Friday morning dawned sunny and hot (funny how this weekend always seems to fall during a heat wave in MO!) and we headed out for Columbia. It’s a nice drive, and arriving at IB Nuts and Racing, we found Aimee, Jean Marie, Jan and Commodore awaiting us. Browsing through, I was disappointed to find that there was very little Kenny Edwards stuff on display…talking to the lady behind the counter, we found that Kenny had a load of t-shirts in his car, and that he would be in around 2pm, so we planned to come back after lunch. I wanted that Kenny Edwards t-shirt I should have bought 2 years ago!!
But for anyone who is in the Columbia area and desires autographed Carl Edwards things, he occasionally stops in there and signs things to leave to be sold to fans, and there are mementos of Carl’s racing on the walls…so look up IB Nuts and Racing in Columbia, MO, officially known as “IB Fruits and Nuts, Too” http://www.ibnuts.com/servlet/the-template/locator/Page And who knows when you might run into an Edwards boy there.
So loaded up on snacks and Carl Edwards items, after having enjoyed the items on display there (a side of Carl’s truck from when he ran the Truck series, trophies, photos, etc) we headed down the road to Home Port.
Perche Creek Yacht Club. A club like no other. Many of us were already members, the remainder wanted to BECOME members. http://www.percheyc.com/
Meeting up with Commodore, who had gone on ahead, and MK, his lovely wife, we proceeded to enjoy Home Port’s wonderful home cooking and the company of our fellow Edheads. The new members submitted their applications, and I sponsored Jeff on his application, earning myself a gold PCYC pin. Yay!!
Lunch passed too quickly, and Commodore then dipped into his “Everything Edwards” goodie bag, handing out miscellaneous prizes for drawings. Commodore Comedy Network calendars, photos, pins etc. were drawn for and everyone got a prize, and lots of pins.
Before we knew it, it was time to head back to St. Louis, but first, a trip back by IB Nuts and Racing to see if Kenny brought his new t-shirts in.
No go. Sadly, they were in his other vehicle, (don’t we all know what THAT is like!!), but we got to meet up with Kenny Edwards, Carl’s little brother, and chat with him a bit, then we headed back to St. Louis. Part of the group was headed to Gateway Raceway for practice for the next day’s Nationwide race, but my group was headed to Tri-City Raceway for our role as Roger Kaido fans. This was going to be fun!!
Arriving at the track, we nabbed seats at the turn 4 end of the grandstands to have a view of the garage outside the track as well as the track. One quick phone call, and Buz joined us from the backstretch, were Roger’s pit was.
The report was that they were having problems with an oil leak…on Roger’s feet. But the young man was soldiering on. Can you imagine how slippery that must have been….sure sometimes you have to deal with a slick track, but slick floorboards???? I’m sure the leak wasn’t THAT bad, but that’s what I imagined.
A $5 pair of plastic goggles and $2 rental of seats with backs were the best investment of the day….we thoroughly enjoyed all the races, but the highlight for us was of course watching this (almost) 14 year old, racing older kids and men, man-handle a car around the track, avoiding the wrecks and picking off positions, starting 18th (of 23 cars) and finishing a respectable 11th place (would have been 10th had the car that spun before the start finish line not backed over it before Roger got there) and keeping the car under control on a track that seemed, to me, to get slicker as the night wore on.
Roger did an AWESOME job, but was disappointed in himself, because he held back a bit, this being his only race car and not wanting to get involved in someone else’s wreck his first time out….he just wished he could have gone all-out, but wisely and maturely realized that could keep him out of other races, if he damaged the car. Roger could teach the likes of Stephen Wallace and Kyle Busch a thing or two, maturity-wise.
Later, watching David Stremme, David Ragan, Stephen and Mike Wallace, Kenny Schrader, and Andy Petree race in the final race (Kenny Wallace chose to be flagman) topped off the night, and we headed home after congratulating Roger on his run, coated in dirt (I’m still picking it out of my ears!!) and happy. There’s no better way to spend a Friday night before a NASCAR race than at the racetrack!!
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