Chapter 16

Six Years Ago

Pyrrha was a full-time F2 driver and well on the way to winning the championship. She was driving for an established team, but one that had seen decidedly mediocre results in the preceding few seasons. All that changed when Pyrrha arrived. She was the most dominant driver F2 had seen and she was being compared favorably to some of the greatest F1 champions the sport had seen. It was no surprise then that offers for other rides kept pouring in. Pyrrha kept her focus on F2, but there were other races to run on off weeks.

One of them was the 24 hour touring car race at the Mistral Circuit. It was a fairly prestigious race and at her home track, so Pyrrha decided it was worth running. The offer came from a championship caliber team, and her teammate was an experienced veteran with many wins under his belt. She had never driven touring cars before, having run single-seaters exclusively for the entirety of her career, but once her entry was announced she was immediately the favorite. The expectations were high, but they had been for Pyrrha ever since she was crushing the competition in karts.

Pyrrha found the race terribly boring. The car was heavy and sluggish compared to her F2 machine, and though it was the fastest on track it still felt slow. The fact that she drove away from the field without even pushing also contributed to her boredom. She drove for a few hours then traded spots with her teammate. He put in a good stint - not as fast as hers though - and extended their lead. Then it was Pyrrha's turn again. Then his. Then hers. Things got a little more interesting as darkness fell. It was more important than ever to be alert. There could be trouble around every corner and it would be impossible to see until she was right on top of it.

Still, everything was going well. Except for the occasional lapped car, Pyrrha was basically alone, just running her own race. She came up on one of the slower cars as they approached the Ursa Kink. It was a bit too late to make the pass before the corner, but there would be plenty of time once they hit the long straightaway that came next. Pyrrha hung back a bit as the cars swung left then right. As they headed for corner exit Pyrrha wished she had hung back farther.

The lapped car went into a slide, heading off the left side of the circuit. Just beyond the tarmac was a low stone wall and the car plowed into the end of it side-on before bouncing back onto the track. Pyrrha braked hard and took evasive maneuvers but there was no time. She collided with the wrecked car and skidded off the track and into the grass. It was not that hard a hit and she was uninjured. Pyrrha was much more concerned about the other driver however. His impact had been much more severe.

Pyrrha got out of her car. The other vehicle had been bounced back off the track to the left, opposite where Pyrrha's had come to a stop on the right. Once she was sure no traffic was coming, Pyrrha rushed across the track to check on the other driver. She knew there were likely no track workers nearby, and if there were they would probably be useless anyway. The smashed car sat beside the stone wall, facing in the direction opposite to traffic. The driver's door was pointed toward the track and Pyrrha arrived at that part of the car first.

Pyrrha immediately wished she had not. The car had been almost bent in half by its first impact with the end of the wall, and the driver's door and surrounding structure had been pushed in. The driver had been crushed to death, nearly cut in two by the encroaching metal. The inside of the car was splattered with his blood. His eyes were wide and unblinking, a look of terror permanently etched on his face. Pyrrha turned away and vomited. She had never before participated in a race in which someone had died. She had certainly never seen something so gruesome. She had never been forced to face her own mortality or the all too real risks that came with being a race car driver. She was suddenly forced to acknowledge that she could just as easily end up like that driver.

Pyrrha changed. Something of the excitement that had come with racing was gone. She had been happy-go-lucky but now shifted to a stern demeanor whenever she was at the track. She stopped making friends among the other drivers. For a time she contemplated quitting, but racing was too much a part of her. That horrible scene would haunt her for the rest of her life. The death of one of her fellow drivers never again hit her so hard, but that was only because she had become numb.

Present Day

May led Pyrrha up toward The Esses. Back in the pits the waiting drivers and crews could hear screeching tires and rending metal. The session was red flagged. An eerie silence fell over the track. It was broken by sirens as an ambulance rushed from the pit area to the scene of the accident. No one was quite sure what had happened, but word began filtering back that it had been a big one. Minutes passed as those waiting in the pits became more and more concerned. All feared the worst though they desperately hoped it had not come to pass.

After some time a driver returned to the pit area, surrounded by a mob of fans and media. At the gate the hangers-on were cleared away and Pyrrha emerged carrying her helmet. She had a blank expression, a thousand yard stare. Yang was the first to meet her. "Pyrrha, are you alright?" She asked. "What happened?"

"I'm fine." Pyrrha said emotionlessly. "I just got into the armco a little trying to avoid the debris."

"And May?" Yang asked as the pair continued to walk down the pit lane towards Team Juniper's garage.

Pyrrha shook her head. "She's gone." Pyrrha said. Yang felt sick but it was clearly nothing compared to what Pyrrha was feeling. Weiss and Winter arrived in short order. "May's dead." Pyrrha repeated. "Weiss, I need you to make an announcement to the press. I wish there was time to prepare a statement, but you need to head up to the press box now. We need to put qualifying on hold until we investigate. Yang, make sure none of the drivers are willing to go out until Winter and I look into this." Pyrrha looked around. "Winter, you and I will take one of the circuit vehicles to the scene. I'll explain what happened."

