June 17 – Both cars loaded and Crowell Bros. Racing has both brothers racing again.  Everything is going perfectly as we arrive at Hutchinson. Well, except for the extremely small car count. Only two Hobbies and only four SportMods. But, we are almost all finally together and feeling good about just getting to have a night at the races. Just missing Ry. Wilsons are racing too so great night for learning and seat time. Plus, the entire fan club shows up – which if I haven’t mentioned this season, consists of Great-Grandma Effie, Grandpa Carl, Uncle Rich, Grandma Carol, Grandpa Gary, Aunt Dorothy and Uncle Clarence. In addition to this group, Tammee was there and Chet, Joseph and Carla. So, everyone turned out to see both the boys. The fun part started with the heat races because both of the boys won their heat races. I was already looking forward to both of them adding their stickers to the board – not only for the heat race but also for the feature! Never got to see it. A storm came up and we probably shouldn’t have even been running the heat races given the lightening. They finally couldn’t go any longer and called it just minutes before it hit. Winds up to 70 mph, hail and rain. We made it out before the hail. Grandma and Grandpa Crowell weren’t so lucky and ended up under a bridge. Everyone was scattered in all directions and Kim was giving me weather reports as we all was calling each other for an hour trying to dodge the storm. So, we were racing home I guess. Not near as much fun as racing at the track. Hutchinson will make up the feature races I assume this Friday.

Saturday, the boys changed the gears, made up some tires and other spare parts, washed the cars, loaded up and we were off to Mayetta. Uncle Rich, Grandma Effie and Grandpa Carl also made the drive. You could tell Matthew was having Rylee withdrawal as he was just a little bit grouchy. But, I wish I could have captured his smile when we came over the hill and he saw the track for the first time. The expression on his face was truly priceless. Just like Jacob a couple of weeks before. Car count was decent in Hobbies with eight cars and huge in SportMods I think with 26 checking in. Matthew went through his pre-tech with Super Dave. I am not sure why, but we seemed to be running non-stop the rest of the night. First, I had to run to the other side to get Matthew his chicken fingers.

Jacob’s heat race went fine and really just had to scrape mud and clean his helmet afterwards. I think he ended up 3rd if I remember right. I know he was gaining and remember saying we just ran out of laps. In Matthew’s heat, a guy spun out right in front of him. There went another bumper and hood (and sticker). But, he was still running and they waived him off the track. Their track rule is during the heats, it doesn’t matter who stops, you are out. Lesson learned. But, now Matthew had to go the B-Feature. A guy spun out in front of him again and he got stopped enough that I think it just pushed the bumper in a little more. He made his way to finish 2nd in the B which was great.

Feature time and Jacob starts 3rd row inside. The boys had to adjust an upper a-arm on Matthew’s so I carried one of Jacob’s tires up and by the time I got back, the race was starting and I realized I had forgotten the video camera. I ran back to the pits and Matthew was trying to get ready alone as we had all left for Jacob’s race. It is hard to have two cars running! And from the damage on the hood, he couldn’t see so I ended up standing on it to push it down. Got him in the lineup and ran back to video Jacob’s race. As I have often complained, it is hard to see the race when you video it. All I know is Jacob drove great. He worked his way up to 2nd place and avoided a big wreck along the way. A guy flipped his car. After that, the race went green and Jacob gained a bit on the leader, but it was a wide gap and just couldn’t close the distance. But we are thrilled and he is back in tech with Super Dave! My cousin Ronnie and his buddy Carl was there so I handed off the video camera to Ronnie and I ran to get the water can in case Jacob needed cooled down. Then they needed a jack stand and jack so I got that hauled up to post-tech. By then, Matthew’s race had started so I climbed up on the cement block to watch it. I kept looking back as they did the tech on Jacob. At the caution, I walked back and they were asking questions that neither Jacob nor I could answer. So, I flew down on the ATV to Steve in pit lane and traded places with him in case Matthew needed a tire changed during the race.

Matthew went from 18th place to 6th place in that race! VERY cool. Ronnie said he hated video taping. I could relate to that! Jacob finished tech and boys started loading up. Both boys ran out of tear offs during the race and Matthew was laughing about how he was trying to scrape mud off while driving. I ran to get Jacob his hamburger and then I finally got to have a beer! After we got loaded up, we said our goodbyes to Ronnie. He is being deployed to Afghanistan so we won’t see him for a little over a year now. We teased him about hunting without him this Fall and promised to send him lots of pictures. He promised to call us opening night and check in. I already wish he was back.

Started the drive home and of course, the storms explode again. More wind, hail, lightening and rain almost the entire drive home until we pulled into our driveway where it didn’t rain a drop.

Sorry for the long blog, but it was covering two cars now! And overall, pretty darn good finishes! But, the best part of the night is when I can see the boys helping each other. I love that they can both be racing, learning, and working together. Next weekend, we return to Hutchinson on Friday night and then Jetmore on Saturday and WaKeeney on Sunday. Need a really good points weekend for Jacob to gather some good Rookie points. So, feel free to send that good luck for three top fives his way. Oh, and if we could schedule the weather to wait until Monday, that would be really great too!

~CBR Mom