Welcome to the land of cotton and the dusty plains of West Texas for this week's GGW Show Your Moon Tour Race.

The race is called  the West Texas Tubleweeds and Twisters 250 and it will be held at the Lady Luck Speedway   in Lubbock, Texas.

A little About Lubbock and the Plains:

Lubbock is an small city in the northwestern part of Texas. Lubbock's nickname is the "Hub City" which comes from being the economy, education, and health care hub of a multi-county region commonly called the South Plains. Longest stretches of wide open country, dusty plains, cotton and oil fields, and some of the greatest people make up the landscape of the Plains of West Texas.   

The South Plains area is  the largest contiguous cotton-growing region in the world.    The "Plains" area is also number #1 in the U.S. in petroleum production, number #1 in the U.S. in peanut production,  and  in 2007 became the number #1 in the world in wind generated electricty with a massive 450 turbine wind farm that stretchs along I-20 over a 200 mile area.  We don't just say we "Do it Bigger"  in West Texas. We can actually back it up.

West Texas is known for heavy winds, sandstorms, and massive thunderstorms that are almost a year round occurence.

 No that's not the  Iraq Desert in the pic above. That's a West Texas Sandstorm  moving in on a suburban Lubbock  neighborhood in springtime.

Unfortunately, with all that wind available and the volatile, unpredictible weather in the area, Texas and primarily the South Plains have also produced the most recorded tornadoes in the world throughout our history.

    With tornadoes, tumbleweeds,and  sandstorms rolling across the plains like Old West Outlaws in search of achance to "storm" the town,  its only fitting that this week, the  GGW Show Your Moon Tour takes us to an old dusty dirt track just south of Lubbock called the Lady Luck Speedway.

The track is a 3/8 mile clay oval that originally opened around 1967. The Race season at Lady Luck includes several different series including Enduro Class,Pure Stock, Outlaw Stock Class, IMCA Southern SportMod, IMCA Modified, and 305 Sprints.

A Few of the local boys'  (and girls)  rides:

     While the scenery "aint much" to look at  and the track is one of the smallest  in the area, it still continues to be the most popular place around Lubbock to catch a race or get your kids involved in the sport of racing. They host several events a year just for kids like battery powered car races for the "little ones" when the main racing series are not running. The Lubbock area is know for its friendly people and the atmosphere at all the racing venues out here is always an enjoyable one.

Classic Car Shows, burnout contests, charity events and taking a drive down to the old drive-in Movie Theatre in Lamesa(very close to where Speedbeagle is from) are all a big  part of the racing atmosphere in West Texas. Car Enthusiast and Racing enthusiast here are one in the same. It "aint real racing" if you just watch the race and call it a day.

Race  Night  in West Texas, whether its at the Lady Luck Oval  or a nearby 1/4 or 1/8 mile straight tracks, is almost as popular as the "Friday Night Lights" of High School football. There will be a mandatory caution sometime Friday evening for those of you that would like to catch some of the most exciting high school football in the country with Lubbock Monterrey hosting the Odessa Permian Panthers in a clash of high scholl football titans literally  just up the road from our GGW track. 

 Lubbock is the home of The College Baseball Hall of Fame, the hometown of Rock-n-roll legend Charles Hardin "Buddy" Holley,  and nearby Littlefield, Tx is the home of Legendary country singer Waylon Jennings.

    Many of the greats of oldies rock, classic country, and what has become Southern Rock, or rockabilly have roots in theWest Texas area.   Its part  in American music culture history  follows a line very similar to the grass roots of Memphis and Nashville and the days of Elvis Presley.

 So with this GGW race, we celebrate all  classics  and the so called "Baby Boomer" generation that  worked so hard to build this nation into the wonderful place we live today,and a big reason why terrible events like what happend 7 Yrs ago today fail to destroy the love Americans have for the things that so many of us take for granted.

    Apple pie, friends and family, football, and racing are the most important  things in the country no matter where you go.  Without that generation laying the foundation for us and putting in  long hours in steel mills, cotton fields, oil rigs, and cattle ranges, we would have none of those things.They didnt have a choice. To make a living during the great depression years when a lot of the southwest looked like dusty dry old West Texas,  they had to just maked do wiuth what they had.  No internet, cell phones, 5 cars per family,  747 Jets to travel on, or the other luxiries we have today.

