World Grand Prix Championship 18 [RP/results]

by **Vilita and Turori** » Tue Oct 27, 2020 11:06 pm

Nationstates Grand Prix IV - Reserve Driver
NSSCRA Season 4 - Driver - Vilita & Turori Motorsports
NSSCRA Season 5 - Driver - Vilita & Turori Motorsports
WGPC 11 - 18th Place (5 Points) - WGPC Motorsport Works Driver
WGPC 12 - 19th Place (4 Points) - WGPC Motorsport Works Driver
Super Formula Championship 1 - 1st Place (52 Points) Vilita & Turori Motorsports
Super Formula Championship 2 - 1st Place (77 Points) Vilita & Turori Motorsports
WGPC 14 - 2nd Place (128 Points) - Vilita & Turori Motorsports
WGPC 15 - 12th Place (35 Points) - WGPC Eelandii Motorworks
NSSCRA Season 6 - 1 Start (24th place - Vilaye 314)
WGPC 16 - 1 Start; WGPC Eelandii Team Principle
NSSCRA Season 7 - 3 Starts (9th Place - Vilaye 314)
WGPC 17 - 2nd Place (147 Points) - Tropicorp Racing Ælund

Momentum, Inspiration & Motivation :: It was just moments before the start of the Audioslavian Grand Prix and iBen Toralmintii was staring out the cockpit of the #77 Tropicorp Racing Ælund machine at the two Vannish Motors cars starting ahead of him on the front row. Toralmintii was in the midst of one of the greatest stretch of results in his racing career. Yet with the lights about to go out at the Crossport International Raceway, he knew he had fallen short of the ultimate prize once more. There was nothing on the line but pride and achievement. Toralmintii's teammate Terho Talvela had already secured the drivers title. Even if Toralmintii could win the season finale he could not make up the gap.

Toralmintii quickly bypassed both Jessica Franssen and Vijay Tripathi at the start as the VMR drivers quickly dropped through the field but the local driver Carsten O'Rourke slipped past the Turorian to run out to an early lead with the crowd willing them on. Toralmintii would not let the field get too far awy, however, and kept the leaders in his sights throughout the afternoon. He spent much of the day watching the MRT driver Gregori Krupin try to hold off challenges from Alex Dimitrianov and Ryker Lane up front. The Veteran just kept running smooth laps and letting his opponents burn off their tires. As the race entered the final 10 laps, iBen Radioed back to the team and requested permission to 'go at full'. Permission was granted and iBen quickly drove down the leaders, passed them, and then comfortably drove off in the distance to take the checkered flag. The Veteran driver who spent the majority of their career driving for Works teams had just won the season finale.

As Toralmintii waved to the crowd on the cool down lap, his mind had shifted back to Super Formula Round Fashiontopia. It was the final race of the 2nd International Super Formula Championship. Toralmintii had joined the Hodori-supported series after two lackluster seasons driving for Works teams in the World Grand Prix Circuit. It was a decision that changed the Turorians career, and it was also the last time that Toralmintii had finished a season with a victory. The outcome on that day was a little different, however. After taking the checkers in Fashiontopia, Toralmintii had done just enough to win the championship over Hodori's Sayono Souzare. In fact, Toralmintii had ironically finished the season on 77 points a fact not lost on the driver who pulled the #77 into the pits and to the top spot of the podium.

Toralmintii made the same turn down pit road at the Crossport Raceway and parked the #77 up against the #1 sign. The disappointment of losing out on the drivers championship was tempered by the fact that Toralmintii knew coming into the race that there was no mathematical path to to the title, even in victory. However, the fact that Terho Talvela had finished outside the points did make the result sting a little more. The Turorian had missed out on the title by just five points. Five points away from being immortalized as a World Grand Prix champion - something no driver from Vilita & Turori had ever accomplished.

Toralmintii celebrated his win on the podium alongside runner-up Gregori Krupin and third place finisher Hunter Digri. If there had been any question as to whether the Turorian would be returning for another season of World Grand Prix competition, it was likely extinguished at that point. Toralmintii was performing at their peak. If there could have been just one more week in the season, Toralmintii could have been a World Grand Prix Champion. But there wasn't. The season was over. The off season had begun. Toralmintii and the entire Tropicorp Racing Ælund team now had to walk the fine line of engineering improvement over the off season. As reigning champion constructor, the team would be hesitant to make wholesale changes away from what had worked so successfully during World Grand Prix Season 17. However, Nexus Racing, Badai Angin and MRT would not stop innovating. They would be looking for a way to break through and unseat two-time World Champion Terho Talvela.

While Toralmintii had already decided to return for a second full season driving for Tropicorp Racing Ælund, when the World Grand Prix 17 schedule was released, the Turorian driver became extra motivated. The season would be starting in Toralmintii's back yard, literally, at a track that Toralmintii helped design and where he had set up his own 'retirement plan' in the form of the Race Eelandii! Driving School and World Grand Prix entity.

