The Lost Champion
The following story is a work of fictional writing and therefore any resemblance to real life situations may be coincidental and not intentional.
Mike was a 19 year old rookie F1 racer, he was very serious and passionate about the profession and always dreamt of becoming a world champion just like his idols and all time greats Schumacher and Senna. He took every care and did his best to make the dream come true since the very beginning when he first sat in a race car at the age of 16 at a local race tournament in his hometown. The race had a registration fee of 200$ that he borrowed from his father saying to him that one day I will be a F1 racer and make you proud. Mike didn’t win the race that day and stayed at sixth position out of the 25 participants but he smiled and wasn’t sad even after losing.
Mike always knew that the racing journey won’t be easy and he will need patience and persistence to fulfil his dream. He continued to participate in local and state race tournaments all around his country for next three years and won over 25 races in local tournaments and 15 races in state tournaments. Mike was able to make this happen because he practiced for 5 hours on no race days and 2 hours on race days for each day in those three years without any break. One evening when mike was celebrating his success with his family talking about it, he got a call from a popular F1 team manager who said they want to sign him as their new driver for the upcoming F1 season. Mike was shocked and surprised at the same time and didn’t know what to do, he took a pause got back to his senses thought about the dream and then said yes to the manager.
The 1st race of the F1 season and Mike’s first ever he met Adam who was the pit crew chief of the team and introduced himself. Adam was a strange kind of person, didn’t showed any interest in knowing Mike instead just shook his hand and went away. Mike didn’t react too much and went on to the race and stood at 5th position for his team that day. Mike tried to improve his race rankings as each race went by but he never got past the 3rd position in a race. Mike and Adam never spoke to each other but Mike saw that Adam was a sharp and intelligent pit crew chief because he managed the crew so well that a pit stop never took more than 7 to 8 seconds during a race.
One day when Mike was discussing about the ranking problem with the team manager, Adam came to the manager for something but the manager told him to come back later. Mike then asked the manager can Adam help in any way, manager replied no he can’t because he himself said to me once that he knows nothing about racing. The manager left after the discussion but Mike continued to sit alone for sometime wondering what to do, when he stood up to leave suddenly saw a piece of paper lying on the floor near his feet. Something was written on it Mike picked up it reads ‘take race practice seriously and don’t play on the track with the car, don’t slow down your car on the corners use less braking, make pit stop every 15 laps instead of 12 laps to save time’ it ended nothing else was written on it.
Mike asked his team members about the letter but nobody knew about it. Mike went to ask Adam if he had wrote it but Adam was not there and Mike thought it could not be him as he is not a racer. Mike continued at the 3rd position until 60% races were done wondering about that paper that is when he used the paper’s advice to see if it works. Mike went to the 2nd position and then to the 1st position in the last set of races and his team ended up winning the F1 season and mike became the new world champion. Mike was speechless as he never thought a piece of paper would make his dream come true. After some days of celebration Mike got a document from the manager to be signed where he saw Adam’s signature and noticed that the writing was similar to the paper he found.
After few days Mike met Adam at a team event and asks him how he knew it would work. Adam said 15 years ago I was a racer too who could have taken practice seriously, who could have maintained speed in corners, who could have taken pit stops at the right time and who could have became a world champion for his team. But I am the one whose team never won and was sold to the owner for which you’re racing today. Mike asked but why paper you could have said to me directly, Adam said because I was not a racer in your opinion. Mike said but why did you helped me, Adam said because I saw a champion in you that must never be lost.
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Story By
Ankush Bansal
