In life, sometimes you’re the bug, and sometimes the windshield.

I left off in Part One waiting for Qualify #3, which I really needed. In Q1 I went way too fast, and Q2 way too slow. That had me as #22 of 28.

At about noon it started raining, and it didn’t stop until about 4. The track went hot at about 5 pm, and we were projected to run at 7 pm. NMCA kept it running pretty quick and we were called up again at about 8:00 pm, just as it looked like it was going to rain.

The weather station was all over the map on predictions, but said I needed a lot of weight – and so I gave it a lot of weight to try to run a 9.77 and move up the Qualifying list and get some points. The car felt good, but the ticket told another story.

My car usually 60’s at 1.33-1.35 with little weight, and 1.36-1.37 with a lot of weight. When I got my time slip I thought I had something wrong with the car on a 1.41. However, back in the pits everyone was saying they were 4 off. For the 2 hours before we ran, they hot lapped True Street cars for 3 hits each, and had two other classes of street tire cars destroy the track for our 60-year-old 9-second cars with skinny slicks. Its a moot point, because it started raining right after we ran, so we wouldn’t have run at all if they’d prepped the track.

So I moved down to number 26 of 29, and would be matched up with Robert Killian for a 9.75 Heads Up. Robert is a very good racer who was ahead of me in points, so I saw this as a good “Do or Die” opportunity.

Sunday morning it rained, and we were delayed a couple of hours. A racing bud of mine, Doc, drove in from Detroit to help. My strategy was simple. Even though it was projected that I needed 166 pounds, I took all weight out of the car and I’d put a fender on him at the line, as it was looking like he might have had a problem running his index.

So they call us to the lanes and hop in the Thug and hit the starter. What I heard from my brand new MSD starter was nasty! I jacked the car up and I found the evidence that I was the bug for the entire week. No Cinderella Sunday.

My starter had fragged and I was dead. I took the golf cart up to the staging lanes to tell Killian he had a broke bye. Insult to injury was that he was a tenth too slow, and I’m pretty sure he ran it out.

Doc helped me load up and Deb, Smith, Wesson and I left the track at 2 pm. The original plan was to drop the car off at Randy Stansbury in Louisiana to do the body work, so I could get the car in time to clean and service before Indy. Without a starter, I had to get home quick, fix the car, and get it back to Randy. I got to Jackson, TN at midnight and got some sleep. I got sick during the middle of the night, and was feeling real sick when we left Jackson at 9 am. I got to the shop at about 9:30 pm Monday.

I was still sick but the starter was replaced by 2pm Tuesday, and I loaded into my small trailer.

I got up at 4:30 am Wednesday, still feeling sick, but left at 5:30 and arrived at Randy’s shop at 9 am. I unloaded the car, and the sheet metal to my Kawasaki Drifter 1500 – which Randy is also painting – and picked an “Arrest Me” red color.

I left Randy’s shop at 9:30 am and didn’t get home until 1:30 because of rain. I was in bed by 4 pm because I felt so sick, and still do today – Thursday.

The plan is that Randy will do the repair, a better job on the bumpers than I’d done, the underside of the hood in the body color, and some touchup work. I’ll pick up Wednesday so I have a week to get it cleaned and serviced. The starter in it is from the wagon, and while it sounded good in the shop, it sounded questionable unloading at Randy’s. I ordered a new Power Master.