|
Eldora…
Hemby Bridge, NC – No matter how tired I tried to make myself leading up to bedtime on Friday night, I still couldn’t blink. The sheep finally got tired of jumping the fence and eventually said, “Screw this, it’s hopeless.” and left for sleepier pastures…
It was a long restless night, but eventually Saturday morning showed up and then Saturday afternoon showed up. My head crew member, Seth Boyce, was really trying my patience. We were supposed to leave for Rossburg when the big hand hit 10AM, but the team tree chopper apparently had to cut down every tree in the Redwood Forest National Park before we could leave.
Several hours later as we’re tackling the West Virginia Mountains, he made up for his poor scheduling when he made a suggestion that we take a slight detour off Highway 35 and head toward a mystical track called Atomic Speedway. Apparently there was a local winged sprint car series racing there called the Ohio Valley Sprints. We finally gave in to his constant whining and veered toward Waverly, OH.
It was AWESOME!
Some of the best sprint car racing we’ve ever seen. We only got to watch the feature, but it was so worth the ten one dollar bills I handed over to the gate lady while we were running in flip flops toward the grandstands as the cars were breaking off from the four abreast.
Afterwards we continued our march toward the promise land and finally called Greenville, OH our home for the next few hours.
Crew Member #2, Justin Glass was the only one to get any rest that night after a cocktail of powerful drugs from a recent surgery.
The rest of us were constantly reminding the rest of us to move over or stop snoring every fifteen seconds or so.
The moment had arrived around 1PM…
That was when the front desk lady said we had to get out, or else…
The next fifteen miles were the longest and shortest fifteen miles of my life.
Finally we were there. I don’t think I have ever been a part of a crew so nervous to just sign in for a pit pass. Seth and I actually discussed how we were going to sign our name on the release. Finally we decided on “standard.”
So relieved with such an important decision, it was a relief to step foot on such a hallowed ground without the wrath of racing gods like Hewitt and Kinser to question my desire to haul ass around the top.
They decided to let me live another day when I went high in turn one of lap two, and then high in turn two and three and four and one and two and so on… I eventually qualified 21st. My favorite number.
I’ve decided to skip the lap by lap analysis of the greatest weekend of my life. From starting on the pole of the heat race to my first slide job to my first anticipation of a slide job and counteracting that slide job...and so on…
I didn’t make the feature event and I’m going to lose a lot of sleep because of it. I won’t lie… I didn’t drive all that way to just be there. I’m going to mark this down in some book that I might buy sometime down the road as one of the greatest weekends of my life…
But it wasn’t good enough.
I’ve decided last weekend was only the beginning…
Brandon McLain
United Sprint Car Series Driver
2014 Season
National Rookie of the Year!
National Points - 8th
Southern Points - 3rd
Asphalt Points - 3rd
18 Races, 3 Top 5's, 14 Top 10's
|
