Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Pixar. All OCs belong to me.
Chapter 9 – Day 3 at the Adelaide 500
Adelaide Street Circuit, Adelaide, South Australia – Sunday, 6 March 2016.
"Ouch!" Lightning yelped when he awoke the following morning. It was nine o'clock, but he didn't have to be at the track until ten-thirty at the latest, so he'd slept in.
"Are you okay, Stickers?" Sally asked with concern as she woke up abruptly.
"Just sore from yesterday," Lightning winced. "Think I'll head down to the track early so Doctor Anderson can give me some physio."
Sally pouted. "I want to spend some more time with you."
"Me too, but I'm too sore for another tickle session this morning. Sorry beautiful." And Lightning kissed Sally fondly. Then he headed to the bathroom for a shower.
…
"Doctor Anderson?" Lightning called as he entered the team's transporter.
"Yes, Lightning?" Dr Anderson was already giving Jamie a physio session.
"Can I join the queue, please?"
"Sure. I'm almost finished with Jamie, so if you just wait, I'll do you in a few minutes."
"Thanks."
A few minutes later, Dr Anderson finished giving Jamie his physio. Jamie watched as Lightning settled down on the mat for his own physio session.
"I'm glad I'm not the only one who's sore this morning," Jamie said.
"Same," Lightning agreed. "I was wondering what I might have done yesterday to cause it. Ow! Okay, that axle is really stiff."
"I'll work on it some more then," Dr Anderson said, and he proceeded to do so. Lightning winced.
"Ow! Yeah, that's starting to feel a bit better… You were saying, Jamie?"
"Oh, I was also just thinking that I hope Leyland doesn't renew Shane's contract. And I hope you don't go back to America. It's great having you here as part of the team."
Lightning smiled. "I still haven't made a decision about that, Jamie. But you'll be amongst the first to know once I do. As for Shane, I don't care what he says or does as long as he stays well out of my way."
Nodding, Jamie left the transporter.
"Oww!" Lightning yelped again.
"I think it might be easier just to throw you into an ice bath," Dr Anderson chuckled.
…
The first event for the Championship Series racers that day was the qualifying round for race 3 later that day. There was no designated warm-up session, so the racers would have to warm-up during qualifying.
Seeing how the qualifying position could really determine the end race result, Lightning was determined to throw everything he had into this qualifying round. And he did, despite the temperature peaking at 38 degrees. During the whole qualifying session, Lightning's times were never less than tenth on the leader board.
But then, about halfway into the twenty-minute qualifying session, Mostert's power steering suddenly failed on the final corner, and he started bleeding oil onto the track. He spun out on his own oil, but he managed to limp all the way down the home straight, coming to a stop just at the end of pit row. Seeing another racer lose control on the oil, race director, Tim Schenken, made a rare call.
"Red flag, Lightning, red flag," Tony told him over the radio. "Orders are to come into pit lane and stop, but I want you to come into the garage out of the heat. You're currently in P-eight."
"Copy that, Tony. Can you have a drink ready for me, please?"
"Will do."
Qualifying was red flagged while the track crew used sand to soak the spilled oil up. Then they swept the sand off the track, which took the oil with it. Meanwhile, Lightning, Shane and Jamie stayed inside the pit garages, to keep cool and to have some minor adjustments done to them. Craig opted to stay out in pit lane.
After five minutes, the qualifying session was allowed to resume, but now there was just five minutes left in the session. However, Leyland ordered Lightning, Shane and Jamie to wait in the pits until all of the congestion in pit lane had cleared. After completing another lap, Craig joined them in the pit garage.
"Whew! It sure is hot out there!" Craig exclaimed. "I think we only have time for one more attempt at a fast lap, right Ludo?"
"Zat is correct," the French crew chief replied.
"Okay, I want you all back out there now!" Leyland ordered.
The four racers immediately reversed out of the pit garages in perfect synchronisation, blocking Courtney, who was already making his way back out onto the track. Unfortunately for him, the Redbulldozer racers had priority, so he had to wait as they filed out onto the track. Jamie was first, followed by Shane, Craig and then Lightning.
With just over two minutes left in the qualifying session, Tony gave Lightning his instructions. "Go hard and fast now, Lightning. This will be your last chance before the end of the session."
Lightning responded by turning on his headlights. He was tired, hot and sore, but he gave that lap everything he had. He didn't even hold back at turn eight, which really frightened Sally and Elinor when they saw just how close he came to the wall.
"Oh, please be careful, Stickers!" Sally whimpered.
