Dirt Tracking – Driving hard into a corner on a paved track causing the rear end to swing out wide as if on a dirt surface.
Discovering why an engine failed isn’t always an easy process. And, sometimes, it’s unexpected. One minute you’re riding around the track, passing cars and gaining positions, and then the next thing you know all that power is gone, and it just blows.
No warning, no shaking, just blows.
I knew why my engine failed. I was poorly lubricated, overheated daily, had too much heat and pressure, and my bearings were misaligned. I had no choice now but to disassemble, clean, inspect and rebuild.
“Everything I’m doing is for a reason. This is what I wanted.”
I told myself that daily.
No matter how many times I told myself that, I still wondered what would be different if I didn’t let Sway leave.
Not that I could have stopped her had I told her I felt something; that I didn’t understand if that something was more.
Would that have stopped the engine failure?
Probably not.
Regardless, something had to give. I’d been running in the red too long.
Sway was always there. If I called in the middle of the night needing reassurance, she was there no matter what. Even though she wasn’t physically with me, she stood by me through it all. Despite being crabby and irritable most of the time, she was there talking me through it. She knew to leave me alone when I needed solitude and supported me when no one else did.
We talked often. She flew out to see me whenever she could and I even made the occasional trip to Bellingham. Sure, I made use of it by racing up at Skagit but I got to see Sway and that was the real reason.
During my 2000 season, I needed all the seat time I could get as my season was a string of shoddy performances in the USAC divisions. I was hanging strong with the World of Outlaws and even contemplated running their season full-time next year with a car from my dad.
It had been a while since I had last seen Sway as she had been concentrating on finals and my schedule had been tight, so I sat alone in the hauler prior to the opening night of Las Vegas Nationals for the World of Outlaws and talked to her on the phone.
“Everyone knows you around here. They keep asking me if I know you!” Sway chimed. She seemed in good spirits today after her finals. It was now the middle of April and soon she’d be on spring break and I couldn’t wait for spring break.
“And, you say?”
“I say, nah, I don’t know him. I hear he’s an asshole though,” she laughed.
“That’s what they all say,” I laughed. Leaning down to pick up the shock on the floor of the hauler, I continued our conversation. “So, when do I get to see your smiling face again. I miss you.”
“Um, well, my finals are finished now so I was thinking by the time you are in Eldora I could come and see you.”
We had planned on her coming to Eldora eventually for the Kings Royal in July but May sounded a whole hell of a lot better to me.
My mood improved immensely.
“That would be good. I could use some Sway time.”
“I could use some Jameson time,” she sighed contently. “No one gets me here. They all look at me like I’m crazy.”
“You are crazy.”
“I know but, jeez... they don’t have to look at me weird all the time.”
“Who looks at you weird?”
“Other girls.”
“They’re jealous because you’re so hot.”
“Thanks,” she replied sarcastically and then laughed.
Spencer opened the door to the hauler and stuck his head inside. “You’re up for hot laps.”
I nodded and then yanked the door closed.
“Hey, Sway, I gotta go. Call you after the race?”
“Yeah, sure, good luck tonight.”
“Thanks,” I said, before bolting out the door.
I made fast time, no surprise there but I didn’t think people noticed until I got back to the pits, my grin ratted me out when a pregnant Alley came waddling up to me with a clip board.
“Must have talked with Sway.”
My grin widened and thankfully I hadn’t pulled off my helmet and could disguise it.
I still hadn’t figured out what had gone wrong with my mechanical failure but I had a good idea of where to look. Sway.
Something was changing within our friendship but instead of trying to locate it, I overlooked it. Now wasn’t the time. She had the college thing going and I was still undecided as to where I wanted my racing career to go. So, it was what is was. Friends who talked almost daily, texted like high school girls and kissed when they saw each other. To the outside world, it looked like we were dating on our own schedules but it wasn’t that. I just could never control myself around her and ended up attacking the poor girl.
I ended up winning the feature that night and felt good about my chances for next season; after battling my dad all night long, I beat him by a mere three inches.
If you think about it, slowly, I was rebuilding my engine and was trying to ensure it wasn’t just a rev motor because it needed to be one to last.
I also needed to work on my concentration. I wasn’t focused as I’ve always been so I was working on that, too.
