And So it Begins!!!

Hey guys, I know it has been a while and I have not excuse except that I have been living large!!  I don't even know where to begin,  my life has taken a life of its own.  Lets start with the fun stuff.  I was contacted by a friend in the TV world who sent me a casting call abut people that have risky jobs.  Draging my feet thinking that I didn't have time to shoot a commercial, but she kept texting me and finally Chris and I skyped in an interview.  Neither of us really gave it much thought until we received an e mail saying we got the job, little did we know what we had gotten yourselves into.  We started the meetings going over the shots and how my job is risky.  Funny, I really never give the risk much thought.  Trust me, no one understands how easy things can go wrong, but when I started talking about my job, it became different.  You see for the first time, I looked at my job not as the person in the car, but from others perspective.  WOW talk about eye opening. 

Why do we do what we do?  How to answer this question, is it the adrenaline, is it the rush, is the money?  LOL definitely not the money!!!!  For real it isn't about the rush either, it's hard to say why some people do things that others would never consider.  I remember when I first started, gosh 17 years ago, I didn't have a clue.  No clue to how dangerous this lifestyle would be.  The dragster moved so fast, it still moves so fast, but now, now I am ready eyes wide open!!! 



So back to the TV commercial, HOLY COW this was off the chain.  I have done some really cool things in my life, but this is a lot of fun!!  The entire team was top notch and we made some lifelong friends.  So after the filming was done, now we wait to see what the final project looks like.  We felt like it was gong be good, but good doesn't even touch the final product.  So we knew the commercial was going to air and I was thinking maybe someone would see it, never did I imagine that it was going to be EVERYWHERE!!!  NFL, Food Network, HGTV, all major stations, there we were!!  If you haven't seen it yet, here is a link to the YouTube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1dHOeDIWy0

We are super proud of the final project.  But now it's time to get back to the business of racing, but what does that look like?  Well for those of you that don't know, Chris and I purchased a sanctioning body called the National Jet Racing Association.  What is the NJRA?  Well it is all about fire, jets and having fun celebrating fire.  So what is the future for the Larsen Motor sports teams......the NJRA baby.  I am excited to announce that we are holding the first of many Festival's of Fire January 25-26th at Palm Beach International Raceway.  What does that mean.......Fire Fire Fire and oh yeah more Fire!!! 

So it's time to hang on cuz we only have one speed and that is full throttle.  Go to NJRARacing.com for more information and to purchase your tickets today!!! 

love ya,
e

New Year, Eyes On The Prize!!

2018, As I look forward, I have spent a lot time loking back.  Looking back on my successes and my failures.  Looking back on how I got to where I am today.  I get asked so many questons, when did you realize you wanted to race cars?  When did you want to drive a jet car?  The sad thing is I really don't remember the moment it hit me.  I think that my life, my career, my passion found me.

Every single day we all make choices in our life, do we eat right, work out and yes to take that leap of faith!!  There are may ways to get the finish line, with a jet car, it's point  aim and drive straight through the beams.  In life it isn't that easy.  Obstacles ae placed in are way, financial obligations, personal stresses and of course your own self doubt.  

I would love to say that it is easy to pop out of bed stay focused, stay motivated and not let anyone get in your head.  This one I struggle with.  I loose faith some days, faith in my mission, faith in my focus and faith in myself.  So what does all of this mean????  Well I have made a promise to myself to keep my eye on the prize.  To not get distracted on the little things and to complete the mission.  So what is the mission?  MORE!!!  More jet cars, more teams, more fire and for sure more fun!!!  This passion that Chris and I started 17 years ago is spreading like wild fire.  With the help with some great partners, Florida Institute of Technology, Matrix Automotive Finishes, Valspar Automotive, Sherwin Williams, Miller Welding, Simpson Performance, Brute Force Batteries, Data Flow Communication, Champion Aerospace, Organ Aero, Applied Racing Components and so many more along the way, we have been able to grow something from a dream into a reality.

In my down time (LOL) I have decided to explore my other passion, cooking!!!  Yep I love to cook, so what better way to do this than combining my two loves, jet racing and cooking.  We started a video series called Jet Girls Heating it Up!!  You can find current episodes on youtube.  Jet Girls Heating it Up  Yep we get to have all of the fun.

Remember to use up every minute of everyday and ALWAYS live your Jet Life!!!

luv ya,


e

Introducing Halley Sparx!!!

