Allison Vaughan Prof. Presnell Eng. 1103 25 Sept.

2012 Racing with Cupcakes

Well, guess whos the new gas man for a Patrick Dempseys race team? My dad exclaimed while he rolled out his kitchen chair to sit down at the table for dinner. The look stretched across his face expressed extreme happiness. This look appeared every time he talked about racing, it was one of those signature expressions that he held in his collection of iconic faces. For about 5 years now, my dad has been the fueler for the professional race team I-Moto which runs in the Continental Series for Grand Am Racing. Grand-Am is a step down from NASCAR racing, but instead of just running in circles and turning left, the Grand Am series runs various road courses across America and in Canada. These road courses involve several treacherous turns that lead into serpentine twists and long straight-aways and traps that are designed to snag careless drivers and cause minor trip ups. My dad has been working for I-Moto on and off in his racing career, hes been on other race teams like Freedom Road Racing and other well-known teams in the series. All of the races that the series participate in are also televised. My mom and I are always joking around about how my dads backside is internationally famous, because most of the time when you see him on camera hes fueling the car in a hunched over position. He always shakes that comments off with a silly face or with a wave of his hand, ignoring the fact that were just messing with him.

What did you just say?! I wasnt quite sure if I just believed what my ears had heard. It seemed like one of those things that hed throw into a conversation to make sure youre still listening or to just mess with you. My dad being a very joking person was known to toss in ridiculous sayings into a perfectly normal talk especially when it came to talking movies. Hed talk in quotes and try to persuade you to identify which movie it was from, needless to say he makes every conversation into a game. It was a Saturday evening January of 2010 and my mom had just called everyone for dinner. Usually after youre done eating and clean up after yourself you can leave the table and go off to whatever you were doing before hands, but this night was different. Everyone stayed at the table listening to what my dad had to say about his next adventurous race. Luck would have it my dad was a hundred percent serious about Patrick Dempsey. Patrick Dempsey is a world known Hollywood actor and race car driver, hes a lead role in the popular TV Drama series Greys Anatomy where hes known Doctor McDreamy . A few movies that hes been in are Made of Honor, Valentines Day, Enchanted, and Sweet Home Alabama. A few weeks later, word was known about my dad knowing Patrick Dempsey and other famous drivers and people were starting to ask questions. Mainly people knew about my dads new celebrity friends because of my dads blabbering jaw. Hes the kind of person who will talk to strangers in a parking lot for hours and then claim afterwards that hes know them for forever. This trait of his is wonderful at times because theres never a dull moment but other times its a pain, especially when youre on a time crunch. A lot of people at first were jealous and standoffish, but then their reaction went to a more TAKE ME WITH YOU TO MEET HIM! outlook.

The next race was at The Virginia International Raceway was practically begging on his knees for my mom and I to come up and watch him at his second job where his butt is internationally famous. We agreed to go out of curiosity to actually see what he does when hes gone for four days at a time and off in faraway places like Canada or California. Do you know Boris Said? My best friend Zach, Cupcake, shouted in the band room after a long night at the high school football game with the Marching Band. Zach is a tall, gangly guy that is goofy in everything he does. His reaction was a priceless, he looked like he was about to faint or bombard my dad with questions about every single aspect of his second career. Yeah, Boris is great, He was loving the attention, I was talking to him on the plane coming back from Connecticut; hes a riot. Pats hilarious too! I swear I thought Cupcake was going to faint when my dad invited him to VIR to meet Boris Said as well as Patrick Dempsey. His face was pale and greenish and his hands were shaking from excitement. The realization that he was going to meet his favorite driver finally sunk in. He never thought meeting Boris was an option because he was so used to NASCARS strict regulations. However, by this time my dad had changed race teams and was back racing with I-Moto racing and no longer on Patrick Dempseys team, but he still saw him around the paddocks.

It was time to we all piled into my moms car to drive the race track. Cupcake and I took turns driving because my mom at the time had broken her wrist and was in a blue cast which I had nicely decorated with world monuments all the way up over her elbow. The country roads of North Carolina and Virginia were every relaxing short of Zachs endless thanks-yous and panic attacks from shear excitement. All the trees were covered in bright green leaves that rustled in the wind and all the corn fields that lined the roads were already shooting up out of the ground. Everything

