Page 9 - Sanger Herald 7-26-18 E-edition

SangerSports
SANGER HERALD * PAGE 1B * THURSDAY, JULY 26, 2018
Double Nickel team wins race then burns car to the ground
By Rob Krider
Sanger Herald correspondent
The plan was to take our two Double Nickel Nine Motorsports Acura Integras from our shop in Del Rey to Buttonwillow Raceway for rounds 7 and 8 of the National Auto Sport Association Honda Challenge series and hopefully win some races.
Of course, you know what they say about making plans. In actuality the plan was going along fine at first. On July 7 during Round 7, our two cars finished first and second. It doesn’t get any better than that. The plan seemed to be working fine.
On July 8 during Round 8, the plan was still looking good. We were able to qualify for the race in the pole position, and I broke a Honda Challenge track record. All that was left to do was start the race out front, try to stay out front for 30 minutes and then head to the podium to pick up some more trophies and enjoy some Tactical Ops Brewing Double Nickel Nine IPA from Fresno. That was the plan anyway.
During the race I
Rob Krider's Go Pro
Fire breaches the interior of the Double Nickel Nine Motorsports Acura Integra while driver Rob Krider battles for the lead during Round 8 of the Honda Challenge series. Krider escaped injury.
my five-point harness, my radio plug from my helmet and my driver hydration system. I wanted out of the car fast. The smoke was getting so thick in the interior I couldn’t really see much track in front of me. Islidthecartoastopand climbed out with a purpose.
That purpose was not to burn.
The outstanding emergency crews at Buttonwillow Raceway quickly responded to my location and started putting water on the car. They red flagged the race. The fire crew was able to extinguish the fire, but unfortunately the damage was done. The entire engine compartment was destroyed. The car was a loss.
But the crazy part about the race was because they red flagged the event, they froze the finishing positions of each of the cars on track. Even with my car burned to the ground, I finished i n s e c o n d p l a c e . M y teammate, Keith Kramer, finished in third place. It wasn’t part of the plan, but it was still a good finish.
Those finishing positions propelled DNN Motorsports into the lead for the SoCal
NASA Honda Challenge Regional Championship. It also qualified us for the National Championships to be held at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas this September. That only leaves us about 60 days to completely rebuild the No. 38 car. But we have a plan to do that.
Luckily for us we are sponsored by some great local businesses in the Sanger area — Olson Auto Body, Sanger Tire, J & B Farms, Economy Stock Feed and Tactical Ops Brewing. Rebuilding the car won’t be easy or cheap, but we will get it done. Our plan is to take our little racing team from Del Rey and show everyone at the national championships that we are the best Honda Challenge team in the country. That’s the plan anyway.
Rob Krider is the author of the novel, "Cadet Blues," and can be reached through www.robkrider.com. To follow the race team go to www.team559.com or follow KriderRacing on Instagram.
managed to blow the engine while battling for the lead. For the record, this was not part of the plan. But, in racing, these things happen. The technical term for the engine failing is “instant disassembly.” I’ve blown engines before, shamefully more times than I would like to admit, so I was used to a little smoke and oil smell when the engine went. Then I heard my spotter, Austin Fowler, over the radio say, “You are on fire!”
Being on fire was also not part of the plan.
I realized at that moment things were not good. I was traveling about 100 miles per hour, my car was on fire and I was strapped tightly into that burning car with a five-point Autopower racing harness. I needed to get out.
I came up with a plan. It was a brand new plan. The old plan was to win the race. The new plan was to survive the fire.
I looked for a safe place
to land the burning car, hopefully on a spot off of the track where there wasn’t a lot of dry grass. I chose to park it next to a flagger station where I knew they stored fire extinguishers. As I was bringing the car in, the fire breached the interior and I could actually see it coming out from under the dashboard.
This wasn’t part of my plan.
At this point I started working quickly to remove
Mammoth task ahead for Apache XC
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
Jahari Garcia vowed that this year when the Sanger High cross country team heads to Mammoth Mountain for its annual retreat and high-elevation training she will be a better chef.
Way better. New and improved.
“They will be the best,” she said of her egg souffle(s).
Last year, when Garcia was a freshman, she said she got a little distracted while cooking up a batch of eggs for breakfast. And, judging by her teammates’ descriptions, “a little” is an understatement.
