Somewhere in Texas

Welcome back, last weekends races in Tulare, CA were a couple of barnburners and I never even felt a drop of rain either day/night. If you looked at the weather forcast all week long, you would have never guessed that we would of gotten Satuday's race in. More on those races later, right now I am on my way to Kilgore, TX for Friday nights race at Sam & Lisa Hafertepe's Lone Star Speedway, I can't wait to see what improvements they have made over the winter. Sam told me in Volusia that he has made big improvements on the back straightaway for the cars to exit the track. Tonight I'm camped at the WalMart in Midland, TX and I'm watching CSI NY, looks like some lepracon got killed, I'm pretty sure Mac and his team will catch the killer.

My last blog ended last Thusday night after I had a good Mexican dinner with Bill & Linda, Gaye & Walt, and Eloy. Friday morning I awoke to sunshine and blue skies, a great sign for a great night to come. After helping get Joey's T-Shirt trailer spotted inside the grandstand area, I drove to the infield to help Eloy spot his scoreboard where Mr. Faria wanted it placed, while we were spotting the trailer, Eloy needed to open one of the sideboards and in the process damn near chopped the end of his pinky finger off, luckily he just peeled back a big chunk of the skin, just another injury from that scoreboard. After getting the board spotted and making sure Eloy sought medical attention, I joined Tony, Justin, Jim, and Steve setting up the inflatable's in the infield, then it was time to relax and make sure Woody was reasy for the night. The track was fast from the getgo and TK set a new track record. As usually is the case in Tulare, equipment is going to get torn up (a fast tight 1/3 mile with small corners and long straights leeds to cars getting into eachother), well after a couple of Tommy Tipovers in the heats, the A-Main started off with a bang. Allard's night came to an end after getting upside down and tearing up his car. During the second restart, there was a huge pileup on the front straight which got McCarl and a couple of others upside down, after that everyone seemed to calm down and the racing was fast and furious. Meyers started on the front row next to Rahmer and was leading the race from the start, Lucas got a great start and was running second most of the race, after a couple restarts, Lucas fell back to fourth behind TK and Jac, well TK ran into turn one and didn't expect the lapped car to almost come to a stop entering the corner and ran into the wall flipping over backwards into Jac, Jac didn't stop and thus was able to keep his running position of 3rd. Lucas was back in second and it looked like he was waiting for Meyers to make a mistake in traffic, when Lucas rolled into the infield with a blown up rearend. Man, I was rooting for Lucas, he was fast. Jac made the rest of the race exciting running with a wing that was torn to hell, but still fast and a little out of control (typical Jac on a bullring). Joey made a run a Meyers, but Jason held on for a huge win in front of all his family, co owners, sponsors, friends and his Brownsville, IN landlord (John Force). The stands were packed, more than last year when we had better weather, it was great to see a big crowd.

After watching the weather forcast all week, the chance of rain for Saturday went from 90% on Tuesday to 30% on Friday night. I awoke to cloudy skies and cooler temps, I just hoped the weather would hold off. The temps just got cooler all day and I was in a jacket by the drivers meeting. The track was fast again and Lucas started off like he was last night, fast and he set quick time, man he really looked good all weekend. The heat races went pretty smooth until the 3rd heat, thats when Allard and Shafer came together coming off turn 4 which sent the two flipping hard, Allard was helicoptering down the front straight fence ripping the front axel out of the car, my first concern was for the flagman, after he answered over the radio that he was OK my next concern was getting to Allard, he landed right infront of where I park in the infield and I was the first one to the car, the engine was still running and Johnathon was not trying to turn it off. I reached inside and killed the motor and backed away to let the safety crew/EMT's do there job. They did a great job and eventually Allard with a little help, walked to the ambulance. Once I got Allards engine off, I looked over to Shafer and seen him climbing out of his car on his own power, so i stayed with Allard. After a little bit, TK came over to me and said he helped get Shafer to the ambulance because he wasn't feeling very good. Man, what a crazy crash, that was the first time I've had to find the Mag switch to kill the motor, I'm glad I found it quickly. Later on before the A-Main started, a track official called over the radio saying he got a report from the hospital saying each driver was doing good and staying for observation for concussions. After the heats, the WoO Officials decided to enact the single file restarts for the B & A Mains, a good call considering the way that track is shaped and lightning quick straights. The main event took a little bit to get going, but each start Joey yarded everyone and drove off, Lucas was again in the top 3 and looked fast, after bumping the wall in turn 2 10 laps earlier, his torque tube broke and ended his night again in the infield. TK was fast and probably the only one who could give Joey a run for his money, but on a restart, TK somehow got upside down collecting Schatz, Donny was able to get his front axle changed in about 3 minutes in the work area (three other cars came into the work area after Donny, which gave him the extra time they needed) but didn't have time to get a new front wing. After a few laps another yellow came out and Donny drove into the work area for a new front wing, well that decision bit him in the ass, because he wasn't ready in the one minute and the lineup was good, so the lights went out and Donny didn't make it out of the work area. Joey dominated the rest of the race, Jason made a run at the end, but Joey was the class of the field. The best run of the night was by far run by Fast Freddie Rahmer, he started 14th and got up to third, the smile on his face after the race was worth the price of addmission for the CA fans. Way to go Freddie, you must of had all those Central PA fans who listen to Dirtvision (in their closet, because we all know their loyalty is for their beloved PA drivers not the WoO drivers). It was a great weekend of short track racing in CA, not good that we sent two drivers to the hospital, but the good news was they were going to be OK, but watching the worlds best sprint car drivers in the fastest cars on dirt duke it out like they did was awesome.

