2008 Champs

Congrats to the 2008 Champions:
Jimmy Johnson in NASCAR

Tony Shumacher Top Fuel Dragster
Cruz Pedregon Funny Car
and Jeg Coughlin in Pro Stock.

Race City Cancels Season

It was a sad reality I guess that the early suspension all activities for the rest of 2008 at Race City motorsports park was bound to happen. Th efacility was getting run down and fan support was low although I went to it many times being a race fan myself. Although I don't blame the owners of the track cause why would they spend the money to fix it up if the city was going to take it away and the end of the season anyway to make way for a garbage dump. Pretty ironic isn't it, a city known as Calgary that prides itself on recycling and cleanliness, is one of the dirtiest cities I have seen (it is windy here so trash gets blown everywhere) and is way behind the recycling programs that other major cities have and that other cities do for free (which this city wants to charge for). Anyway the fact that a "clean recyclable" city wants to make another garbage dump is just ridiculous and the fact that they are taking a safe racing environment away for racing enthusiasts and car fans is just nut! I wonder if the major Dave Bronconnier is going to wave the green flag outside city hall when all the street racers take to the streets on Mac trail infront of city hall. It is sad that the politicians in this stupid city don't realize a good thing when they have one and that making money and charging more taxes so they can retire faster is better than building new or saving older entertainment facilities. And I don't mean your standard recreation entertainment facility or theater. How many do we need? I mean a different kind of entertainment like racing! But I guess The mayor and city council like street racing. Just think, how fast can you get a car going on Deerfoot trail? Maybe the mayor has a Blown Alcohol honda he's not saying anything about.

The solution (my opinion)

Ok, so the powers that be in this backwards city keep charging more taxes and to build things that seem to take forever to get built if they get built at all and even when they are built they find that they are inadequate, too small or just not very good design..........ever drive along the new Glenmore trail and Elbow drive Intersection? Good job.........not............it's backed up there all the time from now eevn more than before it seems. But oh well..............

So can't the the city council find a way to take some of those new tax dollars and find a place for a safe racing environment. You have the chance to start something new and exciting.....ever heard of NASCAR. They have touring divisions as well. Do we really need a mega mall in Balzac? That would have been a perfect place for a race track. Out of the way, not many neighbors, and easy to get to. even if city council doesn't help fund the new track at least help someone in finding some land that can be used for a facility, how hard is that to do? Sell it to a prospective buyer, builder and then leave them alone. It would be cool if they built a race track at the new Balzac mall site anyway around there somewhere cause after all it's just flat land, acres of it. Just an idea.
I hope they can find a solution soon there is race cars,drivers and engine shops around the city that all benefit from the track and now they have an opportunity to attract some big time race series if the track was built to specifications. I see there is a dirt track down south of Calgary. I hope they will see the light and expand maybe adding a paved oval and some drag strips. ever heard of Indianapolis Motorspeedway? Or Lowes Motorspeedway. They are multi functional facilites with Lowes opening up a new Drag Strip just recently for NHRA. I guess we will have to head down there to watch racing.
This is an open suggestion for the owners of Rocky Mountain Speedway, any plans of expansion?
And one last comment for city council, the mayor Dave Bronconnier, Race city owners and management and the Rocky Mountain Speedway owners :
Remember two people, Wally Parks and Bill France Sr.!

Nolstalgia dragsters and the NASCAR chase"

Well I haven't post for awhile but recently some nolstalgia dragsters came to town. Although the show was canceled at Race City because of rain they were still downtown on the Friday before the event. So we went down to snap a few pics. The original drivers are still driving some of them. They even fired one of them up downtown and you could tell the owners and drivers of them still have it in their blood, the smell and sounds of nitro Methane engines.




NASCAR and the Chase for the championship

The top 12 drivers are set for the NASCAR chase. All I can say is go number 88!
The NHRA is goin gto a new track this weekend in Charlotte. It has 4 lanes, a little deja vu here as NHRA used to run 4 and 6 lanes way back when. Could this be in the future?

