Author's Note: At a Saturday race watching Mr. Toretto drive.
Chapter 15
Saturdays at the races were one of Letty's favorite things and had been ever since she'd gone with Mia for the first time as a kid. They'd help Mr. Toretto hitch up the trailer to his pickup truck and head out early in the morning.
Nowadays she rode with Dom in his car rather than squishing into the back seat of the truck with Mia and Vince. The latter wasn't coming along this weekend due to excessive drinking the night before and Mia had opted to ride down with her dad which meant Dom and Letty had the drive down alone for once. It was kind of nice.
They stopped on the way to pick up coffee and breakfast sandwiches and Dom even let Letty choose the radio station. The ride itself wasn't bad. Even though the track was a bit outside the city, this early on a weekend morning there wasn't a lot of traffic. They were out before the brunchers and beach-goers.
When they got to the track Dom parked the car near the crew area and they went down to the garage to help his dad make sure the car was all prepped. Then they told him to win and went to join the other families in the stands. The crowd was thin this early but it would get packed closer to starting time. They greeted a few of the regulars, people they'd come to know. They all expected Dom to follow in his father's footsteps and he probably would one day. Letty knew he'd raced in some of the children's events when he was younger. But there was something addictive about the street racing scene.
They all knew that little thrill. Doing something you knew you weren't supposed to.
Slowly the stands began to fill up. Mia left to use the restroom before the race. The vendors arrived, strolling through the stands hawking snacks, candy, beers. Letty fanned herself idly with one of the many advertising fliers that littered the seats. The sun rose in the sky and the announcers warmed up the crowd as the race cars rumbled to the starting line.
It was easy to pick out Mr. Toretto's car amongst the other vehicles. Letty knew that all the racers had a hand in their own cars. They were all custom, all classic and all American. This wasn't Nascar or anything like that. That was a different level. But to Letty this was better. The semi-professional circuit offered more freedom. Usually the drivers had day jobs. They worked on their own cars. But they didn't have to plaster advertising all over their cars or do quite as much traveling. Mr Toretto mostly raced in the southwest division, so to speak. It was costly to load up the car and travel across country after all.
Letty listened with half an ear as the line-up of drivers and cars was announced. She watched bets change hands in the stands and listened to the nearby audience members talk about their own picks. Mia kept leaning over to point out cute boys or talk about some school gossip that Letty never paid any attention to.
"What are your dad's odds today?" She asked her boyfriend. Mr Toretto was an amazing driver of course, but so were these other racers. He didn't always win, though he usually did well. It depended a lot on who else was on the track that day, how the car was running and just how on his game he was.
Dom shrugged. "He could win," he said. "You're not thinking of betting on someone else are you?" He teased.
"Yeah right," she rolled her eyes. "Who else am I going to bet on?"
"That new guy is supposed to be good," Mia said thoughtfully. "Lindfield? Lindsey?"
"Linder," Dom corrected. "This is his first race in this circuit. So I guess we'll see."
They all fell quiet at the sound of gunning engines and the beep, beep, beep of the countdown just before they all took off. Mr Toretto roared off the starting line in the Charger and they all cheered him on. When the race was on nothing else mattered. Not snacks or gossip or cute boys. Not the crowd around them, the shop, their grades at school or any petty bullshit. It was just the roar of the engines and the smell of burning rubber. It was watching Mr. Toretto drift around a curve and pull ahead of the pack. The new guy gunning it on the straightaways to try and catch him. The pop of a tire as a blue Porsche wobbled off the track into the pit.
It was a solid race. No one ate wall and there weren't any big breakdowns. Some of the crowd seemed to enjoy the crashes but for Letty it was all about the race.
They were all on their feet as the cars turned into the final lap. Most of the audience was up, whooping or cheering on their favored driver. Mr. Toretto and the new guy were neck-in-neck with a third racer hot on their heels.
"Get him Dad!" Mia shouted. "You can do it!"
Even though their encouraging words couldn't be heard down on the track they knew he could feel them cheering him on. The car roared like a beast as he blew across the finish line, half a length ahead of Linder.
They cheered and Dom scooped Letty into his arms with a whoop of delight, kissing her hard on the mouth.
Laughing the three of them hurried down to the track as the cars rolled to a slow stop. Mr. Toretto stepped out of the Charger and Linder came up to congratulate him and shake his hand.
"That was some driving," they heard him say as they approached.
"You weren't so bad yourself," Mr. Toretto said. "I have some fierce competition."
He turned to catch Mia in a hug as she ran up to him, then clapped his son on the shoulder as the race officials came up to present him with the first prize and a nice check.
He pulled off his helmet, pushed back his sweat-slicked hair and grinned. "I think dinner is on me tonight guys."