OoY-Make Pops Proud

[OppositeOfYou]

Chapter 0: Prologue
​

My Pops was a great man. He used to race, a lot. His car, a mean BMW 2002 Turbo. 170 horsepower, top speed 130mph, 0 to 60 in 7.5 seconds. Sure, it doesn’t seem a lot anymore, but at the time, 1974, it was spectacular at least to my pops, and that’s all that mattered. He won countless races in his day. I found some pictures of Elizabeth as he called it, or her I should say. They were buried in an old box in the antic. I found them one day when I was cleaning it up for some renovations.

​

I remember Pops telling me that a fan took this picture, apparently a real die hard fan that went to as many races as he could. He made a copy of the picture and mailed it to him. Sorry for the quality, like I said it was buried away in some old dusty boxes.
Another picture that I found was taken for a magazine if I remember correctly. I wish I had the magazine to show you instead of this old picture.

​

Ultimately I wish I had a picture of him to show you guys. Dark slick black hair, chiseled jaw line, 5’8, and best of all, a classic police officer mustache. I remember when I was a young kid, he’d always come inches to my face, wiggle that mustache of his back and forth by moving his top lip and in a high pitch voice ask me “What’s up Buttercup?” I know it sounds silly now, but it always cracked me up whenever I was feeling down.

I wish he was still around today. He passed away May 3rd, 2002, he was 57 years old. He could beat anyone on the track, but he couldn’t beat the nicotine addiction he had, and passed away due to lung cancer.

A year after he died, May 3rd 2003, I had probably done one of the stupidest things in my life. I still couldn’t get over his death and I had a little bit too much to drink and with the car he was helping me build, my dream car, a 1997 Toyota Supra, I went around speeding on the local highway. There’s a fairly long tunnel and apparently I was power sliding all over the place. The cops that pulled me over had to show me it because I couldn’t remember anything afterwards. Not even the fact that I crashed into the back of a cop car and that my precious Supra is now totalled.

​

It wasn’t until later when I got into the inner city that one of the better cameras captured my speed going around a turn and alerted the local cops in the area.

​

I have thousands of hours to think about what I did as I rot away in prison now… I know Pops wouldn’t be proud of me in the least bit for anything I’ve done. I’m no good. I just want to make him proud to have me as his son. I will make him proud. I will get out of here and make everyone proud. These aren’t countless hours rotting away in a prison; these are countless hours for me to think about how to better myself and what I’m going to do when I get out of here…
Pops will be proud.

 

[LancerEvo7]

Wow... This is epic! Can't wait for more! Also, how did you make 75 around that hairpin? I don't even think I go that fast in an FGT!

 

[Lucas]

Now this I like! 👍 👍 👍

Amazing beginning, incredible pictures, you sure have put a lot of work in them! Tons of descriptions too, I can already see this will get very far. But please update whenever you can. Most of the stories nowadays get forgotten after one chapter. Remember that quality is the most important things for these stories, that keeps them interesting. 👍

I'm looking forward to reading more!

 

[Pitracer100]

This is a Major Move in a Race Report here! Can't wait for next chapter!

 

[GT-R]

The beginning of this story is just epic. The pictures are priceless. The descriptions are perfect. I'm looking forward to reading more! 👍

 

[Rotary Junkie]

Very, very good work here sir.

 

[OppositeOfYou]

Chapter 1: Freeman
​

After 9 months in federal prison, I was a freeman at last. I hope I never have to go back to any place like that, ever, again. Let it be known that the SeaTec prison in Seattle is not a very good place to be, in any form of the word. It’s exactly what you would think a prison would look, drab, dreary, disgusting and very displeasing to even look at. Nevertheless, I was out, and that’s all that mattered. Now I just hoped that ma would forgive me and let me stay back home for a few days until I can begin to live off my own means.

The 13 mile hitch hike wasn’t that bad, I mean, I met some fairly interesting people. As a matter of fact, I entered the city in a beautiful 240ZG, driven by a nice lady that goes by the name Maral who carried out a heavy Armenian accent. The maroon beauty had a nice 150 horses still to this day regardless of the fact that it was made way back in ’71. She was telling me so much about how this used to be her ex-husband's car and that he used it to race a lot and won a good chunk of those times. She said she won it in divorce court just to spite him. Yikes.

