"I'm Gonna Shake His Hand"
The 2008 season-ending awards banquet came with a potentially tense encounter: Team Weaver and second place finisher in points, Brian Bourquin. Bourquin (see early posts) protested our engine, which caused lots of headaches and expense for Team Weaver. We had to prove we were legal. A protest requires that our engine be torn down on the spot, inspected, mic-ed for tolerances, etc. (see photos in album). We of course passed the technical inspection–we don't cheat–but bad blood remained.
So we were actually surprised to see Bourquin show up at the local speedway's banquet (he's from out of town). As the Mod-4 class drivers got ready to go up and accept their trophies, I murmured, "As a team, we clap for everybody." Skyler nodded, and then said: "I'm gonna shake his hand." And he did. Now that's real sportsmanship.
Check out the photos of the awards banquet, and Skyler's cool new jacket, too.
Officially, then, this begins our off season–which is not "off" in anyway. Steve Booth of Eagle Chassis is working on our new (2006) Midwest Mod. It will be totally refurbished, with new tin and new engine. Crew Chief Bill Smith is gearing up to build the engine with tech assistance from Paul Nelson and Northwest Technical College here in Bemidji. They have a great High Performance Engine program there.
Other news: Bill and Skyler attended a seminar in chassis set-up at the big WISSOTA expo Nov 4 in St. Cloud. There's a follow-up, more intensive workshop later this winter that Bill would like to attend. All good, though depends on our budget.
I'm busy with PR and promo work for SATURDAY NIGHT DIRT, visiting schools, giving talks at large conventions of teachers and librarians. I have a neat, 5-minute dvd of our "bookmobile" in action that I usually show.
So it's full speed ahead toward racing in '09--only 5 months away. My friend and Super Stock driver Raymond Rehbein of Rochester, MN, says, "If you're not working on your car right now, you won't be ready for the first green flag."
Comments