“Keep going! You’re almost there,” I heard my teammate call, who was waiting for me at the finish line of the great drag race duel against the most fated rival of our neighbourhood — a girl who was an expert in driving and was five years older than me.

She was sitting in a 1966 Camaro, which was the first model of Camaro, and it was fully modified with a pure carbon fibre body kit and nitro, which made it super-fast and it could easily beat any car.

At that time, I had been driving one of my favourite cars from my collection, the Supra, which had the original 2JZ tuned up to 1200 horsepower. The 2JZ enabled the driver to increase the horsepower as much as they liked and that was a very big invention of Toyota. The more I increased the speed of the car, the more I could feel the car overheating, and I knew that the car had some problem. But as I was concentrating on the heating of the car, the girl passed me in a heartbeat with her nitro on.

Seeing this, I turned my nitro on as well, but that became the worst decision of my life. As I turned on the nitro, the engine caught fire and I was very lucky that I had enough time to open the door and, right before the finish line, I jumped out of the car and landed right on a hotdog stall.

The last thing I saw was my car bouncing off the rails of the dock and going straight into the river.

My friends rushed towards me and took me to the hospital, where they found out that I was severely injured; I was not in my senses until the third day, when I suddenly woke up at 7am only to find out that there was a big scar going all through my left arm and left leg, and another scar crossing my left eye.

I knew I looked horrible, but my friends didn’t make it feel like something was wrong. I quickly started asking questions about my Supra, but I was told to shut up by my friends, because the Supra had disappeared in the river.

I did everything that my doctor said and in one month, I was in my Nissan GTR which was also modified, but was only with 900 horsepower and was nowhere near power of the Camaro.

No body kit or anything was installed, which made me sad. So I ordered a carbon fibre body kit and under glow lights for the bottom of the car, and also the inside. I used to be very sad on weekend nights, because those were fun times for me when I would be out racing my car.

One day, a letter arrived in my garage saying that I had been invited for a car meet in Ohio. I got very excited so I thought I should modify my Mercedes Benz AMG sports to take there. Therefore, I installed a racing kit in the car, in memory of my Supra, and then took it to the car meet.

For car lovers, the sight felt like heaven. Every type of car was present at the meet. Racers from all around the world were present there; including those that I was very terrified of because they were street racers.

When it was time for the races, my first race paired me with a guy driving a Lamborghini Urus. At the very start, he slammed into me, causing my car to spin out. However, I didn’t let that stop me. I quickly engaged the car’s nitro, zooming past every other competitor on the road.

As I focused on the race, I noticed a large truck up ahead. I hit the brakes, causing my car to drift and slide right underneath the truck. I safely reached the finish line with my car performing continuous donuts, but I managed to bring it to a stop just in time.

As my car stopped, I got on the hood of the car and waved to everyone in the crowd, but only realised that a supra was coming my way. A shiver ran down my spine and the window rolled down to reveal a lady driver sitting in the front and I immediately recognised her, she was the neighbourhood rival!

I saw her stopping the car near mine and stepping out. Then she tossed the car keys in my direction. After the event had concluded, I approached her and inquired why she had given me her car. She explained that she had also arranged for the truck as a test for me. She expressed her sympathy, mentioning that she felt sorry for me because I had lost the most valuable car in my collection.

This experience taught me that life doesn’t solely revolve around winning or losing; it’s about the effort you invest in the work you do and how effectively your intuition guides your decision-making.

Published in Dawn, Young World, November 11TH, 2023