The Legend

This book is a work of fiction. Names, sponsors,
characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination
and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or
persons, dead or living, is coincidental.

The opinions expressed in this book are solely
those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of NASCAR, its
employees, or its representatives, teams, and drivers within the series. The
car numbers used within this book are not representing those drivers who use
those numbers either past or present in any NASCAR series, USAC or The World of
Outlaw Series and are used for the purpose of this fiction story only. The
author does not endorse any product, driver, or other material racing in
NASCAR, USAC or The World of Outlaw Series. The opinions in this work of
fiction are simply that, opinions and should not be held liable for any product
purchase, and or effect of any racing series based on those opinions. This book
is told through first person narration and switches point of view between characters.

The Legend is the fifth book in the Racing on
the Edge series.

The Legend

There are times when
you’d give anything for just one more moment.

Copyright © 2012 by Shey Stahl

Published in the United States of America

EBooks are not transferable. They cannot be
sold, shared, or given away. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of
this copyrighted work is a crime punishable by law. No part of this book may be
scanned, uploaded to or downloaded from file sharing sites, or distributed in
any other way via the internet or any other means, electronic or print, without
the
publishers
permission. Criminal copyright
infringement including infringement without monetary
gain,
is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison
and a fine of $250.000.

All rights reserved.
Except
as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976.
No part of this
publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of
Shey Stahl.

Warning: This book
contains adult content, explicit language, and sexual situations.

Cover Art and Interior Design
: Shey
Stahl Productions

Editing
: Linda Knight and Barbara
Nejman

Pre-readers:
Danielle Mullins, Megan
Rupert and Heather
Emmerling

http://sheystahl.blogspot.com/

Twitter
: @
SheyStahl

Facebook
: Shey Stahl

Racing on the Edge site
:

http://www.facebook.com/RacingOnTheEdge

Foreword and Acknowledgements:

I believe there are times in our lives when we take
a path we never knew
was
there. Maybe it was there all
along or maybe it was covered in overgrown grass tucked away from the light.

And then you trip over a root and fall head first
into this path.

My life has been just that. A winding path with
twists and turns I have never expected. Some turns were, at the time, a turn I
wouldn’t have usually made. But I took it with the help of family and friends
and the carried me through the path I was scared to walk alone on. Thank you to
everyone who has been there for me through this.

I want you guys to know read every Facebook post
and every tweet I get, followed new friends and met amazing individuals who
told me how my has touched their life in some way.

I need to thank my Facebook friends and the
Gearheads!

They are there for me at all hours of the night to
discuss anything I want. A special thank you to my most supportive Gearheads:
Barbara, Danielle, Heather, Sue,
Brieanna
,
Daina
,
Angi
, Kari, Megan, Dianna,
Judith, Emily, Tiffany, Leslie, Gina, Susan, Brooke, Laura, Jen, Brenda, and
Samantha. All I have to do is type a question mark and those girls are all over
it. Thanks pit lizards!

I also need to thank my family who puts up with me
basically living behind a laptop most of this year but still managed to support
me no matter what. Your love and support mean the world to me.

Inspiration is all around us. Sights, smells,
thoughts, the spoken word, all provide us with inspiration. It can provide a
hungry racer the courage to do what no other racer has done before. It can send
a wide-eye boy across country to fight for his name in the hall of fame. It can
provide a writer to do what she never thought she would.

I wanted to write a story about passion. Not the
just the passion between two people but a passion that spoke for itself and a
passion that pushed boundaries and captured your heart. I wanted to write about
a passion that wasn’t just about two people but about their lives and the
passion they had for a sport.

Racing on the Edge was never just about a love
between two people. It was a story about their love for the sport and how that
got them through everything.

The Legend is the end of Jameson and Sway’s story.
So when I wrote the words, THE END, that’s the end of Jameson and Sway telling
the story. I’ve got a little more planned for the Riley family but those stories
will be told through others in the series.

This series wasn’t just about hot sex scenes and
dirty engine terms, through it’s there,
it
was about a
romance. One that pushed the boundaries of a path they never intended on
taking. Together they experienced a world of speed, adrenaline, and passion.
Together, they stepped into the magic where desire defined greatness.

Enjoy and thank you for all your wonderful support
for me and this crazy dream of mine.

This book is dedicated to Linda Knight. If it
wasn’t for her, The Legend wouldn’t have been released. Thank you for all your
support these last two years and your curiosity into the sport.

My life is my message
.

