JL Motorsports

We arrived at Clay County Speedway after about an hour and a half in the car.  The boys slept the whole way. We had a blast watching James race.  What an adrenaline rush!!! I was very intrigued by the whole process from start to finish.  I  may be biased, but James does an excellent job racing, all I could think of when he was rounding the dirt corners was, "turn right to go left" from the Cars movie! Of course, Nolan thought the race was the coolest thing ever and he already idolizes James.

This is James' first year driving a Non-Wing Sprint Car, which can go up to 140mph!!  The first race is called the heat race, which determines placement for the feature race.  I thought the heat was an exciting race, but everyone kept telling me to wait until the feature.  During downtime, we went to James' trailer, which was heated and loaded with food!!

Since James' car doesn't have a starter, it has to be pushed by the four wheeler onto the track.  Another track car then pushes each car to crank the drive shaft, which in turn fires the engine and makes the car go.  I grew up using the push start method, but it was usually because the starter was broke. :)

After the heat race was completed, James' placed well enough to start in the 4th spot for the feature race.  There are other cars racing during the downtime, which is when James and his crew would make adjustments to his car.  I took some snapshots while some adjustments were being made.

The boys had fun in the trailer while waiting for the feature race.

It was finally time for the feature and Carter was having a meltdown because it was bed time.  Bill stayed in the heated car with Carter, who fell asleep in 2 minutes, while Nolan and I went with the rest of the crew to watch the race.  The feature consists of 20 laps.  As the warm up laps were finishing up, the green flag waved and the cars took off.  Not even a few seconds into the race a car hit the wall and the race had to be stopped.  

After the car was hauled off the race resumed, James made a quick maneuver and put himself in first place!  After several more laps a different car's wheel fell off, and another car flipped after hitting the lost wheel. The race was delayed again.  Finally after two wrecks, the race resumed.  It was a nail biter!!  James held first place for quite awhile, but an experienced driver took first place with only a few laps left.  James ended the feature in 2nd place, which is amazing since it is his first year driving this car!!

With Nolan and Carter being quite a bit older next year, we will definitely be attending more races next season.  Congrats Jimmy!!