 With that said,  the cars we are racing this week are all tributes to the classics  and the generations that made America what it is today.

   Okay!    Lets get to the qualifying. Being that we're racing in the center cotton country,  we were going to have a  Tractor Tippin' contest to set the qualifying order, seen here with Jokerswild abd Photogr  in the first round of qualifying.

We even brought in a "Tractor Tippin expert" to explain it

I used to put these in all my NASCAR posts.  I get them from Mike Smith, and editorial Cartoonist for the Las Vegas Sun. I emailed him once when i had first started blogging here after stumbling upon his cartoon archives at the Vegas Sun site. Great cartoonist and a nice guy. He does a new one each week during the year for the NASCAR season, and year round for political and other topics.

Here are a few recent ones pertaining to NASCAR for you to enjoy before you head off for Labor day BBQs, parties with friends, the lake,  to watch the race with friends and family , or what-Not.

1.  Dupont team finds a way to get back into the chase.

2. M&M Team prepares the hauler for Kyle Busch

3.  NASCAR an Olympic Sport?

4. Phenom olympic swimmer Michael Phelps on NASCAR in the Olympics.

All Cartoons Courtesy of Mike Smith, award-winning editorial cartoonist featured daily in the Las Vegas Sun, L.A. Times, N.Y. Times, USA Today, and many others. Always has some great stuff and very funny so go check him out when you have the time.

More of his  NASCAR cartoons can be found here:

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sports/racing/car


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Take care and have a Great weekend Everyone!

          As many of you know the famous GGW Racing NASCAR  team goes overseas for the first time this week as they head to Australia for Race 9 of the Show Your Moon Tour. Some of the them have never been abroad and are anxious to get going.  The group is excited about the chance to show their racing skills to the Aussies and the rest of the world in their quest become the greatest drivers in the world. Most of the gang plans to just relax and see the sites, while a few are getting a headstart on planning for the next race. Little do some of them no that a few GGW members have concocted a plan to hi-jack the GGW  cruise ship and take over the team in an effort to secure a  treasure nearly as valuable as the Sprint Cup trophy:               

   And thus begins the Saga of "Mon-keys of the Caribbean-The Curse of the Golden Kitty."

Our journey begins on the coast of New Hampshire. The GGW flagship, known as the Santa Goreela will be carrying the crew to Australia and England for the next two races before returning  Stateside. The cars, and pit crews are already on the way over the ocean so crews can get set up early before race time. The gang looks pretty excited as the ship gets ready to leave port and head down Under. Many of GGW's biggest fans showed up to give the team a big send-off.

The Famous Forensic2 even picked a few songs to sing for the gang as they prepared their journey. Yep, he dosn't just have the best playlist on Foxblog. He can actually sing and play  all those songs too.

 (If you are hearing the music, then pause here and wait for the next song before reading on)

Finally the Santa Goreela has left port and the GGW members are settled into their cabins. Some made plans for partying, some for relaxing, and some for just enjoying the ride.

Here we find lovebirds HotfootLori and Tony Stewart re-enacting their favorite movie scenes at the front of the ship.

Fever3Fan was roaming the deck looking for a place to relax when he came across Speedbeagle20 lounging in the sun wearing her lastest GGW swimwear designed by Moseby's new bride Frank Tixpiddle.

Now there's a good reason SpeedBeagle didn't stir even over 3fan's giggling. You'll find out soon what it is.

  Party boys Jon464, future president Photogr  T. Justice,  and Moseby75   were at the back of the ship judging a Grid Gals bikini contest. The conversation was nearly as hot as the girls were.

Yeemum, Gerell, and Jokerswild were all  at the indoor pool taking pictures for the 2008 GGW Drivers Calendar. Jokerswild was giddy about his new sponsor Mary Kay letting him test some of their newest products.

Gerell had been assigned to  be the ship's Captain, but since the  photo shoot came up, she decided to take a break and go with Yeemum and Jokers, leaving the ship on autopilot and no one on lookout.  She would soon regret this.

Meanwhile, Hanahan was at the bar with his new bodyguards Winky and Stinky. He had to hire bodyguards because of the details of Jokerwild's cross dressing fetish among other things that leaked out earlier in the week during Hanahan's Roast of Jokers.

