Blue Bolt

Blue is often considered to be the safest global color.

Blue symbolizes peace, tranquility, stability, trust, truth, confidence, conservatism, knowledge, power, integrity, security, cleanliness, sky, water and cold.

Blue can slow the pulse rate, lower body temperature and reduce appetite. Blue is considered a business color because it reflects reliability.

• In China, blue is associated with immortality.
• For the Jewish faith, blue symbolizes holiness.
• The pharaohs of ancient Egypt wore blue for protection against evil.
• If you are "true blue" you are loyal and faithful.

Heard from our track announcer, Jim Hickerson, last night, "Listen for the thunder, because you just saw the lightning, Hunter "Blue Bolt" Stine!!"

Hunter had fun last night at our Spring 6 club race. What looked to be a light turnout due to looming stormy weather turned out to be pretty fun. Our new TAG Cadet drivers are really starting to dial in and will be challenging Hunter come this Fall, for sure. When we have light turn outs, the cadet classes might be grouped together and last night was one of those nights. We ran with our usual running buddies, the Yamaha Jr 1 class and we had a new Rotax Mini Max driver join us. Rotax is a faster engine than the TAG Gazelle or Yamaha Jr 1, but since he was new, he ran with us. However as the night wore on, he was learning that kart more and started picking drivers off one by one and was gunning for Hunter. Now, Hunter knows his Gazelle cannot out run a full speed Rotax, but he wasn't going to let this kid pass him without a fight and the newbie just couldn't keep up and ended up spinning out on a corner trying to keep up with the Blue Bolt!! So, Hunter finished 1st for his class and in front of everyone in the group of for the night!!

To top of the night, we had a Kona Ice shaved ice truck at the track.

Randy Brittain, the owner of this truck, asked Hunter how he did and in honor of Hunter's pre-final win and pending Final victory, named a snowcone after Hunter - The Blue Bolt - a mix of blue raspberry and pina-colada. Pretty cool getting a snowcone named for you!!

More than the win, I think that was the highlight of Hunter's night!

Next up is race #5 and #6 for the Southwest Regional Cup Series in Katy, TX June 3-5th. Wish him luck and good prayers for him!

Starting at the End

I'm not sure where to start, and since I'm extremely tired from this weekend and still and little stunned, I'll start at the end...

HUNTER WON!!!!

Needless to say, I'm a happy Mama. And yes, Daddy is very proud, too! And we could not have done it without the help of our NTK friends who advised, wrenched, and stood with me today while Scott was at work. I love being a part of this organization. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

Usually, I'll take my readers through all 3 heats in detail, but today, all 3 heats were similar - mind blowingly "WOW!"

Hunter qualified on the pole with a time of 40.69, won the pre-final in a fight to the finish 10 lap showdown (and even faster lap times of 40.52) with last turn passes made by Hunter and his main competitor, Michael, then on to the final heat where things didn't start in our favor, but favor turned toward us and Hunter grabbed on to that and fought to take and keep that lead. I have never been so happy to see a checkered flag in my life. AND we passed post race tech inspections! *Whew*.

Next week - club race and hopefully the club record. Tonight - sleep.

Dark Day Afternoon

Yeah, I know...wrong title ("Dog" Day Afternoon), but it was in the afternoon that the darkness loomed.

Race #3 if the Southwest Regional Cup Series was today at NTK. Everything started out well for Hunter. He qualified in 2nd position with a great NTK time of 41.04 seconds. Then for his pre-final heat, the 4th place driver pushed Hunter and himself out in the lead and they stayed there! So Hunter finished 1st and was on the pole for the final. It was an awesome race and a fight to the finish!

But the RACE was during the final heat. Hunter took off like a flash and held the lead for quite a while. But he was finally passed on a turn and fought like crazy to get the lead back. The top 3 drivers were so close together they sounded like one engine. Needless to say, I was just a little stressed out! LOL! But the checkered flag flew and we finished 2nd place! GREAT RACE!!

Then the darkness fell. Tech time. Scott and I weren't concerned about passing post-race tech inspection - we had all the proper equipment and the things we might have been concerned about were good.