SWAY CAME OUT to see me during her spring break when we were racing in Kansas City at Lakeside Speedway. She was originally going to come for Eldora but she ended up needing to stay and finish a few classes.
After that trip to Kansas, I swore I’d never return to that fucking city. Eventually I did but never during tornado season.
The day started normally as I picked Sway up from the airport and we went to the track after eating some breakfast. I admit that I did kiss her and it was as gratifying as it had always been.
When we got to the track, the weather started changing and the sky started talking.
Ryder and Justin were both racing with us this weekend. Sometime after we ran our hot laps and before the heat races began, Ryder came up to me.
“Those skies are rumbling, man.”
I looked up from the tires I was scraping mud from into distant fields. Through a dark skyline, you could see thunderclouds rumbling and lightning flickering.
“Yeah, they’re talking that’s for sure.”
The race was scheduled to start sometime after three that afternoon but the weather, being spring in the Midwest, was sketchy. We sat around most of the morning wondering if they’d even get the race in until the announcer came on and said they were cancelling it.
We packed up and pulled onto Highway 5 toward Wolcott when I noticed the sky turning colors off to the east of us. Having been around some crazy weather at times in the Midwest, I chalked this up to a thunderstorm rolling though. Oh, was I wrong.
It wasn’t until the hail started and cars began to turn around and travel the opposite direction from us that I realized something might not be right.
Spencer, being Spencer, was driving blaring his new Britney Spears CD.
Sway was just as alarmed as me but because of Spencer’s singing voice and not the weather. Alley, being pregnant and extremely exhausted, was sleeping.
I could still see Ryder’s hauler in front of us and knew Emma was with him and Tommy.
No one else seemed to be alarmed. I thought maybe I was overreacting. I was so wrong. The shit was about to hit the fan.
While merging onto Hutton Road, I realized this shit was flying. Looking off to the West, the sky had turned a pea soup color and the hail was coming down so hard that you couldn’t see a foot in front of the car.
Spencer turned the stereo down. “Shit, look at that hail!”
Ryder pulled over before merging onto the Interstate and got out to run back to our truck with Tommy and Emma following close behind. So now we had seven people piled into the truck with Tommy sitting on my lap.
I was not amused.
“What are you guys doing?” I was more specifically asking Tommy this question, but not directly.
Everyone looked skeptically at each other before answering.
“We thought it was safer in here ...” Tommy answered.
None of these assholes seemed particularly sharp at the moment.
I couldn’t understand the reasoning behind them thinking they were safer in here and I was not impressed that Tommy felt the need to sit on my lap, but was cut off by a loud siren blaring. It sounded like a bullhorn but kept going, and going.
Everyone panicked so I tried to take control. Taking control in my mind was getting Tommy off my lap and assessing the situation outside, without seven people yelling their own theories as to what was happening.
“What’s that noise?” I asked when Spencer and I got out of the truck, everyone else stayed inside, scared I imagined.
“What noise?” he asked covering his ears.
Calmly, not at all like I wanted to, I removed his hands from his ears, “That noise.”
“I don’t know!” he yelled. “I can’t hear anything over that siren.”
“What is it?” I thought I was being clear.
“What is what?”
“The fucking siren!” I screamed. “That’s the noise I’m referring to!”
“Oh, that. Hell, I think it’s.” We looked up to see everyone, aside from Alley, running full speed in our direction.
Being nine months pregnant, Alley was in no shape to be running.
“It’s a tornado siren, you dumb shits!” Sway yelled as she ran past us. She was practically carrying Alley until she stopped to look back at us.
Spencer, being the fucking idiot I always knew him to be, stopped to take pictures.
“Are you fucking serious?” Sway asked looking back at me in mock horror.
“Just run toward the underpass, follow Ryder!” I yelled over the steering winds picking up and the golf ball hail attacking us. She stood there. “Run!” she finally did so I turned to go get Spencer.
“Come on!” I reached for his sweatshirt. I’d never been properly educated on Tornado 101 but I was certain he was not standing in a safe zone.
His response, “Dude, look at that funnel!” he was animated as he said this, or it could have been my imagination, or shock.
What funnel? I thought to myself.
Like I said, I had no tornado training.
