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Internally all Clutch could think was 'watch the gears, watch the gears...' but the racing RPMs soon distracted him from that thought. Likewise the spedometer increasing steadily along with the increased flow of gasoline into his system was giving him a euphoric high. He forgot about the sensors on his collapsed side mirrors as he cackled in glee.

Eric laughed as he noticed Clutch go silent. The wheels spun quickly before catching ground and taking them off. The first turn was the one that was the test run. The one that had that oh so lovely pot hole. All the other cars moved away from the potential crash spot but Eric pulled up quickly and very closely to the wall. He took in a deep breath as he started to turn Clutch. He saw the pothole approach and then quickly disappear under Clutch. Eric waited for any sounds, any bumps, fortunately, for now, there was none though. "YES." he said as he finished that first turn, a good 3 seconds ahead of everyone else. He snickered. "Enjoying yourself Clutch?" he asked as he gripped tightly onto the wheel, the adrenaline pumping through his own system.

"Of course I am!" Clutch replied, feeling the sensors of his undercarriage register a hole. "Did we just go over the pothole? That aside, I don't sense any cars too near us. Are we in the lead?"

He seriously needed video cameras; something, to see around him. He was missing out on so much by relying solely on sound and motion and impending disaster contact sensors.

Eric laughed. "Hell yeah we just went over the pothole and we've got a good 3 second lead on them. Of course, I'm not going to let them catch up. I'm sure on the second pass a few of the kids are going to try and pull the same stunt. I bet you any money one will make it and one won't." he laughed as he rounded the second curve. "You wanna try that pothole again?" he asked as he looked in the rear view mirror. One was catching up, but he wasn't too concerned. "I think we will. We have to get that pass nailed down."

"How about you owe me a new tire if we don't make it," Clutch groaned over the whine of his engine. He was running well and the oil change from earlier was helping.

He fell silent again, not particularly wanting to distract his driver. At least he was starting to get the hang of the course. Even if he couldn't tell where the pothole was.

Eric laughed as they started going into the second turn where the pothole was. "If I break anything on you I'll get it replaced and anything else that is bothering you." He went dead silent after that as the pothole came up. He wasn't as close to the wall this time though, but he didn't crash the car. The wheel did go over the edge of the pothole by 2" though which was calling it close.

Eric laughed in victory as he looked in the rear view mirror to see the pothole pass. He also saw two other cars trying the pothole turn. The first one was a success, but the second not so much. Eric quickly stepped on the gas and then let off as they rounded the corner, just missing a flying piece of scrap that had threatened to bury itself into Clutch's rear window. "Well that was close." he sighed as they crossed the finish line as the winners. The car that had been behind them didn't fare as well. He had a few bits of scrap dug into the back end of his racing car.

Clutch rolled to a stop and ran a quick diagnostic to his systems. The tire that had run over the pothole was till in one piece; no hole and the treading was fine. His oil was warm but not overheating. He was in tiptop shape.

"That was..exciting!" Clutch said, his faith in Eric's driving ability going up. He was almost sad to feel his speedometer fall back to a more normal range. "When's the next race?"

Eric laughed hard whenever Clutch asked about the next race. He hadn't been expecting that. "Well, seeing as one of the kids behind us crashed it going to be awhile. They have to clean up the track and they've probably called an ambulance." He said as he looked over. The kid looked fine. The car most certainly did not though. That really fucked up that kid's car.

Clutch settled a little. "Was it serious? The crash?" He hated to see dented fenders, let alone crashes. And it put things into perspective a little. "They should have fixed that pothole better."

"So long as drivers can still get around it they wont fix it. Plus they think it's fairly funny to see people crash. It gives the crowd something to watch." he said as he shrugged and started pulling Clutch back to the garage. There was another car besides the one that crashed that didn't look too good. It must have been pretty hot on the guy's tail. He wasn't going to say that to Clutch though.

Clutch spouted a cloud of black smog from his exhaust. "Well that's stupid. They're just waiting for an accident to happen--and at those speeds..." He didn't need to elaborate.

He checked the time but he still had loads of time before Tara was done with work. On the other hand, if he crashed--he wouldn't make it back at all. "One more race," Clutch said, "and then we'll stop for the day. I want to make it back in one piece for Tara."

