Wednesday, July 29, 2015

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