Until now, I hadn’t looked around and before I could, I was hurled into a field. At least it appeared to be a field. I was somewhat disoriented so I could have been in Iowa now and wouldn’t have known the difference.
The good thing was, when I was hurled, I landed fairly close to the others so I scurried under the overpass with the rest of the guys while Spencer stumbled over holding the side of his head.
As the winds got stronger and the howling became louder, and louder, I honestly thought we may die under a freeway overpass. The wind and noise around us became deafening and so did Spencer’s screams.
“Oh, my God, this can’t be happening,” Sway muttered pushing herself further up the concrete banking we were on.
“Well, it is,” I leaned into her, blocking any of the shit flying around us from hitting her.
You couldn’t see past a few feet with all the dust and debris.
“You know what? Fuck you, this is your fault,” Sway insinuated, scowling but cuddling into my embrace. I could feel her entire body shaking with fear, which only made me pull her closer.
“Hardly,” I mumbled against her shoulder. It was kind of my fault, not really. Okay, it was my fault, but I refused to take the entire blame for it. I wanted to race at Lakeside Speedway, but I hardly thought the weather was my fault.
I was scared. I’ll admit that but that was another thing I refused to admit out loud in this natural disaster we seemed to be having.
Alley was crying hysterically, so was Spencer but not in a normal way. Sway looked pissed and Ryder and Emma were practically on top of each other, screaming. I laughed at the sight of my barely five-foot sister clinging to Ryder who was also, barely five feet. Together they almost looked like a normal sized person.
It’s amazing the thoughts that go through your head when you think you’re going to die. I was livid I wouldn’t make it to the Chili Bowl this year, that was all I cared about. I was also upset that I wouldn’t be able to eat dinner because if I was going to die, I wanted to die on a full stomach. I began to wonder if that was why people who were about to be executed got to pick their last meal. It made sense to me now.
When the violent shaking and winds began to diminish, Sway went to get up. Again, I knew nothing about tornados but I was sure it wasn’t safe yet.
“That is a horrible idea,” I told her. “I’m alarmed you’d even try that.”
Just as I said that, a car blew past us, in the air, I might add, where Sway almost walked out.
Her wide eyes focused on mine.
“See,” I motioned to the car with my head and then pulled her back in my arms.
Afraid to move, we stayed under there for a good twenty minutes before anyone tried to move again.
Without collecting my thoughts on what occurred, I asked, “Do you think Burger King will be open?” It was apparent I was in shock.
Sway’s wide eyes met mine again, “Yeah, their sign says they are.” She motioned toward the Burger King sign lying about fifty feet away.
“That was not at all like the movie Twister,” was the only coherent thing said by Ryder.
Emma was running off pure adrenaline and jumped out of the underpass like popcorn popping to see the wreckage behind us.
“Your enthusiasm is disturbing,” I told her. “We almost died, if you forgot.”
She said nothing, just hopped away.
It’s exhausting being around her sometimes not to mention the fact that we did almost die and I was in no mood for anything cheery. I needed a nap and food.
Devastation was all around us. Cars, houses, people, animals ... you name it ... it was in the rubble left in the aftermath. I had no idea what to make of all of it. Everything these people knew in this city was destroyed. Homes they lived in were now relocated. Cars they once drove were in another county ... it was crazy.
“Where’s Tommy?” Sway asked suddenly.
I spun around, “I thought he was under there with us?”
“Obviously not.”
Just as we began to panic, Tommy came walking up holding a cat in his arms. His hair looked like he let a four-year-old little girl style it with pudding and dirt, his clothes not much more than a few pieces of fabric remaining.
“That was... a little much,” he said, and then sat down in the grass, sighing contently as though he was relieved. I could only imagine. He glanced down at the cat in his arms, purring. “I have no idea how a cat got in my arms but she won’t leave now.”
We had no choice but to laugh at all this, or cry. We chose to laugh and, to this day, we still get a chuckle out of Tommy and that goddamn cat.
AFTER MY BRUSH with death in Kansas, my season began to pick up and I saw hope and the end to the season in the near future. It helped that Sway spent an entire two weeks with me after that.
I was determined not to let what happened before happen again. I questioned my ability and I shouldn’t have. I knew I was good. I don’t mean to sound conceited or be an asshole, but if I could go out and beat my dad of all people at tracks like Eldora and Knoxville where he’s broken records time and time again, that said something about my ability as a driver. There were times when I had an ill handling car but pushed it as far as it could go just to finish.
