Programmed Lives – Third Stage
Chapter One
Suzuka Circuit – Six Years Before
The GT500 season was about to start and the Kirin Takahashi Racing Team, after winning both titles of the GT300, had entered the GT500 category with a brand new SE3P, built, prepared and tuned specially for them by Mazda.
Even so, the change of class meant that the team had to work even harder and, at the end, it had been a massive struggle just to finish the championship in third position.
This year though, the Kirin Takahashi Racing Team had an extra motivation to do even better than that. In fact, for their Team Manager, Ryosuke Takahashi, his involvement in the racing industry was coming to an end for he had made a commitment with both his father and his father-in-law so, at the end of the season, he would join them and his wife in the management of the Takahashi-Arakawa Group.
So, if the team's determination was at the highest point ever, Keisuke's was even higher than that. He had seen how happy Ryosuke'd been when his team had won the GT300 and, before he moved on to his medical career, Keisuke wanted his older brother to achieve everything he could and that, of course, included the GT500 trophy.
'Darling, your brother wants you to join them in the box,' Kyoko said approaching her husband interrupting his train of thoughts.
'Alright,' he said nodding then he asked, 'how are you feeling?'
'Not too bad, the nausea's not as horrible as in the past few weeks,' Kyoko replied putting her hand on her still flat tummy, she was only in her third month of pregnancy after all. Keisuke still remembered the day when she told him she was expecting as one of the happiest days of his life.
'Yeah, Akiko said it would get better as you got further along,' Keisuke commented and Kyoko nodded.
'I can't believe she's been through this twice! She's nuts,' Kyoko commented now shaking her head in disbelief.
'I've always said that, but nobody's listened to me so far,' Keisuke said and Kyoko started laughing.
'Now, go before your brother tells you off for being late,' Kyoko said shooing him while still looking amused.
Keisuke entered the team's box to find three year old Kyosuke sitting on the floor playing with a few tools that Matsumoto had given him. Meanwhile, Akiko was trying to prevent her other son Seisuke from climbing into the racing car as the mechanics worked on it.
'Seisuke, how many times do I have to tell you not to go anywhere near the car?' Akiko said taking the almost two year old toddler in her arms. Then she walked to her oldest son and said, 'Kyosuke, let's go to the motorhome, daddy's got to work now.'
'But Mum,' the kid started to protest.
'Kyosuke, do as your mother says,' Ryosuke said.
'Okay,' Kyosuke said getting up from the floor not hiding his deep disappointment as he did so.
'Hey, once we finish the training session, you two can come back and play, alright?' Ryosuke said tousling his son's hair making him smile instantly. Ryosuke saw his wife as she rolled her eyes. He looked at her and smiled.
'Softy,' she muttered to him but she too smiled at him.
As she left with Seisuke firmly held in her arms and Kyosuke following her as fast as his short legs would carry him, Takumi entered the box followed by his father.
'Hey, how was Hawaii?' Keisuke asked his team mate as he joined him so they could listen to Ryosuke's usual pre-race speech.
'Great, the Kilauea was terrific and they have fantastic mountain passes there,' Takumi explained enthusiastically. It was amazing the influence his girlfriend Minami had had in him in the four years they had been together. No longer an air-headed kid, the new-and-improved Takumi was as cheerful and enjoyed his life almost as much as Keisuke himself did.
Just a couple of months after winning the GT300 championship, Takumi had moved into the house Minami shared with her mother and, shortly after that, Takumi and Minami had decided to reveal to the world that they were an item. The commotion this news caused was phenomenal since both Takumi and Minami were very well known in their fields.
The press had become completely crazy having the classic beautiful, famous pop star dates young and handsome sportsman story and it had happened numerous times throughout the past years that they appeared together in some magazine or newspaper.
The whole country seemed to wait for the day when the couple would announce their engagement but, since they were both too young, Takumi had just turned twenty four and Minami was two years younger than that, marriage was not in the picture, at least not in the near future.
'Where is Minami?' Keisuke asked looking around for the singer.
'She's not going to come to this race because she's recording her new album,' Takumi explained, 'what about Kyoko? Is she feeling any better?'
'Yeah, Akiko says that as she enters the fourth month the morning sickness should disappear completely,' Keisuke said.
They stopped talking as Ryosuke, clearing his throat, started giving everyone a quick summary of the track conditions and the strategy they would adopt for the next day's qualifying session. It felt great to see that everyone in the team was perfectly synchronised and, being used to the routine of a GT500 race, they all knew what to do and when.
'I'll be off then,' Takumi said starting the SE and preparing himself for the first run of the testing session.
'Sure, we've tried to do something different with the suspension, tell us what you think,' Matsumoto said.
'Okay,' Takumi replied as the car started moving forward.
He had feared that, as the team's and his own fame increased, his job would be more and more difficult but soon Takumi realised that the piece of advice his father had given him at the beginning of his professional career still applied. Once he was in the car and on the track, there was nothing else but that: him, the car and the track.
And Takumi loved it.
He simply couldn't see himself doing anything else in his life but to drive as fast as he could, enjoying the adrenaline rush he got every time he thought he was pushing the car a bit beyond its limits just to discover that he still had some more room to keep pushing.
Granted, they had seen very dark moments, like when their engine blew up half way through their second race in the GT500, or when they failed to score a single point in two races in a row. Those had been really hard times for everyone but, with Ryosuke's constant support and encouragement, the team had always overcome every difficulty.
Ryouske Takahashi: his boss, the most important person in Takumi's life after his own father and Minami.
Takumi thanked the heavens every morning for being so lucky. He got paid to do something he would actually pay to do and he had a team that did everything in their power to make sure he could drive as fast as he wanted while still being as safe as possible.
