April 30th, 2009

I hope things are ready for this Saturday night. I came into the season full of optimism about winning the USAC championship. After the Las Vegas race I was was really excited. But after the poor showing in Blythe and a brief test this past Wednesday I'm having concerns. The engine was great last night but the car was all over the place. I had our normal RMR setup on which should have put us in the 15.3-15.4 range. With the car snapping as it was the best I could turn was a 15.88. If we're going to be competitive I've got to find a 1/2 second of speed. Let's all hope for a great weekend with the 5 car getting it's first victory of the year.

April 20th, 2009

Sometimes you just know that things aren't meant to be. Last week started with a slight pain in my right ankle before boarding my flight to Seattle on Monday. By the end of the day the entire leg had swelled and was bright red. I ended up spending most of the evening at Evergreen Medical Center in Kirtland, WA getting anti-biotics from a IV. The week went downhill from there. I forgot to put the trash cans out on Thursday night and now "my cup runneth over". I finally got out of town on Friday only to realize I did not have my wallet. Several calls and 360 miles later I had my wallet with a little less  cash in it. I stayed in touch with friends and occasionally pulled over to do some work on my laptop which also let my arrival in Las Vegas coincide with my good friend JR Williams. We eventually arrived at Blythe and went to the track. We discussed the deplorable track conditions and some politics along with consuming a few cold ones with friends Bob and Zack Stout, Trey VanDyne and Steve Christie.

Race day went to hell in a hurry. The wealthy "Little League Dads" from California are committed to ruining the Focus division with their unlimited testing, funding and attitudes. Never was it more apparent than on Saturday when the California cars that had utilized the private testing qualified 1-9. The Utah cars qualified 9-13. These dads would make me laugh if it wasn't sad. One dad was upset over a comment I made to his son's personal driving coach. I have a video showing his son hitting multiple cars which upset the father. The "apple doesn't fall far from the tree" adage must be true. The son decided to stop on the track to argue his re-start position. The officials rightly sent him to the rear of the field. Maybe both father and son will learn from the lesson. Not all of the dads are out of control. Guys like Kevin Gerhardt, Bob Stout and Shawn Bowman are great guys. We agree to disagree while remaining friends The pits were overrun with sharp rocks that flattened 8 Focus tires throughout the weekend. The portable toilets were overrun. The ramp to our "second tier" parking area was unacceptable causing most pavement cars to high center. The track lighting is still second rate.

Personally I started on the pole in the 1st Heat. I got hit in the rear by the car behind me allowing the outside car to jump the start. The flagman allowed the start and I fell to the rear trying to save the car. I had to have a talk with the young man who tagged me. He took the constructive criticism well. I hope he learns from it, he seems like a good kid. In the main I suffered a flat tire likely due to driving through the pit debris that promoter Greg Scheidecker promised to clean but failed to. Coming off the track with the flat tire, the half assed plywood covering the pot holes on pit road ripped my belly pan off. I was totally animated at this point. Twice I attempted to have a frank discussion with Mr. Scheidecker but he didn't have the balls to face me. One of his assistants informed me that "Greg doesn't have the time". Since Greg didn't have the time, I guess I won't have time to tow 700 miles each direction to his broken down facility and will strongly encourage others to do the same.

April 5th, 2009

I had a really fun and interesting week. I left for Las Vegas on Tuesday night so that I could attend the ISC West security trade show beginning on Wednesday. I got away much later than expected but made it to Vegas about 3:00am. My buddy Dale McCleery had lined up rooms at the Tropicana. In it's prime the Trop was a happening place but today it's a bit of a dump. I worked the phone and computer from the hotel in the mornings then met Dale at the trade show in the afternoons. By Friday afternoon I was ready to go racing. After a stop at Batteries Plus to get Gregg a new race car battery we headed to the track in the middle of a wind storm. We were told that the winds hit 62mph at the track. Our team elected not to pay the highway robbery of $150 to practice and only prepped the cars. Afterward I took Jim Waters, Chuck Groat and Ron Duncombe to their hotel before joining JR Williams, Brian and Gregg for some BBQ.

On Saturday the car was fast from the outset. We were 3rd quick in practice and qualified 4th. Waters set quick time and I was about .1 off of his time. Waters and I were paired for Heat #1. Jim won it while I was 2nd and Chuck finished 3rd. We made very little adjustments all weekend. I made one minor chassis adjustment for the main event. It was the right direction to go, just not quite enough. I ran most of the main event in 4th position and was running with the leaders throughout. The car started to have a push around lap 20 and I began falling back around lap 25, finishing in 10th. It was a disappointing way to finish but I walked away from the weekend mostly happy. I feel very confident about our chances for success during the rest of the year. On the drive home I beat myself up a bit for over driving the car too early and using the tires up. That's a rookie mistake and I know better. It's been a long time since we've been that good and running up front with the California boys. I got caught up in the moment. Even us old geezers make mistakes. Gregg got caught up in a crash with Jeff Kelley and has a lot of damage on his car, some of which we only discovered when we got the cars back to my house late tonight. It will be a busy next couple of weeks.