Lap by lap the race was beginning to take shape. There had been some contact between cars at the start but nothing serious. I had wasted no time looking at what was going on behind me; I needed to focus on who was in front of me.

Taylor and Megan were my rivals and I had to catch up with them at all costs. Soon the window would open for the pit stop and then the tire change, we had to calculate the times to the thousandth if we wanted to have a chance.

Taylor was the one in the lead while Megan was right behind her. I, just over a second behind, was following her. I was trying to mimic her trajectories so as to catch a slight wake effect that would allow me to get closer more easily.

"Car thirty-six is returning now," I was informed over the radio.

"Perfect," I thought, smiling inside my helmet. That was Megan's car, and by the time she got back on the track, she would be in the middle of rear-end traffic.

"Let me back in two laps," I said to my colleagues at the pit wall.

"Wildy stop doing your own thing! We'll call you," they replied and then shut down communications.

I knew it was the gusta strategy but I had to listen to what I was being told. We were losing about twenty-five seconds to get in, pause, and get out. We really had to time it right.

When Megan came out of the pits with new tires it was easy for her to make up positions and, within a few laps, I found her behind me again. I tried every maneuver I could but eventually she got the better of me and overtook me.I was beginning to struggle to keep up with their pace and, with the pit crew, we decided it was time to stop.

I entered the designated lane and limited my speed. The mechanics were very quick and, in no time, I was back on the track. The car seemed to fly on the smooth asphalt with the new tires.

There were unfortunately only a few laps to go when I again managed to catch up with the leading duo. Between one failed overtaking attempt and one successful one I took second place on the podium, not what I expected but certainly a very good result.

The celebrations were relatively short, we had to clear the track as soon as possible for the qualifying of the major championship drivers. Of course, our time for the ceremony was also short, the races were shorter and we had fewer fans.

I picked up the trophy and walked off the podium back to my pit, changed and joined my father who was already ranting left and right at his men. He was a man who demanded perfection from his subordinates at all times.

"Pop! Calm down come on," I told him, placing the trophy on the desk. "You'll see that everything will be fine," I tried to reassure him.

I knew he was acting this way because he was under extreme pressure. He and Jean Muri of Nex-Light had recently met in the pits and it had not been a pleasant encounter. Those two had been rivals since they were drivers themselves and they were spilling that animosity onto the drivers now.

"We have to make Muri understand that we are the strongest," my father said, gritting his teeth. There was going to be fun to be had during qualifying.

When the first session began, all the drivers entered the track one after the other, with those warming up their tires, those testing their braking, and those going out to mark time. At the end of that session the five slowest would be excluded.

One of the teams, however, had a problem with one of its cars coming to a sudden stop at the side of the track. It was not a properly ideal spot for vehicle removal so the session was suspended with minutes to go.

Fortunately, the securing operations were quick and it was restarted shortly thereafter.

At the end of the second session the starting order of the top ten would be decided, I was trying to concentrate on the monitors so that I could learn some new strategy to use but I was constantly distracted by my father barking over the radio at Oscar and Tony.

Between a recovery lap and a fast lap to mark time, the boys managed to place second and fourth, behind Nicholas and Lewis, respectively. It could have been a perfect result if the Nex-Light drivers had not been ahead of them.

When they brought the cars back to the pits my father was not at his happiest. Both Jacob and I tried to calm him down but the only one who succeeded was our mother.

"Honey the important result is tomorrow's" she told him softly "You know better than I do how the boys perform better in the race than in qualifying" she finished by giving him a kiss on the cheek.

After that gesture my father calmed down slightly. We went to the meeting room together with the drivers and, reviewing the footage, discussed the strategy to be implemented the next day. Fortunately, they let me have a say there even though they didn't really listen to me that much later in the race.

We all went to rest once the endless round of interviews and meetings were over.

The night passed quietly and quickly, anxiety about the race had affected me too despite the fact that I did not have to go out on the track. I knew well how pressured the boys must feel, I tried to keep the good mood even the next morning at breakfast. If I had shown up worried, too, it would have been a real disaster.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

The atmosphere on the track was something magnificent to me, all the mechanics running back and forth preparing every little detail, the adrenaline was through the roof, and the fans in the stands were cheering and waving.

We were all used to that environment but it thrilled every time.

The cars took their places on the grid accompanied by the mechanics for last-minute preparations, each driver doing his own superstitious "ritual." I admired them daydreaming about being able to participate in that way, too.

As I was waiting for the mechanics to return for the start of the race a reporter approached me.

"Miss Wild Rose will you allow me a few questions?" he asked, smiling.

"Absolutely," I replied with a bright smile in front of the camera, "please tell me."

"Will this season be as exciting as the previous one?" he asked bluntly.

"Certainly, the guys have been preparing for a long time. They were quivering from getting on the track," I replied happily. It was the truth, Oscar and Tony had been training for a long time to improve their performance and I was thrilled with their results.

