April 25 - First three-day weekend of racing started off in Hays on Friday night with Jacob scoring his first top 10 with a tenth place finish! He did a great job, learned a lot and was able to load the car up in one piece another night. He had a caution free heat race and finished 5th in it. This put him in the middle of the pack for the feature, but on the first lap, he was squeezed up to the high side on the back stretch. I think the cars were four or five wide! Anyway, Jacob slipped off the track and when he came back on, he was in last place with 19 cars. He drove well, dodged the wrecks, and had his best finish yet. Watching him, it is hard to believe this is only his second IMCA feature. He is definitely learning very quickly. Matthew had to work, so he wasn't able to race on Friday or Saturday night. Steve did hot lap his sportmod at the end of the night and has a new appreciation for all the drivers! Course, he knew if he wrecked it, he'd never hear the end of it, so he never really drove it hard.

Saturday, it was on to Minneapolis. Jacob led most of his heat race and was doing an outstanding job. Two cars were working on him to try to pass and one of them hit him coming out of turn four slamming him into the wall. It wasn't that guy's fault though. Jacob got a little out of his line coming out of turn 4, so the guy on the inside trying to pass clipped him in the rear end which spun Jacob out. He got going again, but then he made a Rookie mistake as he thought the official was waving him off of the track. He thought maybe he had a flat or something. That wasn't the case, but it meant he had a dnf in his heat and that put him at the back of a 21 car field! He was really mad at himself for making that mistake. Thanks to Amber for pointing out that even B did that as a Rookie. He made his way up to 11th in the feature. And, at Minneapolis that is saying something! He dodged one big wreck during the feature and just did a great job. Later, he commented that he was so mad, he was making his own heat! Too funny.

On Sunday as Jacob was working to get his car ready for the 3rd race of the weekend, he made a comment that he now understood how Matthew slept 16 hours. He was pretty exhausted. Not only is the racing hard work, but there is all the work between races. Too bad we didn't end the weekend at that point, because it had gone pretty darn good until we reached WaKeeney.

Matthew and Clayton drove out so Matthew could race. After a great Easter lunch at Effies with our family, we all headed to WaKeeney. Neither of the boys had a very good heat race. They both made mistakes and knew what they did wrong. Jacob was really lucky because quite a few cars dodged him when he spun out on the back stretch of his heat race. He started his feature at the back of a 20 car pack and was doing a great job. At one point, he was sure to get another top ten finish! He did a great job passing a car, and then on turn two, the car came up and clipped Jacob spinning him out. They had to take the wrecker to bring Jacob back to the pits. Radiator was gone and he had some other problems. Ended up scored 16th. The guy came over and apologized to Jacob which was very classy of him.

Matthew started mid-pack and also was doing great working his way up to a top ten. Then just as he passed another car and came out of turn three, a car in front of him spun out and Matthew ran right into him. No where to go. Cars behind hit Matthew. Just a total racing deal as Matthew just had no where to go at all. I have the tape to prove it. Wrecker brought him back to the pits and we just wish all that was wrong was the radiator. A-arm and total front end is toast. Really bad night. He was scored 21st. Very, very disappointing.

Lots of work before next weekend and another three nights of racing at the same locations! Hoping we can get repairs made and try it again with better results. Wish us luck.

~CBR Mom