Hey Everyone we made it back alive! We managed to completely demolish Bradley's semi and empty his fridge but he was still smiling with a Chapagne in hand when we pulled in to Oakley, Ks.

Thanks everyone for all your messages while we were out there it was fun to hear from you all! Wish we could have you all there with us. The Magic Cookies Mrs. Jones sent to us were to die for! It was like Christmas in Vegas when we got them! I think I ate half of the box :o

Troy this entire trip was a blast! It was an honor to watch you go down Vegas & Pomona tracks and claim your spot at # 10! You are truly an amazing driver! I can't wait for next season :) :) :)

Robin

Well I reached my goal with a top ten finish in the Nation!  Here's the final points standings for 2007.

http://www.nhra.com/stats/points.html

Unfortunately I was the recipient of a near perfect reaction time by my oponent the 3rd round (again) who then red lit the fourth round (again!)  If only...woulda coulda shoulda...lol

Any more rounds would have moved me up higher in the standings but I'm just thankfull for the great year I had.  One thing to note though is that I'm the only guy who finished top ten who still had the ability to claim points.  I could take my best 3 of 6 National event points towards my points total but only attended 4.  A couple more events could have made a nice impact on everyone above me ;)

Dad, Brad and Robin were great support.  My buddy Paul flew in Thursday night from home and Matt drove down Friday.  Matt is a fighter pilot finishing up his training in California with the Navy and had some crazy stories of some of the things they can do with our $55 million dollar aircraft.  Here's a shot of us getting in some qualifying Saturday.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/DSCF0270.jpg

Another college friend Lynsey made it down Sunday as well as Matt Levonus who works with NHRA in my Division.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/DSCF0272.jpg

I've got a great picture of Lynsey crying from getting her first hit of nitro fumes but it had to stay on my computer.  There were so many things that made this race special.  Just going to the Pomona Finals chasing points for the first time rocked.  With the new points system introduced by NHRA this year it also meant that I got to witness all the Professional level champions being decided at this event.  We got a great spot at the starting line Sunday to witness all the history taking place.  Here is a picture of Tony Pedregon as he was crowned early in eliminations.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/DSCF0286.jpg

And just a few minutes later some really nice guy and his son recognized me as the famous kid from Kansas driving the A/S car and asked for a picture.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/DSCF0290.jpg

Ok I can't really back that up but when I turned around to see Chip Foose standing there ya better believe Paul and I were getting a picture!  With the unfortunate passing of Wally Parks there were celebraties of the sport on hand for a pretty emotional "cackle fest" of all forms clear down the track and return road of Pomona Raceway.  I tried to take pictures but it doesn't come close to capuring the majic of around 50 race cars spread over the last 50 years running at one.  The nitro was thick in the air but it wasn't needed to get a little teary eyed at what they accomplished.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/DSCF0295.jpg
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/DSCF0293.jpg

I've made a ton of new friends as well as valuable contacts on this trip.  I was pretty proud to find out there were alot more people then I knew cheering for me to put a stick shift car in the top ten.  It's a tougher car to race consitently against the red-fluid cars for sure but I wouldn't change it for the world.  I'm looking foreward to the winter to work on some projects and get caught up on everything that's been on hold lately.  This will probably be my last blog on my trip but I am going to periodically post updates here from now on.  Anyone who would like to come to the division 5 banquet this winter is more than welcome to join.  I'm hoping to have a "thank-you" to everyone on the friday night before.  I garantee it to be a good time ;) 

http://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCPhoto.asp?ID=149988&Filter=100#indextop

Well MIke beat me 3rd round.  He was on a 10.51 dial to my 10.48 which means he left only .03 ahead of me.  It was close on the starting line with both of us sawing the tree down.  He was on a tear with double 00 lights the first 3 rounds.  I stepped it up and strapped an .010 on him.  I had about .011 thou to push him out but the car slid the clutch for some unkown reason much more than it should of and slowed my car down.  So we'll take a look at the car and possibly swap in a  new clutch for Pomona.

Here's Mikey and I..

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/IMG_1524.jpg


And a shot before we ran.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/IMG_1520.jpg


And the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDf94ezPiXM


Had I beat Mike I would have had a doable path to the final.  That would have put me up in the top 5 in the Nation.  We'll just have to put our focus on Pomona now!

Despite the loss the trip has been a blast so far.  My buddy Fish and Trista have been having a great time hanging with us.  Trista even ran into Elvis yesterday ;)

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/IMG_1533.jpg

Robin has been great support too.  Although I know she can't go too much longer watching everyone else drive "her" future race cars!

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/DSCF0111.jpg

We finally got into Vegas last night!  The old men stayed at the track so it was Trista, Robin, Fish and myself tearing up downtown.  We started with Vegas Blvd hitting up all the popular Casinos.  We found an awesome restraunt at the Excalibur called Dick's.  That place was a riot.  They pride themselves on poor service, crappy bands, bad manners and gernerally anything they can do to mess with you.  Perfect for us!  They started a paper fight with us as soon as we sat down.  Fish and I definitely enjoyed ourselves ;)

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/DSCF0135.jpg


No trip to Vegas is complete with out seeing the water show at the Bellagio....

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/HPIM0475.jpg


Today's plan is to get the toterhome reloaded with water, fuel and groceries and make way towards Pomona.

See ya!

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/HPIM0449.jpg

Well like trista said we knocked out the first 2 rounds of competition.  That put me up 50 points which is 9th in the nation, just have to keep up the momentum!

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/Vegasday1083.jpg


http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/Vegasday1055.jpg


The stands are packed today.  This is one of the most popular races on the tour.

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/Vegasday1117.jpg


Oh and here's the Hulkster!

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c396/troy5118/Vegasday1113.jpg

Well another fantastic day in the Henderson/Erb racing camp.  Brother has dominated thus far winning his first two rounds and now waiting for the last round of spankiness to begin (which isnt til the end of the day.) 

Troy has Mike Koppien for the third round and we have a present that we will display later as to the excitement they decided to add to it. 

Also, we were surrounded by the Hulk Hogan pressence which made me want to piledrive a certain Butterface....I mean...wait, course not. 

That's it for this afternoon. 

Shake and Bake

The heads up racing is sweet!  I think that this is what the shine-runnin' hillbilliies intended it to be when they started the sport.  Troy's car has the biggest chrome balls of them all, so of course you see the Wally that was the result of that.  Strong work Troy!

Troy told me to walk over to the car that was spewing Nitro exhaust and I followed him.  All these fanatics are standing around watching and listening to all of this horsepower while my nose is burning, my eyes are watering, and my head is humming.  Hot damn, I ran away to take cover.  I looked back to see Troy laughing at me, and all the other fanatics still drooling over the display of horsepower.

Mike, you better buy a big-screen TV, You're gonna need it to display all the Wally's Troy's gonna bring home!