Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Starships are meant to fly


I’ve been plagued with more than my share of laptop problems lately hence I’m typing this on my Mum’s computer, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s been an awesome couple of weeks!

Unfortunately I didn’t qualify for the world final but I still had a pretty good last meeting. Like most of the meetings lately it looked set to be wet but thankfully it did dry up and even though the threat of rain never really left we spent the whole meeting on slicks running in the dry.

I finished the first race with a ninth but it was a day where I needed a top three finish in every race to stand a chance of qualifying.  So with that out the window I had nothing left to lose and time to have some fun.  My second race wasn’t much of a success either.  As I headed into the first turn and went to change into second the gear stick jammed solid leaving me completely unable to do anything.   The rest of the cars closed in around me and I ended up stuck on the exit of the bend.  As the yellow flags came out I felt sure that my day was over.   I even ripped my so-called ‘lucky wet suit’ off on the centre green in a moment of temper.

Back in the pits my Dad, Sonny and Jay had other ideas and the gearbox was soon in bits and put right again ready for the car to go back out in the final.  I can honestly say I have never enjoyed driving a race as much as I did that final, no matter where I finished or what happened it really didn’t matter and I could just focus one hundred percent on driving the car.  The first attempt maybe wasn’t as good as I’d have liked but after the yellow flags things just seemed to fall into place and although I would never have caught Carl or stopped Chris coming past I was really happy with a third place at the end.  As Sonny said, it was “…much better than putting the car in the trailer!”

It was a good end to what has been a very mixed year.   I’ve had some brilliant races and quite frankly some disastrous ones too.  I didn’t qualify but there’s always next year and 48 races to get there so bring them on!   A massive well done to Chris winning it for the fourth year running, and also to Matt - no one can argue how quick he has been this year and for the championship to come down to the last race shows how Nationals are better than they have ever been.   All the guys who qualified deserved it so ‘well done’ to all of you.

Maybe not so well done to Jason though on a day where his luck just seemed to run out, it was pretty scary watching the fire from my car let alone from inside his.  I have gone back on Facebook though so maybe he can cheer himself up by hurling abuse at me on there again.

Away from racing I’ve had a couple of enjoyable weekends.  Last weekend I went to
Dorset fishing, and the Jubilee weekend saw John and Co. popping down from Scotland for a few days.  Needless to say we partied hard, drank too much and found out John is annoyingly good at ten pin bowling!   That’s where the stupidly random title for this blog comes from - it’s a song I always seem to hear on nights out and it remains stuck in my head for weeks afterwards!

It’s very sad news about the death of Steve Skitmore.   He was one of racing’s genuine characters, a Hot Rod legend in his own right and a big part of shaping the cars so many of us use today.  He’ll certainly be missed around the pits and did a lot to help a great many people over the years so R.I.P. Skitty and thank you.

Just before I sign off I’d like to say a quick “thank you” to everyone who has helped me this year - there are far too many to list individually but you all know who you are.

It’s time to get the car ready for the Thunder 500 now, a meeting I don’t normally do - but to hell with it, this year, why not?  But before that,
Scotland is calling me back!

Thanks as ever for reading.

Until next time

Mikey.

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