The excitement for Toralmintii could not be understated. The last time the Grand Prix of Turori was contested was during World Grand Prix Season 16 where it was Juracai Klianiota, not Toralmintii, piloting the #77 for Tropicorp Racing Ælund. During World Grand Prix Season 13 - the first of two campaigns which featured both the Vilitan Grand Prix and the Grand Prix of Turori, Toralmintii missed both events having opted out of a Works seat at the World Grand Prix to contest the International Super Formula Championship where he would be crowned champion. Then, there was the 15th World Grand Prix Championship season. When the circuit got to Eelandii for the 2nd ever Grand Prix of Turori, Toralmintii had an expectedly difficult season in the WGPC Eelandii Motorworks ride Just 3 points finishes in the opening 9 rounds had left a frustration in the Turorian that had likely contributed to their decision to step back from the drivers seat at seasons end. That all nearly changed at the Eelandii Grand Prix Course. Toralmintii stunned the field by wheeling the under-powered WGPC backed Works machine to Pole Position. There was great anticipation on race day as many of the local fans willed Toralmintii on in their attempt to do the impossible - Win a Grand Prix in a Works chassis. The Turorian driver had a chance to do something that no Vilitan or Turorian driver had ever accomplished on the World Grand Prix Circuit - win their home Grand Prix. Unfortunately for all the fans and Toralmintii themselves, there was one team that had out strategized the rest. Juliano Lemos and the Bitten Heroes team had made the turn in one stop fewer than each of the other competitors but had not seen the Tyre wear to effect their speeds. Toralmintii finished best of the rest in the runner up position but no one could catch Lemos on the day. By Finishing as runner-up, Toralmintii was denied a signature victory in their only prior competitive race at their home track. It also further added to the list of disappointing finishes for local drivers in Vilitan Cove area Grand Prix races. There have been a number of agonizingly close attempts in the past - not just by Toralmintii but also by R.L. Cruisin who like Toralmintii in Turori, has recorded Podium finishes but no career victories in the Vilitan Grand Prix. For Toralmintii, however, this time had to be different different. This was the culmination of a lifes work. Having twice finished runner up in the World Grand Prix drivers standings by an amount equal to or less than the difference in points earned between 1st and 2nd place on the podium, Toralmintii knew the odds of him retiring with a World Grand Prix Drivers Championship were growing exponential more slim. However, there was still a chance to collect the crowning accomplishment of a career should Toralmintii successfully tackle the Eelandii Grand Prix Course and come across the line first in front of Friends & Family to kick of the World Grand Prix's 18th season.

A Strategic Approach to Pre-Season Testing :: It would also be a fitting tribute for Toralmintii if it would be their last campaign at the top of the Motorsport echelon, once again looking back to their International Super Formula Championships where the Turorian won only the seasons first event and its last on the schedule. Having already accomplished taking the checkered flag in the seasons final race in Audioslavia during WGPC 17, the chance to win the season opener on home soil has meant buckets of resources have been pumped into the #77 TRÆ Chassis to ensure it is as close to perfection as possible. While the rest of the World Grand Prix field spent the Official Pre-Season test sessions working on their cars at those specific tracks, the goal for Toralmintii and the #77 team was different. They focused only on the sections of each track that resembled sections of the Eelandii Grand Prix Course.

At the first test session at the Excelsior Resort Myrtle Grand Prix Circuit in Xanneria, the team focused on maximizing Grip. The track surface in Xanneria was a close as they would find to that in Eelandii with the Excelsior Resort course a hybrid of streets and underutilized lots much the same as the Eelandii Grand Prix Course. At the Kauralahti International Circuit in Savojarna, the team worked on cornering. With larger swooping corners the track was a good approximation for high speed turns present on the eastern portion of the Eelandii Grand Prix Course. Finally, at the Forest Cross Raceway, the Tropicorp and Abovian Engineers put the focus on Acceleration, raw power and the transition to 90 degree tight cornering as an approximation to the Western portion of the Eelandii Grand Prix course. While the #77 car was not atop the charts in either of the three Official Test sessions, Toralmintii and the Tropicorp Racing Ælund team were not racing to post the fastest times at those courses that were not part of the points paying WGPC 18 schedule. Instead, they had used the events to perfect their setup for the Grand Prix of Turori. Toralmintii had never felt as prepared for a Grand Prix as they did heading back home to Turori. With good reason. During an interview shortly after the WGPC18 Season schedule was announced, Toralmintii in a moment of reflection stated that if they could win the Grand Prix of Turori, they would consider their career complete. Book closed. The Turorian driver even went as far to say that a race victory at the Eelandii Grand Prix Course would mean more to them than the overall drivers championship at the seasons end. Of course, there will be stiff competition on the course but Toralmintii, as lead instructor at the tracks own Driving School, would likely have more than a few tricks up their sleeve when push comes to shove on their quest to become the first Turorian driver to win the Grand Prix of Turori.

by **Auruna** » Wed Oct 28, 2020 4:35 am

Viska Circuit
Sterlennau, Auruna

After running the plain VK-01Hs at the tests, it's time to unveil the finalised livery along with Viska's updated logo. The design department really worked hard after Jöna's negotiations with some of the sponsors.

Well, no time to waste. Time for the reveal.

Updated Viska Logo

The VK-01H is Viska's fighter for the WGPC 18 and also serves as another experiment of Viska for their dual hybrid system. The livery is an evolution of what they used for their VL-01A in WGP2. It follows the Viska colours of purple and black with their eagle on the side of the car. Add in a few well placed sponsors, then you have VIska's finalised livery. There are talks of running a special livery for their home race but this wasn't even considered as said by team principal Jöna Ekeränna because "they didn't want to do a Mercedes" where special liveries are often associated with bad luck in races.

SPONSORS

Schkeska Motors - The automotive division of Schkeska Heavy Industries which is part of the larger Schkeska Group (and just call them Schkeska for short), It is the largest and oldest automotive companies in Auruna and one of the driving force of the popularity of motorsport in Auruna that eventually led to the creation of the MNA. Schkeska cars and engines are known for their reliability even if they are those expensive supercars, they have perfected reliability + performance which shows in the current Viska.

VSK (Viroluki Säneakan Kompanije) - Auruna's aerospace manufacturer which is responsible for the aero elements in Viska's cars. They also have an automotive division which is a longtime rival of Schkeska and Viska. They have competed in motorsport shortly after Schkeska and they are very successful AtMA with two championships ahead of Viska. They are, obviously, aero focused in motorsport with a tradition started in the mid-80s where they tested smaller versions of the wings of their aircraft on their R20A/B endurance car. Together with Schkeska, they are the title sponsors of VIska.

Zorten - An Aurun oil and tech company which supplies all teams in the MNA with high performance engine oil and fuel. Their subsidiary of Zorten Computers makes custom computer components for the teams. They sponsor one race of the AEC at Novinaya where they are based in.

LVA Esports - An Aurun esports team that is closely associated with Viska in racing simulators. Most Viska Juniors nowadays move to LVA to keep training their skills and still be able to compete before they are chosen by the Big Three in their choice of motorsport.

