Page 45 of Happy Hour

“I spilled some oil and we...slipped in it.” Jameson replied throwing some shop towels on the ground to soak up the mess.

I was still searching for my other shoe when I found it on the spare pit box. I climbed up there and retrieved my shoe while Gentry and Kyle started loading the hauler.

Usually this would have already been done but Jameson insisted on taking this particular car to Pocono so they had to reload the car and the back-up car.

Kyle ran his fingers across the dent, his head quirked to one side. “Jameson, why does the hood of your car look like someone sat on it?”

I sunk as far down in that damn pit box as I could without falling.

What did Jameson do?

He smiled, his head tilting slightly but didn’t look up from his spot on the floor where he was cleaning the oil. “That’s because someonedidhave their ass on the hood of my race car, Kyle.” And then he looked up and proceeded to nod his head arrogantly with that stupid dirty smirk plastered across his face.

I wanted to kill him.

Kyle shook his head in disbelieve. “I don’t even want to know.”

I didn’t think I could be any more embarrassed than this morning in the hotel roombutthis surpassed it.

Gentry, who was standing beside the pit box, nodded his head as he let out a low drawn out whistle. “Damn.”

Once again, embarrassment does not do this justice.

“See you later bud.” Kyle grinned towards me. “And careful with that engine over there—it’s getting ready to be sent out for bearing alignment and sonic testing. Wouldn’t want to disturb it,”

I said nothing because there wasn’t any point adding any fuel to that particular fire. In a matter of minutes, we’d dented a hood and coated the floor with oil. Just imagine what we could do to that engine.

“What’s a sonic test?” I asked pretending to be shy when the guys left and we remained cleaning up our mess.

Jameson’s warm eyes darted to mine from the floor. He grinned with an adorable nod. “Hmm...you don’t need much recovery time, do you?”

“You should know by now, I can go all night.” I told him with very little wavering on my part. I may have shifted my stance but other than that, I was strong and confident. I was wining this battle to make up for all the embarrassment.

He inhaled a breath before letting it whoosh out and smiled. His hand came up as he leaned against the side of a toolbox running it across the back of his neck. “Sonic testing uses high frequency sound energy to measure material...” he looked up at me, the warm green in his eyes darkened. “it measures the materialthickness.”

I nearly fucking fainted because when he saidthickness, his entire body shifted towards me, his breath blowing across my face. It couldn’t have been much more erotic than that right there.

“And how does that work?” I provoked him stepping closer as well.

Once again, our bodies were nearly touching; just one slight movement and we’d be welded together. The lack of touching was providing all the heat in this though. Jameson may have been the driver, but he knew engines, my engine to be exact. He knew my particular engine didn’t need to be heated prior to the race but goddamn did he know how.

In case you’re wondering, this is a real term too. In sprint car racing, it’s common for the guys to “put heat in the engine” prior to the race. They do this by hooking the car up to a machine and bringing the engine and cooling systems up to race temperature. The main purpose of this was getting the most horsepower during the race.

I had no problems in that particular area, that’s for sure. My engine was up to race temperature in a matter of seconds.

Jameson’s eyes searched mine as he spoke, watching me intently. “The machine sends out a signal and measures the time it takes to echo back. The longer it takes, thethickerthe material. It measures the cylinder wall thickness as well as the cylinder heads.”

“Is it an effective test...this sonic testing?” I did this snicker-snort thing because it was the only other noise I could make at that moment so I didn’t moan and ruin all this dirty engine talking.

Slowly, he drew in his bottom lip, his tongue dragging across it just as slowly as his eyes squinted slightly. “It’s a very effective test,ifdone correctly.” His breathing increased when I reached forward and grabbed him by his shirt.

“Let’s see how long we really can go.”

“I think we have enough heat in the engine.” He leaned closer breathing a throaty string of words in my ear that sealed whatever deal I wanted. “And I can also...goall night long.”

5.Rev Limiter–Sway

Rev Limiter – Modern engines are controlled by electronic mapping software that controls things such as fuel consumption and ignition timing. Rev limiting is used for two purposes: to keep the engine from exceeding its maximum rotational speed and exploding into pieces of very expensive shrapnel and to adhere to speed limit rules on pit lane.

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