The night was perfect for the special opening race for the Gunma area, even though they were outside the Gunma perfecture at the moment most of the important racers from Gunma had gathered at Irohazaka.
The first official 3 car battle with 2 teams, for Kyoichi it was going to be easy as all he had to do would be to finish 2nd or 1st to win the race.
Koji, Sam and Sakura had gathered around Keiichi and Jane to ask them a few questions while Carlos and Sweeper were lining up for the start.
"Why are you doing this race in such disadvantageous way?" Koji asked Jane and Keiichi.
For once Keiichi wasn't worried but he was actually quite confident about the result.
Jane and Keiichi had witnessed the special way that Carlos and Sweeper drove.
"These two are fast on their own and they are in fact the worlds best and the worlds 2nd best drivers. If you are looking for the best you can get then those two cannot be ignored. However, their true speed lies in their rivalry." Keiichi started.
"Ever since Sweeper beat Carlos, those two have been fierce rivals running in close in any kind of battles. They are like magnets, they keep attracting each other up to a dangerously high pace in a stride to better the other one. Their rivalry is so strong that they even manage to drag out the extra potential they themselves do not know of, they may be hard to beat when they are driving on their own, but together they are unstopable." Jane continiued.
"For once I see no way for Sudou to stand a chance." Keiichi said with confidence.
"That is true, the other part of their speed that will make this more interresting is that have some months of the year when they pick a town in the US to race in and those two meet up. At those times it is all out to find out if the other has gotten more skilled. The loser usually goes home to work further on his technique and car for the next showdown. And this month is usually one of the months they have such a meeting." Jane said.
Satake did the countdown and the three cars did the start, since all of the machines were equipped with 4WD the start was intense and brute.
Sudou had picked the center position so he could observe Sweeper from behind and keep Carlos in check.
For Kyoichi that was an advantageous position and would allow him to pick a moment for a counter attack on Sweeper.
But that was not going to be easy, even Kyoichi's misfiring system and turbo could match the response and engine power of Sweeper's NA 4 rotor.
And that GT-R was not showing any signs of letting up in fact it was charging in with late and deep braking.
Carlos wasn't the type to give up, besides Kyoichi was just a moving barricade in the road to Carlos, his true target was the leading blue FD.
"Is that all you got? I thought the rally driver gave you some useful tips in driving fast." Carlos muttered as they dived into another corner and Carlos saw the flames from Sudou's exhaust.
In the lead Sweeper were calm and were driving at a slightly slower pace to not waste all of the tires grip this early in the race.
But that was the only reason Sweeper tried to tell himself, the true reason was that he was waiting for the R34 to catch up.
Sudou begun pushing it a bit harder, making it more difficult for Carlos to keep up on corner entry due to weight difference between the cars.
Carlos had spent a lot of time making his 34 lighter but due to the body size and various components it was difficult to get close to 1200 Kg's without ripping out the entire interior something that wasn't a good idea for a car to also drive on the street.
Sweeper had found different ways to make his interior lighter but still try to keep a somewhat streetable look, Carlos hadn't gotten that far yet.
On corner exit the situation was different for Kyoichi, he was having trouble keeping the distance he had gained during entry, the R34 had more traction and response than his EVO 3.
"I have raced a lot of GT-R's in my past, I guess it was true what my friend told me. That really is who they call God Skyline, he really knows how to drive such a fat body heavyweight and wedge it in and out of most situations." Sudou thought as he dived into the next corner of the snake like downhill course.
Sudou went into another corner with a braking drift as there was little space to use grip driving for acceleration. He noticed that the GT-R did the same thing and came out with rocket like acceleration.
To Sudou's surprise the GT-R came up on his right side and were running side by side into the corner.
Sudou saw the next corner come and slammed on the brakes, however the 34 showed no signs of braking at all.
When Sudou finally saw Carlos light up the braking lines the went into the corner at full speed and the rear came loose.
