First things first: Fireball, driving the\u00a0Holman-Moody Mustang, kicked ass.<\/p>\n
Not just mine. Fireball\u00a0beat Excalibur, and Alice, too. He had the heat for the last weekend of the year.<\/p>\n
A lot of qualifications could be put on that. Canuck\u2019s car Alice was in her first race. There was sorting out to do. Canuck turned in lap times in Alice that were faster than Fireball, but with one mistake made (right in front of me) and then\u00a0 a nearly disastrous mechanical failure on the main straight (right next to me), Canuck didn\u2019t catch the Mustang. Excalibur ran hard, but\u2026 I don\u2019t know what happened.<\/p>\n
I turned in the fastest lap time of the weekend, a new personal record and maybe one for our group, I don\u2019t know, but that doesn\u2019t matter. I had mechanical issues all weekend which could all be traced back to the junction where brakes, clutch, shifter, gas pedal and steering wheel input all come together.<\/p>\n
Driver.<\/p>\n
I consistently displayed mediocre skill, not nearly good enough behind the wheel of a 160+ mph race car on the challenging course of Pacific Raceways.<\/p>\n
Skill is where Fireball\u00a0won the race, with a fast enough car that did not have mechanical problems all weekend, or if it did, they were dealt with and fixed by the owner and crew and were not an issue. Even though any of us could have caught him, not one of us did catch him and he won. He deserved each win and they deserved victory, and that\u2019s all there is to say about that, at least from my point of view.<\/p>\n
My point of view was from the side of the track. Which is where I was after I bobbled a shift coming into the fastest turn on the course. Which caused me to let the clutch out with the engine running too slowly for the gear I was looking for. Which had the same effect as pulling the pin of a hand grenade where power from the transmission changes direction to the rear wheels.<\/p>\n
Which made a really ugly noise.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s worse: I\u2019d worked this season on not doing that. I practiced not doing that over and over in my street car. I didn\u2019t spend enough hours practicing in the race car, however, and \u00a0with other cars trying to be where I wanted to be when brake lights come on at over 150 mph and about three coats of paint separating us, old habits surfaced.<\/p>\n
Bad habits. Expensive ones.<\/p>\n
I’ve had a piece just like the one that broke on my \u201ctrophy shelf\u201d for two years. It’s broken in the same way. This is not the first time this has happened. Nor the second. To say I was\u2026 \u201cdisappointed with my driving\u201d\u2026 would be an understatement.<\/p>\n
That said, Swede and StaysLate came over to my paddock where the tow truck left me. That would be Swede, builder of Alice, and StaysLate, builder of Excalibur\u2019s Corvette: The guys who built the cars for owners who can usually be counted on to beat me, or make me work real hard for a win. My top competitors.<\/p>\n
They spent two hours on their backs under my car while it was on jack stands less than two feet off the ground, replacing a rear end that was stubborn coming out of the car, putting in a spare, so I could go out and try to beat the racers they work for.<\/p>\n
To those who believe what we do is nothing more than testosterone unleashed, I say, every time I get around these guys it feels like I\u2019ve been reunited with my tribe, and with what that means in terms of friendship, common values, and\u00a0camaraderie. I was humbled.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is amazing, I really can\u2019t thank you enough\u2026\u201d I say.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019d do the same,\u201d each reply to my clumsy \u201cthank you.\u201d Yeah, I would, but that doesn\u2019t diminish appreciation.<\/p>\n
I drove off looking for someone to put brand new tires on wheels for this last weekend. Nothing left to save them for. So I wasn\u2019t there for most of the work, but several people came up to me to say what an amazing job Jakester, my 15 year old crew chief, did shagging tools and\u00a0working his butt off\u00a0for the mechanics,\u00a0staying focused, staying available.<\/p>\n
Early the next morning, Excalibur asked Jakester if he was in college yet, knowing he wasn\u2019t more than 15, but Excalibur is always \u2014always \u2014 thinking ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you get out of high school, you\u2019ll have three choices: Military, college, or going to work. You come to me after you graduate, and I\u2019ll give you a\u00a0 job, and with that job I’ll give you an education that’ll set you up for the rest of your life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe means it, Jake,\u201d I say, and Jake nods and says, \u201cI know.\u201d Bellingham is a pretty cool place. I think Jake might like it there, too, but that\u2019s a ways away.<\/p>\n
Ceegar reaffirmed to Jakester\u2019s Dad that he was going to get Jakester and his brother into a driver\u2019s ed course put on by a former racer, a guy Ceegar knows, who lost his own son to a traffic accident.<\/p>\n
Jakester has earned a lot of respect from these Type Triple AAA personalities, everyone of them an entrepreneur, every one self-made, every one of them tough and smart and savvy, and obviously, risk takers but percentage players. They see someone worth investing in.<\/p>\n
Hey, I\u2019m just glad to be Jakester\u2019s driver.<\/p>\n
I’d worked my way up to fourth, behind Canuck and Excalibur and the Mustang, but in the next heat, I make a mistake and let some slower cars get by me on the first lap. They say no race is won on the first corner, but I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s true. Sometimes, letting the pack sort out can have consequences, or I get lazy, or maybe too confident I can run leaders down later. Not good.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d almost caught up but was running out of time. All of a sudden, I see a yellow flag. Rocket Scientist was coming out of Turn 8 and into Turn 9 when he missed a shift.<\/p>\n
