Page 60 of The Legend

“I thinkwe made the right call there.” Aiden told them. “Most only did fuel only rightthere.”

On therestart, behind Jameson, Nadia went low, a pass she knew she wasn’t going tomake and you could see her jerky movements as she contemplated and then knewshe was about to over shoot the corner.

“She’s atyour rear, still out there...hang on toit...there you go.”

“Fuck,”Jameson said in surprise. “...did youjust see that kamikaze move she pulled? Jesus.”

“I did.Stay away from her, she’s ballsy tonight.”

Shadowsdraped the tracks, the rain clouds positioned once again with twenty to go. Thetemperature dropped and the wind picked up. When the cars can down the frontstretch, the wind the kicked up was bitter.

It was me,Alley, Emma, Nancy and Kyle on the pit box, all huddled together keeping warmand the boys scattered around the pit watching the race from the wall. Theyweren’t cold but I tend to think they had more energy than we did.

Jameson andBrody were at it again, this time Brody had gotten a move on the outside ofJameson and took over second with Bobby leading.

“Cautionsout,” Aiden told him and I let out the breath I was holding. Casten stood, pacingback and forth in the pit box. “They’reslowin’ intwo. Watch up high.”

Knowingthe rain was gonna dump any minute they quickly got the field of twenty-fourback to green. Brody blocked Jameson on the restart and protected the inside.I’ll give him that, he was a good racer. But he wasn’t the legend Jameson wasbecoming.

Jamesonsaw his opening with three to go and just like the hungry driver I always knewhim to be, threw caution to the wind and went all out coming out of four and byturn one, he was slipping up the track but pulling away.

“Fuck,it’s raining. Please tell me this is the last lap?”

“Last lapbud!”

“Whew!” Hewas racing like an open wheel racer, scrapping for everything he was worth.Casten, Cole and Noah jumped up on the wall with the rest of the crew waitingfor them to come into view in turn three.

All of uson the pit box got down, swarming the pit wall, as Brody and Jameson were nowside-by-side again fighting hard for the lead going into the last corner. Thebumped and banged, Jameson wasn’t giving up and fought just as hard.

Brody gotloose when Jameson slammed into him, sending him up into the wall, he cameright back and did the same to Jameson only to have him hold position throughthe flag.

Jamesonwon.

“Fuckyeah!” Jameson screamed knowing he won.

And thenit started pouring. Not just pouring, lightening and wind picked up too butJameson still had his burnout to get done.

Once thecars were on pit lane, our family and his team, congregated around the insidewall across pit lane cheering for him. Jameson spun his car around, waterspraying in the wake, and with his arm hung out the window he held thecheckered flag doing his signature burnout down the front stretch sideways. Itwasn’t quite as smoky as it had been in the past given the rain, but it wasjust as impressive that he could keep the car sideways that long. The view Ihad was one I would remember for years to come. It was of Casten jumping up anddown, screaming out in excitement for his father, and Jameson, holding thecheckered flag, and smoke surrounding him.

The fanswere in an uproar. Not just at the burnout but the hard fighting racing they’djust seen.

With smokerolling from all four tires, Jameson pulled the car right in front of us andthen got out and stood on the roof. The boys climbed up the hood as did fansall celebrating with him. We weren’t making it to victory lane this time. Theparty had already begun on the track.

Wanting tokeep some composure, I stayed back and let the boys celebrate, all screamingand throwing beer around.

Jamesonheld a microphone in his hand bowed to the crowd and shook with laughter.“Thank you guys THANK YOU!” he screamed throwing his head back and tipping themicrophone up as if he was belting out the lyrics to a rock song. Fans grabbedat his legs, all trying to get a piece of him, much like a rock star.

Jamesonjumped down, or I should say he slipped down, when the rain got so slick on hiscar that he couldn’t hold his balance in his racing shoes.

The rain,which had turned into a tropical storm, wasn’t stopping the party that night.The fans, our families, the teams, we all had a little something to celebrate.No one ever did get a direct interview out of Jameson. No, he was too excitedfor that. You couldn’t get him to focus on anything.

When Ifinally got to him, I’m sure he was drunk. Actually I am positive he was.

Rain dropsfell from the tip of his nose, his hair swept in his eyes. “I asked you tomarry me on a night like tonight.” He said smiling down at me.

“That youdid.” I smiled pushing his hair from his face. “It wasn’t exactly like this.”

“I want toask you something tonight too. Honestly, it was kind of similar. It was darkout and I was celebrating a victory.”

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