serious accidents had occurred in those classes. He had been unable to find a ride in either class so far this year, but was still hoping to land a seat for next season.
"You still holding out for a GTO or GTU ride?" Balto asked his former GTP rival.
"Just for next season," Brad responded. "Right now, I'm open for any shot at a ride. If nobody else ends up filling in for Kyle until he recovers, I'll do it. I myself am still somewhat in recovery from my crash."
"What?" asked Balto.
"Yeah," Brad answered.
"Man, that crash must have been bigger than I thought," Balto added.
Despite ending last year's stint with Fox/Ridgemount on a low note, Bradley Steele still enjoyed some success with the team. He and Kyle were on the podium in every single race in that time span. His run of success was so good there was talk that the team may not want Balto back. But that changed after Sears Point, and Balto Wolf found himself back in the saddle.
That evening, Balto, Jenna, Boris, Nikki, John, Ryan, Sylvie, Dixie, and Brad all headed to a long-time hangout of theirs which they had been going to at least since high school. They usually spent their time there getting a bite to eat, having something to drink, and just chatting. Tonight was no different. But for Balto, Jenna, and Boris, it was a chance to catch up on what had been going on in Nome since they had last been there. Which was a long time.
Since Balto, Jenna, Boris, and Brad had left Nome, Nikki, John, and Ryan had all become bush pilots and ran a successful delivery business based out of Nome. Sylvie and Dixie, on the other hand, worked the home base for other three's delivery business. All five of them had a paw in founding that company that was now thriving. But that wasn't always the case. Initially, the operation was fledgling. They even had trouble coming up with a name for their new company. The name they eventually decided on was A.K.S.T.T. Express. The name was an acronym of their last names. The operation had expanded since its founding to cover much of the interior and more isolated areas of Alaska. It had also become a household name in Nome, very well known.
While there, inevitably, the subject of Balto's upcoming Le Mans assault was brought up.
"Say, Balto," said Nikki. "Word is you managed to land the ride with Joest for Le Mans."
"You heard correctly," Balto replied.
"Hey, get this," John put in. "The whole town heard of this and now every TV set in every major bar or restaurant will be televising the race. The whole town's got your back."
"Is that so?" Balto asked, sounding a little surprised.
"Yes, that's all true," Ryan responded a little more firmly in tone than Balto was when he last spoke. "In fact, the rest of us here are hosting a party at my house with the race on. We'll have to take the weekend off to have it."
"So besides you, who else is gonna be there?" Balto asked.
"Well, both are your parents will be there," John replied.
"Yeah, and even my parents are gonna be there," added Jenna. "My father told me over the phone when I told them about getting that promotion. You should've heard how happy he was."
"I can imagine," said Balto. "This whole thing is gonna be bigger than I thought."
That was the last mention of Le Mans during their time at the old hangout. The rest of it consisted largely of reminiscing and talking about good times from growing up in Nome.
Next day was Jenna's birthday party. Everyone who was with her last night at the cafe was in attendance, as were both of her parents. Earlier that day, Balto had paid both of his parents a visit. Ditto for Jenna. Nikki, John, and Ryan had deliveries to make, and Dixie and Sylvie also had to work that day, so it was questionable whether or not they would be able to make it to the party. But before heading off to work, they still sent happy birthday wishes to Jenna and sent their presents over to her parent's house.
A lot had seemed to change with Nome since Boris, Balto and Jenna had left home and gone on to their current careers. But some things stayed the same. Their old hangout where they were last night hadn't changed much.
Fortunately, everyone made it to Jenna's birthday party that evening. Everyone had remembered to bring something. Jenna was very appreciative of the gifts and thanked everyone for bringing them and for coming.
Chapter 10: Le Mans bound!
The only business left for Balto before heading off to Le Mans for the 24 Hours was some housekeeping, especially disposing of any perishable food items that were close to the expiration date. Last year, he inadvertently left a carton of milk out before going to the track. Add on the time he spent in rehab after his crash to what he had already expected to spend over there, the milk went sour and then exploded. Jenna's solution for the problem was spraying some of her perfume in the air to mask the smell. It didn't work to well. In fact, Balto compared the smell of the mixed scents to what might happen if a cow died in a strip club.
