Wild Weather

Weather has been a hot topic throughout the spring – not just the way it’s hampered the 2011 World of Outlaws Late Model schedule, but it’s affect on the country in general. We got a first-hand view of the problems Mother Nature has been causing when we made a trip to tour events in Michigan and Kentucky the last weekend in April.

When we departed our home base in Phenix City, Ala., for that weekend’s action we had 80-degree temps and sun, but that changed as we went north on Interstate 65. In Tennessee the skies started dumping rain, and by the time we reached Kentucky you could see that farmers were in a world of hurt from all the flooding of rivers, creeks and streams. When we reached Indiana the flooding worsened – and then the skies began turning black and ugly. Though we were far from the tornadoes that ripped through Alabama with such devastating results, as we approached Indianapolis in the WoO LMS hauler we saw what appeared to be a cloud dropping down from the sky in a sideways manner; later that night it was confirmed that a tornado passed by Indy. It had to be true, because the wind that night about blew us out of the Walmart parking lot where we stopped to sleep!

The next day we arrived in Hartford, Mich., to set up for the following evening’s WoO LMS event at Hartford Motor Speedway and were greeted by extremely cool temperatures. It got down to about 42 degrees – we were freezing to say the least! Race night, however, was near 50 at night, so it wasn’t too bad I guess.

When we got to Bardstown, Ky.’s Bluegrass Speedway on April 30 after a long overnight haul from Michigan, the temps rose to over 80 and we thought we were clear of any precip. But we were wrong! While we got the A- Main completed, it was under a threat of rain; showers did begin just before the drivers got paid, so we just beat that one!

On the way home our hearts were filled with sadness as we made our way through Alabama and witnessed the damage left in the wake of the tornado outbreak just days earlier. You just can’t imagine what those people in Tuscaloosa went through. On I-65 we saw steel billboards and poles that were ripped out of the ground! The tall lights that surround entrance and exit ramps were bent in half. Trees were snapped like wooden matchsticks, and the debris we saw on the side of the road and in farmers’ fields included giant pieces of aluminum and steel from buildings; the problem was, there were no buildings anywhere in sight! The EF-5, 200-plus-mph-wind tornado that passed through Alabama was the most powerful and longest traveled in U.S. history, and the devastation we witnessed was awful and sobering. It makes you appreciate what you have.

Life sure can be interesting on the road when you live your life as an outlaw! More to come…