Tonite i shall post a short entry. After all, it's a Saturday nite and i'm waiting for my friend to call me when he gets back from the beach.
So i'll write till he calls, basically. Then i gotta get out of here.
CHAPTER VI
After Graham won at his 2nd day at High Speed Ring, the crowd went wild!
Sunday Cup wins weren't as grand as GT or World Cup wins, but Graham got to stand on a podium and give a quick bow to the crowds before being ushered off to a tofu stand by the bleachers. But in that moment, he felt power! He felt glory!
If he were back home winning a case, Graham would give a hug to his plaintiff or defendant, and slap a few backs, but other than this, you had to keep things muted. Excessive shows of display were frowned upon, even after the case was over. Graham (therefore) did his real celebrating in whatever upscale tavern was closest, or perhaps at Bennigans. Or even Starbucks!
But here at the track? Graham didn't hold back. He leapt from his Infiniti, loosened his tie, and danced around with his briefcase right in the middle of the track!!! Try and picture this. Try and picture how RIDICULOUS this looks! But Graham didn't care! He felt a bit of freedom in this moment. Might as well live a little. And little did Graham know...he didn't win $3000, he actually won $4,000. Which means he collectively won $5,500 for just 4 laps of racing! Not bad. Not bad attalll.....
His celebrating was short-lived. A young Japanese lackey ushered him from the track, laughing at the silly man dressed in Wall Street clothing. There were still several heats to finish, and Graham was holding up other drivers from getting their cars carefully into position.
As Graham walked under the pit road tunnel back to the racer's lounge, he was greeted by a group of 10 or 12 Japanese businessmen. All dressed in black suits. All shorter than Graham by an inch or 2 (Graham himself stood at just 5'6"). They approached him in a friendly manner and bowed one by one. Graham bowed back. Being a Seattle attorney, he had some experience with bowing, since he occasionally had to deal with Asian businessmen. Lawyer stuff. 💡 But now he got it all wrong. He held a bow too long, and one of the men thought he was grieving. He held another too short (raising his head too sharply), which another man took as a sign of aggression. Ah well.
Graham was just being himself, but little did he know he had jsut started a trend with his clothing and demeanor. GT1 superman Meth Hed often raced wearing Harley Davidson type clothes. The Slut sisters also tended to dress as if they had just strolled off the trailer park. All of this (while not exactly traditional racing clothes) at least fit in with the blue-collar image many amateur racers emit. GT1's wildest woman, a riot grrl named "GIRLS ROCK!" by GT's celebrity machine, had a mental breakdown and had not picked up a GT2 contract. Out of the most sucessful GT1 drivers, she dressed most colorfully.
Note: i had a couple GT1 characters who i dropped before moving to GT2. "GIRLS ROCK!" was one such character. Back in 2004, i was playing in a Portland, Oregon band myself, and (being a flaming heterosexual) probably wanted to work a riot grrl type into my game. Problem is, what does she drive?
Well, she basically drives anything that runs, is easy to manuver, is kinda funky cause she's a hopeless artist and she's painted on it or drawn on it somewhere, has never had a car wash, and needs some sort of mechanical work. In real life, this could range from anything like an old Corolla to an old Civic. If she's got more money, she might drive an old Skylark or Falcoln. And (of course) since she's in a band, she'd also occasionally drive an old van. Notice i keep saying the word "old". After a month or 2 of doing playing "GIRLS ROCK!, i had to drop her cuz in the game there's not a whole lot she can drive (except for Civics, or a Subie Impreza wagon perhaps). So she had a "mental breakdown" before giving up racing altogether.
But she woulda made a great story because she had a habit of throwing temper tantrums and crying if she lost a race.
Think "Danica Patrick" but with an emo or a punk haircut.
Needless to say, Penny "GIRLS ROCK!" Piper got to drive the coveted neon pink Civic, found in GT1 and
only GT1!
As i was saying. Graham started a trend early on as GT2 was becoming popular. Being a lawyer, dressed to the nines (whatever that means) he eventually would attract much attention from lawyers and businessmen all over the world, who wouldn't normally watch motorsports, but who made an exception for Graham because he was "one of them"! This only helped GT2's popularity. Anyways,..i'm getting ahead of myself.
Despite Graham's un-coordinated efforts at bowing, the Japanese invited him for Saki anyways. Back at the Takinit Alldawae Inn (get it? taking it all the way in.. hee hee) Graham got drunk as hell! His usual meticulous behaviour gone as he partied! He even left his tie in his briefcase for once!
Officially, only he and one other driver (the "Ice Cream Nazi" in his black Celica SS-II) would come out as winners from this week's Sunday Cup. This means: 2 winners, about 48 losers!) There were other drivers who perhaps would try the Sunday Cup again, but Graham was one of the lucky ones to be "in the clear". As it were.
As a hungover Graham Wellington flew home, he got a page on his organizer. What now?
Turns out, a sudden upload of cases had come to the firm (Bailey, Binks, and Buddlemeyer) and Graham was needed back ASAP. What to do?
Well, he couldn't go back home now. He was due for the third phase of the Sunday Cup in Arizona, at the "super-NASCAR" track Red Rock Speedway (the one that actual NASCAR drivers boycotted, probly because they'd be forced to turn RIGHT as well as left. ) So work would have to wait awhile.
He sent an email to his wife, who must have been worried sick about Graham...fearing he was with some Japanese geisha, or fearing he had left them altogether? Anyways, Graham cared. And as he shot off a lengthy collection of words into cyberspace (sure to melt Tiffany's troubled heart) it showed.
During the rest of the flight, he nursed his hangover while thinking of his blue Infiniti G20. Now THIS was odd.
Never in his adult life did Graham think he'd be dreaming of such a sordid vehicle. It didn't have "dual-zone climate control" or heated 8-way adjustable power seats like his Land Rover did. It didn't have a "wraparound alpine glass roof" or a commanding view of the road like his Discovery. Instead of a 4-speed auto, Graham's Infiniti had a 5-speed manual, which (in his ignorance) Graham thought was sub-standard. His Infiniti also didn't have an auto-dimming interior (nifty for all those times he got out of his car too fast and needed to see if he left his stylus behind), headlamp washers, a Harman-Kardon stereo with a 6-disc CD changer....
It didn't have the Land Rover's smooth-sailing V8 engine! In comparison, the G20's 4-banger was noisy. In fact, since Graham had ordered an officially-approved "Stage 1 Weight Reduction" be performed before racing at Tahiti, Graham's G20 didn't even have a back seat!
..But. This didn't stop Graham from thinking....dreaming....drooling about the next time he'd see his G20. Matter of fact, Graham loved his Land Rover Discovery...but he couldn't remember the last time he really dreamt about it, especially in a mechanical sense.
...as Graham drifted off to sleep, he did just this. He dreamt of his blue 1991 Infiniti G20. And the next time he'd be able to drive it again.