G'day everyone! A bit of a VERY different entry into the Sister Holidays Shorts series, this will be a multi-chapter story focusing on something completely random compared to the rest of the series. RACING!
That's right, we did have a bit of racing between the Virtcast back in Episode III, but this time things are different. This time we're focusing on the Pirtek Enduro Cup, a small 3-event mini-championship towards the end of the Virgin Australia Supercars Championship! In real life, this event just finished with a first-in-history thing occurring at the Gold Coast 600 a few days ago. Also, these are likely to be a little longer chapters than normal, though they will be only highlights so I apologise if it seems rushed. Anyway, enjoy! (One warning: This isn't 100% accurate to the actual schedule of what they do. I do have the schedules of the Supercars for Friday-Sunday, but I haven't looked at any of the other series' that run as support.)
Story VII: The Enduro Cup
After going into hiding from the Empire, the Virtcast have focused on the real world more. A year after the fall of the Republic, Christopher Caster is invited into the 2018 Virgin Australia Supercars Series to join a Wildcard entry team in the Enduro Cup as a co-driver, thanks to his reputation in racing games. Dragon Motorsport brings one of their American drivers over to join him. As they go into the Sandown 500, neither driver has much, if any, experience in a Supercar…
Chapter 1: Sandown 500
Christopher Caster's POV:
Wake
18 BBY; 2018 Earth Time
It was a fairly normal day up until that point. I had been chilling with my girlfriend, Vestara Khai, relaxing a bit after winning a Project CARS 2 Championship race a day ago.
We were at my place watching an anime called Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse when I received the alert.
'Dear Fury024, we at Dragon Motorsport America would like to invite you to join our venture to Australia in the VASC Pirtek Enduro Cup this year, starting on the 10th of September at Sandown in Melbourne, Victoria. You would be a co-driver to one of our WeatherTech Sports Car Championship drivers, Jackson Bailey. Regards, Dragon Motorsport USA.'
I stared at the message on my phone's screen.
"A-Are you serious?!" exclaimed Vestara, reading the message over my shoulder.
"Holy shit…I get to race a V8 Supercar?! Holy fucking shit! Sign me up!" I exclaimed, to which Vestara laughed.
"Hell yeah, that's a once-in-a-lifetime chance right there," she smirked.
"Well, this is saying they want me for the Enduros. The Enduros include Bathurst. I get to race in the Bathurst 1000. That's literally a dream come true," I said excitedly.
I quickly responded to the email, saying I'd love to help the team out.
And that's how I ended up where I am now…
3 Months Later…
Thursday, 13th September
Finally. Today was the day. The day I got to drive the #24 Dragon Motorsport Holden VF Commodore Supercar on the Sandown Raceway circuit.
In the three months between receiving the message and now, I had been able to get a little bit of training in a Ford Falcon FG Supercar at Aussie Driver Search, but this was the first time I was getting in the actual car I'd be racing for the next three events.
The car itself was an ex-Triple Eight car which had been driven by Shane Van Gisbergen last year. It was a last-generation car, considering most of the Holden teams were running ZB Commodores this year, but I didn't mind. I had been excited when it was announced that Todd Hazelwood would be using a VF for the rest of the year, so learning I was driving a VF was awesome. I preferred it over the new ZB, since the ZB was just an imported Opel Insignia with a Holden badge, while the VF was the last Commodore produced in Australia.
It may have been run by SVG as a #97 Red Bull car last year, but now it was done up with Dragon Motorsport's sponsors. These included MSi, Logitech and thanks to a little push from me, Total Microsystems had agreed to put their sponsorship on the car too. Seeing 'Caster' written on the window of the rear doors under 'Bailey' and our number had almost made me freak out when I first saw it.
Speaking of Todd Hazelwood, we would be sharing a pit booth with Matt Stone Racing, so both VFs were in the same garage.
After dealing with the media on Monday, I had actually been chatting to Todd Hazelwood and his co-driver, Bryce Fullwood about what to expect. Todd had won the Dunlop Super2 series last year which progressed him into the main game, and Bryce was currently also racing in the Super2 series.
But now it was Thursday, and both Bryce and I were in our race gear, ready to take the #24 and #35 Commodores out on-track for practise once more after the main drivers had had a crack about an hour ago.
