Ayrton Senna

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 "And so you touch this limit, something happens and you suddenly can go a little bit further. With your mind power, your determination, your instinct, and the experience as well, you can fly very high" (Wolff). This is exactly what Ayrton Senna's action was throughout his life. "Ayrton Senna da Silva was born on March 21, 1960, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He was the oldest son of Milton da Silva, a well-to-do Sao Paulo businessman. Ayrton grew up in a loving family environment. At the age of four, his father built him his first kart. When Ayrton started school, his father let it be known that if Ayrton did not have good monthly school reports, then he would not be allowed to use the kart for a month. Ayrton Senna combined remarkable racing technique with a fiery spirit to reach the top of Formula One competition. His untimely death was a major loss to auto racing" (Basic). A true hero must be risk taking, and motivational. They must make decisions that others won't, do things that people find moving that others won't do. This is what makes a hero true.  Ayrton Senna was a formula one race car driver that took the racing world by storm, taking risks and using his life as motivation to lead people to believe that he is a hero.

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Ayrton Senna took risks because of his career. Racing is an up and down sport and can throw curveballs at you at any moment. Ayrton faced one of these curveballs when, "Faced with limited opportunities for sponsorship, Senna announced his retirement due to lack of funding. Frustrated, he returned to Brazil to work for his father's building supply business. After just four months, Senna regretted his decision and chose to return to racing. His wife, used to a life of comforts, saw the financial struggles that could lie ahead and chose not to accompany him. Senna's father agreed to co-sponsor his son, along with a Brazilian bank, for one more year of racing. The investment paid off; Senna won 22 races and the 1982 championship" (Hispanic). Knowing it was not the life that Ayrton wanted, he pushed risk for reward for what he needed. A true hero does not back down, let things determine their fate they make their own. The risk that Senna took by leaving his dad's business and going back to racing, displays the risk he took knowing that he could go back into debt and be forced back into the life he was living. This risky act of confidence in himself payed off  with hard work and dedication. Ayrton bounced back from the deficit in his life by making it into F1 a couple of years latter. He had a feel for the car and for the sport that nobody had ever seen, and made it into a well known team. "Qualifying for the 1988 Monaco Grand Prix, where he became a passenger on a surreal ride into the unknown. Already on pole, he went faster and faster and was eventually over two seconds quicker than Prost in an identical McLaren. "Suddenly, it frightened me," Ayrton said, "because I realised I was well beyond my conscious understanding. I drove back slowly to the pits and did not go out anymore that day" (Donald). With determination, and what he believed in, he look the the risk to push his limits far more than what he thought he could do by going two seconds faster than his teammate. Knowing he already had the pole, and was faster than everybody, he wanted to prove that he was better than his teammate who had won the championship the year before. The risk Senna took to put himself in the position he did explains why he is a hero and that with hard work comes great reward for achieving a dream.  

Ayrton Senna daring his karting day (http://silodrome.com/ayrton-senna-dap-kart/ ())

Ayrton Senna's name is known around the racing community since 1977, he is a motivation for people that are going down the path he wants walked. Motivation is strong with young karters or anybody that is starting something new in their life as shown in the quote. "Senna was able to race karts legally when he turned 13, and won his first race. It was held at a karting track at Interlagos, and the young rookie driver beat several karting veterans to the finish. Senna won the 1977 South American Kart Championship, and set his sights on Europe and the World Championships at the famous Le Mans circuit in France" (Hispanic). Senna's early success in karting and his ability to maneuver his way around a track and beat karting veterans at his first race, portrayed his world championships. This is motivational because of his 1977 championship and his instinctive driving gift to go to the world championship within his first couple of years in the sport. This is further explained in a statement from Ayrton Senna stating, "Indeed, he regarded racing as a metaphor for life and he used driving as a means of self-discovery. 'For me, this research is fascinating. Every time I push, I find something more, again and again. But there is a contradiction. The same moment that you become the fastest, you are enormously fragile. Because in a split-second, it can be gone All of it. These two extremes contribute to knowing yourself, deeper and deeper" (Donald). This is motivational because he is saying that when you find what you love, and what you're going to do with your life, you have to be careful because it can disappear at any moment. This shows that one has to push themselves as a person to be successful in life no matter what situation it is. Ayrton shared this with us when he won three world championships. The motivation that Senna used to push himself can be interpreted in many ways that if you push the limits there is a great reward for him, winning championships.

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Ayrton Senna used his talent to show people that if you are determined and know what you want, you can do anything to achieve your goal. He pushed the boundaries and drove with his mind by taking risks for one goal. He dug deeper inside himself to motivate him and others to know that anything is possible. "As a small child, Senna showed such problems with coordination that his parents feared that he suffered from a disability. But after they gave him a go-kart when he was four, those fears dissolved: behind the wheel he showed perfect coordination" (Encyclopedia). The fact that he had problems with coordination and was able to overcome them and race go karts, and later go on to win three world championships is very inspirational. This shows that one can be anybody they want to be with hard work. Another example that he is an inspiration is in the quote, "Prost found himself embroiled in what would become one of the bitterest Rivalries in motor sports. There was no friendly competition between the teammates. Senna was aggressive and impulsive on the track and beat Prost in the 1988 World Championship with eight wins to seven" (Contemporary Hispanic).  The way Ayrton pushed himself and Prost for him to win the championship in 1988 is inspirational because of his willingness to not stop at anything to get the championship. Ayrton Senna is a true hero because of his ability to win 3 world championships and a total of 41 wins; he became an inspiration to the racing world. This brings us back to what a hero is. They must make decisions that others won't, do things that others won't do. This is what makes a hero, a hero.

Work citation

:"Ayrton Senna." Encyclopedia of World Biography, vol. 34, Gale, 2014. Biography in Context, libraries.state.ma.us/login?gwurl=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/K1631010175/BIC1?u=powa9245&xid=f9357136. Accessed 1 May 2017.

:"Ayrton Senna." Contemporary Hispanic Biography, vol. 3, Gale, 2003. Biography in Context, link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/K2429100195/BIC1?u=powa9245&xid=8329ba72. Accessed 3 May 2017.

"Ayrton Senna." Encyclopedia of World Biography, vol. 34, Gale, 2014. Biography in Context, libraries.state.ma.us/login?gwurl=http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/K1631010175/BIC1?u=powa9245&xid=f9357136. Accessed 1 May 2017.

Wolff-Mann, Ethan. "17 Ayrton Senna Quotes to Jump-Start Your Engine." Thrillist, Thrillist, 5 Jan. 2015, www.thrillist.com/cars/17-ayrton-senna-formula-one-quotes-history-trivia-about-auto-racing. Accessed 14 May 2017.