My dad was not able to make it out for the race. He had to work back in California, which was a big bummer. I missed him a lot during the weekend. My mom still made it out though; I was excited that she had made the trip all the way from the West Coast to support me. I really do believe I have the greatest parents ever.

The rain delayed the progress of the race. We were scheduled to have two qualifying passes on Friday, however due to the rain we were only able to make one. We had three qualifying passes total this weekend, instead of the usual four and looking back, I probably could have used the extra run. The pressure was on to get things right in a hurry. The Gann Custom Suzuki sounded great this weekend. The bike did exactly what it was supposed too; unfortunately I struggled a little with my riding.

As much as I wish I was a perfect rider, I do make mistakes sometimes. It is tough riding a Suzuki because hitting the shift points on time is crucial. I have a problem every once in a while were I don’t hit my shifter button hard enough and the bike doesn’t shift, so I have to hit the button again. Usually, that means you’re going to hit the rev limiter, which hurts your elapsed time. I am running with the best of the best out here, and when I struggled on the first pass I let it get to me a little. On the second pass I made the same mistake. On our last qualifying pass I was determined to correct my riding. I sat on my bike before we went up to the line and made about 30 or more practice runs in my mind. When we went to the starting line I cleared my mind and just rode the bike the way I knew I could. Even though the pass wasn’t perfect, it was a huge improvement. I went a 7.10, which is my quickest run on an NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle. We didn’t qualify, but I could not stop smiling after the pass. I was stoked to have improved so much.

Even though I struggled a little this weekend, I still had an amazing time. As my friend, John helped me to remember, everybody makes mistakes. Learning from your mistakes and working on correcting them is what is important. I learned a ton this weekend, so it was a very worth while experience. I also had a great time seeing my crew in the zebra print shirts we had made before I left California. Big thanks for your help guys and for being such great sports about the shirts.

Our original plan was to continue on to Charlotte and Houston after Gainesville, however after having a long talk with my dad we decided the best thing for our team was to come home. I really want to finish my own bike and keep consistently riding one bike. I have been on many different bikes in my career and I think it is time to focus on just one. As much as I want to go race the next couple of races, it makes more sense to sit out a couple and put our own operation together. I am very excited to get home and get rocking on our bike. We will be boogieing down the track in no time. We also have this class on the West Coast called Top Alcohol Drag Bike. We are going to put one of my slower Pro Stock engines in the bike and go race with those big boys. By running that class I can get more seat time on my Pro Stock Bike.

Even though the race is over, I am still in Gainesville waiting for my friend Uncle Ronnie (Ronnie Alves) to fly in so he can ride home with me. My trailer is jam packed with parts, a golf kart, and two drag bikes. I am going to spend the night in the trailer tonight to keep an eye on things, because I had to move the trailer out of the race track. The living quarters is packed with parts, but I cleared myself a little path to the bed. I am beginning to understand why some people think racers are crazy. I love this sport though, and all these adventures I get to go on.

 I also want to give a big congratulations to Shawn Gann for going all the way to the final round this weekend. Great job to the whole team.

I will keep everyone up to date on our progress putting my bike together and our future race plans. I hope everyone is amazing. Take care. 
 

I had an early flight out on Tuesday, March 2, so I spent Monday night in Sacramento with my sister, Kristin, and her husband, Shaun. My mom, Terri, had driven me to Sacramento, so my mom, sister, and I went out to dinner. We had some great Ethiopian food downtown. After dinner it was late, so my mom headed for home. Kristin and I went back to her house and played Dance-Dance Revolution. For those of you that don’t know, Dance-Dance Revolution is a video game were the dance steps are shown on the TV screen and you have to keep up with the steps, on a mat, on the floor. Kristin and I are not known for our dancing skills, but it was great for some laughs. By the time we had finished I was exhausted and my abs were sore from all the laughing. I was clearly the dancing champion, but if you ask Kristin she may disagree.
 
Three planes later, I was finally in Greensboro, N.C. When I came down the escalator two of my favorite people were waiting for me, John Widmann and Bob Newman. John and Bob had both been there for a couple of days working on our pro stock bike at the Gann’s shop. It was late, so we headed straight for our hotel. I have been so excited about this adventure that it makes it tough to sleep at night, and finally being on the east coast made it even more difficult. When we arrived at the Ganns' the next day, we all came to the conclusion that it would be tough to have our bike ready for testing in Valdosta, Ga. Since the Ganns' Suzuki was all together and I am very comfortable on their bike already, we decided we would run it for the first couple races. We loaded up their bike and all of our stuff and headed for Valdosta.

