“Five-Dollar Ron” and more…
Hi, everyone
I am in the Atlanta airport (sounds familiar, huh?) waiting to hop on the last flight to San Diego tonight. I am hoping to get back in time to spend a few hours with the family on this Father’s day and my 23rd (grin) birthday.
We had a tough weekend in Bristol. We qualified in the 10th spot and had to run Bob Tasca first round, who has one of the better running cars right now. It was a pretty close race until our NAPA car just slightly started spinning the tires near the finish line and that was all it took and our Sunday was over.
I always brag at the track about all of the great people who run the DSR hospitality areas. It is a vast amount of tents and awnings that they have to take care of, and anyone reading this who has been a guest of NAPA’s and/or DSR’s knows how awesome the food is and how incredible the people are. They surprised me this morning with a birthday cake. They nicknamed me “five-dollar Ron” last year and, yes, it was on the cake this morning as well (grin).
I know, I know. Let me back up and explain the nickname as I am sure you are curious. In Dallas every year DRAW (Drag Racing Association of Women), which is a great organization that was started by some wives of racers years ago to help with injured racers and their families, has an auction/fundraiser. We try to help them in any way that we can to raise money throughout the year for a great cause. And, after qualifying was over, I went over to donate some items and some of our girls who work in our DSR hospitality were donating their time and helping with the auction. One of them asked me if she could borrow $5 for something, and since I was still in my NAPA uniform and had come straight from our pit area, I didn’t have my wallet (good excuse, right?), and I told her that I didn’t have any money. Well, not even 15 minutes later, NHRA announcer Bob Frey was up on stage for the auction and somehow there was mention of a girl in the front row and her pink girly sweat pants and Bob said that he would wear them for the right price, and of course for a great cause. So, I raised my hand in the back of the room and said that I would donate several thousand dollars if Bob wore those sweats the next morning throughout the drivers’ introduction ceremony in which he announces. Well, of course he said that he would and I had my wife Shelley send a check from home. But you should have seen the look on the faces of the DSR girls who had just asked me for $5. Well, man oh man, they let me have it the next morning in our NAPA pit area, and I have been “five-dollar Ron” now since then.
So, now you can see the humor when you picture my B-Day cake Sunday morning.
The kids are out of school for the summer now, so we are gonna go see “Toy Story 3” in IMAX 3D tomorrow. It is gonna be a short few days home and then off to Norwalk for the race and then I am gonna be driving our coach straight out to California to spend some time at a great RV resort on the Central Coast near where I grew up. We are gonna spend a week there, hit the waterslides again and spend the 4th of July weekend with family and friends before heading up to our Seattle race and the start of our West Coast swing of races (Seattle, Sonoma and Denver). Have to run, plane is loading, talk to you soon.
RC