by Stahl, Shey
Ryder came up to me after the feature, if you could call it the feature that he won. Something about the chickens in turn two made me think it wasn’t a real race.
I plucked some feathers from my helmet. He laughed pulling some from his.
“Once you get used to the bump, it’s kind of fun.”
I laughed. “Yeah—sure,”
Now that we weren’t out there in that madness, yeah, it could be considered fun.
Holden and Kenny were a good time that night. Old men were always entertaining to me and despite their age, they knew how to have a good time.
Sway and Tommy convinced Kenny that he should ask this girl out that was hanging around our pit. I knew what she was looking for but I wasn’t in the mood tonight. That’s a lie, I was but I didn’t feel the need to be with anyone other than Sway. She was sitting on my lap when Kenny walked up to me looking a little humiliated.
“I saw that going differently in my head.” He said sitting down beside me on a tire.
“Not like you planned huh?”
“Not at all,” he let out a nervous chuckled.
“Come on Kenny, let’s show you a good time.” I said throwing my arm around him and tossing him and Sway another beer. “Nothing ever goes the way you plan with women.”
Dallas turned out to be quite the party animal, as did Kenny and Holden.
This town may have had one strange setup for a track but they all seemed to know how to have a good time. The coolest part was they didn’t make us leave after the race; you could camp in the pits.
I was fairly shit faced by the time I made it to our tents to sleep that night and saw Holden fall over in front of his more than once.
“What happened to you?” I asked Holden who was now lying on this back in the gravel.
“Hell, I don’t know.” He examined his shoes before standing up. “I just adjusted my feet and fell down.”
“Come on old timer, let’s get some sleep.”
“Who yous callin’ old timer son?” He slurred brushing dirt from his overalls.
He passed out within minutes of hitting his sleeping bag.
When the chickens from turn two woke us up at four that morning with only two hours sleep, we decided to make our way down to California for the final week of USAC racing.
We ended up choosing to stop off at a hotel to get some sleep but we had to find the hotel first. It seemed getting here wasn’t half the battle, finding our way back to the hotel was.
“What are you doing? I just want to get to the hotel.” I told Sway when she pulled over alongside the road in a questionable mobile home park. She was driving my truck because Alley and Spencer were fighting in the back seat.
Above theirs bickering, she yelled. “I have to pee.”
“Where are you going to go pee at? That person’s house?” I gestured the mobile home with blue tarp on their roof and a sign on their door that said trespassers will be executed.
“Fuck you...I have to pee.”
“Fuck me?”
“Yes...fuck you.” She nodded and then ran for the woods to pee.
Concerned for her safety, I followed her.
She was pulling up her pants when I found. “Don’t run off in the woods like that.”
“Oh stop being so protective,” She said itching her arm. “I’m fine by the way.”
“Why are you itching and did you step in your pee?” I asked helping her over a log as we made our way back to the truck.
“I don’t know...my arm itches. I don’t think I stepped in my pee, why?”
“You’re not getting inside my truck with pee on your shoes.” I stated stopping short of the truck.
“Well how am I going to know if I stepped in it? It’s wet out there.” She reached for the handle. “What’s the matter with you?”
“Take your shoes off.”
“No, I won’t.” She huffed. “Get in the goddamn truck Jameson.”
We were all tired by that point but the thought of pee in my truck was not all right with me.
“Take off your shoes and throw them in the back.”
“Fuck you Jameson!” she yelled and jumped inside.
Eventually I got in but I was still angry that she didn’t care enough to take her shoes off.
“That was rude.” I slammed my door shut wishing I didn’t have a suspended driver’s license.
“Really,” she drew out putting the keys in the ignition. “We have been sleeping in this truck for months. Alley and Spencer have fucked in that back seat more times than I can count and you’re worried about pee on my shoe?”
My head spun around toward Spencer in the backseat who was suddenly not so vocal arguing with Alley any longer.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I lost it.
One thing was certain and that was I would be selling this truck when we got back to civilization.
They all got a good laugh out of it and when we got to the hotel, I made them all sleep in the damn truck while I enjoyed the freedom of the hotel room to myself just for being assholes.
I was in one of those moods where nothing was going to make me happy. I just wanted to be left alone. I was tired and not only tired; I wanted to sleep in my own bed and not have to get up in the morning. I also wanted a vacation away from my brother and sister. I was literally ready to kill Spencer and Emma.
By the time Perris Auto week rolled around and I was in my last week of the USAC title chase. I was thankful when the week flew by. I finished third the first night and then won the other two of the three-day event.
We wouldn’t know who won the Triple Crown until after the final USAC sprint race in Hanford the following week but I was hopeful. With those two wins in both the midget and sprint races I slid into the lead with just an eight point lead. Justin was behind me with six hundred and seventy nine points with Ryder right behind him with six hundred and seventy eight points.
