mike Ashley, sent me a text to let me know he was at Citi Field in Queens, NY, watching the Mets play the Cardinals. As you might be able to discern, his seats were not too bad. Seven rows up from the field, just beyond first base. And, he said, Albert Pujols (who is batting in this shot - trust me) is HUGE. Yes, he certainly is...

After about the fifth or sixth text message, Tom sent one that I have to paraphrase because it's already been deleted, but it went something like "This is the perfect All-American day. I drove my Chevy to Citi Field, the sun is out, I'm watching the Cardinals, and I just had a Nathan's hot dog. Guess I need to have apple pie for dessert tonight!"

Next... Yesterday, I got a call from Halie in the NHRA Media Department, asking me if I could hook Tim up with a reporter from the Brainerd Dispatch newspaper. About five minutes later, Tim was on the phone with the guy and I was sending off background material and a slew of photos, all of which I took at the last couple of races. The story is going to run on Monday, and when it does I'll post a link here. Should be a fun one to read...

Next... Did you see the story yesterday that Ford is now the Official Car and Truck of NHRA? Being a Ford team, with our LRS Shelby Mustang, that comes as great news to us, and it should be great news to everyone. At a time when corporate sponsorship is so hard to come by, the fine folks at the blue oval have stepped up to back our sport, and that's good for everyone, whether you like ovals, bowties, or any other shape. Great to have Ford on-board with the sport in an official way!

Next... Longtime reader and emailer Larry Peters wrote to say he finally got motivated to organize some of his racing photos, die-cast cars, and other memorabilia, and he sent me a pic of the CSK section of his racing room, and the new LRS shelf above it. He's intent upon adding to the Wilk part of the deal, which is a good thing, but as soon as I saw the photo (which is in the gallery below) I spotted the two CSK Jurassic Park cars. Those were two neat bodies, and pretty unique as well. We see special edition or one-off wrap jobs all the time now, but how often do you see a car incorporate the current primary sponsor with a second promotional angle. Those cars did, because CSK allowed the artist to switch their logo out with the words Checker, Schuck's, and Kragen all in the Jurassic Park font, looking all stone-age. Add in the giant dinosaurs on the hoods and sides, and they were really neat cars. Too neat, really, to have only run one weekend, that's all they did.

It was in Denver in 2000, and we didn't have time to get the vinyl installed on the cars before the race. We had the two bodies painted red and green (Frankie Pedregon drove the green one) and the guys got to Denver with them on the Tuesday before the race. I flew in early, too, and we aimed to get both cars completed well before Friday, but the challenge we faced was the fact the pro pits didn't open until Wednesday. So, we parked our two rigs side-by-side on the gravel parking lot below the staging lanes, and did it there. 24 hours later, the cars and the transporters were up in their rightful place in the Bandimere pits, but it sure was interesting getting those two cars done down there in the parking lot...

Next... I've recently begun following Buzz Aldrin's tweets on Twitter. How cool is that! He tweets quite often, actually, and it's pretty neat to read what the second man on the moon has to say, even if he's just telling you about what he's having for dinner.

Next... One of the beat writers who covers the Twins for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune is La Velle E. Neal III. Not only does he bear a striking resemblance to Darius Rucker (of Hootie and the Blowfish fame) but back in 1994-95 he was a sports reporter for the Kansas City Star, and his beat was to cover the Kansas City Attack indoor soccer team, which I was running at the time. The more you dig, the more former indoor soccer people you can find now involved with other sports...

Next... Yesterday, I took the time to log on and listen to the NHRA teleconference, which featured the "bump boys" from the Funny Car class. Cruz Pedregon (10th place), Matt Hagan (11th) and Robert Hight (12th) were all on the call, along with reporters from a wide variety of publications, websites, and shows (including Gary Graves, who covers our sport for USA Today) and it was just terrific. So good, so well organized, so "major league" as a matter of fact, I felt compelled to send Michael Padian a note about how impressed I was. Michael is the Director of Public Relations for NHRA, and he's been quarterbacking an effort to move us into the realm of other major "stick and ball" sports, in terms of how we present ourselves, our data, and our stories to the media and the public. His updates, notebooks, and other PR work are fantastic, and felt like telling him that his teleconference, yesterday, was as good as anything any MLB or NFL team would do. Great stuff...

Next... STP (otherwise known as Scott The Pilot) is still in training with Korean Air, over on the other side of the Pacific. The other day, he sent me another picture from Korea, of him standing at the demilitarized zone (DMZ) between South Korea and North Korea. He's taking that Wilkerson t-shirt to all sorts of places. I just hope he didn't make any quick or suspicious moves when he was at the DMZ...

Next... My good buddy Buck Hujabre, who is in the touring company of Jersey Boys, just settled into Boston for a long two-month run there. Being there that long, he and his wife Mary (who is five months pregnant!) and fellow cast member Nathan Scherich (who came with Buck to the St. Louis race last year) are all sharing an apartment in Beantown, so they don't have to live out of hotel rooms for 60 straight days. The big news, though, was that Buck, Nathan, and some other cast members got to sing the National Anthem at Fenway Park, before a Red Sox game. Buck is still trying to get me a photo of them singing, and I'll pass that along when I get it, but I wanted to share a shot of him and Mary on the field at Fenway, so that's in the gallery too. Way cool...

Next... Okay, I just had to call time-out to go out front and shoo a bunch of these truly obnoxious geese away. They practically live on the little spit of land across the road from us, on the banks of the big pond, and after they've ruined the grass over there, they like to sneak across the road to our yards over here. Whenever I see them, I try to get out there and scare 'em off, before they wreak their unholy hell on my yard and Dave's... This time, I spotted the couple and their two kids who began this year with a nest out back, up against our retaining wall. You might remember the "egg watch" vigil I was on, waiting for the goslings to be born. Well, I can recognize one of the parents by his or her crooked neck (can anyone tell the difference between a male and female goose?) and the kids are all adult-looking now. So, for a split second I had a moment of melancholy before I snapped back to the reality of how invasive and disgusting Canada Geese can be, and I ran 'em all off again. When I did so, they jumped up and flew away!

{GALLERY_bw85}I was like "Hey, you idiots can fly now! You can fly!!! So fly away!!!" The parents and the kids have all been earthbound since the eggs hatched, which is why they're always walking around in massive groups, invading people's yards and stopping traffic. At some point, they all got their flight feathers and now they can fly... I hear Manitoba is beautiful this time of year, you stupid geese. Go up there and check it out... YOU CAN FLY!!!! No need to walk all over my yard...

Next... Speaking of wildlife, we have lots of little frogs around here, as you might imagine considering we have a big pond out front and a little pond in back. Yesterday, one little frog managed to climb all the way up the side of our house, over the lower level, higher than the living room level, all the way up to our bedroom window. Little guy must've been 30 feet off the ground, and Buster was mesmerized by the sight of him. The Big Fella just couldn't figure out how to get a paw on that little morsel sitting there, looking like he'd be so much fun to play with, just outside the window... Pretty funny, actually.

Well, I guess that's it...

Four years of this, and my fingers still work... I guess, on the other hand, I could say "four years of this, and the best I could do to commemorate the occasion was a rambling blog about almost next to nothing. Hey, it's the best I could do...

Wilber, out!

Maybe it's like a football team going through three weeks of "two-a-days" on the practice field and then being sent home for a couple of weeks before the next game. Or a Broadway cast slogging through 21 straight days of shows, with matinees on Saturday and Sunday, only to have a two-week hiatus thrown in when a couple of days off to recharge would've been enough. Maybe it's like a race team going from Denver to Seattle and then to Sonoma, all in a row, only to finish up that grind to find two off-weekends facing them. Oh, wait a minute…

So here are my memories of the Western Swing, completed over the course of 19 consecutive days… 7,362 miles in the air. Approximately 17 hours in airplanes and 14 hours in airports. 12 nights in three different hotel rooms. One good meal (the Macaroni Grill in Denver after the race on Sunday night). Three distinct parts of the continent, featuring mountains, forests, and vineyards. Weather that ranged from hot, to hotter, to hottest, with a little dose of "bundle up" when the marine layer came in on Friday night in Sonoma. Track staffs that ranged from the nicest people (the Bandimeres) to the most professional (Bruton Smith's group at Infineon) to the most invisible (I only say that because over the course of three days at Pacific Raceways I never saw anyone who worked for the track). It is, as we say, a marathon.

So now we have another week off, before Brainerd and Reading come at us back-to-back, although Brainerd always seems like such a piece of cake to me because I drive there. Then a week off before Indy, followed by another weekend off after the U.S. Nationals, before (drum roll please…) FOUR IN A ROW! Charlotte, Dallas, Memphis, and Richmond, all in succession. Richmond and Charlotte are pretty similar, geographically, but this isn't a Southeastern Swing with Memphis and Dallas in the mix, although if you consider Memphis to be in the south I guess we could call it a Southern Swing. I think we just call it "Payback" for having two weeks off right now.

Speaking of all that air travel (and yes, I did go to my account summary at nwa.com to get the actual miles flown) I just realized that I never relayed my tale of being pardoned by the governor at one minute to midnight, coming back from San Francisco. Rich and Annette Schendel were on my flight, as was Nelson Jones from ESPN, and Mike Cunningham was catching a flight to Atlanta at a nearby gate, so we were all able to chat for a while before the airplane finally showed up and we began to board.

