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Part 1
This story starts back in
2008 when a post came up on an off road forum about a desert truck
racing team looking for a “pit bunny”. I thought it was right
up my alley. I had been involved in different types of racing
since high school, and I had always been most fond of those
desert racing trucks whose crews carried enough parts and tools
out into the middle of nowhere to be able to swap out a
transaxle just to finish
a race. So I applied and earned the position of pit bunny for a
Best in the
Desert stock mini class Ford Ranger race truck team
out of Tri Cities,
WA,
RumbleGoat Racing. My first
race was the
Tube Specialties Company sponsored Vegas to Reno
500 mile race. I got the “bug” before the race was
over and the shenanigans that carried on after our unfortunate
DNF only seated it deeper.
A
couple years passed. I was no longer racing with
RumbleGoat racing, or any other
team but I was able to get my fix by attending and filming a
couple races near Goldendale, WA. Finally an opportunity arose
for me to get into the hobby myself. I had been doing
a lot of vehicle buying and selling after the purchase of my
home and I was trying to decide on one vehicle. For years I had
wanted a Ford Ranger and a motorcycle. I thought that was a
good combination of work and play. So I decided it was time.
But in the interest of being frugal, I started with the Ford
Ranger. After looking around at some stock Ford Rangers, I
decided to dream big. I chose not to limit myself and what
would it hurt to buy a modified
Ford Ranger? I summoned Jim, one of the owners of
RumbleGoat Racing to find me a
prerunner. I told him I did not know what I was looking for, so
I was relying on his
expertise in off road racing to find me a truck that could
handle open desert and sand. With my willingness to travel, I
decided it was worth having a prerunner in t he
NW. There were enough play areas to be able to go somewhere for
the weekend almost as often as I wanted. Within months I was
flying a friend down to Los Angeles, CA to get in my newly purchased
2002 Ford Ranger prerunner to drive it home to WA. The truck
was a 2 wheel drive extra cab Ranger powered by a 2.3 liter
engine with a 7.5 rear differential when stock. As a prerunner,
it is still 2wd but with a 4 wheel drive 5 speed transmission
still mated to the donor single overhead cam (SOHC) 4.0 liter
engine, and an open 8.8 differential swapped in. The front
suspension provides 10” of travel and consists of the
Camburg
Engineering 5.5” lift kit (with new upper control
arms, race spindles, and new coils), 8”
Radflo
2.0 reservoir shocks,
Fox air bumps, and gusseted
stock lower arms. Inside you’ll find
Crow Enterprises 4-point harnesses and a fully custom
and welded cab cage which is some of the best craftsmanship on
the whole truck. The rear suspension provides 14” of travel and
consists of
Deaver leaf springs with
Kartek extended rear
shackles and drop hangers, and 14” Fox 2.5 reservoir shocks
going through the bed to a
Dixon Brothers bed cage.
The look is finished off with a prerunner style front tube
bumper,
Hannemann Fiberglass front
fenders and custom cut and pulled bedsides. I have since
upgraded to a heim steering setup with custom tie rods and
swapped out the rear differential with a trussed 8.8 pulled from
an Explorer with disc brakes, 4.56 gears, and an
Auburn limited slip.
I soon joined the forum at
www.nwprerunners.com and found
some people with which to enjoy my hobby. My first outing with
the group was in Paisley, OR where
Central Oregon Desert Racing Association (CODRA) has
been planning a benefit race, the Paisley 400, for the school in
Paisley. I left after work on a Friday and arrived about 1am on
Saturday. I was not surprised that out of the 30-40 strangers
there, I was the only girl. Everyone was very supportive and
welcoming. Upon the close of the weekend, I knew I was into
something great and I was right where I belonged.
