September 23 – We all travel to Mayetta for Thunder on the Hill’s two-day show and the last points racing of the season.  Friday night we had a pretty decent night considering how it started.  First, the officials came over and informed Steve and Jacob that they needed to remove the regulator for tomorrow’s show as it is now illegal to run.  This would be three years of running it that way, through tech at Boone and how many times in tech now at Mayetta, yet all of a sudden, it is illegal.  Steve was a little worried about getting the carburetor to run right with it off.  He also pointed out he would appreciate it if they would spell it out in the rules next year.    

Now, as I have written about before, in the heat races there, if you spin out or stop for any reason, you have to leave the track.  Due to the car count, only top 2 went to A-main.  During Matthew’s race, there were two wrecks at the same time on opposite ends of the track.  That only left Matthew and one other car that didn’t stop, yet for some reason, two cars get their spots back and Matthew is put at the back even though he wasn’t involved in any of it.  There are bad calls in every sport, and I truly feel we got completely screwed on that.  So, Matthew went on to the B-main where he ran up to a second place!  Then, in the A-feature, he was doing great, working his way through traffic and was clearly a top five car.  Guess what happens when Matthew is running 6th.  A guy spins out and Matthew stops to avoid hitting him.  Matthew is put to the back!  Apparently now the rule is anyone that stops in the A feature also goes to the back.  Seriously, I am still mad about it.  Matthew could have drove through the guy, or he could have dived up hitting two cars on the side and kept going, but he did the right think in controlling his car and hitting no one and is then penalized for it!  For a track that I am so impressed with in terms of running a fair tech lane to then have such a completely unfair ruling on the track could not be more contradictory.  I am really impressed with so much of what they do at the track, so I want to be clear on that.  But, this night, all I can say is, Matthew was not treated fairly and as a result, he ended up 12^th.  He lost first gear early in the night and was leaking fluid.  We wouldn’t learn until the next day why.

Jacob just couldn’t look smoother on the track.  I am so impressed with his driving.  He can pass everyone clean, unlike the 27 car.  I literally watched that man hit every single car in order to pass them, including Jacob.  I posted on Facebook I would like the definition of aggressive driving.  Ok, I’ll just stop on that one.  Let me just say that Jacob worked hard on his car and then drove it to a 5^th place finish.  You could tell when something went wrong during the race, because he was higher up and then you saw it start to slow down, so he had to drive hard to maintain.  Turns out he broke a rocker arm.

The next day, us girls found a hard tub, while the rest of the fan club found the casino.  The boys, however, went to work on the cars.  Jacob did all of his prep work by himself.  He replaced the rocker arm and set the values.  Matthew and Steve tore into the SportMod to try to find the problem.  Steve broke some part while fixing the brakes, so Grandpa Brandt and Uncle Rich made an emergency parts run to Topeka.  In the end, the part wouldn’t matter.  Just as they were getting ready for hot laps, the find they crack in the transmission.  He is done for the night.  Wow, what a way to start the evening.  I think I was probably the most disappointed one in the pits.

Matthew went straight to work helping Jacob.  A really crappy evening (the bitter part) eventually turned out pretty sweet.  Jacob drove that car up to 2^nd place.  I am hoping the video will be on You Tube.  It was one heck of a race and he made some unbelievable passes.  It felt like 50 laps.  I didn’t think the white flag was ever going to fly.  We were all very proud of him.  What a great finish.  And, I am pretty sure this will get him enough points to move into 2^nd place in the nation in Rookie points.  I wish we could have gotten him to first of course.  But he is 15, so he has a lot of races ahead of him.  And he finished the season with a very impressive record overall.

Jacob ends his 2011 season with 3 wins, 16 Top Five’s, 16 Top Ten’s, 9 Top Fifteen and 2 top Twenty.  Steve has already started building him a new car for next year.  He’ll have to practice to learn to drive something that is straight!  Matthew will continue to run a limited schedule as he focuses on college.  We had talked about running the race in Salina in October, but losing another transmission took care of that.  We’ll concentrate now on school, getting ready for 2012 season, wrestling season, and hunting season. 

So, to close out this season, I only have one final comment.  There are a lot of people to thank as we wouldn’t be racing without them.  Our family and friends are so supportive and I feel so lucky to spend almost every weekend with them.  There is one name I need to point out though and that is to thank the Wilson Family.  If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be racing at all.  I wish we could have brought them the Rookie title to add to the engine builder awards and to their legacy.  Hopefully, we can pull a title sometime in the future.  But, even if we never get a title, they have given us a gift and I hope they know how very much we appreciate them.

Enjoy the off-season.  We’ll be hard at work getting ready for 2012.  I think I already can’t wait!

~CBR Mom