Voc-Tech Airfield, Runway.
Derek was pissed. At his luck, at his teammates' performances, at his opponent's luck and performances, at basically everything that was going against him. When he got off the line, Alex's S15 was already a good 4 seconds ahead of him. End even after reaching the one mile mark half-way down the runway, he saw no sign of the of S15 ahead.
He had clearly underestimated the potential of those machines from the other team. He realized that now, though it was pretty much too late. Never in all his years as a street racer would her dream of being beaten by an import and now that it was happening in front of him had he grown desperate. And that desperation was distracting him from his job of driving.
That wasn't good. A straight up drag race may be simply going in a straight line but that still required a few skillful moves. Aside from the proper timing of the shifts to get the most consistency for power and torque, keeping the steering wheel still and pointing the car in the right direction may be the most critical of all skills when it comes to straight-line speed driving.
The longer you stay accelerating on a straight line and the more you speed increases, the more forward momentum you build. And at some point that momentum is simply too much to fight. Try to fight by steering the car to either side, or maybe even by hitting an obstacle in the way, and all that momentum will simply turn the car sideways and put you into what is almost certainly going to be a bone-breaking crash. This is why in professional motorsport, the worst crashes always happens in the straights and not the corners.
Derek didn't care about any of that right now. All his sights were set ahead. There was still a chance here. Still a chance to pull off the win. He'll take that chance the moment he sees it, and screw whatever anyone will say about him. Here on the streets, anything goes.
"With the last set goin' them Wyldecardz is holdin' onto a big lead," said D-rail. "The Silvia is 'bout a few seconds ahead and it looks like the GTO is goin' fast but can't do much to catch up!"
"Indeed, D" said Jarod, "The GTO is going like stink. One would've expected that the power difference between the two cars might mean that the GTO would've closed the distance by now. But with what I'm seeing it seems that there is almost no power difference here."
"That Nissan must have something pretty special under the hood, Jar, I betcha."
"Well, whatever's under that hood, the GTO can't compete. Still, I'm not gonna call on anything just yet. Never know what could happen."
Up ahead, in the Silvia.
Alex was already going down the last half-mile, his car almost top gear and going at a blistering 180 mph. He didn't bother looking back because he knew even if the GTO had all the power in the world, the gap was just too big at this point. He focused on the turn ahead. Once he was past that turn, then it would be over.
"Gonna have to thank Suki, big time, for this," he mumbled to himself while grinning.
Suki had pulled off her move brilliantly and now things look like smooth sailing from here on out. But while part of him wanted to relax and just wing it, everything that made him a street racer told him to keep his wits about him still. A race isn't over until it's over.
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Back at the starting line.
Rome was keeping an eye on the rest of the opposing team on the other side of the runway. Their frustrations were obvious with the way the two guys there were banging their palms on the hood of their cars and the girl trying to calm them down.
Looks like they were expecting this race to be a cake-walk, thought Rome. Years of experience has taught Rome that overconfidence can be a strength if controlled but even a little too much will lead to bad mistakes and bitter regrets at the end of the day if you're not careful. Rome himself was facing a similar concern.
Both of the last cars were over a mile away. Because they couldn't see them with their own eyes, they had to rely on the live video feed being shown on Jimmy's laptop. It was just as they expected: the Silvia had a commanding lead and while the GTO was indeed fast it was unable to keep up. He wanted to say then and there that Alex was gonna win, however…
"Whaddaya say, guys?" asked Rome. "Call it our win?"
The normally up beat group was silent and had serious contemplating faces as they stood by their respective cars. Kate, usually the most excited of the group, sat atop the roof of her Impreza staring down the direction of the track with a serious look on her face.
"I'm not calling anything until one set of wheels crosses this line," she said.
"Well, he did get a pretty good lead," said Jimmy.
"That doesn't mean the other driver won't try something. Jimmy, from what Alex told me about you, you should know this."
Jimmy quickly thought back to his first experiences in actually street racing and knew Kate was right. "Well…That's true but, what can that guy do in the middle of a race?"
"That depends on how creative he is."
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At the end of the track.