Carlos was going into a blocking drift to keep Sudou pinned down, giving him time to compensate for the heavyness of the GT-R and use his favourite weapon on corner exit.
As the R34 straightened out the Evo 3 came up close it was going to be a mad dash at the corner exit, however it was all favouring the GT-R with engine power, response and traction.
"I'll show you WHY they call my car the TRACTION MONSTER! Mr Rally driver." Carlos shouted out as he slammed on the gas pedal.
The GT-R was like it was sucking itself onto the road surface and its acceleration was intense compared to Sudou's.
As the GT-R started putting a few car lenghths upon Sudou the real battle was about to get started.
To Carlos, Sudou had been the warmup, now it was time for the TRUE showdown.
The R34 came up on Sweeper's rear end and Sweeper finally went full throttle and all out with Carlos chasing.
In Sudou's eyes all he saw was two cars doing twin drifts through the corners at amazing speeds and weird lines.
At some places they even did the jumps on each other with only a centimetres margin, the two drivers were really having a showdown.
"My FD is lighter and faster on the downhill, I need to put as much distance between me and Carlos as possible before the 3 bridges section. If I don't have a good lead on Carlos by then, I won't stand a chance to win." Sweeper thought and was trying to increase the pace by doing the jumps on all the corners and take the tires to the limit.
Carlos were copying at his best of abillity, he didn't care that the GT-R was heavier, it was as if he couldn't feel it at the moment even though Sweeper and Carlos's points of braking and acceleration told a different story.
A story that Jane and Keiichi were viewing live at the laptop.
"It seems like we were correct on our theory about how they can achieve their magnificent equal performance." Jane said pointing at the different points in the curves and where the points were on the map.
"Yes, even though Carlos is slower during the corner itself he is a lot harder on exit acceleration and that's where he cuts down Sweeper's lead drastically. Two different cars that performs so equally with two whacky drivers. That is a World Cup exclusive!" Keiichi said enthusiastically.
"What about Sudou Kyoichi?" Sakura asked Jane.
"Well, he is being left behind, for every corner those two in front clears Sudou gets left behind. Those two are pushing their cars to the limit, if there is a FD and GT-R with drivers that can run like this then I will be extremly impressed. I suppose the nicknames they got are true after all, God Skyline and God Rotary." Jane said while clearly showing that she was impressed.
"Doesn't matter how many times you see them drive, you can get passed and see them drive like this a thousand times and still not get tired of seeing it. Those two are something special when it comes to racing." McClintock said.
The GT-R was losing some ground to the FD but it wasn't a whole lot but it could be noticed after two corners.
Carlos was having some issues matching Sweeper's cornering but it was still fairly close.
At the end of the snake corners on the downhill, Sweeper was still leading with Carlos only a few seconds behind, now it was all going to hang out.
Sweeper went full throttle and kept the pedal to the floor to outrun Carlos, however this part of the course was GT-R territory and was perfect for cars that had lots of power.
And that ment for turbo powered cars and not NA machines like the one Sweeper drove.
Carlos was quickly closing in the gap and even the jump over the bridge the GT-R was coming fast from behind.
"This is so like Carlos, high powered GT-R armed with traction... In the beginning it was hard to match but now at least I got the same traction as you, but not the same power." Sweeper thought as he looked in the rear view mirror.
Sweeper was rememembering the earlier battles with Carlos, the battles were Carlos were allways grinning on corner exit due to the extreme traction that the ATTESA ET-S provided.
That was something that made Sweeper study Nissan's ATTESA system in detail as well as doing something unorthodox that he later hid in a warehouse at the docks in Istanbul.
In the end Sweeper figured out the secret behind the ATTESA ET-S and begun with drawings and calculations for making his own computer controlled differential.
The early models that Sweeper spent money on having made according to plans had lots of faults either being too much rear wheel drive or giving too much torque steer.