All along, I was still listed in an aisle seat back in coach, and it appeared as if everyone in First Class was going to check in and take their assigned spots, so I wasn't too optimistic. The gate agent was going bonkers enough, with our inbound aircraft being about two hours late, so I didn't bother her with questions I figured she couldn't answer, and plus I could tell on my laptop that I remained No. 1 for an upgrade if anyone didn't show up. I just bided my time, and when they finally made the call to board I waved bye-bye to Nelly, who got to go on first with the rest of those lucky people in the front cabin, before I was allowed to head down the jetway when they called Silver, Gold, and Platinum Elite members. I went ahead and got on early, so that I could make sure I had overhead space back in row 26 or wherever I was. Rich and Annette weren't that anxious to board, but a few minutes later I saw Annette coming down the aisle with a funny grin on her face, and when she got to me she said "Right after you went down the jetway they called your name. If they move you up, send me back your cookie."

I grabbed my boarding pass and busted past a few other Elite members who were boarding early, dashing my way back up the jetway to the gate. Fortunately, they hadn't given up on me and the agent handed me a new boarding pass for seat 1-C, up in the front cabin baby! Just before midnight, the governor called and set me free… That was all good, but by then the entire flight was boarding at once, so I had to work my way back onto the plane, and back to my original coach seat over the wing, grab my briefcase and camera and then imitate the world's biggest salmon swimming upstream, trying work against the flow of an entire plane's worth of people trying to go the other way. It wasn't easy, but I managed to run the gauntlet without stepping on any toes or bashing any seated passengers in the back of the head with my Full Throttle brief case. I winked at Nelly as I passed his seat and settled in.

Once lunch was served (Chef Salad) and I was done, I took my big chocolate cookie and headed back to Rich and Annette's seats, finding them both sound asleep (we were all tired!), so I laid the cookie carefully on Annette's tray table and sneaked away. When we landed at MSP, she said "Hey, the Cookie Fairy came when I was sleeping!" That's me, the Cookie Fairy.

So, back to the here and now. With two weeks off, I knew we weren't going to have any regular PR stuff to do for a while, so I wrote a feature story the other day while the two back-to-back wins were still fresh in my mind. I spent enough time with Tim throughout those two races, both in private and with the media, to really get a better understanding of how he works and what makes him tick, and I thought that sort of information would be interesting to write about, as well as (hopefully) being equally as interesting to read about.

It's one thing to work with the guy through this whole first part of the year, but when you don't win the race, things kind of quickly shift into "tear down mode" and there's not much talking going on. When you win, you've not only spent four rounds talking about the tune-up and the next approach, but then you get the bonus of a couple of hours worth of interviews that follow, during each of which Tim did a truly wonderful job of clearly and comfortably explaining how he approached things and how he feels about the team and the car, in general. It was like an advanced crash course in "Understanding The Inner Workings of Tim Wilkerson," and I learned as much during those two late Sunday afternoons as I've been able to mentally accumulate all year. See, all we had to do was win a couple of races and I got to know the guy a lot better. We should've thought of that earlier!

Once the story was posted here at NHRA.com, I started getting e-mails from blog readers, friends, and family, and one of the first notes was from longtime blog reader Chris Saulnier, up in the great state of Maine. Chris is also a huge Rush fan, so when we correspond we can write about drag racing or great music (or both), and I'll be seeing him soon in Reading. Anyway, he noted that the final quote in the story ends with the line "All we can do is give it our best shot," and that immediately made him think of the song "Hey Man, Nice Shot" by the band Filter. It was not a big hit, although you still hear it on the radio every now and then, but the funniest part of the fact that line conjured up a memory for him, of that somewhat obscure song, was the equally coincidental moment when his e-mail jogged my memory back to 1995. I was the GM of the Kansas City Attack indoor soccer team, and I had our audio guy add the chorus from that song to our in-game playlist.

Whenever an opposing player would shoot way wide of the goal or accidentally kick a ball up into the seats, we'd hit that snippet on the computer and the speakers in Kemper Arena would blare out that bit of the Filter song, with the line "That's why I say hey man, nice shot. Nice shot, man." Just a little jab, you know, like "Yeah dude, we know you were actually aiming for that beer vendor in row 26. Nice shot!"

On a different subject but still related to people I correspond with on a regular basis, I can usually count on a note every week or so from famed former driver Gordie Bonin (aka "240 Gordie" to most people). I mentioned in an earlier blog that I had seen Gordie in Seattle on a couple of occasions but we never had time to actually do more than just yell at each other and wave, so it made me feel even worse when I found out he'd gotten hurt unloading a big truck a few days after the race and was laid-up. I guess he was unloading some stuff from a very big 4x4 truck bed, lost his footing, and landed on top of a fence (if I got the story right). Now he's dealing with a couple of cracked ribs and recovering from a punctured lung. Gordie probably wouldn't want me to even mention this, but I think all of us need to mentally send out those "Get Well Soon, 240 Gordie" thoughts. I know he's getting better, because the e-mails still come regularly, but it can't be any fun dealing with busted ribs and a punctured lung. Hang in there, 240!!!

Next, today, I am happy to recognize the hundred or so blog readers who have sent notes about Boofus and Buster, asking how they're doing with their kitty colds. The news is very good, and they're almost completely back to perfect health, thanks to some gentle pampering and some strong medicine. The pampering they like. The medicine, not so much. But, being really good boys, they have been wonderful patients and they've accepted the prescriptions like troopers.

The Big Fella, who not only sneezes but gets his chronic weepy eye (we call it his "crybaby eye") might be the best feline patient in history. We have moist towelettes that are made specifically for cats with crybaby eyes (they're actually called Kitty Eye Wipes), and we use those regularly to keep the tears from drying on his face and getting all gross and crusty. He's such a good boy about it, and he lets me pick him up, hold him like a little baby on his back, and rub the Kitty Eye Wipes over his face whenever I need to do it. I have photographic evidence of this in today's photo gallery.

{GALLERY_Aug3}I also have photographic evidence that we tried to recreate the picture we took during their first winter, where I'm holding them both under the arms out in the driveway during a snowstorm. I use that shot as my profile pic on Facebook, I like it so much, but this time they were feeling so frisky I could barely keep them in my arms and the photo ended up looking a little more "active" than the first one, when they were pretty much just amazed to see the snowflakes and be out in the middle of it… LOL. They both love to climb, and when you pick them up, they're just as likely to want to use your shoulders as a launching point as opposed to anything else, so when they get in those moods we say they're "monkeyin' on us" because they act like little monkeys the way they climb and jump. Needless to say, they were in prime monkey mode when we tried to take the new photo and it was all I could do just to hold onto them.

Bottom line, though, all is well here on the home front, despite the fact it's a Monday after an off-weekend and I don't have a race to get ready for yet. Time to dig into the stats and do some stuff I haven't had time for all year, I guess.

Before I go, I will mention that we went to the Twins game, against the Angels, on Saturday night. Ugh… Put it this way: Over the course of three games, the Angels pounded out 52 hits and 35 runs against a parade of guys in Twins uniforms who were impersonating major league pitchers. It was a terrible impersonation because they left out the part where actual big league pitchers try NOT to throw 88 mph fastballs right down the middle and belt-high. Sheesh, it was really ugly.

The one highlight had nothing to do with what was going on down on the field. It was simply that I noticed a banner at the top of our section that I had not seen before. Like most teams, the Twins honor great former players and employees with their own Hall of Fame, and all throughout the Dome they have banners for each esteemed member. I had never noticed the George Brophy banner before but managed to take an iPhone pic of it on Saturday night.

Who is George Brophy and why is he enshrined in a Twins Hall of Fame that includes people like Harmon Killebrew, Kirby Puckett, Rod Carew, Paul Molitor, and other greats? Well, I'm not sure what his title was, but from 1961 to 1970, he was my dad's boss! Since my father was the Twins' top scout during that decade, I assume Brophy was the Scouting Director, or something along those lines, but the flood of memories that came shooting at me when I saw his banner was extraordinary. All through the 60s, as I was growing up, one of the most common things you could hear in our house was my mom answering the phone (the classic old wall-mounted phone with the long coiled
cord) in the kitchen, then yelling "Del... It's Brophy on the phone..." When I saw that banner, I was 8 years old again, seated at the dining room table (probably building a Revell model) and my mom was again young and vibrant, looking just like Barbara Billingsley as she held one hand over the mouthpiece of the phone while she shouted for my father. Funny how little things like that can take you back in time so fast. I probably only met George Brophy a dozen times during that decade, but we heard his name shouted out so many times it seemed like he was part of the family.

Okay, time to end this monologue and get to work on other projects.

Wilber, out!

Well, until we finally get timwilkerson.com redesigned and relaunched, we don't have that outlet, so I've naturally found myself taking fewer and fewer such photos, especially "backstage" at driver intros, because I don't have a good place to share them, other than here. The problem is, right after races the blogs tend to be about what we did there, so even this place isn't always the right outlet for photos that are totally unrelated to anything other than what I wanted to shoot at the moment. Well today, I've decided, it is the right outlet.

I had a renewed urge to shoot quite a bit in the backstage area in Sonoma, of lots of friendly faces, and since I've had the chance to document our race day and the associated fun of winning already, I'll use today's installment just to ramble on about some random stuff, and then include all of the pics in one gallery below. There aren't necessarily stories that go with each one; I just picked the ones I liked the best and threw them all in there. Consider it your chance to go behind the scenes, where you get to hang out with the drivers, photographers, PR people, and NHRA staffers who are always milling around behind the curtain...

