OOC: what happened to the Jaimz. Lost tons of laps but doesn’t appear in the text?
Combined with a small crash, refuelling and a quite large amount of small driving errors (which I am not putting into the text this time because it has resulted in a boring wall of text earlier), it has taken a fair amount of time for Team Jaimz.
2 Likes
While refuelling:
Sean: We managed to pass 1000 laps in this rusted thing!
Carl: We did and we’re fifth too!
Sean: I do notice the car has a tendency to slide a lot.
Carl: You found that out now!? 1000 laps wasn’t enough for you to find that out?
Sean: Yeah yeah, just get on with refuelling the car so i can go again.
Carl: Well i’m done, so hit the gas and don’t slide!
4 Likes
Team Racing Stripes
Jaden was doing well, despite his relative inexperience, up until an encounter with the curb at the apex of a corner rattled the poor Sinistra straight into neutral, leaving Jaden stomping frantically on the gas pedal and working the shifter back and forth to no avail. He called for the tow truck, and as they rolled back into the pit lane, Kaylie glared at him.
“For the slowest driver on our team, you were the fastest to break the car,” Kaylie growled. As they looked over the car and tried to figure out whether this was the terminal “box full of neutrals” scenario, or whether something had fallen off and could be replaced, Kaylie found that the linkage between the shifter and the transversely-mounted automatic had loosened up, a bolt had fallen out on the track, and Jaden’s curb encounter had shaken the linkage enough to drag the automatic into neutral. After what felt like an eternity, the car was repaired, and Jaden took back to the track.
This time, Jaden got to play witness to the Xianfeng crashing into the IP, with both cars trying to avoid a very-sideways Tempest and Akira, and the Cabrera dodging the whole mess with ease. Jaden wasn’t quite fast enough to overtake even the cars that had crashed, and watched as they disappeared around yet-another-corner.
Then, as Jaden made it around a what felt like a few thousand more corners with the power steering pump starting to sound mighty upset and the transmission still resolutely whining like a jet, he saw the Tempest sliding wide in a corner and narrowly miss the Winthorpe. Flying past the pit lane, Jaden saw the Puttzalong pull up the lane and park it, moments before the FM zoomed up and stopped for fuel.
Not that much later, Jaden watched as the Ardent got a little bit of revenge on the IP, sideswiping the smaller car into the guardrail, where the IP stopped. Jaden swerved to avoid piling the Sinistra straight into the back of the IP, realized he needed to focus on driving, not staring at the other wrecks on the track, and put his foot back down, trying to turn a few more laps.
As he passed the pit lane again, he saw the Xianfeng being pulled along, the Wells and the Winthorpe swooping past and picking up fuel, the sputtering, coughing Cabrera not far behind, and the Reduit cruising in for a quick tank fill.
A good number of laps later, the Akira slammed into the guardrail just in front of Jaden, causing him to stomp on the brakes and deal with the fact that the car pulls hard to the left under hard braking now, thanks to Rukari, Kayden, and even Kaylie who had beaten this car half to death already. Just behind him, the Wells fishtailed into a slide and banged into the guardrail as well, just before the Cabrera and the Ardent swerved around the Wells and the “slow-moving” Sinistra.
As the Ardent stopped for fuel, the Wells drove out of the pits only to be struck by the IP. Jaden looked at the chaos, not at what was in front of him, and drove straight into the back of the Mara, which was slowing down for one of the great many corners on the track. Both cars, built well for their time and home country, suffered only cosmetic damage, with some traded paint, a cracked headlight lens and a wrinkled front bumper on the Sinistra, and an imprint on the Mara’s rear bumper of the Sinistra’s Illinois license plate.
In the pits, it was Rukari who offered his assistance to one of the other teams, as he saw the struggle of Team Jaimz trying to remove the stuck lug nuts and the wheel on the hub. Unfortunately, before he could commit to helping them, the Sinistra sped into the pit lane and Jaden hopped out, saying, “The fuel light is flashing at me, and I can’t drive this thing fast. Rukari, get your tail in the driver’s seat, Kaylie, fill the tank.”
Rukari apologized to Team Jaimz, then got behind the wheel of their battered and battle-scarred Imperial Purple 1993 Sinistra Traville LX. As the tank was filled, Rukari cranked it over, planted his foot on the gas pedal, brought the engine straight up to the rev-limiter, and dropped it from neutral into drive, breaking the worn tires loose for the entire distance of the pit lane and creating a noxious plume of tire smoke drifting over everyone unfortunate enough to be left in the pits.
