Cowboy was on his way home to Rangeville from a rodeo board meeting when I got hold of him. He\u2019s been on the rodeo board for just about half of forever, they won\u2019t let him off because he knows how to \u201cget it done.\u201d<\/p>\n
A couple of years ago, he was working the chutes for the bull riding. A bull got out of the chute and buried him in the dirt. It came back for him, too, but got distracted by a clown or that might have been the end. Cowboy was helped out of the area, but on his own two feet.<\/p>\n
\u201cA little road rash, a little stiff,\u201d he said a couple of days later. He’s not about to retire.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s Cowboy.<\/p>\n
His first race ever, a teenager with a racing license, he hammered it and was in first place over the first hill, but landed so hard on the other side he scraped off his exhaust pipes and drove them right through his rear tires. He ended up so deep in the woods, a rhododendron the size of a small tree came out too when the wrecker retrieved his car. So he got new tires.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s cowboy.<\/p>\n
Last weekend he was on his way up to the race track in Portland to do a little test and tune for both his fast cars. He was meeting Canuck there, down from Canada, and Hotshot. Canuck may be the best driver around now, but Hotshot was a pro driver in Europe for a while, and pretty close to the fastest driver in our group of go fast.<\/p>\n
It would be fun sometime to hear Canuck and Hotshot tell each other how to drive. The testosterone would splash half-way up the grand stand<\/p>\n
Cowboy was going to put them in his cars during a test session to help him set up the cars, the new one he\u2019s bringing out in July, and the beast he used to drive.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t put them on the track at the same time,\u201d I suggested. \u201cThey\u2019d have to see who was fastest.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought of that,\u201d said Cowboy. \u201cI\u2019ve been trying to figure out how to keep between them.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve never seen Cowboy this focused. He\u2019s built a new car, put a lot of attention into setting it up, maybe even getting a little driver training, if that\u2019s what this last weekend was really about, and I\u2019ve got my suspicions. He downplays everything, and doesn\u2019t think it\u2019s always necessary to play inside the rules.<\/p>\n
\u201cHotshot says he might come back and race with us,\u201d Cowboy said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to find him a car.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe he should buy mine,\u201d I say.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhaddya mean, buy yours? You ain\u2019t going nowhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know, Cowboy, I\u2019m getting old, and maybe slow. It might be about time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNah. You turned a 1:29 a week ago in Seattle. You\u2019re still one of the fastest. You going to sit around and play checkers?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRacing is a lot of money. A lot of money,\u201d I said. My black and yellow screamer is up on jacks as we\u2019re having this conversation. I was checking the brakes at the local garage when I discovered one of the shafts driving the driver\u2019s side rear wheel had nearly chewed through it\u2019s flange two weeks before in Seattle.<\/p>\n
Merlin had told Jakester to tighten the bolts on Saturday before he left the race track for the weekend, and Jakester told me before we let the car down off the jacks on the first race on Sunday. But I never knew there was an issue with those bolts, and I overruled Merlin.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s always a stupid thing to do. They came loose.<\/p>\n
During the Sunday morning race my clutch pedal didn\u2019t work and I came in after a few laps. During the Sunday afternoon race, the car popped a couple of times and I thought I was \u201crunning a little lean\u201d as Kiwi says, and came in.<\/p>\n
Another two laps and that shaft would have come loose. Driven by the tire, it could have taken out my oil sump, could have cut through the back of my seat like a chain saw and anything on the other side of that seat, or maybe just let the rear wheel flop over onto the track at 160 mph. It any case, it would not have been pretty.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t discover it until two weeks later when the car was on a rack for brake work. This maintenance thing is pretty important, and I\u2019d been a bit neglectful because I didn\u2019t have a mechanic close by. That\u2019s really stupido, too. I think the world of Shade Tree, but it\u2019s three hours just to drop the car off for an oil change. But just because it\u2019s hard doesn\u2019t mean it doesn\u2019t have to be done.<\/p>\n I was rescued, again, by Cowboy, who told his mechanic, Mule, who had once been my mechanic too, that I might need a little help. Mule called me up and said he was on pretty good terms with the only guy in the country who has those parts. Mule was putting them in my car a week later.<\/p>\n \u201cMoney?!\u201d Cowboy says to me over the phone. \u201cYou already SPENT the money. You won\u2019t get anything out of your car, so there\u2019s no point in selling it. You might as well be racing, maybe you only race three events a year. That\u2019s okay. Besides, it\u2019s not the racing, it\u2019s the people!\u201d<\/p>\n Well, that\u2019s true enough. Cowboy is the people who got me into this decades ago, and I guess he\u2019s not going to let me out early. There\u2019s still time to get the car fixed and get to the next race.<\/p>\n Maybe with a enough extra practice, enough extra effort like everyone else seems to be putting into this go-fast passion, there might be enough left to win a race or two. Then again, everyone else has the same idea, so maybe there\u2019s never enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cowboy was on his way home to Rangeville from a rodeo board meeting when I got hold of him. He\u2019s been on the rodeo board for just about half of forever, they won\u2019t let him off because he knows how to \u201cget it done.\u201d<\/p>\n A couple of years ago, he was working the chutes for the bull riding. A bull got out of the chute and buried him in the dirt. It came back for him, too, but got distracted by a clown or that might have been the end. Cowboy was helped out of the area, but on his \u2026 Read more\u2026
\n<\/span><\/p>\n