With the gang all occupied, and several members of GGW still no-where in sight, a fierce crew of Speedbeagle's henchmen that had appeared in a few races thus far showed on the horizon in the ghost ship, Black Pearl. No wonder she was so relaxed even with 3fan giggling at her doggy rear. Her plan was  coming together nicely. Jbroomy, who has not been seen for weeks, was quickly getting Beagle' s  band of pirates ready to strike the Santa Goreela.

Cannons roared at the GGW ship stunning all those on board except for the always calm Forensic2 who already had an idea what the pirates where looking for because of his past experiences roaming the waters  as Captain Forensic Sparrow, the most feared pirate of them all in his younger years. His trusty bird Noahspop had intercepted a email converstaion with the help of Iowagirl about the other GGW members' secret  plans.

Usually thought of as the nice quiet  ones of the bunch, newly recruited pirate mon-keys 24X2(Rhonda) ,Volfan69, and Dwindy rampaged the decks  stealing everything they could grab. Show your Moon moonshine, drivers training tapes and log books, and even Jokerswild's trunk full of Fredericks of Hollywood lingerie.

What they were looking for was a treasure map that had been previously hidden for centuries in the free counter.com coding in Lisa H's blog profile.

The map contains  the location of the Golden Kitty, a priceless giant pure gold cat statue worth billions that had been hidden by SweetKena and Texascudaguy for safe keeping.

It's location is Kong Island, a small island south of the Australian cost impossible to reach through the dense fog with out the map.  It's also the summer home to Cuda and heavily guarded by  Kong's  followers and Kena's clan of giant warrior cats.

Well trained and ready for anything the Kena Kongs and Cuda Kongs would not be easy for the other GGW members to get past even if they did have the map.

     Once  Tylerhead realized the map was useless to him, he decided to take his frustration out on Klvalus, but he wouldn't get much.

Finally the voice of reason stepped in as Tezqm99 settled everyone down to resolve their differences and work together as a team again.

As the GGW gang set sail again for Australia in their quest for gold and NASCAR domination, Texascudaguy and SweetKena prepared for their arrival.

  As we wait for race 9 hosted by Tez  to see who will claim the TransPacific Traveler 150, and the Golden Kitty, we can only hope the race is as exctiing as GGW's journey to get there.  The Aussies better be ready for this wild bunch because lugnuts will be flying the like cannons,  and drivers will be stealing positions like the pirates they aspire to be in the next race of  the GGW Show Your Moon Tour.

Thanks for reading this installment of "Mon-keys of the Caribbean-The Curse of the Golden Kitty."  Feel free to add to the story and explain yourself if you were one of the pirates. 

(Jokerswild- no explanation needed. We don't want to know what size thong you wear)

Stardate 20358.7.  Captain's log 2218.      The Chase, The Final Frontier.  One warp speed jump to go and these Carfleet  crewmembers will begin the battle for space and the journey to the uncharted edges of the Federation Territory and beyond.

Let's look at the top 5 contenders to lead the EOT (Enterprise of Tomorrow) into the outer reaches of Space.

Executive Officer "Spock" Busch would be  the Logical choice, because of his increasingly strong Vulcan Death grip on the points standings. However, one would think it's highly illogical  to think that his large  vulcan ears would help  his aerodynamics and this could play a factor later on.

  Currently in second place,  have Chief Engineer  "Geordie" Burton, who always seems to see thing clearly around him each week  and is consistent with his vision to reach the Chase. You never see him  do anything spectacular, but he's always around.

  In 3rd we have Leutinent Commander "Scotty " Earnhardt, Jr..  Scotty usually plays a larger factor in the popularity of the Enterprise crew than the captain does, and once every 76 episodes he is rewarded  by  briefly  becoming a captain.  His father "Scotty Sr." was a great Starfleet commander that lead many voyages to the vast regions of the Nebular Galaxy.

 He  sometimes has some overzealous  fans that grace the Foxblog Interpanetary Zone  whom you wish would just ask him to "beam them up"  to back where they came from.

Holding on to 4th is Communications Offficer Uhura Carla Edwards. She is usually the one to "beam"  the others to different places on the track with the "flip" of a switch.