"I should go with you." Yang said. She wanted to be there to support Pyrrha.

"I appreciate the offer, but you have a job to do." Pyrrha said. "We all have jobs to do." With that she walked away, Winter in tow.

Pyrrha and Winter commandeered a truck used to ferry equipment around the track. Pyrrha parked it near the exit of turn 2. The skid marks on track and field of scattered debris told the tale, but Pyrrha explained what she had seen anyway. May had entered The Esses normally, but started to oversteer. She managed to keep the car straight but slid wide of turn 2. She hit the kerb on the inside of turn 3 dead-on, popping the front of her car into the air. It remained in that position until it slammed into the catch fence above the armco on the right side of turn 3. The fence ripped the car in two at the cockpit and May was thrown out, still strapped into her seat. Pyrrha had smacked the armco on the left of the track while attempting to avoid the crash.

Pyrrha had jumped out of her car and rushed to May. She crouched beside her and with one look knew May was dead. Her body looked intact, but her unblinking stare, eyes dilated and frozen in terror, said she was already gone. Pyrrha sat down against the nearby armco as medics attended to May. They tried to resuscitate her, though it was clear from their demeanor that they knew it was a lost cause. Dr. Glenn soon arrived and immediately came to the same conclusion. He ordered May's body loaded into an ambulance and taken away. An autopsy would reveal a broken neck. May's death had been instant.

"We need to determine if the track is safe to race." Pyrrha said to Winter. "You're the expert. I need your opinion."

Winter walked along, following the skid marks. She looked on as track workers began repairing the damaged catch fence and clearing the debris. "There's nothing wrong with the track." Winter said. "Maybe the barriers could be a little farther from the track, but there's nothing that can be done about that."

"What about the fence?" Pyrrha asked. "It tore her car apart."

"It has to be there." Winter said. Indeed it did. The tunnel that allowed vehicle access to the infield ran under the track at that spot, a 25 foot drop from the racing surface. The fence may have been bad but it was no worse than such a drop. "It's my opinion that once the fence is repaired, the track is safe to race."

It was not the answer Pyrrha was looking for. She desperately wanted Winter to tell her there was something wrong with the circuit, that it had been something other than simple bad luck that had killed May. In her heart she knew it was just a combination of driver error and misfortune, but that was a bitter pill to swallow. It meant that it could happen to anyone. Of course Pyrrha knew that any time she got in her car could be her last, but it was a fact she did a good job of ignoring. What she had seen with her own eyes showed the reality of the situation in stark relief. She was vulnerable. Everyone she cared about was vulnerable. It could all end in an instant.

The drivers met on pit road to discuss what to do next. They waited for Pyrrha and Winter to complete their inspection. "The track is safe to race." Pyrrha reported as soon as she returned. "Qualifying will resume when repairs and cleanup have been completed. My car is damaged so I will not be participating."

"Schnee Automotive has decided to withdraw from the race." Weiss said. She turned to Winter. "I'm sorry you had to hear it from me."

"I expected as much, and I would not race anyway." Winter said.

"But for your career to end this way…" Weiss started.

"I walk away from racing with my life." Winter cut her off. "That's about the best ending any of us can hope for. Until that changes, never rest. Never stop trying to make things safer."

None of the drivers really had their hearts in it, but the show had to go on. That was just how things worked. Repairing the catch fence took over an hour. The track officials were not willing to risk a return to racing with anything but a perfect repair. Even if their safety measures had failed them, at least they were unwilling to take risks. That was a pretty clear sign of how much had changed over the past few years. There was a time when a few ramshackle repairs would be affected and the cars would be forced back on track, the drivers knowing the conditions were even more dangerous than they had been previously. Thankfully those days were long gone.

Yang got back in her car and slipped on her helmet. She did not want to. She wanted to go sit out the rest of time trials with Pyrrha. But she had a responsibility to the team, the sponsors, the fans and herself. Even if she felt like it hardly mattered, there was a championship to be won. She was not about to just hand the pole to Weiss or Ruby. If they were going to have it, they were going to earn it. Yang waited for the clock to run down a bit before heading out on track with the remaining frontrunners.

Yang wound up her car through the final corner and rocketed out onto the frontstretch to begin her lap. She dashed past the pits before getting on the brakes as the track dropped down into the first corner. She nailed the apex of the square right-hander, hitting the kerbs hard there and on exit. Then it was up to The Esses, those fatal Esses. She was flat-out, right, then left, then right again, sweeping onto the backstretch as the track climbed ever more uphill. When she reached the crest she was hard on the brakes. She slung her car into the downhill, banked, sweeping right-hand turn 5. The corner seemed to go on forever. She spotted her reference point and was hard on the throttle, blasting out of the corner and down the hill into The Boot. After the tight-left at the shin it was downhill again, braking even harder into the toe. The long, slow right-hander wound uphill. Then it was on throttle, over a crest and straight toward the tightest corner of the track. Yang braked hard for the right-hand heel, her car squirming as the back end desperately tried to make itself the front. Yang held it, powered through the apex, downhill and back up again before braking for the left-hander that returned her to the old circuit. She was almost immediately in the penultimate corner, a left-hander for which she hardly had to lift. Then after a short straight she coasted into the final corner, waiting for just the right moment to get back on the gas. She accelerated out, flashed under the pedestrian bridge and across the line to complete her lap.

