Jump Start

29. Twenty - nine

Twenty - nine

Harper

I was woken up abruptly when a car horn repeatedly blared, turning out to be Thomas’s.

“What the fuck, mate!” Thomas’s voice was loud and clear, and I noticed all the windows in the car were up, so he wasn’t actually yelling at anyone.

“What in the actual…” I couldn’t get my words out before he hit the horn again.

“Look at this dickhead,” he said, pointing towards a car in the middle of the road.

“Thinks he can do a fucking U-turn in the middle of a highway,” he snarled, his agitation growing stronger by the second.

“Just go around him then,” I said, trying not to sound too sarcastic. He was clearly bothered by this guy’s actions, probably more so for safety reasons than actual bad driving.

“Yeah, you’re right. Always the voice of reason, you are.” The way he said that sounded odd to me.

“Who are you? Yoda?” I asked with a sleepy smirk on my face.

“Can you ever take a compliment?” he joked, answering my question with another.

“Of course I can.”

“Take it, or I’ll make you,” he promised .

“I’ll take whatever you feel like giving me, Thomas,” I quipped. His face was unreadable, but he stretched out his hand to rest on my thigh.

“I can’t remember what Chris said or where the fuck we’re supposed to go. We have the driver’s track walk in an hour, and I don’t know where we’re staying,” Thomas rambled as he glared out the front windscreen, clearly frustrated with himself.

“It’s fine. I know where to go,” I said confidently and started gently directing him. Thomas was notorious for not knowing any of the details for accommodation, timings, or anything that wasn’t car or race-related. I think he’d sleep in the garage if it was up to him.

We finally arrived at the back end of the pit lane, where our Echidna truck was parked, and eagerly unloaded our belongings from Thomas’s ute before we made our way to the giant transporter. As we reached the top of the stairs, we were greeted by the team. Chris, Holly, and Tony were the first to spot us. “Took your time, guys,” Holly joked as she hugged me.

“Yeah, well, Thomas got lost. You’d think he would know where to go by now,” I teased as I moulded myself to his side. He leant down and kissed my temple, ignoring the jabs from the whole team at our open affection towards each other.

Thomas and Landon needed to begin preparations and meetings for practice and quali for the following day, so Holly and I decided we’d finalise our plan for this weekend.

As we walked to our hotel room, I put my arm around Holly, grateful for her friendship, as well as all the support she’d shown me in my new role.

“Lets first finalise the social media side for this weekend, yeah?” I asked as I unlocked the hotel room door with my plastic card.

I was feeling incredibly grateful to be newly working in the motorsport industry and at one of the most famous racetracks in the world. While it was something I never would have been interested in previously, it was now part of my identity and life. It was exciting and fresh.

Chris had allowed my role to be as flexible as possible, so I could either go with the team during race weekends or stay at the office if I chose to. It made much more sense for me to be trackside with the rest of the team.

The hotel room was clean and spacious and had a great view of the last corner of the famous Mount Panorama race circuit. I opened the door to the small balcony to let in the light summer breeze and enjoyed the sounds of engines, tools, and people chatting in the distance. I was keen to get to work, and Holly had a tonne of content already prepared for the weekend. One of our aims for the last race of the season was to do a small recap for each driver and show the lighter side of them, especially Thomas. Even though I had seen his softer side, many other people still thought he was a spoiled brat, an asshole, and I had to agree with them to some degree. I knew deep down that he just kept his emotions close to his chest, that he didn’t deem them worthy of anyone but himself. But now that I knew him on a deeper level, I felt privileged. He was only showing a portion of himself to the public eye. What was underneath was much more nuanced.

** *

By early afternoon, we were about to join a team meeting, with members scattered throughout the Bathurst grounds.

“Afternoon all,” Chris said as he adjusted his microphone, his face serious and brows furrowed.

“Hey guys!” I greeted everyone warmly. I saw Thomas’ face in the bottom right-hand corner of my screen, sitting there looking unimpressed until he saw me, and winked.

“Right, this weekend, as I’ve said before, the priorities are: Tyres, we need to settle on a game plan, especially with the weather forecast, and we might need to change at the last minute. Driver changes, which we will practice again later today. Thomas will drive the first twenty-three laps, and Landon will jump in for the middle sector, with Thomas finishing up. Landon, your stint will likely be the most important part of the race as Thomas will just need to come in and finish up.” Chris’s voice was calm, but I could see the stress on his usually smiling face.

“We are currently up for third in the GT championship and the points won this weekend by Thomas and Landon will potentially put us in the run for second.”

The team had worked hard all year to get themselves and Thomas up where they needed to be. Thomas had the skills and mindset, and his car was in the best condition it could be for the last race of the year. Now that I knew what I was looking at, rather than just a purple and green race car, I knew that Thomas drove a Ferrari 458 GT and Landon would eventually be driving a BMW M6, which was Will’s car. Or used to be. Both were splattered with the purple and fluorescent green of the Echidna Racing garage, along with a barrage of sponsorship stickers.

Thomas’s ultimate dream was to work through the GT championship and eventually move into the Australian Supercar Championships, which was one of the biggest motorsport events in Australia. Echidna Racing didn’t currently have a car in the Supercars; however, I had a feeling Chris would venture into that if it meant he could stay with Thomas. He had a real soft spot for him and plenty of willpower.

“Alright, let’s hear from the engineers. Cheers,” Chris announced, finishing his initial briefing to the team.

I always enjoyed hearing what the engineers had to say. I didn’t always understand what they were saying, but I loved hearing their terminology and passion for the sport.

“Alright, Hol and Harps, what have you got for us?” Chris added after the engineering brief.

Holly and I agreed that she would give the brief this weekend, as it was good practice for her, and I would take the lead at the end of the weekend debrief.

“Thanks, Tony. So, Harps and I have a variety of content that we’re going to post this weekend. We’ve got a blooper reel from the entire year—a sort of recap video; we will go live in the pit lane and let people ask questions to both drivers. Thomas, get over it,” Holly added sarcastically, where he rolled his eyes. “We’ve also got some carousel graphics ready to go for the race results and timings throughout the weekend. The vibe in the garage needs to be light, happy, and excited for the end of the year as we will be filming quite a lot, guys!”

This earned a collective sigh from all the mechanics. I understood why they were hesitant, as they worked under incredibly stressful situations, and they didn’t have time for us to be in their faces as they prepped for a pit stop. I tried to be as mindful as possible of this, and we would never interrupt them during a pit stop or a particularly difficult part of the race.

The morale in the Echidna Racing team was incredibly high. This GT season had been their best since their inception, and they were also very excited to be going on holidays.

It was a long year for the team, with being constantly away from their families, and always travelling to a different town or city in Australia. Because of the constant travel, the team were all very close. It felt like a family, and I know Thomas considered them more so than his own.

***

The evening before the race, Thomas had a ritual that he lived by, and it was certainly not one I wanted to try to change on him. It was always an early dinner and then to bed.

We climbed into bed and naturally curled up together. Thomas leant on his side to turn off the bedside lamp as I clung to him, leaving us in the pitch-black hotel room, the only light a small slither from the outside world.

“Harper.” Thomas’s voice was a whisper in our dark surroundings.

I gripped his shoulder a little tighter after hearing my name.

“Thomas.”

“Thank you for being here. I love having you by my side.” His voice got closer to my ear as he started to kiss my neck. “I love you, and I’m so glad you stormed into the office with your ridiculous heels on,” he chuckled softly against my ear.

“I love you too and I’m grateful I did as well. ”

The sound of Thomas’s voice in my ear, his arms wrapped around me as he told me he loved me, was one of my favourite ways to fall asleep.