The cockpit of the car was cramped, incredibly so. Upon first climbing and lowering himself down to sit in the car Link thought it was a miracle that he even fit. The foot well was just barely wide enough to put both of his legs into and they now say with thick padding separating them just above the knees. Higher up things were not much better. There was just enough room for Link to squeeze into and with such a small amount of space his options for movement were limited to say the least.

Purah and Robbie had helped him complete the necessary tasks to get him settled into the car. First came the five point belt which would hold his torso in place in the event of a crash. Next came the head rest which snapped into the cockpit around his head and tightly cradled his helmet, which would rigidly keep his head still under the intense lateral G forces in the corners. Finally came the steering wheel which had been removed in order to maximize the limited space in the cockpit as Link got in. With it reattached to the steering column the full confines of Link's prison were finally complete.

"Nice and snug in there Linkie?" Purah asked, rapping her knuckles against his helmet as she spoke. In response Link nodded as much as his various restraints would allow. Without enough room to put his hands anywhere else they came to rest on the wheel which he began to nervously drum his fingers on.

Link's entire day had been building to this moment and yet it had taken a surprisingly long time. Even after Mipha had completed her examination and cleared him to drive, although not without the caveat that he step up his physical training regimen in the weeks before the race, his waiting was far from over. By the time he had put on his fire suit and returned to the garage Revali was already in the car and pulling out to get on the track.

And so Link had waited in the garage with the team as they watched Revali turn lap. Zelda, Purah and Robbie had been engrossed in a set of computer screens showing an endless stream of data from the car's on board computers. Despite the engineer's constant note taking and discussion Link could make little sense of the onslaught of information that was being blasted over the screens.

And so instead he had focused on what he could figure out. On the edge of the cluster of monitors sat a screen that was all but forgotten by the rest of the team, displaying the feed from a small camera mounted just above the driver's head. The view from the camera provided a clear view of the wheel as Revali controlled the car through it, as well as a wide angle of the track in front of him. Link's eyes were fixated on the sight as he tried to take note of the Rito's careful movements of the wheel. However it was difficult to focus on anything from the camera feed past the overwhelming sense of speed.

Link knew these cars were fast but seeing it from this perspective was something else. The catch fence on either side of the track whizzed by so quickly as to appear as nothing more than a vague blur. The white dashed lines painted onto the track passed so quickly as to appear completely solid. The words Link had seen printed on the barriers on his way into the track shot by the screen so fast as to be completely unreadable.

The feeling of speed conveyed through the screen alone was mesmerizing. For the first time today Link felt a pang of fear at what it might be like to actually be in the car. This car was an entirely different beast from his little roadster and he had known that going in. But now that he was looking at reality close up he wondered just how prepared he actually was. As fast as 230 miles per hour looked on the screen it would feel even faster in the cockpit.

Revali's stint behind the wheel had taken a while to say the least. Despite Zelda telling him over radio that they had gotten all the information necessary he had stayed out turning lap after lap. Whether he was continuing to get a feel for the handling of the car, or had simply forgotten that the team wanted to test a new driver today Link could not tell. In the end the only thing that brought him back to the garage was the low fuel notification from the car's computer. And even then he had not gotten out of the car right away, instead asking for more fuel and a fresh set of tires. Zelda seemed ready to grant the request and eager at the prospect of making adjustments to the car and getting another run worth of data to compare to the last.

It was Urbosa who had talked her out of it, reminding her that they had not brought much extra fuel and only two sets of tires, enough for both Revali and Link to take a turn in the car and no more.

Now that Link was actually in the car he could feel his heart pounding in his chest despite the fact that he had yet to even put it in gear. His legs bounced nervously in what little room they had in the foot well as he awaited for permission to go. The engineering team sat around the same computers that they had watched Revali turn laps on, now running diagnostics and checks to make sure the car was ready to go back out on track.