And by the way, the people with the toughest job back there are the NHRA event managers, who have to get the drivers lined up in order (16th at the front of the line, 1st at the end) in some sort of organized fashion and on time. You can't imagine how often you hear them screaming "Force! Where's Force? Over here, I need you right behind Beckman. Force!!!" You can also insert a wide variety of other names, in both slots...

Another behind the scenes thing I've already been discussing through other channels was the cover of the new National DRAGSTER. It's the issue with the Seattle results, and a certain Levi, Ray & Shoup car is on the cover. Ta Daaa!!!! To be clear, just because we won that race doesn't make such a cover appearance an automatic thing, and throughout the years I've been both thrilled and disappointed in the various outcomes of that exact editorial decision. At races where the bikes run, there are four pro drivers who have taken home the Wally, and each one of those stories can be intriguing, newsworthy, or otherwise special, but rarely do the powers-that-be at the ND include more than one car or bike on the cover, so 75 percent of the winners are going to be sad to see they were not the ones chosen to represent that particular race. This time, we were the 25 percent who were happy...

That's not to say there isn't plenty of behind-the-scenes lobbying going on as soon as the event is over, of course. This time, because it was pretty obvious that Antron Brown was already the key story due to his back-to-back wins in Denver and Seattle to open the Western Swing, my initial assumption was that the cover would go his way, but perhaps the theory on the editorial end was to wait to see if he swept it, since that would pretty much demand an Antron appearance on the front of your DRAGSTER. Therefore, perhaps by default but aided by the fact it was Tim's first win of the year and it came at a critical moment, a wonderful shot of the LRS Shelby Mustang is the featured photo, and all of us are thrilled. In addition, Antron can now be on the cover with his broom (I'm assuming, since I haven't seen the next cover and don't know which photo they chose) without being there two weeks in a row. Worked out just like they planned it, eh...

All of that means we're happy and I really didn't press or persuade a certain editor we all know and love, but I will admit to being a fairly incessant pest a few times over the last decade or so. There was Del's win in Chicago, on the weekend we blew up the Mountain Dew car and then won the race with a patched-together hybrid CSK/Dew body. I really wanted that one, and even helped Mr. Editor with the headline "Del Dew Run Run." And there was the time when we won the CSK Nationals in '02, of course, and the headline ended up being "Not In Our House!" because we beat John Force, who was going for his 100th race win. By the time I got my message to my trusted mentor after that one, he'd already decided to give us the cover but I recall we collaborated on the headline... At least that's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Switching gears, here's another timely topic that is probably one of those things the majority of people don't know about. When you win, of course, you get those precious Full Throttle hats to wear in the Winner's Circle photos and then take home. This year's hats have "Funny Car Winner" stitched on the side, which is a sort of thing that makes them even more precious and collectible. When we were winning POWERade hats, the first year they were just generic black hats, but then they started getting more creative with them and making sure the embroidery on each hat made it clear what it represented. Even the old Winston hats, from back in the day (which we simply called "the red hats" because they were always red and, at the end of the day, everyone wanted to wear a red hat) varied over the years, but mostly they had specific stitching on them.

The thing was, the amount of hats you got was always a very closely guarded and controlled quantity, and frankly it was almost never enough. Once you get to the Winner's Circle, you take everyone on the team, including people who may not even be in uniform but are key members of the group. Back in the 90s, we'd get up there and would be handed one box of hats by either an NHRA, Winston, or POWERade person, and it was usually my job to figure out who was going to miss the cut in terms of getting one. That was never any fun, and there was never a good answer or a decent way to break the news to the people who missed out.

Now, I'm pleased to say, the process is much easier and self-regulated. There are two full boxes marked FC (with a Sharpie) sitting on the ground in the Winner's Circle, and they actually trust us to go grab the correct boxes and hand out our precious lids, all by our little selves. Even with every pertinent person in the Winner's Circle, we had enough hats to make sure John Fink could take a few with him for guys like Rick Strang, Jerry Muzzillo, and Eric & Brad Buttermore, who have all helped us a ton this year but didn't make the long trip to the west coast. It's such a relief to not have to worry about rationing the hats and so much better to not have to see the pouty lower lips of the people who didn't get them!

Here at the homestead, I had to run back over to Minneapolis today, to pick up my suitcase at the repair place. I'm happy to report it now, once again, has four (count 'em, four) functioning and rotating wheels, all of which spin around 360 degrees so that you can "walk your suitcase" with it next to you, rather than just simply tug it along behind...

Since I was over there, I swung by Target Field again, just to get up-close and feel a little bit more of the excitement that's building for the new ballpark. From the road I was on, I could actually look in from the left field corner and see the section where we'll be sitting next year, and I could even see our seats! I'd noticed on the Target Field webcam, just the other day, that they've now officially bolted the seats in place in Section 103, and it's easy to count down four rows from the top and spot seats 1 and 2. Kinda cool, actually...

{GALLERY_bts}In just the last week, I've also had about a dozen people ask me to post some new pics of Da Boyce on the blog, but they're both a little under the weather right now, with little "kitty colds". If you've been reading the blog since we adopted them, you might remember they came home from the shelter really sick with colds, and our wonderful veterinarian has explained to us that when kittens get those germs in the shelter environment, it's a lot like a human getting a herpes virus. It can go dormant for a long time, then "flare up" when something stressful or anxious happens. Well, I think for Boofus and Buster it's just been a stressful summer, with lots of activity in the house, people coming and going, and lots of wildlife flying around out there on the porch, and they each seemed to get a little sneezy a few days ago. So now I'm administering the kitty equivalent of a Z-Pack to them, via a liquid I have to squirt in their mouths. They don't like it, but they don't seem to hold it against me. Plus, the Big Fella has a weepy eye he gets, whenever he gets stressed, so I have stuff I'm supposed to apply to his eye twice a day, and that's a bit of a challenge to do by yourself. They'll be better quickly, though, so as soon as they are I'll post some new pics. Right now, they've requested that no photos be taken in their sad-sack state. Poor little guys...

Well, I guess that's about it for today. Barb and I are going to dinner in downtown St. Paul tonight, because she has an evening flight down to Milwaukee for some meetings there tomorrow. Enjoy the "people pics" in the gallery...

Wilber, out!

In Sonoma, I don't mean to say I was in a negative mood, because it wasn't that at all, I just wasn't really thinking about winning the race for the second week in a row. We were all concerned about the first round, against Jeff Arend, because he's winless on the season still, and that's just too improbable to comprehend. Each week, I think the DHL car is finally going to win one by inches or get a lucky break, but the breaks keep going against them, and since Jeff and I are good friends, I keep wishing him well and hoping for them to get off the schneid.

This weekend, before we knew we'd be paired up in round one, Jeff and Ben Marshall, from the Kalitta team, were both talking to me about "borrowing some of our mojo" after the Seattle win, to help them at least get that first round win. I was all for it, but then we ended up being matched up in the opener, and even Jeff came up to me at driver introductions and said "Well, I guess that's off, eh..." because we had to race each other. Still, I couldn't get the thought out of my mind that he just has to win his first round one of these days... Fortunately for the LRS team, we ran a great lap and Jeff will just have to win that round in Brainerd, as long as we're not racing each other...

That win was huge, in a lot of ways. Lose in the first round there, and it was possible we could give back all those precious points we won up the coast. Win there, and we keep rolling, maybe even moving up some more. Those win lights were fun to see! And speaking of win lights, those are just one attribute of Infineon Raceway that make it such a juxtaposition to Seattle. As a Bruton Smith track, it's all first class and top flight, including the fact you can actually read the scoreboards and tell who won. A small detail, but an important one.

 From there, the day became sort of a blur again, although our win against Bob Tasca was one of the closest races of the day (if not the year). From my perspective, I knew the cars were side-by-side and it was a very tight finish, but it wasn't until I saw the lap on TV last night that I knew just how tight it was. Talk about winning by inches...

Then Gary Densham... Gary is pretty amazing, and he'd just beaten John Force and Cruz Pedregon, so you knew he was on a roll and really flying. Later, at the press conference, Tim told the reporters that he was actually none too happy to have to race Gary, because he's so tough and it seemed like he might be on a Cinderella roll on Sunday. Tim said, a couple of times, "Whoever ends up 10th in the Countdown needs to pick up the phone and call Gary Densham to thank him because if he'd have been out here all year he would've been in the top ten."

Finally, the final round... The fact it was our second in a row, and the fact we were again facing Tony Pedregon, made it a bit surreal. You can't help but wonder if it's even possible to beat those guys two weeks in a row. You can't help but think about how hard it is to win back-to-back races. You can't help but think "Well, even a runner-up finish is really good." You don't want to ponder any of those concepts, but you can't help it. And then those wonderful bright-red win lights went on in our lane again! Wow...

I think it kind of surprised all of the guys... Whereas Seattle was tough and well-earned, and we all were just hoping to win, I think those same seeds of thought must have been in almost everyone's heads (everyone except Tim, of course) because the celebration was much more about laughter and "I can't believe it" sentiments than Seattle's, which was more "Hell yeah!" in nature... We were all just kind of stunned and thrilled and shocked and happy and did I mention thrilled? Wow...

We commandeered a couple of golf carts and drove all the way to the top end as fast as we could. That's not all that easy in Sonoma, because the return road doesn't parallel the track, but is instead the road course there. You have to drive up and down those big hills the NASCAR boys have so much fun on, winding your way about a mile just to get to the top end. Before we got there, the crew guys passed us going the other way, with the car already hooked up to the Ford Flex, while we putted along at a maddening pace in our golf carts. Tim was still down there, of course, because Full Throttle takes the four pro winners up to the Winner's Circle after they all do their TV interviews, so we all piled on him and had our own celebration down there. Rachel and Tim have a great post-win ritual, and as you'll see in the photo gallery "Daddy's little girl" runs at him and leaps into his arms. I was thinking about trying that, but ....

