Speed Racer: Grudge Match
[Intro Music]
Chapter 1: Déjà vu
Almost a month after his adventure in the Trans-African Grand Prix, Speed and Trixie were having a calm drive along the ocean coast; waves crashed into the rocks on the shore below as the Mach 5 quietly drove by. "Isn't this nice for once, Speed? No danger to ruin our day together." Trixie looked out of the Mach 5 at the ocean.
"Uh-huh, I have to admit, I've enjoyed my time off until the next big race." Speed agreed.
"Where is the next race again?"
"Dubai, more specifically Yas Island for the '12 Hours of Yas Island'." It'll be on their new circuit, supposedly it's gonna be the most state-of-the-art racing track in the world." Speed explained.
"Do you think Kim will be there?"
"I know for sure he is, it'll be right by Flathill Country and since he's the prince, he can't miss a race like that because it's too important."
Trixie's face became inquisitive as she stared into the rearview mirror and saw a bright red car approaching, "Hey, that car looks familiar."
"Huh?" Speed looked, and his eyes widened, "Oh! It's Zoomer Slick! I wonder what he's up to." Speed pulled the Mach 5 over and Zoomer pulled alongside and hopped out of his red #2.
"Speed, I challenge you to a one on one!" he shouted, pointing at Speed.
Speed got out of the Mach 5 to face him, "Oh yeah? Three times wasn't enough, now you wanna race again?"
"Don't insult me, Speed! I know I can beat you!"
"Listen, Slick; I've pulled you out of a volcano before, saved your life and in return, you try to crash me and Racer X out of the very next race. Even a few months ago, you shot at us! What's this all about? What's with the anger?"
"I'm sick of being humiliated by you and the Mach 5! Then I came to an epiphany after this year's No Limit World Race and after watching the Grand Prix of Prague…you don't really know how to race, you only know how to drive fast, the car does all the work for you!"
"What do you mean?" Speed growled, insulted by the accusation.
"Think of it, Speed. Every time we race, every time someone's faster than you…what happens? You press some buttons in your car that let you win, they practically hand you the victories. Heh, the only one with the real skill around there is Pops and Sparky because one built the best engine in the world and the other is responsible for fixing your mistakes!"
Speed balled his hand into a fist, "You're gonna regret saying those things about me." He threatened.
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah."
"Then accept my challenge. Thunderhead's road coarse tonight… no powers. I wanna see if you have any real skill or if you're playing around with a toy."
"I accept the challenge, I'll see you there, Slick."
"I'll see you at midnight, champ." Slick grinned before jumping back in his car and speeding away.
Speed sat back down in the red leather seats of the Mach 5, "That was very brave of you, Speed." Trixie comforted, seeing how crushed Speed's ego was.
Speed let out a deep sigh, "I don't feel like a champion of anything right now."
"Speed, don't let his words get to you! Zoomer Slick was always a bully, and you're standing up to him!"
"But he's right about me, I do rely too much on the Mach 5's powers. So much so that I can actually see where he's coming from." Speed thought for a moment, he looked at Trixie, "Trix, I have to see Hank. I need some serious advice."
"That's alright Speed, I understand."
"Thanks, Trixie. I don't know what I'd do without you." Speed said. As he went to grab the stick to shift back into first, Trixie put her hand over his, Speed smiled as he went to take her home.
Chapter 2: The Coach Weighs In
A half-hour later, Speed pulled up to Hank's house, surprised to see Hank not only standing on his own but also washing the Mach 4. "Hank?" Speed said, leaping out of the Mach 5, "Why's your chair all the way over on the lawn? Do you need your crutches?"
Hank laughed, "No, Speed. No, I can manage."
"I don't understand."
Hank continued to wax the Mach 4's glistening orange body, "I got a visit from Rex." He informed.
"Rex was here?" Speed gasped.
"Yes, sir. He-ah, he gave me quite the eye-opening drive down at Thunderhead. So eye-opening that it turned out that I wasn't as crippled as I thought, it was all, or mostly in my mind." Hank scratched the back of his head, trying to simplify what had occurred.
"That had to have been something, should I be worried?"
"No, Speed, no. I've been making massive leaps in my physical rehabilitation, I can even drive normally again, I can't race yet, unfortunately."
"Race again? Now you're sounding wacky."
