Was this any way to start a great weekend of quad racing? No, but we finally made it safely to our exit and pulled into the Loretta's campground area. I've never been so glad to get to the racetrack in my life. After enduring that string of horrible luck, we had to believe that the rest of the weekend was going to be a breeze...or so we thought!
Thad and I left the track a bit early to grab some dinner and to get checked into our hotel. Just off the highway is a small diner that had been serving food to hungry racers for years. The diner even has a dedication plaque to the one and only Dave Coombs, creator of the GNCC series. With a welcoming atmosphere and some good hometown country cookin', we were sure to end our day on the right note. Tomorrow was going to be a huge day for us and would be packed with photo shoots and hard-core racing.
This is where the final part of our road trip went from "getting better" to "getting much worse." Thad and I chowed down on some dinner and right away, Thad started feeling queasy. We walked back to the hotel and in a matter of hours, your editor and my friend came down with the worst case of food poisoning I've ever witnessed. He hurled all night long and even continued when there was nothing left. The night wasn't long enough for Thad to get it all out of his system, after traveling hundreds of miles with a huge hunk of work to accomplish, he was useless and completely unable to function.
For the rest of the day, Thad was pretty much spent and could hardly raise an eyelid. Absolutely no work was accomplished that day. The race weekend was a complete and utter loss for him. But as I drove him back to Georgia late that night, he began to regain consciousness, slowly that is. All in all, that weekend was a total nightmare for both of us. We're just glad we lived to tell the tale. ATVR