August 4, 2010

Mandy’s Monthly!- August

Hello! It is hard to believe that it is August already…but the heat tells me it is definitely August. The last month has been a dry spell for the Pittman Family win wise, but with all the racing friends that are injured it is hard to complain. Best Wishes go out to the Wayne Johnson Family for his leg injury, Travis Rilat Family for his burn injuries, and TMAC’s family for his leg injuries. Hopefully these guys make a Speedy Recovery. As a wife it is scary and hard to hear stories about injured friends as most racing families depend solely on the racing income to support their family. I challenge each of the readers to buy one of these guy’s shirts and show your support for their recovery efforts.

I would also like to send my condolences on the Tyson Perez Family. Daryn and I did not know Tyson personally but we have seen him at the track. Prayers are with his family as they find comfort in the difficult days. RIP Tyson!

Well in the last month Daryn has raced 3 different cars with mixed results in each. Thanks to the Hepfner’s for allowing us to race in Illinois and Wisconsin. Also, for the much needed trip to the lake! The next week saw Daryn race Limaland for the Brad Doty Classic and the King’s Royal. We drew a late number for qualifying at the Brad Doty race and timed in an exciting 12th place, which was great for when we went out. BUT …we were 1 pound light at the scales. 1 FREAKING POUND! The #13 car has raced with the WOO before and never been close at the scales – same car, same motor and now light?? The WOO was using the track scales that night and they were obviously different than the regular WOO scales ….so different in fact at the King’s Royal we were 25 pounds over weight with the same car, same motor, same amount of fuel!!??? Who would know except our team has learned a lesson and will now weigh the car before qualifying each night.

King’s Royal weekend saw a 10th place finish the first night and a strong run going during Saturday BUT as Daryn was entering turn 3 about halfway thru the race he blew a left rear tire. After that he was along for the ride – interpreted he junked the race car! He was okay except a sore knee…this resulted in us having no ride for the Don Martin Memorial at Lernerville so Daryn called Mike Heffner and the #27 team and they committed to run the race.

We raced the Sunday after the King’s Royal in Franklin, PA with the All Stars in the #27 car with a disappointing 6th place. The next day Daryn drove the truck and trailer with the race car and I drove the motorhome to Lernerville. Thanks to Paul McMahan who helped Daryn at the car wash! Daryn then did all the maintenance on the race car by himself with little help from me and Taylor. Taylor played with the cooler and I cleaned the floor and helped unload the car other than that DP was a one man band. It was disappointing for us as all that hard work was unnoticed as we did not qualify that well at the Lernerville race and was then taken out on lap 1 by a spinning car. UGH!! Racing an emotional roller coaster!!

The Summer Nationals weekend at the Grove we did not make the 16 car invert either night … we did the math later and in the 3 races that Daryn missed the invert it totaled less than a tenth that he missed the top 16 in all 3 races totaled. That is how close qualifying is with the WOO!

We are now headed to Kville as Taylor and I will watch Poppy’s car at the 360 Nationals while Daryn will fly to PA to race the KKR Foundation Race tomorrow, the 360 and 410 Friday at the Grove, and “The Dream” Saturday at Port. He then heads back to Kville to race Osky on Monday and qualify Thursday at Nationals. We are really excited about the Nationals this year as the Indy Race Parts car has a new paint scheme and is going to be supa fast!!! Hopefully we have a good few weeks and you can see the #27 and #13 in victory lane soon!!

Chat soon!