Rebekah Mercadel, or Beka to her friends, is a New Orleans native who now hangs her hat in Texas thanks to Hurricane Katrina.

She is also a junior drag racer and pilots a Top Alcohol Jr. Dragster for Mercadel Motorsports. She is one of about 8,500 National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) junior drag racers and one of a very few licensed minority top alcohol junior drivers in the country.

With her dad and crew chief -- Michael, mom, Kelly, and brother and sister, Gabrielle and Joshua – Beka has a solid base to explore her drag racing dreams. The family team has been lighting up the asphalt from Florida to Texas racing at 30-40 events a season.

While the tragedy of Katrina slowed her racing efforts as her family was forced to temporarily split up for nine months, sending her dad who is employed by American Airlines to Dallas/Fort Worth, while the rest of the family stayed in Springfield, Illinois with family.

“My wife and I were more worried about our children’s mental state than our home in New Orleans,” said Michael. “Gabrielle (12), and Joshua (9), seemed to have taken things a little better than Beka. Even though racing was not high on the priority list, we knew a few weeks after the hurricane that this is exactly what Beka needed. That cockpit was the only normal thing to her, and we had to get her back into her race car.”

For Beka nothing was more therapeutic than getting back in her race car.

We came across this video on youtube that features a team of highly skilled drivers executing an amazing array of synchronized driving stunts in a bumper-to-bumper squadron of Hyundai vehicles.

To what sounds like a Yanni soundtrack, these vehicles execute an astounding assortment of driving stunts, including 360-degree and reverse-360-degree spin turns at high speed, synchronized side-slidig parking exercises in forward and reverse, for eight minutes of truly amazing driving.

I spent the entire video with my jaw open and what might have appeared to be a big cartoon bubble over my head that said "OMG! Who knew they could do THAT!?"

Ford Motor Company is teaming up with the Los Angeles County Lifeguards, a division of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, to help save lives while protecting the environment. Ford recently presented the squad with the first 10 of a fleet of 45 eco-friendly Escape Hybrids specially equipped for use on rescue patrol along 72 miles of Southern California coastline.

"We are the largest lifeguard organization in the world, and we have always blazed the trail for the profession," said Mike Frazer, chief, Lifeguard Services, Los Angeles County Fire Department.  "We wanted to be the first public safety agency in the country to go green."

"This continues the Escape Hybrid's impressive string of endorsements," said Hal Dewsnap, California regional sales manager for Ford Motor Company.  "In addition to being clean and fuel-efficient, the Escape Hybrid is highly functional and durable, proven in hundreds of thousands of miles in taxi service in New York and San Francisco.  Now, we are adding lifeguard duty to the list."

According to the Car Care Council, excessive heat and overcharging are two of the main reasons for shortened battery life. Heat causes battery fluid to evaporate, this damaging the internal structure of the battery. A malfunctioning component in the charging system, usually the voltage regulator, allows too high a charging rate. That's slow death for a battery.

True, there are more road service calls in cold weather for dead batteries that cause starting failure. That's when a battery's output is diminished because of sluggish electro-chemical action that gives the battery its power. Also, colder temperatures increase thickness of the engine oil, making the engine harder to turn over. These factors lead to harder starting.

However, "an average of one out of four vehicles gets a new battery every year," said Rich White, executive director of the Car Care Council. "Sooner or later all batteries have to be replaced, but having to so prematurely can involve more than the cost of a road service call and a new battery, it can be inconvenient as well."

AskPatty was present this morning at the grand opening of the Shell Hydrogen station in Santa Monica. This marks the first public hydrogen fueling station at a conventional gas station in California, and is the third hydrogen station Shell has open to American consumers. (Shell also operates stations in New York, and Washington, D.C.)

Officiating at the launch, City of Los Angeles Councilman Bill Rosendahl said, "I am delighted that today, with support from Shell, we are able to continue to grow a safe and secure hydrogen infrastructure, that enables fuel cell vehicles to refuel more conveniently, as we move towards the future commercialization of clean transportation technology." Councilman Rosendahl was quite a dynamic host, jovially hamming up a fuel fill for the cameras, and animatedly expressing his appreciation for Mother Earth. 

