Hollywood Hills, NM: Round #2

We headed out after work on Thursday night and stayed at one of our favorite RV Parks in Raton, NM. It was gorgeous night with a full moon. The next morning we headed out and met up with Justin’s family at the Hollywood Hills track. His brother had flown out from DC to hang out with us for the weekend. His sister was also there and we were looking forward to the race. This is the most comfortable Justin has been since we have raced at this track before.
It was a nice day as we set up and got the car out. We all chipped in getting everything ready. We noticed the clouds start coming in and when Justin got ready to do his mud laps, the skies opened up. The track turned instantly to mud soup and as soon as Justin drove out onto the track, he slid down into the middle and had to be pushed off track. Meanwhile the rest of us hightailed it back to the rig since the rain was coming down, drenching everything. I was grabbing stuff we had left out and trying to cover the rest in tarps. Tazzer and I were soaked in seconds! We waited for things to clear and they finally sent everyone out for their heat races. Justin pulled outside pole and was doing awesome! All of the sudden he started dropping to the back of the pack. When he came in I was shocked to see him covered from head to toe in thick mud. You could not see the color of his helmet or car. He told us that half way through his heat, a mud glob attached itself to the side if his helmet so when he went to grab a tear-off, ALL of them came off in one shot. Ugh! So half the heat, he was blind eventually having to shove his visor up and wiping the mud from his eyes. Scary stuff!
We all worked like crazy to get the mud off the car, tires and Justin. It was so thick and sticky. We scraped, dug and clawed off the mud. When he went out for his main event, he ran out of tear-offs thanks to all the mud. Needless to say, it was very frustration because we are finally understanding how to set up the car. Plus Justin is really getting a hang of driving and trusting that the car is going to do what it was built to do. So it was a very wet and muddy night. The next day our friends Brandon and Karla showed up to help out and encourage us. While the guys took the car to the carwash, Tazzer and I hung out with Karla. We then met them at the track and set up lunch for them. It was a beautiful morning but just like the day before, the clouds came in and unleashed on us. The ez-up protected the guys while they worked on the car but there was so much rain that it flooded the grounds. We all cramed into the rig and waited for a clearing. It finally stopped raining but by this time it was too late for the track. The officials decided to cancel the race so that we would not have to endure another muddy, miserable night of racing.
So we packed up, headed back to the hotel and then a group of us went to Albuquerque for dinner. It was nice to relax with friends but a bummer to not race after everyone came in to see us.