Lightning was so committed to doing his lap, that he barely even notice when he'd crossed the start/finish line. In fact, he was still accelerating as he crossed it. A loud 'whoop!' over his radio startled him.
"Fantastic work, Lightning!" Tony exclaimed. "You're currently in P-four with just one minute to go. We'll park it there, so turn off your headlights and come back into the pits. We're really happy with that effort."
"Thanks, Tony," Lightning replied, slightly dazed. "What time did I do?"
"Ahh… You did a one minute twenty point eight-eight-six-nine."
Lightning nodded. He was happy because it was pretty much the same as the times he was doing yesterday.
Unfortunately for Lightning, his fastest time didn't stay in fourth place overall. On the final lap of the qualifying session, several other racers managed to beat his time, pushing him further down the placings. By the time the qualifying session officially ended, Lightning had been bumped down into tenth place.
"Congratulation, Lightning!" Leyland praised. "You're into the top ten shootout!"
Lightning was shocked. "Really?"
"Yup!" Dutto confirmed, beaming. "You just scrapped through. Jamie and Shane got third and fourth. Unfortunately, Craig finished in seventeenth, so he's missed out."
Lightning immediately felt sorry for Craig. But when he saw his stepfather a few minutes later, he was pleasantly surprised to see Craig smiling.
"I knew you could do it," he said proudly. "You're into the top ten shootout at your very first race meeting in the Championship Series. That is a huge accomplishment! If Shane's not frightened of you yet, he should be. I know you'll make him eat his words."
"Thanks, Craig," Lightning smiled. "I'll do my best."
"I hope you always will."
…
The top ten shootout was very different to the qualifying session. Each racer who'd qualified for it did just three solo laps – a warm-up lap, a fast lap, and a cool-down lap. Lightning would have to do better than his qualifying time to be in with any hope of starting better than tenth.
"Look at it this way," Tony said just before the shootout began. "The worst you can do is qualify in tenth."
"I'll still give this everything I've got," Lightning replied, just as an official called his name.
"Lightning McQueen! You're first up!"
Revving his engine, Lightning drove over to the pit lane exit. He wait there for the official to clear him.
"Okay, you're good to go now," the official told him after receiving orders from race control. Lightning accelerated onto the track.
Even though Lightning did his absolute best, he accidentally oversteered at turn five, and he wasn't as brave at the wall on turn eight as he'd been during qualifying, so that slowed him down. His final time was two seconds slower than his qualifying time. Tony blamed it on the heat.
"Never mind, Speedster," he said while Lightning did his cool-down lap. "As I said, the worst you can qualify in is tenth. Now, let's just see what the others do."
Courtney was the next racer out, but his session ended when he overused the kerb at turn two and was disqualified. That bumped Lightning up into ninth, but sadly none of the other racers in the top ten shootout made that same mistake, so that's where Lightning stayed. Jamie qualified in fifth, while Shane managed to get third. He'd been a whole second faster than Lightning.
"In your face, Lightning!" Shane shouted at him as soon as he'd returned to the pits, quoting exactly what Lightning had said to him the day before. "You wouldn't have got ninth if Courtney hadn't made that blunder!"
"At least I made the top ten," Lightning reminded him quietly. "I'd be keeping an eye on my rear view mirrors if I was you."
"Why?"
"Because I'm coming for you."
"Ooohhh!" some of the pit crew members cat-called. They could see that things were really getting nasty between Shane and Lightning.
"All right, that's enough, everyone," Leyland interrupted. "It's time for lunch."
…
During the lunch break, the weather changed. While it was still a hot 34 degrees, dark clouds were beginning to gather, and the humidity was rapidly increasing. Upon arriving back at the pits, Leyland checked the weather radar.
"We're going to get some rain during the race," he concluded. He turned to the pit crew. "Get the wet tyres out and stack them where we can easily get to them."
The pit crew immediately rushed to do as instructed. Leyland looked at Lightning with concern.
"I know you haven't had much experience racing in wet weather, but I'm afraid you'll have to learn very quickly. Craig will be able to give you some tips."
"The most important thing to remember about wet weather is that, even with wet weather tyres, you'll still slip around a lot out there," Craig told Lightning a few minutes later. "You see, instead of washing all the oil and grease off the tarmac, the rain just spreads it. You'll probably end up with a few knocks and bruises, but just try to avoid sliding too much. It's like driving on ice when the rain is really heavy."
