So this is my first blog, well, first "real" blog. I'm mean I've blogged on my myspace page but I'm not counting it. This is the real deal. I want to thank Roger for thinking of me because honestly, I feel like I know as much about hydroplane racing as I do about aerospace engineering. What I can provide is perspective. I may not know what spark plugs we're using or what angle our skid fin is at (things I can ask my hubby however!) but I'm pretty seasoned as a racing wife. Anyhow let the blogging begin!
I chose this picture because this was a pretty important moment in our racing career. Yes I said "our" because once you become involved with a _____ (insert driver, crewman, owner, boat holder, etc.) it is not his career anymore. Suddenly everything you're living for only occurs between the months of April and October, money is saved for the next piece of racing equipment and vacations just don't exist unless they're spent with a couple hundred of your close racing buddies. Don't get me wrong I love my life now. The weekend of this accident, my friend Sue Troxell told me "Rena, you chose this life." And shes right.
I had never seen Dustin wreck a boat before this. Dustin has raced outboards since the ripe old age of nine and therefore has been crashing them that long also. He's not a careless driver, quite the opposite just if you're playing the odds it's not if you crash but when and I'm quite certain any racer will tell you that. What's different about this crash wasn't so much that it happened. (and if you're looking for specifics on that crash you'll have to ask Dustin) More so that I was nine months pregnant and 5 days before my due date! So if you want to count crappy days at the race course this would qualify for the both of us! I would like to take this public forum to thank my friends for, quite readily, stepping in to help me after it happened. Hydro racing wives are the unsung heroes of the sport. They are the ones left lonely most summer nights and weekends, dilligently wiping down the boat whether win or lose, chasing childeren around, fetching lunches, running to pick up boat parts....... you get the idea. They are very much involved though they may never touch the engine in their lives. Anyhow it is a subject very much close to my heart and I thought I would share. I promise not to be so "mushy" all the time!
Go GP-17!
Rena Echols (wife of Dustin, driver GP-17)
*photo courtesy of the Tri-City Herald*
1 comment:
Welcome to the HydroNation Blog. I look forward to reading your stuff and learning what it's like to be the wife of a hydro driver.
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