"Sparky" (see Jim Francisco's related articles Missing in Marshfield & Home Cookin' ) Superstition compels some racers to go to extremes to avoid a bad day at the track. They believe that winning and losing is highly correlated to things most others would quickly dismiss as “happenstance”. Unfortunately my fellow Hankscraft Racing “Hot Lap” Blogger, Jim Francisco fell victim to it. You can read Jim’s blog for yourself, but in a nutshell, at our Marshfield race our driver James found a spark plug with broken ceramic that obviously caused motor issues. I took it, gave it to Jim and he immediately anointed it as the “good luck charm” that was going to turn our winless season around. Well….we are still winless. Since Marshfield we have raced at WIR, Slinger and the Dells. We have been a top five car everywhere, but cannot get the checkers. Now, I as much as anyone, realize much of winning a race is being in the right place at the right time, or not being in the wrong place at the wrong time. In fact, I have said this to James and Adam and I think they kind of agree with me. But after the Slinger race, and another night when the team could not get the car to turn in the middle of the corners and off, I told Jim to “throw that dang sparkplug into the woods” behind the pits of Slinger. He refused! I suppose hoping that by giving “Sparky” one more chance it would pay off. It didn’t. I am not sure exactly when I took Sparky away from Jim, but I am going to hold onto him (oh my gosh, maybe Sparky is actually a woman?!?!? How does one tell?) for awhile. I know I am not relying on it to win us a race. Our team is too good to rely on superstition and eventually they will figure the car out. Until then, be assured that Sparky (or Sparkles?) will be safe and sound resting comfortably in my care. However, it has seen its last race track, at least for the time being. If we can’t win with it, we might as well win without it. By the way, IF I give Sparky back to Jim, be sure to ask him… “Is that a spark plug in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?” See you all at the Finish Line - Mark |
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