Hyde Medical Group - A Kanyean hospital, pharmaceutical and research firm and the 7th biggest company in St. Kanye. They are the primary sponsor of Kanyean NSSCRA driver Jeremiah Brooke. They are featured on the barge board and barge elements, and rear wing of the Viska.

Pencurve Electronics - Seen at the sidepods of the Viska, they are a gadget manufacturer in St. Kanye. Sponsor of Glorious Free Republic Motorsports, the annual Pencurve Electronics 500 NSSCRA race, and Pencurve Electronics Field, the Kanyean national gridiron team's home ground. The sponsorship deal was finalised a short while after Viska announced that Abdoulaye Goita will be driving for the team in WGPC 18.

Schkeska-VSK Viska Racing VK-01H
#85 - Olivia Stone

Schkeska-VSK Viska Racing VK-01H
#7 - Abdoulaye Goita

[OOC Edit: Forgot to add this, oops. Special thanks to Saint Kanye for the two sponsors.]

works? · by **Abanhfleft** » Wed Oct 28, 2020 10:20 am

Many people, possibly including some of his fellow drivers, might consider him strange for holding this particular opinion, but William Archer didn't really care about the position of a driver or a team during a practice session; any practice session, be it now during the preseason, or when the season finally rolls around.

William believed that the main reason the preseason practices were a thing was so the new drivers could get used to the cars that they were going to be driving for the coming season, period. Some cars were always going to be faster than the others at the very start of the season. William just happened to not be driving one of those "fast out of the gate" cars. And he didn't mind that at all, because it was the preseason. Points weren't awarded during practice sessions, as far as he was concerned. Only the race on Sunday truly mattered as far as points went. But it would be fun, in a deranged way, if points were actually awarded for every single session. Which was why all those comments in social media making fun of Preston's sponsor's slogan and its placement on their car didn't bother William in the slightest. In fact, it amused him. But what bothered him was the fact that it bothered some of the guys in Preston. Maybe not Rudy Edwards or Marty Lewis, but he could tell that at least a few of the crew were not taking the social media thing lightly.

But this... now this was a bit worrying. William wouldn't admit it just yet, but as soon as the second preseason test in Esmerel had come to a close, the first seed of doubt sowed itself into his mind. The first preseason test in Esmerel had been drenched by rain, not enough to red flag the session but enough to affect the times of everyone involved. The PGP-01 had been among some of the slowest cars in the wets in that session, pointing to a potential problem in the car. But in the second session the sun had been high in the sky, providing perfect racing conditions. And Rudy Edwards had taken full advantage of the conditions to blast himself to a respectable P8 on a qualifying sim. Meanwhile, William was rooted at the bottom of the standings, three seconds slower than the fastest driver of the session and a full second behind the second slowest driver, fellow WGP2 alumna Olivia Stone.

As far as William could tell, there was nothing at all wrong with the PGP-01. He was finally very much in tune with the car after five sessions in it without having to worry about what was at stake in the immediate future, unlike when he was with Bitten Heroes and he was having to learn that blasted KS-03 even during the race weekends themselves. William liked the PGP-01, liked its performance and handling. But for some reason he just couldn't get everything out of it. His data showed that he was losing the most time on this track at the ginormous back straight, the long right hander in the tunnel, and the two chicanes. William had no idea why he would be losing time on those particular parts of the track in the first place, and yet the data was there clear for everyone to see.

William did prefer his cars to have a little bit more downforce than other drivers probably would have liked. Downforce was great for taking corners, but not so much some straights. William's first thoughts were that the PGP-01's engine power would be more than enough to counteract his higher downforce preferences, but on such a long back straight like the one here in Esmerel, it was growing more apparent that his car was draggy at the very least. But that didn't explain his problems in the other areas of the track. William's engineers were satisfied with his results in the track acclimatization programs, but for some reason when it was time to go all out for the qualy and race sims he just couldn't find any time at all. When he had thought to himself that this could very well become a crazy season for him, William never thought this was how it was going to turn out.

At least he wasn't likely to go any further backwards at this rate. Maybe William could ask Rudy for some tips about setting up the car. That was a start, and it was a start in potentially establishing something beyond a professional relationship between Preston GP's two drivers.

The bad news just kept coming thick and fast at Taras Matviyenko.

First, Fireline had just completed the signing of their two drivers for this season, and neither of those two were named Taras Gavrilovich Matviyenko. The Ethanian outfit had decided to offer their seats to Adriana Kowalski, the girl with the absurdly long name that would rival even that of the late President Field Marshal Stepan Stepanovich Stepanenko of Pridnestrovia, and Cocoabo #23, a literal bird trained to drive cars as a result of some strange and macabre experiment. Taras wouldn't admit it just yet, but he was both saddened and disappointed by that announcement. That was now two teams that decided that they didn't want him to drive for them. Taras had always known that the drivers' market in WGPC was completely different from that of the CGPRA, and no driver was truly assured of a seat come the start of the season, but Taras was still not prepared for the feelings of rejection. First Volkov Racing and then Fireline Racing. Two of the three teams for whom Taras had hoped to drive had found him not sufficient for consideration as one of their drivers.

And then, the news that really sucker punched Taras. When he joined the Cocoabo Park trials, he hoped that he would get noticed by one of the teams scouting out for drivers there, but especially the Race Eelandi! team. Taras couldn't explain why, but he really wanted to race for the VilTur outfit. But as it turned out, they had another driver in mind to fill their second seat: Lane Carter, his former teammate in WGP2.

When they had bumped into each other in Cocoabo Park a few days before, Lane had explained that he had suddenly left the team after the end of the season because he felt that he hadn't been able to deliver the results the team wanted. Lane had actually been considering leaving racing before he received a letter from Vasily Semyonovich Gatutin which said that despite all the problems and hardship experienced by the team during the season, Gatutin was still proud to have had Lane in his team. And Taras agreed with his former boss's assessment of his former teammate. He could see that there was a great technical driver inside Lane; he just needed the car and the opportunity to show it. And it appeared that Race Eelandi! was giving Lane that opportunity.

