INTO THE SUMMER... a busy time (Part 173u)

INTO THE SUMMER… busy time (Part 173u)

To say it was an awkward situation is to put it mildly. Martha and Mattie didn’t know what to do or say so were standing in the pathway that ran next to the little plot of grass we were occupying. Hank had retreated back into the area that he and Lil had staked out and, with his arms crossed, stood there staring at all of us. Not a comfortable situation. I do remember looking back towards the picnic area and seeing the security guard right at the fringe of it. Some minutes passed without much being said before all the kids in our own group re-appeared and wanting to eat. Hearing that I breathed a sigh of relief. I was concerned about Lil as the women gathered the kids to explain how we were to get our food. When I saw Hank looking away I asked Lil if she wanted to join us. She declined and said she was able to handle Hank from here on in. I remember forming a look of doubt on my face only to have her tell me again that she would be OK. As I turned to leave I heard her sort of whisper. “Thanks…”. When I walked past the security guard I asked him to keep an eye on both Hank and Lil. I told him that Hank was “volatile” and wasn’t sure what would happen. He nodded and took a few steps in that direction. In line for the food I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of life it was for Lil to be with a jerk like Hank.

One thing I wanted to do while the others were in line for their food was to find Trish and Chaz. In the process I ran across Hobie and J J. Hobie told me she was sitting in for Lena, taking tickets in the food line. When I walked past about two dozen people to get to her I got yelled at for cutting in line. I wanted to explain what she and Chaz had walked into and to thank both of them for stepping up. Chaz wasn’t there but I told her to make sure and let him know how much I appreciated his help. She just smiled.

With ten people in all we’d come in two cars. That meant I’d have to drive Elle and the kids back home and then take off for the races. ButI did a quick calculation and figured that if we left the picnic grounds by 2pm I could be home in time to be picked up the guys when they would stop to pick up Dick. He lived less than a half mile from me and on the same road. The kids weren’t happy with that decision but Elle was. After eating, when we got back to our little area, there was no sign of Lil, Hank or her kids. All their bags and the cooler they’d brought were gone. That was a good thing for us. When I told Mattie and Martha of our changed plans they opted to stay. I made sure they knew how to get back to their house and then loaded up our things.

We arrived in our driveway a little before 3pm. I knew it would be ’tight’ but called over to Dick’s house as soon as I walked in. Ra, his wife, answered but before I could even ask for Dick she said she wanted to speak to Elle and that it was sort of important. I called out to Elle but while waiting for her to come to the phone asked if Dick had left for the races. The answer was “yes” which wasn’t what I wanted to hear. By then Elle was standing next to me so turned the phone over to her and headed upstairs to get dressed for the races. On my way back down the stairs I caught the end of Elle’s conversation with Ra and asked what it was about. It, in a weird way, was good news for me.

Ra and Beth would go to the races together, leaving about an hour and a half after the race car left. Beth had her sister to watch her kids and Ra had her sister-in-law for hers. But, the sister-in-law had gotten sick and wouldn’t be able to do it. In a bit of a panic, and knowing that Elle didn’t go to the races, called to see if her girls could sleep over. She was going to take the boys so that part was covered. I’ve written about the problem with Dee, their oldest girl, and as soon as Elle told me I figured that Elle had said “No” to the request. Quite surprising me, she said she would. I remember making a ‘face’ and then listening to Elle say she still had the rubber sheet from when Barbara, the principal’s daughter, had lived with us. I think I might’ve shrugged my shoulders to indicate that she’d now accepted the problem and I was out of it. I was heading out the door when it came to me that if I waited until Beth came by to pick up Ra and her two boys I could go with them. I stopped and retreated back into the house and picked up the phone. “No problem…” was Ra's response to my request. However, I had to ’steel’ myself to listening to two women talking for an hour and a quarter… plus try to entertain two young boys as well.

I survived and found the car was out on the racetrack for the first practice. I tracked down the rest of the crew and asked how things were going. Dick, concentrating on his stopwatch, shot back that there seemed to be something wrong with the fuel injectors. To me that didn’t make much sense as we’d not changed anything since the previous race night. There was nothing I could offer so just stood and watched Cliffy make about five more laps. Back in the pit stall Cliffy was beside himself about how “sluggish’ the accelerator response was. He was pretty loud about it and within a few seconds Pee Wee, the driver who pitted next to us, appeared. “It’s the humidity…” was what he said. Then he added “You’ll learn…” and walked away The whole concept of fuel injection was so foreign to me I half stepped back to listen to the comments. It was about ten or so minutes later I saw Freddy, the driver who’d loaned the set-up to us, approaching. He along with Cliffy, Dick and Alan went over to the motor and after a lot of discussion I saw Alan retrieve the box of “pills” that Freddy had given to us along with the hardware. Five minutes later they started the motor, revved it up a couple of times and I watched as Cliffy climbed in to go out for the second warm-up period. This time Dick was a lot happier as he clicked the stopwatch when Cliffy drove by. When Cliffy drove back into the pit stall he was also smiling. The sluggishness was gone. (What we learned was that fuel injection systems, using alcohol for fuel, are very sensitive to humidity and sometimes it takes multiple tries to find the “pill” that will allow the optimum mixture of air and fuel.)

The next thing for us to focus on was just where we’d be starting in our qualifying heat race. I’ve written about when a car misses three nights of racing over a short period of time it is no longer handicapped (as to starting position) by money earned. It has to establish a new three nights of racing to be handicapped again. New cars to the track or cars like us who missed out for three weeks have to start in the back of each race (qualifying/feature). We’d done our ‘penance’ and were looking forward to starting up front or very close to it. We all went over to where the starting lineups were posted and I cursed when I saw we were starting fifth. The other’s couldn’t believe it either with Cliffy storming into the office of the Chief Steward. In spite of the noise of cars out on the track we could hear Cliffy cussing the man, up one side and down the other. His face was beet red when he came out and he didn’t stop to say anything to us as he headed back towards our pit stall. It wasn’t a good sign, at all.

To be continued…