Hot rodding

By James F.

A short story about my hobby and coming back to learning later as an adult.

I started hot rodding in 1993 when I was 17. It was all new to me and I did not know what to do. I had no friends at all and that was why I started hot rodding. In school I never learned to read and write. The teachers never helped me to learn. I was picked on in school. So I never went out and I suffered from nerves. Then I started in the Adult Learning Centre in New Ross and I started welding after a few weeks. I said I would try hot rodding and went and got a 127 Fiat car. I stripped it out and put in safety bars. My dad brought the car to the field that day. I was very nervous. The first race went okay but in the next race I turned the car upside down, I did not like that at all! I am now 36 years old and I am still hot rodding. Some of the people that were there at the start are not around anymore, some are dead. I might be like that too if I didn’t start hotroding. It really helps me when I am feeling down. I race on Sundays and I look forward to that day in the week coming round. My son will try it next year. He likes it. I went out yesterday and it was very wet. I still won 3 races and came first. I have a Nissan micra – it goes very fast. I have the Fiat also. I hope to do the racing and hot rodding for years.