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.

For the humble Day, the dream has begun, and with some help from a few marketing partners, he will be out running full time in 2011 where the goal will now change to win his first round, and eventually hoist his first Wally at a National Event.

We put this quick video together to let you inside the weekend that was, and some thoughts from James Day himself. Enjoy!

To learn more about James Day, visit his team page on our site.

Day qualified the Lindsay Racing Monte Carlo in the number 13th position and met up against reigning NHRA Funny Car World Champion Robert Hight, the driver of the John Force Racing AAA Ford Mustang in the first round of eliminations. At the flash of the green light, both drivers left side-by-side, both peddled their throttles to maintain traction about 150 feet into the run, but Hight’s Ford regained traction sooner and his team prevailed, while Day’s CleanBoostoil.com Funny Car overpowered the Bandimere Speedway all-concrete race track and slowed to mid-six second tire smoking elapsed time.

As the drivers reached the shut down area, a jubilant Hight jumped out of his mount and spoke with NHRA announcer Alan Reinhart. Instead of thanking his sponsors, his team owner or his crew, Hight showed his class and character when he spoke from his heart over the track’s PA system. “I am so proud of James Day today,” noted the defending World Champion Hight. “When I saw him being introduced to the crowd today and the passion in his eyes before we raced, it reminded me of when I came into this sport as a driver in 2005. We’ve both worked our way up from crew members to drivers and it was an honor to race him today. Seeing James race today made me again realize how fun this sport can be.” Click here to watch Hight’s post-race interview.

Hight also echoed these sentiments on ESPN 2 after his team captured the event championship after beating his father-in-law and car owner John Force for the first time in final round competition. However, he was not the only one inspired by the efforts of the second generation driver from Mission Viejo, Calif.

“We are honored to have been a part of helping James Day accomplish his lifelong dream of racing professionally in the NHRA and he and the team made us very proud,” noted Don Poscente, the Managing Director of Combustion Technologies Inc., the original manufactures of CleanBoost® products. “I have been introduced to the excitement of this sport this season and like James this event was our professional debut in NHRA Drag Racing. We are very pleased with how well he represented our company and our products. And we hope to build on this partnership with James into the future.”

Day works as an electrician during the week and is regarded as one of the more diverse drivers in NHRA today. To date in 2010, James has driven two-NHRA Heritage Series Nitro Nostalgia Funny Cars, has driven a Nostalgia Top Fuel Dragster and the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Nitro Funny Car of John Lindsay. He has worked his way into the driver’s seat after crewing for several top-flight professional drag racing teams.

“I am very grateful for the support of Jason Lehr with CRX Media this weekend. It was also cool to meet Danny Gruninger on Thursday night and have Kalifornia Katie Sullivan hanging out with us this weekend. The car looked awesome in the CleanBoost colors provided by Fineline Graphics. Our team looked sharp in the Impact Racing uniforms. And of course, none of this would be possible without the confidence of John Lindsay and my wife Samantha. I am one lucky guy.”

You can learn more about James Day by visiting his 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. 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 crxmedia.com.

About CleanBoost Performance Motor Oil:
Based in Sandy, Utah, CleanBoost® PERFORMANCE MOTOR OIL is a subdivision company of Combustion Technologies USA, (http://www.combustionusa.com) a privately held corporation, owned and operated by drag racers and automotive enthusiasts, who provide specialized products and services focused towards equipment performance and maintenance solutions coupled with measurable improvements in the operating costs of your equipment. They specialize in the Trucking, Construction, Mining, Oil & Gas, Automotive, Motorsports, Marine Industries and private label licensing of their products. They accomplish this by providing customers with the latest and most advanced products and service available in the industry today, while focusing on developments and new technology to improve the quality of their products to reduce the pollution effects of our environment. Learn more at cleanboostoil.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.

After spending the entire first day of qualifying trying to diagnose a mechanical gremlin in the fuel system of the Lindsay Racing nitro flopper on Friday, the CleanBoostoil.com Funny Car team was ready to hit the NHRA 1000’ race track for the first time since the 2009 NHRA World Finals in Pomona, Calif. The result was a planned 400’ shake down pass which netted a solid 5.228 second elapsed time, placing Day solidly in the 16-car field in the lucky number 13 spot. The fact the Mission Viejo, Calif. based driver was able to make the third qualifying session was due only to the selfless assistance of three other Fuel category teams.

