04x12 - Fast Company

[bunniefuu]

[male narrator] Previously on "The Real World.."

[Mike] Racing is just so expensive.

Sean's the guy who's helping me

find the sponsorship money for this.

We just need some primary sponsor to get the ball rolling.

[Jacinda] I took my first flying lesson, it was great.

[male #] 'You have control, Jacinda.'

[Kat] This is the true story..

[Neil] Of seven strangers..

Seven strangers..

[Jacinda] Picked to live in a house..

[Jay] And have their lives taped..

[Lars] To find out what happens..

[Mike] When people stop being polite..

[Sharon] And start getting real.

"The Real World," London.

[Mike] I think my spirits have been lifted a lot

now that the sun is starting to shine

and stuff is starting to happen.

Granted, I still don't have any money yet

but, you know, the racing's starting at least.

[Richard] 'Looking down here'

'I have possibilities of being'

'able to run you in five races.'

Right.

[Mike] The Redgraves run and own a family-operated racing team.

He said, "Hey, you know, well, hey, Mike, this is Richard.

"I worked out a deal withRenault.

"And Renault's gonna provide you with a car.

They're gonna provide with a motor."

[Richard] 'Now, I'm going to need'

'off you about $ a race.'

Is that American or..

[Richard] 'That's $.'

Holy good phone call.

I did some research and I found this team that had a spare car

and now he calls me up and he's like

"All I need is $, and you're in the car."

I was like, "Okay."

[Neil] 'Anything going down for the weekend?'

A full day of racing excitement!

Surely you realize that watching

motor racing is incredibly tedious.

You're waiting like, five minutes and vroom!

[imitating a motor car] Why? What is there to see?

'Unless they crash right in front of you.'

See it live, when you hopefully come to it

to Slacker Tour Number Two.

I'll be there, when you're driving, I'm gonna be there.

I'm gonna be just throwing tacks on the track.

Morning!

Richard's very professional.

Has the best crewmen, great cars.

Right, come with me, young man, you better come meet the team.

[Mike] When I walked in, I was very impressed.

[Richard] Simon, Mike Johnson.

Simon Philips is our chief engineer.

Brands Hatchis actually the most technical track in England.

I mean, people just don't believe it.

Umm, it is extremely difficult.

'That's why we want to give you'

as much time as we can in the car before

obviously, we, we get to do the real business.

[Mike] 'We're still looking for money for this first race.'

So I'm either going to, um..

I don't know, I'm either.. I don't..

Can I.. Would it be possible to, like, get a loan from you?

[Mike's dad] 'You need money for the first race, is that what you need?'

Yes, it's just this first race is so quick and then we have

three weeks till the second one.

[Mike's dad] 'Well, how much is that, five grand?'

Five grand for the, for the full week and everything

and then there's a $ deposit for the, for the whole year.

[Mike's dad] 'Mike, I'll put , in your account.'

'I don't know where I'll get it.'

Okay. Thank you very much. I will, uh--

[Mike's dad] 'I mean, you might, you're gonna..'

'You have to, you might have to pay interest on it.'

- Okay. - 'Okay.'

Thanks a lot, dad.

- 'Bye, love you.' - I love you.

Bye-bye.

It actually felt good that he helped me at this level.

The only way to be driving in a car at my age in this

is, is to have someone helping you.

[telephone ringing]

- 'Mike. I'm coming to England.' - Yeah?

[Mike] Sean is a friend that I've been racing with for two years

that is now helping me find sponsorship.

[Sean] 'Can I shack up at your place?'

[Mike] Sean kinda called at the last minute

and said that he was coming up to the race

'cause he wanted to go to the race.

He wanted to meet some of the people.

[Sean] 'Hey, is Kat pretty good-lookin'?'

Uh, she's got a cute face.

- 'Really?' - Yeah, why?

[Sean] 'I don't know, I think we like'

'we kinda hit it off on the phone there.'