looked like it was all part of an elaborate dream world from the beauty of spring. Cupcake kept blabbing about how he couldnt believe that all of this was happening. He claimed his life was now complete. It was obvious how nervous he was about meeting Boris Said, his thin shanking fingers were constantly gripping and rewrapping around the steering wheel in his lap. We arrived several hours later to a mass of chaos that was a curving line of cars snaking around the twisting roads of VIR. Each line held cars, honking their horns in sharp staccatos with people hanging out the windows and hollering to the guards ahead. Each guard held the same look on their faces, extreme exhaustion and lack of enthusiasm. The lines werent moving a fast pace and several people were yelling at them to get a move on. Some even tried to bully their way in with harsh criticisms and foul language but the security didn't back down. Even after the comments the men went on with a fake smile stretched across their faces as they sorted the cars into different lines. Our turn finally came up and a man with large bags under his eyes and shaky knees looked quiet relieved that we werent going to yell at him, after he asked us kindly to see our tickets. The only problem was that our tickets were in will call, so we didnt exactly have them on us. He gave us a weak smile and proceeded in giving us the most confusing set of directions to will call that one could possibly imagine. If you were to draw a map of the directions it would look like a squiggle drawn by a kindergartener. Cupcake nodded, acting like he understood exactly where to go and drove off all while trying to figure out the directions in his head. We never did pick up our tickets and no one ever asked to see them, but once youre in VIR no one asks questions because everyone is there to have a good time and watch a fast paced race. Now Grand Am racing is very different from NASCAR. Here you can actually meet every single driver without a special pass. From my experience NASCAR is really uptight about people

wandering around the paddocks and meeting drivers unless youve paid a ridiculous amount and have the right credentials. And even then you cant do everything that you can here at VIR. You can sit in the race cars and pretend to drive them here. You can aimlessly wander down pit lane before the actual race starts. You can do anything you can think of, short of replacing a driver and actually driving out on the track during the race. Inside the race track youre on constant alert. You can and will get run over by a racecar or golf cart if youre not paying close attention. Everything is buzzing with energy and music is blasting through the speakers on light poles. People are constantly running around with giant fuel cans to run over to the Sunoco gas pump and wobbling back to the paddocks with the full container. The amount of noise is ridiculous, everyone is yelling over the sounds of race cars revving their engines and the crews loud air powered tools. The first thing on our agenda was to find my dads paddock and introduce Cupcake to every single crew member. We arrived at the tent covered area with gravel crunching under the plastic tile on the ground and my mom nowhere to be found to see about 20 men running around with drills and tires filling their hands. From somewhere you could hear my dad yelling out instructions to place decals on the car and demanding to know where the crew chief was. It was complete madness. Constantly under foot we had to keep moving around until we finally decided to sit on the coolers outside the tent next to the 16 wheeler that transported the race cars. But even there we were in the way of the cars trying to get in and out of the paddock to be weighed to make sure they met the requirements for the race. Cupcake and I realized that wed never successfully meet everyone so we just started to say hello to everyone who passed us and eventually we did meet a majority of the crew that way. Someone would come up and ask for the water that we were sitting on and then wed rope them into a

conversation about how their day was going before they were drug back into the mess inside the tent. Our mission was accomplished all while we managed to get the whole team under the impression that we were dating. We werent, but we were such close friends its easy to see why people thought that way. Are you ready to go meet Uncle McDreamy? My mom joked as she appeared out of nowhere. Zach jumped up and almost looked like he froze in time before he came back down to earth.

YEAH! LETS GO ALLISON!! He busted with all of his might. He immediately started jumping up and down, playfully hitting me in the shoulder while we started on our journey to go find Patrick Dempsey and Boris Said. Our legs started to pull us in the direction of pit lane as we snuck in and out of various paddocks that all contained the same chaotic mess. The closer and closer we got to pit lane the louder the music became and the more and more people we saw. People dressed in every shade of color and form of spirit wear imaginable. The number of people was unbelievable, you could just barely squeeze in between the gaps between everyone and figure out where you were. The roar of engines escalated higher and higher as drivers tried to impress all of the awaiting fans. All it really accomplished was a major headache and confusion. I spotted Patrick Dempsey first and it was nearly a miracle that I did because of the sea of people in front of me bobbing like the waves of the ocean. He stood at his pit lane paddock, his hands on his hips, a giant white smile hung on his lips. His lean body was dressed in his nomex fireproof suit that was ribbed with thin plastic cooling tubes. His brown wavy hair was styled nicely as several camera men snapped pictures of him with fans and with his race car that promoted a childrens hospital. Each time someone came up and asked for a photo, he throw his arms out, letting them in close like

he had been best friends with them for years and years. He was so down to earth and generously nice unlike what Hollywood likes to depict actors and actresses like. Hey, My mom chimed, You remember Hauss daughter. Hes on I-Motos team racing the Mazdas this year. Hey you, hows your dad doing? I havent seen him yet this race, but his cars did great in the qualifying rounds. Patrick Dempsey grinned in response. He looked just the same as he had the first time I had meet him just a year earlier. Hes doing great. I hardly saw him over in the paddocks. Its a mad house over there. I jutted in. It tends to be that way 24/7 around here. So, how are you guys doing? He looked off to the side and waved at a passerby dressed in the same race suit as him. We chatted with him for a few minutes before he signed my moms giant blue cast. He commented on the monuments that I had drawn all over it and thought that it was a very clever idea. Zach got a picture with him and then we were on our way to find Boris Said. I think Boris is in a pit a few down from here! Pat yelled as we strolled away, waving, with large grins on our faces. FOUND HIM! My mom hollered even though we were well out of earshot of him as she spotted Boris Said towering above the crowd standing in his own paddock. The crowd had thinned slightly, most likely because the race was about to start in just a few minutes and everyone wanted to get seats by the side of the track.

