Summer's Over
Summer time is just about over since the kids will be starting school this week. It's going to be hard to see the kids growing up into Junior High School for Megan and elementary school for Dylan. We just finished attending both of their orientations and I am feeling so great about their new classrooms and the new adventures beginning. 
We added to the summer fun by getting a new member for the family, Teddy, a Shih Zhu, is a fun and loving puppy.He is a lot work, but the kids are taking turns with the responsibilities. 
I think the heat has been unbearable this summer. We haven't even been out on the lake as many times as we normally do during the summer. The beach was even miserable since the it was so hard to stay cooled off. We didn't do too much this summer because we couldn't stand to be outside too long. It was even to hot to take Megan's Junior Dragster out. Maybe we'll get her racing at a few events before the season is over.
John has been busy splitting his time working at the business, Hartman Enterprises, and flying over to Europe to tune Stig Neergaard's team. They had changed some of their tune-up this year and have been struggling a bit and dealing with rain. Sweden was cancelled right as they were to race first round of eliminations because of rain and now in Germany they have had to deal with rain after their first round win. They finally found a comfortable tune up with the cars new parts and pieces and now with the rain in play,hopefully that won't hurt their chances to keep going rounds. We're hoping they can bring a trophy home soon, especially with only one more event after Hockenheim which is in Santa Pod. Their most frustrating event had to be in Finland where they set track record with a 4.05 et and after the finish line, Risto and Stig ran into each other and the officials decided to throw out both of their runs. Although Stig brought out the same car and tried to fight the ruling, they struggled with ignition problems and failed to qualify at that event. I think John was most frustrated because of the communications and lack of knowledge of the rules by the officials, who had a few cocktails at the event. Very professional!
I have just listed my first two properties in real estate and have been busy showing properties and working at the office. I would love to get back to racing, but it's been a struggle to obtain sponsorship to go out and race. We have been trying so hard because we'd love to continue racing with the Hartley Family's team, but when it comes to funding, it's hard to get anyone to commit. We are still trying and won't give up and hope to be at a few more races before the end of the year, but until then it's business as usual at Hartman Enterprises and Prudential C. Dan Joyner Co. It's been hard to juggle it all, but hopefully things will start getting easier to manage with the kids back in school and a schedule to follow.
One Hot Summer
John has been setting several teams up with a tune-up and hopes to make some NHRA event appearances later this season. He tested with one team recently and they were pleased with the results and feel their headed in the right direction. He is also getting ready to leave to go over the Finland this week for his second race with Stig Neergaard on the European tour. Poor guy has a suite case loaded with parts to take over with him, which helps the teams out since it's so hard and expensive to ship things over.
I have been busy working on my real estate career, I have joined a great group in the upstate with Prudential C. Dan Joyner Co. and I'm excited by the training and prospects. It's been a learning experience, it seems like I am learning something new every day. This has allowed me the freedom though to continue to help the family business, Hartman Enterprises, and to work on potential sponsorships to get back racing again. If you are ever looking to buy or sell a home in South Carolina, look me up!
I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe fourth of July!
RACING, WORK, KIDS, REAL ESTATE
I hope al
l of you special mother's out there had a wonderful Mother's Day! I had a very special day with the kids giving me gifts that they made themselves and I will cherish them forever! Megan made me a card of her very own off of the computer and Dylan had made me a picture frame in school with a wonderful portrait of him and a book that he wrote. In the book, he described his mommy. Apparently, I am 16 feet tall and I am 14 years old, pink is my favorite color, the Wii is my favorite sport, my name is mommy, he loves it when I color with him, I like to play, and pork chops are my favorite food. How precious is that!
We had a relaxing brunch with my mom and dad, brother Richard and his family.
The past few months have been a blur. The kid's are almost done with school, which is hard to believe and sad at the same time. It will be sad to see Dylan leaving preschool for kindergarten and Megan leaving elementary school for middle school. The tears will be falling on their last day of school for sure. We have enjoyed this year and they did a fantastic job learning, but now it's on to the next chapter in their lives. It's been tough keeping track of their schdules with field trips, awards, and performances. Megan and I went on a field trip recently with the whole 5th grade to Charleston for two days. Charleston is beautiful, but I was exhausted after chaperoning that one!
