Part 13 (1/2)

Sally McDuff prayed before her monitor.

The crowds in the stands rose as one.

And the two hover cars - the blue-white-and-silver Car 55 and the all-black Car 1 - whipped out of the last turn and rocketed down the home straight and in a blur of speed, crossed the Line together.

CHAPTER TEN.

LAP: 20 [OF 20].

To the naked eye, it appeared as if the two cars crossed the Finish Line together, but the official laser digital photo of the finish of Race 25 would later show that after eight hours of racing, after twenty hard-fought laps, Car No.1, the Speed Razor, driven by Xonora X., and travelling at 365 kilometres an hour and accelerating, had crossed the line 4.2 cm behind Car No.55, the Argonaut, piloted by Chaser J., and travelling at 320 kilometres an hour.

After a perfect lap from its daring young driver, by the paintwork on its nosewing, the Argonaut had qualified for the Sponsors' tournament.

PART IV: THE TOURNAMENT.

CHAPTER ONE.

CHOOKA'S CHARCOAL CHICKEN RESTAURANT HOBART, TASMANIA.

The Bug squealed with delight as he popped the top off his well-shaken can of c.o.ke and sprayed it into the air like a triumphant pro racer on the winner's podium uncorking a bottle of Moet champagne.

Beside him, Jason and Henry Chaser cheered; threw their fists into the air.

It was Thursday night and the Chaser family was celebrating Team Argonaut's win in Race 25, and its subsequent qualification for the Sponsors' Tournament on the coming Sat.u.r.day.

Family tradition dictated that it was 'winner's choice' - the family member (or members) being celebrated got to choose the restaurant and the Bug had quickly chosen his favourite restaurant in all the world: the chicken burger chain, Chooka's Charcoal Chicken. As such, the entire family - plus Sally McDuff, who was by now an honorary Chaser anyway - now sat around a plain formica table surrounded by the remains of chicken burger wrappers, onion rings, French fries, and c.o.ke cans. Everyone was laughing and smiling and recounting their favourite moments of the nail-biting race.

Well, not quite.

At one stage in the dinner, Jason noticed that his mother wasn't joining in the festivities but was, rather, staring off into s.p.a.ce, seemingly lost in thought.

'Are you all right, Mum?' he asked.

She turned abruptly, as if roused from a dream, quickly regathered her smile. 'I'm fine, dear. Just thrilled for you boys.'

The world had been spinning for Jason since his downto-the-wire, skip-the-last-pit-stop win over Prince Xavier earlier that day. His memories of the afternoon were a blur of images: He remembered returning to the pits after the race, being lifted out of the Argonaut by a jubilant Sally, high-fiving the Bug, and standing on the podium in his battered boots and denim overalls, and watching on the big screen as the 10 points Team Argonaut received for winning elevated the Argonaut to 12th on the Champions.h.i.+p Ladder.

He also recalled Scott Syracuse coming over to him after the victor's presentation, and looking at him closely.

'You skipped your last pit stop again, Mr Chaser.'

'Yes, sir. I did.'

'You weren't worried about making the same mistake twice?'

'No, sir. I knew I could make it this time.'

'So you decided not to take my counsel?'

'No, sir. I just decided to follow something else you told me about mistakes, way back when we were doing pit practice and I kept creeping out of my pit bay.'

Syracuse frowned. 'What was my advice then?'

'You said I shouldn't resist my mistakes. That I should learn from them. So I decided to learn from my last mistake - the other time I skipped my last pit stop, I shouldn't have. This time, it was okay.'

'By exactly 4.2 centimetres...' Syracuse observed.

Jason smiled. 'My dad once told me you can win by an inch or a mile, sir. Either way, it's still a win.'

And with that, for the first time Jason could remember, Scott Syracuse smiled.

He nodded graciously. 'Well done today, Mr Chaser. I can't possibly imagine what awaits us when you race in Sat.u.r.day's tournament.'

He began to walk away.

'Mr Syracuse!' Jason called after him. 'My family's in town and we're going out to celebrate tonight.' He paused. 'Wanna come?'

Syracuse hesitated for a moment, as if this were the most unexpected question in the world for him.

'Sure,' he said at last. 'That'd be...very nice. What time?'

Jason told him.

Syracuse said, 'Well, I have some work to do, some lessons to prepare, so I might be a little late. But I'll be there.'

And sure enough, Syracuse arrived at the restaurant exactly 45 minutes late, just as a cla.s.sic Chooka's ice cream cake with the Argonaut's number 55 on it was delivered to their table.

As Syracuse joined them, Jason wondered if he ate takeaway chicken burgers very often. As it turned out, Syracuse handled his greasy burger with ease.

It took all of four seconds for Henry Chaser, official armchair racing expert, to start asking Syracuse all about his professional career.

'You know,' Henry said, 'we were talking about that time you tried to cut the heel in Italy once. That time you got caught in there for - what was it - four hours?'

'Four and a half,' Syracuse corrected.

'What happened?'

Jason also waited for the answer.