ROUND 2
VICTORIA 400 – VICTORIA ROAD – London, England
March 2, 2014
Ah, yes. The streets of London can be filled with many surprises: the Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, etc., and yes, we were to race on the public streets of London, with public transportation temporarily closed off for the construction of the artificial removable barriers, stands, pits and all that.
Even for a temporary street circuit, it can still look like a track in every way.
People living in apartments on the nearby circular street would often peak out from windows of the higher floors and look down at us tearing through on the public road. I often claimed to have seen camera flashes coming from the higher floors!
A tunnel is also featured, as well as the sight of a Ferris wheel near the area where the Big Ben can be seen!
Man, they did a good job picking the streets to run this circuit on!
The circuit was given the name, "VICTORIA ROAD". I would assume it was named after Queen Victoria.
Our British fans seemed very heartwarming when the first day of practice arrived on Thursday, February 27.
As I was walking through the paddock and towards the garage that morning, a bunch of British Nissan fans walked over to me and asked me if I could give them my autograph. I said, "Sure," and began to rush through the autographs on my way to the garage.
One guy in particular gave me two pennies.
"These are your lucky pennies," the fan said, "Hope they work their magic."
"Why would I need two of them, though?" I asked him.
"One's for you and one's for your dear friend."
"You mean Diddy Kong?"
"Precisely!" he said with delight, "I'm a true Nissan fan and would love to see you finish 1-2!"
"We'll have to see, though. There's no guarantees," I said, and soon I was finally at the door to the garage.
I sneaked past the last of the fans and rushed inside to see how the rest of my team was doing.
Diddy was in big smiles today.
"Hey! I hear you finally got announced into the Super Smash Bros. tournaments!" I said to Diddy.
"YES, I HAVE! I HAVEN'T FELT THIS HAPPY SINCE FOREVER AGO!" said Diddy in such happiness.
It had been quite a while since I last saw Diddy with such a big smile on his face. It seemed to me like nothing could tear his happiness apart, even regardless if he won or lost this race on Sunday.
It seemed that some of our luck was already coming to us as I was the fastest during this Thursday session.
The following day, the end of February, Diddy Kong took his first pole position of the season with a qualifying lap time of 1:15.629. I came in right behind him at 1:15.921, securing an all-Nissan front row!
After qualifying was over, Diddy and I did a high-five in the garage in delight. He seemed to be smiling even more.
"I think we've got luck on our side," he whispered to me in a semi-singing tone, "Especially with these lucky pennies!"
"I couldn't agree more with you, pal," I replied, putting an arm around his back, "I think this one may be ours."
At that moment, we couldn't help but play a quick game of rock, paper, scissors. Diddy won.
Two days later, the skies were gray again, and the temperatures were around 50°F. The forecast was predicting rain at some point during the race. This race was going to last at least more than five hours.
This race was to go for 200 laps around the 2.033 mile VICTORIA ROAD circuit. That added up to 406.6 miles on a track in which the fastest lap times would always be above one minute and ten seconds.
With Diddy starting on top and me starting beside him on the front row, I was thinking about how I could help Diddy stay up front for the opening laps.
As soon as we fired up our engines and the warm-up laps were done, I sat there in that second grid slot, contemplating on what I had in mind to keep Diddy in front.
This was the starting grid:
ROW 1
1. Diddy Kong – XANAVI NISMO GT-R; 2. myself – NISSAN R390 GT1
ROW 2
3. Shadow the Hedgehog – AUDI R8 TEAM GOH 2004; 4. Sonic the Hedgehog – TOYOTA GT-one
ROW 3
5. Greg Richards – AUDI R8 TEAM GOH 2003; 6. Miles "Tails" Prower – TOYOTA EXXON Superflo Supra
ROW 4
7. Al Reder, Jr. - MAZDA 787B; 8. Bob Stu, Jr. - HONDA G'ZOX NSX
ROW 5
9. Knuckles the Echidna – McLaren F1 GTR; 10. Jean Dubois – Mercedes-Benz CLK-DTM
ROW 6
11. Pedro Fernandes – OPEL Astra V8 Coupe 24h
As the grid lights went off, Diddy, sure enough, accelerated quickly, and so did I. I swerved leftward into Diddy's slipstream and gave him a slight bump in the back going into the first turn. Diddy seemed to have been boosted slightly by my bump draft and, needless to say, he kept his lead, thanks to my help. My plan had worked out!
