Chapter 21: Starting from the back of the queue
After the preliminary and final rounds of several higher-level groups were completed, the final round of the NCJ-A group in Nan'an officially began.
Wu Shi was in 19th place, which was the last place. There was a long line of go-karts in front of him.
Overtaking all of them in just twelve laps is no easy feat.
After the race organizers arranged the order of the nineteen cars, they waved to signal the start of the warm-up lap.
Ye Zhaohui, who was in the front row, turned around and looked around, but he couldn't see the white go-kart with big eyes at first glance. He knew that the person was at the back of the line, and there was no reason for him to lose!
In short, starting from the front row gives me the advantage over starting from the back!
The Nan'an Circuit is a clockwise circuit. After the starting straight, there is a double hairpin bend consisting of two right-angled corners, T1 and T2. After exiting the corner, you will encounter T3, a left hairpin bend. After a short straight, you will arrive at T4, a right hairpin bend.
After T4, there is an S-shaped combination bend, with the apex of T5 on the left sideline and the apex of T6 on the right sideline.
Theoretically, the fastest way to pass a combination bend is to adjust your direction when entering the bend and pass through the two bends in a near-straight line.
In practice, you either miss the apex of the curve and enter the curve slowly to try to exit it quickly, or vice versa.
However, T6 of the Nan'an Station combination curve is a hairpin bend, so the slow-entry and fast-exit method will be blocked when exiting T6. Therefore, it is better to use the fast-entry method here.
This is arguably the corner that requires the most careful handling on the entire course, as beginners can easily lose a lot of speed if they're not careful.
After T6, there's a short straight, and then T7 is a sharp left-angle turn that you can almost drive at full throttle.
T8 is followed immediately by a left hairpin bend, then a sharp right turn at T9, and then T10 is another small double-curve right turn.
T11 is a hairpin left turn, and immediately after exiting the turn is T12, a right obtuse angle turn.
Finally, we came to T13, a right-angle turn, and after passing it, we entered the starting straight.
There aren't many overtaking points along the entire track; the most complex part is the first half of the course.
The warm-up circle is over, the formation circle begins.
Ye Zhaohui raced at varying speeds, intentionally provoking the traffic.
Fortunately, everyone was skilled enough; otherwise, someone might have lost control of the car, overtaken the car in front, and caused the formation to fail.
Soon, Ye Zhaohui, who was in the front row, passed T13 and saw the starting grid and the grid finish line.
The athletes were already in position, holding green flags, but they did not wave them.
Because Wu Shi was at the very end, when he turned the last bend, Ye Zhaohui was only thirty or forty meters away from the yellow line.
After all the vehicles had arrived at the starting straight and the race organizers gave instructions, the driver rubbed his left thumb and forefinger together for a few seconds before suddenly waving the green flag.
When the racer's right hand moved slightly, Wu Shi reacted immediately, pulling up the throttle almost the instant he swung the ball.
Buzz!
His reaction speed of a fraction of a second completely outpaced the drivers ranked 18th and 17th, instantly propelling him to 17th place, tied with 16th.
Because turns one and two are double apex turns, the point to find is not the apex point of a single turn, but the point between the two apex points.
At the same time, because Turn 2 is immediately followed by Turn 3, Wu Shi cannot use the drifting technique to quickly enter and exit the turn like he did at Turn 1 in Pengcheng.
He must find a clean enough line in the chaotic traffic; failing to make enough progress in the first lap will undoubtedly be detrimental to the rest of the race.
Soon, he and the driver in sixteenth place arrived at Turn 1 at the same time. The other driver had already prepared to brake into the turn, but he did so even earlier!
When the sixteenth man aligned himself with the APEX point between the two corners, he had already missed the apex of the first corner. This was the fastest way to run, but there was someone next to him!
Wu Shi, who braked earlier, entered the corner earlier, turning his steering wheel sharply and cutting directly into the apex of Turn 1.
At that moment, he actually overtook three contestants in one go.
However, if that's all there is to it, the three drivers behind him will soon be able to overtake him due to their better line, and take advantage of the earlier acceleration provided by the better line to widen the gap between them.
Therefore, in order to deal with them, Wu Shi began to accelerate as soon as he reached the apex of the bend.
"What is he doing?!"
"Is he trying to go off at Turn 2?"
The coaches watching the race were puzzled. No matter how they looked at it, Wu Shi had to slow down to enter Turn 2. Otherwise, even if he didn't go off the track at Turn 2, he would miss the line for Turn 3, which would waste a lot of time.
That was indeed the case, but the chaos surrounding the departures continued.
After accelerating, Wu Shi blocked the entry lines of several cars behind him into the curve, and then he slammed on the brakes.
The sudden deceleration startled the three people behind, who quickly braked. The last person was unable to brake in time and could only swerve towards the side line to avoid a collision, which could cause the crash barrier to detach.
Wu Shi glanced back at the track and knew that the people behind him could no longer catch up with him.
The overtaking maneuver I just made was a psychological game on the track; I was betting you wouldn't dare to crash into me!
Or to use a different player term—torpedo! Even though that's not actually used in this way now.
Wu Shi certainly knows what he is doing. Many people may criticize him, but most champion drivers inevitably have a fierce driving side.
Sometimes what appears to be a torpedo attack is actually a calculated move to gain a strategic position.
In this instance, his judgment was quite accurate, because when a go-kart rear-ends another vehicle, the vehicle behind suffers greater damage, so they would inevitably have to give way.
As we exited Turn 2, the white go-kart with the big eyes that started last had already moved up to fourteenth place.
The five cars ahead are quite close together and trying to overtake each other. Although they are all occupying the racing line, chaos is inevitable at the T5 and T6 combination corners.
Wu Shi silently calculated in his mind, closely following behind the thirteenth place.
Before they even reached turn three, the guy in front of them, perhaps due to nervousness, exited the turn too abruptly and veered to the right side of the road.
He accepted the opportunity with a smile.
The ranking has dropped to thirteenth.
On the straight ahead, there was no room for maneuver until turn four, where the 12th car pulled to the outside and braked at the last second, trying to cut the corner and overtake.
The driver in eleventh place opted for a defensive mid-line strategy, aiming to prevent the driver in twelfth place from overtaking him.
Wu Shi could see it clearly; he braked earlier than the guy in front to cut the corner, just in time to miss the eleventh driver at the center line.
*Sizzle!*
The tires squeaked as the white go-kart pulled ahead of the two by utilizing its maximum grip.
Buzz!
Once they gained the advantage, the go-kart's engine roared up and shot straight out from the apex of the corner.
Holy crap!
"That's too fast! And it hasn't gotten out of control? I can't believe it!"
The instructors on the sidelines stared in disbelief at the scene; they had never seen anything like it in all their years of teaching.