Cal rolled out the front door and onto the porch, viewing the front lawn as a world to be conquered. His training was to start that day, and he was going to be the fastest four year old in both Carolinas.
He started down the ramp that led from the porch to the driveway, but was immediately distracted by movement in the left edge of the yard. What was that? Whatever it was, it was small and furry and -
Suddenly, he found himself falling off of the side of the ramp, having drifted toward his line of sight. The bunny skittered out of the yard the moment he hit the ground, coming to a rest on his left side.
"We're gonna hafta work on that, bud." Strip exited the house behind his nephew. "You can't be a racer if you're fallin' off ramps all the time."
Cal grunted and tried to flip himself back upright, but the edge of the ramp was right in the way, up against his undercarriage. His efforts only resulted in further flipping him all the way over onto his roof. He failed his tires like a stranded turtle.
Strip got a good chuckle out of it, and went down and around to flip him back over before he got dizzy. Cal shook the dirt off and, embarrassed, refused to make eye contact.
"Alright, first rule. You gotta block out all distractions." Strip told him. "You can't concentrate on winnin' if you're chasin' everything that moves."
Cal nodded and looked down at the ground.
"Rule number two, remember your mistakes, but don't let 'em bother you. Just use 'em to remind yourself to not do it again." Strip reached out and tapped him, forcing the kid to look up at him. "You just fell off a ramp 'cause you were starin' at a rabbit. What should you do?"
"Not do it again!" Cal answered, confident in his answer.
"And instead?"
"Watch where I'm goin'. Don't look at anything but the road in front of me."
"See? You're gettin' it."
They drove around to the back of the house, out of sight of the road. Strip looked around and thought of a way to use what he had at his disposal. His brother's property was significantly smaller than his own, so there was less room for Cal to run around in. It was just a fenced in area that contained a propane tank and a single birch tree.
"Alright, Cal. What d'you think is the most important skill a racer can have?"
"Speed!" he answered immediately, revving his engine.
"Hmm." Strip wasn't surprised by this answer. He'd been racing on the actual circuit a couple years before he'd thought otherwise himself. "Try again."
Cal was confused. Wasn't racing all about going fast? Being faster than your opponents? What else was more important?
"Being shiny? With lots of stickers?"
Well, as far as kid intellect goes, Strip wasn't disappointed with the answer. He smiled and tried not to laugh.
"Good guess, but not quite." he said. "One thing that's more important than speed is being smart about what you're doin'. You gotta keep a watch out for what's happenin' around you on the track, but not let it distract you. That way if something comes up, you can react appropriately."
"Like wrecks. Don't wanna get caught in one of those."
"Exactly. Now let's practice something." Strip went around the yard and cleaned some sticks out of the way so that there was a clear oval in the grass with the tank and the tree as endpoints. Cal watched him and wondered what picking up sticks had to do with racing.
"Okay, so you see that path I just made?"
"Yeah."
"I want you to start driving in circles on it. Go as fast as you can, but don't go for top speed. Be fast but be safe. And watch out for any obstacles that might come up. Remember what I said earlier?"
"Watch where I'm goin'. Pay attention."
"Right. Now go!"
He let Cal drive a couple laps around the yard, topping out at a whopping ten miles an hour. In terms of driving in circles, Strip was admittedly impressed that Cal stayed in the same groove a majority of the time. That was something even the more seasoned racers often had trouble with.
Ten laps turned into fifteen, and then into twenty. Strip sat there and did nothing, while Cal began to wonder what the point of the exercise was. Was his uncle just trying to wear him out? Was there something else he should be doing? Did he miss something?
Strip could tell when Cal started to lose his focus. His line was still good, but his eyes were starting to dart around, as if he was looking for something else to zone in on. Now it was time to test him. As Cal took another turn around the tree at the far end of the yard, Strip pushed the pile of sticks right into the middle of Cal's lane.
Aha! Cal caught the motion, noticed the sticks, and automatically figured that his uncle was trying to trick him. He set course to drive around the sticks, proud that he'd paid attention enough to see the caution. Cal came around the propane tank and took to the outside, preparing to drive around the sticks.
But Strip was prepared for that. Once he saw Cal had caught on to the obstacle, he readied himself. The moment his nephew started to pass the pile of sticks, he revved his engine as loud as he could. Cal jumped, completely unprepared for the deafening, earth-moving sound, and went into a skid on the slippery grass.
Had he been going any slower or been any farther away, he probably could have come to a complete stop on his own, but a combination of bad timing and poor reflexes sent the kid straight into a wall of shiny Dinoco blue metal.
"Oof!" Cal exclaimed as he slammed into his uncle's side, coming to an abrupt halt.
"Ow." Strip muttered, looking down at the disheveled car next to him. "You alright, kid?"
"Yeah." Cal winced and backed away a little, exposing a long scratch across his uncle's perfect paint job. "I'm sorry."
"It's alright, kid." Strip gave him a once over to make sure he was really okay. Cal seemed fine, he just had another few scratches to add to the collection. "Wrecks are part of racing, too. We've still got a lot of trainin' to do yet. Makin' mistakes is part of it."
"I wasn't focused. I messed up." Cal looked disappointed in himself, and felt like he'd disappointed his uncle as well. "I saw the sticks, but I let your noise distract me."
"Hey, now, the point is, you know what your mistake was, right?"
"Mm-hm"
"So what do you do with that?"
"Remember it, and don't do it again."
Cal looked up to see his uncle smiling at him and immediately felt his disappointment vanish. He knew he'd messed up, but the lesson was learned. It was that lesson that he'd needed, not the satisfaction of 'winning' like he'd assumed.
"Let's go again!" Cal said. "Teach me another lesson!"
