The 2021 24 hour clunker run (Epilogue part 1)

Community Challenges & Competitions
131

PART 3
2.00 PM - 6.00 PM

The race has been going on for eight hours and the recently refuelled Sinistra does a less than stellar comeback on the track with a skid. The Hakumai and Tempest both goes in for refuelling. The Reduit is the next spinning car that the Xianfeng barely manages to dodge. The Puttzalong goes into the pits for a strange sound in the rear suspension that appearantly just was a shock absorber bolt that was coming loose.

The Sinistra is once again spinning around wildly on the track. The Hakumai goes into the pits for a leaky radiator that the team is doing their best to solder. A spinning Tempest is forcing the Ardent into the guardrail but the damage is minor. The Cabrera is a little bit low on air in one tyre, going into the pits for a refill. The Dover, on the other hand, is going in for refuelling.

The IP has been going quite well since the driver change but maybe Carlén is getting a bit too confident, spinning around the little runabout on the track, coming in the way for the Hakumai but without any contact. On the other hand, also the FM, Dover and Wells have their fair share of troubles keeping on the track now. Speaking about the Wells, it is going in for a refuelling. The Reduit crashes into the Ardent and the team is somewhat nervous that the Reduit radiator is shot now, but it seems to work, so both cars keep driving. The crash seems to have happened from a sudden gain of power after a power loss, so the Reduit is going into the pits anyway to clean out the fuel system. On the other hand, the Ardent was drifting around quite wide at the track at the moment of impact. The Cabrera is going in for a fuel stop.

Now the race has been going on without major incidents for a while, but the Wells and Puttzalong is close to get into contact, resulting in both cars spinning around. The Reduit seems to have a damaged fitting for one of the radiator hoses anyway and is going into the pits, with the team trying to solder on a new one.

Both the Sinistra, Xianfeng and Wells gets scraped against the guardrail in almost the same spot, the Hakumai is close to drifting off the track too, but manages to stay on track, barely. The IP is going in for refuelling.

The Tempest is the next car to come into a skid. There is a smell of gasoline reported from the FM that is going into the pits for that, but it was appearantly only a hose that needed better clamping. The Puttzalong and the Reduit crashes into each other, the Puttzalong can keep on racing but the crash seems to have caused some electrical short in the mashed taillights of the Reduit that has to be solved in the pits.

The Dover does a kind of ugly overtake of the Sinistra, forcing the Sinistra to eat the guardrail but without any major damage. However, soon after that there is reports of a heavy smell of gasoline inside the Dover. It barely makes it into the pits until there is a heavy fire inside the engine compartment. The team manages to put out the fire, but the Dover is damaged beyond repair. The Xianfeng goes into the pits for refuelling. For some reason, both the Ardent, Winthorpe and Cabrera nudges the guardrail after each other, though without any major damage. The Akira is going in for refuelling.

There is some strange sounds from the Sinistra front suspension, so the team is checking out the car in the pits, they might have forgotten to tension some bolt when they did the spring change. The Tempest has very low oil pressure at the moment, but the team is at least going to try to solve it with an oil and filter change. The Wells is so hard to drive with its damaged wheel now, that the team will try to put the current tyre on one of the spare rims they had, which might take some time with only hand tools though. The Mara crashes into the Carbera but none of the cars suffer any extensive damage.

Half of the race is done and here is the current standings:

  1. @Jaimz - Team Jaimz / Franklin Marshall Street Sport - lap # 815
  2. @pcmoreno - Team Winthorpe / Winthorpe Badger - lap # 802
  3. @AndiD - Team White Star / Mara Zvezda - lap # 799
  4. @HighOctaneLove - Team Mountain Pass / Ardent Olympic - lap # 777
  5. @stm316 - Team Hang Ten / Puttzalong Shai Hulud - lap # 775
  6. @Serperior98 - Team Double Dip / Akira Metro - lap # 764
  7. @BannedByAndroid - Team Chinese Dragons / Xianfeng K2 - lap # 760
  8. @O.O - Team Whatever Goes / Tempest 154 - lap # 752
  9. @Petakabras - Team Collarada / Cabrera Fulgor - lap # 738
  10. @Interior - Team Slow / Hakumai CS-2 - lap # 730
  11. @Knugcab - Team Trafikjournalen / IP Urbana - lap # 726
  12. @kobacrashi - Team Totally Not a Reduit Factory Team / Reduit Piti - lap # 709
  13. @Madrias - Team Racing Stripes / Sinistra Traville - lap # 695
  14. @DuceTheTruth100 - Team X / Wells i6 - lap # 607
  15. @Maverick74 - Team Yacht Rockers / Dover Andromeda - lap # 700 (DNF)

(OOC info: Due to the shifts I will be working this week, there will probably not be any updates until at least friday, so this is a perfect opportunity for a little longer RP, or to write up missing parts if you are a little bit behind, just so you know.)