Taras was happy for Lane for getting a seat for the season; he really was. But part of him was also sad that it wasn't him that had received the offer for that seat. Once Lane Carter had been named Race Eelandi!'s second driver, Taras found himself with only the possibility of an offer from the WGPC works team to look forward to. Days passed, then weeks, and then it was revealed that the works team's four seats had also been filled, and not one single offer had come Taras's way.

So now Taras Matviyenko had a strange problem: he was a racing driver without a seat. A part of Taras already regretted the move to step up to the WGPC; if he had stayed with UrGa and the CGPRA he would still have a seat by now. But he had wanted to get out there, see what it was like to perform in the biggest stage in motorsport. Unfortunately, it seemed, fate didn't share his enthusiasm to fulfill his wish.

Now what was he supposed to do? He could offer himself up as a reserve or test driver, or even just a guy who can help develop a car throughout the season. That he knew how to do well. But who would take him up for it? He had two teams in mind: Preston Autos GP, and Race Eelandi! Team. Taras can help out Lane Carter, or he can help out William Archer. The only problem was, did those two teams have him in mind with regards to helping out their drivers? Now that was a question he didn't know the answer to.

by **Vilita and Turori** » Wed Oct 28, 2020 10:24 am

OOC: While this is a new Event Guide for WGPC18, it uses some legacy images which may temporarily not appear in the Chrome Browser due to new policies on mixed content

Track Location: Eelandii, Turori, Atlantian Oceania
WGPC Lap Record: 1:22.409 (Jai Kardaeri, WGPC 12)
Track Lap Length: 3.23m
Precipitation Chance: 18%

Event Guide :: Grand Prix of Turori

Overview:

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. . 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. Eelandii has been dubbed a "Sportropolis" due to its ever expanding selection of sporting venues including the Multi-purpose venue constructed for Eelandii's participation as the Bandy Demonstration Hub for the 14th Winter Olympic Games.

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. The first full top-level motorsports race weekend held at the Eelandii Grand Prix course was the Super Formula Round Turori held during the second International Super Formula Championship.

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.

The weather in Eelandii is mostly temperate. There is no defined Wet or Dry season but the Chance of Rain is typically constant between 10-30%.

Event History:

The first ever Grand Prix of Turori was held during the 13th World Grand Prix Championships. The pole was won by Moisés Delgado of Honso Nyrota 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. With an increasing demand for World Grand Prix Championship schedule dates, the WGPC began a rotation between the Grand Prix of Turori and the Vilitan Grand Prix within the Vilitan Cove, with the Grand Prix of Turori being the lone Vilitan Cove event on the schedule for the 16th World Grand Prix Championships and the Vilitan Grand Prix the only Vilitan Cove event on the 17th World Grand Prix Championship schedule.

Eelandii Grand Prix Course – Historical Fastest Laps by Event		
					
Event	Fastest Lap	Session	Driver			Team
WGPC12	01:22.409	PRAC	Jai Kardaeri		[STB]	Carvenlo-Franklin
NSFC2	01:29.887	QUAL	Juracai Klianiota	[V&T]	Vilita & Turori Motorsports
WGPC13	01:22.649	QUAL	Moisés Delgado		[SJG]	Hansa-Nyrota
EEL-14	01:22.640	TEST	iBen Toralmintii	[TUR]	
WGPC14	01:22.610	PRAC	Terho Talvela		[ABV]	Vilita & Turori Motorsports
WGPC15	01:22.520	QUAL	Terho Talvela		[ABV]	MRT
WGPC16	01:22.571	QUAL	Alexander Lund		[AUD]	McPahan
EEL-17	01:22.688	TEST	R.L. Cruisin		[VIL]	
WGPC17	01:22.538	PRAC	Jai Kardaeri		[STB]	Eelandii VTGP

Transportation:

Drivers and teams have access to the Eelandii Airstrip which is utilized by small and medium aircraft only. Access to the main Airstrip terminates on the Wednesday prior to the event to allow preparations for use as part of the racing surface. The secondary runway at the Airstrip remains active primarily for emergency purposes throughout the weekend.

Travelers from outside Atlantian Oceania who wish to come direct to Eelandii should note it is accessible by air through the Almintora Internationstatal Skyport (AIS). There is public transportation between Almintora, Eelandii and Cednia. Additional Ferry service connects Cednia and Yeaddin on the Vilitan mainland where alternative International Transportation options are available.

Food and Drink:

Eelandii has a number of restaurants, shops and amenities which typically are only open on match days as well as a smaller selection of local eateries that are open on a daily basis to serve the towns full time employees and visitors which include Football Association of Turori, Eagle's Club as well as visitors to the Race Eelandii! Racing School and Driving Experience at the Eelandii Grand Prix Course. From Wednesday of Race Week all shops and eateries in Eelandii will convert to 15 hours daily operation.

There will also be Food Tent Villages in Turn 3, Turn 13 and along the Main Concourse with selections to include a full Cocoa-bo Eatery, a number of local selections from throughout Atlantian Oceania and even a popular transplant from Vilita, "We'll Fry It". "We'll Fry It"s profitable business model allows the customer to bring whatever they want... and "We'll Fry It" fries it for them for a nominal fee. We'll fry it also has a selection of things that fly, things that moo, things that swim and even candies that can be purchased and fried for an additional fee. "We'll Fry It" will fry anything under 2 square feet in size for just 7 tures or three separate items for 15 tures. Each item includes a full selection of condiments at no additional cost. An essentially stocked 'CoCo-Mart' location with a selection of food and essentials will be located in the campground area.

Sponsors & Activities:

:: twii.tur ::

twii.tur is a short message communication service based in Turori allowing users to exchange content of 140 characters or less. The service originated as a way to allow officials to receive alerts and key information such as incoming weather notifications, major events and the ability to stay coordinated during a time of crisis but was under-utilized and doubts were raised as to whether the overhead of the infrastructure was worthwhile to maintain.

