Well, where to start....The event itself was fantastic!!! We had almost 50 cars from one end of the country to the other, but all from the south....SoCal, Louisiana, Florida and NorCal. It was a great group of racers and I believe everyone had a great time. We're already looking forward to next year's event and maybe adding one in the spring.

Nine new racers were welcomed into the 100 Mile Per Hour Club with Tim Smith setting two new records over 100. A young man named Brian Pohlman brought his Electric Open creation ready to compete. He had nothing but problems on Saturday and only hit 40 mph. He and his dad worked all day trying to fix the handling and electrical gremlins. They came back Sunday with a big fin on the back and renewed power. He made a few unsuccessful runs during the day and in one of the last runs of the day ran 103mph!!!! It wasn't the fastest, his car wasn't the prettiest but the crowd went wild when he broke 100.

Nic Case had troubles but still went 154...the crowd was hoping to see a new top speed but 154 is nothing to sneeze at! We used two sets of timing lights so everyone's speeds were confirmed immediately.

To say my weekend was awful would be putting a positive spin on it. On the way down to LA (Thursday) I felt a cold coming on and for the next three days I was up very early (5am) and went to bed very late (midnight) and managed to end up with the Mother of All Colds! I was so sick I seriously couldn't think properly. I managed to add almost 9 mph (78.69 to 86.75) to my speed from last year but it wasn't enough to hold Bernard Heredia off with 89.95. I had one run of 96 on just one set of clocks so that's an unofficial speed. Bernard is forcing me to step up my game and I will be for the next meet. Unfortunately, I had crashes both days which took away tuning time but it didn't matter...I couldn't think OR drive!!!!

In the Open class I was worse...a couple weeks before the meet I changed the plugs in the twin to one step colder and they wouldn't run at all once the throttle was applied. I worked on the engines but was unable to solve the problem, only later remembering the plug switch. I'm going to run a test here at home with #6 plugs which is what was in there before. I'm sure they'll run like mad but I was unable to solve that when I was sick.

I drove home Monday and needed two naps on the way, missed a bunch of work and here six weeks later I still have a slight cough remnant. Since the Open car didn't run I'll run it again next year (I'm sure it's got well over 100 in it!), do some aero work on the small block car and will be pursuing the big block record as well.

Thanks to Adam of ABMods for continuing to stand behind me (who, coincidentally, was just as sick as I was!) and Jake's Performance Hobbies In Rohnert Park, CA for his many years of friendship and support and for cutting out the cool CF fin and elevator. I didn't have time to make them 'aero' but they look a WHOLE lot better than the wood fin I had in there.