I realize it has been awhile since I’ve done a blog update, but there has been a lot going on for a guy who doesn’t have a job.

Where do I start? I’ll try and keep it simple so not to confuse everyone. First let me say congratulations to my sister Wendy and brother-in-law Mike Childers for the arrival of my second nephew, Zane. He was born on July 21. He was a big boy at 9 pounds and 11 ounces. If he continues to grow like that I think he might be cut out for football instead of racing. Now his big brother Gage has someone to teach all about drag racing and I have another nephew to spoil then send home to his parents.

Melanie and I have both been busy racing lately. We went to the Denver race and spent the week with Melanie’s family. After Denver we took the next two Western Swing races off. Very weird feeling since we’ve been on the swing for the past 10 years. We didn’t stay home long though as Melanie and I drove the motorhome to Canada with the dogs to attend an IHRA race. Mel raced Pro Mod there and did OK, but not as good as they wanted. She qualified 6th but lost in the first round. They stayed and tested on Monday then we drove home Monday night.

As many of you already know I am getting back behind the wheel although it not in a Funny Car. I left Thursday morning and headed to Columbus for the divisional event driving Bill Evans' A/Fuel car. I had a blast that weekend. It brought back a lot of old memories and got to see a lot of old friends. The weather didn’t help us out much. We smoked the tires our first run on Friday and then had to sit and watch it rain all day Saturday. We got one more qualifying run Sunday morning and got in the show with a 5.57. I had a good light first round but my 5.57 wasn’t quick enough to beat Robin Samsel’s  5.45. I would have liked to done a little better but we got behind with all the weather. I am going to get a chance to do a little better this weekend as we are racing the Division 5 event in Cordova. I can’t wait. I don’t care what it is as long as I get to compete again. It got the competitive juices flowing.

Last weekend I took off as Melanie was racing in Martin, Mich. She had a great weekend with the Pro Mod car qualifying No. 4 and going all the way to the semifinals. She even broke into the five-second zone for the first time second round, running a 5.98. They did some more testing on Monday in preparation for the Get Screened America Series Pro Mod race coming up in Indy. She is getting a lot more comfortable in the Pro Mod car now. Those cars are a handful and coming from a Funny Car to a Pro Mod car the driving styles are completely different. I think they are happy with the team’s progress and she will definitely be a threat to win Pro Mod at Indy.

Speaking of Indy we both will be racing this coming Labor Day weekend. I can’t thank Bill Evans enough for giving me the opportunity to drive his car. I wasn’t looking forward to Indy this year with neither of us racing, but now we both will get our shot at an Indy Wally. As of today I have one other race on the Alcohol Dragster schedule with the race in Charlotte. Who knows, we might even be able to add a couple more in there before the year is over.

Melanie and I won’t be going to Brainerd next week, but we are going on a trip. We are going to Europe with Roger Burgess and his wife for a little vacation. It is going to be a great trip, a once in a lifetime experience, but what I am mostly excited about is that we are going to attend the Nitrolympx while we are in Germany. I have always wanted to go to Europe and attend a drag racing event over there. I have been to New Zealand and watched drag racing, but now I can check another one off the list. I can’t wait and I’ll post a few pictures of our experience once we get back.

I know it has been a while since I posted anything new here. I guess I took a month off from the blog just like running. I wanted to give my IT band plenty of time to recover, and to be quite honest I wasn’t entirely sure that I would want to start again. I month to the day from when I ran the Mini I went back out again. I would like to try another half marathon this year to see if I can break the two-hour mark. This time I will try to ramp up the mileage slowly. So far I feel pretty good.

As I am sure you know by now, I‘ve been testing in a Pro Mod car, and just ran my first race in Englishtown, N.J. Every race car has its own personality and these are no different. The guys on the team still joke about me calling them angry little race cars. We qualified 10th in Englishtown, but lost in the first round. It wasn’t a bad weekend; we just need a little more time to sort out this car. The crew chief for all three R2B2 cars, Al Billes, sure has a handle on the car driven by Raymond Commisso. Raymond was the No. 1 qualifier, won the race, and set a new record for the class by running 5.85 in the final. Tommy and I really enjoyed being there for Raymond’s first NHRA win and celebrating with the team. Here is Raymond behind the counter making pizzas at the place where we went to celebrate.