"You ready?" asked Jackson Bailey, the American I was racing with.
"Hell yeah," I smirked, not that he could see since I had my helmet on.
"Alright, same as I said to Jack, use this session to get a feeling for the car. Let us know if there's anything wrong with it, the issue with the suspension that Jack reported earlier should be fixed. Just take it easy since it's your first time in the car," said Zachery Bergen, the team's engineer. It was basically a repeat of what he told Jack earlier, aside from the suspension thing. It was somewhat funny that I had more experience in a Supercar than he did thanks to my time at ADS even though he was a professional racer and I was a gamer.
With that, I jumped in the car, belted up and got ready for pit lane to open as I was rolled out of the garage.
"Start her up," came Zach's voice over the radio.
I took a deep breath.
Okay, don't stall it. You can do this.
I held down the clutch and hit the button to start the car. It roared to life, and I had a small moment of celebration before I focused back forwards as I heard the report that pit lane had opened.
I looked to my side to see the #56 Tickford Falcon FG X with Steve Owen in the driver's seat. I gulped, the realisation of who some of the people I was going to be on-track with settling in.
Some of these guys have been racing for near 20 years… I'm literally next to the winner of the Enduro Cup last year right now!
I was brought back to the moment by the voice of my engineer and pushed the accelerator to pull out into pit lane behind Bryce Fullwood's #35 Bigmate Commodore.
Cruising down the lane at 40 km/h, my heart was flying.
Here we go… Calm down, take it easy. This is just practise.
I tried to push out the thought that I was in-front of last year's winner at the moment.
Alright, let's do this.
Bryce crossed the exit to pit lane and sped away. Then it was my turn. I crossed the white line and hit the pit limiter button. The car accelerated away at a rapid pace, and I quickly brought the speed back down into turn 1.
"Remember, tyres and brakes are cold so try to get some heat into them on this lap," Zach's voice reminded.
I got around the first few corners, getting onto the back straight and swerving left to right to get some heat into the tyres, accelerating and braking to also heat the brakes.
We came to the end of the straight, images of Hazelwood's crash at turn 6 last year flashing through my mind.
Oi, chill. You're a motherfucking Jedi, this shouldn't be scary. Todd raced again 30 minutes later, you've been in actual near-death moments. Hey, remember when your current girlfriend almost killed you and Josh in Allona? Yeah, this won't be an issue.
I came around turn 12 and floored it, cruising through 13 onto the start-finish straight. The car felt grippy through the fast turn 13, so I felt confident coming up to turn 1.
I passed Bryce and a few other cars on the straight, since they were still holding back a little.
Braking into turn 1, I took it at racing speed for the first time right in-front of the #1 Red Bull Holden Racing Team Commodore driven by Paul Dumbrell.
Alright, car's grippy, suspension feels fine, brakes are good. This might work.
I passed the #888 Autobarn Lowndes Racing Commodore driven by Steven Richards between turns 3 and 4, getting a decent run down the back straight.
Now to see how we go at turn 6 at full pace.
I braked probably a bit earlier than I would in the race, and got around the corner well.
"Car's feeling good so far," I reported back to the pits.
"Suspension's fixed?" Zach replied.
"Yeah mate, no problems right now. Oi Jacko, you said the car understeered, right?"
"Yeah, turn 6 was the worst," Jackson responded.
"Well it feels good, so you should be able to go full pace through turn 6 next session. Just make sure to adjust the suspension a few times around the lap. What works at one corner doesn't necessarily work for the rest. I'll go around a bit more and write down what felt comfortable for me at each part," I said. I wasn't actually sure how much in-car adjustment he was used to back in the WTSCC, but I had managed to get used to what we had pretty quickly despite not usually bothering with it in games.
A few more laps and I had gotten into a steady rhythm, so I decided to go for a full race simulation lap. I managed to set a 1:09.0765, which I was pretty happy with.
Soon it was the end of the practise session, and I pulled back into the pits.
"Pretty good running out there," Jack smiled as I got out of the car.
"Thanks, that was fucking awesome," I laughed.
For most of the day, the support classes were running laps on the track. So we had time to sit back and watch.
The next time Jackson went out, he reported that he was also happy with the car. And the adjustments I had told him to make helped him out big time. His fastest lap dipped into the high 1:08s.