"Alright alright. Lets give 'em half an hour to clean off the track first of all." he said as he back Clutch into the garage. "You have any problems you need me to look at? I mean, I don't need you running over shards of anything." he said as he put Clutch into park letting the engine idle.

"Oh! Hey, I was wondering, would you keep racing if I looked into the top of the line cameras for you?" Eric suddenly asked as he leaned the seat back a little so he could relax as they waited for the track to clear. The other racers who hadn't gotten into the crash, were now slowly coming into the garage looking over to Eric as if in awe.

"No problems; I ran a diagnostic already."

There was a pause as Clutch digested the information about cameras. "Y-you would do that?" Clutch was stunned. "I would only need, two cameras maybe. One in front, one in back. Sensors work well enough..." but to see what was around him...

"Hey! Hands off the hood!" he barked suddenly, a sensor beeping as someone--not Eric--stood too close.

Before Eric replied to Clutch's response to the camera thing, he quickly looked up and blinked to the person who had touched Clutch's hood. "Can I help you?" he asked as he climbed out of the car.

The racer with no respect for Clutch's personal space, looked at Eric. "Dude, we saw you racing and wanted to see what kind of engine you're hiding under this hood."

Clutch grumbled to himself about racers and their inherent lack of respect as Eric stepped out.

Eric's brows furrowed together and he stared at the guy for a moment. "Good race to you too. It was really unfortunate what happened out there to the other racers." he said as he ignored the 'demand' to see Clutch's engine. Eric had asked Clutch about all the engine specifics and Eric had also had someone look at Clutch quickly before the race to make sure everything was 'legal' for the race. He had been approved so there was really no reason this butthead should be bothering him.

"How did your car fare? Any scrap metal or anything?" Eric asked, trying to remain cool about the situation. He knew the security for the place was all over the tracks and not in the garage to watch over them so he had to be careful about how he went about this. He didn't know many of the noobs in the racing garage at this point so if this kid was the 'alpha' or close to it, he could be up for a pretty bad fight. He lightly leaned on Clutch's roof as he continued to watch the guy.

The other racer crossed his arms over his chest and looked belligerently at Eric. "If you've got nothing to hide, why refuse me? And my car is just fine--a few pieces of shrapnel from the accident but nothing that can't be fixed."

He paused then added almost inconsequentially. "Oh right, there is one more thing; how did you manage to race over the pothole twice in the first race? If I recall you usually go around it. Especially after your little...shall we say, mishap." It wasn't a fight he was looking for--just an explanation.

Clutch, for his part, sighed.

"Because I'm not the one who has to give you permission to look at the engine. Clutch is." he said as he rolled his eyes. "If you want to see ask Clutch and Clutch will give you permission."

He replied to the first part before the man continued and mentioned his 'mishap' with Red Hot. His eyes narrowed and he held back from growling. He couldn't help his hand from fisting up though. "I'm a good fucking driver when I don't have a distraction thank you and if you've been around as long as I have, you'd know that the pot hole use to be bigger. Not just that though, common sense should kick in. They filled in part of the hole that is closest to the wall. It doesn't take a genus to see that smart shit."

His one accident was clearly still a weak spot for him. Especially when someone was attacking/insulting him about it. "Oh, and by the way. My accident happened in a street race dumbass. Not on this track. Get your information strait before you go throwing bullshit information around."

"Clutch?" The racer's gaze landed on the car. "I'm not asking some stupid car for permission. And so what if my information is messed up? Rumors spread and there's some truth to every story. But I can see you're too hostile to let me see anything."

The racer turned to leave, paused, then called over his shoulder: "Oh yeah, good luck on the next race." He left with a chuckle--hoping he'd done enough to mess with Eric's head a little.

Clutch's engine backfired again, and a puff of black exhaust rose from his tailpipe. "I hate racers for precisely that reason," said Clutch.

Eric growled and his glare followed after the other man. "You going to handle the next race Clutch?" he asked softly, clearly not wanting to race at the current moment. "You think you can take that turn both times?" he asked quickly following his first question.