It was the closest Triple Crown battle USAC had ever seen and I was right in the middle of it. Even though I wanted to win badly I enjoyed the points being as close as they were. It meant that I was battling with guys that could compete with me. If it had been an all out wash where no one stood a chance much like the past championships I’d won at the tracks on the West coast, it wouldn’t mean as much to win.
Now that I had competition, when I won, I knew it was because of my talent not just because I had the cars with money. You see in the divisions like USAC and NASCAR the cars are all similar and the drivers racing in them had money. When you go to local tracks, there is a huge difference between cars because of lack of money. When you start racing in the divisions with money, you see what you’re made of and how other talent stacks up.
I snuck off to World Finals for the World of Outlaws in Charlotte prior to the race in Hanford. One more weekend in sprint cars was exactly what I needed.
Sway, Alley, Emma and Tommy stayed in California with my mom while Justin, Ryder and I flew back to North Carolina to race. It was fun to hang out with my dad and friends that weekend but I rarely got to see him beside the few times during the drivers meeting and the pill draw for the trophy dashes.
I enjoyed hanging out with Justin and Ryder that weekend too even though we were so close in the championship points together. We had become good friends this season and I didn’t realized how refreshing that was. Sway was different from my guy friends. They were fun to bullshit with and talk trash about other drivers and setups whereas Sway was mentally what I needed.
It took me until the third night to realize why I felt so abnormal these last few days. Sway wasn’t there.
Our relationship these days was still the same though after that night where I attacked the poor girl in my hauler I had left her alone.
I stopped with the innocent touching and kissing and whatever else my dick decided it wanted to do because nothing about it was fucking innocent. I couldn’t take any more chances. That night prior to the race, I had been moments away from ripping our clothes
off and fucking her against the wall in my hauler. She didn’t deserve that and I knew her well enough to know if she thought that’s what I wanted or needed, she would have let me. I wouldn’t have been any different than that douche Dylan Grady.
How could I have even risked that?
I was beyond upset with myself after that night but it didn’t change anything for her. She was still Sway. Still the same caring, witty and supportive Sway. No matter what I did to fuck things up, she just blew it off and continued to be my roll cage.
I’ll never understand why she did it but again, I was glad she did.
My dad ended up winning his twelfth championship that weekend. I caught up with him after the trophy presentation.
“Another one huh?” I motioned to his trophy. “Do you even have room for that?”
He glanced down at it smiling.
“You know as well as I do, it’s not about the trophy.”
I nodded looking down at my feet. He slung his arm around my shoulder as we walked back to the haulers.
“Let’s go get that Triple Crown.”
“Sounds good to me,” I told him with a grin.
The following Wednesday was the last point race of the season and marked the end of the USAC schedule. After this race at Giant Chevrolet Speedway, we would know the winner.
Even though this was the last race my nightly routine was pretty simple and hadn’t changed much besides maybe a few interviews on my thoughts about the title chase.
We were all at the track by two that day. The race was under the lights for the effect I could only assume.
Our entire family was there and many of my brother’s friends had shown up along with a few of mine. The pressure to win was there but I also wanted to win badly to show everyone that I had done it.
Part of me, and this was a very small fraction, wanted Chelsea there to see it. After her harsh remarks, I wanted to say, “See, I told you I would make it.”
Sway and I walked up to the pit entrance together with my arm thrown over her shoulder. I handed over my credentials which consisted of was my suspended driver license, my USAC license and my insurance card. I also had to sign the liability waiver and list all the crewmembers we had with us that night.
Two people I thought I’d never see again showed up, Kenny and Holden from the dreadful race in Republic.
I laughed when they walked up behind us.
“Do yous got room on that crew of yours?” Kenny asked.
I smiled, as did Sway who reached up to hug the old roughed up boys from Republic.
“Sure.” I motioned for them to come with us.
When Tommy saw help coming, he was all smiles. He was another one that could use a break.
These days we were hauling around a grill to make our own food so my mom and Sway began cooking burgers and hot dogs for everyone. I was so worked up over this race and it being the end of the most grueling season that I was hardly myself.
I barely spoke to anyone. I stayed away from Sway, and the two women who threw themselves at me when I walked toward the bathrooms probably thought I was the world’s biggest asshole when I told them to get away from me. I just wasn’t in the mood. I wasn’t in the mood for anything, only for this to be over with.
After we ate, the pit steward came around and had us draw pills to see what group we ran with for the hot laps.
When hot laps were underway, it was a battle with adjustments trying to prepare the car for the race.
That night we were in a USAC sprint car, which was non-winged. The setups were completely different because once you take away that wing all your down-force is gone. You struggle to find grip anywhere you can which means an entirely different spring and shock setup as well as stagger and air pressure adjustments.
I made an appearance in the hospitality tent for Bowman Oil and Sound Logistics, a sponsor I had recently picked up, that manufacture exhaust systems.