As the first thirty-nine laps went by, I stayed in second running right behind my highly-trusted partner.
During the thirty-fifth lap, Pedro Fernandes appeared to have had an accident, as we saw his car stopped in sector four during the next lap. It was later stated that he had locked up his brakes and lost control of his car going into a very difficult corner. His Opel Astra spun around and smacked the wall hard. His race was over.
The safety car came out for three laps while the yellow Opel was cleared from where it crashed.
On the restart on lap 40, Diddy was a bit slower than me, which allowed me to overtake him for the lead going into turn one.
Eleven laps later, Diddy and I were in the pits for the first time in the race. As our crews completed the tire changing and refueling service flawlessly, I was still leading with Diddy in tow.
Al Reder, Jr. was soon on the charge, along with Shadow and Sonic. Diddy quickly found himself in a slug-fest for second place.
This slug-fest lasted for about twenty laps until, on lap 64, Bob Stu, Jr.'s engine let go and left a small oil slick in sector five towards the pit entrance. The safety car had to be deployed again.
The oil was quickly cleared and after another three laps, the safety car peeled back into the pits with me still leading and Diddy in second followed by a bunch of hungry drivers running from third place downwards.
As soon as the halfway point approached, so did the second round of pit stops. Diddy and I pitted on lap 102 and came out still first and second, but Diddy had moved back into the lead.
It was my turn to be in a slug-fest for second place. It took only ten laps to see how harsh the slug-fest was going to be.
On lap 113, Al Reder, Jr. bumped me in sector four. I felt a small vibration coming from the bump and realized my car was going sideways towards the left side wall!
I jerked the steering wheel to the right only to realize that Reder was also sliding, still against the left side of my car.
This was to take us both out!
I was simply a passenger now, as my car slammed hard into the wall and spun around several times before coming to a complete stop.
"Whoa, … are you okay?" I heard my engineer ask me on my radio.
I opened my eyes soon after I stopped and noticed how much damage the front of my car had taken. It seemed that Reder had us both taken out of the race …
… or did he?
I wrestled the gear lever into reverse gear and, surprisingly, my car was still running!
I reversed away from the wall and shifted back to first gear.
"IT'S STILL GOING! MY CAR'S STILL ALIVE! I'M STILL MOVING UNDER MY OWN POWER!" I yelled to my engineer.
I looked in my mirror and noticed that Reder was not moving. He seemed to have only taken himself out of the race in his attempt to take me out!
"THAT IDIOT GOT WHAT HE DESERVED TODAY!" I yelled.
"Can you make it back to the pits?" my engineer asked me.
"Yes! I think we can get a spare front end on this thing!" I answered.
"We've got a spare front end ready to be installed. Bring it in and we'll get it repaired as quickly as we can so we can stay on the lead lap if possible."
Sure enough, as the safety car was coming out, I ducked into the pits and stopped at my stall.
The crew went right to work on removing the battered front end from my car and quickly putting on the new one. The tires were also changed for extra precautions.
Within less than a minute, I peeled out of the pits with a front end that looked as good as new! Better still, I was still on the lead lap, so I could still stay in the game!
"YES! WELL DONE, GUYS! THEY WON'T BE COUNTING US OUT FOR NOW!" my engineer yelled on the radio.
I felt so relieved about staying on the lead lap, but with seven cars ahead of me, it was going to be quite a traffic jam once we took the restart.
After Reder's Mazda was cleared away from sector four, the green flag waved again on lap 116 with Diddy still up front.
I quickly passed Jean Dubois' Mercedes going into turn one, then a few corners later, passed Greg Richards for sixth. Then, it was just video game characters ahead of me in the top five.
Sonic and Shadow took the fight to Diddy for the lead while I spent a couple of laps behind Tails and Knuckles.
Tails soon slowed down and let me past, back into the top five, and began to hold up Richards.
I didn't make it ahead of Knuckles' BMW-powered McLaren until the third and (what should have been) final round of pit stops around lap 150.
Moments after the third pit stop, I saw some drops of liquid on my windshield, plus more on my side windows. More and more came down, which meant only one thing …
RAIN!
It had started to rain!
My engineer was quickly urging the crew to get some wet-weather tires ready, as we would gradually be in desperate need of them.