Now Lightning was worried. The only other time he'd raced in wet weather was at Bathurst the year before, but that hadn't been much. From the look of the radar, a big storm front was on its way. In fact, the commentators were now saying that there might be two storm cells heading their way.
Ten minutes before the race was due to begin, it started to spit. Lightning watched the rain from his dry pit garage. He was all ready to race and, like the others, he was wearing hard racing tyres. Craig parked beside him.
"I do hope it stops before the race," Lightning said quietly.
"Me too," Craig agreed. "Rain and race cars do not mix!"
Unfortunately, their hopes were dashed with the air horn sounded for the racers to make their way onto the grid. Lightning shivered as the rain hit him all over. He really wasn't looking forward to this race now, despite his good qualifying position.
Even while the field was lining up, the rain got even heavier. Lightning jumped onto his radio to Tony.
"I want wet tyres, now, Tony!" he begged. "I don't believe I'll survive one lap in this weather without them!"
"Leyland's already trying to find out if it's too late to make the change," Tony replied.
Thankfully, it wasn't. For several minutes, there was a mad rush as teams brought the wet tyres out to the racers on portable tyre racks. Lightning did his best to keep still while his tyres were changed, but it wasn't easy considering he was so full of adrenalin for the race. Craig, Jamie and Shane also insisted on having their tyres changed to wets too. Only Frosty, Holdsworth, Blanchard and Reynolds chose to remain on slick hard tyres.
The rain was bucketing down when the green flag was waved for the racers to begin their warm-up lap. Parts of the track was still reasonably dry, while other parts were already like a river! Lightning had never seen anything like it!
At turn eight on the warm-up lap, Lightning saw Frosty slide straight towards the wall! He managed to save himself, but clearly the hard tyres were useless in such weather. Frosty and the other racers on hard tyres pitted, while the rest of the racers lined up on the grid.
"Race control have just announced that there'll be a delayed start," Leyland informed his racers. "Just be patient. You'll be warned before the race begins."
The next thing Lightning knew, the safety car drove down the grid between the two rows of racers.
"The race will be delayed by five minutes," Leyland said once the safety car had passed through the racers. "We'll come and attend to you now."
The rain was getting heavier again. Lightning closed his eyes. He really didn't like getting wet. Seeing that Lightning was starting to get restless, some of the pit crew hurried over to him. They had a rain sheet with them.
"We're just going to cover you for a few minutes, Lightning, to help settle you down," one of them explained. "Doctor Andrew's orders."
Lightning didn't complain. At least he'd be dry for a few minutes. Some of the other racers were also covered with rain sheets to help keep them quiet.
When the air horn sounded again, the rain sheets were removed. The rain had eased up a little, so race control had decided to start the race under the control of the safety car.
A moment later, the safety car drove between the two rows of racers again, but this time the racers fell in behind him. Those racers who'd gone into pit row to change their tyres were allowed to join the race at the back of the field.
During the safety car controlled start, several racers decided to take the opportunity to pit for fuel. The racers were all required to take on an extra 140 litres of fuel during the race.
Dutto wasn't pleased about that.
"They shouldn't be allowed to pit under safety car before the race even starts," he muttered.
"Good point," Leyland agreed. "Has the race even started yet? I'm not getting any lap times. I think we should protest that."
A drop of water landed on the computer screen. Looking up, Leyland and Dutto frowned with concern.
"Uh, oh! We've got a leak in the roof!" Leyland exclaimed.
The pit crew immediately set about rigging up an umbrella above the computers to channel the water away. Thankfully, the leak didn't cause any damage to the computers, and once the umbrella was in place, there were no further problems.
Meanwhile, Dutto took his copy of the rule book over to where some of the officials were, to protest the starting procedures under a safety car. One of the Nissan crew members had also come over to question the ruling. The officials promised to look into it, but as far as they were concerned, the race had already started. Dutto decided to accept that for the time being, just to make things easier for them since such a start was unprecedented, but he'd bring it up again with the officials post-race.
Meanwhile, on the track, the rain was starting to clear. The safety car was ordered to do one more lap, and then the racing would be allowed to begin.
"Lights out on the safety car," Tim Schenken instructed. "All racers are to maintain eighty kilometres an hour until the green flag."
Finally, on lap six, the race got underway properly. Lightning immediately found himself struggling to find any grip in the wet. There simply was none. Craig was right. It was just like driving on ice. The spray was awful too. Lightning might as well have been driving blind over a frozen lake.
"I am really struggling here, Tony!" Lightning exclaimed with frustration after a few laps.