"So can you guarantee that we will see some good things?" asked the reporter.

"I'd say yes, and you won't have to wait long," I asserted, pointing to the warning that marked the countdown to the start of the race.

It was just a couple of minutes away. The mechanics were hurrying to clear the track by positioning themselves at the sides; they would return to the pits as soon as all the cars were gone.

The fans in the stands were buzzing, they, like us, were waiting for nothing more than the start of the championship to encourage their champions. T-shirts and flags in the various colors of the racing teams were mingling in the stands, the helicopters of the international directorate were ready and framing every inch of the track so that no detail would be missed.

The formation lap began. The cars started slowly one after the other, swaying left and right warming up the tires trying acceleration and braking. All that adrenaline would be released in a matter of seconds, in a moment an exciting race consisting of sixty laps would start.

Strategy and technique had to go hand in hand. Each team had its own plan and each driver his own skills, it was up to those behind the scenes to figure out what to do and what directions to give the drivers.

The starting grid reassembled, the drivers had all completed their laps, and we inside the pit box were ready to follow the progress of the race on our personal monitors. Headphones on our ears and microphones at the ready.

The roar of the engines only stirred up the crowd even more as they jumped into the stands shouting encouragement to their idols. The green flag waved at the back of the grid passing behind the medical car placed at the end of the grid.

Everything was ready. The lights turned on and the cars ready for the start.

Go.

The first lap began somewhat confusingly as usual, everyone trying to overtake those in front of them while Oscar and Tony fought to take positions. After a few corners Oscar finally managed to overtake Nicholas.

We all cheered in the pit box but it wasn't over yet, he had to distance himself if he wanted to have a lead before the pit stop. Fortunately, Tony also made a good start and, after passing Lewis at the first stop, he found himself in front of a struggling Nicholas.

Seeming as if the car was not responding to his commands, Tony passed him easily and pulled alongside his teammate. The two proceeded one behind the other by teaming up so as not to give their opponents the slipstream.

The gap between the various groups began to become a relatively fixed factor, there were a few overtaking attempts in the rearmost positions but in the first few it all remained the same.

We saw the Nex-Light mechanics rush out of their pit and position themselves as if they were waiting for one of their cars to come back in. That was also part of the strategy, deluding the opposing teams that they were about to make a tire change when in fact it was the other way around.

Before we communicated anything to our guys so we waited to actually see Nicholas' car come back into the pits. We talked to Tony and told him that he would be the first one back in. We noticed that Nicholas was having problems during the pit stop and they had also changed the nose of his car, which was quite common in accidents but there were none.

He restarted shortly afterwards skidding but found himself back on the track in traffic in tenth position. It was going to be tough for him to make it back to the top of the pack; his car seemed to have some problems. He was not accelerating properly and it was noticeable from the timing monitors that he often lost power out of the blue.

Ton's stop was perfect, the timekeeper marked that it had taken just under two seconds to make the tire change.

"Good job guys," I thought contentedly, smiling at the mechanics.

Dad did not take his eyes off the monitors, he was checking everything from there as he talked to the guys on the track. Both drivers were comfortable with the car; it had practically become an extension of their bodies.

Oscar re-entered a few laps later having gained quite a lead over Lewis, which allowed him to maintain first place despite the stop. We were now a few laps away from the end of the race when our attention shifted to a loud roar.

A car had gone off the track and impacted the side protection barriers. It was Tony's car unfortunately, stopped just before instead was Nicholas' car. Reviewing the footage we saw that the latter had made an attempt to overtake in an impossible spot by going to open his trajectory too much and hitting Tony hard.

The race was suspended to allow the medical staff to go and help the drivers and the track attendants to remove cars and debris. They also had to reposition the barrier which took a few minutes of work.

Fortunately both were physically well despite the high-speed impact, the same could not be said of their mental state, however. As soon as they returned to the pits they began to insult each other heavily.

The mechanics were forced to intervene to separate them before it escalated into a violent brawl.

"Are you crazy?!" shouted Tony "How can you think of doing such a maneuver!" he continued, he was really on a rampage. It was hard to get him angry like that but Nicholas always managed it.

"You take it so lightly!" taunted Nicholas, seeming not to realize the seriousness of his actions.

I was furious with Nicholas, too. My father had not let me out of our room given the dangerous situation; only he and Jacob had gone to try to calm things down.

Shortly after Tony returned accompanied by Jacob and went to sit in the area reserved for the pilots, he started throwing things left and right caught up in anger. It took at least five or ten minutes before he calmed down completely but, when he did, he apologized to all of us for how he had behaved.

The race finally restarted but only for the last five laps, they were tense moments as Oscar had now lost all the lead he had gained. However, the reliability of the car repaid his efforts and allowed him to take the top step of the podium followed by Lewis and Mark second and third respectively.