3 Likes
10AM-2PM
With Harald struggling to get his helmet onto his great, fat, head, it looked like Andreas might have to stay out a little longer, but Ollie gave it a good slap, and walked away with a smile. As Harald buckled in, his brother had some advice:-
Andreas: “Be careful out there. This thing isn’t a fan of corners, and those little cars keep forgetting to get out of the way. It’s not like they cant see me coming.”
Harald made his way out onto the track, and a little while in, made it clear that he wasn’t paying enough attention. In his eagerness to pass the tiny IP hatch, he didn’t move across enough, and made contact with its rear corner. Lucky for both of them, he didn’t sent it spinning; but he did learn that Filip was well versed in driving one-handed while gesturing… almost as good as the old Italian man who lived down the road from him.
4 Likes
“Never thought I’d complain about uneventful stints.” Jeff and Marina were watching Jurij behind the wheel of the Zvezda while keeping themselves well caffeinated as the evening began to approach.
“And we are gaining on the Winthorpe, as they seem to keep being in the wrong spot at the… AND WHAT IS THE SINISTRA DOING?” Marina suddenly shouted as the Sinistra’s front bumper came into heavy contact with the Zvezda’s rear bumper, luckily without any major consequences.
“These folks are driving like from another planet”, Jeff grumbled. “Now they have hit everyone at least once, haven’t they?”
“Guess all that plastic on the Zvezda has now saved our bacon twice.”
“I always wondered what they where thinking in the 90s when they drew up the car and included these huge plastic bumpers, but you don’t hear me complaining.”
“Right, we’re not here to win an aesthetics contest… and what’s that? Is that the leader limping around, the Franklin General?”
“Marshal”, Jeff corrected. “I always say FM. And they start working on that wheel… doesn’t seem like an orderly tyre change. If this goes on longer, we might have a shot at becoming 2nd.”
Marina clenched her left fist. “Okay, Jurij. Now go get the Winthorpe…!”, she shouted, despite Jurij in the car being unable to hear her.
“… or just wait till their next mishap”, Jeff added in a more relaxed tone. This was a game of chess with a die, after all…
6 Likes
Clunkers 21 - Holjes Run
Session Four
Andrew Morgan
So we’ve finally made it halfway through the grindfest of Clunkers 21 and it’s my turn to hit the tarmac. The first thing I notice, exiting the pit lane, is a low rumbling coming from the rear of the Ardent. Wheel bearing sounds like it’s giving up. Well, nothing I can do but hope it holds up for the duration of the race, so I set out to try take third by the end of my session.
I was pushing hard and taking no prisoners, metaphorically at least, so about halfway in I had a bit of an incident with the little IP hatch. The gap that I thought I could dive through proved to be somewhat illusory, which resulted in contact, sending the IP into the guardrail. They seemed to have survived it without major damage so I’ll make sure to apologise in the editing of the official video.
With an hour to go I almost collected my IP karma bill. The inoffensively tasteful taxi decided to try out for drift taxi status, requiring Team Collarada and myself to thread the needle to avoid contact. After this shock I then realised the fuel light was glowing so I pitted to refill. When I headed out again I really began to notice the rumbling from the rear. I pushed on, desperately hoping things would hold together, but a sudden snatching from the rear wheel dispelled my hopes of making the full 24 hours…
As suspected, the right hand rear wheel bearing was seized, meaning we had to withdraw from the race. I was going to do a bearing change so we could at least go the whole distance, but the whole assembly was seized. No way I was going to be able to fix that up in time to get back on track! So, after 1004 laps of the race, Team Mountain Pass will now bow out, rendered immobile by a worn out wheel bearing! Good luck to all who remain and mad props to Trafikjournalen for continuing a grand tradition of grassroots racing, the Clunker 24hrs!
THE END
2 Likes
2PM-6PM
Andreas was having a little difficulty figuring out what the knock was in the back end. Although it probably wasn’t too serious, he figured it might be wise to get it sorted out. Wouldn’t want the car to fall apart, would he?
After the pit stop and quick fix, back on the track, Anrdeas was impressed with the apparent ease of passing most of the competition. Sitting in the top 10 in a 15 car field was relatively easy; being in the top 5 was a touch harder, but definitely better.