"I know, mate. So is everyone else. Just do your best."
On lap eight, Tander accidentally bumped into Jamie and, given the conditions, Jamie did a complete 180 degree spin. He managed to get back on track, but he lost quite a few places.
A lap later, Shane moved into the lead at turn four. He really loved racing in wet weather, and he'd taken advantage of that. Unfortunately for him, his lead didn't last for long, because he struggled to pull up at turn nine and he had to run wide into the start of the escape road. Behind him, Mostert and Rick Kelly also got into a tangle at the same corner.
Meanwhile, Craig was beginning to gain ground on the leaders, and he was now sitting comfortably in fourth. Shane was now back in the lead again, but again it didn't last when Courtney overtook him. Jamie was in twelfth, and Lightning was struggling back in seventeenth. However, now that the sun was starting to come out again, Lightning was beginning to gain a bit of ground.
On lap eighteen, Bright decided to pit for fuel and a change to hard tyres. At turn nine, Shane made a move to overtake Courtney, who was now in the lead, but he ended up colliding with him and Shane damaged his front left-hand fender. Craig, who'd been behind them, dived through to take the lead.
Even though he'd taken the lead, Craig decided to pit for fuel and a change to hard tyres. Jamie, and about a third of the field followed him in. A lap later, Lightning and Shane took their pit stop.
"Lightning, we're going to give you half of your required fuel now," Tony explained as Lightning made his way down pit lane. "That means you'll have a longer pit stop now, but hopefully we can make up some time later in the race."
"Understood, Tony."
Lightning stopped exactly where he needed to in the pit bay. He was jacked up, and then the fuel nozzle was rammed into his fuel tank. He could feel the cold liquid flowing into his tank, and it made him shiver.
"You could've have warmed it up a little bit!" he complained to Tony.
"Sorry, mate. Ten seconds…"
The pit crew had already finished changing Lightning's tyres. As soon as the seventy litres of fuel had been pumped into Lightning's tank, the fuel nozzle was removed, and he was dropped down off the jacks.
"Right, you're clear to go now, mate," Tony instructed, and Lightning pulled out onto pit lane. "You're on cold, hard tyres now, so take care out there. It'll still be slippery for the first few laps."
"Okay."
Things were rather quiet on the track over the next few laps. Now that the track had started to dry out on the racing line, Lightning was able to race properly again. However, everyone was still keeping a close eye on the radar, because the second, and much larger, storm cell was rapidly closing in.
On lap 27, the rain started to come down again. It was that awful, drizzly rain that wet the track in some places, while leaving other areas completely dry. And that proved to be Chaz Mostert's undoing. He ran too wide at turn eight, clipped the wall, lost control and went sliding into the escape road at turn nine, where he missed the tyre wall and he ended up smashing into the concrete wall for a second time on the same side. The second impact stopped him abruptly, and it made everyone wince. After all, Chaz had only just recovered from the sickening accident he'd sustained at Bathurst the previous year.
"Yellow flags, Lightning, yellow flags," Tony informed him. "Safety car is being deployed."
"Copy. Is Chaz okay?"
"I'm not sure at this stage. He's talking to his crew, so that's a good sign. Stay out for now. We have some more rain on the way, so be prepared to come in again soon."
Two laps later, Craig and Lightning pitted for fuel and tyres. Lightning had to double-stack behind Craig, but he didn't mind. It was better than staying out on a wet track on hard tyres. Since Lightning hadn't used as much fuel as Tony would've like, they were only able to give him fifty litres. He still needed another twenty litres to complete the compulsory amount of fuel intake for the race. He was also changed over to wet tyres. Craig was also put onto wet tyres, but he took on less fuel.
A lap later, Shane pitted for his fuel and change over to wet tyres. Because of the pit stops, all of the Redbulldozer racers were now towards the back of the field, but they weren't worried, because most of those ahead of them still needed to pit.
The race was restarted on lap 33. Jamie decided to pit for his fuel and wet tyres, along with several others. And it was just as well he did, because only thirty seconds later, the rain started to bucket down again. At turn two on lap 34, Lightning received a decent whack on his right rear fender from another racer, but he managed to stop himself from spinning out in the wet conditions.
"Tony, I can't see a thing out here, and yes I have my headlights on full beam!" Lightning complained over the radio.
"Mate, there's nothing I can do about that," Tony replied. "Leyland's already asking the officials for the safety car to be brought out. Just keep going as best you can."
