Racing to Impress (Madison Beer/You)

Faded Glory

It was a tough pill to swallow. The morning sun was peaking in the sky but no amount of daytime beauty could drown out the feeling of how robbed we were feeling.

Mine and Alex's joint efforts from 2am when I hopped in for my single stint, Alex's double stint at 3am and my penultimate double stint at 5am till 7am left us in P1....a position we could only dream of at this stage in the race.

My 4 hour rest period I utilised till 11am left just enough time for disaster to strike. During the closing miles of Ian's double stint we had a lower wishbone fail on the rear right. Luckily we were boxing that lap anyway but we lost valuable time repairing it. The team were on it immediately, getting the car fixed in record time without taking it behind the wall and to our garage which is what's required if you need more than 3 mechanics on pitlane for a repair. Thankfully the 3 who we had on the job managed the get Ross back out in a few minutes but by then we'd lost the lead and rejoined P4. 2 crucial laps down on the class leader.

I had the job of finishing the car and unfortunately we lost a further 2 places due to prototypes making stupid moves and hindering our progress so my run plan, despite a slight fuel save to make it to the end was to just go. And go till that I saw that chequered flag fly.

I knew Madison and her family had the race on again now they'd all woken up because she'd called me once already which gave me motivation. Seeing her cheesy grin, hearing her voice and seeing the wind blow the errant strands of hair around her face when she walked outside to find some quiet space to talk helped calm me down from the frustration I had built up but as much as my phone background told me not to, I knew I'd be driving that car with serious intent.

I hung about in the paddock whilst Ross finished his last hour of his triple stint, spectating from the pit stand as the driver change happened and Alex jumped in for his final single stint of the race and eventually, 55 minutes later hearing the message;

"5 Laps to go" From Ricky's' mouth as I stood behind him watching the live data through my cracked visor.

The next few minutes seemed like they were my last on earth. Everything I could think of ran through my mind before Ricky patted me on the back, I got wished good luck from Ian and Ross and I hoped up onto the wall, standing shoulder to shoulder with Roman as our cars rolled down towards us in formation.

I took one final deep breath before jumping down and getting Alex out, jumping in where he helped quickly buckle me in, Plug in my radio and drinks line and left me with a pat of good luck on the leg.

"Radio Check"

"Loud and clear"

The final windshield tear off of the race got ripped clear and the windscreen wiper smacked back down on the surface of the window.

"Fuel is in - 5 seconds till launch...and 4-3-2-1"

As he hit one I fired the car into life and Me and Roman left just as the cars came in. Nose to tail.

"Okay Y/n...He's going to let you through on pit exit - we'll be P5, we are double stinting the left side tyres so be wary. Full focus, You can do it." Ricky reassured me which was comforting. A push on was probably what I needed. Without it I had no motivation after the heartbreak of losing P1 to the rogue failure but I had to tell myself to push it aside and power on. Show that we, as a team, can overcome what's thrown at us.

Being tasked with finishing the car was unnerving as well but I had to find that self belief that I'd been lacking over the past few years and put it to good use.

With every lap I ticked off I was regaining my rhythm, Pulling a gap to Roman behind which was nothing to do with him being slow or me being quick, purely setup differences meant we were quicker on the banking and they were quicker on the infield. That and the fact that prototypes coming through and us coming up on lapped GT traffic meant we were both getting caught out equally as much throughout our laps. Though a late race issue for our competitor in P4 meant we inherited one position each, putting us that step closer to the podium.