A good big league batter with two strikes on him thinks, "Now I've got that pitcher right where I want him."  In other words, it's all about confidence.  Skyler had plenty, and began to pick off cars one by one, helped by two yellow flags.  By lap fifteen he was running about 8th.  In one of the caution stops, he took another hard hit that caved in the "passenger" side, and also tore off his rear bumper.  But the car ran fine, and with three laps to go he was comfortably in fifth and gunning for fourth.  Another mix-up in turn three, found Skyler fighting to avoid another collision, and ducking to the inside.   He threaded the needle, and the crowd cheered as he was now in fourth place--a real achievement to come from the 16th position.

But there was to be no joy in Mudville.  In a very bad call, Skyler was tagged for the final yellow flag, and sent again to the rear.  With only a couple laps to go, he passed two cars and so finished about 13th.  Team Weaver met immediately after the race, and none of us were happy about (1) the condition of the track itself (the dryness and especially the one lane groove), and (2) the bad call by the officials.

We have raced several times recently--St. Cloud, Grand Rapids and Grand Forks--on tracks where cars can run three-wide or even four-wide and still have good traction.  At those tracks we have had zero damage to our car.  As a team, we decided last night that home-town loyalty can only go so far.  As result, in the future we will be racing only intermittently at Bemidji Speedway.  

This decision is purely business.  Bad calls in racing, like in any sport, are part of the territory.  Our "Bookmobile" is getting more and more attention, and the more travel we do, the better it is for me, my publisher, books sales, publicity--and for Skyler.  The more tracks he experiences, the better driver he becomes.... 

On a positive note, Ev Barrett ran extremely well in the Team Weaver Mod-Four.  Starting about  in the feature, she soon was running second.  Through much of the race she hung close to the leader.  One mistake put her up high in the "marbles" on the back stretch, where she lost traction and was passed by two other cars.  She faded to fourth place, but was clearly pumped and pleased after the race.  Way to go Ev!