Girls For A Change (http://www.girlsforachange.com) is a national organization that empowers girls to create social change. They invite young women to design, lead, fund and implement social change projects that tackle issues girls face in their own neighborhoods. Working with individual and foundation donors and several corporate partners, GFC provides the tools, resources; partnerships and support girls need to gain the voice, ability, and problem-solving capacity to realize their full potential.

“The GFC Ben Davis Indy Team looks forward to meeting Katie because she inspires young people,” noted Rose Wilson, a volunteer coach for Indy’s Girl Action Team. “Katie demonstrates the ‘drive’ to live out a childhood dream while keeping grounded with education and family, which is a value system to be admired in today’s society. Being a part of GFC has mutual benefits for coaches and young ladies. We inspire and give energy to one another by learning to be good listeners and respecting one another. As a result we can brainstorm and implement ideas of change that have positive effects on communities. “

The partnership with GFC and Sullivan gives the sophomore NHRA rider an opportunity to realize her goal of working with a group committed to transforming our world and reinventing girl culture. Sullivan is also very happy to host the ladies from Ben Davis High School at the biggest NHRA National Event of the 2010 Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.

“Indy is the biggest race of the season for several reasons, but having the Girls Action Team from Ben Davis High makes this event even more important for our team,” Sullivan stated. “Working with GFC has been a dream of mine for several years. Having recently graduated from high school, I am uniquely qualified to work with many of these girls. Having my CRX Media and CleanBoost Oil team-mate Kristen Wootton join the fun is also going to rock the house. I look forward to introducing these ladies to the power of NHRA Drag Racing and establishing friendships for life.

For more information about Girls For A Change, please visit their website at http://www.girlsforachange.com. To learn more about ‘Kalifornia’ Katie Sullivan, please visit her team page at www.crxmedia.com.

Since unfortunately we are still running this team out of pocket, we have to be so careful with the way we go about things. My dad and I discussed leasing a motor for the weekend. It was a tough position because it’s a lot of money for us to spend, but at the same time we really want to be a competitor out there. We decided to see how the first day of qualifying went for us before we made a decision. After our first run we saw that there was some room for improvement, so we decided to go for it with our motor. I owe a big thank you to Doug Johnson and Gary Stoffer, because they really helped us find an issue in our computer system that was really hurting us. Thanks to Doug and Gary, Blake Gann, John Widmann and of course my amazing dad, we ran our quickest time ever on our own equipment with an ET of 7.21.

I am super proud of what we accomplished in Brainerd. Don’t get me wrong, I really want to qualify and be racing on Sunday, but I think we have to walk before we can run. To run a 7.21 was a big deal because being so down on horsepower that’s about all that motor has in it. To run a motor to its full potential shows that we finally have the rest of our bike shook down. You can have all the horsepower in the world, but it doesn’t do you a lot of good if you don’t have a handle on everything else. I think our weekend in Brainerd was great proof that we have a good handle on our bike and we are ready for horsepower. We have decided to lease a motor for Indy and try to be racing in the Big Go on Sunday!

When I returned from Brainerd the question I received most often was what I thought about “the zoo” in Brainerd? What an experience that was! I didn’t spend much time there, but the time I did certainly left an impression. The zoo was huge and there were people everywhere. We had a good time visiting with different people. When it came time to leave my dad and I were each on our own motorcycle. It had become dark out. I think it took us longer to find our way out of the zoo than the amount of time we actually spent visiting it. It was a good time though and my dad and I got some good laughs out of it.

I am back home in California now trying to catch up in school, work, and everything else I have in the works right now. I am trying really hard to stay focused, but it’s hard with Indy coming up. All I can think of is how bad I want to be at the track in Indy. I’m thrilled with the improvements our team has made and I can’t wait to see what Indy has in store!

Visit Katie’s team page.

