Chapter 2: Live Practice before the Grand Race

Tanami look at his wrist watch under on his right forearm, near his right hand, and said: “Practice is about to start. Don’t want to waste precious time on looking at the spectators too much.”

Speed Joker look at Tanami with a smile under the racing helmet and said: “I know.”

She walk back into the garage, and stand near her car that is lifted with its four built-in hydraulic jacks underneath it.

Speed Joker open the door of her car, and sat on the driver seat. She strapped herself with three seat belts on, and then pull the seat belts to make sure it connected securely. Tanami lean on the driver window door, look at Speed Joker, and said: “The car is ready, do some warm up practice laps first. I will keep track of your pace, and tell you each sector that you need to improve on.”

Speed Joker nodded her head as her reply to Tanami. She looks down, and saw the black button which says ‘on/off’ below the steering column. She presses the button, and the small rectangular LED on the button turns on; which emits a green light.

Sound of starter begin to spun inside the engine, and it roars to life. Than slowly went into full idle speed. The engine inside car, it is named the IA-E4M. It is a two liter Inline four with both turbocharger and supercharger connected to its intake (twin charged). It produces around four hundred and fifty horse power, and five hundred and ten newton meters of torque.

The name of the custom-made car that Speed Joker is driving; it is named Jetsun LP1440. A racing variant of the Jetsun L2011 Comet sport car that Speed Joker made by herself from many previous iteration, and perfected its design for the past three years since in her middle school years. It is length about four hundred and ten centimeters, with a width of one hundred and eighty five centimeters. Body colored in white, has two doors, an aluminum pedestal rear-mounted wing, and a side skirt spoiler.

The built-in car jack hydraulics below the LP 1440 begin to lower the car until four tires touches the smooth concrete ground. The pit crew pull off the heating tires pads on the four Jetsun’ tires.

Speed Joker press and hold the manual clutch pedal, and then press slightly on the acceleration pedal. The tachometer of her engine indicator slightly rise around the four thousand mark. She looks at the temperature indicator going from the blue line to the yellow line. Then she releases the acceleration pedal first, then the clutch. She put her steering wheel into the steering wheel socket, then turn it left and right to check if its fully connected.

Joker press the shift up a gear by pressing the right pedal shifter behind on the right side of her steering wheel. Then she the press acceleration pedal. Her car begins to move forward, exit the garage, and entering the pit-lane.

In the pit-lane, she presses the button says ‘pit’ on her steering wheel, which limit the speed of the car up to fifty kilometers an hour. She keeps the car cruising at that speed until it exits the pit-lane. Once it exits the pit-lane; she turns off the pit button on her steering wheel, and pushes the acceleration pedal to the floor.

Its engine growls louder as the tachometer in the dashboard inside the car rapidly increases to nine thousand revolution per-minute before shifting up gears.

Speed Joker shift into the fifth gear where her car reached around two hundred and fifty kilometers an hour. When the first turn comes into view, she presses the brake pedal to slow down the car till it reaches around one hundred kilometers an hour, and shift down by pressing the left shift pedal behind the steering wheel.

She turns her steering wheel to the right turn in the first part of the chicane; a thirty five degree right, and then exit by turning thirty-five degree to the left. After passing the chicane, at the exit; she presses the accelerator pedal and shifts up to third gear where the exhaust releases a flame from the unburned fuel in the combustion of the engine. Then she entered the four hundred meters short straight.

In the end of a short straight, a forty five degree turn to the right is coming up in front of her. She entered the curve at the speed of seventy kilometers an hour, and hit the apex. On the exit, she entered a one kilometer medium-straight. She push the speed in that straight to two hundred kilometers an hour for eight hundred meters.

At the end of the straight, she enters the fourth curve, a fifty degree ‘U’ turn. Speed Joker hit the brake pedal a lot more longer to drain off more speed unlike in the chicane and third curve, where the brake disk in the wheels turn red hot from the friction. She turns into the curve about fifty kilometers an hour at second gear on its inside, and hit the apex.