We got into my hometown just as the sun was going down, it was a beautiful sight.

I recall going back home and having to deal with a very unpleased mother. As I waved goodbye to Maral and she sped off, ma darted out the front door running to be screaming with tears streaming down her face.

“Why?! Why!!” she screamed at the top of her lungs while darting towards me. Her wavy long brown hair flowing in the wind and her blue eyes filled with tears, smearing her makeup. I took her back into the house and comforted her and told her how sorry I was for messing everything up and I told her my big plan of getting back on track and starting off on a clean slate. After a few hours she seemed to calm down enough to tell me something big, tell me something that would kick start my future in a hurry.

“I’ve been saving money,” she said slowly and confidently. “I would like you to take it so you can get into the business a lot faster.” I swear my heart felt like it was going to pop out of my chest at that very moment. I hugged her the tightest I’ve ever hugged someone, anyone, anything, in my life before!

“Don’t start thinking I’m just giving you this money, I’ll be expecting a check in the mail in the near future.” She said while slowly cracking a smile as she saw me jumping around in excitement.

With a cold $20,000 in my pocket I set off to find my next car. I found a nice Lancer Evolution VII RS from 2001 online and I set off to see this car, the down part? It was on the other side of the country in Boston. When I got there I snapped a quick picture, sorry for the quality, the camera’s really old.

I went in and talked to the owner. A tall bald man, about 5’11, wearing an awesome shirt with three wolves and a moon, and some old pair of faded blue jeans with a few small holes.

“Nice shirt.” I blurted out without thinking.

“Uh, thanks. Can I help you?”

“Sorry, that shirt is just really neat. Anyway, I’m here about the Evo VII.” He invited me over to the car and told me that it had a little bit over 18,000 miles on it, 4WD, 284HP, and that it’s in good condition. Strangely he didn’t give me a reason to why he was selling it.

“$16,000,” he said while looking around the block quickly. I handed over the cash and floored it back to Seattle.

After blazing through all these cities and finally getting back to Seattle and to my ma’s house, she handed me a flyer.

Sounds like a plan...

 

[SVX]

I like! Keep it up!

 

[Peter3759]

Keep going, this is awesome!

 

[Lucas]

This is great, I'm having no trouble following it! 👍
Nice detail about the wolf shirt. I bet my mother wouldn't give me money if I came back from jail... not that I'm planning in doing so soon.

 

[Pitracer100]

​

I handed over the cash and floored it back to Seattle.​

Pure Genius we are! I used that phrase on last sentence of my Chapter1.
Nice Story this is a major move in Race Reports. Now I have to strive for it to make my story better. Nice chapter good descriptions and pics are amazing! I knew I had a good idea to encourage you to do a story!👍

 

[Lucas]

Nice Story this is a major move in Race Reports. Now I have to strive for it to make my story better. Nice chapter good descriptions and pics are amazing! I knew I had a good idea to encourage you to do a story!👍

I agree, this is something really, really unique around here. No one starts with this quality. 👍

And I do agree that this will make us writers work harder. 👍

 

[GT-R]

Another great chapter. Love how you're using many adjectives in order to generate an easily interpreted graphic image of the happenings. 👍

 

[LancerEvo7]

Ooh... Evo VII! I'm liking this story more and more.

 

[Smallhorses]

Great beginnings and some excellent photographic work that helps to convey the age of the pictures and the events you're describing. 👍

 

[OppositeOfYou]

Chapter 2: The Race
​

The next day I woke up bright and early in the morning. I had to head over to a nearby race track called the Grand Valley Speedway. Since I wasn’t sure what roads the race in Seattle was going to take and I needed a little practice with this and to make sure my driving was still top notice, I headed 10 miles East to Grand Valley Speedway.

When I got there the track was empty and there were only a handful of people working staff. The sun was high in the sky and there was a nice calming breeze in the air. If you closed your eyes you would never think you were standing in the middle of a race track. Nevertheless this was a rather special time for me, getting back into racing and all, so I asked the staff at GVS if they could turn on their cameras and capture a few shots as I did a lap. I got two pictures back, some pretty good shots.

