May 15, 2000 A Bunny Tale Update!

"When is enough…enough????? Someone tell me…How to say - I QUIT - and mean it!!!" When you hear that some racing teams got off to a rough start… I know what they are talking about!

April 6, 2000 IHRA Nationals, Rockingham, NC. We started off at IHRA’s National event in Rockingham, NC., arriving early in hopes if a visible parking place to visit with my fans. Wrong - at least I was inside the fence of the race track, some of my Funny Car friends were not! IHRA had their usual mess with parking, with no thought at all to category/class parking parking all together like NHRA. I did find out that if you are on the "list," that you get a prime parking spot. Now, I have to find out what I have to do to get on the "good list"….instead of the "S--- List" like I am on now! It is so easy to park a "class" at the same place. I went to the NHRA Nationals in Richmond 2 weeks ago, and was parked in between World Champion "Ace Manzo" and Bob Newberry, in the order that we all came in the gate. Granted, it was past the finish line and in the solid gravel, but all the fans were able to find us all at the same place. I never heard a single grumble because we were all treated the same. And I am not a regular contender of IHRA or NHRA, I go where I can try to survive!!! The good news here is that it is great to be a part of IHRA’s growing pains. It is very hard to park over 700 cars, when they are not sure how many are coming because they are kind enough not to require a pre-entry. Most of us racers do not know where we can be next month!! Everyone knows that I usually speak my peace, right or wrong and "whatever comes up..comes out!" My topics are always open for discussion, I have been known to back down and I do not hold a grudge!!

Anyway, I qualified with a 6.02 at Rockingham, first run out of the trailer. We were happy with that, because we had not done anything all winter to our racing operation. (We spent every minute building a Gordy Funny Car and a "Driver's Ed" car for my friend, Damian Moore.) Between Damian's car and my own 2000 Dodge Avenger body, we could put the truck on "auto pilot" to Gordy's in Ohio. We feel that we have let Damian down, because we got so busy with our own problems, but he knows that he has his whole career in front of him and it is good for him to see all of the "prices" that we must pay to get to that Winner's Circle. His brand new Camaro Funny car is getting all of the finishing touches on it now and the parts are coming from everywhere. We just ordered all of his safety equipment, helmet, firesuit, etc., from Simpson at the support trailer in Richmond. (Here I go again....off of the current subject....back to Rockingham, NC.)

Bunny and the Boys ended up as number 9 qualifier, with making just one run - because of the terrible rain storm that we had in North Carolina. First round on Sunday found us side by side the current IHRA World Champion, Von Smith - who had not been having his usual 5 second runs in qualifying. We just never seem to get "Lady Luck" on our side. (I must have used up all of my luck....just by staying alive!)  As everyone knows, I always bring out the "best" in all my men - and Von was no different. While I was shaking my brains out, breaking my chassis, all of my body struts and wheelie bars in the left lane, Von was winning in the right lane. I may have been a little aggressive, because Von yelled at me when I went to him prior to our run and told him that I do "long burnouts" and that if he wanted to fire after me, I would wait on him. I am too much of a lady to repeat what he said to me. I guess he forgot that I talked to him (when I was World Champion and he was a nobody). I guess he will find out the hard way - you are a World Champion one day, and a World Chump the next... You have nowhere to fall except down (by the way, I checked with the officials, if I was breaking any rules by making long burnouts and was told "We wish all drivers would put the 'showmanship' back in drag racing - but it should be cleared with the other driver so I would not cause him to overheat). As all fellow racers know, I always tell them that I am slow!!

April 23, 2000 Eastside Dragway, Waynesboro, VA. The REAL EASTER BUNNY SHOWS UP AGAIN! With our wounded pieces, we went home and fixed everything and went to my favorite race of the year. "Easter Sunday" at Waynesboro, VA. It is the closest track to my home in West Virginia and all of my relatives come to see us run, including the Franklin, West Virginia Moose Lodge members. Our Quartermasters racing team made the annual trip down from Maryland also. It is a FUN day!

All went well, as we were Low E.T. of the first round. Until we got back to the pits and my blower was making a terrible racket. The rotors had broken a shaft...probably from Rockingham, but we had no way of knowing that it has cracked. To add insult to injury, guess where my spare blower was? HOME!  Bear had unloaded my spare engine so we could take Lil Bear's Damian Moore sponsored Jr. Funny Car to race with me at Waynesboro. Both the engine and Jr. Funny Car will not fit in my trailer at the same time.

