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It was a Monday morning, slightly overcast, but that didn't bother Marus. He was used to it. After all, being the heir to Bil Jurgenson's Monopoly that was MicroTex had its benefits. He had a vision and had to fulfill it.
He wanted to participate in the Denso Sard Trial Mountain 30 Enduro. He had a chance to qualify in the past but never made it. Always one win short, he had the reputation, he wanted to prove everybody wrong, at all costs. He had a 100,000cr check ready to buy a car, he just needed to win the final 80s Sports Car Series event at Tahiti Road, sponsored by Pirelli. Marus entered his Tom's T020 and was in second the whole race, he couldn't pass E. Burzie's AE86. He lost. He went to Trial Mountain anyway, to participate in the UK Nationals event. He entered his Opel Astra and dominated, drawing the attention of Mr. Pirelli. He called Marius over for a chat, 'We like! I pulled strings, you're in, drive the Pirelli Lancia Y.' He waken, race day. Comments?
My life is a Million Miles of Tarmac and Gravel:
Alex Vandenbrand Prologue:
The smell of the burnt Pirelli rubber, the scent of the gas that did not make it into the fuel tank, removing lug nuts with pinpoint accuracy, the cloud of brake dust that appeared when the front tire was removed: Marius loved it, ...but he longed for more. He saw the excitement first hand when not changing the front tires of a car. The braking for the corner, the lateral movement, and weight transfer as the driver tried to enter and exit the corner as fast as possible. It thrilled him, how dedicated the racers were, yet they always depended on a strong pit crew. “Funny,” he thought. “They get paid over $100,000 per year and without us, they would make absolutely NOTHING.” It made him happy knowing he was needed, and that the team could depend on him, he worked his ass off to get this far, it was tough enough to get here, yet he wanted to go bigger. Racing was in his blood. His doctor once told him, “You’ll never be able to do anything; with your condition everyday tasks will be almost impossible.” He loved the day he proved him wrong.
Here he was; he proved his doctor and anyone who doubted him wrong. He was 15, physically fit and a front-tire changer for TRD. He had done it all, from his first tire change on an AE86 Sprinter Trueno, to the last change he did on the TSO20 (also known as the GT-One), he was skilled, and the team knew it. He was offered a 7-year contract by TRD valued at $2 million US. He rejected the offer. 7 years was too long, he wanted a 1-year offer, so he could determine if he actually wanted to continue being a tire changer. TRD rejected his idea, and he left.
He was walking into the local Wal*Mart to pick up milk for his mother when he noticed the headline on the cover of the Chatham Daily News, in big letters it simply said “Local Marius Jurgennson quits TRD” This angered him. “I didn’t quit,” he muttered to himself. “I saved myself.”
For the remaining 3 months of the racing season, Marius signed 1-month contracts with Tommy Kaira, Renault, and Alfa Romeo. The job with Tommy Kaira was by far the best. Being the only one able to change the front tires on the ZZII pre-production model was something to be proud of; “It’s something to tell the grandkids.” Mr. Kaira simply said at the end of his term with the team. The Alfa Romeo job was so-so; he loved getting to change the tires on the GTV, because it was such a lovely car. However the 155, that was a different story, they basically took two boxes from homeless people, stuck the boxes together, and beat the crap out of them, then constructed the shape out of metal. The result was a piece of junk that made the DeLorean look great when compared to...
The Renault job was by far the worst; the cars looked like they used the placenta from a cat, froze it, and moulded it into the shape of garbage, then stuck four wheels into them. The Espace F1 was the worst, the shards of ceramic in the brake dust when inhaled literally felt like it was stabbing his lungs. “Maybe I should wear a mask,” he again thought to himself. Nevertheless, he endured the hell that was working for Renault, the year ended. He was 16, eligible to earn his racing licenses at the GTF Office. He loved being a tire changer, but he really wanted to be a racer. This is his story.See More
15 minutes ago · LikeUnlike.Alex Vandenbrand Chapter 1:
It was a crisp winter morning, 41 degrees Fahrenheit. No precipitation from the night before, meaning Marius could do his 7-preliminary tests for his National-B License. He walked down the marble staircase into the dining room. H...e had his typical breakfast, a grilled cheese, and a glass of milk along with his 60 mg dose of Strattera to combat his ADHD. His Nanny drove him to the GTF office. He met the instructor, Mr. Barrett, an upstanding citizen who developed the best racers in the country, to have him as your instructor was an honour, and Marius was proud.
