On Any Given Race Day

In the 1999 movie, Any Given Sunday, Al Pacino's character said, "On any given Sunday, you're gonna win or you're gonna lose. The point is - can you win or lose like a man?"

Change that to, "On any given race day, you're gonna win or you're gonna lose. The point is - can you keep your helmet cool and win or lose with humility?"

North Texas Kartway held it's Spring 3 race yesterday. Hunter was running great and leaving the pack behind in his qualifying and pre-final races, however, his competitors are quickly gaining speed and experience and it won't be too much longer before they are really pushing him for those wins.

The final heat started and Hunter took off from the pack and didn't look back. I even had time to take a little video of him and a couple of pictures from my phone. I was actually enjoying the stress free racing, knowing that in another month or two, the other kids will be chasing him down like crazy and then the stress starts over again in club racing.

Then it happened.

As he passed in front of me, he slowed down. Way down. His motor sounded like it ran out of gas, but he had a full tank of gas, so it wasn't that. No thrown chain sound. No broken sidepod to give us a disqualification. What in the world could it be? And to top it off, Scott (Dad) had to leave early for work and didn't get to set up the kart for the final. So, on my way down the fence line to where the kart had stopped, I'm running through my head all that I had done and did I miss anything? What did I do???? Okay, Mom, it's not your fault. It's nothing you did. You did what you were supposed to do. Oh, wait a minute. It's not about me. How is Hunter holding up with this?

Fine. Fine and dandy. According to him, he didn't know what happened, but things happen and you know, this is just how it is.

Huh. I really figured he'd be mad for a while then cool off and realize that. But this was right out of the kart. We ended up with a 3rd place. Still a podium finish!!

Yeah, on any given race day, anything can happen, but how you react to it defines the character.

The kart? Well, here's a picture - notice the chain on the sprocket? Yeah, it's not supposed to look like that. We're thinking the clutch bearing went bad and threw things off enough to shake the chain to where it didn't pop off, but caught on the sprocket and locked up the back end. It took some work to get the engine mount loose enough to get that chain back to where it belongs. On any given race day.