Billy Names and Family, "The Shooting Star" Funny Car from down in NC, came to my rescue without my team even asking. He carried his new SSI Blower (which he never even ran on his own car yet) over to my pits and said "TAKE IT!" I must admit that we may not have been up for the challenge, if my long lost "Mechanic" Bill Barrett, had not stepped in and took over. See, everything is different in blowers and too many details to cover here in the space we have, but nothing is too big for Barrett to tackle. With the clock ticking, Gary Gore, the track manager prancing, the final car in the lanes waiting on me, the thousands of fans watching and me praying....the Bunny and the Boys Holbrook Performance Parts Dodge Avenger roared to life! With no time to make any adjustments for a different blower, we put our faith in up above and rushed to the starting line. (By the way, Guess who we were in the finals with?   You got it...Billy Naves, the fellow racer that loaned me his blower!) Shows you what great friends that we have within the Naves family. Billy and I put on a great show for the waiting fans and we did not even know or care who won that race. But I teased Billy that I was the test car for his new blower. Since it performed within 2 hundredths of my own. My thanks goes out to the Naves family long time friend, Bill Barrett and all my "Boys" for their hard work. (Bill Barrett is well known for helping the underdog and is called "Dr. Bill" around the racing circuit!)

April 27, 2000 NHRA Nationals, Richmond VA. We all headed home from Waynesboro to start our 3 days, 72 hours of building a brand new 525 cubic inch, Veney engine. We were guided by our friend and Mo's boss, Dennis Whitestone. He just had open heart surgery on February 29, but insisted on being there. We were also glad too, because Bob Newberry told me that if anyone out there understood his engines, it was Dennis Whitestone!!!

We rolled into the NHRA Nationals in Richmond to be greeted by very cold 40% weather and the BEST air you would ever run in again. I am not going to bore you with the string of events that led to me limping out of Richmond on Sunday, with nothing but rods hanging out of the side of the block of my first new engine in 15 years after a 6.26 and a 6.06, because I do not want to go there again! We actually hurt it on the first run when something went wrong in the fuel system and I wanted to take it home then, but Dennis Whitestone was not hearing me and went in his own pocket and replaced all of the damaged parts, even Newberry said he could come over to his team any time if that is the way he worked on cars! We worked all night, qualified for the show and lost first round with a blown engine - at the finish line.

I am going to shut down all of the rumors though. It was not Bob Newberry's fault. He told me that I could run a wet pan oiling system, although he preferred a dry sump pump system, which would have been another $3,500.00 that I did not have. It was not Dennis Whitestone's fault either. He had run the Veney engine for years with a wet pan oiling system. He told us that we needed the wide Newberry pan, which would not fit my $1,000.00 engine Diaper....MONEY AGAIN!!! The facts are we should have not cut corners with my old oil pump and oiling system. There are rumors of a dozen different reasons that we messed up. But since non of them have been proven, we have parked the wounded Newberry/Veney engine until we can get all of the necessary pieces to go with it and another new block!  Maybe next year, the way we have been going. One thing for sure, no more used parts on that engine!  Going back to my 15 year old war engines.

I guess NHRA felt sorry for us, because they awarded our team the "Best Appearing Crew" trophy, with our brand new UNIFORMS UNIQUE crew shirts which were embroidered by my friend, Cheryl Norton from Purcellville, VA. They are very bright and the yellow, magenta, black and the checkerboard gives you an idea of our new paint job on our 2000 Avenger, to be applied by J&J Custom Painting.

Another good thing from the NHRA Nationals is that not only did we look like a bunch of clowns, we actually had our friends, "Rockets and Apple Dumplin" who are professional clowns, there to cheer us up. They did more than their share by cooking for our Boys, doing funny clown stuff for my fans, and provided us with coloring books and bags (donated by PPG) which is the paint company that provided the paint for my funny car. My fans were delighted!! When you want to borrow my clowns, call 301-990-8890 for a show!

May 1, 2000 Ethanol Display at the Pentagon. We got home from Richmond late on Sunday night and had to be at the Pentagon early Monday morning to a ribbon cutting ceremony in honor of our "First 85% Ethanol Pumping Station" on the East Coast. We are making great strides to use our home grown fuel made from corn. The auto makers are making E 85 vehicles right now for the consumers. The Virginia Corn Growers and Maryland Grain Producers' hard work have finally paid off!! We have bounded over a big tall hurdle!

May 6 and 7, 2000 Mopar Show, Rockingham NC. We unloaded the blown Newberry engine, which we named "Binkleberry" and started to put in our old 540 Walt Austin engine and decided to have the crank checked. My usual panic phone call to C&C Automotive, Carroll Carter in Manassas, VA, "Can I come and wait until you check my crank?" He has never told me no. You had to guess by now that my crank was broke, but who could complain with over 50 runs on it? Back to square one, no new 540 crank on hand, so back to C&C. "Please balance a 525 crank so I can be in Rockingham, NC. on Saturday.  He did it for me. Now, just one more problem, I broke my blower that fits this engine two weeks ago.  Again, another good friend Erick Cindrich took our old spare blower and fixed it good enough to run Rockingham. It came in on Friday by my little brown UPS truck. I had to call my "clutch man" Dale Brady to come and find me something to put in my clutch can, (we hurt our new clutch at Richmond).  He searched through the pile of used discs and got me just enough for a few runs in NC. He has a way of making my "junk" work just one more run. Thanks Dale!

