Douglas High School graduate David Boyer is a member of a nationally ranked nitro drag racing team based out of Ypsilanti, Mich.
David's step-father, Johnson Lane resident Ed Vogel, came by the office to brag about him earlier this month.
"I'm really proud of him," Ed said. "It's such a cool sport."
David is the son of Carol Vogel. After graduating from Douglas High in 1998, he went to Truckee Meadows Community College, where he graduated with a degree in automotive science.
"What's funny is that I just wanted to be a regular mechanic, but I had a street racing problem," David said on Wednesday. "When I was ready to be hired, my driving record prohibited me from working as a mechanic for a dealer."
So he ended up going to work on racing cars, where he is a mechanic for top fuel dragster driver David Grubnic. Groundbreaking female drag racer Shirley Muldowney is one of the Kalitta Motorsports team's sponsors.
The driver of the car is not the only person in a race on a team. Mechanics like David have the same pressures.
"Right now I'm doing cylinder heads," he said. "There are eight guys on the team working to build the engine and turn it around in 75 minutes. You have to be efficient and quick."
The teamwork has paid off, with Grubnic's team pulling down consecutive years in fourth and sixth place nationally.
"Things are going really well," he said. "I'm enjoying myself on the road."
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Ed Vogel is the capital bureau reporter for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and I saw him again Saturday night at the dinner where New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Gen. Wesley Clark spoke. The Albuquerque Tribune columnist following Richardson asked the question I think was on everyone's mind.
"Why this town?"
Richardson talked about being a fellow Westerner and wanting to connect with rural America, but didn't specifically answer the question.
Having been there though, I think the answer is obvious. In addition to Ed and I, Associated Press Capital Reporter Brendan Riley, photographers Cathleen Allison and Niki Newbold and a Channel 4 television crew were in attendance. From what I've read, the press turnout here in the Valley was equal to that in Reno and our Valley press corps as represented on Saturday had a bigger bang for the buck, in my opinion.
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John Spradley wrote me about Jill Lincoln, who's death was reported in The R-C on Jan. 19, and wanted to add something that few people knew about her.
"She had an incredible singing voice," he wrote. "She started singing as a child (as soon as she could talk) and was in church and school choirs in Placerville. She went to Contra Costa Junior College where she sang with a group that later became Booker T and the MGs, sometimes singing at the famous Purple Onion in Oakland through the latter 1950s."
Hadley said Jill said gave up the stage to sing lullabies.
"She recorded one song last year, the show tune classic "Summertime," he said. "Everyone who hears it gets chills. She will be missed."
