World Grand Prix Championship season 17 [RP Thread]

[Filindostan]

Eelandii Grand Prix Circuit
Eelandii, Turori

After Werner went away from Rusty's car, the Filindo driver climbed out for a final ritual of urination before the second session started. When he returned to the car, he noticed several staff working on the four wheels of his car, with the tyres being replaced.

"Um... What are you... um... doing... to the... car?" He asked one of the staff who are currently changing the tyres of the car used by the Vilitan Union delegation in the past Olympic Games.

"Sir, we receive the invoice payment from Mr. Werner Ragos for additional tyres for the second practice session." The staff politedly replied the confused Rusty, with Werner just returning to the pit garage.

"Um, Werner, is this the expected move? I didn't actually asked for new tyres for the second practice, as that should have been for the race."

"Ah, Rusty, seemed that I fucked up on that one."

Rusty laughed a little bit on the situation. "Hahaha, okay, I don't mind, but how are we gonna handle it for the race?"

"Are you still planning to use new tyres for the race event?"

"Of course Werner. We have come this far, and I feel I have a chance to take this seat. So let's roll the dice and take any opportunity that comes along."

"Okay, let's see." Werner opened his personal laptop and browsed through the documents in the folder in which the sponsorship details were contained. He opened one specific file of interest and opened it.

"Alas, Rusty, seems we have unaccounted funds for this trip. Remember the local Filindostani sponsor, Orion Company? We were not able to account their sponsorship for preseason testing. We can use this to purchase additional tyres for the race."

"Okay then Werner, I'll go all out this time."

"Just... don't destroy the car, pretty please?"

It was time to start the second practice session, with Rusty getting out of the track for the second practice session, and set consistently fast times. The trend would continue after the working lunch session, and with the car replenished with fuel and tyres for the qualifying session, Rusty set the second fastest time in the first qualifying session, but for some reason, the session continued into a second one with the top 6 fighting it out for top spot, and the Filindostani grabbed the pole position for the race simulation that is going to take place later.

[Savojarna]

Kopylov InternazionRing, Mattijana

Things were looking good for Sigur Bjarnason and his team as he completes Lap 50 around his team’s home track. Not needing to finetune any setups on this track, MRT decided to get the most out of the test and put in a few fast laps in the morning, before switching to harder tyres and running a race simulation. In the box, the engineers analysed the data of the first test run, comparing the times of Sigur to his most likely opponents for the Championship. Consistency had been a bit of a problem for the Savojar in the last year, coupling his two victories with a number of zeroes that ended up hurting him badly. This year, things were looking fairly well for the young MRT driver.

The first test in Esmerel was a weekend of hard work where the Mattijanan team attempted to find out how to deal with the high number of aggressive, fast tracks around the world this year, a type of track that never fit well with the car. Sigur still shuddered when he thought back to last year’s race in Forest Cross, where he had to deal with the fallout of a blown engine in Mattijana and a somewhat limited engine. The MRT was barely competitive on the highspeed track of Esmerel, and after the qualifying Sigur had made some more gossipy headlines by tossing his gear into a corner of the garage and running off to a long mountainbike session in the forests before facing the press. The more serious outlets thankfully hadn’t believed the rumours and went with the official lines of his team that the post-session analysis took longer than usual. Unfortunately, Sigur and his team knew just too well that the gossipy outlets were right. This year, with less on the line, he was more relaxed and could enjoy his session leading to a fifth place, a respectable result for the notoriously difficult Esmerelian track. This week would be less stressful for everyone, with the ways shorter and the track better suited to the car.

In the box, Livar Mikaelsson was hunched over a spreadsheet. He was a young engineer, having just graduated from TU Pawlograd, the country’s prime technical university where Krister Arlund had been scouting for some engineering talent in the off-season. Having studied aerodynamics under Dr. Pavel Suvchenko, the mastermind behind the SVJ-001 that competed in the WGP2, a career in racing had always been a dream for Livar. The Savojar had been spotted by Arlund and been offered an internship with Bjarnason’s personal technical team until the first mid-season test. He was tasked with working out the details of the qualifying lap that Sigur had done earlier, and compare it with the other top drivers. It was certainly not the most intellectually challenging task, but he needed to complete it quickly. Bonus points for spotting things, he quickly had learned: Even if he was just an intern, Savojars and Mattijanans alike seemed to appreciate his input if it was smart.

What he saw was not surprising: Schramm and Mercer-Daly were taking time off him in the middle sector, but Sigur was fastest in the last sector. Guilhermez had a similar profile, but the Krytenian managed to drive a little bit faster on his quickest lap. Only Schramm and Mercer-Daly were continuously faster than the Savojar, who beat Guilhermez on most of his fast runs and was about even with iBen Toralmintii. This was more worrying: Apparently, the MRT was not able to make up for the time lost in the more aggressive, faster second sector in the third, winding part where Bjarnason was fastest in most of his laps. The big unknown were the defending champions, Jess Franssen and her VMR team. The Vannish side had not revealed their cards yet: Their fast runs were not done with the best possible setup and tyre combination, and the World Champion only came in 9th. It didn’t have to mean anything, but there was one thing that Livar had noted: In the third sector, they were losing consistent but small amounts, and in the second Franssen was even very competitive; but in the first sector, VMR lost sometimes huge amounts of time to the top teams. Apparently VMR did struggle with the “fast straights, slow corners” approach of the first sector.

The engineering team took its lessons about the setup and adjusted some things, putting the car on a race configuration for the last ninety minutes of the session. Sigur drove a few slower laps to get the tyres up to temperature before taking on a race simulation. In the box, Livar was tasked with helping Arlund to track the times. The race engineer had taken on a bit of a mentor role, as he got along well with the quiet, nerdy intern who liked to bury his nose in the car’s data and showed a strength for seeing things in the mass of technical data that the telemetry produced. They were chatting about the field and the season ahead, getting increasingly positive about what they saw. Despite the tyres getting older, and Sigur not pushing for the fastest laps possible, they lost just a few seconds to the part of the field that still did fast laps. More importantly, the lap times were highly consistent, staying almost entirely within the range of a bit over a second. After around thirty laps, they got an idea. “Livar, let’s go over and ask Gregori’s team for a duel on the track. I wanna see how this car reacts in fighting”.

Out on the track, Sigur’s eyes lit up as Krister connected to him. “Sigur, when you hit Gregori, stick behind him for half a lap. Once you cross the finish line, try to overtake him as soon as you can. He’ll fight back, don’t wreck the car”, Krister briefed him as the Savojar driver approached the fifth turn. On the way to the final sector, he spotted the green MRT ahead of him. As he approached in the back, Krupin immediately picked up the pace. The Sorlovian hadn’t had the best session so far, and now he needed to prove his worth against his Savojar teammate. Sigur latched onto his back and tried to stick to it, not conceding any space as they lined up for their duel to begin.

As they crossed the finish line, the Savojar immediately tried a quick attack on the long straight. Faking an attack to the left, he forced Krupin just a little bit too far out and wedged his nose in on the inside, but the Sorlovian shut the door as Sigur needed to brake earlier for the first turn. He now had to struggle to stay level with Krupin as his teammate had the inside on the Sling. Approaching turn four, he lined up for another attack on the inside, almost pushing his teammate off the track, but maintaining position as they shot out of the corner and towards the fifth one. Getting the inside yet again was a great possibility to overtake, but Sigur hit the brakes just a little bit too hard and lost his edge. Trailing behind Krupin throughout the second sector, his adrenaline surged. This was racing. This was what he lived for. A year of WGPC made him never want to go fully back to rallye. No jumps and slides can ever replace this thrill of a wheel to wheel fight. He needed to get the inside for 11. Attacking hard, the Savojar tried to get his position as he slammed the pedal down out of Turn 10. Pulling slightly ahead, he got his nose level with Krupins… and a bit in front… and then braked again, as the Sorlovian pulled in. But he couldn’t close the corner all the way, as Sigur had his car there, and the Savojar knew it. Making sure he wouldn’t lose the position, he carefully steered towards the second apex and slammed the pedal down. His wheels spun ever so slightly, letting his teammate pull up with him again, but the outside would be better in Turn 12. Taking more speed with him, Sigur shot out of the turn in front of the Sorlovian. “Great racing, Sigur. You’re ready for the season”, Arlund shouted enthusiastically on the radio. Sigur smiled.

After the session, he climbed out of his car, still on a high of a test session well done. The three hours had passed in a blip, and it was time to take a quick refresher while the test results were being processed and he waited for his debriefing. He couldn’t quite wait to get to it, and then go home and prepare for his housewarming party. Next to him, he saw the engineers pushing Krupin’s car into the garage and Livar and Krister being already bent over the data. He walked over to the Sorlovian as he climbed out of the car, and extended his hand. “Good fight out there, Gregori. You’ll be tough competition this year. See you at mine tonight, yeah?”

[West-East Timor]

Baranburg Circuit
Baranburg
West-East Timor

Linus Anthonson had gathered the drivers that would be taking part at the Omni test - Timo Jänkirinää, Jang Xiaopeng, Rustom Ibuna, Alex Dimitrianov, Liuyong Xu and Ryan Harris-Jones - to inform them about how this test was going to work.

"As everyone is here now we can begin, I suppose. As you know I am Linus Anthonson, team principal at Omni. Here with me are Nick Newman..."

"Hi", said Nick Newman.

"...and Parvin Langer, team principal of the Omni Katoa Racing WGP2 team, to assist me in making my decision regarding our second driver. Mick Schramm and Max Garnold sadly could not be present, they are currently at the pre-season test in Mattijana. Kamil Waller, our second engineer, refused to attend due to, as he claims, personal reasons. Anyways. We have six cars here, so you can all hit the track at the same time. First, you will have two warmup sessions to get used to the car and the track. Your cars will be randomly assigned, but as they should all be equal, it doesn't really matter. The pit crew will carry out any set-up changes you may request. Then after the warmup sessions, there will be a qualifying session, where your times actually matter. Then finally, after a lunch break, we will hold a race, with the grid in order of the qualifying times. This is because we do not only want to see you on a fast lap, but also how you race against others on track. The race will be rather short and only span 15 laps, however, and you will not need to do any pit stops. We expect to see your abilities at wheel-to-wheel racing in this. We will also see how good you are at managing tires and fuel. Your tires will last the fifteen laps, but not by much. If you don't preserve your tires, you may finish a bit further down than you would if everyone had harder tires. You will also just have enough fuel to complete the 15 laps. A driver who runs out of fuel before the end of the race is really not something any team needs. Howeve, whoever wins the race does not automatically get the contract. We will decide on tat after all sessions are through. Anyways. Here is a map of Baranburg Ciruit.