We left for Rockingham to attend a Mopar Show for our sponsor, Mopar Performance Parts. Totally exhausted at 12:30 am on Saturday morning, arriving with another all nighter unloading to run in 92%  weather, which not only does my engine hate, but my crew was already half dead! I do not even pretend to function in hot weather, but the show must go on.

Then the NIGHTMARE continued, first round at 1:00 produced a 6.40. We thought we missed the tune up in the hot weather. Next round at 3:00, the exhausted Boys had to shut me off on the starting line to make a slight adjustment - while Mike Preslar was running, waiting on me. AND, we did not take the time to tape on the fuel shut off, like we always do because we did not want to hold up Mike. WRONG MOVE....The fuel shut off shook off, the engine leaned out, the burst panel gave up and the body panel decided to exit about 100' in the air. All this time Mike is backing off, trying to let me win this one! I messed us both up!! Thanks to my dear friends, the Alliance Trucking Funny car and the Preslars for trying to make me look good while risking their own fine reputation.

Back to the pits...another hurt engine, another all nighter and down to the block again. Thank the Lord that I had a spare set of rods or we would have been done for the weekend. By this time we are all wasted, but the show must go on!!!!

Sunday arrived bright and hot again. Another 92% day. I did not break anything else on the next two runs with a 6.46 and finally Mike let me win the last one with a 6.31. We really do not have a good reason for not performing as well as we usually do, except we do not know what this blower wants and it only had 32 lbs. of boost and that sucks. If I had already not had enough expense for one weekend, I accidentally hit the fire bottles release handle, setting them both off, another $450.00 down the drain.

Thinking that we could just slink out of the track and up the road was our next mistake. We had a flat tire at midnight on Route 85. No spare, so we thought we would just limp to the next truck stop, about 40 miles away - according to the CB and buy a new tire for our big Int'l Truck. Now, why would I think that after all we have been through in the last month????? No one anywhere had the size tire that my truck takes. To make a long story short, we got home about 5:00 am at 35 mph on 1 tire on the rear.  This just about finished us off it.....the fact that I got my money cut at Rockingham, NC was not enough to put us over the edge!!

I do know that it was embarrassing to get my money cut for the first time ever in my career, and rightfully so. I did not perform as well as I should have, but the Lord knows we gave it all we had!! At this time, I feel that I need to mention that last year on a Wednesday night in Englishtown, NJ, that I blew my engine on my first burnout and was done for the night. I stayed until 1:00 am and signed autographs for the fans, rushing out before Vinny Napp had the chance to come around and pay me - leaving word that I was not owed a paycheck and I was very sorry that I let him down. Would you believe that on Friday of that week of that week I received a check for the FULL PURSE from Englishtown! I called and he told me that I needed it to get going again, "Keep it." Needless to say, I owe Vinny Napp a FREE SHOW anytime that he wants it. I have sent him several letters, letting him know I am available any time....THERE IS A GOD!

May 12, 2000 Friday Night, ATCO NJ, a Fan Friendly Racetrack! This week had us trapped in the garage every evening, which is hard because Mo does not get home get home until after 7:30 pm and gets up at 5:00 am. We are searching through the parts, because I race at Atco, NJ, on Friday night.  We have great fans up there and I hope that we do not let them down. All we can do is show up with the best parts that we have and do the BEST that we can.

We may not be able to attend NHRA or IHRA events for a while. Until we can recover from the last month, but we still have our many match races to attend. We are down, but not out! Bunny and the Boys will be back, again! We have never been quitters and we are not going to start now!!!!! We ant to thank our sponsors for hanging in there with us! And most of all, we thank the Lord for another chance to do what we all love doing...racing for our fans!

I get so many requests from my fans and fellow racers in how they can help. (Besides keeping our team in their prayers for safe outings). FANS, Take a look at my souvenir list. FELLOW RACERS, call Holbrook Performance Parts at 423-855-4808 and tell them I sent you!!! Ask for Donnie Holbrook, he has many parts, new or used can can serve any budget...large or small. Please help me say thanks!  Be sure and check out all of my sponsors and give them a call for their services. That can help my team a bunch! I am not done, but no one is going to read all this stuff!!!! Till Next Time! =)

LAST....BUT VERY IMPORTANT...IF ANYONE KNOWS OF ANYONE THAT IS LOOKING FOR A "MONKEY" ...LET ME KNOW! I HAVE ONE ON MY BACK AND AS SOON AS I CATCH HIM, I AM SENDING HIM OVER SEAS WITH A ONE WAY TICKET, TO LIVE IN THE JUNGLE WHERE HE CAN PLAY!!!  BUT NOT WITH MY TOYS!

Till Next Time... "Run A Bunny"

...and the Boys, too!