Chapter 42 - 6: First Victory

Chapter 42: Chapter 6: First Victory

After the Mini category, the KF/KZ level races would commence, and the atmosphere on the track remained fiery.

However, no matter how exciting the upcoming races were, Wu Shi’s pole position lap time of under 1 minute and 16 seconds firmly captivated everyone’s attention. Those who frequented the Salerno Track all year round knew exactly what it meant to break this record in a Mini kart.

"Hello, I’m a reporter from the RK Newspaper. Just now, you successfully broke the Mini category record on this track. How did you do it?"

Seth led a male reporter over and shot Wu Shi a meaningful glance.

"I was just driving the kart normally. If you’re surprised by this lap time, it can only mean the previous record was too slow," Wu Shi immediately dropped a bombshell of a quote.

Seth, on the other hand, secretly applauded in delight. He needed Wu Shi to be arrogant! Without arrogance, where would the attention come from? As long as Wu Shi could maintain his performance later on, this arrogance would simply become a matter-of-fact narrative.

Obviously, the reporter was stunned by this answer. His brain short-circuited for a moment, and if it weren’t for his years of professional discipline, he absolutely would have cursed the kid out for being an arrogant, ignorant fool.

"Oh? Although you say it quite calmly, I can sense your disdain for the other drivers. Are you confident in maintaining your pole position in the main race?"

"Assuming there are no mechanical failures with the car, I believe I will bring the championship back to the C.D Speed Team," Wu Shi said.

"Alright, thank you for your answers."

After the reporter left, Seth stepped forward, his face blooming with joy. "Excellent! You speak with such an imposing aura, kid!"

"I’m just telling the truth."

Wu Shi didn’t care at all. He returned to Louise’s side, sat down, and took the water cup she offered.

After resting for a while and finishing lunch, the afternoon race quickly began.

Before the race, the principals of all the teams personally patrolled past the starting grid in the pit lane. When they saw the front-row number 398, they couldn’t help but pause for a moment.

By now, most of them had figured out that this was a Hua Country person. It was simply unimaginable! A Hua Country person, a sight rarely seen in ten thousand years, had actually appeared on a racetrack in Italy.

The starting whistle signaled everyone to clear the track. Wu Shi glanced back. The kart marked with LAYA Club was practically glued to his rear.

The whistle blew, and the vehicles drove out of the pit lane in an orderly fashion. This year utilized a rolling start, just like back home. After leading the pack for a formation lap, Wu Shi returned to the starting line, keeping his eyes peeled on the indicator lights.

The lights lit up and went out! The race officially began.

VROOM! SWISH!

Due to the kart’s horsepower tuning, Wu Shi didn’t floor the gas pedal immediately. Instead, he fed the throttle precisely, ensuring the vehicle wouldn’t slip.

"Such fast reflexes!"

"The car’s dynamics at launch are incredibly stable too. As expected, a guy capable of running such abnormal lap times is no ordinary person."

Wu Shi’s kart was angled slightly at the start, quickly occupying the middle line. It would become extremely difficult for the drivers behind him to overtake.

However, this tactic was practically wasted, as he was an order of magnitude faster than the rest right off the line. Utilizing his exceptional reaction time and perfectly exploiting the vehicle’s grip, his kart alone shot forward like a bullet.

SWISH SWISH!

Kart 398 entered the corner first, and in the span of just one turn, he had already pulled a two-car-length gap. When the karts entered the chicane, the visual contrast between Wu Shi’s smooth, flowing operation and the chaotic scrambling of the drivers behind him was immense.

"Just like he said, barring any mechanical failures, the championship is basically in the bag." After excitedly watching the start, Seth immediately called for the C.D Speed Team’s legal counsel and headed for the race’s main office. He had to ensure that nothing went wrong later when it was time to step onto the podium.

Two laps later, Wu Shi had steadily pulled a one-second gap from the person behind him. He subconsciously entered cruise mode, a trick he had learned from Verstappen.

Under the DRS rules, as long as a one-second gap was established, the car behind couldn’t use DRS to overtake.

And why maintain a gap of just over a second?

That was naturally because his vehicle wasn’t a Mars car—it wasn’t a rocket ship capable of pulling a dozen seconds ahead. Thus, it was better to string the trailing car along, forcing the driver to eat dirty air the whole way. This would exacerbate their tire wear and increase their cooling burden. Maybe, just maybe, the trailing car would end up retiring due to stability issues mid-race.

Of course, this trick wasn’t quite as effective in the realm of karting, but Wu Shi was simply used to doing it.

Soon, the nine-lap race concluded. Under the waving checkered flag, kart 398 crossed the finish line—a race utterly devoid of suspense.

"WOOHOO!" Seth cheered, leading the rest of the team in celebration.

For a team founded a mere three years ago to outright clinch a stage championship—even if it was just in the Mini category—was more than enough!

"A perfect PTW," the mechanic applauded.

Upstairs, Sid continued to stare at the track and said, "After securing the lead, his lap times became entirely dependent on the speed of the driver behind him, always maintaining a gap between 1.2 and 1.5 seconds. He is frighteningly consistent."

Raul remained silent.

"Mr. Raul, I’ve served the team for eight years and seen its most glorious days," Sid added. "We actually had a chance to return to that glory, but you personally rejected him."

"Enough! Sid, you’d best take your shares and leave the team sooner rather than later," Raul rebuked.

Sid shook his head, unsure why Raul was being so stubborn. He believed that as long as Raul was willing, he could persuade Martina and Wu Shi. After all, the compensation and perks the LAYA Club could offer were on a completely different level.

For a small team like the C.D Speed Team, drivers had to travel to various public karting tracks for practice. In contrast, the LAYA Club possessed its own private miniature track. They had ample time to test vehicle performance and gather rubber marbles from the track to help assess the car’s condition.

Wu Shi parked his kart flawlessly in the spot marked with the number one sign. After stepping out, he heard the cheers erupting from the pit lane. He paused for a moment, then waved at the shouting crowd, causing the cheers to grow even louder.

As expected, in countries where motorsports were highly developed, there was an abundance of enthusiasts with a high level of racing literacy. Even though it looked like a dry, straightforward PTW, they could still recognize its true value.

After weighing himself on the nearby scales, Wu Shi prepared to take a quick rest. The award ceremony would have to wait until the subsequent categories finished racing, after which they would be held group by group.

But after taking only a few steps, a reporter darted up and thrust a microphone toward him. "Shi, your qualifying performance this morning was already outstanding, and this afternoon you won your very first championship race with a PTW! How do you feel?"

"Yeah, I mean, this victory is incredibly thrilling, but I think this is only the beginning. I will drive this car to even better results," Wu Shi said without a hint of actual excitement, before adding, "Could you call me Wu or Wu Shi? Calling me by just my first name isn’t a very good idea in my opinion."

"Oh? Is there some taboo in Hua Country?" the reporter asked curiously.

"No, it’s just that the pronunciation doesn’t sound great. If you understand Chinese, you’d know that the homophone for ’Shi’ is very easily misunderstood."

It wasn’t that Wu Shi was being overly sensitive. It was just that after experiencing the internet culture bombardment of later generations, words with that pronunciation had basically become synonymous with crap. These foreigners couldn’t pronounce "Shi" accurately to begin with, so there was no guarantee they wouldn’t use some weird intonation.

He definitely didn’t want people greeting him in the future by saying, "Hello, Shi."