"As you can see it is an, at least somewhat, balanced circuit, which is why we chose it for the test. It has slow corners, fast corners, and long straights. It will allow us to test all your abilities. Well, of course, we already know Jang's abilities, but we can also compare you, Jang, to the others then. Anyways. Go put on your racing suits, and then you can head down to the garage and we can start the first warmup sessions."

---

At lunch break, Linus, Nick and Parvin were having a lookk at the results so far.

Warmup 1:

POS # DRIVER                   TEAM                	FASTEST LAP	BEHIND LEADER
 1 42 Alex Dimitrianov         Omni Racing              	00:01:25.226	00:00:00.000
 2 25 Timo Jänkirinää          Omni Racing              	00:01:25.280	00:00:00.054
 3 13 Xiaopeng Jang            Omni Racing              	00:01:25.298	00:00:00.072
 4 27 Ryan Harris-Jones        Omni Racing              	00:01:25.377	00:00:00.151
 5 71 Rustom Ibuna             Omni Racing              	00:01:25.436	00:00:00.210
 6 47 Liuyong Xu               Omni Racing              	00:01:25.460	00:00:00.234
 
 Warmup 2:
 
 POS # DRIVER                   TEAM                	FASTEST LAP	BEHIND LEADER
 1 71 Rustom Ibuna             Omni Racing              	00:01:25.216	00:00:00.000
 2 25 Timo Jänkirinää          Omni Racing              	00:01:25.220	00:00:00.004
 3 42 Alex Dimitrianov         Omni Racing              	00:01:25.303	00:00:00.087
 4 13 Xiaopeng Jang            Omni Racing              	00:01:25.305	00:00:00.089
 5 27 Ryan Harris-Jones        Omni Racing              	00:01:25.725	00:00:00.509
 6 47 Liuyong Xu               Omni Racing              	00:01:25.858	00:00:00.643
 
 Qualifying:
 
 POS # DRIVER                   TEAM                       FASTEST LAP      BEHIND LEADER
 1 27 Ryan Harris-Jones        Omni Racing              	00:01:25.233	00:00:00.000
 2 42 Alex Dimitrianov         Omni Racing              	00:01:26.409	00:00:01.176
 3 13 Xiaopeng Jang            Omni Racing              	00:01:25.427	00:00:00.194
 4 71 Rustom Ibuna             Omni Racing              	00:01:25.621	00:00:00.388
 5 25 Timo Jänkirinää          Omni Racing              	00:01:25.689	00:00:00.456
 6 47 Liuyong Xu               Omni Racing              	00:01:25.900	00:00:00.668

"So far, it seems Dimitrianov and Jang are the most consistently good. Ibuna did well too, and had the fastest overall time in the second warmup. Timo looked strong in the warmups, but his qualifying is disappointing. Harris-Jones did not look strong in the warmups, but surprisingly he made it on pole in qualifying, so that is promising. Liuyong seems rather disappointing so far, being last in every session. But let's see what the race will bring", Parvin analyzed.

"So far I think I'd have to decide between Dimitrianov and Jang. But yeah, let's wait and see."

---

The test race was over, and those were the results:

POS # DRIVER                   TEAM                BEHIND LEADER
 1 13 Xiaopeng Jang            Omni Racing          00:00:00.000
 2 71 Rustom Ibuna             Omni Racing          00:00:00.038
 3 47 Liuyong Xu               Omni Racing          00:00:00.979
 4 42 Alex Dimitrianov         Omni Racing          00:00:01.577
 5 25 Timo Jänkirinää          Omni Racing          00:00:04.459
 6 27 Ryan Harris-Jones        Omni Racing          00:00:05.062

"Alright, pretty good race, everyone", Linus said after all the drivers had gathered again. "You can now go and eat something, or, whatever you want, while we will be making our decisions. See you all later."

[Krytenia]

Testing had gone well so far. The Mirrors was powerful and responsive, the tyres giving reliable feedback to Steb's fingers on the steering wheel. It was as if the car was an extension of his body, that every movement of his hands was moving the car directly rather than through electronics and machinery.

It felt good.

The technicians, too, were happy. Steb was a diligent tester, understanding the nuances of what the boys and girls in the pit lane were looking for whilst his teammate, the experienced Vilitan R L Cruisin, was testing the limits of brake and gearbox performance.

As the time began to expire on the session, though, it was time for a proper run. See what this baby could really do in qualifying trim. The voice of his engineer, James Tidy, came over the radio as he exited Turn Fourteen. "Ready to gun it, Steb?"

Steb chuckled. "I'd be in the wrong job if I wasn't, Jaime."

The Krytenian floored the throttle coming out of Turn Fifteen, and the Mirrors responded with a guttural scream of turbo. The first sector was exactly the kind of turns he loved, a test of skill in finding the apex and feathering throttle or brake as necessary. He felt like he'd never been away. A clear track ahead meant he could give it the berries properly through the longer back straights before coming into the twisty final part of the course. Cruisin, he'd heard, almost binned the car at Turn Eleven putting the brakes through their paces, but Steb had no such issues. He kissed the apexes almost perfectly, getting a nice rhythm through the loose chicane before feeding his purple missile through the hairpin. As he rounded the final corner and crossed the line, he felt confident he'd got the most out of the car.

"P3, Steb! Good job!"

"Get in! This car's a beast, can't wait to race it properly. Think we've got a race winner here."

"You realise you'll have to listen to the Starblaydi national anthem if we do, right?"

"Oh, I'm hoping I hear it a lot. Just after Celesta, of course!"

James laughed at that one. "Well, you had three tenths on RL, so it's all good, Steb. Cool down procedures, bring her home."

Steb nurced the car into the pit garage, feeling good about himself. Hopefully they could find that extra nudge of performance to top tomorrow's test, but until then, he'd sleep well.

[Vilita and Turori]

Eelandii Invitational kicks off with Concludes with Exhibition Event

Eelandii Invitational Event Schedule
07:30: Drivers Meet & Greet
09:00: Warmup Session #1
11:00: Warmup Session #2
12:15: Working Lunch
13:30: Time Trial Session
15:15: Open Race Event with 2 planned intermissions
19:00: Vehicle Inspection & Session Complete
19:30: Drivers Group De-Brief

CITY/TOWN: Eelandii
COUNTRY: Turori
EVENT: Eelandii VTGP Invitational Event
TRACK RATING: (5/5)
QUALIFYING TYPE: Two-Tier
LAP RECORD: 1:22.409 (Jai Kardaeri, WGPC 12)
LENGTH OF ONE LAP: 5.19km

---

Eelandii Grand Prix Course, Eelandii, Turori :: With the Time Trial Complete and Filindostans Rustom Ibuna coming out on top after a second round effort to best R.L. Cruisin who had put in the fastest flying lap in the first session. The only other driver to improve in the second round was veteran Starblaydi driver Jai Kardaeri who had barely snuck into the top 6 for the second round but jumped up to the third starting qualifying position for the race event.

A number of drivers has gotten fresh tyres for the start of the race exhibition event and those drivers in the Top 6 certainly needed them after the second session. One of the Top 6 drivers did not get fresh tires, however, Vilita and Turori's Juracai Klianiota who was just keeping their skills up as they will serve as Tropicorp Racing Aelund test driver for the season, was stuck on the qualifying tyres and it showed as they slipped through the field in the First Segment. There was some excitement on the sixth lap in the Stadium Circle as Alex Dimitrianov and Cesaro Whittaker got together as they both tried to go underneath the sliding Klianiota. Dimitrianov got the worst of the incident and limped onto pit road having punctured a tyre. As a result, Dimitrianov's tyres for the first pitstop were put onto the car and the crowd got some excitement as they came back with fresh tyres in an effort to hunt down Jacoppo Montaguti who was last in the pack as Rustom Ibuna seemed to be running away at the front of the field. Dimitrianov finally caught Montaguti on the final lap and around the final corner made the move to beat them back to the flag to avoid placing last. It did mean that Dimitrianov had already used their fast tyres for the second segment however putting the Mattijanan driver at a disadvantage once racing resumed.

EELANDII VTGP INVITATIONAL EXHIBITION

Segment 1:

POS DRV Name                     Team				Time
  1 IBU Rustom Ibuna             Vilitan Union Open Wheel 	00:23:10.677
  2 C23 Cocoabo #23              Cocoabo Forest OW        	00:00:22.475
  3 KRD Jai Kardaeri             Vilitan Union Open Wheel 	00:00:25.698
  4 CRU R.L. Cruisin             Vilitan Union Open Wheel 	00:00:25.730
  5 JCS Jelena Colac-Strek       Vilitan Union OW Spare   	00:00:36.793
  6 RJJ Ryan Harris-Jones        Vilitan Union Open Wheel 	00:00:37.158
  7 JNK Timo Jänkirinää          Vilitan Union Open Wheel 	00:00:37.214
  8 KLI Juracai Klianiota        Vilitan Union OW Spare   	00:00:38.892
  9 WHT Cesaro Whittaker         Vilitan Union Open Wheel 	00:00:48.081
 10 DIM Alex Dimitrianov         Vilitan Union Open Wheel 	00:01:01.524
 11 MTG Jacoppo Montaguti        Vilitan Union Open Wheel 	00:01:01.581

Fastest Lap: [MTJ] Alex Dimitrianov         00:01:22.738

Segment 2:

