The rain held off just enough for us to take the cars to Evergreen Speedway for the first test of the year. Jeff picked up right where he left off last year and was fast right out of the box. A few minor adjustments to the car and he will be winning early in the season. Natalie did an amazing job driving her Whelen All American Series car, "The Miss" around the 3/8 mile track and ran consistant lap times for all three sessions within a half of a second of Jeff's times. Look out boys, this girl can drive! We will be testing more this Friday night from 6pm to 9:30 pm on the big 5/8 mile oval at Evergreen and all Day Sunday at Yakima Speedway. Come out and support racing in the Northwest! You can watch practice Friday night for free and watch the season opener Saturday night where the Northwest Late Model tour cars will tear up the big track all night long. For more information go to www.evergreenspeedway.com
Hey everyone! Go to www.nataliesather.com and click on the link to join the Drive for Diversity group and then join Natalie Sather's page. The driver with the most members wins cool prizes! Tell everyone you know and let's show them how we roll in the NW!
It is finally official and we can go public about Total Velocity Motorsports' new team member! Natalie Sather www.nataliesather.com from Fargo North Dakota will be piloting our Drive For Diversity car in the 2009 Evergreen Speedway Super Stock division. Natalie is a 23 year old race car driver who has 14 years driving experience in Go Karts and 360 and 410 dirt Sprint cars. 2009 will be her first season driving asphalt Late Models and the team is very confident in her abilities to succeed. Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Carl Edwards, Clint Boyer and many other top level NASCAR drivers started on the dirt and made very successful transitions to the asphalt. Natalie impressed the instructors at Finish Line Racing School as well as Jeff, Darrin Stordahl, (our new partner here at TVM), and I with how quickly she was able to get up to speed in the much heavier stock car. She will be moving to Washington by the end of the month and will be involved with finishing the car and driving the simulator in preparation for testing the car at Yakima and Monroe. The TVM crew has been diligently working all winter long on building two very competitive race cars for Natalie and Jeff to drive. The Weapon is getting a complete overhaul and will be Jeff's primary car and the White Knight will serve as the back up car for both drivers. TVM has added a third Port City chassis to the stable and it is being prepared as Natalie's primary car. Look for the #94 Drive For Diversity Super Stock soon to be on display around Monroe and check my blog for further status reports and pictures as we near the beginning of the 2009 race season. The opener is only 11 weeks away! Check www.evergreenspeedway.com for the race schedule and exact dates.
As I look back at the idle months on my blog I want to justify the lack of entries but will not. For those of you that still check on me from time to time looking for some racing news, I thank you for not giving up. Enough said.
A lot has happened in 2008 in our little racing town. Thee top of the list has got to be Jeff Knight winning his first main event at Evergreen Speedway on June 21st. A lot of guys spend their whole racing career trying to do this and Jeff accomplished it in his 27th start ever in a race car. Impressive!
Lex and Dani Johnson started Johnson Promotions and purchased Evergreen Speedway from the Beadle family. This is a huge undertaking and their first year has been great. I look forward to see what a racers perspective will bring from the drivers seat of race track promotion.
Total Velocity Motorsports was chosen to be the team owners for the Nascar Drive for Diversity program at Evergreen Speedway. That is right, TVM will be a two car team once again but this time I will be competing from the top of the pit box versus from behind the steering wheel. For more information about D4D go to www.drivefordiversity.com. Yes we have chosen a driver and I would love to tell you all about her but we cannot go public with it until Nascar makes its announcement on January 22 2009. I will say that we have met some very talented women and men from across the country who can drive the wheels off of a race car and all of the crew from TVM have very high hopes for the 2009 race season. Have any of you ever been to Fargo North Dakota?
This weekend Jeff and I are in Orlando Florida at the PRI show. 1,000,000 square feet of the latest and greatest parts from every manufacturer who has anything to do with racing. Dirt, asphalt, drag, oval, road racing, karting, even simulated racing. It is awesome and overwhelming all at the same time.
Stay tuned, more to come.....
Jeff's Answer: The Rock Church first found its name on a race car when Roger Habich approached The Rock Church and myself, as pastor, about sponsorship. At the time The Rock Church leadership board was not comfortable with the sponsorship of racing, so Melinda and I personally helped Roger with income from the closing of a real estate transaction we had. I bought out Roger’s partner Nathan and became 50% owner. Instead of putting my name on the car Melinda and I thought, “This would be a great way to let people know that The Rock Church cares about people who love racing." That was 2001.