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IN THE PITS

Erik: Did you get any lug nuts from Team Double dip?
Mats: Yup. Great that some teams don’t take this like if their life depended on a win, I think that sometimes the fun is taken out of this competition unfortunately. It’s not like it was 10 or 20 years ago anymore.
E: Now you sound like Arvid Åkerlund *
M: True.

(The wheel is put back securely in place)

E: Now, try not to hit absolutely everything on the track, this is not a demo derby!
Filip: Stop being so elitist, I know what I’m doing!
E: Sometimes I actually wonder if you do…

IN CAR
F: “I really hate Erik and Mats sometimes, they are behaving like they know everything and is always trying to put me d…WHAT THE F… THERE IS THE GODDAMNED ARDENT AGAIN!”

CRUNCH!

F: “Oh, crap, I hit Team Mountain pass AGAIN, I am going to be the clown in their next youtube special, I swear. And great, the car feels like it is completely out of alignment too!”

IN THE PITS

E: I told you not to hit everything on track, and what did you do?
F: Like if you never do mistakes. I think that the front suspension is shot.
E: Shot? That’s the least thing to say!
M: Well, this is probably the last ride for this Urbana anyway, so let’s bring in my favourite tool, the B.F.H! **

BANG! CLANG CRASH BANG BOOM! BANG!

M: Good as new, at the cost at only some pride and soul. Now, get back on track and try to drive like a professional driver and not like if you learned it at Ray Charles driving school!

IN THE PITS:

F: OK, it’s time for a driver change now, I think. Maybe mr. Erik Schumacher could take place behind the wheel and show me how it should be done!
E: I’ll gladly take place there before you wreck the car completely! Bye.

(After driving for a while)

M: Well, you see there, now after the driver change, there has been no major incidents at all. Will you admit that you still need lots of training, Mr. I-learned-to-drive-race-cars-on-my-playstation?
F: Oh, you say so, but what is happening there?
M: …
M: Well, it’s an 80s turbo car with short wheelbase, things like this can happen.
F: So, when he fails, it’s only natural but when I fail, I need to learn how to drive.
M: Stop that crap now, if we compared the two of you side by side, the difference would be laughable.

(Later, at the refuelling)

E: You know, I haven’t driven an Urbana GTT for maybe 20 years but I start to get used to this one now, actually liking it a bit. Just cross my fingers that it will keep on going as great for the rest of my stint!

M: Good luck, you’ll need it.

@Serperior98 @HighOctaneLove

  • = Ex chief editor for trafikjournalen
    ** = Big Fu***ng hammer
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Carlos- Come on Martin! This car won´t refuel by itself! LEAVE THE …ING PHONE!!
Andres- You should chill, we are slowly getting into the top
Carlos- Slow is the only mode this car has
Andres- Just avoid hitting those guardrails again and we will be okay

Behind them, someone finally refuels the car

Martin- Hey guys, it´s done, but i don´t want to be refuelling the car for…

The rest of the rant couldn´t be heard, as Carlos stept on the gas getting back into the race

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In the pits:

Carl: I’m getting tired, mind if we switch again?

Sean: Yeah i noticed. You’re sliding all around the place, you even forced the Ardent into the guardrails.

Carl: Yeah that’s bad and all but, can we switch?

Sean: Oh yeah, sure. You’ve been in there for quite some time now. Once we get the oil filter changed i’ll take over.

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Lap 730. Team slow sealed the leaky radiator up now. With that out the way, they refuel the car to the top. This time they both enter the car to monitor the condition mechanically. About time they put the 2 jerry cans to use. They check if the critical parts are tightened. They proceed to rejoin the track. They hear the oddly enough non-human man give out an yowl at being picked up. The Traville unfortunately is on lap#695 due to a mishap with some Chinese car, some Wells thing hit the guardrail

Team Slow- Pits- Part 1
Mission: Possible. The Prologue

Dialogue

Matt: Shit. The radiator broke and we’re running out of fuel.
John: Told you so.
Matt: These are clunkers my friend.
John: Fair enough. Also i’m driving.
Matt: Alright, just don’t break the car. I’m watching every move like its my child. (no he does not have kids.)
John: Thanks for the tires. These will surely last us the rest of the race until the car itself blows up if I miss a gear.
John: Also that land-barge appears to be on fire. the Dover Andromedra. Im suprised an StreetSport is still standing.

