Chapter 22, fourth position
On the track, Wu Shi's go-kart was already alongside the tenth-place finisher. He kept getting closer to his opponent, as if he were about to crash into him.
"Are you fucking crazy?!"
The tenth-place driver shouted, but his voice was muffled by his helmet, and the little sound that came out was also drowned out by the engine noise.
Wu Shi was certainly not crazy; he had excellent control over the vehicle. As long as the other party maintained a stable path, a collision would not occur.
But clearly, this pressure was too much for the child to handle, and he was forced to distance himself.
In this way, the racing line is cleared.
Rustling sound!
Wu Shi decisively surpassed his opponent and moved up to tenth place.
He looked ahead and saw five drivers who had just passed Turn 4 and were finding their lines to enter the combination corner.
Wu Shi's go-kart showed no signs of slowing down and quickly moved up to the ninth position. As he attacked the driver in front, he squeezed into the inside lane.
Bang! Bang!
As the race car drove over the curb, the steering wheel remained as stable as when driving on a flat road, despite the violent shaking.
With just this one squeeze, Wu Shi went straight to the center of the combination bend, with the driver currently in ninth place on his right.
The ninth-placed driver had to turn left to enter the corner, and Wu Shi, who had just squeezed in, was to his left.
He's smart. He'll immediately slow down, wait for the white go-kart to pass, then swerve to the left at the last second, making a wide turn. This way, he can accelerate directly at the apex of turn six, and he'll be the fastest to exit the corner! He'll regain his position!
But what happened next told him that he was overthinking it.
After Wu Shi got ninth place, he immediately slowed down, carefully drove over the shoulder of the sixth bend, and then suddenly accelerated, rushing and crashing into the straightaway, with his entire car almost completely outside the left white line.
"How does he manage to stay in control when he exits the corner?"
"How can they even beat eighth place?"
"They've almost completely used up the track!"
"My God! This is insane! He's only run halfway and he's already gone from last place to eighth?"
Buzz buzz buzz!
Wu Shi hunched his head down to minimize wind resistance and kept up closely with the seventh-place finisher.
He glanced over and saw that the first three go-karts had already reached turn eight, while he had only just reached turn seven.
Turn 7 is a high-speed turn and not easy to maneuver, so Wu Shi could only carefully follow the driver in front of him.
At this point, the four, five, six, seven, and eight drivers were like a train, sticking together tightly in the bend, and then quickly widening the distance once they exited the bend.
Buzz buzz buzz!
We drove past Turn 8 and Turn 9 in quick succession.
With the cars ahead densely packed, Wu Shi couldn't find an opportunity to overtake. In fact, the lead car's defensive maneuvering slowed down the overall lap time of the entire formation.
If you slow down, someone will catch up from behind.
Fortunately, the order was earned through everyone's own ability, and the lead car quickly picked up some speed, saving him from being attacked by the drivers behind him.
The race car rounded the final right turn and arrived at the starting straight.
"Phew, that's only one lap?" one coach said, wiping the sweat from his brow.
"Yeah, that overtaking maneuver was so exciting."
Because of my focus, it felt like a long time had passed, but in reality, only about forty seconds had gone by.
Whew!
As the go-karts drove along the straightaway, the parents and coaches watching from outside the fence smelled the oily odor in the wind.
Soon, the cars arrived at Turn 1.
Because of the stable formation, everyone's routes were very consistent, as if as long as no one made a mistake, it would continue.
This is also one of the reasons why overtaking is difficult in go-karting.
After turning three, Wu Shi suddenly pulled the car and moved to the left outer line before the straight ended.
The advancing driver looked back, guessing that the opponent was going to make a move at Turn 4, so he immediately switched to the middle line to defend.
But just as he changed positions and was about to enter Turn 4, the car behind him suddenly crossed the entire track, changed lanes to the far right lane, and then threw the entire car into Turn 4.
He realized he had been scammed!
It was too late.
sieve!
Wu Shi rose another place to seventh, completely integrating into the chariot formation.
At this moment, several cars ahead were fighting in the combination bend. The sixth car saw the opening in the fifth car and immediately changed its line and squeezed in.
Wu Shi, who was in seventh place, followed almost to the end of the list of sixth place drivers, and they squeezed in together like conjoined twins, overtaking the fifth-place driver.
A single oversight caused him to drop from fifth to seventh place, and it won't be so easy for him to catch up now.
There was nothing to do at Turn 7, so Wu Shi proceeded normally.
Next is a super sharp bend, and there's not much to do here. If you go off track here, you'll lose a lot of time, so nobody wants to cause trouble here.
As they approached the sharp hairpin bend, the fourth and fifth players resumed their battle.
Wu Shi followed closely behind them, showing no desire to attack, and sometimes even falling behind them.
But when the group crossed the checkered lines and entered the third lap, about to reach Terminal 1 again, he made his move.
He chose a slow entry and fast exit rhythm, heading straight for the end of Turn 2 while the two players ahead were vying for the apex.
As soon as he pulled ahead of the fourth-placed player, the third-placed player adopted a tenacious defense, not giving an inch, and quickly veered to the left, trying to push him to the left sideline, far from the apex of the bend.
This directly resulted in neither of them being able to reach the apex of the right-hand T2 bend.
The original fourth-place player was quite clever. After seeing Wu Shi surpass him, he deliberately downplayed his own presence and did not try to squeeze up.
Therefore, when such a large apex bend opened up in T2, he decisively stepped on the gas, risking slippage to seize the apex.
Once he gets to the apex of the bend, it's equivalent to overtaking both of the players in front of him.
Wu Shi didn't know what the third-place finisher was thinking, but he didn't want to fight with this guy like a snipe and a clam, giving the fourth-place finisher an advantage.
So he simply applied the brakes lightly and quickly moved back to fifth place.
As he withdrew, the third-placed player immediately veered to the right to squeeze past the fourth-placed player who had just passed through turn two.
And so, they came to Turn 3 almost side by side.
Wu Shi followed behind, and they drove through the third bend together.
Seeing that the two ahead of him were still locked in a stalemate on the straightaway, he quickly closed in on them at turn four, staying right behind them as if he were about to launch an attack at any moment.
As they entered the next combination bend, the two cars ahead took turns leading, but upon exiting the bend, the fourth-place car, positioned on the right and inside the line, gained a slight advantage.
Wu Shi was right behind the fourth-place player, and together they veered to the left, squeezing out the third-place player.
Seeing that he had been overtaken on the inside corner, the third-placed player had no choice but to either continue running alongside the racing line or give up his position to go to the racing line.
These two choices actually lead to the same result: both will eventually be overtaken at the next bend.
Thus, he was forced to give up his position and move to fifth place.