"I miss it, Speed. I miss racing more than anything, I miss winning, I miss it all. It may sound wacky to you after everything you've seen me go through, but for me…it's a comeback." Hank said with a sparkle in his eye and a look of focus and passion like he hadn't had in years before he eased up and relaxed, "What'd you come down here for? It must be serious if you're coming at this odd time." Hank said.
"I have a grudge match tonight." Speed said.
Hank stopped and put his stuff down, "Against who?"
"Zoomer Slick challenged me, said that I'm nothing without the Mach 5's powers, said I'm only good at going fast and no good at actual racing. So, he challenged me to a race at midnight tonight at Thunderhead on the road course."
Hank thought for a moment and stroked his chin, "Hmm, he has one point and that's how you rely on the Mach 5's abilities too much."
"I know, and that's why I came." Speed said, looking over at the Mach 4
Hank noticed and answered, "There's no way you're using my car to settle your little contest." He said.
"Come on! Having less power would prove my point even more that I'm better than him!"
Hank scoffed, "The Mach 4 isn't that much slower, you know! It could still easily beat him."
"Then let me prove it!"
"No!"
"Why not?"
"Because I know you're going to smash it up, that's why! I rarely scratched this baby and the Mach 5 always ends up on fire or waterlogged by the time the race is over or something!"
"Aww, come on, Hank!"
"I won't do it, Speed. You're going to have to resist the urge to push any of those seven buttons on that steering column. More than anything, as your teacher, you're telling me, as my student that you don't believe in yourself and that just won't do. Don't think I don't know why you really wanted to drive the Mach 4, it's not because of the power difference, it's because it only has four buttons and two of them don't even work. You don't trust yourself not to cheat and that's not okay, that makes you just like Slick; no filter, impatient, that's not the mark of a great driver and impatience is not a trait you've shown, especially last season." Hank looked at the sun as it was almost gone from the horizon, "You'd better get home and get ready, Speed. It's getting late."
Speed slouched his shoulders, "Alright, Hank. Sorry for bothering you, I'm glad to hear that you're walking again."
Hank rolled his eyes, "You're better than that pouting bull, Speed. You're a champion! Not just a champion, but a World Champion! Race him like one!" Hank scolded.
Speed opened the Mach 5's door, "I will, Hank. I'll beat him because if I don't, there goes my entire reputation as a racer." Speed then drove off home to gather his things.
Hank looked on and thought to himself, "You can do it Speed. I know you can, and I'm gonna be there to see it." Once the Mach 5 was out of ear-shot, Hank clambered into the Mach 4 and headed to Thunderhead to watch the grudge match between the two rivals.
Chapter 3: The Race of His Career
Night was falling as Zoomer Slick, followed by two of his friends, drove into Thunderhead and stopped in the pits. Slick put his car into park, turned it off and hopped out, "Alright guys, help me out here." He commanded as he opened his car, revealing his mid-mounted Ferrari V12. "This is it, my secret to beating Speed and whatever the Mach 5's got under the hood." Slick boasted.
"It definitely gave him a run in last year's races." One of his friends said.
"That wasn't this, that engine was before he got Pop's new engine was installed, now rumor has it that he has an even better engine than the one before now. Get with the times, Torque." Slick commented as Torque got fuel and a set of new tires from the back of his pickup along with a jack. The two began working on the car.
Just then Zoomer's other friend got out of her flat pink on metallic pink tuner car, "You're not gonna lose, though…are ya, Slick?" she asked, leaning on her door.
"I won't lose. This is the most important race of my career, Vroom Vroom." Slick answered as he wrenched away.
"Okay, just saying. He's going to be angry about that time you tried to shoot him and his girlfriend, so…"
"I get it, Yuon! Jeez." Slick snapped.
"Whoa, Zoomer. Don't talk to me like that because if you lose, you don't get the girl." She giggled and winked.
"Just…let me work, please." Slick sighed.
Torque then saw lights at the entrance of the track, "I think that's him and his crew, Zoomer."
Slick shot up. "You bet it is." He grinned as the Mach 5's distinct horn rang out through the nearly empty arena on this midnight run.
Chapter 4: Flexing
The Mach 5 drove down the pits right up next to Slick's #2, with Trixie and Sparky following close behind in Trixie's yellow Mercedes. Hank, having gotten there earlier, made his way up to the spectator booth where, to his surprise, Racer X was also watching, "So, you came to watch too, huh?" Hank asked.
"I have some time off of my investigation, and I was in the neighborhood as I am more and more it seems." Rex smiled, looking down at the track.
"So, you know what's going on?"