"I reckon we could stand a chance on Sunday," I noted when he came back in.
"If we do, that'd be great. Might have to come back next year," he replied.
"Not sure I'll be doing this again. As fun as this is, I suck at dealing with heat. Even with the cool-suit I was sweating in there," I laughed.
"Ah well, you still did good,"
I smiled. "Yeah. Hopefully things go well, especially at Bathurst. Ever raced there before?"
He shook his head. "Nope,"
"Mate, you're in for a treat. Best track in the world honestly," I laughed. Out of the three tracks we'd be going to, I knew Bathurst would be not only the toughest, but also where I'm most likely to shine. Since it was the only Australian track in just about every racing game in existence.
Friday, 14th September
Friday started out with another practise session for the co-drivers at 10:40AM, so I was getting ready to get in the car.
It was at that moment I noticed a TV crew heading past the garage with Greg Murphy.
Oh yeah, I'm a new driver. Both me and Jacko are probably gonna have to talk to Larko or Murph on TV at some stage.
In-fact, I was reminded of that even more so when the TV in the garage showed a replay of one of my laps yesterday.
Shiiit…hello thousands of people around Australia…
In-fact, as I got in the car, none other than Mark Larkham, or as most call him, Larko, came into our garage with a camera following him.
"…sport are a wildcard entry this year, and they're running the same VF Commodore that Shane Van Gisbergen raced last year," he was saying.
Another glance back at the TV screen and I did indeed see myself through the windows of the car as my team got me set up.
"Now, what's interesting about this team is, this weekend is actually the first time their drivers have driven in a Supercar," Larko continued.
Well, not my first time. But I guess he's not counting the time at ADS.
As my team left my side, Larko squeezed through and got to my open door.
Eep. Here we go.
"I'll just see if I can get in here, now, Christopher Caster, first of all, how was that run yesterday?" he asked.
C'mon, you've done YouTube, you've done other interviews, especially in the Sleep.
"Honestly, that was awesome! I've always raced these cars whenever I can in games but actually being out there is something else," I answered.
"Your first time and you set a pretty respectable lap time, I know you compete in e-sports races online, how different is it in an actual Supercar?"
"It really doesn't compare, driving out here against some of these guys who've got so many more years of experience in these things is nerve-wracking. And the heat in this thing is ridiculous," I joked.
It at least managed to get a laugh out of Larko, before he said, "I also want to ask, you're part of the Virtcast as a lot of people will know, you're a Jedi who fights in the Clone Wars, this is probably nothing compared to that, right?"
Judging from his tone and laugh, it was meant to be a joke. "Mate I've fought Sith and Force Entities and this is still terrifying," I laughed.
Once more, he laughed as well. "Well, good luck out there mate, I'll leave you to get ready now," and he got out of the way, continuing to chat with the other commentators for a second before going to interview Jackson.
Gyah, that's nothing like the interviews I've done before. Eh fuck it, they know I'm a gamer.
"Radio check, can you hear me," came Zach's voice.
"Ay, loud and clear," I responded.
"Alright, same as yesterday, just go get a feel for it, we're just trying to get some laps done. Let anyone else go past if they're faster, we don't want to cause any trouble,"
"Copy,"
Once more, I was rolled out and soon was following Bryce out of the lane, with Steve behind me.
A few laps in and I had gotten my rhythm down again, though coming into turn 6 on lap 5 I had a bit of a moment.
I came in at the usual 261 km/h, expecting to take the turn normally. But a slight bit too much pressure on the brake peddle and the front wheels locked up. Panicking, I released the brake and depressed it again a bit more carefully. Unable to turn the car, I cut across the grass on the inside of turn 7.
"Come into the lane this lap please," came Zach's voice.
Damn, that was scary.
I pulled into pit lane, hitting the speed limiter and cruising to my garage.
"Alright we're gonna pull you into the garage for now to make sure the car's okay. You good?"
"Yeah, heart's racing but I'm good," I responded.
Car should be good too, just needs a new tyre, but I didn't say that out loud. These guys are used to cars that probably aren't as tough as a Supercar.
I pulled up outside the garage and was pushed back in, where the car was jacked up and the team started checking to make sure there wasn't much damage.
Jack opened the door.
