I finally have enough time to sit down and right an entry for my own personal blog. After returning from Reading, I had so much to do, between school, Top Alcohol News stories, and press releases for clients. It's now Friday and the work has slowed down a bit.
One of the most exciting parts of the weekend was that it was Blake Alexander's first race competing in NHRA Fuel Funny Car. I honestly think I was anticipating it more than he was. He really impressed everyone when he went out in qualifying and ran 4.18 and 4.19, putting him at #14 (FYI-if they ever start a bracket-only Funny Car class, call up Paul Smith. He had that car consistent!). John Force came up to the car in the lanes to introduce himself and welcome Blake to the class, then congratulated Blake once he was locked in to the super-quick field. What a guy. The track couldn't hold their tune-up in the first round of eliminations, so Blake suffered a tire-smoking loss to Matt Hagan. It was still a great debut. I'm really looking forward to what he does next year. As for this year, Blake will run A/Fuel Dragster for the rest of the races; Vegas and Pomona.
The second most exciting part was seeing Brandon Booher finally get his sub-5.40 pass. Its been a goal of his since the beginning of 2010 to run a 5.399 or better. He did just that, making a 5.397 pass in the second round against Duane Shields. Though the win light wasn't on in our lane, Brandon was still very excited when we told him what it ran. He now can claim that he is the driver of the first converter-equipped car to break into the 5.30 range. Next goal-win a Wally!
I got to meet some of my Twitter followers, as well as see some that I hadn't seen since Indy. Mark (@NHRAforlife) and Mitzi (@gottagoracing) both stopped by to introduce themselves. Mitzi even brought the team a plate of lucky brownies, which quickly disappeared. Alan (@SFCSKI) and Steve (@sremerson) are a couple of my Twitter pals that I met at Indy. They're east coast-based, so they stopped by as well. Steve and his son, Steven, are huge Tony Schumacher fans. They got a pretty cool experience on Saturday, as they drove Shoe back to his hotel, then went to dinner with the multi-time Top Fuel champion. Check out Steve's blog for more on his weekend at the Auto Plus NHRA Nationals. Its always nice to meet face-to-face with some of the greatest drag racing fans out there, people that I tweet with almost daily.
My site, Top Alcohol News, has some exciting things going on. We're starting to introduce a series of Driver Blogs, written by a wide variety of Top Alcohol competitors. The first driver is Marie Ferriolo, who drives a TAFC in Division 1. Her first post is an introduction, with lots of good info on her racing career. Another new feature that we'll be launching soon is the Reader's Choice Awards. Upon the completion of the 2011 season (which is sadly coming closer), readers will vote on nominees in a variety of categories, from Driver of the Year, to Best Run of the Year. Check out Top Alcohol News for these features and more!
Well that just about wraps up all that I wanted to say in this post. Catch me on Facebook or Twitter. Thanks for reading!
