It wasn't the pressure of being in the final nor the pot. Been there, done that. It was the side bet. Jeeze - what was I thinking!!

Unlike SOME people, that pranced their way to the finals through break downs and byes and beating up on gir...er, I mean Mustangs, I fought my way through a bevy of tough competitors. KOH competition is getting tough . Everybody has stepped up their game - but Ichabod Car was deadly consistent. I was dialed hard - really really hard. The last three rounds it ran 0.002, 0.005 and 0.001 over my dial. Yes - my soul is intact. It was just one of those exceptional days.

My old friend Dick Dreher was at the track. I made sure he got into KOH. I forgot to tell him that Irwindale's roll out is a bit short. He went red. Whoops! My bad.

There was a pause in the action while we all sang Happy Birthday to John Pandeles. Happy Birthday John. Everybody loaded up on cake. I loaded up on beans. Here's your tip of the day guys - The more you toot, the better you feel. Eat more beans!

Part of the side bet was - winner would be King of the World. But even that was not the cause of all the pressure. Earlier I was lined up with Box Boy, in the first lap of TnT. I peeked into his window to see where he had set his box. The dials read
"H", "E", "R", "O”. We raced for King of the World that lap. Hugo went 0.499 red. So I was already King of the World.

I work well under pressure - and I wasn't feeling any yet . In the finals I decided to sweeten the pot - raise the stakes. On top of all that was at stake I offered to race for the honor of foot brake racers everywhere. That did it. Box Boy was on his game. I was sweating bullets.

Footbrake racers - your honor is intact. You’re all welcome.


Cheers,

Tootin' Tim