Back home in Florida

First off, I apologize for not keeping up with my blog, I don't have any excuses, except for I got lazy. Right now I'm back home in Florida to spend some good time over the Holidays with my family. I also will get to spend my 21st Wedding Anniversary with my loving wife Donna on December 30th. The least I can do is show her a great time on that special night, she puts up with me being gone 9 1/2 months out of every year and only getting to see her maybe a couple weekends during that time. I Love You Donna, and I am glad to be home.

Since it has been a really long time since my last blog, I have a lot to catch everybody up on. Since my last blog, we raced at Sam & Lisa Hafertepe's Lonestar Speedway, they have done a great job re-establishing that race track as one of the best in Texas. I also want to thank Sam & Lisa for supporting Work'N Woody, you two have become good friends and it was great to read yesterday that Sam Jr will be back on the WoO Tour for 2010, your families presence will make 2010 a great year. The race at Lonestar was a good race, even though we only had 18 sprint cars show up, they all were competative cars and they put on a great night of racing. Sam, Sam Jr and the rest of their speedway staff did a great job getting the track ready after a ton of rain hit Kilgore, TX earlier in the week. Joey was lightning fast all night, but Sam Jr never let Joey get to far ahead and made Joey earn his victory.

The next morning (Sunday), I stayed at the track to watch the Vikings game and then I took off on my Journey to Charlotte, NC for the World Finals. I made it to Shreveport, LA and met up with Jim & Luci, Rick & Allen, and Eloy for dinner at the buffet at the Horseshoe Casino. My plan was to leave Monday morning and head to the Birmingham area to meet up with one of my Navy buddies, but it started raining Sunday night and didn't stop all day & night Monday. It rained so much, I found more leaks in my RV, I found where the leaks were coming from, but I needed for it to stop raining to fix them, so I just broke out all my towels and hoped that I didn't run out of towels before it stopped raining. It finally stopped raining early Tuesday morning and my towels actually soaked up all the water so I didn't get any more damage in the RV. I drove all day Tuesday to the Birmingham area and hooked up with my friend Joe, he hooked me up with a parking spot big enough for my RV & Woody with electricity & water, right infront of his brothers cabinet shop. Wednesday it was a super nice day and I took advantage of it by washing the RV & Woody and repairing the leaks around the form lights in the front of the RV. Everything was good to go for my weekend at Talladega.

Thursday I drove over to Talladega and settled in the campground that Joe and his friends reserved. So, if you were at Talladega and you saw Woody there, you weren't seeing things, I was there. Thank god the campsite they had was at the top of a hill, so when it rained Friday & Saturday, our campsite didn't flood and become a muddy mess. I'm a NASCAR fan, and I enjoyed watching the truck & cup race from the Tri-Oval grandstand, but what made my weekend great was, I was able to cash in a favor and got hooked up with two HOT PASS Garage passes. Joe & I were able to cruise around in the garage area and watch the teams up close. Sunday prior to the race we were able to walk down pit road and see all the equipment up close. I ran into Frankie Kerr at his pit stall and introduced myself, at first he tried to ignore me (understandably with all the work and pressure they are under), but after I told him I was Art & Carol's son and the new Work'N Woody, he took about 5 minutes of his time to talk with me, what a super nice guy. During the race there wasn't a ton of action, but watching 30 cars bumper to bumper at 190 mph is kinda cool. The action did happen on the last lap and I did get to watch Mark Martin go by me upside down. That didn't look like it was much fun for him.

