Indy time!! As a drag racer you really don’t need to say more.  It is the one race every driver wants to win and one that defines your career.  Early in my career I had a chance to win Indy.  In fact I made it to the final round in 1995 and was on my way to victory when a parachute malfunction resulted in an early chute deployment that cost me the victory. I remember it very well.  It was my first race under the Jerzees sponsorship. We had put together a new team in preparation for the 1996 season but decided to run the last 5 or 6 races of 1995 to test and get our team ready for the upcoming season.

I remember the pre race test session. We couldn’t make it past 100 feet no matter what we tried and to say I went in to the race nervous would be an understatement. As luck would have it on our first run down the track we made a great run, ended up qualified number 3. I remember all the other teams bowing to us as we came back up the return road. To bring out a new team and put down a run like that was pretty impressive and it set the tone for our weekend that ended up with that unfortunate runner up, still a pretty good weekend and an impressive debut.

In heading into Pennsylvania our backs were against the wall. We needed to have a strong race to position ourselves as far as possibly stealing a spot in the countdown.  Qualifying started about normal. We smoked the tires in the first session and came back with a decent run in the second session, a 3.93 that put us in the 11^th spot.  Saturday’s qualifying went about like Friday’s , tire smoke in the first session and a repeat 3.93 in the last session. We ended up 12^th on the ladder and would face Morgan Lucas in a pivotal matchup on Sunday first round. The winner would keep his countdown hopes alive and the loser’s fate would be pretty much sealed.

To get ready for the big matchup many of us went bowling, two friends of Del and Chuck Worsham are professional bowlers and they came out and joined us, Danny Wiseman and Jimmy Tomek.  I can tell you one thing I have realized over the years, even though I am a scratch golfer and regularly shoot in the 60’s and low 70’s the difference between my game and my buddies that play on both the PGA tour and the Nationwide tour is a lot, well I just confirmed that carries over to bowling as well. While many of us can roll games of 200 plus, JR Todd, Chris Cunningham to name a few watching those guys bowl confirmed there is another level, just like on the golf course! In between giving us lessons, shooting the bull, and generally having a good time they managed to throw a few 250 plus games at us while not really even paying attention. Not to mention the bowling they were both good dudes and we had a blast making fun of each other.

I f you remember from last year Brainerd was the site of the annual golf trip for me and my buddies.  This year there was no golf trip. In life we seem to get reality checks when we least expect them. One of my best buddies earlier in the year felt some discomfort in his knee after playing a few days in a row during a golf tournament , upon visiting his doctor to find out the culprit we were all stunned to hear the reason, there was a tumor in his knee, after undergoing chemotherapy and knee replacement and seemingly on the road to recovery he developed a blood infection incurred from the final treatments after the knee replacement and just like that he was gone, one week after developing the infection and putting up a fight he passed away,  reality check #1. Unfortunately there would be reality check #2.

Another member of our group son’s had battled something called OTC deficiency, Urea cycle disorder. While most of these medical terms are hard to understand what I know about this is it affects the liver and causes increased ammonia levels in your blood. While I am not a doctor I am now aware that that is not a good thing. On a family vacation he complained of not feeling well and they returned back to Atlanta and took him to the Children’s hospital, the Children’s Healthcare group of hospitals in Atlanta is one of the best in the country and also is the benefactor of the Vandergriff Foundation.