In 5th  is reigning Starfleet Captain Jimmy T. "Kirk . He has completed the journey to the end of the Chase frontier and is known for long time  parternship  with Klingon warrior Kongo Knauss. His prime directive  is to live long and prosper by defending the Federation Championship this year.

The rest of the Federation members currently seeking a place on the Enterprise crew in the journey to the Chase are :

Leutinent Commander  "Zulu" Gordon, 

2nd Medical Officer Dr. Beverly "Biffle" Crusher,  

 Tactical Officer "Worf" Hamlin, 

 Navigations Officer "Chehkov" Kahne,

Chief Medical Officer  "Bones" Bowyer, 

Former Carfleet Captain "Jon Luc" Stewart,

and Chief Operations Officer  "Data" Kenseth.

As they near the outer edges of Space in their quest to the final frontier, it will be an exciting voyage to "where no man has gone before" (ok well in a  flying race car with photon torpedoes, that is.)

So get your tricorders ready, and set your phasers to stun. It will soon be time to begin the battle of Car Trek, The Final Frontier.

Thanks to our friends at the GRIN channel (Gor-rilla Racing Insiders Network), we are able to bring you an inside look at  the the GGW Racing team that has taken the NASCAR world by storm.  After this pasts week's race the Show Your Moon Miller Lite 150,  we were allowed into the home of Klvalus for the after party to show the fans some of what goes on with this wacky bunch when they are away from their  NASCAR headquarters.

Lead reporter Crusty Wallack and his team of Foxblog cameramen bring you this very exclusive view of the Mon-keys on their own turf.

We followed the group around for the night during this post race celebration and as expected, these mon-keys are just as looney off the track as they are on it.

We were greeted in the driveway by GGW superstars Volfan69 and Hotfootlori admiring their new company cars provided by the always generous GGW.

Next  we headed to Kristen's  living room where we found the famous Forensic2 and a few pals dicussing last week's race... among other things.(Who's that in the pic on the wall? Could that be Kristen's darn baby pic again)? We also recognized a few familiar celebrity faces from the Show Your Moon Miller Lite 150.

  Forensic was unavailable, or unwilling, to give us an exclusive interview so we moved on to the back patio where we found Presidential hopeful Photogr, Tophatal/rampantfan,part time GGW driver Frank, and the alluring Lindsey from the  local Hooters  lounging in the hottub area discussing politics, well mostly politics.

Not wanting this to look bad in his bid for Presidency , Mr Photogr pointed out that both gals have an IQ of over 65, which is at least more than most of GGW's drivers.

Next we decided to wander back to the den area where we found Moseby and Hanahan watching what we thought to possibly be a GGW training video at first, but soon discovered this was inaccurate.

Taking a peak inside Ms Klvalus's personal office, we found her inside reading her favorite blog on Foxblog, wearing her favorite cap, and preparing campaign funds for Mr. Photogr.

The GRIN Network, after a large contribution from Ms. Klvalus and GGW during this visit, will now carry all future broadcasts of GGW races and Mr Photogr's presidential debates as well.

Moving outside we found GGW driver and part time movie star, Texascudaguy, his fiancee Naomi Watts, and phenom points leader  TezQM99  in the yard. Mr Cuda would not let us air the rest of their conversation for reasons that would be apparent after rumours of his alleged affair with the mysteriuos female driver Frank Tixpiddle.

Unable to get Tez's attention and unable to continue with Mr Cuda, we decided to see what was happening at the pool where we found jon464 showing Rookie of the Year  driver favorites 24X2 and Jbroomy a few moves,

while MeanDovine relaxed in the pool.

 For some reason, no one wanted to join Mr Dovine in the water.

Heading back out to the lawn, we discovered SweetKena, Frever3Fan, and MegaNASCAR star Tony Screwart shooting the breeze.

Brangelina?  Don't you mean SmokeaFootie? Yeah. We don't think that works either.

Hearing a rumble coming down the street, we decided to see what the commotion was and found Tylerhead, and Dwindy bringing back some beverages to the party.

We also discovered Jokerswild in his usual state of consciuosness,  eeermm......relaxing on the street?

After their little Car Wars episode in the previous race, we were not surprised to find these two wild ones driving what they were.  As for Mr Joker, well... Ok we weren't surprised at all by his condition either.

Also in the driveway were Noahspop and Tsfanpc attempting to make a few upgrades to Tylerhead's transportation before he returned.

