Page 186 of The Champion

Justin found me after his practice session, hisexpression both uneasy and frankly, a little annoyed. “What’s with him today?”

We took a seat in the pit bleachers.

“I don’t know.” I shrugged. “Nerves I guess.”

Justin seemed to contemplate this for a minute. “Yeah, Iguess this is the biggest race he’s been in, huh?”

Nodding, I examined Axel’s first few laps on the track.In his practice session he had Hayden, Tyler, Cody, Ryder, Brett Lucan from theBadger division, Travis Quinn from the Rocky Mountain Midget Association andthe worst of all, my dad, more importantly, Axel’s grandpa...the king of the open-wheel racing on dirt.

“This outta be interesting.” Spencer said, a hotdog inone hand and a plate of nachos in the other, taking a seat on the other side ofJustin.

“Do you ever stop eating?” I asked stealing a cheesynacho. “No, do you?”

“No.”

The official waved the green flag for the start of thehot laps. Jimi started mid-way through the field and hung out toward the reargetting a feel for everything. Axel seemed to do the same for the first threelaps of the twenty-lap session. Coming out of turn three on the fourth lap, hewent up high on the berm passing by Tyler and Cody in turn four leaving him insome clean air.

Axel spent countless hours, upon hours, watching racingand learning from some of the best around the world. He knew how to race and I knewdamn well he could win this race if everything lined up. You can’t just havetalent, not at these events. Engines blow, drivers misjudge and race officialsmake shitty calls at times. It’s not about talent all the time. Mentalawareness is the key and knowing what can happen can be half the battle.

But the most import aspect of winning was keeping a clearhead and that was something that Axel did not have right now.

Brett Lucan of the Badger division was an eighteen-yearold kid who Axel hated.

Probably as much as I hated Darrin back in the day.

Brett was always looking for a fight and constantlysought out Axel on the track if he could. Keep in mind this is the same kidAxel got suspended over last year. This was also a reason why Brett raced theBadger series now. Even though Axel was suspended, the Riley family does hold acertain bit of weight with USAC.

Usually the kid couldn’t finish a race without ending upin the catch fence so it was rare that he actually got to Axel during a race.It was generally after the race or at national events when their paths crossedagain.

As I said before, this was a practice session. It wasn’ta time to be battling with anyone for position and Axel understood that to anextent. Lucan did not.

When Axel came out of turn two on the eighteenth lap,Lucan swept down under him pushing him up into the wall and then back down onthe cushion. Usually that’s a move by another racer saying, “Hey, I’m down hereand have position on you.” In open-wheel, it’s easier to see another driver asopposed to stock cars but you still can’t seeeverything. That’s wherewe usually rely on small taps from other drivers. That was not a small tap andended up cutting Axel’s tire down and breaking the front control arm.

Axel sat up near the wall on the back stretch when theythrew the caution and ended the practice session early to clean up the mess. Hestayed in the car, which was probably a good thing when we heard the engines ofthe cars filing off the track beside us. My dad’s car pulled up right besideLucan’s car. Dad revved the engine twice, before waving pointing to the trackand then throwing his arms in the air. This was racer talk for “What the fuckwas that?”

Tommy was down on the track helping Axel when Justin,Aiden and Spencer broke out into laughter at our sixty-three year old fatherpicking a fight with an eighteen-year old kid over his grandson.

But you want to know who was right there asking Lucan“What the fuck?” as well?

Drivers that have watched Axel from the time he raced hisfirst USAC race at age four...RyderChristenson, Cody Bowman and Tyler Sprague just to name a few. Sure, these weremy boys and thought of Axel as their own but that’s how racers worked.

Let’s just say that Lucan never made it past the secondnight of racing, he had no friends after pulling that move. No friends on atrack is bad news any way you look at it.

Keeping Casten and Axel separated the rest of the eveningwas easy. Casten and Cole were quite the pair together and spent the majorityof the week in Ryder’s pit—Casten thought Ryder was the greatest. Probablybecause Ryder and the boys had about the same maturity levels.

After the wreck with Lucan, Axel’s patience wasnon-existent.

Tommy and Greg went to work changing out the rightcontrol arm and gears for tomorrow’s heat races while Axel stood just outsidethe hauler signing autographs.

Most of the people surrounding him were the same thatsurrounded my dad and me as well but I noticed a girl standing awfully close tohim that I didn’t recognize. Van was here with us, keeping his distance but Icould tell he was aware of the situation.

“Who’s that?” Justin asked nodding the direction of thegirl.

“I don’t know. Fan maybe...”my voice trailed off when the girl leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.Axel flinched away from her indicating the kiss wasn’t wanted.

“Looks like he’s got the Riley charm with the girls,”Justin snorted walking away.

There was one bad thing about your son dating your bestfriend’s daughter, what if he broke her heart?

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