Racing…It’s A Family Thing
Not long after Dave and I started dating, he took me to Skagit Speedway. I think it was a test because he loved the races and while I had been to many different races with my Dad, I had not been to a sprint car race and not to a dirt track. Since I didn’t really know what was going on I asked a lot of questions. Dave didn’t seem to mind and I had a great time.
We spent a lot of time at the two local race tracks over the years. Tucker and Tanner both loved going. In fact, a perfect weekend for them was going to Deming Speedway on Friday and Skagit Speedway on Saturday. The only thing that made it better was if we camped at the race tracks on the respective nights. Tanner had even had several of his birthday parties tailgating at the race track. Cake, ice cream a few friends and his brother. What else could a guy need?
Oh how my boys loved going in the pits, talking to the drivers, sitting in the race cars, and just hanging out. I loved watching them get so excited to talk to their favorite drivers and checking out the race cars. As you can imagine, they both wanted a race car. We told them when they saved the money and bought their own car, we would support them.
Their love of the races and us going as a family never faded. Through their high school sports seasons, sometimes going to the races took a back seat, but the love for the track and the sport was always there.
Fast forward to spring of 2018. Tanner had spent a couple of summers commercial fishing in Alaska. You know where this is going don’t you? He found a sprint car for sale and he talked his Dad and brother into going to look at it with him. A few hours later I got a text from my husband with a picture of the car loaded into a trailer with the caption “and so it begins”. My response to him was “we both knew this day was coming”.
When they would play race cars, the boys called their team TnT Motorsports. Tucker and Tanner or Tanner and Tucker, depends on who you asked. When I asked Tanner what we were going to call this outfit he reminded me that they had named it years ago. My heart smiled.
I help in whatever way they need me to. I have helped put the motor and radiator in, checked air in tires, put vinyl on, picked up parts, washed race suits, and even got to drive the car around the driveway. It’s not all fun. Sometimes it’s hard work. Like anything else though what you invest is what you get out. I see it as an investment in my family.
So here we are spring of 2021 and beginning our 4th race season as TnT Motorsports. We have spent countless hours in the shop together, at Deming Speedway most Friday nights, and even made a couple of trips to California with the car. I honestly wouldn’t want it any other way, because there is nothing in this world like watching your grown kids do what they love to do and do it together.
Last weekend we had our play day, at Deming, to kind of knock the dust off and get some bugs worked out. As I walked around and saw the different people that I will spend the next 6 months with, my heart smiled and I thought to myself these are my people. They are our track family and you won’t meet a kinder, more generous group of people anywhere.
So now you have a small snipit of what sprint car racing is to us and now you know why I get so excited about RaceDay so watch for my Friday posts on Instagram and Facebook.