"No, but I can guess. Slick is ashamed of stooping as low as he did and wants to prove he's better than Speed in a fair and square race."
"Hah, pretty much. Zoomer accused Speed of being a bad driver for using the Mach 5's abilities so often."
"Of course he did, he knows what buttons to press with Speed and that's to challenge his honor as a racer." Rex chuckled. "How're your legs?"
"Much better as you can see. Coulda had my eyes opened without being launched over a wall." Hank criticized.
Rex thought a moment, "True, but my methods were never normal."
"Yeah." Hank sighed, before noticing Speed getting out of his car and approaching Slick, "Look, something's happening!" he pointed as the Racer cousin's attentions were pulled over to the pits.
"What is it, Racer?" Slick asked.
"I was guessing that you'd like to announce the rules you set so we're all refreshed." Speed grinned, resting his hands on his hips.
"Right." Zoomer quickly looked over to Yuon, hoping that he was impressing her, he cleared his voice, "Alright, Racer. We all know you have powers in the Mach 5, I want your mechanic buddy to shut em' down so you have no chance of saving yourself."
Speed looked over to Sparky and nodded, Sparky placed a flat key into the Mach 5 and held the "G" button until multiple clicking noises sounded, turning off the abilities, Speed looked back over, "Done." He folded his arms.
"Good, gotta make sure you're not a dirty racer." Slick chuckled aloud, with only Torque echoing his cockiness, "Alright, so lemme tell you the rules. We're gonna start rolling side-by-side at 60 miles per hour, once we cross the start/finish, we race the Thunderhead road course for 30 laps, that's gonna be around an hour, just you and me, Speedy." Zoomer grinned.
Speed raised an eyebrow, "That's it? Well, I have a stipulation of my own." He announced.
"Oh yeah?" Zoomer's confident grin turned to a scowl, knowing exactly what Speed was going to say.
"No over-aggressive contact can be used at any point. Contact that is allowed is bumping or moving one or the other out of the way respectfully, but not smashing them off of the track deliberately so you can have 29 victory laps."
"Fine. Those stipulations seem fair, let's do this, Racer. Let's expose you for the rookie-level driver that you really are." Slick said, he looked at Yuon, "Can I get anything for good luck?" he winked, Yuon laughed at him and waggled her finger, signaling that he wasn't allowed to make requests like that.
Speed went over to the Mach 5 and strapped in, Sparky leaned over and whispered, "I turned off everything except for the canopy, I don't trust him to not try and flip you over." Speed looked over and nodded, Sparky returned and sat atop the Mercedes.
"Good luck, Speed." Trixie kissed Speed on the cheek, "Go get em'." She cheered as she too, returned to the Mercedes to grab the green, white and checkered flags that she and Speed took from the Racer household.
Yuon hopped off her car and shouted, "I'm bored here! Start your engines!" both of the V12's exploded to life, the deafening roar of the naturally aspirated engines echoed in the night. Zoomer looked over to Speed and honked his horn, signaling that they were going to do their one pace lap. The cars went around the track and gradually gained speed until they reached 60, Trixie ran over the small front lawn with the flags and grabbed the green one.
"I'll show them all." Zoomer huffed.
"I have to prove to myself that I can do this." Speed thought as the two cars came around the high banked, high-speed turn of Thunderhead. Torque went over to his truck and grabbed a tripod and a camera to film the event taking place. As Trixie held the flag out, the two cars started to accelerate, and as they got closer, Trixie waved the green flag!
Chapter 5: Grudge Race
The #2 and the #5 blasted passed Trixie at speeds of 120mph at the line, surprisingly, Zoomer Slick took first as the cars dove left onto the flat road as they entered Thunderhead's road course. Speed slotted in behind Slick and followed closely behind as they completed a series of left and right turns, but as the road course gave way to the high banked turns, as they entered it, Speed followed close behind until he pulled out from behind Slick, the speed mixed with the low-grip banking, caused the air between the two cars to force Zoomer's car to wobble, allowing Speed to dive low and make an easy pass, leading the first lap.
"Go Speed go!" Trixie cheered as the two went by. After waving the green, she returned to the Mercedes with Sparky to watch until the final lap. Sparky was holding a stopwatch as he did at testing and races to call Speed's split times. In this case, he was watching Speed and Slick's times to try and strategize to get the Mach 5 to win, but Sparky looked troubled. "What's wrong?" Trixie said, looking over at Sparky's notes.