I have always wanted to attend an AMA race. Just being a spectator at one would have been awesome, but being able to compete was even more incredible! We pulled into Valdosta Friday, March 5. We pulled my bracket bike out of the trailer and tried to make some test passes at the test and tune, but we had some issues. We finally got everything right on the bike, but we were running out of time. I don’t think it was meant for us to go down the track that day! On Saturday we were definitely shooting in the dark. My bracket bike usually runs 7.70s and we were trying to run Top Gas. Top Gas has an 8.80 index. Instead of detuning the bike very much, I was trying to slow the bike down with my own judgment of when to let off the throttle. The first qualifying pass I let off at the 1000-foot mark. That was unsuccessful and we went 7.87 at 131 mph. We only had one more qualifying pass so this time I clicked the bike into fourth gear, and then let off right after. We went 8.27! Bob, John, and I were thrilled! That put us in the 14th qualifying position out of 41 bikes.

On race day I was very excited and couldn’t wait to get to the track. We were all feeling confident and I was ready to go some rounds. I did my burn out and the bike sounded great. I cut a .020 light and the bike launched hard. Unfortunately we had an ignition problem and the bike shut off right after the launch, sending me face first into the front fairing of the bike. That one hurt! Luckily we didn’t hurt the bike, and aside from being a little sore, I was just fine. We were a little bummed, but that’s racing!

I have watched Larry “Spiderman” McBride run his Top Fuel Bike so many times online, but seeing it in person was a way different story. It was spectacular watching it in person. Some day I want to ride one of those monsters, it may take a while to convince my dad though. I know he is proud of my racing, but I think I still give him heart failure. Just wait until I climb on to a Top Fuel Harley! There were a ton of beautiful and fast bikes out this weekend, I was in motorcycle heaven. Another class that I absolutely loved was the Pro Street class. Those guys are insane! I had the pleasure of meeting one of the riders, Mike Kovacevich. He is a great guy, obviously a little on the crazy side to ride one of those bad boys. I asked him if he wanted me to ride his bike for him. Even though he told me to go ahead, I decided I had better leave the 7-second passes with no wheelie bar up to Mike for that day. I wouldn’t mind giving it a try someday though. More heart failure for my dad!

The AMA race was an amazing experience. I met so many great people, and every one was super nice to us. On Monday we tested on the Pro Stock bike. Testing went very well and it was awesome to be back on the Pro Stock bike. My trip to the East Coast has been a dream come true. Before I left California I got to see my grandparents for a while. They are the best and are super supportive of my racing. They are from Montana, so they keep up with me through my blog. My Grandma told me that when she reads my blog she thinks I am going to die from so much excitement. After this trip she may be right!

We leave for Gainesville tomorrow. I cooked breakfast burritos for everyone this morning, but now its homework time. I have to keep up in school! Hope everyone is doing well, and I hope to see you in Gainesville at the Gatornationals!
 

The Gatornationals are coming up fast. I am very thankful for this, because I am dying to get back to race season. My dad and I have still been going full throttle to get everything in order before the season opener in Florida. I just went and picked up my body from the paint shop on Saturday. Our Suzuki was painted pearl white and looks absolutely incredible. I am in love with that color. A huge thank you to JP’s Paint & Body Works in Chico, Calif. They have been awesome to me and have sponsored paint jobs on three of our bikes. I have also been working with a local graphics company out of Chico called Kevin Sharrah Designs. Kevin does great work and is helping me to customize my racing operation. Here recently I took my helmet into him to be painted. I had drawn out a design involving graffiti and white lilies. Kevin said he could do it, but not only would it cost extra for the lilies, but I was not allowed to tell any one he had painted them (Hopefully he doesn’t read this.) Big thanks to Kevin for the help and for agreeing to paint the lilies!

We worked hard on Saturday in order to get my good friend, crew member, and hero John Widmann headed back east with another trailer. He is hauling more parts to the Ganns' shop in North Carolina. Along with the parts, we loaded my other two bikes in the trailer. We are going to try and sell one of the Pro Stock Bikes while we are in Gainesville. I am also going to race my black bike, affectionately known as Black Sunshine at the AMA race in Valdosta, Ga., the week before Gainesville. It was a sad feeling watching John drive away with two of our bikes, especially since my other bike is already on the other side of the country. I trust my friends and teammates very much though, and I will get to meet up with all of them soon.