The back of his GT 40 went one way, the front another, which happened to be into the wall at the grand stand. The front of his car disintegrated and he slid to a stop just on the outside of Turn 9.<\/p>\n
I was chasing somebody, I don\u2019t remember if it was the Mustang or Excalibur or Canuck, but when I saw the mess and people standing near the wreck and parts all over the track, I hit the binders and slowed down.<\/p>\n
There were people out there.\u00a0I wasn\u2019t going to catch anybody now.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, Rocket Scientist was okay, even if a little subdued.\u00a0\u201cI had just about enough time to say \u2018Oh noooo\u2026\u2019 he said later.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s not insulting anybody, so he must still be a little shook up,\u201d said one of his crew members, who won\u2019t be named.<\/p>\n
I almost caught the Mustang in the race on Sunday, but Canuck had caught up with me after erasing his own mistake, a spin between the tight right and left hand turns of 3A and 3B as we came down the hill. We race close and just came out on the main straight when I saw something fly off his car. We were side by side, concrete walls we had to thread through just ahead, when Alice skewed hard to the left, then back.<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t know if Canuck was going to smack me, and even now I don\u2019t know how he managed to keep Alice under control. A half shaft failed.<\/p>\n
I thought about going down the escape road, but couldn\u2019t watch Alice, see down the escape road, and did NOT want to took at the concrete barrier protecting workers (the car follows your eyes). But Canuck brought Alice back under control as I kept going, and I raced on.<\/p>\n
Later, Canuck\u2019s girl, Shoil, normally completely cool, showed just a slightest bit of dissipating adrenalin.\u00a0She saw the piece come off, she saw his car slew sideways. She knows we\u2019re not playing horseshoes out there, right?<\/p>\n
I caught up with the Mustang, dropped back a bit when I ran out of talent, caught up again. We were so close, even Jakester wondered if we\u2019d had contact. I had a chance to get him, planned where I would take him, was almost there on the last lap and then\u2026<\/p>\n
\u2026 the shifter had been feeling pretty rough, and there were noises I was not used to, I attributed those to different ratios that replaced ones I was used to when we fixed the car and I was\u2026\u00a0SO CLOSE! \u2026<\/p>\n
\u2026 I ignored them to get the Mustang\u2026 and then\u2026<\/p>\n
\u2026 smoke filled the cockpit as we headed up the hill. For a split second I thought about ignoring it, \u201cSO CLOSE! LAST LAP! HALF A LAP!\u201d<\/p>\n
Then, inexplicably, \u00a0I became rational, and decided enough was enough, and started looking for some place to stop that might have a fire extinguisher.\u00a0Possibly the best decision I made all weekend.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, smoke didn\u2019t become fire. Fiberglass really gets burning once it hits kindling temperature, and fire suppression systems make a mess. We’re tied in there pretty good in case the car stops suddenly against something hard. One thing more scary than climbing out of a burning car, is not climbing out of a burning car.<\/p>\n
I made it back to the paddock where we lifted the cover off the rear deck and saw where the spinning drive shaft burned its way through the tunnel between the seats and into the passenger compartment. At least it was still connected on each end. If it had come apart, there are other consequences best not to think about.<\/p>\n
That was that, for us: end of race, end of weekend, end of season. Rained out the month before, broken suspension the month before that, the season kind of sucked. But this race was the worst, because there were no excuses. Not really.\u00a0It was on me.\u00a0Bad technique led to mechanical failure.<\/p>\n
So I apologized to Jakester for not doing my best. But he was having none of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou did fine. You would have (eaten their lunch) if nothing happened to Yellow Jacket. Good weekend\u2026\u201d he responded.<\/p>\n
Whoa. When in hell did he grow up? He has good parents, that\u2019s most of it, of course. Jakester\u2019s Dad came up for the weekend to help out, and found himself buried in praise for his boy. His mom would have been there too, but she\u2019s president of the football booster club at Jakester\u2019s high school and was in charge of some concession sales for the weekend. That figures, right?<\/p>\n
So, it could have been worse.<\/p>\n
I also got to spend time with Fox\u2026no, really!\u2026 a woman I met who\u2026 well\u2026 hmmm\u2026 enjoyed her time at the races, and \u2026 um\u2026 er\u2026 makes me feel like I\u2019d like to spend more time with her.<\/p>\n
All sorts of time: time sitting, time talking, time laughing, time listening, time planning, the kind of time you spend with someone who\u2026 quality time\u2026 oh hell, enough of that. Who knows what\u2019s next?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to know how anything will turn out. Things break, things get fixed, you try hard and sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn\u2019t. There\u2019s lots that\u2019s out of our control. You focus on doing what you can do, and accept the rest. Right?<\/p>\n
There\u2019s only one thing I know for sure.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s never enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
First things first: Fireball, driving the\u00a0Holman-Moody Mustang, kicked ass.<\/p>\n
Not just mine. Fireball\u00a0beat Excalibur, and Alice, too. He had the heat for the last weekend of the year.<\/p>\n
A lot of qualifications could be put on that. Canuck\u2019s car Alice was in her first race. There was sorting out to do. Canuck turned in lap times in Alice that were faster than Fireball, but with one mistake made (right in front of me) and then\u00a0 a nearly disastrous mechanical failure on the main straight (right next to me), Canuck didn\u2019t catch the Mustang. Excalibur ran hard, but\u2026 I don\u2019t know \u2026 Read more\u2026