Racing to Impress (Madison Beer/You)

Hidden Complications

I rolled over and cancelled my alarm. My body was still full of a fuzzy sensation from whatever demonic shit me and Madison partook in last night. Out of anywhere in the world we could've had our first rodeo it was in a random hotel room at Sebring International Raceway, 200 feet from the track. At least it took my mind away from the car for a while.

She was still out of it so I gently folded back the covers and took to my feet. As I exited the bedroom a shudder ran up my spine from the drastic change in temperature. It quickly became apparent that somehow the balcony door was cracked open and was sat just barely off its lock, welcoming the wind in. I brushed it off as maybe I was that fucked up from last nights antics I went out and forgot to close it again when I came back in.

I pulled it to and headed to the kitchen and grabbed one of the prepped meals I'd had dropped off and took a seat at the dining table. Some vegetables, some chicken and some rice sounded like a good idea at what....5:53am? I wasn't even sure.

Once I finished I placed it on the side and span my suitcase around, unzipping it and grabbing my second team shirt of the trip and throwing it on with some grey tech joggers. It was way too early to care about making a nice looking outfit but in an attempt to make it not look too overly white, I grabbed my Heart of Racing Team jacket, which was dark blue. It split up the colours somewhat.

A quick brush of my teeth and I was out the door and beginning my walk over to the paddock. The air was heavy with the 7am mist which was lifting by the minute, revealing a nice sunny day tucked up behind it. But at the moment, my breath was clearly visible as I hiked up towards the entry gates.

The traffic from fans descending upon the circuit for the day of action was backed up for miles and despite stopping a few times to take photos or sign things, I eventually arrived at the team truck. I headed inside and got ready, like always keeping my race overalls down and throwing my coat back on over my fireproof normex considering it was still a bit frosty out.

I wasn't scheduled to be driving today so getting into my race gear wasn't really necessary however with neither Ross or Alex here yet, I had to be on standby to jump in.

I met up with the mechanics at the pitbox and spectated over the Michelin Pilot Challenge session that had recently started. Our team had two GT4 Aston Martins in the session so overlooking the inner workings of the team mid session was a glimpse into what happens during our sessions. Also watching the data coming from the cars was weirdly satisfying, watching the tire pressure numbers jump about, the engine temps and a plethora of other variables going back and forth. I was so engrossed I partially forgot this was the GT4 car and not my car.

Come the end of the session I headed back to the truck to help with transporting the car down the staging area. The car was on and the mechanics were running the gearbox through the gears when I got there. It sounded healthy which was a positive, just whether it'd perform for the rest of the weekend was the next question. I headed into the team RV that'd recently arrived on sight and grabbed a disposable cup and dispensed some well needed hot chocolate into it for the road and jumped into the car. The team connected the rope to the front towing eye and began to pull me through the paddock. I had the job of steering the thing, so be it without power steering due to the ignition being off, and those up front had the job of, putting it simply, not hitting anyone.

It was easier said than done in a paddock as busy as this one.

Once we'd made it down to the queue of cars Alex came and met us to take the wheel. He'd be taking honours of the first half of FP3 and Ross would take the latter half.
Giving both of the seat time prior to the race.

On an endurance weekend we'd usually run 4 drivers, but given it was only a 12 Hour, we elected to do the 3 driver strategy and only use the 4 drivers for 12 hours+. Given there was only one 24 hour race on the calendar, it meant Ian would be demoted back to team boss for the rest of the season.