My input: When I first approached The Rock Church regarding sponsorship, the answer from the church was a resounding no. I had spent two years building a new race car and out of the blue my partner Nathan was relocated to another state for work, and needed to sell his ownership in the car. I wanted to race so I was calling all over town 'dialing for dollars' trying to find funding for the 2001 season. We were not attending church, and did not have a relationship with Jesus, yet God had a bigger plan for our family. That phone call rekindled a 20 year friendship that had grown apart over the years. It was Jeff and Melinda that believed in me, and got on board. We started attending The Rock Church the Sunday after 9/11 and several families from the race track followed. I am thankful we knew where we were to be planted and the seeds were already sown.
Jeff's Answer: NO, I have never and will not drive The Rock Church race car in competition at this time.
My input: True, and believe me, I've tried to get Jeff to race The Rock Church car for the last five years. He won't do it. My goal since we've started as always been to have Jeff drive. I knew all along that Jeff has the natural ability required to be competitive at the super stock level and I love sharing my passion of racing with someone who 'gets it.'
Jeff's Answer: It's awesome when people who love Jesus and their church want to sport the logo. There is nothing like word of mouth and free advertising.
My input: I am one of those people too. I put The Rock Church logo on the Stude when we raced in Mexico last year for La Carerra Panamericana because of nothing more than this; The Rock Church is my church and I am proud of the people of The Rock that are changing the world. No money ever exchanged hands.
Jeff's Answer: NO, never has, never will. When I started racing (2007) the pastors of our church took an offering for my racing on Father's Day. I declined to use those funds for my racing and sowed them into our missions giving for the year. I will not conflict my personal interests with that of our church.
My input: Ha! This is funny to me because when Jeff and Melinda first came to the track, and people found out that they Pastor a church, the whole "pass the plate racing" rumor kicked into high gear. Honestly. This question is asked by people who know the truth, they just listen to stupid comments made by people who don't know the truth. We never have, and never will, use tithes and offerings as a way to fund any hobby, racing or otherwise.
Jeff's Answer: In 7 years being involved at Evergreen Speedway The Rock Church has seen scores of people directly connected to racing find Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Our mission is, “Connecting People to Life.” Racers are people also, and we use our budget to reach people every weekend at The Rock Church, we are not limited by race, gender, income level or subculture.
My input: Go into all the world and preach the gospel. All the world. Simple as that.
Here's a question I'm not asked often enough,
Q: "Jeff, What's your end-game?"
Jeff's Answer: I want racers to know the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Before I started in this racing thing I don't think there was one racer attending The Rock Church, I don't think we reached a single person at the largest venue in our city. Today there has been dozens, and on most Sundays you can meet some of them if you want. They are some of the most fun passionate people around. On the track we are competitors having a blast; at church I am their pastor. I count it a blessing to see racers at TRC every weekend. What is that worth to me, as a pastor? More than I've ever spent on a race car part.
My input: Racing is exciting, that is why scores of people fill the stands every weekend to be entertained, join a race team, or drive a race car. For some of them their life is a mess, and the come to the track as a distraction, to watch the competition and destruction. What they don't expect is a message of hope and a team of people in the pits and in the grandstands dedicated to the mission statement of The Rock Church; Connecting People to Life.
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Yesterday's article:
Each year about this time, my adrenaline starts pumping and I start losing sleep.
Each year about this time, racing occupies every thought in my head. Every spare minute of the day.
Right now, race teams around the nation are in full swing (sheer panic). Race season is a little over a month away and there is much to do to prepare the cars/team/hauler for the season. There are lists to complete, parts to be ordered, appearances to be made and pressure. Pressure to perform. Pressure to compete. Pressure to win.
This year the same pressure is being felt by many, just not me.
Yes, the rumors are true. This year, I will not be competing weekly at Evergreen Speedway. It's a decision that I have been working toward for quite some time with much resistance from my fans. While the start of a new season brings excitement and uncertainty, there is nevertheless a most definite sense of relief for me, and undoubtedly for my family. I'm tired of being gone.
I spent the first 20 years of my racing life trying to get somewhere and now it's like the second half of my life, I'm trying to get back. I don't know where the road leads next, but I'm enjoying being with my family, going on road trips, driving Carter to Little League practice, picking Jayce up from the ski bus and tucking the boys into bed at night.
It is difficult to come up with the energy or desire to write this post but as I looked over all of your great comments this week I realized that many of you are relying solely on my blog for the results of this years race.