Thanks to the fact that I have spectacular parents, I left for Eugene, Oregon last Friday morning. My bother lives in Eugene, so we met up there before leaving on a road trip to Montana. The night that I was in Eugene Chance and his awesome girlfriend, Marie, took me to the best concert I have ever been too. We saw Michael Franti and Spearhead, which is a Reggae band. We danced the whole time and had a complete blast. If you have never listened to Michael Franti I strongly suggest it. His music is uplifting and all I could think about during the concert and after was how much I couldn’t wait to get back to the drag strip for our team to try again.

Some of the Family!

There are a lot of exciting things going on in my life right now. I must say that I am a really lucky girl and I have had such amazing influences in my life: my mom, sister, grandmas, aunts, sports coaches, and so many more. I would not be the strong woman I am today with out them. It has always been my dream to inspire other young women. I was completely touched when I received a letter from a young lady by the name of Jessica Arnold. She told me all about her racing, her dreams, and basically just her life. She also told me that I inspired her and I can not tell you what a true honor it was for her to say that to me. I have to tell you though; I am pretty inspired by Jessica too!

Jessica is 16 years old and has won numerous championships racing Jr. dragsters and now she drives an outlaw 330 car racing all over the east coast. This girl loves racing. She has big dreams and is going after them. I told Jessica she needed to share some secrets with me! I can’t wait to see her running with the big dogs someday. Along with my huge passion for racing, I have a huge passion and drive to inspire and encourage young men and women to follow their dreams. In turn they always inspire me!

That brings me to my latest excitement in my life and that is my recent partnership with an amazing organization called Girls For A Change. I am so honored to be working with this organization whose mission is to empower teenage girls to create and lead social change. Please check out their website at www.girlsforachange.org to learn more about them. I hope that I can be a good role model for them and really help to spread the word about these awesome girls and this spectacular organization!

I will be updating everyone on my Brainerd zoo experience soon, take care!

Girls For A Change (http://www.girlsforachange.com) is a national organization that empowers girls to create social change. They invite young women to design, lead, fund and implement social change projects that tackle issues girls face in their own neighborhoods. Working with individual and foundation donors and several corporate partners, GFC provides the tools, resources; partnerships and support girls need to gain the voice, ability, and problem-solving capacity to realize their full potential.

“Girls for A Change is very excited to have entered into a partnership with Katie Sullivan,” noted Whitney Smith, CEO of Girls For A Change. “This is a wonderful opportunity for both Girls For A Change (GFC) and Katie to expand the positive effects we are now separately having on girls and young women. We believe Katie is a wonderful example and role model for doing this. Through her entrance and advancement into the world of competitive drag racing in the National Hot Rod Association, she is creating new opportunities for other young women and personally addressing a societal issue of limited competitive options previously open to women.”

“We believe that through our partnership, we can create new awareness among men and women about the opportunities opening to women through the efforts of women of all ages,” Smith concluded. “We will be featuring Katie and her race team on our website and following her through her race season. We know she will enjoy some new fans while we are able to introduce GFC to a new world of sports and opportunity.”

The partnership with GFC and Sullivan gives the sophomore NHRA rider an opportunity to realize her goal of working with a group committed to transforming our world and reinventing girl culture. “I am very excited to partner with GFC for the rest of our racing season and hopefully beyond,” Sullivan stated. “Working with GFC has been a dream of mine for several years. Their mission is the empowerment of middle and high school girls to create and lead social change in their communities. Having recently graduated from high school, I am uniquely qualified to work with many of these girls. If I can help just one girl accomplish her goals through this partnership, it will have been deemed a success.”

For more information about Girls For A Change, please visit their website at http://www.girlsforachange.com. To learn more about ‘Kalifornia’ Katie Sullivan, please visit her team page at www.crxmedia.com.

The Sullivan Drilling / Fields Performance tuned Suzuki qualified for the 16-bike field in the number 15 position, after an event best 7.647 second elapsed time. During the team’s first qualifying session, the Corning, Calif. based group used the team’s newest Suzuki engine with devastating results. As the bike hit the top of 3rd gear, heavy smoke started to pour out of the exhaust pipes. As the bike crossed the finish line, a small fire erupted and burnt several important computer wires in the process. The team was forced to wait until the third qualifying session to put their spare motor sans on board computer between the rails of the “Zebra-Zilla” themed bike.