Crowds cheered as Alex's Silvia reached the turnaround first. With his lead, Alex decided to go easy on his tires and brakes by going wide around the turn. He braked hard enough about 50 yards before the line, shifted down to second gear, and took a wide arch around the barrel in the middle of the line, inducing just a bit of oversteer. The crowd cheered even more as Alex seemed to powerslide across the line.
When facing back into the right direction, Alex steadily, but quickly brought the car back up to speed. No need for power shifting just yet, his opponent was still nowhere in sight. However a second after he thought that, he spotted the incoming signature quadruple headlamps of the '64 GTO in the distance rapidly approaching.
He did some quick calculations in his head and Alex surmised that the gap is still more or less 4 seconds. Most would think that he had the race in the bag at this point but he wasn't relaxing just yet.
A distance away, Derek was watching the Silvia come in from the opposite direction.
He had one chance at this. He couldn't waste it. It wasn't against the rules (there were hardly any rules) so he knew in the back of his mind there would be a few people out there who would look down on what he's about to do. But these were the streets. He couldn't care less about what people would think of him. A win is a win and that was the only thing that mattered.
"I won't let you take this form me," he said to himself.
In a completely unpredictable move, the '64 GTO suddenly turned towards Alex's lane and started doing a serpentine maneuver. This caught most of the spectators off-guard, but not more so that Alex who was fast approaching. The serpentine maneuver caused a swirl of dust to completely cover that part of the runway obscuring the GTO from sight.
"The hell is this dude up to?" mumbled Alex to himself, instinctively letting off the gas just a bit.
Too late however as Alex had already reached that big dust cloud. He was blinded completely for a split second but that was all the time Derek needed.
From out of nowhere the GTO popped out of the dust with its tail swinging out like a whip. With the GTO's lights suddenly turned off when it started the serpentine, Alex lost sight of it for a very brief fraction of a second but in racing terms that could equate to a very long time. The GTO swinging rear end clipped the left side rear wheel of the Silvia with enough force to knock the Silvia sideways.
The moment he felt it, Alex went into "regain control" mode as the Silvia started to spin. He pulled on the hand-brake and locked the front wheels to give him as stable a fulcrum as he can get on the dirt track. He allowed the car to spin making sure nothing was getting in the way of the built up momentum
Alex knew from experience that if he tried to countersteer to get the car back in the right direction, as would be the natural reaction of most drivers, there was a good chance that the Silvia will be tipped on its wheels by the inertia and cause the whole car to flip on its side. He did the smart thing and let that inertia dissipate first before trying to control it.
"Ooooh!" And the Nissan takes a bad spin!" said Jarod. "The GTO seemed to have given the Nissan a little love-tap there."
"Looks like them Thunder Hall cats are not giving up just yet," said D-rail. "And now they're throwing away he rule book! Not like we had one in the first place anyway. That was a tight move right there! Dirty, but tight! Now the GTO is crossing the line."
The GTO did as tight as a turn as it could, but for Derek, in his rather tense state and the GTO's not so great handling properties, that wasn't much. The GTO went wide and there was quite a bit of oversteer. Derek managed to straighten himself out quickly and charged down the runway back to the east-end line.
In the distance he was able to spot Alex's Silvia S15 just starting to correct itself from its spin. "Don't hate me for this," he mumbled as if his opponent was right next to him. "In a competition like this, drivers like us can't afford to do things by the book. I'm sure you understand me."
In the meanwhile, Alex has just managed to gain control of his S15. Only problem is when he finally straightened himself out from the spin, he was facing the west-end line again. Alex realized this after taking a second to shake off the bit of dizziness he had. Looking what's ahead of him, Alex spotted the '64 GTO coming at him, just having made the turnaround. The GTO was just getting back up to speed and was coming in fast.
Alex smirked to himself. "Nice move, muscle boy," he said. "But you could've done better than that!"
In the flash of a second, Alex shifted to his reverse gear and floored the gas pedal. After a bit of wheelspin and some dust, the S15 finally started going back in the right direction though facing backwards. The crowd cheered at the spectacle of the S15 speeding backwards.