Monday I decided to drive straight through to Concord, NC, I arrived at ButlerBuilt (Brain & Jeannie's shop) right after the sun went down. I hung out all week there until Thursday morning when I moved over to the Dirt Track at Lowes Motor Speedway. After I got settled in, it was time to go to work moving the T-shirt trailers into place and helping to park all the sprint car rigs in the pit area. That was a fun time, we had 57 sprint cars show up and we only had 48 parking spots outlined in the pit area. Thank god a few teams brout two cars in one trailer, so I only had to get creative for a few teams. I actually ended up parking a couple teams in the fire lane (I did make sure a fire truck could squeeze by if needed in an emergency). Friday afternoon, one of my biggest fans Mike (theoldsman71) and his girlfriend Trina (God I hope I remembered her name correctly, if I got it wrong, I'm very sorry) parked their trailer next to me, I had a good time hanging with them when I had the time. Thursday night for me is a lot of work, not for Woody, because I just park him all night and I run the push lane all night. All the teams did a great job showing up for their groups of hot laps and for their qualifying spots all night. The track kinda sucked for qualifying, it was dry hard slick, so the fans didn't get to see out right speed from the sprint cars or the late models. Instead they got to see which drivers had the best car control and who could pussy foot it around the corners the fastest. Oh well, the track was the same for everyone.

Friday morning it was damn cold, it was right at freezing when I woke up in the early morning, but the sun was out and it did warm up into the 60's. During the day, I took Mke around the Concord area and showed him where the best racing seats in the business area made (ButlerBuilt), then I took him over to where the best Fuel Pumps and complete systems area made (Waterman Fuel Systems), and then I showed him where some of the NASCAR shops are located, we drove by Roush/Fenway, Hendrick (saw it from the road), Earnhardt/Ganassi, and Richard Petty Motorsports. Friday night was a long night racing, the track was super fast, but very rough, and that combination usually makes for a busy night for Woody. Which it did, during the 4th red flag of the main event, Woody started to run out of gas when I parked him on the back stretch. Thank god I herd him rev up and I was able to get him started and parked off the track before he stalled for good. I was almost embarrassed infront of 14,000 fans. Justin was able to bring me a couple of gallons of gas and that got me through the rest of the night. I thought our main event would never end, but Jason Meyers did a good job holding off Donny on the many many re-starts, I think Donny's car was faster, but Jason was able to put his car where Donny needed to run to get by, it got close a couple of times, but they are both great drivers and never did touch eachother. Jason was able to take the championship battle to the final night of the year on Saturday night. Man was it cold Friday night, I would say during our race which was the first main event, the temps were in the low 40's, and it only got colder for the late models.

Saturday morning I slept in to about 9am and then I took Mike & Trina to breakfast before heading out to the airport to pick up Donna, this year I was able to fly her in for the last race of the year and the banquet the following night. I picked her up around 12:30pm and made it back to my RV around 2pm. Saturday nights race our, final race of the year is a bitter sweet time, your glad the season is over, but you know afterwards, you won't see your friends until the next February in Florida. The race wasn't that exciting, the track was hard slick again and there was really only one groove left after the late models ran their 50 lap main event, so around lap 12 the track took rubber, but before it did, Joey was on a mission to get his 20th win of the year. He drove his ass off to get the lead early and was able to hold on in the rubber to get the win. What a great accomplishment, only the 5th driver in the history of the Outlaws to win 20 A-Mains in one year, not even the Schatz has accomplished that, even during the split year Donny didn't pull that off. However, Donny did get the last laugh, he didn't have any problems during the night and cruised to a 6th place finish to capture his 4th consecutive WoO Championship, only him and the King has ever accomplished that. Way to go Donny, you are the best driver and team out here right now. During the racing night if you were at the track, my oldest daughter Alisha and Donna rode with me on Woody during the night. It got chilly during the night, but it never got bone chilling cold like it did Friday night. The night did finally came to an end and after I moved the final T-Shirt trailer back to there rightful owner, I put Woody on his trailer, which signaled the end to a very successful year. My first year on the road operating Woody by myself was a good one, I can now take the rookie stripes off and get ready for my sophmore season. I was glad that Donna was able to share in the final night with me, without her support and knowing that everything back at home is taken care of, I would never be able to carry on the tradition of Work'N Woody and enjoy this crazy life of being a intragual part or the WoO.

I'm going to stop this blog here for the night, it is 11:15pm and it is time to go to bed and snuggle up with Donna for the night. I will continue this blog tomorrow and eventually catch you all up on what I've been up to since the World Finals.

Again, I want to thank all the fans for supporting me and Work 'N Woody and the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series. So, until my next blog, stay safe and keep all four wheels on the ground.
Work 'N Woody,
"Just Push'n Off"