Fjellutfordring
Sprint Race
Again, Terho gets a great start off the line. Again, it's iBen who's directly behind him, on the inside grid spot, but this time his own start is quicker. The acceleration, however, is less violent than the first time. The clouds have rolled into the river valley of Avsidesliggendevuoret, casting a gleaming glow over the track, and lowering track temperatures. The Abovian's original strategy plan, of doing the whole sprint race on the Tropciorp long-lasting compound, has been foiled. He's bet on stretching the softs longer than he had in the feature race, in an attempt to take advantage of the cooler asphalt, and on his own temperament being kept in check. The feature race had gone very well for the team; all things considered, things had gone well for him, too, but had he not been overeager at crucial moments, they could have gone better. Despite having achieved his twenty-second career podium, his result meant he still dropped four points to his most crucial championship rival, he'd still played the wingman in the team's one-twos, and twice now the home win had eluded him. And yet, four years on from his maiden WGPC season, he finds himself in the same position he'd been in as a rookie: teammate to the same experienced driver, dressed in the same gray colors, and almost with the same childish anxiety.
Thankfully though, come the end of the race, the Abovian manages to score two measly points with a fifth position. It's a fitting end to his weekend, and gifted after a quite exceptional, quick climb from twelfth in just thirty laps, though yet again he leaves Aboveland without a home victory. In the paddock, the mood is once again reserved and hides a tingling fear. Ryker Lane's win in the sprint race, where few points were up for grabs, means the driver's championship has now closed the top three drivers into a thirteen-point gap.
Terho congratulates Ryker fondly as he strolls by back into the garage after the podium celebrations, but while the Nimban and his own Turorian teammate have their heads held up high, the Abovian is concerned. As the season moves into its second half, dominated by tight, technical circuits, his hypothetical advantage has finished, and throughout the first five races he's hardly capitalized on his strengths.
He looks back at the garage, as the TRÆ crew packs their bags looking towards the mid-season competition break. Hmph, he thinks. It's all uphill from here.
Raichovskiy, Twicetagria
Raichovskiy Circuit
Mid-season test
Terho springs out of Resilience, now back to its usual dark blue scheme, and he dressed in his usual blue overalls. He puts his hands on his hips and stares down at its nose for a moment, through the orange tint of his visor. He does slightly miss the one-off look, and at least for the feature race it'd brought home one of the team's best results to date, from one-two in qualifying to a one-two at the end of the first event.
Before he has enough time to get melancholic, Edvin juts into his headspace, his polo shirt unbuttoned this weekend and his hair less than perfect. He's given himself his first breather of the season, it seems.
"How'd it go?" he asks, starting the debrief. "You set a steady pace; the team's gonna take the clutch apart now and see how it held up."
"Yeah," he replies, having forgotten the experimental test of the magnetic clutch. In the end, though it'd taken him over a season and a half to get the hang of it, he'd finally perfected the launch of AGP00X. Maybe the magnetic clutch was an unnecessary, risky parts change for the second half of the season after all.
Edvin continues, seeing Terho's gaze drift away. It's as if he's read his mind--"yours and iBen's starts have been good until now, though, save for at Eelandii. It might be an unnecessary risk to take, to implement this thing in the second half."
"So anyway," says Terho, cutting him off. "I've gotta get ready for iBen's Race of Stars." He glances over at his teammate, who's gesticulating some sort of car movement with a Vilitan mechanic. "I'm gonna miss that party though... probably."
"Sad!" says Edvin, sarcastically. "I know you don't really want to go."
"Well--" he stops. "Yeah, you're right."
"Anyway," continues Edvin, "we'll get Janne to fill your seat for the exhibition race, probably." Edvin looks behind Terho towards the back of the garage, where Janne is staring at his phone. When he's about to call him over, his own phone vibrates.
"Oh shit, hold on," he says, fumbling with his pockets. "I've got vibrate on only for important messages." He looks down at his screen.
"Oh?" he observes, his eyes scanning the text.
From: nrcomms@nexusracingwgpc.nim
To: e.pekka@talvelasport.co.ab
To Edvin Pekkanen,
I am writing to you to affirm Nexus Racing’s commitment to Janne Laukkanen and bring to your attention a pair of opportunities for him as the foremost member of Nexus Racing’s junior driver programme. We continue to believe in him as a young driver of exceptional talent and profound potential and thoroughly look forward to continuing to work with him that he may advance to the highest level of WGPC competition with us.
The first of these opportunities is the pair of non-championship races present on the WGPC schedule during the upcoming weeks. We would like to offer Ryker Lane’s seat to Janne for this pair of races. This should not be considered a test for the seat, given that his contract already grants him the right of first refusal should either of Nexus Racing’s seats become vacant, but instead an opportunity for him to compete at a WGPC level in an environment without stakes or pressure and gain valuable experience of our approach to a WGPC race weekend and the full pace of a WGPC-specification Chase Cutter.
The second of these opportunities is working with us to establish reforms for Nexus Racing’s junior driver programme. It has become increasingly clear to us that our junior driver programme has placed undue stress on the junior drivers to whom we had intended to provide opportunities, given the prototypical nature of the WGP2 cars that they were offered to drive and the poor results resulting from the unreliability and weakened performance of those cars. For this, first and foremost, Nexus Racing unreservedly apologise to Janne; to undermine him or his fellows was never our intention and to have done so regardless is a painful realisation. In order to ensure that this situation changes, we are establishing a group to restructure the programme; Janne’s experience and ideas would be invaluable for this purpose, while also allowing him to engage in feedback and decision-making with Nexus Racing’s most senior members, as he will need to as a WGPC driver.
We firmly believe that each of these opportunities serves as a chance for Janne to further his already broad and full skillset; hoping and fully believing that he will compete for Nexus Racing in the WGPC soon, we can offer him no less. Please contact us as soon as is possible to confirm their receipt and accept them or otherwise.
With kindest regards,
Karl Rain, Nexus Racing Head of Communications and Public Relations
Once he's finished, his eyes are wider, and his mouth ajar. "Well," he begins. "Looks like we don't have a test driver anymore. He forwards the e-mail to Janne, then peeks behind Terho towards the end of the garage; he spots the teenager, who begins to pull out his phone, and whose face turns from nondescript boredom to excitement to shock and dismay.
Shit, Janne thinks. He looks down at the e-mail he's received from Karl Rain and, grimacing, looks back up at Edvin. He's smiling, somewhat smugly, and signaling with his hand for him to walk towards the two. As he makes his way towards the garage opening, he closes the e-mail app on his phone and shoves it into his pocket, all while looking straight ahead and attempting to keep a calm face. With his mouth closed, he moves his tongue in the same manner he would to speak. Shit, shit, shit!
