Naples Race for the Cup
Automobile racing has spread vastly throughout the nation of Naples and with it many great drivers and teams. The year is 1903 and will be the third year of the Naples Race for the Cup Series which requires the drivers and teams to qualify by winning a number of races throughout the year. In 1902 there were only five qualifiers, now Naples has increased that number to twelve races. All twelve races to be held in the first four months of the year, with the Naples Cup Final to be held during the sixth month allow drivers and teams to prepare.
Dante Agostino, the winner of both previous races, was the fan favorite of Naples. He had multiple sponsors who wanted him to race their automobiles or build him special parts to use. Agostino was already qualified to compete at the championship race after winning the first five qualifying races, however he continued racing to ensure his number one spot.
Tony Martino is a young up and comer who is sponsored by his own families automobile shop, Martino and Sons, and is looking to become the second person to win the championship cup. He is much younger then the two time reigning champion Agostino, who is thirty two, at the age of twenty three years old. Martino, however, has shocked Naples as he placed second in the first seven races and first in the ninth and eleventh gaining enough points to enter the championship race as second place.
12 June 1903 the Championship Race
Tony Martino sat in his car, gripping the leather steering wheel tightly, as he looked around at the other drivers who were awaiting the gun shot to signal the start. Martino had qualified as the number two spot, just behind Dante Agostino. The fans ranted and raved for Dante as he slowly strutted towards his race car pandering to his fans. Once Dante was seated and ready the officials notified the drivers to start their engines and prepare for the start of the race. All the qualifiers leading up to the final race were twenty lap races around a circular track, yet this final race would be fifty laps around a larger track, this track was the pride and joy of Naples automobile racing. Not only would the winner be awarded a trophy but it would be presented to them by non other then King Ferdinand II himself.
All the engines purred loudly as the drivers watched the official with the gun point it into the air. What seemed like an eternity to Martino finally ended as the gun was fired and Tony slammed his foot onto the gas as he popped his car into first gear. Quickly shifting into second, then third as he entered the first turn at forty kilometers per hour just barely behind Agostino. He jumped into fourth gear as he exited the turn and gunned it, his engined roared as he drove up side by side with Agostino who looked over to be stunned that the young Martino was able to keep up with his car.
The two drove neck and neck for the first eight laps until a third driver caught up behind them and pushed his way between the two, forcing Martino higher on the track and thus causing him to fall behind. Agostino defended the lower part of the track very well and was able to hold of the other driver for two laps, until Agostino started to fall behind and decided to use a fish tale maneuver to force the other car into a spin that ended with it colliding into the safety wall. This forced everyone to finish their current lap and pit ending lap eleven. As the officials and medical staff tended to the crashed driver who walked away from his car with minor injuries, a broken arm and a few lacerations.
As the race restarted Martino found himself back in second place and raced hard to keep from falling behind any further, which he did on lap twenty-three where he used a moment to make another pit stop while the majority of the other thirty-five racers continued. When Martino reentered the race he was down to the twenty-seventh spot and had an uphill battle to regain contention.
On lap thirty Martino had an opening as the remaining cars had to pit, that didn't previously, giving him the opportunity to catch back up. He found himself sitting in the number four spot as Agostino was able to make his pit stop in record time and get back out to be in the seventh spot. The two battled with the other racers as they found themselves in the top three yet again, Agostino in second and Martino in third. It stayed this way until lap fourty-four when Agostino overtook the first position allowing Martino to slip in right behind him with a great show of driving finesse getting the crowed on its feet.
The final five laps was a war between the two rivals as they raced neck and neck. To start lap fifty Martino was in the first position, just barely pulling away from Agostino, and he began to hear his name being chanted throughout the stadium. Refocusing on the race he tried to fight to get an inside position on the track to Agostino who wouldn't give it up. They entered the final turn, Martino still inches ahead as his car was maintaining an amazing sixty-three kilometers per hour, Agostino let off the gas a little bit and allowed Martino to get almost completely in front of him. But Agostino gunned it just as the exited the turn and got his car up to a phenomenal sixty-six kilometers per hour passing his foe just moments before the finish line, granting Agostino his third straight Naples Championship Cup.
Image of the crowd piling into the stands to prepare for the race.
