Click for full sized picture.

On April 16th I sent out an email to all of you concerning the unbelievable chain of events that occurred during this weekend. After visiting with several of you since then I have learned that the email did not make the trip. I have checked my site and could not find it there either. I hate giving out stale information, however the story is so good, I felt compelled to send it again as well as some new and exciting news.

As most of you know each year at the NHRA national event at Houston Raceway Park Tropical Impression Racing Team brings a very special group of young guest to this event on Thursday. This year turned out to be exceptional. Our special guest were from Shriner's Children Burn Center of Galveston, Ronald Mc Donald House of Galveston, Transitional Learning Center of Galveston and Hope Village of Friendswood.

I would first like to start with the events that occurred before the race. I was contacted by Curtis Norman of MATCO Tools. He asked if we were going to conduct our annual vigil to the O'Reilly Nationals. He stated that the local distributors and MATCO wanted to make this event special. A special they did!!! MATCO made arrangements for our guest to get a tour of the multi-car pits of the MATCO Top Fuel Funny Car teams. They also arranged for each participant to receive a MATCO limited edition racing collectible and a BEAUTIFUL MATCO Tools Racing embroidered cap. This was topped with a visit and autograph session with Craig Treble. Craig is the driver of the #1 ranked Pro Stock Motorcycle sponsored by MATCO Tools. Based on this I knew this year was going to be special. THANK YOU MATCO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Before going any further I must give thanks Mr. David Strom and Mr. Jay Dee Garrison of O'Reilly Auto Parts for providing tickets for all of our special guest and helpers. Mr. Garrison has also been a very regular helping hand on the maintenance of our car, Thanks Guys!

I must also thank the folks at the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) in California for allowing us and the other Beat The Heat teams to participate in the unbelievable event each year. NHRA provides the BTH teams with a prime spot that allows us to have one on one contact with the fans and especially the kids. The BTH Teams participating this year were Senior Detective John Drake - Harris County Sheriff's Office, Capt. Don Kemp - Galveston Fire Department, Sgt. Lary Porter - Harris County Sheriff's Office, Officer Derrick Jones - Baytown Police Dept. and Officer Henry Canales - Houston Police Dept. and Tropical Impression Racing - Galveston County Sheriff's Office. THANKS NHRA, especially Mr. Glen Cromwell and Mr. George Phillips!!!!

Our special guest arrived at the track around 1:PM. The tour started with a bag of goodies provided by our team and Simpson Race Products. Thanks to Debbie at Simpson. Our guest were immediately in awe of the beautiful and massive pits of the teams.

The first stop of the tour was the pit of the New York Yankee's Top Fuel Dragster. The driver of this 6000 horsepower monster is the young 21 year old, Andrew Cowin. Because of his age Andrew is always a hit with everyone. He has become an annual host on this tour. GO YANKEES!

We then traveled to the pits of the MATCO Tools teams. Here the crew chief gave our guest a detailed, front to back tour of White Bazemore's car. The technology to make a car go to 100 mph in less than a second and over 300 mph in less that 5 seconds is phenomenal. Last year Mr. Bazemore took time from his busy schedule to visit the Shriner Burn Center before the race. Thanks. I must say that all of the pro and sportsman drivers of NHRA are the greatest every year.

Our crew chief, Tony Munoz then set up a surprise for all of us. He had arranged for a visit to 11 time world champion, John Force. Mr. Force is the winningest driver in drag racing and was recently inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame. He is currently in the ranks of such race drivers like Richard Petty. However, Force has many years left of racing. As many of you know, Mr. Force is without a doubt one of the most colorful sports figures of modern times. Well, this tour was no different. Mr. Force visited each and every one of our guest and all got a tour of their pits including their technology trailer. The crew chiefs, Austin Coil and Bernie Fedderly also took time to explain what it takes to make a 11 time world champion.

Folks, it only gets better. From here we traveled to the MATCO pit of Craig Treble. It was here that we realized that we were being trailed by ESPN Sports. It was later we learned that ESPN did a story on our visit and we received TV time on Saturday night and around 7:30PM. Can you say, WOW!!!! Thanks ESPN....