As capabilities of interconnected and handheld communication devices improved, the Turorian Weather & Information Interchange (Twii) was adapted into a public facing service where users could sign up to create their own twii nodes where users would sign up to a twii group to receive all the twii messages delivered by members of that group.

Ultimately, as demand grew, a fully public release of twii came at the connected location twii.tur where all users can participate in the public twii, selecting which messages to receive by adding individual users, groups or topics to their twii.tur feed.

Twii.tur will have a photo booth set up where fans can get behind the cockpit of a Race Eelandii VTGP World Grand Prix racing machine and twii.tur representatives will instantly post the image to the users twii.tur account. Guests will also have the chance to spin a prize wheel to earn things such as Sunglasses, Socks, Pens and communication device grippers emblazoned with the Twii.tur Logo.

:: Race Eelandii! ::

Race Eelandii is a high-speed driving experience based in the purpose built city of Eelandii, Turori located midway between Turori's capital, Almintora, and its most populous city, Cednia. Race Eelandii is based at the Eelandii Grand Prix Course and operates on select weekends when there is no other Grand Prix or major internationstatal sporting event being held at the Grand Prix course or the nearby Eels Park footsport stadium.

Race Eelandii offers multiple packages to professional drivers and thrill seekers alike from simply renting track time on the full Grand Prix course or one of the smaller sub-courses, all the way down to companion experiences where a professional driver is in control and the thrill-seeker rides along in a passenger seat as the race car is brought up to full speed around the high-G inducing race course.

During the Grand Prix of Turori Race Weekend, Race Eelandii will be putting on Demonstrations with driver Juracai Klianiota in the Lot J temporary course as well as Meet & Greet sessions with R.L. Cruisin, iBen Toralmintii and Lane Carter.

:: 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 extended Motor Racing and Outdoor events where participants can return over the course of multiple days to complete all the stations. In the full Challenge there are five distinct zones where fans participate in various activities. There are four 'competitive' zones where participants are 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 is a 'family zone' with events and challenges more suited for children to participate in.

The Lumberjack Challenge produced one of the most viral moments of the World Grand Prix Championships 16th Season 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.

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 competitor 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 chain mail 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 successful 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 chain mail 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.

Zone 3: Log Rolling

A new addition, the Log Rolling competition will take place in water. Multiple floating logs will stretch from one end of the log pool to the other with a dry dock on either side. Contestants will be timed on crossing the pool twice - or from the starting dock to the opposite dock, then back to the starting dock. If the competitor falls into the water they are permitted one attempt to re-mount the log and continue their run. If the contestant should fall a second time their run will be ended and they will be given credit for the number of total logs they have traversed.

Zone 4: Team Events

Team Saw-Through Cut: Tool: Two-man Bucking Saw :: Contestants will saw through an elevated, horizontal log with a 20 inch diameter using a two-man bucking saw. Competitive times are expected to be below 7 seconds.

Team Log Rolling: Multiple floating logs will stretch from one end of the log pool to the other with a dry dock on either side. Contestants will be timed on crossing the pool twice. Two team members will start on opposite sides of the pool and will have to traverse from their starting dock to the opposite dock and back resulting in two 'passes' where teammates will have to bypass each other on the same log. Contestants must bypass each other on the logs and can not use the docks or the water to complete a bypass. If the competitor falls into the water they are permitted one attempt to re-mount the log and continue their run. If a team suffers a total of three combined falls their run will be ended and they will be given credit for the number of total logs the least advanced competitior has traversed. Time will be stopped once the second of the two team competitors has returned to their starting dock.

NON-COMPETITIVE ZONES ::

Zone 5: 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.

:: Tiones Lumber Drivers Challenge ::

Tiones Lumber will be hosting its popular Lumberjack Challenge for Drivers and Crew members of the World Grand Prix Championship Circuit after the conclusion of the Qualifying session. Drivers and select crew members who wish to participate in the Challenge will compete in Three of the Five Zones: Chopping & Cutting, Climbing and Log Rolling. Drivers may pre-register with the Tiones Lumber representative in the paddock if they need to reserve a specific time in the competition in order to maintain their schedules or sponsor activities. Drivers who are not pressed for time may walk-on during the 2-hour set-aside time period for the Drivers Challenge. Official World Grand Prix crew members may also participate on a stand-by, First-Come, First-Serve basis when showing valid Paddock Pit Crew credentials.

by **Filindostan** » Wed Oct 28, 2020 11:04 am

Alya Martana (AM): Good evening, die hard petrolheads and casual fans of motorsport, I welcome you to the first video podcast of Top Gear Filindostan, I, Alya Martana, and my special guest for tonight, retired professional racer from Filindostan, raced in multiple local domestic series before Rustom Ibuna became a thing here in Filindo motorsport, and the hunk himself, Gilang Subroto. He will help us analyze and break down various topics we need to discuss, along with fearless predictions. Hi Gilang!

Gilang Subroto (GS): Hi everyone, nice to meet you. Hi Alya, blooming as ever!

AM: That's a nice compliment. Let's get to the topic quickly as the WGPC paddock goes to Turori for the first round of the WGPC Season 18.

GS: Okay, I'm pumped, I feel very excited for another season of high octane racing filled with drama and action.

AM: Let's start with reminding our viewers with what happened last season, as Tropicorp Racing Aelund dominating the season and their Abovian driver Terho Talvela taking his second world title. We also saw a hot Alex Dimitrianov and our own Badai Angin setting the pace, but looked nowhere from midseason up to the end, and a resurgence from Nexus Racing taking second in the constructors standings. By the look of things, we could only see half the teams participated last season who remains this season to compete, including Mattijana Racing Team, Polaris, Eelandii VTGP, and Fireline. Now, we can see that three teams retained their driver lineups, TRAE, Nexus, and Polaris.

