Free Hover Car Racer by Matthew Reilly Page B

in this year’s New York Challenger Race!
    ‘In keeping with the School’s long-standing tradition in matters such as this, the four invitations to the Challenger Race will be allocated to those racers occupying the top four positions on the Race School Championship Ladder at the end of the school competition in September.’
    The buzzing in the room intensified as racers and their teams quickly conferred, calculating their chances of coming in the Top 4.
    It was now late May. There was still a long way to go in the School Championships.
    Jason, the Bug and Sally formed a huddle. Jason’s face was a little cut and bruised.
    Sally whispered: ‘The Top 4? Geez, can we make it?’
    ‘There’s a lot of racing left in this season,’ Jason said. ‘Just about everyone can still make it. Either way, it certainly gives us something huge to race for.’
    At that moment Principal LeClerq cleared his throat, getting everyone’s attention again.
    ‘I also have another announcement to make,’ he said, ‘this one concerning the annual Sponsors’ Event to be held here at the Race School this coming weekend. Two things. First, the format of the Sponsors’ Event.’
    The format of the Sponsors’ Event changed every year: some years it was a gate race, others an enduro, sometimes it was even a series of races.
    ‘This year’s Sponsors’ Event,’ LeClerq said, ‘will take the form of a tournament: a day-long series of knockout one-on-one pursuit races.’
    Once again, the room rippled with excitement. Such a format was similar to a professional tennis tournament: as you beat one opponent, you went through to the next round, until by the end of the day, only two racers were left to fight out the final. Every race was do-or-die, which made for very exciting racing.
    But then LeClerq went on. ‘My second announcement about the Sponsor’s Event is more administrative. As I am sure you are all aware, the Event has long been scheduled to take place this coming weekend, in front of all of the School’s sponsors and benefactors.
    ‘Owing to the inclement weather of late and its effects on our courses across the island - mudslides, high seas along the coasts - it has been decided that Races 23 and 24, set for today and Tuesday, will be cancelled. Weather permitting, Race 25 will go ahead as planned on Thursday.’
    The announcement made Jason gag. ‘ What! ‘ he whispered in disbelief.
    But everyone else in the room, it seemed, had been dazzled by the New York Challenger announcement and appeared unfazed by this.
    ‘No way ,’ Sally McDuff said. ‘They just canned two races…’
    ‘And we haven’t qualified for the Sponsors’ Event yet,’ Jason said.
    They looked at each other, not even needing to say it.
    If they were going to race in the all-important Sponsors’ Event at the weekend, they had to win Race 25 on Thursday.
    Second wouldn’t cut it anymore.
    Now they had to win .

CHAPTER SIX

    The next few days went by very quickly.
    Luckily, the weather brightened, and while Races 23 and 24 were still cancelled, Race 25 was cleared to go ahead as scheduled on Thursday.
    Scott Syracuse continued with lessons, even going so far as to reschedule new classes on the days that had previously been set aside for Races 23 and 24. Most of the other teams had been given those days to rest or work on their cars at their leisure.
    It was odd then that on the Tuesday - the original day for Race 24 - both Horatio Wong and Isaiah Washington fell mysteriously ill, and so missed Syracuse’s new classes. Tired as they were, Jason, the Bug and Sally still went.
    That same day, the format for Race 25 was revealed. Put simply, Race 25 - the halfway race in the School season - was a doozy.
    It was an enduro, an eight-hour marathon on the School’s second-longest course, a multi-faceted track that snaked its way around the island of Tasmania, hugging the coastline, occasionally jutting inland. Since each lap would take an astonishing 24