Surprisingly, our garage does not have a single motorcycle in it right now; I can’t remember the last time that happened. I don’t know what my dad and I are going to do this weekend. It looks like we will have to put a shine on my mom’s dragster. Tonight, I am headed to Davis, Calif., to see my good friend, Arielle Patton. She is a student at UC Davis. I can’t wait to see her. Then it will be back home to get everything in order before I fly out on March 2 for the start of the season. Bring on Gainesville! Take care and I promise to keep everyone posted on our next racing adventures. Thanks for reading.

It felt absolutely incredible to be back in the rider’s seat when we took our bracket bike to Infineon Raceway in Sonoma last weekend.

On my first pass down the track, the bike ran a 7.65 at 173 mph which is the quickest that bike has ever been. I was so happy to be back on a bike that all I could do was smile when I got to the end of the track. There were 23 bikes that made it out for the race and all of the rest of the riders were men. I told my dad that it was a good thing that we were there to mix things up!

I managed to win the first round on a holeshot. Then, in the second round I had the advantage off the starting line, but I just couldn’t hit my dial-in. We struggled a little, mostly because we had a little too much horsepower for the cool track.  The bike wanted to skate around a little bit which makes it actually fun to ride but no so good for bracket racing. 

All things considered, I was stoked just to have made it to round two. It was just my dad, Charlie, and I at the track this time, so It was also great to be able to spend some time with him. I was also able to see a lot of friends I had not seen for a while. One of my friends, Clayton Nickles, even took home a win in the Sportsman class. Congratulations to Clayton! All in all, it was an amazing day at the track.

Everything else is still going full throttle around here. My bossdad and I have been planning, planning, planning, for the first three Pro Stock races in Gainesville, Charlotte, and Houston. It has been a lot of work trying to put together our own program, but I am loving every minute of it. Working with my dad is a blast. I’m pretty lucky that he shares my passion for racing. I totally blame him for this addiction. 

I also just adopted the cutest kitty on the planet. I have been thinking about adopting a cat for a while now and I recently went to the shelter, “just to look.” Well I quickly fell in love with a little black cat. He was the first cat in the shelter that I picked up. The lady asked me if I was ready to adopt or if I needed time to think about it. I left with the adoption papers signed.

When I first brought him home, all he did was purr. I had a hard time picking out a name for him and when my friend Chad suggested the name “Torque,” I knew it was perfect. Torque has been living with me for almost a week now. I am thrilled to have him here. He has become just like a dog. The little trooper goes almost everywhere with me.  He rides in the car and walks on a leash with out complaint. Torque fits right into my life, and I am completely in love with the little guy. Along with Torque I still have my hermit crab, Tony Stewart. Tony is doing well too.

I plan to leave here in the next couple weeks to fly to North Carolina. We are going to do some testing in Valdosta before my team heads to Gainesville. I am super stoked to go to Valdosta because they are having an AMA race the weekend before we test. This will be my first time at an AMA race! Life is so exciting right now; big adventures are headed my way soon! Talk to everyone soon!
 

It hasn’t always been easy for me keeping a balance in life, especially while I was in high school. In high school I played 3 seasons of sports, I was an “A” honor roll student, and I was still trying to get to the racetrack as much as possible. A couple times, I even tried to balance a boyfriend in my life. In the end, they weren’t so keen on my ambitious lifestyle. Racing has really taught me a lot of life lessons and lucky for me, I have an amazing support system from my friends and family. I think working so hard to be able to go racing has made me have a great appreciation for this sport. I have been asked before if I feel like I missed out on being a “kid” by spending all my time racing or working in our garage. I have never once regretted all the time I have spent racing, in fact I feel like the luckiest girl in world!

Now that I am in college, I am still as busy as ever! Last season, at the Finals in Pomona, I had to miss the first qualifying pass. When I got to the track everyone kept asking where I had been and why I missed the pass. I received some pretty funny looks and a lot of laughs when I responded with “I had to go to class.” I have had to learn that life is all about balance.

