An Anthro's Tale

The Rally Part 2-2

The next morning the bells for the starting line rang early. Joe and I hauled ourselves out of bed to take as much of the 30 minute maintenance period as we could. While he pumped more air into the tires, I added a few lead weights to the back and increased the angle on the wing for the extra traction we needed to counter act the loose, shifty dirt trails. We refilled the tank, topped off all the Firebird's oil and coolant levels and tightened some bolts on the driveshaft. Joe was checking out the gears when the call came out.

“Driver's!”, The ref shouted, “your thirty minutes are up.”

“Crap”, Joe muttered, “there goes that idea.”

“What idea?”, I asked.

“I was gonna re arrange the gears for a slower off the line and maybe some more grip, but were outta time.”

Joe screwed the gear cover back on and slid out from under the car. We dropped it down from the jacks and then suited up. Today, I was in the driver's seat and Joe was the navigator. He'd promised to be as annoying as possible, which didn't help my tensity and nervousness. I slid into the driver's seat of the XS and buckled up the racing harness. Joe slid into the passenger's seat and strapped himself in before shutting the door.

“Ready?”, I asked.

“Let's do this brother”, he said.

I nodded and started the car, as did everyone else. Since we had placed last the day before, we were in first and had a ten minute head start before the others.

I drove up to the starting line. There were red, yellow and green lights strapped to a tree that were wired to an un seen power source. The light was red. I revved the engine, the RPM shooting to 7000 and then quickly dropping off. The light went yellow. I revved the engine again. The light went through two more yellow stages and then clicked to green. I popped the clutch and put the pedal to the floor. The Firebird began to burn out in the loose dirt before inching forward.

We started down a different path than the one we'd taken last night. This one was a lot more turny and fussy than the straight from last night. The first turn went around a tree that was placed right in the middle of the road. I gave the car a bit of a brake and then turned the steering wheel right and then left, easily drifting through the corner.

“93 120 don't cut”, Joe said.

“Got it”, I said shifting back to 5th gear.

The road twisted for a few more yards before I came to the down hill turn. It was a sharp, down hill turn that could send us plummeting to our deaths if I wasn't careful. I down shifted from 5th to 3rd, keeping my foot on the brake and clutch as I did. With my paw also on the E-Brake, I managed to slow the car down just enough to get through the narrow, sharp corner without losing a lot of speed.

The road on the side of the mountain was windy and fussy like the first one and the traction was horrible. Even with the wing angle and the weights we were still front heavy, which meant all the tread was up front. I shifted into fifth gear and gunned it as another, right hand turn approached. Seeing as the turn was on the side of a mountain (more or less) and it was a right angle, I slowed to about four miles an hour and was in first gear as I turned the car around the corner, now seeing paved road.

“Traction!”, Joe said as the bump signaled the transition to pavement.

“We still have three minutes before the others let off”, I said flooring it, “let's put some distance between us and them while the road is for us.”

“Don't jink it bro”, Joe said.

“Don't worry”, I said.

There was another turn about two hundred feet in front of us. I stepped on the brakes and downshifted to third gear and went around the corner before quickly coming out of it and shifting into fourth gear. The road curved slightly, allowing me access to seventh gear before I had to start slowing down again for the next turn. I went through that turn at about sixty miles an hour and then shifted into second gear, making it only to fourth before the next turn. As I was going through that one, I saw the Koenigsegg in the rear view mirror. He was a ways off, but I knew on the pavement he'd catch up quick.