Once the 36 T2 drivers were spread out, Shen Qi was unlikely to be eliminated unless he had spectacularly bad luck and five of them ended up in his group, all in perfect condition, with no injuries or Pokémon adjustment periods.
He glanced over his group.
Shen Qi's race was on the very standard White Cape Road Section.
Apart from Cerulean City, which hosted the Summer Race and was rather far from White Cape, the other three seasonal races all involved the extensive inner sea coastline-White Cape.
In Shen Qi's group... there was one unfamiliar T2 driver. No big deal. The Rainbow Flying Sword wasn't in his group.
"Then I'll safely advance in fourth or fifth."
Not only were there no other T2 drivers in his group, there weren't any drivers Shen Qi knew, either.
The only somewhat distinctive thing was a race car: Aisora.
A name he had never heard before.
He took out his phone and searched. The car's manufacturer was... the Aether Foundation!
"Well..."
The draw for Shen Qi's group had already passed, so he hadn't had time to see which driver drove Aisora.
He logged onto the website to check. Aisora's driver was named "Gladiolus."
It was... Gladion.
The Aether Foundation was already a huge clue. Gladion's name came from Gladiolus, the flower.
Lillie's came from Lilie, meaning lily.
"That kid. Didn't his mom forbid him from racing?"
Gladion had obtained his Racing License, but he was only a Trainee Driver. At most, he could run Circuit Races at the Aether Foundation, and occasionally enter exhibition races during celebrations with his mother's permission.
When Shen Qi left the Alola Region, Gladion had just secured his race completion record. As a Trainee Driver, he could start accumulating Driver Points from zero.
That was a level Li Yizi