2008 NHRA Schuck's Nationals

Well could be better than spending a 10th anniversary at the track. After all it is where it all started in 1996 with us when we met and then our wedding here in 1998 on the starting line! So why not be fitting that we come down here again and celebrate our anniversary, how many other anniversaries last 3 days?!
So here we are off to Pacific Raceways in Kent Washington in it's awesome setting dwarfed by Mt Rainier and surrounded by mother nature's natural power enhancers the trees. The trees add extra oxygen into the air and the cars really can feel the difference in their speeds and elapsed times. So Friday's qualifying sessions were awesome but the jury i still out on the 1000 foot racetrack rule now for T/F cars. I understand the safety aspect of it all but there has to be a better way to let them go back to quarter mile racing. Anyway somehow the wife talked some security guys into letting us stand on the track in front of the grandsatnd that is situated behind the burnout box. There is a fence along there that people can stand in but I think it is only for VIPS. I guess we kind of are now, been there enough times!. Anyway we got some cool pics from that vantage point. And the concussion when they take of from the starting line is unbelievable from down there rather that from up top in the stands. Of course there was some other cars there as well from other classes in the sportsman ranks all of who still race the quarter mile and so does Pro Stock still by the way!

There was alot of T/A Funny Cars and and a few dragsters from my neck of the woods in the Calgary and Edmonton Ab area. Even Roger Bateman was there and was suppose to retire a few years ago.

Oh well Day 1 was over and it's off for dinner at our favorite watering hole where we met some crazy people, actually the same ones we met last year in there. All down for the race.




Day 2

Well today at breakfast in the hotel we met some crew members from a T/A dragster team and unfortunately they lost in round 1 but was nice meeting them and getting a tour of their pits at the track was cool. We wish them luck for the rest of the year and hope their fortunes turn out better than they did in Seattle.

The wife and got to meet Bob Frey, who remembered us from the our wedding in '98. Those of you who don't know Bob does many tv shows related to NHRA drag racing and sportsman classes and also does the trackside announcing for the Pros at NHRA National events. He also writes columns for National Dragster. Basically he is an icon for NHRA and a major personality for the NHRA.
Thanks Bob for letting us take your pic, would be nice to have had your Volare in the pic though!

So with two rounds of qualifying left on Saturday and the new system for qualifying as the last 4 times are
reset we find John Force in a position rare to Seattle.


He needs to run a good number to qualify and is struggling to do so. So as the drama builds it comes down to the fourth session and John smokes the tires a bit and is out just like that. the only Funny Car to miss the field. I wonder if some teams are struggling with the 1000 foot track and trying to adjust things differently, I don't know I am not a crew chief,but it seems like some teams are.

Is it just me or does it seem like we are signing more memorial banners these days? Darrell Russell a few years ago, Eric Medlen last year and now just a few weeks ago the tragic passing of Scott Kallitta that forced NHRA to temporarily shorten the racing surface until they figure out another solution to make these cars safer. In the Kalitta motorsports pits there was a banner that we signed along with other racing fans.
After another long day at the track and some shopping (I do all my clothes shopping at the track now) it was time to head out back to the hotel. The parking lot traffic jams didn't seem as bad as years past as we have been known to sit there for hours before getting out of there, that's when we used to have the cooler full of beer for the parking lot! Back at out hotel we get freshened up a bit wash off the rubber from my face and head to our favorite watering hole again! Oh by the way it's called Meeker Street Bar and Grill. Awesome service great drinks! And good food, and the price is right to. Some Calgary bars could take a lesson from this.


Day 3

Well the day everyone waits for, the finals on Sunday! we got to the track early enough to be part of the ESPN NHRA Raceday live broadcast. Gary Scelzi was being interviewed on stage and came down to the crowd first to sign autographs and me and the wife got a pic with him.
It was pretty cool to be in the background of that live show even though we don't get that show in Canada unless u have satellite! Ha ha maybe I should get one.
Then the wife wanted to be part of the opening ceremonies as they let the fans be apart of the crowd in front of the stage where driver introductions happen. "The Fan Zone" so we stayed there and wifey took pics of all the drivers who were in the elimination runs for Sunday.

The racing was awesome although the 1000 foot racetrack is still a bit of an issue with although I do understand the safety aspect of it all and the drivers do come first.

At the end of the day when all is said and done all the John Force rave cars went out early and Jim Dunn's race team with driver Tony Bartone was the winner in Funny Car.
Tony Shumacher won the Top Fuel Dragster event and Jason Line won in Pro Stock. We hung around the winner's circle after the race for a few hours to let the crowd die down in the parking lot before leaving and got some pics of the winner's.

Oh yeah and how could I forget that they had a cacklefest in Seattle as well with some of the old dragster from the early days of racing with some of the original racers who drove them!

