to use her body to gain advantage and keep in the good grace of Fabian, a ruthless, yet influential French Pro racer. When Fabian dismisses her after Jason beats her in a one-on-one race the two rekindle their friendship, which Jason consolidates when he later overhears LeClerq and Smythe (The Headmaster & stores chief respectively) discussing sabotaging Ariel's pit robot, and at the same time admitting to having been responsible for her and Jason's earlier equipment misfortune. Jason forewarns Ariel, and the attempt to plant a virus on her pit robot backfires, instead disrupting the entire race power grid, meaning that none of the pit robots work. All racers have to perform a manual pit stop, and due to previously practising such tactics Jason and Ariel not only win the race, but Jason also ensures his place in the New York Masters. At the same time Jason attracts the attention of two individuals—Umberto Lombardi, the billionaire owner of Team Lombardi, and Dido, a beautiful Italian girl who thanks to her rich parents is able to follow Jason around the next few races. Jason agrees to trial race with Team Lombardi, and begins a tentative relationship with Dido, stilted slightly due to his age and inexperience with the opposite sex—a factor which causes Sally to tease him relentlessly. Prior to the New York Masters Jason is involved in a large and dangerous crash, completely destroying his Team Lombardi hover racer, and with it much of his confidence, however with the aid of Sally & the Bug he regains his nerve, but not before several racers take advantage of his doubts and gain points that otherwise could have been his. Jason and Ariel get their revenge on Fabian when he challenges Jason to an exhibition race while in Italy—but Jason secretly swaps places and it is in fact Ariel who races—and beats—Fabian, thus ridiculing him for earlier comments when he stated that Ariel was "quite frankly, a non-event", also possibly alluding to her night with him. After again barely winning his next race Jason realises that Dido has been feeding Xavier information, including his doubts and race strategies, and he breaks off the relationship—after which Sally discovers that Dido is in fact Xavier's cousin, and the two are seen in public together. Jason and Xavier both race in New York, and as Xavier points out he is the far superior racer in