Racing in the Rain Read Online Free PDF Page A

the other car in turn 12, he held back. Eve noticed.
    â€œWhy didn’t you pass him?” she asked.
    â€œI know him. He’s got too much power and would just pass me back on the straight. I think I take him in the next series of turns.” Yes. At the next turn, Denny was inches from the Camaro’s rear bumper. He rode tight through the double turn and then took the inside line for the next turn and he zipped right by.
    â€œThis part of the track is really slick in the rain,” he said. “He has to back way off. By the time he gets his grip back, I’m out of his reach.”
    On the back straight again, the Camaro could be seen in Denny’s rearview mirror, fading into the background.
    â€œDid he have rain tires?” Eve asked.
    â€œI think so. But his car wasn’t set up right.”
    â€œStill. You’re driving like the track isn’t wet, and everyone else is driving like it is.”
    Turn 12 and blasting down the straight, we could see brake lights of the competition flicker ahead; Denny’s next victims.
    â€œWe are the creators of our own destiny,” Denny said softly.
    â€œWhat?” Eve asked.
    â€œWhen I was nineteen,” Denny said after a moment, “at my first driving school down at Sears Point, it was raining and they were trying to teach us how to drive in the rain. After the instructors were finished explaining all their secrets, all the students were totally confused. We had no idea what they were talking about. I looked over at the guy next to me—I remember him, he was from France and he was very fast. He smiled and he said, ‘We are the creators of our own destiny.’”
    Eve stuck out her lower lip and squinted at Denny. “And then everything made sense,” she said jokingly.
    â€œThat’s right,” Denny said seriously.
    On the TV, the rain didn’t stop; it kept coming. Denny’s team had made the right choice; other teams were pulling off into the hot pits to change to rain tires.
    â€œDrivers are afraid of the rain,” Denny told us. “Rain makes your mistakes even worse, and water on the track can make your car handle unpredictably. When something unpredictable happens, you have to react to it; if you’re reacting at speed, you’re reacting too late. And so you should be afraid.”
    â€œI’m afraid just watching it,” Eve said.
    â€œIf I intentionally make the car do something, then I can predict what it’s going to do. In other words, it’s only unpredictable if I’m not . . . possessing  . . . it.”
    â€œSo you spin the car before the car spins itself?” she asked.
    â€œThat’s it! If I deliberately do something, then I know it’s going to happen before it happens. Then I can react to it before even the car knows it’s happening.”
    â€œAnd you can do that?”
    On the TV screen, Denny could be seen dashing past other cars. His rear end suddenly slipped out and his car got sideways. But his hands were already turning to correct, and he was off again, leaving the others behind. Eve sighed in relief, held her hand to her forehead.
    â€œI love you,” she said. “I love all of you, even your racing. And I know on some level that you are completely right about all this. I just don’t think I could ever do it myself.”
    She went off into the kitchen; Denny and I continued watching the cars on the video as they drove around and around the circuit drenched in darkness.
    I will never tire of watching tapes with Denny. He knows so much, and I have learned so much from him. He said nothing more to me; he continued watching his tapes. But my thoughts turned to what he had just taught me. Such a simple concept, yet so true: we are the creators of our own destiny. Be it through intention or ignorance, our successes and our failures have been brought on by none other than ourselves.
    I left Denny at the