"How you feeling?" he asked.
"I'm gonna need a moment to bring my heart rate down, but nah I'm fine," I joked.
"Well, you know these cars better than I do, reckon you can get back out?"
"Yeah mate, I'm not the first person to go across that grass. A lot of the more experienced guys do it all the time, so I know the car can handle it. Same goes for turn 2 to 3. If you're going too fast into 2, don't be afraid to run across the grass and cut turn 3. Just don't go into the wall," I explained.
"Heh, I like these cars already," he smirked.
"It's why they're so fun to watch. Banging doors doesn't really do any damage to them so they can afford to do so," I laughed.
Not long later after they confirmed there was no damage and changed my tyre, I accelerated out of the garage and back on the track.
I didn't have any more problems for the rest of the session.
"Alright, session's over. Good job, your fastest was a 1:08.6623, that's 11th place, right behind #888 and in-front of #8," Zach alerted.
"Heh, I got near Richo huh? I'm pretty happy with that," I replied. Steven Richards was a five-time Bathurst winner who's been racing for many years, and Triple Eight set their cars up quite well, so being where I was felt good.
I pulled into the pits, driving into the garage and parking up.
Of course, a replay of some of the moments that the other drivers had had was playing, some of which I had seen around me. While my off was shown as one of them, I was at least glad I hadn't been the only one to go off. In-fact, I wasn't even the only one to cut turn 7.
Jackson's practise session wasn't too long later, at 12:30.
He did a few good laps to start with, but of course our weekend wouldn't be that easy.
Sure enough, lap 7 and disaster struck.
First, a lock up at turn 2 sent him across the grass through turn 3. Car was fine, as expected, though he was a little shaken.
"Tyres are gonna have some debris on them from that so back it off a bit, take it easy into turn 6," I quickly took to the radio to say before Zach even had a chance.
Don't do anything stupid.
But what I hadn't noticed was he hadn't been replying to any of the recent radio messages.
"He may not be able to hear us," Zach told me.
"Jacko, radio check," I said.
Nothing.
"Crap…"
Crash!
Smoke erupted from the tyres as he braked for turn 6, the dirt on them causing a loss of grip. Unable to pull it up, the car went straight ahead at 261 km/h.
Straight into the tyre bundle.
As if in slow motion, I watched the car lift up off the ground as he impacted. It almost flipped, before coming back down on its wheels.
The bodywork of the car was scattered around the area, smoke coming from the engine.
"Jackson, can you hear me?" Zach immediately tried.
"No use. He shouldn't be too hurt, but he's gonna be pretty shaken. We're gonna have to spend the night fixing the car up," I said.
Zach seemed more worried than I was, as was the rest of the team.
I've seen this before. In-fact, that crash is almost like Hazelwood last year. Jack shouldn't be hurt too badly, and the team should be able to get the car running by tomorrow. It happens all the time here.
Sure enough, a sigh of relief erupted throughout the garage as the TVs showed Jackson getting out of the car with a little help from the medical team. In-fact, he was able to walk to the Medical car without even getting any help from the others.
Of course, the session was immediately red flagged as soon as he made impact with the barrier, so all the cars were already back in the lane.
"Well, welcome to Enduros," I sighed.
Before Zach could even reply, Greg Murphy and a camera was already in the garage and getting his attention.
Well, that's why the broadcast team for Supercars are some of the best.
I retreated out of the garage and back to the trailer I was staying in.
"Geeze, welcome to Sandown huh," said Vestara as soon as I entered. She had been watching the broadcast from here since the session had started. It had been too cold in the garage for her.
"Everyone knows the pain of turn 6 here. I'm surprised Jack still went for it despite knowing his tyres were dirty," I sighed, sitting down next to her.
"Yeah, and I heard you tell him to slow down over the radio. Crompo was wondering if the radio was down," she noted.
I guess they broadcasted my radio warning on Foxtel.
"He hadn't been responding for the last few laps, so yeah. The radio must have disconnected from his helmet at some point," I responded. Zach pretty much said the same thing on the TV in response to Murph right then as well.
"Well, it happens. We've seen it a lot," she sighed. Indeed, we had been watching Supercars for years, and radios being disconnected or breaking did happen every now and then.
I focussed on the TV as they replayed the incident.
