It's that time again! But, with baseball, tournament baseball, swim team, softball, etc. you get the jist... We've only been out with the Jr Dragster 2x this year. However, we decided to hit the Jr Dragster Eastern Conference Finals at Bristol Dragway anyway, just for the fun of the event. A week from departure, Mom and the 2 younger siblings decided to come along, so that necessitated installing a back seat on the cart - what's another late night in the garage! Decided to add arm rests with cup holders as well. It was an overall hit - except I lost my tool box location.... oh well!
The week of racing went as typical, plenty of rain delays and cancellations, challenging weather changes and track conditions, but as the week went on we began to get it figured out. After going out in the early rounds of the buildup races, we shocked ourselves by going all the way to the final round of The Big Race!
Amazing, over the course of 2 days, 750 kids simmer down to just 16 Finalists across the 8 age groups. To find ourselves there was a big enough surprise, to look into the other lane and see our friends from our home track was an even bigger surprise - these 2 boys have been racing each other since they were 8 years old. We came up a little short in the Final, but it was a good clean race, and the 2 boys were relaxing after the race, parade lap, interviews, trophy presentations, etc and just talking it over - just what racing is all about.
So, a very proud Dad! A few pics:
The Countdown Clock on the Maple Grove Team's Facebook site:
We had a really tight pit spot this year, seemed like every morning we'd show up and we were parked in even tighter!
The typical rain storm(s), at least they happened early in the week - we just watched from inside the trailer whereas some others make the best of it!
While they were drying the track, took the kids over to the RC dirt track they built just for this event - Traxxas versions of course!
Danny got a lot of air with his....
The Professionals are really getting involved now, Bob Bode's kid and Antron's 2 older kids. A few more Pro's have kids getting in as well, so there will be more big names/sponsor within the next few years...
Getting the track ready in the morning, the heavy fog and crazy weather makes dialing a car 'more art than science'!
Sometimes running well into the night also creates challenges when your last run was 5 hours previous - under completely different weather...
We rented a 5th wheel camper at a campground for a few nights this year, was quite the hit - smore's help of course!
Before 1st round of Eliminations on Friday afternoon, they had a moving tribute for Valerie Bennett, a 15 year old little girl driver who committed suicide a few months ago as a result of online bullying. The kids raised a lot of money for the family for funeral costs, and so they could buy a replacement body for her car so the family could keep the original. Valerie's best friend and fellow racer took her car down the track one last time, with Valerie's brother in his own car alongside in the other lane. A very sad moment during such an event, but also very worthwhile in order to bring awareness to this issue. I'm sure I wasn't the only parent who had to answer questions from my kids about what this moment was all about....
Moving on to Round 1 of The Big Race, crowd control is always a (good) problem, the stands are full of supporters, and it's a great moment for the kids to shine for their 30 seconds... Ben always spins the tires as he pulls out from under the tunnel, while I can't hear it - I know when he does a good one because he pulls into the water box with a giant grin on his face. Love it!
And.... we win Round 1! The hardest round is behind us, and we get to race on Saturday!
On Saturday, we just kept it rolling - round after round, I don't even remember how many we went - you don't care after awhile, you just get the car turned around and get back up into the lanes!
Little brother Danny was enjoying his part in keeping the mood calm:
And then, before you realize it - Final Round! Crowd is going crazy, photographers all over the place.... just try to focus and not go red!
