From the moment we completed our first qualifying session, the 2017 NHRA Dallas Divisional provided a pretty rocky race weekend for Team Hutto. From confusions on the legality of the corvette to the corvette not even making it down the track first round, I’ve chalked this weekend up to a tough lesson learned.

Going forward, we’ll be sure that there’s absolutely no question on the legality of our cars and we’ll fix the carburetor issue that caused our first round hiccup- which ironically was the part of the car in question. Despite unwanted results, I did learn about the politics that goes on in the NHRA, which will make more vigilant in insuring compliance with the rules- thus, a better racer.

With this race being the second in a row that the car has shut off on the starting line, we also now know that we have a real issue that needs to be addressed. Though we prefer to not have issues anywhere, we’re better off having them a few hours down the road in Dallas than having them thousands of miles away at an “out of division” event. There’s always some silver lining to leaving a race without the trophy. As a driver, I usually don’t see it in the moment of defeat, but after some reflection I always remember that we’re blessed to even have the means to participate in such an amazing sport. As they say, a bad day at the races is better than a good day anywhere else!