Off to the races

You'd think recovering from a broken shoulder (baseball injury) and getting braces would be enough trauma (or drama) for a teenager to handle in one summer. Not if you're Colin Reffner.

I've mentioned before that Jim's nephew is a race car driver. Yes, he's only 13. And yes, he really does drive a REAL car in REAL stockcar races. And he's pretty darn good, too, which he proved again tonight. Bear with me if you don't know a thing about racing, or don't care.

During qualifying, Colin had the fastest time among the 4-cylinder cars. This meant he got to drive around the track with the other fast qualifiers during the Star Spangled Banner. Colin drove and his dad, my brother-in-law Baird, got to hold the flag. Pretty cool.

They introduced him and he told the crowd about his sponsors and said he was dedicating the race to his cousin Matthew Grimm, who died in Iraq this year. That's more than cool.

They had two heat races for the 4-cylinder cars and Colin won his. So he got his picture taken in the Winner's Circle and had to start the feature in the back of the lineup. That's how they work things at Golden Sands Speedway. Colin stepped up to the challenge, though.

It was quite a race. Only a few laps into the 15-lap feature, there was a crash and Colin's 87 car ran straight into a car that had lost control. Thankfully, the damage was minimal and Colin could resume the race. After the caution, he was in fifth place. He quickly maneuvered his way into first and held that spot until the end!

It was back to the Winner's Circle again for his first Feature Win of the season! Way to go, Colin!!

Afterwards, in the pits, his "fans" lined up for autographs and pictures. I wondered if he'd re-injure that shoulder with all that writing! We could tell he was loving it -- as he should.

When he wasn't addressing his fans, I heard him telling him mom about his braces bothering him a bit. Funny, I forgot for a minute that he's still just a kid. A pretty cool kid with a big heart and big dreams and, now, a big trophy!