"So it started back at turn 2. He got on the brakes just a bit too hard and had to take to the grass. Now, we did hear his co-driver, Chris, telling him to take it easy but of course, he didn't have radio at the time. He must have thought the tyres had been cleaned on the straight because he braked not far from the normal braking zone, and that's when he locked up and the car just didn't want to turn," Neil Crompton was saying.
The impact was shown in super slow-mo, which showed the car shedding all of the panels and crumpling.
"Wow, that's a heavy impact," Mark Skaife commented.
"That's two-hundred and sixty kilometres per hour, the car didn't slow down at all. Wow. That's very similar to the crash that Todd Hazelwood had here last year," Neil added.
"So, guess you're not gonna be in the next co-driver practise session this afternoon," Ves sighed.
"Nah. It should be fixed up for Jacko's practise session tomorrow morning, but I'm not gonna be in the car until the first race for the grid tomorrow arvo," I replied.
"Well, we should go make sure Jackson's alright," she said.
I nodded. We both got up and went back to the garage.
"Since you're gonna be spending the rest of the day fixing the car," I started, pausing when a truck parked out the front with said car on the back. "Is it alright if we go check on Jacko?"
Zach sighed and nodded.
"Yeah, go make sure he's alright. We'll do our best here, he should be at the local hospital," he replied.
I nodded, and we headed out back. We got in my 2017 HSV GTSR W1 and made our way to the hospital.
!=-{+}-=!
"Hey Jacko," I said, smiling when we saw him sitting in bed.
"You weren't lying when you said those cars were tough," he laughed. "No injuries at all, just a few bruises. Was just cleared by the medical team,"
"Hah, it's a repeat of Hazelwood last year. Except the car is in a little bit better condition than the Cooldrive Commodore, so we should be able to get it back on the track. We will have to rebuild it basically though, so I hope your team is as good as the Red Bull Triple Eight guys," I explained.
"I have faith in those guys. If it were one of our cars, we wouldn't be racing on Sunday. But this thing should be alright," he nodded.
"Well, I'm surprised you even ended up here. The medical team normally would have cleared you back at the track," I noted.
"Yeah, I chose to come here. I wasn't sure since, again, that sort of impact would have been much worse in the cars I normally drive," he admitted.
"Ah that explains it. Well, how about we head back to the track," I smiled.
He nodded. "Sounds good,"
Saturday, 15th September
It had been a tireless night for most of the team, but when I entered the garage the next morning, they were doing the finishing touches to the car.
"Holy hell you guys, you actually did it," I exclaimed. I know I said I expected the car to be ready today, but I figured they'd still be a bit further away from finishing it.
"What, you doubted us?" joked one of the mechanics.
"Oh no, I didn't doubt you guys. I just didn't expect it to already be done, practise isn't for another hour," I covered.
"I told you it'd be alright," Jackson smirked, entering the garage behind me.
"Alright, gonna be a wet one today. We're expecting rain and possibly even hail throughout the day," Zach reported.
Hail? Eep.
I looked to Vestara, who was rugged up in the best thing that counted for a winter jacket from what she owned. Which wasn't exactly that great, considering she was from Queensland. I felt a bit sorry for her, but at the same time I was rejoicing with the cold weather. In-fact, I wasn't even really wearing anything particularly warm.
"Well, ready for some wet weather racing?" I asked Jack.
"Are you?" he teased, knowing I hadn't driven a race car in the wet.
"I'll give it my best shot," I sighed, though I was a little worried.
"Come on now boys, today's not just gonna be practise. You're both doing 20-lap sprint races," Vestara chimed in.
"Just as long as the 161-lap race tomorrow isn't wet, it shouldn't be a problem," Jack noted, smirking.
The team made sure the car was ready just in-case the rain came and soon it was time for Practise 4.
Jackson drove out on the track, which was already wet due to the rain having already hit.
He was a bit more reserved this time, getting a 1:16.8253 which put him in 21st, between #12 of Fabian Coulthard and #230 of Will Davison.
"Don't feel too bad, remember, car 12 is one of the DJR Team PENSKE cars, they're basically on the same level as Triple Eight with Coulthard's team mate, Scott McLaughlin leading most of this year's championship. Plus, it was your first time in wet conditions, 21st out of 27 against people who know what they're doing isn't that bad," I told him as he came back into the garage.
