much overdue update

Hey all-just wanted to get back in the swing of things here and give the site an update. First off Lisa successfully gave birth to my baby daughter, Jenna Madison Kidd. Everybody is happy and healthy. Jenna is 3 months old now and is growing and changing on daily basis. Ryan loves being a big brother and is doing his best to teach Jenna all of the "fun" (ie bad!) stuff to do. I can tell he's going to be a great influence on her!

As far as racing goes-we're in a holding pattern until something sells. To recap, I'm trying to sell out my Pro-Cup equipment due to time constrants of the business and family responsibilities that I now have. I've said many times, I'd love to continue to compete in the Pro-Cup series. It no longer fits in my life, so it has to go. I'm a husband, father and son first and my first priorities are with my family and my family business. Beyond that, I've had lots of offers and calls on my stuff, we've just got to close the deal with someone. I've been holding some of the stuff for a guy, but I'm getting the feeling that he's dragging his feet for some reason. It's either that or he's not serious and jerking my chain. If anyone out there wants to go Pro-Cup racing, CALL ME! I will put you in it dirt cheap!!

I've got a LMSC roller from Billy Hess in the shop, ready to finish assembling. I just need some cash to buy parts and an engine. It is going to be a great race car. It's incredibly well built, a very well thought out and designed car. I hope to take as much care and put as much thought into finishing it out as has been put into it to get it this far. If I do, watch out-the car will be a major hot rod!

I keep getting the question as to when I'm going to hit the track. The best answer is by the end of the season. Optimistically I hope to be on track by July, realistically it may be September or October before it happens. When I get enough money for Don Kowalsky to start the engine building process, I will post a tenative schedule here for everyone to see. I will keep my travels short, primarily racing at Motor Mile and Lonesome Pine. I hope to do Martinsville, South Boston and Myrtle Beach this fall. If push comes to shove, (and I'm late in the season getting my car together), I may have to skip one or all of those races. It could be 2010 before I get on the track. If so, that will really stink, but I am prepared if that is the case.

Thats the racing update-I will post pictures of some of my travels (went to Vegas for Lisa's birthday and took Ryan to the Ringling Bro's Barnum and Bailey Circus) this spring and post a few pics of the new LMSC in the shop later on. I may even comment on the day's news and give you all my political opinions from time to time. I just remembered! I had made mention of an exciting new sponsorship deal in a previous post. That was to be a deal with the Livestrong Foundation where I was going to sell the sponsorship spots on the car as a charitable donation to the foundation. Make sense? Ultimately all sponsorship monies that I sold was going directly to Livestrong. My mom had cancer, (she's better now-fully recovered), many of my friends and acquaintences have had cancer affect them so it is a disease and cause that I have strong feelings about.

That's all for today-will be back later with pictures and comments.

God Bless-Carpe Diem-Hooyah!!

MK

Kidd to LMSC

Hey everybody. What a winter! I've had a lot going on, even though I havent been posting very often. First off, Lisa is due to give birth to my second child, Jenna Madison, any day now. I'm very excited about the new addition. It's going to be different having a daughter, but I'm looking forward to it. Ryan has been doing well. He's eager to be a big brother. Lisa has been a trooper. This pregnancy has been tougher on her than with Ryan, but she's been great. I think she's looking forward to having a little girl in the house to counter her two boys! Check out kiddfamily49.blogspot.com for more family info and pictures.

As far as racing goes, we're going to change series for 2009. First off, I LOVE Pro-Cup racing. I hate to leave it. I've got to make a change for a couple of reasons. To begin with, I race for fun. I gave up on the NASCAR dream a long time ago. All I want to do is have fun and win races. Unlike a lot of my Pro-Cup counterparts, I have a full time job that doesnt involve racing. Last year, I spent a lot of time racing and not enough time working. Thankfully, my boss (my Dad) gave me a long leash when it came to the raceteam. This year, I can't afford to be away from the business like I did last year. I had to make a decision, and that decision was to step back from Pro-Cup and do something that requires a little less time.

Late Model racing gives me the opportunity to race and have fun but still work for a living. It will also give me the opportunity to be at home with Lisa, Ryan and Jenna. This year, with a new-born in the house, I'd like to be home to help Lisa and be a Dad. Not that I neglected that last year, it's just that with Late Models I wont be traveling all over the East Coast. I will be close to home, racing when I want, where I want. I think it will suit my Family situation better.

We are going to build a Hess car with a Kowalsky engine. I'm leaning towards a Chevrolet but we could end up in a Dodge. I plan on running my first race in June and then compete in 8 to 12 races through the big fall races at Martinsville, South Boston and possibly Myrtle Beach. I have a unique idea concerning sponsorship, when I work the details out, I will post them here. We're going to race for a purpose this year. (Thats a small hint)

Action should start to pick up on the site soon. I will post pictures throughout the Late Model build up and news regarding the sponsorship program very soon.

