Chapter 67 - 30: The Turmoil Settles

Chapter 67: Chapter 30: The Turmoil Settles

After Wu Shi finished speaking, he indicated that he would no longer take questions.

The group entered the pit lane and began prepping the karts, waiting for the race broadcast announcements. Jos hadn’t shown up at the track today. This was extremely rare; he almost never missed any of Verstappen’s races.

"How come I don’t see Jos?" Wu Shi asked Verstappen, who was holding his helmet with one hand. The fifteen-year-old Verstappen was already a full head taller than him.

"He said he was going to see some old friends to discuss a few things," Verstappen replied. "It should be about the Renault Formula car tests at the end of next year."

Verstappen was now well aware of what his father and agent were doing behind the scenes. As he grew older, his say in the various decisions regarding his future career path was gradually increasing.

"Time really flies." Wu Shi marveled. In his previous life, Verstappen’s promotion speed had been remarkably fast. In early 2013, he was still racing karts, but by the end of the year, he had advanced to Renault Formula. The following year, he performed exceptionally well in F3 and even drove an F1 car during a practice session at the Neon Grand Prix.

While this was undoubtedly due to his immense talent, it was also the result of active management by Jos and his agent.

"My dad said he asked Sid to go with him," Verstappen added.

"Yeah, you guys are about to start." Wu Shi nodded. This was one of the terms established when they had partnered with Jos and Verstappen—Jos needed to share his external resources.

The KF2 qualifying session officially began.

Tianli Ferriqi, also from the CRG Team, clocked the fastest lap at 1:04.715. Verstappen was a full 0.152 seconds slower. However, there was no need to worry about Verstappen; his overtaking abilities were phenomenal.

After KF2 came KZ2. Wu Shi put on his helmet.

"Wu Shi, we’ve already warned Lennox not to try anything funny, otherwise he’ll face severe penalties," the team principal stepped forward to say before Wu Shi drove out onto the track.

"Thanks, but that’s his problem. I just need to focus on my own race." With that, his kart rolled out of the pit lane.

"Are you sure there were absolutely no issues with the car data from the factory test track earlier?" the team principal asked Rosa.

"None. All the data meets WSK and CIK entry requirements. There’s no special tuning involved, it’s just..."

"Just what?"

"The wear and tear on some of the vehicle’s components is rather abnormal. Logically speaking, this kind of wear should only happen under extremely specific operating conditions," Rosa explained.

"That’s not an anomaly. Have you forgotten Wu Shi’s driving style? He always manages to extract every last drop of performance from the car," the team principal said.

"True." Rosa shook her head, completely clueless as to how Wu Shi managed it. She had compared the telemetry data with the track footage and had even shown it to Jos.

In the end, Jos had simply told her that this was Wu Shi’s usual style, only now his driving had evolved even further. He could always push beyond imaginable limits, unleashing the kart’s ultimate performance.

Due to his starting number, Wu Shi still started from the back of the grid.

The Salerno circuit was arguably the karting track he was most familiar with in all of Italy. Thus, when the formation lap ended and the karts geared up for a flying lap, he was already prepared to leave one final record here. Even if he didn’t move on to Renault next year, he would inevitably be promoted to KZ1—the highest echelon of kart racing!

WHOOSH!

VROOM!

Engines roared as the kart darted forward off the line with piercing momentum. Yet, no matter how incredible a driver was on a straightaway, they could never surpass the car’s inherent mechanical limits—until the first corner arrived.

Any adjustments made through the entry, mid-corner, and exit could yield entirely different results.

Kart No. 164 braked at the absolute limit. The SCREECH of the tires indicated they were under a tremendous load at that moment.

"He missed the braking point! Wu Shi’s tires are probably going to lock up!" commentator John kicked into high gear, speaking almost faster than the karts themselves.

However, the moment the words left his mouth, Kart No. 164 smoothly braked and turned into the corner.

"No, his corner entry speed seems a bit too fast. This is very different from the rest of the drivers." John shook his head. What he meant was that entering a corner at this speed would highly likely result in a loss of control.

"He made it through! And he didn’t eat up too much of the curb!" commentator Tom exclaimed in surprise.

Kart No. 164 bounced slightly. Before its rear tires even fully settled back onto the tarmac, it had already begun gently accelerating. The moment it landed, it scraped up wisps of white smoke.