"You should have taken the chance to get some laps in the wet," he said, referring to the fact that a few of the others had sent both drivers out during the session.
"Probably should have, but oh well. Wasn't my call. I'll just see how I go in the Race for the Grid 1," I nodded.
"Alright team, hour and fifteen minutes until qualifying. Let's keep it up," Zach told everyone.
!=-{+}-=!
11:40 AM, time for qualifying. The track was completely dry, and Jack was ready. The car was adjusted and prepared to run qualifying laps and was sitting out in the lane waiting for it to open.
"Lane's open, once Hazelwood starts going just fall in behind him, same as usual," Zach told Jack.
They headed out on track. It took a while for Jack to get back into the rhythm on a dry track, probably still shaken from the crash yesterday, but nevertheless he eventually got up to pace.
And soon, a cheer erupted from the garage as we saw BAI show up in the top ten. Of course, it didn't sit there for very long, but even by the end of the session, #24 was still in 15th with a 1:08.4792, exactly 0.0010 seconds faster than Mark Winterbottom in car #5, and not too far behind Scott McLaughlin in car #17.
Jackson was swamped by the team when he got out of the car.
"Awesome job mate, your fastest lap yet," I smirked from my seat at the computers.
"Yeah thanks, car was great today," he said with a smile.
After watching some more of the support categories, it was time for the first race for the grid. I would have been fairly confident, since Jack had gotten me starting from position 15, but the rain was getting close again. And there was still the threat of hail.
Either way, I was in the car and lined up on the grid after having just completed the formation lap.
"Green flag," came Zach's voice, and the starting lights came on.
I revved the car up, and the second I saw the lights go out, I dropped the clutch. I spun the wheels a little bit, but got off the line without losing a position. In-fact, I gained a position in the form of one of the Mobil 1 Boost Mobile cars, #2 driven by Warren Luff who bogged down on the start.
Coming into the first corner, I had a scary-looking #5 Ford on my outside and a scary-looking #888 Holden on my inside with a #15 Nissan right up my arse.
I was boxed in, so I didn't have much choice but to run deep into the corner. Richards got in front of me in the Holden while Dean Canto was forced wide as I had to give room for Garry Jacobson's Nissan who fired up the inside behind #888.
I had to check up a little bit at turn 4 when Jacobson crashed into the back of Tony D'Alberto's #12. I got past the bruised Nissan on the straight, silently wondering if he could even see over the crumpled bonnet.
I was chasing the two Shell-V Power DJRTP cars down the back straight and into turn 6. We got through cleanly.
About a lap later after some pushing and shoving, I was sitting behind Todd Hazelwood, Warren Luff and Jason Bright out of the final corners when Bright got connected with Luff, spearing to the left, before swerving back to the right and going straight into the fence and ending up backwards on the outside of the corner.
I braked to avoid the incident, which almost immediately brought out a safety car.
It was a little while under safety car, but by the time we restarted it had started to rain around the front of the track. In-fact, it had started to hail at turn 1.
"If you need to come in for wets, we're ready," Zach's voice alerted over the radio.
"The back of the track is still dry, I might get away with staying on slicks for a while longer," I replied.
"Copy that,"
Sure enough, trying to drive around a wet track on slicks was a tough challenge. But I wasn't going to be the first car to pit.
In-fact, when I finally saw half the field pitting, I stayed out. I got up to about 10th place thanks to this.
"It's slidy but as long as I can stick with the leaders I should be okay," I said.
"Just be careful out there," came Jack's voice.
I was right in the battle pack when I had to take avoiding action at turn 4 when Macauley Jones in car #8 pushed James Moffat in car #55 off the track and nearly into the wall thanks to the lack of grip. My car slid under the braking and almost crashed into the stricken Supercheap Auto Tickford Falcon before I managed to get it back under control. I did drop a few positions, since I had been in 5th at the time.
Of course, it didn't take long before I was passed by some of the people who had pitted for wets. I had no grip and was sliding around most of the corners. But still I continued, the rain had let up a bit, so it wasn't worth pitting now.
Soon the track was dryer and I was able to push at fairly quick speeds.
