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The other cars were a little too close behind us as Joe gunned the Falcon out of the Raceway Park and out into the closed off Freeway. Joe had handed me a map that had the rally route for the freeway traced out on it. It would take us down Beltway 7, down into the aqua ducts and then back onto the freeway.

"Right in ten", I said, "34 don't cut."

We approached a down ramp that took us beneath two overpasses where there was a cop set up to direct the traffic. A few yards before the turn, Joe down shifted without braking and then when the turn came, he pressed the clutch and pulled the E-Brake. The XS made a 180 degree turn to the left and soon we were flying down the road. That street let out in a train yard that was active at the present moment.

"Straight 40 73", I said," Look for a blue train car." . It was rally talk for "straight ahead 40 yards, then make a 73 degree turn. The blue train car was a check point. In a rally, if you missed a check point, you had to get off course and find a way to come back around and hit it, so if he missed it, it could seriously screw us.

Joe drove the 40 yards and then braked for the turn. The blue car was adjacent to another blue car and Joe drove right through them. The course then took us another twenty yards to a tire barricade with a red arrow that pointed down into the aqua ducts. Joe slowed down so much I thought he was going to stop, the turn was that sharp. He punched the car down the ramp and drifted out into the aqua duct, narrowly missing an overpass support pillar.

The Koenigsegg was right behind us as the car began to pick up speed. It's yelling and hollering made my scales crawl. I'd never had so much adrenaline running through me at once.

"That Koenigsegg still back there?", Joe asked.

"He's right on our bumper", I replied, "that Supra's back there too, we gotta lose these guys."

"Already on it", Joe replied.

He drove down the aqua duct to a rather sharp turn. Once again, he down shifted without slowing down, pulled the E-Brake and then drifted through the corner with very little trouble. The other cars began to brake for the turn as we accelerated, retaking our lead.

"Audios amigos", Joe laughed shifting into third gear.

We flew down the rest of the duct and then got back onto the freeway. Joe drove for a bout ten blocks and then made a Z style turn before flying down another straight. There were people lined up on the sidewalks behind barriers of tires and concrete. I could hear their screaming and cheering over the roar of the car's engine. Some of them were holding banners which read things like.

"Go Team Falcon!"

or

"Koenigsegg all day."

One even read "Bow before the might of the Supra."

The next two hours consisted of navigating the city streets. We went through tunnels, over bridges, underneath overpasses and weaved through sky scrapers. At about four in the afternoon, the rally took us out of the city and down I 31 to a tall mountain. According to the map, the rally would be all hill climb from here. At first I thought it wouldn't be a problem due to the XS's rear wheel drive, but I was dead wrong. The second the back wheels hit the dirt, traction went down by what felt like 27%, bad news. Less traction met slippery turns, lower top speed and decreased handling. Since the XS's engine was located up front, all the weight was over the non-driving front wheels. Anyone who off roads or lives with snow will tell you that front wheel drive is better than rear. In fact, Front Wheel Drive was first pioneered by a man in Alaska who flipped the engine in his Model A around to make it front wheel drive. This was also where mid engined cars shined. Since their weight was over their back wheels, they would suffer less of a traction loss and therefore, could make up the distance we had put between them.

"Traction just dropped off", Joe said, "keep your eyes on that Koenigsegg and that Saleen, otherwise were gonna lose our lead."

Joe began to brake for a turn that would start us on the hill climb. As he did, the Saleen drove right up behind us with the Koenigsegg right behind him.

"Okay they caught up quick", Joe said sounding slightly horrified, "let's see if this works."

Without saying another word, he hammered the pedal to the floor. The RPM's shot up and the car took off. Joe kept his hand on the shifter as we approached the next turn. Without braking, he shifted from 5th down to third and slung the car around the corner. The cornering inertia slowed the car down enough to accelerate in 3rd. It was scary and I thought we were going to crash, but thank god we didn't.

"A "hey Seth I'm about to start driving like a maniac" would have been nice!", I yelped.

"Hey Seth I'm about to start driving like a maniac", Joe said, "Happy?"

I rolled my eyes under my helmet. The car flew down the rocky straight to the next turn where Joe pulled the same trick. This time however, I felt the rear of the car smack into the side the mountain. The lurch somehow stalled us out. Joe fought the car for a few seconds before it finally roared back.

"Another hit like that will cost us the race", I said.

"Noted", Joe said as he floored it.

The Saleen was right behind us as we started forward again. Joe was swerving around the road, trying to keep it from passing.

"You ain't passin me", Joe said, "you ain't passing."

We came on yet another turn. Joe pulled the usual drift through it and then we were met with nothing but empty road. Joe put the pedal to the floor and the car fought against the loose dirt, but not getting very far. Now the other cars made their moves. The Saleen pulled out in front of us, followed by the Koenigsegg and the Lambo and finally the Supra. I could see the finish line from where we were, but by now the other cars were so far ahead of us that we had no chance of catching up.

"Dammit!", Joe shouted as we crossed the finish line, "last place. How did this happen!"

"Because we were rear wheel drive", I said, "car couldn't get traction."

Joe growled at me, "I know why it happened Seth. Before the race tomorrow, remind me to increase the wing angle and put some weights in the back."

"Noted", I said activating my cloaker and climbing out of the car. The air had cooled down quite a bit. I was extremely hot and my cheeks were flushed from baking inside the suit all day. I ran my fingers through the crest on my head. I may as well have plunged my paw into a bucket of water. I was that sweaty. Joe hadn't fared any better. His entire face was red and his hair was sweaty, matted against his head.

"First time endurance racing?", he asked looking at me.

"Yeah", I laughed, "I'm hot."

"You get used to it", Joe said, "let's go get cleaned up and then get some eats."

"I can get with that", I said.

Joe and I walked inside a huge, wooden building. In side there was the main lobby. It was about 15 or so feet up and maybe 50 or sixty feet across. The floors were made of varnished wood and there was a rustic, hunter type theme to the whole thing. I followed Joe into the back where after some searching, we located the showers and then cleaned up. I slipped on my blue dragon print shirt and shorts and the followed Joe into the reception area where they had food and other things set out of the rally teams.

Joe grabbed a few slices of pizza and a large glob of Mac'N Cheese while I went for some spicy popcorn chicken and some crispy tater tots.

"You know we shouldn't be eating like this after that", I said.

"You sound like my Mom", Joe said, "sorry, but I just drove at manual transmission through a 12 hour road rally without stopping so much as once for a brake, I will eat whatever I please and as much as I please."

Without another word, he bit a slice of pizza in half. I smiled and tossed a pawfull of fries into my mouth. After dinner, Joe and I grabbed our stuff from the Firebird and then walked up stairs. Because of the hotel's limited room, Joe and I were stuck in the same room. Joe had told me before hand that if there was only one bed, then I was sleeping on the floor. Lucky for me, there were two beds at the opposite ends of the room.

"Your driving tomorrow", Joe said.

"Awesome", I said, "been itching to get behind the wheel of that car."

Joe laughed, "be careful, she's got a lot of power. When them turbochargers come on you better hope that road is straight."

I laughed, "it will be in my prayers, night bro, I'm beat."

"Yeah", Joe laughed, "same for me."

It wasn't ten minutes before I was alseep.