The Champion (Racing on the Edge) (65 page)

For Christmas I had that picture transferred into a
canvas painting and hung it above our bed as she slept that night. When she
woke up Christmas morning, naturally we made love. Carefully I pulled her on
top of me and she straddled me for a better angle. Her head tipped back and she
saw the picture.

“Holy shit Jameson. Where did that come from?”

She remembered the picture. I was sure of that when a
smile tugged at her lips. “That’s the night.” She whispered so softly I had to
strain to hear her. “How did you
...
?”

“My mom found it.” I told her leaning forward to sit up.
My arms wrapped around her backside pulling her closer as my lips found her
collarbone. “Merry Christmas honey,”

“Merry Christmas to you too,” Her lips met mine with a
sudden sense of urgency.

Though we were good at the dyno testing and align boring,
that morning in bed with my wife of the last twenty-one years was all about
love. The love I’d felt for her our entire lives. It was slow, passionate and
all that storybook love you read about. Over the years, I would like to think I
provided Sway with the fairytale fantasy she wanted to remember—now I knew I
had.

There was no doubt looking at that painting, and then
looking at us now, we had something note worthy of a fairytale.

After we made our way back downstairs, Lily was there
along with Kale, her younger brother who was convinced he would marry Arie
someday. I had a feeling my headstrong little girl liked him but wasn’t ready
for anything serious after what happened with Ricky a few years back.

Kale cared about none of that and he claimed he’d wait
for forever.

Today was also Axel’s twenty-first birthday.

And where was my son?

He was flying home from Australia where he’d been racing
for the past few months.

Much like me at his age, he lived to race. And since our
weather here didn’t permit winter racing, he flew to Australia where it was. I
spent many winters racing down under but these days, I enjoyed the time away.
Every January though, I was itching to get back to it. That’s how I knew
retirement wasn’t near.

Axel ended up arriving shortly before the rest of the
family arrived with a big smile on his face when he saw Lily had made it.

The real fun began when my sister’s asshole children
showed up with the Double Mint twins and they started hitting on Axel. Up until
that night, I had never heard Lily swear.

But when the Double Mint twins corned Axel, she got her
point across.

“Most guys may fall for your fake breasts and your
bleached out hair but Axel’s different. Leave him alone.” She told them in a
civilized manner. Listening to them around the corner in the family room, Sway,
Casten and I stood in the kitchen.

Casten giggled and that’s when Sway slapped her hand over
his mouth and pulled him to her.

“Shhh,” she urged trying to suppress her own giggles.

“Maybe he needs more than just a small town girl from
Hillsboro,” one of them snarked back.

Lily laughed. “Yeah because being from LA is so much
better.”

Axel interrupted by then.

“You guys should leave.” He told the girls.

That caused an actual fight between him and his cousins
that Aiden and I had to break up. I think I’ve said this before, but Axel is
not a big kid by any means. Where I was nearly six foot three, Axel is roughly five
foot nine and weighed just under a hundred and fifty pounds. Noah and Charlie
looked more like one of Spencer’s kids with their burly builds.

Axel didn’t stand much of a chance but when Lily was
involved, Noah and Charlie didn’t stand much of a chance.

Axel ended up breaking Charlie’s nose and giving Noah a
large gapping cut just above his eye before we got to them.

See, I told you our family gathering never went well.

Emma got upset with Axel, which made Lily even madder and
she replied with. “If your sons would keep their fucking hoes under control,
this would have never happened.”

Emma stood there dumbfounded because she knew her sons
were jerks and couldn’t say much about their girlfriends. She hated them too.

Sway laughed and stepped in between them. Slinging her
arm around Lily she pushed a plate of brownies toward Emma.

“You’re going to fit in nicely with this family.” She
told Lily.

The rest of the night seemed to go smoothly which was a
nice surprise. With Speedweeks just around the corner, I need smooth and
relaxed.

The rest of winter went by quickly as usual. Sway and I
managed to sneak away to our other home in the Florida Keys a few weekends but
most of the off-season was spent restructuring Riley-Simplex Racing.

Jimi Riley was hanging up his helmet after forty-five
seasons with the World of Outlaws. Though he was keeping his position as the
owner, he was no longer racing in the outlaw series.

So he said at least. We all knew him well enough to know
he wouldn’t be able to stay away completely. I had a feeling if it was me, I
wouldn’t be able to either. He would still be the owner of the cup team and his
sprint car team as well so no, he wasn’t walking away completely. He’d still be
around to tell us how badly he thought we were fucking up his business.

I wasn’t retiring though, no, I was on top of my career
right now. Having just won my fifteenth career championship, I felt like I
could still give this sport a run. I was a champion and in my mind, I could be
that legend everyone was pegging me to be.

With Jimi retiring, guess who he hired to take over his
position?

Yep, the kid and my son, Axel.

Axel would be racing his first season in the World of
Outlaws.

I had mixed feelings about this. Though USAC resembled
NASCAR with its frequent rule changes and drama the Outlaw series was where the
big money was at in sprint car racing. When drivers entered into that series,
they usually stayed. Axel and I had a long talk when my dad came to me with his
plan.

“Did you know what series you wanted to run in right
away?” he asked me one day when we were at the sprint car shop. I was
finalizing the schedules for appearances for the guys and going over any
sponsorship appearances we needed to attend.

“I knew I wanted to race. That’s all that mattered to me.”
I told him pushing my laptop aside to look at him sitting in front of my desk.
“I did look at everything from Indy to even drag racing. In the end, I looked
at where I could get the most exposure and that led me to NASCAR. It wasn’t
about the money for me, it was about being
me
. My dad raced sprint cars
and while my love for racing will always be related to sprint cars, NASCAR gave
me the opportunity I was looking for.”

