Fueling a Champion!!

What a season it has been! The 2015 season was one for the books.  We introduced a new jet dragster driver, Shea Holbrook to the LMS team, licensed Jake Elliott, yes a boy, and traveled to many races--some even twice!  At the end of the day, along with my crew chief, Paige Sanchez, we were able to come out on top in points to take our second IHRA Jet Dragster World Championship!!

Taking a moment to look back so we can enjoy the view we have in front of us now, Chris and I have traveled long and sometimes rocky roads.  From our start bracket racing at Orlando Speed World to the creation of our very first Jet Dragster, Miss Ta Fire, we have always known that this is the path that we wanted to travel.  The list of people that have helped us along the way, all of the crew, family, neighbors and of course the amazing sponsors that help our teams live our dreams, will always hold a place in our heart and shop!!!

How did we get here?  A lot of work and some great decisions, all made possible with the support of our sponsors.  We have been so blessed to partner with companies like Miller Welding, Matrix Systems Automotive Finishes, Applied Racing Components, and our newest affiliate, Florida Institute of Technology.  These companies have truly enabled us to have such an impact in the racing community.

For those of you who know some of our background, you know that we recently moved from Daytona Beach to Palm Bay, FL.  Chris and I have always had this dream, the dream to make a difference.  This dream came true!!  Located in the heart of the Space Coast, we have everything we have ever wanted!!  The support of great partners and now a world class facility to build World Championship teams.

This year, Paige and I proved that #GirlPower can get things done!!  We only have 3 match races left this year until we park the cars for the season.  It will be a sad time as Orlando marks Marisha Falk's last full time race with LMS.  She is moving on with her career and family!  We want to wish her well, but you never know when she may decide to hop back in and teach us all a lesson!!  Kat has finished up her second season with the teams and I could not be prouder!!  She has come so far in her driving skills, giving us a run for our money all season.  The newest driver, Shea, took home an Ironman in San Antonio, proving she's got the right stuff to drive these land locked missiles.  But the unsung heroes? The team.  Andrew Larsen, Jake Elliott, Mike Mathes, Paige Sanchez, Dewayne Hill, Corey Weigand, Brian Tocci, all of the interns working so hard back at the shop, the husband Chris and, of course, the best for last: NITRO!!!  Not one of us girls could have made a single pass without you all working so hard and giving us the cars to get down the track.  You guys are the rock stars!

So this brings me to 2016.  A lot is going on at Larsen Motorsports; a new address, new interns, new drivers, new crew chiefs, new sponsors, and of course a lot of fun.

Fasten your seat belts, we've only been running in 1st gear, get ready to drop the hammer!!!

luv ya,
e

Reflections

Hey guys! The other day I was on Facebook and it pulled up a memory and asked if I wanted to add it to my timeline.  This memory was from 5 years ago.  It's funny because as everyone else is celebrating Labor Day, I celebrate something else.

Five years ago, I was racing for NMRA in Columbus, OH.  It was Saturday morning and when we arrived at the track it was cool and there was a gusty wind.  I remember the gusting wind that day because we had to take our awning down the night before after doing a display at the corn festival. When we got the call that it was time to run, I suited up and got ready to make the pass, just like I had done hundreds of times before.  I remember Chris buckling me in really tight, the RFC pastor praying for a safe pass and then rolling onto the track.  Just like every time before, we started the car and Chris took off down the track to position himself for the end of the race.  Line show, stage, light turns green and go!!!

It was a single pass, and I was in the left lane, 330 foot all good, 660 foot still looking good, 1000 foot mark good, focus on the finish line.  1200 foot, not so good. The car makes a sharp turn to the right and  directly into the wall.  It rolls on its side, fuel tank lets go, fire in the back.  Car rolls on the side sliding down the wall.  I remember sliding, sliding, sliding...and wondering if it was ever going to stop.  Pushed up against the wall, I see one thing......Chris.  He is barreling down the track coming at me as fast as he can.  I hear him saying, "I got you!"  Me? I am in shock, just sitting there unable to move.  I hear them working on the fire in the back, I feel Chris's hand on me saying "You.re Okay, You're Okay!" Then the car is getting flipped back over and and everything comes back into focus.  I look up and see the man I love standing there taking care of me as always.  My Knight in Shining Armor!!

