Crazy for Cars!

By now many of you know that I absolutely love the Disney-Pixar movie, Cars. It has become my favorite movie ever, and has inspired me to collect various things related to the movie.

Most of my collection consists of the diecast replicas released by Mattel. My son and I have a great time trying to find all of the new releases when they come out, and he even lets me use him as an excuse when I'm trying to find them, which is really nice. We have been lucky so far, and have only a few more to find of the latest releases, but rumor has it that more are coming in the fall, so we will be on a bigtime safari then.

There is a wonderful message board for others who are afflicted with Cars Mania. It is filled with really nice folks who collect the cars for themselves, their kids, or both, and everyone is great about helping others on the board get what they are looking for without having to cave in to the scalpers on eBay. I enjoy the many wonderful posts there, and am relieved to find that I am definitely not the most obsesses Cars person out there!

I hope you enjoy the pictures under the "Crazy for Cars" heading in the gallery. I know that with my daughter leaving for college in only two and a half weeks, I should probably be doing something else, but this was a really nice distraction from the bittersweet emotions I am dealing with right now.

Thanks, as always, for stopping by!

TSR Publishes a 2GGR Photo!

One of the pictures I took at Macon last Friday is now up on the Tony Stewart Racing site. Here's the link:

http://www.tonystewartracing.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=842

This is pretty exciting for an amateur like me! Thanks to Misha for publishing it for us.

Edit: There are actually four photos of mine up on the site now. They are all in the Gallery under Tony-Macon Midget. Look for the photo of the tail with the number 20 on it.

Lots of new photos added!

I just finished publishing 70 photos from Friday at Macon Speedway. You can find them in the www.twogirlsgoneracin.com gallery and on the 2007 schedule page.

Spring was also busy today, uploading her gallery from June 13 at I-55 Raceway. Those are also linked from both the gallery and schedule pages.

We hope you enjoy the photos!

Macon Time

Tony Stewart has a lot of fans in Central Illinois. At least, that’s how it looked last night at the 1/5 mile bull ring that is Macon Speedway.

My Dad, husband and I left home around 2pm and made the 150 mile journey east and north to a track we had never been to before. All we knew was that POWRi Midgets and Micros, as well as UMP Modifieds were on the menu, and Tony Stewart and Ken Schrader were scheduled to race.


That last bit of information, more than the racing line-up may have been the biggest draw of the night, at least if the plethora of Home Depot orange in the stands was any indication.

The combination of dirt track Midget racing, NASCAR stars, unbelievably mild temperatures and lack of humidity made for a night that midwestern race fans can usually only dream about. I can count on one hand the number of race nights where everything has come together so perfectly, so this was a rare night indeed!

Our first impression of Macon Speedway was that it was crowded! Cars lined the streets of this small town while Midgets, Micros and Modifieds filled the pits. Fans crowded through the gates and waited in line for autographs from Tony and Kenny. From what I could tell, no one walked away disappointed.

I cruised through the pits for a while, talking to friends and snapping a few shots. Everyone I talked to commented on the weather, so it was obvious that I was not the only one who appreciated it.

The crowd around Tony’s trailer was amazing. Yes, I consider myself a fan, but spending my time in the 12-person deep quagmire of humanity that stood there just waiting for a glimpse of the driver was not my idea of a fun way to spend my time. Anyway, I couldn’t help but having a little sympathy for the guy. All he wants to do is spend his weekend away from his real job doing the kind of racing he truly loves, and he has to be flanked by security guards just to get to the driver’s meeting. I could not live that way, and I wouldn’t trade places with him for many millions of dollars. Being rich and famous is not what it’s cracked up to be.

I thought it was great that Tony came out to race his Midget and I know the fans enjoyed it. It was fun watching him finesse that car around the track, sawing at the wheel, performing heart-stopping slide jobs, and maneuvering through traffic. To me, the person who enjoyed it most was probably Tony himself. Every time I caught a glimpse of the guy, he was smiling, so that has to say something.

Of course, Tony was not the only driver at the track, and he did not steal the show when it came to where he finished the races. A.J. Fike came out on top in the Midget feature, holding on for the win, even after numerous delays due to tangles. Fike was challenged closely by Brad Kuhn and Derrick Myers. Those two rode his tail for all forty laps, doing their best to get around but they just could not get the job done.

Racing wrapped up at the very reasonable hour of 10:30 and we headed on down the road. Even after getting through a little bit of traffic and stopping for travel snacks, we were still back in our own driveway by 1:30 am. Not a bad run at all in my opinion, and definitely worth the trip.

I am working on getting my pics up on the site and will hopefully start loading pages shortly after this post appears, so stay tuned!

