Woohoo!!!  We get to run at the Night of Fire on September 25, 2010 at Rocky Mountain Raceway in Salt Lake City (okay, Magna.  Sort of West  Valley City.  Outside Salt Lake, east of the Oquirrh Mountain, west of the Wastatch Mountains, south of Ogden and north of Provo but whatever – it is our home track!!!)

Before you think me strange (yeah, too late hahaha) let me include a small explanation.  Derek Snelson who owns and drives the Warhawk is a native of Alaska.  He has great friends in Yakima,  WA and we are usually found in Boise twice a year, so one could argue that those are home tracks.  But for my husband and myself, home is just outside of Ogden, Utah and Rocky Mountain Raceway is our home track.  It will be the one time during the year that we get to have friends and family enjoy the show and hang out in the pits with us without having to make serious travel arrangements.

There are actually a few more confirmations we need to add to the schedule, but I can’t find Gregg’s notes.  We will update that over the next few days and hopefully (<ahem, Derek – did you get the hint?  Hopefully? ahem>) the Warhawk website will be updated with a full schedule soon.  Derek is wwaayyyy busy, I shouldn’t tease him, but if you can’t bust your friends a little……….well,

Spring is coming!  Well, at least some of the snow is melting, anyway.  At this time, most everything is just tentative, but possibilities abound!  So, in the spirit of possibilities, a partial and tentative schedule:

BC Custom Car Show – Abbotsford, BC, Canada – April 23rd, 24th and 25th (http://www.bccustomcarshow.com/)

Sacramento – Nitro Night of Fire – June 12th (http://www.sacramentoraceway.com/nitronightoffire.html)

Boise – 33rd Annual  Fox Hunt – June 19th (http://www.firebirdonline.com/schedule/major.htm)

Yakima – June 26th (http://www.renegaderaceway.com/)

Medford (very tentative) – Night of Fire – July 3rd (http://www.championraceway.com/)

Boise – 39th Annual Pepsi Nightfire Nationals – August 13th, 14th and 15th – (http://www.firebirdonline.com/schedule/major.htm)

Mission – 2010 Fire, Smoke and Thunder – August 28th and 29th (http://www.missionraceway.com/mrptrackinfo/09info/09smokefireinfo.htm)

Tucson –  Jet Car Nationals – October 9th (http://www.sirace.com/)

We will update more as information comes in and things are either firmed up or changed.  We look forward to seeing you there!

We finally did it!  We are now on Facebook.  It has taken a little while but hopefully we can keep up with all the friends and fans who come to visit us.  Hope to hear from you soon!

We are investigating creating a 2010 Calendar featuring photos of the Warhawk Jet Funny Car in action.  If you would be interested in seeing this item available for sale, please email us at sales@afterburnercollectables.com.  We are looking for vendors presently to see what the price might be on such an item.  We hope to offer them in the price range of $10 to $20 and we need your input!

Wow…it is hard to believe that the year is over already.  Time to clean out the rig.  We can actually store the coolers now, instead of tripping over them in the garage between races lol.  Time for Warhawk to get her winter “makeover”, which includes a new tailpipe this year.  How can we say how much we appreciate the help we have received this year from so many people?  Without you, we wouldn’t have made it.  With everything that happened, we only missed one race, which was  the week of the accident.  We made every other call, but we could not have done it without our friends and fellow racers.

It was quite a trip, too.  We always debate before a trip to Arizona – the straightest route is a two-lane road that takes you through a lot of little towns and slow-downs, which adds hours to the trip.  To take the interstate is a bit of a jog west through Vegas….it is all interstate, but there is always a slowdown going over the Hoover Dam.  Which, by the way-Wow!  Have you seen the progress they have made on that bypass road just over this summer??  When we went through there last year, they have pylons up on each end over the gorge and most of the roadwork done leading up to and away from them but these last trips – they have the concrete arch up over the gorge and are working on the pillars that will actually support the road deck.  Amazing progress!  That really is an engineering accomplishment.  And it will be soooo nice when it is actually done.  I don’t know if they just want to make the tourist visits to the dam safer, or route traffic around the dam because of wear and tear or just provide a throughway so that you can bypass the dam for convenience, but it will certainly accomplish all three.  But if you haven’t had the chance to be a tourist there yet, I definitely recommend taking the time to see an incredible man-made wonder of the world.