"Radio check." Zelda's voice came through the helmet mounted headset. Link gave an affirmative thumbs up as he responded, only to hear the same voice come through once again. "You need to hit the radio button on the wheel if you want to talk."

Link winced in embarrassment. Not exactly showing off his competence with that simple blunder."Right, sorry." He replied once he had found the appropriate button near his left thumb.

"We have a few more tests we want to run before we send you out there." It was Purah's voice that came over the radio this time. Link thought she sounded somewhat amused at his mistake although from what he had seen of the Sheikah engineer so far she always seemed amused when she spoke. "Just give both of the pedals a quick squeeze, make sure they both work.

Link stepped down on the throttle reveling in the sound of the engine revving to life and the vibrations it sent through the seat. It was a high he quickly came down from when he pushed down on the brake pedal.

Or rather tried to push the pedal.

"Something's wrong, the brake isn't going in. I think something might be stuck behind the pedal." Link rocked his head in frustration as he keyed up the mic. If his hunch was correct then fixing it would be a whole process. He would have to get out of the car and then repeat the hassle of climbing in. It was not something he was looking forward to.

"It's working." Robbie took his turn on the radio, "The pedal is supposed to be quite heavy. They need a lot of force to properly stop the car. You really need to put your muscles into it."

Link did as he was told, immediately straining his leg to put as much force as he could into the pedal. He pushed himself further into the seat and if the object of his frustration was moving at all he could not feel it. Zelda's voice came back over the headset as he struggled.

"Harder… Harder… A bit more pressure… a bit more." Link compiled with all his strength and could still barely feel the pedal move. Finally after more than a minute of trying the strain had proven too much and Link released his foot from the pedal, grunting in soreness as his muscles burned.

"That should do I suppose." Zelda said with a sigh. "You managed to hit about eighty percent pressure on the pedal. Although if you're going to drive for us I would recommend adding an extra leg day to whatever training regimen Mipha gave you."

Link's jaw felt like it was about to drop out of the helmet. That was only eighty percent!? How was he supposed to use the brakes effectively like that? Especially when the G forces under deceleration would be likely to hinder his ability to leverage the pressure he needed.

"Don't worry Linkie, with the amount of grip this car has and the high banking in the turns you shouldn't need to use the brakes much if at all." As if reading his mind Purah jumped back over the radio to calm his concerns, before adding almost as an afterthought, "Unless you crash that is."

"And you better not." Urbosa piped in, "Unless you want to spend the next few years paying off the repair bill."

Link swallowed nervously. Something about the way she said it made him suspect that he would indeed have other problems if he crashed. And that went beyond the obvious that it meant his racing career would likely be dead before it even really got started.

But at least he would soon have something other than his nerves to focus on.

"All checks are done, we're green across the board." Robbie came on over the radio.

"We're waiting on you Linkie, let's get this show on the road!" His fellow Sheikah engineer added.

With no reason or desire to delay any longer Link pulled in on the shift paddle by his right hand to put the car into gear. The car lurched into motion and he carefully drove it out of the garage area and out into the pits.

The drive down pit road was agonizingly long, especially with the speed limiter engaged to keep the car at a safe speed for the time being. Knowing that the car could go so much faster than the measly 60 miles an hour made it feel all the more like he was putting along on a motor scooter down a busy highway. Although the track was empty he could just imagine them speeding by on track, probably able to put at least a lap on him while he was crawling down the pits. It was only when he reached the end of the pits and the entry onto the track itself was he able to press the button on the steering wheel to disable the limiter.

And then he squeezed the gas pedal to the floor.

It was a careful movement, held back by concern that he would lose traction in the still cold rear tires and go spinning.

But even as restrained as he was the acceleration was unlike anything he had ever felt. He could feel himself being pushed back into the seat and as he went through the first two turns on the apron of the track he was pushed to the right even more. Were it not for all the restraints Link thought he might go flying out of the car right now.

And he wasn't even close to up to speed yet.