He pulled his bandana up over his nose in an attempt to get better filtration of the air behind another oil burner, then came to the realisation he’d be smarter just closing the window. Stupid ex-taxi. “Can’t go through it, so I’ll go around it” he thought to himself. A bit more pedal, and a nice, clean…WOAH! Straight in to the Wells, and nearly off the road. The next car came close to hitting him while he spun, but he was fortunate.
After getting the car pointing the right way again, he took off, desperately trying to break traction and failing.
6 Likes
PART 5
10.00 PM - 2.00 AM
With 8 hours left of the race, the Hakumai comes into a slide which the IP and Tempest has to swerve for. The Akira nudges the guardrail slightly but is able to continue.
The IP comes to an abrupt halt, and has to be towed to the pits. It seems like the engine has thrown a rod, which means that this is the definitive end for our own team. The Sinistra, Hakumai and Tempest is close to come into a tangle with each other, however, the Hakumai does a good job in avoiding it, while the Sinistra and Tempest is spinning out. After a crash into the guardrail, the Akira is stalled and the team is stumped on the reason why. After some (long) troubleshooting, it seems like the problem is not related to the crash, but to an aftermarket anti theft system that has suffered a meltdown. They manage to bypass it with some hotwiring. The Reduit is bouncing around on the track and needs to go into the pits for a change of front shocks, but barely manages to get out of the pits before being hit by the Winthorpe. The Reduit manages to continue but there is a smell of gasoline in the Winthorpe that feels alarming so it gets a checkup in the pits but nothing is found. The next car to hit the poor Reduit is the Mara, due to boiling brake fluid, so the Mara goes into the pits go get some fresh brake fluid instead.
The Hakumai goes in for a refuelling but at the same time gets its front brake pads changed since the race has eaten them up completely. The Xianfeng is skidding around wildly on the track now. The Tempest has to go in for a refuelling. The Wells is stalled and the problem is located to a broken wire to the ignition coil which is quickly solved in the pits. The Mara comes into some heavy spinning.
The Tempest have lit its brake failure warning light and goes into the pits, a brake hose has cracked and needs replacement. There is almost some close contact between the Mara, the Winthorpe and the Xianfeng, however, while the Winthorpe ends up in the guardrail, though without any major damage, the Mara and Xianfeng escapes with only some wild skids, the Carbera is able to swerve to not get into that mess.
The Reduit and Carbera both takes the same corner with a bit too much confidence, meaning that they are almost spinning out of the track.
There is a clutch slippage in the Akira so it has to do a quick pit stop for clutch adjustment. The Carbera hits the guardrail and goes into the pits for a checkup at the same time as there is time for filling up the tank, but no major damage is found. The Tempest comes into a wide skid. The Mara goes in for refuelling.
The Tempest has very weak brakes once again and hits the guardrail. It seems like the master cylinder is shot, which makes the team decide to end the race. The Akira is once again dead after hitting the guardrail, it seems like the hotwiring to bypass the anti theft system has been coming loose so it is a quick fix. The Wells and Xianfeng both goes in for refuelling.
The Akira and FM has a close call that the Akira is able to avoid while the FM is spinning around. The Reduit has some small contact with the guardrail. There is some erratic driving by the Winthorpe driver costing some valuable time.
With only four hours left of the race, here is the current standings:
(Damn, managed to press enter too early, they are coming soon)
5 Likes
- @pcmoreno - Team Winthorpe / Winthorpe Badger - lap # 1338
- @Jaimz - Team Jaimz / Franklin Marshall Street Sport - lap # 1330
- @AndiD - Team White Star / Mara Zvezda - lap # 1314
- @BannedByAndroid - Team Chinese Dragons / Xianfeng K2 - lap # 1264
- @Interior - Team Slow / Hakumai CS-2 - lap # 1222
- @Petakabras - Team Collarada / Cabrera Fulgor - lap # 1212
- @Serperior98 - Team Double Dip / Akira Metro - lap # 1185
- @Madrias - Team Racing Stripes / Sinistra Traville - lap # 1185
- @kobacrashi - Team Totally Not a Reduit Factory Team / Reduit Piti - lap # 1125
- @DuceTheTruth100 - Team X / Wells i6 - lap # 992
- @O.O - Team Whatever Goes / Tempest 154 - lap # 1191 (DNF)
- @HighOctaneLove - Team Mountain Pass / Ardent Olympic - lap # 1004 (DNF)
- @Knugcab - Team Trafikjournalen / IP Urbana - lap # 996 (DNF)
- @stm316 - Team Hang Ten / Puttzalong Shai Hulud - lap # 906 (DNF)
- @Maverick74 - Team Yacht Rockers / Dover Andromeda - lap # 700 (DNF)
7 Likes
IN THE PITS
Mats: Well, the brakes are good to go now, I guess that we will do a change of drivers so it is my turn now.