The Winner's Circle in Sonoma is in two places, and it's a pretty neat deal. The winner's meet up with Alan Reinhart on a permanent stage next to the Media Center, and because the main grandstand rises up right next to it, the fans can crowd around behind the fence, or line up along the aisle on the grandstand and look down on the scene. It makes for a wildly fun deal, with lots of cheering and support from the great Sonoma crowd (and boy, what a HUGE turnout it was all weekend!)

After that, over to the Media Center for interviews, and the juxtaposition between Sonoma and Seattle becomes outlandishly stark. In Seattle, the "press room" is a portable trailer, about six feet wide. All weekend, the media and team PR reps are working out of that cramped little room, which you enter by carefully walking up the world's most rickety metal steps, with no view of the track. In Sonoma, the Media Center is a two-story building, with room for about a hundred reporters and PR reps, and after the race the drivers are interviewed in a separate conference room. First class all the way, but I will admit that the Wally feels just as good in your hands in Seattle as it does in Sonoma... LOL...

{GALLERY_son2}Once that was over, it was down to the side of the track, to do the hat dance and have photos taken with the car. We had some fun, cherished our Full Throttle hats (mine is on my head, right now) then headed back to the pit. The guys went to work on the car and pit area, while I went to work writing my wrap-up story, and about 90 minutes later it was finally time to leave. For some odd reason, at the end of the massive Western Swing, at the conclusion of our second straight win, I found myself to be totally exhausted... It was all I could do to drive back to the hotel, put the race on TV, and keep my eyes open. A few minutes later, Krista called to see if I wanted to join them at Applebee's, but I was too far down the relaxation road to even think about it....

This morning, I checked on-line to make sure I hadn't dreamed the whole thing, and by 9:00 I was rolling out of the hotel in San Rafael, down 101 and over the Golden Gate Bridge, finally arriving at the airport around 10:00, only to find out my flight is delayed about 90 minutes. No World Club here, and I'm still listed in coach on the flight, so I'm camped out in the gate and at least the delay gave me this opportunity to write. Had we been on-time, I probably couldn't have done this... But boy, I'd sure like to be home right now...

I'll be back with you soon. Thanks for the mountain of great emails and Facebook posts!!! Now, I'm going to try to snap my fingers or twitch my nose and make myself instantly appear in Woodbury, Minn.  Rats, didn't work...

Wilber, out!

We finally hauled this new Shelby Mustang out of the transporter here, after thinking we were going to do that in Denver or Seattle. Once it was out, I got to work (finally) putting all the associate and contingency decals on it, and after two laps yesterday I can see at least five or six that have to be fixed or replaced. It's amazing what 8,000 horsepower can do to vinyl at 300 mph. And when I say 300 mph, I'm not talking in generalities. Last night, when we put a very fine lap on the board to grab the No. 4 spot, we ran 300.00 mph. How's that for being exact! That sounds so much faster than 299.99...

One of the decals was kind of in amazing shape, and I'm not sure what happened to it. We have fairly large Valvoline stickers in front of the rear wheel wells, and the one on the right side of the car looks like it's gone through some sort of psychedelic experience! Whoa... I also tried putting our MSD decals in a new place, but I obviously got them a bit too close to the header pipes, because they came back blistered and drooping. Need to find "Option B" for those guys...

The other process that simply has to happen with a new body is finding and repairing the cracks that come from the stress of a run. With this being Shelby No. 2 in 2009, we learned a lot (and I mean A LOT) of lessons already from the first one, so we're ahead of the game there, but after just two runs we were already replacing a side window and fixing some problems with the windshield and fire wall. I remember the first time we ever saw the ESPN2 Super Slo-Mo shot of Funny Cars going down the track, and it stunned us how much flexing and buckling is going on with what seems like a pretty stiff and firm shell. On that Slo-Mo shot, all this carbon fiber looks like paper, the way it ripples and shakes, even on a good run...

Yesterday, in terms of the weather here, was classic San Francisco Bay Area stuff. We left the hotel in the morning, with a few marine-layer clouds still keeping things cool, but by the time we got out to Infineon that had all burned off and it was hot. All day long we were sweating and feeling the heat, and it stayed that way right through the first session, late in the afternoon. Then, as we got up to the staging lanes for session two, right around 7:30, you could see the thick marine layer rolling over the hills just to the north of the track. Within minutes, the overcast arrived here and the temperature seemed to drop like a rock, aided and abetted by a pretty stout 20-mph wind coming right down the track at us. People were scrambling for jackets and sweatshirts that have all put stashed away since Pomona...

I was up at the line, still in short sleeves, where Del and Connie Worsham were shivering, and I figured, at the time, that I could gut it out and not run all the way out to my car to get my jacket. About 10 minutes later, I cried "Uncle" and went for it, and when Connie saw me right after that I said "You know, it occurred to me that senseless pride and utter laziness weren't going to keep me warm, so I went out there and got my jacket." It was COLD, daddio...

Right up until this minute, it's been pretty brisk this morning, but in just the few minutes since I sat down here (in the Tasca hospitality area) the clouds have begun to burn off and it's heating up. That's what I've been waiting for, in terms of the decal work, because it's really hard to take vinyl off a car when it's cold. Those pliable decals get brittle, like glass, and it can be almost impossible to peel them off in anything less than a thousand frustrating little pieces... I'll let nature do the work for me, and as soon as I've fired this off I'll get to work.

Hey, I'm famous in the world of transporter awnings!!! I saw Karen Tracy, from Larsen Sails, yesterday and we were laughing about an email she sent me a few days back. Many years ago, in the early CSK years, we were constantly dealing with the problem of keeping water from pooling at the bottom edge of the transporter awning, right where the canopy goes over the edge of the support poles. Various companies make a wide range of solutions for that, including built-in downspouts, or grommet holes, but in a heavy rain storm the water can still pool up, and when that happens the enormous weight stretches the fabric and can, in a worst-case scenario, either rip the awning or break the support poles, so we were always on the lookout, with push- brooms in hand, to keep pushing the awning up to empty the water.

One year, when Del and I were finalizing what our new awning should look like, I had a brainstorm... Why not just sew a 3-inch piece of mesh into the awning, right at the edge there, so all the water would flow right through, down the full length of the canopy rather than just at specific spots. You lose three inches of coverage, but when it's raining hard no one stands that close to the edge anyway, and the new system worked flawlessly. Jokingly, we called it the "Wilber Drain" from that point forward. A few years later, when we switched to Larsen Sails to make our canopies, I told Karen about it and she adapted that to their process, too.

The other day, she sent me a copy of a work order for another Funny Car team, and it had all the particulars on the sheet, including colors, size, method for attaching to the transporter, etc., and one of the line items was "Canopy will have a Wilber Drain." It's official! Karen owes me a dollar, though, as a royalty payment...

{GALLERY_sc}Just had another moment of fun with a blog reader, as a fine young man by the name of Justin came bounding up to me, brimming with excitement and a huge smile. He reads the blog all the time, asked how Barbara is doing, said he loves Boofus and Buster, and all sorts of other fun things. We grabbed his four-year-old daughter and took a quick pic. I gotta say, when you meet someone who is that excited about the whole thing, it really makes your day. Made mine...

Speaking of Barbara... I sure wish she was here, because this is one of her favorite races, but alas she is back home. Her mom heads back to Florida tomorrow, so they're spending their last day together and plan on going to our local Irish pub in Woodbury, called O'Malley's, for dinner tonight. It's the perfect place for a pair of Doyle lasses to enjoy a bit of Shepherd's Pie.

Dave's wife, Nichol, was able to make it out here, and she got in last night. I just grabbed a pic of her and Annette catching up... A pair of native Minnesota girls out in California... On Monday, Dave and Nichol are going to head up to the town of Sonoma and spend a couple of relaxing days at the Sonoma Mission Inn, which is the fabulous hotel/resort/spa Barbara and I pampered ourselves with a few years back. What a place...

Darn, I have lots of other topics swimming in my head, but I really need to go... I'll just save them all for the next blog... Wish us luck, for the rest of qualifying and the race. I didn't blog during the day on Sunday in Seattle, so you can probably guess that I'll follow the same routine here in Sonoma.

Back soon...

Wilber, out!

What's unfortunate for me is how rarely I've actually gotten to see my wife during this marathon. She's been in Pittsburgh since last week, at her nephew's graduation part /family reunion, and she and her mom will be coming back here tonight, landing around 8:30. I, of course, leave tomorrow morning. At least it's not the other way around, and my time here since getting back from Seattle has been made all the better by having the undivided attention of a pair of fuzzy little guys named Boofus and Buster.

I have to give Tim credit for one thing here: He has kept up on his end of the deal regarding the Wilkerson clan's promised drive down the coast after Seattle. I just finally heard from him (barely, as he was cutting in and out) and even now, midday on Wednesday, he and his wife Krista, along with their daughter Rachel, were only about to cross the California state line from Oregon. That's two straight days of hugging the coastline, seeing the magnificent sights, and having a short but vivid vacation. It also left him mostly incommunicado, out there on the rugged coast, and after a race win you can only imagine how many press and interview requests immediately come in. All I've been able to say is that the driver promised his family a trip down the coast, and that's what they're doing... Good for him, and I think it's pretty fair to say he earned a couple days of nothing more than driving and touring.