So, we get to Phoenix Friday afternoon and check into the hotel (thanks, tons to the Grace Inn and Krysia’s friend for absolutely wonderful rooms!).  Next morning, we usually try to find a car wash before heading to the track, and we got directions from the front desk.  Easy to find.  As we start washing the rig, I can see people looking out the front of the bays so I step out and look……a HUGE plume of black smoke.  I went back and told Gregg to go look – Five alarm fire about a block away from the car wash!  I think we spent as much time watching the emergency vehicles arrive, douse the fire and clear the area as we did actually taking care of our vehicle.

We get to the track and find where we are to be displaying and parking for the day, which turns out to be in with Mike, from Aero Jet in an area with a group of a half-dozen or so cackle cars.  What happens to be included in the group?  Kenny Bernstein’s Budweiser King Funny Car.  95% original.  Just incredible.  Especially when they lit off all of them together!  Unfortunately, there was a fire on the funny car when a line let go, but it was quickly extinguished and, with the exception of some minor burns, all were okay. 

The last two runs of the year – and we did something we’ve never done before.  We were running against Ken Marley and the Rocky Mountain Thunder Jet Funny Car (again, we need to thank Ken for helping us out by charging the portable air tank….twice…).  Kinda cool…the ET’s on the runs were 6.149 and 6.192 but it was the MPH that got us – 260.61 and 260.61.  Right there, on both time slips!  We kept having to go back and re-read them just to see if our eyes were fooling us.  (no comments from the peanut gallery please as to the need for reading glasses lol)

There are so many people that make these races happen that no one ever sees.  Our thanks to all the Safety Teams at all the tracks for the work that no one ever sees.  Even on a perfect run, they are still there, still suited up on 100 degree heat and still ready to jump in if they are needed at a split second notice.  To the starters and staging lane directors that keep everything moving and try to keep everyone untangled.  To the announcers who keep us informed and entertained and do their level best when confronted with some rather interesting names.  Those in the concession stands who deal with customers all day long.  To all our fellow racers who slaved away in the pits when the asphalt registers 139 degrees and shade is just a sliver beside the rig to cool your toes off.  HOW many bags of ice did we go through??  Thanks for your help, and thanks for your friendship.  And most of all to the fans.  Without fans coming to the race track, there are no races.  Thanks for your financial support.  Thanks to each and every one of you for coming out and for keeping us going when times got rough.  Thanks for coming back into the pits and talking to us and thanks for your feedback.  If you liked the show, please let your track officials know so we can hopefully see y’all again – Next Year!

And we will be glued to the TV come this weekend for Vegas and waiting with bated breath for Pomona and the crowning of the years champions……only 5 months until next season!!!  Now, where is that schedule…..

The dog has been fed, completely ignoring me and snoring, the cats are asleep in their favorite spots, the dryer is finishing that last load of wash from this weekends race and the house is quiet, so it must be time to update the blog.

NEXT STOP – the last of the year – Phoenix Firebird Raceway on October 24th!!   See you there!!

We had another wonderful weekend!  I would love to say that we had a great weekend catching up with friends, since its been about a month since we have been out, but we made 3 runs Saturday night and it was busy, busy, busy without a lot of time for visiting.  And after everyone was back in the pits after the last run packing up, I think everyone was in the same condition – three run nights are fun but they do tend you leave ya with a little bit of butt drag.  First run had a flame holder issue.  Okay, fixed.  Second run was a bit more serious, as there was a hole in the bottom of the tailpipe.  Thanks to “Gary”  (Gary, I am sorry, I don’t know your last name!!) and his helicopter shop and welder (the person, not the machine…and that would be Chad!) and a welder (equipment) borrowed from Dick and Terry Rossburg (thanks, so much!) we made the third call.  I just hope at some point we are in a position to and get to return the favor because the support everyone showed us was incredible and incredibly appreciated.  To say “thank you” is inadequate.

But – you can always count on Warhawk….6.321 at 256.21, 6.356 at 254.23 and 6.300 at 255.92.   A little bit of overcast kept the day from getting out-of-hand hot and the race fans kept the stands packed for every run.  Thanks to every one of them who came out to watch the race and we sure enjoyed chatting with the ones who came back to the pit to check out the Warhawk.  Keep asking all your questions – we love talking about the car!

