Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Pixar. All OCs belong to me, and I have nothing whatsoever to do with the V8 Supercars, although I have altered some of the driver's names to make them fit into the Cars world. The altered names also belong to me.
Chapter 25
Dutto frowned as he watched Lightning pacing anxiously up and down the pit lane outside the pit shed. The only thing worse than an angry racer was a nervous one. At least with an angry racer, he could figure out a way to turn that anger into speed. That wasn't possible with a nervous racer. He really needed to calm Lightning down as soon as possible, before the racer wasted too much energy. He'd need it later for his first practice session on the Gold Coast street circuit.
"Lightning," he called softly, so as not to startle the racer. Lightning drove straight over to him.
"Yes, Dutto?"
"If you don't stop pacing, I'm going to have to clamp one of your wheels."
Lightning cringed. "Sorry. I'm just waiting for a call from Harv. To let me know how the inquiry's going, you know."
"Yes. But you have a lot you need to do today, besides worrying about that. Did you drink the formulated oil I made up for you?"
"Most of it," Lightning sighed. At that moment, his phone rang. He promptly answered it. "Hello, yes?"
"Hey hotrod," Harv replied. He sounded tired.
"How's the inquiry going?"
"Not good. The prosecution doesn't care that it could ruin the reputations of so many racers. They're going right back to when the current board first started, ten years ago. They started with The King, and they've really hammered him. Yesterday, the prosecution focused on the tie-breaker race from 2006."
Lightning groaned audibly. "Not again!"
"I'm afraid so. They wanted to know if Strip had lodged a protest afterwards. He claimed that he had, but there's no record of it. So, they brought Tex in, and he also claimed that they'd protested."
"I don't get it."
"If they had lodged a successful protest, Chick would've been stripped of the Piston Cup, giving The King the win."
"Oh! I see. I didn't know they had protested. So, if they did lodge a protest, what happened to it?"
"That is what the inquiry is trying to find out."
"Oh. Is there anything else?"
"I'm afraid not. But I'll let you know things as they develop."
"Okay. Thank you, Harv. Look forward to hearing more."
"I know you don't mean that last part," Harv quipped. "Good luck with your racing. Try to focus on that."
"I will, thank you. Bye." Lightning hung up his phone with a weary sigh.
"Okay, Speedster," Dutto said firmly. "You need to concentrate now, because you have your first practice run in just half an hour. Boys! Let's get him ready!"
The pit crew immediately jumped into action. Lightning stood still and quietly while they prepared him for his first practice session. Unlike Bathurst, the co-racers had their own practice session. The regular racers would have their first practice session later that afternoon. The team had already had their track drive earlier that morning. Lightning had done his best to concentrate, but he'd suffered from information overload. He only hoped he'd be okay.
Soon, Lightning was ready for the practice session. Physically anyway. He was still worrying about the inquiry. Luckily, he wasn't the first car out onto the track, so it didn't matter that he failed to see the green flags waving. He simply followed Paul out onto the track. The rest of the co-racers fell into line behind them.
Lightning made it around the first lap easily enough, but that was only because he wasn't going at racing pace yet. As Lightning approached the start/finish line, he saw Paul accelerate. Narrowing his eyes, Lightning also accelerated. The chicane really threw him around this time, but before he could correct himself, he spun around and rear-ending himself into the concrete wall.
"Ouch!" he yelped. "Okay, that's not good…"
"You okay, Speedster?" JJ asked over the radio.
"Uh… Yeah. I think I can still drive."
"Don't try," Leyland overruled. "I can already see significant body damage on you. After what happened to you at Bathurst, I don't want to take any changes. Stay there."
Great! Lightning groaned to himself. This is my own stupid fault! Why wasn't I paying better attention?
Up in the box above the Triple Eight team pit shed, Sally, Mater, Elinor and the rest of the Radiator Springs residents watched on with concern as Lightning was towed back to the pit shed. Lightning's whole rear end was badly damaged, but most of it appeared to only be superficial.
Still, Sally thought sadly, he must be in a lot of pain. She switched on her radio. "Leyland? Will Lightning be okay?"
"We won't know until he's been assessed," Leyland replied over the radio. "It doesn't look too bad though. Don't worry. A lot of cars lose control through there. I've seen a lot worse."
A few minutes later inside the pit shed, Lightning shifted uncomfortably as Leyland, JJ and most of the pit crew gathered around to examine his rear end. He winced when one of the pit crew members touched his damaged spoiler.
"How long do you guys think it'll take to fix him up?" Leyland asked.
"Providing he hasn't sustained any structural damage, five minutes?" JJ replied.
Lightning was surprised. "Five minutes? How?"
Sniggering, one of the pit crew members held up a roll of duct-tape. Lightning's eyes widened upon seeing it.
"Uh, are you sure that'll hold?"
"Oh yeah," JJ assured him. "We use it all the time."
Lightning still wasn't too sure about it, but he trusted that the pit crew knew what they were doing.
While Lightning was having his rear end duct-taped back together, Craig and Jamie drove over to him.
"You'll be fine, Speedster," Craig tried to reassure him. "Jamie here did a spectacular side swipe into the wall at the other chicane back in 2009. You got off far more lightly than he did, and it's only your first time here."
Jamie groaned. "Did you have to bring that up, Craig?"
"What happened?" Lightning asked him.
"I wasn't concerntrating. I was thinking too much about winning the championship. I almost lost it because of that crash."
"Oh."
"Okay, Speedster," Dutto said over the radio, even though he was standing directly behind Lightning. "You're good to go. You've still got ten minutes left to practice, so make it count."
Smiling, Lightning reversed out of the pit shed. Seconds later, he accelerated out onto the track, giving it one hundred percent of his focus.
Up in the box, Lightning friends and family watched on enthusiastically when they saw that the Lightning they knew and loved was back. He attacked each apex with an aggression they hadn't seen for a very long time, and within about two laps, his lap times were starting to creep up.
"Okay, Speedster," JJ finally said as Lightning approached the start/finish line again, "You've got less than one minute left of practice. Let's see just how good you really are. Qualifying pace. Go for it!"
Just before Lightning crossed the start/finish line, he switched on his headlights, indicating that he was on a fast lap. Fortunately, because of his earlier crash, the rest of the racers were on the other side of the track, giving Lightning the room and clean air he needed to put in a very fast lap.
He flew over the first chicane, skipping lightly over it instead of allowing it to twist and contort his body. He cut the apexes as closely as he dared, losing his left-hand rear-view mirror on one. And down the straights, he took the shortest possible racing lines.
Inside the pit shed, Leyland, Dutto, JJ, Jamie and Craig gathered around the computer screens, watching anxiously as Lightning's split times came up. They weren't too surprised when the first sector came up green. They started getting more excited when the second sector also came up green.
Finally, as Lightning streaked over the start/finish line again, stopping the clock, the entire Redbulldozer Racing team cheered and applauded loudly. Not only was the third sector green, but…
"Race control has just confirmed that Lightning McQueen has just broken the Gold Coast Street Circuit's lap record by the narrowest of margins, with an overall time of 1:10.0798!" the commentator announced.
Up in the private box, all of Lightning's friends and family began celebrating. Sally joined Elinor at the window, to watch as Lightning returned to the pit shed. The grin spread across his face said it all. The old Lightning McQueen was back!