The car picked up speed and downforce as it went making the steering heavier and heavier. WIthout power steering in the car Link knew this was just something he would have to get used to. Reaching the back straightaway he finally felt comfortable enough to take the car out into the racing line. The shift lights on the steering wheel raced through their multi colored progression as he took the car up through the gears. It took just seconds to traverse the long back straightaway and for Link to find himself diving down the banking into turn one.

He had never taken a corner that was even close to this. The high banking and even higher speeds made for an all out assault on his senses. The sound of the engine roaring behind him, the sight of the track shooting past him, and the feeling of being down into the seat with the force of almost 5Gs was an intensity unlike anything he had ever imagined.

Were his mind not already in overdrive trying to keep up with his surroundings he might have considered the daunting task of doing this in a full field with cars just inches away from him.

Before he knew it he was already exiting the turn and returning to the front straightaway. As he went through both dog legs to begin his first flying lap he could not help but let out an excited yell for the crew back in the garage to hear.

Or at least they would have had he remembered to key the mic.

Going down into turn one at speed for the first time Link backed off the throttle to let the car roll into the corner. He knew from watching revali that doing so was not necessary but without knowing what the car handled like at these speeds he did not want to risk it. The muscles in his arms tensed up as he turned the heavy wheel as cautiously as he could, fearing the consequences of any twitchy or overdone movements.

It had been a long time since Link felt fear behind the wheel of a race car. Even when his roadster had lost its breaks one practice session he hadn't felt half the fear that the concrete wall at the top of the track inspired in him at this moment.

He tried not to think too much about the wall and whait it might be like to hit it at these speeds and instead remain focused on driving. As he felt the car settle into the banking he began to slowly put the throttle back down to make up for where he had lifted. As long as the turn was it passed by in a flash and he soon found himself rocketring down the back straightaway just inches from the wall. The posts of the catch shot by as if they were being fired from a machine gun.

Turns three and four felt faster than the first two. The added confidence he was gaining in the car combined with the wider arc he took on entry combined to push him further. He tried to keep the car in the groove of rubber that Revali had laid down in his run but found that he could still not quite do it without lifting off the throttle.

A brief moment of panic concluded the lap as he drove out of the corner only to feel the back of the car get light as the banking fell away. The oversteer was quick and easy to correct but with the razor thin margins he was working with he could feel his heart shoot up into his throat as he got the car back under control.

But still he had managed to complete his first lap with no major incidents. And if Revali was any indication he had plenty of laps left to go to go faster. As he took the car back down into the first turn he gathered up his courage in an effort to spend less time off the throttle and to hold a tighter line through the corner.

He would have to go faster if he was to prove himself, and he would have to push himself if he was to go faster.

He could only hope that by the time he ran out of fuel it would not feel like such a test of courage every time he turned the wheel.

Zelda's attention bounced between the stream of technical data and the live feed from the onboard camera. She would not normally pay much thought to what the driver was seeing as she usually had other concerns. But if the purpose of this test was to evaluate Link's performance then it would be wise to at least try and gauge how comfortable he was in the car.

And even if she weren't it would be difficult not to look with the near constant stream of talking Revali was doing. The Rito driver had no shortage of feedback to give on his Hylian counterpart's driving, and none of it was positive.

"He turned in too early that time."

"He's not holding the car low enough through the center of the corner."

"He lifted coming out of the turn there, probably lost a lot of time."

As much as Zelda valued the input of her experienced driver she couldn't help but roll her eyes at some of the comments. On at least one occasion Revali had thoughts to share about Link's ability to drive in a straight line.

However whatever Revali was saying the lap times Link was putting down were saying something else.

He was off the pace at first, which was understandable for somebody who had never driven something like this car before. But as he settled in he kept picking up speed until it was almost comparable to what Revali was putting down. Granted he had a slight advantage over his would be teammate in that Revali's tires had laid down rubber and given the track more grip for his run. But nonetheless she found his performance to be at least satisfactory. He was not setting the track on fire but perhaps with practice he would become even more competitive.

