03-15-2005

Wow, where to start .
This was one of those races I wasn t even sure if I was going to make. More than a few late nights, and busy days and we got the engine installed and the loaded up the car without even firing it. It took us Wednesday and Thursday to make the 18 hour trip. Brian my crew chief and I shared the driving duties and made the trip bearable as Colleen relaxed in the back. Since the car was not ready to go, Brian and I had some work ahead of us on Friday. We finally got the car fired late Friday evening and loaded it back in the trailer to get ready for Saturday qualifying. With everything ready and the rings seated enough we made a hit first round of qualifying. With the upgrades Jeff Luckovich did we were too conservative on the tune up and only ran an 8.20. Upon lifting after the pass, the accelerator peddle had stuck, I pulled the chutes and hit the brakes, by the time my brain caught up with the fact that the peddle had stuck I had hit the brakes and locked up the front tires and then put my foot under the peddle and lifted the peddle up and clicked it off. The damage had been done though, one tire showed through to the chords. There was no tire manufacturers at the event and finding a tire in my size proved fruitless. I did run across the people from Southern motor sports I think it was, and they had a speed shop near by and had someone drop off two brand new tires. The track mounted the two new front runners but it was too late for second round. We would have to wait till third round to get another hit. We made some tuning changes and headed out for third round of qualifying. Dave Beeson was number one after two rounds of qualifying and we were determined to get that honor. The car left hard and ran the   mile very strong. It did move a little when it left but was manageable. All the hard work and long hours paid off. I tripped the clocks with a 7.599 and #1 qualifying spot. We loaded up and went to celebrate at the bar under the tower. After a drink, Colleen and I headed back to the hotel and left Brian at the bar because he was in the mood to party. I got a knock on the hotel room door around 3 am and, it was Brian. He had a few pops. He came into the room and said want to hear a joke???? I rolled my eyes and giggled go to bed Brian. He woke up like a champ Sunday morning and was ready to go. The 3 of us showed at the track and got things ready for first round. Being there were only 4 cars competing in NPS there were only going to be 2 rounds of racing. We were called up with the rest of the first round classes and did battle. We came out on the winning side of it as my competitor did the wheel stand from hell. I caught it out of the corner of my eye and watched as I pulled away. As I got about half track the cross wind which seemed to be affecting a few competitors, started pushing me to my left and nearly missing the wall. I lifted and got the win anyways. That put us in the final round against Dave Beeson who got by his first round competitor. They made the call for final round competitors around 5pm and we headed up to the staging lanes just after tuning up the car. I know Dave would not be easy and felt we needed to have it on kill to get by him. We pulled the cars up and did our burnouts. So there I am, 2005 Belle Rose, final round and never having a NPS victory before. We both final staged and I waited for the tree to come down. I released the trans brake button, the car left and left hard. I went through the gears and neared the finish line. Dave was nowhere to be seen and I crossed the finish line with the win light. I was speechless. I just took my first NPS victory. I headed around to the return road and put the chutes in the car, and headed up to the scales where my crew and a few others waited for me. We made weight and it was official, my very first NPS victory. I have so many people to thank; first off I would like to thank Jeff Lukovich for giving me the power this year to do what it takes to win. It is so nice to bring a gun and not a knife to gun fight. I would like to thank Hutch of Hutches trans service for giving my the best parts as far as the trans. Also thanks for going through my Neal Chance converter and allowing me to cut those awesome reaction times. My .009 final round reaction time was unbelievable. Thank you to Dart for supporting this class this year. Thanks to the rest of my sponsors M/T tires, NOS brand nitrous systems, Drive Train Specialists, Corteco, Neal Chance racing converters, and Power Master for standing behind me. Thanks to everyone who stands behind me especially Colleen and my crew chief Brian Mullaney. Nice to meet everyone including Bill, Butch, Jim, Shannon. Thanks to team Beeson for feeding us that great southern food. Thanks to everyone for the help they gave. I hope I didn t miss anyone, I am sure I have and am sorry for that. Nice to see Andy Frost, Rita and the guys from team Canada again. Team BBNOVA looks forward to Commerce, Ga. And maybe a bigger field of competition.