Page 134 of Trading Paint

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Page 134 of Trading Paint

The field was made up of twenty-eight cars as opposed to the usual forty-three starters in a typical cup race, with the starting line-up determined by a random draw.

To me, the racing itself to me was similar to what you’d see at the local bullring tracks.

With no points on the line, drivers usually went all out and created some of the most exciting racing.

By the time Tommy and I made it to the track, got our hot passes and into the pits to find Alley, the second 50-lap segment was underway. I was so eager to get a glimpse of Jameson’s car on the track I hardly heard anything Alley was telling us. I hadn’t seen him race stock cars in person yet. I’d seen him on TV but not in person.

I was literally in awe at how huge the venue was. You can’t grasp how large it is until you see it in person. Under the lights, you could hear and feel the loud resonant rumble of the cars as they roared down the straightaways, vibrating right through you.The smells;oh the smells.Rich sharp biting aromas of racing fuel pooled with rubber from the heated tires on the asphalt. Once we stepped out of the car, I inhaled a deep breath, remembering everything I missed about racing and Jameson, the two fused together. Distinguishing between it all, burnt rubber and racing fuel surrounded my senses, I thought of Jameson and always would.

“Calm down,” Alley grumbled as I bounced up and down once we found her.

Pit lane was busy, as to be expected. I knew enough about being at the dirt tracks to know that the pits or in this case pit lane, was a place of business and when the guys are working on cars, that’s their job and they take it seriously. To be competitive in this sport, they have to otherwise, they wouldn’t be here.

Tommy shot a sideways glance at me while looking toward the pit box. I was showing an alarming amount of enthusiasm for this.

Kyle was up on the box, though I hadn’t met him yet, Jameson talked about him often so I felt as though I already knew who he was.

“He’s running fourth right now.” Alley announced staring at her Blackberry. “He placed second in the first segment.” She tucked her phone away and waved goodbye.

Being the Public Relations representative for the team, she was busy, always busy.

I don’t think you could wipe the grin from my face. This was so exciting. I couldn’t see much, being as short as I was so Kyle motioned for me to come on the pit box with him. You couldn’t see much better from there either as the infield was never a good spot to watch a race but it was the most exciting. You get to hear all the commotion between the crewmembers. I believe that being in the infield at the races is the place to be as it gives you the full experience including hearing the strategy calls made by the crew chief and car chief.

Kyle smiled and pulled his headset away from his ear.

“I’m Kyle Wade, Jameson’s crew chief and this is Mason.” I shook hands with both of them while Kyle pulled the headset back. “Hey bud,” he began in the microphone attached the headset. “Sw—”

I smacked the back of his head so hard his headset fell off his head. “Don’t tell him, it’s a surprise!”

I don’t think Kyle knew what to do so he scrambled to adjust his headset.

“Sorry bud, uh...ten laps to go.” He gave me a glance like I was clinically insane but smiled despite this.

I’m not sure what Jameson was saying but Kyle was lying. “Don’t worry, it was nothing. I just dropped the headset.”

I shook my head and watched as Jameson’s black number nine car flew past us on the front-stretch. Mason moved around Kyle to sit next to me. I watched as Tommy hung by the pit wall to get a better look at the cars when they came by. At tracks like Daytona, you can only see them on the front-stretch when you’re watching from the grid.

“So you’re Sway?” Mason asked peeking over his clipboard.

“Yeah, and you’re Mason.”

“Jameson talks about youa lot.” He grinned, his smile boyish. “So does Spencer and Emma.”

“What can I say—I’m awesome.”

Mason laughed, as did Kyle.

“He’s freaking out right now.” Kyle said motioning toward his headset. “You guys might want to watch this.” He gestured with a flick of his wrist at the laptop they had opened to the broadcasting station.

I glanced over at it to see Jameson drafting with Bobby only Jameson was leading.

“Holy shit!”I yelled and practically sat on Kyle’s lap to get a good view of the screen. “He’s leading!”

“That’s what he just said.”

By the looks on their faces, I couldn’t have made my obsession any more obvious.

Chicane – Jameson


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