Stage 7: First Date.  At the end of Stage 6 you’re told you’re getting a car.  This is where you get it, and it’s the race-spec version of the Maserati.  Note - if you’ve already purchased the car, you get the one you purchased, any upgrades included.  If you haven’t purchased one yet, you get it for free (I assume at this point it’s not a loaner).  Anyway, only four challenges here:

Challenge 1: Hunter at Hockenheimring

Challenge 2: 1 lap Head to Head at Mazda Laguna Seca.  Finish 2nd, all the while staying within 30 yards (27 meters) of the lead car.  By the way, I experimented and won the race the first time, receiving a gold medal.  The second time I raced I stayed in second to meet the goal, and still completed the challenge (a blank medal appeared rather than silver).  So, it seems that if you want the gold medal for your statistics, you’ll need to lose the challenge first by winning the race, then retry to meet the goal.

Note: at this point I was told that there were no more goals until “tomorrow”, and I was locked out of the event for the moment.  I don’t know if this was intentional, a bug, or due to all the messing around I need to do with my settings to get into these stages.  A few waves of my magic wand and I was back in though.

Challenge 3: Drag Race. Yippee. I’ve been waiting for a race that offers me a real challenge and a chance to use all my racing skills. 

Challenge 4: 2 lap Cup at Le Mans (night), grid of 16.  Apparently the monkeys now have power over the stars, as the night sky in this race looked pretty bright to me.  I could see the mountains clearly off in the distance!

Completion bonus: 15 GC

Well, that was a grinding, exhausting stage. 4 total laps and a drag race. I’ll be back tomorrow after I’ve had time to recover. ;)