He downshifted quickly from fourth to third as the corner approached him. He held his breath as the G-forces hit the side of him and the car began to slide sideways. He looked behind him.
The lights of the red Celica ST205 shone behind him. His opponent was not new to this mountain course. He was. The advantage was to the Celica.
He focused on the road as the car straightened out and the Celica began to gain ground on him. Mt. Hokkaido was definitely unlike other touges. The corners were never ending, with hairpin after hairpin. They were half way down the course before they hit one long straight.
He hit fourth gear as they both approached another set of hairpins. He braked suddenly and the Celica passed around him. He then hit the gas and gripped the first corner and set up to drift into the next.
After two more hairpins, they came to a long left hander. They both aggressively went into the corner, with the all wheel drive on the ST205 sending him forward.
He could feel the grip lost in the rear tires. They attacked a sharp right before another hairpin and then he made his move. He cut to the outside and then back in right before the entry to the corner.
As the Celica attempted to block him, he got in close to the inside as the Celica had lost its balance by attempting the blocking maneuver. As the Celica regained traction, he pulled side by side with him as they approached the next curve.
He forced the Celica into the inside wall, causing him to slow down drastically and then took the lead off the next corner. The finish line was in sight. He went full throttle to the win, where his team mates in their Chaser sat.
He pulled up next to them and got out of his car as the owner of the Celica walked over to them. He handed over a sticker from the Hokkaido 4-Runners.
The owner of the Celica looked at him and said, "Good race."
Al nodded and took the sticker, "Good race."
Al sat on his driver's seat and opened his glove box. He placed the sticker on top of the other 7 that sat inside his car. 7 out of 11. Not bad.
Ross looked over at him through the window, "So do we have another race lined up yet?"
Al shook his head, "Not yet, but I challenged that team from Mt. Tsurugi. I'm waiting for them to E-mail me back."
Ross nodded, "Alright, we're gonna head home. Give us a call when you here from Mt. Tsurugi."
Al nodded, "You got it boss."
Both cars started and the Chaser took of quickly back towards its home in Myogi. Al followed suit, slowly getting on the highway and taking a nice long relaxing drive home. He was glad that it was summertime and he didn't have to go to school tomorrow.
He pulled up and parked outside of the closed garage. He walked into the front door and sat on a stool after throwing his keys in the plate on the kitchen counter. He opened up a bottle of water and sipped on it.
He walked over to the living room and sat down before flipping through the channels to see if anything good was on. After deciding that TV sucked after midnight, he went to his room and lay down on his bed.
Moments after lightly falling asleep, a loud noise came from 30 feet away. The sound of grinding and slamming caused him to rise from his bed and storm into the garage.
He looked at the open bed of a 1988 Toyota 4-Runner SR5. He screamed out, "DO YOU HAVE TO WELD ON A ROLL CAGE AT 1:30 IN THE FUCKING MORNING!?!?!!?"
Nik lifted the shield off his face so he could see his little brothers face and said, "Yep."
Al sighed and slammed the door only to hear Nik begin to weld once more. He sighed and collapsed onto his bed and throwing his pillow over his head.
-------------------------------------
Mei rolled over and shut off his alarm clock. It was 6:30 in the morning. He sighed and stood up. He stumbled onto the bathroom and through some water onto his face.
He quickly took a shower and kissed Sara's forehead lightly, as not to wake her up. He snuck out of the apartment and started to walk down the stairs towards the street below.
He quickly crossed the street and took the elevator to the top floor of the parking garage. He then walked over and ran his hand across the wing of his 1994 Charcoal-colored Nissan Skyline GT-R32.
He sat in the driver seat and started up the RB26DETT power plant. After allowing it to warm up, He backed up and slowly headed down 4 floors to the street of Akagi.
He took off towards the Nissan dealership he now worked at. He parked in the back and walked into the main office where he signed in before walking into the garage.
After receiving a list of assignments from his boss, he took the first set of keys off the rack and walked outside to pick-up the first car he was working on today. He stepped into the 1998 Nissan Primeria he was working on. He backed it into the garage and put it up on the lift to do the oil change. He sighed as he watched the black liquid fall down into the catch pan. He hated doing oil changes. He'd done a million since he started this job two months ago.
He liked the money though. Sara and Mei had gotten their new apartment recently and furnished it nicely. Mei had also found a new computer and a new turbo timer which gave his car 550 whp on the dyno. He picked em up cheap too.
As Mei lowered the car, he thought about the last time he had hit up the touge. He ran Akagi a few weeks ago. He was starting to get rusty. He never thought he'd stop racing, but he was growing up.
September 15th. He was going to be a husband on September 15th. He smiled. He loved her and he was sure this is what he wanted. But it still meant less racing.
7 hours later, he signed out of work and headed back home. Sara had to work late so he stopped and got some fried tofu for dinner. When he parked his car, he noticed a black truck parked behind him with a familiar face leaning on it.