That's what she thought anyway until the mistakes became more noticable. Revali would not even need to point them out for her to see them, not that he let that stop him.

First came a lap where Link entered a bit too high going into the third turn. Sticking his right side tires out of the groove Link lost grip and the car began to oversteer. Looking at the video feed she could see Link fight the wheel as the car wiggled up the track. He managed to regain control but he still got much closer to the wall than Zelda was comfortable with.

The second came as Link brought the car too low on the track going through the first two corners. His left side tires clipped the apron where the lesser banking took away the car's ability to turn, sending Link up the track. He lifted off the throttle in an attempt to reign the car back under control however it came a fraction of a second too late and he ended up brushing against the wall on exit of the corner.

"Sorry, that was my fault." came a panicked voice over the radio not one second later. Zelda winced and grimaced as she feared the worse. However hard he hit the wall however Link seemed to think the car was still driving fine and continued on. Looking at the stream of data she breathed a sigh of relief at having somehow got away without any significant, and thus expensive, damage to the car.

Zelda's expression was one of supreme annoyance as she keyed up the radio, "Obviously! We don't have any spare cars, so keep it out of the wall and bring it back in one piece!" She shook her head and shot those around her a questioning look. Were they wondering the same thing she was wondering? What did Impa see in him? He's fast but that doesn't matter if he crashes the car.

At the very least Link seemed to take the warning seriously. Over the following laps she noticed that he was giving the walls a bit more space. His lap times suffered because of it but she was more concerned that he not pay another visit to the hard concrete wall with the very expensive race car.

She watched the laps tick by and the fuel levels drop until there was not much left. Soon Link would have to bring the car back to the garage and the test would be over. Zelda wasn't completely satisfied with what she had seen but thought he might do for what they needed. He was quick but inexperienced and it showed. His lap times were not as consistent as Revali's and he was more prone to mistakes than Zelda was comfortable with. But at least he could follow instructions when told to take it easy.

Unfortunately it was not an impression that would last the final few laps.

Link had finally begun to grow used to driving the car. Even the spike of nerves from his close encounter with the wall had calmed down.

Link would almost say he had grown bored. It was not as if he had become completely disinterested, and the speed of the car demanded his constant attention. However as he had stopped pushing in order to avoid any more close calls he found himself craving the excitement and even the sheer fear he had felt in his first few laps.

Perhaps it was the fact that this was only a test and there were no other cars on track besides him but Link could not imagine driving a full race distance like this. This was a race car after all and as such it was meant to be pushed, to be driven on the ragged edge of grip and control.

And so when Zelda came back over the radio to inform him he had about five laps of fuel remaining and that he would soon need to bring it back into the garage he saw an opportunity. The less fuel he had the less the car would weigh. That would make the car faster, if only marginally so. Even with the tires worn down and providing less grip, Link saw an opportunity, a challenge that he could not turn down.

After all, what better way to end the test and show off his abilities and remind the team of his potential value than to put in his fastest laps right before the end of the session?

Links foot became heavier on the throttle pedal and he even pulled his other foot off and away from the brakes. He did not want to be tempted by the pedal and risk ruining a good lap. Over the next few laps he used more and more of the track's width, coming closer and closer to the wall which had so closely menaced him earlier in the test. He could feel the tires struggling to offer the grip he needed but paid it little attention. If he could only adjust his line just right or perfect his execution for only a single lap, he knew he could set a new fastest lap.

It all came to a head with just two laps to go.

He had gotten through the first two turns near perfectly, cutting the car lower in the middle of the corner, almost coming down onto the flat apron of the track. He had to fight to get the car to turn on exit but fortunately because he had been lower down hein the center of the corner he had precious extra inches of room to work with.

Turns three and four went much the same and Link felt confidence that he was about to set a new personal best.