I was slowly climbing back up in the points.
If someone told me “You can’t” I would say watch me motherfucker. I didn’t like the word can’t. I would have done about anything to prove them wrong.
We were at Williams Grove for the Morgan Cup Challenge that weekend racing a winged sprint car. I was having a decent night and had qualified second but I had a feeling my night was about to get worse when Alley came up without my helmet.
“I lost your helmet. Wear this one,” and she tossed a silver one my direction.
I’m not superstitious but I have had the same Troy Lee helmet for the last few years. I wanted that helmet.
“What do you mean you lost my helmet?” I glared at Alley.
She glared right back.
Being nine months pregnant and a week overdue, I shouldn’t be yelling but if you’ve ever tried to run at a track like Williams Grove without tear-offs, you were fucked.
“That’s exactly what I mean!” she shouted at me and waddled away.
“I don’t understand her at times,” Tommy said shaking his head.
“It’s Alley, she’s a bitch. I stopped trying to figure her out a long time ago. She’s beyond any normal sense of comprehension,” I groaned looking at my spare helmet. “What the fuck am I going to do ... I don’t have any tear-offs for this one!”
“Sucks to be you,” Alley yelled back over her shoulder and flipped me off.
They all blamed me for that stupid tornado still. It was not my fault. I couldn’t control the weather.
The night was horrible in and out of the car. Ever try muscling around an 800 horsepower sprint car and keep your vision clear at the same time?
It ain’t easy. I ended up with a fifth place finish and was surprised with it. Tracks like Williams Grove were difficult to find a good exit on the corners subsequently causing your car to slide up the track. I must have pegged the outside wall a half a dozen times in the feature but I finished.
I got another surprise when I headed back to the hauler to find my sister-in-law, in labor, in my hauler. If you thought I was picky about urine being in my truck, well, I was no more excited about whatever it was that was about to come out inside there.
All the safety vehicles were surrounding my pit and my first thought was who did my brother get in a fight with but when I saw Alley laying down, I knew she was in labor. Never in my wildest dreams did I suspect that she would have that baby inside there though.
I don’t know who screamed louder, Alley from pain, Spencer from fear, or me, from total disgust at the mess it made in there.
“That was disgusting,” I finally said when they wheeled Alley and the new baby away.
“That was beautiful,” Emma breathed through her hysterical tears.
“I’m with Jameson,” Justin added. He’d stopped by my pit to make sure I wasn’t in another fight only to witness a birth. Lucky him. “That was disgusting.”
I couldn’t step foot inside my hauler after that. All I saw was the blood and obscene amounts of whatever the fuck that was that came out of her. I’d never seen a baby born and now that I just had, even though the paramedics were mostly in the way, the mess it left behind assured me that I didn’t care to see what made that.
Spencer headed to the hospital with Alley while Tommy and I cleaned up. Well, Tommy did, I gagged most of the time and then ended up putting the hauler up for sale after that. It was damaged now.
I called Sway later that night and let her know Alley finally had the baby. I had yet to see him but Spencer called and told me he was perfect and healthy. Mom and Dad were on the next flight from Mooresville to Mechanicsburg where we were. Sway wanted to come but couldn’t because of school. I felt bad for her and she cried because she couldn’t come.
These were the times that bothered her the most. We were her family and a new addition, Lane Anthony Riley, was added and she wasn’t there. I got to see Lane later that night and he was adorable. He looked similar to Spencer when he was a baby but with Alley’s blonde hair, nose and eyes.
THE FOLLOWING WEEKEND when we were in Concord, North Carolina, Justin and I took Spencer out for drinks to celebrate his new fatherhood. Well, Spencer drank. We stole his drinks when the bartender wasn’t looking.
I don’t remember much about what happened that night but when I woke up on the beach naked, I was concerned.
This wasn’t the ideal situation for a number of reasons. I didn’t know where I was and I didn’t care for the beach for the obvious reason of sand being on my skin and, oh, yeah, I happened to be naked.
It couldn’t have looked any worse.
I went to get up to bolt for cover, though I had no idea where I was going to run too and tripped over Justin and a girl, who was also naked.
