ting line. The smell of exhaust gases and burned rubber filled the air. The starting light received my fullest attention, zoning everything out of my conscience. 321green light! I stomped my foot on the accelerator as I side stepped my clutch.
Shifting into second gear, I flipped the switch to my nitrous oxide system. Instantaneously I was thrown back into my seat. All of a sudden a loud pop disturbed the smooth roar of my engine. Halfway down the track my engine shut off and forced me to coast the car to the finish line.
My teammates were already waiting at the end of the drag strip. Unable to restart my car, we pushed it back to our pit area. My hopes were crushed as I went over the fact that my day of racing was already over. Drag racing is a big part of my life. All of my spare time is spent working on my 1996 Honda Accord. With a big import drag racing approaching quickly, I spent most of my waking hours for a week tuning my car.
Sweat and hours of hard work finally prepared my car for racing. The interior was stripped down to the sheet metal and contained only the drivers seat to reduce weight. The whole exhaust system was removed to gain that little edge of power, which is essential for racing. My car was finally race ready, waiting to tear up the track.
The following day, our race team met up at the track. In the pit area, we changed out our street tires for high performance drag slicks. After a few more last minute adjustments, I pulled into the staging lane and waited for my turn to race. Little did I know that my first race would end up in disaster, a blown engine. All of the hard work and dedication towards my car seemed to be a futile effort because of the bad results.
After we pushed my car back to the pit area, we took apart the engine, looking for the problem. I immediately found it to be a bent cam sprocket. The situation seemed hopeless because I had a tuned specially tuned sprocket. We scrambled around the track asking people if they had any spares, yet our efforts seemed fruitless. With the nest race approaching quickly, we ran into a little luck. It wasnt the best sprocket, but it would have to do.
I barely put the engine together in time to make the next rounds of racing. Once again I pulled back into the staging lanes and resumed the wait for my second run. Half an hour later, I was back at the starting line. Just like my previous run I concentrated on the lights. However, this time, my concentration was overshadowed by the outcome of my earlier race. As the light turned green, I left the line with a perfect start; I shifted into second and punched my nitrous once again.
The car steadily picked up speed and as soon as the race had started I was passing the finish line going over a hundred miles an hour. A sigh of relief escaped from me as I glanced over at my opponents lanevictory. Even though I made it to the final rounds of elimination I lost the final and most important race. However, I didnt care about the loss because I knew that instead of making it this far, I could have been standing on the sideline with a broken car instead of racing.
I realized that any obstacle would be overcome if you pursued it hard enough. Pursuit of happiness and achieving goals is an important part of life. Difficulties and a lack of results should not discourage ones strive for happiness. If the desire to accomplish something is great enough dreams can be achieved no matter what the hardships or the time it takes.
Difficulties will make the achievement of a goal much more sweet because of the rewards of overcoming the little kinks and knots of life.
