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)

Rock Springs- First Race weekend of 2009

Friday night
We had a great trip out and are thrilled that the rig is completly self-contained. We now have a refrigerator, which allows us to bring all sorts of great healthy food. It felt good to get back into the rhythm of racing. Hank, Pat and April soon stepped back into their crew shoes and acted as if winter was never there. What a great team!

Justin pulled outside pole of the third heat. Whoa, let’s start this off with a bang, eh? He soon fell into the racing flow but this year is letting the others know he will not be pushed around. A few times, he was checked up and pushed right back, not to be taken lightly this season. He took 5th in his heat, which made us believe that he was going to be in the B main so we began setting up the car for a stickier track. We soon found out that we were in the A main because one of the guys in our heat jumped the start. So we scrambled to put the car back together and struggled through the main event with a very loose car. Justin finished 16th out of 30 drivers which is pretty darn good for having one of the worst set ups he’s ever driven.

Saturday Night
We stayed the night at the track and woke up to a gorgeous morning but dark clouds soon turned things very cold with windy, rainy weather. After waiting around for several cold hours, they finally decided to get the racing going. Justin again pulled outside pole, 1st heat. Again his car was hooked up for his heat and he took 4th for his qualifying position. Good stuff considering last season we were always stuck in B events.

One of our sponsors invested in a GoPro onboard camera, which we put on the car for this event. We got some great footage of the race!

This first video shows him avoiding a wreck on the very first lap. Whoa! There was also a red flag, which allowed Hank and April on the track so you can see April waving at the camera.
Click here for the first video.

This video shows what it looks like from Justin’s view when you accidentally spin out. Just as he was gaining some ground, he overcompensated and sent himself into a 360. You can see the other drivers avoiding him, the walls and then hear the crowd going crazy. He was able to pull it off, jump back in and only lost a few positions. They loved it but Pat and April about had a heart attack! He would have finished in the top ten but the 360 got him a 13th place finish.

Click here for the 360 video.

A great start for Shadow Racing Team's 2009!

Rocky Springs, Wyoming

We left after work on Thursday and headed to Cheyenne, WY. Above is a view of leaving our gorgeous state to only view boring Wyoming flatlands.
We stayed at a peaceful rv resort that our rig almost didn’t fit into. After a good night’s rest and chatting with the wonderful resort owners we headed for Rock Springs. These silly signs were on the way out.

The rest of the travel was extremely windy and wreaked havoc on our gas mileage. But the rig and truck did great and Justin pulled off some great maneuvers to avoid killing all the little groundhogs that enjoyed hanging out on the edge of the road as if they were daring each other. When we got to the track we all had to wait in line to get into the pits early. Check out this massive rig complete with it’s own mural.

Here we are right behind a stock car looking tiny next to the rig. I took Tazzer for a run to get some energy out after the long drive. He wasn't too thrilled at the lack of foilage and things to sniff though.

Since we had some time before they opened the track, Justin and his dad opened the rig and began working on the car while waiting in line.

This t-shirt pretty much sums up all of our weekends.
Dirt, dirt, and more dirt!

We had an incident this weekend where I know that God was watching out for us. Friday night Justin was doing great, hanging with mid pack and gaining, when all of the sudden he dropped to the back of the pack. There were only 6-7 laps left and his car was all loose and squirrelly. He managed to hold on and finished the race but his dad had to go get him and push him back with the Yukon. The back end was making a horrible crunching noise and when we got to the pits one of the nearby mechanics came over and freaked out. He discovered that we were missing our lug-nut. The cars only have ONE nut and goes in the middle of the wheel. It was gone and the wheel should never have stayed on! Everyone was freaking out because he most likely would have rolled the car. Strong angels were on the wing of number 05 that night!

We were so tired after a long windy day and ready for bed. The wind mixed with dirt made for misery and stiffness. Plus after the missing lug-nut episode, extra time was spent trying to fix everything. Thankfully a nearby team loaned us a wheel so Justin could get the car in the trailer and work on it the next day.

We stayed the night at an onsite camping area but had to walk forever to nasty dirty bathrooms/showers. On top of that, after finally getting into bed at 2:30am, we were rudely awakened the next morning at 6:30 by a guy banging on our rig saying we had to move because they were doing construction. We were pretty upset but thankfully Justin’s parents had us park at their hotel and allowed us to use their facilities. We took a nap and then they worked on the car some more. I tell you what, it is God that gives us the strength to make it through weekends like this.

Sunday was so much fun! This track only had 2 push cars so Justin’s dad was asked to help. J had built a push bar for the Yukon and covered it with carpet so it was the perfect push vehicle. All these teams have ATVs but they are not big enough to push start only to roll them around. So for the main event they asked all the sprint cars to push out and park in front of the stands out on the track. I got to ride with Hank as we pushed J out and got to see first hand how the track feels and looks. Super cool!

They then announced each driver individually while everyone cheered. Then the 3 push cars had to get 25 sprint cars going. We would start one up and zip around and get another one going. Sometimes they needed theirs cars rocked into gear so I would jump out there and help. One time while we were flying around the track for another car, Justin came around us as I flailed and hollered out the window at him. I SO wish I would have had my camera for that.

More fun photos of us and even Tazzer can be found at this fun guy’s site.

Goose’s Pics