Busy week in Wisconsin Cont'd

I apologize for the abrubt end to my last blog, my daughters finished the laundry and it was time to head to Limaland Speedway for the Doty Classic. Right when I got there, it was time to go to work, so I wasn't able to get back to finishing the blog entry, so here goes, finishing up blogging about my week in Wisconsin.

Saturday was race day at Chater Raceway in Beaver Dam, nothing all that exciting happened during the day, come race time, I was surprised that we had over 32 cars, so the fans got to see 4 heats. The new change at the track is there is now a 1/4 mile go cart track in the infield, so push trucks can't park on the high side of the 1/4 mile, because it blocks the view of the fans, I have no problem with that, and where I parked, I could still see most of the track. The racing was good in the feature, there were top & bottom groves, Schatz took off like a rocket ship from 7th or 8th and was third by lap 3, then as he was running down the leaders, on lap 13 one of the strangest things happened to him, he came to a stop in turn 1 and was pushed to the work area, where over the radio Schatz was done for the night with rearend problems. On about the third lap under yellow the pace truck drive (Vince Guieterrez) called debris in turn 4, I went out and found the rear cover to the rearend, then Mr. Eagle Eye (Jason Sides) started pointing like crazy and driving out of line, which always means he see's something on the track, sure enough we found the small gear from Schatz's rearend in turn 3 and the big gear in turn 1 where Donny stopped. I'm telling ya, with a helmet on with 30 tearoffs, Jason can still spot a nats ass on a piece of debris on the track. My wife Donna road with me all night on Woody, she was a good sport putting up with me and I think she might of even had a little fun. I know dirt racing isn't her favorite thing to do, but she had a good time. I tried to get to bed as early as I could, because Sunday was going to come early with a 280 mile drive to Ceder Lake Speedway.

Sunday, woke up at 7:00am and started the motorhome, yeah, it started without any problems, drove down to the gas station and topped off with diesel where Bill & Linda caught up with me. I have to thank them for following me to Ceder Lake just incase my RV decided to quit working on me. With them following us, we had no problems, we stopped at the WalMart in New Richmond, WI. On my way to the track, of course my electrical problem came back, but I made it to the track and just prayed it would start in the morning. As soon as I got to the track all the T-Shirt trailers were waiting for me, it is such a tight area, they can't get them in with their RV's. Before racing, I got to eat dinner with my family +1 (Justin), Donna cooked some awesome beef strogonoff in the crock pot while we drove, thanks for the great meal Babe. Ceder Lake is a good facility, but the pit area is a huge dust bowl down at the bottom, so what do we do, thats where we fire motors to get heat, not good and kinda dangerous, but again we survived without hurting anybody or wiping out our scales. We always get a big crowd there and the fans in that area are super friendly, this time they got to see a good race, Meyers led most of the race, he did swap the lead with Donny a couple of times but was able to stretch it out late in the race, but he made one mistake and drifted high in turn 4 and got caught up on the upper shelf and Donny was able to drive by and get the win. So, now the earth can spin in the right direction again, Donny won on a 3/8's track. After getting all the T-Shirt trailers to their rightful owners, it was time to load up Woody, that's when I noticed that one of my ramps was not right, so I had to spend about an hour repairing the trailer before I could load up Woody. Donna road with me again all night on Woody, I really have to thank her for coming out for the weekend and putting up with getting dirty and hanging out with me in the pits. It was great having Donna out with me even if it was for only 4 days. I love you Donna.

