Page 27 of Fast & Reckless
Tae spoke into his ear. “I’m going to need you to manage your brake temps a bit, Will. Can you add some lift and coast into Turn Thirteen?”
Will cursed under his breath. If he was nursing his brake temps, it might give René room to gain on him. “You’re killing me, Tae,” he replied.
“Actually just trying to keep you alive,” Tae replied.
Will went to work doing what he could to save the brakes while not losing too much time to René.
“Box, box, box!” Tae barked a few minutes later.
He flew into the box and landed dead on the marks, the jacks perfectly synced, and the Lennox pit crew leapt in to replace his tires.
One second, two seconds, three seconds.
Omar should be giving him the thumbs-up to go by now.
“What’s happening?” he barked into his headset.
“Rear right wheel jammed coming off,” Tae said. “Almost there.”
“Fuck!”
All those precious tenths he should be gaining on René started flowing in the opposite direction, cutting into his hard-fought lead.
At last they dropped the car, Omar gave him the all-clear signal, and Will rocketed out of the pits with the engine peggedon the limiter. If he drove flat out, and if nothing else went wrong, he could still hold René off.
Then Tae put an end to that. “Still marginal on the brakes, Will. You’re going to need to manage to the end.”
“The hell I am. I’m getting it back.”
Tae sighed. “You can chase, but only as far as the brake temps allow. We’re not burning up the brakes.”
He chased hard, only backing off when Tae insisted to hold up, but as he screamed down the final straight, René was still out in front by an agonizing two seconds. Two seconds too many, in the end, as the checkered flag came down with René Denis in first and Will in second.
When he pulled to a stop on the track after his cooldown lap, the entire Lennox pit crew rushed to surround the car. Paul himself reached a hand down to help him out, grinning wider than Will had ever seen him. “Smashed it, Will. We’ll get the brakes sorted and then there’ll be no stopping you, mate.”
“Glad to hear it because I don’t intend on letting anybody ahead of me next time.”
“That’s what I like to hear!” Paul clapped him on the back.
Tae was next, giving him a fierce one-armed hug. “I amreallygoing to enjoy being race engineer for the Formula One world champion.”
Will held his hand out to shake. “I’m buying your drinks tonight.”
Tae grasped his hand. “Deal. Now go get on that podium.”
“La Marseillaise” began to play over the loudspeaker as Will’s eyes swept the crowds below. René, to his left and on aslightlyhigher podium, waved at his pit crew in Allegri-red jumpsuits below. They all screamed and waved back, celebrating their first-place win. Will hoped they enjoyed it, becauseafter today the only national anthem he wanted to hear on the podium was bloody “God Save the King.”
It was annoying to know he could have taken first if not for the brakes, but honestly, second place felt pretty great. In his entire F1 career, he’d never made podium. To be standing up there just two races into the season was nothing short of a miracle. He could get used to this.
Will waved to the Lennox pit crew, clustered together below. They were all grinning, celebratory, sensing that they were now on a team that was in the running for the championship. Paul, standing off to the side with Tae and David, raised his hands and applauded Will. Paul had taken a huge chance on him, and it felt great to vindicate that choice.
Mira was down there, too, right behind her father. She put two fingers in her mouth and whistled up at him. God, she looked beautiful. A race official stepped up to shake his hand and give him the second-place trophy. He raised it high overhead in triumph, then he pointed from it to her. This was hers, just as much as it was his. She threw her head back and laughed, and that felt almost as good as finishing on the podium. Then René blasted him with a spray of champagne and he was lost in the chaos of his first Formula One podium finish. It would absolutely not be his last.
There wasn’t much time to glory in his success after the race. Will had been launched straight into interviews, press conferences, corporate events, and finally, a cocktail party. At this point, his face hurt from maintaining his smile for so long.
He had just extricated himself from the wife of one of his corporate sponsors and was calculating how soon he could leave when two feminine hands covered his eyes from behindand a warm body pressed up against his back. His momentary hope that it was Mira fizzled when a throaty voice with a lilting Italian accent purred in his ear.
“Surprise.”