The gates didn’t actually open until 4pm on Saturday, so here we are with a little free time on our hands in the morning.  My husband and I love to play tourist and check out the local area…last time we were in Tucson it was the Air Museum with its HUGE area of static displays and nine buildings to visit.  We found a mission and a copper mine to the south of town so we also have some new sites to check out the next time we are in town.  We almost went back to the Pima Air Museum again but Gregg found a brochure about another place 20 minutes south of Tucson.  Since we are both interested in history and lived through this particular part of it growing up, we set out to see the Titan II Missile Museum.  Yep – the Cold War Nuclear ICBM type Titan II, the only facility left and only because it is a museum only.  The museum is FASCINATING and they have done a great job of presenting it just as it was.  You start outside looking at the support displays topside and work over to looking down into the half-open missile silo itself, with the de-commissioned missile in place.  It starts to sink in that we were close – very close.  Then the tour descends into the facility itself, into the hardened area around the silo, the control room and then into Level 2 of the silo itself.  You see the safe that held the launch codes, the boards where the launch codes would have been entered and the infamous “keys”.  It is sobering, it is scary and it gives you a whole new perspective on what the crews who served there faced.  Would your hands shake as you got that call?  Would you turn that key?

Thank you, though, to those who did serve and those who still do.  Our son is overseas right now with the Army and we pray for all the soldiers – Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Reserves – and hope they all make it home.  Again, Thank You is not adequate but thank you anyway.  It is all we can say for your incredible sacrifice.

(Our next stops – we will be enjoying a weekend off being spectators at the Night of Fire in Salt Lake City, September 26th – and enjoying seeing the rest of our friends who are racing.  Then our next stop will be Tucson, AZ on October 10th and we will close the year at Phoenix, AZ on October 24th.  We would love to see you there!)

We saw some new country this time around as it was our first trip to Montana.  One feature of note – we drove through a fire that was burning on both sides of the highway and through the median.  Not as bad a road contruction – it may be an incredible sight but the destruction is heartbreaking. 

Once we did get to Billings, we followed our trusty GPS to the dragstrip – well, almost all the way.  The track had put great, large signs on the road directing us to the track.  So, we made the turn…into a large, empty field….which we keep going through…until we reached the dirt road….is there really a dragstrip back here??

 Actually, Yes there is!  A topnotch facility with great lanes, a wonderful track crew and a reaallyyy long shut down area, wonderful for jet cars to wind down and not worry.  Eric, the track announcer, was born to fill that position and he spent a great deal of time coming back to the pits and making sure we knew what times we were running and keeping us up-to-date on developments.  It was a really well run race.

 We made two passes on Saturday in front of a record crowd.  We learned that Montana has some great race fans!  First pass at 6.461 and 250.13 mph (a track jet funny car record) and a second pass at 6.467 and 249.03 mph.  Pretty darned good for that altitude!

 Sunday we had to do some welding on the tailpipe before we could make our runs.  With all the help we received from Prairieland Racing – Jordan Pawlik and Shane Therris – guys we just could not have done it without you.  They supplied the welder and the welder – both machine and person.  It was truly done in the spirit of racer helping racer.  With their help, our Sunday runs came in at 6.542, 246.84 mph and 6.561, 246.21 mph.  You can’t beat the Warhawk for consistent runs!

 A couple of bonuses – Monday was a holiday so we could take our time driving home.  And – we saw a bear in the wild by the Yellowstone River!

This weekend was a weekend of extremes – highs and lows. 

Most all of them landed on the high side.  One of our sponsors – Bodybuilding.com – came to the track and was extremely excited about the cars and our whole team.  Its always a plus when you can make the sponsors happy!  They have been wonderful with us, and we look forward to all the new ideas that were flying.  Also, Friday went like clockwork – in the lanes on time, no delays, everyone ran great ahead of us and we ran right on time.  Even the time slips were amazing – both cars ran 6.289, Nitehawk at 247 and Warhawk at 255.  The margin of the win for Warhawk was .0013.  You can’t beat side by side jet cars!  Sunday was a good day, too, except that we had to pack up and leave our friends until the next race we can attend.  The rest of the team heads to Mission but my husband and I were just are not able to make the Canada runs this year.  Next year will be a different story. 

Sunday night included a high accolade for Richard Smith – he was awarded a trophy for his contribution to the sport of drag racing over the last 30 years.  An amazing career that has also touched the lives of so many people.  Richard is not just a fellow racer, he is a wonderful friend.  He joins some of the biggest names in racing for his accomplishments and contributions.  Way to go, my friend!!! 

