Chapter 301 - Deadly Curve (Upper)
The low roar of the engine roared from far and near, accompanied by the sharp friction between the tires and the ground when braking sharply, the two modified sports cars, one in front of the other, were traveling at a blistering speed on the sharp curves of the mountain road in the Italian Lombardy's Teovi Pass.
This stretch of highway, which has a vertical drop of more than 6,000 inches from the top to the bottom of the slope, has 48 curves along the way, with an average grade of 7.4 percent. To get down the mountainside, descenders have only two choices: either cut Stelvio Mountain off or zigzag in a zigzag pattern. One of the most difficult stages of the Giro d'Italia takes place on Mount Stelvio, and the average person driving up and down this highway is afraid of feeling seasick. But these two sports cars are like ghosts speeding through the mountain passes, and the driver's skill in throwing his tail around the corners on each ramp can't simply be described as skillful.
Two front and rear chase sports car is carrying out an exceptionally fierce race, rushed in the front of the blue sports car from the first corner on the steady pressure behind the car, see the end has been in sight, but in the last dangerous ramp through the blue sports car in the drift corner, high-speed friction tires did not grasp the road surface, the whole car directly out of the highway, in the hillside continuous roll, and finally rolled down to the bottom of the valley, the blue sports car in the drift corner, high-speed friction tires did not grasp the road surface, the whole car directly out of the road, in the hillside continuous roll! When the car finally rolled down to the bottom of the valley, it exploded into a blazing orange-red light, and the body exploded with a loud bang.
...
Fear, trembling, nervousness, helplessness, mourning, these negative emotions would always be reinforced again and again in Leo's recurring nightmares, and then throughout the night would drive his emotions to the edge of collapse. Today Leo once again dreamt of the scene 4 years ago when his brother's sports car ran off the track and fell into the valley and exploded, every scene in the dream was imprinted in his mind with incomparable clarity, so much so that he tugged at the bedsheets so tightly while dreaming that he ripped them apart in a raw manner without realizing it.
The glare of the explosion and the pain of losing a loved one that tore his heart to pieces made Leo rushed to sleep to carry on, looking at his palms that were gripped with knuckles that were white due to excessive force and the cuminous cold sweat on his back, Leo raised his head and glanced at the alarm clock that was placed on the bedside, he knew that he had to go through another agonizingly difficult night of sleep today. Whenever Leo repeated that nightmare, it was accompanied by a long period of insomnia, so sleeping pills had become a necessary medicine in his home, and even if he took the pills in small doses, the chances of him getting back to a peaceful sleep were slim to none.
Leo rummaged through the small white pill bottle from the nightstand, skillfully poured out two capsules from it, stuffed them into his mouth, picked up the cup of water that was placed on the side, gurgled the medicine down with water, and finally sat down disheveledly on the edge of the bed, waiting tormentedly for the medicine to take effect.
...
Leo and his brother Mark are both professional drivers, and unlike those who participate in regular races, they are involved in underground racing, and the program of the race is not the kind of pure racing, but the more challenging and dangerous corner racing. Such underground races, there is usually a huge amount of money behind the gambling, with superb drifting skills, Leo and Mark two brothers in this circle of drivers, the odds have always been the lowest, every time they can hire them to race are rich people with a lot of money, so the two brothers, despite the participation of the race is exceptionally dangerous, but the income is also very objective.
Mark, the elder brother, is a better driver than Leo, and the two generally take turns to race. 4 years ago, in the race at Mount Stelvio, it was Leo's turn to race, but the gold owner who was involved in the behind-the-scenes betting indicated that he wanted Mark to race. The competitive Mark agreed, and in the race he had the upper hand, but at the last moment there was an accident, resulting in a tragic car crash.
The accidental death of his brother plunged Leo's racing career into a low point, the shadow of the tragedy lingers in Leo's mind, he used to be unbeatable on the race track often mistakes, gradually, no one is willing to pay to invite him to participate in the race, and get along with many years of beautiful modeling girlfriend also at this time away from him, into the arms of a nemesis.
The devastated Leo was physically and mentally exhausted, and he emigrated from Europe to the United States. In the first days of his arrival, he almost every day indulged in alcohol and sex, living a life of extravagance and debauchery, the bank account in the savings of a lot of money was soon squandered by him. In the days that followed, his situation fell from heaven to hell, after a period of street wandering, relying on government benefits to live a difficult life, Leo finally from the loss of a loved one in the heavy impact of a breath, he decided to say goodbye to his career as a driver, completely back to ordinary people.