His first test was a 1000m start and stop in a Mazda Demio. He jumped in the Demio, put the key into the ignition, and started it up. “Here goes nothing.” He thought, “I read the books and now I just need to put what I studied into action”. He ran the test flawlessly. They ran the next test in a Nissan Skyline; again, he ran the test flawlessly. The day of tests went very quickly. Mr. Barrett was very impressed, in his 25 years of instructing, he had never saw someone with such pure talent. Marius was credited with a Gold-Status on his National-B license, a rare and impressive feat.
He went home and got a goodnights rest. Over the next several weeks, Marius continued his training and was awarded with his National-A, International-C, and International B licenses; he achieved Gold-Status on his National-A, and was slightly disappointed when he did not achieve Gold-Status on his other license tests. Mr. Barrett reassured him that he had the talent, he had the skills, he had the potential, he had to put it to use.
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He awakened several minutes later. It was his favourite dream; the fact that it was a real event he was remembering made it even better. That was 4 years ago. He wished he had the enthusiasm he did back then. He was fearless, willing to do anything. However, his racing career led him nowhere. He had raced for five teams in those 4 years. He never could find a rhythm with any of the teams. Be it Spoon Sports, Subaru’s STI team, Honda’s Mugen team, or even Dodge’s Mopar Unit. Once outside of his comfort cycle, he cracked under pressure. He was known for always being one-win short of what he needed to become noticed.
This season seemed to be no different, Marius and his Ford Racing affiliated team could not for the life of them win a race, and their Ford RS200 was always experiencing mechanical problems. They were leading the GTF 80’s Classics Series race at Grindelwald when on the final lap, the rear spring broke and the car became uncontrollable. Marius crashed but recovered and finished in fourth. Marius had to win the final race at Tahiti Road to be eligible to enter the GTF Denso Sard Trail Mountain 30 Enduro. To earn a contract to drive the prestigious Mitsubishi FTO GR ’97 car next season, he needed to make that race and defeat his rival Giuseppe Piazi. He was sweating with anticipation.See More
13 minutes ago · LikeUnlike.Alex Vandenbrand Chapter 2:
He was sitting in his RS200; Marius was a lot more focused then usual. Even his sister noticed at the breakfast table earlier in the day. She was one year older than Marius was; her name was Meredith.
“You look angry today.” She s...aid.
“I’m not angry, I’m focused... Okay I am angry too. I want to beat Piazi and reveal what he did to everyone. We should not be hiding this. Moreover, he will not be arrogant and popular for long. He needs to learn that payback is a b****.” Marius replied.
Meredith was taller than Marius by a about a foot, she was 6’6” and had the typical high-school athlete body. She was the star of the track-and-field, volleyball, basketball, soccer, and even the European handball teams.
She and Marius had a strong bond; they never argued with each other and talked to each other about everything. It had not always been that the way, they used to never talk to each other and never got along, that changed all in one night.
5 years ago, Meredith and Giuseppe Piazi were in a relationship. The fact that they were in a relationship never really bothered Marius, he liked the fact that his sister was able to be with someone popular as Giuseppe. He was Marius's best friend, and he knew that he would never harm his sister Meredith; at least that is what he thought. "Boy was I wrong", as he was reflecting on how stupid and ignorant he was at that time.
Piazi was one who always got what he wanted, and when he did not get it, boy did he turn violent, Marius still thought he would never ever harm his sister. He should not have had to ever doubt that.
Marius and his father Bill were off at the Daihatsu World Midget Challenge. The Midget Challenge is a invitational event where the best 12-15 year old’s (who are interested in a motor-sport’s pit crew career) in the world hop in Daihatsu Midget's and compete in 3 days worth of events to prove who is the best young driver in the World.
Giuseppe and Meredith were partners for a science project they had to do at school. So the two of them obviously could not fly to Japan with Marius and Bill.
Marius was nervous at the thought of them two being alone, but he remembered that Giuseppe’s parents were home (not accounting for the fact that Giuseppe’s parents were business people, and often had to take trips on short notice).
