Lame
horsepowerandheels

email your friends about this site

share

follow this author

subscribe

send a message to this author

contact

reward this author with a star!

stars

follow this author

subscribe

Home

go to your pnn homepage

Start_blogging

start blogging

Helpinappropriate content
LOGIN LOGOUT Home
Politics
news, views
Green
all eco, all the time
Family
well, you know
Diversions
Your daily dose
Style
it's gotta be cheap to be chic!
World
Going global
Well-being
body and soul
Relationships
working them out - or not
Living
the good, the bad, the messy
Etc.
everything else
Food & wine
Full of bite!

Image

About Erica...

About Erica...

Erica Ortiz is a drag car driver.  She's 27 and races against anyone, mostly men, in what's called the Pro Modified class - it's fast, as in 200+ mph in 6+ seconds fast.  She has an all woman crew and is on the verge of winning all kinds of  things.  This year, she's got a new twin turbo Mustang, a new crew, and a new webtv reality show in the works!
Ericasig

Congrats Force Gals

Congrats Force Gals

You know, nitro Funny Car driver Ashley Force-Hood has been having a heckuva year. She's won several events, led the points chase, been to a handful of finals.... Girl is on Fire. (not literally. That would be BAD.)
Love it.
But there are 2 more Force girls out there racing worth the mention, and one looks to me to be making quite the splash too. Younger Force spawn Brittany and Courtney are both competing in Top Alcohol Dragster while they are attending college. Courtney is also all over the internets with a column in USA Today and participating in all sorts of cool Fiesta Movement shenanigans. (check out her twitter here or youtube antics here)

This past weekend in Seattle, both younger sisters made it to the semi-finals, having to face off against each other. With Courtney taking the win in that pairing, she would be the lone Force car left heading to the final rounds for that day.

Courtney Force defeated Chris Demke in that final to score her first TAD win, the lone Wally in the JFR pit for the day.
I'm a huge fan of all the Force girls, but something just stands out to me about Courtney, and I'm really excited to see her move up and join her dad and sister in the nitro categories. I *suspect* it may just be in a JFR dragster and not the typical flopper, but its just a hunch and would be cool to see. My fear is that her eventual move to funny car may be filling the seat of her retiring dad, and I don't think I'm ready for that yet.
Where ever she ends up, she seems to have the whole package: trademark Force good looks, articulate, engaging, and royal drag racing blood to boot.
Congrats Courtney on the first of many wins!

Labels: women in racing


6Vote!
Comments (1)

Like this story? Share the news by clicking below:
This is a permanent link to this article. A great way to save it.
PermaLink
Post your article on Digg and let others vote on it.
Digg
Technorati is a blog indexing site.
Technorati
del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site.
Delicious
Kirtsy is a social bookmarking site featuring voting.
Kirtsy_addicon

Top Gun to Top Fuel: Mixing My Two Favorite Things

Top Gun to Top Fuel: Mixing My Two Favorite Things

My parents may not have ever guessed that I'd grow up to be a total hopeless gearhead Drag Racer, but I think they had some idea that I wasn't a "normal" little girl.

 

While most kids dreamed of growing up to become veterinarians and doctors, I was awe-inspired at the tender age of 6 by what would be a classic 80's Hollywood movie... oh yes, wait for it.... Top Gun. [cue Danger Zone music]

 

I very clearly remember watching it with my family one night, and even though I was a restless 6 year old, was absolutely transfixed by what I saw. My dad was a career Air Force officer, and had retired from the Air Force before I was born. Perhaps my love of aircraft and speed came subconsciously from him, but I don't think they expected what came out of my 6 year old mouth after watching Maverick and the rest of the characters lighting up the sky in those F-14's.
And no, it wasn't the Volleyball scene, or a actually still relevant at the time and hot Tom Cruise, I had zero desire to be a Kelly McGillis lusting after some flyboy (though admittedly, I DO have a thing for men in flight suits as an adult). Top Gun was Navy, but whatever, I had decided at age six I wanted to be an Air Force Fighter Pilot.

My dream was rather crushed when my dad told me (at the time) that women were not permitted by the military to be combat pilots (something that changed in 1993). It wasn't because he didn't want to encourage me, I'm pretty sure it was also his dream growing up, and his eyesight was the disqualifying factor for him, so he didn't want me to be disappointed by the rule in place. Talk about a crushing blow... but instead of becoming an Ace Pilot, I later would settle on becoming a pilot of a different sorts... a drag racing pilot.