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Team Racing Stripes

Race - Part 2

Part 3:

Kayden twisted the key and the engine roared to life, now carrying a full tank of fuel. As the Sinistra rolled out of the pits, Kaylie yelled to her brother, loud enough to be heard quite a distance away, “Kayden, fang it!”

Kayden responded by planting his foot hard on the gas, the Sinistra skidding wide in one of the corners, barely managing to keep the car going the way he wanted, and only because the car was front-wheel-drive, tires screaming and smoking in what ended up looking like an epic drift, if one believed that anything in a Traville could be considered ‘epic.’

Several laps later, Kayden completely overcooked it in the same corner that Rukari had trouble with, spinning wildly across the track and burning the tires instead of using the brakes to stop. He got the car straightened out and kept racing, just in time to hear another car hitting the guardrail. A glance in the driver’s side mirror revealed a slightly-battered-looking Ardent roaring past, and Kayden stayed out of the way of the faster-moving car.

After a long time of managing to keep the car out of trouble, mostly by driving a little less aggressively and keeping more to the pace he could manage, Kayden had another mishap, as the Sinistra, the Xianfeng, and the Wells all hit the same tricky patch of track and hit the guardrail, one right after the other. The sound of squealing tires announced the Hakumai had entered the same corner, but the new tires provided by Jaden seemed to help keep the mid-engined pocket rocket out of the wall this time.

Not even a handful of laps later, the barge that was the Dover scuffed up against the driver’s side and stuffed the Sinistra into the wall. Kayden reached out through the already-broken window and gave the car an unwanted set of ‘racing stripes’ on the rear quarter panel in retaliation.

A lap or two later, the Dover was in the pits with the engine on fire. Kaylie helped Team Yacht Rockers extinguish the fire, using their 20-pound fire extinguisher and her metal left hand to open up the hood so she could smother the fire. Not long after she helped contain the fuel fire, Kayden brought her the Sinistra, rattling and clanking from the driver’s side front wheel.

“I can’t believe it! Half of these bolts are finger tight, Jaden!” Kaylie exclaimed. “Rukari, grab that wrench and tighten these bolts, please, before we lose another spring.”

Rukari gladly picked up the 1/2 inch wrench and started tightening bolts, giving all of them an extra quarter-turn to make sure they were, even if slightly improperly, actually torqued down. Kayden got out from behind the wheel, then stuffed his older brother into the hot seat.

Jaden gave an indignant yowl at being actually picked up, stuffed through the window like a NASCAR driver, and plopped into the driver’s seat. “Really?” he asked.

“You are too slow in your old age,” Kayden teased, just as Jaden left the pit lane to rejoin the track.

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Stint 2 and a change of driver…

Lara - Hey…I was wrong!

Jaimz - About what?

L - About how bad this car drove it’s &^%$ING WORSE THAN I REMEMBER!!!

J - That’s the slow puncture…should be OK…

L - SHOULD???

J - Erm…

L sighing - For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in a massive firey ball of death from a &^%$ING SLOW PUNCTURE…

J - Darling…calm down…

L thinking to self - I have missed this…OK, he was right but I ain’t frigging admitting it to him!

L over radio - OK let’s just make the best of a bad job

J - See, I knew you’d enjoy it.

L - Shut up you dick!

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Evening approaches and all seems to be going well for double dip and the Metro. This was by far the best stint so far. The car continued to behave, and because Markus was still quite fresh and energetic, he managed to keep in control without any major hiccups…

Over the radio while Markus is driving
Markus: “So far everything seems to be going smoothly, any updates on our standings?”
Eva: “Well, you’re steadily climbing in the standings, all is looking well so far. Anything to report about the car?”
Markus: “Well, so far she’s behaving beautifully. I guess incentivizing her with new tyres seemed have worked. I will need to come in for a refueling soon though.”
E: “That’s good to hear. Keep me updated”

At the refueling
M: “All is good, let’s refuel and keep pushing.”
E: “It seems some of the other teams aren’t having as smooth of a run. Be careful, it’s getting dark.”
Markus drives off.