POS DRV Name                     Team	Time
  1 KRD Jai Kardaeri             Vilitan Union Open Wheel 	00:23:06.814
  2 IBU Rustom Ibuna             Vilitan Union Open Wheel 	00:00:15.819
  3 RJJ Ryan Harris-Jones        Vilitan Union Open Wheel 	00:00:28.363
  4 C23 Cocoabo #23              Cocoabo Forest OW        	00:00:29.318
  5 CRU R.L. Cruisin             Vilitan Union Open Wheel 	00:00:30.566
  6 JCS Jelena Colac-Strek       Vilitan Union OW Spare   	00:00:43.515
  7 JNK Timo Jänkirinää          Vilitan Union Open Wheel 	00:00:51.867
  8 WHT Cesaro Whittaker         Vilitan Union Open Wheel	00:00:53.410
  9 DIM Alex Dimitrianov         Vilitan Union Open Wheel 	00:00:56.293
 10 KLI Juracai Klianiota        Vilitan Union OW Spare   	00:00:59.670
 11 MTG Jacoppo Montaguti        Vilitan Union Open Wheel 	Laps Down: 1

Fastest Lap:  [LEN] Ryan Harris-Jones        00:01:22.758

Final Segment:

POS DRV Name                     Team	Time	Pts
  1 CRU R.L. Cruisin             Vilitan Union Open Wheel 	00:23:04.728
  2 IBU Rustom Ibuna             Vilitan Union Open Wheel 	00:00:02.401
  3 KRD Jai Kardaeri             Vilitan Union Open Wheel 	00:00:11.826
  4 JNK Timo Jänkirinää          Vilitan Union Open Wheel 	00:00:12.933
  5 JCS Jelena Colac-Strek       Vilitan Union OW Spare   	00:00:43.095
  6 RJJ Ryan Harris-Jones        Vilitan Union Open Wheel     	00:00:43.204
  7 C23 Cocoabo #23              Cocoabo Forest OW   	 	00:00:47.577
  8 DIM Alex Dimitrianov         Vilitan Union Open Wheel 	00:00:47.807
  9 MTG Jacoppo Montaguti        Vilitan Union Open Wheel 	Laps Down: 1
 10 WHT Cesaro Whittaker         Vilitan Union Open Wheel 	DNF
DNS KLI Juracai Klianiota        Vilitan Union OW Spare   	DNS	

Fastest Lap:  [VIL] R.L. Cruisin             00:01:22.688

The Second Segment also lacked excitement up front as Jai Kardaeri made an opening lap pass then put some distance between themselves and the rest of the pack to take the second segment. There was one less car on the track to start the final segment as Juracai Klianiota pulled his spare machine back into the paddock to watch the rest of the race from the sidelines and give a readout to iBen Toralmintii who was watching from atop the paddock. As the event resumed there was once again first turn excitement as R.L. Cruisin drove hard through and then cutting the course ever so slightly to move up into the top spot as Kardaeri and Ibuna were busy trying to steal each others positioning. Cesar Whittaker attempted to follow Cruisin through but misjudged and disrupted the suspension returning to the track. Cruisin would ultimately hold off Ibuna to take the top spot prompting Toralmintii to ask Klianiota to go see what he could do to convince Cruisin to change their mind and drive for Eelandii this season. Then Toralmintii began to chat with stand-in team lead Gary Cook as the two conceded that they better start considering whether Rustom Ibuna would be interested in driving for Eelandii VTGP this season instead. Toralmintii was relieved at least that Cocoabo #23 hadn't won the day, as re-designing the car for the Cocoabo would surely have meant missing all of the pre-season testing. Now, Toralmintii and Cook just needed to see how quickly they could get contracts signed so they could try to join the rest of the WGPC field in Mattijana.

[Sorlovia]

Kopylov Internazionring
Second WGPC17 Practice

Gregori used the arcing corner of the fifteenth turn to slingshot him down the long straight on the approach to the first turn. He'd marked turns two, five, eight, fourteen and fifteen as useful turns that would give him opportunities to make the most of his acceleration. Tight corners didn't pose a risk or a concern to him. He'd used such corners and slingshots to great success in the last season and it was a tactic he intended to make use of again. But at the same time he knew that he would not be the only one to take advantage of the corner. It was a common tactic used by racers to seize on the force of accelerator and natural momentum created by taking the corners wide resulting in the car between propelled out the other side at greater speed.

"Keep an eye out," came the familiar voice through Gregori's ear-piece "I wouldn't be surprised to see Sigur try something. You've seen his track record and his performance on the track. He likes to keep things interesting so expect a bit of fun. Stay sharp on the corners and give him a run for his money."

Pressing his foot down hard on the accelerator Gregori rocketed around the fifteen turn and tore down the long straight towards the first corner. He streaked past Evdaden and Ryke with a smile on his face and took the turn wide to make the most of the following turns. He couldn't see Sigur yet but he knew his teammate would be somewhere not far behind and was likely already closing the distance. Well, he wouldn't make it easy for him. If Sigur wanted to test his skills then he would be more than happy to oblige. It would be give them both an invaluable opportunity to test themselves against each other and to see how their cars handled.

On the thirty fourth lap Gregori's suspicions were proven correct. He spotted the sleek green of Sigur's car coming up fast behind him and a grin painted itself across his face. He pushed down hard on the accelerator and took off at speed. He wouldn't make it easy for Sigur. He deftly cut off his teammate's attempt at a pass baited him with a rev of his engine. They might be on the same racing team but they were competing racers and in time might very well be competing for a podium position. He respected Sigur but he would not find him an easy challenge. A teammate who held back and never pressed you was no fun at all. It seemed Sigur was going to be fun.

Despite his best efforts and the nature of the track Sigur managed to pass him late in the practice run. Though he'd made it as difficult as possible and he'd watched as Sigur made his way up the pack as he, disappointingly, fell back to the eleventh position. But he didn't allow this fact to dishearten him. Instead he pressed down on the accelerator coming into the straights launching himself around corners and using the slipstream created by the other cars to his advantage. He'd underestimated Kopylov Internazionring and that had worked against him. He would not make the same mistake again.

At the end of the practice Gregori stood watching as the engineers pushed his car back into the garage. He leaned his weight onto one leg and watched the sleek green form of the car. It was a fine car and had proved to be a powerful beast that would both challenge and reward him. He looked over at the sound of Sigur's voice and smiled. He shook his teammate's hand and nodded in confirmation that he would indeed be at the housewarming.

"Great racing out there Sigur," he said with a smile "I enjoyed our duel on the track. It's going to be an honour and privilege racing with you. I'll see you at the party. Thank you for inviting me!"

[WGPC]

CUTOFF

for Pre-Season Practice at Kopylov Internazionring - Session 2 of 3

[WGPC]

Week 2: Practice

Conditions:      	Dry
Lap Record:      	00:01:35.244
Session Length:	180 minutes
Nation:         	MTJ
Circuit:        	Kopylov Internazionring

Drivers have 180 minutes to complete as many laps of the track as they like

POS #   DRIVER                                   FASTEST LAP     BEHIND LEADER		
 1 64 ▍Carsten O'Rourke                      	00:01:35.328	00:00:00.000
 2 49 ▍Benjamin Talison                      	00:01:35.338	00:00:00.010
 3 22 ▍Jasmin Kranjska                       	00:01:35.353	00:00:00.025
 4 29 ▍Esteban Guilhermez                    	00:01:35.387	00:00:00.058
 5 27 ▍Gregori Krupin                        	00:01:35.429	00:00:00.100
 6 77 ▍iBen Toralmintii                      	00:01:35.429	00:00:00.101
 7 41 ▍Jean Mercer-Daly                      	00:01:35.492	00:00:00.164
 8 14 ▍Sigur Bjarnason                       	00:01:35.881	00:00:00.552
 9 94 ▍Ryker Lane                            	00:01:35.966	00:00:00.638
10  1 ▍Jessica Franssen                      	00:01:36.111	00:00:00.783
11 52 ▍Sayono Souzare                        	00:01:36.235	00:00:00.907
12 51 ▍RL Cruisin                            	00:01:36.631	00:00:01.303
13 17 ▍Evdaden Carnétier                     	00:01:36.658	00:00:01.330
14  7 ▍Vijay Tripathi                        	00:01:36.782	00:00:01.453
15 20 ▍Mick Schramm                          	00:01:37.088	00:00:01.760
16 15 ▍Tabita Novax                          	00:01:37.393	00:00:02.064
17 56 ▍Terho Talvela                         	00:01:37.496	00:00:02.167
18 18 ▍Taylor Blake                          	00:01:37.509	00:00:02.181
19 63 ▍Dalia Dahl                            	00:01:37.698	00:00:02.370
20 47 ▍Erica Okumura                         	00:01:39.471	00:00:04.142
21  3 ▍Darius Castellammare                  	00:01:41.359	00:00:06.031

Session 3 will be scorinated on Tuesday evening, with the final pre-season practice session happening on Friday evening.. ICly, you might consider session three to be happening 24 hours after session two, as in real life. If you prefer, you might consider session three to be happening a few days afterwards. As in most NS Sports, time is subjective.

[The Sherpa Empire]

Liuyong Xu was annoyed with himself that he hadn't done better at the test for Omni. He was generally an even-keeled guy, but it was incredibly frustrating to be almost good enough and always get beaten out, over and over, by someone else that was just a little better. Whether it was Kai Qiang or Xiaopeng Jang, it seemed like there was always someone.

Back in Guilin, Qiang was getting ready to head west for the Stone Forest 300, one of the races IRACT held in the spring to choose who would represent them in NSSCRA. Xu wondered if maybe he should have done that instead of trying to get into WGPC. Last year, he had come out of Stone Forest still in the running for an NSSCRA charter, but later blew his chance by crashing out at Plum Lake. It was too late to get into IRACT's test races this spring. He had already missed a race in Macau, and he had missed the sign-up deadline for Stone Forest.

They had time to get together for beers before Qiang had to leave. "Maybe you could try to get into WGP2 or SIMS?" Qiang suggested. "I hear Punjab Motors is looking for someone new since Tripathi ditched them. Or you can just wait until Mendok's dad kills me and Liangmei Li has a career-ending case of plastic surgery gone wrong and you can get back into NSSCRA."

"Can you not joke about getting yourself killed?" said Xu. "It's not funny. I've known too many people who actually died."

"Like my parents?" said Qiang.

