...And We're Back!

Greetings everyone! It has been quite some time since the last post, and that's because we had a nice hiatus from racing for a while. I know a nice break from racing is great for all of us as we get to spend time with family, friends, and really just focusing on all the important things in life :). Even after this past Friday's race, we get yet another break until August 15th.

The race night began with another fast qualifying run for our truck, right at the same lap time we continue to qualify. We keep taking shots in the dark at fixing our carburetor problem, but thus far we just haven't quite got it figured out so it continues to plague. Though irritated earlier in the night, I hankered down and focused...just giving thanks to God to be there and getting to do something I enjoy so much. This got me back in the right attitude to just run my race and a feeling that we were going to have a good run.

Despite the carburetor problem killing us on the restarts, the truck was fast. After drawing a #5 on the inversion, we were able to race quickly into 2nd behind the #23 of Mitchell Walls who would pace the field the entire night. The battle was on behind him, as the spot was swapped many times during the night. The race stayed completely clean until an untimely caution near the halfway point which bunched up the field again. It wasn't long after this that the #2 of Robbie Edger and I made contact which sent him spinning. Being a patient driver, I will tell you it was completely unintentional and just a case of getting back to the gas before that guy in front of you and a combo of him running in two different lanes simultaneously. These things happen in racing, and for it I was sent to the rear of the field which I duly accepted.

This was alright as we opted for the high line on the restart. Some slower trucks made this out to be somewhat of a bad choice, as we did fall back near the rear of the field. (As I write this, I realize I should blog much sooner as I forget important details!). An incident with the #2 truck at some point during the race (don't remember if it was the same spin from before) gave us a flat Right Front tire, which we had a bit of trouble getting changed but my grandfather and dad stayed calm and with the help of others in the pits we got back out there for a knock-out, drag out. Another late restart put me back on the outside right behind the #2 truck. I was able to duck into the inside line and follow the leaders #23 and #16 around, but Edger apparently wasn't pleased with me and thus completely rammed and pushed me through Turns 1 & 2. I was ready to back off and let him go as I wasn't ready to tear up both of our trucks, but apparently this wasn't enough for him as he proceeded to turn my truck into the outside wall on the backstretch which ultimately sent him across my hood and front bumper right into the wall. Now not only do I have to replace a right front tire, but a bent wheel and pretty much the entire front body work (again) of our truck. I'm not mad at him particularly, just disappointed with the situation. The track officials should really be more scrutinizing with this type of thing and these type of blatant driver actions so us little guys who are running with no sponsors don't have to rebuild our trucks each week.

Despite all the odds, I raced back around the #16 and we came out in 2nd place where we ran at the beginning of the race. Congrats to Mitchell on another great win! A freak thunderstorm struck directly after our division ran, knocking out power to the track and canceling the rest of the event. All in all I was able to keep a cool head and let that prevail over all that could have made me an angry driver that night. I had a lot of fun and was pleased with the finish! Well that's all for this race wrap-up, but keep posted to the blog as I'll be posting again here soon on some topics dealing with Racing and Faith. The Lord has been digging at me to do so, so I'm going to blog about that next! I promise not to wait to post until after August 15! haha. Thanks for dropping by and we will see you soon!