May 30th, 2009

We've got all of the parts ordered to fix the car from the May 16th crash. I hope this isn't turning into another of those years where we just can't get any decent luck. We've ran 4 races so far this year. We were pretty fast and competitive at 3 of them, but have yet to get a decent finish. Twice I've been in crashes not of my own making. We ended up breaking all 7 front radius rods, 2 front brake lines, all 4 shocks, 2 wheels, 2 nerf bars, 1 brake reservoir and the front axle. It also put us out of any hope toward winning a championship.

At this point I'm not sure of my goals toward the rest of the racing season. I think Verlin and I will start working on putting the dirt car together and running that some. I'm still pretty pissed at RMR and USAC. RMR has their head up their ass and USAC has it's head so far up RMR's ass that they can't breathe. USAC is so afraid of making Doug Binstock mad they piss all over themselves in order to accommodate Doug. The saddest part is this came between Gordon Tyler and myself. Tempers flared and we won't be speaking again. I know that if we go back to RMR the Tech Inspectors will be under orders to find ANYTHING they can to DQ me once again. There isn't a car in the Sprint or Midget division that you can't find something wrong with but I'll be the one they go after. I'm not sure how badly I want to play their game. I'm better at the game than they are but ultimately they win. The only way I can win is to walk away which still means that they win since Binstock and USAC want me to go away.

On a more positive note I had a great week, last week, in Oklahoma. The weather was nice for 3 1/2 of the days. I really enjoyed Thursday in the Grand Lake area. I think that is where I want to retire at. I spent a lot of time with old friends and went on a date with someone that I first dated almost 28 years to the day. Amongst the things that Marla and I did was tour the Alfred Murrow Building Memorial. The Murrow Building was blown up in 1995 by a psycho named Tim McVeigh. That we were there on Memorial Day weekend was fitting. As always, I also watched the 500, this time from a hotel room. Indy car racing is still screwed up with foreigners but it has so much pageantry and tradition that I love it more than any other race.

May 17th, 2009

What a disappointing weekend. It started out great. The car was ready early in the week, loaded in the trailer early and everything was good. Our new Crew Chief Verlin Gibson made some great calls and the car was fast all Saturday. We had a little adversity after the 3rd practice when the engine bolts pulled loose from the bell housing exiting Turn 2. We fought back and was 2nd quick in Qualifying. In the heat race I started on the back row, took the lead on Lap 5 and stretched things out over the next 3 laps to a 2 second victory. We made some slight changes for the Main Event and I felt very optimistic. I got pinned in a little at the start of the main but moved to the top and started taking off. On Lap 3 my buddy Ron Duncombe who was leading, spun exiting Turn 4. I'm not sure whether he got bumped or not but there were cars going everywhere. I missed the main wreck but just as I cleared the accident, I was hit in the left rear knocking me into the front stretch concrete wall. The car is heavily damaged with the front axle, all radius rods and heims, 3 of the shocks, the panhard bars and mounts, 2 wheels and a nerf bar destroyed. As the car slid along the wall the parts were flying, the steering linkage came apart and the brake lines were severed. The car came down off the banking and with no way to slow or steer, I drilled JR Williams in the rear

After the accident I unbuckled and stood up in the car. There was fluid under the car but I could not tell what type. I was not going to stay near the car with fluids leaking from the damage and no one was coming to my assistance. At that point I checked on the condition of JR since the Emergency crews were busy in Turn 4 with Ron and Chuck Groat who hit together with such force that both cars were destroyed. Once the car got back to the pits we decided to load it and worry about it next week. I was also DQ'd by USAC for walking back to my it instead of waiting for 15 minutes for the safety crew. All in all I'm glad Ron and Chuck are OK, even though their cars are destroyed.

May 10th, 2009

It's almost time for the first RMR race of the year. We were rained out on the 2nd but I feel pretty confident that will be the only one this year. I'm hoping that this is our weekend to get the job done. It's been 19 months since we've been able to get into Victory Lane. Granted I was recovering most of last season, but this has been way too long of a dry spell, I like to have fun as much as the next person but trust me, it's a lot easier to have fun when you're winning.

I had a really laid back weekend working in the race shop organizing tool boxes and generally cleaning everything. Since my mom passed away many years ago and I have no wife or woman in my life at the moment, Mother's Day didn't have much meaning. My version of celebrating was going out to dinner and a movie with Cox who was a bachelor this weekend

May 5th, 2009

Last week we had out first and probably only rainout of the year. Being in the middle of the desert pretty much guarantees dry springs and hot summers. In the 7 years since I un-retired I've only been rained out twice. There were a couple of close calls at Olathe, CO and Hayden, CO but we got the programs in. A little rain isn't as bad as the heat sometimes. Two years ago we raced at Las Vegas on July 4th. It was 119 when we qualified. One Crew Chief about passed out and one car owner had to go cool down in the Shaw's motor home before he did. This year's summer race there will be on June 20th. I can already feel the heat.

Anyway, it's both good and bad to have 2 more weeks off. The car is about as ready as it's going to get so we might as well have raced. On the other hand we've had 3 pretty expensive race weekends in the last 5 weeks so it's nice to let the checkbook have a rest. The other bad thing is that serious racing people have withdrawals on our off weekends. That's why you'll usually find us at a racetrack, car show or somewhere that we can get a methanol fix on those weekends. Fortunately I did get invited to a pool hall and had a few adult beverages with the Waters, Duncombe, Groat and their gang on Saturday night. We watched the Cup race from Richmond and laughed at Duncombe's stories. The guy is a hoot. The nut that you see doing the Maverik Kick Start show and Maverik commercials is the exact same guy hanging out with his buds. 'Ol Ron is a cool customer in my book.