Zachs feet almost skidded to a halt as fear sunk in. The look on his face was priceless, it was a combination of anxiety and oh my gosh I cant believe Im doing this. Am I still alive? Someone pinch me looks. Zach, Come on! My dad told Boris that wed be stopping by! I grabbed him by the bicep and drug his sluggish feet towards the giant in front of us. Boris Said hung over us by a foot and his curly hair was so messy it looked like hed just walked through a wind tunnel. He hadnt put on his race suit just yet and was running around in one of his teams race shirts and jeans while he tried to make sure everything was good with the car before the race started. Hello, Zach. Its so great to meet you! Boris stuck out his hand and smiled. Zach stared at his hand like it was an alien life trying to communicate with him. He looked so unsure of what to say, his face was pale and his hands at his sides were shaking with a ferocity that Id never seen. Finally he found the words that were choking him and started off on a conversation. It was like Cupcake and Boris had been lifelong friends and were just being reacquainted after a long period of being apart. The two of them continued to talk for about 20 minutes before thunder erupted through the sky and it started to drizzle. Boris kindly excused himself to go cover up his race car and we were left to take shelter back at I-Motos covered paddock. Once he was out of sight, Zach embraced me in the most startling and happiest hug that I had ever received from him. He picked me up off my feet and swung me around in circles all while yelling, I LOVE YOU! I CANT BELIEVE THIS IS ALL HAPPENING! Zach still couldnt wrap his mind around the fact that he just had a real talk with his favorite race car driver

I cant believe it Allison! I just talked to Boris Said! A whole conversation! I didnt know what to talk about at first, but then I just started to talk about racing and then we were talking! We were really talking Allison! How great is that?! He jumped up suddenly rejoicing in this victory, I cant believe I can sit in the cars! And talk to drivers! This is the best day ever! IM SO GLAD I CAME! The rain started to come down harder and we hadnt left pit lane yet. We had to stop and don our ridiculous rain ponchos. Zach threw his on over his backpack and looked like a tourist version of the Hunch back of Notre Dame complete with camera in hand. Every time we passed a car there was the clicking sound of Cupcakes camera followed by, Hey, Allison look at this picture! Isnt it great! Look! The car has rain tires! There was a pause from Cupcake. Allison, I think Patrick Dempseys waving at us. Zach whispered to me while poking me in the side. His camera had dropped from his face and to his side. Shock was evident on his face. Yeah he tends to do that, just wave back and smile Cupcake. I returned the wave before noticing the large sign used to stop the car in its pit stop that held Ellen DeGeneress face. Hey look! Ellen! My hand shot out, my finger pointing at the smiling blonde on the circular sign. That year Patrick Dempsey had really been pushing fundraising for a childrens hospital as well as other celebrities were and I suppose he had teamed up with Ellen or just had her face on his pit stop sign to be funny. The rain had started to come down in the bucket loads and we hadnt made it to the other side of the race track to my dads paddock. We ended up standing under the large barn shaped pavilion on the side of the race track in the serpentine turn next to the straight away. The race had started and the Rolex Prototype cars in the ST Class of the race spewed large rooster tails of water from behind

them. The sight was dreamlike to see the water shoot out from over the car and into the air several feet before landing behind the car riding its bumper. Even though the rain slightly dampened the mood of the race, it was still one of the best days of my life.

Did Cupcake meet Boris Said? My dad asked when he got off his plane a few days later. Yes. He did! And he had a great time, thanks to the best dad in the world. Aw, youre too sweet, Allie. You know, now that I think of it, I dont think I actually told Boris Zachs real name. I always refer to him as Cupcake like you do. I stopped what I was doing. Does that mean Boris Said was looking for some guy named Cupcake instead of Zach? Yes. Oh my goodness. Cupcakes never going to believe this. I laughed as I picked up my phone to tell him that his favorite driver knew him as a dessert.

My dad at work (The one playing with the trunk)

on pit lane

my dad waiting to fuel the car! Haha he looks so serious!

Zach and Boris Said

ELLEN!!

Zach and Patrick Dempsey!

Looking very serious! My dad is the man in the middle with the ridiculous fire suit on!

Me and Patrick Dempsey!