Seeking short story about teenage hovercar thieves forced to race to their deaths by the government

I'm looking for a short story that I read in the late 1970s or early 1980s, English-language in the US, possibly part of a Scholastic-published offering or anthology.

The plot involves two teenage juvenile delinquent brothers who are unrepentant hovercar thieves and joyriders (I'm pretty sure it was hovercars, though it could have been regular cars).

They have been caught yet again, and the justice system, desperate for a solution to the problem of rampant hovercar joyriding, puts them into a program where they are forced to race hovercars on a track until they lose the desire, or die in the process. (The analogy used is similar to forcing kids caught smoking cigarettes to smoke a box of cigars until they get sick -- a form of aversion therapy.)

In the first race, the older brother chooses a car with a low-profile color for himself, and a high-profile color for his brother so he can keep an eye on him.

As the racing progresses, the brothers face dangers in the form of their fellow racers, as well as deadlier obstacles on the track itself (including at one point, a tank -- though as a barrier, not a weapon).

Answer

The story is "The Speeders" by Arthur Tofte. From Bev Hankins at goodreads:

"The Speeders" by Arthur Tofte: In the world of the future, the government has supposedly ensured that vehicles will be safe--no speeding and no accidents. But there are always the young joyriders who will find their way around the laws and restrictions. These young men find that when thy joyride and manage to break the speeding laws one too many times that they are incarcerated--not in prison, but in Traverse Park. In what seems like a speed-demon's paradise, all bets are off. The speeders can go as fast as they want and drive as recklessly as they want. Is it really the freedom from restrictions that it appears? Or is there a more chilling motive behind the speeder's park?

Comments

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

languages - Do we ever see written English in the Star Wars films?

In Empire Strikes Back , we see a transcription of what R2's beeps and bloops mean, but it's not English (sorry for the low quality, it's from the 2004 DVDs): I'd assume it's what Basic looks like when written, but is there some point in the the Star Wars films we see written English instead? (This sort of spun off from a discussion in How do people understand astromech droids? .) Answer At one point there was English but it has been phased out in subsequent versions of the films. Chris Gould at DVD Active did a comparison of all versions of each of the Star Wars films, and in his comparison of Episode 4 , there are a couple of screenshots showing how the power gauge for the Death Star tractor beam was changed. I imagine there are probably more to be found in his other comparisons but I haven't got around to reading those yet.

star wars - What "exactly" happens when someone turns to the Dark Side?

When I saw the original Star Wars saga as a kid, the concept of the Dark Side imprinted in me was quite simple. You did a bad thing, so you're a bad person so you go to the Dark Side and keep doing bad things. Now, obviously this doesn't hold true in reality. In my mind it is perfectly reasonable for Luke to kill the Emperor and Vader and then just flee the Death Star and rejoin the Alliance. After all they are at war, those are enemy officers that have captured him and are taunting him by threatening with death of all loved ones and the whole operation was intended to kill the Emperor anyway. The same would hold true for Anakin. He could have killed Mace Windu to save the Chancellor and Padme but that doesn't mean he's going to then go mad and kill all Jedis including children. It doesn't add up from a merely psychological point of view. He had a set of objectives and that made him want to keep the Chancellor alive (quite valid by the way, Mace Windu is quite clums...

Blog

Search This Blog