My heart was going a hundred beats a minute as we lined up at the starting line. I knew it was a rally, not a speed race, but when that flag came down my foot went down and we roared from the starting line and showered the road behind us with gravel.

“The target miles per hour for this leg is only 35 mph,” his gps system said, quite calmly.

His tone calmed me. His instructions came at exactly the right moment for me to understand them and then execute. After the first couple of corners, we synched up exactly and I was able to drive the way I thought we really could.

Our turns smoothed out, our braking got more and more exact, and I got my shifting smooth and clean. When we arrived at the first check point, the official gave a low whistle when he marked our time against our start time.

“Good going, lady. You’re within just minutes of the target time. Here’s your next set of steps.” He handed me a memory card, and I fed it into his input slot.

We lined up for the next leg, and the flag came down.