Here are my photo sets of the race
Friday
Saturday
Sunday

Martin and Eanhardt teammates

Well when Earnhardt Jr. joined Hendrick motorsports and Mark Martin joined DEI I thought that's too bad cause I would love to see Dale Jr. and Mark Martin on the same team. Well looks like it will happen as Mark Martin has joined Hendrick Motorsports full time next season and part time in 2010.

All I can say is COOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!!!!

Racing and fans are all family-RIp Scott Kalitta

All forms of auto racing is just one big family that travels from city to city to race and the participants are a tight knit community as well the fans are a big part of that family. That family value with the fans is probably stronger in the NHRA than any other forms of motorsports as the fans get to interact with the drivers and get to talk to them and know them.I to have felt this family value along with the racers myself as the wife and I met Darrel Russel in Seattle after he won the race in 2002. We had our pics taken with him in the winner's circle with the trophy. And then he died the following year in a racing accident. So everytime an NHRA driver passes on I feel a little bit sadder as I feel I have known some of these people a little better than others just from meeting with them from the many NHRA races we have attended.

So it is understandable that fans and the NHRA community have once again been saddened with the untimely death of Scott Kalitta in Englishtown N.J. Ironically the same place where he won his first NHRA race. Scott was Connie Kalitta's son.

1962-2008

Earnhardt wins!

Well what is going on? The first race dale Earnhardt wins in eons and the first since joining Hendrick motorsports and the race is not televised on our local stations here! Who's idea was that? Not to show it on tv. The network that took over for Fox obviously isn't playing this game very well not realizing there are folks who can't get ESPN or any of the American stations up here. Oh well just ranting, would be nice to see all the commotion over why Dale Jr.'s victory was a sore spot with some other competitors

Pics from Nascar.com

Father's Funny Car Classic Bust

Well being a fanatic of funny Cars of all genres and styles I though the Father's day Classic at our Local track would be more entertaining that it actually was. The fact that only 4 Nostalgia Funny cars showed up and about 4 T/A Funny Cars were on hand really makes for a dull day. But considering the city is losing the track and not spending any money on it to fix it up it is no wonder noone wants to come here to race. Then on top of that they only ran 1/8 mile because of water seeping through the track surface. Only in Calgary, the city built by a bunch of farmers that they do not understand the growing needs of the city, racers, and infrastructure to support a wide variety of entertainment and transportation needs of a city this size! When it comes to the track, no wonder they have water seepage, there is grass on either side of the race surface about a foot from the outside retainig walls. Hmmmmm grass on the inside of a racing surface? I wonder why the rain still seeps in after 2 weeks of rain? It should be paved all the way to the edge of the property by the fence and then you could put up a new grandstand on the south side of the track and put on a good show for everyone and maybe even get an IHRA or NHRA event here.
But anyway enough rambling about how farmers seem to run this place, I did manage to get some cool pics.


Bucky Austin and the Nitro Nolstalgia Funny Cars

Well for of those of you who, don't know Bucky Austin is a heavy hitter out of Washington State and ran T/A funny cars for many years on the NHRA circuit and won the NHRA Division 6 Championship many times. I have seen him in Seattle many times. Remember his nephew? Pat Austin, he used to run T/F funny cars and dragster in NHRA and the ran T/A funny cars before retiring.
Here are some pics of some of the other Nostalgia cars on hand. i had to feel sorry for them making the trip from Washington to Calgary to run 1/8 mile! No wonder some of the guys near the end of the day just went for it and blew right through the 1/8 lights and kept going 1/4 mile!















Jet Cars

Well they had some jet car action there as well which is always entertaining to watch even though they only go once down the track but fire and smoke makes for some exciting pics


















Anywya i hope that the powers to be can find a new place for thsi facility and turn it into somethign special that will attract NHRA/IHRA and even some NASCAR touring divisions. Remember what happened after NASCAR took over CASCAR? No CASCAR events here anymore due to poor track conditions. So let's get it sorted out, you are not racing tractors anymore on hay covered fields, the fans (and there is alot of NHRA/IHRA fans here in this city dying for a state of the art facility to bring back top notch racing to Calgary) wanna see 300mph Nitro Burning Funny cars and a full field (16 or more) of T/A Dragsters and Funny Cars, Pro Mods and anything else that will show up that will run an elimination type race and not this little show between two or four cars!

