We are just a week away from the first IMS event of the Centennial Era. Next week, 33 hot air balloons will be set up for fans and locals during a unique “Glow” event and races taking place during the Centennial Era Balloon Festival presented by AT&T Real Yellow Pages. What a pagen-tistic (my own word) way to kick off a month of ethanol-burning IndyCars!

The IndyCar Series is off to Kansas this weekend, which is the last race before the grueling month of May. Unlike most, I’ll be driving to KC, rather than flying. It’s not important why, but I am.

Some interesting news for me: My dryer broke. Perfect timing, really! On Tuesday I was attempting to clean all of my track gear when I noticed that the dryer wasn’t working properly. It actually wouldn’t run. Do you know when get that feeling when you can’t move? At the end of an attempt, you make a small little grunt/sigh. That’s the noise that my dryer was making!

Luckily for me, my brother lives close by so I was able to do a load late on Wednesday before I headed out for Kansas. While I was borrowing my brother’s equipment, a good friend of our showed up on his new Ducati 696 Monster.

I’d say that Ducati did a phenomenal job on the aesthetic updates on the new Monster. Some may argue that it’s “too Japanese-looking,” but I disagree. Perhaps the one element I don’t care for is the two-tiered round headlight. Personally the original single-round headlight has a powerful design element that is fairly iconic for the Monster. I did get a chance to take it for a spin around the complex, and I thought the riding position was also improved over the previous models. I didn’t feel like I had too much weight on my hands nor did my feet feel like they were touching the back of my head. All good things.

The weather is getting nicer, and I can’t wait to get back on my bikes. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like I’ll have any free weekends to take dirt bike or road bike out, but I’m sure a few nice days in May will permit me to cruise to Gasoline Alley at Indy.

This weekend, IndyCars are in Kansas, MotoGP is in Motegi, and NASCAR is at ‘Dega. It’s a big racing weekend. Remember, while you are jumping from IndyCar to MotoGP to NASCAR, there’s only one place to buy tickets for each IMS event! www.imstix.com!

I hope that Nicky is feeling better. He took a wicked ride in Qatar. I am personally worried that he’ll never be as good as Stoner. It’s unbelievable how fast Stoner is!

Jarrod