The Race for Life

Speed is in the city of Dominico, the site of the South American Grand Prix. Many streets are deserted because everyone is crowded near the main streets where the formula ones will soon be racing by. Near the crowd, a man, Jose, is running with a first aid kit in his hand. Someone on an overlooking rooftop fires a gun and shoots him.

In the last lap of the grand prix, Speed is ahead by one car length in his supercharged formula one. He keeps the lead and wins the race. At the finish line, a pretty Hispanic girl in a Spanish-style red dress gives Speed a congratulatory kiss -- to Trixie's dismay! Even worse for Trixie, Speed enjoys it.

As the girl, Maria, dances as part of the race celebration, she stops, horrified seeing Jose injured and staggering towards her. He staggers, falls but manages to give her the first aid kit with a snake serum in it. No sooner does he do so than he dies. Maria immediately runs to a jeep and starts it, but before her hand is barely off the key, a hidden time bomb explodes, knocking her to the ground but leaving her unharmed. When a sinister looking guy notices she's ok, he begins to chase her. Speed does his best to keep up with the pair. She runs into a narrow stairway leading up into a stadium.

As Maria approaches the top of the stairs, another bad guy, armed with throwing knives, appears. As he prepares to throw a knife at Maria, Speed reaches him. He stops him, but then has to prevent himself from being stabbed. During this little altercation, two more bad guys let a bull loose into the ring. [I think the animators mixed up Spain and South America here...] As the knife thrower makes his exit, Speed and Maria are left on their against the bull. They run. Since they wouldn't outrun a bull for long, it's lucky for them that Sparky has driven the Mach Five into the stadium and picks them up in the nick of time. trixie, Spritle and Chim-Chim, watching from the stands of the stadium, breathe sighs of relief.

In the Mach Five, Maria tells Speed and Sparky that her borther Juan was bitten by a poisonous snake and needs the serum to live.

In the distant village of Tonado, Juan, head of the village, is in bed. A man, Fransco, near the bed says Juan has only three hours left. Fransco is unconcerned about juan's fate, though. Outside, he is approached by an older man and told that ``our men'' failed and Maria has the serum. FransiscoFransco is none too happy and angrily says that he wants Juan to ``kick the goatskin'' [I'm not kidding!] so that Fransco can be the mayor and take the village's hidden treasure.

By now, Speed and Maria, with Spritle and Chim-Chim hiding in the trunk, are on their way to Tonado in the Mach Five. Speed and Maria can't figure out why Juan, a well-liked mayor, would be in this sort of trouble. On the way, they come to a rickety bridge over a rushing river. Maria wonders if they should use it, but Speed says it's the one for 100 miles. [By the way, in this episode, it sounds like Peter Fernandez has a cold.] Anyway, bad guys are waiting upstream and cut ropes holding back a big pile of logs. The logs rush downstream and smah the bridge. The Mach Five ends up sitting on a section of bridge, floating downstream. Somehow during this ordeal, Speed was not knocked unconscious, and now Maria wakes him. To be safe, Speed close the cockpit cover but sees they're headed towards a water fall. He tries to use the jacks as brakes, but they don't hold. One even breaks. As the get just to the edge, there are a few boulders ticking out of the water there. Speed extends the rotary saws to stop the car against them, keeping the car from going over the edge.

Back in Tonado, there is only 90 minutes left for Juan.

Speed uses the homing robot to shoot a thin rope from the Mach Five to a tree on the bank. Chim-Chim, with Spritle, emerges from the trunk. He takes a thicker rope and shimmies over the thinner one to shore. While he's tying the thick rope to the tree, Speed has somehow or other managed to take the tire off the Mach Five's rear right wheel. He can then rope the other end of the rope around and use it like a winch. He climbs in the Mach Five, gently pushes the accelerator and pulls the Mach Five and its occupants to safety.

At this point, Fransco is happy because there's only an hour to go. He not so happy when he hears that Maria is till on her way. They've been foiled again.

As the Mach Five continues on, there is an explosion sending rocks down and blocking the way. Up high, are four men on horseback from the village who start shooting at them. Speed and Maria pretend to run in fear so that the men will follow them. It works. But this was a diversion so that Spritle and Chim-Chim can get away with the serum. When the bad guys say they want the serum, Speed says he left it in the car. When he reaches in, supposedly to get it, he sends the homing robot out to knock the guns from the hands of the men. Maria grabs a rifle and shoots a gun further away from a man trying to reach for his on the ground.

In Tonado, old, white haired Biyehar is worried. Francisco Fransco, on the other hand, is obviously happy. While he's outside telling the village that he'll be the new mayor, Spritle and Chim-Chim sneak in through the thatched roof with the serum. Minutes later, Spritle comes out telling the village the truth of the matter. Not giving up, Fransco says he still has Maria. But just then she and Speed drive up. Desperate, Fransco's men begin to burn the village. A little further away, someone opens a bullpen and fires a shot, starting a stampede that heads toward the village. Fransco takes advantage of the chaos to steal the village's treasure. He rides off with it on horseback and with Speed catching up in the Mach Five. It begins to rain and darkens so much that Fransco almost rides off the edge of some ruins. Speed gets out of the Mach Five and Fransco begins swinging a knife at him. But he loses his balance and falls from the ruins to his death.

Back in Tonado, everyone vows to rebuild the village. As they sit around a bonfire, Maria does her sexy little Spanish dance again. When Chim-Chim mimics her, everyone laughs.