Yang was fast but Ruby was faster, setting a new track record on her final lap. Weiss ended up third. Winter and May's times retained fourth and fifth but were meaningless now. Pyrrha lost out to Sun and was followed by Reese, Neptune and Coco. None of the drivers really cared. They were just glad it was over. Now they could go back to some bar and drown their sorrows, or return to their hotels and try to sleep off the horror of the day. The media interviews following time trials, usually good for a few interesting soundbytes, were subdued and filled with plenty of 'no comment' and stock answers. Everyone had been looking forward to the race, one grand prix to settle the closest championship in history, but now it seemed they all just wanted to go home.

"Where's Pyrrha?" Yang asked, walking into the Team Juniper garage. "I'm her ride." They were staying together at the cabin. It was farther away than the hotels but both had decided it would be more comfortable, even if the drive there was a bit of a chore.

"I haven't seen her since we went back to racing." Weiss replied.

"I think she said she was heading to the parking lot." Nora remembered. "She said something about not being interested in watching."

Yang thanked them and headed for the parking lot herself. She made her way to her bright yellow sports car. Pyrrha was already sitting inside. She had obviously been crying but now just looked depressed. She flashed a quick, wry smile when she spotted Yang before her melancholy expression returned. Yang decided that talking about the crash was probably not the best idea. Still, the only topic she had was racing. "Ruby won the pole." She said.

"I heard." Pyrrha said. "You must be disappointed."

"A little." Yang admitted. "It would really be something if Ruby won this thing though. I'd probably be just as happy as if I won myself."

"Me too." Pyrrha sighed. "Probably more so."

Yang put the keys in the ignition but did not start the car. "Talk to me Pyrrha." She said.

"I don't want to race tomorrow." Pyrrha said. Tears began welling in her eyes. "I don't want to do it anymore."

"Then let's retire." Yang suggested. "I don't want to do it either. We can announce our retirements and our engagement, then start our lives together. As long as I'm with you, I'll be happy no matter what we're doing. We're both champions. What else is there to prove?"

"But we can't quit." Pyrrha sobbed. "You know it and I know it. There are people counting on us. I'm not just talking about our teams. If we're gone, who will keep pushing for safety? Weiss can't do it alone and I'm not sure there are any drivers with enough pull to make anything happen. Besides, no matter what you say, we both know life without racing won't be the same. It's like a drug and we're both addicts. As much as it hurts us, we need it."

"Until it hurts us too much." Yang said. "My father reached that point. Winter reached that point. I think we've reached that point too."

"You only get out of this sport two ways: broken or dead." Pyrrha cried. "Even if your body's not broken, you mind is. With everything we've seen...how can we go on?"

"We go on because we have to." Yang said. "There's no alternative." Yang sighed. "I really don't think you should race tomorrow, not with where your head's at. I'll sit out with you if you want." Yang knew Pyrrha needed help she was not equipped to provide. A doctor would have called it post-traumatic stress. "Maybe you should see Dr. Glenn."

"No." Pyrrha said firmly. "I'm going to race tomorrow. You're going to race tomorrow. Someone's going to win and someone's going to be champion. The show will go on just like it always does. That's just how it is."

"Are you sure?" Yang asked. "Are you going to be okay?"

"I'm sure." Pyrrha confirmed. "And I'll be as okay as any of us can ever be."

"If that's your decision, I support you 100 percent." Yang said with a gentle smile. She turned the key and the engine roared to life. "Whoever wins tomorrow, you're a champion in my eyes."

Inspirations

- The Mistral Circuit is based on Spa-Francorchamps. The Ursa Kink is the Masta Kink.

- Mountain Glenn is still Watkins Glen.

- May is based on Francois Cervet and her accident on the fatal crash of the same. It is also partially based on the fatal crash of Gilles Villeneuve at Zolder in 1982.

- This should come as no surprise since Winter is based on Jackie Stewart. He was to run his 100th and final F1 race at Watkins Glen in 1973, but Cervet's death caused him and the team to pull out of the event and he retired on the spot.

- The post-qualifying conversation between Pyrrha and Yang is vaguely based on the conversation between Dr. Sid Watkins and Ayrton Senna following Roland Ratzenberger's death in qualifying at Imola in 1994.

Inaccuracies and Anachronisms

- There was no International/European F2 championship in 1965.

- There is no stone wall to the left of the Masta Kink.

- Cervet actually won the 1971 US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen, and was killed in qualifying for the '73 race. His death was quite a bit more gruesome, his car flipping and sliding along the top of the armco, the sharp metal nearly cutting him in two.

- I took some liberties with the geometry of the Esses but it's fairly accurate.