Erik: Yeah, it is about time.
IN CAR
M: “Oh great, the oil pressure light, I hope that I manage to get it inside the pits, damn, the engine doesn’t sound good…”
CRUNK!
IN THE PITS
Filip: So, who damaged this car in the end?
M: Don’t say a word, just don’t.
E: Well, as usual the host is a loser, it is almost if we always choose crappy cars to not be accused of cheating.
M: Seems like driving an 80s 1 litre turbo for hours on max revs isn’t the recipe for reliable transportation after all. Who could have thought of that?
F: Oh, just some hours of waiting left now. Probably an interesting fight between the Winthorpe, FM and Mara left now, I have kind of quit counting on someone else now…
(OOC conclusion: IP Urbana 1000 GTT is a sucky POS)
6 Likes
Pits Part 2: The Seconds.
Lap 1222! We have to go to the pits to replace our front brake pads. The team’s enginner heads to the SUV they used to tow it over and bring out spare brake pads and replaces them. The driver refuels the car. While they’re at it. They rotate drivers.
Dialogue
John: Suprising it’s been reliable for a sports car.
Matt: Yeah, We are on Lap 1222 now.
John: We’re switching drivers again
Matt: Can you go get me a pair of brake pads.
2 Likes
In car:
Sean: Damn this car is getting worse by the second. The brakes are failing to do their job and the guardrail is getting closer each tur-OOOH SHIT!
In the pits:
Sean: Well… that’s the end of the race for us.
Carl: Yup. Pretty sure we can’t get this thing working again before the race.
Sean: Can we get this thing working again at all?
Carl: I doubt it. Let’s put this car where it belongs, the scrapyard.
Sean: No, wait! I want to see what i can still do with this thing. If it doesn’t work i can always just scrap it myself.
Carl: Uhhh… okay. Good luck with that then. For now let’s watch the rest of the drivers go at it.
3 Likes
ahem, correction. You mean it was a badass looking, sucky POS, hahaha!
2 Likes
I’m sure team Mountain pass say that only to make their friends on the Awesome Automobile Customizing youtube channel happy, they might have one. 
2 Likes
Team Racing Stripes
Part 5:
Kaylie could hear the raspy roar of the Sinistra’s V6 from the pits, no matter where it was on the track. She kept an eye on Rukari with the binoculars, concerned that the most aggressive driver on the track might just decide to eliminate his competition instead of racing fair.
Rukari was laser-focused, his twin hearts racing almost as fast as the V6, swerving around the IP which shuddered to a halt just before the pit lane. Near him, the Hakumai and the Tempest also dodged the downed IP, nearly bumping into each other and into Rukari’s Sinistra. Unfortunately, the only car that didn’t have oil on the tires was the tail-happy Hakumai, which dodged out of danger while the Tempest and Rukari in the Sinistra went for a wild spin. After spinning the tires in the dirt (and getting more than a fair share inside the car through the broken window), Rukari was back on the track and back up to speed.
He looked as he heard the Akira screech across the track and bang into the guardrail, then shook his head. As Rukari approached the pit exit from the track side, he saw the Reduit dart out, only to get hit by the Winthorpe, and not long after, the Reduit got clipped again, this time by the Mara.
“Rukari, how are you doing out there?” Jaden asked over the radio, while watching the Hakumai come in for brake pads and gas, followed by the Tempest, which only needed fuel. Kaylie watched the Xianfeng skidding and sliding around for a while, before she saw the Wells getting towed into the pits. Kaylie then watched the Mara violently lose control.
“They did three revolutions,” Kaylie said, pointing out the Mara.
“Impressive that they didn’t crash it,” Kayden replied.
Over the radio, Rukari’s answer to Jaden’s question was less than polite. “I am doing well. The car is not. It pulls hard to the left when I hit the brakes, everything in here is making whining, buzzing noises, and the handling is like getting laid in a wash tub. It’s terrible.”
Jaden grimaced. “I didn’t need that image in my head, Rukari.”
“Not my problem that I am blessed by Xelth, little one,” Rukari quipped back.