IRON MAIDEN show

Well how my love of heavy metal just gets stronger everyday with bands like Devil Driver, ALmb of God and GWAR. But I still love the bands I grew up with from teh 80's and 90's as well. one of those bands is

Last tHursday we went down to see the ol boys from the UK and I tell you they delivered one powerful and asskicking show. Mind you aftrer 30 years and a whole lot of albums would you expect anything less! Anyway I had to tak ethe wife for a little culture shock/education on what real bands are supposed to be and sound like and she was impressed, or at least that what she told me!

click to view larger

Memorial day weekend races

What a truck race on Saturday! That is the best division in NASCAR top 3 divisions I think. right off the start they were bumping and bangin fenders with each other. And the 3 wide finish at the end is typical of teh NASCAR Craftsman truck series.

Then off to Charlotte where it seemed whoever was leading had problems, Brian Vickers, Tony Stewart, Dale Jr., and Kurt Busch all had problems while leading. And Dale Jr, managed to come back for a 5th place finish when his car looked like it was ready for the junkyard

Not a good day to be a Habs fan or a Dale Jr, fan!

Well it's Saturday nite and I thought .Yes it's Hockey Night in Canada and game 5 of the Habs vs Flyers is on. And as the Canadiens started out good their goaltending seems to be suspect especially at playoff time. The Huet trade looks really suspicious now. I hope that draft pick you got fro Huet turns out to be a Patrick Roy like goalie! Carey Price will be the man in the Habs future but where is the experienced goaltender to help guide him thru the playoffs? The Habs backup is only 20 years old as well and has zilch NHL playoff experience, the same as Carey Price. Anyway Bob Gainey, I will never understand the trade you made to give a way Christobal Huet and get nothing in return except a future draft pick. Even if he was an unrestricted free agent thsi summer you would still have some experience in the playoffs. Anyway next year is another year.
Go HABS Go!

Dale Jr.

Well what about the driving of Kyle Busch this season in the Sprint cup NASCAR series? How many drivers has he taken out this year to win races? Well he took out another one last nite at the expense of Dale Earnhardt Jr. who was just a few laps away from winning his first race in two years. It may have been a racing accident , but Kyle has a reputation of wrecking people this year and not caring how he wins so this was no exception and he lost many poularity points with that one.

Oleeeeeeeee, Ole, Oleee.........

Well I hope al the HAb fans in the world are as happy as I am that they defeated the Bruins and are already up a gam eon the Flyers. Too bad about the riots in Montreal though that was really uncalled for!

Go Habs Go!

Lebut remembered

Nov 1996-April 2008
Well it is a sad day today in the passing of out beloved dog Lebut. He wasn't doing well these last few days and he passed away in the night. I will never forget that the last thing he did was come up to me and the wife before we fell asleep and kissed us goodnight.
It was like he was saying goodbye.

He will definitely be missed by all who knew and loved him and especially by us. When we bought him as a pup he fit in the palm of our hands and we had to scratch his belly with our fingers. Full of energy and affection this little guy was a bundle of joy for us for 12 years. The last two weeks of his life were the hardest on all of us as he was slowly giving up and we tried desparately to help him. But now we know he is in a better place and I hope he is running free with some of his old pals.

Lebut will be missed.

Running Again

Well here I am again running with my wife's learn to run group. Well actuall I'm only running with them on Mondays cause I've graduated from that so I think I will run with the 5k groups for awhile on Wednesdays and Sundays. A friend of mine is suppose to join the learn to run group but he hasn't got his sorry ass out yet! If I can get my lazy fat ass out of bed on a Sunday morning I 'm sure he can. Wait a minute I'm suppose to be in retirement, why do I have to get out of bed on a Sunday morning, ohhhhh, do we have a tee time booked? Except my wife won't let me retire from running after my first 5k race was quite a personal success for me. Maybe I should have finished last then I would have had a good excuse to quit running. But then she would probably make me do the 5k learn to run all over again. I don't know if can handle that voice again "run", "walk" HAhahha, just kidding honey (slave driver).I'm kidding. Anyway I'm trying to do better times for my 5k races so I'll keep training I guess as my wife won't let me quit. She wants me to run 10k with that group cause alot of people from the first learn to run group are joining it. I don't know if I'm into that just yet, an hour of running when there is hockey playoffs around the corner, I don't know. Maybe one day.