That time came much sooner than any of us thought, when it quickly began to rain harder and the track surface became very wet.
I turned my windshield wiper on to increase my visibility.
At this point, I was running in fourth behind Diddy, Shadow and Sonic, and in front of Knuckles and Tails.
On lap 154, we all pitted to get rid of the useless slick tires and apply the wet tires.
Diddy kept his lead coming out of the pits.
From there, Diddy, Sonic, Shadow and (at one point) Knuckles exchanged the lead, but I got no part of it.
Then, towards the end of lap 184, I heard a small explosion come from under my cockpit, and the front of my car seemed to suddenly face slightly downwards. As I turned my steering wheel, my car did not turn at all. I went straight into the left-side wall with a bang and into another wall with a brush.
My front suspension had collapsed! My day was over! My lucky penny had not done its magic for me!
My car came to a stop against the left side wall and would not be able to make it back to the pits without any steering.
The yellow lights flashed above me, indicating the safety car would come out so that my car would get a tow.
"Oh, well. We'll get them in the next round in Tokyo," my engineer radioed me with a sigh. He seemed so disappointed.
I felt so discouraged. Why would this happen to me? It felt more discouraging for it to happen on a rainy day. Perhaps the rain had washed away the magic. I'm not sure.
Perhaps, the damage done due to my collision with Reder earlier on had gradually effected my front suspension over time before it finally collapsed, ending my race for good.
I undid my seat belt, took my gloves off and stuck them into my pocket, opened the door and stepped out of my car and into some rain sprinkles.
I quickly sprinted across the race track to the right side where the pit area's side would be.
A nearby track marshal was there, and he guided me on which way to go to head back to the pits.
I made a long walk from where my car was stranded (such a sad sight) back to the Nissan/Toyota Racing team garage in the pits. My walk seemed to last forever out in the light rain showers. What would become of my current points position? I was surely to lose at least a few places going into the next round in Tokyo, which would be coming up in two weeks. All I could think about for now was Diddy's luck in his battle with the SEGA squad.
As I made it back to the garage, some crew members patted me on the back and simply said, "We'll have better reliability in the next round."
"It's our home country next," said another, "That will be an advantage."
"I hope," I said unenthusiastically.
I could only watch the rest of this race from the garage. There were some television monitors in the garage that allows team members to view the public television broadcast.
The rain seemed to have stopped as I walked in. I also noticed the other crews pulling out some intermediate tires and rolling them towards the open pit area.
I heard the engines of the remaining cars approach us and drive into their stalls to have the intermediate tires fitted on.
Shortly after they were out of sight, I noticed a tow truck approach our garage. In tow was my wrecked car.
The track crews removed the tow hook from my car, and the Nissan R390 GT1 was rolled back in.
My crew opened the front of the car and began to inspect the front suspension to determine why it collapsed.
Two minutes later, the green flag was waving and Diddy led the SEGA squad, along with Richards and Jean Dubois into turn one.
Once again, the SEGA squad exchanged the lead with Diddy several more times during the closing laps, but Sonic seemed to have led the most during this final period.
The track was drying slowly but surely, but nobody decided to pit in for slick tires.
As the last lap began, Diddy led Sonic by about half of a second. Shadow was running third. Knuckles and Tails were in a heated battle for fourth place.
It looked like the same three guys that had finished on the podium in the SPEEDIAPOLIS 500 were all about to finish on the podium again!
My heart was pounding for Diddy to beat the SEGA squad. If he could do it at SPEEDIAPOLIS, surely he could do it here, even if he wasn't the best wet-weather driver in the world.
Going into the final sector, Knuckles and Tails had caught up with Sonic and Shadow, and it looked like Diddy had a complete squad of SEGA characters, all aiming for him!
Two of those SEGA characters may be our Toyota teammates, but it didn't seem to be much of a difference!
As the five characters turned into the final left-hand corner towards the checkered flag, Diddy appeared to have slower acceleration than the SEGA squad. His rear wheels appeared to be spinning much faster than his front wheels.
I knew right then that Diddy was having some trouble trying to accelerate his car back up to speed.
The SEGA squad took it to their advantage.
Sonic pulled alongside Diddy's left, and Shadow pulled alongside to the right of Diddy's Nissan.