Eventually, we came to the end of the race. It had been fairly eventful, but I finished in 13th, behind Will Brown's #99 Erebus Motorsport entry and in front of the #888 car.
Wow, we've been fighting Triple Eight this whole time. I wasn't expecting that.
"Good job kid, that was quite an impressive drive for an inexperienced driver on slicks in the wet," Zach commented over the radio.
"Now I just gotta do as good in the next race for the grid," laughed Jack.
I pulled the battered and bruised MSi Commodore back into the garage.
"Might want to go talk to some of the guys down pit lane, I think they stole a bit of my paint," I joked as I got out of the car.
"And the mirrors, and rear left brake light," Vestara laughed, hugging me.
"The joys of racing Supercars," I sighed, laughing quietly. I hadn't really even noticed the bump in the back I had gotten at some point which destroyed the rear left lights. It was probably while I was sliding around in the rain when Moffat went off.
It was then that I noticed the #35 car already in the garage.
"Come to think of it, I didn't see you for a while," I called out to Bryce, who was out of his racing gear already.
"Yeah I came in and parked it on lap 11 unfortunately," he responded, disappointed.
"Ah well, better luck next time mate," I smiled.
"Thanks. And good job on 13th," he returned the smile.
!=-{+}-=!
4:15 PM marked the second race for the grid, in which Jack was lined up and ready to start.
Despite a greasy track on cold slick tyres, Jack got off the line relatively smoothly, even gaining a couple of positions. It was almost a jump start for Andre Heimgartner's Nissan at the front, but he managed to avoid it. Barely.
However, much like my race, the safety car was called out almost immediately when James Courtney went off at turn 6, clipping the tyre barrier hard enough that his front right wheel was completely ripped off and stuck in the barrier. The car ended up stuck in a sand trap down at turn 9 and had to be towed.
Lap 8 and the race was restarted with Jack sitting in position 10.
There weren't any more crashes for the rest of the race, but Jamie Whincup was charging through the field in car #1.
Eventually, after a tough race and a lot of panel rubbing with Cam Waters' #6 Monster Energy Tickford Falcon, Jack finished in 13th in front of Waters and behind Will Davison's #230 Milwaukee Racing Falcon.
"Not bad, keeping 13th was a good run," I said over the radio.
"And now comes the big race," Vestara smiled beside me.
"Yep, over three hours of racing tomorrow. This is gonna be fun,"
That night was fairly quiet. Everyone was getting some early sleep to get ready for the big race.
Sunday, 16th September
It was here. The first of the endurance races. A three-hour, 500-kilometre race. Co-drivers needed to complete a minimum of 54 laps, so much like I expected the other teams would be doing, I was going to be running the first 54 laps of the race in a couple of back-to-back stints.
First up though, starting at 10:15, was a 20-minute warmup session.
Jack had already completed a few laps in this session and we were ready for our first proper driver-swap. We had done it a few times in the garage for practise, but this time we had to work it in with refuelling and tyre change.
The car pulled into the booth in front of me, jacks went down, fuel hose went in, door opened, tyres were off, Jack was out, new tyres were on, I jumped in the car and belted up, fuel finished, car was let off the jacks, and I was out of the bay. All in 24.12 seconds.
We're gonna have to be a bit faster than that when we get in the race. We're a second down on some of the bigger teams' average stops.
A few laps later, once I was happy with the rhythm I had, I came back in and parked up in the garage. I had managed to set the fastest lap at 1:08.8126 which was the 4th fastest time of the session, putting us right behind Jack Le Broq and Jonathon Webb's #19 Holden, and in front of Scott McLaughlin and Alexandre Premat's #17 Ford.
"Ready to race," I smirked.
!=-{+}-=!
My heart was pounding, and I was quite nervous now that I was lined up on the grid for the race. The 1:20 PM mark was about to hit, so the grid was being cleared of the media and teams, and whoever else might have been on the grid.
Soon, I started the formation lap, keeping my distance from Alex Davison in #230 and warming the tyres and brakes up.
Alright, let's calm down. You're only in here for 54 laps. You can handle that. It's half the length of Bathurst, and you've done multiple endurance races at Bathurst in games. Plus, you've done a ton of laps here over the last few days. And hey, you're a Jedi Master. Or, was. Still, you know what I mean.
Lining up next to Davison, I took a deep breath.
