Part 21 (1/2)

The applause for Xavier and his team died down, and the announcer's voice came again over the loudspeakers:

'And in second place, Car No.55, Team Argonaut. Driver: Jason Chaser; Navigator: Bug Chaser; Mech Chief: Sally McDuff.'

Head down with disappointment, Jason stepped up onto the podium.

What happened next made him freeze in shock.

The crowd went nuts.

Absolutely, totally ballistic.

The colossal roar that they gave him and Sally and the Bug almost brought down the entire stadium.

Flashbulbs popped, horns blared, people raised their hands above their heads to clap. Even Xavier was taken aback by the strength of their cheering.

But it was true.

The crowd was giving a bigger cheer to the racer who'd come second than they had for the racer who'd come first!

Jason was stunned, and at first he didn't understand why this was happening.

Nevertheless, with the Bug and Sally beside him, he took his place on the second tier of the podium and, dressed in his cool new racesuit, waved hesitantly to the crowd.

The crowd went even crazier at the gesture, started chanting: 'Jason! JASON! JASON!'

It was then that Jason saw his mother down in the crowd. She was crying with joy. Beside her, his father, Henry, was busily taking audio-included digital photographs for their family alb.u.m.

And in that instant Jason began to understand.

Xavier had won the tournament, and won it well, and the crowd respected that.

While for his part Jason had lost - but he had lost well.

After a staggering 390 laps of racing, at the edge of total exhaustion, he had lost by less than a second to a guy who had creamed every other opponent he had faced - and the crowd respected that even more.

Jason remembered something his father had once told him: It's not how we win that defines us, Jason, it's how we lose. Winners come and go, but the racer who goes down fighting will live forever in people's hearts.

Jason smiled at that as he gazed out over the roaring crowd - the crowd roaring for him.

As he did so, Race Director Calder handed each member of Xavier's winning team an enormous bottle of champagne, and Xavier shook his bottle hard and popped the cork, sending a geyser of champagne shooting into the air above the winner's podium.

That evening, the Chaser family - plus Sally and Scott Syracuse - returned to Chooka's Charcoal Chicken Restaurant for another celebratory dinner.

'Guess what,' Sally said as she munched on a burger. 'I heard that after the winner's presentation the head of the Lockheed-Martin pro team, Antony Nelson, approached Xavier and asked him if he wanted to apprentice with them at the Italian Run next month.'

'No way!' Jason exclaimed. 'The Lockheed Factory Team. Wow! To the winner, the spoils, I guess...'

'Don't you worry,' Henry Chaser said, seeing his disappointment. 'Your time'll come. I don't think your efforts today went unnoticed.'

'Yeah?' Jason laughed. 'Well, I don't see the chiefs of any pro teams walking up to us and offering us a run in a Grand Slam race.'

Just as Jason was saying this, a large figure entered the restaurant.

Heads turned, whispers arose - precisely because you don't often see billionaires in takeaway chicken joints.

It was Umberto Lombardi.

'Ah-ha!' the big Italian boomed. 'Now this is my kind of dinner! Three Super Burgers to go, please, madam, with extra cheese! Oh, would anyone else like anything?'

Lombardi sat down beside Martha Chaser. 'My sincere apologies, Senora Chaser, for intruding upon your celebrations. But I beg your indulgence, I will not stay for long. I do, however, have a serious question for this wonderful young team.'

Everyone at the table fell silent.

Lombardi leaned forward, lowered his voice. 'I thought you all raced well today. Very well. No other team out there came close to surviving almost 400 laps of matchracing. But you did. More than that. You did that and you almost won!

'Now. As you are probably aware, the Italian Run is to be held in three weeks' time. Up until now, my team has only ever run one car in pro events, but lately I've been thinking of expanding the team...and adding a second car.'

Jason felt a tingle race up his spine. 'Yes...'