While Chris and Martin are playing with their new cheetah friend, Blur, Aviva designs a new invention, Cheetah Sneaks, hoping that it will be able to outrun a cheetah. However, the invention fails, and the Kratt Brothers announce that no land animal can run faster than the cheetah—capable of running speeds up to 75 miles per hour. Aviva takes on the challenge and tries to design an invention that she hopes will outrun the cheetah, though Chris and Martin doubt she will succeed. Learning of Aviva's plan, Zach tries to prove that he is a better inventor than her, and joins in, turning the friendly competition into a high-speed race.
Tropes:
- Always Someone Better: Zach thinks Aviva sees him as a competitor to beat who is at the top of his field. In actuality, it's his ego talking and Aviva is more than happy to lord her accomplishments over him while viewing him as what he actually is.
- Amusing Injuries: Chris accidentally kicks Jimmy, sending him crashing into two Zachbots. Once he lands, he immediately takes out a slice of pizza and eats it.
- Be the Ball: Zach orders his Zachbots to roll him out. They respond by shaping him into a ball and rolling him out of his plane.
- Blatant Lies:
- When Chris lays out the ground rules for the race, Zach insists he would never cheat. But of course, he ends up finding a way to cheat anyway.
- Later on, Koki asks where Blur is, and Zach tells her that he saw the cheetah run away. It's later revealed that he captured Blur for usage as a power source for his ZTV.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Zach goes against Chris's rule of not using animals to power his machine used in the race by using Blur as a Power Source. Unsurprisingly, he doesn't just end up not winning the race, he's effectively defeated."Even the cheaters can't beat the cheetah."
- Continuity Nod:
- When confronting Zach, Aviva brings up her time at science camp with him, which was mentioned in "Mystery of the Weird-Looking Walrus".
- Chris lays out ground rules for the race, causing Zach to complain with "there he goes with the rules again", just as he did in "Bass Class".
- Covered in Gunge: Martin ends up being thrown out of the Tortuga by Aviva's Cheetah Racer, and lands in a mud wallow full of bathing rhinos.
- Dark Horse Victory: Zach wants a competition between him and Aviva. When Martin brings up the possibility of Blur winning, Zach simply laughs at the prospect. Lo and behold, Blur is the one who ends up winning by only a whisker — and by that point, Zach is taken out of the race entirely.
- Drives Like Crazy: Chris attempting to drive the Createrra through rough terrain to keep up with Martin and Blur ends up resulting in the vehicle pinballing into two termite mounds and then colliding into a ditch. Amazingly, about the only totalities to the car include a popped-off tire, smoke coming out of the hood, and a cracked windshield completely coming off.
- Eat Dirt, Cheap: Despite being a transformed gazelle, Chris is shown with a clump of grass in his mouth at one point, in addition to knowing about the different types of grass that grows on the African Savannah.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Zach is very much willing to cheat in his race against Aviva. When his plan to use Blur as a power source fails, however, he resorts to using the cockpit of his machine to fly...but keeps one wheel on the ground in accordance with the "no flying vehicles" rule.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Blur is quick to growl at Zach the second he steps over to the Kratt brothers and starts to antagonize them. He's quick to scream in terror and leap into the safety of his Zachbot's arms before Martin explains that Blur thinks he looks like a vulture.
- Gone Horribly Right: Chris transforms into a gazelle to have Blur chase him so that Aviva can gather up data for her Cheetah Racer. It ends up working a little too well, though — Blur catches him, but he's quick to start up Round Two, and the next time we see him he soars past the Tortuga with the cheetah hot on his tail. His pleas for help are easily dismissed as him playing with Blur at first.
- Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: When Chris leaves the mini-pile that consists of him, Jimmy and Martin, the latter two spend a few seconds suspended in midair before they collapse to the ground.
- Head Hat: Martin briefly wears a gazelle skull for Chris to use in transforming into a gazelle.
- Hologram: Chris uses a hologram of a gazelle in order to trick Blur into running so Martin can race her. It works.
- Innocently Insensitive: Martin tells Zach that Blur thinks he looks like a vulture, hence why she growled at him. He's stating the truth, but Zach's response is still a sarcastic "ha, ha".
- Inventing the Wheel: According to Zach, his great-times-eleven grandfather was the one who invented the wheel. Being that this is Zach who's asserting this, though, it's likely not true.
- Lady Looks Like a Dude: Blur is mistakenly referred to as male numerous times by different characters, even though she's female.
- Oh, No... Not Again!: Just as Chris recovers from being tackled by Blur three times, she goes for Round Four and begins chasing him around the savannah.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Zach's disguise is that of a cumulus cloud in a sky full of altostratus clouds. Still no one manages to spot him until he starts mocking Aviva.Zach: You didn't even know I was here, haha! I should've rained on you!
Aviva: Nice. - Rooting for the Empire: An In-Universe example that's Played for Laughs. During the race between Martin and Blur, Aviva cheers for Martin while Chris cheers for Blur. When Aviva asks him if he's going to cheer for Martin, he responds that "hey, someone's gotta root for the cheetah!"
- Shout-Out: Martin remarks on how the cheetah is "smarter than your average wildcat".
- Sore Loser: Zach is removed from the race due to spinning out from an attempt to avoid a termite mound, but still decides to declare a rematch when he recovers.
- Suicide Mission: Out of the brothers, Chris is the one who takes the mantle in being Blur's prey, transforming into a gazelle to make her run after him so that the rest of the Wild Kratts Crew can study her. Martin's quick to lampshade how crazy his idea is.Martin: Powering up as cheetah prey? Now that's what I call creature crazy! It's been good knowing ya, brother.
- Super-Speed: Martin's new Cheetah Sneaks are supposed to be able to give him this power, being able to run faster than a cheetah at 70 miles per hour. However, they don't work as intended when he ends up losing to Blur by a landslide.
- Tricked-Out Shoes: Downplayed. Aviva's Cheetah Sneaks enable the wearer to run faster, but don't have magical properties to them, instead boasting racing stripes, spring-haired soles, and streamlining surface coating.
- Wacky Racing: The episode slowly devolves into this over time. The first race between Martin and Blur was tame, but when Zach enters the fray, things get heated.
- Won't Get Fooled Again: The first time the gazelle is projected, Blur falls for it and chases after it. The second time around, she spots it and stares at it, but quickly loses interest as she sees it's just a hologram.