Much later on, Kaylie watched as the Tempest dashed into the pits, locking up the rear wheels to stop. As she watched them replace a brake hose, she quickly figured out that they used the handbrake to stop the car. Then she looked out at the track after hearing a loud bang and screeching tires, watching as the Winthorpe drove out of the grass, having left paint on the guardrail, while the Mara and the Xianfeng both were driving out of a few good tank-slappers. Through all of it, the Cabrera narrowly avoided the chaos.
Rukari put his foot down and was able to witness the Reduit and the Cabrera taking the corner ahead of him with a little too much speed, watching them both nearly leaving the track tail first. Rukari pressed on the screeching, well-worn brakes, then swooped past them, knowing that he had a great many laps to go before he could claim to have passed the Cabrera, though he was fairly sure he was just ahead of the Reduit.
Kaylie watched the Akira come in, smelling the reek of a hot clutch, followed by the Cabrera coming in after becoming the next casualty of the guardrails, being checked over, and topped up with fuel after nothing was found to be broken.
Kayden, this time, had the binoculars and got to see the Tempest sliding sideways around a corner. “If this was a drift race, that would almost be considered good,” Kayden said.
Kaylie looked, shrugged, then said, “I’ve seen better at a go-kart track.” She watched as the Mara came in for a tank of fuel, then looked out at the ongoing chaos on the track.
Rukari watched as the Tempest entered a corner way too fast for their brakes again, seeing the Tempest slam into the guardrail. Then the Akira did much the same behind the Traville, the engine again sputtering to a stop.
Jaden watched as the Tempest, Akira, Wells, and Xianfeng made it back to the pit lane, with two cars on a tow truck and two cars under their own power. As the Tempest was pulled behind the wall, he knew that the race was done for them. The Akira’s team started playing with wires under the dash again, and the engine roared to life once more. The Wells and the Xianfeng both were just taking on fuel.
With the Akira darting out of the pits in front of him, Rukari got to see the Akira and the FM come way-too-close together for comfort. The Akira straightened up and kept going, the FM spun around wildly, the Reduit, close to Rukari’s tail, dodged the spinning FM and brushed up against the guardrail, and the Winthorpe, coming around to lap them all again, had to dodge and weave between all of the chaotic bumper cars scattered about the track, doing nothing to hurt the car, but chewing up valuable time.
“If it is all the same to you, I would like to finish this,” Rukari called over the radio.
“Fang it, Rukari! Rev it up and give them hell!” Kaylie yelled back.
(OOC: Just for reference, the phrase “Blessed by Xelth,” when spoken by a Valraadi, has two possible meanings. The first, and this is the one Rukari implied, is that he is well-endowed. The second is that to be ‘blessed by Xelth’ is to have many children. Xelth is one of many Valraadi deities, known by them as “the father of us all.” Just some information for those left trying to understand Rukari’s little radio chat with Jaden. And yes, it means that Rukari did in fact insult Jaden at the end of the chat.)
7 Likes
PART 6
2.00 AM - 6.00 AM
There is now only four hours left of the race and maybe it shows on some of the drivers that they are getting tired, since the Wells comes into a slide and both the FM and Cabrera hits the guardrail. The Cabrera is able to continue while the FM goes into the pits because of a scraping sound when steering, that however only needed removal of some loose, wrinkled sheetmetal touching the wheels.
The next car to hit the rail is the Xianfeng but with no major damage. The Akira is overheating like crazy and goes into the pits, they find out that the relay for the electric fan is dead so they are bypassing it with some hotwiring now.
The next car with cooling problems is the Xianfeng that goes into the pits with a broken radiator hose. The Reduit is also overheating but just needs to cool down for a while. The Winthorpe is spinning loose.
Maybe the drivers of the Akira, Reduit and Cabrera is experiencing some fatigue at the moment since much of the driving seems a bit erratic. The Winthorpe is going in for refuelling. The Reduit has its brake warning light lit, it needs a new brake hose but problems with bleeding means that it stays in the pits for a while.
The Sinistra is also overheating at the moment but it seems like the only repair needed was a new fuse for the electrical fan, however, when leaving the pits it has some problems to gain traction. The Hakumai is touching the guardrail followed by the Akira, though both cars is able to continue. The Xianfeng barely misses the rail though. The Reduit is running rough at the moment and at the fuel stop they take some time and change the spark plugs too. The Winthorpe has its brake warning light lit and goes into the pits but it seems like it is only low on brake fluid and can leave quickly. The clutch in the Mara has started to slip and needs some adjustment in the pits.
