\u201cC\u2019mon. You need to go. There will never be another chance like this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s right. A chance to race the road course at Indy against some of the best drivers in the world won\u2019t come around again. But then, there\u2019s that time and money thing, and a commitment I\u2019d made to Irish to be someplace else that weekend.<\/p>\n
So instead, I headed out across some pretty desolate country to Spokane. I was supposed to pick up my crew chief Jakester at the airport at about 11 p.m. I could have driven over and picked\u00a0 <\/span>him up in Portland, but that would have\u00a0<\/span>added four hours to the trip.<\/p>\n He\u2019s also 15 and had something to do for school. I try to make sure racing doesn\u2019t interfere with school.<\/p>\n Merlin pulled in to the track at Spokane to help Kiwi set up his operation of four or five cars for clients. Kiwi hadn\u2019t arrived so we were on our way to get dinner when I got a call from the Armadillo, who sells parts and fuel.<\/p>\n His truck\u00a0 <\/span>blew a front tire and it took out a bundle of wires. The owner of a tire shop had gotten him off Interstate 90 and replaced the tire, but the shredded wire harness left him stranded.<\/p>\n Armadillo was about 130 miles west, back the way we\u2019d all driven earlier in the day. It wasn\u2019t really our problem, though Armadillo had fuel I needed, and some for Kiwi. Merlin likes a lot of octane for his engines, and you can\u2019t get that many places. Just as important, Armadillo was stranded. Merlin had the knowledge maybe to fix it.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know we\u2019re going, right?\u201d Merlin said to me, before we ordered our meal. I was already on the phone to Jakester\u2019s mom, getting it cleared for Merlin\u2019s wife to pick up Jakester at the airport.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t have much to offer besides a couple of tools and some conversation, but after a quick dinner and a long drive, Merlin rewove the color-coded wire harness. Some of it Viking had already done when he drove by and saw Armadillo stranded. We wrapped it up sometime after midnight, and followed Armadillo to the track in case something came loose. It was about 3 a.m when we finally said good night.<\/p>\n After the practice on Friday, race cars were allowed to caravan into downtown Spokane,\u00a0<\/span>a surprisingly lovely little city. We put on our show, had a few meat balls for dinner, and headed back to the paddock for the racing the next day.<\/p>\n The track at Spokane is a little hard on the cars. On the back stretch, there\u2019s a series of rolling ups and downs that slower cars feel as small hills. It\u2019s a bit different for us: there\u2019s a picture of Ceegar\u2019s Mustang from two years ago with his\u00a0tires in the air. When I come down, there\u2019s a shower of sparks when my headers grind against the pavement.<\/p>\n Ceegar wasn\u2019t racing the Mustang this weekend. He was really there to test and tune his new project, a very rare and beautiful Ford Can-Am car with a big, 429 cubic inch motor shoe-horned into the smallest imaginable package, weighing about 1,000 pounds less than my Corvette but packing far more punch.<\/p>\n It was from the era when \u201canything goes\u201d lured manufacturers to create some mind-bending machines.<\/p>\n Ceegar owns the original, but for five years debated what to do with it. He was reluctant to risk a piece of precious Ford history\u00a0in a race, so\u00a0the one brought to Spokane was hand-built from scratch by Billy Rhine<\/a>, using the original as a “pattern” and parts either recently found, newly made\u00a0or some Ceegar had for years.\u00a0Rhine was at Spokane to help Ceegar sort it out.<\/p>\n I won my first two races of the weekend, having to work damn hard to stay in front of a Porsche that just ate me up in two hair-pin corners. I was slowing too early, and too much, for the tight corners, tip-toeing around in stead of driving.<\/p>\n In the next race I spun trying to fend off Smallblock, one of Kiwi’s clients, driving his Skoal Bandit Nascar ride. Smallblock has become a really good\u00a0driver\u00a0with a lot of seat time and Kiwi’s support.<\/p>\n Tight to the corner so he couldn\u2019t dive inside of\u00a0me, I\u00a0was carrying too much speed for that sharp a turn. I felt my old tires give it away, then with my nose in the dirt I got to watch cars go by. I hate doing stupid things.<\/p>\n But I made it back up to fourth, so would start right behind the front row, and thought I could take them on the start if I paid attention.<\/p>\n \u201cDrive your own race,\u201d Jakester said after he yanked my harness tight.<\/p>\n I couldn\u2019t believe it. I\u2019ve been racing more years than he\u2019s been alive, and here he was, giving me the exact same advice I\u2019d be giving him if he was sitting in the driver\u2019s seat. I laughed out loud inside my helmet, but he couldn\u2019t hear that.<\/p>\n As I came to each turn, I shouted it out loud, \u201cDrive your own race!\u201d braked late, took my line and pushed\u00a0my foot to the floor\u00a0on exit. I was putting them away, and reeled in the Nascar.<\/p>\n Then, two laps before the checkered flag, my Corvette just stopped dead.\u00a0 <\/span>It \u201cfelt\u201d electrical, maybe as simple as a loose wire that fell off in Spokane\u2019s bumps, or maybe I fried the coil.<\/p>\n That was it for me. It was Sunday, it had been a long weekend, with a long drive in front of me back home. I rebooked Jakester\u2019s flight for early afternoon instead of the evening.<\/p>\n \u201cHey, what\u2019s with you flying in for the race, and flying home, while I drive seven hours each way?\u201d I asked as I drove him to the airport. He laughed.<\/p>\n \u201cNext year,\u201d he said, when he would be 16 and actually\u00a0 <\/span>had a driver\u2019s license.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t go to Indy with the rest of the guys. That\u2019s the way it is. There are other commitments, then a pressure tank and water heater to replace on board Foxy. The parts aren\u2019t too expensive, and I\u2019ll do the work myself. Time and money are a little short, but I\u2019ll get to learn something. There\u2019s also a book draft to get to an editor in L.A. who has probably forgotten I exist, it\u2019s been so long since we talked.<\/p>\n \u201cDrive your own race,\u201d Jakester said. Sheesh. Where\u2019s he get that stuff? But sometimes, even when the tires are worn and there\u2019s a spin, or something breaks and we don\u2019t finish, driving your own race is pretty damn good even when it seems to be never enough.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Spokane is a seven-hour pull from Middleofnowhere, Oregon. My old Ford felt a lot better hauling the trailer after a $3,600 tune up, but distance is time and time is money, as they say.<\/p>\n Sometimes it feels like I\u2019m running out of both.<\/p>\n Which is\u00a0the main reason I’m not going to Indianapolis with the rest of the Big Bore Bad Boys. Cowboy made it as easy as he could, saying he had an extra room, and that Canuck could probably get\u00a0 my car there for hundreds instead of thousands of dollars. Cowboy said he could even get \u2026 Read more\u2026 ![\"2016-06-04\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erikdolson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/2016-06-04-300x225.jpg?resize=300%2C225\")
\nphoto by Jake Bobst<\/em><\/p>\n![\"Screen](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erikdolson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Screen-shot-2016-06-15-at-11.13.03-AM-1.png?resize=286%2C159\")
\nphoto by\u00a0\u2026 unknown<\/em><\/p>\n![\"2016](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erikdolson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/2016-06-03-_IMG8140-ed1-WM-RS-1-300x211.jpg?resize=300%2C211\")
\nphoto by\u00a0AeroSportPhotography<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n![\"2016](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erikdolson.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/2016-06-05-_IMG2182-ed1-WM-RS-300x174.jpg?resize=300%2C174\")
\nphoto by\u00a0AeroSportPhotography<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n