My family just went to South Haven, MI; it’s a cute, small town off Lake Michigan. This is IMG_2905not the first time we have been here, it’s our third actually going as a family. Why go to South Haven? Well, there’s the beach, past posts have told you that I love the beach. There’s amazing ice cream over at Sherman’s, and our main reason for going, the race track.

Here’s a bit of information about my life growing up…my dad is a Chevy guy. I don’t know if it’s only a growing up in the country thing or if a lot of families are like this  but if your dad is a Chevy guy, you drive Chevy, if he likes Ford, you drive a Ford, or if he likes Dodge, you drive a Dodge. That’s just how it is. When Cherokee first came home with her husband Brian, he drove a Ford. And back then I just thought, “how could you bring someone home who drives a Ford?” Now lets skip to years later when I brought home Caspar, I am surprised my Dad didn’t have a heart attack then because Caspar drives an Import. On our first date he showed up in, his now race car, a 1999 Acura Integra. Y’all, when we first started dating I was driving a Chevy Silverado.

Back then, Caspar was slowly turning this car into his race car. I don’t remember what date number it was but he tried showing off his “skills” by going fast around the curves near my parents house, we ended up in a field shortly after. And yet, I was supportive when he went to go race his car the first time.

He likes to go up to Gingerman’s Raceway, in South Haven, if you ask anyone who has been there it’s a safe track. The reason why it’s safe is because there’s grass all around the track. Think about it though, would you rather go off and hit railing or go off into a field of grass? Yes, there is still a risk, this past weekend we watched a fellow driver flip his car while going around a curve.

After last years run he came home and instantly took apart his car. He gutted this thing. Anything he could do to make it lighter, he did. Once we decided we were going back again this year he spent every night for weeks out in the garage preparing this care. (I may have told him he could never say I wasn’t supportive.) We went to one of the Shelby Club events this year, for this you need to be part of the club which is easy to join. They have more than one event at Gingerman and they also travel outside of Michigan.

What I like about this event is that you don’t just see one type of car, you see all sorts from Mustang’s, Corvette’s, Mazda’s and yes, the Integra’s. There’s different groups for different experience of drivers, usually this first couple groups are the more experienced and the last few are newer drivers or members. I loved that this year they had a group that involved instructors. And trust me, this is a family event! We camp at the track when we go and the kids love it. There’s enough room for them to run around, and as I mentioned earlier there’s a delicious ice cream shop, the beach and this year we decided to add an apple orchard to our list of things to do.

Caspar’s fastest time this year was 1:59 and I am truly proud of him.

 

Let me know if you our interested in seeing any of our videos from our time on the track, I’ll gladly post them!

~D

 

 

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