Before I get to the rest of my week, I just want to take the time to thank all the push truck drivers in the Central California Push Truck Association, you guy's & gal's did a great job and it was a pleasure working with you all.

Sunday morning I slept in, when I woke up, it was blue skies but a chill in the air. I washed Woody and got him ready to load on his trailer, cleaned the front widows on my motorhome so I could see where I would be driving. I loaded Woody up and took off around 1pm. The weather was good on HWY 58 over the Tahachapi's and I climbed that somebitch with no issues and when I got to the HWY 395 intersection I had to make the decision to either go on to I-40 in Barstow or go the southern route to I-10. Well, it was snowing in Flagstaff, AZ and had a good chance to snow in Northern New Mexico on I-40, so I decided to push on to Indio and go the southern route on I-10. When I got to San Bernadino the weather turned to crap and started raining, the good news was that the roof needed to be cleaned. I didn't quite make it to Indio, but I made it to the WalMart near LaQuinta in Palm Desert for the night.

Monday my goal was to make it to Deming, NM before nightfall, well after having to stop more times than I wanted to, my GPS said I wouldn't make it to Deming until after 9pm, I decided to stop in Wilcox, AZ early enough to eat dinner and watch my TV shows. Monday night I gotta watch the CBS comedies (How I met your Mother, Two & 1/2 Men, and Big Bang Theory).

Tuesday I was on the road around 9:45am and pulled into Deming around Noon. I decided to hang out in Deming for the night. So, after picking up my mail, I hung out at Harris Auto Electric with Bill, Billy Roy, and Mercedes, all of the rest of mine and my Dad's friends (KW, Ramon, & JR Green) stopped by. Steve (the new WoO Tech Insp) stopped by the shop after stopping in Deming for fuel, he came by the shop and I introduced him to everyone, with Steve having a modified background, and bunch of BS stories started flying around like crazy. Steve ended up hanging out a lot longer than he intended, but he had a good time talking racing and then took off towards El Paso. Bill invited me to park next to his house and stay the night, so I had dinner that Billy Roy & Mercedes cooked and did some laundry. I want to thank the Harris Gang for putting up with me and letting me hang out for the night. I will see you guy's in November, good luck to Mercedes in her first year of racing in the X-Mod class, you definitely are the class of the Street Stocks.

Today my goal was to make it to Midland, TX. I left Deming around 9:30am and only made a couple stops, with a 30-40mph tail wind most of the day, I made good time and got great gas mileage (8.4mpg). I arrived around 5pm and settled in for the night. Only 457 miles to go tomorrow and I will be camped in the parking lot at the Hafertepe's Lone Star Speedway. I hope this weekends Texas Two Step is as good as last years, even though Joey won both races last year, the racing was fanstastic and Joey won some hard fought races. Remember, stop by and say hi after the races and check out my new 2010 T-Shirts.

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"