a reply to:
Encia22
I think the financial problems she had in the past were the least of Tess's problems. I don't know all the details and I'm not sure what she posted
about the rest of her life here. That's why I hold back a little. This is more in the direction of the sad and shocking things that she has never
talked about openly with me. I understand that though. I understand why she showed so much of herself here and less in real life. Who knows how many
tears were shed while she wrote such texts that made her naked from her soul.
I also shed tears while writing here and you might not think so. It's just text and there's no physical closeness, which is probably why she was so
open here. It takes a shovel full of courage and it shows character to share weaknesses openly like Tess.
Someone wrote that it's strange how you can see into a stranger's soul. I mean look at me now, I would never talk to my work colleagues about things
like this as openly as I do here. It wasn't just me who had such a connection with Tess, I'm just the one who had the most contact with her. Most of
them moved very far away and I did too for a while. But I came back to my homeland. We used to be a wild, tight-knit bunch of adrenaline-addicted
motorsport freaks who actually only worked for the weekend. We shared almost everything with each other except our toothbrushes and underwear. After
2-3 days we all probably smelled the same.
You work sweaty and unshowered skin to skin at 35°C in the shade under the car and you don't feel squeamish when you have sweat from your friends on
your skin or have to take someone else's sweaty T-shirt because yours is even dirtier and you don't have any fresh ones left. Of course everything is
very embellished now so that the point gets across, yes we took a shower too
. We all trusted each other blindly because when you're shooting down
the mountain down the track in a convoy, the person in front of you can't make a mistake and you have to have blind trust that the person in front of
you will set the anchor point correctly because otherwise you'll fly off. Or push the one in front of you into the guard rails - or if there aren't
any, into a tree.
It's like asking your buddy to pack your parachute for you. And when you have a connection like that you can say anything to each other. You can tease
yourself, get angry, wash someone's eyes when you notice something is going wrong. You then love these people like your family, sometimes even more
deeply because you can't choose your family.
I met Tess at a drag strip back then. I can still remember the first time I saw her, she was really going wild. There are a few name similarities and
someone who thought he was smart swapped her first name with mine because they thought it was a mistake. Her uncle has the same name as me, only as a
second name. And he was well known with his car at such events, only Tess was still new at the time. Back then, women were unicorns in motorsport.
She was really upset because it probably wasn't the first time that her name had been misspelled or her name had been made into a boy's name. Stood
there with her racing overalls and fiery red hair, her face almost as red. I went to the race management because my cousin told me they spelled my
name wrong. If I had gone to the race management 5 minutes later, I would never have met her, would not have been next to her on the start line. We
competed against each other and my cousin had already checked out their car in the morning. And the two checked ours. Actually I should have won but
the car didn't perform. After the first run against Tess, the two came to me. Tess was quite curious because they both thought they would lose. People
thought I had torn off a gear wheel. The two then offered to help because they thought there was something wrong with the setup.
At the time I thought Tess was just a wannabe when she drove a little off course with me - she was behind the steering wheel. I thought the woman
couldn't drive and just had a big mouth. She drove like a beginner - that's what I thought at first. After a short time I was very annoyed. She stops
at some point and asks me if I don't feel how the control unit reduces the ignition angle as soon as boost pressure is created and that she knows
exactly what the problem is. Would she be allowed to repair it? I was so perplexed because I wasn't expecting it. She then crawled back to the fuel
pumps and replaced a cable bridge. I, as a brainless person, had electrically connected the two pumps so that they were one behind the other, not next
to each other. Both had less than half the power. She annoyed me with that for years
She then used her feminine charm to get to the dyno of a team
that actually wanted to leave two hours earlier. She mapped my car for half an hour after we had removed the front drive shaft together because it was
only a rear-wheel drive dyno, one of those mobile ones. Just like that. As if that wasn't a big deal. My initial rejection quickly turned into
curiosity and admiration.
We raced against each other again and this time I had a low 10 on the 1/4 instead of a high 11. That's almost 1.5 seconds. After we both stopped, she
ran up to me, beaming with joy and cheering, and hugged me! Almost blew me away. She was happy that she lost! What? Tess was like that. I then spent
the night at their house because it was far too late for me to load the car onto the trailer and drive home.
From then on I was with the two of them very often, summer parties, birthdays and one of the team with the dyno also kept in touch. The three of us
then met two others from the region at various events. From then on we were all inseparable. We once repaired a total damage in three days. We were
awake for four days. When parts were delivered, the signature for the parcel carrier was not yet dry and the part was already unpacked. Our
girlfriends cooked, Tess built an engine from two old with some new parts, I did the bodywork and welding, and the three others took care of the
wiring harness, chassis and paint. Combining such actions was - for us - simply legendary. Those were the days. Young, dynamic and stupid actions.
That's why I wasn't the only one who had such a close friendship with her; that was very important to me to make clear. I'm just the tip of the spear
and was closest to her, had the most contact in the last few years.
Und außerdem...