Sure enough, the rain was worse that it had been before. And then, things went from bad to worse. The entire pit lane suddenly lost power! The only technology still running were the laptops, which were now operating on battery power.
"Leyland, we've lost everything," Dutto immediately reported to the team boss as soon as the computers died. "We have no TV footage and very little telemetry. What are we going to do?"
Leyland quickly assessed the situation. The power was completely out in both garages, but luckily the radios still worked. He flicked the switch so he could talk to all four of his racers at once.
"Craig, Jamie, Shane and Lightning, we have just lost all power in pit lane. We cannot see what it's like out there now, and we have almost no data, so just keep doing your best. I've asked race control for the safety car to be deployed, but until it is, you'll need to be very careful out there. Don't take any risks."
Even while Leyland was still speaking, Courtney lost control in the downpour, and he slammed very hard into the wall at lap eight. The safety car was immediately deployed. Courtney had injured his steering in the collision, and he ended up 'crabbing' all the way back to the pits.
"This is ridiculous!" Lightning exclaimed to no one in particular. He was squinting just to be able to see, but the rain was so heavy he couldn't even see the taillights of the car ahead of him, let alone the walls. Luckily, with the safety car on the track, the spray soon died down and that enabled Lightning to see where he was going. To his surprise, he found himself directly behind Craig, who was in third. He was even more surprised to see Shane directly behind him! He was sandwiched between Craig and Shane at the front of the field!
How on earth did that happen? Lightning wondered as he weaved around in formation behind the safety car. He had no idea where Jamie was, and although he wanted to ask, he knew that with no power in pit lane, they probably didn't know either.
The rain was still pounding down. After a couple of laps behind the safety car, Tony spoke on the radio to Lightning.
"Race control is thinking of restarting the race after the next lap."
"They're mad!" Lightning exclaimed. "I can barely even see out here! Tell them not to restart the race! It's just far too dangerous!"
"I already have," Tony replied.
Lightning wasn't the only racer protesting race control's decision. Reluctantly, race control agreed to keep the safety car out for the time being. The rain was so bad now, that the helicopter taking overhead footage of the race had been forced to land. Many of the racers were even struggling to keep up with the safety car, even though it was only doing eighty kilometres an hour.
Shane and Lightning both pitted for a splash of fuel on lap 41, along with a few other racers who hadn't yet taken their compulsory fuel. Even though it dropped him well back in the field, Lightning was glad he'd completed that task. Racers who didn't take the compulsory amount of fuel would be heavily penalised, and he didn't want that. Towards the end of the lap, a rumble of thunder sounded, sending chills through Lightning's body. He was terrified of storms! To be racing in one was just about the worst possible situation for him.
Suddenly, a loud clap of thunder sounded, and a bolt of lightning shot out of the sky, hitting one of the big screens dotted around the racetrack for the crowds to watch. The screen that had been hit immediately went out. A second later, the screen came back on with a message saying, 'Can't play. Please change channel.'
"Red flag, red flag," Tim Schenken announced over everyone's radios after seeing the lightning strike. "Safety car, you are to come into pit lane, lights on; field to follow it into pit lane and follow the rules for a suspended race. Safety car, you are to stop in the fast lane at the end of pit lane; all racers are to line up behind it."
Another lightning strike flashed overhead. Lightning whimpered as he followed the racer ahead of him into pit lane. Once all of the racers had stopped, their respective pit crews hurried over to them. They immediately began covering most of the racers with rain sheets. Lightning was shivering violently because he was so frightened by the storm. Dr Andrews hurried over to Lightning.
"Calm down," he gently soothed. He knew that it was vital to get Lightning's RPMs down, especially now that he was stationary. "You'll be okay. It's starting to clear now."
Sure enough, it was. Lightning took some deep breaths to try and calm himself some more. "Have we all done our fuel drop?" he asked.
"You have," one of the pit crew members replied. "The others haven't."
A few minutes later, the rain stopped completely. Then Tim Schenken made an announcement. "The race will restart in five minutes."
That announcement was greeted by a huge cheer from the crowd. Now that the rain had stopped, the rain sheets were removed from the racers. Lightning breathed a huge sigh of relief. It looked like the worst of the storm was over.
Finally, the race resumed behind the safety car, which brought a huge cheer from the crowd. Even the helicopter was able to return to the air. Lightning had no idea where he was placed anymore, but he really didn't care. This race was one he'd remember for the rest of his life, and all he wanted to do was finish in one piece.
