Ashley’s Weekly Blog
November 16

I can’t believe the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle race season has come to an end! This year flew by and we had a great time! This past weekend we raced at the Auto Club World Finals, in Pomona, CA, our home track, and as always it was an awesome weekend. The competition was intense since the weather conditions were perfect for racing- the sun was out, yet it was cool. We finally got our car running like it used to during our 2nd session Friday afternoon when we ran a 4.09. For the last few weeks the car has been struggling to run on all 8 cylinders. My crew chiefs Dean and Ron got the gremlin figured out and when we ran that session I could feel from start to finish that the car was on a good pass and back to its old self again!

My sisters Brittany and Courtney were out there racing their BrandSource and Sanyo A Fuel dragsters, and my older sister Adria and her daughter Autumn were out all weekend to cheer all of us on and to root on Robert as he clenched the championship. We also had a lot of friends and family out for the weekend including my Uncle Louie, and my close friends Dallas, Mandie, Jen and Josh and many others and it was so great to see everyone and put on a good show for them along with all the fans as well!

On Sunday we raced Bob Bode and won the round and continued our quest for #2 in the Championship points. However Ron Capps and Tim Wilkerson also won first round so it wasn’t over yet. We clenched second spot when I won a huge semi final round again Ron Capps and went on to the final round against my teammate Mike Neff. Final round was a crazy one under the lights when both of us went up in smoke and pedaled it down the track. Mike recovered first and won the round while I kept trying but clipped the wall and had to lift. I was bummed to lose but really happy for Mike and his Ford team since this was their first win, though they’ve come close many times. The night wasn’t over yet though as my sisters both got to the semi finals and raced each other! Courtney went on to the final round and even though she lost we were so excited at how well both of them had done and still got to celebrate in the Winner’s Circle with Mike’s team. It was a great weekend for Team Force. Robert clenched the Championship, I ended up #2, Mike won his first race, dad’s hot rod is running good again, and my sisters both went rounds and runner’ed up. I don’t know how we’re going to top this season other than to try again at that NHRA Championship next season! We can’t wait!