“When the ‘stroker’ motor broke our whole team was very disappointed,” noted Sullivan, the 20-year old college student. “We got back to the pit area and could not understand why the motor let go so early into the run. We placed our home built motor in the bike for Saturday’s session so we could entertain the fans who were very supportive of us during the entire event. Since our computer wires were burned in the qualifying fire, we could not gather any run data.”

Sullivan ran a 7.64 with the Fields Performance tuned engine which placed her in the 15th position, setting up a round one date with the number 2 qualifier Steve Johnson. Knowing she had to take a chance on the tree against the two-time NHRA US Nationals Champion, Sullivan just barely missed the green at the hit and lit the red light, handing Johnson an easy round one victory. The round one loss however, brought up a solution to the team’s recent struggles.

“We were approached by a fellow racer who looked at our set-up who noticed our exhaust system was not tuned to our bike,” Sullivan stated. “Since we’ve been testing the motor, Boss-Dad has been running the largest carb jets by a ton, but the bike has been missing so much power. The exhaust system was simply not allowing the engine to breath. So, we picked up the correct exhaust from a fellow competitor in Denver and will have it ready for Brainerd in two weeks.”

The Sullivan Family team will race at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals in Brainerd, MN in two weeks wearing their sharp new MotoWear.com team crew shirts and will be cleaning the ‘Zebra-Zilla’ PSB this weekend with CleanBoost® NANO-SHEEN Waterless Wash and Shine. “We are an up and coming NHRA race team and having marketing partnerships with MotoWear and Combustion Technologies USA, who are also new in introducing their products in NHRA Drag Racing, is awesome. We will do our best to get into the show for them, our family and all the fans of our race team.”

To learn more about Katie’s marketing partners, visit them at motowear.com and cleanboostoil.com. You can learn more about Katie by visiting her team page at crxmedia.com.

About CRX Media:
CRX Media is a marketing, new media and public relations group servicing the world of drag racing that proudly represents Katie Sullivan. Originally founded in early 2009 as a public relations and motorsports marketing company, we have grown to add branding, web and new media production services to the list of capabilities. We find the partners, cross-market, manage the campaigns, educate the audiences, and develop fan bases so our clients can focus on winning on Sunday. Visit them online at http://www.crxmedia.com.

Corning, CA. - When we finally arrived in Sonoma on Wednesday night I was ecstatic. We had been preparing for the Autolight Nationals since the day I left the Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida. I grew up watching the NHRA pros run in Sonoma since I was a little girl and that was the place where I really fell in love with Pro Stock Motorcycle. To be back there again, but with our own team and our own bike was a pretty spectacular feeling.

The boys and I spent all of Thursday getting our bike ready to go down the track at its first national event since we have owned it. We had a lot of work to do to finish up putting in our fast motor, and when we ran into some problems that made for a lot more work. We worked until right before our first round of qualifying. We finally got things right, or so we assumed, and headed up to the line to run our zebra themed motorcycle.

With our mild tune up we ran an ET of around 7.50 in our first qualifying pass. Obviously it wasn’t a great number, but we had made it straight down the track and that is step one. We were happy to have a starting point. The next pass we made a couple of changes and made it down the track running an ET of around 7.30. This wasn’t bad at all for our first day out and we all had high expectations for Saturday’s qualifying sessions.

People always ask me if I get nervous when I ride. I have to be honest and say that when I am back in the staging lanes I am a wreck. The way I deal with nerves comes from the time I spent playing basketball in high school. I played on the varsity team as a sophomore, because I was the only sophomore on the team I put a lot of pressure on myself to perform well. Before games I was always a nervous wreck. There was one girl on the team that I am good friends with, and she was a senior on the team. She asked me before my first varsity game if I was nervous. I told her I was so nervous I could throw up. Then she looked at me and said “good, now don’t ever let anyone see it.” I will never forget that, and I really took it to heart. Being at my home track, with our own bike I was so nervous. When it came time for Saturday’s qualifying this was especially true. However, I don’t let anyone see it. Then, when I get to the burn out box, those nerves always melt away. At this point it is just time to do what I love to do.

