Kindly,
Daniel Stormsend
Chief Marketing Officer
Pet Direct Supply Company LLC
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Chapter 16
10 days until the Indianapolis 500
Janet waved her over to the team’s timing tent—an elaborate makeshift setup behind the pit wall that housed multiple computer screens with real-time data measurements from Mack’s car and even Mack herself. The data would most certainly show Mack’s heart racing as she headed toward Janet, who stood with her arms crossed and headphones hanging around her neck, frowning. Whether her disappointment was still over Mack’s first day behavior or because she was on day three of horrifyingly slow practice, Mack had no idea.
“You got a sponsor yet?” Janet barked.
Without earplugs, Mack’s ears rang with the high-pitched whine of cars at speed and the deep gurgle of engines idling on pit lane. She shook her head. “No, ma’am.”
“You’re about to lose the one sponsor you have. Hartley is not happy with your performance, or really anything about you. They’re mumbling about keeping their money on Leo’s car only.” Janet held up her hand to hold off any protest. “It’s premature, but it’s the way money goes in racing. No magic, no money. In your case, no penis plus no magic equals you might as well turn tail and go home.”
“I’m working on the pace,” Mack protested.
Janet slashed her hand through the air. “Sponsors and media don’t want to watch a woman struggle. You’ve got to give them a good story,or be sexy, or show them you’re five times better than anyone else. Right now, you’re none of those.”
“I’m trying my hardest out there!”
Mack knew she sounded like the same petulant child she swore she wasn’t, but dammit shewastrying. Doubt began to creep inside her heart and helmet. What if she wasn’t good enough? She’d been told so often that she was talented, but what if her skills didn’t translate, or worse, she’d lost them in the years since she’d stopped racing?
She thought of Wes and Laurie, sitting in the stands and watching her. They were the only people here who really knew what she could do in a car. They’d seen her bring the magic to the track. Were they watching her now, embarrassed for her, cringing as she grasped for something that maybe was no longer there? A brisk wind hit her sweat-coated body and she began to shake. Her hands spasmed and she badly wanted to flex her fingers, but she held still so Janet wouldn’t see her weakness. “I’m trying everything. Staying in the turns longer, then shorter. I’m using the tools, I’m trying new lines.”
Janet yanked off her sunglasses. Dark circles bagged under her eyes and her thin face narrowed sharply under her cheekbones. “The lone-wolf thing might work on the dirt track but here it takes two dozen people to qualify one car alone. Work with your team and figure out the fucking issue.” She dropped the sunglasses back over her eyes. “In the meantime, you’ve got a sponsor lunch with Hartley tomorrow. Bring the charm, make them like you. Don’t fuck it up.”
With a flick of her wrist, Mack was dismissed.
Mack stood stupidly outside the timing tent, knowing there was no point arguing with Janet but not wanting the smothering comfort of her family either. She wished she could talk to Leo. She could use an infusion of his laid-back optimism, but she knew they both needed distance to keep their relationship professional.
She was still standing in the same spot when Jimmy appeared at her side. “Let’s walk,” he said, before turning and heading the opposite direction down pit lane.
Mack glanced at Janet but she was now talking to Lucie. There was nothing to do but to follow Jimmy.
They walked past two dozen pit stalls until they reached the end of pit lane. The first pit stall was empty and Jimmy sat on the white painted concrete and patted the spot next to him. Once her butt hit the concrete, Mack realized how exhausted she was. She wasn’t sleeping well and she spent dawn to dusk hunting down sponsorships, at the track, or manhandling the car to the point her joints went brittle and her back throbbed. She wondered if the twenty-year-olds felt this many aches.
“This isn’t something you can be great at overnight,” Jimmy said.
Mack exhaled. Oh thank Saint Dolly Parton. He got it. “I need more time.”
Jimmy shook his head. “No, hear my words. You can’t be Scott Dixon overnight. But youcanbe a hell of a lot better than you are right now.”
“But I’m—”
“No.Listen.You’re talented, I can tell. But you’re trying to do everything all at once, and to do it alone. No matter what the fans think, racing is a team sport. Surely you know that?”
Mack frowned. “No one else is out there driving the car. The crew can’t help me find ten miles per hour.”
“That’s your problem right there. The team is exactly where you find extra speed.”
“But—”
