Chapter 46: Chapter 43: A Lap Worthy of God
In the driver’s seat of the Volkswagen Polo, Han Han saw the emerging Subaru Impreza through the rearview mirror, his pupils filled with surprise and shock.
When Che Laoquan and Chen Xiangbei were entangled in their battle, he thought the race was already over. It was impossible for someone to overtake a "malicious" blocking professional driver and then catch up to him on a 4.3-kilometer track.
Reality, however, overturned Han Han’s understanding. Chen Xiangbei had shaken off Che Laoquan in just half the race and used two combination corners to catch up to his rear bumper!
Is this really a high school student who has never received professional training?
No one on the track could give Han Han this answer, but it didn’t matter.
As the national champion of the CCC, Han Han had his pride, and the idea of acknowledging inferiority was impossible.
As long as the race hadn’t reached the finish line, he firmly believed he would stay in the lead until the end!
The two cars continued to speed along the track, and at Turn 10, they were practically nose-to-tail. Han Han held onto the best racing line and, with the advantage of exit power response, gave Chen Xiangbei not a single chance to overtake.
Next came a U-shaped bend, and an all-out Han Han had clearly learned from Che Laoquan’s lesson, also braking at the latest possible moment to block Chen Xiangbei from taking the crossover line.
Honestly, when a national champion-level driver chooses to defend with full force under the precondition of having a performance advantage in the car, it makes it extremely difficult for Chen Xiangbei to overtake.
In some sense, Chen Xiangbei was not afraid of opponents like Che Laoquan, who were quick-tempered and impulsive and wanted to compete with him or even crash into him.
Because changing lanes or crashing would introduce more operations and, consequently, more errors.
In contrast, when an opponent fully defends, the vulnerabilities and flaws are significantly reduced, which would even be troublesome in an F1 race against such an opponent.
Soon, the two cars approached Turn 14, the last corner of the Haizhu International Circuit, and beyond that was the main straight leading to the start line.
Chen Xiangbei’s Subaru Impreza was only 20 horsepower more powerful than Han Han’s race-level Polo but was a hefty 400 kilograms lighter.
On a long straight, Chen Xiangbei could, at most, run neck-and-neck with Han Han, relying on brute horsepower to overtake like Che Laoquan was impossible.
Turn 14 was Chen Xiangbei’s last overtaking point.
At this moment, everyone’s eyes were already on Turn 14, and in their hearts, they knew that victory or defeat would be decided here and now.
However, Turn 14 was not a conventional overtaking point on the Haizhu International Circuit, and making an overtake here was very challenging. No one knew how Chen Xiangbei intended to execute his final overtake of Han Han.
meters before the corner was the typical braking point for Turn 14, yet neither Chen Xiangbei nor Han Han applied the brakes; they were already engaged in a pre-corner braking zone showdown.
Then, a shocking scene unfolded: Chen Xiangbei didn’t brake, and his Subaru Impreza even accelerated noticeably, riding the curb while the car’s nose tucked into the inner line of Han Han’s car as they entered the corner.
Indeed, Chen Xiangbei couldn’t make a direct overtake, but he exploited the oversized inner gap left by Han Han, forcefully inserting his car’s nose to snatch the inside line into the corner, pressuring his opponent to brake early or make a trajectory mistake!
If mishandled, such an operation would be called a "torpedo" in F1.
But Chen Xiangbei no longer had a choice; Che Laoquan’s malicious blocking had wasted too much of his chasing time.
Moreover, the disparity in car performance prevented him from using the corners’ pace or relying on exit acceleration to overtake his opponent.
The only chance to win was to aggressively take the inside line and force his opponent into a trajectory error!
According to F1 rules, if a car’s nose has passed the rear wheels of the car in front when battling for the inside line, any collision becomes the responsibility of the car in front for not leaving the trailing car room to overtake.