Anyway, one of the main reasons for today's blog is simply to have a way to share some additional stories and photos. I'm not sure what it is about this blog that seems to resonate with so many people up in the Pacific Northwest, but the Seattle race has got to be one of the most heavily-visited events when it comes to longtime loyal blog readers being in attendance. There's Kim the lawyer from Vancouver, who comes to the race with his terrific rugby-playing son Andrew, and of course there's Crazy Jane and her husband Chris, also from Vancouver and most well-known for their deep allegiance to the Canucks.

There's Tom Miller and his son Doug, from West Linn, Ore., who have been shown here before because I've been getting emails from TomFWL (Tom from West Linn) since the blog began. There's Terry Mattis, who always makes a creative sign and ends up with a plethora of autographs on it before he's done. And Andy Perreault, who's been reading forever and sharing pics equally as long. And Jeff Eason, who plays in a band called The Flood and who gave me an old Rush pin last year, which still sits on my credenza here in my office (hey, some bits of "clutter" simply have to remain). And Tristan Slezak, who just graduated from high school but has been coming to the Seattle race since I have. I've known Tristan since he was just a little kid, and anyone who has ever met Tristan remembers him.

Pat "Ma" Green was there, as were countless other friends and blog readers, too numerous and in some cases too nameless to mention. For the record, I do appreciate every hello and handshake, even from those who simply say "Love the blog" and walk on... Like I said, I'm not sure why Seattle is such a big deal in this way, but it is.

And we got to see some familiar faces of other sorts (not sure if they all read the blog or not.) Did I mention that Cristen Powell was there? She made a point of coming by to catch up on everything, and once again left me with the overwhelming impression that she is one of the truly good and righteous people on this planet. Cristen had every opportunity to be a race car driver for as long as she desired, or be just about anything she wanted to be. She has chosen to simply help people less fortunate, and since getting out of college she has mostly worked in shelters, helping those who need it most. I imagine most of those with whom she interacts have no clue that the kind woman who is doing so much to help them was once the "World's Fastest and Quickest Teenager" and quite a celebrity in her own right.

240-Gordie Bonin was there, and even though we never had a chance to stop and talk, we yelled at each other while passing by in cars or on golf carts a few times. And of course, my former boss Whit Bazemore was in attendance, doing some more fine work for ESPN2. All in all, the whole weekend seemed to consist of seeing old friends, making new ones, and meeting nice people. And then we won the race! Pretty cool deal all around.

Between the Millers, Andy, and Terry I received quite a few pics in the last couple of days, so I've included some of them in the gallery. Sometimes, even if the shots are a little grainy or maybe slightly out of focus, it's just neat to see things from someone else's perspective. Oh, and you'll love the one shot of the area behind the huge main grandstand in Seattle. We lovingly talk about the track as our KOA in the woods, but the new main grandstands are on the far side of the track from the pro pits and now I realize I've never so much as walked over there. I had no idea what the area behind the big grandstand looked like... Wait until you see that one... KOA indeed...

Three of the last photos in the gallery came from me, and were taken yesterday. There was a chance of showers all day, but just after noon I had to make the trip over to Minneapolis to drop my roller bag, the one now sporting three wheels instead of four, at a fine suitcase repair place over there. On the way back, a large dark cloud was forming to my east, and by the time I got to the Woodbury exit off I-94 it was basically right on top of me. All I could do was grab the iPhone and take one shot of it and hope for the best, while simultaneously slowing down from 65 mph to get off the freeway on the exit ramp. Well, as you can see, I got pretty lucky. What struck me about the storm was how the center of the cloud looked like it was being sucked up into the heart of the beast. There was no rotation, but it clearly looked like the edges of the cloud were being sucked in and up, and even though it was just my phone, I think the picture shows that. Pretty impressive, and a little scary to look at.

Once I got home, the storm hit and it was a big one. It didn't last long, but we got about an inch of much-needed rain, while we also got the never-needed hail that accompanied it. They weren't the oft- mentioned "golf ball-sized" versions, but they pinged off the windows pretty loudly there for a while. I'd consider them "jelly bean-sized" hail stones... Fortunately, no damage to report around here.

Time to check-in for my flight now. Happily, I'm back up in the front cabin again, which is a very good thing when the flight is more than three hours. I had the Shakespeare seat (2-B) a couple of trips ago, and then the Special Effects seat (3-D) coming home from Seattle. Tomorrow I'm in 2-D, so I guess we can call that the Flat Stanley seat, since it's only 2-D...

{GALLERY_bw}I'm still basking in a little bit of the post-Seattle thing, but once I wake up tomorrow and head for the airport yet again, it will all be about Sonoma. We're staying at a hotel in San Rafael where we used to stay in a lot with Team CSK, so that's all good and it's a nice place. Hopefully, I can talk Dave, Finkster, and maybe some other people into heading out for a nice dinner at least one night...

Speaking of dinner, I got a note from my buddy and Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Freddie Camarena, who will be there with his team this weekend. Some of Freddie's crew guys have never been to San Francisco, so he was asking for some advice regarding dinner or "must see" places to go. SF is, I think, the most unique and amazing city in America, but you could spend a month there and not even come close to seeing all the "must see" sights or eating in even a fraction of the great restaurants. For first-timers, though, I think the best thing to do immediately upon arrival is to just go to Fisherman's Wharf, park the car, and start walking around. If you only have one short night in the city, that's the best place to start. Yeah, I know, it's a pretty touristy area, but it gives a first-timer a real flavor of the city and it affords you a LOT of dinner options.

I had to remind Freddie that he'll have to tell his crew guys to take jackets or sweatshirts, even after they tell him he's nuts because it's a million degrees at the track and San Francisco is just over there on the other side of those hills. At that point, he only needs to say "Suit yourself, but you'll learn." Del Worsham and I used to both crack up over the fact we each had about 20 cheap sweatshirts at home, all with some version of the words San Francisco or an image of the Golden Gate Bridge printed or stitched on the front, because we never seemed to learn. A lot of people make a good living selling warm clothes to tourists who think the weather in San Francisco will be just like the weather they're leaving in Sonoma, or San Jose, or Fresno, or Sacramento, or Napa Valley, or even Oakland... You'll learn...

For us, I'm hoping for dinner in Sausalito while we're there. Same wonderful waterfront ambience of the city, but much closer to San Rafael, no major SF traffic to deal with, and more good food than you could shake a fork at... I've been to San Francisco many many times, and I always drive right up through the city when heading up to Sonoma from the airport, so I'll get my Golden Gate fix that way, and can then simply enjoy a wonderful dinner in Sausalito... It's all good.

Oh cool, my phone just buzzed and I had two phone pics from the traveling Wilkersons, so I'll tack them on the end of the gallery too. Funny Rachel wrote "Sea lions, hehehe" as one caption, as if she thought the concept of sea lions was funny (maybe it is, actually) and then on the other pic of the beautiful coastline she wrote "And don't think Dad is sending these. He doesn't know how to work his phone that well..." LOL... Thanks Rachel!!!!

Enjoy the pics...

Wilber, out!
 

I've probably got enough material to write two or three more blogs this week, so I'm not going to try to cram it all in here, and I don't have time anyway, but I think I can give you the gist of it and maybe just a little taste of what Sunday was like.

First of all, they say you need one lucky round, or one break, to win a race. Usually, that's very true, but this time we did it the hard way. Four huge rounds, four enormous opponents, four side-by-side laps, and four win lights. The last one was the best. LOL...

I'd like to say that I had "the feeling" when we got out there on Sunday morning, but I'd be deceiving you in a couple of ways. First of all, the fact we had Robert Hight in the first round had all of us simply focused on that. Yes, we are all watching points right now, and Robert has closed the gap to be right outside the top 10, while our last two races had left us "exposed" to the teams behind us, who all closed the gap on us. Basically, we came into Seattle with a very uncomfortable cushion for the Countdown. I saw the qualifying show on Saturday, and Mike Dunn was talking about how the teams from 8th to 12th were all so close the last few spots in the Countdown were really up for grabs, and my initial reaction to that was "Mike, look at us in 7th. We're in that group, too..."

When you out-qualify Robert's team, but get them first, all you're hoping for is to get out of round one, and you know you're going to have to be nearly perfect to do that. THAT was about as nervous as I can be before a first round... We went through all the routines, got everything ready, Rich and Jeff walked the track, and Tim got very focused. It seemed to take forever until driver introductions, and then it seemed to take forever for us to race. Fortunately, Tim picked the first pair as our slot (his favorite slot, and mine too) so at least we weren't stuck up there in the lanes for the whole round, which only missed lasting "forever" by a technicality. It was a MARATHON of a session, but we got to go first and get it over with.

Beating Robert was huge. From that point forward, you know you're playing with house money and it's all gravy, but the most encouraging thing was that we stepped up and ran not only our best lap of the weekend, but also set low e.t. and top speed of the day on that run. Talk about hitting a bomb of a home run; we didn't just get the win light but let everyone else know we had what it took. It was a 4.18 at 297, and the "feeling" was starting to grow.

Now keep in mind, the "feeling" isn't exclusive to days you win the race. I get the "feeling" a lot, and just as I'm beginning to think it might be our day, things go against us. So it's not a perfect predictor, but it's fun to look back at the end of the night and remember the inkling you had, the slightest tickle of excitement, way earlier in the day, and then recall how it all played out just like you hoped.

