Richmond Night Race

Also known as:  Why I love close to home Friday night races.

The RSS team traveled to Richmond this past Friday night.  It was a one day show and definitely a physically hard race for the team.  Their morning started about 6 am and didn’t end until the haulers were loaded about midnight.

Scott and Tony pulled out of Richmond and stopped about an hour south to get fuel and sleep.  They were some wore out puppies.  The guys rolled into Buford about 3 pmish Saturday afternoon.  Being they are awesome hauler drivers, they unloaded the bottom of their wagons, cars too, before coming home.

Being the senior citizens of the team, Scott spent the evening resting before going to bed early.  Not a problem because he had ALL day at home Sunday afternoon.   This is unusual for us because by the time they race on Saturday afternoon, its late Sunday afternoon or night before he gets home.

Sunday morning was busy.  The grass got mowed!! Needless to say, the dogs were ecstatic, the kids were ho-hum and the neighbors almost organized a block party. The puppies ran around in their freshly mowed pen and the dandelions are gone.  Scott also helped me re-pot vegetable seedlings for our summer garden.  OK, he emptied some old flower pots and toted the bags of dirt for me.

After our yard work, we spent the rainy afternoon watching old movies and just hanging out. I fixed dinner and our eldest daughter, a freshman at UGA, came home to eat with our family.  You know, normal, mundane family stuff, right?

Friday night races give us a rare occasion to have an almost “normal” weekend.  Sometimes I wish we had more of them.  Yes, I’m a proponent of a shorter season and even double header weekends like we did in the old ARCA days.

Carlee, Scott, AnnaBelle & Maddie at Darlington Raceway

I take about every opportunity to tweet and advocate for a major change in the Busch/Xfinity schedule.  This definitely would be an in-depth post for a later date.  The short of it is, I’d like to see a 28 race schedule, ending sometime in October.  More short tracks, fewer mile n ahalves, one less road course and less time spent on the west coast.

Of course, my perspective is one as an accountant and wife of the hauler driver/crew member.   And maybe there’s a little SEC football fan mixed in there as well.  Nothing wrong with saving a few bucks and a longer off season and more time for football.

When Dad’s Away Racing

No, Mama and the girls aren’t at home playing.  We haven’t mowed the grass either.  Or got the oil changed.  Sigh

Most days, you can find me running the family Uber.  Our middle daughter doesn’t drive and attends high school out of district.  Just getting her to and from school can be a family affair. The baby, also known as “God has a ginormous sense of humor”, is in 7^th grade.  She plays basketball and throws shot and discus for track.  Many days, I’m rushing to get her to practice and pick up the other kiddo from after school tutoring.

You know, that’s just the normal Mom stuff with Dad on the road.  It is kinda comical how many people assume, and not correctly, that since the hubs works in racing that we are rich and I don’t work.  After I get over a hysterical bout of laughter, I ask them what would ever give them that impression.

I’m an accountant and work at least a 40 hour week, often working overtime during audit, fiscal year- end, and calendar year end.  Yayyy W-2s and 1095C’s.

But I know how it is these days with social media.  All these wives and girlfriends of drivers and crew chiefs are posting all over the place.  Well heads up: ladies y’all are giving us lower series wives are bad rap.  Please quit posting all those Instagram pics working out and looking cute.  And those of your cute kiddos, clean and dressed up, all matchy matchy.  THAT is not the normal life for most of us crew wives.  We don’t live that high on the hog.

I don’t have a maid. Heck fire, I’m just happy most days that we can see the floor. Shhh, don’t tell the middle child that.  She’s got her Daddy beat in the OCD department and keeps the kitchen pretty spotless.  But with three girls we fight about the laundry, (There is soooo much laundry…), who’s cleaning toilets and feeding the dogs.

No pool boy either.  Or a pool, but a girl can dream, you know?  Right now I need a yard boy or a herd of goats.  No lawn service for us, even though I did offer to Scott to pay for lawn care during the race season. I’m figuring he’ll cave about the end of May. Until then, I’m working a deal to borrow the neighbor’s goats.  If that fails, I guess we will start push mowing on Sunday afternoon.

I gotta dawg in the G.  Maddie Thorpe, UGA freshman

I’m pretty certain that I’m just one member of a much larger group of very independent spouses.  We have to be in order to be Mom and Dad 33 weekends a year. Over the years, the girls and I have gotten pretty good at doing our thang.  Which just happens to be be GDay this Saturday. The joys of living right outside of Athens and be a fan of all things red and black...Go Dawgs! 