"Something's different, Slick is a lot faster than he used to be. Makes me wonder if he got some new engine or something just to compete with Speed." Sparky's notes showed the two cars being as equal, if not more equal than they were when they first faced. "Before Pops installed the GO-V12, when Speed raced with those blueprints on his windshield, the two cars were almost the same, in fact, Slick's car was actually faster and better than the Mach 5 in every way. After the GO-V12 was installed, he didn't have a chance when it came to racing Speed, but now he's keeping up, even leading in some of the sections on this course." Sparky examined, comparing his notes as the cars went by again.
"Then he must have gotten new equipment since he crashed out of the No Limit World Race after Speed knocked him into the sand. I just find it odd that Slick is so adamant about beating Speed, hasn't he been in the 24 Hours of Lemans and the 24 Hours of Daytona? Alpha Team had two cars in those races, I know he was driving one of them." Trixie reflected as the cars passed by again, this time with Slick in the process of taking over the lead.
"I know why it happened." Torque said, walking up to the group.
"Huh? Who're you?" Sparky asked.
"My name is Fin Wheeler, friends call me Torque because I'm big on the no-prep drag racing scene." He introduced.
"Nice to meet you, Torque, I'm Trixie."
"And I'm Sparky, nice to meet you." The two introduced themselves.
"Likewise, thanks. I didn't expect you guys to be so welcoming, Zoomer talks like you guys are demons or something."
"I'm not surprised." Trixie raised an eyebrow and folded her arms.
"Well, I've been his friend since he lost his second race to Speed, I met him at one of my drag races that he decided to attend."
"But why's he got it out for Speed so bad?" Sparky asked.
The cars roared on by as Zoomer gave a dirty look when he saw Torque talking to the others, "He'd better keep his mouth shut!" Slick said, maintaining his lead. He looked in the rear-view mirror to see the Mach 5's signature yellow headlights extremely close behind, "You see, Racer? You see how much better I am than you?" he chuckled to himself as the two cars entered the road course and hit another left that went into a sharp right.
"Got you." Speed said as they entered the sharp right turn, he got his nose under Slick, forcing Slick into an undesirable driving line, allowing Speed to maintain more momentum, thus allowing a clean, but aggressive pass. They headed straight for a while until they hit a tight left that leads into hairpin turns, both cars going left and right and left and right with Slick behind the Mach 5.
"I could wreck him out of the race right here." Slick thought aloud. "But it's only been five laps! How could I be so impatient? This is why this happened in the first place!" He argued to himself as the snake turns opened into a small straight portion leading into Thunderhead's signature feature, The Roundabout; a section normally used for Rallycross, this turn is an actual roundabout that leads to only one exit. Speed and Slick decided to go the long way around which was to go left and go around the roundabout into the small exit curve that leads out to the banked corners.
As they entered the roundabout, Speed noticed that the other end of the tricky turn was open, he knew exactly what it was going to come down to as the two turned into the roundabout, but they kept their composure to conserve their tires until the end which was when they would really punish their cars to win. They entered the high-speed corners and the Mach 5 led the 3rd lap. Speed ended up leading Laps 4 and 5 as well, as their friends watched on at the non-stop hard racing.
Yuon, who was chewing gum and blowing bubbles shouted, "I'm bored!" and stretched out, "How come races can't be three laps and then it's over?" she lounged atop her car.
"Well, if you're so bored by racing, then why do you have a car like that?" Trixie pointed out.
"You're Speed Racer's girl, right?" Yuon asked, jumping down from her car's roof.
"Yeah…" Trixie answered, kind of intimidated.
Yuon sized Trixie up and commented "I'm surprised that a champion like Speed would be into such an average girl like you. He'd be much better off with a girl like me, I'm more his…speed." Yuon laughed at her own pun as Trixie looked on angrily.
"Oh yeah? Well at least I can race a car, you look like you've never touched yours! I bet you're some kind of spoiled brat who gets anything she wants, and Speed doesn't like girls like that." Trixie shot back.
Yuon got in Trixie's face again and batted her eyelashes noticeably fast, "Do you even know who I am? I'm not some normal, boring circuit racer like your boyfriend, I'm a street racer, I race for real. You're just some pretty girl with good arm candy."
Sparky then got in between the two, "Girls, can we please just watch the race?" he pleaded.
"A street racer, huh? Then you'd get even less respect from Speed since you put everyone's lives in danger for a little high!" Trixie shouted.
"Nah, girl, big high, big money." Yuon leaned in, laughing in Trixie's face.