We had to beat Mike Neff next, and we did. We had to beat Ron Capps next to at least get past the semifinals (we'd been to five this year and lost all five), and we did. That semifinals win is the first real emotional one, because up until then you're simply having a better and better day, but when you win the semifinals, you know you're going to the final round. That's the first real celebration, but you have to get right back to work...

Working out of my temporary office over at Tasca's, I was doing my best to keep the world updated as we won rounds, via Twitter, Facebook, our website, and every other means of communications. Unfortunately, my printer is in the hospitality support trailer, as are the dry erase boards we always keep updated in the pit, so I took it upon myself to simply tape the latest updated ladder sheet to the transporter door, just so everyone could see who we had next and all the other details.

I don't think any of us were really nervous for the final. It's more of a contained excitement, and real HOPE, more than anything else. You've gotten that far, and you know losing is just as real a possibility as winning, but you're just hoping to see the right result at the end...

Let me tell you, it was so hard to watch those two cars go down the track side-by-side. All day, it had been "winning by inches" and we never got a break, never got a freebie. Even in the four seconds it takes for the race to happen, you can have a million thoughts and hopes go through your head, and in my case I still had to concentrate on keeping the camera steady.

The win lights in Seattle are not easy to see, and all day we'd been talking about how hard it was to tell who won each round, but you couldn't miss them in the final. We all went nuts. Nuts, I tell ya! It was bedlam of the best kind, with lots of hugs and massive high-fives, not to mention enough yelling and screaming to make anyone hoarse.

That was fun. Going down to get Tim was fun. Going back to the winner's circle was fun. Meeting with the media was fun. It was ALL fun, and it feels like the weight of the world is off your shoulders. You're not floating on air, but it sure feels different than what you've been feeling all day, and man it feels good.

Tim told the guys to just put the car away and button everything up, and then we'd go out to dinner, so I dashed over to Tasca's to write my post-event story. And hey, major thanks again to the whole Tasca team for letting me camp out over there. They were tearing down and stowing their stuff for much of the afternoon, but they always left room for me and my stuff up in the lounge, and that allowed me to not only work, but work in peace, and that really helps.

Once everything was done, Dave and I were the "dinner scouts," and we left first to find a restaurant. We scored by finding a nice Black Angus Steakhouse about 15 minutes from the track, so we pointed everyone in our direction and by the time the whole team was there the manager had arranged a whole back room for us.

Then, by the time we were about done with dinner, the ESPN2 show had progressed to the final round, so we all went out to the bar area to watch. The earlier topic of humorous conversation was the Twilight Zone possibility that we'd watch the race on TV and watch ourselves lose! LOL… That would shatter the illusion that the world has order and consistency, wouldn't it! Fortunately, we won on TV just like we did at the track, just a few hours earlier... It was all good.

{GALLERY_winners}I did my best to keep up with e-mails and texts, but by 10:00 last night I really couldn't. My phone was buzzing and vibrating non-stop, and the e-mails were flooding in at the rate of about 100 per hour last night, so I've got some work to do to thank everyone this week... In the meantime, here's a blanket THANK YOU to everyone...

Now, time to get this fired off and then get on my plane and go home. Barb and her mom are in Pittsburgh for a big Doyle family reunion to celebrate the high school graduation of her nephew Colin, and she won't get home until tomorrow, but I'm sure Boofus and Buster will be happy to see me. And, if you live in the eastern time zone you know how late the final round finally played on TV, but the whole Doyle clan stayed up and watched. Barb only told them we'd made it to the final, but kept the outcome a secret, so they all went suitably bonkers when we got the trophy. Thanks to all of you guys, too. And to my siblings, who all reached out last night or this morning.

My brother-in-law Lonnie, down in Sarasota, actually gets the prize for "First Relative To Contact Me" after the race. Thanks, Lon. And yes, I will give you 100 percent of the credit for the win since you had the foresight to get up on Sunday and wear your Wilkerson T-shirt all day. Way to go, Lon!!!

Thanks everyone. More later this week. Can't wait to get home now...

Wilber, out!

I'm typing this from my temporary office in Bob Tasca's hospitality transporter, because we're not setting up our hospitality here (nor in Sonoma) so we're confined to an old-school single pit spot, just like back in the day. The edge of our awning is probably less than a foot from the side of the Tasca transporter, so there's not even enough room to set up a folding table over there. Fortunately, the Tasca guys have offered me an open invitation to use this lounge whenever we're at a race and the Ford executives are not attending. This would be one of those, so I'm up here on the leather sofa, with the plasma- screen TV on, and the air conditioning set at a comfortable 69 degrees. Mike Cunningham was just in here ribbing me about how nice I have it here, and he said he was going to find a couple of stuffed kitty cats so I could feel even more at home. Mother Mike is always thinking...

Heading back to Thursday, since I last blogged, I have to say that one of the loudest, most opinionated, bombastic, and (let's face it) rude individuals you could ever travel with was one row behind me on the long flight out here. From the time he sat down and introduced himself to the poor soul who was sitting next to him, he began to talk. Loudly. About every topic he was sure he knew more about than any other idiot (he used more colorful terms) on the planet. From politics, to religion, to the economy, and entertainment, it was a string of verbose statements that mostly started with the words "Now let me tell you the real truth about that..." Oh my. The poor guy in the seat next to him was trapped for more than three hours, and all of us in the First Class cabin were verbally assaulted by Mr. Genius from take-off to touchdown. I had my Bose headphones on, with the iPod cranked to Max volume playing the loudest hard rock I had, and I could still hear him. The more he talked (ranted) the more animated (worked up) he got. I was ever so tempted to turn around and tell him to "Shut the #@&* up!" but somehow I don't think that would've had any effect on him. It must be nice to go to bed at night and know, deep in your heart, that you know better, and know more, about everything than anyone else in the world because. let's face it, they're all idiots. Count me as an idiot, because I think it's safe to say I'm about 180 degrees from this guy on every subject he was spouting off about. Sheesh... I don't know how the guy had a voice after that three-hour monologue of a continuous rant.

After we landed, getting off the plane felt like being released from prison, so I sprinted to the subway tram and got to baggage claim as fast as I could, and I had to take a pic of the "impaled suitcases" deal that rotates over one of the carousels. You can see that in the photo gallery below, and I think they put it together just to give you a hint as to what nefarious and damaging things they can do to your bags, if they really want to.

I went straight to the hotel, and it really is a nice place. As an extended-stay sort of place, all the rooms are full apartments, and the whole place is set up like an apartment complex, right down to the full kitchen, living room, fire place, and dining area in the room, and the dedicated water heaters and AC units for each place. I'm thrilled to say my air conditioner cranks well into the "meat locker" zone. It's wonderful for sleeping, but it's so cold I actually have to turn it off as soon as I get up, because it's freezing in there.

Here at the track, it's a sort of odd weekend. We have the small pit area, but we're also short a crew person and everyone is pitching in to pick up the slack. My boy Sam had some things at home he really needed to take care of, so we wish him well and thank him for all the hard work. Tim has plans to add a new crew guy, but that won't start until Sonoma, so everyone is picking up parts of what Sam did around here and we're hoping to keep everything covered.

Dave and Annette are helping with the oil, keeping the jugs full, Finkster is all over the fuel, and even at the starting line Dave and I are helping to push the car forward for the burnout. We miss you Sammy, but we understand.

Yesterday, Kelly Bustos from Impact Racing Products, came by the pit with a special new item for Tim. He's worn a two-piece fire suit since I've known him (actually, I knew him when he was racing Top Alcohol FC, and he says he wore a one-piece back then) but Kelly brought a shiny new one-piece version for him here, and it looks GREAT. I told him he looks like Larry Dixon.

As for our commute from the hotel to the track, this has always been one venue where almost everyone comes in the same way, and the traffic can back-up on Route 18 for miles. It can, and I'm not kidding, take you an hour to go the last mile... Well, Dave and I both scoured Google Maps to find a suitably fun and effective back route, and it works like a charm. The crew left the hotel ahead of us, but went the standard way. We went cross-country and beat them here by 15 minutes, and basically never slowed down the whole way. They really should listen to us about shortcuts...

One of the last turns we make, coming in our way, faces directly toward Mount Rainier. In Reading, the back roads route includes the instructions "Turn left at the big rock" so this Seattle version might include "Turn left at the huge volcano."

{GALLERY_sea2}On the track, we had a good day yesterday and plan to have another good one today. The first session was sketchy for everyone, with a hot sun beating down on the track, but we got A-to-B okay, and then came back in the late run and vaulted up to the No. 3 spot on a very pretty lap. It was pretty for us to watch, but I don't think it was too pretty from Tim's perspective, as the drivers have to race almost directly into the setting sun during Q2 in Seattle. The left lane is worse than the right, in that regard, and we were in the left so it was no surprise for Tim to come over the radio as he backed up from the burnout, saying "I know there's a groove out here somewhere, but I can't see it. Basically I can't see anything..."

So, it is our lovely little KOA of a race track, and the traffic can be bad, but at least we make the drivers run into the sunset on Friday! LOL... I don't know if he drove by the seat of his pants or just gutted it out, but Tim did a great job and we're way up on the sheet. It's a little cooler today, so even though we're running a pair of afternoon sessions, there will still be every chance to go out there and improve.

We're getting ready to run now, and I just was over in our pit (weird to be next door) only to find Annette pitching in by turning the motor over for her husband, who was running the valves. How about those muscles! You go girl...

