The View From Amish Paradise: September 2011

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Fortunate

It’s been awhile since I’ve been able to compose a new blog post, mostly because I’ve spent most of my time recently working and traveling more than usual. During the minimal amount of down time I had during my latest travel to Dallas, Texas for a workshop last week, I've been reflecting a bit on the opportunities I’ve come across as well as the ability I’ve had to chase around my biggest hobby, which of course is auto racing. One word kept surfacing: fortunate. While timing, luck and circumstances certainly factor into life, my interpretation of the word fortunate is that some work has been involved and skills have been acquired to achieve or maintain goals in most cases. With that said, I never was fortunate to get even close to my childhood dreams of being an actual race car driver mainly due to lack of family/personal finances. However, I have been able to build my knowledge with some of my other hobbies such as computers and statistical and data analysis in order to achieve a sufficient education, maintain a job I enjoy and manage to set just enough funds aside to put myself in a position to do some traveling and spectate at several races during each year.

I don’t always have the time and money to travel far so Labor Day weekend was spent locally, but included three visits to race tracks in three days. Friday night was a trip to championship night at Big Diamond Speedway to see the 600cc Modifieds, 358 Modifieds, Road Runners (Street Stock type cars) and Sportsman Modifieds. It was a wild night with three cars flipping at once in a 600cc heat race (everyone was okay) and a caution filled and time-shortened Sportsman race which resulted in a former co-worker’s husband winning the feature, and a driver climbing from third in points to win the championship despite a winless season. Unfortunately, since it was such a late time and I had to make the hour and a half drive home, I did not stay for post-race festivities or get the chance to congratulate the winner.

Saturday and Sunday were spent at Mountain Speedway. The crowd as well as the pit area was much sparser than I had remembered from past years, and there was some confusion on Saturday regarding whether the start time for the races was at 3pm or 6pm. Turned out to be 6 and many fans were not happy about the delay. Despite this, the racing was fairly exciting. On Sunday, I went into the pits following the races thinking it would be similar to my experience at Old Dominion Speedway in July. However, it was mostly composed of teams packing up and heading home rather than drivers signing autographs and talking with fans. Video from the entire Labor Day Weekend can be found at http://www.youtube.com/ajcrdstr24.

This weekend I will be heading down to North Carolina one last time in 2011. Friday will be spent traveling to some more NASCAR race shops I haven’t seen yet as well as some other possible sightseeing. On Saturday, I will be heading to Hickory Motor Speedway for the ISCARS Dash Series and Super Cup Stock Car Series championship races. I was invited to play in a poker tournament in Atlantic City with a cash prize pool at no cost a few weeks back, but due to Hurricane Irene the tournament was rescheduled for this Sunday. Technically I could leave Hickory Saturday night and pull off an all-nighter driving to get to the tournament on time, but I do have another safer option at a later date which I might take instead. It will most likely be a judgement call. I will have access to my laptop throughout the weekend so I look forward to posting photos and videos with a quick turnaround.

Until then, I sincerely wish everyone fortunate days ahead…coupled with some good luck and timing as well!