July 16 - Started off our night at WaKeeney winning the heat race, but made the wrong adjustments for the feature.  Started 6th position and held it most of the race but couldn't pass anyone and was struggling.  A couple of mistakes on the last couple of laps cost us and ended up 9th.  Even the most experienced racers can make the wrong calls on setup or make mistakes in the race.  That is just part of racing and shows how hard this sport is to learn and then to deliver results.  Just not a good night as we need top fives to build on the points.

The track announcer Mike Hughes and reporter Nick Schwien joined all of us for lunch at Effie's.  They got to talk racing with both Matthew and Jacob which was really nice.  Grandma even made pies as well as macaroni salad and the cucumber salad.  The whole family had a great visit before it was time to venture back out in the heat.  Matthew said the truck read 107 degrees outside. 

On to Hays Saturday night and again, the night starts off great winning the heat race.  It sure was dirty and windy.  Of course, I looked at Grandma Carol and we both smiled and said this is how we like it!  Started on outside pole in the feature and got into the 3rd position and stayed there the whole race.  Had no rear bite coming out of the corners and the lead cars could pull ahead there so some slight setup changes would have solved that.  Overall, a great night and very happy with the 3rd place finish. 

During the race, Effie got a lot of free advertisement as Mike talked about lunch at her place and how much food all of us could eat.  He joked about Matthew not being a 100 pounds, thin as a rail and how the boy had no problem eating the Effie Cheeseburger, the basket of fries and the pie.  He obviously doesn't have a teenage boy in his house!  I am sure when Matthew gets his next win, Mike will be crediting it all to the Effie Cheeseburgers as his fuel!

Nick wrote an article recently about Matthew which you can read online: http://www.hdnews.net/racingstory/crowell070710

Next weekend is Dodge City and then on to Osbourne for a Sunday and Monday fair race.  Lots of fair races coming up so the next month is very full.  It is going to be a really good month and we are going to have some fun!  There will be some great races and some disappointment, but in the end, it will all be good because we will be together.