That's about it. It's gorgeous here in Seattle, and the racing is good. Wish us luck, and maybe we can have some really good fun here.

Wilber, out!

Funny thing, Dave and I rarely try to coordinate our travel, since we both have different reasons for flying out or back at specific times and he often comes in a day later than me, but this time I sent him a note to see which flights he was on, just to be nosey. We both found it odd that we're on two different NWA 757s to Seattle that leave 40 minutes apart. He's in line, right now, getting on his 2:20 flight and I'm in the Club waiting for my 3:00 trip. For once, he'll beat me to the destination, so I told him to scout out dinner options while he's finding the hotel.

Yet another new hotel for me. We're staying northwest of the track, in Kent, at a Hawthorn Suites. Sounds like it will be a nice place...

I'm putting a quick photo gallery at the bottom, because it's faster to send everything in this way rather than try to fit photos next to the appropriate paragraphs (a process that takes actual thought...) The first one is great, and it came from my esteemed colleague Lachelle Seymour, who is a wonderfully talented former member of the NHRA Media Department staff. She's now working for the track in Joliet, both on the circle-track side as well as Route 66, the strip. They had a NASCAR race and she sent me a shot from the garage area. Just check out the t-shirt being worn on the left side of the image! Ta Daaa... Thanks Lachelle.

Then, the next couple of pics are actual screen captures from the ESPN2 show last Saturday night. I lost track of the number of emails I got from people who saw my back-to-back extensive moments of "face time" but after finally getting to see it I think I'm close to qualifying for a Screen Actors Guild membership card. I've since gotten about a dozen emails with photos people took, either off their computer screens or of their actual TV screens, so I'll share a couple of those. I think they all perfectly make the case that I was, indeed, born with a face made for radio!

And... Reader Dan M. from Parker, Colo. sent me a shot he took from the stands, and in this one I actually don't look morbidly out of shape. I'm still on a diet, both in terms of dropping a few excess pounds as well as making an effort to simply eat better (and less!) A couple of servings of fruit and veggies everyday can't do anything but good, although it's REALLY hard to find either of those items at the race track. It ain't easy to eat well when I'm "at work" on the road, but we'll give it a good shot to at least think before I munch.

{GALLERY_sea}The final pic is the latest view of the Target Field webcam, for all of you who write to ask how the new ballpark is coming along. They've been working on the actual field surface for about a week, and it's been easy to see layers of subsurface go down, as well as drains and irrigation. From what I heard a year ago, they have to get the grass in by August for it to take root and be mature enough to make it through the winter, so the clock is ticking.

The other great sign that the ballpark is coming along is the addition of actual seats for us to put our butts in. They've got the right field and left field bleacher seats in, have started on seats out by our section in the right field corner, and now have multiple sections totally complete behind home plate. It looks more and more like a ball yard every day. Today in Minneapolis: Sunny and 71. This would've been a PERFECT day for a game...

Well, I gotta go... First assignment tomorrow is for me to complete the decal work on our back-up LRS Shelby body, which has not been out of the trailer all year so it doesn't have any of the contingency stickers on it. We're getting to the part of the season where we might need it, so I'm having Jeff and the boys get it out for me tomorrow morning. I'll try to keep them straight and level...

Talk to you soon from Seattle!

Wilber, out!
 

A huge storm was rolling in from the west as we waited for our flight to board, but it looked like it was going to stay south of the airport.  The pilot came out and asked the gate agents to hurry us up, however, because he was worried (for good reason) about getting out of there before that big black bank of clouds closed in.  I stood up to head over to the boarding door, where I stumbled upon Nelson Jones and Rahn Tobler, and things were still seeming pretty optimistic as the three of us talked about the wonderful surprise of finding 10,000 elite miles deposited in our NWA frequent flyer accounts in the last couple of days.  That's a really good thing, and apparently all the elite flyers got the bonus as a "thank you" from Northwest and Delta.  I might even come close to making Platinum because of it, so I'm really thrilled.

Anyway, we boarded the flight and they did the best they could to get us on there quickly, despite the fact boarding an airplane seems to be a very difficult thing for some people, who can single-handedly hold up an entire plane-full of people without breaking a sweat.  We pushed back from the gate, and taxied over to a runway, and the woman sitting next to me (she had the window seat) said "Oh my, lots of traffic out here..."  We appeared to be about 10th in line for the runway, and the rain drops were starting to fall...

We pulled onto the taxiway and sat.  And sat.  And sat.  Finally, after about 30 minutes, the pilot came on to say the storm had the airport down to just a couple of runways, and it was taking a long time for the traffic to clear ahead of us, but we should just hold tight.  What else were we going to do, eh?

Well, we'd already had a couple instances of passengers not staying seated when they're supposed to be buckled in, and just about then a guy comes barging up the aisle to say something to the flight attendant, as we were actually rolling forward on the taxiway!   They made him go back to his seat, and the attendant immediately called the cockpit to tell them about it.  Moments later, the pilot came on again and said this, with a VERY stern tone to his voice:

"Okay folks, this is how it's going to work.  When you stand up, I have to stop this airplane. When I stop this airplane, we lose our slot in the sequence.  When we lose our slot, we have to sit here and burn fuel.  If you get up again, I'll have to go back to the gate to get more fuel.  I need everyone in their seats and I need you to stay there!"   He meant business...

After about 45 minutes of sitting there, I saw one of the planes ahead of us pull out onto the runway, but just taxi down it rather than take off.  Turns out, that plane was just the first in our entire procession of jets to do that, because the storm had caused the winds to shift and now we had to change runways.  At about the one-hour mark, we finally took off.  That was just an inconvenience for me, since I was headed directly to my home airport, but Nelly and Rahn were like most of the people on the flight, trying to make a connection at MSP.  I would suspect most of them missed their connections.

Finally, when I got down to the baggage claim level, and our bags eventually emerged, I was ever so pleased to find they'd broken one of the wheels off my suitcase.  A fitting ending to a very long day.   Here's hoping the trip to Seattle will be smoother.  I'll be in the Shakespeare seat on the way out there (that would be 2-B, or not to be) so that's a good start.

Barbara and I also did one of our "ships passing in the night" routines yesterday, since she was boarding a flight for Boston about the same time we were sitting on the ground in Denver.  She'll be back tomorrow night, so at least we'll see each other before I leave.

This morning, I awoke with my PR guy hat on.  Not literally, of course, but as soon as I woke up I found myself thinking about themes and headlines for my pre-Seattle feature story.  I was thinking of using the word "Cascade" if I could, since Mount Rainier is part of the Cascades.  Then I was thinking of a way to use the word "Star" and "bucks" together in a sentence.  Finally, I landed on another Seattle coffee landmark, "Seattle's Best" and used that because that's really what we aim to be, if you boil it down to the essence.  Fun with brand names is a fine pursuit, but it works better if the product name makes sense in the story....  But that's just me.

I just checked a couple of weather forecasts for this weekend, and I'm really hoping they're right because it sounds delicious.  Accuweather.com calls for highs in the mid-70s to low 80s, and their description for each day is "Mostly sunny and nice."   Sounds good to all of us after Denver!

I got an email from Tom S., who was at the Norwalk race when he clicked this pic of me holding the video camera, and I quickly came to one inescapable conclusion.  Man, I gotta go on a diet.  Who's the round guy in my uniform?  Sheesh...  Mix in a salad there, Wilber.  And while you're at it, maybe back away from the double-serving of Ranch dressing. 

Judging by the background in the pic, I'm guessing I was actually viewing the last run through the viewfinder, as opposed to shooting video.  We're obviously well back from the starting line, and by the looks of the concrete I'm probably off to the side somewhere.  I always check to make sure the tape is at the end of the previous run, so that I don't tape over anything...

Here's one sign the economy is at least coming back a bit.  I just got my statement for my IRA and I'm now back "whole" for the first time since the markets went kerplooie in '08, and I got back to even thanks to a sizable amount of "return on investment" in the last quarter.  I'm still missing all that investment growth I had accumulated over the 15 years I've been contributing, but at least now my balance is back to being equal to the amount of money I've put in, and the fund has been buying stocks that are depressed for the last 10 months or so, which means the growth should continue for a while.  At least I feel good about that!  There were some months there when I wondered if it was all just going to go "poof" and disappear.

Finally, here's the real reason I'm blogging today rather than tomorrow.  I met a guy named Don Greenwood in Englishtown, and he told me about his history with the sport and the fact he's even become an associate sponsor on Shawn Gann's Pro Stock Motorcycle.  He mentioned his son, Daniel, and it was instantly obvious that he and his boy have a great father/son relationship, and that Don is very proud of Daniel.  After the race, he sent me a pic of Daniel and his son Brayden, with Shawn, and mentioned that July 14th was Daniel's 26th birthday.

Today is July 14th.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANIEL!   If you're reading this, you should know how much your father thinks of you, and to what lengths he went just to have something as simple as a birthday wish posted on some Team Manager's blog.  He told me about your first trip to the drags, when you were 9 years old and he took you to Rockingham.  He told me all about how going to NHRA events became your special thing, and how you'd go to as many as nine races a year together.  And he's extra-proud to see you continuing this tradition with your boy.   Enjoy the day, Daniel!  And appreciate what your dad thinks of you, and how much he cares.

That's about it, gang.  Tonight I'll watch the All-Star Game, being played in my original hometown, and tomorrow I'll start getting ready for Seattle.  Right now, I've got to fold the stuff in the dryer and put the whites in after that.  This is really a glamorous life we lead...

Wilber, out!
 