Part 2
Through all my racing experiences, I dreamed of a day when I
could be the driver. I didn’t imagine it would ever happen as
finances didn’t allow and I didn’t know anyone that wanted to
pay for me to be in the driver’s seat. Of course I had some
encouragement from friends and the desire was there, but the
truck was my daily driver and I just couldn’t see spending my
what-should-be retirement money on racing. I continued to be
involved in racing and private and public off road events until
one of the events for which I volunteered got an overhaul and I
started to get a little excited. The 2011 Supertoys Adventures
short course race series changed hands and the new promoters for
2012 were considering dropping some of the technical
qualifications to allow more competitors to enter. The new
promoters are
Central Oregon Offroad Race Park
(COORP) and I was crossing my fingers that there would be a
class without a fuel cell requirement. That was the single most
expensive modification I did not want to afford to be able to
race. Amidst everything else, it adds up. By this time I had
purchased a daily driver and retired my truck to occasional and
weekend use. I simply needed more than 2 days at a time to
upgrade and maintain my truck and get back to work every
Monday. And besides, you play hard, you break hard. So during
one of my trips to Paisley with the
CODRA crew, a few weeks before the first short course
race, I stopped by one of the promoters homes and had my truck
pre tech inspected. I had read, printed, and highlighted the
rules for the areas about which I had questions. After
reviewing them together, I only needed a few easy items and I
was in! The course is a .7 mile dirt track with lots of air
time. Since the 2011 race, they smoothed out some of the harsh
jumps before the front stretch and added 700 yards of filtered
dirt throughout. It sits on the
Deschutes County Fairgrounds property right in the
town of Redmond, OR.
3 weeks
before show time: Work commenced as soon as I got home
from the Paisley run. I was networking with
 everyone
I could think of to collect a window net, a fire suit, a pit
crew, fire extinguishers, a co-driver, a tow rig and a traction
bar. I had experienced a large amount of axle wrap at the 2012
Ultra4
series King of the Hammers race in February when my rear
driveline yoke met the pinion flange on my rear differential
while jumping the truck. It wasn’t a good first impression for
either party. I had fixed the driveline and did the planned
steering upgrades just in time for the Paisley run, but needed
to fix the axle wrap issue before I took it out jumping again.
I half-heartedly asked Mike Ryan,
Pike’s
Peak semi truck competitor that I had ridden with in
2010, to co-drive for me. I say half-heartedly because I knew
if I couldn’t pay him, it was unlikely he would show. And no
Hollywood stunt driver can be cheap. He appreciated me asking
and said it sounded fun but declined due to the travel expenses
and suggested a couple co-drivers that I had met at Pike’s Peak
and stayed in touch with.
James Smith, a Hollywood stunt
driver who actually lives within a couple hours from me was
booked up. Another choice was Sam Young, also a stunt driver
who lives about 10 minutes from me. He responded by text from
Hawaii where he was vacationing and agreed to get back to me. I
also gathered some names for a pit crew and started an email
chain with most of them to start planning and start some
discussions.
Part 3
2 weeks
before show time:
 I
collected the fire suit, secured Sam as my co-driver, and got
the traction bar work completed. The traction bar was built by
Jason Weidhuner (Top
Truck Challenge and KOH competitor) for a Suburban
but was never used. He was able to modify it and get it
installed in a few nights. I had some other work for him to do
but I wanted the truck over the weekend for the
Society of Automotive Engineers Mini Baja
competition for which I was a volunteer. So I agreed to get it
back to him the next week. I called a team meeting mid week to
get everyone together to do some work and talk about race
details. We were in the shop going over tools and supplies and
the conversation turned to my driving skills. I started getting
drilled about how I had drove my truck off road in the past, and
if I had ever spun out or much less lost traction and how I
handled it. I got a bit defensive and found myself feeling like
I had a lot to prove. They looked at each other for
confirmation of what I was saying. At the end of the night, I
felt like I wasn’t going to feel like I did a good job on the
track until they validated it by saying so. It was the first
time some of them had met each other so it quickly turned to a
guy’s social hour after I exited the conversation out of
frustration. I really didn’t want my racing experience to feel
like this.
Part 4
One week before show
time: As I was driving out to the venue on Friday for the
dynamic events of the Mini Baja competition, I heard some loud
clangs in the running gear, especially in second gear. I
remembered hearing a little something like it a few weeks
earlier. I had thought maybe it was the pilot bearing, as the
clutch was replaced not long before and it would be covered
under a one-year warranty. But it came and went in the same
trip home so I forgot about it. As I kept driving, it got worse
and moved to other gears as well. I was able to break away from
my volunteer duties long enough to get the truck to a shop back
in town, without using second gear, and got a ride back out to
the competition. The shop,
Cottman Transmission, just
happened to be a few blocks from my house. I had been referred
to them in the past. Within a few hours, they called with bad
news. They had pulled a piece of gear tooth out of the drain
plug in the transmission. I needed a rebuild or a new
transmission. With the race one week away, I got a little
worried that I wouldn’t make it, but I wasn’t ready to give up.