Ouch!!

The next question is "Are you hurt?" and "Why did this happen?"  A lot of people focused on the first question.  Chris kept himself up at night thinking, thinking, thinking How did this happen?  Me, I just wanted it to go away and get back to racing.  Things wouldn't be so easy.  I was hurt and it took me about 6 weeks to recover from my injuries.  That was the easy part.  All of our confidence had been broken.  Confidence in car and me.







Chris and I had two choices, lick our wounds and quit racing, or buckle down and figure out what happened.  My crash was a turning point at Larsen Motorsports.  Before this, we felt on top of the world.  Indestructible!!!   As we found out, that was not the case.  A lot changed; our focus changed and our plans changed.  After that day, neither of us would ever be the same.  Our innocence was gone, replaced with determination!!

So back to the Facebook memory. Do I want to remember? No. It was a painful time in our lives. But do I ever want to forget? NEVER!!! That day put us on the course was are still on today, and that is something that we choose to celebrate!!


Thanks for reading,
luv ya,
e

My Hero!!!

Rain Rain go AWAY!!!!!

Life is a jet racer isn't always as it may seem!!  We have our good days and then we have our rainy days!!!  The Larsen Motorsports teams hit the road for our summer IHRA Nitro Jam tour and our first stop was at Cordova, IL  We decided to make a quick detour, chocolate was calling my name, so we stopped to visit a friend at the Nestle factory first!!!  My inner fat kids was dying  to get out!!!  So cool, we were able to see where the morsels as wells as the butterfingers and nestle crunch bars were made.  I restrained my self!!!  LOL

MINE MINE ALL MINE!!

It was a struggle to fit in my firesut that weekend let me tell you!!!  Believe it or not, we actually had a race to go to, onward!!!  Friday night and we made our first pass and then......the rain!!!  Saturday was even worse, the rain would just not stop and the temperature had dropped so there was no hope to get the race in.  We loaded up and headed to the next race in Budds Creek!!  

The IHRA always does a great job with the press, but they really hit a home run on this one!!  Front page of the sports section in the Washington Post!!!  

HOLY COW!!

Ready for a great race weekend!  One pass complete and getting ready for the second pass and you guess it.....Mother Nature strikes again!!!  This was one wicked storm!  

YIKES!!!

Yet again, we move onward to the next race in Grand Bend!  We had a couple of days before the race to visit Chris's and my family!  We like to take time to have some fun, so with that being said, what better way to go back to Michigan and hit Silver Lake!!  Sand Dunes, quads and crazy racers, what could possibly go wrong!!!  Well it isn't a trip unless someone takes it a little too far!  Who could it be you ask......me : (  I decided that jumping sand dunes was a lot of fun on the quad and got in over my head!  It flipped on me and let me just tell you, I will not be playing with things that do not have roll cages on them!!!  Bruised ribs and even bigger bruised ego, let's go racing!!!  Right?????  Grand Bend and we load in, first pass, painful, but happy to be back in the race car!!  Things are looking up!  Saturday comes and we wake up to......RAIN!!!  You ca't make this up!!  No chance for clearing and the IHRA made the decision to postpone the race until August!!  Okay this is getting on my nerves now!!  

Time to hit the road again and head west!!!  Spokane, WA here we come.  Let me let you in on a little secret, that is a LONG way!!!!!!  Holy cow, I really need to get a map and look at these things before we leave home!!  But hey, we still get to race cars so suck it up and drive girl!!  In order to keep morale up, we decided to make a couple of stops along the way.  Mount Rushmore was first on the list!!  

Road Warriors!!! 

