Pulling Rope, Pulling Wins: AJ Walters and Hank "The Yank" Kellogg's Crossover Weekend
I called Hank on a Tuesday with a knot in my stomach I couldn't explain away. Last Saturday I ate it hard on my longboard, somewhere around 25 to 30 miles an hour when the pavement won. I knew it was bad the second I landed on it, but I had a radio phone interview out of Indianapolis booked for Sunday at noon, so I gutted through that first and didn't get to the hospital until after we hung up. Ended up with a broken shoulder for my trouble. More on that interview soon. We were supposed to leave for Alaska Wednesday. Monday, two days out, I had to call the whole thing off. Weeks of planning, gone, and I felt like I was already behind for July before the month even got going.
I want to be straight about something. I didn't call Hank to get material for a blog post. I called because I needed to hear from someone who gets it, and I had a feeling he needed the same thing after the weekend he'd just had. That's the whole reason this call happened. Not me checking in on my guy from some high horse. Two guys with bad shoulders, both a little down, making sure neither of us just sat in it by ourselves.
I was right to make the call. What he told me turned into one of the best weekends Lucid Reality has had yet, even with a shoulder that had other plans on him and a storm that shut a rodeo down before it ever got going.
I called AJ too, to let him know Hank would be in the area for a stretch of rodeos and that he ought to invite him out to the race. AJ didn't need convincing. That's credit to him and his family as much as anyone, they didn't just tolerate having Hank around for the weekend, they wanted him there.
Thursday night, Hank and his dad drove up to Utica-Rome Speedway to watch AJ race. Before the green flag ever dropped, AJ made a promise out of nowhere. If he won the JB's Line Cleaning & Plumbing Pro Stock feature, they were getting a Victory Lane photo together, him holding the check, Hank right there holding the other side of it. Hank told him he hadn't done a damn thing to earn a spot in that photo. AJ didn't care. Hank's answer was simple: "I didn't come out here to watch you lose. So you better win."
He did.
AJ worked through traffic early in the 20-lap feature while Slater Baker led and Hunter Keith and George Cushman battled behind him. Keith took over the lead by lap 3, a caution flew for Luke Horning spinning in turn four, and from there it turned into a four-car fight up front. AJ climbed into second and started leaning on Keith, while Horning, who'd fallen back, came storming through the field again on his way toward the front. AJ took the lead outright. Horning carved a three-wide path through traffic to grab second, right as Baker clipped an infield marker tire and brought out another caution with five laps left. Horning lost ground on the restart, Andy Graves came up to battle Keith for second, and AJ drove away from all of it for his second win in a row. Graves and Cushman rounded out the podium, Horning fought back to fourth, Keith took fifth.
The photo happened exactly like AJ said it would.
Photo: AJ Walters
Photo: AJ Walters
Photo: Hank Kellogg
One name that used to be a fixture in that pit every week last year, even though he was never behind the wheel: Kyle Money, another stock car racer who spent last season working AJ's pit alongside him. He had a baby last year and stepped back to be there for his family, which any parent understands without needing it explained. Lately he's been reaching back out, there's real talk of him working toward a comeback, and there's a real chance Lucid Reality ends up in his corner when he does. Nothing locked in yet. Keep an eye on that one.
Friday, July 3, the roles flipped. AJ wasn't behind the wheel, he was behind the chutes at Caroga Lake, and Hank put him straight to work.
Pulling rope means being the one tightening and holding a bull rider's rope while he gets his hand set and the rosin worked in, right up until the gate opens. Hank walked AJ through the whole thing. Had him watch a couple other guys do it first, then had him do it himself. Hank said AJ genuinely loved it, not the polite kind of loved it.
Photo: Hank Kellogg
Photo: Hank Kellogg
Saturday in Cincinnatus should have been a normal night. Then the sky opened up right as the bull riding started. Not a light rain, hard enough that ropes went slick in seconds and nobody could hold on long enough for an honest attempt. Hank said his own rope was slipping before he even got his hand set. What actually got to him wasn't the rain itself, it was that the whole thing only lasted fifteen or twenty minutes, and everybody on the ground could see that coming on the radar. Riders wanted to wait it out. So did the crew running things. The people calling the shots didn't. A night that could have been saved got scrapped instead, along with a $100 glove soaked past saving and $55 in entry fees for nothing. His bull rope did get wet, the kind that runs four or five hundred dollars custom made and doesn't get replaced on a whim, but he had a backup ready thanks to a sponsor who has his back, and because he knows this sport inside and out, he dried the original out over the next day and saved it anyway.
Sunday at the Oswego County Fair in Sandy Creek was supposed to be the bounce back. A couple jumps in, the same shoulder popped out again. Three times in four days. His parents made it out to two of the three stops, and family came out Sunday to watch, where his cousin got to pull rope for the first time and loved it just as much as AJ had.
Hank was straight with me about it. He hated that he couldn't put on a better show for the people who drove out. But he's already talking about the fix, working toward riding right handed, reworking his setup, and getting back on one soon to walk away with something besides a story about the weather.
Here's what I keep coming back to. AJ won Thursday with people in his corner. Hank got through three rough days because people showed up for him even when the results didn't go his way. That's not two stories that happened to land the same week. That's the same thing happening twice, in two completely different sports, between two guys who probably never cross paths if Lucid Reality hadn't put them in the same orbit.
I didn't call Hank that Tuesday because I run things and figured I should check in. I called because I needed it as much as he did, and neither of us was going to just sit there by ourselves. That's the whole platform, if I'm being straight with you. Not me showing up for athletes from some position above it. All of us showing up for each other, because none of us can afford to quit when nobody's looking.
Thank you to Hank Kellogg and AJ Walters for letting me tell this one. Hank for being straight with me about a rough weekend instead of glossing over it, and AJ for showing up at a rodeo he had no reason to be at just to stand behind a chute and learn something new.
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AJ's back at Utica-Rome this Friday. Hank might be there again. Go find your own local track or rodeo this week too, because odds are somebody near you is putting in the same work these two are.
Where others dream, we create reality.
Live Life Limitless, Live Life Lucid.
-Zach Nash, Chief Lucid
Mentioned in this story
Utica-Rome Speedway: uticaromespeedway.com
Paradise Ranch Bull Riding, Barrels, and More (Caroga Lake, NY): Follow here
Cincinnatus Rodeo: experiencecortland.com
Oswego County Fair (Sandy Creek, NY): oswegocountyfair.com
AJ Walters, Lucid Reality sponsored athlete: Follow AJ here
Hank "The Yank" Kellogg, Lucid Reality sponsored athlete: Facebook | Instagram
Lucid Reality Xtreme Sports: YouTube | Instagram | Facebook