JD AND MILES
UNTIL RACE TIME!
What a week! Went to Wisconsin (might as well have been Canada..the drive was so long) on Wednesday evening and arrived on Thursday....I think...the days seemed to run together and fly by the entire time. Anyway, we set up pit on Thursday.
As you can see, there is A LOT of money poured into this "sport" of Road Racing. There are teams with crews of mechanics, truck drivers, chefs, of course riders and anything else they need. They roll into the pits with eighteen wheelers full of the finest equipment money can buy, the best mechanics money can buy and even their own chefs! Michael Jordan even has his own Pro Road Racing Team.
The riders are paid to ride. They train every day that they are not racing. They are flown to the races where they stay in team motor homes with their families. They arrive fit and fresh for each race.
And then there are the "privateers", like us..racing in a pro series on a shoe string budget. Our race team works in a machine shop (sometimes 10 hour days) and hits the road to the race after a long work day/week. They fit all they can into the truck and trailer and drive long hours to the race track. They usually get right to work after arriving and then race right after that!
For the life of me, I don't know why my boys call this a hobby. I thought hobbies were suppose to relieve stress, not cause it!
Case in point; JD fried the engine during qualifying on Friday. Therefore, Jimmy (crew chief) worked on said engine all Friday evening and ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT. That's right, no sleep.
Not the cook! She went to the hotel and went to bed :)
When I arrived to the track on Saturday the bike was still in pieces.
The stress was at heart attack levels.
Time was ticking away before the 2:00 p.m. race would start...and this bike was still in pieces!!!
But, as usual, the bike was fixed in time and JD was able to race. He did great! Well, from mom's criteria of great.
Meaning; he stayed on the bike the entire race, and on the track the entire race.
JD, of course, was not pleased with where he finished and vows to do better @ Barber.
That was race #1.
Sunday was a very different day with a pretty bad wreck in the first attempt at race #2.
We were so relieved to see that JD avoided the wreck.
All in all, JD did great. After the first try at race #2 it is amazing to me that these riders made it through the second attempt of this event.
Due to the wreck (the first try @ race #2), the race was delayed to the end of the day and they did not televise it.
We were so bummed about that!
So, late in the day we pack up and head out on our 900 hour ride home..at least it felt like 900 hrs!
Upon arriving back at The Fort I immediately began to unpack and do laundry.
Later, dad and I sat down to supper and enjoyed looking at all the pics I took. He had a big smile on his face and a great sense of accomplishment as he drifted off to sleep..so maybe that's what makes it a hobby.
We. Are. Blessed.
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