Leah goes racing

In this house, we live to race. It’s what pays for dog food and other essentials of life.

My mom, Anne Proffit, knows that racing is life and everything else is waiting. Except, of course, for the writing work she does that leaves me on the sofa bored beyond tears. I just have to sleep and wait until she says it’s time to go for a walk. Then we race around the blocks here in Long Beach – or wherever we are – until I’m tired again and bereft of pee-pee and/or poo-poo.

Now racing is loud – and this is nothing new I’m telling you. I didn’t know anything about loud until we went to our first NHRA drag racing event, the 50th annual Winternationals in Pomona. We drove out every single day, from Wednesday through Sunday of that weekend. That’s about 100 miles roundtrip.

The week before, we’d taken in the AMA Superbike testing session at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana and tried out the Mutt Muffs that mom’s friend Ray told us about during the PRI show. They are hearing protection meant for dogs that fly with their owners in small planes. They work pretty well for racing, too.

I keep trying to take them off but mom puts them back on. I scratch my ears like crazy once we get someplace quiet again. I really don’t like them but I know they’ll protect my ears so I can continue doing my job and that’s what really matters here, you know?

So, we went to the drag races and the first day mom just held me in the media center while the cars went off on the racetrack. I wore the ear protection so it wasn’t that bad. The second day she left me with Johnny Gray, who drives a Pro Stock car. He’s got a really nice hauler with a dog-perfect lounge. They turned on the television and I waited and waited until mom came back.

We did that for the next two days and it worked out pretty well until it came down to final eliminations and mom needed to go shoot. She left me with her friend Jeannie in the media center but Jeannie didn’t know what to do when I shook off the muffs. I survived; she was embarrassed.

The next week we went back to Auto Club Speedway for the NASCAR race, and I became the first dog ever allowed in the Cup garage. They say that’s something special but I’m not sure. All I know is that I got a lot of hugs and kisses from people, including Tati Papis and her kids. She and mom have been friends for a long time. When Jimmie Johnson won the race, his crew chief Chad Knaus said this was the first time he’d seen a doggie in the press conference. I threatened to ask the first question but kept my trap shut.

Our next race was the Gatornationals in Gainesville, which required my second trip to Florida – the first was last December for the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) show. This was an adventure, as we went to visit mom’s friend Steve the first night and then drove through tornado warnings and monumental rain from Melbourne to Gainesville. Heck I slept through it all but mom looked frazzled when we finally stopped for gas and my opportunity to pee.

Gainesville was cool. I got to stay with all kinds of different people during the times when mom went to the line to photograph the cars. I met all sorts of neat people and we had a good time, as usual. From there we went back to Steve’s for a few days and took lots of walks on the beach in between work time for mom. I got to meet some of Steve’s neighbors and we spent time with Linda, another good friend.

Then we went to Sebring for the Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring. Nice drive there in the Mercury Milan hybrid we were driving for the duration; it’s got very comfortable seats and I, of course, have my bed and American Airlines blanket, which makes any car seat comfy.

We had to walk up and down a lot of stairs but at least there was plenty of green space outside to go potty. People took lots of pictures of me wearing my hearing protection and we met a bunch of cool people. Everybody was very nice to me but some people didn’t understand that I’m a working girl and made life a bit tough for mom, but our friend Nancy was there to smooth things over.

Nancy watched over me when mom had to go outside and made sure I was comfortable. She has such a nice lap. We stayed with our friend AJ, who wasn’t terribly sure about the arrangement at the start but he came around. They all do.

After the race we went to Orlando and flew home – for three days! Mom really botched those travel plans because before we knew it, we were off to Tampa for the Honda Grand Prix of St Petersburg. We stayed with Al and Sandee in their beautiful condo and it was so nice. So are they!

When we went to the media lunch the first day, Uncle Dario (Franchitti) offered his coach as a place for me to stay when mom was shooting photos. I got to meet his mom Marina and dad George and they threatened to take me back to Scotland with them. Chuck took great care of me and made sure I was still there when mom came back after each IZOD IndyCar Series session.

Racing is a lot of fun. People take good care of us, and mom works hard to make sure we have plenty of dog food on the table. Isn’t that what it’s all about?