​

The car was good; easy in the corners, decent acceleration, it just had a bit too much roll, but I could stand that for now. Even in this car from 2001 with over 18k miles on it, I felt really confident about this race. I headed back home after a few more laps.

Race day had finally arrived. While on my drive over to the meeting spot I thought it’d be a good idea to go through a car wash since I hadn’t really done anything to the car since I bought it off that strange man in Boston. As I arrived at the meeting spot one of the organizers said that all the racers had to get their quarter mile and 0 to 60 times taken, so he brought me to a strip to take my times.

​

For a $16k car, I thought that was pretty damn good. The man that had taken the pictures handed them over to me and told me that I had to show the race supervisor before getting on the track.

Slowly the other cars started showing up, I saw another Evolution VII, but it was a GT-A and from a different year than mine, then came in two white Skyline GT-Rs followed by a dark coloured NSX Type S. Finally after about 10 or 15 minutes after the meet up time a roaring engine popped up from around the bend, it was a blue Chevelle SS, shaking the ground from beneath us with its monstrous 450hp V8.

Before the race all the racers were allowed some time to mingle amongst each other or go to the meeting buildings lounge area for some coffee and other munchies while a pace car warmed up the track. As I was getting come coffee I saw a cute lady come over and get some munchies.

“Howdy ma’am,” I said in a weird Texan accent for no reason at all. “How are you on this here bright mornin’?” I’m not sure why but I couldn’t drop the accent.

“I’m fine, thank you. Sure is a lovely day out.” She said as she picked up a few small bags of chips. “I’ve gotta get running now though, see you shortly.” I was confused as to why she said she’ll see me shortly; I was even more shocked as to why she grabbed a few bags of chips. Nonetheless I had to run, the race was about to start.

Running a few minutes late cost me a good spot on the grid, but that’s alright, I still felt really confident. The grid was as follows, Skyline GT-R N1, Lancer Evolution VII GT-A, NSX, Skyline GT-R, Chevelle SS, and then my Evolution VII. The whole race was broadcasted locally to the city of Seattle and nearby areas.

-Starting Grid.

-Bringing up the rear.

-First overtake.

-First corner on the second lap, getting into second place.

-Last corner overtaking the Skyline GT-R N1.

-Crossing the finish line.

-Finishing Grid.
​

I had felt spectacular running through that course. They made it phenomenally. The car handled like a dream through the corners, even giving me some oversteer on some of the corners. A little weak on the straights compared to the other cars, but nonetheless, my 4WD paid off through the corners.

When I got announced over to the winning podium to receive my prize, I noticed that the lady I was talking to earlier was up there too, and she got the $2,000 check; she was the one in the Skyline on my tail at the end of the race.

…

So I made a mistake when I went over there to talk to her. I might have said something about how all race car drivers are male and maybe something about how females and motorsport don’t go together. I also might have said some other poor words that got me walking away with a red imprint of her hand on the side of my face. I tried to apologize but she didn’t want to hear it from an “inconsiderate ignorant pig” whoops. Oh well, I still earned my check of $5,000.

I shook hands with all the other drivers and I was on my way.

“Huh, now I’m only $15,000 in debt to my mom, great.”

Edit: Finally my 100th post, been a member since January 15th, 2005. Dang.

 

[benzoboy]

What a fantastic story!

I love this, can't wait for the next part.

 

[GT-R]

Very nice chapter, showing some great pictures and a phenomenally written text. The only thing I would have liked to see was more content about the race. But I think you kept it short and uncommented, because it was the first race and we readers are going to face some really impressive races with more action and descriptions in the future. Keep it up. And congratulatons on your 100th post, mate. 👍

 

[Pitracer100]

Dang Ooy congrats on 100th post!!I already have 250+ post on GTP with only 2 months of membership. Nice chapter and brilliant pictures I am amazed with the quality don't let it die out like RTN or RB5

 

[benzoboy]

Any idea on when Chapter 3 is coming?

I'm looking forward to it, this story's awesome.

 

[OppositeOfYou]

Yeah, I've been a little bit busy the past few days and I haven't had enough motivation. Past 3 or 4 days been working on a DJ mix that I have to get done in the next few days.

 

[LolCats]

This is a truly epic story. 👍