Hey Guys, I am super excited to introduce you to Halley Sparx aka Blaze.  Okay so you are probably thinking, who is the Blaze and what does she have to do with Larsen Motorsports.  Well, Halley is my alter ego, she is only 22 years old, she is fierce, she is a strong competitior and she is fearless.   When I go to the track and get ready to go race, I put on my firesuit.  The look in the kids eyes, they wanted to know if it was my "Super Suit"   The more I thought about it, it was true.  It keeps me safe and it allows me to do my job.  Blaze was born.  It started out just going to be an activity sheet, games, word search, you know just the normal stuff.  When we started designing her, we realized that she had much more potential.  So here is Halley Sparx, aka Blaze:

Halley is 22 years old she does not come from a family of racers, in fact she really doesn't fit in with the rest of her family.  She met this guy named Max, Max is pretty cool.  He has been around racing his entire life, funny thing is he has never raced a car himself.  Max is a great builder, tuner and has everything that it takes to get a car ready for the track.  People come from all over to have Max build cars for the best of the best.  Halley ran into Max when she started hanging out at the race tracks, she started asking questions and pretty much just making a pest of herself.  She knew that the world of racing was something she wanted to learn about, but everyone in her family thought she was crazy.  Halley asked Max to teach her, she said she was willing to do ANYTHING to be able to get into racing.  Max took Halley under her wing, he taught her the mechanics of the car along with everything she would need to know to race down the track.  There was only one problem, Max said there was 3 ways for her to race a car.  1.  Born into a racing family  2.  Have enough money to buy a seat  3.  Work really hard and earn a shot.

Halley went home and got to thinking was this something that she really wanted to do?????  Heck yes, so she got to working at Max's shop.  From sweeping the floors, emptying the trash, this girl did anything to get a shot in the drivers seat.

Halley was a natural.  The first time she got behind the wheel, it was like she was home.  She was gifted and had a focus Max had never seen before.  She did well and started to win for Max.  Halley and Max was an unstoppable team and they made the decision to go pro in the Jet Dragster catagory.  Max assembled the best of the best to build Halley's car.  Heading up the team was Lia as crew chief, Annie is a wiz with Math problems, Lacy has a mega mind, Ariana heats things up for the girls and last but never least the twins, Jenny who does the graphic designs and Gema who can paint anything. The perfect STEAM team.  With Halley behind the wheel these ladies are unstoppable right?  Well that is until the meet Dylan Burns and his team.  They want to win no matter what.  Halley has to learn some new lessons and the girls have to ask for help.

Welcome to the fast paced world of Halley and her girls.  Join them in this out of this world journey.  The first comic of this journey is available for purchase at AdventuresOfBlaze.com today.  Future comics will be coming out 5 in 2017 and the adventure will continue in 2018.  Each and every comic has a free STEAM poster and lesson plan that is available for download at AdventuresOfBlaze.com  You can follow the team on their journey to be the best on facebook and instagram.

I am super excited about Halley and her team and hope you enjoy the comics as well.  Thanks for always supporting the Larsen Motorsports teams, we are excited to kicking off our racing season the the NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, FL March 17-19th.  I hope to see you at the races.

luv ya,
e

To Tell The Truth!!!

So recently my life has been a little crazy!!!  From racing jet dragsters, being the CFO and President of Larsen Motorsports, licensing new jet drivers planing the 2017 season and all of the other stuff on my plate; when ABC called and asked if I would like to be on a game show, I of course said YES!!!

So a little bit about the show first.  To Tell the Truth is a show that started back in 1956 and ran until I believe 1968.  The premise of the show is a person of notoriety and two impostors try to match wits with a panel of four celebrities.  The object of the game is to fool the celebrities. They brought this iconic show back last year (2016) on ABC!!   (I AM SO IN!!!)  Before we flew out to LA for filming, we worked for weeks on back stories, wardrobe, photos videos etc. so that we would have everything handled before we got there.

We we arrived in LA they had put us up in this beautiful hotel where all of the other contestants were staying.  We were all supposed to meet in the lobby and a car would take us to the studios.  We had signed a bunch of non disclosure paperwork before this so we were all pretty tight lipped on the ride over, but we all looked each other up and down trying to decide what each of us brought to the table.  The studio we filmed on was the American Idol set, so pretty cool!!  We went to hair and make up and got the meet the impostors!!!  This is where it gets really fun.  My impostors were a female police officer and a guy.......(we will get back to that).  It was my job during hair and make up to give them more of a back story so they could help me fool the judges.  I was sworn to tell the truth, but the impostors could have some fun!!!

