Rain in the Forecast? Must be Race Weekend.

Yeah, I saw the 7 day extended forecast. Rain. Rain everyday.

Which can only mean one thing: it's race weekend.

We need to do some work on the kart. It's running slower for some reason. Not sure why. So, if it rained this Saturday, it would give Scott more time to figure it out before the next weekend's race, but then Hunter would be devastated. He is so excited for his next race.

Well, we'll see what tonight's weather has changed.

Traveling Time - Waco, TX

(see, I'm not the only Mom who has to dress her racer!)

This past Saturday, we made an impromtu trip to Waco, TX for a race. The coach that worked with Hunter at NTK told me that we needed to take him to Waco to race. Ummm, okay. They had a race on Saturday, we didn't at NTK, so we borrowed a truck & trailer from Scott's step-dad, loaded up and went.

It had been raining all day Friday and Saturday morning here and in watching the weather, Waco was getting more of it, but we chanced it and went anyway. As we got to the track under sunny skies, we saw people out on the track brushing away the puddles of water. We also noticed there weren't that many people at this track at all. At NTK on race day, almost the entire pit runner would be full by this time. Here, not so much. So we were concerned whether or not to unload. I went and talked to some people and we decided to park and unload. Fortunately, another kid karter showed up before registration time.

As Hunter took the track to practice, I was still wondering why in the world did Chris (coach) tell us to come here. It was smaller, seemingly unorganized (rain played havoc with things), and well, just dinky if I were to be snobby about it (I'm so sorry for that). But after Hunter spun out on each and every corner - wet or not, I started to see the light...a subtle glow, if you will. Then when Joe, the other kid karter took the track, the reason was obvious. Hunter can hang with the other boys at NTK - he's making good time, but here, nope. Joe blew Hunter out of the water. This 6 year old kid slid around every corner where Hunter was still trying to drive around them. And Joe knew where to go to pass Hunter on the corners, which is a big no-no at NTK.

Once Hunter got some footing, so to speak, under him, he started doing better. He couldn't keep up with Joe, but he didn't get lapped either. It was a good learning and training experience for us all. I learned that Hadyn really needs to stay with someone else on race days, Hunter got to learn a new track to which will need to go race some more, and Dad met a very helpful fellow who gave him all sorts of tech advice.

They were all very friendly and we had a good time. And everyone at the track was amazed that this was only Hunter's 3rd race and he was doing as well at their track as he was. The consensus at Waco was "if you can race good here, you will be great everywhere else".

Ahhhh, now I see the light, Chris. Thanks for that.

Race #2 - Rained Out - Sort of...

Hunter had his second race at NTK this past Saturday. He did great!! We got there just in time for him to do a couple of controlled practices and then hit the drivers meeting.

During the meeting, the race director called out the group starting order, in which Kid Karts are always Group 1 in each heat (3 heats total). But this time, he also called a Group 11 Kid Kart class, this one being for the Red River Regional Shootout Series. This is a series of races between NTK and the Tulsa, OK, track. After talking to a few dads, I went ahead and got Hunter signed up for the Shootout, even though we won't make the Tulsa races - well, one may be doable for us. With this entry, this meant Hunter would be running 6 total heats - and he was thrilled with that.

We ran the first regular club heat and he was outstanding!! A young little lady from Tulsa ran away with the race, but our four local boys stuck together in a tight little pack making a good race. It was great right up until the end when Hunter spun out and lost a little time, but he still finished strong running 55 second laps! This is a great improvement from his 1st race.

Then we were called up for the RRR Shootout Heat 1, and Hunter moved up to 3rd place within 2 laps of that heat, then it started raining. Red flag came out and we moved the kids into the tech barn to see if the rain would pass. It did and then they got to roll back out to the track to have a rolling restart - Big Guy style!

Then came heat 2 of the the regular club race and Hunter was passing kids and doing great. But we noticed that he seemed to be losing steam, so to speak. After he was done, we ran back the the truck to check out the kart, but since Scott (Dad) wasn't there yet due to Easter services at church, we didn't know what really to look for (Mom and Cousin Carl were pit crew for Hunter last night).

Finally, the rain really started to pour and NTK canceled the races altogether. So we cleaned everything up, loaded up and went to the tech barn for the awards. Hunter came out with 2 blue ribbons last night since he was running 2 races (all Kid Karts are awarded first place).

After we got the kart home and Dad was able to look at it, it was discovered that the spark plug had wiggled loose and that was causing him to lose power. Good thing the races were canceled when they were. I wouldn't have known to look for that and he would have stalled on the track.

Next race is May 2nd! Hunter is ready and waiting!!