"Yes. Like your parents. That's not who I had in mind, but yes. What happened to your father still makes me..." He couldn't put his anger into words, but it was clear on his face and in the way his body language stiffened. "Argh! I don't even know how to explain..."

"It makes me want to find the people who were running that work site and bash their brains out," Qiang said, a little too matter-of-factly. "You don't have to explain anything."

"Can you not talk about bashing people's brains out?" said Xu. "You're going to be a father soon. You need to think about what kind of example you're going to set for your daughter. What kind of example are you setting if you're dancing around in drag and threatening to bash people's heads in?"

Qiang took a swig of beer and thumped his glass down on the bar. "Xu, remind me why I talk to you."

"Because maybe, somewhere behind all the drama and publicity-whoring, there's still a decent man who knows when he needs advice?"

"I'm not a publicity whore, and I don't need you to tell me how to live my life," said Qiang. "I've done drag twice in my life, both times for a good cause, and you lecture me about it like I'm pole dancing at a gay bar every night. Why did you even bring it up?"

"Qiang, there are pictures of you all over the internet, and most of them are drag pictures or obscene cartoons. What are you going to tell your daughter if she asks you about those pictures?"

"Hey, I didn't ask people to draw those cartoons!"

"People don't become celebrities by accident," said Xu. "You draw attention to yourself in ways that are not healthy."

[Filindostan]

Eelandii Grand Prix Circuit
Eelandii, Turori

The time for the race simulation event has come. Rusty started in pole position after topping the timesheets in the second qualifying session. His car was also fitted with fresh tyres, as are the top six drivers except Juracai Klianota.

The decision to keep their initial stance on using fresh tyres from the race despite having one as well for the second practice session was duly justified, when the Filindo driver opened up a gap between him and the rest of the pack in the first segment, winning it by 22 seconds. In the second segment though, he lost the lead to Starblaydi driver and former WGPC champion Jai Kardaeri. Rusty though remained upbeat, and decided to keep his pace to keep himself ahead of the rest of the pack, especially from a hard charging Ryan Harris-Jones.

In the last segment of the race, Rusty tried to overtake the Starblaydi driver, but both of them were overtaken by R.L. Cruisin, He managed though to overtake the former WGPC champion into second, and tried to reclaim the top spot from the Vilitan. He pushed hard in the closing laps, but that was it, he finished 2nd behind Cruisin, but just around 2 seconds behind the WGPC veteran.

Upon arriving in the pits for the vehicle inspection, Werner was waiting for him. After climbing out of the car for the final time, He checked for any signs of damage in the car. They saw no damages, and were also able to survey the state of the tyres upon inspection too.

"Good run out there, Rusty. P2, and still there's some life in your tyres."

"Yeah, thanks, Werner, your decision to purchase new tyres led to this result. Had I not changed tyres then, I may have caught up in some battle of some sort."

"I saw that, you were racing with two WGPC veterans wheel to wheel in the last segment."

The two waited for the inspection and the post-race debrief. Rusty met with Werner again to inform his pal about some good news. "The officials asked me if I am interested in taking a race seat for Eelandii VTGP, and I said I am willing to accept should they already present their offer."

"How about the Badai Angin seat, Rusty?"

"I already told 'pa from the start that I plan to race for a competitive team. I don't doubt his abilities as team principal, but it would probably be a risk since it is their debut season."

"Okay, you should inform them of your decision as well, should you pursue that seat."

"I think he already knows it, I'll just send a PM later."

"Okay then. Shall we go?"

---

Fireline Independent Racing Association Office
New Sarum, Ethane

Kristian, the Solymok Tyres' CMO, and Tyra, their official tyre tester, have just arrived in New Sarum after several hours in the air. They were able to quickly locate the office without getting lost in the way. Upon arriving the office, security immediately went in front of them and asked what their business in the office was.

"Um, we're here for Mr. Wesley Garrett of Fireline. We are representatives of Filindostani driver Tyra Tabuso." A feminine voice came rousing from the reception desk.

"Oh, it's Tyra! Guards, let them approach the reception area." Jane told the guards to get out of the way and allow the two to approach her in the reception desk. "Sorry we were late. The plane from San Marco had several delays, and we had struggled at the passport section. Anyway, we're here to finalize the contract negotiations between Fireline and Solymok Tyres, with Tyra Tabuso getting a WGPC drive this season should the deal pushes through.

Jane gave Wesley a call notifying the arrival of the two, and accompanied them to the office of the Fireline team director. Upon the entry of the two, Wesley greeted them and offered them seats around a small, circular table, just at the front of his table.

They first discussed the sponsorship contract for the official tyre supplier of the team. "If you want, Mr. Garrett, we would like to offer a two-season contract between our tyres and your racing team, with the first year guaranteed, and an option for next season with more tyre allocations with the same money package. Also we would like to reiterate additional sponsorship for this year of around 50 percent of the annual sponsorship should you agree to sign our test driver, Tyra Tabuso."

He then discussed about the sponsor logo placement for the Fireline car. He presented Wesley the image of the logo of Solymok, as well as a depiction of a car bearing Fireline's WGPC15 livery with the logo of Solymok and the tyres bearing the '<<' logo, with Benjamin Talison's #49 at the rear wing. Tyra interrupted Kristian by whispering him some ideas, which the Gergarian immediately blurting out: "Tyra would want #99 in the Fireline car if possible, please.", following it up with a short giggle.

After presenting their offer, Kristian gave Wesley and the rest of Fireline some time to think about before possibly signing anything on the dotted line...

---

Badai Angin Tim Headquarters
Yogyakulta, Filindostan

The day before the first testing session at Esmerel is drawing to a close, and there seems no response yet from either Carsten or Rusty, the former having been offered a seat for the first three races of the season, and the latter having his deal pending the result of the testing done at Eelandii in Turori. As the hours came past by, neither had confirmed anything, and Rudolf resigned to the fact that they will miss the first official test, as they would not have enough hours to prepare the car for the testing anyway. Not the end of the world for the team prinicipal though, as the next day, some news have arrived from the camp of the Audioslavian youngster, that they have accepted the seat offer by Badai Angin, but the principal hoped that his performances were good enough to keep him for the rest of the season. One of two seats partially dealt with. Now he would wait for the other's response.

And few hours later, he received a call from his son.

"Hi 'pa!"

"Hello, 'nak."

"I have decided about my future this season. I'll accept the Eelandii VTGP offer once the contract negotiations have started."

"Okay, 'nak, see you in the paddock then."

Rudolf expected his son's response. Either he will go to one team or the other, and Badai Angin was simply not on the priority list of his son this season. Maybe he can show him that they are ready to compete this season, and convince Rusty to lead the charge next season. The Audioslavian hotshot, and whoever they sign as the lead driver. Based from the call with his son, neither Jacoppo nor Alex performed well at the tests at Eelandii. Jasmin was already poached by SinVal, and the events point to one possible conclusion. He called Bryant and Eko to his office to discuss his plan further.

The plan was set in motion. Despite being the favorite to retain his seat at Omni, Badai Angin offers the lead driver spot to Xiaopeng Jang to try to convince him to race for the 'Badai Blue' this season. They will be waiting for the Tainese-Vangazi's response, should no response is received 24 hours before the third trst at Eelandii, the offer will be retracted.

[Sorlovia]

Kopylov Internazionring
Week Two Practice

The Kopylov Internazionring was a tough and unforgiving place. It challenged a racer's skills and put them through the hard yards. But it was not truly untamable if one focused their skills and abilities on the unique attributes of the track. The long straight that offered a sizable boost to your speed and the sharp corners that made for perfect slingshots. It was a challenging track but it was one that stood as an invaluable learning experience with its unique qualities and layout. To do well on it a racer needed to learn the circuit and appreciate its qualities. Gregori had used the first practice as an opportunity to learn the track and the challenges it would throw at him. He'd spent the better part of three hours after the practice run studying his race statistics and the track layout map to see if there was anything we could do to enhance his performance on the circuit. In order to best one's opponent one had to first know their opponent.

Gregori had been immensely satisfied with his fifth place finish. It wasn't a podium finish but it was a step up from his low placing in the last practice. It would look good on his record and would show MRT why they had been right to sign him for the season. A race team liked seeing their racers taking out good placings. Even in a practice session. A racer's success reflected on the team itself. When they did well the team looked good. Gregori was determined to do as best as he could for MRT.

"Don't get cocky Gregori," Gregori thought to himself from his seat next to his car in his garage "You did well but there is always room for improvement. Now isn't the time to get complacent."

He made his way over to the analysis office and lowered himself down into the plush fake leather office chair. The flat screen monitor in front of him displayed long rows of data and a series of colorful simulated images. A 3D image of his car popped up in the middle of the screen with data readouts from each critical part of the car. The engine had coped well with the pressures of the race and his driving style. It had got quite hot but not hot enough to be a problem. The tyres had coped well with his slingshots and tight approaches to the corners. The axles had been unharmed, the steering column had fared well and all other important parts had held up well under the high pressure of the track. The only issue was that the left-side tyres were beginning to show signs of wearing under the pressure of taking significant amounts of force on the corners. They had held up well but he needed to adapt his approach to avoid putting too much pressure on any one side. A tyre blowout in the middle of a race could have disastrous consequences.

Usually this kind of analysis was left to the race engineers while the racers concentrated solely on racing. But Gregori wanted to be more closely involved with his car and how it was faring under the pressures of the track so that he could better understand it. Knowing the specifics of the car's analysis and how it was affected by his performance on the track would help him to be a better racer. If he knew his car he would be able to adapt his handling and driving style accordingly. It meant that he knew what the car didn't cope with well and how he could exploit its strength to enhance his performance on the track.

Sigur's housewarming would give him a chance to let off steam and get to know his teammate. It was always a good practice to have such events peppered throughout the season to prevent you from burning out under the pressure. Long hours spent on the practice circuits and in the analysis chair could have a heavy toll on a racer. It was only to be expected that a racer would eventually exhaust themselves if all they did was sit behind the driver's seat in endless practice runs never taking a break from the standard intense training regimes. Parties were a necessity. As well simple pleasures such as enjoying a beer, going out to a movie or simply sitting quietly in your accommodation with music playing. Every athlete needed his rest and WGPC racers were no exception. In the past racers had cracked under the intense pressure of the WGPC season and had mental breakdowns. Sadly, some had even taken their own lives in fits of mental suffering. The pressure was that intense that even the strongest willed racers could suffer. The human mind was not meant to endure constant high stress without break.

