THE RACER Chapter 13

Trophy Winner
courtesy photobucket.

When they got back to Abel's shop they unloaded the car and Lucas wanted to know if they could go to the afternoon races.

Both Abel and Mason said they had other things to do but John told Lucas that they could go.

After eating lunch, John, Lucas and his mom loaded up in the car and away they went to the races.

At the concession stand Marley spotted Lucas and he went up to him and asked if he was there to see him beat all the other competition and Lucas said, “We sure are.”

Marley said to John, “Your son looked pretty good racing his car for the first time.”

John said, “I thought he did alright.”

Marley said, “I have to go and whip these young drivers.”

With refreshments in hand Lucas and John returned to their seats.  After half an hour the cars were lined up and when the flag was dropped they were off and running.

True to his word Marley was the eventual winner, and he stood on the podium and received the winner's cup and also a check.  Everyone applauded because he was one of the crowd's favorites.

Lucas was one of Marley's newest fans, and he shouted and clapped his hands.  

As the crowd left the stands, Lucas wanted to watch the pit crews load up and get ready for the trip home.

He noted that some were happy and some were not so happy.  Some took home cars that were not damaged, and others had to do a lot of repairing.

Then there were a few whose car was so wrecked that they would never race again.  

While there were some minor injuries most of the drivers were unharmed, and that was the most important thing about the evening.

The day had been most eventful.

Lucas has his first experience on a real race track.

He saw the crews get ready for the afternoon's race and he saw the winners and losers.

The one thing that stood out in Lucas's mind was Marley standing on the podium receiving the winners prize, and he said under his breath, “That will be me someday.”

When they arrived home Lucas got permission to go over to Abel's and tell him what happened; after which he went over and sat in his racer.

After being around the expensive midget race cars his car had lost some of its luster, but for the present he was proud of it.

Something that kept coming up in his mind was the invitation by Marley to come over to his facility and look at the cars he was building.

He reminded Abel of that several times. A few days later Mason and Abel were talking about it and they wanted to accept his offer to see his place so Mason called Marley and set a time to visit him.

Lucas told his dad, and he said he could go with them if he wanted to.  John said he also would like to see his place so at the appointed time they all loaded up and headed over to the shop.

It was out of town a ways, and when they arrived it was larger than they expected.  It wasn't just one building but several.  They not only built race cars but did a lot of custom work as well.

             
When they arrived and found the main building they saw Marley and he welcomed them.

He said, “Lets have lunch and I will tell you about our operation before we look around.”  So first they had some sandwiches and then toured the facility.

Lucas was overwhelmed by all the machines and equipment.  Then they saw how the cars were built from the beginning.

The first thing was to engineer the car.  

All the mathematical equations were worked out first.  Lucas didn't understand a lot that was said about stress factors and such, but his eyes were looking down to the finished cars.

The reason I win a lot of races is because of what is calculated by the engineers, and the cars built to the specifications by them.

After that explanation he said, “Let’s look at the whole process.”

To be Continued