Monday morning again came early, I had to be on the road by 7:30am to get Donna to the Milwaukee airport by 4pm. Again I held my breath and prayed the motorhome would start. Yeah, it started again, but as soon as it started, all the guages died and never came back until I finally figured out the problem. I drove straight thru to Milwaukee, only stopping twice. Thank god it wasn't a hot day, because the dash air didn't work with the electrical problem. I called Foretravel (makers of the RV) and talked with their guru, he told me to check the start/ignition selonoid. Sure as shit, he was right, the selonoid took a shit and finally shorted out. After confirming it by jumping the selonoid with a jumper wire (thanks for advice Dad). I never shut the RV down until I got Donna to the airport (4 hours early, sorry Babe). At the Flying J, I used a jumper wire that my dad made years ago and everything was working, then Selena (my 10yr old) asked me if smoke was supposed to be coming from the dash, I didn't see the smoke but as soon as she said it, I could smell it. After quickly opening the dash and disconnecting the wire, the shrink wrap on the wire was burning. So, now I knew I needed to fix the problem, wouldn't you know it, I had the replacement part in Woody's trailer the entire time I was having the electrical problem. So, after fixing the problem, it was off to South Bend, IN as a stopping point for the night. We made it to South Bend around 11pm.

Tuesday morning, I wanted to see Notre Dame University and show the girls, so we drove to the college, now I don't like to follow signs all the time, so I ignored the signs that said for RV's to park somewhere off campus, no I decided to drive right up the main enterance to see the gold dome upclose. So, I drove my RV with Woody (60ft long) up the small road to the circle. Well, when I got to the circle, there was construction equipment kinda blocking my only path. I thought, holy crap, I'm gonna be stuck at Notre Dame. I know everyone walking around thought to themselves, "who the hell is this dumbshit and what in the hell does he think he is doing". But with my mad driving skills and deciding that the tree I had to drive through wouldn't hurt the side of my RV, I squeezed by and made it around the circle and back out of the university. Now it was off to Toledo, OH for my appointment at Cummins in Maumee, OH to get my exhaust pipe replaced. We made it to Cummins around 1pm and they got me out of there around 4pm. They were super nice and treated me really well, and they got me out of there under $100. We made it to Lima, OH and spent the night at the WalMart next to the fairgrounds.

Wednesday was another early morning, it was laundry day and a race day, so we had to have the laundry done before noon to be at work on time. We pulled into Limaland Speedway around noon with clean clothes ready to go to work. I like coming to the Doty Classic, after working with Brad during our 3 years together doing the Outdoor Channel broadcasts, we really became good friends. I have mad respect for Brad and would do anything to help him with making the Doty Classic one of the best races on our schedule. Bob Fricke and his staff at Limaland are great to work with, this year they finally had the track heavy enough for qualifying and the drivers didn't disappoint, 8 drivers broke the track record. The track was awesome for the heats and there was some great racing in the heats. Lucas Wolfe & Sam Hafertepe drove there asses off the make the dash. The A-Main was an awesome race, Hafertepe and Meyers put on a hell of a battle for the lead, while Jac Haudenschild was putting on a driving clinic starting on the back row. About lap 25 Steve Kinser's car was the fastest on the track, Hefertepe's night came to an end getting upside down in turn 3 and that put Steve in 2nd behind Meyers. Steve stalked Jason until he made his move with a few laps to go and didn't look back for the win. Steve needed this win, it was great to see smiles on Scott, Gary, & Gilligan's faces. It was an awesome night of racing and the Doty Classic lived up to its name, it was a "Classic". I didn't go to bed until 3am, stayed up drinking beer with Bdouch & Brad from PA and then took a much needed shower. I slept in this morning and I was the last mohican to leave the parking lot, but today was a short drive to the WalMart in Celina, OH. When I got here, I accomplished a lot a fixed a bunch of little stuff on the RV and trailer and just relaxed most of the day. I also got rid of my kids for the day, Selena spent the day with Tom & Debbie at the lake and Alisha went to Ceder Point Amusement Park with her boyfriend. Tomorrow its off to Eldora for the big Kings Royal weekend, hopefully the weather will be great and the racing fantastic, when there racing for $50,000, anything can happen, and it usually does. If your at the track either at Eldora, Lernerville, Williams Grove, or Lebenon Valley during the next 9 days, come by and say "hi".

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"