Ready for the Kings Royal Weekend

Welcome back, right now I'm camped out at the WalMart in Celina, OH and it is 8:46pm Thursday night. Selena and I are watching the shows that we DVR'd last night when we were racing at Limaland Speedway for the Brad Doty Classic. We already watched "So You Think You Can Dance" and now were watching "Big Brother". I don't know if any of you readers out there watch "So You Think You Can Dance", but one of the male dancers "Kent" is from Wapokenta, OH (you drive right by it on I-75/US 33 on your way to Eldora). I drove through the town today to meet my friend Todd Book who has been on the Professional Bowlers Tour the last 3 years, anyway there were a couple of messages on the marquee's to vote for Kent, who is one of the favorites to win the show. My favorite dancer is Lauren, she can dance her ass off, just watch the Tahitian dance that she just performed Wednesday night. As for Big Brother, it just started and I don't have a favorite yet. Now that you know where I'm at tonight, let's catch you up from where I left off on my last blog.

Wednesday July 7th, I was still camped at Derge Park in Beaver Dam, WI, it was a nice relaxing day, it rained a bunch early and then after the rain the heat and humidity made the air so thick you could cut it with a knife. I needed to fix one of the ramps on the trailer before the hinge pin fell out, causing the ramp to fall off and drag behind. I needed to get new hardware from Menards, so Bill, Eloy & I took the car and got the parts I needed. I fixed the ramp with their help and then we all went out for Chinese.

Thursday I was up early (7am) to be on the road by 8am. I had a 175 mile drive to La Salle, IL for the last Kasey Kahne Budweiser race. If you like mostly a rough road, I-39 is the freeway for you. From Madison to Beloit will knock your fillings loose, or ask Joey, fold the tongue on your T-Shirt trailer, I'll fill you in on that a little later. I arrived at La Salle Speedway around 11:30am and got settled in where they wanted us to park. After all the rain I had heard they had gotten for the past three days, I expected a muddy mess, hell it looked like it had never rained, good for us. La Salle is a neat high banked short track, the stands were packed to the gills, and they saw some pretty good racing. Now, if you were a driver, you didn't see much, that has to be the darkest track I have ever been on. The infield was well lit, but the track was dark as hell. Prior to the main event, I was told to hold the cars at the entrance while the fireworks went off from the infield. Steve Kinser came up with the funniest statement I've herd all year. When he got to the entrance he asked me why I was holding them at the gate, I told him "for the fireworks show", he then said, "Hell, they don't need to turn off the track lights for it". I thought it was funny as hell. Then he asked me who put up all the banners on the fence in turns 1 & 2, I told him Justin & Tony, Steve then asked me to thank them, because the track was so dark, he was using the yellow Armour All banner as a point of reference to turn left. As for the race, Paul McMahan looked like he might get his 2nd win, but Joey wasn't going to let him have it easily. With all the restarts, Joey finally got past Paulie and it was a 1, 2 sweep for the Kahne cars. It was a good night of racing and the crowd had a great time.

Friday, I slept in and left around 11am, yes, back to Beaver Dam, WI. With it being a travel day, I didn't drive that fast and just cruised again on I-39 (shake, rattle, & roll again). Thursday night Steve Post from MRN & Sirius Nascar Radio road with me during the heat races and had a great time. As I was driving listening to the Trading Paint radio show on Sirius, he was hosting it with Buddy Baker, I decided to call in and try to get on the show, as I was on hold (for 60 minutes) Steve talked about riding on Woody and having a great time at the WoO race, good radio exposure for the WoO. Finally I got on the show and talked with Steve & Buddy for about 5 minutes, again more positive exposure for the WoO, your welcome World Racing Group. I arrived at Beaver Dam Raceway around 3pm and parked over by the tree's for shade and cleaned the bugs off the front of the RV and worked on Woody, trying to figure out why none of my head lights would work. I found the problem, broken ground wire, Chad Kemenah and Adam were there a new car together after destroying a car at La Salle, I asked them if they had electrical terminal and Adam hooked me up. I got Woody's lights working and then drove up to where everybody else parked there RV's and got ready to go out to dinner to celebrate Lynda's birthday (her 39th she told me) at Benveneto's Italian restaurant across the highway. We (Bill & Birthday Girl Lynda, Jim & Luci, Eloy, Vince, Alisha & Justin (notice I put Alisha ahead of Justin), Paul and myself) all had a great dinner and sung Happy Birthday to Lynda, Happy Birthday Lynda, i hope you had a good time. When we got back I hungout with Glen & Liz, fans from WI, and had a few beers, I got to know Glen the last few years, it was nice hanging out with Liz and getting to know her a little more, we chatted about our kids and life in general. Then it was off to bed around 11pm.