"Green flag," Zach said.
I focused on the lights, ready to drop it as soon as I saw it change.
Lights out.
I got a decent launch, keeping alongside Davison as 27 cars thundered down the straight towards turn 1.
We gained a position before reaching the turn, and I settled in behind the Milwaukee car, now in a comfortable 12th.
Tch, nothing's comfortable in this race.
A couple of cars touring the grass was about the extent of the incidents on lap 1, no crashes, no safety cars. We came to the end of the lap and I was side-by-side with the Monster Energy car.
1 lap down, 160 to go.
After another lap or two, things had settled down. I was in 11th position and cruising without much trouble.
It was lap 23 when the first safety car came out. A scrape between James Courtney in #25 and Dean Fiore in car #23 at turn 2 left Fiore's Nissan with a broken right front suspension and steering arm. I took the opportunity to take my first pit, following a few other cars including the race leader, Paul Dumbrell's #1 Red Bull Holden.
It was a respectably fast pit, wheels came off and on within a few seconds, fuel was pumped in at over 3 litres per second and I was soon off behind the safety car in 10th.
The race restarted only a couple laps later.
I was running smoothly until lap 38, when a certain #33 GRM Holden driven by Chris Pither rubbed panels with me a bit into the first few turns. In the end, I had to go wide at turn 2 and cut the grass, dealing with the violent jump over the hills before coming back on the track and nearly forcing Pither into the wall before I tried to keep my car to the left so as to not get an unsafe re-entry penalty.
Fortunately, the car felt fine enough to continue without issues.
Coming up on lap 54, the second safety car was perfectly timed. Jason Bright had ended up in the gravel trap at turn 9 in the retro liveried #18 Preston Hire Holden.
I pulled in with most of the field having done my required laps.
I got out of the car as quickly as I possibly could, and Jack jumped in. The car headed out under the safety car and I headed into the garage.
"Brilliant stint mate, good job," Zach acknowledged.
Please never say mate again, you're American.
"Thanks, just glad it's over. I'm bloody hot," I laughed.
I quickly took my helmet and balaclava off, splashing my face with cold water.
"You okay? That looked like a pretty hard jump at turn 2 back on lap 38," Vestara enquired.
"Yeah. It was rough, but I'm fine," I reassured her.
"Good. Earl Bamber was pushed off there too with a fairly similar jump by Luke Youlden, so I just wanted to make sure everything was alright," she smiled, hugging me.
"Now it's up to Jackson. Unless he gets hurt and I have to take his place again, but he's an endurance racer, he should be fine,"
I sat down and watched the rest of the race, which went fairly okay. There were only really two big incidents involving Jack, and that was a tussle with Chaz Mostert's #55 Ford. He toured the grass at turn 7, which dropped him a position. The other was a push from Anton de Pasquale's #99 Holden at turn 1. He dropped a few positions from trying to recover, but at least he did recover.
There were also no more safety cars after that second one, and in the end, Jackson finished the race in 15th position, a lap down from the leaders.
"The car looks fairly decent considering the rough 160 laps it just did," I joked as he came back into the lane.
But I couldn't help but be happy for those that had won. It had been a Triple Eight podium, with #1 driven by Jamie Whincup and Paul Dumbrell in first, #97 driven by Shane Van Gisbergen and Earl Bamber in second and #888 driven by Craig Lowndes and Steven Richards in third. It was a first to have the podium filled with three cars from the same team.
"Hey, at least someone I know got on the podium," Jack smirked.
I looked at him questioningly.
"Earl Bamber. He's part of the Porsche GT Team back in the WTSCC,"
Oh shit, those two have raced together? Damn, neat.
"Well, congrats on 15th. That was an awesome race for our first go," I said.
"Hell yeah," Jack nodded.
"Next up; the Bathurst 1000. Let's hope the Mountain doesn't decide to send us packing."
As I said, these chapters are longer. This was almost half the length of a normal Sister Holidays episode! Anyway, I apologise for the shitty format but I'm going off memory, the results on the app, and whatever highlight videos I can find on the Supercars website. It's been a fair few weeks since Sandown. Plus, I have no idea how to write a race XD
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed! As was said in that last line, next up is the Supercheap Auto Bathurst 1000!
-Night
2018 Solar System Squad