But. Yes, there's a but.

The clutch drum - that is the little round covering over the clutch - was .7 or .07 of some sort of measurement too wide on the inside. This means Hunter will not be awarded 2nd place awards or points and he was disqualified for this race. Disappointed does not begin to describe the feeling we had. We were crushed. How do we tell a kid that raced his heart out, raced so smoothly, running faster times than he ever had, racing with more experienced drivers and finishes that high up, "oh yeah, about that."

Lessons for Pit Crew Parents learned, and legal clutch drum borrowed for tomorrow. But in every dark day, there comes light. On our way home, Hunter said, "I can't wait until tomorrow's race. It's going to be great!"

Wow. Thank you, God. I needed that ray of sunshine.

The Good News and the Bad News

We are at NTK today practicing for race #3 and #4 for the Southwest Regional Cup Series races. Hunter has been running really great times today and his Daddy has been told to LEAVE THE KART ALONE! LOL!!

Well, the kid went out for his last practice and set a record...40.94 second laptime. The current NTK record is 41.0. That's the good news. The bad news is that since this isn't a club race, the record won't stand.

Guess he'll just have to do it again next week.

On a Rail

NTK hosted our Spring 5 race last night. This was the first race all season that Scott was able to be at the entire race - from practice to finish. He did get teased somewhat by some of the others at the track...asked if he knew what to do and did I need to go help him. Ha! We couldn't run without Dad!!

I knew Hunter was tired and a bit punchy from not going to sleep on time the night before, but this is racing and he needed to have his head in the game. The kids in this class are driving open wheel karts with a gas tank between their legs potentially reaching speeds of 60mph . You've got to be awake and focused.

His qualifying round was good, but he wasn't running as smooth as last time. After last race's "smooth" driving action from Hunter, I was expecting more of the same. He seemed to be over-driving a couple of the corners. He still was fast enough to qualify for the pole position, but he could run better. He told Scott that he was sliding a bit on those corners, so Scott made a tiny adjustment (so tiny it made me wonder if that really helped or was it just the mental aspect in Hunter's mind) and Hunter went back out for pre-final and laid out some great times and was running smooth again.

By the time the final heat rolled around, it was dark and the temp had dropped a little bit, so his times slowed up a fraction, but man, he was running smooth. Another win racked up for the "Blue Kid"'s camp!!

Another dad walked by us, smiled and simply said, "on a rail." Yeah, that's what he looked like he was running on. Let's pray he can look that way next weekend for the regional race.

Smooth

One word...smooth. Another word...flyin'! Those are the words I heard about Hunter last night at North Texas Karters Spring 4 race. And yeah, from what I was watching, I think those are accurate words.

We had a pretty good sized class to race with yesterday. We had a couple of boys that raced with

us at the end of last year that came back in yesterday. Add to that Hunter and the usual two he races with and then grouped with a couple more classes, we had a group of 9 ready to go race together. The qualifying round got red flagged right off the bat due to a wreck that, well...I'm still not sure what happened...all I know is Hunter spun off the track - he said he took a corner too fast before his tires were warmed up - but it was a corner away from others who also must've taken one too fast and piled up. Still, it put Hunter back in the pack when they red flagged the heat. When they restarted, he was in 6th position. But one by one, he picked off the karts in front of him and got the best time in the heat.

During the pre-final AND final heats, he took off from the pack and eventually started picking off lapped karts one after another. We were there last year at this time...we know how it feels to see that front runner coming up behind your kid's kart...so we don't cheer for that, but pray that he is being very cautious when he is passing traffic. And he is. He is a very smart driver. And when he would pass two at one time on a corner, we would hear "whoooo!!!" coming from around the spectator area. It does make a parent proud to hear your child being cheered. We also were told later there was a dad and his sons watching "the blue kid" because he was doing so well.

We have another club race next week and we are getting ready for the next round of the Southwest Regional Cup Series racing the following weekend at our track. We're praying that "the blue kid" can keep running as smooth as he did yesterday!

Go, Hunter, Go!