TAN Driver Blog - Cassie Simonton - TAFC

A year to remember...

Looking back it seems the last time I wrote a blog was after Gainesville back in March. So, there is a whole lot of catching up to do with my fans. We definitely had our ups and downs this year. For example, we ran career best times during qualifying at the Four-Wide Nationals and had a bye first round, but lost because we couldn’t get the car started due to a broken fuel pump. However we had many great weekends to make up for. We got our first regional round win at the Lucas Oil Raceway in April and it only got better from there.

Cassie and Artist Butch M

During the Chicago regional I got to meet the famous “Artist Butch M”, who runs our website and designs all our hero cards and posters. We had a lot of fun that weekend doing some filming for the website. Butch and I did a one-on-one interview asking, some general questions so my fans can learn a little bit more about me. My team decided to have some fun at my expense while I was being interviewed on film, so make sure to check it out if you haven’t so far. It was also great having my mom, Mark, and sister supporting me. That was the first time my little sister has ever seen me in the funny car so it was really nice to see her having so much fun that we decided put her to work. She loved every minute of it!!

We made two good passes in qualifying which put us in the show but we were on the bump spot when I pulled up for the final qualifying round. I had my hands full on that pass - she went every direction but straight until about half track. The first thing I heard when I got out of the car at the other end was that we were in the number 1 spot with just one more pair to go. So after some hugs and high fives we slowly drove back down the return road to see what the last pair of cars ran. They did not improve so we were very excited going into Sunday as the number 1 qualifier for the first time. It was amazing to have so many friends and family there to celebrate that memorable day. Butch put a very cool video together showing some Chicago weekend highlights. You can find both videos on our website www.konrodzracing.com if you have not yet seen them.

The most exciting part of the year was going to back-to-back finals at the Chicago and Norwalk Nationals. There was a lot of work and a lot of late nights involved in those two weeks but it was all worth it in the end.

After the Chicago regional we had a week off before the Chicago National. I went back home to Minnesota and my sister kept me in shape by putting me through what we called her “boot camp”. Every day we went for long bike rides, runs, and drills out in the yard. After that week I was pumped up and ready to get back to the track. I was excited to go back to Chicago because we always seem to run well at that race in the heat and she definitely was going to be a hot one again this year. We made three strong consistent passes in qualifying and ended up in the number 7 spot. First round we ran a 5.66 to beat Steve Gasparrelli’s 5.68. In round two we ran a 5.62 to beat John Lombardo’s 5.63. We were all very excited because this was the first time we had ever made it to the semi-finals. In the semis we ran a 5.65 to beat Mickey Ferro’s 5.69. Once again at the end of my run I heard the boys screaming on the radio that we were going to the finals. I was excited and emotional at the same time. It was such a surreal moment cause we hurt some parts the night before in the last qualifying pass and the boys and I were up until midnight putting a new motor in the car the night before. Our hard work definitely paid off. We were now heading to our first final against Frank Manzo.

Mark Rebilas photo

Unfortunately our luck changed in the finals and she threw a rod out about half track. Everyone from the outside said it was a very loud explosion but it happened very quickly for me. I heard the motor rev up really high and there were some sparks down by my clutch foot when it threw the rod out. The first thing I did was look through the windows in the fire wall to see if there was any fire and there it was, so I pulled the lever for the fire bottles. As soon as I got out of the car the Safety Safari was there to check on me and lifted up the body to put the rest of the fire out. It was not the way we wanted to end our weekend but we were still very happy to have made it all the way to the finals. Especially since Chicago is one of the biggest races for Alcohol Cars because the Jegs Allstars race was that weekend also, so the best of best from every region were there to compete.               

David Smith photos

                                                             

The Norwalk national was the very next weekend so we didn’t have much time to get everything fixed and ready to go. On Monday we loaded up and headed to Indy and used one of the shops there to tear the car apart. It was a week of 14 hour days to get it back together and drive over to Norwalk. Thursday morning we were in Norwalk setting up for our next race.

We came out after all of that and ran a 5.71 to put us in the number 2 spot after the first qualifying pass. It was much hotter at Norwalk then it was in Chicago and ended in the number 3 spot on our last qualifying run. First round we were paired up with Brian Harvanek and ended up both having problems but luckily we got the win light. My car shut off about half track and his blower belt blew off so it was pretty much whoever coasted to the finish line first won. Second round we ran a 5.64 to beat Ray Drew’s 5.79. When I staged the car second round I heard my RPMSs go down so I looked away from the tree to look at my tach because I didn’t want to leave low. By the time I looked back at the tree it already activated. I had a bad light so my team definitely saved me that round.

I was pretty upset at myself at that point because it was pretty embarrassing to have such a bad light, but lesson learned - I will never look away again when I am staged. I pumped myself back up to make up for it in the semi finals against Chris Foster. We ran a 5.64 to beat Chris Foster’s 5.67 to take us to our second final round of the year. We were paired up with Paul Gill in the finals. We were both running pretty well all day so we knew it was going to be another close race but we smoked the tires and Paul made another strong pass to take the win.

John Stutsman photo

We didn’t get our first Wally but it was still an amazing two weeks. I really didn’t have much time to take it all in until we watched all the coverage on TV when we got back home from Norwalk. We got a lot of TV coverage at Norwalk which was great for our sponsors and great to be able to relive it all again with my awesome team. 

                                                     

I want to give a huge thank you to my team - Randy Anderson, Patrick Browne, Londos D’Arrigo, Graham Rowe, Cory Cox, Robert Covault, and Nate Van Wagnen for everything they do. They work so hard and no matter what is thrown their way they always give me a great race car.

Not only do they work hard but they are so much fun to be around and work with. We have become one big family and they are always there to support and cheer me up if I get upset with my driving. Thanks to our great sponsors; Lucas Oil, NGK Spark Plugs, Goodson, BAE, Goodyear Tire, Clevite, Mac Tools, Artist ButchM, and ithreesixty Music Infused Apparel, as well. I also want to give a huge thank you to Spiro, Fay, and Stefan for taking me in as one of their own and giving me this great opportunity because without them I wouldn’t be out here living my dream.

I also want to thank the two most important people in my life who don’t get much credit because they are behind the scenes and they would be my mom and dad. I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for them. And last but definitely not least I need to thank my fans. The support has been unbelievable; no matter if we have a good or bad weekend my fans are always there to cheer us on. I hope everyone has a great winter and wish you all Happy Holidays. We’ll see you at the track in 2013!

Cassie Simonton is the driver of the KonRodzRacing.com Top Alcohol Funny Car. Follow her on Twitter at @CassieSimonton. Follow Kon Rodz Racing on Facebook and Twitter.