My family and I were going to be traveling to Jennings GP without Mark Steedly this weekend. He worked hard with his dad on a roof and took his back out of commission. Not only would my mentor be missing that weekend, but that also meant I had to prepare for my first chapel service. Needless to say, I was more nervous about preparing for the message that I was for racing. We found ourselves setting up somewhat late on Friday night. Amy usually sets up the camper while I set up my bike and gear and the kids make lots of noise trying to wake up the neighbors.

Saturday morning came early as usual and practice went fairly well. The track was hot and provided for somewhat slower track times. It took me quite some time to settle in and relax on the bike. We were able to relax Saturday night and grill out. Sunday morning practice was much better. The lap times came down and I felt like I was ready.

We had a nice turnout for chapel considering the very low overall turnout for the weekend.. The lesson I gave was ìWhat Drives Your Lifeî. I touched on the five common emotions that drive our lives and the five benefits of purpose driven living. Relating this lesson to racing was actually a lot of fun for me. Who knew that God could use me to speak to others in a way that was easy to understand?

After the chapel service, I went directly to prepare for two races that day. I had a little bit of time and felt very relaxed. When called for my first race, I put in a hot lap and gridded up with V7HW behind the B Superbike experts. When the green flag waved, I got a decent start and was able to get around a large group in turn one to begin to lead the first lap. The bike was running very strong as I came around turn 14 and saw a meatball flag and the starter pointing at me. At least that was what I first thought, and then I saw another racers number on the board. He was pointing to another rider behind me. I felt relieved, at least for a very brief moment. What I did not realize was that I was spending too much of my time thinking about that meatball flag and not concentrating on my downshifts. I should preface this with the fact that I was working on turn one and my shift points during practice. I felt that I was not getting out of turn one fast enough and was playing with two downshifts instead of one. Well, I had decided on one for the race, but my mind somehow grabbed two and I over-revved the motor. I probably waited a little too long to go back up in the gearbox. While coming out of turn one, I heard a loud clacking sound coming from beneath me and the motor felt down on power. I backed off a little continued around turn two. I then noticed the temp up a little higher than normal, and pulled out of the race line. I continued until turn 12 and felt as if the motor was not going to make it the full race and pulled off track to the fence. After getting a ride back to the pits, my wife informed me I was about 8 seconds ahead of my group. I just know that I would have had 1st! Needless to say I was quite disappointed. We packed up quickly to get the bike to Rick Matheney in Atlanta that night thinking it was a dropped valve. Rick gave me the news the next day that I had spun a bearing. Not quite what I was hoping for. I was quite discouraged knowing I had blown my motor. I always thought I was the type not to be hard on things. But I realized that God has a purpose for everyone and everything. I realized that I needed to listen to the lesson I gave on Sunday. I should let Godís purpose for me drive my life, and not let my emotions get in the way.