Hey guys, Chad here with Midlife Classic Cars.

I hate racing.

I hate it with a passion. I absolutely hate it. And I'm going to tell you exactly why, because I just had one of the worst weeks I've had in a long time and I filmed the whole miserable thing from the side of the road.

Fair warning. This one's not a how-to. This one's a confession.

It started out so good

I left for Dominion Raceway on Thursday. Got there Thursday night, and there was nobody at the track yet. Just me and the trailer. Slept in it. That part I actually love, if I'm being honest with you.

Friday was practice all day, and practice went great. Right up until the last session, when I kissed the wall. Minor tweak. Nothing you couldn't fix in the pits, and the car was ready to go again.

Then Saturday came. Practice, then qualifying. And I wrecked in qualifying.

So that's Saturday's race gone. And Sunday went with it, because Sunday was practice, qualify, and race too.

That's the part people don't get. I'm 46 years old and I'm the new guy. I don't need a trophy. I need laps. Laps are the only thing that fixes the actual problem, which is the guy holding the steering wheel.

All the prep. All the nights in the shop getting the car ready. The drive up. Gone.

The wreck was mine

Let me own it before somebody says it in the comments.

Nobody turned me. The pace picked up, I didn't adapt to it, and when the car snapped on me I didn't catch it. That's it. That's the whole story. Now the front clip is done and it's going to need cut off and welded back on.

And here's the dumb part. For the time I was actually on that track, it was the most fun I've ever had in the Legend car. Dominion is a road course, and I had an absolute blast. Car felt good. I was starting to feel good. I've had way more fun road racing than I have on the ovals.

Speaking of ovals. Ovals are fun, but they're intense, and I'm out there with a bunch of kids who have been in these cars since they were nine years old. Those kids have kahonas, man. They will send it right at you and not think twice. The oval scares me a little. I'll admit it.

Front clip's toast. Cut it off, weld a new one on, keep going.

Then I didn't even make it 14 miles

So I load up. I'm sad, I'm mad, I'm out the money, and I'm ready to go home and feel sorry for myself in my own driveway.

I didn't get 14 miles from the racetrack before the trailer bearings completely gave out.

I'm not 100% sure what did it. I might have torqued them coming around the turn getting out of the parking lot. But if I'm being straight with you, I haven't used this trailer much the last few years, and I have not greased the bearings. So you can probably do that math faster than I can.

Either way, I'm sitting on the side of the road with a truck, a race trailer, and a wrecked race car.

This is where having a plan paid off

Here's the one thing I did right all weekend.

I don't use a regular roadside plan. I pay for the kind that will actually come get a big trailer. It works like AAA, but they're set up for this. That is the only reason I wasn't standing out there at dark trying to talk somebody into helping me.

They sent a mobile mechanic. Good guy. Him and I pulled the hub apart right there on the shoulder, and the news was actually fine. Bearings. That's all it needed. We weren't even going to mess with rebuilding the electric brake on that corner, because I didn't need the brake to get home. Just get the wheel turning and go.

He even took my hub with him so he could match the bearings exactly instead of guessing. Smart. I would not have thought of that.

And then he started calling around.

Nobody had bearings. Nobody.

Not one shop. And it's not like I was out in the middle of nowhere.

There's a Flying J Travel Center right there. There's another one right down from that. There is an actual trailer shop up the road that does nothing but trailers. And it was Sunday, so every single part house in that area was closed.

So the mechanic's coming back at 9:30 the next morning, and I'm going to the Comfort Inn.

$109 a night. Two nights, because Monday morning is when the parts counter finally opens. So call it $218 just to stand still and be annoyed.

That last line is the one that actually bothers me. Monday is our big ship day and our big receiving day. We move a lot of books out of that building. My employee Veronica had to handle all of it by herself while I sat in a hotel four hours away waiting on two bearings. That's not fair to her and I know it.

Learn from me and go grease your bearings

I'm putting this in here because I earned it the expensive way, and because somebody reading this is towing a car on a trailer they haven't touched in three years. I see you. I was you last Sunday.

The guys at the hotel

Funny thing happened while I was standing in the hotel parking lot filming a video about how much my life stinks.

A group of guys started making fun of me for talking to my phone. Then they came over and asked to see the race car. I opened the trailer up and showed them the 63 and the whole setup. They thought it was the coolest thing they'd seen all week.

And that flipped my whole mood. That's the thing about this deal. You can be at the absolute bottom of a weekend and somebody still looks at a beat-up little race car in a trailer like it's a spaceship.

Stranded, broke, and still showing guys the race car in a hotel parking lot.

So am I quitting?

No. Of course not. You knew that before you clicked.

When I first got into this I genuinely did not enjoy it, because I was fighting the car every single weekend. Then I got in with a good team, the car started running right, and I started having fun. By the end of Charlotte I was really enjoying myself. Then I got to Dominion and had the most fun I've had yet.

So no, a torn-up front clip and a set of bearings aren't ending this.

Here's the plan. I've got about 30 days before I leave the country for three weeks. In that window I need to get the car torn down and at least get the front clip welded. Then when I get back, I assemble it and I'm ready to go. There may be more road races popping up before the end of the season, and I want to be able to say yes.

And one more thing I want you to take away from this, because it's the truest thing in the whole video.

When you're stuck at a hotel you didn't plan on, in a town you didn't plan on, waiting on parts nobody has, you can almost always find a Waffle House. There's always something good going on in life.

Books Worth Grabbing

Three off our shelves that go straight at the week I just had — prep you skipped, parts that let go, and welding the mess back together.

Prepare To Win

Carroll Smith on doing the boring stuff right before you leave the shop. Inspection, fasteners, checklists. Basically a 200-page version of "go grease your bearings, Chad."

$24.95

Shop Now

Engineer To Win

Why metal parts actually fail. Fatigue, loads, bearings, fasteners. If you've ever stood over a hub going "how did this happen," this is the book that explains it.

$25.67

Shop Now

Welding for Vehicle Restorers

Extremely relevant to me this month, since I've got a front clip to cut off and weld back on. Practical welding for guys working on real cars in a real garage.

$27.86

Shop Now

Thanks for hanging out, guys. If you've ever lost a wheel bearing on the side of the road with somebody else's problem in your trailer, you know exactly how my week went. Like and subscribe over on YouTube so you can watch me put the front clip on, and sign up for the Midlife Classic Cars newsletter or look us up on social — just search Midlife Classic Cars. See you at the track. — Chad