It sounds like you have framed this as a contest between the player and the hot-shot upstart NPC. Any other racers are just color (as they usually are in race stories - how significant are any racers other than Ben Hur and Messala?).
The other option is that you have the PC paired off against his rival and against a dark horse NPC. Keep score separately. That way the PC may beat his rival but lose to the dark horse.
Ultimately the contest should depend on what the story is really about. If this is a tory about the player versus the hot-shot upstart, I'd suggest doing it mano a mano.
Jeff
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