Lars: “I"ve just heard, from the race officials, it seems the Dover had caught on fire and is damaged beyond repair… It’s the first casualty today…”
Eva: “That’s disheartening, my dad had an Andromeda and I was feeling nostalgic watching it thrash about out there…”
Lars: “I’m really impressed with the Badger to be honest. It doesn’t seem like it would be too suitable for this type of event, but it’s doing really well, way more reliable than even our clunker.”
E: “Yeah, but our clunker isn’t too bad either… We’ve climbed from near bottom this morning to 6th place. If we keep up our progress, and if the gods of reliability keep blessing our metro, we’ll do well.”
L: “True… I’m going to nap in the corner… Wake me up if something happens.”

Edit: accidentally posted it while incomplete.

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Christy hops into the Andromeda for her stint after Steve is finished. Her lap times were a bit on the slow side, having never been in a race car before, but she keeps turning uneventful laps. She finishes her two hours exhausted and giddy, handing over the car to Ben. He too has a clean stint, commenting to Ollie how glad he is over their choice of car.
After getting refueled again, John suits up for his stint. It seems he’s a little over exuberant behind the wheel. It looks like the Dover is struggling to stay pointed straight in the corners. This leads to a close encounter with the Sinistra, causing them to sideswipe the guardrail to avoid them. Soon after the smell of petrol becomes strong. The engine also takes this time to start stumbling and cut out. As soon as John reaches the pits, flames begin to roll out from under the hood. The driver is quick to notice and manages to unbuckle and crawl out the window unharmed.
The driver of Team Racing Stripes was quick to put the fire out, but the damage is done. Post mo tum show that the rubber hose on the fuel line split, spewing gas all over the engine. It didn’t take much for it to touch something hot and go up in flames. It seems the fire also destroyed most of the wiring, vacuum lines, and melt several other components. While it could be possible to fix all this, after 12 hours the team is tired and decides to simply pack it in and watch the finish of the race from the stands. Steve and Ollie quietly discuss possible ideas for a future clunker race.

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Clunkers 21 - Holjes Run

Team Mountain Pass

Session Three

Pierre Mountbatten

For the third session of Clunkers 21, I had high hopes. The Ardent was running nicely, I was feeling chipper and the competition win was still up for grabs. I was having a quick, but cautious, session when, about an hour in, I passed a tastefully prepped Sinistra Traville, which was doing their best to make you think Sinistra still made rear wheel drive cars, hahaha!

It was a decent display of drifting though, which is probably why I didn’t realise until too late that the Tempest 154 had swerved to avoid the Sinistra’s shenanigans. The hot hatch sideswiped me with enough force to slap the Ardent into the guardrail; thankfully the damage was only cosmetic (I hope)! Getting in and out will be more tricky now, but the shattered window glass means we can just reach through and open the door from the inside anyway.

About halfway through my stint I was punting along, kinda phoning my laps in to be honest, when the Ardent received a firm shunt in the rear. I’d gone a bit wider than my usual line, so when the little blue Reduit sedan tried to pass, I was in their way. I would have given them racing space, but their car seemed to hesitate, then wildly surge, thrusting them into the Ardent’s rear. Thankfully the US spec bumpers continued to do their magic and the worst that happened, to the Ardent at least, was some more scratches to add to the collection. Later on, daydreaming about getting rich off of MountainCoin, I followed the Winthorpe Badger and Cabrera Fulgor in going wide and kissing the guardrail. Again nothing serious was damaged, just more scrapes to add to the collection!

By the end of my session the Ardent had clocked up 777 laps, which was 38 laps behind the leader, Team Jaimz, so I managed to nearly double our lap deficit while actually gaining a position. We’re now fourth!

TO BE CONTINUED

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Part 1: 6-10 AM

Olaf, being the first to finish his pucko, as per the agreement last night, won first drive. The Shai Hulud had been behaving itself over the first hour, with the exception of the horrendous excuse that passed for steering. Even Norman, the bobble-head knight on the dashboard, seemed to be enjoying the ride, nodding away over all of the bumps. His attitude wouldn’t change with driver swaps, and, in addition to being a great listener, he never tried to tell the boys how to drive in all of the traffic.

