Drivers - Updated Mar 18, 2000

The 2000 season has started. As the result of Test-n-tune runs, we bought a set of Mickey Thompson M1 tires and March 18 was the first day on the new wheels. Nicholas had been running in the 10.6's during test-n-tune. With the new tires, his best run of 10.588 during TNT was bettered to 10.36 seconds at 60.26 mph. Nicholas' best ever reaction time was a .501

Our son Nicholas, started driving in the first weekend in June of 1999. This was three months into the 1999 points season. In 1999, Nicholas managed to finish 47th in points out of over 100 drivers at our track of which at least 70 contend regularly. In his division, the Sportsman class, he made it to 17th in points out of nearly 30 drivers. Nicholas made it to the quarter finals 9 times in 1999. On Nov 6th 1999, in the last race of the season, Nicholas made it to finals which earned him the trophy pictured to the left.

Nicholas is 10 years old and in the Fifth Grade at Daffron Elementary in Plano, TX where he is an A/ B student. Nicholas also enjoys Sunday School, Baseball, Scouting, Golf, Fishing, Computers, Nintendo 64, riding his bike, and play with his younger sister and brother.

For 2000, Chrystal also has an entirely new engine and rear end setup. Because of her age, we were targeting to get her in the low 13's. With the wizardry of Ron Pope rebuilding her stock Raptor 3 from last year into a mildly modified Alky engine, we have pretty much nailed our goal. In test-n-tune runs, Chrystal was running 13.20's with a best run of 13.11 seconds at 47.042 mph. On the first day of racing, Chrystal bettered her fastest run ever to 13.09 secs at 48.002 mph.

Chrystal turned 8 on Friday Sept 17th 1999 and had her first race on Saturday the 18th. We picked the car up the weekend prior and let her practice driving it in the parking lot at the school. We covered the material that was presented to Nicholas in his driving school experience at Texas Raceway and documented on this site. However, she did not get to experience the real tree or the track until we were at the track and she was in time trials. To have a meaningful time trials, meant Chrystal needed to go down the track wide open on her first run. And did she ever! Here first run was a 15.327 second 40.9 mph run. The picture on the right is of Chrystal's trophy which she won for making it to semi finals on her third time ever in competition on Oct 16th.

Chrystal is in Second Grade at Daffron Elementary. Chrystal also attends Sunday School and is into Scouting, Barbies, Gymnastics, and loves to play with her brothers.