Sloshing around at Rainy Grove

Welcome back, this week I'm at Williams Grove (Rainy Grove) hoping that Mother Nature shines down on the Grove on Thursday & Friday. I'm writing this while I'm doing my laundry in Dillsburg, PA, it is Wednesday May 12th and it is 12:51pm. Monday I got some feedback from Starla about my blog, after telling me last week that my blogs needed to be spiced up a little, she finally figured out that if you clicked on the title of the blog that it open up to be able to read the entire entry, Starla, you just need to be smarter than the computer, anyway she said that she enjoyed reading my last entry, thanks Starla.

Last Friday was a windy somebitch with the threat of rain starting at 4pm, so it was some what of a push to get the show in before the rain ended it for us. Chad had the track looking good and smooth. The big new video board that the track has in turn two is pretty cool (I heard it was the one from the old Cowboy's stadium). After we had everything set up in the infield they were showing old footage of previous King's Royal's. I had never seen that many old races from Eldora, but when I was watching them I noticed that back in the 80's the cars didn't get all the way up to the fence back then, the fast racing groove was right around the middle, don't get me wrong the racing looked very competitive but not better than the last 4 years. I've come to the conclusion that all the old farts who have nothing better to do but complain about how boring today's racing is (yes I read Hoseheads, but never post anything), well when I watch old footage of Knoxville at Dingus, the racing seems to be just as good as today's, so everybody old & young come on out and enjoy an Outlaw race when we come close to your town, I know you will enjoy the race and have a good time. We started the feature with it lightly sprinkling and the track still in good shape, the first 12 laps went by really quick with Joey and Schatzs battling it out, Lucas Wolfe was looking really good running third when Randy Hannagan spun to a stop in turn 2, it was still sprinkling but the track was holding up, I got to Randy as quickly as I could knowing he only needed a push start, but 2 cars came to the work area with flat tires, the rush was on but both cars got there 2 minutes in the work area and TK was able to change a tire and make it back out. The race continued for 13 more green fast laps with Joey leading with his wing coming apart and Lucas in second after putting a slider on Schatz. Around lap 22 the rain started coming harder and we were all keeping an eye on the track, when on lap 25 I saw Schatz blow a tire in turn 4 and with all the debries on the track the yellow came out. When I stopped on the track to pick up the debries, Woody slid down about 2 feet and I called that we were loosing the track and the red flag was thrown to get the cars to the pit area. The rain got steadly worse and about 10 minutes the race was call official and Joey was declared the winner. About 15 minutes after that, the rain turned into a deluge of rain and I would say about 1 inch of rain came down in about 30 minutes. But hey, we got the race in and the few people who braved the weather conditions saw a good race (even if it was only 25 laps) and didn't get wet for nothing.

Saturday I woke up to very strong winds and cloudy and cold conditions, the wind was so strong I didn't try to put my satellite up, the windchill was miserable, but the wind was supposed to settle down around 5pm, we could only hope. What a crappy day, but thankfully the rain was supposed to hold off all night. Larry Boos, Chad and their staff did an excellent job in getting the track ready for racing after all the rain & wind. Man was it cold, I thought I was in Volusia again, I was wearing longjohns and gloves before engine warmups. A bigger crowd showed up to brave the cold and wind to see some really good racing. Sammy took off from the green flag and was smokin' the field until a laps 18 red flag for Cale Conley, I didn't see it, but I guess Sammy slammed into one of Conley's front tires that had come off and it tore up the front end and the top wing slider and tree and when Sammy came to stop on the red, oil started puking out of his car. On the ensuing restart, Sammy's was able to keep the lead but Paul McMahan got into 2nd before another yellow came out for Joey blowing his RR, I was able to get Joey to the work area quickly enough and they were able to change their tire in time. On the next restart, Paul got the jump on Sammy and had the lead coming out of turn 2, but Lasoski was on a big charge and was able to get by Sammy on the backstretch but wasn't able to get to McMahan. Paul won the race (way to go Paulie, I have been a big fan of Paul's since he started racing in CA using Steve Scotts motors and dominating the NORCAL tracks) with Lasoski 2nd and Sammy held on for 3rd. The rain did come, but just as I got back to my RV and was starting to get Woody back on his trailer. It was a cold rain, but it never did rain really hard. So, this was the first time in over 4 years that we got both spring races in at Eldora, when the races were in April, we got snowed out twice, and sleeted out once, and last year we got rained out. So, all in all, it was a sucessfull weekend.