Megan has been busy playing softball in the evening and Dylan has been playing t-ball. We are at a practice or game just about every night! It's been fun cheering them on and I love watching Megan play catcher since I have photos of John playing the same position when he was younger. Megan is such an athletic girl, it's fun to watch her play. She makes me a very proud mommy!
Dylan loves to bat in his t-ball games and does a great job running the bases. When he plays in the outfield it's a little bit of a different story. He would rather play in the dirt then stand there waiting for the ball to come to him, many have passed right by him and he didn't even know it. It's hard to keep your attention on the game too long when you're only four years old. Most of the time when another player hits a ball on the other team, the kids will all dodge for the ball no matter where it goes.
I have had so many fans ask when we will race next on Facebook or by e-mail and we were hoping our hometrack of Atlanta would be our next event, but we are still trying to work out some sponsorship opportunities and at this point we are not sure when we will be back out. We are ready to go when the time comes and after our successful outting in Charlotte, we can't wait to be back out! 
John is getting ready to leave at the end of the month for his first race of the season over in Europe tuning for Stig Neergaard and team. I know he's excited to be back out on the track in Europe since they had some success last year. Santa Pod will be their first event and the team is just about ready to go! John is rounding up parts to take back with him to finish it all up.
I have always been interested in real estate and investments, so recently I attended school to obtain my South Carolina real estate license. I enjoyed the class and passed my test, now it's on to taking the state test to finialize my license. It was hard to cram 7 days of real estate and state laws in my head, but I enjoyed learning and can't wait to get started. I have always been the type of person that likes to stay busy, so I am sure listing and selling real estate on top of everything else that I do will be a piece of cake!
RACING AGAIN
On Saturday, March 20th, I found out that I was going to race the Four-Wide NHRA Nationals in Charlotte, NC as we teamed up with Hartley Racing. We had been working on some programs to get back out racing and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to race at such a prestigious event and one that was close to home to entertain some sponsors.
It was a scramble to get everything together at the last minute, but the Hartley's did a great job getting the equipment loaded up the very next day and we were lucky enough to have Lanny Warren, a friend of John's, drive up from Tulsa, OK to pick up the rig and drive it out to Charlotte from Nebraska for us.
Liz Mellott and I worked on our press release and finalized all of the details such as hotel rooms, sponsors, decals, etc. Special thanks to NitroStrike, Hartman Enterprises, Southern Blue Promotions, ProData, General Machine of Anderson, and Competition Products for their support. Also a special thanks to Ray Murphy of T & R Graphics in Seneca, SC for making the decals on such short notice.
The Hartley's and their team flew in on Thursday to set-up and get the car prepared to race. I wasn't able to join them until late Thursday evening since the kids had stuff going on. Megan had her 5th grade open house and performance and Dylan had Tee-Ball practice. I had my parents join me for the drive up and it was great to have the entire family there. 
On Friday morning we had a drivers meeting to go over the rules and procedures for the event. I think there was a lot of questions and nerves in play on how the event was going to happen without any hick ups. There was some confusion on the staging process with four cars versus the normal two. I for one was worried about it, but I have to say that once I got up to the starting line, I was calm and it went smoothly for me. I wasn't so rusty after all! The last time I had been in a car was in Rockingham of last year, but as a full-time driver it had been since 2004 that I qualified at an event and in 2006 I only competed at 3 events. Now we were racing to a 1,000 ft. and the first time I had set foot in the Hartley's car so there was many things going on in my head.
As I got fitted for the car with a few minor changes, the team and I went over their normal procedures. Everything went great including our warm-ups. The first run was a blessing, the car went out and ran a 3.98 e.t. out of the box and it was as if I had never stepped away. Although, when I went up to run, I was racing 2 other cars and by the time I went to stage, I was on a solo.
The second qualifying run didn't go as planned, we smoked the tires and we weren't the only team to have that problem since the conditions were so cold. We came back and serviced the car to get it ready for Saturday.
We experienced a crank problem on Saturday's first run and hurt a motor, but got it repaired for the final session. Once the first pair made their lap, I knew we were solid in the field and couldn't get bumped out and thought that we would take the car back to the pit area and save it for Sunday, but instead the team was in the back of the car working on the clutch to tune it up and they told me they were going for it and that they did! We ran a stellar 3.88 e.t. @ 313 mph, the quickest the car has been to 1000 ft. The run felt great and the team was excited!
