Chapter 13

[Author’s note: The USA International Speedway is no longer a track, but has been used in some past stories. The place was intentionally totally demolished in 2012, and is now nothing but a big field parking lot. Let your imagination picture this .75 mile track as being still in usable condition and used to test cars.]

I woke up and saw eyes peering into mine. Peanut gave me a soft kiss, and said, “You might be the guy the way you gently hold me and wait for the right time. I think about it, but keep thinking that we should wait. Thank you for waiting with me.”

“That’s the problem, Peanut. I’ve fallen in love with you, but I don’t think it is the love we both need to consummate our love the way we want. Our love is special, almost like a teasing brother and sister. I have one of those now, but you’ll be my sister by my other mother. I know we’ll treasure our time together forever.”

Peanut wiggled her center over my expanded interest, and sighed. She whispered, “So close and yet so far. You are so special. You’ve never pressed me for a handjob or blowjob to keep from forcing me to fuck. That just makes me know we are special to each other even more.”

I smiled, and said, “Let’s get a shower and get going. This is going to be a work day. I want to see what they did to your truck.”

“Oh yeah. Shawna and Hank were giggling about what they had painted when they came back to the patio, but some of it may have been on Gene’s cars. Let’s get.”

This morning was almost the same as yesterday, because Steve was sitting with Glenda, and a little girl came running from the house hollering, “Buddy, Peanut, Buddy,” as soon as Peanut and I had mugs of coffee. She climbed up on Peanut’s lap causing the tiny adult to laugh and hug Ellen. The little girl crawled to my lap and repeated the hug, and then crawled to Glenda and with a hug very plainly said, “Good morning, Grandma Glenda.” Steve was next to Glenda and was next for Ellen to visit. Ellen laid her head on Steve’s chest and closed her eyes in satisfaction. While keeping her head on Steve’s chest and her eyes closed, she said, “My daddy.” Steve’s eyes glistened with pride.

It is very fascinating to watch the families come in one group at a time and greet each other with hugs and a simple good morning. There’s always banter about something that was going on either here, at home, or at work. Peanut almost had a stroke when all the Blues Expedition came in with Chuck and his family. The wives of the musicians were busy getting coffee and then being first to the pastries. They must have figured that they had chased coffee for their men, so they were responsible for their own sweets and breakfast sandwiches.

The closer it came to eight, the antsier Peanut became. Shawna said, “The bake lights went off at seven thirty, so your truck is going to be still warm,” before we left. “I want you to park the car in the middle of the frame area so that the S&S logo shows. A photographer and video team will be there to record this. Sue has your new racing suits ready for you, so you can have your picture taken with your new truck.”

Peanut had tears running down her cheeks as she hugged Shawna, then Sue, and looked around to hug anyone near her. Shawna said, “Let’s go see what it looks like.”

Peanut slid into the car, started it and eased it out of the paint booth and then drove into the shop to park just on the other side of the S&S logo. She began going over every inch of the exterior when she was out of the car, touching the many cartoons that depicted a tiny person driving the car. My face was on someone pushing the car across a finish line with a checkered flag on the nose of the truck. ‘Butch’s Auto Care’ was written on both sides of the pickup bed in large bold script. There was a full complement of sponsor stickers all over the truck with one that said ‘S&S rebuild’.

The little woman was running her hand over the paint, and then over the carefully painted name in script over the door, Sharon ‘Peanut’ Tingle.

Shawna grabbed Peanut and they went into the women’s shower room. Peanut came back out wearing a bright pink racing suit, complete with those special insulated shoes. The photographers had her pose around the car and then she insisted that Steve, Shawna, Hank, Gene, the motor teams, and a couple of the guys who had helped were all a part of the photos and videos.

Gene said, “Let’s load my cars and the truck into my van and we’ll head to Lakeland to shake them down. I have the track rented for the whole day. We hopefully won’t need it all. Sandy and Mandy will have their field motorhome and shop out there to make any necessary adjustments. I have a man who I want you to meet and consider him to be your crew chief. He’ll meet us out there.”

It was a caravan that arrived at the track at nearly ten in the morning. A couple of guys with white lab coats and NASCAR written on the back began going over the cars when they were all off the van. They put a small inspection sticker just beneath the driver’s window when they finished with each car. The assigned driver went over the car, checked air pressure on the tires, and started the car. They began going around the track at slow speeds to get the feel of how the cars handled.

The two NASCAR inspectors watched as Peanut went over the truck again when they finished with it. She slid into her seat, and I helped her get into all the various safety gear. The inspectors checked her and nodded.

