We made the two and a half hour drive from our shop( it was really nothing more than a one and a half car garage) and pulled into the pits. The ride up to the track was scary enough, especially with an overloaded pick-up truck. Now it was time to go racing.
Anyone who has raced in their past, knows the procedure of competing at a local short track. For those of you who haven’t raced, let me explain the environment that you are about to enter. You and your crew, or friends, who have blindly followed into this endeavor, have to sign a waiver of rights and wrongful death. Along with that you must hand over thirty dollars, and let me be clear- you have just done all this at the most broken down looking building, run by some less than inviting people.
Now that you’re legal, so to speak, its time to find a parking spot. Since jacking a car up on a jack, in a stone driveway is almost impossible, not to mention really unsafe, you fork over another 35 bucks to buy a paved parking spot. Once you park you set up your pits, and get ready for the nights action. It’s important to note; when you left the shop- not more than 3 hours earlier- you were feeling high on yourself and all the hard work that you did. This is a summary of what it was like for me, at least, when I went to the track for the first time.
I walked around the pits and suddenly felt very small and insignificant, other teams spent more money on the trailer that brought the cars to the race track- than I had in my entire operation. I saw multiple sets of tires being measured and matched up for later on in the night. Teams with matching shirts, and fancy looking cars lined the pits. I heard the call for practice and headed back to my pit area.
Although I had rented the track two weeks prior to this day, I was going to be out on the track for the first time with other cars. I strapped into my seat and started the engine; I have to honestly say, at this point, I was ready to throw up. I don’t think I was ever as nervous as I was at that moment. To make a long story short, practice went fine, we didn’t wreck and we were starting last for our heat race.
One of the next things I got to do that night was go to my first drivers meeting. I always envisioned that really important stuff was talked about in those meetings. Although safety topics were discussed, nothing was really different from my karting days. I was really expecting to have some sort of profound experience, but instead I walked away wondering what I was about to do.
My crew readied the car for the heat race, which in those days, consisted of making sure the tires weren’t flat and it had enough gas to make it to the end of the race. Once again I strapped into the seat and out onto the track I went. We all lined up, and got ready for the green flag. The knot in my stomach was being twisted around and I was in sensory overload. The sights, sounds, and smells all bombarded me at that moment. On a side note; the smells inside a racecar are one of the most vivid details to me. I often don’t remember the race in great amounts of detail, or be able to tell you what was happening at a certain lap number- mostly because of how intensely focused I am, but the smells stick with you forever. The racing fuel exhaust, the rubber of the tires, the odor of the brakes, gear oil being burned on an engine’s header. That’s the smell of racing, the smell of my racecar- and each one is just a little bit different. Anyway- like I said I was in sensory overload, and the green flag was about to drop.
I would love to lie to you and tell you when the green flag dropped we drove right to the front of the pack. I would love to tell you the car worked beautifully and I looked like Dale Earnhardt, or Jeff Gordon, effortlessly maneuvering my machine in and out of traffic. This is just simply not what happened, in fact, I really don’t remember too much about that race- except I started 11th and finished 9th. I completed the race and pulled the car over to our pit area. I climbed out of the car and flopped down on the edge of the trailer. This was not nearly as easy as I thought it was going to be, but at least I was racing.
Check back on December 29th for the conclusion to my first race, the feature got really interesting. As always please check out my sponsors on this page, they help support my effort- so help support them. Please have a safe and Merry Christmas, and enjoy the time you get to spend with family and friends.
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