It's a popular trick in movies where in a high speed chase someone ends up driving backwards for the most part. Hollywood would have you believe that most modern cars can go just as fast going backwards as they can going forwards. The truth is the most speed you can get out of a reverse gear these days is about 25 mph though some high performance cars can go faster thanks to their extra power. The cars used in Hollywood films use specially prepared transmissions with larger-than-normal reverse gears that allow a car to go as fast as 90mph.
Alex didn't have this specially prepared transmission, though he has heard of stories where street racers customize their cars in similar ways, usually just for the sake of entertainment than for actual practical driving techniques.
Alex had to make sure to watch his speedometer. He had to time this just right to maximize his chances of getting back the victory in this race. Once he reached his top reverse speed of around 40 mph, a quick flick of the handbrake and some manipulation of the gas and steering wheel and Alex was able to execute a perfect J-turn that pointed his car in the right direction again.
However by that time, the GTO had finally caught up and as soon as Alex completed his J-turn and was going in the right direction the GTO had overtaken the Silvia and built a small lead of about half-a-second. Using that lead, Derek swerved directly in the path of the S15, blocking it from passing him.
"I won't let you take this victory from me!" exclaimed Derek in the GTO. "C'mon, show me what you got."
Alex shifted up to fourth gear, reaching a speed of just over 150 mph. With just over a mile and a half of runway left, there was still plenty of racing left and Alex still had a few tricks up his sleeve.
"Okay, let's try this then," Alex said to himself as he reached for the switch for the head lights. Just like the S2000 just moments ago, Alex hid himself in the trailing dust cloud of the GTO.
"Looks like the Nissan Silvia is using the same trick as his earlier teammate in the S2000," said Jarod. "After a spectacular recovery from a near-disastrous spin out, looks like the Nissan driver still has plenty to give."
"This is the best race we've had so far, y'all!" said D-rail. "It looks like it just might come down to the line between these two cats!"
"But will this little trick of the Nissan be enough to pull a win out of?"
"Just over a mile of runway left, y'all! Keep your eyes wide, boys and girls. This is one for the books, I'll tell ya' that!"
Derek spotted the move in his rearview mirror. He knew instantly that the Silvia had turned off its lights and was hanging back just some feet from his own rear bumper. It was the same thing that happened to his brother. Derek let out a small grin but his face was still mostly tense.
"I've seen that before already!" he said. "You're gonna have to do better than that, you ricer!"
Derek knew that what got Carl to lose was that he panicked when he lost sight of his opponent. That caused him to inadvertently slow down which resulted in the S2000 getting the drop on him. That won't happen this time around. Derek may not be able to see the Silvia but he knew he was right there, waiting for him to make a mistake like Carl and take advantage of it.
But Derek won't make a mistake. He wasn't going to panic over one lost car. He was going to focus on the finish line and he was going to gun his supercharged V8 engine for all it's worth. He wasn't even going to look back.
"That little trick ain't gonna work on me, boy," he said. "You're gonna have to be a little more creative than—WHOA!"
As if in direct answer to his challenge, Derek suddenly jolted in his seat as he felt something bump his car hard. He almost lost grip of the steering wheel but managed to keep control. He quickly looked into his rear view mirror and could barely see the end of the S15's hood in the dust.
"What the hell?!" he exclaimed.
But as he said that, he felt another jolt and his engine started going rev crazy for some reason. He looked at his speedometer and saw that it was rapidly rising in speed but a look at his tachometer said that his torque was fluctuating madly. It was almost a full time job trying to keep the steering wheel straight as the GTO kept going faster. He became confused as he tried to keep control of his car and wondered what the hell was going on. But after one more look to his behind and seeing the Silvia still on his bumper, it finally dawned on Derek what was happening.
The S15 was giving him a bump draft.
"How's this for creative thinking, huh?" said Alex with a wry smirk as he shifted up to fifth gear.
A bump draft is a variation of the drafting in racing. However unlike drafting, bump drafting is used as a cooperative technique between two teammates. As already explained, drafting is when a car takes advantage of the wake behind an opponent's car to gain speed while saving the power of his engine for a last minute breakthrough. In bump drafting, the wake is also utilized by the car behind but rather than save power from the engine, the car behind uses that extra power to push the car in front of him.
