The white flag waved, whitewater left in the wakes of the participating teams of rider and Pokémon as they zoomed past the starting arch. Having gone around the track twice already, Josh was comfortable and confident in his drift timing. He was a little startled by a Sharpedo screech that was not his own, an onsite medical team responding to a harsh wipeout at the trough of the first U-turn after the arch. An extremely late drift had caused one of the teams to slam into and scrape one of the outer barricades marking course bounds. It looked like both of them might be hurt, from what little Josh could glimpse as he raced past them and a couple of other competitors.

He slowly made up ground through the remainder of the curves, getting in front of a Lapras and a Dewgong, now fighting with a Swampert in a close battle for 14th place coming out of the third consecutive U-turn. Suddenly the middle of the pack didn't look so out of reach! On the straightaway leading to the course's deadly backstretch chicane, Josh took his dominant hand off the reins to gently pat Snacker's head on a job well done.

Snacker's rider briefly tilted his head to look at the scoreboard, and noticed Eva was in first place! On the starting line, she had claimed she had never raced before. Yet she was leading a Silver-Class race with just one sharp turn leading to the home stretch! Either she was a good liar, or Josh needed to get a Barraskewda on his team, because could they ever put on some speed. Or both.

Josh was punished for his complacency; while he didn't completely crash Snacker in the chicane, his mount's fins scraped the inner wall, then the outer wall from the trainer's timing being ever so slightly off. He grumbled; that was not his Sharpedo's mistake. He had no one to blame but himself as the competition he was battling with for 14th place whizzed by him.

It wasn't too late for him to make that ground back up, though; the final straightaway leading to the finish line, where the official was waving the checkered flag, remained. If Snacker was good at one thing, it was burst speed. "Let's finish strong, buddy! AQUA JET!" The popping noise of his Pokémon's water-type speed burst wasn't the only one; much like the start of the second lap, every other Pokémon whose trainer was smart enough to save some of its stamina for a big push at the end was doing so.

The big wakes coming from the Pokémon up front was making the course quite choppy. Thankfully, Eva wasn't one to have to worry about that! Torpedo's propeller-like tail gave the swift fish almost unparalleled control, and it was paying off in a big way. She may have been able to hear her rather loud section of the gallery chanting her name, looking like she was about to win the race entirely!

The race was close enough at the end that Josh could see almost the entire field that was in front of him as the popping sounds of AQUA JETs and other swift Pokémon moves blanketed the home stretch. The crowd in the stands went into a booming, almost violent chant of Eva's name immediately after the race finished. Josh resisted the temptation to check the standings until Snacker had crossed the finish line, barely edging out a lithe Kantonian female and her Dewgong for...15th place.

Though he was disappointed in his own finish, he was happy to hear Eva was getting so much support. And she deserved it too! She claimed this was her first time racing, and she won! In quite the competitive field at that, too! Some of the racers toward the top were on the cusp of turning semi-pro, and she had held every single one of them off. The last lap in general would be something he would have to watch back.

Though Josh wished he could have been on the platform with the top six, it would be something to look forward to. The race's MC announced the names of the sixth through fourth place finishers, handing them translucent, blue plaques for their efforts. He then made his way behind those three to the podium finishers. "Finishing in third place with a time of 2 minutes, 9 seconds, and 772 decimals, Mandy Spring and her Eelektross!" She hoisted the Bronze Plaque above her head, the large platform underneath her rising to twice her height. There was even a pool, labeled with a blue numeral 3, to accommodate and showcase her Eelektross for all to see.

"Coming in second place, with a time of 2 minutes, 9 seconds, and 432 decimals, Raye Higgins and her Dragonair!" Seeing a Dragonair take second made Josh wonder how Resheph had performed. Then again, she was also on the cusp of punching her ticket to the semi-pro Gold Class. The Dragonair let out a coo, his wings beating rapidly as his trainer held the Silver Plaque above her head. The platform beneath her rose to around three times her height, its pool labeled with a green numeral 2.

"And coming in first place, with a time of 2 minutes, 9 seconds, and 330 decimals, give it up for Dr. Eva Morales and TORPEDO, her Barraskewda!" The crowd erupted into another loud, almost violent chant of Eva's name as the MC left the Gold Trophy on her center platform, which would rise to four times her height on cue.

Once the award ceremony was over and the crowd started to clear out, a television interviewer approached Eva back on the Hoenn mainland. "Hi, my name is Jody Summers, and I'm a professional Pokémon racer that also does coverage for PSPN. Congratulations on your win. Can I get a few minutes of your time to do a short interview?"