 

Maybe its not a screaming jet with supersonic speed and all kinds of fun G's, but drag racing at 200mph is still pretty thrilling. (Here's to hoping I get my chance in a Top Fuel Dragster and get to that 300mph thrill) And now the Air Force has figured out how to get the average person to merge these passions together with their latest recruitment tool: The Mustang X-1.
Designed by the same people responsible for the new gen KITT car (Galpin Autosports), this car has been totally redone for the USAF. On the exterior a radical lowered stance and low profile tires make for the aggressive aircraft-inspired theme complete with carbon fiber body, aerodynamic air intakes, and gull-wing doors. The flight cockpit interior completely replaces the Mustang interior with flight-stick, a touch-screen interfaced control system, and a single driver ejection seat center-mounted setup. GPS and nightvision technology is also found on the high-tech console.
At first, I was rather curious how they were "driving" via a flight-stick, but I read on to discover that there is a hidden regular motorized steering wheel that pops out for the "pilot" to steer with (slight disappointment that its not stick-driven, but whatever). The stick is actually a very nifty shifter for the manual transmission. I was also surprised that the car is only hopped up to 500 hp with cams and exhaust, which by my hotrodder standards does it zero justice... I mean why not twin turbos or something cool!
Alas, its a pretty cool recruitment tool if you ask me... they also have a Charger called the "Vapor", but the X-1 is definitely the more radical of the two.
Now that I'm grown and have spent the last 10 years chasing my dream of drag racing, I wish I would have had the level of determination applied to pursuing my dream of being a fighter pilot. I had no way of knowing then, but CAN'T just means you have to try a little harder.... Its still on my "Bucket List" to ride in a supersonic jet at some point, to cross off both me and my dad's dreams together. Or maybe I'll land a Top Fuel/Air Force sponsor and get to combine both dreams at once. (Keep your fingers crossed folks!)

 

Regardless, I feel pretty lucky to be participating in the land-version of high speed flight in drag racing, because as Goose and Maverick put it oh so well....


"I feel the need.... the need for SPEED!!"

Photos: USAF

8Vote!
Comments (1)

Like this story? Share the news by clicking below:
This is a permanent link to this article. A great way to save it.
PermaLink
Post your article on Digg and let others vote on it.
Digg
Technorati is a blog indexing site.
Technorati
del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site.
Delicious
Kirtsy is a social bookmarking site featuring voting.
Kirtsy_addicon

Brickyard

Brickyard

So, as is my norm here lately, I had another whirlwind weekend in celebration of Memorial Day festivities. (I'm almost dizzy looking at my calendar anymore)

Originally, I had planned to make a trip to Indy all weekend, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I had been added to the Dixie Derby All-Star team. We had a home bout on Saturday, which I played in and we ended up winning 154-41. Great night for sure. Thanks for everyone that came to watch, I had a great time!

I didn't get to celebrate long at the afterparty, because after that tiring day, it was up bright and early headed out to Indianapolis, IN. I had a few different reasons to be going to Indy, but one of them was to definitely catch part of the Indy 500 in person. I've never seen an Indy race live, especially not at the hallowed Brickyard, so I raced the 6 hours up there early Sunday morning to catch the race. (thank GOD for radar detectors.... and drafting... and fun travelers with the same idea in mind)

I arrived around lap 90, but by the time I got parked and hiked the 2 miles to the track, it was somewhere around lap 140 or so. To my luck, they weren't even checking tickets anymore, so I just walked in and grabbed an empty seat on Turn 2. I had a bunch of friends there that I hoped to meet and sit with, but unfortunately, you can't exactly hear a cell phone well from the track, so I just gave up and sat in the stands next to some *interesting* people.

Of course, I learned after I made it about 1.75 miles of my hike that I'd hauled my camera with me for NOTHING, being that I had conveniently left my only CF card in the USB reader at work back in Huntsville. Grrrr..... I can be thoroughly brain-dead sometimes. But I did catch some of the *BIG* Meira crash, as it happened right in front of me. They took awhile to get him out, I had a sick feeling as they don't make it a point to say anything about the driver's condition over the PA. I thought I saw him moving on the stretcher, so that was a hopeful sign. Thankfully, he's okay, just has some broken vertebrae and will have some therapy to go through for the rest of the season.

So, the best evidence of my 1st trip to an Indy car race comes from my negative 3.0 mega pixel camera phone. And let me tell you how hard it is to actually CATCH a 2oomph car whizzing by with that sucker too. ::Shakes head in disgust::
Danica Patrick again did really well, landing in the 3rd spot at the race end behind Helio and Wheaton. Helio had a huge lead, but I was secretly hoping for some last lap antics by Danica that would've moved her into 2nd. Sarah and Milka both finished the race, but out of the top 10. Oh well, next year for my girls!

Monday's rainy trip home was far from fun, as I was thoroughly exhausted and had to fight some pretty crappy conditions. (Hello Mustang, time for some new tires!) I made it back into town around 8pm, snuggled up to my little chihuahua, and tried to unwind before heading back to the grind.

