Dead Man's Switch by Tammy Kaehler

Author:Tammy Kaehler [Kaehler, Tammy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781464208652
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press, Inc.
Published: 2016-09-23T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-eight

I stood near the edge of the group, warding off the light rain with my umbrella and trying to be inconspicuous. Half the people carried umbrellas, including Torsten. Others wore hats or hoods. Andy wore nothing to stay dry. He just grinned at the crowd and rubbed his bald head, explaining he needed another shower anyway.

As we approached the first turn, Big Bend, the walkers had split in two, one group following Andy, and the one I was in following Torsten. He was giving a running commentary on how to handle the track and answering questions fans asked.

The wife of a married couple sporting his-and-hers fanny packs and car-themed Hawaiian shirts asked the next question. “What do all the flags mean?”

Torsten stopped walking and faced the group. “The flags. There are a lot of them, aren’t there? Part of the corner worker’s job is to communicate to drivers, and they do that through the flags. You’ll know some of them. How about green?”

“Go racing,” a male voice from the crowd called out.

“Correct. How about white? And checkered?”

“Last lap and race over,” said the Hawaiian-shirted husband.

“Right.” Torsten waved his arms to keep the crowd walking down the track as he walked backwards, facing us. “Yellows you probably know about; that means caution and no passing. But there’s also a distinction: you might get a local yellow at a corner, or double-yellow from the start/finish line that means full course caution and lining up behind the pace car. A variation on the yellow is a yellow with red stripes, which tells me there’s a slippery surface or debris on track. And a red flag means stop in place because the track is closed. Now, what am I forgetting?”

“Black?” came a voice from the crowd.

“What’s the blue one?” shouted a female voice at the same time.

Torsten nodded. “Of course, one flag you never want to see and the other that we see all the time. Black first: that’s telling you to leave the track immediately, either because of a mechanical problem or a rule infraction. It usually spells trouble. And the blue, with a yellow diagonal line, tells me faster traffic is coming behind me. That one’s rarely out of corner workers’ hands in the ALMS.”

Flags took us all the way through Big Bend, and Torsten stopped to tell the group about apexes. Someone asked him what he’d thought the first time he’d driven the track, and with a wink at me, he blew my cover.

“It’s been too many years to remember what it was like, except for being tight and bumpy, like I’ve told you. But we’ve got a new driver here—stealing my precious secrets. She just drove it yesterday, and she’ll be racing tomorrow, in another Corvette. Kate, why don’t you tell everyone what it’s like to drive this beast for the first time?”

Two dozen pairs of eyes followed his gaze to me, and two dozen brains clicked, “She’s that one.”

I put on my best public smile. “I second everything Torsten said.

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