After the crunch-up last raceday, I guess we were so focused on the wheel damage, no-one noticed that the fender had been groinched in on the other side from a separate impact. This one had split the radiator. Then add to this the fact that my car has a switch on the dash to turn on the fan with a red light next to it. Lets just say that I ran a fifty lap race at max RPMs and the little red light wasn't on. I ended the race smoking with an empty radiator. Fried the engine. F***! A week later we replace the rad and all seems fine, running smooth, can't believe I got away with it. Then, two days before raceday, head gasket and crank shaft death. Now, under ideal circumstances, a new engine can be done in the time left. This was not to be the case and Brent had no ride Saturday. I took a lot of friendly flak from the other guys, but I also noticed that Wayne Lakerveld, #77 was not in attendance, and he has more points than me so there's some damage control right there. Then Murray Jones in #17, who suffered a blown engine last week, had to pack it in with insurmountable wheel problems. Murray had very kindly offered me his spare ride (last years' car, an Accord) the day before, as well as help in getting it ready. The spirit of generosity and camaraderie amongst the Hornet drivers in this club is outstanding and positively humbling (see last weeks blog).  As it happened I couldn't arrange the transportaion and it fell through. In the event it would have proved to be an awkward moment, me feeling obliged to give up my borrowed ride so he could race. Anyway, ka-ching, more credit on the points scale, sorry Murray. Next, Peter Chick in #04, overheating engine. Then Jeff Sanca in #39 with wheel bearing problems. During the fifty lap A main, Curtis Williams' del sol #41 got the front end wiped out and couldn't finish, and team-mate Wayne Goodwin in #94 blew another engine and had to drop out. Now whilst I really do feel for these guys as they all have my highest regard, I got my own problems bud, and this is the kind of sport where you can feed off the misfortunes of your friends and not feel guilty. Hey, THIS IS SPARTA!

I shall return.

   Speed King Jordan Schuss in #21 built up almost half a lap of lead before Billy had a chance to get through the last of the back-markers separating them and took another A main first. They were 19 points apart in the standings in the battle for first spot so he will have closed the gap somewhat there. Kris McKenzie #29 was busy fighting his way back through the points spread after his early season wipe-out. Peter Chick won the A heat before he overheated and was visibly happy about it.

At the end of the night, because there were only four mini-stock cars there, they put the top five Hornets from the A main out there with them as filler. Now Hornets are way outclassed by these cars and there were no points in it for them. They were just there to make it entertaining. Well, Bill was out in front when two mini-stocks come beating up behind. Going into turn one, one of them absolutely torpedoes into Bill from the inside. He came into turn one way too hot and tried to shoot inside Billy when there was no inside to get. He had plenty of speed to shoot past on the outside and Bill wouldn't have blocked him, it's not like he could even win, it was a mini-stock race. Things got a bit shouty in the pits and then everyone apologised. Their team offered to fix our car at their body shop, but that's ok, I need something to do in return for Billy putting my new engine in, and sexual favours are just out of the question. Next week I can start working my way back up the standings from my plummet to 16th, but by the way things have been going, I will have some company at least.

The usual suspects...