Knuckles and Tails stayed behind to each bump-draft a teammate: Tails pushed Sonic, and Knuckles pushed Shadow.
Both seemed to also be pushing Diddy, too, as he was right in the middle, the Nintendo meat of a SEGA sandwich!
As they aproached the line, only Sonic, Shadow or Diddy could possibly have the edge!
As they came across, Sonic and Shadow both seemed to have their front ends a few inches ahead of Diddy's front end, but also Sonic was slightly ahead of Shadow.
Therefore …
IT'S SONIC! SONIC THE HEDGEHOG WINS THE VICTORIA 400! WHAT AN INCREDIBLE FINISH! UUNNBBEELLIIEEVVEEAABBLLEE! SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG IS SECOND, DIDDY KONG IS THIRD, KNUCKLES THE ECHIDNA FOURTH, AND TAILS PROWER FIFTH! I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANY SUCH FINISH LIKE THIS BEFORE! WHAT A FINISH! WWHHAATT AA FFIINNIISSHH!
Surely, that British announcer must have been out of his mind!
Yes, Sonic the Hedgehog was the winner! The Toyota GT-one had won a race for the first time since November 2011 when Bowser, Jr. was still driving that red machine. This was Sonic's eighth career win, and his first since becoming Professional Cup champion last November. It was only his second race in that car, and he won it in front of the wildest British crowd Enthusia had had in quite a while.
The margin of victory looked like this:
1. Sonic the Hedgehog – 5:12:20.719
2. Shadow the Hedgehog - +0.005
3. Diddy Kong - +0.034
Those three were that close together, nobody knew who won until they were well past the finish line!
Nissan/Toyota Racing made it two wins out of two races in 2014, something we do quite commonly, and the same three guys who were on the podium at SPEEDIAPOLIS would now be on the podium AGAIN! It was the SPEEDIAPOLIS 500 top three in reverse!
I decided to stay in the garage and watch the podium ceremonies on the big TV screen. I was in no mood to jump out there into a noisy crowd.
Sonic came out first and raised his fists in happiness before he took the top step in the middle of the podium stage. Shadow came out and took the left #2 step, and Diddy followed and took the #3 step on the right. A senior member of Nissan/Toyota Racing also came out.
Once again, only the Japanese national anthem was played, for SEGA and for Nissan/Toyota Racing.
Soon after, the three drivers and our representing senior team member were handed trophies by the chosen political figures of England.
Then, the three drivers began pouring champagne all over the crowd and each other. At one point, Sonic and Shadow sprayed a lot of their champagne all over Diddy. The little monkey once again got to have some celebratory fun with those two hedgehogs.
Then, Sonic snapped a finger towards the left end of the stage, and Knuckles and Tails suddenly ran up and joined in the celebration.
Then, they all jumped back onto the steps and each of the SEGA characters poured even more champagne on Diddy! Even our senior member couldn't help but do the same!
Diddy was surely a mess by now!
Then, they all waved to the enormous British crowd, whom had come from various parts of the United Kingdom to watch this fantastic ending.
That moment seemed like a pretty picture on the podium with Diddy and all four of the SEGA characters giving thumbs up, with Diddy right in the middle.
Man, it seemed like Diddy was going to have an intense battle with SEGA this year. I could imagine characters in the Smash Mansion going absolutely crazy right now, watching that finish and this podium celebration!
As for me, well, it turned out that Reder's collision had indeed caused my front suspension to gradually fail and collapse altogether towards the end of the race. It was not a good result for me, but our team still had something to look forward to: the next race being in our home country, and also celebrations for Sonic's victory.
Two races into the season, and the point standings now looked like this:
1. Diddy Kong – 1,020 points
2(t). Sonic the Hedgehog – 1,010 points
(t) Shadow the Hedgehog – 1,010 points
4(t). Knuckles the Echidna – 705 points
(t) Miles "Tails" Prower – 705 points
6. myself – 610 points
7. Greg Richards – 550 points
8(t). Bob Stu, Jr. - 300 points
(t) Jean Dubois – 300 points
10. Al Reder, Jr. - 255 points
11. Pedro Fernandes – 200 points
Two races, two wins for Nissan/Toyota Racing. One for Nintendo and one for SEGA. 2014 seemed to already be promising an intense championship battle.
Next up, Enthusia heads to its home country to bring its top division into the highway road course of Tokyo.