| 
| Humble Pie at the 360 Nationals | | |
08/10) This is probably one of the hardest posts I've ever had to write. It's easy to update the site when you have success and do well, but when you absolutely stink up the joint -like no other- it's rather embarassing to explain. The worst part is, we have no explanation.
From the moment that we began to assemble the DARE 2 Team sprinter this winter, we were gearing up for the 360 Nationals. It was something Dad wanted to do last year but when Jr. got an offer with another team, it left the #2 out. As the 2009 season opened, we found that we were gonna be plenty strong, even when we weren't at the top of our game. So when we pulled the motor the first week of July to get it freshened, it gave us one month to get all the right pieces in all the right spots to put the Casey's General Stores/Rasmussen Auto Supply/Moses Motor Company/Complete CounterTops/Harris Decals Maxim right where we wanted it- in the "A" Main.
We unloaded on a hot and muggy Friday night for qualifying and felt pretty sure about ourselves. I drew the 61 pill but wasn't too concerned because Jr. has a habit of qualifying well whenever he goes out. But once he got on the track himself, we knew right away that something was not right with our newly-configured Ostrich engine. It sounded flat and unresponsive as he circled the track. The first lap time caused me to almost collapse on the spot- we were 1.2 seconds slower than quick time. His second lap was better at 16.8 but it was still so slow that we didn't even make the 30-car invert.
Dejectedly, we tried to prepare for the heat race, but had no answers to why the motor wouldn't run. Lee Nelson, our engine builder, came over to assist but wasn't able to really diagnose or remedy the issue. It was evident after Don started 10th and finished 9th. We had to the run the "C" and it got no better there.
On Saturday morning calls were made to everyone we knew to see if we could come up with the "magic potion" for whatever ailed this sickly powerplant. Again, Lee gave some input but everything that was checked, checked out, giving us no indication of where the problem lie.
That night we were scheduled to run the "E"- the lowest feature Jr. had ever run at Knoxville. He started 9th and wound up 5th, transfering to the "D" Main. In that race he made his way up to 12th in a yellow-free affair and stalled out there. The car ran a little better but was nowhere near as fast as we had hoped. His night in the Don Droud Sr.-owned racer was over.
We still have no idea what happened. I know in my heart that God has a plan for this team but we're certainly going to have to go back to the drawing board to get this thing right before we go to another race. As my friend once said, "First you're a hero, then you're a zero." Maybe this team needed something just like this to keep us humble and to remember where "our help comes from."
One good thing that occured during this weekend, besides great fellowship with Zippy, was the encouraging words that came directly from my son, Isaiah. A text was sent that was accompanied by a picture of him hurdling: "I stumbled and fell. I kept digging til I crossed the line. You can too." There's a story behind all of this (that's way too long to tell) but trust me, those pearls of wisdom was exactly what I needed in a desperate time. It reminded me that even when we're humbled it's important that we never give up!
|
