Well, I thought tonight was going to be the turning point in the bad luck that we have been having. No more tire problems, no more plug wire problems, no more fuel pump problems...just no more problems. Boy, as the night turned out, was I ever wrong!!!

During hot laps, everything seemed to be working normally for a change. Let's go racing!

In the heat race, the car was handling about the best it's ever handled. I could run just about anywhere I put the car. On about the 6th lap, while trying to get the car up front, coming out of turn 4, I was in the middle of 3 wide. Normally not the worst place to be. Well, this time it turned out to be the worst place. As we ran through the middle of 3 and 4, Chad Graves got underneath me and the #37 of Nick Sievers got too high, which put me in the middle. As we came out of 4, Nick came back down just as I was bouncing off the side of Chad. When I bounced off of Chad, I moved up just a bit and Nick caught the right rear 6 or 8 inches of my car and turned me into the wall. As I saw the wall coming, everything seemed to slow down and I had plenty of time to literally think, "This is gonna hurt!" I hit the wall with my left front and then slapped the wall with my left rear. The safety equipment did its job, because I didn't feel a thing! My neck snapped pretty hard and I had a slight headache later that night, but other than that, I didn't have a scratch or a bruise. The car, on the other hand, was totaled. The front clip was bent. The rear end was pushed over about 6 inches. The rear end was bent. An axel was bent. Two wheels and tires were trashed. The radiator was popped. The front frame moved over enough to come in contact with the power steering pulley and bent the pulley. And so on, and so on. Time for a new car.

I don't know if I can place any blame on any one for this car getting totaled. In watching the video replay, things happened very fast and there wasn't enough time for anyone to react. However, I feel that Nick was far enough behind me that he could have very easily burped the throttle. That would have given me enough room to clear him and everything would have been fine. Too many drivers have the mentality to put the pedal to the metal and leave it there. There is more to racing than just putting to the floor and turning left.

This brings me to a side note that I would like to get off my chest. The driving out here at I-90 Speedway has gotten out of hand. Not only in the Hobby Stock class, but in others as well. Some of the drivers are plain and simple, not using their heads. I don't have the time to go into all the cars that have been wrecked out here this year because of stupid driving, or with some of the drivers that have been wrecked and will not come back. I have to blame some of the drivers for being out of control, but I also have to partially blame the flag man for this problem. Ross says at almost every driver's meeting that "we don't drive rough here" and want us to "go home with our fenders still on the car". He also keeps threatening us with the use of the black flag if we are driving rough. I am still waiting to see it used. My car has been beat to Hell in a few races this year, and I have yet to see the flagman do anything about it. Don't get me wrong, I am not the only one bitching about this, I just happen to be about the only one with a web site in which I can vent about this problem.

With that being said, I think I better move on before I blow a gasket myself. Besides that, Jerry and I have to get back to building a new car.

Later.

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