Welcome to Gaia! ::

---
Two men stood before a leaderboard. One because he was at the top of the leader board, and the other because he was at the bottom. Despite this, they both had equal anxiety over the matter of their placement.

Racing V8 super cars is a hard business, and whilst these two men knew this, they both came to that conclusion from very different perspectives.

Lionel ‘The Long shot’ McGee lived up to his name, or rather down to it as it sat in last place on the leader board for the 14th consecutive round.

‘I can’t take this anymore’ he stressed, fixated on the position of his name.
‘Every round I either wind up dead last, or I leave with another DNF under my belt’. He cringed at the flashbacks of being muscled off the road by the more powerful cars on the track.

‘I have no confidence, I just don’t have what it takes to be here’

It was the perception of others that made him feel this way the most. Standing in a crowd of motorsport fans, not a soul would recognise him, and yet other drivers lapped up the attention for being in the top spots on the ladder.

Drinking in a bar alone, he could not escape it. The other drivers would be boasting loudly, disregarding the other patrons because they thought they had it all. Snickering at the pace of the losers, talking up their next holiday with their beautiful wives.

McGee had no wife to go home to, and no money to spend. It took all he had just to afford to race, and he hadn’t progressed further than the bottom end of the leader board for 14 rounds now.

‘Maybe…this season will be my last’ McGee thought.

Next to Lionel, Gary ‘The great’ Rendale stared at the placement of his own name. It occupied the top spot on the leader board, however it sat there uncomfortably hounded by 3 other close rivals.

‘I can’t take this anymore’ he stressed, fixated on the position of his name.
‘Every round, everyone expects me to win, I have obligations to my fans, my colleagues, my sponsors and my reputation’. He cringed at the thought of the consequences if he failed.

‘There’s just too much pressure…I just don’t have what it takes anymore to be here’

It was the perception of others that made him feel this way the most. Standing in a crowd of motorsport fans, not a soul would fail to recognise him, just because of his standing on the leader board, as though the person who earned the title didn’t matter as much as the title held by the driver.

He could not even drink in a bar alone these days to escape reality. The other drivers would find him and have a drink with him, boasting loudly, disregarding the other patrons because they thought they had it all. They snickered at the pace of the losers, which reinforced his obligations to win. The others talked up the holidays they would be going on with their wives, so Rendale would have to follow suit to affirm his reputation.

Not that he had much choice in the matter. Rendale’s wife would be expecting nothing less than 5 grand holidays a year. This was on top of all the money he had to spend on her to keep her happy. It took all of his will power to stay in or close to top spot season in and out.

‘Perhaps…I should make this season my last’ Rendale thought.

~Fin~