Two Girls Gone Racin' Press Release 7.19.07

I mentioned a couple of posts ago that we would be sending out a press release to the motorsports community. There were some things we needed to check out before we felt comfortable making the statements in the release. After thorough investigation, we feel that it is now time to announce to the public our new name, and the reasons why it was changed.

Again, we thank everyone for their support as we endure the aggravation that has been forced upon us and the frustration of trying to re-do a lot of hard work. We continue to pray for guidance as decisions are made in this situation.

Blessings,
The Girls

Same Great Web Site, Brand New Name

COTTLEVILLE, Mo. (July 19, 2007) What’s in a name? If you are into racing or any other professional sport, you know that name recognition is a key ingredient of Motorsports marketing. Any negative connotation of a name will turn things in the wrong direction in a hurry. Owners of a Missouri-based motorsports web site recently found out first-hand what it’s like to have your business name associated with something you never intended to promote.

An e-mail with a “cease and desist” order was not what these two girls expected on a sunny July morning, but there it was, alleging trademark infringement and asking them to cooperate or face legal proceedings. Within 24 hours, a name change was initiated and all contents moved to the new domain.

The accusations in the email were disturbing enough, but what made it worse is the nature of the business that the other site conducts. Both girls admit that if this had been another legitimate race-related site, they would have been able to reach some kind of understanding with the other party and moved on with business as usual. The fact that the site is of an adult nature was what gave them cause for concern, prompting the name change.

“We in no way want to be affiliated with the adult entertainment industry,” state the women. “It is our hope that by changing the name, we will not inadvertently direct traffic to the other site because that is absolutely the last thing we want to do. That kind of site is in direct opposition to everything we stand for as Christian women.”

The new name is Two Girls Gone Racin’ and the web site is www.twogirlsgoneracin.com. The site contains the same great photo galleries as before, galleries which include races at many Missouri and Illinois tracks, as well as Eldora Speedway and The Museum at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, among others.

Professional photographer Spring Hansen and writer/webchick/amateur photographer Valerie Perkins began their web site in April 2006 and use it to showcase grassroots racing, as well as an occasional concert. Their goal is to shine a spotlight on the true heroes of Motorsports, the guys and gals who do their best work at dirt tracks throughout the Midwest.

“We love racing, especially Sprint Cars and Midgets,” stated Perkins. “Our focus is on giving these folks as much press as possible, getting photos out there for their sponsors and potential sponsors, and just letting them know that we appreciate what they do.”

The web site also links to a blog where the girls entertain readers with tales of their travels and express their feelings about life in general. Both women are working Moms with husbands and kids who don’t always share their passion for racing, but try their best to be understanding.

With the new name comes new opportunities, and these two gals hope to continue their adventure for many seasons to come. Next on the calendar for Two Girls Gone Racin’ will be the POWRi Midgets and Micros, as well as UMP Modifieds at Macon Speedway in Macon, Illinois. Photos should be up on the site within a few days of the event.

Spring and Val encourage you to stop by to browse the photos, and leave a message on the blog whenever you get the chance.

About Two Girls Gone Racin’:

Two Girls Gone Racin’ was formed in 2006 by Spring Hansen and Valerie Perkins, two women who have a passion for Motorsports and a desire to share their unique perspective with other racing enthusiasts.

Spring, professional studio photographer and owner of Spring Renee Studio, is a long-time race fan who had always dreamed of combining her camera skills with her love of racing.

Val, a life-long Sprint Car fan who dabbles in writing and photography and has been employed in the Motorsports market for many years, had long envisioned a place where words and photos could be shared in a constructive, yet casual way.

Together, we strive to pay homage to drivers of all levels, from the low-budget, grassroots, weekend warrior, to the full-time driver who races to live and lives to race. With that in mind, one never knows just who might show up on the pages of www.twogirlsgoneracin.com

Get the picture. Tell the story. Live the passion.

Crunching the Numbers

I'm not a numbers kind of person. In fact, most of the time, I do my best to avoid anything involving math of any kind, including balancing my check book, measuring for appliances and calculating lunch money for my kids. Numbers perplex and confound me, yet today I find myself putting together a little table of sorts, the kind of table that involves numbers. Yuck.

Yesterday was a good day in NASCAR for me because I like Tony Stewart. Yes, he can be tempramental and he gets pretty excited about stuff, but to me, that's just part of what makes him the amazing driver that he is. His passion for racing shows up in a lot of ways.

Of course, I openly admit that I am not a big NASCAR fan and I am not ashamed of it. To me, racing involves Midgets and Sprints, preferably without wings of any kind. And racing should always be done on dirt. That's just the way it is.

