Hello everyone, it's Karen Stalba. Thank you for taking time from your daily life to catch up on mine. It's late-December and freezing here in New Jersey. The holidays are always busy and with Christmas coming, family members keep asking what I want. I have a terrific family and come January 14th, we will have that great Division 1 Top Alcohol Dragster Championship Trophy, so that should about do it! The box of Arias Pistons that arrived at the shop the other day were a good start though! I did however see a commercial for the Crafstman Universal Toolkit. I sure could use that here in the house. My kitchen counter usually looks like a mini Auto Body Shop, fixing cars and diecasts for our son. I'm pretty handy, but I always have to walk way out to the shop or trailer to find tools.
Some of us on the Stalba Team were in Orlando for the PRI show a couple of weekends ago and had a great time. The show was pretty casual; not overly crowded, which worked out great because it gave us a chance to talk to our suppliers and meet some face to face for the first time.
Just as good as the show was, so was the nightlife for the one night we were able to get out. Tommy and I had a couple of kid-free days (first away together in several years without the munchkins!) so it was crazy to be out and not have to worry about rushing home. We visited a fun place called Howl at the Moon, which featured a great band and a great crowd. Stalba Motorsports was well-represented in the crowd and on the mirrors behind the band....thanks to several friends who put up some dollars to give us some praise in shoe polish! Thanks also to Lucas Oil Products for coming on board again for the 2012 season. We hope to make them proud.
The new Regional Schedule for the Top Alcohol categories has raised a lot of questions, and we are still waiting to hear all the details as they become available, but it should be an interesting year. I know that everyone has their opinions on how to fix things, but for now, we will see how this works out. I am pretty happy they let us have 4 regions. I hope for the growth of the category that car counts do in fact improve and the tracks can promote us and provide a quality show for their attendees. Maybe we can find ways to help our tracks provide a quality show and increase awareness.
We are tentative for the Gainesville regional, but there is a lot to be done between now and then. With some end-of-year fuel shut-off problems we found, we would really like to do some testing before we travel so far. I noticed in testing at Atco that the fuel shut-off was off after my test run, and I didn't do it myself. To be sure, on the next pass, I glanced at it a couple times (not easy to look down going over 200 mph), but I watched it try to work it's way shut. So without the remote shutdown safety devices that are normally present divisional and national events, I noticed the problem. If that has been happening all year, then we found a major source of holes in our aluminum parts that go up and down! Thanks to the PRI show, we met up with Watterman pumps and bought a fuel shutoff with a detent. That should solve the problem!
My dad and Erick have been spending a lot of time in the shop getting things ready. I couldn't do this without them. Erick is meticulous and keeps everything looking beautiful. The timing was perfect for him to be getting out of Funny Car racing to join up with us.
Next stop for us is the Division 1 Banquet in Hershey, PA. We haven't been to the banquet since Tommy last won the Division in Super Comp, one of his six Division 1 Championships. I hope someday I'll be able to catch him in that category. I always say I am going to get some doll hair and dress up my two Wallys with long, dark hair so that I can quickly point out those Wallys on the wall of fame that are actually mine! The banquet is always a fun time to catch up with everyone. I'm still working on my speech, and with Bob Frey in attendance, I have a huge standard to try and meet!
Here's wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. In the meantime, you can check out my website, http://www.karenstalba.com/, or follow me on Twitter, @KarenStalba, or find us on Facebook at Stalba Motorsports.
Karen Stalba is the driver of the Division 1-based Stalba Motorsports/Lucas Oil Products Top Alcohol Dragster. You can follow her on Twitter at @KarenStalba.
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