It was the first battle night; up first was the downhill battle between the newcomer to the JDM scene, which was the Garaiya.
However, it was pouring down from above and the tarmac was wet.
Ryo arrived with his JGTC Garaiya and parked at the grid and got out of the car.

"An ASL Garaiya in JGTC version, where the hell did you get such a machine?" McClintock asked Ryo.

"JGTC cars that don't match new regulations are sold to at least gain some money from the development they have spent on it. However they aren't usually sold to members of the general public. I have a few stocks here and there and a few contacts so I managed to buy one using them." Ryo said with a smile.

"I see no license plates on this thing. Is it road legal?" Carlos asked.

"No… That's why I rarely use this machine other than on this pass, if the cops stopped me I would be in deep trouble. It doesn't match any road regulations, just look at the interior and you will get one of the reasons." Ryo replied.

"Normal people who wanted a Garaiya would settle with the road car version, a lot more comfort in that than the JGTC car." Sweeper commented.

"But those don't corner like this car!" Ryo replied sharply.

"Funny part about these Garaiya's is that they use a Nissan motor. SR20 to be specific, the normal road car uses the SR20DE, but the JGTC uses the SR20DET." Jane shot into the conversation.

"Well, let us get ready to race then." Chang said before he headed over to his NSX and drove it to the starting line.

Ryo got into his Garaiya and fired up the engine, the exhaust system was of a true racing type so the exhaust sound was very loud.
This battle was going to be interesting, two cornering machines were going to go head to head.
Garaiya being a JGTC machine which is a perfect cornering weapon on the other hand was the Honda NSX S-Zero, Japan's best cornering machine in factory configuration.
The two cars were lined up side by side and were ready to go, Carlos did the countdown and on the GO the 2 cars launched onto the course in a spray of water.
The NSX braked early for the upcoming corner compared to the Garaiya, allowing Ryo to snap the lead from Chang and try to get away in the lower speed corners prior to the dangerous hairpin corners that could easily fool drivers.
Back on the top, Carlos talked to Sweeper.

"Man, it is raining again; driving in the rain isn't so bad. But being out of your car is where the real pain is, you get soaked for Christ's sake."

"Don't complain about the rain Carlos, it is needed for obvious reasons." Sweeper replied.

"WHATEVER! By the way Sweeper, what do you think of the upcoming battles that have been planned?" Carlos asked.

"Well, I know that there are 2 of them in the works, the next one after this is to head off to Ibaraki and battle with Purple Shadow. I am not looking forward to that one very much, what I am looking forward to will be the battle on Irohazaka against the Emperor!" Sweeper put a lot of force into his words when he said the Emperor part.

"Emperor? What's there to gain from those? I heard those are just a bunch of Lan EVO kids." Carlos replied.

"Sudou Kyoichi and that Kogashiwa Kai are pretty tough racers; you may find them a bit hard to take on." McClintock commented.

"What cars do they drive?" Carlos asked.

"Last thing I heard was that Kai had swapped to a MR2 GTS, but Kyoichi still drives his EVO 3 with that noisy anti lag system." Jane fired a comment from behind the computer a few meters away.

"An EVO 3 and a MR2 Twin Turbo that is hardly worth my time, I guess it could be more interesting on Irohazaka with my 1500 HP engine under the hood and the wide gearing. That would give me a challenge at least." Carlos said with a slight trace of disgust.

"You want to drive that tight course using 1st gear most of the hill climb followed by a few runs in 3rd gear on the straights? To be honest I would rather prefer my 4 rotor NA rather than my turbo for that course. Sure there are a few passes where more power is great, the high speed ones, but Irohazaka is not one of those passes. It is a one way pass so the road isn't exactly very wide compared to passes like this one. But still, I do not like that Kyoichi fellow." Sweeper replied.

"Then I say we beat him so badly that his pants fall off! After all, I guess I will teach him the difference between a born WRC car and a tuned World Cup machine!" Carlos said with a smile and threw a look over at his GT-R.

"He will have the home course advantage, just remember that Carlos. But then again, if he is to face you and your GT-R I am afraid he won't survive many of the uphill corners. When it comes to insane car control you and your R34 are an unbeatable team." Sweeper said.

"What kind of driver is this Sudou guy then? Want to try to get a picture of him." Carlos asked.

"Remember Todou School? He is a graduate from there; he likes to play the safest and surest way when it comes to races." McClintock replied to Carlos.

"Safest and surest way? HAH! That will be his defeat this time around; he will learn that when facing people like me you cannot rely on that kind of driving." Carlos said with a big grin as he imagined the race.

Back on the course, Ryo were braking for the upcoming hairpin corner, after all these sequential hairpins that were somewhat hidden in the gradient of the hill created a visual illusion of not being as sharp.Skid marks on the tarmac told the same story, however those marks were from those who had been fooled by the 3 corners, and the guardrails in the area also carried signs of impacts.
The NSX charged in at an insane speed and at a different line than Ryo.
At first Ryo was sure the NSX driver was over speeding into the corners until Ryo looked at how his own car was positioned in the corner.
His speed was right but he had wasted a lot of turning space from the outside rail and by doing that, his entry speed was lower than the NSX.
After these corners the high speed section was coming up, and there the high supercharged midship would have the advantage.

The NSX took the sharp outside line and begun its entry, compared to the Garaiya it was faster through the corners and quickly got up to its bumper.

"Damn, I missed the perfect entry line, I am in a pinch now, that NSX has more power than me, and that is what counts in the high speed section of this course." Ryo cursed as he manoeuvred out the exit of the 3rd corner and slammed the pedal to the floor.

