Hover Car Racer Read Online Free PDF Page A

fewer than six practice courses and thirteen competition courses, all fanning out from a central pit area on the banks of the Derwent called Race HQ. Finally, they found Pit Lane, with the Argonaut sitting inside a bay emblazoned ‘55’.
    Scott Syracuse was already there, waiting for them.
    ‘Master Chaser. Master Bug,’ he said. ‘So nice of you to join us.’
    Standing with Syracuse were seven other students - two drivers with their navigators and Mech Chiefs…plus one extra student.
    The seventh person was someone Jason recognised.
    Sally McDuff.
    ‘Oh, no way…’ Sally said, seeing Jason and the Bug approaching.
    Syracuse said, ‘You’ve met already?’
    ‘Yeah, at the Opening Ceremony,’ Sally said.
    Syracuse said, ‘Well, then, for what it’s worth: Jason Chaser, meet Sally McDuff, your Mech Chief. Ms McDuff hails from the wilds of Scotland but don’t hold that against her. She’s a gifted pit technician. For their part, Ms McDuff, aside from being inexcusably late, the Chaser brothers are quite a driving team.’
    Jason nodded to Sally.
    Syracuse indicated the other two drivers - both were big eighteen-year-olds, one Asian, the other African-American. ‘This is Horatio Wong and Isaiah Washington. They will also be studying under my tutelage this year.’
    Both Wong and Washington towered over Jason and the Bug. They eyed them as if they were insects.
    ‘Now,’ Syracuse said. ‘Today is Monday. On Wednesday, you will contest the first race of the year. Like all races here at Race School, points will be awarded for the first ten cars on a sliding scale from 10 for the winner down to 1 for tenth place - points that will be tallied for the School Championship.
    ‘During your time here at Race School you will partake in every variety of hover car race: gate races, lap races, sprints, knockout pursuits and enduros. Wednesday’s race is the traditional Race School opener: a SuperSprint 30-2-1: Last Man Drop-Off. Thirty laps, but every two laps, the last-placed car is removed from the field. It’s fast, furious, and unforgiving on racers who fall behind. There are no spectacular comebacks in a Last Man Drop-Off.’
    Syracuse eyed them all closely, his gaze electric. ‘Now, I know a lot of other teachers allow their charges to prepare in relative peace for this first race, using it as a kind of test-the-water, shake-off-the-rust, get-a-feel-for-the-place race. I do not view Race 1 in this way. I view it as a race. A race to be run and, hopefully, won.
    ‘Nor do I believe in wasting valuable teaching time. As such, I will give you all two hours to prep and examine your cars, to make sure they arrived safely, and for those who haven’t met, to get to know each other.
    ‘We will commence formal lessons in two hours, at 1600 hours, starting with Electromagnetic Physics in Room 17. I have arranged for Professor Kingston, the head of the physics department, to give you all a special private lesson.
    ‘This will be followed by two hours of Pit Practice commencing at 1730 hours. Dinner begins at 1900, but you can always eat later. As for tomorrow morning’s Race Tactics class, I expect that all of you will have read pages 1-35 of Taylor’s The Racing Mind plus The Rules of Hover Car Racing , all of which you will find on your dorm computers. There will be a quiz. Any questions?’
    The nine candidates just stared at him in shock.
    ‘No?’ Syracuse said. ‘Good. See you in two hours then, in Room 17 for some physics.’
    Sally McDuff walked in a slow circle around the Argonaut , frowning.
    She eyed its hunch-backed fuselage, touched its coolant receptacles. ‘Hmph.’ Then she dropped to the ground and slid herself under the car, lying on a hover-plank.
    Jason and the Bug just watched.
    ‘Hmmm…’ Sally’s voice came from under the car. She re-emerged. Stood up, put her fist to her chin, thinking hard, gazing critically at the glistening bluewhite-and-silver hover car.
    ‘It’s crap,’ she said,