And it doesn't appear that my schedule will be letting up any time soon! Next weekend: Evansville, IN for Derby. Following weekend: Knoxville, TN for derby, where I'm actually skating with the Knoxville team, who was short players. Week after? FLORIDA for fun, sun, family.... and oh yea, WORK too. Then possibly a bonzai run back to Bowling Green, KY for the nostalgia race. Yippeee-aye-ahhh!

Derby Photos: Angela Zaborny; Indy Photos: My crappy Blackberry.

Labels: On the Road


9Vote!
Comments (2)

Like this story? Share the news by clicking below:
This is a permanent link to this article. A great way to save it.
PermaLink
Post your article on Digg and let others vote on it.
Digg
Technorati is a blog indexing site.
Technorati
del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site.
Delicious
Kirtsy is a social bookmarking site featuring voting.
Kirtsy_addicon

Past Articles

Archive

July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
March 2009
February 2009
January 2009
December 2008
November 2008
October 2008
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
December 2007
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007

About Debbie...

About Debbie...

Debbie is long time friend of Erica's, and is crew and marketing manager.  She's part of the new run for success this year - you'll see her in the pits and on the webtv show...her favorite quote "If you want to win anything - a race, your self, your life - you have to go a little berserk" says a lot about Debbie.


debbie_chat

Veterans Keep Me Grounded

Posted on: 10/09/07

Veterans Keep Me Grounded

You know, I never realized how patriotic I really am.  I mean, I always stop what I am doing and stand with my hand on my chest for the national anthem when I am at the track or a footlball game. I get chills when I hear a great voice sing our countries song, I admit.  I always try to stay informed on  the war and the basic political issues of the week, but I never realized that some of the most moving and inspirational memories I have are related somehow to soldiers or veterans. Here's another one.

As I stood in the security line at JAX airport very early Saturday morning to make my way to Nashville there were about 60 or so older gentlemen in wheel chairs wearing yellow wind breakers waiting in a security line(just for them).  I thought wow, that's odd - must be a Shriners convention or some senior citizen group travelling somewhere. I thought - that's nice and continued to suck down my Starbucks before the guy made me trash it. 

About 5 minutes later and when I was about the 3rd person away from the guy who scribbles on your boarding pass, gives you that glaring dirty look and then sends you on to the next herding line,  A younger woman in her 30's loudly blurts out "Excuse me ladies and gentlemen, I would like you to take notice and give a round of applause to our WWII veterans who are on their way to Alaska for a reunion cruise".

You know, I immediately turned around to take another look and realized that they were a group of about 150 not 60 but I only noticed the ones in the wheel chairs.  At that moment, everyone ofcourse started to clap and cheer.  As, did I.  The weird thing was I couldn't help but getting choked up.  And, I am talking really choked up.  My eyes started tearing and I couldn't help getting terribly emotional.  I felt like I just wanted to run up to each and every one of them and give them a big hug and thank them. And, it reminded me that this isn't the first time I have been in such a situation and every time before this one I recalled getting just as emotional.  As I am writing this I am getting a little choked up.  What a sissy, I guess I am.   

Anyway, so there I was, awe struck in a way.  I was so proud to have seen them there and felt honored that I was one of the dozens of normal everyday people that were able to cheer and clap just to let them know how honored I was to applaude them and how even though they fought, came home and started a life post WWII that has since gone on longer than mine, I am still inspired by them. 

I couldn't help but think of them the entire trip to Nashville.  Because, I on the other hand, spent 4 days pissed off and miserable because it would not stop raining.  30 inches of rain in two days. Didn't get the yard work done, didn't want to go to the grocery store, complained I was getting cabin fever.  The kids were driving me crazy because they were couped up.  I was miserable because of some dumb low pressure system that dumped a bunch a rain on my area.  I was praying it would at least be sunny in Bowling Green.  I jokingly told Erica on the phone if it is cloudy when you pick me up from Nashville airport I am going to flip. 

How whimpy and complacent and spoiled we all are.  Can you imagine being a soldier in WWII, I thought to myself.  I felt like a jerk.  What a brat, I am.  God, it made me feel so petty and weak. I asked myself, was I actually complaining and being non productive from rain. How about bullets flying at you.  Or, Mustard Gas like in WWI, how about worn shoes in nasty cold weather, frost bite, fatigue, gee fighting to stay alive, even...  Wow, I was embarrased of myself.  Whining about a little bit of flood damage and some rain.

Yeah, my heroes have always been our soldiers.  Days like Saturday reminded me of why.  It's amazing how they can keep us grounded and push us to be stronger and strive to be better people from what they sacrificed for us so long ago.  I wish I could tell them all that.  We really do remember.  And, we really are thankful. I hope they know that inside their aging hearts. 