I had been riding pretty well and according to the computer I had been hitting my shifts really well. When I came off the line the bike jerked me pretty violently. One problem that I have sometimes is if the front dampener on my handle bars isn’t tight, I will let the handlebars get away from me. What I mean by that is when my front wheel is in the air the front wheel gets turned to the side. I can’t really correct it until my front wheel touches back down on the ground down the track. Between the bike jerking violently and the handle bars getting away from me, I had to pull the clutch in. Since we are on such a low budget and I am still searching for a sponsor I couldn’t risk hurting our motor, plus the run was already lost.

We took the bike back and were a little baffled. We made some bar adjustments, because the move that the bike made it seemed like the bars were too high. Since it was our last attempt at making the show and according to the computer I had been good on the shift points we turned up the shift points and the rev limiter. When I pulled up to the line on the final qualifying pass I was ready to rock. I felt good about this pass and I wanted to be racing on Sunday so bad. This was my chance, and it was my turn to do my job. Going down the track I could hear the rev limiter. It was like I couldn’t hit any shift when I was supposed too. When I got to the other end I felt heart broken.

When I ride it isn’t just about me. The crew, my family and friends, and others had all helped me get to the track. When I don’t do my job, I feel like I let them down. Of course I know that they don’t feel that way, but it’s hard not to feel that way sometimes. While I was at the top end of the track I was baffled at my pass. When the boys came down to get me, they asked me what happened. Usually I am pretty good at being able to tell them about the pass, but I really didn’t understand what had gone wrong on that pass. We came to the conclusion that I had just got behind the bike. What we mean by that is once you miss one shift, sometimes it is hard to catch up on the shifts.

I was feeling pretty bad, but I know that everyone makes mistakes. I am totally aware that I am only human and sometimes I just simply mess up. However, I still had a hard time understanding what happened on that pass. When we downloaded the run on the computer, I was surprised to see that I had actually hit every shift right on the money. It turns out that a wire had been crossed up on the bike, and when we turned up the shift RPM the rev limiter was coming on before my shift light was ever coming on. I was so relieved to see that on the computer, plus it is an easy fix. I could tell the crew felt a lot better about things too.

Racing pro stock motorcycle is a big challenge, one that I am completely addicted to and in love with. Once when I was struggling with my riding, Shawn Gann had a talk with me and put things into perspective. He told me that every one struggles. Even the best riders make mistakes. At the track when we struggle, I always remind myself of this. If it were easy, it wouldn’t be the spectacular sport that it is.

We were at the Fram Autolight nationals, running our own pro stock bike. That has been my dream since I was 12 years old. Struggling or not, I had an amazing weekend. I got to spend time with friends and family. I met some great new fans and friends. With the great memories, knowledge, and experience we gained last weekend, we are on the road to the Mile High Nationals in Denver, Colorado. All I have to say is look out Denver, the Sullivan Family Race team is headed your direction!

Morrison, Colo. – For Corning, Calif. NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Katie Sullivan, racing this weekend at the 31^st running of the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colo. is a prime opportunity to improve over last week’s lack-luster performance in Sonoma, Calif.

The 19-year old NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle sophomore enters the event after failing to qualify at her home-town race, last weekend at the Fram-Autolite NHRA Nationals contested at Infineon Raceway. Sullivan was only able to muster an event best 7.318 second elapsed time recorded in Friday night’s second qualifying session due to electrical problems encountered the entire weekend. Be that as it may, Sullivan is anxiously awaiting the opportunity to race in the rare-air of Bandimere Speedway.

