First the upside of the weekend which was a brutal scorcher on Saturday at first and much more pleasant on Sunday.
We were paid a visit by "Evil" Ed and his lovely companion Rhonda (Rhoda) this weekend from the Midwest Safety Crew. It was a pleasure working with them and they fit in with our crew seamlessly. I was given a gift of a Midwest Safety Crew shirt, which is fantastic by the way and I wore it that night around the paddock after my shower. Thanks to the two of them for coming out and playing with us and we welcome you both back anytime. You both were outstanding in the corners and on the radios. I will definitely be coming to your neck of the woods to play with you guys.
We had a new track record set by Mr Lloyd Bailey (117), once again I don't remember it outright but it was in the 1:28's, about one thousandth shy of a full second off the old record. He was riding the wheels off that thing, as well as the forks (bottoming out and the reason for going down in 6) and the muffler (the reason for the sparks everywhere else). Props Mr. Bailey, it is awesome to watch you ride.
We were once again blessed with Mrs. Lesley Whalley and her family running our cafe. We were spoiled throughout the weekend with all kinds of goodies. We had NY strip steaks for dinner on Saturday night, salads, dressings, potato's, it just goes on and on. Candy, gum, trail mix, breakfast bar, fruit of all kinds and all sorts of other portable snacks to take out on the turns. There isn't enough thanks in the world for what they provided to us. Mrs. Whalley and crew, you ROCK. Taking a page from Simon, the food was the dogs bollocks (I hope that was right).
We had some outstanding racing going on courtesy of CCS and all the racers that came out. A lot of tight battles were going on both days. Made my job in control very hard at times as I was wanting to watch the spectacular passing I was hearing about from all over the track. Thank you once again to all the cornerworkers and safety crew for coming out and for making my job easy in Control with outstanding calls. I know I've said it often but with you guys making those calls my job is easy (the way I like it). You once again made everything run smoothly even with a short crew. I'm proud to be a part of MARRC.
An engagement announcement was made as well. Congratulations to you both.
I hope you find many many years of happiness together. I'll let you post it up on here if you so desire.
Now the downside, we had an airlift on Sunday. Pretty bad get off in T1, a lowside that ended up into the tire wall and soft barriers. I was running Control and didn't see the incident but from descriptions it wasn't good. I won't go into details out of respect for the rider and his family but we are all hoping things get better. Well wishes from the entire MARRC crew go out to him and his family. We are all pulling for you. We are hoping for a good update soon.
A pretty crazy storm passed through Saturday evening, lightning which caused us to shut down before the last race, hail pelting everyone and rain coming from all directions. It didn't seem to matter where you stood under cover, it was hitting you from all sides. All this as our cafe crew was finishing up our aforementioned dinner. A lightning strike hit so close a fellow cornerworker and I hit the deck in the tower. Scary but also a tad funny as we both had the self preservation to take cover.
