Ashley’s Blog
Week of June 1

We had a great weekend in Topeka, KS going all the way to the final round! Our car made three great runs in the heat after struggling in qualifying during the day runs. We qualified #1 on our Friday evening run which was cool conditions and temperatures yet struggled on the other runs; so come Sunday I was a little nervous since the sun was brightly shining. My crew chiefs Ron and Guido had the track figured out by the time first round came around and once we started going rounds we were on a roll!

My team and I were so pumped especially since every round was a close side by side race, and once we made it to the semi finals we had big old smiles on our faces and knew our day would be a great one no matter what happened from here on out. This funny car category is so competitive that to consistently get to the semi finals and final rounds all year long is a huge achievement that will give you a great shot at that championship at the end of the year. It also means you are getting 8 rounds a weekend (4 qualifying and 4 elimination rounds) which just means more data for the crew chiefs to learn from and more experience for me to gain.

We’ve moved up to #3 in the NHRA Full Throttle Countdown which is great and we have our eye on that #1 spot as we’re only 5 rounds out of it! There are 10 races until the Countdown begins and we like to set our goals high so #1 is what we’re shooting for. Summer is almost here and we have officially entered the hot part of the season but thankfully my Mustang likes the heat and my guys and I don’t mind sweating and working in the blistering sun if we are going to finals in the process! Have a great week and stay cool. We are home for a day and then it’s off to my 2nd home…Chicago, IL, the Windy City, and a great track for drag racing!