Fabian's Challenge is a match-type hover car race sponsored by the Circus Maximus Beer Co. to launch their Circus Maximus course.
History[]
Hover Car Racer[]
Prior to the next Italian Run, the sponsor to the Renault Racing Team's leading racer Fabian, the Circus Maximus Beer Company began constructing a hover car race track modeled after the Roman Colosseum just outside of Rome.
When the Circus Maximus was finished, the Beer Co. decided to stage an exhibition race to promote its opening, asking Fabian to invite an opponent of his own choosing to race against. Intrigued by the "determined young racer" that the media had recently been talking about, Jason Chaser, Fabian decided to invite the young racer to the challenge.
Word quickly got out to the media of the challenge before Fabian could ask Jason, leading them to confront Jason outside his hotel in Venice II to ask his response to Fabian's request. As Jason questioned what they were referring to, Fabian himself arrived and explained Fabian's Challenge and his desire to race against Jason. To his own surprise, Jason quickly accepted the challenge, to the media's excitement.
Jason's backer in the Italian Run, Umberto Lombardi, was excited by the publicity of the match and arranged for new parts for the Argonaut so that it could compete against Fabian's Marseilles Falcon. Jason, however, started giving serious thoughts to Fabian's Challenge, and, recalling how Fabian had used his friend Ariel Piper prior to the Sponsors' Tournament, blanked her after she had lost in the first round and belittled the idea of female racers in the pro-league, decided to call Ariel and suggested that she secretly take his place in the race and defeat Fabian in order to pay the Frenchman out.
The next day, as two million spectators gathered at the Circus Maximus, Fabian and Jason posed for photographs before moving to enter their cars, though Jason dashed off to the bathroom in what the media good-naturedly assumed was due to nerves. In truth, Jason swapped places with Ariel, giving her his race uniform and having her don his helmet so that the crowd wouldn't figure out the switch. As Ariel stepped into the Argonaut, Jason slipped away unnoticed so that he could begin practising in the Argonaut II on the Lombardi Racing Team's private practise track.
Once Fabian and "Jason" set off, the French racer quickly took the lead, and began pandering to the crowd by performing playful maneuvers. Ariel was eventually able to exploit this and overtake Fabian, beginning a series of back-and-forth for leadership until the final lap where Ariel was able to cross the finish line first by half a car-length.
With that, Fabian offered "Jason" a racer's salute before stopping the Marseilles and moving to shake "Jason's" hand. However, Ariel removed her helmet to show the world who had really beaten Fabian, to Fabian and the crowd's shock. Explaining when she had switched places with Jason, Ariel humiliated Fabian by asking him about his previous comments on women and hover car racing, to the crowd's amusement and delight.
As a result of winning Fabian's Challenge, Ariel garnered a lot of support from women around the world who were interested in becoming hover car racers and who were glad to see Fabian taken down a peg. Meanwhile, Fabian began seething at Jason for setting him up.
Race Details[]
The Fabian's Challenge race takes place exclusively on the Circus Maximus Beer Company course, which features two 12 kilometer straights that the average hover car can complete in two minutes, and consists of 20 laps around said course.
Trivia[]
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