17: Co-driver
They had to pair up, and Bianca had the least experience driving, so she got paired with George to try and level the playing field. George got his own back by demanding first pick of the cars, sliding behind the wheel of the Subaru WRX while Rex and Beatrice muscled in on the VW Polo-R.
"I don't know anything about cars," Jemima protested when she was given the keys to a Peugeot. "This isn't exactly fair."
"Tough," George yelled out of the window at her as Bianca fastened her racing harness beside him.
Head-to-head racing was too dangerous in full-powered off road cars, so Phil and Rose had a timing system set up that aimed to equally space them and avoid the potential for crashes. George and Bianca set off for a practice lap first, followed a minute later by Rex and Beatrice, then Jemima and Letty a further minute on.
"Strictly no overtaking," Phil warned them as George got ready to pull away. "If you approach a car in front, hang back. If someone approaches you from behind, you must pull to the left and allow them to pass. Anyone breaking this rule is disqualified, it's for your own safety. Anyone who gets stuck and needs rescuing gets a fifteen-second time penalty."
"Not a problem for me," George smirked. Bianca had a clipboard on her knee with the course layout and Rose, standing with a stopwatch, gave him the all-clear to go. He gave the car plenty of throttle, fishtailing as he got out onto the track, then slowing and using the practice lap as a go-slow way to get used to difficult bends, dips in the track and especially muddy sections that would be tough to navigate. Bianca made notes for him as he called them out, and by the time they pulled back up at the starting line the clipboard was covered in shaky handwriting.
"I can barely read this," George laughed.
"You try writing neatly in a noisy car that's going around corners," Bianca protested, sticking her tongue out.
Each driver got ninety minutes of laps to try and set their best time, then they'd swap with their co-driver, and the winning team was whoever could set the lowest combined time. George and Bianca went out onto the track first, and George spent thirty minutes getting a good feel for the car's limits without trying to set a perfect lap.
"Two minutes fifty-eight," Rose told him after his tenth lap. "Rex has a two fifty-seven."
"I think I've got the hang of it now," George said. "You ready, Bianca?"
Bianca grinned, grabbing her racing harness and acting scared. "Go for it," she said, and this time George started to really push the car. He could feel it sliding in the muddiest corners, the heavy weight of the car working against him, and it was a completely different sensation to driving a fast, light sports car on a dry track. As he gained speed and pushed harder, he found himself sliding more and more and wasn't sure he was actually going any faster with the amount of time he was losing in the corners.
"Two fifty-two," Rose confirmed after another half an hour. "You're the fastest."
George still wasn't happy with his performance and Phil leaned in the window.
"You're going in too fast and too straight. You need to compensate for the sliding by turning in harder and earlier, really attack the corner. Keep on the throttle and when you're clear of the corner, give it a gradual increase in power to stop the wheels spinning," he explained. "You know the track now, so work on instinct and listen to your co-driver instead of trying to judge everything by eye."
George tried to keep the advice in mind over the final laps. Bianca was yelling the instructions at him and he was getting the hang of hitting the corners just right to control the slide and come out fast.
"Two forty-seven," Rose told him. "This is your final lap, though."
George nodded, gripped the wheel and set off. It was his last chance so he gave it everything he had, doing as Phil had suggested and going into every corner instinctively based on Bianca's instructions, then flooring the throttle whenever he was on the straight and the wheels had traction. He almost lost control on the final corner, sliding far too fast and only managing to keep the car going in the right direction by luckily hitting a dry patch of track, but when he crossed the line and pulled up, Rose gave him a double thumbs-up.
"Two forty dead," she said. "Phil reckons that some professionals would struggle to get that after an hour and a half."
George and Bianca had a twelve-second advantage over Rex and Beatrice as they swapped over.
"Just take it easy at first and get used to the car," George told Bianca as she pulled the seat as far forward as she could.
"I'll try," she said, a little nervously. "I haven't even done the Advanced Driving course back on campus, yet."
The practice lap was slow, but that was to be expected. But when they had their first for-real lap, George realised with mounting frustration that Bianca was barely going any faster than on the practice lap, and two-thirds of the way round headlights appeared behind them.
"Pull left," he said, and Bianca carefully tucked in to the left to let Beatrice blast past. "You can put your foot down a bit, especially on these straight sections."
"I know," Bianca said, gripping the wheel tightly. "I'm trying. I just don't want to crash."
"Don't worry about it, if you spin off it won't matter," George reassured her.
After half of their time had passed, Bianca's best time was three minutes and twenty-five seconds, nowhere near fast enough to keep them in contention. George was trying to be patient, but slow laps meant they got fewer attempts overall and Beatrice was putting in plenty of consistent laps which meant she and Rex would be hard to beat.
