The night I’ve been counting down since late September finally arrived! The hard work everyone did over the off season was finally going to be worth it, but what’s work without a little bit of a struggle? (Ugh!)

While still patiently waiting for the motor for the UMP Modified to come back we decided to run my UMP Sport Compact for its last year with me behind the wheel. It’ll be hard to part with my first racecar that I’ve driven for the past four seasons, but the step upwards in classes is definitely well needed and deserved.

This Friday was autograph night at Kankakee County Speedway so every driver and crew brought their cars out onto the track so the fans could interact with us and see the cars up close. Luckily I remembered my marker! After a six year old boy gave me a high five for “winning hot laps” (Impossible, but too cute to tell him different), it was time to get strapped up in the car for the first time in nearly six months.

The night was kick started with a decent draw placing me in the first of two heats starting second row outside. I was relieved that I was starting on the outside because that’s where I prefer to run. At this point I had at least one thing in my favor. I always try to ignore my constant suffocating butterflies, but the excitement and anxiousness I feel sitting on pit road is overwhelming. Talking to myself in my helmet, literally talking to myself, I get pumped up while running the pace laps. Unfortunately the car was not set up to par for this race so I sunk like an anchor into seventh. Finishing in a position where we directly made the A-main we had plenty of time to make adjustments.

After scrambling around during most of my off track time I heard the pit announcer come over the intercom, “All hornets to the staging area, NOW!” The hot laps session and heat race earlier in the night quickly indicated that I needed to carefully watch my temperature gauge during the race. Rolling off in the seventh row, the green flag is dropped and I quickly gain a few positions which are taken away after a caution comes out resulting in a complete restart. Green flag drops, as soon as I enter turn 1 another wreck is brewing, a quick squeeze between roughly four or five racecars, and I’m sitting 9^th when the caution comes out for the second time. Green flag drops again and in less than a lap and a half I quickly hustle up to 6^th place. Checking my temperature gauge, I realize it’s getting a little too hot for only running a few laps. Damn! I would hate for my engine to spoil our early run. While cruising around the track waiting for the line up to get situated I keep debating whether to pull off or not. Logical me saying, “Ya know Shannon, it’s getting a little too close.” Competitive me saying, “Oh come on, the car is starting to hook don’t ruin it.” Too much circling under caution brought the motor to too hot of a temp, and at that point I finally made the decision to pull off because a good finish the first night out just wasn’t worth a blown engine.

I’d rather take the high-five and the quick run than the blown motor and lost nights of racing.

We’ll be back at it this weekend! Stay up to date by following me on Twitter @ShannonMudro.