This is going to be a long day. A couple weeks ago I had my hours changed at work. Now I go in at 8:30pm and don't get off until 8:00am or so. This weekend just happened to be our end of the year softball tournament. So as it turned out, I got up at 3pm Friday afternoon did a couple things, went to work, got off work at 8:00am, went straight to the tournament, got home from there at about 2pm, did final inspections and maintenance to the race car, loaded it up and went racing. Let's see what no sleep will do for concentration by the end of the night.

In the heat race, the sun was in a perfect place so that when we entered turn 3, I couldn't see a thing. At least that is the excuse that I am going to use for this race! Nothing exciting here. I finished 6th. On to the B.

During between race inspections, Jerry noticed that the left side exhaust manifold had broken where it attaches to the exhaust pipe. We don't have any spare exhaust manifolds, so out come the tin and wire. Got 'er fixed. Let's go racing.

For the B, I started outside second row. The sun is not a factor now, so no more excuses. From the green flag it was a pretty close battle for the top 4 transfer spots. The car is handling great and I ran in 3rd for the first 3 laps or so. Eventually I make my way under the second place car to take over second. I can here the B93.7 car of Shawn Reed trying to get by me on the high side which is his favorite way to pass, so I am trying to find a way around the #7m of Devon McMartin who is leading and hold off Shawn. One time I squeezed him up almost into the wall on the front straight (not on purpose that time) with 2 laps to go and then on the final lap, held him off almost the same way coming to the checkers. 2nd place in the B moves us into the A one more time.

Nothing to fix before the A, the exhaust is holding. Just make sure the tire pressures are set and lets go racing. I get to start in 18th. This ended up being a short race. I think it was only 2 laps into the race when the #37 got real loose coming out of 4 and came down right in front of me. I nailed him with my right front and sent him spinning, but at the same time Shawn Reed hit me in the rear and tore my rear bumper 3/4 the way off. This is my first trip into the pits all year for repairs. Jerry, with help from the crews of the #51 of Mark Sanow and the #10 of Scott Borstad tried to just finish ripping off the bumper and send me on my way. That didn't work so they grabbed a rubber bungee cord and tied it in place...the next best thing to duct tape. The pit official told me to go, which I did. I got to the track enterance and the second official told me to stop. Just missed the restart. End of race. Finished 20th.

Jerry told me to go home and sleep until 3pm and he would have the car done for the next race which was tomorrow night (more on that later). I thought he was kidding, but as it turned out, by God, I got up at 3pm (after some desperatley needed sleep), looked out the window and he was just washing the car and getting it ready to load up to go again! Once again, I can't thank Jerry enough for all that he has done to help me this year.

I almost feel like a professional. Get done racing and wrecking, go home and sleep, get up and go racing again the next day after the crew worked all day to get my car ready for me. Kind of a strange feeling. I better not get used to it! At least until I turn pro!

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