Chapter 17
Monaco was beautiful. Savi had complained about waking up at the crack of dawn to exercise on her first morning there, and then never again. By the end of her visit, she had been the one waking Marco up even earlier, begging to run further each day.
Their feet pounded the pavement day after day for an hour plus, all the hurt over Jesse fading with every step.
Then they’d come home and have their protein pancakes and take it in turns on the racing sim for a few hours.
Post-lunch was time for tennis which, it turned out, Savi was great at.
Better than Marco, who’d had thousands spent on a coach.
Dinner was always at a fancy restaurant, Marco’s treat despite Savi’s insistence, and they spent every evening in the casino or at a bar.
They’d seen botanical gardens, museums, cathedrals, and soaked in every ounce of history Monaco had to offer.
Savi had fallen in love. With the country, the house, the port, the boats.
All of it. It was so different from what she knew, and she’d never give up the ranch life forever, but she was incredibly grateful to have had a taste of the high life.
Of course, with her position on a team like Revolution Racing, she could have this all the time if she wanted it.
But home was home, and it was where her heart belonged.
She especially wished she was at home now, not in the middle of a pre-quali autograph session with thousands of fans, most of them solely focused on her and Marco and demanding every detail.
People were always invasive during these sessions, but security were edging closer and closer with every interaction.
The team had insisted Savi and Marco sit on the end of each table, so they were next to each other, but it was pulling attention away from their teammates and Savi felt weird about it. This was their moment too.
The camera crew were acting like they weren’t there, but at least Bea was getting shots of the others, too.
In fact, the head photographer for the IEC and a close friend of the team had made it her personal mission to draw the focus away from the new couple, for the sake of their sanity.
Still, Miko and Kodie were clearly irritated that the media were blatantly ignoring them.
Savi could feel the fury radiating from her teammates, and she knew there was not a damn thing she could do to make it up to them.
She didn’t ask for this. She would just have to do damage control, take every opportunity she could to bring the attention back to them.
‘People are so rude,’ Kodie muttered. ‘Like, hello, we’re sat right here.’
‘I’m sorry, Kodie. I don’t like this either.’ Savi spared a quick glance at her teammate, noticing her clenched jaw and harsh scowl and trying not to take it personally. She knew her friends were annoyed at the situation, not necessarily at her.
They may have thought Savi was a winner; she was bound to get sponsorship deals and brand deals because of the fanfare surrounding her relationship with a fellow driver, it was the dream scenario for a rookie, but she wished she could switch it off and on.
She hadn’t been thinking about any of that when she agreed to this, she’d just been thinking about the photos and what they could do to her reputation.
They signed a seemingly endless collection of autograph cards, model cars, flags, t-shirts and caps, so many fans wearing Revolution Racing’s signature red, black and white zebra print merchandise.
It filled Savi’s heart with joy and was one of her favourite things about the job.
To know that these people were here for the same reason as her; motorsport was everything to them.
Life in Sheridan was quiet, mundane. This was nothing like that.
She was a key part of something important for the first time in her life, and she couldn’t wait to go on Faith, Lucie, Bea and Esme’s podcast later in the year and share her journey with millions of young girls.
Girls Off Track had blown up and its success had played a pivotal role in Jasper hiring an all-female team.
She might not have made it this far had they not done the work.
Sure, there were smaller manufacturers with all-female teams in other race championships, but they were the only team at the top level.
That was why this was so significant. They were setting the standard, showing up the multitude of teams who didn’t give female drivers a second thought.
Signing the last red baseball cap with a black marker pen, Savi popped the lid back on and waved goodbye to the dwindling number of fans who hadn’t quite made it to the autograph table.
They had an hour set aside on qualifying day and another hour on race day for this, but there were always some left at the back of the queue who they just didn’t have time to see.
Revolution ran on a tight schedule with very little wiggle room but that was how Savi liked it.
She liked to be busy, it helped kick her into gear and put her in the zone.
