On my past few columns, I have told you all the moments that triggered my career as a driver, so I will now start telling you about my journey to the present. Losing a brother is the hardest thing I´ve had to overcome in life. Since I was young I have always enjoyed movies and so I´m quoting a very bad movie (don´t remember the name) but makes a lot of sense to me after this tragic event in life. “Sometimes people need tragedies to wake up”. Unfortunate yes, but true as well.
[media-credit name=”Martinez” align=”alignright” width=”224″][/media-credit]This sad moment in life changed everything about me. From being spoiled and careless, to being passionate and conscious. My family took this sad event well, and it was especially hard on mom who was diagnosed with breast cancer a few months later (don´t worry, she´s doing fine and I will get to that story later).
It´s 1995 and life is already hard as it is. I have my shiny new Spider Bug 2000 Kart that my brother built before he passed away. The path looks very clear. I can´t control life, but I can control myself to try and reach perfection on the wheel. As a painter paints to release his feelings, a singer sings to say how he feels and as Forest Gump used to run (love this film), well I drove. Apparently it was working because that year, even though I didn’t reach perfection, I was close. Won 17 heats out of 18 and all poles while being the youngest driver in my class.
It would be a huge lie to tell you I was invincible at that age as I was only racing in Mexico and it would probably have been a much tougher and different story if I was driving a world class karting championship (most drivers would never tell you this part). What is not a lie is that I was on a good path and that being on a race car helped me overcome this difficult part of my life.
Stay tuned for my next column as I will tell you how my career kept getting bigger and stronger.