GS: "If it ain't broke, why fix it" would be the tagline for those teams, especially the defending constructors' champion. Talvela wants a third title and is hoping to break several records, but his teammate from Vilita and Turori, who happens to own another team in the WGPC will be hungry to finally upend his teammate to win his first. We also see Ryker and Jean retaining their partnership for the third time this season, despite the latter rumored to be offered a number 1 seat at MRT, which we will be dissecting shortly. Then another pairing set to remain is that of Erica Okumura and Sayono Souzare that will continue for the third season. Finishing second to the last in last season's championship probably have hurt their reputation locally, but keeping the same lineup may help them pick up any momentum they had last season.

AM: Last season, we saw Badai Angin and MRT tussle for third in the constructors' championship along with VMR which is not in the WGPC for this season. With Rusty Ibuna and Jasmin Kranjska moving in to their home teams, which team will perform better this season?

GS: I think Badai Angin will improve this season, after signing Ibuna for the season and retaining Alex Dimitrianov. The latter move will prove crucial as I feel that they can be more competitive with the local hero pushing the lead driver to perform better. I think Rusty will be fired up after his own father basically consider him as a #2 driver for this season, and given the history that he can beat his teammate, I'd pretty be sure that Alex will be pushed to the limit this season. On the MRT side of things, I think this is a very solid lineup. You have Jasmin having the highest points total for a KISMO team that started with a different lineup, and she singlehandedly thumped the preferred driver at SinVal last season. And then you have Dom Falepeau who have been the veteran in WGP2 last season, and was fighting for the championship with three other drivers that are also in the WGPC this season. I think with the experience the Togonistani have and having been driven for MRT in the second tier of open wheel racing, I see that MRT could also compete against the top three teams again this season.

AM: Thanks for your inputs so far, Gilang. For the second part of our podcast, we will discuss the new teams, and which WGPC rookie will make a big impression this season. Stay tuned, subscribe to our social media channels, and turn that notification buttons on for the next part.

by **Aboveland** » Wed Oct 28, 2020 12:49 pm

Eelandi Grand Prix Course
Pre-practice

The song at the start of every Ælunder Nyttispalvelu Radio broadcast on the eve of a new WGPC season loops in Terho's ears. He stands in front of his very own AGP003, number 56 and thus far unnamed; his back towards the garage and facing the pit wall, earbuds in place, his hands resting on his hips where the streaks of Tropciorp gold adorn the navy blue base color of his overalls. It's the first time in two seasons the first race of the year isn't in Hodori; while the Eelandi track wasn't precisely his favorite, especially when compared to Dashoze, TRÆ's complicated spread of nationalities made the circuit a quasi-home grand prix for the team, and specifically the home race for iBen.

He takes a deep breath and smiles, the chilly Turorian air cycling through his lungs. Out of his peripheral vision, he spots iBen having a chat with local media. He stands firmly and, as always, within his own aura of confident, reassuring tranquility. He's told Terho how much a home GP victory would mean to him, a thought that will surely stick to the back of the Abovian's mind throughout the weekend.

Ælunder Nyttispalvelu's broadcast begins, the enthusiastic radio presenter rolling his Rs and clearly expressing the exclamation marks in his script. As Terho begins to reminisce over his own record at Turori, the host does the same. He'd set the fastest lap time at the circuit two years in a row, even scoring one of his very few career pole positions in season 15 with MRT--an awkward one, for sure, after his unceremonious departure from V&T Motorsports after season 14. Despite his one-lap pace, however, his races never went quite accordingly to plan: from pole, he crashed near the start of the race, and at the next Eelandi GP he just missed out on an ultra-competitive podium.

Regardless, as the radio host reaffirms excitedly, his chances for a good result at the first GP are well high. The car, the team, the atmosphere, and even his teammate all carry an infectious, bubbling energy into the first grand prix of the season.

Once the radio broadcast preview finishes, as the teams prepare to start the practice session, Terho pulls out his earbuds, welcoming the frantic mechanical sounds of the paddock into his ears. He glances over at iBen, who's just finished his interview; the two make subtle eye contact, just enough to understand they're both on the same page.

Terho, not one for superstition, tries not to let the fact that he's only won championships when he wins the first race of the season get to his head; he'll try, unless it becomes unreasonable, to give back to iBen what he deserves.

by **Liventia** » Wed Oct 28, 2020 1:18 pm

RP cutoff for Turori qualifying.

WGPC team owners, please TG or DM (on Discord) me a hex colour code to represent your team if you'd like. If you opt not to, I will just use a colour from your car if it has already been launched with a graphic in this thread.

I'll start using the colour codes in the results once I have something for all teams.

by **Liventia** » Wed Oct 28, 2020 1:24 pm

Week 4: Practice

Conditions:      	Light Showers
Lap Record:      	00:01:22.409
Session Length:	75 minutes
Nation:         	V&T
Circuit:        	Eelandii Grand Prix Course

Drivers have 75 minutes to complete as many laps of the track as they like.

POS # DRIVER                   	FASTEST LAP	GAP TO LEADER
 1 19 Dom Falepeau             	00:01:32.525	00:00:00.000
 2 47 Erica Okumura            	00:01:32.582	00:00:00.057
 3 94 Ryker Lane               	00:01:32.677	00:00:00.153
 4 76 Adriana Kowalski         	00:01:32.693	00:00:00.168
 5 11 Lane Carter              	00:01:32.696	00:00:00.172
 6 51 R.L. Cuisin              	00:01:32.738	00:00:00.213
 7 28 Sara Luna                	00:01:32.781	00:00:00.257
 8 27 Dario Nülkeschläger      	00:01:32.786	00:00:00.262
 9 12 Anneliese Devereux       	00:01:32.798	00:00:00.274
10 52 Sayono Souzare           	00:01:32.811	00:00:00.286
11 41 Jean Mercer-Daly         	00:01:32.829	00:00:00.304
12 46 Kitti Armbruster         	00:01:32.845	00:00:00.321
13  7 Abdoulaye Goita          	00:01:32.851	00:00:00.326
14 71 Rustom Ibuna             	00:01:32.958	00:00:00.434
15 22 Jasmin Kranjska          	00:01:32.991	00:00:00.466
16 37 Niklas Schonbaum         	00:01:33.035	00:00:00.510
17 72 Charyseine Valkyria      	00:01:33.131	00:00:00.607
18 85 Olivia Stone             	00:01:33.234	00:00:00.710
19 23 Cocoabo #23              	00:01:33.240	00:00:00.716
20 42 Alex Dimitrianov         	00:01:33.408	00:00:00.883
21 14 Sigur Bjarnason          	00:01:33.637	00:00:01.113
22 82 Kinu Luminna             	00:01:33.651	00:00:01.126
23 56 Terho Talvela            	00:01:33.747	00:00:01.223
24 77 iBen Toralmintii         	00:01:33.810	00:00:01.286
25 25 Gregori Krupin           	00:01:33.810	00:00:01.286
26 50 Rudy Edwards             	00:01:33.826	00:00:01.301
27 63 Daryl Mizushima          	00:01:33.966	00:00:01.442
28  8 William Archer           	00:01:34.690	00:00:02.166

