Brandy, Stock Cars & Days Of Thunder Revisited…
What a night! Brandy & I drove down to Sycamore, Illinois for the Spectator Racing night at the speedway. The night mainly involves the “Regular Joe’’s” who buy an old beater of a car & race that on the dirt oval… contrary to the more specially built race cars like the Late Models. Brandy’s brother Tim & some other family members (Jen, Dan, Rick & Jason) have been doing this racing for a little while now. So since Brandy wanted to get in on the fun, Tim let Brandy borrow his car & enter a couple races in the womens class… called Powder Puff. Understandably, she was a little nervous with never entering a motorized race before & never driven this car before & or any car on a race track before. Tim’s race car is a full-size station wagon with a 5.0 liter V8 in it.
Brandy’s night started out with test driving the car around the pits to get a feel for the car. Then her & Tim went out on the track to do a couple of laps during what they call “packing the track”, to get rid a little of the mud on the track. Then next up was “time trials” where Brandy had her first time on the track at speed. She was given one lap to put in her best lap time to qualify for grid position at the start of her Heat race. With no experience for her to gauge on corner speed or technique… her time didn’t seem to be real fast. But when they posted everybody’s starting position, she was the 3rd fastest one in her Heat, putting her on the inside of the 2nd row of two cars! So when the time for her first race to come up, the butterflies where setting in pretty good for Brandy. OK… for the race, the cars get started with a rolling start & Brandy sort of starts to drop back a little from 3rd to almost 5th during the first lap. The 4th place car is putting some pressure on her now & 1st & 2nd are slightly pulling away… I don’t know if she was more nervous or I was watching her. But over the next couple of laps, that 4th place car actually started to fall back as Brandy slowly pulled away from her & was actually pulling in the battle between 1st & 2nd. I was impressed with how smooth Brandy looked. I know so much more about bikes then cars… so I’m not going to try & talk like I know what’s up. But with Brandy not having any experience for her to gauge against, I had expected her to be sliding the ass-end around more & particularly pushing the front-end in the corners… all the while running more in the back of the pack. So as the last couple of laps go down, Brandy is running smooth & close (like about 8 - 10 feet) on the rear end of the two battleing for 1st, with 4th back like 5 car lengths. coming into the final corner, in my mind I’m thinking holy crap, she’s going to get 3rd in her first race!!. Again coming into the last corner of the race, the 2nd place car pushes up inside of the leader trying for the win, they are bumping… and all of a sudden they take each other out!!! So in my mind again as I’m watching Brandy, as this all is happening… it plays out like this. They’re spinning, they’re tasking each other out…Brandy, get around them… will she make it past them… I think she’s going to hit them, it’s tight… they’re close. She’s getting around them… she’s getting around them. She got by them! Holy shit! She just won the race… she just won the race!!. I almost couldn’t believe it, she won her first time out ever in a race! Of course I’m totally excited for her. So then I run back to the pits to congratulate her & hoping to catch a few photo’s of her getting out of the car & all the excitement. But little did I know, with be being a newbie to this as well, she was actually being guided into the middle of the track so she can get out of her car, receive her huge trophy, wave the flag & jump up & down in front of the whole grandstand. What a moment for Brandy… I think especially because her personality is the type that normally doesn’t stand out in the crowd, doesn’t draw attention to herself & always puts everybody else before herself. This was her moment to shine, Brandy’s time for recognition.
OK, it was only the first Heat race… she was now qualified for the Powder Puff Feature race. This likely will have tougher competition. Brandy said that she was actually more nervous at the start of her 2nd race… now she sort of had some pressure to perform after her Heat race win. From her Heat 1 race win, she was on the front row, but on the outside this time. Again, she’s under some pressure from the other ladies around her. Halfway around the first lap, I believe she’s running 2nd with 3rd place getting underneath her rear quarter panel (do station wagons have quarter panels?)… and 3rd place gives her a nudge, causing her back-end to swing out & Brandy starts to spin. So unfortunately she goes from 2nd to last place just like that with all of the cars still bunched up from it being the first lap. I was recording some video of the race, so I couldn’t see it real great… but I know I was worried that she was going to get slammed by one of the cars that were all on the gas behind her. Fortunately, they all missed her & she got herself going again… but a straightaway behind the last place car. I didn’t know if she was all flustered, but I fond out later she was pretty much just pissed! That makes me laugh now. OK, so back to the race… she’s on the gas & looking smooth again. Slowly she’s gaining on the other ladies. Pretty soon she’s picked off a few of them… next thing I know, she’s mid pack & putting pressure on the car ahead of her. Oh yea… there were about 10 cars in the race & I believe it was a 10 lap race. Well in the end, she got herself all the way back up to 4th place, from being spun out & in last! It seems she was still pretty proud of herself & her performance. Of course she feels another win would of been sweet, but she’s not greedy & totally is pumped for her Heat race win, her overall speed out there & that she didn’t back down & went for it! I too am very proud of her & pumped for her excitement that she had at the races.
Brandy’’s family members did not have as strong of a night as she did. Unfortunately they all had some car problems in various ways that held them back. But needless to say, I think we all had a fun night & Brandy definitely gained a new chapter in her life.
I hope to have images up shortly & a video or two from the races in a couple of days. So check back on Monday or Tuesday for the video…