Aspen And Sam's 1st UTV race

At the end of the race

Saturday morning our family headed to Mesquite NV, because Aspen decided that he wanted to race in the Mesquite off road races they were having there at the Eureka Hotel. Aspen has been in these side by side machines for a long time and has driven through some gnarly stuff, and has been to King of the Hammers twice with his dad and has been the co-pilot, but he has never ran a race himself, so this was his first ever. He was nervous, but excited.
When we got there and checked the course out, he was ready! He knew he could do this. Sam decided that he thought it would be so cool if he could be Aspen's co-pilot in this race since Aspen is always Lanse's. So he got his helmet and goggles, and nothing was stopping him. Aspen was so cute with him and so excited that little Sammy boy was going to ride with him. They are such a team!
It was time to line up for race 1. They had two races. The first was at 1:00 and the second was at 6:00. Anyways, they were lined up with all of the other UTV's, probably 10-12 total. Aspen was the only 16 year old doing this, all the other's were grown men. It was a mother's worst nightmare. Her two young boys in this machine going over steep hills and out in the dessert where I couldn't see them, back over the hill and into an obstacle area that had massive tractor tires to go over, concrete tunnels to go over, water pits, more tractor tires, pipes, and parts of cars. It looked crazy and insane to me and my heart was in my toes I was so nervous for them! The boys on the other hand were totally ready!
Off they went, It was utter chaos in the beginning, cars running into each other fighting for the first hole to get out first. Aspen just kind of held back for a second to see what and where everyone was going to go and then he was out of there. There were about 6 cars all turned into each other trying to get through the gate when all of a sudden you see Aspen and Sam's car zip right past all of them through this little opening between all the cars and he was gone! He did a great job racing. He was very careful and was cautious through all the obstacles. I was so impressed with him and how safe he was! The race went for 20 minutes, and you had to get in as many laps as you could. He finished 6th, which we feel was really good for him. Many of the cars didn't finished. They broke down. Aspen was so excited!
Race 2 at 6:00pm was just as exciting. This race it was all on for most of the men running it. They all just wanted to win, they didn't care if they beat the crap out of their cars and broke things, they wanted to win. Aspen started off the same way, but was very careful and made his way through the course again for another 20 minutes. He finished in 6th again, and once again some of the other racers never even finished. Broken down cars again! We waited around for a long time, but results of the race were taking too long so we left. We still have no idea where they placed in the race, but we are hoping at least 5th over all since he ran both races and got 6th in both, where most of the others may have placed higher than him but only finished one race, he may have moved up by completing two races!
He an Sam couldn't have been happier with the outcome. This is all they have talked about. Aspen is in the process of making his first YouTube race video.
Needless to say, my heart is now back in my chest and all is well. But I do keep asking myself "how much does a mother have to take with her boys?"

Way to go Aspen and Sam!!!!!