Week 4: Qualifying

Conditions:      	Cloudy
Qualifying Type:	Two-Tier

POS # DRIVER                   	FASTEST LAP	GAP TO LEADER	FASTEST LAP	GAP TO LEADER
 1 19 Dom Falepeau             	00:01:24.132	00:00:00.002	00:01:22.432	00:00:00.000
 2 94 Ryker Lane               	00:01:24.157	00:00:00.028	00:01:22.457	00:00:00.025
 3 11 Lane Carter              	00:01:24.167	00:00:00.038	00:01:22.467	00:00:00.035
 4 51 R.L. Cuisin              	00:01:24.208	00:00:00.079	00:01:22.507	00:00:00.075
 5 23 Cocoabo #23              	00:01:24.132	00:00:00.003	00:01:22.512	00:00:00.079
 6 56 Terho Talvela            	00:01:24.166	00:00:00.036	00:01:22.514	00:00:00.081
 7 71 Rustom Ibuna             	00:01:24.181	00:00:00.051	00:01:22.558	00:00:00.126
 8 12 Anneliese Devereux       	00:01:24.129	00:00:00.000	00:01:22.713	00:00:00.281
 9 42 Alex Dimitrianov         	00:01:24.179	00:00:00.049	00:01:22.752	00:00:00.319
10 14 Sigur Bjarnason          	00:01:24.200	00:00:00.070	00:01:22.862	00:00:00.429
11 85 Olivia Stone             	00:01:24.218	00:00:00.089		
12 77 iBen Toralmintii         	00:01:24.236	00:00:00.106		
13 47 Erica Okumura            	00:01:24.245	00:00:00.116		
14 76 Adriana Kowalski         	00:01:24.260	00:00:00.131		
15 37 Niklas Schonbaum         	00:01:24.270	00:00:00.141		
16 28 Sara Luna                	00:01:24.302	00:00:00.173		
17 50 Rudy Edwards             	00:01:24.320	00:00:00.191		
18 72 Charyseine Valkyria      	00:01:24.502	00:00:00.372		
19 25 Gregori Krupin           	00:01:24.507	00:00:00.378		
20 22 Jasmin Kranjska          	00:01:24.617	00:00:00.488		
21  8 William Archer           	00:01:24.635	00:00:00.506		
22 41 Jean Mercer-Daly         	00:01:24.676	00:00:00.547		
23 27 Dario Nülkeschläger      	00:01:24.757	00:00:00.628		
24  7 Abdoulaye Goita          	00:01:24.781	00:00:00.651		
 – 82 Kinu Luminna             	00:01:24.976	00:00:00.847		
25 46 Kitti Armbruster         	00:01:24.981	00:00:00.852		
26 52 Sayono Souzare           	00:01:25.075	00:00:00.946		
 – 63 Daryl Mizushima          	00:01:25.301	00:00:01.172

by **Squidroidia** » Wed Oct 28, 2020 2:25 pm

"Daryl you are... P28. More than 5 tenths of a second behind Dario. I'm sorry, you're not racing tomorrow."

Well he was prepared for a battle to even get to the Turori Grand Prix, and a battle he did get. A battle he... Lost. Heavily. Bottom of the pylon. At least in practice, he was ahead of that Preston. You know, that Preston, the one William Archer drives, the #8. But that was in light showers, so people were guaranteed to slip up on slicks or intermediates. And yes, this was the Motorworks car, it was slow as all hell. But on his WGPC debut, his first qualifying session since that famed pole in Cocoabo Park, at the flipping Turori Grand Prix, he finished... Bottom. For the first (But surely not the last) time, Daryl wasn't racing for his country on Sunday.

As his car went back into pit lane, Daryl Mizushima was contemplating this. He did get a ride. He did get to race with the FunStar logo on the car. He got to travel the entire world, from Turori to Mattijana and everywhere in between, but this... To be honest, as a nobody who didn't even experience tier 3 open wheel racing before, it was a given. Nevertheless it was a shock to the system.

He knew that getting the Motorworks job was something in which nothing was guaranteed. He wasn't guaranteed to race on Sunday. He wasn't guaranteed as much interviewing time as the other drivers. He had 3 teammates. He had to beat all of them in order to get out of this. But as he exited his car and took off the helmet, he felt mad at himself. Why did he do this? A job where you race for an hour or so on a Saturday and the next day you cheer from the grandstands for some random Twicetagrien or Hulkenberger. He just wanted to prove himself, but it was an uphill battle.

