This week was a fairly smooth week for Joe and I. We spent Monday at the pediatrician’s office for Leum’s 4 month check up. He is right on schedule and growing too fast for Joe and I to recognize with our crazy lives! I worked on my press releases and other job duties at Competitive Edge after the doctor’s appointment.

Joe did his normal training and practicing on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. He rode at CEMX during the day and worked out in the evening on Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursday, Joe was able to go to the KTM test track in Corona and work with the R&D guys to get the bike even more dialed in.

We began our crazy weekend on Friday. I had to head out to CEMX to get things in order for the CMC race happening on Sunday. Joe went to the chiropractor to straighten his hips out since he had a hard get off in the whoops on Wednesday. He then helped out Gerald with prepping the bike…not really though cause Gerald takes pride in his work, so Joe just supervised! We went to dinner with our close friends for Joe’s pasta build up for the next day’s event.

We got to the track early Saturday morning to get things in order with the bike and Joe. I took that time to go around and visit some friends for some help. I received a helmet from a good friend of ours that needed to be signed by the riders. The helmet is for a guy back in Ohio that crashed and is now paralyzed. He has two kids and the insurance company isn’t quite cooperating. I went to everyone I could find in the morning before the chaos began and had everyone autograph it. There are over 25 signatures on it now and I hope that when the family receives this helmet, they can get a pretty penny for it! The money will go to a great cause – a very deserving fan of the sport that needs the help.

I watched Joe’s first practice, but was pulled away from his second practice due to a crash in another session. For all you fans out there that think the racers aren’t friends off the track, you are sadly mistaken. As much as I want Joe to finish where he deserves to, I also am rooting for the others out on the track. Like I said before, this industry is our family.

Travis Preston crashed pretty hard in the second seeded practice. When I knew he would be escorted off by the Doc Bodnar, I made my way to the track and hopped on the back of the mule to help out anyway I could since I knew that Travis’ wife hadn’t arrived at the track. Travis and Joe are great friends, and if anyone else was in my situation at that point, I hope that they would do the same thing.

I checked in on TP to make sure he was “okay” and got the low down as to what was wrong. Once they got him checked out in the Asterisk Mobile Medical Center, I called TP’s wife and told her what had happened. I was fortunate enough to get her on the ambulance with Travis before they left for the hospital. She told me how much she appreciated me doing what I did…like I said, I would want the same thing done for me if Joe had been injured and I wasn’t at the track.

I think that is one of the most important things for me with the WMXF. Not all racers wives, girlfriends or moms can be at every race. This is my family, I don’t want to see anyone hurt, but if I am there when an incident happens, I am more than willing to slip into that role and be there to help out in any way I can. Luckily for Travis, nothing was wrong so despite the soreness, you should see him back on the track soon!

The life of a racer’s wife isn’t all glamorous, it’s stressful, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. I am lucky to be married to a man that had a dream and fought hard to achieve that dream. He had the chance to be one of the best riders in the states; he achieved it and is still going strong!

Speaking of strong, Joe’s starts were an issue for him last week, this week – they were awesome! He came out 4th in the first heat race and ran there for 4 laps till he was clipped in a corner and fell out of qualifying. I am not going to lie and say that’s okay, it sucked! He finally got a good jump off the line and came out where he should have been since Anaheim 1. He couldn’t do much after he got up since his rear brake pedal had broken off.

Gerald got everything back to normal and Joe had another great start in the LCQ. He came out 3rd and ran there till the 5th lap. With a ½ lap to go, he was passed and finished 4th. Joe was disappointed, but had a weight lifted off his shoulders knowing that he could get a good start…he had it in him the whole time, it just took some time to wipe the dust off.

This week Joe will be getting ready for San Francisco. The week will go by fast I’m sure, but the main thing is Joe is enjoying his job and there aren’t many people out there that can say that! See you at the races!