Page 131 of The Champion
“Spray painted the wall?” I choked. “Those little shitsset my car onfirelast week!”
Aiden was snipped when the boys turned two and herealized that reproducing with Emma was essentially a bad idea. The decisionalso could have had something to do with the fact that at two-years old, theycut the break line to his truck. They were dangerously mechanically inclinedassholes and you could never, ever turn your back on them.
Axel and Noah never got along. You could barely havethose two in a room together without one of them trying to start a fight. Theywere complete opposites in every way.
I’d never met kids like Noah and Charlie and I’d beenaround some horrendous kids growing up around dirt tracks. I wasn’t lying whenI said the Lucifer twins didn’t even compare to them. These kids put them toshame, although the Lucifer twins were hardly considered animals any longer.
At 11-years old and engrossed heavily in baseball, they’dstraightened up and behaved like civilized humans. More than likely, this hadsomething to do with Van being an ex-Navy seal and not putting up with theirbullshit.
“Dad?” Axel called out coming around the side of his car.It was just him and I in the shop now. “Where does this go?” he asked holdingup the shock Tommy brought by this morning after having them re-valved.
I proceeded to show him how to put his shocks on, impressedat how much attention he paid to detail when it came to racing. I also had afeeling he’d follow in my dad’s footsteps and stay on the dirt side of thesport. He hated when the USAC series went to asphalt tracks but I encouragedhim to work on both. And he did. Well into first season now he’d won 4 of the 5events he raced in.
Regardless of how well he did on the asphalt tracks, heloved dirt.
Whenever we got Axel around the track and the other kids hisage the confidence he possessed in racing excelled. He was determined,confident, agile, and everything I’d raised him to be around racing. He knewwhat he wanted and that was to win the Battle at the Brickyard. I’d won thisevent back when I raced USAC when I was twelve. Axel just turned five, I wantedhim to understand how competitive this sport was and as a parent, I worriedabout him. When I saw him wreck for the first time I nearly had a heart attackand instantly felt bad for Sway and my parents if they had anywhere near thatfeeling when I wrecked.
“He’s just like you were at that age.” My dad saidstanding beside me while we watched Axel make his qualifying run. Dad was setto leave this afternoon with Justin and Tyler to Terre Haute but we all cameout to watch the qualifiers and heat races.
“I know.” I laughed kicking some dirt around beneath myfeet when the announcer came on.
“Ladies and Gentlemen,” the announcer yelledenthusiastically. I smiled instantly knowing exactly what had occurred by theroar of fans in the bleachers looking up at the leader board. “Axel Riley inhis first time here in Indy just broke the quarter midget record with that lastlap. The record, held by his father Jameson Riley who won this event six times,had remained untouched for the last seventeen years. Who would have everthought his son would be the one to break it!”
My dad and I started laughing.Irony. I’m not surewhat was more entertaining to me, the fact that my quarter midget record hadremained untouched for the last seventeen years or that my son broke it.
When Axel made his way back into the pits, he was allsmiles having heard he broke the record.
“You did it little buddy!” I said smiling down at him.
He was in my arms the second he got untangled from hisbelts. “Did I do good?” He asked sincerely pulling back to look at me.
“You did amazing!” holding him at arm-length I smiled.“You did everything I showed you to do in qualifying, great job.”
I only had today to be here and then I had to leave forChicago for the NASCAR race so this meant I wouldn’t see Axel race in the mainevents on Saturday night if he made it to them.
Axel knew how I felt about that.
“It’s okay dad,” he told me eating his hotdog after hisheat race. “I don’t mind that you need to leave. Us racers understand.” Headded a wink on the end. He sat there munching on his hotdog with his arm slungaround Lily.
“Is that right?” I asked signing an autograph for a fanwho stopped by Axel’s pit.
Sway, who was holding Casten on her hip beside me,laughed.
“Yeah,” he shifted his weight, leaning against Lily more.“We do what we need to do to race.”
It’s true. It’s in our blood. We don’t race because weneedto. We race because wewantto. Anyone who tells you differently islying. Like Sway always said, the people who ask you why you do what youdo—leaving your family behind to race, don’t understand why you’re doing it inthe first place.
Our family understood.
Axel and I said our goodbyes. “You keep him in check.” Itold Lily as she smiled at my son. “Don’t let his confidence get too high.”
“I won’t.” She replied grinning. Her bright lively blueeyes light up looking over at Axel signing autographs for some nearby girls.
My mind wandered back to the days when Sway sat in mypit, watching me and looking down at Lily I realized how Sway felt all thosetimes. I made a mental note to have a talk with Axel before he took herfriendship for granted as I did to Sway.
I chuckled pulling Lily into a hug. “Don’tworrysweetie,” I told her reassuringly as she took in the other ten little girlssurrounding Axel. For one, I’d never allow Axel to be with anyone other thanLily, given he was still very young and didn’t need to have a girlfriend, but Iwas too attached to Lily to have it any other way. I also knew my son and couldsense he was just like his father, eyes for only one woman.
“I know.” Lily said with a smile. She seemed tounderstand already, even at five.