It didn't take long until he heard a whine and the typical NSX engine sound blow past him.
Less than a second later, Ryo was staring at Chang's taillights accelerating away.
Even though he had a SR20 at 300 HP with a turbo he was still not able to catch the supercharged NSX.
However, he still had the advantage if he could catch him in the upcoming corners at the end of the course, the 5 final low speed corners.
The pass wasn't a very long one so most matches were settled rather quickly, even though Ryo had spent a lot of time setting up his Garaiya the problem with the high speed section was still there.
Compared to the next generation mountain pass racers, power was what they put their bets on and on a pass like this they would have a field day at the middle of the course and nightmares at the beginning and end.

However for Chang it was hardly a nightmare, his nightmare was partly over; the first step to ending it was chasing down Sinjo on a mountain pass to save a life.
The 2nd time it improved was when the Project S crew came along; the sad part was that once they had raced Project S, they were being dissolved.
But for every battle he could get, it was going to help him in getting over his fear of mountain passes.
His true motivation was the fun he felt of controlling the car through corners and catching the opponent.

Chang steered through the high speed corners with ease and charged into the first low speed corner that marked the beginning of the end.
He kept on braking and turning in and starting a drift, he knew that one mistake would make him lose to the downforce rigged Garaiya that were chasing him.
Both machines were running on the 300 millimetre racing tires that were common in the racing world, but too expensive for most mountain pass racers to use.
Only problem with using this type of tires was the warm up before the race, but the Project S had found a solution to warming the tires up if the race was suspected to be extra difficult.
Prior to the race they used 2 cars to heat up both the front and rear tire set, swapping on the front tires was the most difficult part as the tires had a very hot surface and it is easy to injure yourself by touching it.
The process of warming up the tires was done in drag racing style, doing a really heated burnout.
This was only done for the hard rubber compound tires since they need a longer time to heat up to operating temperature.
Also, the tires were put on the car right before the race was started to make sure they were as warm as possible.
However since it was raining they had cancelled doing the burnout as getting the ground dry enough to do it wasn't possible, so they had gone with a softer compound instead of hard compound that Carlos and Sweeper preferred.
But that was only the tip of the iceberg when it came to tires; they shouldn't run too hot either, if they get too hot they will lose their grip.
So it was all about maintaining a perfect temperature on the tires during a race.

Chang knew that the best way of defeating the Garaiya wasn't by charging into the corners as fast as he could, even in the rain the Garaiya that had a heavier total weight than the NSX would still win on corner entry.
The best way for Chang to win was actually to start a drift to change direction quickly and drop the speed, then pile on the power as early as possible since that was the strong point of the NSX compared to the Garaiya.
Get on the power and pick up as much speed as possible and then use the same procedure for the next corner.

Chang cleared two corners and looked in the rear view mirror, the Garaiya was catching up, as Chang dived into the 3rd corner with his braking drift, the Garaiya were exiting the 2nd corner.
It was all about balancing out the car with the counter steering and try to keep straight the moment the exit was visible, from there it was all relying on the engine power.
Driving grip on this wet road would only give trouble and tons of understeer which again would be problematic.
"Make the car slide on your own terms" was the tactic most pro racers would chose under these conditions.
Instead of waiting for the car to lose traction and either under or oversteer, throw it into a controlled oversteer instead.
The Garaiya was quick through the corners and at the entry to the 4th corner it was on Chang's tail.
The gap was shortened drastically for a moment until Chang stepped on the gas on the exit; it was quickly widened thanks to Chang's supercharger and the engine crossing into VTEC.
As the 5th corner closed in the Garaiya braked late and came up side by side with Chang.
Chang were already drifting towards the outside due a bit higher entry speed than what he would normally use.
So the Garaiya had the inside lane, it got a few meters ahead before the final acceleration to the finish line was up.
Ryo knew this was a losing battle, only way he could have won was if Chang had entered a few KPH faster into the last corner, making him slam into the rock wall on the outside of the corner.

"How ironic, in my last race against Project D I managed to hold off the AE86 due to superior power, this time I get beaten in the power department! But I win in the handling department, too bad having good handling doesn't help on straights." Ryo thought as he saw the red NSX Type S-Zero blew past and towards the finish line.

On the top of the hill the radio report ticked in and as the report finished, Sweeper turned towards Jane.

"It is practically over by now; the next battle won't even be a challenge at all." Sweeper said.

"McClintock headed down there 5 minutes ago; I guess it should be starting soon. But you really have no belief in this Akira guy eh Sweeper?" Jane asked.

"All talk and no go. Well to be honest his mouth is too big, I don't know how Ryo ran into such a guy, but he has a lot of respect for Ryo. That I can tell, but being fast? GIVE ME A BREAK!" Sweeper shouted out.

"How do you know that he is slow Sweeper?" Carlos asked.

"He drove the car when they made the video tape of the course for me when I raced for them. And he was really pushing hard, he was trying to impress me with everything he got, but man how slow he was." Sweeper said.

Jane and Carlos just began laughing of the entire thing.

"His Impreza will not last in the high speed section against the R34; if McClintock can make it there the match will be effectively over, even with 450 HP on the Impreza, it is still not going to be able to hang onto the R34 GT-R. If it was a GT-Turbo then I guess he would have a chance, but this is a GT-R, and traction wise it is no match for the Impreza, and on straights the ATTESA ET-S will really shine." Jane said.