Oh yeah, that's what she said. She wants you.

I showed her pictures.

And she goes, "How come, how can Sean be

a race car driver if he's so tall?"

I said, "I don't know, he kicks my a*s every time."

[Mike] Brands Hatch is a famous track.

This is the training ground for the big leagues.

When you come across that clearway, your rd, th, th

hug the pit wall.

[Mike] My teammate Darren, is really good.

He knows every little bump, every little curve.

And for me everything's just brand new.

You know, the most important thing today

is the familiarization, get to know this track.

We all know you won't know.

I've been racing odd years, I still don't know.

Have you seen a map of the circuit at all, Mike?

Yeah, I saw it on TV last night.

So you know which gears to take where, yeah?

[Mike] There was a whole bunch of pressure, that first day.

You know, now I'm in my suit and a helmet.

Yep, I guess I gotta prove myself right now.

Testing is where you go as fast as you can

and you find out what the car's doing wrong

what the car's doing well in every single corner.

And you know, as you're going fast in a straight line

and you turn, it's pulling, you know

like, two Gs through a corner.

You're doing miles an hour and it all happens

you know, so quick.

It's a good feeling when you do it right

and it's, you know, it's a scary feeling when you do it wrong.

[tires screech]

[instrumental music]

[Mike] 'I've never gotten so beaten up by my own race car before.'

[Mike] Then we went back Saturday morning

for our, our second one-hour session test day.

And with a day off, I kinda you know, was able to

re-sort my mind and figure out what I was doing wrong

and what I could be doing better.

And then we got there Saturday and the, uh, the car never ran.

You get the front plug, and I'll see about the rest.

[car engine revving]

[instrumental music]

I can do this if I get this plug off.

[Mike] And there's nothing you can do

but just hack on the car until it works.

And, and it's, it's the worst feeling in the world

but there's no one to blame.

It's not their fault, but I'm the one paying the money.

I'm the one that needs to get on the track.

And to sit there and watch everyone else going by

is the worst feeling.

And now, finally, they got it all fixed

for the last five laps, and I was able to do five laps

at the very end.

I almost had to re-learn everything

because the engine was different.

And just a little bit of, of a horsepower difference

made the car handle completely different.

It didn't do anything that I wanted it to do.

Maybe I was just pushing hard

because I only had a couple laps.

Come on, we'll sort it, we'll sort it.

[Mike] We had more problems with the car handling-wise

than anything else and that kind of k*lled my confidence.

Car handled completely different than it did yesterday.

It was like, weird..

Where I would push, it now over-steered

where it over-steered it pushed which is like * * *.

[Mike] And I had so much confidence going into the weekend

and then the practice day on Saturday just wiped it all away.

[instrumental music]

- Hello? - 'Hi.'

- Hi. - 'Kat?'

- Yeah. - 'Hi.'

- Hi, are you Sean? - Yeah.

- Come in. - How're you doing?

I'm good. You startled me, I was, "Who is it, who is it?"

[dog barking]

You want coffee or anything?

Oh, please.

Mike likes classy-trashy women with long hair

well-done nails, thigh highs and little dresses.

He wants a good girl that dresses like a bad girl.

I don't know how to describe Sean.

So I he-hear you're learning to be a pilot.

- Yes, I am. - That's pretty cool.

[Jacinda] Because I've traveled so much, I've been to so many places

I love flying.

It takes me, from home to flight school

three hours to get there.

[Jacinda] 'Clear propeller.'

[instrumental music]

[music continues]

So far I'm not scared at all, I mean

flying an airplane is like

a complicated version of driving a car.

[man on radio] 'Okay, Yankee-B, you're shutting down briefly'

'then it the student pilot for first solo.'

[Jacinda] He said, "We're gonna stop for a minute turn off the engines."

So then I knew that I was going up.

You feelin' okay? You feel happy about it?

Yeah. Yeah.

If you've got any doubt on the approach, go around.