Every racer had their own ways of dealing with the stress. Some went out on recreational drives in the countryside. Some smoked a favourite brand of cigarettes or cigars. Some played music or partied. Gregori enjoyed parties and recreational drives. But his standard ways of unwinding were of a more emotional and quiet variety. A nice quiet candlelight dinner with Elena, a romantic outing with her, a quiet drive out in the country with his favourite music playing or simply sitting on his balcony with a book and a bottle of Mattijanan beer. Such things relaxed both his mind and his heart bringing him a deep sense of peace.

He was looking forward to raceday. The practice sessions were exhilarating and rewarding in their own ways but their was nothing quite like the experience of raceday. The roars of the engines all around you, the colourful tapestry of the other cars and the sound of your tyres on the asphalt. In that moment it was just you and the track. Bliss.

[Falcania]

Kopylov InternazionRing, Kranjagrad, Mattijana
180 Minutes Ago

They had stayed in Lisander long enough to meet some humans from Team Camden whose names Tab had not had time to absorb. She’d been shown the car she was to drive, the Camden N01 which looked… fine? But she’d been told there was no time for a test drive before they had to leave. The sunny shores of Esportiva beckoned.

Mattijana looked - like the car - fine, from the air. Temperate. Forested. Pleasant. Much as Lisander had seemed. Certainly a far cry from the barren cliffs, stony mountains and urban sprawls of the Free Kingdom. She was almost certain she wasn’t going to get mugged, which was a strange feeling.

She’d met humans, of course. There were always a few weirdos who were obsessed with the culture of the Free Kingdom - which had, at some point in the last fifty years, transitioned from “Falcanian ethnostate” to merely “physically inhospitable for humans”. She’d met more in the exciting world of international military service. Relations were always… strained. She didn’t like having to crane her neck to look up at other people. They didn’t like angry women with feathers.

She watched the human drivers and clenched her fists unconsciously. Her black overall was too hot, and bunched up at the wrists and ankles. Someone had gotten her measurements wrong, because she was a head shorter than the other racers. The back had been crudely cut to accommodate her wings.

Mivex was poring over the car, finalising the adjustments for her stature. Crax came over with a big, round bag.

“Got your helmet, Tab.”

“Yeah.” She loosened the string and pulled out the orange and blue orb. “Falcon’s colours, eh?”

“The sun and the sky,” Crax nodded. “You’ve got three hours in the car. Plenty of time to get to grips with it. Now, listen, sometimes the radio is going to be overwhelming in your ear, okay? If it’s too much, say so.”

“It’s fine.”

“The confidence will come. You remember the first time you flew a plane solo?”

“Dunno if that helps. You never seen combat, right?”

“No. But I remember the first car I ever stole.” He patted her on the shoulder. “Different paths, same destination. Just have fun with it, yeah?”

“Sure.”

The steering wheel was - suspiciously - almost identical to the one she’d used on the CEP-3. She steered out of the pitlane, cruising into the line she’d studied on the simulator back in Port Noon, and decided that she didn’t like simulators. The thunder of the engine behind her, the twenty other engines on the track. There was a car ahead of her, a Polaris, and a competitive urge gripped her. She tuned out the voice in her ear, and began the pursuit.

[Starblaydia]

For now, however, Toralmintii was quick to acknowledge that he was not currently planning to drive for his own team but that he was 'ready and willing to drive the thing' if they couldn't find anyone else to do it. When asked who he might get to drive the car, Toralmintii quipped that he was considering making the focus of the team to give old guys a shot to prove they are still better than the youngsters so he was going to "Give Jai Kardaeri and Alexander Lund a call" to see if they were interested in piloting the Eelandii VTGP cars.

Kardaeri checked his email for the fortieth time. Why was the confirmation of his drive not set, yet? They'd not allowed him in to the practice session in Mytanija because he 'didn't have a confirmation for any team'. Rubbish, he was meant to be in the Eelandii! He remembered writing and sending the confirmation email, but it wasn't in his sent items. Maybe his account hadn't synched across all his devices and it just wasn't letting him see all of the sent ones? No, that couldn't be it, he'd written it on this laptop. Finally he went to his Outbox.

Shit.

There it was, in a state of sent-but-not-sent. He bashed 'Send' and 'Send and receive' several more times to make sure it had gone. Once or a dozen times, it didn't matter, as long as it hit his 'Sent' folder, that would be enough. He heard the irritating flying whoosh sound that was entirely unlike paper flying through the air and sat back down to relax. Maybe all this practice would actually pay off for a season, assuming his seat hadn't already been sat in by some lesser driver.

Jai Kardaeri confirms the offer of a seat in the Eelandii.

OOC: And Star needs more RPing time, but work isn't letting him

[Krytenia]

Esteban Guilhermez was more than happy with his performance in testing so far. Consistently near the top of the timing sheets, and with a near-symbiotic knowledge of the car, he was more than ready for the new season, never mind the last day of testing. Sure, the white and purple overalls clashed somewhat with his navy and Krytenian blue helmet, but hey, you can't have it all.

There was a spring in his step as he entered the paddock for testing. He passed the other teams' mobile HQs on his way to the Mirrors section, ready to put the car through its paces one more time. He checked his phone, at which point he paused at the picture that appeared in front of him. It featured Eelandii's new driver, a veteran who looked somewhat out of place in the team's brown and white colours.

Looked like Jai Kardaeri found a team. Steb afforded himself a wry smile as he carried on his way. His thoughts consisted of three words:

It's on, perra.

[The Sherpa Empire]

Vijay Tripathi was starting to get more comfortable with his mixed Sherpalander and Vangazi team. Everyone was learning their roles and getting used to the weird mix of Hindi, Sherpa, and English that was being spoken in the paddock. The engineers were working out the kinks with the car. Geli Amarnath, the grizzled and grotchety pit chief that Tripathi had brought with him from the Sherpa Empire, was pushing the pit crew to perfect their timing so they could have fast pit stops while still having everything put together right. During one of the practice sessions at the Kopylov Internazionring, one of the pit guys screwed up and sent Tripathi back out with a loose tire. Tripathi made it around one lap and came limping back into the pit, where the wheel was fixed and Amarnath chewed out the offending tire-changer who had not attached it correctly the first time. At the end of the session, Tripathi said his piece too, "When we are in a race, we cannot have this!"

Tripathi knew that there were countries where ferrets, cocoabos, ponies, and so on were trained to compete in professional sports -- and in fact, he had raced against ferrets and cocoabos at one race in Guilin -- but competing against non-humans was still not normal to him. Tab Novax was the first Falcanian he had ever seen, and he couldn't help staring when he saw her around the paddock. He sort of knew it was rude to stare, but he couldn't help it. It was not a lustful stare or a judgemental one, just simple curiosity. If she looked his way, he would try to act normal, but he wasn't very good at disguising his curiosity.

[Sorlovia]

Gregori's Hotel Room, Kranjagrad

Gregori had opted to stay near the Kopylov InternazionRing for the time being. He'd booked a hotel room in central Kranjagrad for the next couple of days to make the most of the city. He'd developed quite a liking for the city and its surrounding wilderness areas. He'd spent the hours after the next few hours after the last practice run exploring the city and its businesses. He was a racer at heart but he was also a businessman. After all he needed a way to earn a living in the off season besides his advertisement and endorsement deals. Following WGPC17 he'd formed a sports drink company to create a reliable revenue stream and he was always looking for new markets and stores to stock his drink. He'd also bought a sports bar with a childhood friend to further support himself when he not able to race. As a mark of respect he gave some of his earnings from his businesses to help support his aging parents. It was his duty as a son to take care of his parents. After all, they had invested a sizeable portion of their lives raising him. It was only right that he take care of them in their old age.

His father Nikolai was a hardworking man who had spent most of his life working to provide first for himself and then for his family. He didn't like taking the support payments from his son. In his own words he felt it was like taking handouts when he was still perfectly capable of earning a living. He'd never wanted to retire and continually refused to believe that the back injury would prevent him from going back to work. But Gregori and his mother Svetlana had insisted, backed by the medical authorities, that he not go back to work despite his protests. The next accident might very well be the last and neither of them would let that happen.

"You deserve an easy retirement papochka," he said softly using the affectionate Russian term for father that implied closeness "You're as stubborn as ever and you don't think you deserve it but you do."

Gregori caressed the photo of his parents gently with his thumb. He'd carried the old worn photo in his wallet for years. It was a photo of a much younger version of his parents taken shortly after their wedding in Solnichniy. It was a small token that he treasured. It connected him with his family when he was away with the WGPC meaning that he never lost his connection to home and carried his family with him wherever he went. It was with him on raceday, it was with him when he practiced in the downtime and it sat on his bedside table when he slept. He was a family man at heart and one day planned to add Elena to his small close-knit family. His older sister, older only by seven months, had already given Elena her approval and even his mother seemed to have taken a liking to her. That was a very good sign. His father was the only one what had disapproved. He'd stated, in a private conversation to Gregori, that Elena was too wilful and 'high and mighty' and that he should find an honest hardworking woman like his mother. But Gregori was determined that his father would come to like Elena in time.

[Aboveland]

Terho floors the throttle from turn eight to nine, and it slews towards the outside and off of the optimal line, despite its active aerodynamics and repaired engine. This time, he's running with a qualifying engine map and on softer tyres, as iBen had done the week before, but so far his times hadn't set the world alight. Not at all, in fact, quite the opposite. On the long, sweeping corners, the car understeers massively, and on the long straights his top speed is inconsistent, his braking points wildly variable.

As he accelerates out of turn 15, the full grunt of the V8 under his right foot, he radios Aada.

"Is the car alright?" he asks. While he waits for an answer, he crosses the start-finish line with a time almost a full two seconds slower than the session best, all three of his sector dashes red.