Saturday started out as a good day.  The whole weekend was a weather blessing – highs in the 70′s and chilling down at night.  And can I just say that any weekend where you can experience Nitro is exciting, too?  It was so much fun to watch those cars thunder down the strip!  That is a plus about being the last set of cars down the track – you can always head up to the starting line and feel the power of some amazing machines!  Yes, we love Jet Cars…..but you still gotta love the nitro lol  Not to mention being parked in the pits between two of them – we spent a lot of time with burning eyes and noses when they fired off.  Now, we’re not complaining, just enjoying! 

We lined up just like always.  Started the cars and headed down the track to retrieve them and bring them back home.  Side by side runs of 6.22 and 6.23.  Derek’s chute deployed just fine…..then everything stood still….. 

Until Nitehawk is back in the shop and gone over piece by piece, everything is speculation, but mechanical failure is at the top of the list.  The car made a hard move to the right and at those speeds a move is never good.  Sideways, although he never touched the wall (thank heaven for small favors), back to the other side of the track and several barrel rolls.  A dust storm.  Safety crews rolling…when they got to the end of the track, they even headed over to the Warhawk initially, because no one could see where Nitehawk and Richard had ended up.  Then, a blessed ending.  Richard got out of the car himself and walked away.  Safety gear all worked exactly as it was supposed to and aside from some bumps and bruises, he is fine.  

The rebuild is already underway.  Not the first bump we have encountered this year and not one that will keep us down.  Warhawk is still running as beautifully as ever and Nitehawk is on the mend.  Look for her soon!

Talk about changes!  The improvements that have been made to Spokane County Raceway have really made this a racer friendly track.  The new concrete out to half track and improved staging lanes make a big difference and we can only look forward to seeing the next stage of improvements.  Our thanks to Bucky Austin and Jay Livingston for having us to their new home and for their hospitality.  Good luck to them in the future, and we hope to be invited back soon!

In the spirit of keeping as many vacation days in the bank as possible, we left after work on Thursday and made our way into Dillon, Montana for the night.  Nothing remarkable but the next day into Spokane we met up with our old nemesis – road construction.  Why is it always uphill behind a semi??

Heat.  That is one thing we will remember about this weekend.  If it made it below 100 degrees in the pits, we would be amazed.  We only made one run on Friday night-Derek and the Warhawk laid down a respectable 252.43 mph and 6.36 seconds.  It was an indicator of what was to come for the entire weekend for the pair, as Warhawk ran like a bracket car.  Bryan had an igniter problem and….well….we won’t embarrass him in print.

Saturday we made two runs.  Again, Warhawk first round went 252.00 and second  round 256.  We did manage to trouble-shoot the igniter problem for Nitehawk and brought in a 218 and on the second run a 250…but no time slip, as the computer decided to take a break.

Sunday was back to just one run to close the show.  Warhawk again ran a 6.31 at 252 and Nitehawk a 6.36 at 225.  Just good side by side races!

While working on a body issue for Warhawk, we had to run and find a couple of little parts.  We found a feed and hardware store (not a chain) that took us back to the old days.  Aisles packed with boxes of pieces and parts, a little bit of hardware, some livestock items, a bunch of plumbing supplies, an aisle of automotive and you-name-it-everything-else.  The man behind the counter had to be in his 70′s and probably owned the store when it opened….if he hadn’t started working there when his dad opened it before him.  Had we had more time, it would have been even more interesting to hear him talking to the neighbors at the counter about the fire that so-and-so’s combine started in the barrow pit, but we had to get back to the track.

It was a weekend to find a bunch of blessings everywhere.  We had a great weekend with friends and what is becoming our extended family – Cody Smith and Ed and Wendy Jones were there.  We drove through beautiful country (check out Coeur d’Alene Lake if you ever get the chance) and even saw a herd of elk by the side of the Clark Fork River on the way into Spokane Friday morning.

What adventure can we expect on our next trip?  We get to find out in two weeks at Boise’s Firebird Raceway and the Nitefire Nationals!!

Boise, Sacramento and Medford

Boise is like a second home track for us.  Now, you have to understand that most of the trips that we make to join up with Derek and Bryan consist of anywhere from 8 to 14 hours in a car on a Friday vacation day from work.  Race on Saturday until late at night or early in the morning.  Get back up at 5 or 6am and drive 8 to 14 hours back home on Sunday.  Unpack, go to work on Monday.  Boise is just 4 ½ hours travel time.  Piece of cake!

The New family makes it feel like home, too.  They have worked with Richard Smith and Derek Snelson for so long that the return to that track feels like a day with your friends, even if your friends are all working their tails off to make sure that everything comes off right for all the racers and fans. 