I spent a lot of time texting and making phone calls in between
sessions of marshaling a maneuverability course researching my
options. I got less than desirable quotes on a rebuild and put
out a message for anyone near a computer that day to help me
find a used transmission on the internet. I hoped that I could
find some guys to help me throw it in one night during the next
week in time for the race.
I had
dealt with seeking sponsorship in the past for various teams and
projects, but I had never had a good handle on how it worked.
I didn’t know what I had to offer. I had never competed before
so there was no winning record. And I wondered who got what in
the whole deal, and how everyone came out happy. And since I’m
not always in the mood to be told “no”, I had never asked anyone
to sponsor me. But I knew that if I didn’t put my big girl
panties on now and do it, I wasn’t going to be able to afford a
rebuild or a new transmission install in one week. I was barely
pulling it together with a recently upgraded and working truck.
So I asked the shop what they could do to help me out and I told
them what I did have to offer. To my surprise, the owner, Kevin
Safley, was very willing to make me an offer. I asked to sleep
on it and get back to him on Monday.
Part 5
By
Monday morning I was still undecided about whether I was going
to swap in a used transmission or go with rebuilding the old
one. After a short conversation and thinking out some scenarios
with the shop, I decided to accept the sponsorship. I had
brought a 2 wheel drive transmission to the shop a year or more
before to have them investigate swapping it in for the 4 wheel
drive transmission currently in it. That transfer case was just
dead weight hanging there, for the previous owner had not
swapped over the chassis wiring to be able to get low range in
the rear end. That is the only value the transfer case would
have added to the truck. There were too many sensors and it
would be expensive and a wiring nightmare to try to make it
work. I had hoped that they could just swap out the transfer
case for the 2 wheel drive tail housing. But when they found
that the output shafts were different lengths I would have
needed a 2 wheel drive transmission, a new driveline and,
although it didn’t need replacement, a new clutch since they
would have the transmission out. After I weighed all the costs
and since nothing was actually wrong with the truck, I decided I
had better things to spend the money on for the truck and I
ditched the whole idea. But now I had a new clutch, which had
been replaced months earlier along with a leaking slave
cylinder, and a new driveline due to the axle wrap issue at King
of the Hammers. So if I switched to a 2 wheel drive
transmission, now was the time. However I would still need
another driveline due to them being different lengths, but that
was not a big deal. So we thought.
Part 6
At the
suggestion of a friend, I called a local used light truck parts
business in search of a transmission and driveline. They were
able to locate both. The driveline was to be ready for pick up
by the end of the day, and the transmission, with only 17,000
miles on it, would be available after noon on Wednesday. It was
cutting it close, but I ordered both over the phone. I got the
driveline to the shop that evening, and then we waited. On
Wednesday I delivered the transmission and hoped for a good news
phone call the next day. But it never came. There was an issue
with the driveline. The front yoke was too small and the spline
count was lower than the output shaft on the transmission and
the whole thing was about 4 inches too short. With only one day
left I had to act quickly so I called the first and only person
I thought of to trust for driveline help and expertise. That
was Brian Stanton of
Driveline Tech. He had done
the welding for one of my product lines in the past and
consulted me about the driveline issue I had at King of the
Hammers which I did not discover until I was more than half way
through my 20 hour drive back home. I explained the situation
and from the desperation in my voice, he quickly offered to
help. He got in touch with the shop for a good explanation of
the issue and worked to find me pieces that he could put
together that night or Friday morning. I got the pieces to the
shop and we started mocking up this imaginary driveline and
taking measurements. But Brian did not know he had sent me to
buy a driveline that was an inch bigger in diameter than what
was in the Ranger. He was to cut it down to the length I needed
and weld on the yokes. But it was so long, that it was the next
size up in diameter and ran into my fuel tank. It turns out it
was from an F150.
