Car Racing without Money-Chapter 237 - 121: Overtaking Like Slicing Melons and Chopping Vegetables (Double-Length)
Dixon and the ART Team misjudged one thing, which is that Chen Xiangbei never intended to attack at Turn 1. He planned to take down his opponent on the long straight at the start!
"OH MY GOD, now the driver Bei gives me the feeling of a beast baring its fangs."
"Driver Dixon in car number 6 switched lanes intending to block the car behind him from entering the corner, but who’d have thought that Driver Bei would catch the slipstream and immediately shoot to attack, without any warning or defense."
"Now the nose of Driver Bei’s car has already passed Dixon’s rear wheel, and the car is still climbing steadily. Soon, we will see the scene of both cars driving side by side."
"At the start, Driver William in car number 17 had no power to fight back against Bei’s attack, so can Dixon block Bei’s overtaking now?"
James is currently extremely excited. With the Renault cars having the same power spec, such a scene of overtaking like cutting through butter often means there’s already a level of skill gap between the drivers.
The problem is that neither Driver William nor Driver Dixon has any shortage of accolades; they have both finished among the top three in national karting competitions, and being able to start in the top qualifying spots somewhat proves their capabilities.
In the last race, Chen Xiangbei benefited from others’ mistakes, largely maintaining a leading cruise mode until the end phase when he had a confrontation with Vergne. During the race, he didn’t show much overtaking or attack and defense skills.
Is this the race where Chen Xiangbei finally reveals his fierce side? 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖
James didn’t know whether to be glad that the FIA handed Chen Xiangbei a five-place grid penalty; otherwise, the Chinese kid, starting from pole position, would likely lead comfortably ahead, missing out on such a thrilling overtaking feast!
At this moment, Dixon no longer needs to use the rearview mirror to check Chen Xiangbei’s position; he can catch the number 13 on the car’s nose tag from his peripheral vision!
[Want to overtake?]
Instantly, Dixon’s mind was in turmoil. He merely wanted to block the car, but Chen Xiangbei was prepared to overtake.
The Chinese kid, is his confidence at that level?
In fact, it’s not just Chen Xiangbei’s confidence; it’s also about him having no other choice.
It’s known that with twenty race cars squeezing through the same corner, it’s not just a matter of getting stuck by the car in front; rather, positions could be instantly lost!
Such situations are extremely common in F1 races. When the car in front slows and blocks the racing line, the few cars following behind all suffer, lacking even the space to change lanes in a crowded corner.
With even worse luck, there might be a scene of a chain collision!
Not to mention that behind Chen Xiangbei is Driver William in car number 17, waiting in ambush, desperately trying to overtake and prove himself.
With a wolf in front and a tiger behind, Chen Xiangbei has no choice but to fight his way out. As car number 13 continues to ascend, its front nose has already passed Dixon’s front wheel, and the two cars are almost side by side.
But by this time, they had reached the latest braking point. The current track temperature with just one warm-up lap wasn’t even close to optimal grip temperature.
Which means if the brakes aren’t applied now, both cars would fly off the track!
This time, Chen Xiangbei hesitated no more, stepping on the brakes at the edge of control speed.
The old saying goes, qualifying is a fight for the fastest lap, the main race a battle to see who laughs last.
Almost simultaneously, Dixon also applied his brakes. Indeed, he might be seen as a tool by the team, but not a willing one; at the very least, he didn’t want to become a worthless pawn.
Even if executing team orders to block Chen Xiangbei, he couldn’t achieve a good result, yet he still wanted to showcase his attacking and defensive skill under the watchful eyes of tens of thousands of spectators, letting the world see his shining points!
The super-fast speed and cold tires made it impossible for the two cars to achieve cornering speeds even with emergency braking, having missed the braking point.
Dixon made a decisive choice, opting to step hard on the brakes, using a tire-locking method to forcefully decelerate, to avoid rushing into the gravel buffer zone.
Side by side, Chen Xiangbei, having once locked the tires during practice, was well aware of the severe wear it could cause on this track, meaning the tire lifespan would quickly diminish to three to five laps at most.
Pitting to change tires after three to five laps and given the current lap times, Chen Xiangbei would drop straight to the back after exiting the pit stop, completely losing any chance of contending for championship!
Chen Xiangbei would not accept such an outcome; aside from braking, there was only gearbox braking left to leverage. Like opting for a lower gear when facing a long downhill, to prevent brake disk overheating and failure, an experienced driver would choose to downshift forcibly to reduce speed.
Now Chen Xiangbei was doing just that, crazily pressing the paddles to downshift, from the highest sixth gear going into the corner, within just tenths of a second dropping to first gear, and the combined deceleration effect brought about a pulling sensation to the entire car.
This kind of high-speed forced downshifting brings a huge impact on the gearbox; even race-grade sequential gearboxes might not hold out, while a civilian gearbox would directly strip gears into scrap.
Chen Xiangbei dared to gamble because it was a new car just swapped in for the qualifying, with the gearbox untested in a full race’s violent driving, "slightly worn," it should withstand abuse...
However, when the car’s sensors transmitted data back to the Super Dream Team’s garage, Mizutani Sho widened his eyes and exclaimed, "Xiangbei-kun’s speed dropped rapidly from 220km/h to 80km/h, imagine the impact on the gearbox."