The Hartley team hasn't raced since Indy of last year and I know they were just as excited as we were to be out there racing. It must have been a weird feeling for Joe Hartley to be buckling me in the cockpit instead of driving it himself. They were just a pleasure to work with and I appreciate all of the hard work they put in to make this all happen for us. 
Sunday came quickly and we were set to go for the first round. I was up against Cory Mac, Brandon Bernstein, and Morgan Lucas. Mike Dunn had picked our team has the E3 upset of round one, and I guess he knew what he was talking about. The car shook hard about 80 feet out, I let it settle and pedalled it to get down to the other end. We finished second to Cory and defeated Bernstein and Lucas. Cory experienced a rear tire failure and I hit some of the debris at the finish line and it punctured a hole in our front wing. Brandon was gracious enough to offer one of theirs at the end of the track. Although his wing wouldn't fit our car, we were able to patch ours with the help of McMillen's team.
In round two, we were up against Cory Mac, Schumacher, and Kalitta. I had a great reaction time, but the car slowed and the others were pulling away. We found out that a cable broke to the fuel shut-offs and that probably created loss of fuel pressure so the motor got lean and torched the heads. Kalitta and Cory Mac ended up taking the
win lights and going into the final with Herbert and Antron Brown. It really turned out to be a great weekend and we are very pleased with our performance. It was great seeing all of the fans again and I appreciate everyone's support. Hopefully, with all of the great exposure and television coverage we received, we can secure enough funding to be out there full-time again. I have the nitro bug now ~ It was like being back home where I belong!
The Gators!
We were all looking forward to making the trip down to the Gatornationals in Gainesville, FL. I don't even know how long it has been since I have missed an event there. We left early in the morning Thursday and drove down with the kids in the Suburban, I just can't live without that car. The kids each had their DVD players going and it made for a nice,peaceful trip. I learned a long time ago to have separate DVD players for them since they always fought over who would get to watch their movie. When I purchased this car, I had DVD players installed in the headrests for them and that solved the problem fast!
We experienced rain the whole trip down so the trip took us a little longer than normal which was fine, we made it in time to check into the hotel and get some rest, which we needed since John made us get up earlier than everyone else so that we could make our annual trip to Krispy Kreme to get donuts and coffee, then get out to the track so we could get all muddy and sign off on our credentials. The mud from all of the rain they had wasn't pleasant to walk around in and the weather was a bit chilly for being Florida, but we made the best of it. I have to admit, I really missed our motor home out there!
The guys serviced the car most of Friday since this was the first race out for the season. Since it rained all day, there wasn't much to do and I honestly didn't think the teams were going to get a run in, but to my surprise they made one qualifying run, we opted not to and save it for Saturday. By the time we got out of the racetrack Friday night, we all had some frizzy, wet hair along with wet and muddy clothes. After freshening up at the hotel room, we went out to the famous Ale House in Gainesville and had a nice dinner with Stig Neergaard, John's team owner from Denmark. John and Stig spent the weekend going over tune-ups and gathering parts up for Stig to ship back to Denmark.
Saturday was a packed house at the track and the weather was beautiful, but still a bit chilly. John and the team got the car out and it went right down the race track running a 4.23 e.t. @ 299 mph. John was a little bummed out that he didn't run his first 300 mph in a Funny Car, but it was in the field in the 12th spot.
They tuned the car up the second run and it unfortunately smoked the tires so we didn't improve. We were lucky that it stayed in the show and John ended up 16th over all. 
We had to face up against Matt Hagan in the first round. Most of you know that John tuned for Matt Hagan in the 2008 season when Matt owned his own team, so it was strange for the two to compete against one another as drivers. They joked about it and John knew he had a tough order to try to beat Matt, since he was running so well most of the weekend. John saw Matt pull away from him down track as Matt ran a 4.06 e.t. @ 316 mph, the quickest and fastest run by a Funny Car that weekend. John ran a 4.22 e.t. and overall the weekend went well and the team did a great job. They accomplished what they went there to do and that was get a baseline tune up and test some parts.
Sunday afternoon before the final round, we all piled back into the car and headed home and made pretty good time (7 hours). I had never been so happy to be in my own bed! After a good night's rest, we have had a busy week this week at work, working on racing programs to get us both back out on the track, and the kids just started softball and tee ball, so between the two of them, we have been at practice every day....I think I get more relaxation at the track!
