Wu Shi drove back to the pit area. He still had some margin on his last lap, but he felt that was enough. There was no need to reveal too much in a practice session; otherwise, if he ran into someone like Lin Cong, it would just be asking for trouble.
After all, race management wasn't particularly strict back then. People's understanding of motorsports was far from the meticulous, detail-oriented approach of later years.
But when he got off the track and saw many of the local drivers staring at him, he knew his lap time had probably exceeded their expectations again.
"Boss, that was so fast!" Ye Ningning ran over, giving him a thumbs-up and a sweet smile.
Beside them, Ye Zhaohui looked like a deflated balloon. It was a good thing Ling Kang wasn't here, or the taunts would have surely started.
"My brother drives here every day, and his fastest is only a 42.2-something, hehe. Boss is still the best!" Ye Ningning cheered, making Ye Zhaohui even more dejected.
'Is this what a genius is like?'
"Wu Shi, what's with the big red eye on your kart?" Zeng Tianyi had also finished his practice session.
"Oh, remember that reporter who interviewed you before? They're from Big Eye Sports Media. This is their logo. You could say I'm endorsing them," Wu Shi explained.
"I see. How many thousand did they give you? Enough to make you tear off the official race sponsor's sticker."
"Ten thousand per race," Wu Shi said.
"That's not bad," Zeng Tianyi nodded.
The families who could afford karting these days were not your average middle-class household. They had to be high-net-worth families, so the kids had a fairly low sensitivity to money.
They had no idea that a casual practice session for them could cost what an ordinary person in this era earned in a month.
Wu Shi's lap time from the untimed practice was noted by the race officials. His vehicle was singled out for a thorough inspection, and only after no issues were found was he allowed to participate in the timed practice session.
Clearly, someone had reported him again.
However, this had no effect on Wu Shi. After effortlessly setting a time of 41.879 on his second lap of the timed practice, he skipped the third lap entirely and returned to the pit.
"Truly incredible!"
"He's in a league of his own!"
The local coaches from Nan'an had to admit the kid was gifted.
The kids who had been chattering away earlier came off the track and were left speechless by the results. As for most of the drivers who had been competing against him since the Peng City Station, they had long since grown accustomed to Wu Shi's monstrous lap times.
Etched into their minds was that terrifying lap on the rainy Zhuhai Track. Back when they could barely control their karts, this guy had somehow managed to post a lap time equivalent to what they ran in the dry!
When the pre-final began, the discussion was about who would take second place. But by only the third lap, a problem appeared on the track.
The leading white kart, the one with the big eye, was seen with thick white smoke billowing from its rear, soon followed by wisps of black.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
As his speed dropped, kart after kart overtook him.
As the driver, Wu Shi knew the situation best. The engine had a problem: cylinder scoring and overheating.
He stopped the kart, waved over the race marshals, and then pushed the kart off the track by himself, choosing to retire from the race.
"What happened?" The technician ran over.
"Overheating, cylinder scoring. It's more than one issue. I suspect it was caused by improper maintenance after the Zhuhai Station race," said Wu Shi.
"Let's use the new engine."
The technician said. He wasn't a top-tier mechanic; he couldn't fix this engine, nor could he diagnose the problem by taking it apart. A direct replacement was the best option.
"Okay."
Wu Shi went into the changing room, swapped out of his racing suit, and then sat in the viewing hall to watch the race.
The drivers' handling of their karts was a bit amateurish, and there wasn't much worth watching. The occasional battles that broke out in the back of the pack usually ended with both parties losing out due to sloppy execution.
"Hey, did I come at a bad time again? Why is Xiaowu just sitting here?" Zhi Shiwei arrived with her team. Big Eye Sports Media only recorded the finals and didn't pay much attention to the pre-finals.
As a result, she sometimes arrived extremely early, and other times just in time for the final race.
"No, the kart had a problem, so I retired," Wu Shi said.
"Doesn't that mean you'll have to start from last place?" Zhi Shiwei had recently learned quite a bit about karting regulations.
"Yes."
"What a pity."
Zhi Shiwei knew about the endorsement deal Wu Shi had made with Chief Editor Zhang. If he won every race, it was a hundred thousand yuan! That was about what she made in two years.
"A pity about what?"
"Huh? That it's a pity you won't be able to get first place now."
"Oh? Who says you can't get first place starting from the back?" Wu Shi retorted.
"Wait!" Zhi Shiwei gestured to her cameraman, then said, "Can you repeat what you just said?"
Wu Shi's face darkened. He admitted he could be a bit dramatic sometimes, but having it filmed was just embarrassing.
A twelve-lap race, about ten minutes.
In the end, Zhi Shiwei wore him down, and he had no choice but to film the segment.
"Hehe, I've already drafted two articles in my head," Zhi Shiwei said happily.
"That fast?" Wu Shi was surprised.
"Of course! One for if you win, and one for if you lose," Zhi Shiwei nodded.
"You'd still write about it if I lose? Wouldn't that be a slap in the face to your own sponsor?" Wu Shi's face darkened again.
"Of course we have to write it! Sponsoring you is about exposure. Win or lose, we can always use exaggerated headlines to create buzz. Once we have enough exposure, we can negotiate a lower price for advertising with the race organizers next year."
"You majored in journalism, didn't you?"
"Hey, how did you know?"
"Just a guess."
As he chatted idly with Zhi Shiwei, the race on the track was nearing its end.
"So, are you really confident about later? You're not just bluffing, are you?" Zhi Shiwei asked.
"Of course I'm bluffing! Who have you ever seen go from the back of the grid to the front?" Wu Shi said casually.
"True," Zhi Shiwei nodded, agreeing that it was indeed an impossible feat.
SCREECH!
The final lap ended. After his weigh-in, Zeng Tianyi immediately ran over. "Can you race in the final?"
"Yes, the technician said it'll be ready soon. There's enough time for the race officials to inspect it," Wu Shi nodded.
"Oh! What a shame! Even a genius is helpless in the face of mechanical failure," Ye Zhaohui's voice drifted over from a distance.
Many of the other drivers looked over, some with pity, others with glee.
"Ye Zhaohui! You're not allowed to mock Boss!" Ye Ningning's voice rang out.
Ye Zhaohui craned his neck forward, his mouth slightly agape, a look of utter disbelief on his face. 'Whose sister was she, anyway?'
"Hmph! I'm just telling it like it is. Wu Shi, if you can still win this race, I'll take your last name!" Ye Zhaohui said angrily, then turned to Ye Ningning. "Ningning, what did I ever do to you? Do you really have to help an outsider like this?"
"He's not an outsider! He's my boss!" Ye Ningning said, puffing out her cheeks.
"So does that make me the outsider, then?" Ye Zhaohui was speechless.
Even Wu Shi found it quite strange. 'Why is this little girl so fiercely on my side?'
'Do I have some kind of special trait that makes little girls like me? But that can't be right. Back at school, hardly any girls would hang out with me.'
"Are you okay?"
After Ye Zhaohui left, Zeng Tianyi asked. Having the ability to take first place only to be held back by a mechanical failure—if it were him, he would have been absolutely devastated.
"I'm fine. This is just another part of racing you have to accept."
Wu Shi said lightly. Heaven knew what he had gone through in his past life at Rafa; he had become desensitized to this level of accident.