This letter is to all racers out there who (like me) get wrapped up in some of the trivial B.S. involved in a race weekend and get stressed out. The weather sucks, my tires suck, that racer is a pin-head, etc. Remember to not worry about the small stuff, and it is ALL small stuff. Just enjoy yourself and be focused. After arriving at BIR for the opening weekend, unloading, setting up the camper, etc., I find a message on my cell phone at 11:00 p.m. that my Dad has had a massive heart attack. Not knowing any details, very tired and being three hours from home, I talked, prayed and talked to other family members to get information on his condition before making a move. The last word from my Uncle at 12:30 a.m. was that the nurse said he was “okay” considering what had happened. He had stents put in his heart arteries and was under heavy medication and resting. I decided to wait until morning and lay by the phone… I drove down the next day with my son after a day of non-enthusiastic practice. I tried to explain to my Mom that packing everything up and driving down the night before would be a 4-hour minimum job and in all truth, there was nothing for any of us to do but pray, because we are not the ones in control…only God is. Standing around wringing our hands and making each other goulash and bars was not going to make my Dad any better. After all was done and said while I was there, I returned to BIR with my son contemplating some of the things my mother said to me. I had a lot of supportive people in the CRA praying for and with me for my Dad, many in the CRA family came up to me and told me that he was in their thoughts and prayers…it gave me incredible strength! I decided to keep monitoring the phone, but to dedicate all races to my Dad and thank God for all the opportunities I’ve had with him. I then proceeded to black out all of the dumb, trivial bullshit that I usually stress about and just focus on racing in my Dad’s honor. As I raced, I had three people on that bike…this accounted for me scoring five times as many points in one weekend as I had the entire previous year. The only downfall was trying to see through all the tears as I crossed the finish line in my last race. The strength of all the prayers from my family and my CRA family had not only helped put my Dad on the road to recovery, but filled me with so much strength and focus, I could have done anything (except for the fact that I had a horrible start in the SuperTwins race…). Thank you to all of you in the CRA who were there for us, your thoughts and prayers meant more to me than you’ll ever know. S.C. Pittman #228 CRA Rosemount, Minnesota