Gainesville Bound
We're really excited that John will be competing in his dad's Nitro Funny Car for the Tire Kingdom Gatornationals this weekend. John loves racing in Gainesville, he has many fond memories of growing up at that track and it's the very same event where he made his Top Fuel debut in our dragster back in 1998. The opportunity for him to drive came down to the last minute so we are trying to wrap things up here at home so that we can all take the trip down to Florida for the weekend.
We continue to work on sponsorship opportunities so that we will have our own team back out on the circuit this season. I really hope more full-time teams will come back out so the fields are more competitive. It's sad to see a few of the teams that have parked their operations due to lack of funding recently, but many are fortunate to still be out there. Every year you see teams come and go, that's just the way the business goes, but it would be nice to see some new faces and corporate backing out there.
John has had the itch to get back out racing and this opportunity came up with his dad just last week for him to get back behind the wheel. Although the team will be running on a limited budget for the weekend, you can never count them out as a tough contender to go rounds and possibly win the event. I get nervous watching on the outside, it must be my competitive nature. I make the worst spectator, I would rather be put to work! John is a talented driver and tuner in my book and I'm looking forward to cheering the team on and doing what ever I can to help out. 
The weather conditions call for the possibilty of rain the first few days, but we're hoping for nice sunny Florida weather. The weather here in South Carolina has been beautiful. However, last week we got a surprise snow storm and the kids loved every minute of it. We kept hearing over the course of the winter that we would get some snow, but it always seemed to miss us. This time around it got us pretty good and the kids and I were out in it all day and we had a blast! We had to build up on the snow toys so the kids would have enough activities to do. The sled ended up being a big hit and the kids got their use out of it.
If you're headed down to the Gatornationals, please stop by and say "Hi."
Happy 2010!
It's a new year and I know many fans are wondering what our plans are for this season. We are working really hard to put a solid program together that would enable us to race this season and many years to come, hopefully we will have something to announce real soon. We may not start at the season opener in Pomona,CA for the Winternationals, but we are working hard for everything to come together so that we will be out there soon!
In the mean time, we have been working away in some freezing temperatures here in South Carolina. I know it's colder in other places, but this has been an unusual long period of cold weather for us and it's really hard to function in this type of weather. Our shop has experienced some unusual problems as well, all happening while we are extremely busy and can't afford to be down at any one time. Our water tower which runs the water to our molding machines froze up into a giant ice cube. John and my dad had to build a building around it and run heaters to get it to return to normal. A pipe then broke under our parking lot, so water was turned off to get that repaired and we are now waiting for the pavement to dry up enough so that the giant whole in the parking lot can be patched. We moved some new machines in and had to rearrange the others, which is a job in itself. It's really been one thing after another.
Megan has started her season in basketball and we have watched her play in some exciting games. I am so proud of her and how athletic she is. She really enjoys the game and is by far one of the tallest in her league. The team won their first game and lost the second, by only 3 points. She has made some amazing shots, John and I hope that she keeps it up and maybe plays when she gets older, we're already thinking about scholarships. Dylan's getting ready for T-Ball season to start, that will be a fun game to watch! He's our little left hander in the family and he has a pretty good arm on him too.
I hope everyone has a prosperous new year and that we'll see you out at the track real soon!
Holiday Time
The holidays are here and the Smith household has been crazier than ever with holiday parties, basketball practice, karate, preschool functions, science fair projects, shopping for gifts, working hard to get jobs done and shipped, and traveling. I am very thanful for these busy times because it keeps us all going in the right direction. On top of that, we have some exciting things happening with our race team and hopfully we'll get that all wrapped up and have some great news to share at the beginning of the year.My mom and Megan participated in the YMCA Reindeer Run last week, it's a tradition of theirs each year. They run a mile in the freezing cold, super early in the morning. It's fun to cheer them on and watch them race with everyone. Megan finished it in 11 minutes and 49 seconds and my mom was a few minutes behind her. They didn't win any awards, but we were super proud of them. Dylan is ready to run in it next year, so watch out!
John and my dad headed down to the Performance Racing Industry show in Orlando, FL last week to meet with some of our customers and vendors. They enjoy the show every year and I was hoping to attend this year, but our business has been really busy so I stayed behind. He met up with his dad and they exchanged Christmas gifts to save on shipping, I was really surprised to see a trunk full of gifts come back. The kids were super excited to see them put under the tree and I know it drives them crazy having to wait until Chirstmas morning to open them up.
I am looking forward to Christmas and the New Year and I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season.