I was
beginning to get sick to my stomach and a little emotional. The
week had been full of ups and downs. Besides my truck’s issues,
the tow truck, my friend Jake’s Cummins powered Dodge diesel,
broke as well. Luckily Jake got his truck fixed a few days later
but
I was starting to feel like the whole racing thing was just a
big tease. I had worked to find some back up tow rigs, but even
if I had to drive myself over, I was going racing. I asked the
shop if it was too late to rebuild the 4 wheel drive
transmission, and at one day before departure, it certainly
was. As we were standing around contemplating the options, one
of the technicians eyeballed a customer’s truck out in the
parking lot. It was a 2000 extra cab Ranger with a 5 speed
manual transmission and a 3.0 liter engine. Not a lot like
mine, but in a last ditch effort we decided to pull its
driveline and see if it would work. For it was the previous
generation of Ranger and had a smaller engine, but somehow it
magically did! The shop owner immediately got on the phone to
order a used driveline for a Ranger matching the customers
truck. He could have it there the next day by noon. I was very
excited but still had reservations about it being the right
driveline showing up. My team was asking right up to the last
hour of departure if we were still competing but I couldn’t tell
them for sure. All I could offer was that I was expecting to.
After work on Friday, I called the shop for the final word. The
driveline came in and it was right. We were racing! The decals
were applied just hours before I picked it up and drove it the
two blocks to my house and right onto the trailer. I had the
three pit crew members that were traveling with me there and we
loaded up and rolled out of town within an hour. We arrived
late that night at one of the pit crew member’s homes in Bend,
OR, about 20 minutes from the track, and got some sleep for race
day.
Part 7
A 5:30 AM
alarm sounded off and race day began. I wanted to get to the
track as early as possible to scope out the pit area, prep
ourselves and the truck, get tech inspected and get as much
practice in as possible. Finally we were given the ok for
practice. Within a few laps I felt like I had got my money’s
worth. It was an awesome track. Not smooth flying by any
means, but I was feeling good about being able to take it
seemingly fast for the terrain. I could have stayed out t here
all day. I asked Sam, “Should we go back?” and he said “I’m
good when you are.” I took that as a sign that he was good to
go a little longer. And finally he had to suggest, “Maybe we
should go back and take a look at the truck.” Sam had never
been in my truck, rode with me, nor had he spent time being in
the air in the same vehicle more than once. He expected to have
to tell me how to do it fast, and instead I was showing him how
fast I could do it. Within the first lap and a half, he had
relaxed a little and accepted the low impact he felt. An impact
that his eyes and experience were telling him were going to feel
much harsher. A walk around inspection showed him that the
truck was ok with it too. On our second practice session, I
wanted to get technical. I wanted to focus on the line and the
speed at which I should take each obstacle. I wanted to drive
in a manner that was fast for my truck, allowed me to keep the
lead, and save the truck all at the same time. We experimented
with the inside and the outside, the fast and the slow, the
traction and the drift. I apologized for not doing something
that he said to do and asked him to keep telling me to do it.
He just said I was doing fine. Just like in autocross, I needed
help learning when to brake. It was a big course for me to
remember everything with only a handful of laps in. After a few
solo laps, we were joined by a Pro 2 truck manned by a couple of
17 year old boys. They caught us after a few laps on the second
to last turn, a large, sweeping and banked left hand corner.
There was room to pass on the inside, so they took it. They
were not bashful and neither was I. This was my first off road
competitive feeling. I knew it was practice and I was not even
going to compete against them that day, but why couldn’t I hold
my own? We drifted together, side by side and they took off on
the straight, pelting me with dirt and rocks. There was a risk
of contact, and I’m not even sure who was responsible for
maintaining control of that. But at that moment, I didn’t even
care if we touched. I wasn’t stepping down. They later got
their hands slapped for being so aggressive against a little
girl in her daily driver Ranger. I didn’t see it that way, but
I wasn’t going to argue with the ruling.
Part 8
Heat
1
For
the first qualifying heat there were two tough truck Rangers and
an FJ Cruiser. One of the Rangers was driven by my friend Jake
Campbell. The FJ Cruiser was raced by my friends of
Off Track Motorsports (OTM).
We were told that the starting position was first come, first
serve. It didn’t take me long to figure out my strategy. Our
heat was after the first UTV qualifying heat so I wanted to line
up as
quickly as possible after they started. Before the UTVs
finished, I pulled way up in the line and I was sent back a
little. The others lined up behind. We were paced through one
lap into a rolling start by the pace truck, a Chevy prerunner.
He exited to the hot pit on the left as I got a green flag on
the right and put the pedal down. I kept the lead right away
and got into the second lap before I never saw anyone in my
rearview mirrors again. The FJ Cruiser, driven by John
Matthews, got into 2nd position after lap 2 and was
possibly gaining on me for the rest of the heat. When I
returned to the pit, the crew and some friends were waiting.