No word yet on whether they were successful with the um... alterations.

Finally we moved back inside where we found media favorites Yeemum and Gerell at the buffet discussing the state of GGW's popularity,,, or maybe it was the state of some driver's unpopularity.

      After that, we decided to call it  night. Thanks for tuning in to the Gor-rilla Racing Insiders Network for our inside look at the stars of GGW.

This is Crusty Wallack for GRIN saying " If it aint broke, then let's break it!  Have a banana, and enjoy the ride. Good night race fans."

                      Belmont Stakes-  A Horses' Arse Tale

 With all the talk about the possiblity of the first Triple Crown in 30 years by Big Brown if he wins this Saturday's Belmont Stakes race, it seems a lot of the other horses have been left out of the spotlight. Lets take a lil looksey at a few of them and see why.

First We have Rocket McZee starting in the #2 post. This Horse is sponsored by Stankees Porta-Lounge, a small personal relief company in the New Dork area. He comes in at  7-2 odds. He would likely be the favorite over Big Brown if not for his owner Hank Stinkbreaker's questional training techiques and the competition committee's concerns over performance enhancers. McZee almost didn't make it to the Belmont after a roadside bomber in Bostone tried to take out his trailer.

  His scheduled jockey is Douglas J. Needles from the Back To The Future Trilogy. Needles and McZee have been together their entire careers.

    Next, starting from psot 3 is Burro Cinco. This fiery horse is sponsored by Big Mouth Bubble Gum and is currently seeking a new stable to reside in. He is not happy with the hay and oats supply his current owner provides.

  Rumour has it that Burro Cinco's  new jockey, Gary "Pimp Daddy" Coleman is interested in buying this horse and using it for his security detail job at Cincinatti Correctional Facilty, but nothing has been confirmed yet..

  Starting from the #4 post we have Terell Oatsins.He will sport the 81 and be sponsored by Romobaucher Extra Butter Popcorn.  His trainer says he prefers to be called Oatsey, because of his similarities to last year's Derby winner Rundy Grass.

   Jockeying Oatsey will be Quack-man Bones. Bones  was previously abolished from all Horse Racing activities after an incedent with another trainer at the 2006 Hentucky Derby. The identity of this man was not realeased but we have an exclusive photo proving it was ex Superjockey Barles Chalkley.

    Originally from  the #5 post, we had a surprising new horse named Wyle-D-Squish  sheduled to make his first Belmont start.

   However, during training earlier this week  the Squish got upset for some strange reason after dominating all other horses in practices and had an accident with another SuperHorse's transportation. It still isn't known who was at fault for the accident, but Squish will not recover in time for this year's Belmont.

    Replacing Wyle-D-Squish in the 5 post will be a horse making his first major staks race. Rambo Splice. This horse is relativley unknown. He was voted in by thousands of horse racing fans  from YouBube, which decided to become his sponsor after all the attention this upstart horse brought the popular website.

   His jockey in the Belmont will be Hay Bakin.  Bakin was also an unknown before he got his chance with the Simon Cowell Equestrian Center. Many believe this horse and rider combo will be one and done in this sport.

    Earlier today, the popular Foxblog and NASCAR racing team from GGW was spotted attempting to get to the track to set up  their Gorillas Gone Wild vendor tent. The Superstar race team seems to show up at all major sporting events since GGW co-founder Photogr earned the democratic nomination for the presidential race over his heavily favored opponent Billary Squinton. Also tagging along with the entourage was famous NASCAR driver Tony Screwert of Baby Bibbs Racing,  rumoured to be a transgendered racer in disguise with  GGW under the alias name of Frank. Trust me , i know this rumor is not true. I cant get Tony to where heels for anything.

    However,the two Clydesdales, Shasqueel the Hill and Cloneby Giant, were not able to pull together on the same wagon and the GGW team was stranded without a horse to pull them to a horse race. Go figure!

   After an inside look at the rest of the field for what looks to be a very exciting Belmont Stakes, i'm certain there are plenty of horses or horse's A-s-s-es  that have a strong chance to win the Belmont this weekend besides the Media doll Big Brown. With this field of violent horse power, it could be one of the best high-stakes horse races ever run. If anything, the post race race interviews should be well worth the wait.

Thanks for reading-Cuda