Aada comes onto the radio with an assuring voice. "Engine is fine," she reports, blankly. Right before the braking for turn one, Terho catches a glimpse of the winglets to the sides of his car's engine cover almost flapping in the wind. He brakes later than the previous lap, but earlier than the one before that.

"Ho-" he begins, correcting a slip before continuing. "How's the aero working then?"

A pause, as Aada turns around to consult the aerodynamic team who are reviewing the data the Tropicorp drivetrain engineers have streamed to them. On the track, Terho speeds towards the decreasing radius turn three and brakes for the corner, again drifting off the line and forcing him to lift. For the right hairpin, he adjusts the differential lock map to induce oversteer more easily, but the car fishtails into and out of the apex. He grimaces, but more out of annoyance than out of fear, as he'd felt before. He's certainly not the issue.

Turn five is a straightforward right-angle corner, and at the, for once, optimal braking point, Aada returns. "Uhh," she begins, slightly more uncertain than before, with the hesitance of a person attempting to remember a set of cards. "So the Tropicorp guys report everything is fine with the engine. Are the tweaks fine?"

"Yeah," Terho replies, lifting before turn seven and dabbing the brakes.

"Right," she continues. "The aero is lagging, it seems."

"Ah," Terho says. "No shit." A tyre squeal out of turn seven.

Aada, back at the paddock, reviews a clipboard with prints from the previous tests' performance data. AGP 002's active aerodynamics worked on three principles: a map of the racetrack, uploaded to the vehicles' computers, with wider margins for recommended braking points; an algorithm which adapted to a drivers' braking points according to their previous lap performance; and a slightly more rudimentary input form based off of speed, throttle, brake and g-force readings. Aada frowns as she triple-checks the data. The system had worked perfectly on iBen's car on the first test day in Mattijana, and more so around Lintulahti. Perhaps, she suspected, the issues were related to a faulty sensor in the particular car itself; such sensor was provided by Nortec, back in Aboveland, and as far as she was aware, there were no spares.

She looks up at the monitor before her, lining the pit wall, where Terho's live onboard feed shows him wrestling the car past turns 12 and 13 as the aerodynamics relax and tense to create uneven levels of downforce through the corners. A three dot symbol indicates Terho hasn't been replied to yet. She nibbles on the tip of her thumbnail.

The car has a reset mechanism which reverted its aerodynamic system to factory settings, as in, fixing the wings at their base angle and having them rely purely on aerodynamic forces, thus nullifying the active element of the wings. Alternatively, the wings can be set to rely solely on the final principle on which it based its deployment, that is, speed, throttle and brake percentages, and g-forces. However, any of those options were locked to either a computer back at the paddock or a complicated, impossible to remember button combination. With the session nearing completion, Terho wouldn't be able to go back out onto the track.

...

"Bring it in, Terho," Aada finally communicates, as the Abovian goes around turn three an eighth time. "Software issue."

"Fucking hell," he grunts. "Aero computer?"

"Yeah," Aada sighs. She mutters a soft 'fuck', cupping her microphone away from her mouth.

"Indeed," Terho says, withholding a chuckle, Aada's French accidentally transmitted to the car. She, though, is in no mood for a chuckle, and pulls off her headphones to march back toward the back of the paddock and rummage through a pile of freight boxes. In there somewhere must be a replacement aerodynamic computer.

[WGPC]

CUTOFF

for Pre-Season Practice at Kopylov Internazionring - Session 3 of 3

[WGPC]

Week 2: Practice

Conditions:      	Dry
Lap Record:      	00:01:35.244
Session Length:	180 minutes
Nation:         	MTJ
Circuit:        	Kopylov Internazionring

Drivers have 180 minutes to complete as many laps of the track as they like.

POS #   DRIVER                         FASTEST LAP     BEHIND LEADER		
 1 14 ▍Sigur Bjarnason             	00:01:35.276	00:00:00.000
 2  7 ▍Vijay Tripathi              	00:01:35.277	00:00:00.002
 3 56 ▍Terho Talvela               	00:01:35.330	00:00:00.055
 4 27 ▍Gregori Krupin              	00:01:35.345	00:00:00.069
 5 17 ▍Evdaden Carnétier           	00:01:35.353	00:00:00.077
 6 49 ▍Benjamin Talison            	00:01:35.387	00:00:00.111
 7 51 ▍RL Cruisin                  	00:01:35.393	00:00:00.118
 8 77 ▍iBen Toralmintii            	00:01:35.399	00:00:00.124
 9 22 ▍Jasmin Kranjska             	00:01:35.529	00:00:00.253
10 71 ▍Rustom Ibuna                	00:01:35.553	00:00:00.277
11 52 ▍Sayono Souzare              	00:01:35.575	00:00:00.299
12  3 ▍Darius Castellammare        	00:01:35.602	00:00:00.326
13 18 ▍Taylor Blake                	00:01:35.651	00:00:00.375
14 63 ▍Dalia Dahl                  	00:01:35.733	00:00:00.457
15 33 ▍Jai Kardaeri                	00:01:35.908	00:00:00.632
16 20 ▍Mick Schramm                	00:01:35.935	00:00:00.660
17  1 ▍Jessica Franssen            	00:01:35.970	00:00:00.695
18 94 ▍Ryker Lane                  	00:01:36.279	00:00:01.003
19 64 ▍Carsten O'Rourke            	00:01:36.752	00:00:01.476
20 29 ▍Esteban Guilhermez          	00:01:37.062	00:00:01.786
21 47 ▍Erica Okumura               	00:01:37.073	00:00:01.797
22 41 ▍Jean Mercer-Daly            	00:01:37.184	00:00:01.908
23 15 ▍Tabita Novax                	00:01:37.627	00:00:02.351

[Audioslavia]

Part Twelve: Johan

Johan Johanson could have been at his office in Oljestaden, Audioslavia, overseeing the development of his team’s WGP3 car. He could have been in his smaller office in Hodori, where he oversaw operations at the Dekijika Johanson race team, at which his son Vassily was an occasionally successful driver. He could have been at home with his wife. He could have finally been getting around to dealing with that fence post that had kept blowing down on windy days.

But no. He was in Mattijana. The WGPC season was starting up. It had just drawn him in. He hadn’t even meant to go. All he’d done is open an email addressed to him from James Whiteyard of McPahan Racing inviting him to join the McPahan team as a guest as they scouted the opposition at pre-season testing. He couldn’t even remember buying the plane ticket.

Johan Johanson had been involved in WGPC between season 12 and 15, working for Audioslavia’s McPahan team, for whom he’d driven as a young man and in whose car he’d lost his left leg. Former owner Charles McPahan had given him a job for life at the team through guilt, proceeding owner Linco McPahan had tried to get rid of Johan and failed, repeatedly, before his demise. Stan McPahan had found that he couldn’t hold on to Johan, who by the time of Stan’s accession had had his head turned by the prospect of running a team outwith McPahan. McPahan, via their junior Link team, and Johanson, Johan’s team, had butted heads in WGP3 Audioslavia, with the electric blue of McPahan winning out more often than not. For Johan, though, it wasn’t the results that mattered too much. The spirit of competition was enough. In his 54 years on the planet he’d had quite enough drama, thank you very much.

Johan had relayed to James Whiteyard his scouting report in fits and starts over the three days. MRT would be very tough to beat in terms of machinery and, in Bjarnason and Krupin, they had two drivers with something to prove. Bjarnason had been a race winner twice in season sixteen, as many races as had been won by the champions of seasons twelve and thirteen and two more than Lane had managed in his title winning Season 15, but had finished down in sixth place in the driver’s standings, beaten by then team-mate Rustom Ibuna. Krupin, driving for VMR, had had to watch as Franssen romped to the title by nearly thirty points while he’d only managed 37 the entire season. Neither driver wanted to be number two again and both had the talent that could take them all the way.

Franssen, Daly, Lane and Talvela remained undeniable talents, with the aging Daly with the most to prove as the sole non-champion in that group, while Lane was, by now, utterly desperate for a first race win in over twenty attempts in a more than competitive car. Veterans Schramm, Cruisin, Toralmintii and the returning Kardaeri had all performed as expected.

The eye-openers were Tripathi, who had a tough job ahead of him keeping up with Franssen in a good VMR car, the pace and potential of Evdaden Carnétier, who had intermittently kept up with drivers of much richer experience, and compatriot Carsten O’Rourke.

Carsten was an enigma. A constant thorn in his team’s side while driving for McPahan Link in WGP3 due to his race pace and how difficult he was to overtake, O’Rourke was expected to graduate to WGP2 before jumping into the deep water of WGPC, but had proven beyond doubt that he was ready to mix it with the big boys. Not a surprise, given his talent. The thing that made him an enigma was his personality. Or, well, his lack of it. O’Rourke was determined, driven (if you’ll pardon the pun) and rarely made errors, but had been a closed book to all around him off the track. His interviews were tame, giving nothing away. Those who worked closely with him found that he was easy to get on with but not easy to get to know. One guy at McPahan Link had told him that Carsten was almost rude in how polite he was with people he was supposedly friends with.

And yet here was a guy with a northern family who’d grown up in and around the Herradura. He was a staunch fan of AC Izotz Zubia, spoke Spanish and Auske very well, wore his football team’s salmon and silver colours on his helmet, had a repuation when it came to women and sneaking off to have the occasional cigarette. O’Rourke clearly had his ‘thing’, wants and needs and vices, but nobody around him was allowed in. He appeared to have few true friends either inside or outside the sport, but plenty who would vouch for him as a decent guy.