The first thing I wanted to know before I even got out of the
truck was if I was going to win. They said if I started out
front, I could maybe stay ahead of OTM, but it wasn’t looking
like an automatic win. I had told others and myself before we
started the first heat that I didn’t need to win it by a mile.
I was just going to keep a pace ahead of everyone else, just
enough that they couldn’t pass. That was all I needed and it
was to help save the truck. But that idea flew right out the
window and not even an empty rearview reminded me of my
intentions. When I got out there, I drove like I was racing a
sea of faster trucks on which they gave me a head start and if I
could just keep the lead, I’d have more room for error if
needed. 5 laps was just a short enough time for no one to catch
me. I pushed the truck harder, and we got more air than in
practice. Apparently some other people noticed and told Sam
that we were getting big air on the back half of the course.
Heat
2
For
the second qualifying heat, they reversed the order. They put
us 2 by 2. With the two tough truck Rangers out front, then
the FJ and I. Again a rolling start and I pushed it. But I was
on the outside where the berm was soft and the line was longer.
So I let off, took 4th position behind the FJ and
followed on the inside. This was the second time I had to make
a decision about making contact and I chose not to. It was
really important to me that I respected other race rigs and that
I made clean and honest passes. After all, I didn’t want myself
pushed off the course to lose important time that I wasn’t able
to make up. And I didn’t want one huge scrape on the side of my
truck either.
I quickly
found that congestion was frustrating. It made the race slower
and I found myself braking to avoid rear-ending my competition
where I would be going faster if in the lead. It became clear
that there were not many places with a lot of time to make a
pass. I would come into corners hotter than my leader, and come
out slower but make up time over the jumps and into every
corner. At one point I said to Sam as we flew higher over our
eventually favorite jump, “Didn’t somebody say we we ren’t
supposed to do that?” He responded with “Who cares?” Sam was
great. He was such a cheerleader, which was motivating to me.
It was nice to hear about the race from his perspective. He
said things like “Great job, go go go, aaaand brake”, and an
occasional “Yee haw”. That was my favorite. In 5 laps I was
not able to pass the FJ. I came across the finish line with a
bit of disappointment and wonder about my starting position in
the main event. I had finished a qualifying heat in first and
one in second. The FJ had done the same. But then, just after
the finish as I was starting my cool-down lap, the FJ made a
horrible racket and coasted to a stop on the outside. I felt
that the driver, Alex Riedo, had driven the FJ harder than it
looked like it wanted to be driven. So my amazement at his
holding first place quickly turned to concern that he may have
just taken the team out of the main event. During my cool down
lap, my check gauge light came on. I was low on fuel. I had
planned to not fill the truck up for the race. I wasn’t
expecting to drive more than 40 miles the whole weekend, and
albeit they are high fuel consuming race miles, I didn’t want to
carry more fuel than I needed. But I wasn’t going to risk
losing the race due to something as simple as running out of
fuel. Before I got out of the truck back at the pit, I said to
one of my pit crew members, Scott Schoenfelder, “I need gas.” I
wanted to make sure he had enough time to locate some, as we had
not brought a can. Shortly after I returned to the pits, the FJ
followed in tow, on the wrecker. We soon found out that they
suspected the rear ring and pinion and were not going to be able
to find a replacement in time. So then there were three.
Part 9
Main
Event
For
the main event, the organizers again put me in the back. They
wanted me to work a little harder and for spectator
entertainment value. They said I was too fast. I’m not sure
what their strategy was before, but those two tough truck
Rangers had certainly
brought their entire game, everything they had to the main
event. They hopped like jack rabbits in a cobra pit going over
the jumps. Jake used the whole track right away and was able to
maintain speed through the soft stuff. Sam and I got a good
look at the undercarriage of Michael’s truck in the first couple
of jumps. I think he and the crowd thought he was going over.
But they closed me out of every attempt to pass. I got close at
the end of lap 2, on the front stretch. That was the third time
I had to make a choice about making contact and my willingness
to avoid it was fading. I didn’t know it, but Jake and I did
make contact in the air, leaving blue paint on my rear passenger
center cap and a trace of rubbing on the top of the wheel
opening on the bed. We later found my tire marks up high on his
bedside. I prepared for the upcoming corners, which put me back
in third. Jake and I were side by side again after only a few
corners. Both of the tough trucks had good acceleration and
Jake continued to keep a closer following distance than I.