The boys and girls teams had just completed their 3-mile time trials to qualify for the event. The hour was early, long before the sun had a chance to heat the quiet city of Sanger to a blistering triple-digit temperature July 18. Garcia explained how she managed to become famous for her egg-based concoction.
She and teammates Alondra Huerta and Kaley Cardenas giggled as they recounted the incident. Apparently Garcia found a large frying pan at the condo the team used and filled the pan with about 20 eggs. Or make that about double if Huerta’s assertion was more correct. It didn’t turn out all that well and sloshed over the sides a couple of times, Garcia said.
Regardless, this year’s event from July 29 to Aug. 3 promises to be different. After all Garcia, Huerta and Cardenas are sophomores on a girls team that expects to again set records.
“I will be making the best waffles,” Huerta said.
That good?
“Next to life itself,” she said. “Kaley will be supervising.”
Cardenas affirmed that she is, indeed, a decent
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
These fleet-footed Apaches are heading to the mountains to train and bond with each other and develop skills to devastate opponents.
cook. Huerta called her “the best chef ever.”
And this year, Huerta said, “I’ll go to bed early.”
Cat Waite, girls coach, rolled her eyes. This story involved a group of the girls staying up late and waking up early.
“We couldn’t stop laughing,” Cardenas said.
Huerta said the beauty of the Mammoth experience is the bonding. “We got really close up there to our upper classmates,” she said.
Head coach Sean Marzolf confirmed that bonding is a big part of the experience. He said quite a few of the cross country programs, especially the perennial heavyweights in the Clovis Unified School District, do something similar over the summer months. Other teams, from high school to college, take the opportunity to train on Mammoth Mountain, he
said.
“We run, we eat, we
sleep,” he said. “The higher elevation helps, too. We sleep at 8,000 feet.”
And the Apache athletes cook their own meals.
Waite said the experience wouldn’t be possible without team sponsors Fleet Feet Sports on Fort Washington Road in Fresno, Sanger Physical Therapy and California Classic Events, which stages the half marathon and century road bike ride.
The retreat culminates in a grueling run. “Our big time trial is we race to the top of Mammoth Mountain,” Marzolf said. “Up there, you get to see everything.”
And the trio of Cardenas, Huerta and Garcia also commented on that final run. The run is more of a climb, especially toward the end where it gets
steeper. The trek goes from about 9,000 to 11,000 feet. Official elevation of Mammoth, a lava dome complex west of Mammoth Lakes in the Inyo National Forest, is 11,030 feet.
“I want to run a 49,” Huerta said. “I did it in 51 minutes last year.”
Garcia said running can be tough because the trail at a certain point turns to soft dirt. Cardenas compared the consistency to Play-Doh.
But the temperature is more modest. Highs in the 80s.
Marzolf said he expects competitive seasons out of both teams. “We’re working real hard over here,” he said. “This is the best we’ve ever looked on the girls side.”
The girls broke records last year and the year before. New on the girls team this year is freshman
Nia Lamas, who won the Valley Championship in Bakersfield as an eighth- grader in the 1,500 meters. “I’m looking forward to having a great year with my team and having a lot of fun,” she said. “It’s going to be a very challenging season, but we have our (team) family to help.”
“On the boys’ side, it’s been looking stronger the last several weeks,” Marzolf said. “We’ve got a very young team. We’re still looking to make an impact.”
One of those young runners is David De Loera, a freshman and younger brother of Danny De Loera, a sophomore. David said he’s looking forward to the season as well. He said he also expects to improve his conditioning significantly at Mammoth and wants to break 16 minutes in the 3 mile. He had 16:41 minutes
in the time trial.
Likewise, Emanuel Salas,
also a freshman this year, said he expects to improve getting into the mountains. “I feel like the hills will make me better at getting distance,” he said. He wants to break 16 minutes and had 17:23 in the trial.
Adrian Cuellar, a sophomore, rocketed to the win for the boys in the trial. “I can’t wait to run the hills up there,” he said. “And all the different kinds of workouts and stretches we do.”
Danny De Loera said they likely will all get better and faster. And he added, “Besides Jahari’s eggs, I like spending time with my team.”
The reporter can be contacted by email at sangerheraldsports@gmail. com or by phone at the Herald at (559) 875-2511.