The result is that the lead car now has extra power to go faster while continuing to drag the trailing car in its wake. Two cars are faster than one.
Bump drafting is used mostly in stock car racing and, very rarely, in touring car racing. Teammates would bum draft to gain extra speed to pass other racers and gain the lead. The technique has proven effective in the past…if done perfectly. Done wrongly bump drafting will do more harm than good, particularly for teal lead car.
If done with the wrong positioning or if either driver is not ready for it, a bump draft will almost always destabilize the lead car. This usually leads to a really bad crash. The danger is recognized enough that official bodies of racing like NASCAR have rules and penalties in place to limit bump drafting dangers on the track.
Derek now knew this feeling first hand.
Checking his speedometer once again, Derek was genuinely surprised to see his car nearing the 190 mph mark, something he has never achieved on his own. His steering wheel was still fighting him but he was getting the handle on it. He still wasn't sure what Alex was doing with this but one thing was clear to him: Alex was in control of the situation and not him.
"Look at that mother go!" exclaimed D-rail. "He's goin' for the gold, y'all!"
"That is a ridiculously fast as stink car!" concurred Jarod. "I'm suspecting the Nissan has something to do with this. I think the Nissan is bump drafting the GTO! I do! No way, that car can go this fast that quickly!"
"True dat, man. But what the hell is that Wyldcard thinking, dawg. If you're trying to win you gotta make yourself go faster, man, not the other guy!"
"I don't think that's point, D. I quite imagine the driver of the GTO is not having an easy time with that steering wheel of his. At these speeds control is everything. And right now the GTO is losing too much of it!"
D-rail was quite for a second before he realized what his partner was saying was right. "Oh, I get it, dawg. Yeah! I guess this is payback for that little spin near the west end, 'ey? Oh, yeah, we got a battle of wits goin' on here! Now we just gotta see who's sneakier of the two."
"Exactly, and with just half a mile left till the finish line, we'll see if the Nissan's plan will work. This really will be one for the books, D."
While Derek was fighting to maintain control of his car, Alex was calm and cool in his S15. He kept his eye on the car ahead and occasionally peeked at his speedometer which was now barely grazing 200 mph.
"Now what was it that Ricky Bobby always said," Alex said to himself, as he reached down to his shift stick.
Both cars had now just reached the last quarter mile mark. This was the home stretch that would decide the race.
"Oh yeah, that's right," said Alex as he shifted up to sixth gear. "Shake n' Bake!"
In a swift action, Alex backed off just enough to give him some space to move and quickly exited the GTO's slipstream. The moment he did, Alex let loose his nitrous which rocketed the car to over 200 mph. In half a second he was past the GTO and in the lead.
Speaking of which.
After Alex left his slipstream and there was nothing left pushing him on, Derek suddenly felt his GTO lose a significant amount of power and torque in a split second. The car jolted madly as the revs dropped and a crazed Derek tried to recover by power shifting down. He also had trouble keeping the steering wheel straight as his suspension was not set for 200 mph runs.
In the end, Derek couldn't hold his line. It was either stop or crash. With the victory already lost beyond hope he decided that losing his car would be too much. Slowly but surely he managed to bring his car to a steady halt through some careful application of the brakes ('64 GTOs didn't have ABS yet) and careful management of the steering wheel.
He came to a stop around 300 yards from the finish line, kicking up a cloud of dust. Derek looked out his windshield and while the dust was thick it didn't prevent him from seeing the shrinking tail lights and flaming exhaust of the S15 as it thundered down the runway towards well-earned victory.
"Dammit…" mumbled Derek as he slapped his hand on the steering wheel in frustration.
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Back at the east end line.
"He did it!' exclaimed Jimmy excitedly as he watched what happened on the live video feed from his laptop.
Subsequent cheers erupted from the rest of the group and even the crowds behind them who were watching the race from their cell phones. The cheering intensified as the sound of the VQ engine came thundering down the last quarter mile and the flash of high powered xenon lights came on.
Alex crossed the line at 200 mph, thanks mainly to his little bump draft move and his nitrous oxide. The second he crossed the line, he hit his brakes which almost glowed red hot from the intense friction. When he was slow enough, Alex decided to do a few celebratory doughnuts on the track just as people started to gather around him.
