First Speeding Ticket

My First Speeding Ticket

I guess you could say that I was a fast driver starting out. My dad raced, his dad raced, and it kind of ran in the family. The only problem is, a lot of people didn’t associate girls with racing. How would little Mandi be able to handle a race car? What I found out real quick in the racing scene is that women aren’t taken kindly to on the track. I raced short track modified races in the junior division and sometimes I would drag race on the weekends out at the track. I’ve heard that I have a lead foot, which only makes sense, but I didn’t realize that it would come back to haunt me the way it did.
My father and I built a Ford Escort body up pretty nice and dropped in a 4 cylinder Mustang SVO motor that he had been through from top to bottom. The car looked like a granny grocery getter, but it would FLY! It was powder blue metallic with black plastic bumpers and hubcaps. A sleeper by any means. A lot of police in the area knew the car and I pretty well avoided them.
Late into my Junior year of high school we moved to a small area in southwest Virginia that wasn’t much known for anything. Here in this place, which was so different from the sandy dirt and the salty air that I grew up with in South Carolina, I knew nobody. One other disadvantage I had was the fact that I knew nothing of the layout of the land and nothing of where the local authorities may be hiding.
A week or so went by and I met some people at school and I was out driving about learning the roads and such when I notice a new Dodge Charger police car behind me. I’m fairly familiar with the cars because they run a 6.1L Supercharged Hemi. These cars are ridiculously fast but can’t handle worth a damn. Anyways, the cop flicks on his lights and pulls me over. He said he thought I was exhibiting strange behavior and he hadn’t seen the car before, but I explained the situation and he let me on my way.
I wasn’t intimidated by cops normally, but this guy was built. Huge stature, at six and a half feet tall and probably two hundred or so pounds he nearly engulfed me. I was never a big gal, about 5’2” and just barely chubby. Most of my weight was between my tummy and my neck, if you know what I mean. A D-Cup is just way too big for little old me. He kinda looked me over good when he looked in the car, but I could tell he wasn’t in a good mood and probably didn’t have time to fool around too much. I have always been a cute girl, but never model status. I’ve kept my hair pulled back in pig tails or a pony tail my whole life, and it’s always been really bright blonde and straight as a stick.
I was learning these back roads a little better day in and day out. I’d see a new face or two in the cop cars until I noticed that there were only like 4 or so. Two officers had been sent elsewhere for training and the four remaining were Lee, Green, Bratton, and Kingry. I had been pulled over by Bratton, and he seemed to lay back from the rest but he could drive a hell of a lot better. His ability probably landed him in that Charger instead of a Crown Vic or an Impala like the rest. I began to toy with these cops because they had no idea that I had a turbocharged SVO motor under the hood. I would punch it to make it through a yellow light intentionally to let them see what I was working with.
One day Bratton finally came up and asked me in the parking lot of the gas station what I had under the hood. We talked it up and laughed and had a good time there for a while. He suddenly cut in and said that I needed to watch what exactly I was doing illegal around in “his” town because he would bust me quicker than I would know what hit me. I became a little frustrated and a little worried by this comment. I was frustrated because I didn’t want him telling me what I could and could not do. I was worried because he did know what I had under the hood now and he’d be on the watch to bust me.
Weeks went by and I had won some money off a few kids that thought their Hondas and Acuras were quick enough to keep up. Low and behold after a race one night that I had won, I saw lights way, way back in my mirror and I knew it had to be Bratton because he said he was going to be watching me.