Wyoming Race Weekend

We knew it was going to be a dry weekend just by the fact that our allergies were acting up. April couldn’t stop sneezing thanks to the fine dirt in the air. We arrived at Casper Speedway and set up the rig. It was so great to be racing with the Rocky Mountain region again. The last time was back in June so it was nice to see familiar faces and race cars.

Justin took 3rd in his heat after some crazy placements. By the time the sprints took the track for the A, it was so dry and dusty out there. Everyone was sliding everywhere, cars backfiring, drivers spinning out and pure chaos. While we were watching, we couldn’t see any of the cars on the back side of the track due to the major dust cloud. J said it was like driving with your eyes closed but we knew his angels were flying along side his car in that mess. All we cared about was J finishing safely so many prayers were said and protection received. We took 14th out of 26 cars.

Our friends Karla and Brandon were in the stands in Casper that night and they followed us to Rock Springs the next day. These are true friends to brave the road trips, hot weather, dirt and late nights with us. Their little girl is a true race fan and loved playing in the dirt with Tazzer.
It ended up being a super late night at Sweetwater because of the other divisions having wrecks and upsets. Justin took 4th in his heat but didn’t get any passing points so he had to run the B feature. He did incredible and took 3rd place which put him at the back of the pack for the A feature.

He started at the very back of the pack in the A feature with 28 other cars. It soon became obvious that his car was hooked up and he was driving it like we had never seen. In one corner, a pack of five cars could not stick so all of them slid to the outside while in a matter of seconds, Justin sped inside and passed them all. He was on fire, passing many other cars like they were sitting still! He was gaining on 9th place when all of the sudden his car got all squirrely and he slid up almost slamming the wall. He was able to get things under control but was loosing ground quickly.

Little did we know, he had blown his right rear tire! Thankfully he was able to get off the track without running into someone else or the wall. When he got back to the rig, we were shocked at the size of the hole in the tire. Turns out he had run over a piece of metal debris from an earlier wreck. God was definitely watching out for him that night! Justin was a little bummed knowing that we might have finished in the top 5 but he was high on adrenaline and completely thrilled from how well the car handled and how great he did out there.
Come to find out, when Justin and his dad were working on the car the following Monday, they found out that 7 of the 16 rocker arms inside the engine…were cracked!! If he would have stayed out on the track for the last 10 laps, the engine could have been destroyed. After the amazement sunk in, I told Justin…”God totally popped your tire!” :o)