At the 2 hour mark, Andreas claimed his spot in the drivers seat, and only minutes in, managed to screw things up. Having had a good laugh at the misfortune of some of their competitors, he approached a left-hander a bit too hot, and ended up facing the outside of the track. He had several more near misses, thinking that being in a bigger vehicle he could intimidate some of the drivers of smaller ones. His tactic failed… but, as was his nature, he kept trying.

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PART 4
6.00 PM - 10.00 PM

Half of the race is done and so far only one car is out of it. The Hakumai nudging the guardrail won’t stop it, neither will a rear wheel bearing on the Akira even if it means a long pitstop. The Xianfeng has to dodge the Wells after some frivolous driving. The Puttzalong is the next car to nudge the guardrail but with no major damage. The Mara is going in for refuelling.

For some reason the Sinistra has fallen into neutral and seems to be impossible to shift from there. We hear reports from the pits that there is some loose rods in the shift linkage that have caused it. The driver of the Hakumai manages to avoid a Wells that seems to have some sudden power loss, but not the driver of the FM, resulting in a crash into the Wells, though with no major damage to the cars. The Wells is going in for a change of fuel filter and cleaning of the fuel lines though. The Reduit comes in contact with the guardrail without being damaged, but has to go into the pits a while later to cool down, because of overheating. Even the Carbera has some cooling problems, that seems to have its roots in a radiator hose that needs to be clamped better. The Winthorpe comes into a spin, which the Mara has to swerve to avoid. The Tempest is going in for refuelling.

The Xianfeng crashes into the IP without any major damage to any of the cars, while trying to avoid a skidding Tempest and Akira. The driver of the Carbera manages it better to avoid getting into that mess.

The Tempest once again gets into a wild skid almost causing trouble for the Winthorpe. The Puttzalong seems to have a U-joint in the steering column that is close to seizing, causing the team to decide to quit the race for safety reasons. The FM is going in for a refuelling.

After a kind of ugly overtaking by the Ardent, the IP goes into the guardrail and seems to be unable to move out of its way. Reports from the pits says that something happened to the shifter linkage but they are trying to solve it. The next car to go into the pits is a stalled Xianfeng, the trouble is said to be caused by a faulty wiring to the fuel pump. The Wells and Winthorpe both goes in for refuelling. A very rough running Carbera is going into the pits, with the team trying to solve that problem. The Reduit goes in for refuelling.

The Akira hits the guardrail hard enough to put the front wheels out of alignment, going into the pits for a try to straighten things out somewhat in the front suspension. The next car to do so is the Wells, hitting the guardrail with a wide slide, going into the pits with a bent leaf spring mount in the rear, we guess that the B.F.H. will be a great help for both the teams. The Carbera and the Ardent has to do some tricky maneuvering to pass the skidding Wells.

The Ardent is going in for refuelling. The Wells barely manages to leave the pits before being hit by the IP. The Wells is going back into the pits for some scraping sound but it was just one of the front brake dust shields needing to be bent back. It seems like the hard driving has been taking its toll on the brakes on the IP, causing the crash, which sends the IP into the pits for a while. The next cars to crash is the Sinistra and the Mara, though without suffering any major damage. While trying to avoid a wildly skidding Tempest, the Akira does a slight nudging of the guardrail instead, but is able to keep on racing, the driver of the Hakumai has more luck in this case. The slow puncture of the FM has developed into a problem too big to keep driving on the same tyre, it needs a change, however, there is huge problems in the pits since everything seems to be stuck, both the lug nuts and the wheel centre on the hub, making the wheel change take an enormous amount of time. The Reduit and Winthorpe both gets into some skidding while trying to avoid crashing into each other. A wheel bearing in the Ardent have been sounding rough for a while so it has to go into the pits for a checkup. Not only the bearing is shot, it seems to have damaged the whole hub and spindle assembly, meaning that the Ardent will not be able to continue the race. A rough running Reduit has to visit the pits for some cleaning of the carb.

The Xianfeng is spinning, once again making the driver of the Akira hit the guardrail but without any serious damage to the car. The driver of the Tempest is able to avoid it though, barely. The Sinistra is going in for refuelling.

With two thirds of the race being done, the standings looks like this.