Saturday was race day, with a 30% of rain, and looking at the weather early, I didn't think we would get any rain at all, but around 4 pm the clouds rolled in from the northwest and it didn't look good. The rain held off until 5pm when it decided to dump for about 40 minutes, making a mess of the pits and the track. With a large crowd on hand, I knew cancelling wasn't going to happen, Scott Boyd who owns Beaver Dam, new he needed to get the race in and there wasn't another threat of rain, so the track crew and Larry & Joe finally got the track ready for hot laps around 10pm, it was a monumental task getting the track raceable and the pits useable. Unfortunately rain makes the track mostly one groovish for most of the night. The racing wasn't very exciting and Joey dominated for a 2nd straight win. Lucas looked good all night and maybe had a better car than Joey and was waiting patiently for a chance in lapped traffic, unfortunately we had a few yellows and he got schooled on the restarts by the veterans, but he raced tough and held on for another top 5. The last checkered flag flew around 1:30am for the mini-sprints, what a long night with a 300 mile drive to Ceder Lake Speedway for Sunday nights race. However, I have to give it up to the Beaver Dam fans, a lot of them came down to the pits afterwards and were all smiles and thanked all of us for working hard to get the races in. You gotta like that. After getting everything put away and myself cleaned up, I put my head on the pillow around 3:30am.

Sunday, I was up at 7:30am and on the road around 8:30am, it is a long drive across WI on I-90/I-94. But I have to give big thanks to Glen, he helped me fix my cruise control, making the drive a lot easier, it worked like a charm all the way. I had been driving without the cruise working right for about 2 months. Glen I'm sorry if your ribs are still hurting (isn't working on RV's fun), but my right leg and calf muscle thank you. Surprisingly the drive went smoothly and rather quickly. My traveling partner (Selena) was back with me, after spending the 4th of July week with Payton Dollansky riding Jet Ski's, 4 wheelers and just having fun for a whole week. So there she was inspiring me to stay awake by sleeping for the first 3 hours of the drive. We stopped at Black River Falls for a late breakfast and was back on the road about an hour later. We arrived at the track around 2:30pm, I got there by taking exit 19 off of I-94 and taking HWY 63 to HWY 64 to New Richmond, then to CR CC to the race track. There was a 60% chance of rain but just like last night, it looked good early in the afternoon. Well, mother nature roared her ugly head again and started raining around 4:30pm, and it rained on & off several times and finally cleared around 5:30pm. Surprisingly, the pit area wasn't too bad and it didn't take the track crew very long to get the track ready. We started hot laps around 7pm, the track was fast all night, it was the first time I had seen this track not slick off in hot laps, mother nature helped with that. The track did widen out to two grooves by the halfway point in the A-Main. The track was fast and Craig Dollansky was driving like a man possesed, he was on kill the entire main event and dominated. Meyers almost got by Craig on the outside of 3 & 4 but didn't quite get it done and he showed Craig the fast way around and then Craig drove away. I think all the teams were glad to just roll their car in the trailer and get out of town for a couple days off from racing. Again, the fans had a great time and thanked the WoO for coming to their track and put on a great show. My faithful readers of this blog I met in Brainerd (John & Leanne) came by after the races and said hi and John gave me a business card with his name so I wouldn't forget this time, thanks John, but next time you might want to include your wife's name, I got it off of the comment she left on my last blog. By the way John & Leanne, Gene & Starla are back out on the road, they met up with us at Limaland. I also want to give a shout out to Ali & Gary, Gary road with me all night and I'm pretty sure he had a good time.

