The rain held off all afternoon and most of the evening at Orlando Speedworld as we prepared for the 50 lap special Sportsman race.

We bought new tires, went out for one practice to scuff them up, and I pulled some mid 15 laps, a marked improvement over the last time out.

Since this was a special race, we actually got to qualify for our starting positions and no heat race.

My heart was pounding as we waited in line for qualifying.  I was very nervous, knowing I was going out there on my own for 2 laps with cold tires.

With a lap time on the second lap of 15.28, I qualified 10th (out of 18) which is ok, but not that impressive when Andy "Dr. Boom" Nicholls qualifies on the pole with a 14.72.

After the other classes had their heat races we all went out on the track and parked on the front stretch for an autograph session.  It was kind of fun signing the kids programs, but I was still stressing, knowing we had 50 laps to run and there was rumor of rain in the area.

Finally we loaded in to the cars and started warm up laps, just as drops started to fall.  We were hoping it would pass by, but eventually the red flag came out as the visibility was horrible with the wet windshield.

In we went, to wait for it to pass.

Around 10:15 I climbed in again to go out and give it a second try.  This time we got the race started.

I didn't race so well.  I think I got some water in the carburetor or something, because it sputtered for two laps on every restart.  Not good when I decided to slide to the back and watch the wrecks on the wet track.

And wrecks there were!  Many!  Soon I was up to 8th or 9th, just by passing some slow cars and attrition.

Then I hit a guy trying to pass him, messed up my air intake, and the car started getting hot, so I retired in 12th place, out of 17 starters.  I lasted 39 out of 50 laps.

It was fun though, but I'm glad I have a break now.  That was my last Sportsman race of the year.  I may run a Late Model race next month, but that is TBD.

Thanks to new sponsor Beef'O'Brady's of Avalon Park for helping out this week.

Also thanks to:
EOSun.com for T-shirts
InsightMG.com for the coverage
JamesFyffeCPA.com for support and the video camera
PaysourceUSA.net for financial support
and as always, my wife Katheen for putting up with my midlife crisis :)