I’ll admit I looked away from Justin but the girl, she was worth taking a double take at.
It wasn’t Ami and I had a feeling he wasn’t going to be happy about it when he realized that something may have happened between them as they looked awfully cozy.
I soon found my clothes a few hundred feet away and then finally, Spencer, curled up with a bottle of rum. At least he had clothes on.
I left all of them on the beach. I had to get the sand off my skin and then figure out what in the hell time it was. I had to be in Lake Odessa by four that afternoon so now was not the time to stall. We weren’t far from a life guard station so I got washed off, spotted the rental car in the distance and then found the guys again.
“I’m so screwed,” Justin looked remorseful. “What the fuck happened last night?”
“Are you serious?” I groaned rubbing the back of my head. “I have no idea where we are let alone what happened.”
“We’re at the beach,” Spencer grunted walking up with a limp.
We both laughed and then stopped when we realized how badly it hurt our heads. “We need to get going,” I told them and washed the last of the sand.
The girl on the beach confirmed what we didn’t want to hear. Though Spencer and I had stayed away from her, Justin did not.
We never did figure out how we all got on the beach but that was the last of our worries when we realized that one, our friend was freaking out that he cheated on his girlfriend and didn’t remember and two, we had to be in Lake Odessa by four. It was seven in the morning and it’s a twelve hour drive to get to Lake Odessa from Concord.
We were fucked.
Our sprint cars were already there since I was driving for Bucky and Justin was driving for Ron Walker by that time but we still had to get there.
That left us with one option... calling my dad for a favor. He arranged for a private jet to come get us and we arrived in Lake Odessa with an hour to spare. Jimi didn’t let us get away free. He made us pay for the gas in the jet which wasn’t cheap.
We decided we wouldn’t be drinking alone any time soon after that. Keeping one of the girls around us at all times was pretty much a necessity.
I felt for Justin. He didn’t want to sleep with that girl but his judgment was lapsed and he made a bad decision. He did the right thing in telling Ami though.
Her reaction was to be expected and she did break up with him. I thought Justin felt relieved that he told her the truth but by that point they had broken up. Being away from each other was taking a toll on their relationship already and that seemed to be the final straw.
Ami had graduated college and had gotten a job in Los Angeles, which meant they pretty much never saw each other unless she was able to fly out to see him at a race.
“I would take you out drinking to relieve the pain... but we both know how that ended last time.”
“I don’t want relief. I want to forget altogether,” he grunted kicking his legs out in front of him as he sat in a folding chair next to his hauler. “How could I have been so stupid? I loved her, Jameson. I loved her more than anything and I threw all that away in one night.”
After wrecking each other in the Lake Odessa race that night, Justin and I sat in his pit after. Spencer and Tommy strolled up and tossed us a couple of beers and then Ryder, Cody and Tyler found us. The best comfort we could provide for a fellow heartbroken racer was talk racing, and that was what we did.
I thought about Sway a lot that night. This was exactly why I kept Sway at a distance… it was because I was afraid of something like this happening to us.
We had women pushed upon us out here after races and at bars. They knew who we were and tested our self-control. If I was with Sway physically, which was appealing to me, what happens if I had a lapse in judgment like Justin did? I couldn’t hurt her like that, ever. Besides, I had no idea if she even felt that way. Sure our friendship worked and when I touched and kissed her she responded but so did I when other women touched me. That didn’t mean I had feelings for them, it just meant I was attracted physically to them.
There was a fine line and I wasn’t ready to cross it yet.
BY THE TIME July had rolled around, we settled into a routine with the new addition to our traveling team, Lane. It was tough for Alley to still travel so she stayed in Mooresville with my mom for about a month and then started again.
Lane was a sport and loved the sound of the cars. My sprint car revving lulled him to sleep on more than one occasion. It was cool having him around and I took pride in knowing that his first smile was a product of me. I was laughing at something Ryder did while holding Lane for Alley and he smiled when I laughed. Like I said, Lane was pretty cool and not at all what I thought he was going to be like, until he puked on me.
I was not okay with that.
By August, Sway was on summer break and traveled around with us again which meant I was back to normal and aggressive on the track. Not that I wasn’t when she was around but I fought harder for position at times and didn’t take shit from anyone. I wouldn’t say that was because of Sway, by any means, but I seemed to find myself when she was with me and remembered why I was racing in the first place.
