August 28th & 29th 2015
Friday Night – Colorado Dwarf Cars – CMP Speedway Byers,
CO
We hooked up with our dwarf car friends and headed to
Byers for the first night. Justin was given a fun opportunity to drive the 78c
Dwarf for Rob at Papa’s Powder Coating. This was his first time driving this
car and after getting on the track he soon realized that he had no breaks! He still
managed a 5th place finish in the heat race, followed up with a 6th
place feature after starting 12th.
The highlight of the night was that since it was NASCAR
night, Kenny Wallace was there driving a modified race car. Justin learned a
lot watching him drive which gave him more confidence in handling the cushion. We
stayed the night at the track and after a good night’s rest, we headed to I76. Hailee likes the dwarf!
On our way to the track only a half hour away…BOOM!..another
semi tire exploded! Thankfully we were able to get to the track and find a tire
guy. Heck, if we blow a tire every race…we’ll be brand new al’round by the end
of the season. Since we got to the track late, we had to park in the boonies
since we so we didn’t get to hang with the other sprints but had some fun with
the dwarfs and made some new track friends.
Justin drew a #2 pill which placed him in the inside poll
for his heat race. He had an amazing
start and led the first 3 laps before a caution. After the single-file restart…Justin
took off like he was being chased by a swarm of bees! Justin just killed it and
won the heat…leading all 8 laps.
They drew #10 for the inverted start and much to our
disappointment…it moved us from the starting pole to 9th (inside 5th
row). But Justin was thrilled at how the car was handling and felt really good
about this feature. After the green flag dropped, Justin took off into turn one
only to have the driver behind him plow through his left rear, flying down the
driver side and snapping off the front wing.
He also discovered that the break lines were torn off from the impact…so
just like that…our night was over.
You can see video of the smash HERE at the 10 second mark.
After a fit of frustration and upset, Justin eventually calmed down and figured out the details of what happened, realizing that it was not intentional. He had such a good run so it was extremely difficult to understand why someone would try to win a race on the first lap by plowing through his car thus stealing this opportunity from him. After the race, we were thankful that the driver came over to apologize and we were able to talk things out.
We always hope to understand the importance of forgiveness and the need to mend upsets quickly. God has called us to be the light and we can’t do that carrying bitterness in our hearts. We have been racing with this guy for many years and would hate to ever destroy a friendship over a racing upset. Justin still has the utmost respect for this driver and we hope to continue this friendship on and off the track.
No comments:
Post a Comment