Chapter 117: Race Weekend | Saturday | WHAT A DRIVER! WHAT A DRIVE!
TAP! TAP! TAP! TAP! TAP! TAP!
Helmut found himself so immersed in the heat that he unknowingly started tapping his finger on his lap, captivated by the high-level racing Fatih was displaying.
Despite being more than a second behind the closest driver among the nine that remained in front of him, he covered that distance in a matter of four corners. By the time he entered Turn 5, he had already caught up.
Just as they exited the corner, Fatih deliberately bumped the driver ahead, announcing his presence. The other driver turned left to look but saw no kart. Instinctively, he pushed his kart to the right to cover where he thought Fatih must be. By the time he realized his mistake, it was too late. His right-side tires dipped onto the grass, causing him to lose traction. By the time he corrected the slide and rejoined the track, the faster Fatih had already inserted himself side-by-side on the left, taking the position he had been gifted. Fatih now had the inside line into Turn 6, which he used to the maximum, even feigning a slide on the corner exit to force the other driver wide. This allowed Fatih to secure the position and gain a short distance as he started chasing the remaining eight drivers with eight laps and a few corners remaining.
Helmut, who had seen the whole sequence very closely, as that patch of road was the second closest tarmac after the start-finish straight, felt an excitement he had only felt when watching a battle between two legendary drivers playing mental games with each other. To his surprise, he was witnessing it in karting, executed by a ten-year-old who controlled the entire narrative of the battle. From the initial bump to cleverly using the limited neck-turn radius of karting drivers to hide himself, he induced an automatic reaction, forcing his opponent to misjudge the track limits.
He turned to look at the other scouts in the grandstands and saw that all of them were immersed in the race, a stark contrast to the disinterest many had shown during the qualifying session with Fatih out.
"We are going to need to change our approach," Helmut said to himself, realizing that this would most likely be a competition to sign Fatih. Although he had an advantage due to Fatih’s current age, that advantage was limited. Fatih was expected to remain in karting at least until he was fourteen due to the age limit for single-seaters. That meant four more years in the karting scene, enough time to warrant a karting manufacturer to take the leap and offer a very good endorsement contract. He was going to be their biggest advertiser, always delivering either a dominant performance from the front or an immersive driving style when fighting through the field. It wouldn’t matter where he started; all eyes would always be on him, meaning the kart he drove would be too.
His line of thought was cut short by the cheers and gasps from the grandstand. By the time he returned his attention to the track, Fatih had already moved to P6 by the end of lap two. It looked possible for him to reach P2 by the end of the current lap, as the drivers from P2 to P5 were all fighting amongst themselves and were only a short distance ahead of him—a gap someone with Fatih’s pace could close by the end of sector one.
Although he had seen Fatih accomplish a quintuple overtake on lap one, he was more excited for this one. This was a battle against drivers in the top ten, meaning they were better than those he had overtaken earlier.
He followed Fatih, who took Turn 1 flat out. He lifted in Turn 2, trail-braked into the Turn 3 hairpin to load the front and rotate the kart faster, then got back on the power earlier. He took the next two corners flat out, opening up the exit before braking late. He took as much curb as possible, deliberately missing the entry curb of one corner to perfectly hit the curb of the next, finally catching up to the group. His foot was now full on the power, showing no intention of lifting until the straight before the final corner. For the next four corners, his foot would be planted.
.......
"HE GOES FLAT OUT INTO TURN TEN AS HE COMPLETES COVERING THE GROUND, GOES WIDE ON EXIT BEFORE AGGRESSIVELY TURNING AND TAKING THE CHICANE ENTIRELY ON ITS CURBS! HE IS NOW TUCKED BEHIND THEM, PUSHING HIS HEAD FORWARD TO GAIN ADDITIONAL SPEED THROUGH A MINI-DRS EFFECT WHILE IN A FOUR-CAR SLIPSTREAM! AND HE FINALLY MAKES HIS MOVE AS HE GOES TO THE INSIDE LINE ON THE STRAIGHT, MOVING SIDE-BY-SIDE WITH MICK JUNIOR, WHO HAD LOST A FEW POSITIONS AT THE START! THAT MOVE GIVES HIM THE RIGHT OF WAY INTO THE CORNER AND ONTO THE EXIT!
HE GAINS A POSITION, ONE IS DOWN, THREE MORE TO GO! THEY ARE NOW NERVOUS, AND THEY MOVE TO BOTH SIDES OF THE TRACK TO COVER HIM, AS IF THEY HAVE COORDINATED THIS AHEAD OF TIME! BUT HE REMAINS ON THE RACING LINE, AND NOW IT IS A BATTLE OF WHO WILL BRAKE LAST! IT IS FATIH WHO BRAKES FIVE METERS LATER THAN ALL THREE OF THEM! HE TAKES THE LEAD OF THE GROUP, BUT CAN HE KEEP IT ON TRACK?!