Okay, safety first. Enjoy the flight.

Alright.

He got out and said, "Off you go."

Yes.

It was all exciting, but I had to get away

from the feeling of it all being surreal

and me being so high up, 'cause if I was always

looking down going, "Oh God", then I couldn't

just concentrate on the task of what I had to do.

North-Kilo-Yankee, finals to land.

[air controller] 'North-Kilo-Yankee, your surface wind is --, - knots.'

Oh, yes.

[air controller] 'Congratulations, well done.'

North-Kilo-Yankee, thank you.

- Okay, how you feel? - No sweat.

Well done.

[Kat] It's an incredible feeling to fly, I love it.

- Yes! - Well done.

Guess what, Mike?

I went solo.

- By yourself? - By myself.

In a little-bitty plane, they just said

"Go, come back in a couple minutes?"

You're like, "Okay, going for a solo.

I'll be back in five minutes."

Jacinda's like..

I think it's great that Jacinda's gone soloing.

I mean, it's surprising because I just can't see Jacinda

taking it all seriously.

But obviously she has if she's gone that far.

[Jacinda] 'So is about what you'll be doing here?

[Mike] 'Yeah.'

Gee, they got it fast, didn't they?

Yeah, they just took that picture last Wednesday.

'You guys are gonna have fun.'

[Jacinda] 'Is there a possibility you could win?'

[Mike] 'First you have to qualify.'

And I'll know after I qualify, how I stand.

- But I first-- - 'You qualify first on Monday?'

Qualify, no, qualify on Sunday.

[Jacinda] 'So you have those cheerleading girls'

that sit on your car and go, "Go, Mike, go?"

[Sean] 'The two trashy girls we saw last night.'

[Mike] 'We're sitting on the tube, right?'

He goes over to some girl, he's like..

"Look at that."

Like sitting there going, you know..

'"Look at that guy, it looks just like him."'

[Kat] Sean wasn't what I expected at all.

I'm not saying he wasn't nice, he just wasn't what I expected.

Give him a kiss, Mitchy.

- 'Aw, you know what, Mitchy!' - You know I don't like dogs.

[Jacinda] Kat and I were teasing him one night..

Are you and Mike just two peas in a pod?

No, I've, I've got at least enough confidence to like..

Well, I think he's, I don't know what his deal is.

So, you got a better way with women than Mike?

I'm more willing to approach them.

[Jacinda] Oh my God, you know, I mean, he was talking all the time

abouthow he's just got it down with the women

and you know, poor ol' Mike just gets left behind.

At the bottom of your pants

'are they sewn up or do you just roll them up?'

[Mike] I think he started off having a really good time.

And then it started to fade, I think.

Kat and Jacinda kinda got to him after a little while.

They kinda beat up on him a little bit.

He came in here just to try to look at me

when I was half-naked.

Kat, he was waiting in bed for you, didn't you know that?

[Kat] 'Funny.'

When I called and said that I was coming over

Mike said that Kat can't wait to meet me.

And Kat was just not, Kat wanted to meet you?

[Sean] 'That's what Mike said.'

[Jacinda] A man like Sean doesn't come along everyday.

You're passing up a huge opportunity.

No pun intended.

[Mike] I'm very nervous, it's the big proving ground.

As soon as qualifying is done there's no bull * * * anymore.

It's very hard out there. Very, very hard.

I'm a very nice driver. I'll probably later--

[Richard] 'Forget the niceness.'

If he comes on you and you're in the way, stay there.

Okay.

[Mike] What qualifying does is it gives you half an hour

to go around and do one fast lap

so that you can qualify as close up

to the front as you possibly can.

Okay, you're gonna get one really, you know

good lap, so don't panic if things

aren't going quite according to the plan and stuff.

- 'Anything interesting?' - Nothing exciting.

I saw you at , so I'm happy with that.

- Okay. - Okay, Mike, feel okay?

Yeah, I'm not going fast.

