LARSSEN'S LANE: Grey

Chapter 3.3 - No Turning Back

Passed midnight, 20 to 30 people, with some cars, were spotted crowding at a vacant area 25 minutes away to northeast from Irvine. This is a baren area with rocky mountains and hills covered by bushes. The road in this area is less wide than most roads in California, there are only two lanes, and each lane can only be passed by a truck. The road is never busy, mainly at night, and less light here.

Chester's Evo slowed down. The driver's sight scanned, figuring out his people. There they were, Velox; three men and a girl around a coupe sedan next to truck —a black Shelby and gray Ram. The white Evo stopped near the Shelby. The speed freak got out of his car and brofisted with his fellows.

"Hey yo, Cheeto," An Afro teenage boy called Chester's street name. The boy who is known as Kiddo wore a bandana and a short jean, the youngest fellow in the team, was leaning on the truck. "Are you done with the college business? You're damn good student." He mocked.

"Let's not talk about that damn shit. So, here's the boy that I always miss to rock with." He stood in front of Shelby, with his two arms folded on his chest. Looked enthusiast in his smirk.

"We've done mapping the track," said a man while sitting on the Shelby's frunk—front trunk. He was Buck, a man with a hair bun, the eldest man in this team. The man pulled a cellular phone out of his black leather jacket's right pocket and turned the screen on. He started an explanation while his eyes are on the phone note. "You're going to have to deal with 85 turns, 30 of them are less than 60 degrees. The track is up climbing but not steep. And the length is 80 miles."

"Dongwoo, how's the engine?"

"I've made up the braking system, but still the rear braking response is not as quick as I expected." Now a less tall, big Korean origin man took his turn to explain. "But I've successfully upgraded its acceleration. Jesse kept his word; we cannibalized his parts. But still it's not going to hit the top speed."

"How many long segments?"

"Only 3. 2 of 3 miles; and 1 of 4 miles." Buck answered.

"What about you, Kiddo?"

The teenage afro boy paid attention to Chester. His two hands were tucked in his pant. "I've watched the car's video. I can't figure out what car that is. All of its body is totally modified. But I can make sure it can hit the first quarter in 14 seconds, only 0.5 second slower than ours. And from what I heard, it has a freaking top speed. It can hit 180."

"So, my only problem is the braking."

"Your only chance is your drifting."

"That's right."

"Babe?" Now Chester turned to Netta, his girlfriend, who had asymmetrical hair cut—short on the right side and long on the other side—and triple piercing on her right ear. "How's the bet, any change?"

"Just don't lose. Make 13 your lucky number and grab the car and cash." Netta provoked, referring to Chester's 13th race. "I and Kiddo will be at the finish line". Then, she and Kiddo brofisted with the rested of the team, took over Evo, and brought it to the finish line.

Chester put on his driving gloves and got into the black Shelby.

After two races with two cars in each race, now it's Velox's and Blitz's—the opponent— turn to rock on. A black Shelby and an unidentified dark purple coupe car set side by side. From his seat, Chester could see his opponent seemed to have a deadpan face, known as Fern. Chester smirked but the dark purple car rider paid no reply. A drone was flying around 32 feet up in the air. A shirtless man with well-trained abs stood at the front, in between the two cars. His hand was in the air. After making sure he got attention from the two riders, he waved his hand down until touched the road.

The Shelby and it's match blasted off, leaving smoke made by the friction of the wheels and asphalt, and smell of burning rubber.

Only in 3 seconds, both of the cars had reached the first turn. Chester's slowed down his brake earlier than Fern, made him left 0.4 second behind. He wasn't pretty familiar with the new braking system. He hadn't tested it. It was a mistake, but not unfixable. He made up right on the next segment.

The whole track was all dark, the only device to help the riders to recognize the road situation and read the road sign were their own car headlight. And thanks to the digital map that's installed on their car system to spot their positions.

After a number of short segments, Chester was now running on the first long segment. His Shelby was leading with a 0.5 second gap. But since it was a long segment, his match got advantage. The dark purple car was better in power and top speed. It shortened the gap to half a second. Chester tried to block it, but he failed. The dark purple car took over and led the way at the front. It even widened the gap.

Chester tried to be steady. His eyes were focused. Through the map, he saw a chance—a sharp turn was await a few feet at the front. His hands and feet work their job synchronously, released the throttle pedal, hit the clutch, while shifting down the gear and pulling up the hand brake lever. A quick steer spin was made, a speedy drift was successfully done on a 50 degrees angle-turn. The hand brake lever was released, gear was shifted back up, throttle pedal was rapidly hit. The Shelby blasted off again, trying to catch up.

The speed duel was furious, with the cars having their own strengths and weaknesses, that made them both equal in overall. And in the last long segment, Chester would risk everything to win the race. A slight difference between the two cars, Shelby's nose was only behind the dark purple car's front wheel. And there, right in front of them was Chester's last chance, but the only problem was his Shelby seemed like couldn't be faster than 175 mph, while Fern's car still have the chance to reach 180 mph.

Fuck off that statistic. It was his last chance. He could only keep his speed that way. Now that he had made up with the brake response, he bet he'd be okay to slow down later than his opponent. He knew Fern wasn't a drift master.

~*~