We then stopped in Montana for a visit with friends that moved!!  I have never felt so small!!  There are more cows in Montana than people!!!  Gorgeous country to drive through, loving my job at this point.  As we got closer to Spokane, the weather app on my phone just kept tempting me.  I had heard rumors that it had not rained there in a couple of months and there were fire hazards.  I thinking our chances of getting a race in was pretty darn good!!  We get to Spokane and do the pre race press, set up the rigs, and get ready for racing!!  A graduate from Florida Institute of Technology, Blair, flew out as well and one of our interns Corey decided to make the trip!!  

Ready for our close up!!

We are really really ready to race!!!  Hear we go, Friday and we make both of our qualifying passes!!!  OH YEA!!!!   Things are going our way!!  Right......WRONG!!!  It starts to rain.  We are thinking, no problem, they haven't had rain for months, it will just be quick.  Saturday morning and still raining!!   Not cool!!  But the IHRA worked very hard and as soon as the rain stopped, they had the track ready to race and race we did!!!  I ended up loosing in the final against Marisha, but hey we were racing.  

Next stop Edmonton, AB but of course we have to make a couple of pit stops along the way right!!  Most of the team stayed on the road, so we headed into Seattle for some fun!!  Space Needle, check, Boeing Factory, check, Fisherman's Wharf, check, Mr. Explosive's house, CHECK!!  Onward to Canada!!  The countryside was some of the prettiest we have ever seen and we had such a great time!!  I had a front tire bow on the truck.   We were coming off a mountain, scary, but hey who better to have with you than the crew chiefs of all of the teams!!  5 minutes and we were back on the road.  

Just Beautiful!!

We loaded into the race track, did our pre race media and we were ready to race!!  Friday came and we got the 1st pass out of the way!!  Looking good!!  Saturday we woke up to yes believe this......RAIN!!!  Thinking at this point we just can't win.  But hey the glass is always half full!!  We took advantage of the rain day to head to the mall and go ice skating!!  Great team building and Kat got the chance to show us her stuff!!!  

YIKES I had better stick to racing!

Can you believe this, no broken bones!!  Sunday we wake up to......SUN SUN SUN SUN!!!!   Boys and girls, let's go racing!!!  The IHRA did another fabulous job getting the track ready and we were ready!!  I ended up in the finals against Kat, and she got the Iron Man!!  At this point the Miller team is still in the points lead, but I have to find away to cut better lights or we will never win!!  No time to pout, home we are coming HOME!  After 40 days on the road, the road warriors arrived back safe and sound in Melbourne, FL  Rest??  LOL no time for that, we have a shop to put together!  It's all rock and roll!!  Stay tuned the best is yet to come!!!

see you at the races luv ya,

e

A New Chapter

Hey guys, a lot is going on at the Larsen Motorsports shop.  We are getting settled in to our shop in Palm Bay, FL (Chris is in Heaven!!!!).  Racing is fast and furious.  Mother Nature has not always been kind to us this year, but we are making the best of it.  The Miller Welding team has taken home 2 Ironmen and are currently the IHRA jet dragster points leader, so I am a happy woman.  New driver Shea Holbrook (Florida Institute of Technology) is doing a great job adjusting from road racing to jet racing.  I am so proud of her willingness to learn out sport!!  I see a very bright future for her!!!  We licensed a new driver Jake Elliott, a weld engineer from Miller.  Jake has been with us for several years as crew, but would like to make the leap into the drivers seat.  He obtained his jet car license in the office season, and we are looking for opportunities for him to move in the drivers seat full time!!!  Make sure you follow Jake on his facebook and twitter.  https://www.facebook.com/elliott.lms?fref=ts  I can tell you, it was a lot different training a guy instead of a girl.  Guys think totally different!!  Jake licensed in my Miller Welding Jet and we are working towards building a car for him.  Lucky I have a welder!!  LOL

Speaking of drivers, long time LMS driver Marisha Falk, announced that this will be her final season racing.  I have known Marisha for over 6 years and it has been so much fun to see her grow her racing career.  I have been in the lane beside her and watched her cross the finish line in front of me too many times to count.  She is a furious competitor, a great racer and an even better friend.  I know a lot of fans will miss seeing Marisha and her infectious smile and cartwheels down the track.  This was a hard decision for her, but she is ready to take that next step in her life.  We support Marisha 110% and wish her well.  She will continue on at LMS, but more in a management position.  You never know, she may kick one of us out of the seat and take our hot rod down the track!!  Marisha was a great addition to the team and I for one will miss our adventures!!  From the races, our happy hours at Bahama Breeze to the Fireball Run.  I love this girl and wish her the best!!!!