Exit of the fourth curve. It was a long straight, passing under the bridge where spectators are also watching. She shift into the final gear, the sixth gear, where the digital speedometer in the dashboard displays three hundred and ten kilometers an hour, and continue to slowly rise.

A radio call from her left earphone comes in. It was from Tanami, he said: “All green condition. You can push it harder then the usual.”

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Back in the pit-lane, many racing teams prepare their car, especially Ravenwest; who is ready to use their Dodge Viper colored in metallic dark gray with twin middle black stripe vinyl. The Dodge Viper is powered by a V10 engine that produces about nine hundred and fifty horsepower, and seven hundred and eighty newton meters of torque.

There will be two drivers will be driving this two powerful Vipers. Their names are McCane Thomas, and his teammate Dave Justin.

For the racing team from China, Quihan Veil team. They drive their own car from their home country manufacturer called BYD. The car they used is the BYD Atlas GX7, it has a one thousand and five hundred brake horsepower electric motor in both rear wheels. It is able to achieve its top speed of four hundred and ten kilometers an hour in straights.

The two drivers that will drive both BYD Atlas GX7 are: Zhou Xi as the leading driver, and Xiao Yu as the teammate.

Jouhan Racing Academy team and Ino One team. Both teams use a car from Europe, the M4 GT. The car is powered by a V6 engine, producing up to six hundred and fifty horsepower, and five hundred and thirty newton meters of torque. This car is one of the most balance tuned racing cars created by a German based car manufacturer, BWM.

Race drivers that will drive the first sets of BMW M4 GT are for Jouhan Racing Academy team. Their drivers are: Kenzo Tanaka as the leading driver, and Kouta Sato as the teammate driver. As for Ino One team use the second sets of of BMW M4 GT, their drivers are: Kono Ikeda as the lead driver, and Ronin Endou as the teammate.

Dexter Torres team used a car based in the United Kingdom, the Aston Martin AM8C colored in dark green. It has a V8 engine producing around eight hundred and fifty horsepower, and six hundred and seventy newton meters of torque. This is a sport car they raced in the national of their country, but also completely dominated the entire race.

The two drivers for driving the Aston Martin AM8C for Dexter Torres are: Rowan Cooper as the lead driver, and Tanner Forster as the teammate driver.

And finally, the racing team named Thunder Group team. They use a car manufactured by the United State of America, a yellow Chervolet Camaro ZL1. The Camaro they are using isn’t a normal variant. It is a tuned and aerodynamic improved version of the ZL1 on the consumer-based production car from their own specification. Which produces around seven hundred horsepower, and six hundred and ten newton meters of torque in the iconic LS1 V8 engine.

Their team drivers are: Michael Strand as the lead driver, and Noah Pierez as its teammate.

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As the fifteen minutes of practice is up, totaling around twenty-five minutes along with extra maintenance. All the cars are now in the starting grid with fresh tires, refueled, and re-checked.

Speed Joker in the Garage drinking a bottle of water. She closes the lid after she is done drinking, and wipes the water drip that is near on her mouth. She tried to wipe her forehead and mumbled: “I forgot that I’m wearing a mask. I hope I can finish this race quick before curfew.”

Tanami went to Speed Joker, who is seating on a chair, and he said to her: “It’s all up to you now. I’ll be monitoring behind the screen. If anything happens in the track, I’ll warn you through the radio.”

Than a white flag waved from the racing official from the top of a stand on the pit lane. Speed Joker sighs, put her racing helmet on, and said to Tanami: “Thanks, I’ll be counting on your support.”

Speed Joker arrived near her car on the starting grid and enters it. She put back the steering wheel on the steering wheel socket, and start the engine. She looks at the oil temperature gauge which is still in the yellow bar. She mumbled under her breath: “Not overheating.” She looks at other gauges from the turbo pressure gauges, fuel gauge pressure, and oil pressure. She continued: “Everything looks good, peak condition of the car.”

She closes her eyes, take a deep breath, and grips on the steering wheel. She said: “Let’s win and finish this race quickly.”

All the driver in each teams entered each of their cars, and start up their engines. Every audiences who is watching in the stand cheers loudly. The showdown for the race of Daiban Raceway is about to start.