Sally Anne McDuff is the mech chief for Team Argonaut.
History[]
Early History[]
Born in Scotland as the youngest child and only daughter of Jock McDuff and an unnamed mother, Sally McDuff grew up watching all of her eight older brothers as they tinkered with their cars and engines, which eventually inspired her to be an mechanic as well. When she was 14, after Sally received her first car, she revealed the extent of her engineering prowess as she successfully created a hover rocket, to the delight of her father.
By age 16, Sally sought to become a mech chief for a pro hover car racing team. Through unknown qualifying methods, Sally was accepted into the International Race School because of her skills, where she would be partnered with a team without a mech chief.
Hover Car Racer[]
During the opening assembly, Sally was sitting on her own when she noticed the boy in the row before her, Jason Chaser, staring at Ariel Piper, a girl at the center of controversy for being the first girl to attend the IRS. After teasing him about staring, Sally introduced herself, and was amused to meet the Bug, whom she realised must be quite the genius to be invited to the School. Realising Jason was somewhat clueless about how students learned at the School, Sally informed him that he and his team would be assigned to a tutor to learn from during the semester. After the drivers were assigned their mentors, unassigned mech chiefs like Sally were informed of their mentor, with Sally being informed she was to be assigned to a team under Scott Syracuse.
Upon arriving at Syracuse's first lesson, Sally was surprised when she learned that she was being assigned to Jason and the Bug's team as their mech chief. Sally proceeded to evaluate their car, the Argonaut, and while she concluded that that custom-built car was something of a mess, she was confident that she could get it into top working order. The brothers found themselves liking the witty Scottish lass as they got to know each other during the long and grueling lesson, and the exhausted Sally opted to retire to her room rather than head to the dining hall.
During the first race of the school tournament, Sally reported in to Jason when one of the Argonaut's magneto drives lost all power, and tried to give them a quick pit stop to replace it, only for Jason to incur a penalty for trying to sneak out of the pit bay early. Later, near the end of the race, Sally was shocked when two additional mags abruptly lost power, and when Ariel lost control of the Pied Piper and headed off-course, Jason asked Sally to get him in touch with her as he went after and rescued her. Though this cost them any points for finishing the race, Sally applauded his heroic actions, and told Jason that upon checking their faulty mags had discovered that they had only been partially charged, with Sally openly suspecting that someone had sabotaged them.
As the school year continued, Team Argonaut continued to experience more mechanical difficulties which affected their positioning on the race championship ladder, but when Sally went to the Parts and Equipment Department to explain, Wernold Smythe dismissed her. After Race 15, Jason and the Bug accompanied Sally to complain to Smythe again they decided to speak to the Parts and Equipment Department. After Smythe once again brushed them off the Bug told them that he had seen that Smythe had had a pocket-full of hundred-dollar bills, and since Sally had noted that Xavier Xonora's mech chief Oliver Koch had been in before them, the team began to suspect that Smythe was being paid to supply teams with faulty parts.
Some time later, after Race 22, Principal Jean-Pierre LeClerq announced that the School had received four invitations to the New York Masters' Challenger Race, which would go to the top four racers at the end of the school championship. Sally wondered if their team could still finish in the top four, with Jason pointing out that there was still enough racing left in the season for any team to do so. Additionally, LeClerq also announced the cancellation of the next two races, leading Sally and Jason to realise that Team Argonaut's only chance of entering the Sponsors' Tournament now lay solely in winning Race 25.
During their next class, as Jason asked Syracuse about potentially using the shortcut maze, Sally replied to their teacher's comment about needing to know the layout of the maze beforehand by pointing out that the mine was out of bounds for students. However, Syracuse implied to Sally that there were legitimate means of learning a shortcut maze's path beforehand, but did not elaborate.
During the team's pit stop on Lap 11 of Race 25, Sally frantically tried to reboot their Pit Tarantula when it crashed mid-stop. On the next pit stop, Jason noticed Smythe's presence in Xavier's pit bay, with Sally noting that he had been there talking with Koch for the last few laps. Remembering that that the shortcut mine was a former coalmine, Jason realised that Smythe had been paid to map it out for the prince instead of sabotaging them, and so followed Xavier through the mine, allowing them to catch up to the race leaders. When Jason decided to skip their final pit stop in order to win, Sally protested and reminded him how it hadn't worked during a practice race, though Jason decided to go through with the plan anyway. Luckily, Jason's gambit worked out, and narrowly won the race ahead of Xavier.
