wide, but it ran from top to bottom of the hill, starting off almost vertical before flattening out at the bottom as it tapered into a straight with two steep ramps.
The buggy was out of control on the steepest part of the slope and James found the steering wheel slipping through his hands as he battled to keep going.
With gloomy lighting and an uneven surface, there was an element of luck in going down the hill. While James hit a bump, Bruce got a better run over on the right-hand side and managed to glide past Kerry and take the lead off James.
But Bruce’s extra speed was his downfall. As the slope straightened out and the track narrowed to lead into the ramps, his buggy aquaplaned into the tyre wall and spun the width of the track, missing James by centimetres, before crashing into the tyre wall facing backwards. By the time Bruce had found space to turn back the right way, he’d dropped to last place.
Kerry and James were side by side as they flew over the two jumps, but in their anxiety to stay ahead they entered the final corner of the circuit too fast. Both buggies skidded out wide, enabling Bethany to power-slide through on the inside. She led by more than ten metres as they crossed the finish line for the first time.
James tried to get back at Bethany, but she was too talented. While James skidded and occasionally touched the tyre wall, Bethany seemed able to judge her speed and braking perfectly edged further into the distance with every corner.
By the end of lap eleven, Bethany was out of sight. James and Kerry were still battling for second, with Meryl, Kyle, Mo and Lauren bunched up twenty metres behind, waiting to pounce on any kind of mistake. Michael had spun and was about fifty metres behind the pack, while Gabrielle and Rat were hopeless and had both been lapped by everyone except Bruce, who’d embedded his car in the tyre wall during a reckless attempt to fight his way back to the front of the field.
With two laps remaining, James caught a nose full of fumes as he turned on to the finishing straight. He was delighted to see Bethany standing in a smoky pit lane, furiously undoing the buckle on her helmet.
Perfect, James thought to himself, as he skimmed past Gabrielle on the outside to lap her for the second time. His fingers ached from clutching the steering wheel. As he turned into the first corner, he had to slam his brakes to avoid ploughing into Lauren, who’d been allowed through on the inside by Rat.
James was furious with Rat for showing Lauren such blatant favouritism, but he shut it out of his mind because he was now sandwiched tight between Lauren and Kerry. He was delighted when he saw Lauren mess up the line into the third corner and retook the lead, with Kerry right up behind him.
After the gentle curve, James found himself bouncing down the steep back straight, with Kerry coming out of his slipstream and pulling up alongside him. They stayed side by side as they got nearer to the bottom, where the course narrowed for the first ramp.
James was on the racing line and smiling inside his helmet because Kerry would have to brake and drop in behind him unless she wanted to plough into the tyre wall.
But she didn’t back off. With less than twenty metres to the jump, Kerry pulled up wheel to wheel with James and turned in to nudge him aside. If James gave way, they’d both make it over the jump, but Kerry would have had the best line for the second jump and the final corner. He’d effectively be handing Kerry the lead into the final lap and that wasn’t going to happen.
At the last second, Kerry realised that she’d got it wrong. She hit her brake and steered left, but it was too late and she slammed into tyres at the point where the course tapered, clipping the rear of James’ buggy as she did so.
As Kerry disappeared amidst the tyres, James felt his back end slide out as he hit the front of the mud ramp. The change in direction had a dramatic effect on his speed, and instead of skimming over the puddle on the opposite side, his buggy careered off the edge of the ramp and landed on its side atop a pile of tyres. He came to an