God bless our troops.  All of them.

      

 

  

 

 


8Vote!
Comments (0)

Like this story? Share the news by clicking below:
This is a permanent link to this article. A great way to save it.
PermaLink
Post your article on Digg and let others vote on it.
Digg
Technorati is a blog indexing site.
Technorati
del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site.
Delicious
Kirtsy is a social bookmarking site featuring voting.
Kirtsy_addicon

To Be or Not to Be

Posted on: 09/20/07

To Be or Not to Be

When my son was in 4th grade he came in from riding his bike one Saturday afternoon and asked me what a MILF was.  It  took me a few minutes to jog my memory as to where I had heard that before and when it finally popped into my head, OH! That's American Pie, the movie... I was mortified.  I quickly blurted out.  I have no idea turned, and ran into the laundry room to hide my embarrasment behind the dryer door until I could regain my composure.  After all, what the hell was I supposed to say. 

So now the kid is in High School and his school mates in the lunch room asked him if his Mom is a Jaguar Cheerleader, yesterday. Is it cool to be the "hot" Mom or not? At this point I am thinking, not. 

Seems that my high schooler's friends have started to make him feel uncomfortable.  Which, makes me uncomfortable.  He's going through enough adjustment being a ninth grader this year.  He doesn't need anything else to make him feel like he doesn't fit in.  It's hard enough coming here from Miami and being half latin.  Don't get me wrong, I love where I reside.  I call it my very own Mayberry.  But, you know being from Miami and moving to suburban Jacksonville isn't always easy when it comes to fitting in.  So, now we are both screwed.  The soccer Moms will have nothing to do with me (which I don't mind) because I don't fit the mold here.  Thank God.  But, my high schooler's friends mothers don't want me around their kids because I am not 25 pounds overweight and dress like I shopped the sales rack at Talbots.  I don't let my hair turn grey 4 inches from my roots before I run to the nearest CVS, and I wear make up when I go out somewhere nice.  I care about my appearance and I feel I work at "staying attractive" for my husband.  So, I guess the other Moms don't want me around their kids or husbands, for that matter because the husbands are dumb enough to make comments like.  Wow, she's really nice.  (We all know what that means)  Or, She seems so down to earth.  Or, the death sentence statement.  She always looks so nice or even better "so put toghether". DONE.... I am done!, totally screwed. To top it all off, I drive a lowered car not a mini van or an Expedition.  So, I have been ostracized  from the "Soccer Mom" scene.  Seriously, I am a member of the PTO and when I sign up for volunteer work or purchases for the school, noone, I mean NO ONE ever calls me.  I've even called them and they kindly say in their sweet as pie, southern drawl.  Oh, no honey it's quite all right.  Mary Sue already baked those 200 cup cakes by herself.  Whatever!  I guess I should start answering okay fine, but your son Bobby says he likes my cup cakes better.  )ha- ha - ha - lol!)  I know that was just wrong... Funny, but wrong. 

 

My poor son.  I guess this will be another life lesson that helps build character.  I am sure one day he will look back and be proud.  

 

 

 


8Vote!
Comments (4)

Like this story? Share the news by clicking below:
This is a permanent link to this article. A great way to save it.
PermaLink
Post your article on Digg and let others vote on it.
Digg
Technorati is a blog indexing site.
Technorati
del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site.
Delicious
Kirtsy is a social bookmarking site featuring voting.
Kirtsy_addicon

Damn it, MAN!

Posted on: 09/04/07

Damn it, MAN!

OK. Check this out. My palm trees died. Seriously. I am pissed.

As if there isn't enough going on in my crazy world right now. I don't have time to call someone out here with a tractor and yank the suckers out and start over at $400 a pop. Not to mention I named them and everything. Big John croaked first. Can you believe this? I worked my butt off to make sure they were nourished and healthy and watered properly and this is what I get in return. Dead trees.

Here are some photos of the whole mission to get them in my yard. Man, I was so proud of my trees. I guess that is what happens for trying to bring Miami to Me. These trees were imported from Miami. I wanted tropical landscape (as best as I could get) that would make it through the colder winters here and they swore to me Sable Palms would do great. Uh huh? Well now they're dead.
I need to stick to inanimate objects. I am much better with nurturing and loving cars and bikes, I guess. That or I need to move back there.

Anyway, no more trees for me. Damn it.


DEBBIE

7Vote!
Comments (1)

Like this story? Share the news by clicking below:
This is a permanent link to this article. A great way to save it.
PermaLink
Post your article on Digg and let others vote on it.
Digg
Technorati is a blog indexing site.
Technorati
del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site.
Delicious
Kirtsy is a social bookmarking site featuring voting.
Kirtsy_addicon

Past Articles



about us | contact | terms | privacy | goodies | advertise | help | press | feedback