The racing will go on!!!  We are getting ready to head out for our summer tour with the IHRA.  Our next race is in Budds Creak, then on to Grand Bend, Spokane, and Edmonton!!!  Kat's car has been the quickest and fastest, but Marisha was looking really good in Cordova, so this battle is far from over.  Make sure you follow all of the teams on Facebook and twitter to stay up to date!  We hope to see you all at the races!!!

love ya,
e

Kicking off the Season!!

Hey Guys,

Well here we are, another race season has started.  2014 was a little bit bumpy, with new drivers, new races and moving shops, things were a little crazy.  We ended the season packed in 23 PODS and with no shop.  Things were difficult to get work done on the cars we race, and we couldn't work on any new projects from June - until present day.  Brian Tocci, our director of operations had to work out in a parking lot with our trailers going through all of our belongings.  Talk about not fun!!!  But 2015 came and with that a lot of changes.  The biggest one is our new affiliation with Florida Institute of Technology.  We have moved our base of operations 90 miles south to Palm Bay, FL to an amazing new building.  The PODS were delivered and we waited until the renovations to the new facility were completed.  While we waited, we moved ourselves.  Sold our house in Daytona Beach, and purchased two beautiful homes in Melbourne.

                          

With everyone settled, we needed to focus on the 2015 race season.  We took on new comer Shea Holbrook from Orlando, FL.  Holbrook was a road racer that wanted to change things up a bit.  January was filled with licensing runs at Palm Beach International Raceway.  With the line up set for the 2015 season, the only thing that was left was to get the teams ready to hit the road.

Here is the line up for the 2015 season!!!
Elaine Larsen - Driver     Paige Sanchez - Crew Chief     Miller Welding
Marisha Falk - Driver      Mike Mathes - Crew Chief       Applied Racing Components
Kat Moller - Driver          Andrew Larsen - Crew Chief   Matrix System
Shea Holbrook - Driver    Jake Elliot - Crew Chief           Florida Institute of Technology

Tucson, AZ was our first stop.  All of the teams did an amazing job just getting back in the groove.  I ended up again Kat in the finals and the Miller team took home our first win of the season.

Next up Baton Rouge, LA, again it was Kat and I in the final although this time, Kat got the Iron Man!

We headed home to FL for the next couple of races.  Bradenton, FL and this time it was Shea and I in the final.  Second win of the season for the Miller team.

Just one weekend later we were in West Palm Beach and it was time for Marisha and I to battle in the final.  I jumped the gun with a red light and Marisha took her first win of the season.

I am so proud of all of the teams.  We are all running strong, Paige and I have the points lead for now, but I can tell this is going to be a very fun season.  We have a small break before we hit the road for the summer.  Perfect timing, our new shop is ready to move in!!!  The the PODS lined up out front, we are going to start the process of getting set back up to start doing what we love best....building!!!

In between racing, I had the opportunity to fly back out to Arizona to speak at the 50 anniversary of Cochise College.  A good friend, Belinda took me up for a flight to show me around.  Chris is the pilot of the family......for now!!!!  

We had a visitor at the shop.  I think we will name him CHOMP!!!  Don't worry, I will keep Nitro far away from CHOMP!!  I don't think he will taste like chicken!!!!

Thanks so much to all of you that continue to support all of the Larsen Motorsports teams.  We have big plans for the new facility in Palm Bay, new dragsters, new funny cars and we just licensed another new driver.  Keeping busy is never a problem for us.  Keep checking back and don't forget to follow all of the teams on Facebook and Twitter.  We will see you at the races.

luv ya,
e