Pit Lane Persephone

Chapter 12: Lauren

Saturday, September 21 – Qualifying

The Widemeres have just left the pit box and meeting them has got me thinking. Is life just a great, big balancing act between good and bad? It's the only reason I can imagine why such a super-sweet couple who lost their kid to an awful disease would end up being not only able to go on, but also actively support research so others could be spared. It's usually a pain to have visitors around—they ask too many questions and end up being in the way when we're trying to get ready for a session—but spending time with George and Elspeth today (and even Tim from York, I suppose) was nice. So now I'm just waiting for something to go wrong because while I'm not a spiritual person, so far pretty much everything during my time in Spain has been a textbook case of yin and yang.

For each positive—the humbling hospital visit, a whole bunch of gracious fans, and goofing off with my increasingly likable teammate—there has been a negative—delayed flights, backstabbing bitches, and getting hit on by drunk colleagues. If this continues into the race weekend, I'm royally screwed. I need to be prepared for anything and can't leave anything up to chance—or fate—out on the track.

Unlike the course in Australia, the Circuit de Cataluña-Barcelona runs clockwise and has more right turns than left. It's practically the same length and just one less lap in total for my category, but the layout makes it almost ten miles per hour slower on average, adding nearly twenty minutes to the overall race time. The three free practice sessions have been warm, dry, and uneventful: a perfect trio of attributes for riding. But as always, only the results during this afternoon's qualifying period have any impact on the grid order for the main event.

Waiting in the garage for the session to start, I sip water as Dad organizes my gear. One of the perks of being a freelance defense contractor is that he has really flexible hours when he's not on a project deadline, so this lets him be my unofficial assistant and my biggest fan at the same time. He picks up one of the boxes he brought from California yesterday, but I stop him before he opens the lid. "Give me the old one, please. I want to save that for tomorrow's race."

He keeps the cardboard flap open and glances at the shelf with the black and purple helmet I've been using. "Are you sure?" he asks. "The session is televised, and every bit of exposure helps."

It's tempting. Josh's artwork is better than I could have ever expected, but that's why I was thinking of saving the big reveal for the actual race. But Dad's right. After refusing payment for his design and airbrushing, all the guy at Vortex had asked was for me to name-drop his company in a few interviews. The publicity will be worth ten times as much as the couple of grand he could have charged for the work, and I'm more than happy to give it.

"Okay," I say. "Hand it over."

Dad smirks as he unpacks the custom-painted Kevlar shell lined with polystyrene foam that's the only thing between me and head injury—and probably even death—if my skull ever hit the pavement during a high-speed crash.

"That is bloody gorgeous," Nicola says, appearing out of nowhere. "Is this your response to that 'Diva Down Under' article that came out after Melbourne? I've been thinking about how to address that, but you may be onto something here. I fancy we could create some marvelous branding around this. Let us have a proper look."

Without letting go, I slowly turn the imperfect sphere so all sides are eventually visible. The primary image is centered on the top of the helmet, and it can only be fully seen when I have my head down. It will look awesome on camera, captured from the front as I overtake the guys. Inspired by the calaveras makeup of the Mexican Día de los Muertos holiday's elaborately stylized sugar skulls, it's an homage to my home state, but also doesn't forget about the Dimas family heritage. Because while no two Day of the Dead designs ever seem to be the same, I—well, okay Josh—took mine several steps farther to creatively also include Greek iconography.