Why race if you don’t have money?

Chapter 36: The Equation of Superiority (Seeking Follow-up Reading)
When Ma Minghan mocked Chen Xiangbei, his expression was one of gnashing his teeth.

But when he thought that the driver Quan would win and maybe even knock Chen Xiangbei off the track, he felt an indescribable sense of joy in his heart!

In fact, when Chen Xiangbei was unloading the truck, he had noticed these two idiots in the Mercedes-Benz G55, but he was too lazy to pay attention to them.

After unloading the car, Liang Chi and I got into the Subaru Impreza and drove directly to the maintenance lane of the Haizhu International Circuit.

Most people who have watched car races know that every large racetrack has a dedicated lane for debugging and repairing cars and teams. This lane is called the maintenance lane.

On one side of the maintenance passage is a partition wall, and on the other side is a row of two-story buildings, divided into rooms the size of storefronts, inside which are placed racing cars and various spare parts. These are the maintenance stations of each team.

The English name is PitHouse, commonly known as P room in Chinese.

In today's track maintenance station, some drivers of the Volkswagen 222 team are training. Among them, the team manager Ye Yong is conducting data analysis with Han Han, discussing how to improve the single lap speed.

Ye Yong and Han Han have been partners for many years. They are not only colleagues, but also have a good relationship privately.

So much so that many years later when Han Han became a director, the prototype of Manager Ye in the two "Speeding Life" movies was actually Ye Yong, the team manager of Volkswagen 222.

At this time, Zhang Zhicong walked in first and greeted Ye Yong and Han Han. After many years of participating in CCC professional competitions, they were quite familiar with each other, and without too much politeness, they got straight to the point.

"Chen Xiangbei has arrived. Han Han, are you ready?"

"I can run anytime."

Han Han replied calmly, "How could a national champion feel any psychological pressure when competing against high school students?"

To put it bluntly, treating Chen Xiangbei as an opponent is more of a courtesy of respect.

In fact, the theoretical gap between the two sides is as easy and simple as punching the Nanshan Nursing Home and kicking the Beihai Kindergarten.

Han Han didn't care, just treating it as entertainment and relaxation. However, Ye Yong, the manager of the Volkswagen 222 team, still didn't understand Zhang Zhicong's "challenge".

One of the team manager's responsibilities is to lead commercial operations. Han Han, the team's star athlete and recent winner of the 08 CCC National Championship, wouldn't be good for his image if he ran against high school students.

On the contrary, if any accident occurs, it will cause serious negative impact.

So Ye Yong confirmed again: "Mr. Zhang, can that high school student named Chen Xiangbei really run on the track?"

"can."

Zhang Zhicong simply gave a clear answer.

Although he had a different stance from Liang Chi, and even had some doubts about Chen Xiangbei's strength, their attitudes towards the outside world were the same.

Seeing Zhang Zhicong's firm attitude, Ye Yong didn't say much, so he could only nod and say, "Okay, let Han Han run a lap."

One lap is the limit of risk that the Volkswagen 222 team can accept.

"it is good."

After the two parties reached an agreement, Han Han walked out of the P room wearing his racing suit and happened to see Che Lao Quan and Chen Xiangbei who were discussing something in the maintenance channel.

Chen Xiangbei's original idea was to run a lap of the track with Che Laoquan after finishing the run with Han Han.

After all, they are different "grudge games", one by one.

But after Che Laoquan learned that Han Han was present, he also became interested and wanted to run a race with this newly crowned national champion. Chen Xiangbei didn't care about this. As for whether Han Han was willing to agree, that was his business.

Due to the factors of the starting point of the automobile industry, the underground racing circle in the Pearl River Delta is not large. In fact, the domestic professional racing circle is also not large. Basically, those who are slightly famous know each other.

Che Laoquan raced in Formula 2000 and also trained at the Haizhu International Circuit before heading to Germany to race in touring cars. He and Han Han had a relationship that was almost like an acquaintance.

So when Han Han saw Che Laoquan appear here and talk to Chen Xiangbei, his face showed some surprise. How did they know each other?
But before he could open his mouth, Che Laoquan asked first, "Han Han, do you want to have a race with this high school kid?"

"Ah."

"That's perfect, let's run together. Let me see how much of a championship you are. Are you still as much of a rookie as you were back then?"

After saying this, Han Han's expression changed slightly.

The reason why Che Laoquan is so arrogant is, on the one hand, his identity as a driver from Hong Kong Island. Since car racing started and developed earlier, he has a psychological sense of superiority when looking at mainland drivers as "country bumpkins".

On the other hand, there is a chain of contempt among professional competitions.

That is the drivers who have played Formula One racing. Many of them think that touring car drivers are just so-so, even if the opponent is the national champion.

Or to put it more bluntly, only when one can't make it in the Formula One race will one consider switching to touring car racing!
Take Ma Qingye, for example, who later reached the threshold of F1 and also participated in touring car competitions in China.

As China's former top formula driver, he once participated in the test drives and practice sessions in the F1 paddock, and also signed a racing driver contract with the HRT team for the next year.

If the HRT team's capital chain had not broken, Ma Qingye might have surpassed Zhou Guanyu and become China's first official F1 driver ahead of schedule.

However, Ma Qingye's F1 trial results were extremely poor. Even compared to his fellow rookie trial teammate, his lap time was a full second slower. Compared to the fastest lapper, Michael Schumacher, the gap was a staggering six seconds!
F1 lap times are judged in thousandths of a second. Even if you are 0.1 second slower in qualifying, there may still be room for several drivers to squeeze in.

Being six seconds slower per lap means that after a race, you will be surpassed by the champion car by at least three laps!

Just looking at the F1 level, most people would definitely think that Ma Qingye is a loser.

But in fact, when Ma Qingye was receiving Formula One training in Europe, he had no money so he went to the country to participate in touring car races to earn prize money.

As soon as he participated, it was like a "dimensionality reduction attack" to other drivers. He directly swept the CTCC event and won the annual championship. The predecessor of this competition was the CCC event in which Han Han won the championship.

And that’s not all. Ma Qingye couldn’t make it in the Formula One race so he turned to touring car racing full-time, and he also created history by becoming the first Chinese driver to win the highest level of touring car racing, the WTRC (World Touring Car Championship)!

The value of this record was not surpassed until Zhou Guanyu scored in his F22 debut in 1 years and Ye Yifei won the Le Mans race.

From these deeds, we can see why Formula One is called the highest level of racing and why there is a professional contempt chain.

The huge gap in strength is the basis of the gap in competitions!

……

In the early years when Che Lao Quan was playing Formula One, Han Han was still a newbie on the Haizhu International Circuit and had to look up to him.

Now times have changed. Che Lao Quan can no longer play formula racing and has switched to touring car racing, but Han Han has gradually become the CCC national champion.

But Che Laoquan still has that sense of superiority of a Formula One driver. Plus, he is participating in overseas competitions, which makes him superior to a group of domestic drivers who are just "noobs" fighting each other!
Facing Che Laoquan's provocation and humiliation, Han Han was not a docile person at heart. He nodded and agreed without much hesitation: "Okay, since you want to run, I'll let you see my current level."

PS: Thank you for the reward from the big brother yesterday, and the votes from the brothers.

(End of this chapter)