Well, here's just half of the next chapter, it's so massively long that I have to do it.
XIII
Side Story pt 2
I waited and waited for the annual Deep Forest Track Week to come around. The first Wednesday of the term holidays to be exact. It was two hour down to Deep Forest, as it’s about 20kms south-east of Te Puke. Dad pulled up to the Parking lot in our nice and quite new Evo II.
We got out and walked together to the main entrance. Dad got his wallet and gave the clerk $30, while I proudly showed my special pass.
“Sir, as you’re accompanying my friend…” he looked at my pass,” Tom here, you don’t need to pay.” And he gave back the money.
“So now we can buy food!” I joked. “Excuse me, Mr. Clerk?” I passed him my camera, “Can you take a picture of me and Dad?”
He nodded. “Sure.” I gave the clerk my camera – a Kodak that printed the picture straight afterwards.
The clerk got ready to shoot us and said, “Say ‘Racing Car!’”
The flash flashed and the camera dispenced a black photograph. The clerk waved it around a bit and a picture of a beaming boy and his proud Dad faded into view. Dad shook the clerk’s hand and commented, “That’s a bloody good picture, mate. You should do that for a living.”
The clerk laughed, “Thanks. When you go in, walk over the pit bridge, take a left and talk to the guys in the information building. It’s got a blue and red ‘I’ on it.”
“Cheers,” Dad replied. And we set off.
We passed an eatery on the way to the Pit Bridge. “Tom, you wanna get something to eat before you race?”
“No!” I said. “I don’t want to vomit in the car!”
“Hey, just asking.” I do believe there was a time trial going on when Dad and I got to the pit bridge. So we decided to watch the cars coming along the home straight.
There was a Porsche, a Lancia, and even a Mitsubishi 4X4. I only managed to get the Porsche.
Dad and I watched for about 10 minutes until the last car (A tuned Skyline, not too sure which model) pulled into the pits. The commentator called out the times and the winner (an old yellow Starion), before announcing that “A certain competition winner will be driven by none other than Bert MacMillan!”
Dad bent down a whispered in my ear, “Mum won the competition.”
“Aww, I wanted her to be here then. Stupid weekend work,” I moaned.
The commentator spoke again, “Can Tom Bosch come up to the main pits, please?”
A huge round of applause went up as I started walking towards the pits. A few blokes (who must’ve been drinking a bit) lifted me up and cheered as they escorted me to the pit lane, with Dad holding me up at the front. They let me down after my slight reign as happiest kid in the world right next to the Calsonic Skyline that I would be driven in. A man in an open-face helmet got out, walked over to me and offered his hand.
“Bert MacMillan,” he said. “So, you’re the son of Suzanne Bosch?”
I nodded, “My mum loves you and your racing, so it’s pretty big that she’s giving the experience to me.”
“Well, you’ve got a nice mum then,” MacMillan laughed. Some of the pit crew came over to suit me up in a navy blue fire suit, a blue stripy full face helmet, and a pillow.
“It gets a bit bumpy on the track,” one of the pit crew told me.
MacMillan opened up the passenger door. “Good day, Sir,” he put on a bad British Accent. “Would you care for a ride on this sunny day?”
I gave a thumbs-up and continued the impersonation, “Yes, ‘tis a
wonderful day to go driving, ol’ chap.” I bowed comically and hopped into the passenger seat. The Pit Crew raced over and helped me get belted in with the 5-point harness. I was on an adrenaline high right then. It felt like I’d drunk seven litres of concentrated Cola (not the diet kind). Another crewman said that I’ve got a radio inside the helmet so I can talk to Dad and MacMillan.
“Tom, can you hear me?” Dad’s voice appeared in my head.
“Loud and slightly un-clear, Dad,” I chuckled.
“Have fun while doing this (like you can’t). Mum really tried to get out of work and see her two favourite men in the universe.”
“Dad, aren’t
you Mum’s favourite?”
“That’s what I thought, too!” Dad joked.
“Tom?” Bert asked. “What time was it when you last ate?”
I replied, content, “I didn’t have breakfast – so I say just gun it.”
“Ok. Steven, all clear?” he talked into his radio.
“Yup, track’s clear,” the man called Steven replied over the headset.
“Can I do the countdown?” I pleaded.
“Sure thing Tom,” MacMillan replied.
“3.””
MacMillan started up the car. The powerful engine roared to life
“2.”
He lightly touched the throttle, but enough to make my ears hurt.
“1...”
The car was like lion. Lions sit on rocks and sun themselves all day. No care about the world. They move effortlessly. No need to go anywhere but a rock, and a watering hole. Then – the lionesses come out to hunt…
“Go!”
I felt a sneeze coming on when MacMillan jolted into 1st gear. Probably because of the quick movement. By the time I sneezed, however, we were already half-way around the first corner.
I then realised that this isn’t your typical Skyline. This is the V8 Supercar of Japan… This thing’ll probably get to over 300kp/h on State Highway 1 if you gunned it. MacMillan accelerated out of Turn One so quickly that I thought I’d need to get my eyes from the back of the car. He started racing up the hill, causing me to shrink back into the racing seat. I heard MacMillan asking me if I was okay – and I replied with a hoarse ‘yes’. I couldn’t speak. My mouth was dry, my vocal chords wouldn’t operate. As did the rest of my body.
I got thrown about in the seat as MacMillan passed through the chicanes.
Left-Right-Left-Left-Right... And into the tunnel.
“Mr. Bosch, how long did it take for you to get from home to Deep Forest?” MacMillan asked my dad.
I heard Dad reply over the headset, “About two hours. Why?”
MacMillan laughed, “Well, going at the speed I am at now, it would take half-an-hour.”
Whoa, half an hour?! Takes me half an hour to walk to school! I looked to my right - a huge cliff going vertically up.
“So, you like that ravine?” MacMillan asked.
I looked to my left, only to have my sight blocked by a large tunnel. Then we sped out, and I caught a glimpse of the huge ravine. The only thing that was protecting us from there was a long guard rail. I hope it was reinforced. I tried to focus on anything but it was all too fast. So I let the foliage rush past me, then we zoomed into another tunnel.
“Home straight coming up; want me to do a trick?” MacMillan asked.
I replied, “Sure, what type?”
He smiled, “You’ll see.”
MacMillan raced onto the home straight. I guess he was aiming for the 250 mark – that’s about as fast as you can get at Deep Forest. He concentrated on the road and the speedo at the same time. 240….. 245… 247… 248…. 249..
250!
He slammed on the hand brake and rotated the steering wheel all the way to the left. He corrected himself and shifted into reverse at lightning quick speeds. Before I knew what happened, MacMillan stopped in a cloud of tire smoke and me flabbergasted.
“Son, you alright?” Dad asked over the radio.
A squeak of a “wow” escaped from my mouth. Once I gathered my senses, I tried unbuckling my seatbelt and got out, feeling a bit dizzy. I stepped out into the bright, brilliant light. I turned a full circle and everyone went into a huge round of applause. I threw my hands up in the air. I felt great!
Again, I greatly apologise for the long length - remember, I'm writing a "Machinima" Novel, not a Race Story!