Chapter 1: Track Days

Mom had told me that she wasn’t prepared to give me lifts, to and from the track each day. So I hired a car with a driver for the week.

I could have just used a taxi service, but I didn’t know how the days were going to be. Phoning for a taxi sometimes took a while, depending on how busy they were, also I liked the thought of the same driver each day. Hopefully we could get into some conversations, which would make the journeys seem less long.

I had offered the job to Rory, but he declined, saying he wanted to put some extra hours in doing his normal part time job. He felt it would be disloyal if he didn’t give them as much time as possible over the summer, since they had taken a chance on him. They were even training him to use the machines, which would make him more effective in his role. Once he was fully trained he would also get a pay rise, since he would be able to run the shop alone.

I could understand and applaud his decision, which was how I would want my own employee’s to act.

The first day the chauffeur service turned up, I was already outside waiting for it. I had been excited about the chance to race again at top speed, so I had been up for a while. When the driver got out, I was pleased to see it was a younger man, someone in his late Twenties or early Thirties. Hopefully that would mean I could get him engaged in some conversations each day.

He came up towards the front door; he gave me a quick look over, but passed me to head for the front door.

“Excuse me, I am your passenger today, there is no need to go to the door.” I called after him.

“Sorry, I have to check in with an adult, rules I’m afraid.” He answered. I just shrugged and let him get on with it.

Mom answered the door, told the driver that he was taking me to the racing track in Athens.

That was it, as he turned back around and returned to the car with me following. I think he expected me to get into the back seat, and was surprised when I took the passenger seat instead.

For the first few minutes there was silence, it looked like I would have to initiate any conversation. “So I’m Jack, and you are?”

“Kirk”

Hmm, this might take a bit of work, if all I got was word responses. “Been driving for the company long?”

“A year or so,” Kirk replied.

“I can’t drive yet obviously, but I love racing, that’s what I am going to the track for today. Have you tried it?”

“Nope”

“Done any advanced driving courses?” I tried again.

“Nah, don’t see the point.” Kirk mentioned.

“I have, I think you would be surprised what it teaches you, you should ask about the details at the track, you will have time anyway.”

“I’ll think about it.”

Jeez, this was like pulling teeth, trying to engage Kirk in a conversation. Guess my skills still needed some work.

The rest of the drive was done in silence.

Geoff met me once I got to the track; he took me to the garage where the car that had been rebuilt sat. He explained that the car had been reset to the factory conditions, so it would be up to me to set it up best for the track.

Just like when I did the laps in the car after the advanced course, I would need to take it steady to start with. Otherwise I was likely to run off the track, with how the car was set up now, if I pushed it too hard.

The problem was, I didn’t have the knowledge on how to translate how the car felt to drive, to what adjustments needed to be made to improve the handling. That was the reason why Geoff had asked for me to come in all week. He was hoping that would be enough time for me to get the car set up for my style of driving.

The plan then was to get Tony Delany, the normal driver, to take the car out and understand how driving the car in my smooth style, rather than his aggressive one would result in a faster lap time.

“Geoff, how long do you expect me to be here today?” I asked.

“Till three at least. Why?”

“Just wanted to let my driver know what time he would be free till, no point him hanging around all day for nothing.” I replied.

“Tell him to come back at 2:30, he may have to wait a while, but better he is here early in case we finish a bit earlier than expected than you having to call him up.”

So that is what I did, Kirk was actually surprised that he would be released for the rest of the morning. He gave me a smile before jumping in his car and disappearing.

Before we even started there were some things to get through, I had to find a racing suit and helmet to fit me. I had grown a bit since the last time I was here, so I needed different gear. The suits this time were not used ones, No siree, there was a rack of brand new ones. He explained they were supplied by the sponsors of the track, and they were only given out to drivers who would actually race. I gave him a surprised look, he laughed, “You never know Jack, when you might get the bug and want to try it.”

I wanted my own helmet, the track didn’t provide new ones of those, I found a size that fit, and Geoff called a supplier, who would deliver a brand new one later on that day. I was prepared to pay for it, but Geoff told me he would as a thank you for helping him out this week.

Once I was suited up it was time to start the testing.

We did the set up in stages. I would go out and do five laps. The team would then make an adjustment to the car’s handling. If I felt that it improved the car handling for me, we would keep it, If it didn’t they would put it back the way it was, and then try something else.

By the end of the first day I was beat, I had driven countless laps, but still hadn’t been able to go anywhere near flat out in the car. This was going to take a lot more time to get even a decent setting. It did surprise me that I had been able to drive before, with no problems, the way the car was set up with Tony’s preferred settings. It was definitely easier with that set up, than how I could drive the car at present.

The only high point of the day for, at least for me, was when I got my new helmet. It was just a standard helmet of a size that fit; the bit I liked was the graphics design on it, portraying a diving eagle.

On the drive home I tried again to engage Kirk in conversation. I chatted about what I had done that day, but he paid little attention, not interested in what I was telling him.

The next morning it was more of the same, so we just drove in silence to the track.

The testing that day was more attempts at trial and error settings.

Little by little the car was improving with each attempt. By lunch, I was finally feeling the car was becoming more capable of handling the track, so I increased my speed. That didn’t go so well, as I ran out of road on one of the bends. But apart from a short bumpy trek across the grass and an increased heart rate for me, no damage was done.

That convinced me to do a lot more to improve the handling, before trying that again.

It wasn’t till the next morning that I felt we had gotten the car to the type of performance needed to put in some faster laps.

I gradually increased my speed lap by lap, by now I was much more in tune with the car, knowing when it was handling like it should, compared to fighting to make it round the corners. I stopped a couple of times to get some final fine tuning done on the balance of the brakes and downforce. Then it was time to have a real good attempt at a fast lap like I had been able to achieve before.

I did a lap just to have the tires nice and warm, set up the last corner, going in slightly slower but exiting at full speed, so I hit the start/finish line at maximum pace, it was a really good lap, the car now felt like it didn’t want to do anything other than get round the corners as fast as it could, so it could speed up for the next straight.

I used my improved line through corner eleven, getting better pace up and down the main straight with the hill in the middle.

I sped round the rest of the lap, loving the feel of the car finally, as I passed the line I shouted out loud in joy. I was back, that must have been a good lap, as Geoff was using a mic and earpiece piece of technology normally used in races to allow us to talk to each other. He was chuckling to himself at my reaction when I passed the line,

“Alright Jack, you’re back on a good pace, let’s have a few more consistent laps to make sure it is exactly how you like it.”

So that’s what I did, five more fast laps. I wasn’t sure if there would be much difference in the times, as they had all felt almost identical.