Better Than a Trophy
Better Than a Trophy
Better Than a Trophy
Well, it’s Friday....it’s been a few days since we drove home from Round 3 and 4 of the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series, and I’m finally starting to unwind and get a few minutes to sit down and write.
We had a great weekend! It didn’t start off so great, however, as I was really struggling in practice on Friday, and I just couldn’t seem to get comfortable on a track that I have a great history of doing well at. It’s bad enough when you go out there, and you know you aren’t driving to your potential, and you are disappointed - but when you can see if reflected on the faces of your crew and your family, man.....that really sucks.
There are some days in racing, where you feel you are at the bottom. Where you just are sucking so badly, that anything you do differently has to be better than what you have already done. Friday was one of those days for me. I could either wallow around in self-pity, and depend on others to have confidence in me (or not!), or I could suck it up, pull myself up by my boot-straps (so to speak), and go out there and be a professional racer.
I don’t like self-pity, so there was only one option for me. Saturday I went out there and threw myself into an uncomfortable race zone - I forced myself out of my comfortable driving style and started running my truck on the edge. And even though it was a little messy (I can’t even count how many times I biked on two wheels), it was still better than just sucking - and I found some lines. FINALLY!
For Saturday’s race I started deep in the field, because despite my rallying efforts in qualifying and picking up a couple of seconds, the rest of the field had also found some quicker lines.
I knew I had my work cut out for me, but I also knew this was Vegas. This is a track where I have always come home with a trophy - whether it was in my SR1 or in the Pro 4! I also prayed my little heart out in staging (yep, we covered this in a previous blog, remember?) and I knew that from that point on, whatever happened was supposed to happen. Now, that doesn’t mean I just hand over the wheel - it is 100% go time and I give everything I have out there - but there are so many things that can happen in racing that are just beyond our control as drivers, that it feels good to let those things go ahead of time. To not worry about every possible thing that could go wrong, every possible wreck or flip or broken part. Man, you just gotta let that stuff go....and hit that gas pedal!
I’ll skip over all the awesome details, and shorten this down to get to the point of this little story. We are getting my truck dialed in, little by little. We are getting faster, and it showed on Saturday when I was in an all-out battle with one of the fastest guys in my class for third place - and we held it. I love a good race....LOVE it!! So not only was it just a lot of fun to fight for the podium on Saturday, but it also showed that we are indeed showing some of the speed that I know we are capable of!
It also showed that we belong in this class. We are not a sideshow, or a marketing gimmick. We are not here, hoping to just be running around somewhere in the field, putting on a decent show. We are here to compete. We are racers. I have never wanted anything more in my whole life, than to be in the seat of my truck, at full throttle, pitting my driving skills against some of the best in the industry.
And after my race on Saturday, I lost count of how many handshakes, “atta girl”’s, high fives and kudos I received from my peers. From my fellow racers. From guys I have looked up to since I discovered the world of short-course racing. And the awesome thing about that is.....they don’t give those out for no reason. You have to earn those. And more than any trophy, more than any bonus money I could get - it’s those handshakes and that acknowledgement that means more to me than anything else possibly could.
Yes, we had a great weekend in Vegas. And here’s to getting lots more handshakes and high-fives at Elsinore in two weeks! Oh yeah...and maybe a trophy or two!
May 3, 2013