Sunday I woke up to a beautiful day, blue skies and cool temps, as my dad would call it, a Chamber of Commerce type day. I took off from the track around Noon and headed for I-70. My goal was to make it east of Columbus and find a place to camp for the night. I stopped at a Best Buy and bought a Flash Drive to backup all my important files and pictures so when this computer does crash, I won't loose anything I can't get back. So far my computer is still hanging in there, but at a much much slower pace. It now takes forever to update my fantasy leagues, thank god I have plenty of free time to wait it out. I ended up driving all the way to a WalMart in Cambridge, OH to stay for the night. I had a nice dinner with Steve (the WoO newest official tech insp), he came and picked me up and we had a nice meal at Ruby Tuesday's. When I got back to my RV, there was two guy's trying to unlock their car with a coat hanger, I hadn't seen that in a long time. They definitely weren't thieves, because it was taking them way to long. I helped them out with a big screwdriver and they finally got the car open, I hope I didn't help them steal it???? I watched the finale of "The Amazing Race", I was bummed the gay dude with his brother won the race, the played dirty and cut infront of the cowboy brothers and got better seats on the plane to San Fran and were able to get a cab quicker and never got passed the rest of the race. It was the type of bullshit move most gay's have used to get ahead on that show in the past. Oh well, its only a race and my favorite team finished 2nd and never backstabbed or made any dirty moves the entire race

Monday was another scrumpshish day, blue skies no clouds, no wind, and cool temps, great driving weather, the best part of weather like that is not many bugs to hit. I was on the road heading for Williams Grove around 11am. It is a pretty simple drive, I headed east on I-70 to Wheeling, WV where you take the I-470 by-pass. As I was crossing the bridge in Wheeling and starting the climb I was passing a semi with another semi entering the freeway, so I was out in the fast lane doing about 65mph thinking I will pass both trucks with no problems and cruise up the hill, well that was until there was a huge box right in the middle of my lane with no where to go, I didn't want to slam the brakes on and cause a huge mess on the freeway, so I slowed down to about 40mph and hit the box hoping it would be empty, well, so much for being empty, it was full of 1 gallon buckets of something. It made a hell of a noise when I hit it, I thought I had killed the air dam. I stopped at the first rest area in PA and checked out the damage, to my surprise, there wasn't any damage at all, shit I got lucky on that one. The rest of the drive was a really easy cruise on the PA Turnpike to Carlisle, PA. After filling up with water at the Flying J, I headed to the track. The back camping area was locked up, so I parked in the front for the night. Jim & Luci showed up about 30 minutes after I got here, I found out the back gate would be opened at Noon on Tuesday. So, I put up the satellite and settled in for the night.

Yesterday I was up around 10am hoping I would get the motorhome parked in the back before the rain came, but before that I got Woody off his trailer and cleaned up all the Eldora mud off of him to get him ready for Williams Grove's red dirt. Around Noon I got the RV moved and parked and borrowed Jim & Luci's truck to go get some groceries and get my hair cut. Other than that, it was a pretty boring day as the rain started to come down steadily the rest of the day and night. During the night I watched American Idol, my favorite Crystal finally performed really good after 2 poor performances the previous weeks, so hopefully tomorrow night america will get the vote right and she will make the top 3.

Today, still cold and rainy, or at least overcast and drizzily and cold. I was about to ask Luci if she wanted to go do laundry with me when my Mom & Dad pulled into the camping area, what a nice surprise, I knew they were traveling on the east coast on their way up to Nova Scotia, Canada and they told me they might show up here, but I wasn't holding my breath. After getting them settled in, my Mom dropped me off at the laundramat in Dillsburg, PA. That's where I started writing this blog entry. After mommy came and picked me up, I hungout with my Dad and Mike and moved Jason Meyer's T-Shirt trailer into position. Bill & Lynda showed up after spending a couple of day's with their daughter Kathy and Grandkids, coming to the Grove for them usually means a recharging of their batteries and smiles on their faces after spending time with their family. We all went out to dinner to our favorite Italian place, Rillo's Restaurant, I had veal with mushrooms & artichoke hearts cooked in some sorta sauce, man was it good. After having a couple beers with Mike, I spent some time with my Mom & Dad, getting some information from them for their nomination to the Sprint Car Hall of Fame. With Bill's help, we are going to write up thier nomination and hopefully they will be selected to get on the ballot for the 2011 election, then hopefully they will get voted in, that would be a great 50th Wedding Anniversary present for them.

Now I'm watching the American Idol results show, so in about 30 minutes I will find out who's going home, hopefully its not Crystal, I'm hoping it will either be Casey or Big Mike. Well, let's all pray that Mother Nature shines down on us the next two nights and we get both Thursday & Friday night racing in here at the Grove. Hopefully the Outlaws will put a woopin' on the Posse the next two nights and all those Posse lover's will shut the hell up on Hoseheads, but if that happens, then all we will read about is all the excuses they will come up with on why their Posse drivers didn't win. Don't get me wrong, I like all the PA Posse drivers & teams and I think its cool when they win, but I just want the few PA fans that hide behind their computer to shut the hell up for a while, at least until we come back in July. If any of you Posse fans read this, let me know and come on by and say "hi" and we'll have a few beers after the races and have a few laughs together. Well, Crystal is in the bottom two with Big Mike, that sucks, now I have to wait another 20 minutes until Seacrest finally says who is going home. I'll let you know after Bon Jovi performs and before I close out this blog entry. YES, Big Mike is going home, Crystal is in the top 3.

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"