The next morning was the big race at Raftel. A lot of people were filling the seats that surrounded the race track. Absalom and Bartolomeo were in their booth, ready to commentate the race.
"Hello, race fans, and welcome to what has become, quite simply, the biggest event in the history of racing. A three way battle for the Grand Line Cup," Absalom announced.
"Absa, There's a crowd of nearly 200,000 cars here at the Los Angeles International Speedway. Tickets to this race are hotter than a black leather seat on a hot summer day," Bartolomeo stated.
"The Dark King Silvers Rayleigh, Don Quixote Doflamingo, and Rob Lucci in a 200 laps, winner-takes-all, tiebreaker race," Absalom stated.
"You know I got a lot of miles on my car, but let me tell you something, Absa. I never thought I'd see anything like this! This is exciting!" Barto added.
"In fact the country has almost shut down, to watch what many experts call 'the race of the century'," Absalom stated.
As Rayleigh was waiting for his car to be ready for the race, when Hatchan walked up to him and said, "Hey, Rayleigh, good luck on your last race. You've sure been an inspiration for me."
"Thanks Hatchan, appreciate it," Rayleigh replied as the other race car driver walked away.
"Hey, be careful out there, okay," Shakky said.
"Yes, Shakky," Rayleigh said.
Meanwhile, Doflamingo was being interviewed by reporters and Mozu and Kiwi were nearby.
"He's so hot," Mozu said.
"I know!" Kiwi agreed.
"Want to know how a flamingo sounds? I'll demonstrate," Doflamingo said before his did his bird squawk, getting the press and the Square Sisters excited.
At the entrance to where all the race drivers were, Bentham was about to enter when a security guard stopped him.
"Hey you, no admittance without a garage pass," the guard said.
"Oh, that's okay! Lucci-san knows me!" Bentham stated as a tall man walked up to the entrance.
"Wonderful day for a race, eh?" he boomed.
"Absolutely, Mr. Newgate," the guard said.
Bentham got an excited expression.
"And a good day to you, too," Mr. Newgate said, then he saw Bentham's nametag and finished with, "Bentham."
"Edward 'Whitebeard' Newgate knows my name! You got to let me in now!" Bentham exclaimed.
"Sorry pal," the guard said.
Lucci was sitting in his trailer in his racing uniform. He took a deep breath and muttered, "OK, here we go. Focus. Speed. I am speed."
He envisioned his race car going by the other race cars like before. "Victory, one winner, two losers. Speed. Speed. Speed. Speed..." Lucci said when he started to envision his friends from Galley-La in his mind.
The thing that snapped him out of it was Tilestone banging on the door and shouted, "Hey, Lucci! You ready?"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah! I'm… I'm ready," Lucci stammered as he opened the door to his trailer to be greeted by the flashes of dozens of cameras. He walked over to where his pit was set up, where Tilestone and someone else were ready to work.
"Tilestone, thanks for being my pit crew today," Lucci said.
"It's not just me! I got this other guy named Sabo! He knew a few things about cars, so I got him to help!" Tilestone stated.
Lucci looked at the other guy to see he had curly blonde hair, a scar around his left eye, and was wearing a dark blue jacket over a black shirt, cyan shorts, and black boots. He nodded at Lucci.
"And as for me helping, don't worry about it, Lucci! It's the least I could do. After all, 'Gas Can' is my middle name!" Tilestone exclaimed.
"It is?" Lucci asked.
"Eeehhh…not really," Tilestone said.
Then, the race began and Lucci got in his race car which was repainted to look like how is originally looked, much to Lucci's dismay, and he drove onto the track, following behind Doflamingo and Rayleigh.
"And there he is, Rob Lucci! Missing all week and he turns up in the middle of nowhere! In a little town called Galley-La," Absalom stated.
"With whitewall tires on his race car of all things," Bartolomeo added.
Lucci tried to focus on driving when he heard Doflamingo doing his squawks, which made Lucci's ears hurt a little.
"Fufufu! Hey, where you been, Lucci? I've been kind of lonely. Nobody to hang out with. I mean, except the One Piece folks. Oh and the twins. Of course. You know the twins the one that used to be your fans, but now they're my fans. Anyway, listen to what the twins think..." Doflamingo started to ramble as Lucci started to daydream about his job with Luffy and the moment where he looked at Luffy when the boy was crossing the bridge.