We took the opportunity to play tourist with Tommy’s parents; Tommy Sr. and Sarah, and my mom, Barb, in the week leading up to the Englishtown race. We rode the train in from New Jersey and spent a couple of hours on Wednesday riding the double-decker buses around to get a quick view of everything. We went to the top of 30 Rockefeller Center and finished off the night by seeing the musical 9 to 5. We got home pretty late, and didn’t get going quite as early as we would have hoped on Thursday.

By the time we got back out to New York the first order of business was lunch. We ate at Rosa Mexicana, a restaurant that came highly recommended by some of our friends. Of course my favorite part was the margaritas and guacamole. I could have had just that and been completely happy. After three margaritas apiece and two big orders of guac, quite honestly I don’t really remember the food. It’s a good thing we covered some ground after lunch to work some of that off. We also rode the subway to catch the ferry to the Statue of Liberty. We even met some race fans on Liberty Island. On our way back to catch the train we went by Ground Zero and walked all the way back up to Time Square. With all that walking it was easy to justify the Gelato we had on the way. By Thursday night I think everyone was worn out but I’m sure that we all had a good time.

I already know what I want to write about next time, two of my favorite things in the world, dogs and food. Check back in for my mom’s new dog Dakota, and my guacamole recipe.
 

Well, I did it. I finished the One America 500 Festival Mini-marathon in 2 hours and 12 minutes. My original goal was to finish in less than two hours but considering that I had to stop training several weeks before the race, I am not too disappointed.
I didn’t even really have a chance to get too excited about it because we were so busy that weekend. Tommy and I drove out to St. Louis on Friday morning. We thought it would be a good idea to spend a few hours at the race since we couldn’t be there on Saturday. We headed back to Indy at about 5 that afternoon and stopped in Terre Haute, Ind., to find an Italian restaurant, so that I could load up on carbohydrates for the next day. We found a great local place called Pinno’s. The only downside was that it took us about two hours to get back on the road.  We stayed at a hotel downtown so that we wouldn’t have to get up at 5 a.m. to be downtown in time. That worked out very well. I am not much of a morning person so every little bit of extra sleep helps.

The weather was perfect on Saturday morning, overcast and right around 50 degrees. As I waited for the race to start there were probably 50 beach balls that were being passed up and down the starting grid. On the course they had entertainment at every mile marker. There were quite a few bands and even some cloggers and square dancers. That was great motivation. We even got to run around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. That might have been one of the toughest parts of the run. That’s when I started to have a little knee pain and quite a bit of pain in my foot. Thankfully it wasn’t enough to keep me from finishing.

I have to admit that the last three miles were tough. I just plain ran out of gas.  I am already thinking about what it will take to get my knee and foot prepared to try another one later this year. I know I can get under two hours with just a little more training.  I am very glad that I decided to do this, and who knows, this may be something that I keep doing for a long time. 

On Sunday we returned to St. Louis for eliminations. Both Roger Burgess (my team owner) and Raymond Commisso who drives Roger’s other ProMod car were qualified for the race. Raymond had a mechanical problem in round one but Roger went on to win the race.  In the final he won on a holeshot with a .014 light! How about that for your first win! Tommy and I are very happy for him and the entire team. All in all it was a great weekend.