On top of that, he had a wonderful girlfriend. Yes, Takumi Fujiwara was a very lucky man.
With the SE, he drove several laps around Suzuka circuit. Nowadays Takumi knew the track almost as well as the downhill at Mt Akina and he knew exactly the lines he had to take in order to get the best times according to the track's conditions.
'Matsumoto, the suspension feels great, if Keisuke agrees, let's leave it this way,' Takumi said talking to the radio while negotiating the circuit's famous hairpin.
'Sure,' Matsumoto said, 'Ryosuke wants you to increase the speed up to an eighty percent.'
'Sure thing,' Takumi said and back at the boxes the team knew that their driver was more than happy to comply with that order.
'He's as nuts as ever,' Keisuke said joining his brother at the pit lane's wall.
'Yeah, he is,' Ryosuke agreed.
The next day, it was raining quite heavily but that wasn't a major problem: the Kirin Takahashi Racing Team managed to place their car in the second position, just behind the Celica ZZT231 from the Tsuchiya team.
'Hey, tomorrow we're going to have fun,' Keiichi said to his old friend Bunta Fujiwara.
'Yeah, make sure you leave plenty of room for us, it'd be a pity if we had to scratch your paintwork as we overtake you,' Bunta said making Keiichi laugh.
'There they go again,' Keisuke commented as they prepared themselves for a brand new discussion, seeing the two men tease each other had become one of the main attractions in the pit lane.
Takumi shook his head and said:
'I'm off to get a nap.'
He walked to the motorhome and, before entering it, took his phone out of his pocket and called Minami.
'Hey honey,' she said answering.
'Hey, how's it going?' Takumi asked.
'Not as well as I hoped, the rhythm is all bad and we've got to keep stopping to rearrange the lyrics. It's rather annoying, even more because it's making me miss the first race of the season…'
Takumi laughed softly.
'You know, sometimes I wonder if you're upset that you can't be with me or you're just upset because you're missing the race…'
'Er…the first, of course,' she said but Takumi knew that his girlfriend had become quite an avid fan of the Super GT races. She hardly missed any of the races and she always made sure someone taped every one of them for her so she could re-watch them as many times as she wanted.
'Anyway, the way things are, I don't think there will be much excitement tomorrow,' she said.
'Why not?' Takumi asked.
'Well, babe, you're going to crush them, aren't you?' Minami asked with her voice in full fan-mode.
Takumi laughed again.
'Of course,' he replied.
'That's my man,' she said proudly, 'now I've got to go. I'll see you tomorrow…'
'Yep,' Takumi said.
'I love you,' she said as they hung up, making Takumi cringe: Minami always seemed to beat him when it came to saying 'I love you' to him. He made a mental note to be faster the next time.
Takumi finally went inside the motorhome only to find little Kyosuke sleeping on one of the couches while Akiko fed Seisuke his late afternoon meal.
'Going to get some sleep?' Akiko asked seeing him there.
'Yeah,' Takumi replied.
'Ah, we'll…'
'No, don't worry, I'll be alright,' he said for he didn't really mind having the two kids there. He had grown to love Ryosuke and Akiko's kids as if they were his nephews too and they seemed to love playing with Takumi almost as much as they did with their biological uncle.
He caressed Seisuke's head as he made his way to the small berth he used while the team was at the circuits making the kid smile. Takumi didn't think he had been sleeping for more than a few minutes when someone entering his room woke him up.
'Takumi! Hey, Takumi, wake up! It's a disaster!'
'What?' Takumi mumbled with his voice sounding as sleepy as he felt.
'Get up,' Keisuke said and, very reluctantly, Takumi obeyed.
'What's up?' Takumi said yawning widely.
'The Federation: they're investigating our car!' Keisuke announced.
'Why?' Takumi asked now fully awake.
'Apparently, they think we've used some illegal mix of petrol,' Keisuke explained.
'What? That's…'
'…bollocks, I know,' Keisuke agreed.
Takumi got up and followed Keisuke outside of the motorhome, the kids were no longer in the motorhome and Takumi assumed Akiko had taken them to the small camper Ryosuke had for his and his family's personal use.
Running after Keisuke, both drivers reached the team's garage as they saw one of the Federation officials leave it.
'What's up?' Keisuke asked his brother who looked rather sombre.
'They have detected traces of a forbidden component in the gasoline we used yesterday…' Ryosuke started explaining.
'Is that true?' Takumi asked.
'They tested the sample we gave them…' Fumihiro replied.
'But Aniki…'
'Keisuke, there isn't anything we can do,' Ryosuke said.
'But we didn't do anything wrong, did we?' Takumi asked, refusing to leave the issue alone.
'I don't think so, no, but the truth of the matter is: if someone tampered with our sample, we have no way to prove it,' Ryosuke explained.
'We could give them another sample,' Keisuke proposed.
'We've already tried: they said that unfortunately, the one that counts is the one we presented them with at the beginning of the weekend,' Matsumoto explained.
'So, what's going to happen now?' Takumi asked.
'You're going to have to start from the back of the grid,' Bunta Fujiwara said taking part in the conversation for the first time.
'Yeah, it was that or we packed up and went home,' Fumihiro added.
'I'm going to go and think up a new strategy for tomorrow,' Ryosuke announced then he left the garage followed by Fumihiro and Matsumoto.
'This is bullshit,' Keisuke said kicking one of the toolboxes.
'Well, you know what this means, don't you?' Bunta said talking to his son.
'Yeah, it's going to be fun,' Takumi said and his father nodded.
'Argh, you two are crazy,' Keisuke said but the fire that burned in his eyes told the two Fujiwara that he agreed with them wholeheartedly.
To be continued…