Bristol After Party

Wow, just wow.  I can’t remember when the racing at Bristol has been this good.  It’s been years since I’ve seen the track this racy.  Of course all that bumping, grinding and rubbing comes at a price.  There was a lot of torn up race cars loaded up at the end of the xfinity race and somebody has to fix them. Quick. Before Richmond. Friday night.

I’ve seen the hubs less than four hours since he got back to the shop at midnight Saturday.  That is indeed the woes and misery of short track racing.  He got home about 1:30 am Sunday morning.  He spent a few hours with the family (and the dogs) then headed back to the shop in Buford.

From Buford, he went to the paint shop in Tucker aka the original race shop.  Most folks might not know, but Scott paints cars, chassis, tool boxes and other stuff in the off season.  Back in south GA, he even painted an airplane.  No lie.

He’s painted four cars in 3 weeks.  His assistant, helping him tear down, tape up and prep?  Well none other than the driver himself.  So yesterday evening, while other xfinity drivers were hanging with their families, Ryan met Scott in Tucker to help him get a car out of the booth and transported up to Buford.

With so many torn up cars, he needed to head out to Charlotte first thing Monday morning. We live about an hour from the shop. But you know ATL traffic, so Scott slept in his big truck Sunday night.  He then went to Charlotte Monday morning, dropped off a wrecked car, picked up parts and headed back to the shop where at 10 pm at night, the entire crew was still working.

It’s a tight turn around between Bristol and Richmond.  The haulers need to leave Thursday morning to park that afternoon.  With three cars to get ready, and two of your short track cars out of commission, it will take everything this small team has to be ready to load by Thursday morning.

And week after next is Talladega.  So Scott left this morning to go back to Charlotte to get the speedway car and pick up more parts.  At some point, he’s got to do some laundry, unpack and repack.  And the grass needs mowing.  At this point, I’m considering borrowing the neighbor’s goats.  They got out last week and seemed to really like our grass.

Most of the bigger teams (cup affiliated) probably have their Richmond, Dega and Dover cars sitting on jack stands and ready to load.  Or at the least waiting on an engineer to pull down and set up.  But the small teams, after a race like Bristol, are all scrambling trying to get cars, motors and haulers turned around for the next race.



Lil Dawg fans: Carlee and Boo in the back; cousins CJ and Sadie in front at Sanford Stadium, home of UGA Bulldogs.

Back to back short track races will be awesome for Rebecca the race fan.  I’m even hyped up that they race on Friday night so I can go to GDay on Saturday. Go Dawgs!! But note, that the hubs and all of RSS are really busting it to get ready for Richmond.  I’m pretty sure that the majority of the smaller Xfinity series teams are too.

Update: Scott's Departure has been pushed up a day.  He will be rolling out today sometime after lunch.  Eeek! He and driver partner Tony will stop in Charlotte to pick up a car and some more racing stuff then its on to VA.  Its about an 8 hour ride from the shop so hopefully they will make the trip without any issues. 

Trucks park at noon.  Due to the construction at Richmond, teams will drive haulers in, unload and drive out.  Repeat the process to go home.  Old timey ARCA style right there.  Makes you have flash backs to Toledo.  Just don't lose that pit box going down the hill.

It’s Bristol, Baby!!

The last Coliseum, short track heaven, destruction on wheels…call it whatever you want.  Bristol, even in its latest form, is still one of the best short tracks in America. Salem is my fav, so go ahead, @ me. 

I’m not sure why the fans no longer flock there as in the olden days.  It is by far one of the best sight line tracks that NASCAR goes to. So if you are in the area, especially on Saturday, I’d urge you to attend.  There really isn’t a bad seat in the house. Kids 12 and under get in free, so load up the neighborhood kids and take them for a  inexpensive and fun event.

Bristol, being just a short ride from the house, was on my list to attend. But motherhood intervened.  Instead, I will be attending DD3’s basketball tournament over the weekend.  Yes it is possible to watch basketball and racing at the same time, thanks to twitter and the NASCAR app.  Somebody remind me to purchase some ear thingies. And set the DVR. 

My preference is by far the short tracks.  If Brent Dewar let me set up the xfinity schedule, I promise it would be shorter and at least 60% short tracks.  Why? Short tracks are action packed and up on the wheel demanding.  And I’d like to see the hubs a little more often.  Call me selfish, but I’m willing to bet a 28 race schedule with the addition of some historic short tracks would not only revive the series, but give much need financial relief to the owners.