Check back soon to see if Tommy wants to fill you in on his experience from this weekend.

bib number:	41243
age:	36
gender:	F
location:	Avon, IN
overall place:	13113 out of 30248
division place:	784 out of 2351
gender place:	4647 out of 15887
time:	2:12:23
pace:	10:07
5m:	48:04
10m:	1:38:27
guntime:	2:23:50

 I made an appointment with my doctor but I figured she would tell me to stop running and that would solve the problem. That would be the logical thing to do, right? If something hurts, stop doing it. Now I can’t start getting all logical at this point; I have put way too much effort into training for this to stop now. Besides, I have told all of you about it and I couldn’t take the embarrassment of telling you that I had quit. Just kidding, I know you would understand. As it happens my doctor is also training for the Mini, as are several other doctors from her office. She sent me to a specialist that she, and it sounds like just about everybody else in the office has been to while training this year. It’s nice to know that I’m not the only one.

It turns out that I have a tight IT band. I haven’t actually caused any damage, just irritation of the bursa sac on the side of my knee. There are several ways of dealing with it but in order to be ready for the Mini, which was only two weeks away at that point we decided on a cortisone shot. Take five days off from running, anti inflammatories twice a day, stretching, icing and I should be good to go.

I have now run a couple three-mile runs and a five-mile run since the shot. Things look good, but I am a little nervous about not having more miles run in the weeks just before the race. I am taking the next two days off to rest up for Saturday. My friends that have run past Minis tell me that you get such an adrenaline rush from running with 40,000 other people that they don’t think I will have a problem. I’ve got my fingers crossed but no matter what happens, I will make the best of it. I will fill you in on how it went next week.

I have to say that every week on that long run something new hurts. First it was my right foot, so I bought metatarsal pads to keep the pressure off the ball of my feet. The next week it was my left knee. It feels like an old injury from snowboarding that shows back up every once in a while. I did run with the metatarsal pads in both shoes that week and I thought that the pad may have affected the way my foot hit the ground and stressed my knee. You can’t be too careful so I stopped using the pad in the left shoe and started wearing a knee brace on the left knee. So every time I get ready to run I’m taping pads to my feet, bracing my left knee, putting on my heartrate monitor and GPS watch, filling my pockets with mace, my iPod shuffle, my cell phone and a Clif Shot energy gel. And that in addition to two or three layers of clothing for the cold Indy weather. It’s a lot like getting ready to make a pass in the race car. I have to start twenty minutes early just to get out of the house.

I have also gone out with Tommy a few times on the bikes. That would definitely be less abuse on my body. We rode 18 miles about a week ago. The distance wasn’t that tough of a workout but I’m not use to spending much time on the bike seat yet. My butt hurt for days!  Last weekend when Tommy was in Las Vegas for the race my friend Michelle and I took our dogs out to a trail that runs through Indianapolis. We all had a great time but one of our yorkies, Peanut, decided he would just as soon take in all the scenery without all the work, so I carried him about the last third. Here he is zonked out afterward.

Tommy’s birthday was on Monday after Vegas, so we took it easy that day. He got to sleep in and then we went to IHOP for breakfast/lunch. He had a massage in the afternoon and then we went out to eat that evening at Capital Grill. That was our first time eating at the Indianapolis location but we always enjoy their other restaurants. I gave Tommy an iPod touch so he has been busy loading it with games and music.

On a racing note, the team is still hard at work trying to get back out on the track. The Atlanta race is next weekend and that is where the team is based now. We are still implementing the Get Screened America program and I’m sure that we will be entertaining some potential sponsors over the next few races.  Car owner Roger Burgess and teammate Ray Commisso will both be running the ProMod cars in Atlanta next weekend. Based on their impressive performances in the last two races I think it will be a good weekend.

Well I’m off to run my 10 miles for the week since we finally have some nice weather. I’m sure you will hear from Tommy sometime soon.

Melanie and I drove back to Ottumwa for my grandpa’s funeral on Monday morning and spent some time with my grandma and family. My nephew Gage got to go on his first airplane ride as he and my sister flew back from NC for the funeral. His birthday is March 10th, and my sister had planned a trip to Disney for his birthday. So the Saturday before the Gainesville race, Melanie and I loaded up the car and drove from Indy to Orlando to spend a little vacation time with Gage at Disney World. It’s a long drive but well worth it when we arrived at the condo at 12:45 a.m. Sunday morning Gage was still up waiting on us to arrive.