With that thought in mind, I thought it might be kind of fun to start tracking the NASCAR drivers who got their start in the Sprint and Midget arena. Off the top of my head, I could think of five, and I have listed them in a table, along with how they did this week, and their current points. It seemed to me like it might be kind of interesting to track these guys and see how well they do. The chart is over in the right hand column and will be updated after each week's Cup race.

Currently, Jeff Gordon is the points leader, which is great, but poor Dave Blaney is way out of Chase contention, which is a shame. Dave is a great Sprint Car driver, and I think he would do well in NASCAR but he just can't seem to catch a break. Kind of like Junior these days.

Anyway, these are the five I could think of because I know for sure they have raced Sprints and/or Midgets on dirt. Most of them I have seen in action. If anyone reading this knows of other Cup drivers who got their start running at least a full season or two of Sprint/Midget racing, drop me a line and I will add them to the table. I hope you guys enjoy looking at the numbers. Maybe some day it will all make sense to me.

Of course, I could probably come up with a list of Busch and Truck drivers who started out in Sprints too, but with the way they keep showing up on the police blotters for alleged illegal drug possession, I think I'll just stick with Cup drivers for now.

Same Great Web Site, Brand New Name

If you found us today, then you know that we have had a change of names, but not a change of heart. Because of all the craziness of this past week, we felt that the best thing we could do to protect ourselves and our web site would be to change names and move on.

Below is a copy of the release that will be going out to the motorsports community in the next few days. We want everyone to know that we are back and that we don't take threats lightly.

So, from here on out, we will be known as Two Girls Gone Racin' and you can still find us at the old domain, or at www.twogirlsgoneracin.com. We will be keeping the original for the long haul.

You have probably noticed the change in the blog name as well. Please update you bookmarks, as the old name is no longer valid and no forwarding was available.

We would again like to thank everyone who emailed us this week. The outpouring of support was just what we needed to get us through this difficult time. After Spring's injury and all of the pain she has been through, this latest setback was really not what we needed! The way I figure it, we must be doing something really right if the forces of evil are doing everything they can to get us down. God is good, and through His strength we will persevere.

Begin Press Release:

What’s in a name? If you are heavy into racing or any other professional sport, you know that name recognition is a key ingredient of Motorsports marketing.

Owners of a Missouri-based motorsports web site recently found out first-hand what it’s like to have your business name associated with something you never intended to promote. An unexpected e-mail with a “cease and desist” order was not what the girls expected on a sunny July morning, but there it was, alleging trademark infringement and asking them to cooperate or face legal proceedings.

The email was disturbing, but what made it worse is the nature of the business that the other site conducts. Both girls admit that if this had been another legitimate race-related site, they would have been able to reach some kind of understanding with the other party and moved on with business as usual. The fact that the site is of an adult nature was what gave them cause for concern, prompting the name change.

“We in no way want to be affiliated with the adult entertainment industry,” state the girls. “It is our hope that by changing the name, we will not inadvertently direct traffic to the other site because that is absolutely the last thing we want to do. That kind of site is in direct opposition to everything we stand for as Christian women.”

The new name is Two Girls Gone Racin’ and the web site is www.twogirlsgoneracin.com. The site contains the same great photo galleries as before, galleries which include races at many Missouri and Illinois tracks, as well as Eldora Speedway and The Museum at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, among others.

Professional photographer Spring Hansen and writer/webchick/amateur photographer Valerie Perkins began their web site in April 2006 and use it to showcase grassroots racing, as well as an occasional concert. Their goal is to shine a spotlight on the true heroes of Motorsports, the guys and gals who do their best work at dirt tracks throughout the Midwest.

“We love racing, especially Sprint Cars and Midgets,” stated Perkins. “Our focus is on giving these guys and gals as much press as possible, getting photos out there for their sponsors and potential sponsors, and just letting them know that we appreciate what they do.”

The web site also links to a blog where the girls entertain readers with tales of their travels and express their feelings about life in general. Both women are working Moms with husbands and kids who don’t always share their passion for racing, but try their best to be understanding.

With the new name comes new opportunities, and these two gals hope to continue their adventure for many seasons to come. Next on the calendar for Two Girls Gone Racin’ will be the Lucas Oil Late Models at Tri-City Speedway in Pontoon Beach Illinois. Photos should be up on the site a few days after the event.

Spring and Val encourage you to stop by to browse the photos, and leave a message on the blog whenever you get the chance.

Darkness and Light

Wow, what an emotional roller coaster this week has been! All I can say is, I will be glad when the weekend finally rolls around. Now I just need to find a race to go to!