Where do I want to go?  Well when it’s hot down south can we go to IRP or Milwaukee?  And in the spring I’d like to go to South Boston, Myrtle Beach or Pensacola.  I’ve already named Salem as my favorite short track.  My favorite win there was Justin Allgaier in September of 2007.  Lil Gator shore could wheel it around that place.  He went 3 wide with Kimmel and a lapped car can came out victorious.  Besides, September weather in Indiana is beautiful.

There are actually so many historic short tracks that have the capacity and facilities to host a truck/xfinity double header.  The schedule could have some variety instead of the boring tri-ovals.

Where would I cut races?  I see no point in going somewhere twice, other than Iowa.  And yes, that includes Daytona.  I’d take out a Dover, Chicago, Atlanta (sorry homies, it’s boring) Charlotte and Indy. That gets us down to 28 races.  End the season by Halloween.  And why are there THREE road course races in one month?  Redundant much?  If I wanted to watch a road race I’d be an IMSA fan.  Lose at least two of those and replace with short tracks, please.

If we’re going to continue to do the west coast, at least replace Vegas and/or Cali with short tracks.  That’s way too much sugar for a dime for me.  I’d be quite happy if they never went back to Cali and just picked up Irwindale and run the whelen, trucks and xfinity series together.  What a trifecta!

Each month should have a weekend off to give the independent teams some catch up time.  This might mean running some Wednesday/Saturday or some other combination of multiple events.  I’d like a Friday night/Sunday afternoon myself.  This leaves Saturday night open for the local tracks.

It is possible to tweak this series, make it more fan friendly and appeal to the core of short track fandom.  Y'all have fun at Bristol.  Hoping its a paint trading fender banging of a good time.

It is day 7 of 22 days

So far, all the vehicles are still running, the plumbing hasn’t clogged up and all the critters are well.  Oh yeah, the girls are doing fine too. 

These are major accomplishments in the Thorpe household.  Nothing ever tears up or breaks down until Scott is on a road trip.  A Three week road trip could be a recipe for calamity at our house. 

With all this rain, we will probably have to do some push mowing next week. I can literally hear the grass growing.  And I don’t think the grass is going to hold out until Scott gets home. Three acres ain’t a lot until it is. I’ll video us pushing that mower.  If nothing else, it should be some great comic relief.

Oh, where’s he at?  Scott, husband and Dad, drives the hauler for Ryan Sieg Racing.  He’s on the 3 week west coast NASCAR run that seems to get longer every year.  Due to logistics and resources, the team stays out.  Note:  I’m an accountant and we’ve owned a trucking company.  It is much more cost effective to stay out than run back and forth to Georgia.

The guys are currently still in Las Vegas, hanging out at South Point Casino.  OK, they are working on the cars too.  There’s always motors to pull and cars to scale. They will probably drive down to Phoenix Thursday morning and then on to Cali before making the long trip back to Georgia.

I know, I know…I should be use to this by now.  Scott and I met racing at Nashville Fairgrounds.  He worked for Billy Ballew and I had gone up to work the race for them that weekend.  That’s been 21 years ago.  I’ve been a race wife for a very long time.

I’ve pretty much adjusted to being a single “married” parent during the season.  In the early days when the girls were younger and not involved in a lot of school activities, we pretty much did what we wanted on the weekends.  We would visit Mimi and Poppy, go see friends and cousins and occasionally go to the race track.

Fast forward and today we have a freshman in college who played three sports and was very active with adaptive PE and special Olympics in high school; a junior in high school that’s very social and on the “spectrum”; and bringing up the rear, a 7^th grader in middle school that has just started the “sport” life.  Oh, yeah…all girls.

We got your drama at the Thorpe house.

I spend a lot of time on the sports shuttle, taking to and picking up from practice as well as taking to school and picking up afterwards.  I also work full time as an accountant. You can believe I’m making lots of laps with Scott out of town for nearly a month.  When he gets home, once the grass is mowed, he gets carpool duty for at least a week.

So yes, we are counting down the days until Scott/Dad gets home.  The dogs miss his early morning routine.  The cat doesn’t have a workout buddy. I’m sure the oil needs changing in something.   And Mom and the girls are getting over all the extra free time.

Don’t tell the stove, its enjoying the break.