mushin no shin

I’m the first to admit that I’ve got ivory tower intellectual elitist tendencies. I’m working on it, really. But meanwhile you’ll understand that I find it both inexplicable and painfully embarrassing that almost everyone else in my family is an auto racing nut.

But I don’t just mean they gather ’round the tube to watch NASCAR every week or something. No no my friends. I suppose I can find some level of pride in knowing at least that they’re the real deal. My dad, my sister, and my likely-future-brother-in-law all work part time at the Music City Raceway. My brother builds dragsters & races them all around the region, as does his whole family of in-laws. And my brother’s daughter, my ten year old neice Courtney (pictured here a few years younger), races in the junior dragster division.

And so the news I’m getting to — well I’ll just let my dad tell it:

N E W S F L A S H !
Bristol, TN, July 15, 2006

Courtney Wright, incredibly talented and beautiful granddaughter of Paul Wright, Wins NHRA Junior Drag Racing League World Championship for her age division! This feat will be broadcast nationally on ESPN2, August 3, 2006, at 3:00 PM. Her spoils of victory include an NHRA Champions trophy, an NHRA Champions jacket to be awarded at the NHRA Division 2 Champions Banquet in January in Gainesville, FL, (just like the ones John Force wins), an NHRA Gold Card, which entitles her to free entry fees at all NHRA sanctioned races in 2007, and a $5000 savings bond, which will make a sweet addition to her college fund.

CONGRATULATIONS COURTNEY!

Indeed. If my family is going to insist on revolving their lives around auto racing, I’m glad to know they’re at least breeding champions … though I still think I’ll be holding Talladega Nights over their head for a very long time : )

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 16th, 2006 at 8:43 am and is filed under Babble. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.