(Photo by David Hakim) – I am writing this after freshly returning home from a four day stint announcing at the 45th NHRA Gatornationals, the first NHRA national event I have ever announced at as an actual member of the announcing staff. It was a great weekend of racing and it was a very cool experience for me personally and the first of many I will have this year as I am going to be doing about half the races on the 2014 schedule. While I cannot speak for every drag racing announcer in the country, I can tell you that the first time I ever picked up a microphone, I had some very faint dreams of doing what I was able to do just a couple days ago. There was more than one moment during the weekend where I had to mentally pull it together after losing myself in the very idea that I was actually there doing it and doing it at Gainesville, one of the great historic races on the NHRA tour.

I was very lucky to have the March Meet the weekend before Gainesville because it kept me from completely overanalyzing the situation and freaking out. At the end of the day I kept telling myself that it was “just another drag race” but in reality it was certainly the biggest drag race I had ever lent my voice to. The Gatornationals is a destination race for many fans and competitors, so the truly cool thing was having many people from home down there. Mike Williams is the guy who I started working with when I was “promoted” to being one of the match race announcer at New England Dragway a decade plus ago and he was there turning the screws on a Super Gas car. It was exceptionally neat to have him there in competition to “share” the moment. I was able to catch up with Mike and the Kelly brothers at the tail end of the event and it was all smiles and laughter. That ruled.

My role at the event was to serve as a tower announcer during sportsman classes and then work on the starting line and finish line during the professional sessions as a reporter. As I have written about here in this column and others so many times, Steve Evans is (in my opinion) the best ever on the top end stuff and just to be occupying that same “space” as he did, interacting with the drivers was spectacular. There were smiles, there was tension when interviewing drivers who were beaten, and there was a genuine reinforcement of my belief that every guy out there REALLY wants to win and there are several guys out there that REALLY don’t like each other. Through the course of the year, if I do my job right, there won’t be many questions left about who those people are.

Through decades of experience and analysis, there’s a near military level of precision with regard to how the race is physically run. Outside of issues like Clay Millican’s top fuel dragster effectively exploding an oil filter and greasing down the track to knock the schedule back, it was non-stop action. The Gatornationals is such a popular race because virtually every class NHRA has to offer is on showcase. Alcohol cars, pro mods, pro stock bikes, competition eliminator, all the pro categories, the factory stock showdown, and other “races within a race” are all part of an event that consisted of nearly 40 hours of actual racing over four days. Other than your favorite driver not winning, I don’t know how anyone could have left the track unsatisfied with the show.

I plan on doing a Barnstormin’ after each race I do to fill you in on some of the stuff that happened behind the scenes that I thought was funny. Here we go –

Best quote from a nitro racer after exiting their car, pulling off their helmet and seeing me standing there with a microphone, “Hey! What the F$%K are you doing here?”

Best quote from a pro stock motorcycle racer at the top end, “I just want to win a F^&KING championship and get on with my life!”

Best quote from a top fuel driver on-air after smoking the tires, “We don’t suck.”

Best quote from an ESPN camera crew guy on the interesting smell at the end of the track, “It smells like the BLANK-house door off a tuna boat back here.”

Best quote from a server at a restaurant we were getting dinner at when she asked what we did for work, “That’s not a real thing….is it?”

The Barnstormin’ food report:

As promised, I am going to keep you updated on the culinary end of road adventures. Gainesville, Florida isn’t exactly New York City, but there were some decent eats to be had.

Miller’s Ale House, Gainesville – This is one location of many in the Ale House chain. The food is cheap but it has always been consistent and good. The drinks are cheap as well. Ossobucco is my go to jam and they’ve never let me down at any of their locations. A strong 3.5 BSs rating here.

Leonardo’s pizza, Gainesville – The weird thing about Gainesville proper is that it is both a bohemian feeling college town and kind of rough at the same time. Leonardo’s pizza is a bitchin’ “from scratch” pizza joint that rakes in cash from kids slugging down beers or sampling “herbal supplements” at night on campus. The pizza is top shelf, the beers are bottom dollar cheap, and we stayed until they threw us out one night. Our kind of joint from top to bottom. An unheard of 5 BSs on the rating scale!

Mother’s Pub and Grille, Gainesville – If you ever enter Mother’s and think,”This place smells a little weird, it is loud, and I’m not sure if I should stay,” sit down and enjoy your damned self. We hit this place up two nights in the course of four because of the essential BS elements of character, food that was OK, and drinks that were virtually free. They have a great selection of wings, which I test drove on both of my visits. Don’t take your grandmother there. Why? For example, one drunken kid entered with a skateboard and proceeded to wipe out in stunning fashion at the top of a set of stairs. No doubt his parents were subsidizing the stupor this kid was in. Downside? The bathroom didn’t have running water to the toilets and instead relied on filling them with ice to get “flow”. True story. This place earned 3 BSs on the rating scale and with some cleaning and plumbing would rocket even higher.