Last Saturday Dom and I drove over to Wenatchee (located in the eastern part of Washington State) to visit my sister, Patty and her family. Her son Thomas raced that evening at the Wenatchee Valley Super Oval in the Youth Hornet class. Another friend of ours, Ron, raced in the Legends class.
We left Whidbey Island at about 11:30 and arrived at Patty and Scott's house just before 4 pm. The drive over Stevens Pass was gorgeous except for the heavy traffic through Sultan, Goldbar, etc. We stopped at Zeke's for burgers for lunch.
After an early dinner at Patty's those of us not involved in the pits headed over to the track. It is a 1/4 mile oval located in the hills of East Wenatchee at Fancher Field only about 10 minutes away. On Saturday the temperature peaked at 110 degrees F. and at the start of the races it was not much cooler. Luckily we found seats in a patch of shade and there was a slight breeze. All in all we stayed as comfortable as can be expected given the heat and the hard bleacher seats. I chilled out with a raspberry shaved ice and a bottle of water.
Earlier in the day Ron called and asked Dom if he wanted to help out in the pits. Dom agreed to do so and had a lot of fun. His expertise was much appreciated.
In the stands I sat with Patty, Ron's wife Arlene, our mutual friend Deb, and a variety of Patty's in-laws. For a while my niece Emily was there but she had to go off and console a girlfriend who broke up with her boyfriend. Ah, the pangs of adolescence!
All of us watching were either motorheads ourselves or had spent enough time in close proximity to some that we really enjoyed the races. Like most sports if you don't understand the nuances it can be a little boring. Patty's mother-in-law told me that sometimes she had brought a book to the races. There was a time I would have done the same but no longer.
Here's Thomas looking very racy with his dark shades.
Ron and Thomas in front of Ron's car. Thomas got fast qualifying time in his class and Ron won one of the trophy dash events in his class.
Here's Ron receiving his trophy from the trophy girl.
The chief flagman was incredibly enthusiastic. He was as much a show as the racing! It turned out he raced against Ron years ago in the Tri-Cities.
I kept getting lost in the action so I did not take many pictures of the racing. It is awfully hard to do that well in any case.
Here is Thomas pulling up in front of the flagstand after he won the main event in his class. He has six firsts out of six races this season. Way to go, Thomas!!!
Here is Thomas receiving his trophy.
Here is video of the post-race interview with Thomas.
We had a great time in Wenatchee (in spite of the heat). The next morning we had breakfast at Patty and Scott's and then headed home over Snoqualmie Pass. We stopped briefly at Alpental and then continued on. It was about 4 pm when we got back to our house on Whidbey Island.