However, rules are rules; in the heat of the moment, the unspoken rule was whoever brakes first is a coward, and whoever lets off the throttle is a fool, and penalties after the race be damned.
When it came to unfamiliar professional drivers or those like Che Laoquan, who drove dirty, Chen Xiangbei wouldn’t take such a risky maneuver to gamble on the opponent’s professional ethics.
But with Han Han’s reputable driving ethics and his pride as a champion, it would be unlikely for him to maliciously violate the rules in a "mutually destructive" way.
With Chen Xiangbei’s car nose taking the inner line, Han Han could no longer maintain the best line through the corner and was forced to decelerate and brake. Otherwise, his speed would be too high, and the tires would lose grip, causing him to swerve off the track at the corner’s apex.
As Han Han braked and decelerated, Chen Xiangbei braked almost simultaneously, but with his Subaru Impreza holding the best line through the corner, it still managed to overtake the Volkswagen Polo thanks to its advantage in the turn.
For that fleeting moment when the two cars were side by side, Chen Xiangbei glimpsed at Han Han from the corner of his eye, and Han Han was also looking at him. Neither spoke a word as their eyes met.
Coming out of the corner, Chen Xiangbei was now ahead, but at that moment, Han Han still hadn’t given up. He planned to use his car’s power response advantage to achieve a faster exit speed and overtake Chen Xiangbei in return.
As he had done to Che Laoquan at Turn 1 earlier.
But being a firsthand witness at the time, Chen Xiangbei knew better than to repeat Che Laoquan’s mistake.
After exiting the turn, he immediately changed lane, positioning himself in front of Han Han’s race-level Volkswagen Polo. Even if Han Han was quick to change lane again, without overtaking him immediately, the remaining straight distance would be insufficient for Han Han to complete the pass.
Yet, Chen Xiangbei had still underestimated the full acceleration performance of Han Han’s race-level Volkswagen Polo. In the 200 meters of the main straight before the finish line, both vehicles were at full throttle, and in his rearview mirror, he could gradually see the nose of Han Han’s car advancing past the rear wheel of his Subaru Impreza.
Then the rear door, then the front door, followed by the entire car body, until they reached the nose, and the two cars crossed the finish line almost simultaneously.
Honestly, at that moment, Chen Xiangbei was unsure if he had actually won.
But the excited expression on Liang Chi’s face, who was rushing over on the track, already gave him the answer.
He had become the ultimate victor of this "entertainment race"!
In the Volkswagen 222 Team’s pit, there was dead silence.
The crew members could not believe their eyes that the newly crowned CCC national champion, driving a championship-winning race-level Volkswagen Polo, had been outrun by a high school student on the track.
If this story got out, the outside world would likely think it was a fairy tale.
After a good ten seconds, Ye Yong finally asked Wang Xiao, "What was Chen Xiangbei’s lap time?"
"1 minute 35 seconds 463."
Hearing this number, Ye Yong gasped.
The current fastest lap record at the Haizhu International Circuit was set by an A1GP Formula car with a time of 1 minute 24 seconds 703.
On paper, it seemed like Chen Xiangbei was about ten seconds slower, which didn’t appear very fast.
In reality, the fastest record for touring cars was set by the Ferrari 550 GT1 with a time of 1 minute 31 seconds 691!
Based on pure data, Chen Xiangbei was still nearly 4 seconds slower.
But one should consider that the Ferrari 550 GT1 was a Le Mans-winning model, with aerodynamic configurations incomparable to ordinary performance cars, resulting in vastly different cornering speeds.
More importantly, Chen Xiangbei had only driven one lap, and the speed in any event’s first lap is generally slower, not to mention the factors of overtaking and competition involved.
Under such stringent conditions, Chen Xiangbei, driving a performance car, was less than 4 seconds slower than the record-setting Le Mans event. Coupled with his identity as a high school student, Ye Yong didn’t know what word to use to describe it.
If forced to give it a term, he might even be willing to call it the "Lap of the Gods"!