January 20, 2011

Mandy’s Monthly!- January

Happy New Year Everyone! Well, the Pittman household has been crazy as usual with Chili Bowl and preparing for the upcoming season. We ventured to Tulsa early for the Chili Bowl to put the Bob Hurley Ford midget on display at the dealership and to spend a little extra time with Daryn’s parents. Chili Bowl was a fun week and it was great to watch Daryn get so excited even just to hot lap. He was like a kid in a candy store everytime he got out of that car. He would be grinning ear to ear saying “these things are so much fun to drive!” He is already looking at more midget races…I’m not so sure about that though! Trust me we had our issues with the midget over the week (battery, engine, another battery, and a crank trigger – I think that is what is was called!), but in the end a 10th place finish in the A Main at the Chili Bowl with over 270 cars – we are happy! Daryn did not race until Friday so we were spectators for a few nights, which is always fun especially there. You can never under estimate the exciting racing at that race. It is some of the best racing & closest finishes all year! We finished the preliminary night with a 5th place finish- I honestly believe if we had a couple more laps we would have been 3rd. On Saturday we started on the front row of the B main and transferred to the main event starting 22nd. That 50 lap A Main seemed to last days ….Daryn raced his way up to 6th and then got caught up with a spinning car. After he went to the back he finished a respectable 10th. It is nice to have be racing at the Chili Bowl, but packing up and cleaning up after the races stinks.

Special thanks to Raymond Miller and crew chief Dave Sharpley!! I am sure it was a lot more work than either of you anticipated…..We had a great time and could not have done this week without ya! Thanks!

Also, without our sponsors our Chili Bowl would not happen – THANKS to Bob Hurley Ford, Danny’s Auto Salvage, BPG, Hop & Sack Convenience Stores, Penske Shocks, and Hepfner Race Products for allowing us to use their trailer.

As I type Daryn and Sean have been driving the new truck and trailer to Pennsylvania to get ready for Georgia. The guys have worked on the trailer in Indy the last few days and it looks awesome. I can’t wait for the season to begin.

Our schedule is still not finalized but I can tell you we will be doing Georgia and all the Florida races – hopefully even the 360 ones!

I hope everyone is keeping warm and did not get the “Chili Bowl Flu” as I did….yucky stuff!

See ya at the races in less than 15 days!!

Chat soon!