The thing that pulled him back into reality was when the green starting flag was waved.
"Ah! Crap!" Lucci muttered as he noticed he was falling behind.
"Boogity, boogity, boogity boys! Let's go racing!" Bartolomeo shouted.
From the booth where the workers of One Piece were watching, Roger and Shakky were watching Rayleigh.
"Come on, you can do it!" Shakky shouted.
"Come on, Rayleigh, make us proud!" Roger hollered.
One-fourth through the race, Lucci was still behind Rayleigh and Doflamingo.
"50 laps down and Dark King is still holding a slim lead," Absalom stated.
Lucci then tried to get by Doflamingo and catch up to Rayleigh.
"Lucci's got a run on him! He's looking to the inside!" Bartolomeo stated.
But Doflamingo drove into Lucci's path, making Lucci brake to prevent from crashing into the other racer.
"OH! Doffy slammed the door on him!" Barto exclaimed.
"Doflamingo's not making it easy on him today," Absa said.
"Oh, man, he lost so much momentum, and now he's going to have to chase him back down!" Barto added.
As Lucci tried to catch up to him, the memory of him racing Luffy on their jog came into his mind for a brief moment and he came back to reality, about to crash into the wall. Lucci made a quick turn and spun into the infield.
"Oh! Lucci spins out into the infield!" Absalom exclaimed.
"Oh!" Mozu and Kiwi gasped.
"Fufufu! It's just me and the old man, guys. Lucci just doesn't have it today," Doflamingo told his pit crew over the radio, which resulted in his team high-fiving each other, sure they were going to win the race.
"Hey Lucci! Are you alright?!" Tilestone asked over the radio.
"I don't know, Tilestone. I…I…I don't think I…" Lucci said as he drove back onto the track, sure he was ready to give up, when he heard a familiar voice say, "I didn't come all this way just to see you quit."
"Iceberg?" Lucci said as he glanced over where his pit to see Iceberg in the crew chief seat, wearing his old Blue Hornet jacket, Paulie, Jabra, Kumadori, Robin, Franky, Brook, Laboon, Sekhmet and Usopp cheering him on.
"Guys, you're here! I can't believe this!" Lucci exclaimed happily.
"I knew you needed a crew chief, but I didn't know it was this bad," Iceberg said.
"I thought you said you'd never come back," Lucci said.
"Well, I didn't really have a choice. Sekhmet didn't get to say goodbye," Iceberg said.
"Goodbye!" Sekhmet shouted over the radio before she said, "Okay, I'm good."
Lucci laughed as he drove to the pit and stopped.
"All right, if you can drive as good as you fix a road, then you can win this race with your eyes shut. Now, get back out there!" Iceberg told Lucci before the race car driver drove off.
"Hot snot, we are back in business! Laboon! Brook! You're going up against professional pit crews boys; you're going have to be fast," Iceberg told the tire shop workers.
"They will not know what hit them!" Brook exclaimed.
Then Iceberg said over the radio, "Kid, you can beat these guys. Find the groove that works for you and get that lap back!"
Lucci grinned and sped up and went around the track.
Meanwhile, the One Piece and Doflamingo's pit crews started to notice who Rob Lucci's crew was.
"Is that?" Crocus from the One Piece team asked.
"Oh wow…that's him," Buffalo said.
One of the camera men also noticed Iceberg as well. "Wait, is that-? That's the Blue Hornet! Absalom, Bartolomeo, the Blue Hornet's back!" the TV crew member stated.
"Bartolomeo, it looks like Lucci got himself a pit crew and look who he has for a crew chief," Absalom said as the cameras focused on Iceberg.
"Wow! That's the Blue Hornet!" Hatchan exclaimed.
"And he's Lucci-san's crew chief!" Bentham added.
"Wow, this is history in the making. Nobody's seen the Blue Hornet in over 20 years!" Absalom stated.
In Galley-La, Luffy, Kaku, Nami, Zoro, Sanji, Kokoro, Chopper, Chimney, and Gonbe were watched the race, plus a few goats, were watched the race on an old color TV in the café.
