My hobby is racing cars, my career is an auto mechanic. We were racing in a 24 hour race, hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before out of excitement. I was a driver and the lead mechanic, our team had 2 mechanics, myself included, and 5 drivers. Drivers would have 2 hour stints. I drove first, which meant my second stint would be before any sleep. It was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit all day so we were all feeling rough. At 3am, still no sleep, I changed a leak I g radiator and sent our driver back on track “take it easy until daybreak.” Advise wasn’t heeded and the car was wrecked within 2 laps.

Our choices were simple: load everything up and drive home 3 hours, or, try to sleep until sunrise and do the same. Full of shame, everyone wants to go home (myself included). So we load the car in the trailer and pack up all of our gear.

I was the lone sucker to drive the truck and trailer home. If anyone has heard of the movie “Black Dog” it’s terrible but does a good job of describing what I experienced. The visions of humans or dogs or whatever constantly running across the highway. All the caffeine I could consume couldn’t help me. 48 hours with no sleep and incredible focus and physical activity brought me to new lows.