<div class="floatright">(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b52/jotunusmc/36827_421832359861_518524861_4822950_3819136_n.jpg)</div><br/><hr/><hr/><div style="text-align: right;"><span class="bbc_font" style="font-family: georgia;"><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 14pt;">Taras Ivan Markovski<strong>  -  Name           </strong><br/>The Muscle<strong>  -  Title              </strong><br/> Racing South towards Highway 16<strong>  -  Location     </strong><br/> Everyone<strong>  -  Tagged         </strong></span></span></div><hr/><hr/><br/><div style="text-align: justify;">     The first few corners were a bit rough, Taras had to carefully maneuver his heavy Bird' to keep from bumping the other cars, Cori's in particular. She was quick with her unique controls and was able to get that old Caddy around the corners and even leave him room to squeeze on by right along with her. Eventually the corners got softer as they continued down the course and out of the Skunk-Bay area. <br/><br/>     As expected, Tip's vette' had the superior speed on the first long straight away heading south just on the east side of the naval base. Taras grimaced as he watched the Triad's taillights slowly began to slip away. His Firebird had plenty of muscle and horses to give him a chance to close distance with most cars down the long straights, but not the vette'. Cori even managed to keep up, despite nearly losing it on the fourth corner earlier. Her twin engines really gave some punch as she began to pass by him, also outgaining him. <br/><br/>     The rest of the pack slowly inched further back in the rear-view mirrors, as the lack of superior equipment and driving skills began to show. There were still two cars that were hanging in close on him one was a very-modified Subaru WRX-Sti, green in color. The other was Adriano, who wasn't too far behind him. Taras could see Rurik slide past both a GT500 and an M3 up ahead of him. Something seemed amiss as the GT500's rear end came up too quickly - as if it was losing power or something. <em>Must have pushed it too hard on the straights.</em> Taras had to act quick to slide to the side and dodge the failing Ford - as you really can't swerve at 120+ MPH. He blazed past the Ford and then cursed in Ukrainian again when he noticed that both Cori and the Subaru were now ahead of him. Changing lanes had slowed him down just enough that they were able to sneak by. <br/><br/>     Everyone eventually had to begin braking and Taras could see the spread-out taillights ahead of him flaring red. The next set of corners began to come up as they neared the inlet at the mid-way point of the race. He pushed his Pontiac to the limit by keeping his speed up a little higher, just to close a few more yards before they went into the corners again - where he knew the Subaru and Cori's Caddy would have the edge. <br/><br/>     But something was wrong.<br/><br/>     Taras watched the Subaru give way to Cori's Cadillac as they went through the first corner, slipping in behind her. The smaller car could have easily taken the corner tight and fast - holding onto the road easier than the bigger American car. Taras narrowed his eyes as and gunned the engine coming out of the corner. His orbit-orange classic screamed as he closed a few more yards on the two. <br/><br/>     That was when he saw it.<br/><br/>     The Subaru clicked his brights at the back of Cori's Caddy, and the strong beams flashed back brightly off of her clean rear end. Taras didn't have time to think about what that was all about as the next corner was coming up. This one was the sharpest corners of the track, but after he cleared this hard left it was a long straight run where he was confident he would be able to finally close on the leaders.<br/><br/>     But not if he kept pussy-footing around.<br/><br/>     Instead of slowing down as much as he should have, Taras - with no other cars around him - was able to ride wide before the sharp turn and cut it in tight at the apex. As soon as he got near the middle of the turn, he opened up his throttle again fully, holding a tight grip on his wheel that fought against him as he held his angle. Had his tires not been hot and sticky from his burnout launch, his back end might have come out from under him as he came out of that corner and back up wide to the right lane, crossing almost onto the gravel.<br/><br/>     <span class="bbc_u"><strong>*CRACK!*</strong></span> It sounded like two metal objects had snapped under pressure.<br/><br/>     As the loud noise was heard, Taras' eyes immediately jumped to his gauges - he hand't blown anything. In fact it sounded like the loud snap had come from somewhere further ahead of his car. As he looked back up to the two cars directly in front of him, his eyes went wide. <strong>"BLYAT!"</strong> also known to us in English as: 'FUCK!'<br/></div>