This photograph is basically all you need to know about how Sunday went. We all felt confident that we'd run well enough to win, because the car had been such a good hot rod all weekend. I'm not saying we felt confident that we would win, mind you, just confident that we'd run well enough to win. Sometimes (like in Norwalk) you run well enough to be victorious, but you still lose.

So, when the long morning's build-up finally came to a climax with us being the first pair of Funny Cars on the track, I was stunned when the car smoked the tires. A noon start makes things drag out like crazy (no pun intended) and it seemed like the first round would never get there, but finally we were in the lanes, then we were all gasping as the crazy parachute guy established what might be a new standard by swooping in NEXT TO the tower on the right side, crossing over the starting line, then making a hard right just a few feet off the ground to touch down on the return road. Trust me, there were dozens of professional crew guys cringing, and then shaking their heads, when we saw that.

Next, we watched Top Fuel, and we got more and more nervous as our turn approached... Eventually, what felt like hours later, the LRS Shelby came out from under the tower and then it all just went into hyper-speed. We fired the motor, watched the burnout, got in position, and BAM... Weekend over. To then see the Safety Safari hit the track to clean up a big mess we made was just as stunning. As the photo shows, we blew it up big time...

Losing happens. It stinks, but it happens to half the cars in the race every round, so you have to file it away and move on. Knocking about half of the rods out of the motor RARELY happens when Tim Wilkerson is in charge of the tune-up. The guy might be the best in the business when it comes to not hurting parts but still running fast. I'm still amazed that happened.

We had a small crowd in the hospitality area on Sunday, so about two hours after the loss we began to tear the circus down. We're getting used to it, and the whole process now happens with a minimum of hand- holding or specific directions from Rich and Annette, who plotted out the whole procedure at the beginning of the year. Chairs and tables get folded and put away. The big mural on the side of Tasca's trailer comes down. Side walls get disassembled and folded up. The big awning comes down, and then the poles. Finally, the floor gets rolled up, and everything gets stowed in the support trailer. This time, the process was way easier, because the support trailer was actually parked right next to our pit, rather than out in the boonies, so we had access to it from the get-go. Normally, all we'd be able to do is tear everything down, then wait an hour after the final round to move the trailer...

Dave and I were back at the hotel by 6:00, and at Macaroni Grill by 6:45, enjoying what really was a spectacular meal. I had the Chicken Cannelloni and it was truly terrific. Then, exhausted from the long weekend and the long day, we were back in our rooms before it was dark, and my biggest challenge was staying awake until a reasonable hour. I failed, and was asleep at 9:00. That may sound good, but it caused me to wake up at 6:00, and with a 2:45 flight today, I once again had too much time to kill...

Right now, I'm at gate C-36 at the monstrous Denver airport, and as you'll see in the photo gallery I took a few iPhone pics of things I see far too often. Things like security lines, airports, and rental car buses... I'm sure they're thrilling photos...

I did make one short, and fun, detour on the way out to the edge of Kansas, which is where it feels like the Denver airport is. The old Denver airport, Stapleton International, is long gone and the ground upon which it stood is now almost fully redeveloped with homes, stores, and schools. It's pretty stunning, really, to think that a huge airport and tons of runways were once there. But what's more stunning is the fact the old Stapleton control tower, and much of one of the big parking garages, ARE still there!!! Right in the middle of a housing and commercial development stands the old tower, and a fenced-off old garage. Weird, and almost kinda spooky, but it was worth driving over there just to see it...

You'll also see a couple of pics from Saturday, when we had an enormous crowd in our hospitality area, as Dick Levi and his wife hosted a huge family reunion. I believe we had more than 190 people check-in with Annette for the day, so that's a great crowd and they were fantastic folks. We did our best to keep them entertained and well fed, and they all seemed to enjoy themselves immensely. Truly, it was one of the most rewarding days I've ever spent at the track, in terms of how we interact with our sponsors and make the whole thing an enjoyable thing for them...

{GALLERY_den3}There's also a pic from Scott The Pilot (STP) wearing his Wilkerson t- shirt in Seoul, Korea. Scott got laid off a while back, from United, but recently landed a new gig with Korean Air, so he's been over in Seoul for training. STP's gonna be flying the big jets, baby...

Well, I have to get a burger or something, because there's no meal on this flight even though I'm in 1-C... And hey, in other good news I'm already in First Class for the flight out to Seattle, which is a very good thing because it's a 3-hour flight... Time to get this sent it, grab a Quarter Pounder, and fly home... Tonight, I'll watch the Home Run Derby from St. Louis and we'll see if the Twins' Joe Mauer can hit any out. He's hitting .370 so far this year, and is a gifted hitter, but he's never been much of a power hitter. As Twins' manager Ron Gardenhire put it "Joe thought it was a ground ball up the middle contest, so he entered..."

Lots to do on Tuesday and Wednesday, then back on a plane on Thursday to fly over to Sea-Tac. Hope we get a nice view of Mount Rainier when we're coming in...

Wilber, out!
 

If you're like me, you might have thought yesterday's massive day-long blog was really boring. I re-read it last night, after it was posted, and it about put me to sleep, but that also means it was a pretty accurate description of what was a long drawn-out affair... After I wrapped it up, and figured we'd never run, the rain finally stopped, and we finally did get back on the track, running just before midnight! It was, in effect, about a 14-hour day.

It's a good thing we did run again, because Tim "went for it" a bit and really nailed the tune-up. We ran 4.178 when a lot of other really good teams were running high 4.20s and low 4.30s, so we knew it was a big lap and it did put us No. 1 at the time, but we still had a few pairs of major hitters behind us. One by one, they didn't knock us out of the top spot, but the last pair was Tony Pedregon and Ashley Force Hood, and I turned to John Fink and said "I think we're either going to end up number one, or number three..." Turns out, Ashley smoked the tires and did a fantastic job of keeping her car off the wall, but Tony ran a 4.170 and took the top spot. Hey, No. 2 is good, and we're happy with it.

I took some phone shots last night, to document the late-night deal that felt more like the final lap at a match race (where they always stretch things out to make sure they've sold the last beer and last hot dog) so we'll post those here in the gallery... Also clicked a few off this morning, so I'll add those too.

{GALLERY_denver2}It was about 2:00 a.m. when I finally got to bed last night, so the morning seemed to come pretty quickly, but we're all amped up and ready (the Diet Mountain Dew helps!)  Let's go racin'....

Our big crowd is starting to filter in, and we want to maximize every available table and seat in our hospitality area, so I'm actually moving my stuff over to Tasca's hospitality lounge in order to vacate my "corner office" back here in the back... And hey, it's air conditioned over there!  If anybody needs me, I'll probably be doing some REALLY IMPORTANT work that will keep me tied to my computer.  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Two more sessions, if the rain stays away...

Should be a great day on the mountain!

Wilber, out!

Good morning, everyone. That was a dumb thing to write, actually, because I'm going to dabble with this blog all day, and send it in late on Friday night. Well, come to think of it, maybe saying "Good morning" was absolutely perfect, because it's likely no one will see this before Saturday morning.

It's 9:00 in the morning when I'm starting this, in my 3rd-floor room at the very nicely appointed Holiday Inn in Lakewood, Colo. I'm quite familiar with this part of town, since we're right across Wadsworth Blvd. from the Hampton Inn, which is where Team CSK stayed for years, and I actually spent a single night here during one of those seasons when I arrived at the Hampton very late and they had given my room away. They "walked" me to the Holiday for a night, and picked up the tab.

A note about Holiday Inns... My relationship with this chain goes back to the earliest years of my childhood, when I'd go on road trips with my dad (usually scouting trips he was on, when he was the Twins top scout from 1960 to 1970) and we'd hit roadside Holiday Inns all the time. That stuck with me, and all through college and into my scouting career, Holiday Inns were the overnight spots of choice for me. Familiarity breeds contentment, to alter and paraphrase an old worn-out cliché.

Over the years, the standard old roadside Holiday Inns, with the wonderful huge green and yellow sign out front, began to disappear, although anyone with a sharp eye for Holiday Inn architecture can still spot hundreds of them, now sporting different brand names and often quite worn-out and seedy looking. The brand began to lose its luster, and the chain even inflicted some of that damage upon itself, by introducing the Holiday Inn Express line of hotels, which were all new and therefore instantly nicer than the old standard Inns. Recently, as in just this year, the management has done a complete make-over on the standard Holiday Inns, and they even came out with a new logo. End result: This place is nice, the rate is good, and the logo is (in my humble opinion, which no one asked for) terrible. It's basically just an "H" on a green background.

If it would've been my decision (and it clearly wasn't) I would have gone retro, and brought back the classic old signs. I did some research this morning (I've had plenty of time to kill) and discovered this version was known inside the company as the "Great Sign" but they were very expensive to make and install, and even more expensive to maintain, with all the yellow bulbs. Nothing looked worse than a sign with half its bulbs burned out, so they phased these out and went with the old square green Holiday Inn sign, with just the script words on it.

These old signs bring back such memories for me, and there are many of them left littered across the American landscape, altered over the years to become signs for other hotels, or other businesses completely, but man it would've been cool for them to find a way to link the past with the future... So be it. Now you'll just have to look for the nondescript "H" in front of the Inns...

Going back to yesterday, it was an uneventful travel day, although it was nice to sit right behind Rahn Tobler on the flight from MSP. We chatted for a bit on the plane, then ran into each other at baggage claim, and finally ended up on the Hertz bus together. Rahn's a nice guy, and has always been very friend