"Hey Iceberg! Come look at this fella on the radio! He looks just like you!" Kokoro hollered.
Lucci passed Doflamingo and Rayleigh on the inside and drove ahead of them.
"Lucci passes them on the inside!" Absalom exclaimed.
"Yeah, but he's still nearly a lap fail," Bartolomeo said.
"Can he catch up with them, with only 60 laps to go?" Absalom asked.
"You're doing great kid, just keep your head on," Iceberg said.
"Go! Go! Go! Go!" Laboon shouted.
"Hey, shrimpie, where did Lucci find you, huh? Those round things are called tires, and they go under the car!" Bellamy taunted Laboon.
"Hey!" Laboon shouted, offended and about to go after Bellamy when Brook stopped him.
"No, no, no! You will have you chance, Laboon, you will have your chance!" Brook told the younger man.
As Lucci started to try to pass Doflamingo, the other racer muttered, "Oh, kid's just trying to be a hero, huh? Well, what do you think of this?" Doflamingo bumped his car on the front of Lucci's, causing it to spin around. "Yeah, that's it kid," Doflamingo said, sure he screwed up Lucci's chances of winning.
Then, before he knew it, Lucci drove his race car past him, giving him the smuggest of all smug looks.
"WHAT!" Doflamingo shouted.
"Yeah!" Sekhmet cheered.
"Get it done, Lucci," Usopp shouted.
Lucci smirked at Doflamingo before turning his car around and drover properly.
"We taught him that," Usopp told Doflamingo's crew.
"RAWR!" Sekhmet growled, jumping near Dellinger, making him jump.
"Stupid brat!" Dellinger hissed, grabbing her braid and about to pull it, when Jabra ran up to him and growled like a dog in his face.
"If I were you, I'd let go of her," he snarled. Dellinger released Sekhmet's hair, walked back to his crew, and fell to the ground, passing out from fear.
"What a move by Lucci! He's caught up to the leaders!" Absalom exclaimed as Lucci drove behind Rayleigh.
"Oh, yeah. This is what it's all about. A three-way battle for the lead, with ten to go," Bartolomeo added.
"Hahaha! Look at that boy out there!" Roger exclaimed, referring to Lucci.
Doflamingo tried to around Lucci, but the racer kept blocking him and at one point, Doffy got alongside him and tried to ram into him but Lucci got out of the way just in time, causing Doffy to hit the wall. Doflamingo then rammed into Lucci, causing one of the rookie's tires to go flat.
"Iceberg! I'm flat! I'm flat!" Lucci exclaimed.
"Can you get back to the pits?" Iceberg asked.
"Yeah, I think so," Lucci said as the flag person waved a yellow flag.
"Hey, got a yellow! Bring it in! don't tear yourself up, kid," Iceberg said.
Lucci then made his way to the pits.
"We gotta get him back out there fast or we're gonna be a lap down, and we'll never win this race!" Tilestone exclaimed.
"Laboon! It's time," Iceberg told the tire shop worker, who got a serious expression.
As Lucci drove to his pit, Laboon got the electric wrench ready.
"Hey tiny! You going to clean his windshield!" Bellamy taunted.
When Lucci stopped at his pit, Laboon tossed the new tires into the air and proceeded to replace all of Lucci's tires as the new ones fell to the ground within seconds. Lucci drove off and everyone except for Bellamy in Doflamingo's crew's jaw dropped.
"That was the fastest pit stop I've ever seen!" Absalom exclaimed.
"It was a great stop, but he's still gotta beat that pace car out!" Bartolomeo added.
"It's going to be close!" Absa said as Lucci drove in front of the yellow pace car.
Everyone in the stands cheered loudly.
"Yeah, he's back in the race!" Barto exclaimed. Laboon blew on the electric wrench, and glanced at Bellamy.
"Pit stop," he said. Bellamy's jaw dropped.
"Laboon, you did it!" Brook shouted.
"Way to go, Laboon!" Usopp exclaimed.
"That was super!" Franky added.
Well, we got to the good part of the race! And there is going to be a bad part in the next chapter. If you've seen the first Cars movie, you probably know what'll happen.
I own Sekhmet
Oda-san owns One Piece
Pixar owns Cars
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