I flew into Charlotte on Friday evening 4/13/12 to attend the NHRA 4 Wide Nationals with some of my great friends. My Best Friend that I have known for 46 years, John Wright, @PriceWrightIns flew in from Ontario, California about 30 minutes before I landed. We met up at the CLT Airport, got the rental car, then headed to Texas Roadhouse in Concord to meet up with @NHRAChat, Laura-@LDCRust, and Joe Ryan-@J88Ryan. We had a such great evening getting back in touch with each other. I hated the evening to end and wish we all lived closer, but when we do get together it makes it even sweeter. We ended up getting to sleep about 1:00 am, then had an early wake up call to head to the track for the Hot Rods and Hot Cakes Breakfast put on my Doug Herbert's B.R.A.K.E.S.
We got to zMaxDragway about 7:30 am Saturday morning, and made it to DSR Hospitality where the Hot Rods and Hot Cakes Breakfast was taking place. I was amazed to see all the drivers helping out serving the fans and giving everyone some great entertainment. Here is a link to the entertainment HotCakes & HotRods. Antron Brown and John Force were hilarious. They had us all in stitches. Doug Herbert put on a great Breakfast for the Charlotte Chapter of Speedway Children's Charities (SCC) and B.R.A.K.E.S. pancake fundraiser. I was embarrassed at on point when Clay Millican was talking and I dropped my pancakes on the floor right in front of everyone. That's ok though Clay said, there is a 5 seconds rule. Hahaha!
After breakfast we headed out placing our flyer's around at each of the drivers pits for our 2nd Annual Tweet up at Dave & Busters in Concord. The drivers who came to this great evening event were Terry McMillen, Doug Herbert, Hillary Will, Alexis Dejoria, Dina and Andrew Parise ( Remind me to tell you this story LOL, and Blake Alexander. We also had a Surprise guest appearance then none other then Larry Dixon himself. Let me tell you a little story about Larry Dixon at the TweetUp. This had me cracking up. All the drivers had their own Hero Cards to sign, but since Larry is not driving this year, he did not have any. He saw these JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes hand outs, and grabbed a few and used them to sign his autograph. I thought that was improvising to the fullest. Great job Larry, and thank you so much for coming to our event and spending some time with us all. Best of luck in the Future.
I had the room set up for 20 people for dinner and ended up with 48 fans and drivers for dinner. It was an extraordinary Tweet Up. I can't tell you all the twitter fans that were there, so if you read this, please DM me so I can add you to the list at the bottom of the page. We started out with drinks and everyone was mingling. We took group pictures, mingled some more then at dinner. After dinner, fans got autographs from the NHRA Driver, and then we had a great Raffle. All the drivers brought hero cards to sign and a lot of great items to raffle off such as Hats, T-Shirts, Terrible Towels, Lanyards, and NASCAR Tickets. The Big Raffle was a set of 16 NASCAR Tickets to the Allstar and Coca Cola 600 Race in Charlotte for each of the race days. Janet/@JanetS67 and Chris/@Zackman1125 won that raffle and we so very happy. They help so much in promoting the drivers, teams and sponsors of the NHRA. Thank you so much to Terry McMillen and UNOH for donating those great Tickets. I also would like to give a Big THANKS to Jason Carey/@StrokerAceKid for helping put together the TweetUp. He is always there to help in any way and does a lot for the NHRA Drivers in promoting and conducting giveaways.
So after a long day at the track and a great evening at the TweetUp, everyone said their goodbyes and rested up for Sunday's eliminations. Sunday was also a great day. We met up with Mitzi/Gottagoracing at the drivers intro with Laura. It was so nice to meet her since I missed her last year. I am afraid if we all went out partying, we'd be TROUBLE. Next year I plan on spending some time over at her camp for some Brats and Beers. I also finally met up with a great twitter friend, Marnie/@maddog202088. It was such a pleasure to meet her, and I hope next year we can all spend more time together. I bumped into Nicci Gustaves and got a few pictures with her. Let me tell you, I have met so many great people at the NHRA Tracks and on twitter. I have been so blessed with their friendship. We also took some group pictures on Sunday, and thank you all for those who came for that. You are all So Awesome.
I didn't forget about Dina and Andrew Parise. After the evening at the tweet up, Andrew got a new name. It is TOG. That means the The Other Guy! LOL People were joking with them all night because Dina would kid around and say that she was the one that had to sign the autographs first, and then the other guy could sign. We had a great laugh at that. The Parise's are great people and I hope they can find funding to get back racing.
I would like to thank all the fans that made the TweetUp a Success. You all ROCK, and hope to see you next year at the Nitro Twitter Group's 3rd annual TweetUp in Concord. Most of all, I'd like to thank Doug Herbert and Dr Ginger for their help and support. Doug was a great help in keeping the night moving. I also would like to thank Terry McMillen, Hillary Will, Alexis Dejoria, Blake Alexander, and Dina & TOG Parise for their continued support for the NTG and for taking the time out of their busy schedules to spend time with their fans and attending the TweetUp. Hope to see you all there next year.
Video of Hot Rods and Hot Cakes Breakfast
Here are the links to follow these Great NHRA Drivers on Twitter:
Terry McMillen
Doug Herbert
Hillary Will
Alexis Dejoria
Blake Alexander
Dina & Andrew Parise
