The Go Karts

• Isaiah Tyra, Grade 2, Holy Spirit Catholic Primary School -
• Short Story
• 2021

Excellence Award in the 'The Write Note 2021' competition

During the summer school holidays, Leo and his family caught an aeroplane to Melbourne so that he could compete in a go karting race called fast cars.

Leo was so excited for race day that he counted down the days and would say to his family “only one more day left!”. His family were excited too. The next day, when Leo woke up, he ran straight into his mum and dad's room jumping up and down and yelling “wake up! It's time to go to the race. They had pancakes for breakfast, got dressed and drove down to the stadium.

When they walked into the stadium, there were a huge amount of people in the crowd. His mum and dad found a spot to sit in and Leo went down to marshall for his race. While Leo was in the line, he was watching other go karts race. He saw other people turning corners furiously and breaking all the time. That made him feel nervous about crashing into other go karts that he had butterflies in his stomach. He carefully put on his black and white striped helmet. It felt a little bit tight at the bottom but he knew this would protect him.

A little while later, he was sitting in his go kart ready to start his race. The lights beeped three, two, one, go! Leo put his foot on the pedal and dashed through the track. He completed two laps of the track and felt good about his racing. But then, he was about to hit the go kart in front of him. His palms got really sweaty and were sliding off the steering wheel, but luckily he was able to quickly turn the steering wheel just in time. He missed the car and was fine. He knew what to do and was confident so he overtook the car coming fifth, then fourth, third and second place. He was just behind the go kart coming first. He knew he had to do something special to get the lead. He could hear the crowd cheering ‘LEO! LEO!’

Leo had beads of sweat across his forehead. His heart felt like it was pounding out of his chest with pressure. He drove around the final bend in the track and put his foot down on the pedal as hard as he could and cut through on the inside of the go kart coming first. It worked, Leo was now in the lead. He could see the finish line up ahead. He just had to maintain his lead and he did. Leo won the race and the crowd went wild with a cheer. He couldn’t believe he won. He just loved racing and couldn’t wait for the next race.