Between those two sponsors and Bucky I was able to run the remainder of the USAC season with a full sponsorship which helped considerably since I’d torn up more sprint cars this year than I cared to admit.
Time trials started after that and Sway handed me a bottle of water before I got inside the car but took off in another direction when a girl came up and asked for my autograph.
She was polite so I said yes but I couldn’t help but wonder why Sway was reacting the way she was. These last two months she disappeared instantly when another woman would come near me.
Time trails set the field for the feature events. There was still last chance qualifiers in the sense that if you placed in the top two of your feature you could advance to the next. Tonight they had 3-Feature events. If you were the top two in the C-Feature, you advanced to the B-Feature. The A-Feature was fielded by the top nineteen qualifiers with four transfer spots available. The top four from the B-Feature started in the rear of the A-Feature. Each track was different but this was how most of them operated.
Dad caught me before the main when I was lined up on the front stretch. He ran out there and stuck his head inside the car. “You got this kid, don’t think, drive!” He yelled over the idling engine.
I only nodded, there was no way he’d hear me even if I did say anything.
I wouldn’t say I was nervous but I was tense. The entire season came down to one night.
It had come down to forty laps. Anything could happen in those forty laps. Tires shred, engines blow, drivers misjudge and it’s the luck of the draw.
With Ryder and Justin voraciously behind me, I needed to focus so once again while inside the confines of the cramped cockpit, I was one with the car.
Giant Speedway is a 3/8 mile clay oval and by the main that night, the surface was glazed over, slick and full of ruts.
It was a night Jimi would say: “Stand up and drive.”
I did.
Ryder was all over me. I wasn’t sure if maybe he was just sizing me up or if he was actually struggling to pass. He took a look at passing me each lap but that’s all he ever got, just a look. I led the entire feature. I wasn’t sure where Justin finished so I had no idea if I won the title until I pulled into my pit and saw my family jumping up and down.
Sway was the first, always the first to congratulate me. She leaned inside of the car before I was able to pull myself out and kissed me. I froze since my entire family was watching but she pulled away and I realized it was just her excitement for me.
“I knew you would do it!”
“Thanks honey.” I said hoisting myself from the seat to stand through the top roll bars. Everyone was screaming and throwing beer and champagne at me. It wasn’t just the thrill of the victory that night it was finally being able to take a breath. There was an end in sight.
Ryder had become one of the best drivers in the USAC divisions that year. To beat him at tracks like Eldora and Knoxville and then to come back and beat him when track conditions couldn’t have been any worse; that was something I was proud of. I gave those beasts from the East a run for their money this season and proved to them that a kid from the Northwest could pull it off.
I may have been considered Jimi Riley’s son but that night, I was known as Jameson Riley, the eighteen-year old kid that just won the USAC Triple Crown.
I stayed at that track celebrating with my family, friends and fans until the lights were turned off. Right after the race, I started signing autographs before loading the truck. This was something I learned from Jimi.
You rarely got him to sign anything for you during a race night but afterward, that was about the fans that had just devoted their entire evening to watching him race. So did I...I stayed until I signed everything they wanted because without them, I wouldn’t be racing at these levels because there wouldn’t be these levels of racing without them coming out and watching.
After standing there for three hours signing for people, the last kid said what pretty much summed up the season for me and made me understand once again why I risk it all.
He couldn’t have been much older than ten, maybe eleven. He was all smiles as he handed me a program to sign. I asked his name, he said it was Jake. I’d seen him before but I couldn’t place him but then I’d seen a lot of kids these days. Just as he was about to leave with his autograph he stopped and smiled back at me pushing his golden blonde curls away from his face.
“Jameson?” he asked politely.
“Yeah?”
“Do you think maybe I could get a picture of you and me?” his voice was soft and timid.
“Of course buddy.”
Sway took our picture and I gave him my address and told him I expected a copy of it when he got it developed.
He eagerly agreed and then said, “I can’t wait to hang it up in my room!” he ran off to his mother after that when his dad approached me.
Right then I realized why I recognized him. It was Shey Evans’ grandson.
Shey’s son-in-law, Greg, laughed leaning into my shoulder. “All my kid talks about is this Jameson Riley kid that is supposedly his hero.”
I smiled placing the cap back on the black Sharpie I was holding.
“Is that so...?”
“It is.” Sean put his hand on my back. “He just started racing quarter midgets this last year and tells everyone he’s going to be like Jameson Riley someday.”
I risked everything to become Jameson Riley and that night I did. Now was the time to cast who I would become as a racer. People in the racing community were starting to see me as me.
I will say starting to because the following morning when I picked up the newspaper it was packed with articles saying:
Riley’s kid making a name for himself
Jimi Riley’s son snags USAC Triple Crown title.
I had some work to do but still, I won the title.
It’s what I set out to do this season and I did. Next season I’d work on making these goddamn reporters aware that I had my own name.
13. Displacement – Sway