One other thing, as we run right next door to Woody's taphouse how come no one wants to go for beer after running? Or are they really that serious about running? Hmmm enquiringly minds need to know as I know a cold beer is what I look forward to after a good run. That would explain why I can't get rid of my beer belly!

Habs on a roll

Well the Montreal Canadiens are sure on a roll these days. Number one in the Eastern Conference and with two rookie goalies. I remember the last time Montreal had a rookie goalie in net they won the Stanley Cup!
remember Patrick Roy? Or even years before that another goaltender to lead the way as a rookie, Ken Dryden. Maybe this year is the year as they are running out of years to have won the cup in every decade. So now they rely on Carey Price and the way he's been playing things are looking good, maybe not this year but soon enough........I hope!

Oh the only other thing better than winning the Stanley Cup for the 25th time is beating the Bruins 10 times in a row which they have successfully done as of last night.

Out of retirement

Well I thought I was gonna retire from running after I completed the 5 k race last weekend. But my wife has other plans for me! This morning the alarm goes off at 7:00am and she tells me we are running again at the running room with the groups. As I was hoping for a weekend to sleep in, it looked more and more like it wasn't going to happen. Heck I thought I could retire on a high note and always say "hey I finished a 5k race in under 30 min" and just go through life with that as my claim to fame. But nope , wifey wants me to keep running, more 5 ks and even some 10 ks. well after we got to the Runing Room we met up with some of the people from my wife's learn to run class. They are all doing well and some have signed up for 5k classes and 10k classes. A few even doing half marathon classes. I wish them all good luck.

Anyway today I ran with the 5k group as well as some of the learn to run group and I did well , no pain, so Iguess I will have to keep running now. Maybe I can retire at the end of another 5k race!

The first of the fat guys

Well holy crap, what has the wife got me into now? For the last 10 weeks she has been teaching a clinic on learning to run. Somehow I got roped into it as well as being a pacer, anyway the whole idea was to be able to run a 5Km race at the end of the clinic. So here it is after 1o weeks of training with some really awesome people the day has arrived for the race event. The Diakonos Retreat Society 2nd annual St. Patrick's Day race. I can't even pronounce that and she wants me to run it! Oh well after moving my bib number around 10 times, started out on my leg, then on front of my sweater that I thought I didn't need to wear then I put it back on, then put the number to the side but it kept hitting my hands then I put it back on my original sweater that I had taken off cause I thought I might be too hot in it, then I was going to take off one of my layers of pants but then decided not to. So the bib number ended up on my leg again! How's that for nervous energy! Do I look nervous in the pic? Anyway all I could think was when is this thing going to be starting so I can go home and get some rum to warm up.

Well we are finally outside and the temperature was -10C according to my wife's new car! Yes her new car which can tell you the temperature outside of the vehicle and it was saying brrrrrrrrrr, well maybe it wasn't but I was. Oh yeah this car of my wife's was suppose to be my new truck! How did that happen, I don't know. The wind chill was around -22C but the wind died down before the race so wasn't really a factor. After the start of the race I was on my way not knowing what to expect. Notice how I didn't post any pics of me from the start. It's because my wife never took any of me at the start!
So as I am running down the path passing people, WHAT? Yes, passing people, I'm wondering something isn't right, these people should be better than me why am I passing them? Then I caught up to Shirley who was in our running clinic as well and she is also taking a marathon class. So I ended up running with her for the duration of the race. It's a good thing for me to have someone to run with cause I get bored if I'm on my own running. And I was getting to that point fast as there weren't many more people close to me that I could have caught up to. Our training teaches us to take a one minute walk break to refresh the body but as I was running with Shirley I sensed she wasn't about to walk so I said to myself well I'm not going to either, only a few more kms to go. Until I seen the 3km marker up ahead when I thought I had already passed 3K already. The last 2km were steady as I started to see the end in sight as the Ea Claire market buildings were just a little bit away until those race volunteers steered us into the park for a little loop through the park that I wasn't expecting! Oh well 5k is 5k I guess. So here we are Shirley and I in this pic running down the stretch with a few metres to go to the end. By the way the hippy looking guy with the mullet is me! Like the Habs sweater? Number 2 in the eastern conference baby as of last night! Anywyay my final time was 28 min and 30 sec or something like that, and I placed 18th overall of all the 5k racers. Not bad I guess for my first run, but alot of people who finished ahead of me and the 10k racers who finished ahead of me in the time it took me to do 5k all look like they weigh 4o pounds! I guess I was the first of the fat guys to finish as I didn't see anyone else with a beer belly at the finish line waiting for other racers to finish!