"Full throttle," George urged Bianca as they hit a straight. "Is your foot flat down?"
"Nearly," Bianca said, and George groaned. As she slowed for the next corner, they spotted brakelights up ahead and Bianca braked harder. George saw with satisfaction that Beatrice had slid uncontrollably out of the corner and demolished a barrier, and their VW was now pointing the wrong way, halfway off the track.
"Later, losers," George yelled out of the window as Bianca drove past, and Rex gave him the finger.
They had a ten-minute break while Phil took a tractor out to tow Beatrice out of trouble, and when they restarted Bianca seemed more confident and Rose told them they'd got below three minutes ten.
"If you can break three minutes we're probably in contention," George told Bianca. "You don't need to go really fast in the corners, but if you're not turning, you should either be flat out on the throttle, or braking, no in-between."
"Okay," Bianca said, taking a few deep breaths. "I'll try."
They found that the best thing to do was for George to shout 'throttle' or 'brake' at her as they went round so she could get the timing down. It wasn't perfect, but they were really gaining speed on the straights and George felt good when they got to the final lap, with a two fifty-nine and Beatrice stuck with a fifteen-second penalty.
"Between the penalty and our lead in the first half," George said as Bianca lined up for the final time, "We're up twenty-seven seconds, which means Beatrice would need to beat my fastest lap to tie with us now."
"So just don't crash now, right?" Bianca said, setting off.
"Exactly," George grinned. "The title is all but ours."
When they were all done, the sun was starting to head for the horizon behind the trees and it was getting really cold again. Everyone stood around stamping their feet and blowing on their hands while Phil totted up the scores.
"Beatrice only managed two fifty two, same as me," Rex complained. "With the penalty we're twenty seconds behind you."
George smirked. "Birthday boy wins again," he said, as Phil appeared with a bit of tatty notepaper.
"Okay, in third place with a total time of five minutes, fifty-nine seconds after the penalty, Rex and Beatrice," Phil announced, and they had a little round of applause.
"In second place, with a total time of five minutes, thirty-nine seconds is George and Bianca," he said, and George's jaw dropped open. Rex burst into cackling laughter and Letty and Jemima cheered and hugged each other.
"And therefore in first place, with a total time just one second faster at five minutes, fifty-eight seconds, give it up for Letty and Jemima," Phil said, and grudgingly they all applauded as Jemima punched the air.
"Girls rule, boys drool," Letty yelled.
"I bet the timing was biased," Rex muttered, but Rose overheard him and when she asked him to repeat himself so everyone could hear, he kept quiet.
Even though they hadn't won, George had set the fastest lap which he was pleased with, and when they were back on the minibus an afternoon of adrenaline had him feeling good. Letty and Jemima celebrated their unlikely victory all the way back to campus: Jemima kept miming shaking up a bottle of champagne and spraying it at Rex, which wound him up but made everyone else laugh. By the time they were back it was dark and it was almost dinner time.
"Thanks, miss," George said to Rose as they clambered off the bus. "That was awesome."
"Glad you enjoyed it," Rose said. "Remember to say thank you to Flora when you see her, too."
"I will do," George said.
"And George, please, stay out of trouble," Rose urged him. "Honestly, I do not want to see you in my office tomorrow morning."
"You know me, miss, always well-behaved," George grinned, but Rose shook her head.
"Just go," she said, and George jumped off the bus to follow Rex and Letty to the cafeteria.
George thought his birthday festivities were over as he and Rex went back up to the seventh floor after dinner with plans for some Xbox, but as soon as they stepped out of the lift there was a riot of noise and someone let off a party popper in George's face. He could hear someone's speakers pumping out music and there was a crowd in the corridor.
"Hey," he complained, his ears ringing as Beatrice stepped back, giggling.
"Happy birthday!" Letty and Jemima said in unison, kissing him on either cheek at the same time and making him blush. From the looks of things, the entire seventh floor had turned out, and George noticed some metallic-looking cans tucked into a cool bag just inside the nearest bedroom door.
"Did someone get some sneaky beers in?" George asked with a grin and Beatrice nodded.
"I've got a contact," she said, mysteriously. "There's vodka and rum and stuff as well."
"Let me at 'em," Rex said, pushing past George.
"What a nice guy," George said, letting him go, and then he noticed a couple of wrapped packages sitting on the table near the beer. "These for me?" he asked.
"Just a couple small things," Letty told him. "Don't get your hopes up."
"You guys rule," George said, happily. He cracked open a beer and took a big swig as the party got going around him, then headed over to his presents.