After the race, Sally was invited along to join the Chaser family in celebrating the victory. As preparations for the Sponsors' Tournament were underway, Syracuse had Sally install cameras in their pit bay, and as they reviewed footage of pit stops, Sally was dismayed to see her shortcomings from another perspective. As Syracuse offered advice for the Tournament, he advised Sally that quick pit stops would be a crucial factor in the one-on-one races. Later that night, Sally joined the Chaser family (sans Martha) in attending the Sponsors' gala.
As they were getting ready for their first Tournament race against Ariel, Martha and Henry presented the team with proper racing uniforms. Once the Sponsors' Tournament was over, having come in second place overall, the Bug and the family celebrated once again, and the brothers were surprised when Lombardi appeared and invited them to race with his team at the Italian Run, with the Bug nodding his agreement. During their second match against Isaiah Washington, Sally made costly mistakes, such as reusing a depleted magneto drive and preparing only a top-off of coolant after mis-hearing a request for a full refill, both of which Sally profusely apologised for. Luckily, Washington gave up the race moments before Jason did, allowing them to move to the next round.
Before the match against Barnaby Becker began, Varishna Krishna approached the team to relay his suspicion that he had been sabotaged in his match against Xavier, as his mech chief had found a power-draining portable radio transmitter near their magneto drives. Heeding this warning, Sally decided to turn their pit bay's cameras on, and after the Argonaut suffered another magneto drive problem that cost them the race, Sally reviewed the footage and saw that Barnaby's navigator, Guido Moralez, had sabotaged their magneto drives, and alerted the race officials. When they saw the footage, the officials decided to disqualify Barnaby. When Jason asked about her turning on the cameras, Sally told Jason that she raced against other mech chiefs in the pits and wasn't going to let anyone undermine her hard work, leading Jason to call Sally a legend.
Though they still lost the final round to Xavier, Sally and the Chasers celebrated their efforts, and during their dinner, the manager of the Lombardi Racing Team, Umberto Lombardi, surprised the team by inviting them to race under his license at the next Italian Run, which they accepted. After running the next set of school races, Sally, Jason and the Bug went on to Italy to prepare for the Grand Slam race, with Sally getting to work on the car Lombardi was loading them, which Jason christened theArgonaut II. She later attended the opening ball before the Italian Run with the Chasers, and as the night got late she went looking for Jason, finding that he was hanging out with Dido Emanuele. Having seen his nervousness around Dido the night before, Sally complimented the now more confident Jason on being a quick learner before reminding him that they had a big race the next day and that he needed to rest.
Before the Italian Run began, Sally was asked if she knew who was waving at Jason; recognising Ravi Gupta, Sally warned Jason about the notorious bookmaker. Once the race was underway, Sally performed the first pit stop at Fiumicino before packing up and heading to the second pits stop at Pescara. Along the way, Syracuse caught up to Sally and joined her in their truck, where he provided Jason with the shortcut's layout to help catch up to the race's leaders. However, as they approached the pits, their truck was thrown off the road and unable to move. At Syracuse's prodding, Sally hurriedly pack a hover cart with equipment and started running on foot to the team's pit bay, arriving just after the Argonaut II. Performing as quick a stop as possible, Sally sent the brothers on for the final phase of the race.
To everyone's horror, the Argonaut II's tailfin spontaneously exploded on the final stretch before the finish line, and the car was then struck by Kamiko Ideki's out-of-control car. Luckily, Jason and the Bug were able to eject in time, though the former was comatose for a couple of days. Sally visited Jason when he woke up, calling him a hero and noting how an Italian newspaper had mistakenly printed out that he was dead and that she was going to frame her copy, earning a laugh from Jason.
