Race 50

Race 50 is the fiftieth and final race of the International Race School's yearly tournament races.

History[]

Early History[]

During the development of the hover car International Race School, several races were designed for a school tournament, the last of which would serve to determine the top-placed students of each year. At the conclusion of the race, the two top racers of the school would be granted the privilege of entering the Challenger Race of the New York Masters.

Hover Car Racer[]

A few days prior to Race 25, Principal Jean-Pierre LeClerq announced that instead of the usual two openings for students to reach the New York Challenger, the International Race School would be getting four invitations, which would be given to the top four ranked students following Race 50.

Towards the end of the school's season of racing, Xavier Xonora earned an unassailable lead over the rest of his nearest rival, lazily claiming only one point in Race 49 to ensure he would keep the top spot. Varishna Krishna also got an unbeatable lead over his fellow students, and so the outcome of Race 50 would ultimately not matter since he and Xonora would be going to the New York Challenger no matter what. Race 50, however, would be crucial in deciding the third and fourth place rankings, as Jason Chaser, Ariel Piper, Barnaby Becker, Isaiah Washington, Horatio Wong and Schumacher all were within a few points of one another. As such, their placings and the results of their rivals in Race 50 would decide who would get the final two invitation to the New York Challenger Race.

Hoping to get one of the invites to New York, Jason and his team began strategising ways to beat their rival on equal points, Barnaby, with Jason later sharing his plan with his confidant, Dido Emanuele, just before the race. Meanwhile, not needing any points for himself, Xonora opted to assist his stablemate and act as Barnaby's defender, while Barnaby himself bought off Joaquin Cortez to try and take out Jason during the race.

Early on the morning of Race 50, LeClerq and the Parts and Equipment mechanic Wernold Smythe met, with LeClerq congratulating Smythe on slowing Ariel's progress, but stated that he did not want her to finish in the top four and go to race in New York. Despite the firewall that had been placed in Ariel's pit machine recently, Smythe was certain that he could make a new virus that would bring down her machine during the race. However, their conversation was overheard by Jason, who warned Ariel about the impending attack, which led Ariel and her mech chief to install a new firewall.

As soon as Race 50 began, Barnaby took the lead with Xonora "riding shotgun" in second place, while Jason was immediately harried by Cortez and Wong (the latter being more careful since he did not want to risk his chance to get to go to New York).

By Lap 35, needing to escape the kamikaze attacks from Cortex, Jason used his rival's recklessness and determination against him by exposing the Argonaut's tailfin. As Cortez took the bait, Jason moved out of the way, resulting in Cortez crashing into an iceberg, destroying his car and putting himself out of the race. Jason then attempted to overtake Wong, but after a few laps he decided he had no choice but to use one of the Clashing Bergs Paths. The risk paid off as Jason narrowly made it through the first shortcut and came out ahead of Wong, then fended off his rival's attempt to take back his position, and won out upon the end of Lap 39, where Wong was eliminated.

After the racers pitted during Lap 41, Xonora feigned car trouble and intentionally blocked Jason to put distance between him and Barnaby. As Washington zoomed forward, aiming for the Argonaut's tailfin, Jason attempted to skirt around Xonora, only for the black prince to dart off with Jason and Washington in pursuit. While the latter was eliminated at the end of the next lap, Jason was left facing opposition from the school's best driver and a considerable distance between himself and Barnaby.

After Jason failed to overtake Xonora using just one of the Clashing Bergs Paths, the Bug suggested try to use all three of the paths to do so, and, despite Sally's protest, Jason readily agreed. The gambit worked, as Jason managed to overtake the black prince and then beat him to the start-finish line, putting Xonora out of the race and leaving the remaining four racers to compete on the remaining six laps of the race.

But as the racers made one last pit stop at the end of Lap 48, Smythe sent his virus to attack Ariel's pit machine, unaware of her new firewall. Upon being blocked, the virus instead went on to attack the school's power grid, resulting in a power cut that surprised the racers and spectators. While Barnaby, Ariel and Varishna had no clue what to do, Team Argonaut was lucky enough to have been prepared and trained to operate a manual pitstop, and set to work at once. While Ariel and Krishna followed their example, Barnaby did nothing to help his mech chief, and once the racers were ready they set off, with the placings now drastically different; Ariel in the lead, Krishna in second, and Barnaby in third, now narrowly ahead of Jason.

Jason, not wanting to push his luck with the Clashing Bergs, next attempted to use his strategy to use Barnaby's weakness of tight right-hand hairpins, but was shocked as Barnaby unexpectedly gave no openings, leading Jason to realise that Dido was in league with Xonora and Barnaby. Refusing to give up, Jason continued hounding Barnaby looking for openings, finally getting one moments after Ariel and Krishna crossed the finish line. As he overtook Barnaby and began the home stretch, a desperate Barnaby rammed the Argonaut with the Devil's Chariot, causing the Argonaut to flip and land on its side while Barnaby's car did the same, only landing right-side up.

With his car's landing position blocking him from getting out of the Argonaut, Jason handed the transponder-equipped steering wheel to the Bug, pointing out that with pro rule of driver over-the-line in place for Race 50, and told his brother to run to the finish line only 500 meters away. As the Bug ran desperately, the Devil's Chariot started back up, and Barnaby began pursuing the navigator. With the crowd seeing that it would be a close finish, they followed Henry Chaser's lead in shouting encouragement for the Bug, who made a final dive for the finish line as the Devil's Chariot caught up.

A photo finish was used to determine who had made it over the line first, showing the Bug with his steering wheel over the line mere centimeters ahead of the Devil's Chariot's nose, getting Team Argonaut third place. With Race 50 over, the racers' results were tallied, revealing that the International Race School's final race had resulted in Ariel getting third place on the school's overall tournament ladder, while Jason had claimed fourth, earning both of them the remaining invitations to New York.

After the race, Jason confronted Dido over her role as a spy, while Race Director Stanislaus Calder led the investigation into the power cut on Lap 48, discovering the virus and its origin from Smythe's computer. When he was confronted, Smythe quickly confessed and revealed LeClerq's plot to end Ariel's racing career, getting both conspirators fired.

Race Details[]

Race Type[]

Race 50 of the International Race's School's tournament is a Super-Enduro-type race, being called a Last Man Drop-Off, where the last-placed racer is eliminated at the end of every third lap. Race 50 runs for 51 laps around an extremely long course running around the southern point of Tasmania and down to the northern icebergs of the Antarctic.

Race 50 also operates on the northern hemisphere-typical rule of driver over-the-line, in which a driver or navigator carrying their car's transponder-equipped steering wheel over the finish line can officially finish the race.

Demagnetising Strips[]

Running along the entire length of the track on both sides are strips of demagnetising lights. For any car that runs over them due to taking a corner the wrong way will result in the magnetic power of that car's magneto drives being drained. This is a costly error which drastically reduces the cars tractions, and increases the need for replacement magneto drives sooner.

Clashing Bergs Paths[]

A rare feature on any hover car racing course, the Clashing Bergs offer racers three opportunities to gain any leads on their rivals, each being a mini-shortcut. Set between three pairs of icebergs, a racer must race through the bergs as they close in and out on one another (which operates on mechanisms hidden beneath the water, and each Clashing Berg path can give the racer a car-length advantage. However, they must time their run through the Clashing Bergs carefully, and if they mis-time it or drive too slowly, the racer's car will be partially crushed between the bergs, effectively taking them out of the race.

Top Finishing Positions[]

Trivia[]

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