There is good news with regard to www.girlsgoneracin.com. Within the next 24-48 hours, we will have re-launched our little enterprise under a new name. As for now, everything will look the same, and you will still be able to find us at either the old address or the new one. When I think about it, all of this may actually be a good thing, because it has really made us sit down and think about what we do and why we do it.

The ordeal has also re-engergized my spirit when it comes to what I believe in. And one of those things is common decency, which is getting more and more difficult to find in our society.

There is not a day that goes by that we are not bombarded by sleaze, whether it is the latest commercial from that no-good burger joint that has nothing to do with selling food, a spam email that pops up when you log in, an advertisement for an adult magazine on the wing of a race car, or a billboard for a "specialty shop." Filth is all around us because we live in a dark and fallen world. There is only One who can save us from that.

You would think this would be the part where I would want to get up on my soapbox and be all preachy, but I'm not going to do that. Suffice it to say that I believe that good will triumph over evil one day, and in a way bigger than any of us can ever imagine.

As for now, it is up to each of us to do what we can to maintain decency and protect ourselves and those we love from the dangers that lurk around us. Watch out for your kids, your spouse and even yourself as you cruise the internet and the interstate. Life will throw garbage your way when you least expect it, like the schrapnel from the tire on the truck in front of me that blew up this morning. You just have to know how to dodge it.

All Good Things...

If you have attempted to access our web site lately, you're probably wondering what is going on. We still have everything, and we still want to share it with you, but unfortunately, we have been threatened with legal action because our web site name is very similar to another site of a very different sort and because of that, we are taking our pages off-line.

We started this site with no intention of making money, but did it purely for the purpose of showcasing American grassroots racing. We sold a few photos, but it has always cost us more to run this site than what we take in, so there are no funds with which to fight any type of legal action. Because of that we have been left with no choice but to take down the site. As of right now, we have no idea what will become of our little adventure, but those of you who know us can probably guess that this is not the end of the road for we Girls Who Like To Go Racin'.

With that said, we would like to take this opportunity to thank each and every person we have met over the course of the past 18 months or so. It has been so much fun getting to know you, making great friends, drinking in your knowledge of racing and just immersing ourselves in the greatest sport in the world. We love nothing better than to hang out at dirt tracks, talking with and trying to get fun shots of drivers, teams and fans. We have enjoyed every minute of it.

In the last two seasons we have had the privilege of seeing and photographing race cars at to Indy, Eldora, Gateway, Tri-City, Belle Clair, Phoenix, Lakeside, Jacksonville, Lucas Oil Speedway, I-55 Raceway, Saint Francois County Raceway, DuQuoin, and Hartville for races of every type imaginable including Lucas Oil Late Models, World of Outlaws Sprints, USAC Sprints, Midgets and Silver Crown Cars, Outlaw Karts, POWRi Migets, UMP Modifieds, Dragsters, Indy Cars and Micros.

To the track promoters and sanction folks who were willing to give two girls they had never heard of a shot at race photography, we thank you. We appreciate the risk you took in allowing us into your world.

At these tracks, we have been welcomed by other photographers who willingly shared tips of the trade, swapped war stories and made us feel not as intruders or competition, but as if we were part of the family.

And then there were the drivers.

We know that without you guys, there would be no racing to chase, no dirt to eat and we would be stuck with stick-and-ball sports that bore us out of our gourds most of the time. There are way too many names to mention here, because I would inevitably leave someone out, but you guys know who you are. You are the ones who were curious enough about the two chicks with the cameras to ask us what we were up to, or were willing to give us the time of day when we approached you. You never treated us like dumb girls, or acted as if our questions were stupid. You willingly supplied answers, and even embellished and gave us more than we asked for. You shared with us your passion for the sport. The passion we see in your eyes every time you strap in, buckle up that helmet and get that motor running.

You guys are the reason we wanted to do what we did.

Right now, the whole thing is such a shock that we do not quite know what to do with ourselves. It's as if we have lost a dear friend and we are in the first stages of the grieving process. It will get better with time, but right now, it's just really tough. Pulling the plug on all of this work feels kind of like taking a much loved pet to the vet to be put down.

We would like to ask that you keep in touch, drop us a note, maybe even give us some suggestions as to where to go from here. We know you like what we do, and we would love to keep doing it, but it's all just a big mess right now.

You drivers, track and sanction owners, promoters and other photographers are our heroes. We admire and respect you for what you do. Drivers, we even envy you, just a little because we would love to get behind the wheel ourselves but are forced to live vicariously through you.

Keep doing what you do. Pursue the win, cherish the victories, learn from the defeats. That's exactly what we're doing.

God bless you all,Spring and Val
girlsgoneracin@sbcglobal.net