A win coming soon

Hello blog readers, sorry for the delay in the latest blog.

As the season has been going our team has had a few struggles and learning curves. We have persevered through the hardships and we feel as if we have turned a corner after the Four-Wide race at zMAX Dragway.

We have been hard at work preparing the car for Houston where we will debut the Rocky Boots paint scheme for their first race of the year. To recap the past three races, we struggled slightly in Gainesville and lost first round.

In a meeting with the team that Sunday afternoon our crew chief Dickie Venables made the decision that we needed to go another direction with our set-up we had been trying as we went to Vegas.

Heading into Vegas the our team morale was still high. The whole team believes in our leaders Dickie and assistant crew chief Mike Knudsen, knowing that if we do our jobs correctly that they will get the hot rod running good. We showed great signs of progress when we were low ET of the first 3 sessions of qualifying in Vegas.

Heading into race day in Vegas we felt confident in our chances until we lost traction and were first round runner-ups again. We had planned on staying Monday in Vegas to test and actually had a very good test session. The car showed more signs of progress.

It's funny how the performance of the car can affect the mood. It’s just the highs and lows of racing I guess. We went back to the shop and started preparing for the Four-Wide. We all had smiles and high spirits knowing that race was next. zMAX Dragway was very good to us last year where we won the Four-Wide race and were runner-up in the fall event.

But we also had a special trick up our sleeves as our good friend and honorary crew member Nolan Lopez was going to be at the race. We had met Nolan last year there and he brought us very good luck at the races he went to. We won three of the races he was at last year so we were all ready to have him back in our pit. He always brightens our day with the smiles and his positive attitude.

He has been learning more and more each time he comes out to a race. Just recently Terry Prososki was teaching Nolan how to put a cylinder head on the car. At every race he comes to he has his routine and role he plays with our team. We are very fortunate to have him on our side.

The weekend in Concord didn't turn out too bad but we lost in the second round. But we did have a renewed confidence with our trusty car. Each lap this season we have learned valuable information.. The results aren't what we’ve hoped for yet as we want to win at every race.

As the season progresses we are all feeling a win coming soon. We are also hoping to break in our body and tire guy “Mud” (Brian Antrim) as he is the newest member of our team and has yet to visit the Winner’s Circle.

The thrill of victory is something that can't be put into words. We are all excited and ready for Houston with the Rocky Boots car. Until next time … thanks for reading everyone.

Alex