Soon after returning to the Race School, Sally and the Bug discovered that Jason was trying to regain his fragile confidence back by himself, and so admonished Jason for taking on the responsibility alone and not coming to them for help. As Jason and Sally debated the issue, the Bug surprised both of them by speaking openly - the first time that the Bug had ever spoken to two people at once - and Sally echoed his sentiment about following Jason anywhere. To help rebuild Jason's confidence, the Bug came up with strategies to avoid other racers and allow them to rapidly rises up the school championship ladder, so that by the end of Race 49, Team Argonaut was in a six-person contention for the final two places to the New York Challenger.
In the School's final race Race 50, Sally worked her hardest in the pits to try to close the gap between Jason and Barnaby, and when a power cut occurred during the final pit stop, the Bug and Jason helped Sally perform a manual pit stop to get back out on the track faster. Once Jason beat Barnaby, earning them the final invitation to the Challenger Race, Sally celebrated with Jason and the Bug until Dido arrived. Though she had been seeing Jason since Italy, Jason had figured out that she had been spying for Xavier and Barnaby to figure out his weaknesses, and when Jason voiced this realisation, Sally glared at Dido until she left. Sally asked around about Dido after this, and discovered that she was in fact Xavier's cousin. When she relayed this to Jason, she cheered him up by saying she also would have spilled their secrets if they had sent someone to spy on her, but only after she'd snogged the life out of him.
Once the School year was over, Sally, Jason, and the Bug headed to New York to participate in the Challenger, but first spent some time analysing previous races to try to determine Xavier's weakness, which Jason realised was over-confidence. Once the Challenger was underway, Jason intentionally lost some ground to Xavier, with Sally confirming that Koch was taking the bait and reporting this to Xavier, allowing Jason to overtake Jason with a last-second charge at the finish line and win. With this victory earning them entrance to the New York Masters, Sally continued performing the team's pit stops as they made their way through the first three races.
The night before the Quest Race, while the weight of what Sally, Jason and the Bug had accomplished despite their rookie status set in, Syracuse reassured them that they had proven themselves throughout the entire year as true racers. While on the last straight to the finish line, the Argonaut's tailfin exploded once again, but Jason ejected from the car and was propelled over the finish line just ahead of Alessandro Romba, winning their team New York Masters. When Sally and the Chasers caught up to Jason, they heard his explanation about how Gupta had sabotaged his cars to keep from paying out the high-reward bets; as Gupta was arrested and taken away, Sally growled about how gambling was bad news. As the team reveled in victory, Lombardi offered everyone on Team Argonaut a contract to race under him full-time, and Sally and the Bug joined Jason on the winner's podium to accept their trophy before the cheering crowd.
Personality[]
Possessing a quick-wit and cheeky demeanor, Sally is your classic Scottish lass. She has grown up in a large family, the youngest of her siblings, all brother, and shares her family's enthusiasm for hover car racing and engineering. Her knowledge of engines was the result of primarily self-teaching from an early age, a fact which has made the McDuff family all the more proud of her.
Skills[]
- Expert Mechanic: As the mech chief for Team Argonaut, Sally is an extremely competent mechanic. Within minutes of first examining the Argonaut, she was able to identify several issues with the hover car, and soon after managed to improve the Argonaut's basic maintenance and performance.
Equipment[]
Vehicles[]
- Argonaut: Jason's personal hover car, a customised Ferrari Pro F1 racer that he built from scratch. After joining Team Argonaut, Sally was able to improve the Argonaut's basic maintenance and performance with her mechanical skills.
- Argonaut II: A Ferrari F-3000 belonging to the Lombardi Racing Team, which Lombardi loaned to Team Argonaut in order to race in the Italian Run. Sally oversaw its maintenance before and during the race.
Other Equipment[]
- Team Argonaut Racing Uniform: Presumably like Jason and the Bug, Sally initially wore mismatching overalls to protect herself from grime and spills during races. However, when Martha made a custom-design uniform for both of her sons, she gave Sally her own similar uniform in the team's white, blue and silver colours, as well as a baseball cap with the Argonaut's number 55 embroidered on it.
- Pit Tarantula: As the mech chief for Team Argonaut, Sally manages the machine which aids in pit bay maintenance during races, in order to to keep their team's car in top working order by replacing worn or damaged parts, as well as refilling coolant.
Trivia[]
- Sally almost won the Best Mech Chief award at the Race School, only losing to Oliver Koch by two votes.