After hair and make up we went on the set, it was HUGE, much larger than I thought, about 200 people could fit in the audience and there were a lot of lights!!!  It looks just like it does on TV, a very cool set!!  We did our walk through and  we back to get wardrobe.  Ours was the first segment to film, no time for nerves, lights camera action!!!  I messed my first line up!!!  Yep we had to re set and film again (glad you didn't see that)  OMG!!!!  After the butterflies went away, I had the chance to just take in what was really happening.  I was sitting on a film set in LA with celebrities talking about drag racing the sport I LOVE!!!

Before you knew it, it was over and the music played, I stood and then it was all over!!!  Talk about an adrenaline rush!!!  No time to rest, we went back to make up where the guy on the panel went under his transformation from Joshua to Rhea Lite a drag queen!!!  She would make her appearance at the end of the show.

So more about the other impostor, Ellie, she was so amazing to meet, a strong powerful female, that has taken charge of her life.  Her name is FitCopMom, if you can guess, she is totally into fitness and is just amazing.

About the others on the show, everyone was just so much fun, none of us had done anything like this before and the ride back to the hotel, I think we were a little shell shocked not believing what we had just done.

I have to thank my hubby for flying out with me, my team back at the shop who always makes me look good, the fans for tuning in, the sponsors and partners that make this all happen and last but not least To Tell the Truth!!  I was able to bring what we do to an audience that is in the millions.

So now it is time to get back to work, (okay driving jet cars is pretty cool and I don't consider it work) but all of those other things they make me do here : (    and get ready for the 2017 season!!  Thanks for always being the best part of my day!!!

See you at the races!!

luv ya,

e

Time on my Hands

Well here we are, the end of September, it is my favorite time and year and my least favorite time of year.  I love the change in the weather, cooler temps. 85 lol, but I hate that the racing season is coming to a close.  This has been a totally different year for the Larsen Motorsports teams.  The past couple of years we were running for a championship and really miss that racing family.  This year, we changed our focus and stayed closer to home working on our 6th generation of jet dragster and licensing new drivers.  It has been great to put some time in our new facility and really get into the shop work that we haven't been able to do in the past few years.  It has also given me extra time to work on projects that I have just been too busy to look at.

First on my list......Blaze!!!  She is coming back with a vengeance.  She has new stories that we can't wait to tell.  With a Relit attitude she is ready for 2017.





Next, new opportunities!!!  I met Kat Redner over a year ago, and she has been working hard at Larsen Motorsports.  Now you won't see a lot of photos and videos of her, why?  Because she has been the one behind the camera highlighting everything we do here.  Soon it is going to be her time to get in front of the camera and have her turn.  Other opportunities will be an exciting new 2017 schedule which will be coming out soon with new races and new faces.

That's it for now.  Keep checking back and don't forget to follow all me on social media, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

We will see you all at the races!
luv ya,
e

Getting Ready for the Big Go.

So here we are packed and the cars are on the way for one of the most prestigious drag races on the planet, the US Nationals. I can't tell you how excited we are to be a part of this event. Now don't get me wrong, I love the funny cars, the dragsters, the pro stocks, but the sportsman that have worked so hard and traveled so far to get to this race inspires me.

Kat Moller and I will be making passes Friday and Saturday night to close the event and we are locked, loaded, and ready to make fire!  If you are there stop by and say hi, if you can't make it follow my Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to keep up with all the racing action.

Luv ya,
e

Why Me??

Hey guys, I know that it has been awhile since my last blog.   As always, so much has happened.  Here is a quick recap. 

January  - Worked hard to get the shop ready for the VIP and public open house

February – Time to get to work on the 2016 race season

March – Time to go racing and had a visit from some friends from down under, took a bite out of the Gators and was awarded the Dick Moroso Award 

April -  We took to the skies and displayed at the Melbourne Airshow and went 4 wide at ZMAX dragway in Charlotte, NC

May – We got Mustang fever at the NMRA Ford Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway. 

Yep, that about does it.  Is it time to sleep yet??  LOL NEVER!!!  I have to say, if you would have asked me just a couple of years ago if I thought we would ever have been where we are today, in this beautiful facility with amazing partners, with, in my opinion, the best dang race team, I would have never seen this coming.  I am just a farm girl from Michigan, married to her high school sweetheart, have one son, who likes me most of the time and the cutest Pug on the planet, I have to ask, why me??  Why have I been chosen for this life?  I have been called to run these race cars, it is a passion that runs through my veins.  It occupies most of my thoughts and is a fire in my belly. 

This weekend, I had the opportunity to just relax at the races just a bit, yes I do relax, and reflect as I was blasting down the quarter mile.  I am so blessed to be able to work with my team.  They are young, and have a lot to learn, but I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world. 

So what’s next……HAHAHA just wait.  I have some surprises up my sleeve.  As always stay tuned and we will see you at the races.