It was a pretty big event, attended by more than 50 television news and pressfolk, as this station is one more small step towards realizing California's "Hydrogen Highway" as envisioned by Arnold Schwarzenegger ever since he took the office of Governator in a State of the State Address on January 6, 2004 by promising: "I am going to encourage the building of a hydrogen highway to take us to the environmental future... I intend to show the world that economic growth and the environment can coexist."

There were mixed emotions coming from the Ruman Racing paddock this past weekend at the SCCA National in Summit Point, West Virginia. Amy Ruman secured a dominant win from the pole position while Niki fell victim to an on-track incident after qualifying in the 21st position.

Amy Ruman started her 2008 season off strong as she qualified 1st on Saturday for Sunday's race. Seven GT-1's shaped up the field, including competitors Bill Thumel in 2nd spot, Jack Busch 3rd, and Scotty Quaile in 4th. Thumel and Ruman had an exciting start drag racing, neck and neck, all the way into turn one. Ruman had the inside track and was able to maintain the lead. Ruman did not look back as she set sail in the #23 McNichols Co./Goodyear GT-1 Corvette and pulled away from the field, leading flag to flag. She set a new track record at a 1:11.29 shattering the old one, 1:12.71, set in 2005. Ruman's margin of victory over second place was 33 seconds.

"We had a great car this weekend. I knew Bill was going to give me a run for my money at the start, so I just focused on sprinting away from the field," remarked Ruman. "I'm looking forward to the upcoming weekend at Nelson's, hopefully I can capture two more wins in front of my home crowd."

Divaspeed new team member, Karen Salvaggio, is racing in the Factory Five Challenge Series with NASA, and you can usually find her on top of the podium in her class. Karen also owns the Thunder Valley Racing website (www.thundervalleyracing.com), a showcase for women racers in all aspects of racing.

Our sponsor for Round 3 of the Western Endurance Racing Championship (WERC) series was Cynthia Campagnale at Race2Learn. Cynthia is a remarkable person with a warm heart and a passion for all things racing The Race2Learn program is designed to bring children and racing together in a learning environment, teaching children math and science concepts through motorsports. It is a fabulous concept, and Cynthia is doing remarkable work with children. To learn more, please visit her website at www.race2learn.com.


Beka Mercadel and her entire Mercadel racing team took part in the 2008 Walk Now for Autism event presented by Autism Speaks at Arlington Stadium in Arlington , Texas , Saturday, June 14, and they used the event to unveil their new paint scheme that is dedicated to autism awareness. In addition to unveiling the new paint scheme, the Mercadels also brought out their head-to-head reaction-time simulator and gave away prizes to all who played.

The Walk Now for Autism event drew over 6,000 people.


NASCAR’s got big problems.

Maybe her fellow officials thought they were just joking and kidding around -- treating her like one of the guys, as it were – but unless they’ve been living under a rock for the last few years surely they know that’s unpardonable in this day and time.

Haven’t they heard of Don Imus? He thought he was just joking too.

It’s not so much about the money (although $225 million isn’t chump change); the real damage is to the sport’s image and reputation.

The lawsuit reinforces every negative “redneck” stereotype that NASCAR has been trying to overcome for decades.


Andretti Green Racing’s Danica Patrick is among five nominees for a Teen Choice 2008 award in the Female Athlete category.

In April, Patrick became the first female to win a major closed-course auto race. She graced the cover of Sports Illustrated in mid-May and was featured in the magazine’s annual Swimsuit Issue in February.

Other nominees are tennis players Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova, WNBA player Candace Parker and gymnast Shawn Johnson. The awards cover the gamut of who and what is hot in movies, TV, music, fashion and sports.