He walked over to him and pulled him into a hug, "What the fuck are you doing here?"
Nik smiled, "Came to ask you if you felt like going for a ride."
He smiled and said, "Hell yeah!"
He stepped up into the 4-Runner and they both took off onto the back road to Myogi. Mei grabbed onto the handle above the door as Nik slowed down to 50 km/h. He slammed on the gas and sent the truck onto the dirt sideways.
The fat, knobby tires of the 4-Runner dug into the ground as the truck straightened out and Nik sped up to 90 km/h. He shifted onto fourth gear and turned into a corner sending the whole truck sideways nearly uncontrollably.
He feathered the throttle and kept up his speed while keeping a high angle drift. He brought the rear end back together and then went around another corner. He got his speed up as they approached a jump.
They launched off it about fifteen feet through the air before landing softly. Nik shifted into fourth gear, steered around a tree before turning and climbing up a hill and stopping the truck in the shade.
Mei and Nik stepped out of the truck and admired the view. They could see all of Akagi valley. Mei pulled out his dinner and set it on the hood of the truck and began to eat slowly.
Mei lifted his head up and said, "Any races lately?"
Nik shook his head as he leaned against the front of the truck, "Nah, not really. Al's been around though. I'm really glad he joined Pete and Ross's team."
"How is he doing?"
"Good, he's glad school's over."
"Wouldn't you be?"
Nik nodded with a light smile, "Yeah. So how do you like the truck?"
Mei ran his hand over the hood, "Not bad. Not bad at all."
Nik nodded, "K&N Intake, Flowmaster Exhaust, Pace Setter Header, Full roll cage, this things mint."
"What's your next project?"
He shook his head, "I don't know yet. I was thinking either a Rally car or maybe a new FF touge machine."
Mei nodded, "Sounds fun."
Nik nodded and looked out over the valley. It was nice now. The moon was just starting to peak out. Soon they both got into the truck and headed back to Akagi. He dropped Mei off at the apartment building and headed home.
Nik got home and parked the 4-Runner in the garage. He then slid into the familiar Recarco seat of his shiny, dark blue Nissan Silvia S-15. He started it up and heard the tuned motor come to life.
He backed up slowly and headed up to the top of the mountain. He parked the car and watched as people started filling in the galleries. Most of these kids were only 21. He sighed. He was starting to feel old.
Nakazato had come up again and gotten himself into a race with some local punk with a Supra GA70. Nik watched them race the downhill. Nakazato won somewhat easily.
When he got to the top, he began gloating as he always did. Nik sighed, as this seemed to happen every time the guy won a race. He didn't feel at was very sportsmanlike to gloat about beating someone who was obviously only an average racer.
"Wanna put your money where your mouth is?"
The crowd looked over at someone who was sitting on a ocean blue Toyota MR2 SW20. Nik's eyes focused on him. He was American. Nik leaned back and watched as the events unfolded.
Nakazato looked at him with disgust, "Who the hell are you?"
He smiled, stood up, and put his hand out, "Most people call me CJ."
Nakazato disregarded his kind gesture, "What are you talking about money for? We race touge for respect."
"Yeah, but if I don't respect you because you're an arrogant asshole who wont even shake a guys hand, how is beating you gonna change that?"
The crowd grew silent. Nik smirked. Nakazato took a step back before he said, "How much?"
"Lets say…25,000?"
The crowd gasped. This kid seemed pretty confident. Nakazato hesitated before reaching in his wallet and pulling out two 10,000's and a 5,000. The boy did the same thing.
Moments later they both were at the starting line. The countdown was quick and as soon as the hand of the man who did the countdown went down, the SW20 already had the lead.
A group of kids said, "Wow, he took off better in an RWD car then Nakazato's AWD."
He did to. Nik looked ahead as they attacked the uphill corner before the downhill began. The MR2 had about 2 car lengths and the distance was growing. This kid was good.
By the time they got around to the side of the mountain Nik could see, The MR2 was already about 8 or 9 car lengths ahead of the GTR. He was relying heavily on using the balance of the MR set up with obviously a high powered motor. He was using weight shift.
Nik smirked. Finally he might have found someone who could be an effective opponent for him. He watched as the car drove around the last few corners at top speeds.
Nik smiled and stepped into his S-15. The races were over for tonight. He waited until everyone was far enough down the mountain so he wouldn't run into anyone. Then he began.
The uphill corner was easy as usual. He liked drifting uphill when he had grippy tires like the Toyos he was using now. He then attacked the following corner using grip.
Three more corners and he had begun to drive fast enough for his rythym. He started letting the ass end slide little by little until the car was flowing down the mountain like it was a river.
Nik continued with mild wheel rotations and stayed on the throttle. He sighed, 'After you get good at drifting, it kinda loses how much fun it is.' Nik smiled, 'Well, kinda….'
