Vroom Vroom Motorsports

The one weekend we have off from racing for the first time in two months, and what does our driver do?

He goes racing!

(This time, for his birthday party at Andretti! 😍)

As we get ready to head over to Talladega, we have to do a little  from last year‘s race!

So much has happened in a year – and he has grown up so much! — but still, one of our favorite racing memories ever was last year, when Hyke won his Red Rookie heat race right next to the famous Talladega Superspeedway, then followed that up just a few minutes later with getting to meet his favorite driver.(He even got his helmet signed!)

It was such a magical weekend. Hoping for another great weekend at Talladega! More updates to come! 🏁

We’re at Talladega for our first Nationals race of the season! Excited to return after a GREAT experience at Talladega last year. 🏁

What a difference a year makes! He was a Red Rookie then – he’s now in not one, but two competitive classes: Junior Honda and Junior Animal.

And this is our fifth travel race weekend in a row! We have learned so much. Some high highs, some low lows, and lots of data collected along the way.

And before we jump into the three FULL days of racing this long weekend at Talladega, we’d be remiss if we didn’t do a from the Music City Dixie in Huntsville last weekend!

He started P2 in his Honda heat race. Front row, on the outside, and beat first place on the start (with a glorious move I might add), but alas, cautions galore meant several restarts. He got passed on one of the restarts and didn’t have the finish he wanted.

With the feature race, he was on the outside to start (again) and wasn’t all that fast, but finished 6th out of 14 total drivers. We’ll take it! And most importantly, we know why he didn’t finish better – and we know what we can do differently moving forward.

We started P4 in the Animal heat race. Second row, outside. We are still getting used to this car and didn’t quite have the speed we needed.

The feature race came with a wreck that didn’t seem like anything, but it bent a tie rod and the axel. We got it mostly fixed in the pits, but it didn’t drive well anymore. At all. 🤦‍♂️

Hyke (the wheelman that he is) hung on to it and made some passes. We finished 5th. Considering all the stuff that happened in this race, that’s phenomenal.

So, no podium action last weekend like we would’ve hoped, but learning so much along the way. We are so grateful for the experiences!

Hyke’s wins:

- Hyke continues to be hard to pass, even when his set-up is slower than we’d like. His line is consistently strong, but most exciting of all, he’s nailed down the defensive side of racing. A faster car behind was on his bumper so much, Hyke should have spun out at least 3 times, but he hung on to it!
- He never lets bad runs get him down. He is so good at accepting things that didn’t go well, then moving on and looking to the next one. He always wants to know how he can improve and strives to get better at communicating how his car feels to us. That’s big.
- He never gives up! His car could be turning right when he’s trying to go left, and he’s still going to try and make a pass. He’s gotten so much bolder through this season and it’s incredible to watch his growth.

Dad/Crew Chief’s lessons:

- Get new tires for a regional (or national) race. The new tires will outrun you… every. time.
- Make sure your stagger is right. If it’s not… you’re gonna be slow.
- When you put the ratchet on, be sure you make all the correct adjustments that come with that.

Our Jr. Honda car was too loose and our Jr. Animal was too tight. 🤷‍♂️ You live and learn.

Excited to test our limits this weekend at TALLADEGA BABY!!! Come see us race in the fan zone!

NASCAR Youth Series
Music City Quarter Midget Association
Dixie Shootout Series
Huntsville Quarter Midget Association - HQMA

Don’t let anyone talk you out of spending a couple thousand dollars to get your kid a quarter midget racecar. That $4700 will be the best $18,000 you ever spend. 🙃😂

Back at Huntsville today for Round #2 of the Dixie! Hyke will be starting P2 for Junior Honda and P4 for Junior Animal.

He’ll be really flexing those outside line starting strategies that we’ve been training on the last week. Fingers crossed! More updates soon! 🏁

A (very) last minute decision to do a travel race this weekend turned into a double trophy kind of day. Not mad about it!

Full coming soon. Or maybe not. We’re exhausted. We’ll see. 😂

Suffice it to say, we’re VERY proud of our driver who keeps showing up and showing out — and growing more and more, race after race. It’s the coolest thing to watch.