While we were visiting Mr. Treble one of our special guest from Transitional Learning Center gave him a penny with tape on it. He told Craig that this was his luck penny and that he would win this race. It was at this time that Craig and the great folks at MATCO gave each visitor their MATCO Racing Collectible. Craig autographed photos, the collectible and their caps. A day they will all remember.

We then traveled to the Beat The Heat pits where our guest got to see the 6 cars on display. We fired up some of the cars for them. All of the BTH teams were great. Thanks guys.

While at the Beat The Heat pits we were greeted by a VERY SPECIAL guest who knew we were at the track and he hunted us down. Mr. Reggie Showers. Mr. Showers also drives one of those 190 mph motorcycles. The special thing about Reggie is that when he was young he was severely electrocuted. He was badly burned over his entire body and lost both of his legs. He has overcome all of this and it currently ranked as on of the top motorcycle drivers in the country. Since all of our guest could relate to his injuries he is the light at the end of that tunnel. Reggie also signed autographs for all. THANKS REGGIE.

We then went to watch some of the sportsman guys run their qualifying rounds. While watching the races the announcers from ESPN and NHRA recognized our group and had them all waving to the tower. The day ended with a bunch of tired folks with a bunch of great memories. The story is not over, remember the luck penny?

After three days of racing Mr. Treble made it to the final round. On Sunday we had just finished making our exhibition run for the fans. Thanks NHRA for the time to recognize BTH. By the way, our car made the fasted pass it had ever made on this run. After making our run we went back to the starting line area to watch the final round of the pro cars. There was Craig Treble awaiting his turn. I asked him if he had his lucky penny. He opened up a small zipper pouch on his racing leathers and there was that penny. Well, the luck continued. HE WON THE RACE!!!!!!!!!!!! Afterwards he told me to tell that young man who gave it to him that he was not getting that penny back. The great folks at MATCO picked up on this story and are going to go to the center and give this young man a special gift for bringing this great luck to Craig. How about that story!!

I would also like to take this time to congratulate Mitch King of Galveston. Mitch runs La Kings Confectionery on the Strand in Galveston. He has continuously provided our team with that great salt water taffy to give to the kids. Mitch has been an active drag racer for years. Recently he and several other locals, Marshall Paysee - Island Transmissions and Kenny Nigrelle - Kenny's Strictly Foreign started a Top Fuel Team. With prayer, hard work and luck they prepared to debut their car and their first NHRA national event before their home crowd. Top Fuel is the king of all forms of motorsports. Just to qualify several times a year in this sport is TOUGH. Well, Mitch and his team qualified in their first NHRA events. They ran the quarter mile in 4.7 seconds at over 300 mph. From here them beat the #1 NHRA team in the first round on Sunday. The first time this team had been beaten in the first round in 30 races. The crowd went wild and the exposure for Mitch and their team on ESPN and all other sports shows was tremendous. In the next rounds there were in a position and were just about to pass the #2 team when the blower belt broke about a 1000 feet down the track. GOOD JOB guys. We put Galveston County before millions of fans this weekend. Not a bad weekend!

This continued, I just received the most recent edition of Automotive Performance News. This paper is distributed throughout Texas, La., OK, NM and Ark. On the front cover was a photo of our car with a little girl standing in front and also a photo of Mitch setting a track record in his other car at Lone Star Raceway in Sealy a couple of week ago.

I would like to invite all of our local supporters to visit us at the Lone Star Flight Museum and Aviation Hall of Fame this weekend, April 27-28. There will be a two day air show and we have displayed here for several years. A great family event. Come on down!

I know this email was long, however it was a story I had to tell. To all of our sponsors, supporters and friends and especially the Good Lord above, THANKS! We could not do any of this without your support. By the way, we have another check for the Children's Advocacy Center thanks to our Klunkers for Kids program.

Thanks and God Bless

Lt. Tommy Hansen
Tropical Impression Racing
Beat The Heat
Galveston County Sheriff's Office
Galveston, Texas
tiracing1@aol.com
www.beattheheat.com

Copyright © 1997-2008 Tropical Impression Racing Team. All rights reserved.

The Tropical Impression Racing Team is a member of the National Organization of Beat The Heat, Inc. This team is recognized as a 501(c)(3) not for profit organization by the IRS and is not part of the Galveston County Sheriff's Office.