There is a rattle from the Sinistra rear suspension that is located to the rear sway bar being loose, but the team can improvize fabrication of a new bracket and continue the race. The Hakumai hits the guardrail and needs to go into the pits to break loose some wrinkled sheetmetal around the wheel. The Wells is taking the corners very wide. The gearbox in the Reduit is very noisy so the team has decided to try an oil change to see if it can survive the race. In an attempt to avoid a spinning Winthorpe, the driver of the Mara doesn’t notice the Cabrera and they crash into each other. The Mara can keep on driving, but the crash has damaged the fuel pump brackets on the Cabrera so the team has to fabricate some temporary ones to not lose the fuel pump. The Xianfeng is going in for refuelling.
There is a rattle from the Sinistra front suspension again and in the pits they notice that there once again is a lot of loose bolts there. The Hakumai hits the Cabrera but with no major damage to the cars. The Akira nudges the guardrail slightly, though with no significant damage. The Wells has lots of play in the steering but in the pits they notice that it is only the bolts on the steering column flexdisc that needs some tensioning.
The Akira does not charge anymore and goes into the pits for a change of voltage regulator. The Winthorpe comes into a skid that the driver in the Wells is trying to dodge. The Mara hits the guardrail as some symbolical ending of the race, because soon after it have started moving again, the 24 hours of racing are over.
The final results are coming in soon…
(OOC: I will give you some time before the final results, to give some space for RPing between the final laps and post race RP)
@pcmoreno @Jaimz @AndiD @BannedByAndroid @interior @Petakabras @Serperior98 @Madrias @kobacrashi @DuceTheTruth100 @O.O @HighOctaneLove @stm316 @Maverick74
6 Likes
Team Jaimz
Lara - OK doofus where are we?
Jaimz - Sweden…
L - Haha dickhead, what position?
J - Erm, we could be 1st, 2nd or 3rd…unsure at the moment.
L - Unsure…WTF?
J - The timing screens have been down for a while and I’m too tired to keep count.
L - I think I want a divorce…
J - WHAT???
L - Oops…was that my outside voice? Don’t worry about it…
J - Huh???
7 Likes
Pits: Part 3: The epilogue.
We hit a guardrail, The sheet metal is loose. And we hit another vehicle. This is not good for Team Slow. But theyre guaranteed to continue. The iconic tailights of the CS-2 have been destroyed beyond recognition along with the front end, which Hakumai lazily took from another model of theirs.
Dialogue
Matt: Shit! I hit a guardrail again and a Cabrera.
John: Did anything mechanical break?
Matt, I don’t think so but one day we might get a DNF.
John: laughs DNF??? Pfft. This things reliable.
4 Likes
Team Racing Stripes
Part 6:
Rukari took Kaylie’s words seriously, pushing the poor little Sinistra to the extreme edges of what it could handle. He came from a world where the days were almost 36 Earth Hours long, an 8 hour segment of driving was nothing compared to what he was used to. However, he could see that fatigue was getting the better of some drivers, as the Wells did a mighty slide and the FM and Cabrera pinged off of the guardrail. Ironically, the older, crappier car shrugged it off, while the newer one had to limp off to the pits for a date with the cutting torch and the big hammer.
Then the Xianfeng bounced off the guardrail, while the Akira’s radiator unleashed a mighty plume of steam before disappearing up the pit lane, where Kaylie overheard that the relay was gone on the electric fan, followed by a plan to bypass the relay and just run it wide open.
Kayden watched the Xianfeng darting up the pit lane, also overheating and this time requiring a radiator hose.
Out on the track, Rukari passed the Reduit as it slowed down to cool down, just able to see the Winthorpe take a mighty spin in the corner ahead of him. Then the Akira, Reduit, and Cabrera all seemed to take a few corners wide, or short, driving through the chewed-up dirt and weaving on the track.
Jaden saw the Winthorpe come up the pit lane for gas, followed by the Reduit, using the parking brake to stop before a brake line repair. Then bleeding the brakes seemed to take forever.
Kaylie was glad to see the Sinistra driving into the pits for once, though had to grimace as Rukari told her, “Engine is overheating.”