Before leaving the circuit after the final test had concluded, with O’Rourke submitting a modest one thirty-six seven as his fastest time of the day, two and a half seconds slower than he’d managed the previous morning, Johan managed to corner the young Carsten and invite him for dinner. They’d met before, it wasn’t such a crazy thing to do. Carsten, naturally, for a polite chap, accepted. Johan, as another polite chap, couldn’t help but say ‘yes’ too, when Badai Angin team principal asked if he could join. “Yes” though Johan, “It probably does look a little strange when the team principal of another team invites your driver on a date, even if that team isn’t competing with yours”

Part Thirteen: Carsten

Carsten was absolutely famished by the time his food arrived. Part of his extensive contract with Badai Angin involved Carsten keeping to a certain weight from week to week, with a fine if he came into or out of an event weekend too heavy. At five feet and ten inches tall he was veritably lanky by the standards of an open-wheel driver, who generally tended to be on the smaller side simply because they had to sit snugly inside a cockpit the size of a gym sock as they raced. Five ten also made him above average for Audioslavians, who are generally on the small side because that’s what happens when the generations above yours have a problem with alcohol and a rubbish diet. Carsten had agreed that he wouldn’t arrive to a racetrack at over 72 kilos, and that was a deal he had to stick to. It meant that when he left his car, soaked in his own sweat and having lost a kilo right there and then, he wouldn’t allow himself to do what his body demanded - gorge on fried white meat until he fell into a food coma - and would wait until meal-time so as to keep the weight off and resist the temptation to use food for pleasure, or to numb the pain, or deal with victory or defeat. Right now, boss or no boss sitting next to him, he’d be having a religious experience with the seafood risotto that had arrived. He eyed the prawn that sat atop the delicious pile of syrupy yellow rice. It eyed him back in terror.

“Looks like a good choice” said Johan, nodding towards Carsen’s plate. “I can’t believe you haven’t eaten between leaving the track and now”
“Yes” said Rudolf. “It used to be the first thing I did. That or champagne” said Rudolf. “Though admittedly there was precious little of that when I was racing” he added, with a smile towards Johan.
“Ah, come on now I’ve seen you on a podium before” said Johan. “Can’t remember where”
“Dunpa!” said Rudolf, cutting into his steak. “Loved that track. Took third there once. Only podium I had, sadly, but I enjoyed the hell out of it”
“Liquid lunch after the race?” said Johan, with a grin
“You could say that, yeah” said Rudolf. “Though not as much as others”
“Honestly, back in my day, liquid lunch was the only sort of lunch you had. A different time. I think its why I’ve enjoyed Formula Hodori so much. It keeps the oily-overalled champagne spirit of motor racing alive”
“True” said Rudolf, “These days drivers are too busy with sponsor appearances and press conference to get massively drunk immediately after a race”
“You mean I can stop that?” said Carsten, not looking up from his now utterly decimated prawn. “It sounds like you’d rather I went straight onto shots after crossing the start-finish line”
“No” said Rudolf, with grin. “I know what it’s like. I used to struggle to keep my fitness up between seasons”
“Aye, I remember that” said Johan. “You came into WGPC14 halfway through, I think you’d lost ten kilos getting yourself fit at short notice”
“Oh, don’t remind me” said Rudolf. “I had constipation problems in pre-season, usually”
Johan cocked his head to one side, wondering what Rudolf was on about.
“I couldn’t pass a McDonalds”
There was a second of silence before Johan almost chuckled his wine all over himself.
“Crah! Good one” guffawed Johan. Carsten smiled, politely.
“What about Ibuna Junior” asked Johan, changing the subject. “Two podiums and a race win last season. You must have been ever-so proud”
“Oh, absolutely. Since I stopped racing, naturally I live vicariously through Rustom. When I have the time. As you can imagine there’s little of that these days”
“Aye” said Johan. “And Rustom… He’s gone to Eelandii. Not Badai Angin. That was a surprise, I have to say”
“Not for me” said Rudolf.
“No?” asked Johan. Carsten glanced up from his risotto momentarily. The subject of Rustom Ibuna wasn’t one he’d broached with his boss, upon orders from his lawyer, who thought it generally a bad idea to talk about the guy who would have been driving your car if he’d wanted to.
“He seems like a chip off the old block, to me” said Johan.
“Well exactly” said Rudolf. “And let’s take a look at the old block. Which teams did I drive for?”
“Dekijika-Tarogama” said Carsten, in between mouthfulls of thoroughly defeated prawn.
“Based in Hodori” said Rudolf, nodding. “And then Scuderia WGPC, based for that season in…”
“Hodori” said Johan. “And you raced in their GP series too, right?”
“Basically my entire career was spent away from home. Even if a team in Filindostan had been available, I still would have travelled”
“Fair enough” said Johan. “And that’s why young Rustom has gone to pastures new, is it?”
“I think so” said Rudolf. “I mean, he says it’s because Eelandii are.a more stable team, but I think he just needed to get away. Having your dad as your boss must be difficult” said Rudolf.
Johan eyed him, a wry smile creasing into his cheeks.
“Ah. Yeah, of course, ‘scuse me” said Rudolf.
“Nothing to excuse. One son, one daughter, one nephew, all under the Johanson brand. That’s us, though. I don’t think I could imagine either of them racing for another team and I think the feeling is mutual. We’ve always been a close knit family. I’m not saying yours isn’t, like…”
“Yeah. Well we’re a typical family, just… yeah. It doesn’t work like that for us”
“Fair enough” said Johan. “And in any case, you’ve got an Audioslavian son now” he said, nodding towards Carsten, who looked up.
“I didn’t read that in the contract” he said, his prawn now completely disapeared into his stomach, along with most of the rest of his risotto.
“You’ve eaten that quick” said Johan.
“I’ll eat yours too if you don’t hurry up”
“Sounds like a challenge to me” said Rudolf. “Start your engines, gentlemen, first one to finish gets to eat the other’s dinner”
“Bloody race drivers” said Johan. “Everything’s a competition”
“Aye” said Carsten, “but you’re actually considering wolfing your steak down and claiming the rest of my dinner”
“I actually am”
Carsten feigned as if he was going to start attacking Johan with a fork.
“On the other hand, I think this might just be an Audioslavian thing” said Rudolf, rolling his eyes.

[Falcania]

Kopylov InternazionRing, Kranjagrad, Mattijana
4 Seconds Ago

“We really need to cut down those servos,” a mechanic was muttering as the throbbing in Tab’s ears began to subside. Stang helped her out of the cockpit.

“How was it?” he asked

“I’m enjoying it,” she replied. “The car is way too heavy though.”

Stang laughed. “No, you just learned in a much lighter one. Sait has a few ideas. The car should be a little different by Dashoze.” He passed her a bottle of DHMO Wingspan Ultra Plus (which had suddenly claimed to be Falcania’s Number One Sports Drink!) and she clamped her beak onto the sports straw cap.

“Do the Camden humans mind how much you’re modifying my car?”

“There’s a bit of friction between the Camden pit crew and our mechanics but it’s early days yet. Sait is working on a new gearbox for your car. If they want a second one on Castellammare’s car we’ll fit it for them. They’re desperately short on funding, and we aren’t.”

“And the suits?”

“Leave the suits to me.”

[Sorlovia]

Kopylov InternazionRing, Kranjagrad
Six hours ago

Gregori's strict training and practice regime had paid off. As had his policy of learning from his post practice analysis results and adapting his approach to the track. So far he'd moved up from eleventh to fifth and now to fourth place with Sigur in first place. No doubt MRT would be quite satisfied with that result. Having both of their racers so high in the pack made them look good as a race team and brought the executives juicy rewards. MRT in fifth and first place just looked good. Both in the press and on the scoreboard. Even if it was only in a practice session and not an official raceday. Hiring a racer was a risk but that risk paid off when those racers secured high placings. Perhaps it would give the race executives hopes and ambitions for the season ahead just as it did the racers themselves.

Gregori flicked a quite message congratulating him on his first place finish. The man had driven with skill and he'd handled the car expertly. The fact that he'd taken up the most coveted spot was sheer testimony to his skills as a racer. Gregori was a man who liked to give credit where credit was due and Sigur had certainly earned it. The young Sorlovian had made a habit of watching Sigur's runs to learn from his teammate. What did Sigur do well that he was neglecting in his own time on the track? What pieces of his driving style and handling of the car could be useful? There was no harm in learning from your teammate. A wise man seized on every opportunity life presented to him. In life you learned from your enemies as well as your friends. You grew in strength and skill by watching, learning, adapting and implementing strengths you saw in others.

A man of faith Gregori always prayed before and after every practice or race. Some might think it quaint or see it as weird but it didn't matter to him. He'd been raised in the Sorlovian Orthodox Church like most other Sorlovians but had switched to the Pentecostal Church when it entered Sorlovia. His faith served as the foundation of his life and worked to shape that way he viewed things. He refused to share a bed with Elena and kept their relationship to a church standard. She stayed in separate hotel rooms and they'd never done anything more intimate than a soft kiss. He was determined to be an honourable man of faith. That would set him apart from others and might make him a target but it was something he would no compromise on. His nation was a strong Christian nation and nothing would change that.

"I hope raceday comes soon." Gregori thought to himself as he leaned back in the chair "These practice sessions aren't quite the same. Bring on WGPC17!"

Gregori was a racer. That's all there was to it. Some of the happiest times in his life where when he was out on the track behind the steering wheel. It gave him a sense of peace that was rarely matched by more mundane things. The sound of the engine, the feel of the wheels on the track and the whistle of the other cars as he streaked by. The exhilaration of passing a rival on the track and seeing that chequered flag at the end of the race. The g-forces that pinned him back to his seat and brought a smile to his lips. Such things brought him immense joy.

[Filindostan]

After the expiry of Badai Angin's seat offer to Xiaopeng Jang, the offer has since been retracted.

The team is now offering the seat to lead the team to Alex Dimitrianov. RP to come.

[Mytanija]

Whilst WGPC drivers were at practice at the Kopylov Internazionring in Mattijana, Jelena Colac-Strek was busy trying to work out exactly what had gone wrong in the try-out for Eelandii VTGP. There had been something slightly amiss and she was unable to place her finger on exactly what. She always knew that the step up from domestic racing in Mytanija to this, multiversal stage of the WGPC was going to be extremely difficult. And she knew that when she was using an open-wheel spare from the Olympics that it was going to be an uphill task, but she just simply hadn’t performed up to her own – admittedly lofty – expectations.

Her father was worried, Jelena could see it. He had done a fair bit of work in trying to secure her sponsorships ahead of trying to secure a race seat prior to the season. It was a part of the sport that she didn’t particularly like, the money necessary to get things going, to even get a seat at some teams, sometimes. Karting was beautiful for that reason, based mostly on skill and it was almost a more pure type of racing. The politics of the WGPC was something she had perhaps seen a little bit naively, it hadn’t affected her directly yet, but it was at-play constantly.