No, I've noticed.

[Mike] Well, qualifying for me didn't go as well as we'd hoped.

Nothing ever clicked, nothing ever went where I wanted it to.

I had a lot of problems with the handling of the car.

I'm over my lines, I mean, I'm just..

Just concentrate on getting those lines back.

You've got a lot of time.

You've only had about minutes of running time.

You got plenty of time yet, so don't worry about it.

What place am I in right now?

- Uh.. - Am I, like, dead last?

No, but you've done seconds off your best time here.

Don't look in there, look there.

With their time from Thursday, we'd be mid-field.

Okay.

We're, we're in a good position at the moment.

- But at the moment.. - So it's good.

Alright. Be precise, Mike.

No nasty changes in direction.

Set the car up, nice.

Get it. Put it in there.

Alright, that's back on his pace.

How was the car anyway, basically?

I thought I was going as fast as I could go.

That's the problem.

If you can finish in the top ten, anywhere in the top ten

that would be a really good effort.

[Mike] You could have so much confidence

you can talk so much, you can do whatever you want

but as soon as the qualifying grid comes out, you know

that's the end of all conversation.

It's posted in black-and-white. This is where you are.

This is what you have to do to do better.

[Richard] 'Qualifying is fairly important to get it right'

but, yeah, you know..

He always says he's a bad qualifier and he is

but he's a great racer, so..

That's what it's all about, isn't it?

Right.

[Mike] My goal is to finish in the top half.

If there's cars and I finish in the top half

I will be very happy with myself.

Don't mind about this morning. You went alright, okay?

It's not a problem.

In the race tomorrow

then you can show us what these Americans can do.

Okay.

Tomorrow you're gonna go faster.

[Mike] I'm gonna have my work cut out for me tomorrow

but, but for some reason you always have

a way of telling yourself in racing

that the next day, it's gonna be better.

You always have great plans for the race

but sometimes they don't go through.

- 'Good morning, guys.' - Nice warm day for you.

[Mike] Right before a race, you have to wake up real early.

Everyone's really ready, they're anxious to go.

My Formula One car!

Excuse me, does this train go to Brands Hatch?

[Sharon] I was actually really excited

'cause we all got up at o'clock in the morning

which has just never happened before in our house.

[Jacinda] It was all exciting, you know, I mean, we had no sleep.

We were all just delirious.

- Who? - Mike Johnson.

- Where's the Redgrave tent? - Mike Johnson.

- 'Do you know Mike Johnson?' - 'Yeah, I do.'

[Mike] Whenever anybody comes to watch me race

it's always a weird feeling for me because

I feel like they're going out of their way

to come watch me, that they really don't want to come.

Mike, we've been wetting our pants with excitement

ever since we saw the race track.

We've been screaming out your name to everybody.

Can I get in?

[Sharon] And I just had to get in the thing

because I thought it was just gorgeous.

I don't know, I just felt really cool.

[Neil] 'When do you put your leather gear on, Mike?'

Oh, you have got mirrors.

[Lars] 'So how come you put Team Duke on this?'

Because dad paid for the weekend.

Okay.

This corner, this first corner, is where everybody crashes.

- Excellent, right there? - So, you guys..

Yeah, you guys can stand there.

[Jay] Most definitely, it was, it was a different Mike

because he was just doing exactly what he wanted to do

and he was in his element.

[cheering]

He's gone, he's gone, he's gone.

Okay, let's go.

[Mike] You know, you're nervous all the time, you're thinking.

I mean, all you do is you're thinking.

People are talking to you, and you're like

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," but you don't listen 'cause just your

mind is just thinking about everything you have to do

and everything you wanna do.

And the nervousness stops once you get the car rolling.

There he is!

Whoo!

Mike!

[Mike] Over here they do standing starts in which

they line everybody up at intervals

and then there's a red light on for five seconds

and then the green light goes and you go from a stop.

[engine revving]

They're off!