(But also, who is this teenager in this photo?! Time: slow dooooown 😭)

Excited for the next round of the Dixie next weekend! 🏁

(And how appropriate that Hyke is sporting his Ultimate QM shirt — couldn’t do it without our X-wings!)

Our final for the Carolina Clash!

Our last race was the Junior Animal A main. Because of a chain issue in the heat race, Hyke finished towards the back, and that meant he would be starting in P10 for the feature.

The race started off like a lot of A mains do — with a couple of cautions. But once they got going, they did all 30 of the laps — the whole race — with no other cautions. It was like a whirlwind of quarter midget cars!

Hyke got a good start, but only gained one position. In fact, most of the drivers pretty much finished where they started.

And honestly, after the weekend we had with a lot of things out of our control, we’re fine with just a good, clean race (that Hyke actually gets to start and finish!). 😂 he was proud of his effort and felt good about his race, even though the finish wasn’t more exciting. So we’ll take it!

All in all, it was a good time, and as always, Hyke (and Beau) had a blast playing with racing friends and watching some great racing. Thanks, NCQMA!

Next stop/next weekend: Huntsville! 🚀

Happy Easter!!!

Another character-building weekend in North Carolina, but our buddy keeps rolling along! And we’re not done – we still have the Junior Animal A main!

Here’s a little recap of what’s gone down so far: 

Yesterday began with the Junior Honda heat race. He had two fantastic starts, but some cautions caused them to have to line up again.

After the second caution, he had another strong start, but the car behind him made contact at the start and did some damage (and ripped the number clean off his car! 😂🤦‍♀️). After some time in the pits, we couldn’t get the car back in time and had to miss the race. Officially a DNS. That meant Hyke would have to start in the 11th position of the C Main.

This morning, he had his C main, and moved from the 10th position, to the 9th, then up to the 7th… and we were getting so encouraged that a transfer to the B main might be possible after all! 

But… then a car spun out, there was a pile up with a few more cars, and Hyke came around a turn with  nowhere to go but straight into the wreck. He was fine, but his car was not.

We didn’t want him to go to the back of the line, so we pushed him off, hoping it would be OK. It wasn’t. 😂 His car was wonky and clearly hard to handle.

Still, he kept going and even initiated a pass. He had the inside line, but got squeezed out and went onto a turtle. He got the strike in this case (bummer) and would’ve gone to the back anyway, so Josh took the opportunity to try to fix the car in the pits. They couldn’t make the repair in time so they pushed him back out to finish the race.

He didn’t have his normal speed and didn’t have enough laps to do much. We’re not sure what the finishing order was because there was another little wreck and then the race timed out. We think he finished 7th? 8th? Who knows. He didn’t get to transfer to the B main though, so not a top four finish.

***Now onto the Junior Animal heat race (because we’ve got two cars now!):

This was another story of going to the pits, not getting a repair done in time, and racing anyway. 🤦‍♀️ (This time, it wasn’t because a car made contact with us – instead, the chain came off.)

Josh had some help in the pits attempting the repair, but there were differing ideas about what the best course of action was, and someone else ended up pushing the car out before the repair could even be finished. It’s hard – there’s always lots of help, but in the heat of the moment, things can get miscommunicated. Everyone had good intentions, but things like this just happen.

There was no way he could have done his best with (another) car that wasn’t where it needed to be, so he finished in the second to last spot.

But! Even still, he was sent to the A Main, and he’ll be starting in P10 out of 12 cars. We’ll take it! 😅

So while he definitely didn’t get a chance to do his best, it still worked out so he could get to race again.

And that’s the point of all of this! To get the seat time, the experience, and to build confidence and resilience. That’s the reason we do any of this stuff right?

(Well, and the whole getting to play with your friends on bikes, in the dirt, and in Easter egg hunts in between races doesn’t hurt either!)

Fingers crossed for as smoooooooooth a Junior Animal race for our little driver as possible! His confidence definitely needs it!

He goes on in the third race starting at about 2 PM Eastern. More updates soon! 

Starting P2 in Junior Honda and P4 in Junior Animal! Wish us luck! 🏁