  1. @AndiD - Team White Star / Mara Zvezda - lap # 1068
  2. @pcmoreno - Team Winthorpe / Winthorpe Badger - lap # 1067
  3. @Jaimz - Team Jaimz / Franklin Marshall Street Sport - lap # 1051
  4. @BannedByAndroid - Team Chinese Dragons / Xianfeng K2 - lap # 1006
  5. @O.O - Team Whatever Goes / Tempest 154 - lap # 1005
  6. @Interior - Team Slow / Hakumai CS-2 - lap # 988
  7. @Serperior98 - Team Double Dip / Akira Metro - lap # 973
  8. @Petakabras - Team Collarada / Cabrera Fulgor - lap # 964
  9. @Knugcab - Team Trafikjournalen / IP Urbana - lap # 932
  10. @Madrias - Team Racing Stripes / Sinistra Traville - lap # 923
  11. @kobacrashi - Team Totally Not a Reduit Factory Team / Reduit Piti - lap # 913
  12. @DuceTheTruth100 - Team X / Wells i6 - lap # 780
  13. @HighOctaneLove - Team Mountain Pass / Ardent Olympic - lap # 1004 (DNF)
  14. @stm316 - Team Hang Ten / Puttzalong Shai Hulud - lap # 906 (DNF)
  15. @Maverick74 - Team Yacht Rockers / Dover Andromeda - lap # 700 (DNF)
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Race- Part 3: Mission Possible if it were real.
Lap 988. We still cant stop nudging the guardrail. As result, its scuffed. The little 2.0 is still packing. Almost if it was made for 24 hours of Le Mans except without LMPs and race cars. Just production cars

Dialogue

John: Uh, this is not good. The steering box is shot.
Matt: You could go get in the pits if you want.
J: Its better if we go to the pits sometime
M: And yeah. The guardrail issue seems to be driver error
J: Car’s still reliable like a champ.
M: I guess this was a good buy after all.
J: Don’t you think we should inspect mechanical damage after?
M: Sure.

(OOC: I can’t include the pits chatter. I’m just running a duo team)

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IN THE PITS

Mats: Oh, shit, look at the Dover over there, looks worse than I first thought.
Filip: No more racing for them, to say the least.
M: Such a shame.
F: It sucked anyway.
M: Hey! Respect the elders!
F: American cars sucks.
M: You suck. Big time.

IN CAR
Erik: (Checking mirror) “Oh, NO, how the heck is team Chinese dragons driving at the mom…”
CRUNCH!
E: “Now that was nice, they could not even avoid to hit the smallest car on the whole track. Well, nothing feels strange about the car anyway.”

IN THE PITS
M: Well, it seems like when you aren’t out there to wreck the car, team Chinese dragons will do it for us.
F: Can you only keep your mouth shut?

IN CAR
E: “Oh, shit, look at this, it is like if team Mountain pass is almost trying to seek revenge at us, no way that I am taking the heavy Ardent in the back of this little crackerbox, I’ll let him pass.”
CRUNCH!
E: “Well, another close encounter… oh WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS, THE DAMN CAR IS STUCK IN FOURTH GEAR AND STALLED LIKE HECK, GREAT!”

IN THE PITS
F: Look at how Team Mountain pass forced him into the rail!
M: Are you surprised after your driving?
F: So it is MY fault that they almost crammed him into the rail?
M: Yes, because you have hit their car about 300 times.
F: And it is towed into the pits too! What have happened?
E: The damn gearlever is stuck, I can’t get it out of fourth gear.
M: (Looking under the car) No wonder about it, this rod is bent, give me the BFH again.

CLANG BOOM CRASH BAM BANG!

M: So, good as new. Not that the Urbana ever was good even as new, but whatever.

A while later

IN CAR

E: “Oh, you damn thing, brake, brake, BRAKE BRAKEBRAKEBRAKE!!!”
CRUNCH!
E: “Damn, I hit the Wells, oh whatever, Taxi drivers coming into the way as usual. I guest that I have to check up the brakes.”

IN THE PITS
F: Look, now Carlén have hit a car too.
M: Overheated brakes probably.
F: So when I crash, it is my fault, when someone else causes Carlén to crash it is my fault, and when Carlén crashes all by himself, it is the car’s fault?
M: No it is your fault then too. Should we guess glazed brake pads and boiling fluid? Time for a change then.

@BannedByAndroid
@HighOctaneLove
@DuceTheTruth100

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OOC: what happened to the Jaimz. Lost tons of laps but doesn’t appear in the text?

146

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.

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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!

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Team Racing Stripes

Race - Part 3

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.

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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.

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“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…

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