Don't Let Go: Day 11

Word Count: 66,050

Summary of Events:

Tor was allowed to go with his mother to the reading of Uncle Zikki's will, where he learned that Uncle Zikki had created a trust fund in Tor's name, from which he would be given an annual allowance toward his racing, but it still wasn't enough money. He learned from Madlenka that she'd gotten some good leads from her grandparents, but none of them had gotten back to her yet, so, with Orlanda's help, Tor departed for Italy, still missing over a quarter of the funding he needed. After notifying his team that he was in Italy — but without full backing — Tor was leaving the track when he was approached by a Czech man, who represented a Czech company that was interested in sponsoring Tor, if they could see him in action. Tor was granted dispensation by the officials to participate in a practise in order to be seen in action, while his Opa brought his Oma and his parents along when Tor asked him to come in hopes of an agreement being reached because they had all panicked and called the police when Tor and Orlanda hadn't returned from their hike. Immediately on the practise session beginning, Tor went out to do a flying lap without any other cars on the track . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

Reaching the main straight, Tor accelerated so that he was at top speed when he shot over the start/finish line, which started the clock for his flying lap.

Tor nailed the apex of all three of the opening corners — which were little more than soft curves, really — before racing down the short straight to the next two turns, which he also executed perfectly before he raced through the next soft curve toward the second-largest of the four hairpin-like turns of the track, which was at the end of the track’s longest straight.

Heading around the nearly 45˚ corner that led into the more complicated part of the track with another apex met perfectly, Tor then wove through the two softer curves that led into the second-smallest and smallest hairpins on the track, after which came two nearly 90˚ turns, and then finally, after a short straightaway, the largest of the hairpins, which led back to the main straight.

Tor didn’t slow down his speed at all, but decided to pursue a second flying lap consecutively.

“What was my time?” Tor asked.

“One thirty three point five,” his engineer replied. “One thirty three point five.”

“I’m doing another one,” Tor said.

“I suspected as much,” his engineer replied.

If Tor’s first flying lap had been perfectly executed, his second, he felt, was impeccably flawless, and he didn’t think there was anything he could possibly critique about it whatsoever.

Once he’d crossed the line the second time, Tor released the throttle and started on a cool-down lap.

“The officials might want to check our car,” his engineer said.

“Why?” Tor asked.

“You did the lap in one thirty point zero,” his engineer replied. “The lap record is one thirty two nine.”

“So you mean I have the new lap record?” Tor asked.

“Maybe,” his engineer replied. “So long as you didn’t exceed track limits or anything.”

“That lap was flawless,” Tor replied.

“Let’s hope so,” his engineer said.

“I’m boxing,” Tor said.

“Copy,” his engineer replied.

Tor hoped that he officially had the lap record — at least, for Formula 4, whose cars weren’t as fast as even Formula 3 cars, as they were supposed to gradually get faster until the fastest was a Formula 1 car, gradually getting the drivers used to more and more speed — he didn’t want to have exceeded track limits and gotten his time deleted, especially not when his career depended on it.

“Äh, unfortunately it’s not the lap record,” Tor’s engineer said as Tor rounded the final turn before the pit lane entrance.

“No!” Tor cried.

“You didn’t exceed track limits,” his engineer replied. “It’s perfect, it stands. Apparently it’s not counted because it’s not in a race. If you nail that kind of time in one of the races this weekend then it’ll be the new lap record.”

“Oh,” Tor said, feeling relieved. “It was perfect.”

“It was amazing,” his engineer agreed.

Pronunciation:

Äh: euh