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Hello again everyone. It’s Wednesday morning and I can honestly say that I’m glad I’m in Florida and not Indy. My friends at the shop said it was seven degrees driving to work this morning. Seven degrees! It’s almost March. This winter just won’t let up.
Well, we scored our first win of the season last Sunday at the newly named Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park. Antron and the Matco Tools team scored our first Wally of the season and win number 220 for DSR. The Matco car continues to run well and dating back to last season they have won three of the last six races. Now we need to get one of our Team DSR Funny Cars in the winner’s circle at the Gatornationals in a few weeks.
Phoenix was a surprisingly busy race for our drivers. TJ and Jack both did the pre-event press conference on Thursday at the track in Chandler and Jack even gave members of the media rides in the two-seat Super Comp dragster. TJ then had an early wake-up call on Friday morning and did two Phoenix TV morning shows from the track. His first hit was at 5:30 a.m. and TJ isn’t a morning person, but he knew the importance given it was Make-A-Wish’s home market. Thanks for being a trooper TJ! Haha. Our PR team jokes, that 5:30 is really 7:30 ET back in Indy where TJ lives. Saturday morning it was Antron’s turn and he joined DSR Chef Malcolm Clark for a Saturday Phoenix-area morning show. We’re lucky to have a great group of drivers who know the importance of exposing our sport of NHRA racing to new fans.
On the way to the track on Friday, we stopped at Sprinkle’s cupcakes shop in Scottsdale and brought the boys cupcakes. They all work so hard, so it’s fun to surprise them with a treat. And Sprinkle’s are so yummy!
Saturday was a very gratifying day at the track for all of us at DSR. We hosted more than 200 Make-A-Wish guests. Given Make-A-Wish is headquartered in Phoenix, it was so great to see the outpouring of support for TJ and the team at the track on Saturday. TJ made two great laps at 4.07 and 4.02 to move up to the No. 2 qualifying spot on the Q4 pass. Winning races is great, but putting a smile on the faces of the Make-A-Wish families is so extremely gratifying and I can’t express how proud we are to have partnered with both Terry Chandler and everyone at Make-A-Wish and we can’t wait to host families at Gainesville in a few weeks. I think the most touching part of Saturday came during a pit tour when a little boy gave the Make-A-Wish Dodge Funny Car a kiss for good luck. It was just adorable and that was before TJ ran the 4.02!
After the race, we celebrated in the winner’s circle. My mom had a few of her friends in town, so they got to celebrate with us. Tracy Stange is the life of the party and always keeps us in stitches. She decided to lay on Antron’s dragster in the winner’s circle photo. Tracy is a hoot.
After that, mom and I took a red eye flight home as I had a final exam on Monday. It’s final’s week. Woo hoo! The good news is that I only have one more quarter of school left after this week and then it’s all done at Lynn University for me. Now that’s exciting! Don flew to Colorado for a few days to spend some time with his daughter, Tara.
The U.S. Army and Mopar Express Lane teams tested on Monday after the Phoenix race and the other teams headed East on Monday morning. Most of the teams are back at the shop gearing up for the Gators. We have some paint work to do on the NAPA body that hit the wall on Sunday at Pomona and we have to repair the front nose of the Valvoline MaxLife car. It will go to Aerodine for carbon fiber work and then to paint at SD Enterprises up in Michigan. We also have a few Funny Cars being wrapped. Jack will have a special one-off paint scheme at Gainesville that you will read about soon. Needless to say, it will be a busy few weeks at DSR before the team’s leave to Gainesville on March 12.
That’s it for now. Stay warm and have a great week.
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