After showing his skills in modifying cars, Leo is successfully employed by an automobile repair shop, where he befriends Jim, a janitor.
Jim is a black man from the ghetto, with a skinny figure, he can't rely on his good physical condition to make a career in the sports world like other poor blacks, and his family situation with four siblings can't support him to receive a good education, just like many young blacks in the ghetto, he started to come out early to make a living.
The garage where Leo works is ostensibly for repairing cars, but in reality it is an underground factory for modifying cars. Here, there were only two kinds of people who enjoyed a superior status, one was the modified car mechanics like Leo, and the other was the drivers who participated in the underground racing. Although Jim is just a janitor, his ambition is to become an underground racing driver.
Every time Leo was modifying his car, if Jim was in charge of the cleaning work, Jim would describe his ideal to Leo, how thrilling and interesting the underground racing was, how honorable the winners were, the endless amount of money and beautiful women... Everything Jim aspired to was exactly the life that Leo was already tired of.
More often than not, Leo just quietly acted as a listener, hearing some anecdotes from Jim about all kinds of underground car races every day had become a hobby for him after work, perhaps from the bottom of his heart, he had not forgotten that he was once an excellent racer, but he had never revealed any information in front of Jim.
This calm life eventually appeared ripples, Jim did not come to work for several days in a row, Leo inquired only to know that Jim's father had a car accident, injury to the spine, and finally high paralysis, the burden of supporting the family all of a sudden pressed on Jim a person, in the factory as a janitor can not satisfy Jim's eagerness to earn more money, he chose to resign.
Leo went to visit Jim once, and for a long time after that, he never heard any news about Jim. Until one day, Leo suddenly received a phone call from the police station, Jim was arrested by the police for stealing, but fortunately his crime was not particularly serious, after a period of incarceration, he could be released on bail. Jim had no other friends, so he had to ask Leo for help.
Leo spent a sum of money to bail Jim out, to see the desperate Jim was forced by life, helplessly embarked on the road of crime, he felt very entangled in his heart, especially Jim's helpless eyes is to make him doubly sympathetic. If there is no better way out, Jim can only continue his criminal career, the future waiting for him will be a long prison sentence.
After two days of deliberation, Leo solemnly asked Jim out, he made his identity clear to Jim, and finally asked Jim if he was willing to learn how to drive a race car.
Leo's sudden offer didn't make Jim overjoyed, even though he was now down and out, he was willing to do whatever he was asked to do as long as it allowed him to earn more money, not to mention becoming a race car driver, which was the life he had dreamed of.
But the problem was that Jim didn't believe that Leo, who he had spent so much time with, would be a good racer, and he specialized in the most difficult kind of hill racing.
To prove it all to Jim, Leo told Jim to fasten his seatbelt and hold on to the handlebars as he drove through eight one-way corners without slowing down in a sharp drift on Chicago's most famous nine-curve street. After all this, Leo's car has not yet stopped, sitting on the side of the Jim can not wait to pull open the door and jumped down, bent over the side of the street and vomited, in the car he was directly by Leo's large angle drift to throw up.
Although he suffered a little bit, but after Rio's slight demonstration of his superior downhill drifting skills, Jim was completely convinced by his skill, and then willingly began to accept his training.
Because of the limited conditions, Leo found to let Jim training car are tuning factory out of the scrap, but even so, Jim in his strict training under the technology by leaps and bounds, in a small-scale mountain downhill race, driving a Leo from the scrap heap assembled up the car, Jim won his first championship, and Leo also because of betting on Jim and hard earned a sum of money.
With more and more race victories, Jim begins to make a name for himself in the underground racing scene, living the life he wants, but slowly alienating himself from Leo, who has given him everything. One victory after another, Jim's mind is overwhelmed, and his confidence swells as he begins to believe that everything he has achieved is due to his own hard work, and after his success, he no longer accepts Leo's training as diligently as before.
For Jim's change, Leo is very disappointed in his heart, in the Jim intention to alienate him at the same time, he slowly cut off and Jim's contacts. For this matter, the only thing that could make Leo feel relieved was that he succeeded in changing Jim's fate, although after this change, it gave him a feeling of disappointment.