Rowing, The Who, and racing at ButtonWillow

Happy Sunday!

I hope this message finds you well and well-rested. Things are going well here. This has been a good week for us. On Monday, Catherine headed to Omak with Kat to volunteer at the Big Fix, where they help spay and neuter approximately 1,000 cats and dogs. Tuesday, we had soup night without Catherine. Justine made some excellent soup, and we all had a good time.

On Wednesday, I helped Tom and Helen with an appointment they had, which was beneficial.

Thursday, I started the day rowing with my friend Jonathon, and then took the opportunity to go on a nice, big bike ride on my way home. Headed down the east side of Lake Union. Over to the waterfront, and down to the stadiums before heading home.

Thursday night, Scott and I headed down to Climate Pledge Arena to see The Who play. i have to say that exceeded my expectations, and that my AirPod pros really helped manage the noise levels. (It was loud!)

Scott and I had an easy bus ride home from there. I got about three and a half hours of sleep before getting up and heading to the airport via the Link Light Rail to fly to LA, where Eric picked me up and we drove up to the ButtonWillow race track, where the close enough engineering team was racing in a 24 Hours of Lemons race. Kyle and Andy trailered the car down and we all arrived at the track around 1:30 in the afternoon. There was a slight challenge in passing the tech inspection, as our fire extinguisher bottle was out of date. We tried nightly to find someone who would re-certify it. to no avail. We were able to convince the judges that it was suitable for this race. (It had a full charge) And we would have it brought up to date for the next race in December.

After the practice sessions for the day were completed, the track was open for a track walk, so we joined the parade and walked the 3-mile track as the sun was setting. That really helped us get a sense of the track, as none of us had ever raced on this track before.

After walking the track, we headed to Bakersville for dinner and a beer, and then to the motel to sleep.

Saturday, we ran pretty clean. Andy got two black flags for bumping into other cars. I received a black flag in my first stint when the muffler hanger failed, causing me to drag the muffler. We were able to secure it with some wire, and we were back racing. I had the last stint of the day, and it finished early under yellow when a car blew up its motor and transmission on the front straight. The organizers figured that it would take longer then the amount of time left to clean it up, so they ended the session about 10 minutes early.

Today we ran clean again. My stint was in the middle of the day, and it was getting hot (although not as hot as yesterday). The race wrapped up at 3:30 - we loaded the car on the trailer, had a celebratory beer, and then everyone hit the Road. Eric gave me a ride to LAX, with a stop along the way for dinner.

Tomorrow and the rest of the week are expected to be rainy. I'm thinking I may sleep in 😄

Love you all!

Dan W