“We had a lot of issues in Sonoma which we were able to diagnose on Monday after the event,” noted Sullivan, who is preparing to open her company ‘Kalifornia Katie’s Trailer Sales’ in the next few months. “Boss-dad (her name for father Charlie Sullivan) found an electrical problem which was causing a communication error from our Race-Pak computer to our engine. They weren’t speaking the same language at all,” said a giggling Sullivan.

“Racing in Denver will give us an opportunity to unleash the beast; our ‘secret weapon’,” Sullivan said of her ‘Zebra-Zilla’ themed Suzuki. “We’ve been testing our home built engine during our break from the tour, and we wanted to give it a shot in Sonoma. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out as well as we planned. We’ve been holding onto a second engine combination for the right time to debut. And racing with our CRX Media team-mates Danny Gruninger in Pro Stock and James Day in Funny Car, we’d like to give it our best effort to get in the show.”

The Sullivan Family team will race at the Mile-High’s in their sharp new MotoWear.com team crew shirts and will be cleaning the ‘Zebra-Zilla’ PSB this weekend with CleanBoost® NANO-SHEEN Waterless Wash and Shine. “We are an up and coming NHRA race team and having marketing partnerships with MotoWear and Combustion Technologies USA, who are also new in introducing their products in NHRA Drag Racing, is awesome. We will do our best to get into the show for them, our family and all the fans of our race team.”

To learn more about Katie’s marketing partners, visit them at motowear.com and www.cleanboostoil.com. To learn more about Katie and her race team, please visit her team page at crxmedia.com.

Sullivan last competed on tour in early March during the NHRA Gatornationals. After failing to qualify for the 16-bike field, the Sullivan Family team decided to pack up their equipment and head back to their Northern California shop to regroup and focus on returning to the NHRA Full Throttle Series close to their home, their family and their friends.

“We had all the intentions in the world to race the entire season in Pro Stock Motorcycle, however after the first three races it became apparent we were not ready to take on this task,” noted Sullivan who is attending college as well as building her own trailer sales company. “Our goal is to compete with the best out there and we just didn’t have confidence in our equipment. We came back home and my dad (Charlie) and I have been working non-stop trying to put together a competitive bike. Mike Fields, Jr. has been helping us with his expert tuning abilities and we are very excited to debut our new “ZEBRA-ZILLA” themed Suzuki this weekend at Sonoma.”

Katie’s new motorcycle is a former Antron Brown / DSR Suzuki which she loves to ride. However, for the “wild-child” of NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle racing, the learning curve with the new equipment has not been without its challenges. “Each motorcycle built is different in the way it rides, shifts, and handles the race-track,” Sullivan said. “This bike is one of the smoothest riding Suzuki’s I’ve ever ridden and you can tell how much skill and effort it took to build this bike. We began testing by putting a slower engine combination in it at first, just to give me some seat time. We’ve got the bike making more horsepower than we have in our time in PSB. I’m so stoked to see what we can do in front of my friends and family who are coming out to the races this weekend.”

Sullivan Family Racing is based in Corning, Calif. and is truly a family effort. Along with her “Boss-Dad” Charlie and her mother Terri, the Sullivan Family own and operate Sullivan Drilling, which supports the Northern California farming communities. Katie receives additional support from CRXMedia.com, Fields Performance, Moto-Wear, JP’s Paint and Auto body and CleanBoostoil.com.

To learn more about Katie Sullivan, please visit her team page at crxmedia.com. Sullivan Family Racing fans can keep up to date with up to the minute race results posted at dragracecentral.com and race day updates, news and stories posted at competitionplus.com.

On Sunday, my Dad and I decided I should probably at least make some passes on my bracket bike. That way at least I could get a little seat time with Sonoma being so close. On Sunday, in our first qualifying pass, the bike shot right for the wall off the line. The bike made such a big move I had to abort the run. We brought the bike back and made some adjustments. The next qualifying pass the same exact thing happened. By then I was pretty frustrated. I am a pretty even tempered person though and I pride myself in keeping my cool. The other thing I keep in mind is when we struggle, we struggle as a team. If the bike doesn’t run well, I am not the only one who gets frustrated. My dad and Mike Fields work really hard to get me down the track, so I try and stay as positive as possible. Not just for my own sake, but to help the guys stay positive too.