To put it simply Giuseppe’s parents were not home, Giuseppe and Meredith were together and drinking alcohol. Anyway, Giuseppe had a beautiful girlfriend and thought that they wanted to take their relationship to the next level. He was wrong, she did not want to. Giuseppe would never and did not take no for an answer.
Marius and his father flew back from Japan immediately and Marius, full of anger for not being able to race, having to watch Titanic on the plane, sitting in front of a crying baby, and finding out what happened snapped. He went to his former friend’s house and gave him the beating of his life.
Marius had a criminal record, he was charged for assault. The GTF found out and immediately suspended Marius for 1-year relegating him to spotting for TRD, this was another reason why he left TRD and started his racing career, because he hated spotting.
Although He would hate to admit it, Marius now understood racing from an outside perspective making him better, he could relate to what the spotters would see and found to have better chemistry with the teams for which he raced.
During this time, Piazi was sixteen, acquired his licenses, and started racing. He was great and gained immediate success. His aggressive driving gained him many rivals, along with media attention. This angered Marius even more, “these people do not even know him; he does not even know himself.”
Now you understand the story behind the Giuseppe Piazi – Marius Jurgennson rivalry.See More
13 minutes ago · LikeUnlike.Alex Vandenbrand Chapter 3
Back at the GTF 80’s Classics Series Race- Tahiti Road
Lined up at the grid, the sound of the engines revving, the new-car scent air freshener working its wonders, and his bottle of Gatorade firmly held in the cup holder: This was w...hen Marius was in his zone, all of his problems just floated away.
“I’ve got the car, I got the power, this race is mine now,” he thought aloud.
Marius and his RS200 started last again, just as usual. In the test session, Marius missed a shift and blew up the transmission. Marius was never good with manual transmissions, which were difficult for a man with ADHD to deal with, as he was never good at multi-tasking. Therefore, he had a CVT transmission from a Nissan Cube installed. Several conversion pieces were required but the system surprisingly worked. Marius could get through the gears quicker, so the team installed a restrictor plate on the engine in order to not give the RS200 an unfair advantage (though Marius thought this was ridiculous because they needed every advantage possible.
As the special broadcast team of Dan Stevens and Peter O’Keefe from Sega Sports gave their pre-race thoughts to those watching the Bleem broadcast, the pace car pulled off the track and the race began. Marius immediately went to work, as he passed a [R] Honda CRX in the first chicane and tailed a [R] Silvia K’s out of the following turn. Blasting down the straight and through the little left-hander before the turn by the house, he was slowly hunting them all down. He was in the zone; like when he was playing NFL 2K with the Washington Redskins. He felt the rush like when Peter O’Keefe would be calling play by play and QB Rodney Peete would throw the game-winning touchdown pass to WR James Thrash (QB Brad Johnson was way better than Rodney Peete, but Marius hated Johnson). It was ironic that Johnson’s brother William was starting on the pole for the race. But that didn’t matter to him. During the next 2 laps Marius caught up to William and was putting the pressure on. This continued into the final lap where at the final turn before the straight Marius used a rather unconventional line getting as close to the left wall as he could before taking the apex sharply and power sliding out of the turn. William when seeing Marius sliding almost into the passenger side door immediately turned into the pits to avoid a collision. William did not slow down to pit road speed and crossed the line first. However, GTF Race Stewards disqualified him and awarded the win to Marius.
After the race, William confronted Marius. Marius was expected a verbal tongue-lashing when instead Johnson said, “In my 15 years of driving I have never seen anybody with the nerve to pull a move like that off. You are a great driver and that was a fun race.”
Marius was presented with the series trophy, despite finishing second in all the previous races. (Johnson finishing second ensured that Marius would win the race series).
Next up was the Denso Sard Trial Mountain Enduro. He jumped and itched for the chance to make this race and defeat the b****** Giuseppe. He spoke softly to no one in particular, I am not going to just win the race, I am going to humiliate Piazi and show him that he is nothing: Not noticing that Piazi was standing right behind him.See More
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. 95 per cent of my posts are on my cell. Anyway, thanks for the praise and I'll have a new chapter and some patch work done by Saturday. Hopefully I can get better at writing, your race stories are great. You may notice I jump around a lot in my writing and start talking about something them abruptly stop, thank my ADHD for that.
I like my races to be challenging, but not frustratingly so!
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