The first light turns on, then the second, the third, the fourth, and lastly the fifth. I hold my breath, anticipation wrapping around my lungs. I stare up, my fingers hovering over the buttons on my steering wheel, my engine roaring with the need to drive.
I feel the same.
I let out the breath the moment the lights turn off, slamming onto the throttle and shifting into gear to push ahead. Lincoln’s start doesn’t compare to mine. My reaction time is better than his by miles, but he brakes later into the first corner, his front wheel lining up with my rear one. I take my corner well, leaving him behind as I shoot forward.
A glance in my mirror shows Gabriel attempting to overtake Lincoln, my teammate already halfway ahead when Lincoln’s front tire touches Gabriel’s side, causing him to spin off track in circular motions. He slams into the barrier as I keep racing, my heart dropping a little at the sight.
“Fuck, is he okay?” I ask Chloe, but she tells me to focus and that she’ll give me an update when she gets one.
Goddamn Lincoln.
Yellow flags are waved as soon as I enter the second sector. I slow down my speed to the required percentage.
“Gabriel’s out of the car. He said he’s okay, but there’ll be a safety car,” Chloe informs me, but I already knew this would happen before she told me.
Gabriel crashed in a dangerous section of the track, and if they don’t get the car out of there, it could pose a safety hazard.
“Safety car, not a red flag?” I ask.
“No red flag,” Chloe confirms. It wouldn’t be ideal two laps into the race, but safety comes first.
A red flag means the race would be paused and all of the drivers would return to the pitlane, lining up in their respective places to restart the race once all of the debris is moved and the car is no longer standing in a dangerous zone.
“Who else is out?” I ask, watching the safety car appear in front of me. This vehicle, a Grenzenlos for this race weekend, comes out to control our speed until the track is safe to race again.
“A Klein and a Carousel. Everyone else is still in,” she says, and I can’t help my next question.
“Where’s she?”
“Worked her way up to P6. Had a hell of a start,” Chloe says proudly, and I smile at the thought of my sister overtaking everyone in the back to get into sixth place.
“Put her in a competitive enough car, no one else will stand a chance.”
My grandfather’s words echo in my head. I remember the day he said this to me when Valentina won her Karting Championship after Christian fucking Crovetto, her biggest childhood rival, tried to cheat and push her off the track to win. He didn’t succeed. My sister came out on top, just like I know she will as soon as her car is fast enough to keep up with the rest of the teams. Talent and skill will only get you so far without a competitive enough car.
If everyone had the same car on the grid, my sister would win every single time. But we don’t. We have cars with different top speeds and advantages, and that prevents her from winning at the moment. But if she keeps this up, assholes like Lincoln won’t get to keep their seats for much longer. She’ll be the one the top teams consider for a seat.
I’m waiting for that day.
“Safety car ending in two laps,” Chloe says as sweat drips down my back.
“About fucking time,” I mumble to myself because the longer we’re doing this slow tempo, the more my adrenaline will wear off.
“One lap.”
I grit my teeth.
“You can restart,” Chloe says once the safety car is gone.
I take a deep breath, slowing a little to confuse Lincoln behind me. Restarting a race after the safety car is tricky. You have to somehow manage to deceive the driver behind you that you won’t restart the race or restart it at moments you’re not. Then, you have to shoot away at the moment they least expect it, catching them off guard. Because Lincoln is an idiot, it should be easy enough to trick him.
And it is. It’s embarrassingly easy.
I slip ahead, and my race continues smoothly from there.
Until my first pitstop.
My pit crew can’t get the screw off one of my tires until ten seconds have passed. I’m cursing, counting the time in my head, and asking Chloe what the hell is going on at the same time. I see more of the crew running around, my car on three new wheels now, the left, front one still stuck with the old tire.