Peanut started the truck and let it idle a few minutes as she watched the gauges. Gene hollered for us to come into a shade cover that had been erected when she began driving from the pit area. There was a split screen picture of Peanut and one looking out the front of the truck. Gene tapped a keyboard key and we had a view out the back. Another tap and there was a duplicate of the gauges and a screen that displayed what gear the truck was in, the RPM, and the speed. I looked up and saw Gene smile. He said, “We pulled all this gear out of one of our wrecks and the guys wanted to stay late to install it. They said all the wiring was ready, so all they had to do was screw it in and test it. That’s one more step you don’t have to worry about.”

We were watching as Peanut made lap after lap, and then in her usual plain unexcited voice, she said, “I know I have telemetry, so let me tell you how well this thing is tracking. I’m pulling some big ‘g’s on the south corners and the truck is holding on well. I want to try the bottom of the track, but I keep running up on the cars. Are they going to loaf along all day? I want to let this thing out a little. Shoot, I’ve driven on a real track before.”

I answered Peanut and told her, “Be careful out there and don’t let that thing get away from you.”

“No sweat, Boss, I’ll just do a couple of high speed laps and then cool it. It’s probably time to inspect how the truck is doing and check tire wear.”

Gene was amazed at how fast Peanut was able to drive the track. I could see him gripping his chair as we watched the gauges and kept trying to keep a visual of the little truck rocketing around the track. Gene said, “I want her to drive one of the cars,” when Peanut came into the pit area. “I know the guys are babying them, but one is a backup that I want to see what it will do. Would it be okay to see how she does?”

“Sure, Gene, Peanut loves to drive anything. Give her a new toy and she’ll find out what it can do. She has a feel for a car, and won’t push it past its limit. That’s how she’s mostly stayed on four wheels driving the outlaws.”

Sandy, Mandy, Peanut, and a guy who had appeared were all going over the car using the dipstick to get some oil and then looking at it under the microscope. Peanut finally stood back and asked, “Okay, who are you?”

The man smiled, and said, “My name is John Peters, and I’m here to see if you’ll give me a chance to be your crew chief.” He stuck his hand out, but Peanut just looked at him and then back at me. I nodded and she shook his hand. She asked the guy, “What did you see or hear while I was driving. There’s only one area to look at.”

John Peters said, “Your left front calipers are grabbing a little, but you were feathering the brakes to keep it from mattering. The truck seems to be in good working order other than that.”

Peanut waved me over, and said, “He’ll do. Only a real pro gearhead is going to hear and see that. Sandy and Mandy mentioned it right away, so you know it was real.”

Peanut said, “Let me get out of this sweat suit and into some shorts. I want to kiss this truck all over to let it know I love it.”

Gene hollered, “Hold it, how about driving my backup around the track a little? The guys are not letting them out and I want to see what it will do. Grab your helmet and let my crew chief buckle you in. I want you to see what the car will do and report what you feel. Come in if you feel the car needs an adjustment, we’ll make the adjustment, and you go back out. Remember that you’re probably on tires with twenty-five percent wear. Now go show me what you can do.”

Peanut walked past me with a grin, and elbowed me in the gut. Gene’s crew chief helped Peanut get arranged and let her discover everything in the car ‘Clear’ and flipped the toggle to start the car. She let it idle as she watched the gauges, and then eased the car from the pits. She made a lap at slower speeds wiggling back and forth to warm the tires, and then began picking up speed while riding the bottom of the track. She began using more of the track as her speed increased, until she was screaming around the track while I was nervous as hell watching her take the car to its limit, almost letting it break loose around the corners.

Peanut’s voice came over the speakers as she yelled, “Wahoo! This is fun, and to think they pay people to do this. I’m bringing it in. The right front tie-rod is getting loose and wouldn’t hold up a full race.” Peanut let the car coast around the track one last time before bringing it to the pits.

The crew chief instantly had the car jacked up with the tire off, and was looking at the tie rod. He rolled back out on the creeper, and said, “There’s no Lock-tite. We’ll have to check this whole car.”

Gene said to me, “Can I keep her? I don’t need a driver, but I’ll buy this truck from Butch to get her on my team.”

I told Gene, “You know that it might be more difficult to have a female team member. They need a private sleeping area, not a track bunkroom. They have bad days every month, although Peanut’s mood doesn’t seem to change. And lastly, do you really want another team member?”

Gene looked at me, and said, “Yes to all that stuff. I want to give her a chance to drive in one of the car venues while she’s still driving that truck. I wonder if Butch will sell it to me.”

We began to put everything away, and watched as Gene loaded the truck into the van. Gene brought Peanut over to the sun shelter and had her sit down with me. Gene’s wife came over and sat next to Gene while he prepared himself to make an offer.

“I’ve watched you work on your truck, drive the truck, and then drive one of my cars, Peanut. You have been amazing so far. I want to make you an offer that I hope you won’t refuse. My wife is going to do the asking so that you know I’m sincere.”