[instrumental music]

[cheering]

[Mike] One car was sliding, the other car spun off.

Almost missed a crash.

[Mike] And I just tried to avoid 'em.

When I finally got around them the rest of the field was gone.

And it was difficult to keep going

because there was no one to really chase after.

Mike's about to be lapped.

[Mike] When I saw Darren coming around, I was excited.

I was like, "Great, Darren's winning the race."

I think that's the first time I've ever been lapped in a race

but I was so far back at the end

that it kind of didn't even matter anymore.

Hey, Mike!

Mike won't be happy with that, will he?

[Jacinda] 'So Mike's, Mike's teammate won.'

How do you feel Sharon, are you okay?

I'm worried about how he's gonna feel.

- Darren won. - Yeah, yeah, I saw that.

That was good.

[female #] 'Darren, we've got the car waiting for you.'

'You want to take a few interviews?'

Oh, must I?

Yeah, it'll just be five minutes.

[Jacinda] I thought that must've been hard for Mike too, you know

standing there while everybody took pictures

of his teammate with the trophy and stuff.

And they pulled his teammate's car out

and put a wreath on it and he was standing there, all proud

and you know, Mike just had to sort of stand back.

[Jay] 'Is Mikey pissed off?'

He's upset, yeah.

I thought you did real well, actually.

It's a shame about the start

because that makes it real difficult

from the word "Go" then.

But again, you'll do better next time.

[Sharon] I don't think he was going into it thinking

"Oh, yeah, I'm gonna win."

He was still capable of doing better than he did

and so that's why I think he was disappointed.

I feel like..

I let everyone else, you know, not myself

I just feel like, I let everyone else down.

Which is weird, I've always done that.

You know, you guys wake up, you listen to the b*mb

you're all excited to come here, you watch me like

"Oh, it's boring, he got his a*s kicked. Never do that again."

I was there, I was rooting for you.

You were?

Every time you came over, like, "There's my boy."

[Jay] Just seeing Mike, like, completely in his element

and have it be this great thing with thousands of people

and all this color and all this excitement.

It does put a different shade on how Mike has been

the last couple months

knowing what he's been missing, and what he's been working for.

Sharon was almost crying, I swear I'm not joking.

Why was she crying?

You know Sharon, she cries at everything.

Yeah, but I was like, so far behind though.

She was just crying with excitement.

She was so proud of you.

But I was getting my a*s kicked though.

She didn't care.

It was Mike in the race car, that's all Sharon cared about.

[Mike] I think that they all had a really good time

but I just felt bad that everything didn't go right.

Racing gives you the highest highs and the lowest lows.

You're either at the top or you're at the bottom.

You know, you're never satisfied.

Basically there was about , people there

and there were only people driving around this track.

, people watching, Mike was one of them.

My roommate.

Bravissima, bella!

[female narrator] On the next "Real World.."

Turns out that I'm not gonna be able

to do my play in that theater.

Just set it up here and do it here one night.

Do it up on this stage.

Jay's gonna perform his play and then after that

we're gonna have a party.

I was thinking of wearing this to the party.

Oh, yeah.

- How's that sound down there? - Lovely.

It's a complete adventure.

Welcome to my one-man show.

Can I ask you to just give him

a round of applause for one hell of a race?

And while you're here, I'd like to introduce you to Mikey.

Mike Johnson, American over here to do some races with us.

Um, he didn't do too badly.

He did alright, actually. It's a hell of a culture shock.

I mean, Brand Hatch's is a very difficult circuit to drive.

People think it looks very simple

it's very easy, but it isn't.

It's probably, technically one of the one of the most

difficult tracks in the world to drive.

And Mike has only had half a day's

testing here before he raced.

So I think he did well and he's gonna stay on with us, I hope

and team up with little stinker

here whose shown him how to do it.

And we're hoping for great things

for Mike too, over the next few races.

And thank you very much again for attending

and for all your support.

Thank you, people.