The girl raised her hands high in the air, scanning the
start line to make sure that all the competitors were ready. A moment later,
her arms sliced downwards through the air, and the four cars screamed into life
in an explosion of torque and tyre smoke as the race began. The cars
accelerated straight past her and roared off towards the first corner, leaving
nothing in their wake except a faint haze of smoke and a set of jet-black tyre
marks on the worn asphalt.
Tristan and T-Bone had gotten the best starts off the
line, with Alyssa just behind, and Michael already a car's length behind as
they reached the first bend, a 45-degree right-hander. Since the run to the
first bend had been so short, and the angle of the corner was so shallow, the
drivers merely had to lift off the throttle to make it through on this occasion.
Tristan had the inside line, and so had the fastest route through the corner,
with T-Bone forced out wide. As they headed down the long straight, Tristan was
ahead.
Halfway down the straight, the group encountered a
traffic car heading in the same direction. All four spotted it in more than
enough time to scramble out of the way, roaring past as they carried on. Some
nights the traffic was worse than others; on nights when the roads were totally
gridlocked, racing was impossible. Rumour had it that the city government were
considering intentionally causing traffic jams at night, as a last-resort method
of preventing street races from taking place. Tonight, however, the traffic
seemed nice and sparse. Perfect for racing.
The next corner was a 90-degree right-hander, at a
four-way intersection. Corners at intersections were tricky, as there was
always the risk of meeting a traffic car coming the other way as you rounded
the corner, and you wouldn't see them coming until it was too late. Some street
racers liked to throw the back end out and drift round corners like this, giving
them greater visibility and more of a chance of dodging any such cars.
Tristan's car wasn't set up for drifting, though, so instead he simply braked
hard and steered the car normally through the corner, taking a sweeping racing
line just like a professional driver would use. Behind him he could hear a
squealing of tyres as Alyssa customarily drifted round the corner, though on
this occasion it was perfectly safe; the straight beyond was entirely deserted.
This nest straight had a little left-hand kink towards
the end, leading into another 90-degree right-hander. If you positioned your
car carefully as it went through the kink, you could cut down the angle of the
right-hander and carry a lot more speed through it. However, as he approached
the kink, Tristan noticed a traffic car heading through the right-hander in the
opposite direction, turning onto the straight he was coming down. It was going
to be right in the middle of the corner as he went through it, messing up his
racing line.
Tristan made sure to keep well out of the way of the
traffic car as he braked for the right-hander, but had to take a much wider
line than he would have liked. This, coupled with the straight-line speed of
T-Bone's Corvette, meant that T-Bone was just able to poke his nose in front as
they raced down the next straight. What was more, T-Bone now had the inside
line for the next set of corners, at a large roundabout.
Undeterred, Tristan braked late and attempted an overtake
around the outside as they turned right onto the roundabout. T-Bone, however,
misjudged the corner and oversteered wide, sliding into the side of Tristan's
car. Tristan's right-hand wing mirror was smashed off, the bodywork scratched
slightly. An easy fix, and nothing worth worrying about. Unlike a lot of other
street racers, Tristan wasn't particularly bothered about cosmetic damage to
his car: it was mechanical damage that worried him.
The drivers came upon the first exit remarkably quickly,
and were almost flat-out as they turned through it, emerging onto a short
straight before a left-hander. T-Bone held a marginal lead now, but Tristan had
the inside line for the next corner. Once again he braked late, forcing T-Bone
wide. This time T-Bone was forced to mount the pavement, narrowly missing a
lamp-post and having to slow down to avoid crashing into the buildings adjacent
to the street. Now the advantage was back with Tristan, and Alyssa was right on
T-Bone's heel. Michael was still at the roundabout, having already fallen some
way behind the leading three.
Dodging round another traffic car, the group made its way
through another right-hander, then another. Now they were immediately
confronted with the track's most difficult feature - two sweeping 180-degree
bends, first a left-hander, then a right-hander that brought them back to the
finish line. Tristan felt sure that his car's superior handling would give him
the advantage here, and sure enough he was able to brake a little later than T-Bone
or Alyssa and gently feather the throttle as he made his way round the corner,
keeping his speed up.
All three drivers took a wider line through the first of
the hairpins, staying out of the oncoming lanes for fear of meeting a car
coming the other way. This proved to be a sensible move, for as Tristan exited
the corner he met a car going the other way, entering the hairpin he had just
left. He and the two drivers behind him were well clear of it, and swiftly
turned their attentions to the right-hand hairpin. This time the inside line
was away from the oncoming lanes, and the drivers were able to take the turn at
a more favourable speed.
Exiting the second hairpin brought them onto the
start/finish straight, with the other street racers gathered at the side of the
road to watch. Lien waved excitedly to Tristan as he accelerated over the line
to start the second of the four laps. Tristan did not notice her, his eyes
remaining on the road in front of him. He needed to focus. On these tight
streets, with traffic all around, you couldn't lower your concentration for
even a second. A single mistake here could cost you a lot more than just the race.
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