( Chapter 8 )

New Faces

As soon as summer came, Mark began practicing his driving skills at the track. Michael learned the mechanical side of things as quickly as he could.

They spent every weekend working on the car, but the new Team Haynes didn’t start out very well.

Mark was never comfortable driving the car at its top speeds. Michael wasn’t skilled at keeping the car running smoothly.

But by the time the first race of the season arrived, they were both more confident and were feeling better.

The first race was short, just twenty laps. Mark was very nervous before the race, and was quizzing Michael to make sure he had checked everything with the engine the way Mark would have done it.

Mark went through the qualifying runs and was set to run in the middle of the pack. That was better than he expected, but Michael wasn’t happy.

“You’ve got to accelerate into the turns,” Michael said. “Don’t slow down. You’ll never have a chance if you slow down going into the turns!”

Mark just smiled. “You need to relax,” he said.

When the race started, Michael could barely stand still. The sound of the engines, the smell of the fumes, and the sight of Buzz leading the pack was too much. It was driving him crazy.

Mark got off to a good start. He passed a few cars in the first couple of laps. By the fifth lap, he was in third place.

But as the race moved on, Mark struggled to keep from getting passed. By the fifteenth lap, he was in last place.

Without Michael to challenge him, Buzz was pulling away for an easy victory.

On the final lap, he caught up to Mark. He pulled up alongside Mark, they made eye contact, and Buzz flashed a big grin.

Then Buzz passed Mark.

Michael felt his heart sink. It was almost more than he could take.

After the race, Team Haynes was a pretty unhappy crew.

“We’ll use this as a learning experience,” Dad said. “Don’t worry, we’ll get better as the year goes on.”

He was right. Mark’s performance improved in each race of the season, and Michael was doing a better job in the pits, too.

Still, Mark wasn’t coming close to winning, and Buzz was winning whenever he raced.

During one race, Michael made a bad mistake on the engine that caused the car to fail in the middle of the race. It was a mistake Mark never would have made.

Buzz was on his way to another championship. After he won the second-to-last race of the year, Buzz had the championship pretty well wrapped up.

But the biggest race of the year still remained: the Mount Rose Grand Championship. It was the race that Michael had been injured in last year.

“If Buzz wins that race, too, it’s going to be a long winter,” Mark said one night. “But I don’t think I can beat him.”

Suddenly, Michael had an idea. “No, you probably can’t beat him. But Mark Haynes can,” Michael said, a grin coming across his face.

“What the heck are you talking about?” Mark said. “I am Mark Haynes.”

“Are you?” Michael said. He smiled.