Gene’s wife is always a part of his racing team, and as she took one of Peanut’s hands, she said, “We want you to drive for us. We want to buy the truck and you become our truck driver. We have an Xfinity series car with no driver, and either one of our Sprint drivers would love to drive it. We want you to drive it. I know you still have another race to win or place in for the truck to be eligible, but the NASCAR inspectors just watched you drive your truck and one of my cars hard enough to be a winner. You are going to be a terror if you can handle yourself in traffic. What do you think? Want to join our team and be a driver?”

Peanut asked, “How will your guys feel about a girl joining their team?”

Gene said, “They love Sandy and Mandy, and all the pit crews and crew chiefs listen to their every word. We even have a pair of motor girls who work with our engines and tune our setups so that we are used to having women around. I want you, Peanut.”

The girl looked at me and had watery eyes. She asked, “What about Buddy; what will we do for or with him?”

Gene said, “We’ll find something for him to do if he wants to come along. I understand if you need to have some long talks with him. I’m going to take your truck to Daytona and we’ll park at Volusia so that you can get a day on that track. Butch should be here later this evening, so you can run the cars he’s bringing. I’m dying to see you race an outlaw.”

Peanut took me by the arm and led me to our pickup or rather Butch’s pickup. We began driving back toward Tampa, and it took a while for Peanut to unzip her racing suit and let some air in. She kept right on unzipping then pulled her T-shirt off and put a fresh one on. She then pulled her boots off and then the jumpsuit pants. She pulled a pair of shorts on and sat back with a bottle of water.

Peanut said, “Who would believe that my trying to keep a guy and his kid alive would bring all this. I don’t know what to do with you, Buddy. You may not want to be ‘Buddy’ much longer, and will be back to whoever you were before. I know that you wouldn’t have abandoned me, and we would probably have ended up two of the strangest bedmates in Florida history; two totally un-fucked people who loved the hell out of each other. That’s the problem with all this, Buddy; I do love you, but not the marrying and having babies kind of love. Make no mistake about it, I want to drive for Gene and know that I’ll do well with him. I’ll be back living under a bridge unless your trailer is open for me if I don’t make the grade. You know that I’m not afraid of life and I’m not going to give up until I’m a winner. You’ve given me a lot of luck, so I may need you with me for a few races. Maybe not, but it will be fun to see how we do. You may have to be the alternate driver for the truck. Some venues have the truck races in a separate area.”

“I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s get to the hotel, shower, checkout, and thank Steve for all his help. We need to be in Daytona by the time Butch gets there.”

The two of us showered, dressed, were out of the hotel, and at the patio. Steve was waiting for us, and said, “I know you two have to run, but I want you both to remember us and come back. Miami is too close for you not to be up here often. If you want me to fly down to pick you up, call me. Now grab a couple of sandwiches, some soft drinks and water, and get. I’ll be over to watch some races this weekend.”

We were on our way in just a few minutes, but had to hug a couple of dozen women who I didn’t know, along with a dozen toddlers who all seemed to know us. I could feel my heart tug when we left there. Peanut said, “How can I become so attached to that group when we’ve only spent a few hours in total with them. They are a bunch of people you just want to melt into and be a part of.”

The drive to Daytona isn’t a bad one. I knew to go up I-75 to 50 going east, and end up almost exactly at the Volusia Speedway Park. Our reservations were at a downtown beachfront hotel, courtesy of Sue Sharp.

We checked in and I put money on the rooms for all of us for the nights we would be there. Sue must have some real pull to get us rooms. I’m sure there isn’t an open underpass for people to even camp under.

We went back to the Speedway and met up with Gene’s senior crew chief. Our new crew chief didn’t want to take the truck off the van until Butch was here with people to help watch the equipment.

Butch pulled in at close to five in the evening. He was excited about everything and wanted to get the equipment under cover of our pit space. This was nothing but a concrete pad with a metal roof. There was a place for the crew to park their travel trailer so they could remain on site.

I told Butch, “We have rooms for you and Jean, as well as two of the guys. I confirmed we had track time to get used to it tomorrow. They run here all day and most of the night, and roll the track about every two hours. This is a hard clay track and a popular place for dirt guys to practice. There are not many half mile tracks around.”

We helped the guys unload, and unloaded the truck to put it under the tent we set up. The only car in the enclosed trailer was the outlaw winged car. The late model looked pretty sinister next to the truck. The mini had a tarp thrown over it, but who would bother to mess with one of those?

One of the guys was going to stay with the equipment while I took the rest of them to a local steak house. I approached Butch about Gene’s offer while eating.

Butch nodded, continued eating, and finally asked, “What’s in it for you, my friend? Are you going to be okay losing your buddy?”

“I should be fine. I’m going to sit back and applaud if this is the right path for Peanut. Gene offered to take me on as a gofer, but I’m not fixed to do that. This isn’t all that good for you, since you would lose the truck and drivers for your cars.”

