Our team has been preparing for our second race in Bay City, Mich., for the better part of a month. Believe it or not, this will be my 16th consecutive year going to Bay City (BC) to race. It is by far my favorite race weekend of the year for many reasons. It’s also one of the most challenging courses on our schedule, and I have many fond and heartbreaking memories on the Saginaw River.

My first memory of BC was the first time I went there to race SST 45. I was 16 years old, and I remember going down to the river to watch F1 testing and the first boat to come down the course was Scott Gillman. As he accelerated off of turn 4 and came down the pit straightaway, his starboard sponson didn’t touch the water for what seemed like the entire straightaway. I knew right then, that is what I wanted to do—it was one of the most incredible things that I ever saw, and the race was even better.

What makes the racecourse unique is the Saginaw River, which is a fairly fast moving river with seawalls on both sides. The course turns into a bathtub of extremely rough and random waves/chop. I enjoy helping the rookies each year we go there—their initial reactions to the river are always the same.

When we arrive, they look at it and say this is beautiful as the river calmly flows and there is barely a ripple on the water. In their mind they are thinking that BC is a myth not a real monster. How could something so calm and tranquil turn into a place of legendary wrecks and rough water? That same rookie usually comes to me after the first test session (looking as if they had seen a ghost) when the river is churned up and brought to life by 15-plus tunnel boats.

They ask me how to get down the straightaway because it gets so rough they can’t figure it out. My response is always the same: I tell them keep your foot in it, aim for the turn buoy and try not to look at anything you are going over. Oh yeah … and hope you make it.

I have seen our sport’s best get bit by the Saginaw River. Bill Seebold blowing over in testing, Rusty Campbell and Tim Seebold crashing with comfortable leads and very few laps left. I will be racing all of my competition this weekend—Chris Fairchild, Terry Rinker, Tim Seebold, etc.—but the biggest competition is the river itself.

This racecourse is one of the very few that gives you a sense of accomplishment when you finish on the podium. It is a place that makes you look within yourself as a driver and question, “Can I do this?” or “Am I as good as I think I am?”

The river doesn’t allow any driver to just get lucky. Tim Seebold said it best as we all were getting ready to strap in for the final last year. He said: “This is why I still do this. My mind is not sure if I can do this—can I push myself far enough to accomplish what I came here to do?” It makes you prove it to yourself every year, to overcome that feeling in the pit of your stomach, and feel that euphoria that I felt in 2008 and that Tim felt last year.

I badly want to feel that euphoria again—it is truly a pursuit of happiness in the face of fear. The butterflies have already started and it is still three days away.