New Hope Race Day… The Last Drifters racing.

Welcome everyone to the New Hope Race Day, don’t forget to visit the market and do some trading while you are here and for all those on your first visit to New Hope Settlement, I hope you enjoy your visit to our fine settlement and don’t forget to pick up your personal weapons from the guard house when you leave”

“Well back to the races, this month we have some special races lined up for your entertainment and this first one is no exception

The voice came out of several large speaker stacks around the dusty track, the crowd visibly winced as it was followed by a high-pitched screech as whoever was speaking struggled to get the sound system working correctly.

Some of New Hopes best are lined up at the start, all ready to show they are the best racer here today” the voice announced.

On the inside we have Ace, four times overall winner of the New Hope Cup and all-round nice guy and loved by the crowd” that got a cheer from some of the people around the circuit.

Then next to him is a new Drifter on the race circuit, Dixie, he is driving his distinctive yellow Firebird, watch out for this one folk’s he looks like an up-coming star

Then we have Blade last year’s second place overall driver, he says “this year the cup will be his” well we shall see
Then on the outside of the track we have an old favourite here at New Hope, we have Reaper, this is his first race since his horrific crash last year, so he is looking for a good comeback here today

There was a slight pause as the announcer waited for the cheers from the crowd to die down…

So place your bets and get ready for the opening race of the day…”

Well I found myself with a little bit of free time so I thought that I would get some cars on the table and have a race using some of the new upgrades from the new supplement.

I decided on four racers this time and I pointed them up using the basic points in the new supplement which is 850, this means I had to make some tough decisions as to what the cars would be fitted out with.

This was going to be a race so I knew I wanted to have fast cars so I simply went with faster cars with reduced armour and weapons.

I had four racers, starting on the inside of the track I have Ace, his vehicle has a basic light machinegun as his main armament mounted to the roof of the car, and his passenger is armed with a shotgun ( the only passenger in this race )

The car has been fitted with a selection of upgrades including new exhaust, shock absorbers, new suspension, a super charger, new gearbox and racing tyres, he also has some light armour on the rear of his vehicle.

Next on the track is Dixie in his distinctive yellow car, he is carrying a medium machinegun mounted on the roof, he has got a very similar build as Ace but he has had a larger engine fitted hoping to make use of that extra speed around this small dusty track.

Then we have Blade, and he has gone for a slightly different load out by removing some of the inner panels from the car making the vehicle a little lighter than the other cars on the track today, he has also fitted a couple of small cannisters of Nitrox!!

And on the outside of the track, we have Reaper, he has gone for his favoured weapon a light machinegun, this is fitted to the roof.

Like Dixie, Reaper has also gone with a larger engine hoping the extra speed will make all the difference on this track, the rest of the build is similar to the other racers.

The track is a very short oval so I was hoping that the race would be really fast and should have lots of action in and around the bends.

So all the drivers are ready… and… they are off to a flying start!!

We have Ace powering away first from the starting line with him, then Blade hits his Nitriox switch and screeches away from the other cars taking an early lead.

Blade is only driver with Nitrox in the race, could that make a big difference? Will that give him a big advantage? We shall see…

Ace powered to the first corner but Blade beat him to it, but he was travelling too fast and almost lost control on the corner!!

Dixie and Reaper pulled up alongside Ace as they all got into position to take the first bend.

As the drivers powered around that first bend pushing their cars to the limits Dixie almost lost control and had to brake to stop himself from spinning out.

Blade got around first and powered down the straight, but Ace was having none of that and pulled along side him and his passenger put two shells from his shotgun into the side of Blades car, I am sure Blade wasn’t impressed with that.

Then Reaper joined in the fun and put some of his machinegun’s shells into the rear of Blades car, just to let him know he is close behind.

Then Dixie opened up n the rear of Ace and was pleased to see that he had managed to do some damage as well.

Dixie then did some fancy driving and squeezed between Ace and Blade to get to the far corner first, but Blade is keeping with dixie and goes around the outside just getting back into the lead.

Ace powers down the straight chasing the lead cars but then sees that there is no way through slams on his brakes just behind Blade, Ace sees an opportunity to shake Blade up a little so he fires his machinegun into the rear of Blades car and is satisfied when he sees some of his shots got through Blades rear armour.

Reaper sees that there is no way around the corner so slows down and hopes that the other drivers get around the corner fast and give him some room to get by, he thought that he might help move a little quicker by sending a few shots into the side of Dixies car.

Ace goes around the outside of Blade to get around the corner first, but Dixie seems to have got the feel for this track and powered into the lead.

But Blade pushes his engine to the max and pulls alongside Dixie just taking the lead.

Reaper is not out of this race and pushes his car to the limits around the corner almost losing control as he does but he manages to hold it together and races after the lead cars firing a few shots into the rear of Ace.

Blade continues on passing Dixie and gets around the bend and races off down the straight using the last of his Nitrox booster, taking a clear lead over the other cars in this race.

Dixie powers around the bend chasing Blade and fires off a few shots at the distant rear of Blades car and sees a couple of the shots hit their target.

Reaper gets around the bend but only just as he looked very shaky and we could see him hitting those brakes heavily, the crowd are worrying if he is truly fit enough to be racing here today.

Ace is having a bad day here, he is struggling to keep in the race and is in last place.

As they turn in around the far bend we have Blade with a comfortable lead followed by Dixie, then Reaper and still struggling in last place we have Ace, it looks like Blade was right this may be his year to win the New Hope cup.

Blade roars down the final straight and take the first win of the day with a comfortable lead, with the others chasing him and the crowd went crazy!!!

All three drivers powered down the straight looking for that second place position…

Dixie gets over the line into second which is a great start to this racers career, closely followed by Ace and then in last place Reaper crosses the line to end a very disappointing race for him.

Well that was fast and lots of fun!

The vehicle builds were all similar and all the cars had the same acceleration speeds, Ace did have the slowest car but only by a little, I think that Blade having that one cannister of Nitrox may have just given him the edge over the other cars in this race.

Blade was only about 9” in front as he crossed the line so the second use of Nitrox was the one that actually gave him the advantage.

I normally always buy Nitrox for any car in a race, but as this was another playtest I thought that I would only give one car a cannister to see how much difference it made… well it did make a difference but the other factor was that Blade just rolled continually high for all of his Panic Brake tests and Speed tests and all the other drivers kept failing so slowing down.

I did also only add a passenger to Ace’s car, as the extra dice can give an advantage and well it did slightly as the red dice came out first more often than the others, but I rolled so badly for him on some of the corners it didn’t make much difference!!

Luckily none of the drivers span out or lost control completely, although Reaper did come close a couple of times, oh he really did have a bad race, he failed the most tests during the race which was the main reason why he was last.

Well another great race and probably the last playtest before releasing the new supplement.

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