[Jerry Shaw]

It's funny how the mind works. The way it focuses and perceives time, especially. In one instance, you could have waited in line somewhere. Although you were only there for fifteen minutes, it may have seemed like it was an hour. And during those fifteen minutes, while there was nothing to directly occupy your mind, it focused and collected information like a sponge. You noticed all kinds of things that were happening around you. Sights. Sounds. Smells. People brushing up against you. Seemingly everything that was happening at the time. Yet, on the same day and same location you could run into someone who fascinated you and engage in a conversation that made the next hour seem like fifteen minutes. Your mind focused and collected information more like a vacuum cleaner. Nothing else made it through, other than that which was directly in front of you. It's all just a matter of focus.

Such was the experience tonight at Bloomington Speedway. During the preliminary parts of the show, the senses were bathed in the things that a trip to this track on a spring day always includes. The bright red clay that has no equal, back dropped by the brilliant green color of new life in the trees. Framing the multi-colored racing machines, that are screaming across your field of vision. Add to that the roar of these monsters and sound of the voices of your friends, who are always there to share this racing experience with you. And since you're at this particular track where dust is never a factor, you were actually thankful that the wind was blowing in towards the grandstand, so the smell of methanol and the slight burning of your eyes could be there to complete the first part of your racing journey.

And then, in an instant, things drastically changed. As soon as the green flag dropped, for the main event, you became entranced. But it wasn't something that you consciously or willingly chose to do. It was done for you. Four drivers grabbed your focus and took off with it, like a purse snatcher on a crowded city sidewalk. For that short period of time, nothing else in the World existed. You lived for every twist and turn. You didn't have it. It had you. And just when you thought you had the ending figured out, the victor's stunning final move had the last laugh. And afterwards, when you looked at everyone around you, you realized that they had all just went through the same ringer as you just had.

Wow! The 2010 racing season has now officially begun.