As you all know we were disqualified on day 5 for being out of fuel for the surprise weigh in. At first I wanted to be really mad at the race officials for singling us out. Then Scott said something that made a lot of sense. Rookie mistakes. That's right, rookie mistakes is what beat us this year and as hard as that was to swallow at first, it is entirely true. We led the whole field out of Oaxaca the first day and what a great feeling it was to be the first car through the starting arch. (although I cannot seem to find ONE picture of it on any of the Mexican websites including the official LaCarrera site) The problem was we didn't know how to lead this race. When you are behind another car it is easy to remember that you need to wait for the proper Z control time because they are waiting ahead of you. We barged on through the checkpoint like we were going to get a reward for being there early. Rookie. Then the weight thing. We were told that the car needed to make weight at any time during the race. Proper interpretation of this should have told us that they were going to weigh us especially after kicking their can for four straight days. Rookie again. What we learned form all of this is the Carrera is certainly not only about speed. You need reliability, strategy, luck and an inside connection to the race officials might be handy as well. I am convinced that someone was watching us as we came into town each night to see if we stopped for fuel. Water under the bridge now.
For those of you who don't know, we decided to finish the race in the exhibition class and leave the car at full weight to see how it would have gone minus the DQ. After the last two days, we were still the fastest car for most of the speed sections and when it was all said and done, won the race by 12 minutes and 22 seconds over the famed Frenchman Pierre de Thoisy. He took home the trophy, but most of the competitors and officials know who really should have won the 2007 LaCarrera PanAmericana......Minus a few rookie mistakes. I have accepted the fact that it was our actions or lack thereof, that cost us the race. My plan for next year is to build my own Turismo Mayor car and leave dad's car set up as a Turismo Production racer like it is now with the little motor. We can then go down and dominate both of the top classes and make sure they do not forget who we are.
Thank you again for all of your support and comments. It really feels good to have so many great people behind you when you're 4000 miles away from home and do not speak the language. The preparation for the 2008 LaCarrera PanAmericana begins now. I will start work on one of the Studebakers from out behind dad's barn (there are three to choose from) as soon as I catch up on my sleep and the honeydo list! If you are interested in helping with this project and/or going to Mexico with us next year, send me a message and we can talk specifics.
Saludos Amigos!
Have you ever wanted to relive a five minute section of your life before? It happened to us yesterday and it will take me a while to recover from it. On our way into Augascalentes we were being escorted by the police to the Parc Isla where the driver's meeting and service area for the night would be. Knowing that the car needed to be full of fuel to make weight, Dad and I discussed pulling into one of the 5 Pemex stations along the way to fill up in case of a surprise weigh in (which has never happened in the history of LaCarrera). We were very tired and didn't want to think so we opted to not stop so we wouldn't have to navigate our way through the busy foreign city on our own. Five minutes. That is the time it would have taken to stop for gas and since we were driving in on fumes, the 132 pounds of fuel load would have made us pass the first time ever surprise technical inspection. We didn't pass. 72 pounds light and no variance for fuel load would be given so the car was immediately disqualified from the event. Yesterday we were the fastest car in EVERY speed stage again excluding the unlimited Subaru of Kevin and Mark. We gained 1:20 on the race leader and for the first time this week I felt that we really had a chance of making up the penalty from our rookie timing error. If you ever come down to LaCarrera to race remember that your A time plus your section time equals your Z time. Say it. A + Section = Z. Live by it. That all doesn't matter now as we are an Exibition car just like last year and can only race for the fastest time which will not be recognized by the officials. That is our job now, the fastest time for the whole event which was our desire all along but now it is all we have to look forward to until next year since we will not be scored as the race winner even if we are.
Thank you all for your support over these last days. It was hard to keep going at times but knowing all of you are watching from home really helped keep us driven during the really hard times. My goal this year to bring the world class trophy from the LaCarrera Panamericana home to Washington will have to wait until next year but in our hearts we all know who really should be standing on the top of the podium tomorrow evening. I can't wait to come home and see all of you. It feels like I have been gone forever. I miss my family, I miss church, I miss going to work and doing what I love to do with the best fabricators in the country. I will not miss having to use hand signals to communicate because I do not know the language. I will be home Friday evening and will talk to you all this weekend.
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Mark Jhon said:
[this is good]Indeed, I think this is a really nice blog. After reading this blog many things are clear to me. I... read more
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OH AWESOME!!! I am soooooo excited!!!!! Bring on the greese and WAX read more
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