The Bench Racers Journal

[Terry Bentley]

Chapter 141

After Chris pulled off the track, we all took a break. Me and Steve went over all three karts, while Chris went and sat down against the fence in the shade by himself. His head was facing down, looking tired and frustrated. Add some stress with that too.



While Steve had been putting laps down, he never pushed himself to see how fast his kart would go. Just working on consistency and bettering his driving ability. When open practice starts later, he would likely step it up a notch and use some of the other drivers to test his skills.

When we were getting ready to go back out on the track to harass Chris, my engine would not start at all. Then everything different about my engine caused some brain cells to process the "what ifs" while I stood over my kart staring down at nothing in particular. I removed the spark plug and noticed is was all wet. I thought this was odd and hoping the ignition was not the problem. We didnt have extra parts to fix that today.

I pulled over the engine and found it had no spark. This was not a good sign. Before panicking I went ahead and grabbed a new spark plug, realizing this is the only spare we have.

With the new spark plug, there was a bright purplish blue burst between the electrodes. I was once again a happy camper. Installed the new plug and after a couple of pulls it started up, but coughing and bellowing a lot of smoke before clearing out.

We were about at the end of our practice session alone, so me and Steve agreed to gang up on Chris. Chris decided the best thing to do for now is keep following Steve around. He realized my kart was a bit faster, so didnt see any reason to attempt to keep up with me if I took the lead. Right now it was practice, not racing.

Steve was ahead with Chris following close behind. I waited another lap for them to come by the pits before pulling out there and then catch up behind them. Soon as I pull up to Chris he gets tapped on the rear bumper. I bumped him on the left side while he was entering the left sweeper at end of long straight away. He almost lost it swinging out out wide then crossing up the steering when just barely saving himself.

Chris sawed the steering wheel a few times while attempting to get back control of the kart. He did manage to save himself without loosing much ground. I backed off then pulled in behind him again. For the next two laps, I didnt force anything. Just stayed up close more like his shadow. He knew I was there, since his head kept turning to see which side I was on.

Backing off a little ways, I noticed Chris seemed to push himself into the seat a bit more than he had been doing. But he still looked tense with a death grip on steering wheel. I was thinking about what next to try on him when Steve slammed on the brake and went wide.

This sure woke Chris up from his almost hypnotic trance he had been in while following Steve. He first turned down then hit the brake pedal too hard and the rear was starting to come around. Chris steered right and got back on the gas saving his line and keeping the kart from spinning out.

Chris took the lead this time since he had no choice about it. I let off while Steve managed to get back in the groove. He gave me a thumbs up and chased Chris back down.

While Chris didnt really loose much speed after taking the lead, his jerky actions became more noticeable again. Steve pulled back up behind him and began pushing Chris coming on the short straight in front of the pits.

Steve backed off just before Chris was about to setup for the fast turn leading on to the long straight. Although jerky, Chris managed to hold his line and did maintain decent speed all the way to the sweeper.

Chris went to brake slightly early and got a love tap from Steve. Again Chris over compensated and almost spun off the track. But he did manage to save himself from the near mishap. Steve went down low leaving a window open for me to catch up to Chris thru the twisty part of the track.

I ran right up to his bumper and stayed on him while he managed to keep his kart mostly in the groove. Chris was riding the brake a couple of times when not necessary. But only enough for him to keep the kart from loosing traction and getting squirrelly. More likely out of not trusting himself yet.

On the next lap Steve went flying by me and cutting over on Chris. This forced Chris to swing out wide, tap the brake and then drop down on the inside of Steves kart. Steve held the lead position, but Chris did manage to pull in tight behind him. While not sure what Steve had in mind, I had dropped back a couple kart lengths to watch the action.

Even tho Chris was still choppy driving, his instincts were showing. We continued on this way for the remainder of our last private practice session. Neither me or Steve really tried to push Chris any farther than already what we had done. Just followed up with more laps swapping positions and running close to each other until Paul came out on the track and threw out the black flag.

We exited off the track and coasted over to our pit spot. Chris remained in the kart with his head down beating on the steering wheel. Well the helmet was still on his head. It was taking a slight beating. Better this way than thrown down in the seat or on the pavement.