June 25 - Jacob had trouble all night starting in the heat race with the radiator leaking.  Turns out it had a hole in it which Steve fixed enough to get through the feature.  Jacob struggled in the feature as the car just didn't seem to handle right - but at least he was handling it.  Others just spin out and cause wrecks instead of backing off and controlling their cars.  Of course, that is true in the adult classes too! 

Jacob dodged a couple of wrecks, but when a car spun out directly in front of him on turn four, he couldn't dodge it.  He got it shut down as fast as he could, but still hit the car.  It bent Jacob's frame and the front quarter panel.  Luckily, it didn't cut the tire down and he was able to finish the race driving up to third place.  As he crossed the finish line, you could hear the noise of something failing and see the flames shooting out from under the car. 

He was pushed back to the pits.  During the interview when the announcer told Jacob about the flames, Jacob just perked up grinning and said "Seriously?!  Cool."  Grandma and Grandpa Crowell got to see Jacob race and I think they found it all exciting and fun.   

Later, Steve found the pin sheered off in the distributor.  A lot of work to get the car ready for this Friday night which is Jacob's next race at 81 Speedway.  Good thing Jacob just bought himself a new set of tools as he needs them this week.  For getting all A's in school, he got to choose what he wanted and he got a set of Craftsman tools.  Sure was a lot cheaper when he just wanted a new gameboy game!

June 27 - Matthew drives to a second place finish at Goodland!  It sure looked like he was going to make it three in a row and I honestly think he would have if the normal number of laps were run.  Most feature races are either 15 or 18 laps and the longest has been 25.  For some reason, they only ran 12 laps that night.  By the time Matthew made his way to second, there was only a lap left.  He was definitely the fastest car on the track.  He won the heat race and was way ahead of everyone.

We got to take a small break on Sunday and visited Monument Rocks.  We got a nice picture of the race car in front of the arch.

June 28 - Sunday night starts off with Matthew winning the heat race at Colby.  Now, he has won several heat races and I'm not supposed to mention it because "the heat race doesn't count."  But, this heat race had Great-Grandma Effie, Grandpa Carl and I all on the edge of our seat as it was so exciting.  Matthew was in third place right behind the first two cars.  On the fourth turn of the last lap, Matthew dove below both of them and passed them both to take the checkered.  It was a great move. 

He started 8th in the feature and was shuffled back on the start.  He worked his way up to 5th place when the engine started missing out.  It was overheating and Matthew was concerned it wasn't going to make it to the end.  He held on to the fifth and was happy to take that.  The boys have already torn in to the car to try to find out what is wrong.  Steve is worried it has a cracked head.  No diagnosis yet, but you can bet they will work on it to get ready for this weekend.  4th of July will find us in Minneapolis.  Since they do fireworks on a regular show, we are anxious to see what their 4th of July show is like!  Sunday we are back at Colby.

On our way home today, we got to stop and have an Effie Cheeseburger.  After a weekend of racing, she is in there at 6 in the morning working!  We were telling her thanks and she said "When I get old, I might not be able to help you out or feed you so let me do what I can now!"  The Hays Paper has a contest running for the 8 Wonders of NW Kansas Cuisine.  We would sure like to see Effie in that top 8 so if you could help us out and spread the word to all your friends, we would sure appreciate it. 

This is the last week to vote and you can vote everyday.  Just go to:  http://www.hdnews.net/ and click on Weekly Poll in the lower right side of your screen.  Select Effie's, Rush Center and submit.  Only takes a few seconds, so please spread the word!

Hope everyone has a wonderful and safe 4th of July.  And, yes, I can't help but hope we are celebrating at Applebee's again soon!

~CBR Mom