His teammates were the first people there, and Alex greeted them as he exited the Silvia. Suki was the first to reach him, pouncing on him, giving him a tight hug followed by a sweet peck on his lips. Alex knew that with that, his victory was complete that night.
"You did it man!" exclaimed an ecstatic Rome standing next to him. "Never doubted you for a sec!"
Alex gave him a wry smirk. "You sure? Not even for a few?"
Rome jokingly shrugged his shoulders. "Well, there was a couple of seconds doubt, mostly during the start of your run, dawg."
Alex laughed. Rome followed suit and so did everybody else. Alex gave his teammate a few friendly pats on the shoulder then looked around the cheering audience around him. He allowed himself to bask in the glory for a while but he knew it wouldn't last. The next stage is going to start in a few days and they had little time to relax. There was still a long battle ahead.
And he couldn't wait to face it head-on.
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Meanwhile, in the hanger.
Those seated around the tables, watching the big TV screens were applauding and whooping as they saw the small victory party happening down at the runway's end. The younger crowd in the other half of the hanger was also cheering, knowing that more exciting races were to come.
"Now that is what I call a race," said Jarod's voice over the speakers. "Boy that had everything in it, didn't it? Those drivers really pulled out everything they got out there. This is the kind of stuff I live for! Brilliant performances from both teams! Thunder Hall gave it their all but in the end it looks like the Wyldcardz just had a little bit more than that."
"Damn, right my brotha'!" replied D-rail's voice. "So, it's clear now ya'll. The Wyldcardz are moving on to stage two. Man, this is turning out to be a great year!"
"And with plenty of racing still left to go we can promise you way more excitement to come. Stay tuned ladies and gentlemen. We'll be back in a bit."
On the long table in the far back, the only two people that weren't applauding were Sinclair and Virgil, however the two had very different expressions on their faces.
Sinclair kept a mostly neutral face hiding the fact that he was a bit unnerved. Virgil on the other hand didn't even bother trying to hide his satisfaction judging by that big smile on his face. He took a final sip of his wine and stood up from his chair, catching Sinclair's attention.
"Well, I think I've had all the excitement I can bear tonight," said Virgil. "I think I'm gonna retire to my hotel room now."
As he was walking away from the table Sinclair didn't offer any rebuttal but that look he gave was all that Virgil needed to know the guy's true feelings. Things were progressing nicely so far but he knew he also couldn't relax. The next few days will be very exciting indeed he can already see that, both on and off the tracks. The plan has been established and executed and now he has to see things through and that was going to take some work.
Alex has done his part. Now Virgil must do his.
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Meanwhile, on another spot on the airfield.
Linda Williams whistled softly to show that she was impressed as she looked at her own laptop computer that was showing the live feed from the track. Gathered around her were the rest of Project 75: Manny San Diego, Marcus Strauss and Brian O'Conner.
"These guys are good," she commented.
"Really, good," said Marcus. "Not that I'm intimidated or anything but I do hope we don't have to face these too soon."
"It's good to be intimidated sometimes," said Manny. "It shows that you know your capabilities. A good racer needs to know his weaknesses so that he can improve on them after all."
"Yeah, but like I said, I'm not intimidated."
Manny gave him a one-sided smile in response then turned to his last teammate. "What do you think about them, O'Conner?"
Brian didn't answer. He ignored him completely. When Manny called for him again and he still didn't respond, Marcus and Linda turned to him as well with a bit on concern. Brian's eyes were glued to the screen and on his face was a very serious look. He was focused particularly on the girl hugging the Silvia driver on the screen. A girl he recognized, along with the unmistakable pink S2000 she drove earlier.
"Suki," he mumbled. "What are you doing here?"
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Author's note: And this marks FnF:SU's 20th chapter (including the prologue and interlude). Too much racing going on, I think I'm gonna slow down a bit on the next chapter to focus on advancing the plot a bit further. I'll pick up the pace later on when the gang enters stage two. To all the readers of this story, thanks for sticking by this long. As usual pls. R&R.