Butch’s wife, Jean, spoke up, “I want to drive the outlaw or late model. Butch can drive the mini or late model. I know he won’t want to drive an outlaw. You can drive any of them if you stay with us, Chuck, or rather Buddy. This is a chance for me to get back into some of the competitive driving. Everything we do is on short tracks from home to Ocala, but it’s a hell of lot of fun.”

Butch said, “Besides that, I’m sure to get well taken care of if she drives. Driving gives this dynamite babe hot pants. The toughest part about Jean driving is that my mom or her mom has to watch the kids. We can afford professional babysitters, but the grandmothers refuse to let us use one.”

Jean added, “And then they bitch because we’re not home with the kids and they have to take care of them. See what you’ll be getting into if you permanently hook up?”

Butch finally said, “My shop has received so much publicity from Peanut trashing the truck to save that guy and his kid that I’ll make back everything I’ve invested in racing since I began. It’s all because of you and Peanut, my friend. That guy and his kid would be toast if you two hadn’t been with the store and team. I’m going to go give that crazy critter a big hug and let her know we will support her getting into the big time.”

While Butch was gone, Jean told me, “I wish you were into swinging or something because I would love for your buddies’ wives to fuck you into submission. Let us fix you up with a hot chick and you can be whoever you want and play with three more of the hottest babes around.”

“You can’t be serious, Jean. Butch is a swinger?”

“Oh yeah, there’s a bet that Sarah’s next kid is going to come from the womb with a wrench in his or her hand. We know their first was Harold’s because Sarah stayed with them while Benny was out of town the week she was fertile. Benny was screwed up by that crazy measles epidemic that he was involved in when you guys were kids. It was all settled when Benny begged his buddies to help him have kids. Who’s going to turn down a piece, but that meant that our ladies were subject to Benny’s duds. That’s how we all became swingers and their wives and kids are safe with one of us when one of the high powered business guys is out of town. We all get to play a little, of course. Let me get you a special friend and then you can sample me, one of the juiciest pussies in south Florida.”

I was almost rolling on the floor because this was so off the wall. I told Jean, “Hold that thought. I might want to explore one of your friends, but don’t let me screw up a friendship that began when the four of us were about four years old. I think it was when we all began going to Mickey Mouse kinder care school.”

It was Jean’s turn to laugh, and she was still laughing when Butch came back to the table with Peanut. Jean teased him about Mickey Mouse school and Butch blushed, but said, “That’s when we established that we were the four Musketeers. The teachers wanted to separate us, but there wasn’t room to do it. We managed to be in the same class all the way through grade school and junior high. High school was a problem until we all went out for baseball and football. We proved to be the fearsome foursome. Our high school never was very good overall, but no one messed with our defense. The fearsome foursome in the backfield guaranteed all plays were running plays.”

Jean said, “I remember because June and I were cheerleaders. You guys were awesome. I didn’t make cheerleader until my senior year and hooked up with Butch. See, it was all planned.”

Peanut asked, “So what did you guys do for Buddy, or whoever he was then?”

Jean said, “Chuck’s problem was that he told everyone he was joining the Marines as soon as he was finished with high school, and the girls didn’t want to wait around for some guy to go through training and have to leave the area to be with him. The girls would all stand back with their forefingers crossed if you brought Chuck’s name up. A few of them are still single, and the girls know they are hot numbers. Chuck will have plenty of company if he makes it known that he’s available.”

Peanut said, “Now I’m jealous, and don’t want Chuck to watch me from his living room. I bet I know him better than most, and he’ll be watching me in his living room by himself. I hope he does meet his one and only, but watch the guy and make sure he takes care of himself between now and then.”

“Not to worry,” Jean said, “The girls and I will make sure he joins the guys for all the guy fun they do. They go fishing, hunting for gators and snakes, and car racing, of course. One of us girls usually goes with them but Chuck may have to learn how we share.”

Peanut had a silly grin on her face, and said, “I know what you guys mean, and know how you guys were always doing something off the wall. Take care of my ‘Buddy’ and your ‘Chuck’. I may want him back.”

We finished at the steakhouse and went to the motel. I started to put my sleep clothes on when Peanut and I were in our room, but Peanut stripped naked and motioned for me to do the same. We held each other for a long time as she kept saying how she didn’t want to give up what we had.

I reassured her that we would be each other’s friend for life, and this was just an intermission so that she could have the opportunity to meet her one and only. We fell asleep in each other’s arms.

Thursday morning was too important for us to sleep late. We were up and into the breakfast place next door before seven. Butch and Jean met us there, and we enjoyed a good breakfast and lots of coffee.

We arrived at the track at quarter to eight and went over the outlaw first. I checked out the late model because I figured no one else would drive it. You always thought that you might be entering a casket when you slid into an outlaw. You felt better but you were still edgy when you were buckled in.