Viper Days MAM Pic and friends

[Pictureman]

Last June my friend Kelsey Smith was kidnapped and killed and now her family has created an organazation to help protect other young people. They have a web site kelseysarmy.com . They are having a fund rasing golf tournament next month and I wanted to donate something for the auction they are having. I was thinking a new corvette but then I thought of something more valuable, like a poster of a Viper. Maybe like a blue one, her favorite color, with a kelseysarmy decal sticker on it. So I asked a few of the guys at MAM if I could put a sticker on their Vipers and they said no problem. Kelsey's mom came in today to pick up the posters and she really liked them, Kelseys favorite color of Ben Madeys #22, Ben Keatings #33, and the 007 of Steve Loudin was special becuase Kelsey graduated in 07 and her mom said they 007 on their senior shirts or logo. Big thank you for helping out. Her mom also said that Kelseys uncle is going to make a race car out of Kelseys car, Kelsey told him that when she was done with her car she wanted him to turn it into a race car.

This picture is in Oct. Cosmo magazine also.

One more thing, I put my 16 year daughter Ariel into the teen driving program and she had a great time driving her stock neon out in front of the Vipers (I have pictures). Her driving has greatly improved from the 2 day course. And she knows what it means to take your foot off the throttle when the instructor tells her to, now and how to clean mud off the side of her car and from underneath. She said that was my fault because I only taught her gas, brake and clutch.

Daddy, when I grow up I'm going to be a race car driver and have a 8 ball for the number.

The grass looks green on this side of the track.

Well maybe the other side is greener.

Nope, should have stayed on the other side of the track.

 

[B767DRIVER]

Tim,

Ariel did a GREAT job driving that Neon! As you can see from the pic Jon and I had a tough time keeping up. She didn't let the Vipers intimidate her!! Nice pics of M. Greenberg's off-roading adventure.

Sterling

 

[OKFireChief]

Tim, great pic's!!!! Looking forward to the CD ...

Ditto to what Sterling said, Ariel did a wonderful job on the track. What a pleasent young lady not to mention a good driver. Can't wait to see her in a Viper ...

Let us know if we can help with the fund raising. See you in Topeka ...

 

[Pictureman]

Thanks Guys, here's a couple more pictures. Ariel is pretty amazing, I would have been scared to death being a 16 year old driving a stock neon with a bunch of Dodge Vipers. The photo CDs should be going out in the mail tomorrow.
Maybe I'll see if I can get Kelsey's dad to come out to Topeka and do a couple laps in one of the Vipers.

 

[Early93Viper]

Great pics Tim! Any of my car?

 

[Pictureman]

I found this one Dan, it would have been a good shot but you blinked. Oh well.

 

[Y2K5SRT]

He wasn't blinking - that is what he and his passengers normally do when he is on the track. Look at that picture and see for yourself...

 

[Pictureman]

Well that explains alot, that must be why he kept spinning out.... in front of Ariel. LOL

 

[B767DRIVER]

Great Pics! Jon's VOI9 car looks great. Thanks for posting. Looking forward to the CD. Bring Kelsey's dad out and we will give him a ride. Better yet, one of those great Comp Coupe drivers can give him a ride.

Sterling

 

[OKFireChief]

Tim, once again, GREAT PIC'S!!!! Thanks!

Please bring Kelsey's Dad to the track. He can ride with Sterling or me ... Shoot, Ariel should take him in the Neon. She drove a great line.

Let us know if or how we can help with the fund. See you next month!

 

[Pictureman]

They have several different things going on, if you check out their web sites the my space or the kelseysarmy one they update it all the time. The my space has a blog from Greg, Kelseys dad which is kind of neat. The army site has some t-shirt sales and the girl modeling the t-shirt is Ariel, she modeled for me and we sent them over the pictures for them to use on their fund raiser page. I just saw something on their tonight about a cook book they are doing through the Kansas missing persons site so they are looking for receipes.
The family has to go through the legal junk now as the defense team files motions alot to get stuff dismissed, but I guess that's just part of the system. They just filed one to get all the charges dropped except the kidmapping one becuase they said that's the only thing that happened in KS. I would think the encouraging words to them would be as valuable as the fund raising stuff. I'll see what I can do to get Greg out to the track. He has a email link on the army site so if you guys want to invite him too that would be cool.

http://www.myspace.com/kelseysarmy

http://www.kelseysarmy.com/

The boss (Cheryl) just finished packaging up the CDs so we'll take them to the PO in the AM.

 

[Bill Pemberton Woodhouse]

Man, great shots, and what a pleasure to have you back at a Viper Days event capturing the moments. I noticed you caught the "Cheese ****" of Michael Greenberg going across the track ---- very exciting moment for all. The other question is whether you got the exciting spin to win of " Early 93 Viper" in turn 4. It was more fun the tilt-a-whirl at " Worlds of Fun!"

Nice to see the whole family and what a great intro for your daughter to learn car control. Alot more folks will likely consider Viper Days as a learning experience for their kids, as the classroom and track experience is invaluable to equip young adults to the responsibilities of the road.

 

[Pictureman]

Thanks Bill, the Vipers are really awesome cars to photograph. I got a picture Of 93 Viper sitting in the grass but not the spin, he needs to either cut across the track in front of a pack of Vipers like Michael did or crash into the corner flag station that I was standing in like #33 Ben did in order for me to get better action shots. lol
I figured the cost of Ariel crashing my car and doctor bills compared to a weekend of professional drivers training at Viper Days so we went with the Viper Days class. There are so many kids crashing in this area I wish they could all take it, learning from a parent that can't drive either doesn't help much. Ariel was the only one in her drivers ed class at school that had changed the oil in her car and rotated her tires. One boy did watch his dad change a tire once though. I told her she needs to know this stuff cuz her boyfriends won't know how to change a tire or oil. You won't believe this but on of their boyfriends didn't know how to wash a car, at 17yrs old. My daughters gave him a sponge and a lesson in the back yard. lol

 

[B767DRIVER]

Tim,

If you get a chance, would you please post a couple of pics of Ben's mishap. Thanks!

Sterling

 

[Pictureman]

Sterling
The only thing I got I posted on this thread http://forums.viperclub.org/showthread.php?t=606234 I needed my fisheye lens to get a good shot since he was about 2 feet from me. I was kind of ducking I think to miss the flying stuff but I think he hit the tires on the front or left front which spun him around to where I was and he then tagged the guardrail with the right front, sheared off one of the bolts holding the guardrail to the pole and bent the rail in about 5 inches or so. I had been taking pictures in that spot outside the stand most of the weekend and for some reason I had stepped into the corner station and about 3 minutes later...suprise.

 

[B767DRIVER]

WOW!! Must have been pretty exciting for a few seconds.

 

[mike & juli]

He wasn't blinking - that is what he and his passengers normally do when he is on the track. Look at that picture and see for yourself...

LOL--yep, can see the passenger also has eye(s?) closed!! Great pics!~~juli