AFH Blog
Sonoma Race

We arrived in to Sonoma on Wednesday afternoon, after a great day over in Lake Tahoe. The weather in Sonoma was absolutely perfect- very warm, with a slight breeze. We parked our El Monte RV up on the hill over looking the NHRA drag strip, and also the picturesque Sonoma valley wine country. It’s so peaceful there so I loved having the RV because we could sit outside and enjoy the view at the end of the day instead of being holed up in a hotel room each evening.

We had our D Team dinner Wednesday afternoon and my clutch guy Andy’s wife Jennifer and her family came and cooked for us in the RV since the only dish I can really make is taco’s and I already made them for a team dinner earlier this year! She is a great cook and they brought fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs from their garden at home and we had a terrific time. The team brought up chairs from our hospitality area down in the pits and we all sat around and hung out and enjoyed the nice weather. The cats stayed inside, as they were on floor cleanup duty- anything that was dropped during meal preparation they took care of!

On Thursday we had a special event that usually takes place in the city but had this year been moved close to the track at a local golf course. It was the Eric Medlen Nitro Night Charity dinner that raises money for the Speedway Children’s Charities and is put on by Infineon Raceway here in Sonoma. We have gone every year and always have a great time visiting with fans, other drivers, John and Martha Medlen and also our friends from Oakdale, CA along with Eric’s mom Mimi. They had a poker tournament before the dinner that Dan and Guido both took part in, and then a Q & A after the dinner for the drivers. It was a special night as we get to share favorite memories about Eric and celebrate his life, and his love for racing and his youngest fans.

Unfortunately, Sonoma didn’t pan out quite as we had hoped for. We made a couple of good runs in the heat but also didn’t get down the Friday night session. I kept driving to the left in both lanes and getting out of the groove and we realized that my steering wheel must be off. We made a slight correction and sure enough, on our final qualifying run went right down the track. Unfortunately it was too late to move up in the field, as the night session is vital so we ended up having to run Robert first round. We made a great run but he made a stellar one, and we found ourselves packing up after first round. After 2nd round all of Team Force was out and we were really bummed. We always do really well here so this was not at all how we had pictured our weekend would go. All we can do is look towards Denver and try again next weekend.