By the fifteenth lap Woody had won back to third position again. Kurt had pulled ahead of Tom Wisdom. Woody had a warm feeling for the two of them. He experienced a warm feeling, too, for the Black Tiger. The roar of her engine, which before had frightened him, now made his heart sing. He loved the way she handled and her enormous gallantry on corners.
He knew that she had it in her to win the race, and he was ashamed that he had penalized her with his own fears.
The last two laps were, for everybody, the most exciting of the race. On the straightaway approaching the hairpin, Woody drew wheel to wheel with Tom Wisdom who looked briefly at him and winked. But Tom wasn't giving anything. He hugged the corner tight—so tight that Woody had to follow him around, for it was too sharp to take wide. Woody drew ahead briefly approaching the right-angle bend after the start-finish line. But he was not sufficiently ahead to pull over and crowd Tom behind him. They took the corner wheel to wheel, but since Woody was on the outside, Tom was slightly ahead when they got around it. Woody had only one more chance to pass—on the S-bends where he had made most of his conquests. But Tom knew those S-bends even better than Woody did. He never gave the Black Tiger a chance. And when the checkered finish flag fluttered down before them, it was Kurt Kreuger first, Tom Wisdom second, and Woody Hartford third.
Rocky was first to greet him when he returned to the pit. "You were wonderful," she said. "Wonderful. Daddy always said you'd make a great driver." And she flung her arms around him and gave him a kiss.
Worm somehow got hold of Woody's hand and kept pumping it up and down.
"I knew what was happening, laddie," he said. "For my money, ye won the race."
When he got free of Rocky and Worm it was to find Mary Jane standing by the car. She didn't say anything. She just smiled and looked very proud.
18
That night a victory dinner was held at a hotel in Monterey where the dining room had been taken over for the occasion. Woody, Mary Jane, Worm, Rocky, Steve, and Woody's parents attended. It was something of a battle to get into the hotel, for all the drivers who had participated in the race were there. There were perhaps three hundred cars crowded into the parking lot and lining the adjoining streets. The city, in fact, became a racing center for the night, and radio and television men were covering the event in full force.