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"The Big Race"
The team has now only 2 days before race day and Gabriel is finally doing well enough to go out and do what he does best, gather some motherf$%#in' information. He decides that if he wants to get the best information, he should go straight to the source. He heads down to the ticket booth/offices of Thunder Valley Speedway to talk to the manager, Arthur. After some surprisingly friendly conversation, Gabriel does his thing and reads the man like a large-print reader’s digest. He returns to the hotel with some great information about the other racers, and arguably more importantly, manages to impress Vance and Richard with his investigative skills. The following day, Gabriel is again put to the test after Miller finds that the bike's fuel tank has been slashed. With only one day before the race and plenty of work to do, the group opts to concentrate on the race rather than seeking out the miscreant. After some very hasty prepares, the group heads over to talk to Arthur about the rules for the race and an inspection of the bike. Everything goes smoothly (until Richard starts fooling around with his shotgun that is) for the rest of the night and the gang gets a good night's sleep (even Richard, who for a few nights has been contently sleeping in a very broken bed).
The crew wakes up, Richard (again, being suspiciously nice) buys Vance a nice pancake breakfast (yeah, cakes for breakfast! it's the future, anything can happen) and they head to the track. While Vance brings the bike over to starting line, Gabriel and Richard set up base near one of the old abandoned buildings along the track near the finish line. Music plays and fades out in order to hear the announcer broadcast the racers. Rufus "the twitch" Smith, driving an ATV; Elliot "Speed Demon" McMahon, piloting a hover car; Laurie "the Rocket" Ales, riding a motorbike; Abdul-Rhaman "the business-man" Mohammed, racing in an odd 3-wheeled vehicle; Bo "Whiskers" Rupert, the previous winner driving a large pickup truck; Donnie "the kid" Fairweather, driving a dune buggy; Hyung-Jun "no nickname" Kim piloting the most bizarre vehicle, a 12 legged crawler and last but certainly not least, Vance "Ramjet" Kruger, driving a hastily (but by no means poorly) revamped motorcycle. Motors roar to life and soon the race is underway. Vance starts off well, observing the other racers strengths and weaknesses while steadily maintaining a place in at least the top 4. Abdul-Rhaman is the first to bite the dust after getting off to a very good start, and one by one, the others follow in his footsteps. The kid collides with Whisker's truck and loses control, slamming into the building beside where Vance's crew is situated; Rufus risks a poorly thought out manoeuvre and ends up biffing pretty hard off a cliff. Meanwhile, Kruger manages to gain the lead for at least a while, with only a few minor set-backs. In the final lap, Whiskers again slams into a racer, this time it's Elliot McMahon, the driver of the hover car which was tied with him for first for the last part of the second lap. Elliot's vehicle slams into and through two of the support beams holding up a ramp that Kruger was already driving up. With only seconds to react, Vance decides to gun the engine, full afterburner in hopes of making it up before the ramp completely collapses. With a hefty mix of luck and skill (and a lot of speed) Vance manages to clear the ramp just as it falls apart behind him, Laurie Ales tries to do the same and isn't so lucky. Now travelling at much too fast a rate for the next corner, Vance loses control after getting off the ramp and slams into a rock, knocking the wind out of him. While Vance does his best to get back in the race, the truck and crawler gain some ground. Now frantically racing towards the finish line only half a lap away, Kruger goes all or nothing, damaging his bike's front wheel in the process. He decides that if he's going to win he needs to make the jump put an end to Rufus. He manages to pull it off, but not without completely destroying his front wheel. With Whisker's truck just a couple dozen meters behind him, he pops a wheelie and uses the very last of his afterburner, heading straight towards the finish line. As he crosses the line, the truck, now accelerating much faster than Kruger's bike, slams into it and sends Vance flying, landing straight on his head. His bike is literally torn apart.
A few hours later, Vance regains consciousness in a nearby hospital, surrounded by Gabe and Richard. After just briefly talking about what happened, Arthur bursts into the room and gives a big sigh of relief "It would have been a pretty big shame if the winner had died!" Everybody congratulates Vance on his victory and he gives them their reward, Maze's Junkyard, right then and there.