God Bless you all, Thanks for hanging in there with me!!

Michael

Nothing New to Report but hope your Christmas was merry!

Hey all, Just wanted ot say a belated Merry Christmas to everyone. Nothing new to report on the racing front but from all indications there are things going on. Hopefully we will hear something from USAR soon. Until then all we can do is sit and wait.

I've been keeping myself busy, working at Kidd Tire, spending quality time with my family, setting personal goals for 2009 and doing my usual year end re-evaluation of my life. I like to spend this time quietly thinking about my life and where I stand in it. I have also thought a lot about what we were able to accomplish in 2008 with regards to racing and all that we left on the table.

I had high hopes for 2008 but reality quickly set in at South Boston in April. I thought we made good progress throughout the year. I am really proud of the way we ran in the three Championship races that we attempted. All said, I had a lot of fun this year and to be brutally honest, that is the only reason I race.

Hope everyone has a Great New Year-PLEASE BE SAFE....NO DRINKING AND DRIVING!

MK

Here I am passing Mikey Kile in the 65. The bottom groove worked really well for me in turn's 3 and 4. I was able to get the car in real deep, then jump into the throttle and rocket off the turn. I like how the nose is down and the left side is just skimming the track in this picture.

A nice family picture here. Ryan really enjoyed the "big, big race". Lisa had fun watching me too. She probably overdid it a little, chasing Ryan all over the garage area. Ryan liked working on my car but he also wanted to check on his car (Brett Butler's 99 Verve Energy car) and Mommy's car (Tim Bainey's 00 Aaron's Dream Machine) far too often. In this picture he's pointing to Daddy's car during the drivers autograph session.

Here I am wading through traffic. Michael Ritch in the 28 used the top groove exclusively for much of the race. I tried the high groove but my car didnt like it. The further up the track I went, the worse the car turned. The bottom groove was the best for me. Another observation here, the 06 of Bobby Gill surprised me. He wasn't very fast and seemingly struggled all day. I was expecting him to be very strong. He usually excels at the faster tracks on the circuit.

Rockingham Rocks!

The USAR Hooters Pro-Cup Series held their final race of 2008, Saturday at Rockingham Speedwayin Rockingham, North Carolina. I had a lot on the line, I knew I needed to finish 23rd in order to place 30th in the points and take home some season ending cash. I was also nervous about racing at The Rock. Keep in mind that our series is a short track series. We usually race on half-mile bullrings and until Saturday, had never raced at anything over a mile in length. I was nervous because, quite honestly, I wasn't sure if I could handle racing at a fast track like Rockingham. Several teams had Data Acquisition on their cars for the open test and reported that they were hitting 170 at the end of the front stretch. I was apprehensive to say the least.

The weekend was a bit different than a usual weekend for us, with practice and qualifying held on Friday and the race on Saturday. I was a bit worried because our crew chief/consultant, Robert Huffman, was in Texas helping a Nationwide team and not at Rockingham helping us. Robert and I have developed a great chemistry and I was nervous not having him there. He had arranged for Shane Huffman, a former series champ and crew member of the 81 Knights Racing team, to be there in his place. Shane jumped right in and worked with my team well. We were only able to get an hours worth of practice for various reasons. That wasnt a lot of time for me to get used to the track and to fine tune our setup, but that was what we had.

I'm proud to say that I got comfortable with the track, the speeds and the line easily. Our car was tight during practice. We were only able to make a couple of changes during the hour that we had so Shane and I came up with a game plan after practice. We changed the sway bar, front shocks, rear track bar and front camber to help the car turn better. Shane was confident in the changes and so was I. We had a mid-pack draw for qualifying and before it was my turn to go, Shane gave me some last minute instructions. Thanks to his advice and the last minute changes, I was able to qualify the car in 17th place with a time of 24.608 at about 147 mph. We picked up .7ths of a second from our practice time, so obviously I was ecstatic.

For race day, Shane had to go help the 81 car and their quest for the championship. Brandon Ward, last seasons Rookie of the Year, showed up at Roberts request to help me call the race. Brandon was great help and I appreciate all that he did for me. The race for me was a typical Michael Kidd race, steady and smooth. I was able to race hard when it counted and take care of the car to get it home for the finish. We ended up 12th. Had it not been for some trouble in the pits (a faulty regulator was severely hampering our pit stops) we would have finished in the top 10 easily. I thought we should have finished 6th or 7th.

I'm really happy with the 12th though. Going into the race weekend I was nervous and apprehensive. At the conclusion, I am proud and happy of our accomplishments. I surprised myself and I really feel like I accomplished something great by pushing myself past my comfort zone. I have much more confidence in my abilities and most importantly, I had the most fun that I have ever had since I first started driving race cars. Rockingham Rocks indeed!