“When we fired up our CleanBoostoil.com Monte Carlo Funny Car on Friday morning, our car had a significant fuel system problem, as the entire left hand side of the car was very lean, belching out flames and just sounded sick,” noted Day, who has driven in the NHRA Heritage Series Nostalgia Top Fuel and Funny Car divisions in 2010. “After changing everything we possibly could, and attempting to fire up the car 8 times, we were in left field. It was at this time, Dale Creasy Jr. and Jeff Diehl came over to our pit to give us a third party eye and helped us diagnose the problem. We were all here till 1am in the morning, and when we lit that bad boy up and it hit on all 8 cylinders, we all exhaled a sigh of relief.

“I can’t begin to thank them all enough for offering to help us out,” Day continued. “It shows once again the spirit of our sport and how we are all one big family out here. “Peanut” Creasy and “The Surfer” Diehl stayed with us until the wee hours of the morning. It was a great feeling, and we would not be out here and qualified in this field without their assistance. I am so thankful to John Lindsay and CleanBoost® PERFORMANCE MOTOR OIL for helping me to accomplish my dream of racing in the NHRA Full Throttle Series. We are going to rock it tomorrow.”

Day will match up against the reigning NHRA Full Throttle Funny Car champion; Robert Hight from Yorba Linda, Calif. Hight debuted in the NHRA Professional Series in 2005 at the season opening Winternationals. He did not capture his first round win until the next event in Phoenix, Ariz. The CleanBoostOil.com team would love nothing more than to give Day his first round win against the juggernaut at JFR.

“It’s Funny Car racing in Denver, which if we go out there and run our game and he makes a mistake we may actually take a round win,” Day concluded. “We know the odds are against us, but it will make one heck of a story if we can pull it off. Either way, we are honored to be racing tomorrow for CleanBoost, Impact Racing, Justice Brothers and all of our friends and family who have supported us.”

To learn more about James Day, please visit his team page.

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!

“This weekend is all about testing and giving our team a opportunity to gel,” noted Buzdas, who has driven 6-second 220 mph blown alcohol dragsters for the past three seasons but is new to the clutch driven set up in Brazil’s Top Alcohol Dragster. “In the past few months Jerry and I have had an opportunity to develop a positive relationship. When Mark Niver passed away last weekend, he was there to discuss safety set up’s on the car and was open to any idea’s I had. He’s a very professional racer and I’m honored to race for him. This is the most perfect opportunity I’ve had to learn to drive at Top Alcohol Dragster. If we can put the Brazil Racing Top Alcohol Dragster in the show this weekend and race on Sunday, we will be pleased.”

The Brazil Racing team enters this weekend’s race after a four year hiatus from the NHRA circuit. Joining the team in a tuning capacity are Dave and Larry Edgecomb, who have competed in both Blown Alcohol and A/Fuel trim in NHRA Division 7 for several years. Supporting the team this season are marketing partners MotoWear.com, Kurbsidekustoms.com and CRX Media.

Buzdas will have not only the experience of Brazil and the Edgecomb family helping him this weekend. Several of his CRX Media team mates will be on site to help Kenny with his driving matriculation. NHRA Nostalgia Top Fuel pilot Adam Sorokin and A/Fuel Dragster driver Johnny Ahten will be on hand on Thursday to help Kenny any way they can.

“It’s great to be a part of team like CRX Media and we all want to see each other succeed,” noted Adam Sorokin, the winner of this year’s NHRA Heritage Series March Meet in Top Fuel Dragster. “Kenny is a very talented driver, but he’s going to have some challenges and Johnny and I will be available for him at any time. One of our goals at CRX is to develop drivers and provide a mentorship to the future stars of NHRA Drag Racing. I consider it an honor helping Kenny in any way I can.”

To learn more about Kenny Buzdas, please visit his team page.