Page 62 of Jump Start

“Copy,” I replied, focused on the succession of Ess bends I was navigating through. I hadn’t moved up a spot yet, but I was able to keep the pack behind me.

There was some trouble in the mid-section from what I could see behind me, drivers in thirteenth and fourteenth place were battling like they were out the front.

I was glad I had graduated from that space, and if I ever found myself in mid-field, it would be because I was not performing at my best.

Focus.

We reached the main straight of Mount Panorama, and as I flew down the hill, I could see the approaching rain cloud that Tony mentioned. Fuck. It was black and had a slight mint green tint to it—hail.

“The fucking clouds are green,” I spoke through the radio back to the team.

“Copy, mate. See how you go. There hasn’t been any rain yet, it’s slow-moving.” We were only on lap two of a forty-five lap race.

“Okay,” I responded, not feeling confident about the outcome, knowing how quickly the weather could turn in rural Australia.

The following few laps had gone without any major issues, the mid-pack still behaving less than favourable. The weather was starting to creep towards the mountain on my twenty-fifth lap.

As I approached ‘Hell Corner’ once again, my 458 hugged the lines perfectly. As I straightened the car up towards the next straight, I saw it.

A few hundred metres up the road, it was pissing down, right where some of the most challenging parts of the track were.

“Go easy up there, mate,” Tony spoke as I approached the incline.

“Copy.”

I was driving at the skyline, and the rain was pelting down on my windscreen. The wiper couldn’t go fast enough to clear the rain and there were small pieces of hail falling.

I peered through the windscreen and slowed down slightly; my visibility was almost zero. I was still also trying to fend offthe rest of the pack from behind me.

I made it through the Esses, fuck knows how, mainly from muscle memory, I think. Suddenly, a car approached my right-hand side as we came down the straight.

“What the fuck!” I yelled through the radio, even though the other driver couldn’t hear me. As we drove down ‘Conrod Straight’, he started to weave between me and the edge of the road. He must’ve caught the grass as he spun around and hit me on my driver’s door, careening me off the road at almost 230 kilometres an hour. I tried to use the brakes, but it was so wet that my Ferrari glided across the grass like it was ice, and finally reached the gravel, which didn’t slow me down much more. I let go of the wheel and braced as I collided with the wall.

“Thomas? Jacko?” I heard through the radio, only just through the pelting rain on my window shield.

“Thomas, are you okay, mate?” Tony and Chris were trying to speak to me through the radio.

I self-assessed briefly before answering them. I could already feel slight tension in my shoulders, building from gripping my muscles together on impact. Luckily, apart from that, I felt okay, though it would most likely hit me later.

“I’m alright, yes, copy.”

“Okay, mate, red flag, red flag, red flag, too dangerous out there.”

“Fucking tell me about it. Rusty lost control and sent me off. Stewarts should have fucking cancelled when the rain started.” I knew it wasn’t his fault, but he shouldn’t have tried to overtake me in those conditions.

“We’ve seen it all, mate. He will be investigated.”

I climbed out of the car window and waited for the tow truck.The rain and light hail were still bucketing down. I wanted to get out of the rain and back to the garage. Back to Harper. I knew she would be freaking out.

I helped the tow guys affix the car and hopped into the back seat of the medical car.

“Sorry about the seats,” I said, nodding towards the leather seats pooling with rain from my saturated race suit.

“No bother, mate, it’ll get fixed. We’re taking you back to the garage, then you need to come and see us at the medical transporter.” This was standard procedure. I felt fine, only a little shell-shocked. I couldn’t say the same for my car. The whole right front end was bent in, and I swear I saw something fly off as I hit the wall.

The short drive back to the garage felt like an eternity. We pulled into a stall down from Echidna, and I got out and walked as fast as I could towards our garage.

Soon as I met the entrance, I was greeted by Chris, Tony, and various members of the team. I was only looking for one person.

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