Gandhi

Prelude

Piano Bars

Piano Bars
– These are long bars that can easily slip under a car when severe damage
prevents a jack from being able to slip under the car.

She smiled
at us on the side of the stage and then nodded in preparation before bowing her
head as she began a speech she never thought she’d end up giving. No one
thought she would ever have to speak about a loss so great.

“For the
past few months everyone has been asking me how I’m holding up and how our
family is holding up.” She paused for a moment sweeping away her tears. Tears
that held a pain most would never understand. “I can’t tell you that,” her
voice cracked, the sound cut across the stands; a reminder this was still real.
It was a devastation that couldn’t be understood by anyone who didn’t feel it
deep in their bones. “
...
we don’t know how we
do it, just that we do. We’re a racing family. It is all we have ever known and
will ever know. We can’t tell you how because it’s in our blood. It’s the force
that keeps us going. We know the dangers are out there but it doesn’t change
anything
...
” For the first time, she glanced into the
grandstand where thousands of his adoring fans looked to her for comfort.

“I loved
him before he was the legend everyone knew him as and I will love him just the
same now that he’s gone. That doesn’t change anything for me because I was a
racer’s wife. I can tell you every race he won, every lap he ever led because
while he was in the spotlight, I was the one in the shadows who kept him
together. Just as I’ve said before, I knew the dangers just as well he did. But
as a racer’s wife, I would never have asked him to stop for one reason
...
because he loved what he did. I knew every
time he climbed inside that car that I might be leaving the track alone but I
would never ask him to stop.  I may have stood in his shadow but after the
thrill from the victory was gone, I was there for him and that’s all that
mattered. I gave him all the love I had and in turn, he gave me happiness.”

1.
Align Bore – Jameson

Align Bore
– A procedure used to re-align main bearing or camshaft bearing bores to bring
them into alignment after warping of the block or alignment shifts due to
long-term mechanical stresses. By securing the block and then passing a single
boring tool through all the bores without changing the alignment of the tool,
the bores are restored to proper position. Proper align bores ensure that each
bearing will carry equal load.

A man
knows when his wife needs a distraction.

That’s
probably a lie but looking at Sway that afternoon, I needed a distraction so I
thought maybe she did too. She wasn’t giving in and turned me down twice.

She had
been going on most of the morning about needing to get the schedules for Grays
Harbor finished and then the insurance policies for JAR Racing secured for the boys.
Most race shops didn’t have insurance for drivers. We did. After my own battles
racing up through USAC (United States Auto Club) and the various winged sprint
tours, I told myself I would provide medical insurance to my drivers. So, I
did.

My dad, retired
racer from the World of Outlaws (a premier division of winged sprint cars), and
current owner of the NASCAR Cup team I raced for, didn’t provide medical
insurance for me but it wasn’t hard to get it elsewhere now. When you race at
the levels that I do, you’re not exactly a full time employee of the race team.
You’re contracted. Yeah, I put in a full time effort but I was contracted with
Riley-Simplex Racing as a driver. They paid me to drive but all my travel
expenses, medical insurance, life insurance and basically, all the things that
your employer would usually pay, I paid. The only check I received twice a
month was for my salary.

So things
like medical insurance and life insurance were left up to me. Once I got
married and had kids, it became essential to have such things as medical and
life insurance but the premiums were outrageous given the danger involved in
being a professional race car driver.

Back when
I was nineteen, the premium alone was enough to eat up any earnings I received
from winning. So back then, as a young driver without a lot of cares, I went
without medical insurance. A few broken ribs and concussions later, I knew I
needed medical insurance.

Sway
sighed glaring at the stack of papers. Though my focus was hardly on those
papers, I laughed lightly looking at the fresh blanket of snow across the field
bordering the building. Though most of the property was still in the
development stages, the office was finished and the large windows allowed
beautiful views of the North Carolina winter.

About six
months ago we started the process of a shop expansion. What a nightmare that
has been. After a string a shoddy construction workers, I swore to myself I
would never build a house or a shop again.

“Why do
they make you fill out so much paperwork?” Sway asked holding up a stack of
papers from the insurance company. “There’s a stack for each driver.”

“Make them
fill ‘
em
out.” I whispered massaging her shoulders
hoping my touch would ease her frustration. “They’re big boys.”

We had
four drivers racing this year with JAR
Racing
which
was my sprint car team racing in the World of Outlaws winged sprint car series.
Knowing the guys, I was sure they understood how to fill out basic paperwork of
your name, address and medical history. Except for Tommy Davis, he still
required assistance ordering from a fast food restaurant.