SUNDAY, JANUARY 9, 2011 - This coming weekend marks the beginning of the "non-racing" racing events for 2011 for Herd Racing as our primary Formula 3 tunnel boat from the 2010 race season will be on display Friday and Saturday, January 14 and 15, at the Piedmont Racing Expo in North Carolina.

If you are in the Raleigh area come by and see us.  The event, held each January for the past 25 years at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds, features a large auction of race parts, memorabilia and other stuff, as well as race driver appearances, seminars, race car displays and this year - for the first time -  a race boat display!

We will be loading up a trailer full of NASCAR goodies to sell at the auction so we have some seed money to get our 2011 racing programs off the ground in the next couple of months until we hope some sponsor money begins paying the bills as the weather begins to turn warmer.

We will get some photos at the expo and post to the photo gallery next weekend so you can see what went on and since the photo gallery has been dormant since mid September.

In other news, another snow storm is expected to hit here on Monday night.  The ground has pretty much been snow covered since mid December and the daytime tempertures have been below freezing more days than not since that time.  I love winter, but I would love a break for a week or so that would allow us to get the heat up in the race shop enough to paint a couple boats.  Hopefully, the weather will break sometime this month and let us get caught up on the show boat and primary F-3 boat painting projects.  You may have wondered why you haven't seen any Shop Night photos on the Facebook page since late November.  That's the reason.  While lots is getting done in regards to preparation for 2011, there isn't much going on that shows in pictures so hopefully we'll have some photos of some painted boats up for you to view as soon as we get a warm spell.

We have some positive news on the sponsorship front with three major possibilities seeking more information.  I will have phone meetings with at least two of them this week.  I am hopeful that at least one of them will pan out, but I have been down this road many times before and know that nothing is final until the check clears the bank.

Talk to you soon.

Dana Tomes