Jelena was worried too, though, what if those sponsors didn’t decide to continue backing her? They could pull the plug anytime and especially if she didn’t get a seat this season. Who was to say they would return? They could give up entirely, ready to invest their money in someone else and get their logos plastered all over someone or something that was actively winning things with some regularity. The issue for Jelena wasn’t just that she might not get a seat – although it was the biggest one – but that she might not have a realistic chance of tasting success all season. Guinec in particular historically only ever backed winners: Atletik Thessia being the most high-profile team they sponsored domestically.

The word on the grapevine currently was that the only spots available, subject to drivers accepting offers that had been echoed around the rumour mill, were with the Motorworks team. McPahan were involved, so it could be a good thing, but there was always the risk they didn’t quite have the car to taste the upper half of the grid. Jelena scolded herself, she could hardly afford to be picky at this point, could she? But even so, it could be a season of disheartening results, although that could provide a base from which to work with in the WGPC. She did have to remind herself that, if she secured a seat anywhere, it would still only be her debut season at this level.

Another rumour doing the rounds was that the WGPC Motorworks would have a three-car team, with only the best two in qualifying at each race actually driving in the real thing. It wasn’t ideal, but if it was all she had left she would have to take it. What else could she do?

Her Dad saying that this was to be expected, reminding her that it was only her first season and all the rest of it didn’t exactly help, but he was right. She would have to get used to the idea as quickly as she could, because it was fast going to become reality. There was no way she was ever going to step up to WGPC and win the championship straight away, it simply did not work like that. There were genuine motorsports legends involved and everybody was looking to do the exact same thing. It wasn’t ever going to be easy.

She wasn’t sure whether she had perhaps approached it in too laidback a fashion, other people were running all over the place to get their name out there, when they tested for a team they were on the top of their game. Jelena hadn’t exactly had her mind fully focussed on the tests. The voicemail from her mother played on a loop in her mind prior to the one for Eelandii. She didn’t really know how to respond to it even now, like, she knew she’d ring her Mum eventually – she just didn’t know what she would say. Sometimes she picked up her phone, ready to make the call and then put it down again, unsure. What was there to say?

The reasoning behind the whole argument had always been slightly murky. Why had her mother been so bothered? She was an arch-feminist normally, so why had this, motor racing been almost a red rag to a bull? Jelena wondered if it was more to do with the close relationship she had with her father, if her Mum was somehow jealous at all. She didn’t seem the type though. Whatever had caused it, it was time to bury the hatchet a little. Maybe she could focus more on securing a seat then.

[Vilita and Turori]

WGPC descends on Eelandii for Final Pre-Season Test

Track Guide :: Eelandii Grand Prix Course

Eelandii Grand Prix Course, Eelandii, Turori :: The area now known as Eelandii was purpose-built ahead of the Turorian hosted World Cup 63 Finals as a center of sport and congregation point for fans, players and media alike. Eelandii itself is not a town or a city but a purpose-designated area located midway between the Turorian capital of Almintora and the populous city of Cednia, home of Turori's most successful domestic club Cednia Beach AFC. Initially consisting of just Eel's park - itself a state of the art sporting complex for football and athletics, the campus at Eelandii was expanded to include the offices of the Football Association of Turori and a permanent training facility for the Turori National Team. Shortly after the World Cup 63 Finals, it was announced that Eelandii would be further expanded with a Grand Prix race course using the already existing central loop and large strip.

The Eelandii Grand Prix Circuit was completed in time to host a testing session on the World Grand Prix 12 schedule. The 3.23 mile course was built in the shadows of Eels Park and, originally as one of the less regularly used of the sport facilities in Eelandii, relies on the infrastructure throughout Eelandii for its support. While the Eelandii Grand Prix Circuit was not utilized during the first International Super Formula Championship, it hosted its first proper race weekend during the second International Super Formula Championship hosting the Super Formula Round Turori in a resounding success.

The first ever Grand Prix of Turori was finally hosted during the 13th World Grand Prix Championships. The pole was won by Moisés Delgado of HonsoNyrota at a speed of 1:22.649 and the race was won by McPahan's Alexander Lund with R.L. Cruisin finishing just behind in the runner-up spot for Frontiere Racing.

The Eelandii Grand Prix Circuit was relegated to a test event for the WGPC's 14th season but returned as a race day for the 15th WGPC campaign and once again, it was a near miss for a local driver as iBen Toralmintii, after stunning the field by putting the WGPC Eelandii Motorworks machine on pole position, came home in second place behind Juliano Lemos in the Bitten Heroes machine. Both Cruisin and iBen Toralmintii's WGPC Eelandii team will be hoping to do one better during this seasons Turorian Grand Prix. It wasn't until the 16th World Grand Prix Championship that a local Vilita & Turorian driver finally took home the checkered flag at a Vilita & Turorian event as R.L. Cruisin willed the MSA-SinVal #51 machine to a memorable victory overtaking ten cars from their 11th place starting position to beat the veteran Alexander Lund to the checkers by nearly ten seconds. It was the signature accomplishment for Vilitan and Turorian competitors during the 16th World Grand Prix championships.

While the Eelandii campus is more than sufficiently designed to host multiple team sporting events on a single day, the Layout and size of the Grand Prix circuit that cuts through the center of some of Eelandii's key locations including overflow and parking facilities limits the amount of concurrent events that can take place at the other sporting venues on a racing weekend. For the 17th World Grand Prix Championship season the Grand Prix of Turori is back off the schedule with the Vilitan Grand Prix taking its place while the Eelandii Grand Prix Course will host the final Pre-Season test event.

---

:: Tiones Lumber Lumberjack Challenge ::

The Tiones Lumber corporation has a long history of aligning itself with sporting events in Vilita & Turori, from being the long time shirt sponsors of the Vilitan Stellar Division's Yeaddin Owls AFC, to their sponsorships in motorsports, the name "Tiones" is always on the forefront. Competitors and fans alike reap the benefits of Tiones Lumber involvement in sporting events with their finances sometimes allowing a team to compete or an event to proceed and their famous Lumberjack Competition displays always a hit with the fans.

The Tiones Lumberjack Challenge has traditionally taken place during Grand Prix events including at the Vilitan Mountain Challenge Course in Rockii Coast, Vilita ahead of the Vilitan Grand Prix and more recently at the Grand Prix of Turori during the 16th World Grand Prix championships season where Tiones Lumber expanded to an even bigger event. Instead of just having one or two concurrent 'zones' that fans can test their lumberjack mettle in, there were five distinct zones where fans could participate in various activities. There were four 'competitive' zones where participants were timed and scored for their execution - whether they are truly competitive or not - with each days top times earning a prize and the best scores of the race weekend crowned champions. The fifth zone was a 'family zone' with events and challenges more suited for children to participate in.

One of the most viral moments of the Tiones LumberJack Challenge in Eelandii during the 16th World Grand Prix Championship season was when WGPC drivers championship leader and eventual champion Jessica Franssen lost her balance in the Log Rolling zone and splashed down into the waters below. Cameras were rolling from the many fans in attendance to watch the special drivers-only challenge after the Friday Practice session and mini clips circulated quickly on twii.tur of the Plaidly-attired Vannish Motors Racing driving going for an unplanned swim. The Vangazi was immune to the effects however, laughing it off and going on to fight back from a poor qualifying effort to a 5th place race finish that set her up nicely to clinch the WGPC title one week later. The Tiones Lumberjack challenge will be on hand for the final day of World Grand Prix Championship testing; however due to the compressed schedule and fewer anticipated visitors it will be a scaled down version of the Lumberjack Challenge with a total of three zones - 2 Competitive and 1 Family Zone.

COMPETITIVE ZONES ::
Note, All competitive events will explicitly require a waiver and release of all liability against Tiones Lumber signed by the participant

Zone 1: Chopping & Cutting

There will be 3 distinct events available in Zone 1, the Standing Chop, the Firewood Split and the Saw-Through Cut.

Standing Chop: Tool: Standard Axe :: In the Standing Chop Challenge, competitors can be scored in two different categories: Time and Number of Chops. A single 12 inch diameter log will be stood vertically and the competitior will be tasked with chopping through until the log is severed. Competitive times are expected to be under 20 seconds.All contestants are required to wear chainmail protection from the waste down to protect against injury from errant chops.

Firewood Split: Tool: Standard Axe :: Like the Standing Chop, there are two separate criteria used to grade the Firewood Split. Contestants will have 45 seconds to split. as many firewood segments as they can. The first 10 segments will be pre-staged and the contestant will be timed in completion of the first 10 succesful splits. Should they have time remaining on the clock after the 10th split they will be tasked with resetting and further chopping segments until time runs out. Winners will be declared both on speed and number of splits made. All contestants are required to wear chainmail protection from the waste down to protect against injury from errant chops.

Saw-Through Cut: Tool: One-man Bucking Saw :: Contestants will saw through an elevated, horizontal log with a 20 inch diameter using a one-man bucking saw. Competitive times are expected to be below 15 seconds.

Zone 2: Climbing

The Climbing zone will see three identical Climbing Challenge stations to allow multiple contestants to attempt the event at the same time.

The event consists of a 20 meter tall vertical log which the contestant must after starting from a position with both feet on the ground, climb and bypass the 18 meter mark. Contestants will have spurred climbers on their feet and steel-cored climbing ropes. Several safety precautions are taken in the event. A support pole next to the designated climbing log will support a belay rope system managed by event staff. Time will stop once the contestant reaches the 18 meter mark on the vertical log and the contestant will not be timed on the way back from the top of the climbing log to return to the ground. Competitive times are expected to be below 13 seconds.

NON-COMPETITIVE ZONES ::

Zone 3: Family Zone

The non-competitive family zone will feature learning zones where Firewood Splitting techniques will be taught; three single-log rolling pools including one with a picture zone where the log can be locked into place for an individual or family to pose for photos, two 7 meter climbing logs, a firewood stacking challenge area and a special tree planting zone that teaches youngsters and parents alike the value of Tiones Lumber's Renewable Lumber Operations.