04/15/07
I'm Very (with a capital V) excited to go racing. My dad and Jen are practicing the midget at Hollywood Hills (to see how that went go to www.jengreenbergracing.com), so Butch took me to the track. I had three time trials, the quickest was an 8.49 and the slowest was an 8.54 and my best reaction time was a .02. The wind really kicked up for my first round race with Jacob Salas. He was going to be tough as he had been running 9.12s all day. Butch and I decided to dial an 8.50. The track had gotten pretty dusty and the 60' time really fell off when the car spun the tires. Even though I had a nice .024 reaction time, the car slowed to an 8.64. Jacob's .109 light and a 9.18 on a 9.15 was enough to take the win by .008. I'm really aggravated at another first round loss this season, but there's still almost an entire season left to go put it all on the line to try and win. All in all, I hate the wind, a lot! And am so excited to go racing again that I think it could be unhealthy.

03/25/07
As many of you know, we have changed the gear ratio in my car to make it run quicker since a few of the other juniors in town are stepping up their game. Our first run was at a test session last week. My dad told me to lift about 100 feet before the finish line, which is exactly what I did. We wanted to do this in case the gear was too steep. We were glad we did this as the motor was wound just a bit too tight. My dad took a little gear out of it and we ran an 8.52 at 79 mph. Yesterday we went out for another practice, the weather was a bit threatening and we had to get a run in fast, because it was overcast and looked like it would rain soon. The track had no prep so I ended up spinning the tires on the line my first run. The 1.90 60' time was much slower than last week and the car fell off to an 8.71. My dad was still not happy with the gear we were running and took a bit more out of it. The weather actually cleared a bit so we got a second run, but the car still spun the tires to an 8.68 at 78 mph.

On Sunday the track was prepped much better and with no changes we picked up a tenth and a half in 60' and ran three consistent time trial runs at 8.49, 8.48 and 8.50. My .035 RT on the first run qualified me second. In the first round I raced Jacob Salas. I cut a not so hot light, and broke out by five hundredths, giving the win to Jacob. I ran a 8.43 at 79 mph on a 8.48 dial, and decided not to play games at the top end since our cars run so close together. We couldn't figure out why the car picked up so much out of the blue since it had been so consistent all day. Since there was a small car count, the track allowed the first round losers to race each other for fun, not points. I raced Joseph Salas this time, and we decided to dial the car hard at a 8.38. I gave the run to Joseph right away with a red light of -.001 (oh so close!). We ended up running an ET of 8.42 at 79 mph. I'm aggravated with myself that I didn't play the top end first round because it was a winnable race, but there will be many more chances to win this season.

04/15/06
Runner up at Phoenix!

My dad is involved in an Internet group called the Standard 1320 that is mostly focused on nostalgia racing. His friend Ron Miller organized a race day for the members of the group at the Speedworld track in Phoenix. When Dad found out there was a Jr. Dragster race the same day, we decided to go. Dad's friend John Linn wanted to take his 1923 T altered so we figured out a way to get them all in our trailer. We ended up unbolting the front section of my car to make enough room in the trailer. John raced his car during the day in the Standard 1320 race and the Jr. Dragster race started about 7:00 pm. Since we were at a much lower altitude than Albuquerque, the car was really fast. We went a best of 8.29 at 82 mph. There were a few people that wondered if I was old enough to be going quicker than 8.90, but I had turned 13 the week before. The car was running good and I was catching decent lights so we were able to go rounds. Unfortunately, there were lots of delays and the final round did not get run until 12:45 am. I red lighted giving the automatic win to Kayla Mozeris. I would have loved to win the race but I was very happy to make my first final round appearance.

03/19/06
Season Opener In Albuquerque

The weather for this race was terrible. Saturday was a test day, but the wind was blowing about 50 mph and we didn't even take the car out of the trailer. Sunday was much better - the wind was only blowing 25 or 30 mph! There was a great turnout of cars for this race, including 6 cars from Colorado. I drew Denver's Lindsay Cramsey first round. Lindsay is a very good, very experienced driver so we knew it would be a tough round. I got a pretty good RT with an .049, but Lindsay's was better at a .011. I took the stripe, but broke out with an 8.785 on an 8.79, while Lindsay ran a safe 7.94 on her 7.90 dial. I felt really good that we had given her a hard race.

03/12/06
Test Day Gets Snowed Out

We were hoping to get another practice day in the Jr. Dragster today, but we woke up to snow on the ground. We really need the moisture so it was really ok, but I sure wanted to get more seat time. Our first race is next weekend and we will get some runs on Saturday before we race on Sunday.

03/04/06
I Got To Drive My Junior Dragster!

As some may know, we have sold the quarter midgets and bought a Junior Dragster. We took a quick trip to Texas about a month ago and picked up a really nice Motivational Tubing car that has a 3x3 Blockzilla and a Polar clutch. My Dad and Butch have been working hard on getting the car ready for the first test day at Albuquerque National Dragway. Although the car was in nice shape, we put on new front tires, a new mechanical kill switch, new belts and a much taller gear ratio. We also had Robert Howard fabricate a new seat so that I fit better in the car. My Dad was really focused on trying to slow the car down until I get a little bit of experience. This morning we went to a large parking lot and I got to practice staging and a couple of short 60 foot squirts. Dad seemed pleased and we headed for the track. Dad told me I needed to make a very easy run to get used to how the car starts, stops and steers. I had to back off the throttle a few times when I thought I was going faster than he wanted me to and we ran a 11.27 elapsed time. Dad said that I had done that perfectly and could go as fast as I was comfortable with on the second run. The car felt great so I ran all out and got an 8.80 ET. We were all very pleased with the run and the performance of the car. I got to make 4 more runs - 8.78, 8.79, 8.82 and 8.79. The consistency was very good, now I just need to work on my lights. The last run was my best as I cut a .03 reaction time. Hopefully we will get to do another practice next weekend.

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