The rest of what the announcer said was drowned in a roar of engines.
Woody strained over the snow fence, his eyes on bend number five about
a hundred yards down the track. It was a particularly savage bend with
buildings on either side and a house dead in front when the driver
was halfway around. The house was protected with hay bales. Any car
that didn't get around would run straight into them. A further hazard
consisted of a thick telephone pole at the end of the bend, where most
cars would be swinging wide after making the turn. There were hay bales
around that also.
Suddenly there was a roar, and the first car appeared around number
five. It was a red Ferrari, number twelve. Then came two more and then
a Jag. Then three in a huddle, the one on the outside just missing the
telephone pole. Woody began to wonder where Randy was. Suddenly the
Black Tiger flashed by in eighth place. Randy, with his newly mended
leg, had not been able to sprint over to his car as fast as the other
drivers. It was typical of the man that he had made no mention of this
additional handicap before the start.
The announcer picked up the rest of the first lap for Woody. Wisdom
and Kreuger, old rivals, were battling for third place. Ahead of them
was Ben Wedger in a Maserati. There was no mention yet of the Black
Tiger. Woody suspected that Randy was still in eighth place. He waited,
his eyes riveted on turn number five. Suddenly two cars flashed around
it wheel to wheel. The outside car swerved off the shoulder of the
track and looked as if it were going to hit the telephone pole. Woody
could see the driver fighting to bring it back again. He succeeded but
dropped to second place. Then came two more, one on the tail of the
other. The first was Kreuger's Jag, number eight. Then Tom Wisdom in
his red Ferrari. Then a Maserati, number eleven, and then the Black
Tiger. She came around the corner like her namesake, clinging to the
inside of the track and passed the Maserati, going full bore as they
came abreast of Woody.
"He's fifth now," Woody yelled excitedly. He chalked a big three for
the lap number on the top of the board and a big five for Randy's place
in the last lap below it.
"They're going into the north hairpin now," said the announcer. "Dave
Kingston is still ahead in number twelve, Kreuger and Wisdom are
fighting it out wheel to wheel. They've come up to second and third
respectively. Wait a minute. What's this. The Black Tiger, driven by
Jimmy Randolph, just shot between Wisdom and Kreuger to take over third
place. That makes it Kingston, Kreuger, and Randolph in the Black Tiger
third. But it's still anybody's race with twenty minutes to go."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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