But in the end Sweeper got it right and made his FD 4WD, the only RX-7 to ever see a future as a 4 rotor 4 wheel drive machine, a machine that was engineered to be superior to a GT-R in any way possible.
Nevertheless Carlos didn't do nothing to respond to the new threat that Sweeper came with and started doing some serious modifications to his GT-R putting it in the same class as Sweeper's FD.
In a regular track race these kind of machines would have been banned as soon as they showed up, but they were totally legal for the World Cup's GT-Unlimited class.
A few other racers had tried 4WD conversions to respond to Carlos and Sweeper in the GT-U class but they had abandoned it after encountering high expenses, weight issues and of course getting the same performance.
"There is no way I am going to let up now Carlos, for old times sake I will give you the battle we have been thirsting for so long!" Sweeper said softly to himself as they were about to enter the narrow section.
Carlos finally caught up to Sweeper and got up on his right side and threw a look over at Sweeper.
Sweeper looked back at Carlos, they both knew it was time to settle the duel, at least for this time around.
"Woah the GT-R is side by side with the FD and the road is narrowing down! Neither is showing any signs of letting off, who will it be?" The radio report ticked in at the top.
"Both are crazy enough to do it, but I doubt Carlos will back out of it a 2nd time like he did with that highway ramp 10 months ago in Los Angeles." McClintock spoke softly as he was perhaps the only GT-R driver that could understand them both.
Sweeper's thoughts went over it a few times before he moved his right foot off the gas pedal and onto the brake.
Carlos was clearly surprised as the FD slowed down letting Carlos take the lead, instinctively Carlos steered in front of the FD and the two crossed the finish line slightly after that.
As soon as the two cars had stopped Carlos jumped out of his GT-R and ran towards Sweeper cursing in spanish.
Sweeper got out of his FD and saw Carlos come running towards him.
"WHY THE HELL DID YOU BRAKE?" Carlos shouted out clearly in anger.
"You wanted a double crash?" Sweeper asked as a rethorical question that Carlos obviously didn't understand.
"Yes rather a double crash than something as stupid as this! It was a perfect match up to the point where you slammed on the brakes. I have never had so much excited in my entire racing career, but no, you had to ruin it all in the end! Why did you brake there? It is not like you at all, the real Sweeper would NEVER have slammed on the brakes." Carlos was still clearly angry.
"I had something else to think about and I misplaced my foot on the brakes." Sweeper said in an attempt to comfort Carlos.
"That is neither like you at all, I have seen your pedals there is no way you could have done something like that, but this we will have to bring up at some other time!" Carlos turned around and walked away still mumbling in spanish.
But Sweeper had his reasons for braking and even though he didn't like it he still did it.
Sweeper then looked at his hands for a moment while opening and closing his fists.
"Are these really the hands that have taken several thousand lives? Damn I must be getting soft or something like that, must be the age or whatever." Sweeper mumbled as he got into his FD to head uphill again following Carlos' GT-R.
Kyoichi showed up fairly late at the finish line and only had time to turn around and head uphill again after the two Project S aces.
But even Sudou was surprised, these guys was indeed faster both car wise and driver wise, wherever they had learned their techniques it was certainly not from Todou school.
But it was clear that they were the best of friends as well as the best of rivals.
Very different from Kyoichi and Ryosuke, but then again they were quite different in skill as well, Ryosuke was more skilled than Kyoichi but Kyoichi had superior machine.
The cars arrived at the top of the mountain and the results was clear on who had won the race and who the loser were.
Jane turned towards Carlos and Sweeper and asked them a question.
"Who won of you two this time?"
"Well that would be..." Sweeper started but were interrupted.
"Actually it was more like a tie, I will not accept anything else Sweeper." Carlos said.
"Sounds like you two disagree on that matter. Oh well we bagged another victory, better get ready for next weekend then, we will be going to Akagi and do our first battle with Project D, the showdown is beginning" Jane said.