Manhattan Gate Race

The Manhattan Gate Race is a professional league hover car race, and the second of the New York Masters.

History[]

Early History[]

During the growth of the hover car industry, and the accompanying racing sports, the professional league established the Masters Series of races. Chief among them were the four "Grand Slam" races, which included the New York Masters. The second of the Masters races was the Manhattan Gate Race, which would take place in the streets of New York City, challenging racers to collect as many points as possible. Only those races who finished in the top eight of the Manhattan Gate Race would be able to proceed on to the Pursuit Race.

Hover Car Racer[]

Following the end of the Liberty Supersprint, Alessandro Romba was in the lead for the New York Masters, while Jason Chaser was in last, though the favourites to take the win for the Manhattan Gate Race were the USAF racers Angus Carver and Dwayne Lewicki. The night before the Manhattan Gate Race was to begin, numerous engineers set about constructing the arches and barricades for the race throughout the New York City streets.

As soon as the layout of the course was released to the racers, Jason's little brother and navigator, Bug Chaser, quickly plotted out the optimum route to obtain the most points as quick as possible for their three-hour time limit.

Thus, as soon as the race began, Jason did not head to the northern and eastern parts of Manhattan Island, but - to much surprise from the spectators - the south. Having heard of the Bug's gift for gate racers, Fabian opted to ignore his own navigator's plan and instead began tailing Jason, which earned the him boos from the watching crowds. By the time Jason and Fabian took their second pit stops at the one hour mark, both had earned an equal 750 points, while Carver and Lewicki were both only 10 points behind from their north-based course.

When the one hour results were announced, the amazed crowds cheered for the young Jason, while astonished television commentators used their own course-plotting computers to analyse the Bug's race-plan. The commentators were all shocked by the results, realising that the young navigator was leading his brother to the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel Gate at the southern-most end of New York before setting a journey into the near-empty northern sector for the Cloisters Gate, and that such a plan would grant Jason a first place victory.

An hour-and-a-half into the race, the 7th-placed Au Chow collided with Dan Rein, with the entire nosewing of the former's car being sheared off in the process. While Chow was unable to continue, and thus eliminated, Rein's car emerged from the collision with only a dented nose, allowing him to reach the pit stop for a quick repair.

Throughout the race, Jason made multiple attempts to shake Fabian's tail, but was unable to do so. Eventually though, when there were only 15 minutes left of racing time, Fabian gave up the pursuit (suspected to be due to nerves by most observers) rather than risk losing time and points before time elapsed, and set off to gather more points his own way. Thus, Jason was left free to race on unharassed to the Cloisters, earning an additional 100 points for his efforts.

Once only 10 minutes remained to gather points, all of the racers began making their way back to the Start-Finish Line at Fifth Avenue. As Jason was making his own return journey, he suddenly found himself boxed in between both Fabian and Etienne Trouveau's cars. The two French drivers banged against the Argonaut, until the Marseilles Falcon pressed Jason's car against the Vizir's noseblade, which made the Argonaut lose control. As Fabian and Trouveau moved on to finish, Jason crashed the Argonaut belly-up on 42nd Street, 500 meters away from the finish line and with only four minutes left before points would start being deducted from unfinished racers.

With Jason having only two working magneto drives and no forward-thrust, it appeared that - with every other racer having already or about-to finish - Jason would lose the race altogether despite his commendable effort since the Manhattan Gate Race required a car-over-the-line finish. However, the entire audience was shocked into silence when they noticed Jason and the Bug pushing the Argonaut towards the finish line, still intent on finishing the race, and quickly began cheering the pair on.

The Chaser brothers worked hard to push the Argonaut on, eventually succeeding in getting over the finish line, albeit 70 seconds after the three-hour mark, and thus having some of their hard-earned points deducted from their total. Nonetheless, their efforts got them third place behind Carver and Lewicki, and it was noted that were it not for the crash, they would have won the race by 60 points.

Meanwhile, due to either their inability to return to the finish line on time, or having failed to earn enough points altogether, Raul Hassan, Rein and Reitze were also eliminated from the remainder of the New York Masters.

Manhattan Gate Race

Contents

History[]

Early History[]

Hover Car Racer[]

Race Details[]

Final Positions[]

Trivia[]