Racing Hearts - Blood and Steel

Prologue

It was a hot summer day. The sun was shining bright, high up in the clear blue sky. No matter where you looked, you were surrounded by a rich looking landscape. Trees of all sorts were covering the small mountains of the Eifel with a green blanket made from various leaves. Many long and winding roads separated this ocean of greenery. Some of them leading to small villages, some others to bigger towns, yet another handful lead to a rather well known racetrack, down here in the southwest of Germany. The Nürburgring.
Many cars had gathered alongside the racetrack on this very day to watch the battle of speed and endurance that was unfolding down there on the hot asphalt.
The desperate screams of the participants' engines filled the air. Everyone was giving all they got, in order to reach the top. Yet most of the participants couldn't keep up with the two cars fighting over the first place. One of them was a red Corvette C3, with blue flames delicately painted on his sides and his hood. His lips pulled back to an angered growl, revealing his razor sharp teeth and enlarged canines. With his emerald green eyes he glared over at his opponent, giving him a look of disgust. His opponent, a white Audi Quattro, didn't seem too impressed. He gave the red car right beside him a smug look. Yet this expression would quickly began to fade, as the Corvette overtook the white Audi. Soon the vehicle found himself behind the red Corvette with the distance between the two slowly getting bigger and bigger.
For the next couple of minutes it seemed as if the Corvette was winning. Some onlookers were cheering for him, some were not. But everyone was eager to see whether or not the Corvette, the Audi or any of the other participants would win the race.
Then in a sharp turn, the Corvette noticed that something was off. He knew well enough that he was too fast to make the turn, so he tried to slow down. But nothing happened. His breaks malfunctioned. And there was nothing he could do about it. The look of triumph on his face had changed to pure panic. The Corvette tried again and again, slamming the brakes, but there was nothing. "Shit, shit, shit!" He yelled out, knowing well enough that he was just mere seconds away from crashing.
Then it happened. His tires lost traction on the hot asphalt, his rear end was flung to the side and then he was catapulted off the track. He saw his life flash before his eyes as his body was lifted up into the air. Even though it only took a few seconds. For the red vehicle it felt like hours. Then he came crashing down onto his roof, his body overturned multiple times and eventually landed back on his tires. The sound of metal being torn apart filled the air then there was a deadly silence. Some other race drivers came to a halt to see what had happened. Two of them bumped into each other but weren't hurt thankfully. Metal scraps and parts of plastic were scattered around, as well as a dark red, almost black liquid leading to the body of the injured vehicle. It was a trace of blood, mixed in with gasoline and motor oil.
First there was nothing. The red Corvette thought he had died, laying lifeless in the grass, his body badly damaged with blood seeping out of the many wounds. Yet there still was a heartbeat underneath this broken shell of metal. Then the pain set in. It ripped through his body, feeling as if he was torn apart. No, he wasn't dead. Yet not that far away from it either. The Corvette let out a groan of pain, his eyes closed. Sirens. He could hear the sound of sirens in the distance. Then there were different voices, yelling at each other and talking over one another.
"We need to get him off the tracks and to the nearest hospital, now!" A male voice yelled, followed by another one, "Oh god that's a lot of blood."
"Clarence, can you hear me buddy?" A third voice called out to him, "You're gonna be alright!"
Clarence, the red Corvette, wanted to say something, but he didn't have the energy to do so. However he asked himself whether or not he would be able to race ever again. And with these thoughts rushing through his mind, he was surrounded by darkness, to be fully consumed by black nothingness...