Thursday, April 27, 2006

Home Sweet Home in West Palm Beach

Home Sweet Home, that is how I feel when I pull through the gates at Moroso Motorsports Park with the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Miss Ta Fire jet dragster. We were asked to come in a day early for a display. They have had the honor of winning the Providencia Award. Which means that they have been a leader in trying to advance tourism in Palm Beach County. They were having a get together at the race track. Moroso is involved in a wide variety of racing, from their Road Course, Kart Track and of course their Drag Strip. This is a complete motorsports facility.

We were there on Friday night to help promote their Drag Strip portion. After everyone arrived, it was time for us to show off a little. We were scheduled to make a full pass down the track, but mother nature had other plans. Instead we did a line show complete with smoke, fire and burner pops. It was just a teaser for the following evening.

Saturday morning and the track doesn't open until noon so we went to one of our favorite restaurants The Boulevard for breakfast. We had invited a lot of our Embry-Riddle family to come out to the track that evening so it was time to get to work.

ESPN was on hand to help with a Girls truck race that evening. They asked if I would give some suggestions on how to win the race on camera. Our Embry-Riddle friends started to show up and it was almost race time. Everyone made great first round passes. We went back to the trailer and was met with wonderful fans. Our friends that had come out for the event were very impressed. In the middle of all of this, of course no race could be complete with out a bikini contest. Sparkplug wanted to be a judge, but I pulled the MOM card and said NO!!!

For the second pass we were all in the staging lanes suited up and in the cars when the first rain drop hit. It didn't take long for the others to follow, so sadly we went back to the trailer to pack things up for the night. But the up side is we all met at another of my favorite places Abby Road for a late night dinner.

Sunday morning and it was time to get down to business. We had three passes to complete and things were going to be rushed. Of course it had to rain just enough to make us worried, but things dried off, heated up and it was time to race.

Everyone made all of their passes with no problems. It is nice when things come together. We finished up the day packing things up and saying goodbye to our racing friends that we won't see again until the next races in WPB. I will however face up against Mark Smith in Nashville this July.

Thanks a lot to all of the track personal who always make us feel at home, to Chris and Chuck who came out to help this weekend, to the Embry-Riddle family, and of course last but not least to the fans that take the time to stop and say HI!!! WE LOVE YOU!!

Elaine

Monday, April 17, 2006

Douglas Race

Time to go racing!!!! April 14 & 15th. While others were scrambling to finish their taxes, the Miss Ta Fire team was heading out of town to Douglas, Georgia to go have some fun. We decided to leave home on Thursday night as Sparkplug was off from school on Friday. It was a great decision. We made it to Lake City and pulled in for the night. Chris and Andrew watched some TV and we all went to bed early to get some rest for the weekend. My crew chief E. Lowe (who loves to get up at the crack of dawn) left home with the crew car and caught up with us before we could get out of bed. We had breakfast and headed out.

We made it into town at 12:00 and met up with Paul Miller and his crew. Paul was one of the two jet drivers that signed off on my license, so it is always fun to run up against him. He is now driving the Dream Machine 3, that is owned by Dale Keesee. You might have seen this car before, it has been on display at most of the Super Chevy's across the country. We all hooked up and met Tim (the track manager) at the Golden Correl for lunch. Paul is always trying to fatten me up!! It didn't work this time, just salad for me thank you.

We then headed to do a display in front of the local Burger King. At 4:00 I was picked up and taken to do a radio spot. After promoting the race, it was back to the display to load the car. We were scheduled to each do a qualifying run on Friday night. One of the highlights of the night was when the announcer talked about Paul and his crew which was driving the Barbie Car. They tow the car with a Pink Tracker and we like to tease Dale that it is the Barbie car. We both made great passes. I had low et. and Paul had the top speed. After the runs, it was time to get some food. Yes, this is all I think about!! Huddle House, the best place to go after a race. Okay the only place still open. But hey I love their loaded hash browns.

The next morning Chris and E. Lowe went to the display and unloaded the car while I stayed back at the hotel to give Sparkplug some extra time to sleep. (It is good to pull the Mom card) they picked us up and we finished the display and headed to the track for race day. I got to meet some really cool people. That is my favorite part about racing. You get to hear so many cool stories and make friends all over the country. We also had the pleasure of having some of the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Family come out to the race. Terri who works in Risk Management decided to see what all of the fuss was. I think she thought it was worth the risk.

The first pass went great. I was lucky enough to get off the starting line first to win on a whole shot. The next pass Paul decided to beat the light and I chased him down. All in all every pass was over 200 mph and the fans went wild. I want to thank Terri for taking the time to come check us out.

We spent Easter driving home from the race. Came home and started preparing for this weekend where I will be in West Palm Beach racing again. Thanks for stopping by at the races. Hope to see you all again.

Elaine

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Sun-N-Fun 2006

The title says it all. It was Sun-N-Fun for the entire week. The Miss-Ta-Fire crew was invited to join Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University to help with their display at the Sun-N-Fun airshow in Lakeland, Florida. We headed to the event on Monday morning to drop off the truck & trailer and get everything into position. While we were there, Chris received a phone call from his former auto teacher Mr. Button. (it is hard to now call him Larry even though we are in our late 30's) He came into town for a short visit and made us a top priority. Pretty cool. He was a huge influence on Chris's decision to go into the aeronautical field as well as sharing his love of drag racing.

After meeting with Larry and his brother, it was early to bed to get ready for the big week. We were on display from Tuesday until Sunday evening. I was worried that the beginning was going to be slow and the days would drag on. I don't know if we were just lucky, but everyday the show was swamped. It just kept getting busier and busier. The days just flew by. I can even begin to guess how many photos I signed and how many times I told people how fast my car was.

Every afternoon we were treated to an airshow from 2-5. Not a bad way to end the day. Each day built up to the main events on the weekend. People say what I do is crazy, they don't even know what crazy is until you see how they make the airplanes dance in the air. These guys are nuts!!!!!

On Thursday we saw a big puff of black smoke and heard two loud bangs. My stomach sank, I just knew the worst had happened. Well it turned out to not be as bad as we had thought. It hadn't rained for 41 days in central Florida so the grass was really dry. A low ground clearance sports car pulled into a grass parking lot and and the hot exhaust system caught the grass on fire. The fire proceeded to burn down 24 cars. Can you imagine coming back to a charred and burnt car???? Luckily we received some well needed rain early Sunday morning.

I believe the final count on the jet car handouts was almost 2500. We had a great week and had the opportunity to meet a lot of really cool people. One that comes to mind is Matt. This 15 year old was pretty cool. He has a great attitude and I can't wait until our race in Commerce, Georgia where he is planning to help crew our car.