"Alright! Enough!" Sparky took Trixie by the shoulders and directed her back to watching the race, "Let's just watch the race! Leave us alone, Trixie didn't do anything to you!"
"Pssh, okay." Yuon shrugged, climbing back atop her car and lounging around.
Back in the spectator tower, Hank commented, "That almost got interesting."
"That's Yuon "Vroom Vroom" Ling, she's an infamous street racer…and an infamous brat. I bet Trixie noticed Yuon's expensive tastes and accused her of being a brat. But Yuon actually comes from a rather poor family, it's why she started street racing, she bought everything she owns." Rex answered.
"I'm surprised you're not arresting her."
"Honestly, I would, but the sight of Racer X coming to arrest her would start a spectacularly troubling chain of events that may lead to someone being hurt or worse. She'd get in her car and lead me on a wild chase through the streets, it'd be messy." Rex replied.
"I guess so, I didn't think of that. You've gotten good at this whole secret agent work, despite wearing a mask."
"Thanks, I worked very hard on the Racer X thing." But Rex's smile went to a frown as he noticed something else.
"What's wrong?" Hank asked, looking down and noticing the same issue.
"Speed's pushing it too hard on the hairpin turns."
"Yeah, he can barely keep it on the track, it looks like he'll slide off at any second." Hank said.
"I wonder if he even realizes he's pushing too hard, could be an effect of him being used to having the grip tires to save him." As Rex observed this, Slick easily passed Speed as they made their way to the roundabout turn.
"Come on, Speed. You're better than that."
On pit road, Sparky also noticed this and took out his blackboard and chalk. He wrote a message on it and ran down to the apron, the cars passed by, entering lap 9 so he had to wait a moment. Luckily for him, Speed was able to catch Sparky running towards them out of the corner of his eye. In a little over a minute and a half, the two cars came back down, and Sparky held the blackboard, Speed drove close to the side and saw it which read, "Easy on the hairpin." Speed made the mental note and gave Sparky the thumbs up as he passed. Sparky ran back over to the pits where Trixie was watching, he took a minute to catch his breath, Yuon shouted, "Speed should be disqualified! Slick said no help!"
Trixie confronted her again, "No, Slick said 'no powers' he didn't say team members couldn't help. So, we're still playing fair and square; too bad you don't care enough to help Zoomer, now you're calling out little things just because you don't like me."
"Hah! You think I'd be petty for you. Okay, you keep on thinking that." Yuon rolled her eyes and kept watching.
"She's really pushing it." Trixie said to Sparky.
"Chill out, Trix, she's just mad because she'll never be part of the Go-Team." He smiled as the cars kept going around, Speed, this time took the lead after following Sparky's advice. The cars went around and around, swapping positions whether it be taking advantage of a mistake or moving the other out of the way, but everyone knew that it was going to get violent as Speed and Slick crossed the line side-by-side entering Lap 29! Trixie ran out and took the white flag preparing for the two to come back around.
"Alright, I have to be ready for him to pull something." Speed thought as they went around the sharp right turn and the cars continued along the track.
"This is it, finally time to prove I'm better than you, Speed." Slick said to himself as they got out of the roundabout and into the banked turns where Slick took the lead and slid in front of the Mach 5 as they passed Trixie who waved the white flag, signaling the final lap. Going down into the first left turn, Speed bumped Slick, causing Slick to go wide and Speed passed easily as they took a left curve and went back into the sharp right where Slick put the flatter nose of his car into the Mach 5, performing the same maneuver, but Speed tried to hold his ground, causing the two cars to smack into each other, but they corrected themselves going side by side into the sharp hairpin turn going into a series of left and right turns which is where Speed caught back up and cleanly passed Slick.
Both drivers looked at the roundabout, if Slick went the opposite way than they had been going, he would reach the exit before Speed and had more of a chance to win, and Speed knew that was exactly was Slick was going to do. As they hit the roundabout, Speed turned left, going the way that they had been going and Slick turned right, taking the shortcut and the lead. Speed didn't have much time, Slick gained a lot of ground with that dirty trick, so as they entered the final corners, Speed opened up all of the power from his new engine and he caught Slick midway through the corner! Carrying much more momentum, Speed was able to pass despite Slick's attempt to block which would've ended in catastrophe for both drivers! Slick was able to get behind the Mach 5 and draft, Trixie was waving the checkered flag, Slick tried to slingshot around the Mach 5, but Speed was too fast as they crossed the line and Speed Racer won against Zoomer Slick!
