Allen Johnson
Last time I blogged, I was getting ready to watch the Greeneville High Green Devils football team in the first round of the playoffs. I’m happy to report that they won that game, then won again last week, and are in the third round of the playoffs this weekend. They have home field advantage right now and are doing very well, as they look to win back-to-back state championships.
After a weekend at home, it was time to head to Southern California for the season-ending event at Pomona. It’s a little bit different of a format at Pomona, with single rounds of qualifying on Thursday and Friday, then the normal two rounds on Saturday. It makes for a heck of a long weekend, that’s for sure. Having one qualifying session on each of the first two days, sometimes you’ll run the car a little different and try a few things to see if you can learn anything about track conditions for later in the weekend.
We got behind the eight-ball on our first run, and it would have best run of the four that we made. We unfortunately broke a motor right before the finish line or else we would have been in the top half of the field. The way it worked out, we progressed each run and got a little faster and a little better with our Mopar Dodge Avenger.
We had a pretty good day on Sunday in eliminations and making it to the semis gives us some momentum heading into next year. We were ahead by about a car length at half-track and either there was something on the track or I got too far right and out of the groove and had to lift. It felt like we did better than we did. We finished the season fourth in points and had a very strong last month of the season and were able to win at Englishtown as well. If I had to give the season a grade, I’d give us a B+.
After the racing wrapped up at Pomona, it was time to get dressed up for the NHRA Awards banquet on Monday, which this year was in Hollywood. The banquet is always great. We have a chance to rub elbows with a lot of people and just have a good time. Everyone in NHRA is like a big family and we get to have some good food and good times and look back at the season. Following the banquet, everyone is ready to go back home and relax for a little while.
The first thing up for me in the off-season is to go under the knife, for surgery on my right bicep, which I injured last year. I had to wait until the season was over to get it fixed and it will be about eight weeks of recuperation, so I won’t get to do a whole lot in the off-season.
With Thanksgiving next week, I guess I’ll have to eat with my left hand. Pam’s family and my family, we have a big gathering on Thanksgiving with a lot of food. We’ll just try to relax and enjoy the time. In this racing gig, you don’t get to relax very often. The off-season goes by faster and faster each year. It seems like it will be just a few weeks and I’ll be back at Pomona in my Mopar Dodge Avenger again.