Trackside: Love at Full Throttle

Chapter Two: The Beginning

*Present

Everyone knows who I am, but nobody knows what I can do. All they know is that I am the daughter of a well-known formula one driver. At night we go out and run the circuit when no one is out, and complete silence takes over the stadium. 

The only sound is the car roaring on the circuit, and the only sound I can hear is my dad yelling in my ear with directions and commands. This is my second time on the circuit in Australia. 

I know this circuit like the back of my hand. As we enter the paddock my dad runs through the strategies and the target speed. I jumped into the car and put my helmet on. 

I get comfortable in the seat, when dad leans in and reminds me of what to do. I keep nodding my head making sure he understands that I know what I am doing. I start the engine of the car and warm it up before I press the gas pedal. 

I make sure that everything is working when dad starts to step away and connects everything to his computer and phone. I wait for the okay and speed of on the circuit. I am pushing as hard as I can still with control around the corners and focused on the speed. I hear dad start to talk in my earpiece.

"Jatka tyonyamista talla sylilla, Juulia." He speaks to me in Finnish

"Dad! Speak English!" I yell at him 

"Sorry." He apologizes and starts to sound a little irritated as I am doing my laps. 

"Push! Juulia PUSH! For God sakes, stop driving like me and drive BETTER!" My dad starts yelling when I turn the last corner of the track. 

"DON'T TALK WHEN I'M TURNING!" I yell back as I push on the last corner and go one more time around the circuit. I go for one more lap and give it my all. Dad starts to yell in my ear some more, but I tend to block him out when he gets this mad and starts to speak Finnish. After I am done celebrating dad starts to walk up to the car. I stopped the car and look over to see him mad. 

"Do it again! You need to be faster Juulia. You are not fast enough!" He says leaning under the halo and giving me a mad look. I sigh from behind my helmet and close my eyes so that he cannot see me wanting to cry. I get frustrated because I thought I beat my record from last year around this time.

"How fast was I going?" I finally asked after I finally calmed down to catch my breath and focus. 

"Not fast enough!" he said again 

"Dad how fast was I going?" I asked again. He slams the timer onto the car to where I can see, the number on the screen showing 1:20:30. 

"DAD I'M FASTER THAN A REDBULL!" I yelled at him from inside the car. 

"GO AGAIN!" He tells me with a sterner voice this time. 

I scream in frustration as I screech the tires on the asphalt and speed away madder than I should be. I speed through the circuit with more force and power than last time. Not focusing on anything else other than speed, dad kept talking in my earpiece. I get angrier and angrier the minute I listen to his voice, so I start pushing even faster. 

"Isa, vannon jumalan nimeen! Lopeta puhuminen, yritan!" I say now speaking in Finnish to show him how mad I am now, as I push for the last three corners. I heard him speak again but this time with worry in his voice. 

"Juulia! I said slow down, there is something on the track." He repeats himself. I get nervous but keep my speed. 

"Well do you know what it is because I am going 260. What is happening?" I tell him and ask as I am close to finishing. 

"Slow down your speed kiddo." He tells me again.

I start to slow down when I get to the stretch, and as I got closer to what dad was saying. I then come to a complete stop. I started to freak out a little bit because anything could happen at this point. I did not move because I was getting scared. The figure was tall. I then looked around for my dad, he came to my car and helped me out.