Viva Las Vegas

Welcome back, what a great race at Vegas, if you weren't there, you missed a classic. I'll get more into the race later, but like I always do, I let you know when & where I am writing this blog. Right now I'm camped in the pit area at Thunderbowl Raceway at the Tulare, CA Fairgrounds, it is 9:51pm and I am watching the new NBC show "The Marriage Ref" on the DVR. I've only watch the first segment and I'm not sold on it yet, we will see how it goes.

When I last left you, I was in Deming, NM getting ready to head to Vegas for the USAC & WoO, and NASCAR races, I took off Tuesday (Feb 23rd) morning around 9am and headed towards Phoenix for to stop at the VEMMA Headquarters office in Scottsdale, AZ to pick up 4 cases of VERVE. When I woke up and stepped out of the Motorhome at 8am to get it ready to travel, I stepped into about a 1/4inch of snow, not very much, but a light dusting and it was still below freezing, my power cords didn't want to coil up very easily, so I just threw them in the back of Woody and hoped they would unfreeze as I drove west. I arrived in Scottsdale around 3pm and had a hard time getting to the VEMMA office, because the PGA tournament for the upcoming weekend is right down the street, after negotiating a ton of orange cones (just barely wide enough for my RV & trailer) and not so bright security, I made it and picked up the VERVE and then headed for Nevada. I got on I-17 north to HWY 74 and cut across to HWY 93 for my trip to Vegas. HWY 93 is a nice drive if you like desert scenery and two lane roads, I like the road, but I'm about sick of the desert scenery (but I know I still have about 1500 miles of desert to drive through in the next 3 weeks). I made it Kingman, AZ around 7:30pm and found a nice parking spot at the WalMart, my belly was growling and since I saw a In & Out Burger near the I-40 exit, that was what was on my mind for dinner. I walked about 1 mile to the In & Out and had me a double double meal, yummie... I settled in for the night and watched the Olympics.

Wednesday morning I was back on HWY 93 and headed for Vegas. I knew there was going to be lots of consrtuction when I got near Hoover Dam, but it was worth it to see that magnificent sight, everytime I see Hoover Dam, I always think about what a marvel that was to build. Before they let RV's drive across the Dam, you have to stop and get it inspected by the cops, for the 2nd year in a row, the cop that inspected me was a race fan and knew what Woody is and what I do, its always nice to meet a fan, especially when they are part of America's finest. I arrived at Vegas Speedway around Noon and parked in the Dirt Track pit area and settled in. I drove Woody all over the Speedway grounds and got all my credentials for Woody and me so I could drive in the infield of the big track and go into the garage area. I looked up my good friends Walt & Gaye who always camp in the same spot for the Vegas weekend and promptly invited myself over for dinner. Walt was making his famous Chicken & Dumplings outside in the freezing cold, so I grabbed me one of his beers and went inside their RV and visited with Gaye while Walt cooked dinner. The dinner was excellent (well maybe the dumplings were a little doughy, Walt used the excuse that it was to cold outside for his little stove to heat up the chicken broth to cook them properly), thanks Walt. I hung around their RV after dinner and ended up playing a crazy card game with their friends, I had a great time and I met some more cool friends.

Thursday I cleaned the inside of my RV in the morning and was in the middle of a nice afternoon nap thinking I had a couple hours before I needed to go to work for the USAC race that night. Wrong, in the middle of my nap I was awaken by the sounds of midget and sprint car motors, I was hoping they were just firing them up to work on them, wrong again, they were driving off the track after wheel packing and hot lapping. I rushed getting dressed and made it out just in time for their qualifying sessions. Qualifying was done around 4pm, the next time we got back out on the track it was 7pm, they actually planned for the 3 hour break. This year for the USAC show, the crowd at least doubled in size, that was a very good sight to see, hopefully next year even more fans will show up. During the midget main, a young kid (Alex Bowman) took a nasty ride in turn 4 after hitting one of the tractor tires. I won't get into any details, but when I got to him first, he was out cold, the safety crew crew arrived right after me and after stablizing his neck, we slowly turned the car over so they could evaluate him better. After several minutes of talking to Alex, we decided to cut the cage off so we could easily remove him from the car without hurting him any more. That was a scarey scene, but the next day I heard from the track that Alex was doing good in the hospital, he had a broken collarbone, broken rib, and a closed head injury, but he was expected to have a full recovery, that was great news. The racing was good and the fans saw to close finishes with Brad Sweet winning the midgets over Chad Boat and Damion Gardner winning the sprints over Dave Darland.

Friday it was our turn to give the fans a great race. The weather was great all day and the track was prepared better than the night before, everytime we have to wheel pack and run two full sessions of hot laps at Vegas, the track seems to stay good all night. It was great to see Fred Rahmer and Daryn Pittman tow out from PA to run with us. I asked Fred what made him come, he said, "we were headed back to our shop and we couldn't see any of the road signs in the snow, so we looked for southwest on the compass and headed that way. When it came for the heat races to start, the track didn't have a pace truck, so I got called upon to be the pace truck for all our races for the night. I really don't like being the pace truck, because I can't respond to the yellows to help spped the show along or help get the car to the work area in a quick manner so hopefully they can get as much time in the work area as possible. But I must admit, it was pretty cool pacing the 4 abreast parade lap infront of 8,000 screaming fans. However, I'm pretty sure I could have gotten Dollansky to the work area quickly enough for him to get his RR changed before they had a correct line-up, since the race was past halfway which means no alotted time in the work area, that sucked, because that was the reason my Dad built Woody, to help the racers not be a pace truck. Man what a great race, Meyers came from 18th (with the help of two double file restarts) but he was the fastest car on the track, to take the lead on the last lap only to have Steve pass him into turn 3, but Meyers stayed on the bottom of turn 4 and got the better drive off the corner and got to the checkers first. What a great race, there wasn't one dissappointed fan (well maybe the Kinser fans), after the races every fan that stopped by Woody had a smile on their face and couldn't wait to come back next year. Hopefully next year we can make it a 2 day show!!!!!!!!!