{GALLERY_disney}We spent the day Sunday hanging out at the pool and planning our next three days at Disney. Bright and early Monday morning, we drove to the park and started our adventure with a 4 year old at Disney. Now Gage and I are big buddies, but nothing compared to his buddy Melanie. Everywhere we went, he wanted to hold onto Melanie’s hand. I did get to put him on my shoulders and get a little attention once in a while, but Aunt Melanie was definitely his favorite. We got in line for a ride called the train not knowing it was a roller coaster. We got to the ride and decided we would give it a try and see if he liked it. My sister is pregnant again, so she bypassed the ride. My brother-in-law Mike and I sat in the car in front of Gage and Aunt Melanie. We looked back to see if he was loving it or hating it, and he was all smiles having a ball. He is definitely going to have a future in racing because he loved the speed. The only problem with taking him on a roller coaster for his first ride was that is all he wanted to do is ride another roller coaster.

The five of us spent the rest of the day at Magic Kingdom riding rides, eating, and walking a lot. My sister did great for being pregnant and having a 4 year old wanting to see everything. We were all tired and worn out, so we called it a day and headed back. My dad had driven down from Charlotte Monday to join us and was waiting on us at the condo. My mom couldn’t make it down as she was still back in Iowa with my grandma. Aunt Melanie made us all dinner, and we called it a night.

For Gage’s birthday on Tuesday my sister made reservations for breakfast at one of the resorts. As you eat breakfast the Disney characters come around to your table to visit the kids. He was all smiles as he got a birthday cake for breakfast and got to meet Goofy, Minnie, and Donald. The waitress’ all had their hometowns on their name tags, and I noticed one’s said Ottumwa, IA. Now that is a coincidence for sure.

After breakfast, we headed back to Magic Kingdom since we didn’t get to do everything we wanted in one day. The economy may be bad, but it sure didn’t look like it at Disney. There were still a ton of people and long lines everywhere. We spent the entire day riding more rides and then went back to the condo for dinner and birthday cake. Gage opened presents and then Uncle Tommy was his favorite for a little while. I got him a LEGOs set, and we proceeded to build things.

On Wednesday, we went to Animal Kingdom. It was much different than Magic Kingdom, and I liked it a lot better. We spent most of the day at Animal Kingdom then headed to the Hollywood Studios Park that night. The hardest part was explaining to Gage why he couldn’t ride the big roller coasters. Another three or four inches taller and Aunt Melanie will have her someone to ride all of them since I am not that big of a fan of roller coasters. I don’t mind going upside down or in a corkscrew, but I don’t like riding the ones that go way up in the air. We had a great time with the family at Disney.

{GALLERY_hof}On Thursday, Melanie and I headed to Gainesville. We made a stop in Ocala at Big Daddy’s museum since Melanie had never been. I hadn’t been since we donated the car I got into the four second club with, so I wanted to stop and check it out too. I’ve mentioned a few times that growing up at the track as a kid I used to hang out at Marvin Graham’s trailer and he would watch me while my parents were up running my dad’s car. He has always been my childhood hero, and Thursday night he was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame. We went to the banquet Thursday night and sat with Marvin and his family at their table. It was great listening to all the stories they told about the old days in drag racing. I wouldn’t have missed seeing him get inducted for the world.

We spent the rest of the weekend at the track. Melanie’s car owner Roger Burgess was racing in Pro Mod and did a great job, qualifying number one. I’m still busy working on things and have some hope that I will be in a car soon. A couple of things are in the works, and I will let you know as soon as something happens.

We drove home Sunday night and didn’t get back into Indy until 4:15 in the morning Monday. After being gone for over a week, we were ready to get back home and get our dogs. I slept for a couple of hours then went and got them. Just before we left town, our hot water heater went out. We had bought a new one but hadn’t got it hooked up yet. We spent all afternoon Monday installing that. Of course, like anything, it wasn’t without problems, so four or five trips to the hardware store later we got it done. The weather in Indy has been great, so we have been working around the house getting things ready for spring.