I was still racing with the USAC divisions but I was making every Outlaw race I could and running roughshod through it.
I wasn’t known for being nice on the track, I knew that, as did the handful of other drivers I’d raced with all these years. I was ornery, surly and would call anyone out on their bullshit passes or unjustified hits. I also wasn’t afraid to back it up, if needed. So far this year, I had brawled with track owners and officials over rules, shoved photographers, and sparred with a few hometown favorites. I had a temper. What can I say?
But, most of all, I wasn’t about to be pushed around. I didn’t risk everything to be just an average driver. I risked it all to be the best and that was what I was becoming, temper or not.
That temper got me in my fair share of wrecks that summer as well, most of which I walked away from but there were a few I either crawled or stumbled away from.
At Eldora in the middle of September while racing a Silver Crown car, I took a few flips on the back stretch coming out of turn two and landed on the guardrail upside down. I felt that one.
When they flipped me back over I was able to get out. It was apparent after a few steps that I was going to need to get checked out. I could barely put one foot in front of the other. I waved to the crowd when they started cheering but that was about all I was able to do. Once inside the infield care center they had set up, I collapsed.
My knees were sore and bruised from the impact; all the blood vessels in my face had broken and my arms and legs had so many bruises on them you’d think someone beat me with a baseball bat.
I was a mess.
I ended up spending the night in the hospital with a broken rib and a concussion on top of all that bruising.
I called Sway from the hospital that night to tell her what happened. I hoped they hadn’t announced it on the news or anything. She freaked out and told me she was skipping classes for a week to come see me but I wouldn’t let her. She needed to finish college so I could have my friend back.
I knew where the failure went wrong. It was a combination of everything and to rebuild I had to do it right. Right meant focusing on what was important, racing, and Sway focusing on what was important for her, school. Later we could figure out where we stood. I hoped.
That season it seemed I wasn’t the only one doing rough driving. Justin and Tyler were making themselves known as well for being hotheads. Justin punched a USAC official after a race in Lernerville and Tyler sent a kid to the hospital when the kid pushed him.
You don’t push the Beasts from the East and walk away. There was a reason they were called the “Fire Breathing Beasts from the East,” even I knew that.
The veteran drivers weren’t pleased with us and they had every right not to be but I understood them. Here these kids were coming into the divisions they had once been winning in and now, all of a sudden, they weren’t winning, the kids were.
Jimi found humor in it and joked that he was going to retire but other drivers, they just thought we were a bunch of arrogant little shits.
I understood why veteran drivers raced us the way they did. No one realizes the pressures put upon these guys to race, but to win. And the longer they go without a win, the harder it is for them that these kids are winning. I knew why they raced us the way they were and respected them for that.
I knew they made this sport what it is today and they deserved respect in my mind so that was how I raced them. I raced them as if they were all my dad and I’d never rough up my own Dad on the track for the simple fact that I feared him out there. If there was one driver who could fool you, it was Jimi Riley.
Sway took another break in October for Thanksgiving and Christmas so this meant she was there for the last few races of the season.
Having Sway back around also meant the women I usually found myself giving into, didn’t exist. I had all eyes on Sway these days and that scared the shit out of me after what happened to Justin and Ami. It didn’t stop us from kissing and touching but I kept it innocent as did she.
She seemed different, hesitant even. I wondered if she found someone at times but then again I thought she’d tell me. Tommy kept tabs on her and said she only hung out with girls at school that he could see. Tommy also took a break but was finishing his degree in engineering. He wanted to continue working on my cars but also felt he needed to get the education to back it up. It made me feel better to know that Tommy was there with her and was ensuring the scum bags stayed away.
When she was here with me on the road, it was like she never left. We were back to our usual selves, flirting, touching, and teasing each other. That was what I enjoyed most about her company. I could be myself for one, but it was just easy. Even after months of separation, it was as though we’d never been apart.
Slowly my engine was rebuilt and now was time for maintaining it. Proper maintenance was essential. What maintains the life of your engine?
Proper maintenance and lubrication. It took me a long time to discover the cause to the failure, an entire racing season to be exact but it was me.
I let it happen and damn sure wasn’t about to let it happen again.