As for Jenna, she had a few things to take care of at the newspaper where she worked. There wasn't anything major, just some articles for her column to turn in, many of which were scheduled for later releases but finished ahead of time so she wouldn't have to worry about forgetting to hand them in later.
Balto and Jenna caught an evening flight out of San Francisco International Airport to Paris. Boris had a motocross race in Texas that same weekend, so he wasn't able to go with them. They left a few days early before Balto had to be at Circuit de la Sarthe. This way, they could fit in some vacation time. And that's just what they did, which included plenty of sightseeing (including a very romantic evening atop the Eifel Tower the night they arrived), museum visits, and a whole lot more. Their free time even included taking in the sights and sounds of the city of Le Mans itself, plus a trip to seatmate Bob Wollek's hometown of Strasbourg, in western France. Normally home to only about 150,000 people, the city of Le Mans triples in population when the week leading up to the 24 Hours comes around. They had a lot of fun. And yet, it went by too fast for them.
Eventually, the first day of practice in preparation for the race rolled around. This was the first time since the April test session that all teams, cars, and drivers would be on the track in the same time period. The Mercedes C9s of Team Sauber were the fastest in that test session and it would be no different in this practice session. Balto's fastest lap was good enough to put his #9 Joest Racing Porsche 962C as "the best of the rest," meaning he was the fastest among the non-Sauber drivers.
Because of his GTP mentality of pushing hard every racing lap, and because of Group C's fuel restrictions, Balto would not be the starting driver in the #9 Porsche. In fact, he would be the last of the car's three drivers to take his first stint during the race. This was done so that fuel could be saved for later on in the race, although alloting fuel quantity for a timed race with no set distance is never an easy thing to do. The fuel allotment for a C1 car was 2,550 liters of fuel.
The reason why Group C regulations had limits on fuel consumption was to prevent manufacturers from concentrating solely on engine development. In the previous Group 6 Two Seater Racing Car category for open-top sportscar prototypes like the Porsche 936, small, turbocharged engines were often given a power boost for qualifying. For the 936, qualifying trim power levels exceeded 800 horsepower. A category called GTP for closed-top sportscar prototypes that was around starting in the mid-1970s (and of little relation to IMSA GTP) first implemented the fuel consumption formula rather than restrictions on engine displacement. With this formula, it was possible for large, normally aspirated engines (also called naturally aspirated or atmospheric engines) to compete with small, forced induction (i.e. turbocharged or supercharged) engines. The engines in Jaguar's XJR cars were 7.0 liter V12s, while the Mercedes engines in the Sauber C9s were 5.0 liter V8s, and the Porsche's flat-six engines were just 3.2 liters. The Jaguar and Mercedes engines were normally aspirated, while the Porsche engines were turbocharged.
From the moment the trailers unloaded and the cars took to the track, Balto's focus on the race ahead shifted into overdrive. Not one moment passed where he didn't think about the race in one way or another. Balto was very fascinated with the technical side of racing and would offer ideas on how to improve the car to get more speed out of it every chance he got. Most of the time, he got a "Shut up" type of response. The only one who would listen to his ideas was his race engineer, Kurt Schwartz. And even then, the ideas weren't always taken seriously. Still, Balto never stopped thinking about the race, the car and the track. It was all part of preparing himself for what lie ahead. Balto would think about the car setup while taking a shower, he would kiss Jenna while still thinking about the car setup, and sometimes he would leave a team dinner early to chat with Kurt about the setup. Sometimes, Balto would even try to convince Kurt to go back to the circuit and tinker with the setup, saying "I know what we need to do to win." Usually, the response he got was "Balto, you think too much." But Kurt came to respect his driver for his level of dedication, and they bonded over it.
Despite his best efforts and a good run in first round practice, the run of good lap times did not carry over to the second round of practice. The best lap time set by Balto or his seat mates wasn't as quick as the time they managed
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Pehaps I myself should try my hand at a racing fic now. Your fic really made me want to try one now.
Overall, great fic.