We only had two qualifying passes, so we were shooting in the dark for eliminations. After all the bad luck we had been having, I tried to just block it out and go out and do my job. Our luck turned around and we went all the way to the finals! It felt great to go some rounds and I know my dad and Mike felt the same. It is easy to be a good team when you are doing well, but it is so much more of a challenge when you are struggling. Last weekend was a great reminder of how much I love racing with my dad and Mike. Even though we had a rough time, everyone worked together and we made a come back.

I was amped after our weekend and it made me ready to work hard for our up and coming return to pro stock motorcycle. We have been working so hard to get ready for Sonoma. Running our own team is a ton of work, but I love every minute of it. One thing that my dad has taught me ever since I was a little girl racing jr. dragsters is that you never take things to the race track dirty. With this in mind I spent all of Wednesday waxing and shinning our 48 foot trailer. It was a huge job and I was sore the next day, but I was so proud when I got done. Our trailer looks like new. I also changed my job title to rider/ trailer detailer (I am sure that my dad and Mike don’t mind.)

I feel like our team is really ready to be back to the pro stock motorcycle class and I can’t wait to be at the track. I also had promised a couple weeks ago that our bike was going to be “zebratastic” for its debut in the NHRA and I must say I think I delivered. I am so proud of our bike, I hand cut every piece of zebra print on the bike. It took many late nights and a lot of movies, but it was well worth it.

My dad and I have been preparing for Sonoma ever since I made the decision to pull out of the NHRA to regroup after Gainesville. I don’t think I ever realized how much work it was to run a professional team, but I know now. With Sonoma so close, I am already so proud of this team and what we have accomplished. A lot of people told us that we couldn’t do it, but with many great supporters we are well on our way. I really want to thank all the people who have supported our efforts. Also, to all the people who have wrote me emails and letters, your support is amazing and I truly appreciate it. I am ecstatic that Sonoma is finally almost here and I really hope that I can make everyone proud. I had better get back to work, we still have a lot to do to get ready. Take care and I hope to see everyone in Sonoma.

For more information on Katie, visit her team page.

One of Mike Fields Jr's bikes

Now that I have explained a little of Mike’s story, I will tell you a little bit about how my dad got into drag racing. My dad bought his first drag bike when he was 16 years old. Of course when my grandma found out about this, the bike never made it to the track. It really wasn’t until he was 18 that he started riding drag bikes out at the track. He is a very driven person, and I think he saw something he wanted to do and he did it. After racing bikes for many years, my dad purchased a funny car. I must have been around 6 or 7 at this time. He still gets a glimmer in his eyes when he talks about that car.

My dad pretty much put his racing aside to help my brother, Chance, my sister, Kristin, and I race Jr. dragsters. Chance even went dirt track racing when he was in high school. My dad was right there to help my brother get to the track, and he never missed a race. Chance and Kristin’s lives took them on different paths and they both kind of fell away from racing. They are both incredibly successful and I think I have a big enough addiction to this sport for the three of us kids. My dad still rides today as much as he can, but being the great dad that he is, he always puts my racing ahead of his own.

Katie and her crew. Far right Mike Fields Jr. Second to Right her Dad

Other things in my life are still going full throttle as well. My sister’s pregnancy is going great. In fact my mom and I are taking a road trip down to Sacramento later today to go maternity clothes shopping with her. I can’t wait to be an aunt, I love kids. I am also still plugging away to get everything all worked out for Kalifornia Katie’s Trailer Sales. My dad and I decided it would probably be best to wait to really open our doors until after the Nationals in Denver. Right now we are trying to sell trailers, but more on an appointment only basis. As far as school goes I just finished my first online semester. I love going to school online, it is a way better fit into my life. I am staying busy, but things are amazing all the same. Only 18 more days (432 hours) until Sonoma, but who’s counting right???