On lap 44, most of the racers who hadn't received their compulsory fuel, pitted. Shane was amongst them. A lap later, the safety car left the track. The race had now been deemed 'time certain', which meant that it would end at a certain time, rather than after a certain number of laps. Because of that, there were now only five minutes left in the race.
The race restart was without incident, despite the track still being completely drenched. All of the racers took great care in the conditions, since it was obvious that the race would now be won based on the amount of fuel taken rather than position. On lap 46, Shane made a silly mistake, and he did a spectacular 360 degree spin on the final turn, which cost him a few places.
Jamie pitted on that lap for his compulsory fuel. Meanwhile, Ludo ordered Craig to use up as much fuel as he could, so he'd have room in his tank for them to give him his compulsory amount of fuel as well.
At the start of lap 48, Tim Schenken declared that this would be the final lap. Luckily, Craig managed to pit just in time for his fuel. That meant that all of the Redbulldozer racer had now taken the full compulsory amount of fuel, so they would not receive any penalties for that.
However, when the race ended, there was a lot of confusion over who'd actually won. Halfway through the victory lap, Percat was declared the winner, followed by Caruso and then Tander. When the Redbulldozer racers returned to the congested pits, Leyland had some big news for them. Even he looked stunned by it.
"Lightning has officially come in fourth place," he announced.
"What?" Shane exclaimed. "How? He must've cheated!"
Lightning's temper finally boiled over, and he slapped Shane's jaw as hard as he could with his tyre, sending a spray of water from it all over Shane.
"You had that coming, Shane van Gearsbergen!" Lightning spat. "I can tolerate most of the horrible things you say about me, but I draw the line at being called a cheater!"
Stunned, Shane backed away. He knew that this time, he'd pushed Lightning too far, and he didn't know what to do about it.
"Settle down, Speedster," Leyland soothed. "You've had a fantastic day today, so don't ruin it." He turned to Tony. "Great pit stop management today, Tony. You did really well, despite the appalling conditions."
"Thanks, Leyland."
"Right, we'll debrief properly tomorrow. In the meantime, let's get our racers settled down."
…
About half an hour later, three tired racers, their respective crew chiefs, Dutto and Leyland were gathered inside the Redbulldozer transporter. Unfortunately, due to the power outage, some of the data had been lost, so Dutto had manually downloaded as much as he could from Craig, Jamie, Lightning and Shane's on-board computers while they went through their post-race recovery. Now, they were about to analyse the 'lost' data.
Lightning still couldn't quite believe that, after everything that had happened, he'd managed to finish in fourth. Unfortunately, the other placings were still being determined, because of penalties and a number of post-race investigations. Even Jamie had been ordered before the Investigating Officer over a suspected rule breach during a yellow flag. That was why he was missing from this debrief.
"So, it seems like five racers didn't get their compulsory fuel," Leyland began. "They've been penalised by having sixty seconds added to their overall times."
"That seems a bit harsh," Grant muttered.
"At least we all managed to get that done," Leyland continued. "That was good management from you crew chiefs, so well done. Right, let's take a look at this data…"
Dutto brought up the 'lost' data on the main screen. Lightning tried hard to concentrate on what was being said, but he was so tired…
The sound of a door banging closed woke Lightning a few minutes later. Jamie had just returned from his post-race inquiry.
"What did they say?" Leyland asked him immediately.
"No breach of the rules," Jamie replied.
Leyland breathed a small sigh of relief. "That makes a nice change."
Jamie winced. He knew full well what Leyland meant by that.
Lightning yawned widely, and everyone looked at him. "Sorry," Lightning muttered sleepily.
"Can't we do this tomorrow, Leyland?" Craig asked. "We're all too exhausted to concentrate; some more than others."
Leyland nodded. "All right. We'll reconvene tomorrow morning at nine o'clock. Great work today, everyone. I'm proud of how well you all coped in such terrible conditions."
…
The following morning, the official results had finally been calculated, along with the points for the weekend. Lightning's fourth place stood, and after penalties, Shane officially finished in tenth, Craig in thirteenth and Jamie in sixteenth.
When it came to the overall points, Lightning was thrilled to see that Jamie was in second place with 207 points; Shane was in fourth on 197 points; Lightning was in seventh on 184 points, and poor Craig was in fourteenth on 153 points. Although there wasn't much between them in points, it was still a fantastic start to the year for the whole team.
Okay, I was not expecting this chapter to be this long, but so much happened that day, and it's been difficult to squeeze most of it in. Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I've enjoyed writing it.