He slid hard around the first hairpin and then slid wide around the second one. He turned up the radio a little louder as to be able to hear it over the tires. He looked up and turned into…
"HOLY SHIT!!!"
A blue MR2 was directly in front of him coming off the last corner. Nik composed himself quickly and straightened out to avoid getting hit by the SW20. He quickly slammed on the gas and drifted around the corner, scraping his rear bumper all along the side of the mountain. He quickly stopped and breathed.
He looked behind him as the lights of an SW20 pulled behind him. Nik pulled over to the side of the road and the SW20 came up behind him. He turned on his hazard lights and stepped out.
He looked behind him, "CJ, right?"
He nodded, "Ya, what's your name?"
"Nik."
"Nice moves back there."
He looked at his rear bumper, "Not good enough I guess."
CJ got down and looked at it, "It's not that bad. I used to have this Tercel that was beat to shit from fucking around in Barkhamsted Valley."
Nik looked at him, "Connecticut?"
"Ya, you from there?"
"Ya I lived in Winsted."
"No shit?!"
"No shit."
"So what are you doing here?"
"Highland lake was nothing compared to these mountains."
"No shit, you ever race that Highland 240 guy?"
Nik smirked, "Nah, can't say I have."
"That sucks, wasn't his record like 5 and a quarter?"
"Yeah, 5:13 actually."
"Ya, I pulled 5:06."
Nik stopped in his tracks. No one had ever beaten his record around that lake. His 240SX was the most insane car ever to go on that lake. Nik asked, "What car did you smoke the record in?"
"My Legacy."
"Oh, ok…"
"You alright there chief?"
Nik nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine."
CJ nodded, "Ya dude, we'll, I'm sorry about almost taking you out back there."
Nik shook his head, "It's no problem, I didn't expect you to be coming back up the mountain so soon."
"Yeah, that guy really wasn't all that much of a challenge to me."
"Ya, Takeshi is really an uphill racer."
"Who holds the downhill record on this course?"
Nik smiled, "I do."
CJ was taken by surprise, "Wow, impressive. So, you want to race?"
Nik thought about it for a moment, "Ya sure, sounds like fun."
CJ nodded, "Let's do it then."
Nik stepped into his S-15 and turned around. He followed CJ up the mountain to the top where he turned around. They lined up and Nik beeped his horn three times. They took off towards the uphill corner.
CJ had the lead, but Nik didn't let himself get far behind. The MR2 had fat tires with wheel spacers. At gave it a good stance and with the off-camber set up, he was able to easily control the amount of angle in his drifts.
Three or four corners in, Nik noticed CJ was starting to pull away. He sped up a little faster, only to notice him start to pull away again. Nik was impressed how he hadn't yet reached his limit.
Nik decided to push him a little harder. He got really close on his ass and started to hit corners faster then before. He still was able to pull away. CJ sat in the middle of the road and didn't really use genuine racing technique.
Nik kicked his car sideways and tandem drifted into a long left hander. He looked down at his speedometer. 130 km/h. He could still go faster. He laid on the gas harder after leaving the corner.
He entered the next corner at 150 km/h. He had the pedal almost to the floor. He dropped into third gear and spun the rear tires, clearing the corner with inches to spare. CJ still was ahead of him.
They went down the straight away in a straight line. Nik quickly shifted into fifth gear. 190 km/h. He only had another 50 km/h faster he could go before he'd hit the limit. It was only a four banger.
Nik knew that the MR2 had the capability of going up to 260 km/h or so. Nik doubted the ability of any driver to control a car at those speeds, yet CJ just kept going faster. Nik sighed and entered a curve at 140 km/h.
CJ once again started to pull away. Nik was at his absolute limits. He hit the gas harder and began to take corners even faster. Everything was getting a little more blurry. He hit corner after corner and felt the force of the downhill pounding on his body.
Nik saw the end of the mountain in sight. He sighed in relief. At least he kept up. He slowed down and pulled into the lower parking lot behind CJ. He shut off his car and reclined his seat slightly.
He heard a knock on his window and looked up to see CJ's face. Nik smiled, "Not bad."
"You kept up, not bad. You wanna beat me, your gonna need something better then a SR20 though."
"You think?"
"Yeah man, you had this thing maxed out. You also gotta re-think your suspension set up. I noticed you didn't have a hell of a lot of grip."
"Yeah, well excuse me for not having four big fat tires like you."
"Try it sometime. This was fun; we'll have to do it again sometime."
He watched him walk away and get back into his SW20. He lit the tires up and did a 180 before taking off back up the mountain. Nik was impressed how he wanted to go for another run.
Nik took off towards home slowly. He was low on gas. Maybe this kid knew what he was talking about. He pressed the gas a little harder. Maybe it was time for a new set up…