Forget about the millions of questions directed at her love life.
‘On to the media building next please, everyone. The room is jam-packed with journalists and we’re on a tight schedule!’ Jasper rallied behind them, herding the team out of the garage and across the paddock.
‘You okay?’ Marco threw an arm around her.
‘Stressed,’ she sighed, traipsing behind the team.
‘Anxious?’ He pushed for more.
‘No, it’s not that kind of stress. I just know they’re going to bombard us in here, too.’
‘It’s just part of it, unfortunately. The press liaison will direct the questions the best they can, try to keep it to a minimum. But there will be a few.’
‘Kodie and Miko aren’t happy.’
‘I know. They’ll get their time to shine in there, don’t worry.
Not every journalist will want details of our relationship, only some.
And it is their job to ask about that, too, so try not to get too upset about it when they do.
If your teammates kick off in the aftermath, Jasper will tell them the same thing,’ he reassured her.
‘Thanks, Monaco,’ she smiled.
‘No worries. Sit on the opposite side to me, okay? It will make a statement to the media that we’re not here to talk about us.’
They walked into a buzz of excitement and the flashes of cameras, more than seventy journalists all watching them take their seats, their chairs lined up in row after row. The higher-ups from the IEC and Revolution Racing stood at the back as usual, monitoring their employees.
Savi knew of press conferences that had gone awry in the past: drivers swearing, making inappropriate comments, arguing with one another and landing themselves and their teams in trouble.
Abandoning all their media training because the pressure got to them.
Revolution’s drivers consistently oozed professionalism, and Savi could only hope the girls would follow suit.
‘First question, please,’ a voice called out.
Journalist number one stood from their seat and took the microphone, giving the drivers a little wave.
Most of them responded, aside from Julien who leaned back in his seat looking moody as ever.
That had always been his thing. ‘I have a question for Kodie. There has been talk of your father starting a NASCAR team. Would you ever cross over to a different championship?’
Kodie laughed sarcastically, but with a genuine smile on her face so she didn’t come across as harsh.
‘Not a chance. I know I haven’t been in the IEC for long, but I can’t imagine ever going anywhere else now.
My father can do what he likes, but I’d rather have him involved with the team who gave his daughter a chance.
So, who knows, maybe we can convince him to join Revolution Racing in the future. ’
‘Julien,’ another journalist took the mic. ‘Will your oldest daughter be going into motorsport? She’s shown a lot of interest in the sport, coming to plenty of races over the past few seasons to support her dad. Maybe it’s a potential career path for her?’
Julien shook his head. ‘Jasmine is very set on medical school in the US. Soon she won’t have time to come and see me race, but even if she wanted to go into it, I don’t think I want my baby girl in a car that drives that fast.’
‘You stick to the speed limits at home?’ the journalist grinned.
‘Always. Even on the empty roads around the island of Oahu, speed limits are there for a reason. I’d never drive fast with my family in the car, no matter how good I am. The safety precautions just aren’t there on the open road.’
‘Well said, sir.’ The journalist nodded gratefully, handing the microphone back.
Jasper looked pleased as punch in the audience.
Road safety had been a big thing for the team last season, with Julien participating in an ad campaign in support of stricter speed limits in rural areas after he’d had a minor accident near his home in Malmedy while racing Marco.
‘Marco, what made you decide to settle down so suddenly with a fellow teammate and a rookie, no less? You were seen with several women in the weeks leading up to you and Savi going public, how do we know this is real?’ a female journalist asked, angering Savi.
Shouldn’t a woman know better than to make a comment like that? So what if Savi was a rookie? What difference did it make to how he felt about her? She was getting mad like their relationship was real, but she couldn’t stop herself. It was the principle.
‘I’m not sure what Savannah being new to the championship has to do with anything,’ Marco frowned. ‘It took us a little while to figure it out, but when we did, we agreed we might as well go all in. We just decided to stop messing around and face our feelings.’