We had great runs there.  Ed “The Outlaw” and Wendy Jones were there too with their wheelstander and the Jelly Belly Gang.  Hey, have you checked out their new “team attire” this year?  VERY nice!  Again, being around Ed and Wendy is like spending time with your family.  Wait – make that the part of the family that you like J.   When Ed comes out before our jets and finishes his run while we are setting up, he always pantomimes throwing his Jelly Bellys up the tailpipe of the jet car.  One time, we were still waiting to pull out and he came by, did his pantomime and then came up to the tow rig and threw the bags IN the car!  I think we were finding little bags of Jelly Bellys for weeks.  Under the seats, next to the console, down the map pockets….great trip munchies, by the way. 

Jet cars usually are pretty simple between runs….cool the engine, pack chutes, fill tanks, check tires, bleed fuel system and not much else.  BUT – when you complete 3 full runs in less than 4 hours – we were moving!!  First run – Warhawk ran 211.76 mph and et of 6.746, Nitehawk ran 252.59 and et of 6.373.  Second run – Warhawk 241.87 and et of  6.575, Nitewawk ran 244.96 and et of 6.387.  Third run – Derek kept the time slip as a souvenir for beating Richard J

Sacramento – wow, okay – culture shock.  We drove across Nevada (tons of sand and sage and not exactly a ton of cars), then JUST as we crossed the state line….gridlock.  LOL  Okay, it was the fault of construction and not exactly rush hour but we did let loose with a few comments about how appropriate it was that we get to California and traffic is the first thing you see even when you are crossing some very, very pretty country.  (Did we mention the rock slide that closed half the road??)  And we did see some extremely pretty country as we made our way from the state line to Sacramento.

This is home track for Robbie and his wife Janice.  They had all of us out to dinner the first night we were there and it was just a fantastic time for all.  We all spend a lot of time at the tracks together, but this time we were able to kick off our shoes, eat some great food and just shoot the breeze under shady trees and not worry about schedules.  It was a definite tonic for all.

Which was a really good thing, because the next day when we headed out to the track, it was HOT!  The official temp for the day was 104 but one crewman caught it at the starting line at 139.  It was a good thing someone brought a pop-up awning because we were definitely hiding in the shade whenever possible.  And spending a little time recovering in the tow rig with the air conditioning when heat and dehydration made our heads feel just a little off-balance.  If you are ever looking for your favorite racer and they aren’t quite as friendly as you wish they could be, please be patient – 8 or more hours on the asphalt in the sun will wilt even the most hardy of heat lovers.  We don’t mean to be rude.  We may just be trying to catch our breath.  Racing wouldn’t be racing if we didn’t have a chance to talk to the fans and connect over the love for speed.  It is just really hard to hold a conversation when you are trying to down 2 pints of water to make up for the three pints of sweat.

We also had the pleasure and privilege to meet a very special gentleman – Ron Hoover – while we were there.  This man is a legend in Jet Car racing and we had a great time getting to know him, his daughter and her friend.

The show was a ton of fun too.  They were running a pro-mod class and a nostalgia funny car class.  Yes, even jet racers love a snoot-ful of nitro.  There was even a small stand of bleachers   where racers could take a quick peek at what was going down the track without being far from the pits.  You just gotta love watching these things stand up on their tires and go.

I could spend all day telling you about our drive to Medford and back.  And the worst part of it is that the part I love the most is the trip around Crater Lake area and the National Forest.

The trees are incredible – it is like being back in medieval woods or even Middle Earth.  It is very easy to picture Sam, Frodo, Merry and Pippin stepping out onto the side of the road from between these mammoth trees that grow so closely together. It is eternal twilight between them, the ground heavy with ferns and pine needle.  Treebeard would be right at home here and it would be no surprise to see Gandalf and Shadowfax peek out from a stray shaft of sunlight that finally penetrates to the forest floor.

Jim spoiled us this year in Medford, though.  He parked us on the tower side of the staging lanes – right under a big tree!  We had shade all afternoon.  Heaven!!

Barry Richter was there driving Darin Bay’s new Warped Speed dragster, and Dennis Murphy was licensing in his Detroit Dragon Jet Funny Car.  We also made some new friends on the Fire Crew at the track, as Julian and Dan made sure that we were safe at the end. 

Now – Any pictures that you see in our photo gallery and think “Wow, that’s a great shot.  How did they get that one?” You can thank Larry McFarland of Grandstand Photos.  He got us some great shots of the Warhawk and Derek!