Here recently I have had even more excitement to add to the balance! My mom has decided she is ready to take her turn and hit the dragstrip! She has started to race a dragster that we have fixed up for her. I must say I am pretty proud of my mom. We took her to the track for the first time a couple of weeks ago.

It was only her second time down the drag strip (her first being in a Subaru Legacy). It took her a couple of passes, but she eventually went 10.18 at 132 mph. She did awesome! I can tell she loved it, because she has been in the garage working on her car for her next trip to the drag strip ever since!

I am still going full throttle looking for financial help for next year. I even cut my trip to North Carolina a little short. Once I had done what I could to the bike, there wasn’t much for me to do there. So I changed my flight and headed back to sweet home California, where I would be better equipped to continue my sponsorship hunt. I am determined, and one way or another I will be out there racing next year!

My dad and I plan on taking out my bracket bike this weekend to Infineon Raceway in Sonoma. I am so jazzed! I can’t wait to be back in that rider’s seat. I hope everyone is well and I will let everyone know how we do at the track next weekend!
 

When I was planning my trip to North Carolina, it didn’t seem very far away looking on the map. However, I learned firsthand that 3,000 miles is no joke. Luckily, I had a good friend of my family’s Ronnie Alves, or Uncle Ronnie as I like to call him, and one of our crew guys Bob Newman along to keep me laughing the whole trip.

All my life my dad has taught me with what I like to call “the sink or swim method.” I didn’t expect him to teach me how to drive our truck and trailer any other way. We left my parents house in Corning, Calif., on Sunday. I drove the truck and trailer about 20 minutes down the road to our shop in Orland, with my dad giving me pointers along the way. After we fueled up in Orland, my dad set me loose across the country. I am pretty honored that my dad trusts me the way he does. Plus, Uncle Ronnie used to be a truck driver, so he knew I was in good hands. Uncle Ronnie likes to say that he is “overqualified” for the job of driving our truck and trailer.

I have to admit that driving the truck and trailer made me a little nervous at first, however it didn’t take me long to feel right at home. While traveling, we received some pretty funny looks when people would see two men riding along in the truck and a young lady driving. I got a kick out of seeing some of the reactions to this arrangement. For instance, there was one cute old lady, who looked over at us while passing us on the freeway and she just started smiling. As she drove passed she continued to look back and smile.

Uncle Ronnie is one of my favorite people and I really enjoyed having him along on the trip. We always like to laugh and joke with each other. Part of our joking around with each other always includes arguing. We argued about everything on the trip: what to listen to on the radio, how many more miles it was to North Carolina, whether we were half way or not, and anything and everything we could think to argue about. I also believe we wore out the knobs on the heater and air conditioning in the truck with the two of us changing it from hot to cold every 30 seconds over our 3,000-mile trip. I was freezing the whole trip and Uncle Ronnie kept saying that he was so hot he was about to go crazy. Bob and Ronnie have not known each other all that long, but Bob joined right in with all the arguing. What a circus we had going in the truck!

We pulled into Stoneville, N.C., at 6:30 on Wednesday morning. I was exhausted at this point and then we needed to find a place to leave our trailer so we began searching for Gann Custom. We finally got to bed around nine that morning. After sleeping for only a couple hours, we weren’t getting much accomplished on Wednesday at the Gann’s and I had to take Uncle Ronnie to the airport at four p.m. on Thursday morning, so we decided to call it a night.

Bob and I plan on staying here in North Carolina until next Friday, so we can work on having four motors and our bike all ready to go for Gainesville. Then we are going to leave the truck and trailer at the Gann’s and fly home. We have only been here a couple of days and we have already had lots of adventures! I am usually pretty good at finding my way around, but I have had a hard time here. I think it is because all the trees. It all looks so similar to me. Yesterday, we were trying to find our way from our hotel in Eden, N.C., to the Gann’s shop. I knew we had messed up somewhere when the big sign said “Welcome to Virginia.” I am having a blast here, and I am excited to be able to spend some time with the Gann family. The bad weather is about to role in and they are calling for snow. Wish me luck to stay warm; my California roots are not used to this cold weather! Talk to everyone soon!
 

