[Bill Gardner]

I'll share a personal story about last Saturday night...

I was having a hard time walking around... my legs were swelling and they hurt. My muscles were cramping up all night. It was hard to move around in the mud. Simply walking to the pit stands left me short of breath. Physically, I was miserable. But for some reason, I was still happy. I had waited all winter... survived another surgery... I was happy for very simple reasons.... I finally was able to smell... hear... and see some racing again. What I didn't know was the best part was still ahead.

It was the IOW / Racin with DO racin fest, It was in some ways an important race to me, mainly because it partially bared the IOW name. I wanted the race to be a success. The rain that fell on Saturday morning did not help. The track conditions were wet and became very rough. I began to feel genuinely concerned about the safety of everyone involved. I didn't blame the track... becasue they made the effort. I didn't blame the teams who loaded without racing... because they tried. It was just a tough night of mix emotions.

After watching the sprint car feature I told Brian Hayden (for those you that don't know, he has been my driver and friend for several years now, we might as well be brothers.)... it's not worth it, if you want to load up that it would be fine with me. He knew how bad I wanted him to win this race. He told me that he would give it a try. Here he is with a broken wrist... no cast... a wet and rough race track and he's going to give it a try... needless to say I was a bit concerned.

He started 6th, took the high line and went on to win a caution free modified race while almost lapping the entire field in the process. As I drove the 4 wheeler on the race track I realized that all the earlier mixed emotions were gone... they were replaced with a WIN!

On that rough and long night, If it weren't for the efforts by the entire LPS staff, none of that would have been possible. I cannot express enough thanks to them.