“Was it hard for you being his son?”

I thought about this for a moment because any pressure I
ever felt from being Jimi Riley’s son, Axel felt but doubled. He not only had
everyone telling him how good his grandfather was but then they told him how
great his dad was.

“It was hard but I think if anyone, you understand that
feeling.”

Only another racer can understand that feeling put upon
you during a race but then you add who your family is. That legendary bloodline
just adds that much more pressure to what you already feel.

Axel sat there in the leather chair across from me
twisting a spark plug around his fingers. “I want to race sprint cars.” He said
after a few minutes of silence. “I think that’s where I’ve always belonged.”

I knew that already. Even when USAC went to asphalt, he
hated it. Much like me, his love for dirt would always be there. Both for
different reasons. Asphalt scared Axel, I don’t know why and neither did he but
some of his worst wrecks occurred on asphalt tracks. Dirt felt comfortable for
him.

For me, dirt was home. It reminded me of the greatest
summer of my life, both frustrating and exciting. When I got inside a sprint
car on dirt, to me, it was like coming home. 

“Do you think I can do this?” Axel asked when I smiled at
the picture on my desk of me and him when he won the Chili Bowl.

“I do buddy. Without a doubt, I know you’ll be good in
whatever series you run. Go with your gut instinct.”

His gut instinct was to race.

“Have you ever felt pressured to race?” I asked him after
a moment.

Sway and I always worried the boys felt as though they
had to race given my profession and my dad’s. While we knew where Casten stood
in all it, I wasn’t sure about Axel. Maybe that’s why he constantly needed
reassurance that he could do it.

“No, I’ve always
wanted
to race.” He smiled
remembering why he did. “I don’t remember how old I was but I think mom was
pregnant with Casten. I just remember watching the memorial race for grandpa
Charlie
...
I remember standing in the
flag stand holding the flag when you, grandpa, Justin and Ryder came by on the
front stretch four wide, engines rumbling
...
From
then on, that’s what I wanted to do.”

“That sound gets most people.” I nodded with a smile
remembering the thunderous rumble from my childhood and watching guys like my
dad and Bucky Miers.

“What made you want to race?” he asked glancing at the
other picture on my desk on Sway and me on our honeymoon in Rio right after he
was born. I had to chuckle as it was one with my leg bleeding and her with the
jellyfish sting.

“Same as you,” My gaze shifted to the photograph beside
that of Sway and I at Elma last spring. “I grew up watching grandpa race, just
like you.” My eyes shifted to a photograph of my dad. It was the one of us
singing
Barton Hollow
by The Civil Wars at a bar outside of Williams
Grove after a race. That’s when I felt the pain in my chest that he was hangin’
up his helmet, something I thought he’d never do.

“Racing has always been there for me and after a while,
it was just the natural way to go.” I smiled at my son. “I could never imagine
my life any other way than inside a race car.”

Axel knew exactly what I was trying to say without me
needing to go into any more detail. Like I said, racing was his gut instinct,
just like mine was.

He left after that and I sat there in my office looking
over the pictures Sway and framed in there over the years. It’s hard to believe
how quickly that last twenty years had gone by but I never regretted this
lifestyle. It was me.

A racer can’t be labeled or molded.

Most guys in the garage area would agree with that
statement.

A racer doesn’t race for anyone but himself.

Another statement most would agree with.

Some have different theories but really, the victory was
what you raced for. Now that victory can be, and was, owed to more than
yourself but to get there, to get inside the car and decide to race, comes from
within.

At some point, you’re nothing until one day, you’re
suddenly something. Worshipped by millions for something you did for yourself.
Why is it that they suddenly thought you were different?

What made them love you now when they didn’t before?

I’ll tell you why. You had the balls to do what they
never did. You got inside the car and pushed yourself to be the best. You did
that. No one else did.

What they don’t understand is that there will always be
confessions that bared no sound and lived inside my head, my heart, and were my
own desire. They were my own aspirations and something they never took the time
to discover.

I race for me. It’s not selfish. It’s me being me.

I do it because that’s what I am and what is embedded
into every fiber of my being.

I race for the adrenaline, the power, the rumbling in my
chest when behind the wheel. The sense of belonging in a sport that’s quick to
prove you’re nothing but still, I race for me. That is what defined me.

I can’t say every racer is the same but for the most
part, they are.

So now, with time, as one career was ending, another was
just beginning in a sport that was forever changing.

Throughout death and despair, our family had once again
kept it together. We were, just as we always had been, a woven mesh window net
holding it together.

In my mind, we were a championship team.

First they ignore you, then they laugh at
you, then they fight you, then you win.

~Ghandi

Turn the page for more than just a taste.

Behind the Wheel

Outtakes from

Racing on the Edge

Force

Jimi Riley

Force – In
physics, a force is any influence that causes on object to undergo change in
speed, a change in direction, a change in motion, or a change in shape. In
other words, a force is that which can cause an object with mass to change its
velocity (which includes to begin moving from a state of rest). For example, to
accelerate, or which can cause a flexible object to deform. Force can also be
described by intuitive concepts such as a push or pull. A force has both
magnitude and direction, making it a vector quantity.

I’ve seen a lot of race car drivers in my time, and
they’re all addicted to the same things

Speed.

It comes before food, sleep and time with their families.
It becomes the most important thing to them and nothing else matters.

It controls them.

What they don’t realize at the time is living on that
high doesn’t last forever. Eventually you come out the other side and you’re forced
to go through life just like everyone else. But the problem is that race car
drivers don’t have the option to be normal.