Toe to toe

Three times today, I came in second. Didn’t win a single race. That doesn’t happen all that often.

It also may have been the best day of racing I’ve ever had.

I show up on Friday and get set up. Get signed in. First three or four people I run into ask the same question: “Where’s Jake?”

“Homecoming dance,” I say.

Knowledgable nods. “But, it’s a race weekend,” say a couple of diehards, as if there’s nothing more important, but we all know there is.

Qualifying was a bust. I had brand new brake pads. They had to be bedded … Read more…

Whites

Roxy Hearts owns pregrid.

With a rhythmic back and forth with her index finger, she will point right or left as we back up and she puts us into place, clenching her fist indicating we should “hold” when we’re in position. Later, with a graceful, theatrical swing of her arms, half-bow and half offering, she ushers us out onto the track for a race.

Her son, Thor, works the line with her. He walks by the front of my car, checks to make sure I am wearing my gloves and arm restraints (if I flip over we don’t want arms … Read more…

Road Trip

Three of the best days, ever, even though my daughter Sabine and I were taking her sister to catch a plane to Asia. Kacy will be gone for nine months, her entire junior year. The twins have never been separated by that kind of distance, and never for so long.

Hell, they were 18 before they’d spent five days apart.

We drove north from Oregon to Seattle, the girls jabbering at each other and at me. Kacy was especially animated. Normally she’s asleep ten minutes from the door, but on this trip she stayed awake, and every once in a … Read more…

Classic

The whole weekend felt a little like a balloon three days after the party, when rubber skin once tight and shiny deflates slightly into a flaccid duskiness. Yeah, you can squeeze it and see what was, but each time you do, it goes back to being a little less.

The Columbia River Classic used to be a big event. Not like The Pacific Northwest Historics in Seattle on July 4th, or the Portland Historics usually held the week after. But the Classic, ending the summer on Labor Day, has always been a popular race.

We remember August asphalt that someone … Read more…

Early Apex

I put the camera in the car primarily for Shade Tree. He’d asked more than once, so I went down and bought the popular one (and cracked the cover in Seattle. We’ll see if GoPro wants to replace it).

And for the most part it was an excellent, if embarrassing purchase.

I had no idea what a lousy driver I can be until I watched video of myself in action. There isn’t a single lap where I don’t count a half dozen significant mistakes. Mismanaging RPM. Milktoast driving. Missed turns.

But here is my favorite: This movie is only about … Read more…

Writing

I started, really started the new book today. Chapter 1, which is linked to here, is done, though it will no doubt be changed many times. This will be a tidy little book, now that I know it has a beginning and an ending. Some of you have already read parts of “Butterflies.” Those were snapshots for the wall, vignettes, blocks that will be assembled and reassembled to become this book.

The other new book, the one I only get to whisper about, is with the managing editor of the small publishing house that decided to take it on and … Read more…

Finish line

Ceegar felt pretty bad about causing the wreck in Turn 14 at Road America. He was pretty subdued in the pits after that race. He took most of the blame, too, I think, at least as far as he could.

After spinning off the track because of too much speed, or tires not fresh, or because he’d already raced, and won, a pretty grueling competition over some of the best Mustangs in the nation, or even because he had dialed it back a notch and was out of sync with himself, he tried to come back on and finish what he’d started.

Read more…

Race Day

On race day, we were all pretty relaxed. After all, the reason we’re here is to have fun. Still, it was a pretty long wait until our race at 4:15 in the afternoon.

I wasn’t even going to practice at 9:a.m. I’d decided to save my brakes and tires for the race. But Kiwi found two sets of nearly new pads in his trailer. It was 7:45.

“If you want them, they’re yours,” he said.

I told him I had already decided not to go out. He looked at me with that expression that said, full of Kiwi accent, “Okay … Read more…

Moving up

Out of 63 race cars in our group at Road America, Canuck qualified 11th yesterday. I was  right behind him at 12th, Ceegar was at 17. He was the second fastest Mustang on the course, and there are a lot of very fast Mustangs.

“We’re at Road America!” Merlin has said more than once. The mantra has been picked up by others. This is Road America, where big boys come to play.

I was awful in morning practice. Nothing flowed.  I spun it in Turn 13 because I forgot that when you’re nearly airborne, there isn’a a lot of traction … Read more…

At the apex

Jakester and I flew in to Chicago on Wednesday. Ceegar and Merlin were on the same plane from Seattle. That was good news. Very good news.

It almost didn’t happen that way. Things got broke, things got fixed, but time was spent and there wasn’t enough Merlin to go around. There was disappointment.  Words were said. Feelings were hurt.

Maybe I mentioned that all the racer boys in this little group are entrepreneurs, self employed. They are risk takers, but have a pretty well honed and intuitive risk/reward brain function. They know what it takes to get it done, and … Read more…