I’ve been tossing and turning since 4am. I’m up up now. The plan? Host hotel has a buffet breakfast at 530am. I’ll let my crew sleep in a little more. Should be nice to see more of my friends in a relaxed setting before the race.

Brandy (faithful crew chief) here, reporting from Santa Clarita. After some hurdles with our rental hoopty, err…I mean minivan, we made it to Santa Clarita for the racer check in and inspections. Like last year, I followed Mama Duck Cindy around like a little duckling until it was our turn to be inspected. We passed with flying colors!

We just checked into our hotel and we’re about to head to the pre-race meeting, which thankfully, is much earlier this year and begins at 5:00 p.m. After that we’ll grab some dinner and last minute groceries and then it’s off to bed for a good night’s sleep before the adventure truly begins.

As always, it’s so nice to see familiar faces out here, whether they are racing or crewing. Good luck to all of the teams!