After the restart of the race session, all of the racers are heading towards the first right handed turn and everyone is changing the racing lines from which they started. Gilles, in the eighth position, doesn't intend to lose any time and goes wild right in this corner and uses the oportunity when the sixth driver which is right in front of him tryes to brake lately to block the fifth racer who is going on the outside line and overtake him. Gilles goes next to him, both his right tires out of the track because of the small space that his oponent left for him. When this racer tryes to turn into the corner, he suddenly finds Gilles beside him, blocking him and gaining three positions right after the restart.
During that lap, Gilles is chasing dwon the racer on the forth position. Ahead of one of the last corners he is right behind him and decides to enter this turn from the outside line while the driver in front of him decides to do the opposite to try and block him.
However this act costs him his exit speed out of the turn and in the next fast corner he sees that Gilles is trying to overtake him from the outside and so he tryes to block him by crossing his trajectory. Gilles has planned this and immidiately goes on the inside line, his oponent tryes to block but it is already too late because Gilles is right beside him and only he can do is to try to push him out of the track. He manages to push away half of his car but Gilles doesn't give up and pushes him back, forcing him go on the outside line.
They go side by side into the last turn of this circuit, Gilles goes through the corner in a magnificantely high speed without even slowing down, the other racer, due to being on the outside line and Gilles blocking his way to go on the inside line and being afraid of a possible crash, slows down significantly. And so it happened that Gilles is already on the forth position by the end of the first lap.
After this battle for the forth position, Gilles is closing the gap between him and the racers ahead of him, going as fast as he can, flat out, skidding through corners, visualizing the image of him standing on the podium after just his first race in Formula Atlantic. He then notices his pit crew showing him a signal sign for pitting because they know that his tires are not going to live very long with this agressive driving style. Gilles passes around the pits. totally ignoring his pit crew, now only one task in his mind, to catch the third driver.
During this lap however, Gilles finally finds himself right behind his targeted driver and holds onto him for the rest of the lap. Drivers in front of them after this lap for a set of fresh tires, moving Gilles and his oponent up two positions. The main mechanic shows Gilles again the signal sign but he doesn't get any respond from his driver that passes by the pits once again. After this the main mechanic slams the ground with the signal sign.
"Not yet, I need to catch this guy first!" Gilles says for himself.
Gilles then keeps teasing and trying to overtake the driver ahead of him, hoping he makes a mistake or that his tires will damage so much that he will need to go into the pits. His tires however are damaged a lot already as well. They are reaching the corner ahead of the two last fast turns that have already proved to be crucial this weekend many times. Before entering the corner, Gilles indicates that he will try to overtake him from the outside of this turn and as planned, his oponent blocks his trajectory. But Gilles has already moved to the inside of this turn, it seems he is finally going to overtake him and that he is going to end up on the podium. Before the apex, he brakes hardly, his extremely damaged tires however betray him and he loses a grip and slides a bit, the other racer tryes to go around Gilles who then bumps into his right rear tire, causing him to head towards the grass. In an attempt to stay on the track, he presses the throttle pedal down to the floor, spins his wheels, twitches his steering wheel and with a magnificent skid keeps his car out of the grass. As a result, Gilles finds himself right behind his oponent again.
They stay close to each other even while going through the two fast corners, both flat out without slowing down, smoke coming from their wheels while doing this, their tires suffering visibly. Gilles' main mechanic notices them coming again and with a disgust he shows the signal sign above his head once again. But Gilles doesn't seem to slow down and go into the pits not even this time. The main mechanic starts getting frustrated and shouts at Gilles to finally go into the pits (like if he could hear him by any chance). Then in a split of a second, rear right tire of the car in front of Gilles explodes and its driver heads immidiately into the pits. Gilles seeing this decides to do the same and twitches with his steering wheel to do a skid and get into the pits at the last moment.
"You can't be serious! The kid is gonna kill himself while going into the pits!" says the main mechanic.
Even thought that Gilles almost crashes into the barrier dividing the pits and the track, he misses it by not even centimeters and makes it to his pit crew which was practicly not even prepared for this because they expected him to stay on the track this time as well.
"Change the goddamn tires as fast as you can!" Gilles shouts at his mechanics, being afraid that if his oponent makes it faster than him, he won't get another chance to get ahead of him. He looks in front of him, monitoring the other driver's crew fixing his tire and changing the other three tires too.
"Cammon! Speed up a bit!" He shouts again and then his gaze meets with the gaze of the main mechanic who clearly is not happy with Gilles' demeanor. By this moment the racers that were on the first and second positions before pitting have passed them, meaning they returned back to the leading positions they were starting on.
And all his tires are changed and he starts reving his car before exitting, his oponent however exitting as well. They head out of the pits, Gilles still behind him. Counting on the grip of his new tires, Gilles decides to do something risky. As they were reaching the first turn of the track, both racers were going on the middle line of the road, and before entering the corner, Gilles moves his car towards the inside line. The racer ahead of him is now well aware that letting him in would be a very big mistake and so he crosses his trajectory to block him. However by this moment Gilles has moved to the outside line. Both drivers find themselves too close to the entry of the curve , both braking hardly, the ahead racer's tires start sliding and he loses control over his car for a second but manages to keep on the track and to keep on the inside line of the next curve. Gilles feels his tires start sliding as well but he twitches his steering wheel to do a skid and go beside his oponent.
They enter the next corner side by side, Gilles' oponent on the inside line sees that Gilles doesn't intend to slow down nor leave him a space and so to avoid a colision he hits the brakes, letting Gilles in front of him.
"Hell yeah! It worked! Bloody hell!" Gilles cryes out into his helmet. Gilles goes flat out for the rest of the lap to make a gap between him and his oponent behind him and then he slows down a bit again and keeps driving safely in the following laps.
And after many more laps, Gilles crosses the finish line third! Something absolutly unimaginable for him before the restart of the racing session. He drives another lap and then goes into the pits. Gets out of the car, looks into the cheering fan crowd to find his family, and when he finally sees smiling Joann with their kids, he signals her to come to him. He takes off his helmet and hood, he then goes to the main mechanic.
"I'm sorry for my demeanor during the race, I..."
"It's okay kid, as long as ya will be finishing this well after all races, I don't care," the mechanic replyes before hugging Gilles, then he reaches out and says with a laughter: "but ya know what, I take it back, don't do such a thing again, I thought I am going to get a heartattack."
Gilles then notices his wife running towards him, wrapping arms around his neck in a tight hug. Then she reaches out and kisses Gilles on the lips.
"You made it, Gilles! You made it, God I can't even believe it!" She says before hugging him again.
"This is not dream, is it, Joann?"
"No, it is not." after hearing this from his wife, a wave of emotions hits Gilles as he starts crying out of pure joy.