Until it all came undone on the exit of turn four.

The banking in turn four tapered off and transitioned to the flat straight away faster than it did in turn two. Less banking meant less grip and unfortunately for Link grip was already in short supply. The car drifted up out of the racing line and to Link's terrible realization, off of the line he knew would keep him out of the wall.

As much as he loathed to do so he knew he had to slow the car down if he was to make the corner. His foot lifted off of the throttle and his arms pushed the steering wheel as far as over as he could. Fractions of a second ticked by like minutes as the front of the car slowly began to grip regain traction with the asphalt beneath.

And then in the blink of an eye they suddenly gripped more than he was expecting, and with his deacceleration taking weight off of the rear tires, more than the balance of the car could stand.

Link's arms snapped the wheel right in a desperate attempt to keep the car pointed in the right direction.

But it was too late.

The rear of the car snapped around and Link suddenly found himself facing the pit road wall across the infield grass, followed by the turn he had just come out of.

Link was spinning, and he had no control of the car to make it stop. His hands sawed at the wheel to try and regain some semblance of control and his foot planted down the brakes as hard as he could manage. But whatever his efforts accomplished quickly became irrelevant as he crossed onto the infield grass. He was along for the ride as his efforts on the steering wheel and the brakes would mean little to nothing without pavement beneath him that the tires could hold onto. And without the friction from the asphalt he would not even slow down as quickly as long as he remained in the grass.

The suspension of the car was stiff, not designed to and not needing to absorb bumps on a near perfectly smooth track. The grass on the other hand was far from smooth. The full force of every bump could be felt as the wheels and floor of the car bounced across the dirt and grass. Even as tightly secured in the cockpit as he was Link still felt as though he were being thrown around violently as each impact sent a sharp wave of pain up his back.

This went on for what felt to Link like hours, although it was in reality only a few seconds. To his amazement he finally came off the grass and onto the pit road. With precious pavement finally beneath him once again he was able to regain control and miraculously was even facing the correct way. His body untensed, releasing the painfully tight grip he had held the wheel with as he let out a sigh of relief.

The spinning had managed to put a flat spot on the tires, causing them to loudly and rhythmically thud as he slowly drove down the pits. Although Link could not hear it over the even faster and louder pounding of his pulse. When the radio suddenly keyed up and he heard the voice of a very irritated and angry Zelda he could have jumped out of the car in shock were it not for the restraints.

"That's enough out of you for the day. Bring it on in and try not to hit anything on the way back to the garage."

Link let out a silent curse at himself and his luck. His first and perhaps only opportunity to prove himself behind the wheel and get his career moving and he had to go and spin it. The car hadn't hit the wall so there should not be any serious damage. Nonetheless however it did not make for the impression Link was trying to give to his potential employers. Would they be forgiving for his mistake? Would his earlier performance make up for his near wrecking of the car? Link was not in an optimistic mood.

"Got it, I'm coming in…. I'm sorry." Link mumbled apologetically and repeated when he remembered to turn on his own radio.

So I'm glad to finally get this chapter done and uploaded. It took me a while because I was afraid it might become a bit of a slog to read, and it didn't help that I started using Iracing and that has consumed much of my free time over the past few weeks. Hopefully this chapter came out all right and you all enjoyed it. I wanted to get it out today since today should have been the day both the Monaco Grad Prix and the Indianapolis 500 should have taken place, two races which will inspire two races in this story.

As much as I would have liked to further along in this story by now, and as much as I would have liked to be uploading this either before leaving for, or coming back from, the Indy 500 life had other things in mind. I'm happy to have at least gotten this fic moving again, however slowly.

Some of you have asked if Daruk will be in this story and I do have some ideas in mind for him. Unfortunately what roles I did have ideas for just didn't fit yet but rest assured our favorite Goron Champion will come in sooner or later.

Thanks for reading! I hope you all have been staying safe and healthy and will continue to do so. Until next time, have a good one.