Saturday I stayed at the track to go see the Nationwide race, the weather was cold and damp all day, it rained about an hour before the start, which delayed the race 2 hours, the weather just keep getting colder. I walked to the track when I saw on the TV that they were starting the engines. I stayed at the race until Danica got wrecked, I watched her all day, she did a good job getting quicker and quicker and was on her way to a top 20 or 15 finish until she got wrecked by a car that came out of the garage area after wrecking by himself 60 laps earlier. It was to damn cold to stay, so I headed back to my RV to watch the Olympics.

Sunday I woke up in a blahsay mood and didn't feel like going to the big race, so I watched the race on the TV when I wasn't watching the big Hockey game between the USA & Canada. The race seemed like a kinda boring race, so I'm glad I didn't walk the 2 miles to get to my seat and the hockey game was a great game, it sucked that Canada won (good for Frank & Cathy however).

Monday I left the track around 9am and headed for Hanford, CA. It was a beautiful day to drive across another desert, I was hoping to make it to Hanford by 5pm, which meant I could only stop a few times to get there on time. After climbing the big mountain past the stateline, I was going cruising about 75mph on the downhill side just coasting, about halfway down I passed a nook in the side of the hill and looked in my mirror when I saw (Eric Estrada) the CHP parked in the nook, right then I remembered that the CA speed limit when towing was 55mph, I said to myself "shit". When I saw him in my mirror, he flashed his headlights a couple times to let me know he caught me, but he never came after me, phew, I got away with that one. I guess he was a WoO fan. I made it to Judy & Gerald's place in Hanford by 5pm, just in time for Judy's BBQ spare ribs, yummie. It was great to see GB & Judy again, I met them back in 2004 when my Mom & Dad introduced me to them and when I was stationed in Lemoore, CA in 2005 I visited them a few times. There is room to park my RV & trailer on the side of their house and they have a 30amp plug they let me use, but more importantly, they are great people and have become really good friends of mine. GB knows just about everybody in Hanford, so if you need something fixed, he knows who to take it to. I noticed Woody's rearend leaking out of the pinion seal in Vegas, and I knew GB could help me fix it.

Tuesday I followed GB over to his friends shop (Mel's Muffler & Brake) on Woody, and with Shawn's help, I got the yoke removed and the seal out. We noticed the yoke had some wear on the shaft (it will do that over 22 years) and needed a wear collar, it took a day to get the part in, so we left Woody on the lift and headed back to the house. I know a great Philipino resturaunt in downtown Lemoore and invited GB & Judy to join me. I'm not sure Judy was thrilled about the taste of the food, but GB liked it. You can't beat good Pancit, Lumpia, & Chicken or Pork Adobo. After dinner, we went back to their house and hungout in their living room watching TV and them watching me fold & back my new 2010 Work'N Woody T-Shirts.

Wednesday we all went out to breakfast at Chubby's, I'd never heard of the place, but they can cook a good egg & potato there. Afterwards, GB & I headed back to Mel's to put Woody back together. When we got there, Shawn had already installed the yoke and was just waiting for me to get there to install the drive shaft. I got it in and while inspecting Woody, I found the nut on the steering arm rod end had only about 2 threads left before it would have fell off (that wouldn't of been good if it fell off while when I was pacing the field at Vegas at 40 mph). So, once again it always seems that Woody has a way of telling me when he is not right, because I seem to always find something else when I'm fixing something different. With Woody fixed and ready to go, I drove Woody back to GB's and took the time to do my laundry and finish folding & bagging my shirts. Around 3:30pm, the three of us went to Superior Ice Cream Shop in downtown Hanford for sandwhich's and sundae's. If you live in the Hanford area you should know about Superior's, if you don't, you need to go and experience for yourself. They make their own ice cream and make the biggest and best sundae's on the planet. That ended up being my dinner, I swear if I hungout with GB & Judy for more than a couple day's, I would end up being a contestant on "The Biggest Loser", that ice cream is awesome.

Today, I arrived at Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare, CA expecting to see a muddy mess in the pit area, well to my surprise, Steve Faria and his crew had been working since the crack of dawn scraping and bringing in over 20 loads of dirt spredding it around and at the end of the day, you would have never known that there was ever any mud in the pit area. I was able to drive right in and park without any worry of driving in the mud or getting stuck, the pits look great. After getting settled in, I went out to dinner for great Mexican food with Bill & Linda, Walt & Gaye, and Eloy, we had a good dinner and better conversation.

Tomorrow is race day at one of the most exciting short tracks that we race on all year, the Outlaws will be challenged by CA's best here, but if I were to put money down on who will win this race, I would bet it all on TK, he loves this track and runs it better than anyone. But, that is why we race, because you never know who is going to win until the checkers fly (except maybe Schatz at the Knoxville Nationals for the past 4 years). I can't wait to see Rahmer run here, I've only seen him run on a small bullring (except I-55 last year) once, I know he's going to enjoy this place. If your coming to the races this weekend, stop by and say "hi". If your reading this and your either in the eastern part of Texas or the Houston area next weekend, come out to Lonestar Speedway in Kilgore, TX on Friday Mar. 12th or Houston Raceway Park in Baytown, TX on Saturday Mar. 13th, I'll be there, hopefully you will too.

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"