What I Did For My Birthday

I'm sure you all have noticed that I have been absent from this blog over the last few days.  The reason was because I went out of town for my birthday, which was Saturday.  My wife, son and I went to ZMax Dragway in Charlotte for the NHRA Carolina Nationals.  I had been to ZMax one time before, back in April 2012 for the 4-WIde Nationals.

This time around, it was only 2-wide and the race was part of the NHRA's 'playoffs' or 'Countdown to the Championship.  This added a bit of drama to the event.  I'm not the biggest fan of this setup, as I was brought up in the era of "He who wins the most races is the Champion", but it makes it so that no one racer is dominating the class, so I guess that's ok.

As with any sporting event, I went with a goal in mind.  This time, it was to meet, again, my childhood idol, Shirley Muldowney, the First Lady of drag racing.  I had met her before in 1995 at Bristol, but was too nervous to pose for a picture with her, even though she offered.  I felt terrible about that, and wanted to redeem myself before it was too late.  Well, after about 15 minutes on-site...

We spotted Shirley in front of the Don Schumacher hospitality area recruiting fans to attend the benefit breakfast for B. R. A. K. E. S. (Be Responsible and Keep Everyone Safe) teen driving initiative, which was founded by fellow Top Fuel racer, Doug Herbert.  This is a good program which teaches teen drivers proper safe driving techniques and was founded by Herbert when he lost his two sons in a road accident a few years back.  I've known Doug Herbert for several years and I was happy to contribute to his program while I was there.

We talked to Shirley for a bit outside of the breakfast area and she was kind enough to pose for a picture with the 3 of us.  She was really, super nice, I couldn't have asked for a better time meeting her.  She has always been good to me.  As you can see, the photo turned out awesome.  I'm going to print it out and hang it up with my Brooks Robinson and Nolan Reimold pictures.  Meeting her on my birthday meant the world to me, so you know I was happy.

On Sunday, Chris met current Top Fuel dragster driver, Leah Pruett and got her autograph.  I think he was a big smitten by her as he wanted to go back and congratulate her after her round one win over Tony Schumacher.  She was really nice as well.  She took the time to thank Chris for coming back by her pits and congratulating her.  She said she won the round because he had brought her good luck.

We had a great time, but I am now feeling it.  I didn't get much sleep over the weekend and am now feeling like a zombie.  So, that being said, I will retire for the evening and will return to my regular blogging probably tomorrow.