The March Meet that wasn't - April 6, 2006, Clutch Girl

In a perfect world, Bugsy, Diesel, Big Ray, Nate and I would be heading to Tucson about now to participate in the nostalgia match race event happening there this weekend. We were all looking forward to racing someplace different. But it's not a perfect world; after all….we are racers.

So why don't I tell you a little bit about the March Meet that wasn't. Webmaster Dave has the 'official' event photos posted elsewhere on the web site, but I'll share the ones here that have a story !

Y'all heard about the weather problems I assume. It rained off and on most of the day on Friday, which was St. Patrick's Day. So there was an awful lot of waiting going on. Diesel has this uncanny ability to take a nap anywhere…..and I mean anywhere! At one point we turned around and Diesel was asleep in this chair that was literally in the middle of the pit. We left him be for a little while but then we couldn't resist. Bored racers are bound to find some mischief. Diesel got tagged. I am told that somewhere there is a photo album full of pictures of him in keeping with this theme. His nap must have worked though because a couple hours later we were treated to a St. Patrick's Day Irish Jig - ala Diesel style.

Friday night got downright nasty. Big Ray and his gal, Roxie and I decided to hang out at the track and visit a little on Friday evening while the rest of the crew went on into town for dinner. It wasn't too long after they left that this photo was taken - yes, it is hailing. And then came the torrential rain. We took refuge in the Estrus team motor home and watched an incredible lightning show. When the pits started flooding we went to check on the Lil Nate pit and found the awning drooping from filling with rain water. Big Ray and I and some of the Estrus crew tried to drain it but it was filling back up right behind us. We finally had to unzip it and let part of the awning down to save it from tearing. Lucky for us we were there to handle it.

· By the way, water logged tennis shoes will dry when left upside down on the motel heater overnight.

Saturday afternoon it started to look like we might get to race, so we proceeded to warm the car up. Usually this is pretty uneventful, but since it was so cold outside we struggled a little get the car to light. Bugsy and Nate have a routine down of hand signal communication, which again is pretty routine. But something got a little haywire and Bugsy was gesturing and Nate had a confused look on his face as were shutting the car down. Turns out Bugsy thought he was signaling Nate to shut it off, but he had a little more animation than usual and Nate thought he was saying something else not at all related to running the car. Bottom line - the East Side Gang had a long belly laugh over what we now call "Nitro Wop."

Bugsy covered the results of our qualifying attempt Saturday evening on the news page, so I won't open that wound again. Besides I like to share the fun stuff with you guys.

Most teams haul a golf cart, if they have one, in their trailer. We have a golf cart and we have a trailer…but our golf cart won't fit in the trailer WITH the race car. So Big Ray decides to bring it to Bakersfield in the back of his Dodge Pickup. Given the angle of the ramps and the lack of power in the golf cart, a hefty shove it turns out, is also needed. The goal is to give it enough of the go pedal to get up the ramp but not crash it into the cab. So we all stand back to watch and witness this until we notice that the right rear wheel likes to start spinning part way up the ramp. When Big Ray's forward progress came to a halt, we all jumped in behind the golf cart to provide a final convincing shove. Of course it never dawned on us that this whole thing just might come tumbling back out on us ! The irony of the situation was that Nate was on the right side and Big Ray kept his foot on the gas the whole time as the right rear tire started spraying rubber all over Nate. Just like being at the starting line on race day……

We are starting something new here called 'Ask the East Side Gang.' If you have any burning question to ask any of us, just fire off an email to bugg7056@aol.com and we will be answering those on a new section of the web site appropriately titled - Ask the East Side Gang.