Monday, another long drive was ahead of me, my goal was to make it to South Bend, IN by 6pm, 490 miles of Freeway to include the dreaded Chicago area. Selena and I were on the road by 9am, about an hour later than my planned takeoff. But, with my cruise control working good, I wasn't dreading the drive as much. The reason I wanted to get to South Bend, was because we were invited to celebrate one of my sponsors daughters birthday with them. I made it to the Chicago area around 3:30pm and I thought, crap right at the begining of rush hour traffic. But to my surprise, I never really got to stop & go traffic until I hit the construction area just past Gary, IN (home of Michael Jackson, hee hee) on I-80/94. We arrived at the WalMart in South Bend near HWY 31 at 7pm, an hour late, but I made it. Bill & Joan and their daughter Jennel (the birthday girl) all went out to dinner at Red Lobster. Bill & Joan are more than just sponsors, they have become my good friends and they treat me and my family like we are a part of theirs. They dropped us off back at the RV so we could get a good nights rest, something I desperately needed. Just as I was going to bed, a f&*#'ing trucker parked right next to my bedroom window (I mean less than 10 feet) and idled all night, thanks a**hole.

Tuesday Bill picked us up and we met Joan and had lunch at their Kiwanis Club meeting, we had a good time and I got to meet a lot of business owners from the northern Indiana area. After lunch Bill helped me unload Woody from his trailer and I drove it to his house about 2 miles away with our laundry. At their house I washed our clothes and gave Woody a much needed bath, Bill busted out his pressure washer for me and I took the extra time and cleaned Woody up good. I left parts of Brainerd, La Salle, Beaver Dam, & Ceder Lake in the gutter of their road. Joan took Selena to the fitness center she works at and Selena took part in a couple of Joans arobics classes and played on some of the equipment for a couple hours. The last time I stayed in South Bend last year, Joan did my laundry for me, this time she was working, so I had to do all the laundry myself. Bill & Joan made dinner for all of us, BBQ chicken, sweet corn on the cob, diced red potatoes, man was it good, my compliments to the chef's. I have never seen Selena eat that much food (2 legs, 3 pieces of corn and a big helping of potatoes), I guess working out with Joan made her that hungry. We had a great time watching TV with them and just hanging out with good friends.

Wednesday, I was on the road headed to Limaland Speedway for the Brad Doty Classic by 8:30am. I took HWY 31 to HWY 30 and took HWY 30 all the way to Lima, OH. I arrived at the track around 11am and got settled in. Man what a gorgous day, a little hot, but no threat of rain. Brad has never had great weather for his race since moving it to Limaland, and it showed by a capacity (maybe more than capacity) crowd showing up for the event. I was so happy for Brad, he stresses out over this race and I was happy to see such a great crowd and car count show up, Brad deserves it. After working with Brad for 3 years on the Outdoor Channel broadcast, we have become pretty good friends. 47 cars showed up, it was great to see Jonathan Allard show up, and it will be great having him travel with us through the Gold Cup, I hope they have a good time and have great races, his car owner Morrie Williams and his wife Katie are the nicest people you can meet. I also need to give their crew chief, Ashley, a shout out, when Jon crashed at Tulare earlier this year, Ashley used one of my screw drivers to help get Jon out of the car, as Ashley was loading their trailer to get to the hospital, I asked him for the screw driver and he said he didn't have the time to look for it, it was no big deal, i just thought if he had it in his pocket I would get it back. Well, yesterday when I walked up to their trailer to say hi to Morrie & Katie, Ashley walked up and handed me my screw driver, he said he had hung on to it until he saw me again. Thanks Ashley. What a good night of racing, I really like Limaland, Bob Fricke and his staff are great to work with. The heat races were awesome, Meyers, S. Kinser, and Schatz came from deep in their heats to transfer to the feature. Joan road as my passenger most of the night and had a great time, and their are a lot of crew guys with some sore necks after snapping their necks around to catch a glimps of Joan in her short skirt and low cut top. The race was pretty good, Dale Blaney put an old fashioned butt whoopin on the WoO's. Watching the racing behind them was really exciting and close with Steve & Sides coming out 2nd & 3rd. It was a good night of racing, the fans enjoyed themselves and it was great to see Gene & Starla join back up with us, not only because I missed them, but because that means his brother has improved good enough for them to come back out on the road. Welcome back you two. Well, now your all caught up and it is Kings Royal weekend, lets hope for great weather, good racing, and a surprise winner!!!!!!

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"