NASCAR Nan

• Ethan Guthridge, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2018

We got in the car and started driving. My Nana was taking me somewhere but she wouldn’t tell me where. It was around three o’clock when we left and I thought I would have a little sleep...

I woke up to the sound of a man shouting 3,2,1. I opened my eyes and realized that were on a racecourse, but not only were we on a racecourse but we were racing! I felt the car speeding up and the wind blowing in my face. I looked to the side of me and saw hundreds, maybe even THOUSANDS, of people in the stands. I asked my Nan what we were doing and she yelled at me and said, “RACING!” I asked her why and she said, “BECAUSE I’M A RACER!”
“WHAT?” I said In the loudest possible voice. “I AM A RACER!” she said even louder than the first time. Then she told me that she had been a racer since she was twenty seven. I couldn’t believe that my ninety five year old Nan had been racing for 68 years.

I eventually realized that we were still in the race. Not only was my nan a racer, but she’s a good racer. We were coming first, there were 16 cars in the race and we were coming first. But the person in second place was catching up. Nana went as fast as the car could go but the car behind us was soon to be the car in front of us. We were going slower so I told her that we were going slower and she asked, “We are?” really sarcastically.

Turns out my Nana's Corolla wasn’t faster than the car behind us. She pushed on the gas as hard as she possibly could but the car was still slowing down. We could see the finish line but then the car started going slower and slower and slower until the car stopped. We saw everyone whizzing beside us, and it turned out we had run out of fuel. So we waited until everyone went past and got out and pushed the car. We had pushed the car around 20 metres already but then the car went faster. Someone got out of the stands and helped us. As soon as that person helped us another person helped us, and then another person then another then another until we had half of the people from the stand helping us. We got to the finish line in no time and when we finished everyone got up and cheered.

After, we went back and told Dad how amazing our time in Shep was. We didn’t tell him but he found out later that night on the news. He was almost confused as I was when I woke up in the car. Nana and I passed it off like it was nothing and went to bed but dad was left scratching his head.