This week brought a lot of changes for Joe and me. With the process of him changing over from KTM to Kawasaki, there was a lot to be done.

While Joe was away in Daytona, I was able to get his bike shipped to Orlando through a carrier in Vegas. The bike arrived in Miami, Florida on Monday and was picked up by the Butler Brothers Trucking Company. The Butler boys were kind enough to hand deliver the crate to Orlando on Friday just in time for the race.

With things going crazy as ever in California for me and the track, I won’t bore you with my daily duties, only to say that things continue to go in the right direction.

Moving onto the juicier stuff with Joe…

Joe and Gerald’s travel agent thought that saving money was more important than sleep this week, so the boys left the house at 10pm on Thursday night and flew all night to get to Orlando by noon on Friday. Good timing right, with the new bike and all it would be perfect. One little glitch, with Orlando being the airport where every family flies into for Disney – the lines were pretty long to get out of there. Let’s just say that I received more than one phone call of what a wise plan it was for me to make these arrangements while they waited in an hour line just to get their rental car. Can you imagine – two grumpy men standing in line while toddlers and children run around screaming, “I want to see Mickey Mouse?”

With only a few hours of sleep, Joe and Gerald headed to the track to unload. Things proceeded nicely and they were able to get the bike in race ready mode with all the gadgets they had brought along.

On Saturday, I received the most up beat call from Joe this season. He was so happy with the bike and very comfortable. He said that he was having some issues adjusting here and there, but for the most part, he was having a good day.

I rushed home from the track to listen to the webcast at home with our now 6 month old – Leum and Joe’s parents. We listened intently as Joe missed the heat by a few and then went onto the LCQ. The first words out of the announcer’s mouths were, “Oh no, there is a pileup in turn one...” I thought, you gotta be kidding, don’t let it be Joe.

Luck was on Joe’s side – he missed the pileup and came out in 6 th. With less than a second separating the lap times of the top 10 guys, it was a freight train to the finish with Joe finishing out of qualifying position in 8 th place.

I was a little worried waiting on the phone call from Joe thinking he would be very down on himself and so forth. Instead, Joe called me to tell me that he was constantly adjusting his clutch in the LCQ only to find out that when the races was over why. Apparently, there was a very small hole in the side of the transmission cover that drained every bit of oil out of the motor. Joe said that when he crossed the line, the engine got a little loud, but he didn’t think much of it. Now, if you recall, last week oil was coming out of the borrowed bike he was on and they caught it before he raced. Many have said that when he broke his neck in 2005 that someone was watching over him….I believe it is still happening.

Even though Joe isn’t in the mains, he is healthy and getting back to his competitive level he was at before he was injured. I can’t thank those watching over him enough for that!

Next week in Indy, Leum and I are going to travel along with Joe and Gerald to visit my family and catch up with some friends. I get to celebrate my niece’s birthday and enjoy the family time that is too rare now that everyone is so busy. I am sure that the story next week will be very interesting with all that going on! Until then, enjoy the races!!!