So there I was driving south on
Route 1, actually the only route in the Florida Keys in mid-January 2010 looking
at property and contemplating semi-retirement in paradise. Well, almost paradise
since it was only about 50 degrees and the Florida Keys, along with the rest of
Florida, was into their second coldest winter on record. Also going through my
mind was the fact that Lucas Oil had just signed up for our 2010 racing season,
along with our current sponsors: VP Racing Fuels, Ken’s Speed & Machine Shop,
CARQUEST Auto Parts, and Premier Properties of the Space Coast, our Florida land
development company and primary sponsor.
Just then I remembered that my good
friend Brandon had also moved to the Keys from the Space Coast so I gave him a
call. Turns out that he only stayed in the Keys for about 2 days due to the bad
economy and had moved back to Charlotte, North Carolina where he told me the
economy was doing much better than Florida. Not only that, I thought, but
Charlotte is the NASCAR racing capital and a lot of professional NHRA teams are
headquartered there. So it shouldn’t be too hard to find a motorsports related
job that would let me run our 2010 racing schedule (that I had not yet created)
so we could better represent our sponsors while racing at high visibility events
like PINKS ALL OUT, NHRA Unleashed, and the NMCA events.
So, I turned my 2000 Ford
Expedition around and headed back to the Space Coast where during my 6 hour
drive back, I decided to relocate to Charlotte North Carolina so I could race
and live the next part of my dream……little did I know that the worsening
national economy would do its best to turn my dream into a nightmare!
