Page 190 of The Legend
Tate tookover most of the Cup team and merged it with his but kept the Riley Racing namein honor of Jimi.
I mergedmy sprint car team with dads and ran them all under JAR Racing. It was so mucheasier that way and for tax purposes, was ideal.
Alley wasable to relax too. She no longer had to keep me in check at the track so shefinally got a chance to be with her family as did Emma. Both were still activeparticipants in our fan clubs, publicity, and charity events but it was a lotmore relaxed these days. They spent most of their time traveling around with usjust like our summers together. The only problem I had with all of us travelingnow was the pranks that didn’t swing in my favor and Rosa. She was still withus. We did manage to get her to cook though. It was a fucking miracle.
Casten,our only child still at home, managed to graduate his sophomore year at sixteenand then started working full time for my sprint car team and CST Engines. Somethought it was strange but aside being full of wit and charm, Casten wasextremely smart. We always knew he was intelligent when he was younger butnever thought much of it when he decided he didn’t want to be potty traineduntil he was damn near four-years-old.
Though itwas incredibly hectic at times, Casten, Noah and Charlie made a good team withCST Engines.
Lane endedup coming to work for us too and worked primarily with Rager’s team as his crewchief. Willie moved over to be Tyler’s crew chief when Justin decided to retireand Tommy stayed with Axel. Cole, the delinquent, when he wasn’t in trouble, hedid most of the web designs, videos and social media for JAR Racing which Iappreciated because I knew nothing about it.
We weredoing well that year and back to traveling with the sprint car team. Being backaround all the tracks that I grew up racing at was like reliving our summerstogether. Only difference, I could finally show my wife just how much I wantedher in the back of my hauler or the bed of my truck. I didn’t have to thinkabout how this would change our lives or interfere with the Triple Crown. I wasretired and racing the way I wanted to race, for fun.
And mymom, well she went with us and we wouldn’t have had it any other way. It wasthe perfect setup for all of us. I missed Arie and wished she was there too butshe had a good thing going with Easton and with me still partial owner of RileyRacing, I still saw her a couple times a month if not more.
Someprobably want to know when that first win came for me now that I was back toracing sprint cars. The first win came at a track I knew well in Banks Oregoncalled Sunset Speedway.
I lovedSunset Speedway almost as much as I loved racing at Grays Harbor.
Spenceralways missed the turn to Sunset Speedway. Every single time, he missed theexit and every single time, we turned around and he would say, “Damn, I thoughtit was down further.”
With thickred clay and grandstands inches from the front stretch, it had some of the mostexciting racing on the West coast. On the front stretch there’s a rut rightunder the flag stand. As soon as you came out of four and got back on the gas,you went straight into that trench.
Walkingthe track prior to the main that night, I remember so much about that track andour summers here. I remember the time I blew the engine in my late model outlawand Sway convinced some guy to give me his engine so I could run the main. Iremembered watching my dad break the track record here countless times andfollowing him around as a kid wondering if I would ever be as good as he was.
Afterwalking the entire track, I made my way to the pits to see that Sway was doingthe very same thing, staring at the truck.
Sway lovedSunset because you can get within feet of the cars on the front stretch if youwere brave enough. You can see straight in the cars, watch the driversmovements of their aggressive driving styles and the pop of the throttle, sheetmetal vibrating and all the thick sounds of racing you don’t usually hear tenrows back.
When I gotback to the hauler, they sounded the horn for the drivers to return to theircars and line up. All the usual outlaw guys were there tonight including myson.
At times,it was still hard racing with him. Mostly from fear but it was easy to get overwhen I realized how much it meant to him having me with him.
Beforethat race at Sunset, he came up to me as I was getting my suit on and makingsure I had plenty of tear offs on my visor and wished me luck. He was hard tobeat these days so I knew it wasn’t going to be easy but I also knew I had thistrack and setup figured out tonight. After all, I broke the track recordtonight, which was still held by my dad, until now.
Tonight,you could feel the excitement in the air and it was impossible not to feel theenergy around us. I knew tonight might be the night I pull off a win. It wasn’tlike me to not get a win already but then again I had only raced in a handfulof races so far this year.
There wasabout a ten minute delay when a couple cars got caught up in a wreck that drewthe red flag in the B-Main so I pulled Sway inside the hauler when I heard afamiliar song from our past.
WhenAlabama’sDancin’Shaggin’on the Boulevardcame on, I reached for her hands and spun her around, onehand on her hip, the other holding her hand. Whispering the lyrics, I get intune with the song and even pegged the higher lyrics.
The teamaround me laughed as I serenaded my wife loud enough for the entire pits tohear. Some took pictures, others taped it and Willie sang with me.
Swaygiggled almost the entire time and then looked up at me, her hands in my hair.“I’m gonna tell you the same thing I said the last time we danced to this songat this same track...” she paused leaningin to whisper in my ear. “Win for me.”
I smiled.“Will do honey.”
Spark Plug – Sway
Iabsolutely loved the feeling that washed over me when I sat in the stands of alocal dirt tracks and Jameson came rumbling onto the track. It was differentfrom any NASCAR race. This, with the dirt spraying up and the thick lingeringmethanol was us.
Tommy andWillie took a seat next to me along with Casten and Lily, Jack sitting securelyon Spencer’s shoulder’s as Jameson tested the grip up high drifting up there inthe pace laps and blipping the throttle. The action sent his rear tires into aspinning drift.
Arie, whowe hadn’t seen in weeks, showed up as they did pace laps with Easton, Kyle, andTate close behind her. She’d brought the Cup team out to watch her daddy.
I nearlycried.
Weimmediately hugged and the guys started making small talk. These days Arie wastraveling with Easton and living the lifestyle that Jameson and I had for somany years. Most of the team aside from Spencer and Aiden was the same so Iknew they had a good thing going there.