Cast your votes by logging on to www.teenchoiceawards.com. Winners will be announced Aug. 4 during the Teen Choice 2008 broadcast hosted by Miley Cyrus on FOX.


Hillary Clinton owes Sarah Fisher Racing money, and they want it.

Part of Senator Clinton's $77,000 of campaign debt in the state of Indiana, is Fisher Racing. It wants $635. The IndyCar team staged a photo opportunity on Primary Election Day providing caps and other props to the campaign.







Hillary Will, the world's fastest female and driver of the 8,000-horsepower KB Racing, LLC Top Fuel dragster, will join other NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series visited  Brooklyn, New York Metro Ministries / Chances for Children in their inaugural NHRA-themed event for underprivileged children last week. Will along with Jack Beckman, Mike Edwards, Tom Hammonds and others will visit with over 500 children and young adults with a full day of interaction.

"I visited Metro Ministries by myself back in 2006 in my rookie Top Fuel season," Will, a 28-year old native of Fortuna, Calif., said. "I was so moved by what I saw. Pastor Bill Wilson has built and maintained an amazing organization. I'm so thankful I get to go back with more NHRA drivers.”

Summer temps have been over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit in the San Fernando Valley. It's miserable to be outside in the heat, but it's even worse when the inside of your car is full of hot air and the culprit is a malfunctioning air conditioning (A/C) system.

According to the Car Care Council, an annual checkup of your vehicle's A/C system can help prevent it from breaking down when you most need it, especially with record high temperatures hitting many parts of the country.

The typical A/C service consists of the following:   

As the price of gas approached $4 a gallon last month, thousands of station owners across the nation were faced with another problem besides just the high price. According to an article in the New York Times,  many stations, most of them independently owned, have older pumps that are unable to go above $3.99 per gallon.

The solution? According to the article, one station owner in Queens had to price his gas by the half-gallon, just as station owners did when gas prices skyrocketed a generation ago.

"Some people say I got the cheapest prices in town" until they see the receipt, said Gary Staiano, 50, who has been pumping gas since he was a teenager and remembers when it rose above $1 a gallon for the first time in the 1970s.

If you live in California or Washington, you know that as of next week you must go handsfree when using your cellphone while driving your car. On July 1, 2008, these two states become the fourth and fifth states to enact laws that ban the use of any hand-held mobile device while driving.

When it goes into effect, the California law will also prohibit ALL cell-phone use -- including hands-free devices and texting -- by drivers under the age of 18. Violators will face a possible $20 fine for a first offense, and $50 for subsequent offenses.

The law does allow non-minor drivers to use a wireless telephone for emergency purposes, drivers of commercial vehicles to use push-to-talk phones until July 1, 2011, and drivers of emergency response vehicles to use a cell phone without a hands-free device.

For technophobes, the solution is as simple as stopping off at your favorite wireless store, nearby Radio Shack, or local Target or Walmart to buy an inexpensive wired headset to allow you to make those important calls without the distraction of having to hold your phone. However, if you're a technofan like me, then you know a wireless Bluetooth device is the only way to go.

Friday, June 27th, 2008, is the 8th Annual "Drive Your Corvette To Work Day," sponsored by Mid America Motorworks. In honor of "Drive Your Corvette To Work Day," Mid-America invites Corvette enthusiasts across America to make "America's Sports Car" their commuter car for the day.

"Drive Your Corvette To Work Day is held on the Friday closest to June 30th, when the first Corvette rolled off the assembly line in 1953 in Flint, Michigan. We encourage every Corvette owner to drive his or her car on June 27th because it is the perfect way to say 'Happy Birthday' to America's favorite sports car," says Mike Yager, founder and "Chief Cheerleader" of Mid America Motorworks, the world's leading supplier of Corvette parts and accessories.

Each year, Mid America Motorworks promotes "Drive Your Corvette To Work Day" among Corvette owners and clubs, with their simple goal to have as many Corvette owners as possible drive their car to work that day. Ladies, don't miss your chance to declare your love for  your Corvette!