The past two weeks have been super busy for me! I am finally moved out of my apartment in Chico and settled into my new little house in Orland. It was quite a challenge moving. Many of my friends in Chico have gone home for the holidays, so it was hard finding help to haul my furniture down my apartment stairs. One of my best friends, Annette, and I had quite the experience carrying my couches down the stairs. Annette is a little thing and can’t weight more than 120 pounds, so we struggled a little. However, we had many good laughs out of the situation. We were pretty proud of ourselves when we finally had everything loaded in the back of my truck. Big thanks to Annette for the help!

In addition to moving I have been going full throttle looking for some financial help for next year. I have set up a little office in my new house to help keep myself organized and productive. It is my goal to run a full season this year, so I am working very hard to make it happen! My dad has been telling me since I was a little girl, “If it is to be, it is up to me.” I always thought that was a great saying, and I try and live my life by it.

I also have some other things cooking at the moment. Last Wednesday, I attended a class in order to obtain my dealers license. My dad is planning on opening a trailer sales business in addition to his drilling company. I plan on helping him accomplish this, and hopefully put some of the money towards our race team. My dad, his secretary, and I took our dealer's test Wednesday, which just so happened to be my birthday! I turned 19. I keep telling my parents that this means I am no longer a rookie in the motorcycle world. They just laugh at me; I guess the big 19 isn’t going to make me a veteran in the sport.

This weekend I also had a very exciting adventure. Annette and I took a road trip to Southern California. Her boyfriend lives down there, so we had a free place to stay! I have not spent much time in Southern California except to race, so they took me all over! We visited L.A., San Diego, Temecula, La Jolla, and Escondido. I had such a good time, and it was absolutely beautiful down there, even despite the rainy weather. After I got home from the road trip with Annette, I planned on leaving for another very long, long road trip. I am going to drive a couple motors and many parts across the country to the Gann Custom shop in North Carolina. However, my trip was pushed back to this Sunday. It should be another exciting adventure for me. It’s a good thing I enjoy traveling! I am looking forward to visiting the Gann family and getting to check out their shop. Even though I worked with the Ganns most of last year I have yet to see their shop (probably due to the distance factor), so it should be a fun trip.

I have a lot of exciting adventures heading my direction. My ambitious nature is keeping my life very busy, just the way I like it, too! However, I still find the time to see my family and friends as much as I can. Also, I always have to make time to keep my riding skills in practice and pull out my dirt bike. I really enjoy riding as much as I can find the time for. I can not wait for the 2010 race season; it is constantly on my mind! Hope everyone is amazing, and I will keep you posted on our progress towards the up and coming race season! Take care!
 

Last year was one of the most amazing times of my life. It has been my dream since I was 12-years old to race professionally in the NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle class and also to be the youngest female to ever qualify for a pro race. Last year I accomplished both of those things and much more, including my first professional round win against one of my biggest heroes, Karen Stoffer. Looking back on the 2009 season, I could not be more thrilled. However, like all good seasons, they must come to an end and I am looking ahead to 2010.

Although I missed the field at the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals, I left the track in Pomona with a good feeling because I was fairly certain that last I had found a sponsor that was going to allow me to fulfill another dream by racing at all 17 events in 2010. The deal had a lot of promise, but due to unforeseen circumstances, it fell through. I was disappointed, but I am too driven and too stubborn to let a little road bump like that stand in my way. 

I am also blessed with the most amazing and supportive parents in the world, so when our sponsor fell through, my dad, Charlie, and I quickly began making plans to run our own program this year. One thing I have learned in racing is that plans can change at any time, but right now our plan is to make every race and I am working very diligently on finding some financial help in order the make that a reality. We are going to run the Pro Stock Suzuki that my dad owns, and he is going to be my crew chief. Mike Fields Jr. and Bob Newman will be working alongside my dad as my crew. Blake Gann of Gann Custom will also be helping to furnish us with horsepower.

In my opinion one of the most exciting and unique parts of our program this year is that I am going to be driving our truck and trailer all over the country and my dad is going to fly into the races. I know that most racers prefer to fly to the races but there are still a lot of places on the tour that I haven’t yet seen so I can’t wait to take on this challenge.

In the meantime, I am still a student at Chico State University, however I am going to school part time and I am taking online classes. I still fully intend to finish my education and some day, I’d like to own my own custom paint and body shop. As of right now I’m living in Chico, but I plan to move closer to our race shop and office soon. My hermit crab, Tony Stewart, is also doing awesome. Life is going great for me, and I am very excited for the race season to officially begin. How many days till Gainesville?