“Of course it is. Everyone’s pushing extra hard in the final hours,” Kaylie said, finding the culprit to be a burned out fuse. “I’ll pop a new one of these in and,” Kaylie shoved the fuse into the holder and was greeted by the electric fan suddenly roaring, “it’ll be as good as new.” She moved out of the way and grimaced again as Rukari peeled the tires the whole way down the pit lane.
Rukari nearly became a casualty of the pit lane re-entry as the Hakumai and the Akira clipped the guardrail in front of him, and the Xianfeng narrowly avoided it behind him. He dodged around a rough-running Reduit, and eventually saw the Reduit, Winthorpe, and the Mara disappear up the pit road in his rear view mirror.
A few laps later, there was an obnoxious rattling from the rear of the car, and a bit more body lean than Rukari was used to feeling from the Sinistra, so he brought it to the pits.
Kaylie growled as she realized the rear sway bar was loose. “Jaden, Kayden, we need to make a bracket.” Between the three of them using everything from plasma cutters to sledgehammers, Kaylie’s mechanical left hand and a cheap tap-and-die set with some used motor oil as cutting fluid, they knocked together a bracket and installed it on the car. “Rukari,” Kaylie said, “be careful not to hit anything with the rear of the car, or you might break that new bracket. Still, give them hell.”
As Rukari was leaving, the Hakumai came in with some wrinkled sheet metal around the wheel. He heard the screech of tires from the Wells taking every corner wide, followed by a very loud buzzing, rattling sound from the Reduit’s gearbox. A crash from behind him made him look in the rear view mirror, seeing the Winthorpe recovering from a spin, while the Mara and the Cabrera were wearing bits of each other’s paint. The Mara seemed completely unaffected by the crash, but the Cabrera vanished up the pit lane, being chased by the Xianfeng.
Rukari pushed the Sinistra hard, clipping the rumble strips at the apex of every corner, only to look over at the pit lane to see Jaden getting slapped on the back of the head by both Kaylie and Kayden.
“See, guys, he’s a real apex predator,” Jaden said, before yowling as Kaylie slapped him with her natural right hand, and again, this time with more feeling, when Kayden slapped him with his left hand. “Okay, I get it, that was a bad one.”
Rukari turned a couple of his fastest laps in the Sinistra, before the rattle started to return in the front suspension. He brought the car back to Kaylie, who grimaced, cranked the bolts down tight again, and sent him back out on track with the warning, “Don’t you dare bring it back in here unless the wheels fall off or the tank is low.”
As the Sinistra lunged back onto the track, V6 growling in tune with the driver behind the wheel, the Hakumai was forced to get out of the way, and bumped into the Cabrera, doing no major damage to either car, just more crumpled sheet metal. The Akira scraped along the guardrail with a shrill shriek of metal, but was relatively unscathed, while the Wells disappeared into the pits for some steering problems.
Then it was the Akira disappearing up the pit lane, where Kaylie overheard it being charging problems, offering to help in changing their voltage regulator for one of their spare Sinistra ones, a trick which would only involve changing the plug on the end, something she could do with ease.
Out on the track, Rukari watched as the Winthorpe got into a nasty skid, forcing the Wells to go way wide to avoid it. The Mara, built like a Russian tank, bounced off of the guardrail as the checkered flag was waved, signifying the end of the race. Rukari put his foot down, trying to pass as many cars as he could to the finish line, hoping to put himself, and by extension, the rest of the team, at least one lap further ahead than they were.
The Sinistra, having survived the 24 Hours of Clunkers, looked like hell. The paint all down both sides was scratched and scraped up. All but the driver’s left hubcap had come off, occasionally causing tire troubles for other teams as they ran over the aluminum-wire discs. The driver’s window had been shattered early in the race by Rukari’s head after a collision. The front bumper was wrinkled from playing bumper-tag with the Mara, and the passenger-side headlight lens was cracked from the same incident. The only panel on the car without a scrape, wrinkle, or dent in it was the roof.
Yet, somehow, the V6 still survived, despite 24 hours of hard driving, despite hard corners and mild oil starvation, despite overheating in the last six hours, and despite all the impacts with the wall. The automatic transmission, whining and threatening all the signs of failure from the very start, had held up, even though this wasn’t the nice comfortable cruise to the grocery store, the drive to the 9-to-5 office job, or the family road trip. People often claimed that the Traville, first to carry the Sidewinder series of engines, was the most unreliable batch of Sinistra cars ever made, and yet this one had outlasted several other vehicles. This one, just like the last one, had faced a trial of certain death… And survived.
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