The Story
Aidan is
30. He has a job as a mechanic at a garage in Essex and has done since he left
school. However, one of the motorsport events held at Arena Essex grabs his
attention a lot more than the others: drifting. There is a problem with this
though. 10 years ago, when he was just 20 and his brother John was 22, John was
killed in a banger racing event when the Ford Granada he was driving suffered a
head on collision with a wall at the Arena Essex raceway. Aidan witnessed this
accident at the age of 20 and at the time he was so overcome with emotion and
grief that he vowed to never take part in any form of motorsport again. Since
this tragic accident, Aidan’s dad Ted has made him promise that he will not
take part in any form of motorsport, as he doesn’t want to lose both his sons
to the danger of motor racing. Ted has more than John’s death as a reason for
not wanting Aidan to go motor racing though. When John was doing banger racing,
Ted served as his mechanic, and he is wracked with guilt as he feels that
perhaps his workmanship (or lack of) when repairing the brakes on John’s car
could have caused his sons premature death. This is the real reason that he
does not want his younger son to go motor racing, as he feels that another
substandard mechanic could cost his other son his life.
However,
Aidan, like his late brother, has had an interest in motorsport from an early
age, and so it was inevitable that one day he would follow in his brothers
footsteps. After being away from the track for 10 years, he attends a drift day
as a spectator with a couple of his friends and his dad. His dad is very
apprehensive about attending as this will be the first motorsport event he has
attended since the death of his eldest son a decade ago. The day is not hugely
successful, as Aidan is very worried about what could happen to him if he were
to become involved in motorsport himself. As well as this, there were people
that knew John at the event who were openly making comments about him being a poor
driver. This angers Aidan and Ted, as they do not like for one minute people
talking about a member of their family like this. Aidan gets very wound up and
has to be physically restrained by Ted to stop him leaping of one of the other
blokes and giving him a good beating.
From here
on in, the family experiences a rollercoaster of events. Aidan is invited to a
further drift day by friends of his at the garage, but declines their
invitation as he worries what his father will say if he finds out he has attended.
On the contrary though, there is a girl that works at the garage with Aidan
called Chloe that he likes that is a regular attendee at the drift days. She
does her best to convince Aidan to come along, and there is a large part of him
that is very tempted to attend, to prove to himself more than anything that he
is not scared of his father and he is his own man. He is now faced with a
dilemma. Does he attend the drift day in her company to impress her, or does he
obey his father and stay away? After being invited to a couple more drift days,
Aidan decides enough is enough and he has to make his own decisions without
worrying about what anyone else thinks. So, he tells Chloe that he accepts her
invitation. Whilst watching the drifting, Aidan realises that he wants to be on
the track taking part, not on the sidelines spectating. He tells Chloe this in
confidence, as he knows his father will disown him if he tells him his true
intentions.
As time
goes on, a strange turn of events unfolds, as the seller of the BMW 328i that
Aidan wants to buy is the very same bloke that sold his 2.8i Granada to John to
go banger racing in. He recognises Aidan, and they chew the fat and discuss how
and why Aidan wants to get back into motorsport, but drifting instead of banger
racing. Aidan explains that he went to watch the fifth round of King of the Ring
at Arena Essex. Obviously now that he has made the decision to get back into
motorsport, he has to keep it from his father as he fears his reaction should
he find out. Once he has bought the BMW, he decides that before he attends a
drifting event, he needs to learn the basics. He could practice on the roads,
and decides to do this as it gives him more of a buzz. The preparation of the
BMW is fairly straightforward. Strip out the interior to save weight, weld the
rear diff so that both wheels turn together constantly, and fit a hydraulic
handbrake that will lock up the rear wheels to facilitate a drift.
Once the
car is drift ready, Aidan gets round to practicing on the road. Roundabouts are
a good starting point for this, as they provide a constant corner in order to
keep the car sideways as long as one has the nerve to. However, this proves to
be Aidan’s undoing as he over does it on one particular roundabout and ends up
spinning out and crashing backwards into a lamp post, writing his car off in
the process.
However,
despite writing off his first drift car and his dad’s fierce questioning about
the cause of the accident. Aidan elects to carry on with drifting, and sets
about finding another car, ideally another 3 series BMW. After another couple
of months searching, he finds another car that he considers suitable for the
role. This time it is a 325i, so slightly less powerful, but still a very
capable drift car nonetheless. Aidan tells Chloe about the crash, as she has by
now become good friends with him and he knows that she will not tell his
father. Despite this crash though, Chloe still has faith in Aidan and he maintains
that he is capable of drifting, and simply requires more practice.
As time
goes on, Aidan gets to a point where he wants to take drifting seriously and so
he attends his first drift day event at Lydden Hill Racing Circuit. He gets a
huge thrill out of this, and decides that he will definitely make it a regular
thing, and will practice as much as he can. There is definitely a rebellious
side to Aidan being revealed here as well, as he is going against his father to
do what he loves. Chloe is still not entirely convinced after his crash, but is
still willing to support Aidan in any way she can.
The story
moves forwards to a year later, where Aidan is taking part in an event that he
and Chloe have helped to organise, a memorial event in memory of his late
brother. By now Aidan and Chloe are an item, they started dating when they
began to spend an awful lot of time together and Chloe was a lot more
supportive of Aidan than his father.
The story
comes full circle at the end, as Aidan puts his all into the event, and is
successful in winning, thus proving to his dad and most of all to himself once
and for all that motorsport is a safe and incredibly rewarding sport to take
part in. It is when Aidan wins the trophy that he goes to his father and
presents it to him, revealing that his father is the true rightful recipient of
it as he only ever had his best interests at heart.
Elevator Pitch
Standing
in the way of Aidan’s goal to become the ultimate drifter is his dad. He is
opposed to motorsport after Aidan’s older brother John was killed in a banger
racing accident. Aidan is faced with a dilemma: does he follow his dream and
risk his life on the track, or does he follow his dad’s wishes and play it
safe?
Addendum
Chloe’s father owns the garage that Aidan
works in. Her family are very heavily involved in motorsport, particularly
drifting, as the garage is within walking distance of Arena Essex. She keeps
trying to convince him to become involved as a drifter in the arena, but at
first he is not too sure, however she convinces him to get into it behind his
dad’s back. As the story progresses, she takes a liking to him and she makes it
clear that she wants to take things to the next level with him, but again he is
not so sure.
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