Whit Bazemore had got me into riding bikes a couple of years ago, but without Whit around last year, I had not been riding much. A friend of ours loaned Melanie a bike to see if she would like riding before I talked her into buying one, so on Tuesday we went for a short ride. I don’t know if she is convinced yet about biking, but at least it got me back on the bike and I’m committed to riding more this year. It is a great way to stay in shape, and since I am looking for a new ride, I can use that.

It doesn’t look like we are going to Houston for the race. I think we will take one off. I’m still undecided about the Vegas race. It is my birthday weekend, and it’s always a fun time in Vegas. Hopefully someone will call and I will have a reason to go.

Check in with you later,

TJ

It was the first time that we had been at a race with neither of us racing. We used the opportunity to do some things that we wouldn’t normally do. We ate at a great little Italian restaurant in Laverne, just a couple of blocks from the track, called Café Allegro. I just love all the little college towns in the area with their cute little shops and restaurants. There is another area like it in Claremont and we eat at Walter’s, a favorite place of ours, just a few miles from the track. I was introduced to the restaurant by Micki and Larry Michael, parents of Rick Michael who owned the car back in the days that I drove the Western Rock dragster. We go there just about every time we are in Pomona. Okay, so are you seeing a trend? I like to eat and I love finding new restaurants while we are traveling.

With all this eating I have been doing I guess it’s a good thing that I have taken up running. I have been trying to decide whether or not I wanted to commit to this in the blog or not, but here goes. I am going to run the mini marathon here in Indy on May 2. I have said that I wanted to enter the race for several years, but it falls on the St. Louis race weekend. I didn’t want to say anything about the race until I was sure that I would follow through but I have been training for over three weeks now and I feel really good about it. My only goal right now is to be able to finish it. I will keep you posted on my progress.

Last weekend while Tommy was in Phoenix for the race, I was in Boca Raton, Florida for the Concours d’Elegance, benefiting the Boy’s and Girl’s Club. Roger Burgess, my car owner, invited Tommy and me to join him at the event. Of course Tommy needed to be at the race to continue working on a ride for this year, so I joined Roger, his wife Barbara, Frank Hawley and his wife Lana at the event. If you are not familiar with Concours d’Elengance events, (don’t worry I wasn’t either) they are centered around showcasing classic and vintage collector cars. On Friday night we were at the hangar party where they displayed rare collector cars, planes, race cars, and motorcycles as well as being treated to food and drink from local eateries. On Saturday night, we attended a black tie dinner and auction that was hosted by Howie Mandel. Roger donated a trip to the Las Vegas race on his plane along with Frank’s donation of a trip to his drag racing school. My favorite part of the night was the show by Michael Israel. It is hard to explain what he does if you have never seen it. He paints frantically to music, and when he is done he turns the canvas upside down to reveal the finished work. They auctioned of each of the pictures he made that night. I think we all had a great time, and there was a lot of money raised for the charity that evening. On Sunday I had to head home so I missed the car show, but I hear it is quite the spectacle.

Well that’s all the important stuff that we have been up to. Obviously my team is still hard at work trying to get our car back on the track this season. I think we all know how tough it is for everybody out there right now, not just for the racing community. I know that it is just a matter of time until things turn around.  One thing that helps me keep a positive outlook on this year is that I am trying to do all the things that our racing schedule would normally keep me from doing. That being said, if we are able to put together the sponsorship to go racing, I won’t be disappointed in the least to never get to run in the mini-marathon. Until that happens, I‘ll keep running.
 

Melanie and I flew out to Phoenix a couple weeks ago for the pre-season testing. Our neighbors, Kevin and Gretchen, were going to Phoenix for the weekend so we decided to join them. Melanie and I went to the track for awhile on Friday before they arrived and caught up with everyone we hadn’t seen for awhile. I even though I might get to drive at one point because Jim Head had hurt his finger so I was standing by with my helmet and suit just in case he couldn’t do it. Jim, like all good racers, didn’t let it bother him and went out and ran low e.t. for the day on Friday so I knew I wasn’t going to be needed. I’ve left my helmet and suit in a friend’s trailer for the season just in case though.

