So here we are about one month away from the start of Thunder Mountain Speedway's 2008 season. I've been busy rebuilding the front hoop on the IMCA Stock Car, which got moved to the left by about 3" at the IMCA Supernationals. Front hoop is rebuilt, I just gotta weld on the fender hangers, hang the fenders and doorskins and voila! Then I can get started on Shane's new metric Hobby Stock, which should't take much since I bought it as a roller.

Needless to say, we won't be going back to Boone for the Supernationals. After towing 17 hours to get there, after having a transfer spot all three qualifying days only to get taken out, after spending in excess of $650 in repairs, I'm not a happy camper about Boone. Total damage in three days: 1 front hoop, 2 front fenders, 1 nose piece, 3 shocks, 2 wheels, 1 tire, 2 outer tire rods, 1 inner tie rod and adjustment sleeve, 1 starter and 1 upper A-arm. Sheesh. All this after the daily pit meeting in which the pit steward got up and said that smoking cars, leaking fluids, dangling parts and questionable driving will result in a black flag. With 168 I-Stocks there, 3 days of racing, 46 heat races, 12 B-Mains and 6 A-mains....not a single black flag was thrown! The flagman couldn' have found the BF to save his life. There were plenty of smoking cars, leaking fluids, dangling parts and lots of questionable driving. So, of course, after the IMCA Hobbys and Stocks complained about the flagging, the flagman went the other way with the mods and threw the BF if a driver so much as looked at him cross-eyed. But it wasn't all bad. We got to visit with friends we haven't seen in about 4 years, made some new friends, met some great people, travelled to an area that none us had been to before and I proved to myself that I wasn't just a "local hero"; that I could and did run with the best in the nation.

That's it for now. See ya at the races!