Race #2 This Saturday!

We are almost ready for Race #2 this coming Saturday. We took Hunter out to NTK on Saturday evening to practice are going back out tonight for some more.

I've been on the phone and web all afternoon ordering new "club required" tires and parts for the kart. Man, it was no joke when I was told this is a money pit! But right now, it is well worth it. Yeah, eating is overrated. HA!

I was watching my little boy practice his corners the other day and was amazed at the control he has. I was thinking that he looked like he has been doing this for 10 years, but he's only 7 and this will only be his 2nd race ever. His mentor coach had told us that he had a natural ability and when I thought about it I remembered our Batman days. Santa brought Hunter an electric powered Batmobile for Christmas four years ago and when Hunter would drive it in the cul-de-sac, he would lean into his turns like a pro - at age 4. And this was before he got us all into NASCAR.

I'm excited for his race this weekend. If you're in the neighborhood of North Texas, stop on by. Schedule and map are on the side.

(picture at the top by Craig Maccubbin - this is the pic that Jeff Hammond told Hunter he needed to cut his hair! LOL!)

Off Topic Part II - Robert Richardson, Jr

We had a fabulous day yesterday. We dropped Hadyn off at a friend's house for an all day play date and the three of us (Mom, Dad, and Hunter) cruised out to Texas Motor Speedway for NASCAR Sprint Cup practice and qualifying. We walked around and collected all sorts of neat NASCAR trinkets around the midway. We also found ourselves on TV during the live recording of NASCAR Live! on Speed. Cool!!

But the highlight of our day came after leaving TMS. We came flying back to McKinney to hopefully make it to a meet and greet with Robert Richardson, Jr. Robert is a NASCAR Nationwide Series and in a couple of weeks Sprint Cup Series driver AND Robert is from McKinney! He grew up here and played football for the McKinney Lions. He went to SMU to play football, too. But somewhere in there got the racing bug and has moved up through the ranks to NASCAR's elite levels of racing. Since he is not on one of the "Big" teams (his dad is his team owner), he has to literally race his way into a race. There are a certain number of cars that do not have enough "owners points" to make each race, so he may not make each race. Therefore, we need to really cheer on our local guy!!

Anyway, we did make to to see Robert and got to spend some great time with him. He and Hunter got to hang out and swap autographed pictures - at Robert's request! In this picture Robert is holding the autographed karting pic of Hunter and Hunter is holding his autographed pic of Robert. How cool! Then Robert put Hunter into his Sprint Cup car (top picture). This car is the actual car that will be qualifying to race at Talledega in a few weeks. So when we watch that car at Talledega we will be cheering even more so, because Hunter sat down in that car!!! When asked if we were going to make it to the race at TMS today (Nationwide) or on Sunday (Sprint Cup), we had to say no. We laughed and said that now that we're into karting, we've made some alternate budget choices. Robert and his dad laughed and then Robert winked at Hunter and told him that maybe he could hook him up with some sponsorship down the road. Now, we could go for that! ;)

Hunter has been floating on cloud nine since Wednesday and getting to see Jeff Hammond and David Ragan again and now with this, I just don't know if I'll ever get him down again. That's okay, Mom is floating up there with him just so happy for him!

Fun times!!

Off Topic - a bit - Hunter, David Ragan, and Jeff Hammond

This entry isn't about Hunter's karting, but it IS about Hunter!! We went to Grapevine today to see David Ragan (NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series #6 driver) and Jeff Hammond (FOX Sports NASCAR announcer and former crew chief and then some). We met both guys in November and got pictures and autographs, but Hunter wanted to go see David again.

This time, though, we took pictures of Hunter racing his kart (thank you, Craig Maccubbin!). Both guys enjoyed looking at Hunter's pictures and talking to him about his kart. Jeff asked Scott if he (Dad) was enjoying it and having fun. He said his best memories are of him and his dad racing on the dirt track. David told Hunter to keep having fun with it, too! David also told Hunter that he remembered meeting him in November. Talk about making a kids day!

After the line passed through and we were still lingering, Hunter and I went back over to David and talked to him some more. Hunter offered to sign one of his karting pictures for David and David gladly accepted. Hunter signed, "To: David From: Hunter". It was great! I wish I had thought to take a picture of that. David talked to us more about racing and about where we live and that Robert Richardson, Jr. is from here, too (NASCAR Nationwide Series driver). We actually met Robert at Market Street last year and hopefully will meet up with him again this Friday.

Anyway, I thought it was cool. Maybe one day Hunter will be racing in the Sprint Cup series along with an older David Ragan.

Hmmm...