Perhaps where I thought driving the line would make me fast and
find me the moment to pass; Jake w as
using every open line as his hope and prayer in securing first
place. By lap 3 I was getting disappointed and I said to Sam,
“I don’t think I can do it”. He said, “Just keep going!” I
decided patience was going to win, or at least look good. Half
way through lap 4, I came off a drop off a little sideways and
lost time. But I was caught up again within the next lap. Just
before halfway through lap 5, Sam noticed the floppy tailgate on
the lead Ranger and told me to watch out for it. Sure enough it
came off in the back corner where Michael went really wide and
lost it coming down the drop off. Jake was right there to
t-bone him off the course and that’s when I realized my
opportunity. With Sam yelling, “Go go go!” I was full throttle,
taking both at once on the right. Jake had already recovered
and gave me a good run for my money through the next series of
jumps. But I had speed on my side from being unaffected by the
spin out. I h eld
the line, drove clean, and came out in front. It was never more
important to drive well. I kept my eye on Jake coming and going
in my mirror through the corners. I just had to make sure he
was behind, and not beside. I felt confident in my speed and
handling to keep me ahead. Just as long as I didn’t screw
something up. Going off course on a short distance track like
that, with 1 minute lap times, wasn’t conducive to catching up
before the checkered flag. Throttling out of the back corner on
lap 6, without warning, all I heard was the engine revving. I
hoped it was that it had popped into neutral and not that I was
broke. I was relieved as I grabbed the shifter and thrust it
back in second gear, keeping Jake at bay. I finished lap 6 and
conquered laps 7 and 8 with the lead and the checkered flag. I
had done it. After all the doubt, the truck issues just days
before the race, the begging and borrowing of equipment, the
competition, the organizers, and the persistent driving, the
victory was mine. And it felt very well deserved. Now that the
race was over, I was back to being conscious about my personal
well being. I realized that my throat was parched and my heart
was pounding. I asked Sam, “Do you feel like you just ran a
marathon?” as we exited the track into the pit area. As far as
feeling out of breath, the last 10 minutes of my life felt like
hours of physical activity. A good friend of mine, Scott
Strong, approached me before I even reached our pit to say “That
was the best racing of the day. That was awesome, you guys did
great!” He vowed to root for me in conversations we had in the
weeks leading up to the race, but I sensed doubt in h is
voice. He had never ridden with me or really seen my driving,
but he said he was looking forward to seeing me compete. I was
glad he was right there to be the first one to congratulate me.
But Scott’s kind words were only the first of many. A small
crowd drew around our pit to see the damage. Wait, did you say
“damage?” It turns out that my winning pass came with a small
price. Jake had launched his Ranger into my bedside over our
favorite jump during my overtaking of first place.
Sam and I hadn’t felt anything and I did not know there were any
dented panels. Though I quickly decided it was worth the win as
I laughed it off.
My truck
handled really well. I suspect that’s why a few spectators came
into the pits to discuss with me how to build their project
Ranger’s suspension; Rangers that I might surely be racing
against in the next event a few months away. Jake came over,
head hung, ready to apologize for smashing up my truck. But in
seeing my ecstatic mood, he cheered up and invited us to see his
ne w
damage as well. He had done most of the event with a floppy and
broken steering wheel ring. It turns out he had grabbed the
center and the spokes to steer through the whole track. He told
me about the funny look he got at the gas station back in town
when he mentioned that he was getting fuel for his competitor.
It somehow worked out that Jake had given Scott a ride to town
to get the fuel I asked for before the main event. Talk about
sportsmanship. Besides the win, there was one thing that made
it all worth it. As I was walking to the awards ceremony, there
was a little girl peering from behind her mom as I passed. She
spoke but I did not understand what she said. I asked her mom,
and she said “She said you went really fast!” That took a bit
to sink in, but it made my day. I now have a better
understanding of how much the fans fuel the racing spirit. I of
course had a great time in the truck with Sam, but as I took in
the spectator’s view of the race, spectators large and small, it
really was a quite impressive feat. So I’ve been waiting a long
time for a moment to say thank you to all of those who supported
and encouraged me, and were entertained. You opened the door to
a world in which I belong and set the stage for who I am.
Thanks for bringing me home.
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