SCREECH WHOOSH!

"Wait, he must have been significantly faster through that corner alone, right?" Tom continued to marvel.

"Let’s look at the current standings. Medra Jane from the JOKA KART TEAM has posted the fastest lap at 1:03.142, surpassing the previous leader, Negro Ricciardo, by 0.141 seconds." John quickly read off the times before shifting his gaze to the broadcast feed and asking Tom, "What was the fastest time for Sector One prior to this?"

"Let me see... Negro Ricciardo’s 25.470," John read the data aloud.

Then, both of them realized something was terribly wrong. Momentarily forgetting to commentate, they stared dead at the timing screens.

SWISH!

24.987.

"How is this possible?! He opened up a gap of nearly half a second in a single sector!" John gasped in disbelief.

But the facts were right there. The two commentators, normally smooth-talking experts, suddenly didn’t know what to say.

"He’s back," Tom suddenly spoke up.

"What?"

"Remember Wu Shi’s results in KF3?"

"Of course." John nodded. Just the previous round, the two of them had been insinuating that Wu Shi was driving a specially tuned kart. Had they not been warned by their superiors afterward to stop questioning the professionalism of the race scrutineers, they would have loved to keep stirring up controversy around Wu Shi to generate hype for their broadcast.

For the next little while, the two commentators remained completely silent, occasionally glancing at the backstage monitors.

Many viewers in the live chat had no idea what was going on. Although they were all watching the race, most people merely paid attention to the lap times. Without the commentators detailing the nuances, it was hard for them to immediately grasp the focal point and spot the differences. On the exact same track, the racing lines of these karts differed by mere centimeters. Since they zoomed past in a flash, it was impossible to draw conclusions just by casually watching.

"Oh, it’s not that we’ve stopped commentating, but rather... how do we even put this? As you can all see, Wu Shi is ahead by another half second in Sector Two. This is simply unimaginable in a professional race," John finally said.

"He’s definitely going to set the fastest lap this time around. It just depends on what the final time will be," Tom added.

By now, the broadcast cameras were fully focused on Kart No. 164, seamlessly switching angles to track him the whole way. This made the CRG Team and their major sponsors extremely happy. This kind of exposure was exactly what they wanted!

WHOOSH!

In the hushed commentary booth, the time flashed on the screen: 1:01.876.

"Unbelievable."

"Yes, incredibly hard to believe."

They didn’t use too many words to express their astonishment. Because the time was so insanely fast, the two of them truly didn’t know what else to say.

They checked the backstage feed again. Most of the comments were cursing them out for what they had said during the previous round. As professional commentators, they completely ignored this. They were long accustomed to being yelled at.

Down on the track, Kart No. 164 rolled into the pit lane, and the race officials immediately began their post-race compliance checks. Weight: Passed. Engine specifications: Passed. Telemetry data: Passed...

All in all, the kart was exactly as the CRG Team had reported it in their data, fully complying with all race regulations.

The time was valid!

Immediately after, Wu Shi’s name shot to the top of the leaderboard.

"Even the race officials couldn’t believe this speed, so they conducted an even more meticulous inspection."

"Yes, and the results are out. There are no issues."

"Are there really no issues?"

"Actually, considering Wu Shi’s historical track record, I think this is quite logical. Ever since 2008, Wu Shi has brought us too many surprises," Tom began to change his tune.

"So for the next entire year, we’re going to watch him indisputably dominate every single track again?" John shook his head slightly.

A race where the winner was obvious at a glance wasn’t very entertaining to watch. In karting, this was supposed to be impossible. No matter how exceptionally talented someone was, they couldn’t sweep every single championship. There would always be competitors, and there would always be a few rounds where someone else took home the trophy.

But Wu Shi... this guy wasn’t just fast. His consistency was outrageously good. Once he took the lead, he gave absolutely no one a chance.

"Excellent work!" the team principal stepped up and patted Wu Shi on the shoulder.

Wu Shi slicked back his sweat-drenched hair and high-fived him.

"Lunloks qualified tenth. He won’t be able to interfere with you," Rosa also came over and said.

"Yeah, it’s fine," Wu Shi smiled faintly.

The 2012 KZ2 season had barely seen a minor ripple at its start before it was entirely suppressed.