IT LOOKS LIKE HE HAS A PLAN! HE FORCEFULLY DRIFTS THE KART; HE BLEEDS SPEED, BUT IT DISRUPTS THE RHYTHM OF ALL THE DRIVERS BEHIND HIM, FORCING THEM TO BRAKE ONCE AGAIN! THIS ALLOWS HIM TO GET ON THE POWER BEFORE ALL OF THEM AS THE CONCERTINA EFFECT TAKES FULL EFFECT, AND HE EMERGES AHEAD OF EVERYONE! WOOOOOOOW!
THE CROWD CHEERS FOR FATIH, WHO IS DELIVERING THE DRIVE OF THE DAY! IN THREE LAPS, HE HAS MOVED UP TWENTY-THREE POSITIONS ALL THE WAY TO P2, AND HE NOW STARTS HIS CHASE OF THE RACE LEADER, LANDO NORRIS!
LUCA, CAN YOU BELIEVE WHAT WE ARE WITNESSING?" Giancarlo asked Luca, giving himself a breather after shouting for a full half-minute straight.
"I believed he was capable of recovering into the top fifteen, but this is beyond what I even imagined. In a quarter of the race, he is already chasing the leader. If I said I expected this, I should be stoned for being a liar. We are witnessing something for the history books. This ten-year-old is driving as if he has thousands of hours on this track when it is just his second day. His racing mind is something I have never seen in this category. He is smooth where smoothness is faster and aggressive where aggression brings benefits, but he keeps that aggression perfectly in check, using just enough to get what he wants from the situation and nothing more. It is like a teacher fighting students; he has been toying with the other drivers for three laps, placing them exactly where he wanted them to be...."
But before Luca could finish his praise, he was cut off by Giancarlo, as Fatih had already erased the two-second deficit he had at the start of lap four by the end of sector two of lap five.
"IT IS FINALLY A BATTLE FOR THE RACE LEAD BETWEEN TWO TEAMMATES! ONE HAVING STARTED FROM POLE, THE OTHER FROM THE VERY LAST POSITION! Fatih adopts a patient strategy this time, as he has more than five laps and sees no need to take unwarranted risks. He takes turns ten, eleven, twelve, and thirteen flat out, while right behind Lando Norris, who constantly looks back to make sure Fatih doesn’t have any funny ideas.
AS LANDO NORRIS TURNS HIS HEAD FORWARD, FATIH FINALLY MAKES HIS MOVE! IT LOOKS LIKE HIS CONSERVATIVE APPROACH WAS TO LULL LANDO INTO A FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY! HE DIVES ON THE INSIDE LINE ABRUPTLY, EVEN DIPPING HIS KART ONTO THE GRASS, BUT HE MANAGES TO CONTROL IT AS THEY ARRIVE AT THE BRAKING ZONE FOR THE FINAL HAIRPIN!
AND ONCE AGAIN, HE OUTBRAKES HIS TEAMMATE, BUT THIS TIME HE DOESN’T HAVE TO DRIFT, AS HE HAD ENOUGH SLOWING DISTANCE TO KEEP THE POSITION INTO THE CORNER AND SOLIDIFY IT ON THE EXIT!
THE CHARGE IS COMPLETE! LA CARICA È COMPIUTA! THE CHARGE IS COMPLETE!
FATIH YILDIRIM STARTS THE SIXTH LAP AS THE HEAT LEADER! HE NOW HAS CLEAR AIR TO GO AND BREAK THE TRACK’S LAP RECORD ONCE AGAIN!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOW! OH MY GOD! OH MIO DIO! OH MY GOD! OH MIO DIO!"
CLAP! CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!
........
The crowd was heard cheering, with nearly all of them standing and clapping for Fatih as he went through the start-finish line the moment he became the race leader. It was a performance they would most likely always remember. As if to respond to their cheers, he delivered the expected record-breaking lap on the next lap, then another one, and another one.
"An overnight engine teardown inspection resulted in a rushed rebuild of his engine, causing him to miss the qualifying session and resulting in him starting last, a position from which many thought it would be difficult to recover to pole, the position he was favored to have. However, he didn’t give up, giving everything he had to deliver a superb recovery performance, going from last to first in the span of five laps. As he comes out of the final corner, getting on the power for the last time in this heat, the checkered flag and standing ovation welcome him on the straight.
FATİH YILDIRIM WINS THE FIRST GROUP A & B HEAT, CLOSING IT WITH THE FOURTH TRACK-RECORD-BREAKING LAP TIME IN THIS HEAT ALONE! WHAT A PERFORMANCE! WHAT A DRIVER! WHAT A DRIVE!"