Our week started off like normal, we had our crazy week at the test tracks and at Competitive Edge getting ready for the Area Qualifier coming up next weekend. With Indy being as close to our home in Ohio as the series gets, we decided to go an extra day earlier to get to spend time with family and friends that would be attending.
We were to leave on Thursday at 4pm out of Ontario, CA. After weather in Phoenix turned bad, we had to make other arrangements to get to Indy by Friday morning in a timely manner all the while flying with our 6 month old son. We decided our best bet would be to drive 2 hours to San Diego and leave from there on a 10pm flight into Philadelphia. We ended up leaving late from there and missing our connection in Philly only to have to wait there till 11am to catch the next flight, putting us in Indy at 1:30pm on Friday. An almost full day of flying…how fun!
We finally got to the hotel by early afternoon. Gerald and Joe left for the track to get the bike ready from last weeks oil leak and I was able to see my family and some friends. We went to dinner celebrating my niece Baylie’s 6 th birthday. Gerald and Joe made it in time to eat with us. My family hadn’t seen Joe for quite some time. With his schedule of racing, he doesn’t get to spend much time relaxing so it was nice for him to get to spend a little time with them.
We made it to the track on Saturday morning about 10am. A good time to take around my nephews, niece and their friends to get some autographs. The guys as usual were more than accommodating to sign some for family and the kids were so excited to get to see these guys up close and personal. I also got to see some of the AMA girls that I don’t get to see that often. One of them being Cindy Thomas – JT$’s mom. She outfitted Leum in a Florida Gators outfit…not that I was surprised at all by that…she is trying to change him into a big fan!
We had more friends and family show up, including my best friend and her husband whom I only get to see every so often with our crazy schedule! They were all able to create a cheering section for Joe that night…which turned out to be what he needed!
Joe ended up qualifying out of the heat race in 9 th place. That’s right, he finally made one! I was sooo worried that I had counted wrong that I ran to the AMA truck just to confirm it. When I got back to Joe’s pits, he had the same worried look on his face…I gave him the thumbs up and he just grinned and gave out a sigh of relief.
I have to say that I was worried that many would think Joe wasn’t his same self. That he wouldn’t be able to be the old Joe…but I should have known better. As soon as I got back to the pits, I had people telling me that they were so pumped to see Joe where he should be. He even had other guys coming up and shaking his hand saying good ride, I know you have been working hard for this! That just made me think how special our racing family is! To top it off, Dunlop wrote a special message on his tire saying – Thanks Daddy! Marshall from Dunlop said that Leum was wanting a new pair of shoes. Again, just cool that these guys still had faith in Joe. I know it is something he had been thinking about for some time now.
Joe ended up 18 th in the main event after being in 13 th. He was trying to pass another rider with a few laps to go and ended up falling down, bending his radiator. He rode the last 3 laps with smoke coming out of his bike…talk about sitting on the edge of my seat!
I was so excited to see Joe out there pushing past those guys that he has been beaten by every week now. Just today, I already see a different Joe…one that knows he deserves to be in the mains.
We ended up staying late on Sunday in Indy to finish up visiting with family. We flew out of Indy and connected in Phoenix to Ontario. To our surprise, we saw Mark Burkhart on our flight – one of the fastest Supermoto guys! He is an Ohio native as well and has been racing with Joe since they were little kids. They were even teammates on the 1999 AM Leonard KTM team back in the day. It was good to catch up with him, since we hadn’t seen him for quite some time!
Our flight on the way back home was just as eventful as on the way to Indiana. We ended up having to deal with an angry passenger on our flight that was very entertaining…I can tell the details at a later date!
Needless to say, this weekend was a great one for Joe and I. He got to see that he is still the same guy that is putting in the same times and finishes as those around him. I am just happy to see that all that hard work from coming back from his broken neck is finally surfacing enough for him to realize that he is doing the right thing – racing for a living!
See you in Dallas!
