Strangers in the Night
Copyright© 2015 by Old Man with a Pen
Chapter 11
Here we are, Finns rally racing in France ... while France is at war ... with Germany ... and we have German cars, drivers, teams that we're racing against ... and nobody is pissed at them. It's just a war ... the sport of Kings ... and it's ok. It's been going on for two years ... millions have died ... and the race in Germany is in two weeks ... Belgium ... which is under German control is two weeks after that.
The Austro-Hungarian rally is in August and France, England and the USA are at war with the Empire ... but nobody ... and I mean nobody ... in the High Command is dumb enough to mess with the rally teams. War might be the sport of kings but Rally is the sport of everybody else.
It ranks immediately after soccer.
One Christmas the front lines stopped fighting and soccer matches were played by both sides. That pissed the generals off no end. The silence was deafening. After the hangovers, the artillery and machine-guns started up again and men that were drinking buddies yesterday were killing each other today.
In November, the whole shooting match was heading to South America for rally races in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Ecuador. The cars would be going by ship and woe betide the submarine that put a torpedo in that ship. A captain would be better off sinking a lighted hospital ship.
Then it would be on to Australia, New Zealand, Japan and China.
Unless your team was scheduled to be one of fifteen pro teams who were going to race with the locals from Panama to Baja California. Those races were something else. Two years ago, a contingent of Mexican soldiers blocked the road after the Central American teams had passed a checkpoint and the Quattros just plowed right through them ... nobody fucks with the rally.
The next rally in that division was the race to Alaska from Los Angeles. That bunch were ferried across the Bering Strait and then they race to Paris with the China crews and from Paris to Monte Carlo, where the World Rally Championship Cup from last year was awarded and the WRC started for the next year. Actually, the years WRC cup finished in Paris but the presentation was made in Monte Carlo.
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