The whole crowd gasped, but the rest of the Sleepover Club and Charlie were speechless. Josh was in front – with one lap to go!

“I’m gonna kill Alana Banana!” I yelled, stomping up and down in a rage. “She’s a stupid, dozy, dopey idiot! You wait till I see her at school next week—”

“Frankie’s catching Josh up!” Rosie shrieked in my ear.

“What!”

Sure enough, Silver Flash was gaining ground on the black and gold kart.

“If Frankie’s brave enough to go for it, Silver Flash has got the speed to do it,” muttered Charlie, who’d chewed her fingernails nearly down to the bone.

“Oh, Frankie’s got the guts to do it,” I said confidently. “No problem!”

But would she have the time? There was only half a lap left.

We all clung on to each other as Silver Flash drew up behind Josh’s kart. Fliss was hanging on to my hand so hard her fingernails were digging into me, but I hardly noticed. Rosie and Lyndz were jumping up and down, holding on to each other. Half a lap to go…

Less than half a lap…

Suddenly Frankie seemed to put her foot down and find an extra burst of speed. She revved up her engine and shot past Josh, taking him by surprise. Next second the silver nose of Charlie’s kart was crossing the finishing line. We’d done it!

“Yee-hah!” I yelled, leaping on top of the others and almost crushing them. “We beat them – by one point!”

We all went mad, hugging each other and Charlie, and dancing round in circles and punching the air. Thank goodness we were saved from being girly cheerleaders for Snotty Stevens – it was a miracle!

“And the winner is – Francesca Thomas for the Sleepover Club team,” the commentator boomed out. “Which means that they are our winners today by one point over the Kings of the Track. Well done, girls – but I think you’d have made great cheerleaders!”

When Frankie rushed over to us, we all leapt on her, and nearly crushed her to bits.

“You were fab, Francesca Thomas!” I announced, slapping her on the back and nearly knocking her over.

“Yeah, class, Frankie,” Rosie agreed, giving her a friendly punch on the arm.

“We knew you wouldn’t let us down,” Fliss chimed in, giving Frankie a hug which nearly choked her.

“You deserve a special champion’s sleepover tonight,” Lyndz suggested, punching her on the other arm.

“Thanks,” Frankie grinned modestly. “But it was all down to Silver Flash really.” She looked around. “Where’s Charlie?”

Then we saw her. She was holding Josh’s arm and pulling him towards us, while they argued furiously.

“I think Josh has got something to say to you,” Charlie said, giving her brother a shove.

“Ow!” Josh said sullenly.

We all waited. It was ace to see Snotty Stevens red in the face, looking like he wished he was a million miles away!

“Well?” Charlie raised her eyebrows.

“They only won because they had Silver Flash,” Josh muttered furiously.

“You can’t have it both ways, Josh,” Charlie pointed out calmly. “Either Frankie’s a great driver, or your sister’s a great mechanic.”

“Either way, us girls win!” I announced gleefully.

Josh glared at me, but we weren’t about to let him off the hook. “OK,” he admitted reluctantly. “Maybe some girls are not too bad at karting…”

“Not too bad!” we all chorused scornfully.

“All right, some girls are good at karting,” Josh muttered. “But I bet I can beat you in the individual races next!”

“Says who?” I began crossly, but Frankie and Charlie looked at each other and nodded. Charlie took Josh’s arm and pulled him away, and Frankie blocked my path so I couldn’t go after him.

“No, Kenny,” she said firmly. “I think we’ve had enough excitement for one day!”

“Not quite,” Fliss said. “It’s time to collect our prizes!”

“I’ve never won a gold medal before!” I said, examining it for about the millionth time. “It’s so cool!”

It was later that day, and we were round at Fliss’s, in the Proudloves’ garden. Actually, we’d been round all our houses, showing off our medals. Everyone was dead impressed. We’d ended up at the Proudloves because Fliss had invited us all for tea, although I don’t think her mum was too pleased when she found out.

“Show us again how you beat Josh, Frankie,” Lyndz said.

Frankie didn’t need asking twice. She’d already acted out her victory race for us at least three times.

“OK, so this is the start of the race.” Frankie charged down the garden and positioned herself near a tree. “I knew I had to get a good start to get ahead of Josh.”

“Did you feel nervous?” Rosie asked.

“You bet!” Frankie replied. “I knew Kenny would kill me if I lost.”

“Ha ha,” I said.

“I’m not joking!” Frankie winked at me. “Anyway, the race started, and I couldn’t believe I was out in front.”

She zoomed up the garden towards us, turning an imaginary steering wheel. “Josh was trying to get past me at first, and then he stopped. I got a bit worried, but I just concentrated on staying in front.”

Fliss came out of the house just then, carrying a tray with some glasses on it and a mega-sized bottle of lemonade.

“What happened then?” I asked.

“Well, I could see that Alana Banana was going to be in my way because she wasn’t going fast enough,” Frankie went on. “I was just waiting for her to move – and then she went and blocked my path. I was really stressed out! Josh overtook me, but I put my foot down –” she ran up the garden and flopped into one of the chairs – “and I just managed to catch him!”

We all cheered.

“Hey, I’ve got a great idea.” I grabbed the big bottle of lemonade, and began shaking it up. “You know what the racing drivers do with champagne, don’t you?”

“No, Kenny!” the others shrieked, as I loosened the top of the bottle.

The lemonade shot out in this massive spray which went everywhere. We all got soaked!

And so did Mr Watson-Wade, whose angry, dripping wet face appeared over the fence right at that moment. He’d been weeding the flowerbed near the fence and got in the way…

Oops! Time for me to put my foot down and zoom off, I think. See ya!