On Saturday I went to the track in the morning while the rest of the group went hiking on South Mountain in Phoenix. I caught back up with them later in the day and we enjoyed a relaxing time visiting Scottsdale. When you are racing it seems like you never have the time to go and relax in some of the areas we visit so it was kind of neat to see more of Phoenix than just the airport and the racetrack. Besides it was killing me having to sit and watch everyone make passes during testing. I just don’t make a very good spectator.

Sunday morning they talked me into going hiking with them on the mountain. It was fun and all, but I was happy too when we were finished. It was kind of cool to hear cars making runs out at the track while you were hiking on the mountain. After hiking we all loaded up and went out to the track for awhile. Some friends of the Knocks were in Phoenix for the weekend with us and they had never seen drag racing so we did our best to give them drag racing 101 Sunday afternoon.

Sunday night we drove to a little wine bar called The Down Under Wine Bar in Chandler. We got to talking to a few people in there and to our surprise we ran into a drag racer, Ed, who doesn’t work at the wine bar, but it sure looked like it to us is involved in drag racing. He and a few buddies have a drag bike that they race and it is sponsored by Down Under Wine Bar. We talked racing and had a great time so if you go to the Phoenix race be sure and stop by Down Under Wine Bar and visit Ed. After that we went to dinner at Valle Luna Mexican restaurant. One of Melanie and my first dates was at this restaurant so I guess it has a special place for us.

We flew back to Indy on Monday and left the beautiful weather behind. It started snowing here on Tuesday and didn’t stop until 12 inches later. The weather in Indy this winter hasn’t been too bad but that soon came to an end. Wednesday morning I was out trying to shovel the dogs an area to go to the bathroom (six-inch tall dogs don’t deal well with 12 inches of snow) when Jimmy Prock yelled across the street to come borrow his snow blower. Thankfully he did because it still took me a couple of hours to dig out. I ended up helping dig out our next door neighbor too so I spent several hours outside enjoying nature that day.

On Sunday we had a few of the neighbors over for the Super Bowl. I was rooting for the Cardinals since Kurt Warner is an Iowa boy. It was a good game and I thought the Cards were going to win but it didn’t work out. I think the refs might have played a little too big of factor in this year’s game though. Congratulations to Michelle, I mean the Steelers. Chad Head and Michelle (who is a huge Steelers fan) were at the game so we kept looking for them on TV but never saw them. We went to the game last year and it was a great time. Hopefully the Colts will make it to the Super Bowl in2011 when it is hosted here in Indy and we can all go.

It has been cold and wintery here ever since and we got another four inches of snow this morning. I read Bob Wilber’s blog and now I can relate to him with all of his snow. We fly out tomorrow for Pomona and I can’t wait to get in the warmer weather again even if it does look like it is going to rain. I just can’t seem to get too excited about Pomona this year. It will be the first one I haven’t race in several years now and I’m torn about the season getting started, I miss drag racing, but I hate not competing too.

It looks like the clock has struck 12 and the fat lady is getting ready to sing for me right now. I’ve not been able to come up with a driving job for '09 but that doesn’t mean I’m quitting either. I will continue to work on things and hopefully be able to join the tour sometime during the season. Melanie has been busy for the past week at her shop. They are in the process of moving her race team to Atlanta so they have been inventorying all their parts and organizing everything for the move. She is still employed at R2B2 Racing and they are in the middle of restructuring the team. They are continuing full speed ahead on securing sponsorship and are hoping to be back on the track sometime this season.

So In the meantime we will head out to Pomona to watch the start of '09 Full Throttle Drag Racing season. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled while sitting in the stands this season. With so many drivers and crew chiefs out of jobs you never know who you might be sitting next to.