4 tires at Bristol
So why woudn't Tony Eury jr. bring Dale jr. in to get some fresh tires with 8 laps to go in the race at Bristol today. Harvick got 4 and passed a few cars til he had an accident with Tony Stewart. Jr. could have easily improved his position with 2 or 4 new tires, I preferred he get 4 but I was resting after my run, so is not my call! Anyway congrats to RCR with their 1,2,3 finish at Bristol Motorspeedway today and to Jeff Burton on his win.

IROC series done

One of my Favorite racing series of all time the IROC racing series has folded. Due to scheduling conflicts with other series and drivers. The Iroc series has auctioned off all its engines, cars, tools, and parts. It is a sad time as the series ran for over 30 years.

The IROC (International Race Of Champions) series was a unique series in the fact that the series was made up of champion race drivers from various racing circuits, IRL, CART, Formula 1, road Racing, Off Road, Sprint Cars and even an NHRA driver was suppose to race this year, Ronn Capps. The idea was to take all these drivers from different race circuits and different cars, get 12 of these drivers, put them in identical prepared cars and run on 4 different tracks. The series was only 4 races a year due to the commitments of each respective driver's series they belong to. The cars they used were mostly of a NASCAR design using camaros and Firebirds over the years. Hence the IROC Camaro of the '80's. All teh cars in the series were identical except for thier paint scheme. Each driver had a different color and a number from 1-12.

These races were exciting at tracks like Daytona where the sprint car racers such as Steve Kinser had a challenging time racing against NASCAR regulars. All the drivers got practice times in the cars and the IROC series had their own mechanics and opit crews for the cars.
I will really miss this series as was a fun fast shootout of champion racers from all ove rthe world.

How did I know?

Well how did I know that the Habs might do something stupid? At the trade deadline they traded away their main goaltender for a 2nd round draft pick! Christobal Huet was traded, no...... given away, you think that the Habs could have made a better deal somewhere. i know this deal is a money thing in the fact that it frees up cap space for next year and Huet will be a free agent at the end of this season but couldn't you hang on to him a little longer then trade in the summer. Even if you let him go for nothing in summer whats the difference between today? A second round draft pick who may not be ready to play for 3-4 years.

All in all I don't like this trade. you think they could have at least got a player who ready to play now, or got 5 or 6 draft picks. Maybe a first rounder. carey Price may be a star i future but how is the 20 year going to deal with the pressure of making the playoffs and then the playoffs themselves in Montreal?

Time will tell

What happened to Toyota in the off season?

So what did Toyota do in the off season? Wholy crap, this year Tony Stewart and his new teammate Kyle Busch finished the Nationwise series race at Daytona (formerly the Busch series) in the first and second spots for Joe Gibbs racing in new Toyota Camry race cars. And Michael Waltrip gets to start on the front row of the Daytona 500 in a Toyota Camry. Looks like Toyota has gotten their homework done with their entries into the NASCAR Sprint series and Nationwise series. They have have already been proven winners in the Craftsman truck series, so now I guess its time that they finally caught up. Seems like the Toyota race cars have a whole lot more horsepower than last year.
Congrats Toyota!

NHRA, and where the hell is my NHRA broadcast on TSN

Well as I waited all week to watch the season opener of the NHRA Winterneationals on TSN (tape delayed) I find taht all the Canadain sports networks we have are showing the Roger Clemens hearings about Steroids. Although this may be a serious offence but hell, they are all doing it, so where the hell is my NHRA drag racin gcoverage and when are you going to show it then?
All I can watch is what was on news websites and youtube about Tony Pedregon's crash. Although Tony is ok he had 2nd degree burns.

And the other alternative is to watch the Daytona 500 practice sessions on SpeedTV but they have been on and off today because of rain!

Speedweeks 2008

Well that time is upon us once again. The tim eof year every NASCAR fan waits for............SPEEDWEEK!

And it all started doff with Dale Earnhardt Jr. winning the Bud shootout at Daytona. The Bud shootout which is for racers who qulaified on the pole s last year thru out the season. Dale jr did it in his new team colors of teh NAtional Guard and Hendricks Motorsports. Is a sign of thing s to come?
One could only hope. Let's wait til Tursday for The twin 125's and see how good he really is.