Night at the races

Last night I went to the race track with my hubby for the first time. He wants me to be involved in it, and I want to support him, so we got a sitter for the girls and off I went. My job was to video the races because he wanted to analyze the take off. I would upload a video but I don't really know how to do that from my video camera I only know how to do it to the computer from my digital camera videos. So no video of the drama that unfolded. It actually all started fine. The car was running good. It seemed like a good night-not as windy as earlier in the day. However, the track might not have been prepped as well as normal since it was only a "test n tune" night instead of a real race night. Dan said that after he got out of the gate the track felt different than it had on other nights. He also was using a "box" for the first time to launch the car from the starting gate. This "box" is a computer that is programmed to get the car off the starting line faster than normal human reaction time. However, the box still has to be programmed by humans to get the right "time" so its a learning process. Well, Dan was kind of not used to that because he'd press "go" (so to speak) then wait about a second or something till the car launches out of the gate based on the lights on the "tree". He said he thinks every time it lauched , it surprised him (because it was new and he had to wait for it) so he might have been jerking the wheel as it accelerated out of the gate , because every pass he took right at the beginning had a little jerk to it off the line. He did however beat every car he was up against, but it wasn't a real race. (Our whole family is competitive, can u tell?) ps. when Dan reads this he may say I said it all wrong, but this is MY interpretation :) and I don't know ALL the race lingo terminology yet so I'm making do- ha ha.

Well anyway, things seem alright, but his times aren't as consistent as they have been in the past (but it is a learning process with the new box,) so take it in stride, until the last run he takes. He lauches off the gate and about 1/3 of the way down the quarter mile I see him start to swerve towards the other lane and you hear this gutteral "NNNNOOOOOOO" scream from me (yes, my heart is starting to race again as I write this and my eyes are tearing up and I DON'T like it). He recovers-PRAISE GOD- and doesn't hit the wall, or the other car which fortunately is way behind him-(even though he says he never crossed into the other lane, which I guess is true, because if he had a certain light goes on at the track to tell u this and it didn't go on). But it scared the living daylights out of me and I don't like it. He didn't like it either so he loaded up the car and we left. But unfortunately, he didn't not like it enough not to drive it again (as he is there tonight). I just pray he is safe. I know he likes to do it, and I know its fun for him and a challenge and he ALWAYS has to have a new challenge in his life to work towards and overcome. But I want him to be safe, so I pray to God every day that he is protected. If he had just come home and told me about it, I would still be concerned, because I'm always concerned when he's racing. But I SAW it, so I KNOW what it felt like to watch it and have that fear in your heart, and it wasn't good.

Before this all happened I had snapped a photo of him by his car, so here is that photo.

That's my cutie, patootie, hot hubby! I love him no matter what! Even if he does scare the bejeezes out of me in that car! If you're reading this sweetie, I LOVE YOU!