"Well, that settles it. Speed just needs more practice without the Mach 5's abilities." Hank smiled.
"He's gonna be the best, we all know he's destined to be. But for now, I should get going." Rex said.
"Yeah, me too. I'll see you around, Rex." Hank said as the two walked out of the tower as more drama unfolded on the track.
"No…no, not again. Not again!" Zoomer screamed as he put his nose into the Mach 5 and shoved the car, causing Speed to spin wildly across the track!
"Oh!" Speed exclaimed as the Mach 5 tipped over, he pressed the D Button in case he flipped so he would be protected. Luckily for him and Sparky, the Mach 5 slammed back down on all fours instead of flipping over. Speed let out a deep breath before realizing what happened and he got out of the car to confront Slick as all of their friends ran over to stop the fight, all except for Yuon, who was just coming to see a fight. Speed ran over to where Slick had stopped and gotten out.
"So, you had one of your powers on all along! I knew you couldn't live without em'!" Zoomer chided, but Speed grabbed Slick's shirt and punched him in the chin!
"What's the matter with you, Slick? You can't take a loss, so you try and kill someone?" Speed grabbed Zoomer's yellow ascot and pulled him upwards as Speed leaned over, "Why can't you just be a good driver, huh? You've proven you are, but you can't take a loss, it's pathetic!" Speed shouted.
"Speed, stop! Hold on, Speed there's more to the story!" Trixie called out as she and Sparky made it over.
"What do you mean there's more?" Speed asked.
"Ask him." Trixie looked at the defeated Zoomer Slick as Torque arrived with Yuon.
"Yeah, Slick, tell em' what this is all about." Torque said.
Zoomer Slick sat on the ground, he looked up at the others and sighed, "Thanks to you, my career ended, Speed."
"What're you talking about? We've known each other since high school, you had the rich family who let you race since you were fifteen, you started racing professionally since we were sixteen, two years before I started, and you flaunted your status in front of me every time we crossed paths! You had your career handed to you, I had to convince Pops to let me drive amateur series let alone pro, I had to show him I was ready because racing had brought nothing but tragedy to my family before I started."
Zoomer looked down, "You don't get it. Being beaten by a rookie like you twice really ruined my status with the Alpha Team. They paid a lot of money to have me race for them, paid, even more, to have me take you and Racer X out which I failed to do. I became a third-stringer for the Alpha Team after that."
"But what about 24 Hours of Lemans and Daytona? You raced in both of those, Alpha Team won one of those."
"As I said, I was a third-string driver for both races and my car didn't win the one that Alpha Team secured at Daytona. I drove one stint in each race, I was embarrassed by my own team. Alpha Team didn't even want to sign me up for the No Limit World Race, but I fought tooth and nail to convince them that I was good enough and when the Three Roses paid them to put me in, they had no choice…but who ruined that opportunity?"
"You did, Slick. If you raced me and didn't pull that gun, you would've finished the race."
"Well, I got fired from Alpha Team when you took me out. So, I took whatever winnings and checks I had and I bought a 12-cylinder Ferrari engine to put in my car, so I could still be competitive as an independent, so I could beat the Mach 5, and I almost did, but I couldn't! I couldn't pull it off!" Zoomer began to cry on the ground as a stoic Speed Racer looked down on him. Yuon rolled her eyes and began to walk back to her car, "Wh-where are you going?" Slick cried.
"Seriously? I said you could have me if you won. You lost so, bye." Yuon scoffed as she walked away.
"I can't say I feel bad for you, Slick. If you focused on driving instead of crashing, you'd find more success. Instead, you get wrapped up in all of these schemes and plans so you forget why you're even there in the first place. So long, Slick." Speed said as he and the others started walking away.
"Wait! How can I be like you? How can I find success like you?" Slick cried out.
Speed stopped and looked back, "If this experience taught me anything, it's that…maybe you shouldn't take yourself so seriously. Maybe that's the answer you're looking for." He answered before he, Trixie and Sparky packed into the Mach 5 so Speed could drop them off at the Mercedes and they could all go home.
Speed, now confident in his own abilities must get ready for his next adventure in Dubai, but questions still linger from tonight's race: will Zoomer Slick ever make a return to racing? Who really is the mysterious street racing brat, Yuon "Vroom Vroom" Ling? Find out when more thrills, spills, and excitement return for Speed Racer! [Outro Music]