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.