Episode 09: Trapped in My Winning Pattern — And What Defeat Taught Me
Chapter 1: Trapped in My Winning Pattern
By then, I already had a way to win.
I gave up on uphill.
I finished them downhill.
That alone was enough to beat almost everyone.
The AE86 felt lighter than ever.
Every braking point,
every steering angle,
all of it was burned into my body.
I moved before I thought.
The timing of the brakes,
the moment I started turning the wheel,
I didn’t even have to think about it anymore.
The feeling of “driving” itself had faded.
I felt like I had become one with the AE86.
Night after night, I kept going to the mountain pass.
I won,
then won again,
and every time, something inside me grew a little bigger.
— The illusion that I was invincible.
Chapter 2: When the EG6 Became Real
I had heard about the EG6 for a long time.
A black Civic.
Only intake and exhaust tuning.
A roll bar installed.
Unnaturally fast both uphill and downhill.
But until then, it was just a rumor.
Until that night.
Near the U-turn point at the top of the mountain pass,
I spotted the EG6.
The black body, lit by a streetlight,
looked unusually low.
“That’s him…”
The EG6 started descending quietly.
A low, dry exhaust note.
A sharp intake sound rising with the throttle.
The moment I heard it,
a chill ran down my back.
I followed it downhill.
Chapter 3: A Chase I Couldn’t Win
Up to the second corner downhill, we were even.
The brakes, the lines,
everything felt the same as usual.
From the third corner on,
something about the EG6 changed.
It accelerated hard
and carved through the corner.
“…It’s fast.”
The words slipped out of my mouth.
I started to panic.
I knew I had gotten faster.
Still — I couldn’t keep up.
Little by little, the distance between us grew.
Every time we exited a corner,
the taillights drifted farther away.
In the end, I couldn’t catch up,
and the first chase was over.
My hands on the steering wheel were slick with sweat.
Chapter 4: I Still Couldn’t Pull Away
Still, I could go harder.
Next time, full attack.
This time, I’d lead and pull away.
Near the U-turn point at the top of the pass,
I stopped the AE86 and turned on the hazard lights.
The vibration of the engine
came through the seat.
The EG6 lined up behind me.
“Alright. Let’s go.”
I started downhill first.
The EG6 launched a little later,
keeping some distance.
For the first corner, it stayed back.
“Don’t underestimate me… I’ll lose you right here.”
I muttered that to myself
and pressed the throttle even harder.
The next moment,
the headlights of the EG6 appeared in my rearview mirror.
It closed the gap instantly.
The distance was impossible.
“…No way.”
The words came out before I could stop them.
It stuck right to my rear bumper
as we went downhill.
Every time the headlights shook in my mirror,
my heart thumped hard.
There was no way it should be this close downhill.
The moment I thought that,
a feeling I hadn’t had in a long time hit me.
— Fear.
I hadn’t felt that in a long time.
Chapter 5: Defeat
In the end, I didn’t pull away at all.
It stayed glued to my rear bumper all the way down.
The EG6 didn’t stop at the U-turn point at the bottom of the pass.
It kept going and drove away downhill.
Even after its taillights disappeared,
I couldn’t bring myself to lift off the throttle.
“…I should stop for tonight.”
This was a night I shouldn’t push it.
After the run,
I parked the AE86 at a small turnout on the side of the pass.
When I shut the engine off,
a ringing silence filled the air.
The exhaust note I’d been hearing just moments ago
still felt like it was echoing in my head.
My hands on the steering wheel
were still trembling slightly.
My knees were shaking.
My heart wouldn’t calm down.
Staring out at the pitch-black mountain road through the windshield,
I muttered quietly to myself.
“…I was completely beaten.”
What This Night Taught Me
That night changed something in me.
Until then, I believed that repetition meant growth.
If I kept running the same downhill,
perfecting the same braking points,
I would eventually become unbeatable.
But I was wrong.
I wasn’t growing.
I was only refining a pattern that worked —
a pattern that someone else could break.
The EG6 didn’t just beat my AE86.
It exposed the limit of my mindset.
Winning repeatedly had made me comfortable.
And comfort had made me blind.
That night, I realized something important:
True growth begins when your “winning pattern” collapses.
Reality of Mountain Pass Culture
Back then, we didn’t think much about risk.
But looking back now,
I understand how dangerous those nights really were.
Public roads are not racetracks.
Skill doesn’t cancel physics.
And ego doesn’t protect you from consequences.
I was lucky.
Very lucky.
Why This Story Matters Today
This isn’t just about cars.
It’s about patterns.
About how success can quietly trap you.
About how defeat can become the most important teacher.
The mountain pass was just the stage.
The real battle was always inside.
This story is based on real past experiences. It is not intended to glorify dangerous behavior.
My stance and the reason why I write this blog are explained here:
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