What We Do To Stay Busy During Off-Season
I don’t know about you, but the off-season can be SO boring sometimes. It’s seriously dreadful, and for us Canadian’s it is exceptionally long. So, what can you do to stay busy during the off-season, other than to become a couch potato?
Well for us, typically the first few weeks after the season ends, we really do become couch potatoes. We spend every waking second trying to recover from the long days and sleep as much as we can! Then, once we are rested, we quickly get to work on the race cars. We determine what work needs to be done on them. Do we need to pull the motor or transmission and send them out to be freshened up? Do we need to order any parts, tires, etc.? If so, we get that work done quickly and order everything we need! Then we jump into winterization. What do we need to do to winterize the cars and motorhome? For us, this has become much easier since building the Ogilvie Race Shop, but definitely a critical step before the snow starts coming down.
Once we have a good handle on the race cars and motorhome, we typically spend the next couple of months travelling or getting together with friends and family that we don’t typically see during the year. I feel like since we have been racing for so long, our friends and family just understand that they won’t see us in the summer unless they come to the track themselves. As much as we always wish we were racing, it’s a nice change of pace and we always make great memories. Some of our favourite memories include throwing a Halloween Party, going to the Apple Orchard, hitting the ice for some pickup hockey and Texas hold em’ tournaments.
My biggest recommendation for the off-season is to have a plan for every weekend like you would in the summer for racing. Instead of picking out what racetrack you will be going to that weekend, make a list of things you want to do during the off-season and start planning your weekends out early! If you’ve always wanted to go on a cruise, or throw a Christmas party, do it during the off-season! Especially if you have a wife/partner who is always busting your butt about wanting to travel or do different things in the middle of race season!!
Holidays are also a good time to do fun and exciting things, and there are a lot during our off-season! We love to throw parties for every holiday and go all out! Halloween and NYE have quickly become favourites for us! Then, by the time the new year has rolled around, and Valentine’s Day is over, it’s time to get back into the shop and begin ramping up for next season!
What do you do to keep busy during the off-season? How do you stay busy?
Catch you next-next week,
Rachel Barker