A battle where nothing was guaranteed. But hey, he was here to have some fun and make business deals for his father, so why not attempt the Tiones Lumber Drivers Challenge? He didn't want to be portrayed as a loser pay driver who was here for the money and fame, he wanted to have fun while he did it! So yeah, bring on the logs! That'd make him cool, right?

by **Nekoni** » Wed Oct 28, 2020 4:55 pm

Normally, when one starts their first drive of the season for Polaris Racing, the general feeling after the session is one of minor disappointment, yet quiet optimism. As if your beloved football team starts a new season with a closely fought draw after a last minute concession against a strong championship contender: yes, it hurt not taking all three points, however, you could see for yourself that your guys could put up a fight and match the league heavyweights pound-for-pound, and next time, things will definitely be better, surely! Of course, typically in Polaris, the better results never quite materalise for long. However, as the flag flew at the end of the first official round's practice session in Eelandii, a much different mood filled the air of the purple and orange garage.

As Erica Okumura's car rolled back into the pit and she climbed out, the first person she noticed was the team garage boss, Alex Mayari, at the entrance, leaning against the door frame with her right hand, her left hand showing a peace sign, a proud smile across her face, as if she was watching her own daughter out there for the last 75 minutes. Two outstretched fingers. "Second place, Eri. Sure as hell didn't expect that, did we?" Erica chuckled to herself, as she grabbed a bottle of sports drink from the team cooler, pulled the cap off with her teeth, and downed an ample swig of the purple, vaguely grape-flavoured liquid. "Doesn't mean nothing yet, mate," she replied. "Can't win any points on the Friday, can ya?" Although she was quietly brimming on the inside having somehow pulled out a second-fastest on the field, she did know that Alex would probably reprimand her with the same response if she showed it. Also, there was still someone out there faster than her, and a racing driver never rests on their laurels if there are challengers to beat.

She continued over to the computer lab section of the garage. It was laden with ten or so screens, all full of telemetry graphs, myriads of yellow and green numbers strewn across black backgrounds, with a giant map of the Turori circuit serving as the middle screen's centerpiece. Both her and Alex looked over the results, and debriefed. Even though the numbers made it obvious, it still was part of the job to verbally explain them. It was an easy enough propostion: a bunch of cars were faster than her on the straights, this was elementary with a car that was fairly mid-table in the powertrain department. However, she was virtually untouchable in the middle section, the part actually constructed to be a race track and not merely public roads. Additionally, her practice in the wet at Esmerel had paid off. The showers were just light enough for her to still drive with hard slicks on, and the rain landed fortunately enough that she didn't have to worry about aquaplaning. However, whether the rain seemed to be a dice roll, as Alex noticed, tapping the screen. "Tomorrow's a cloudy one. Just like today, but the chance of rain's gonna be a lot lower. Expect a dry session."

Sure enough, qualifying came, and, whilst the clouds appeared as well, there was virtually no chance of rain appearing until way beyond the concern of the session. No gambling with grip today: it was all about the lap. All she needed to do was improve on her time, just by a single twentieth of a second, and she'd be at the front of the pack, dictating the flow on the first race of the season. Easy, right?

Unfortunately, and with that familiar feeling of quiet disappointment once again returning to the garage, no.

She had forgotten one very simple thing when racing hotlaps: whilst you may improve, the others may too. It seemed that now the other drivers were over their first-night nerves, and they could go hard about learning the course. Literally 24 hours after the surprise of being a front-runner, a completely different, much more overwhelming surprise hit: Erica was in 24th. Being humiliated by effectively test drivers. Naturally with 6 minutes on the clock, there was still time to fix this.

"Alex, get the pit ready. I want to drop the wing downforce halfway. I'm losing bunches of time in the fast bits."
"You sure you can carry the speed through the technicals, still?"
"...good point. I'll manually adjust the steering rack a few degrees whilst you're on it."

A quick pit-in later, and the new car was ready. After a deliberately slow and wavy lap to give the tires a much needed warmth boost, she went for it. The first couple of turns felt simple, just a couple of right angles. Anybody could do those, and despite the braking zone being slightly different thanks to the light speed increase, it didn't feel any harder. The hairpin to enter the complex was a much better test of the setup change. Hug the left strip, drop to second, and in one clean motion, hit the apex and exit on the left strip again. If the car was in the pocket, you don't need to do anything. If you felt yourself losing control of the car, just manually counter-balance the steering, and hopefully, at that speed, more often than not you'd salvage the lap. No need for that here, though, thought Erica, as she sliced it perfectly. The tighter turns of the section were effectively variations on a theme, and the long-sweeping exit of the bowl came almost earlier than expected out of nowhere. This felt like a faster run. The purple and orange bolt blazed round the curve, directly into attacking turn 11.

'Just do that again', she told herself, as she internally judged the braking point at the 50-metre sign. 'Again, keep close to the rumble strip, turn sharply, hit the ape-OH DAMN IT'

As she turned, she didn't judge the extra speed she was carrying on the turn exit. As a result, her turn was a little more sharper than the car liked, and it fishtailed hard horizontally, as Erica instincively yelled in surprise, and slammed the wheel down leftwards. Fortunately, the front tires were on the rumble strip, and were still rather slippery from last night's downpour. This made the entire car slide left across the turn, scrubbing its speed dramatically as it went, and if Erica's accelerator pedal wasn't also instinctively leaden to the floor, she'd have probably ended up in the wall. However, she fortunately didn't, and her engine was able to restore order, but not without a deafening squeal of burning rubber, and the sight of masses of flecks of what was once tire rim rapidly powder the track. From the garage, Alexandra sharply intook breath, and, glad that she didn't have to fix an entire car in one night, eyed up one of the screens. 10 seconds left. Damn. This would have to be the lap that counted.

Cursing her rotten judgement (and not at all thankful for her quick thinking), Erica silently completed the remaining four turns with little worry, but that little event had taken its toll on the rankings. She crossed the line in eleventh. Not enough for a second run, and two more drivers crept in ahead of her in the immediate moments after. As she got out of the car in the garage, Alex had, as ever, reverted to that mildly disappointed smile she had a habit of wearing so well.

"Right, you know that thing managers do, the compliment sandwich? Where you put a negative in between two positives?" Erica nodded in agreement.
"Well, here you are. The good news is that you've not wrecked the car. I'll take a torn-up set of slicks over a smashed radiator or a busted leg any day of the week. The bad news is that you were on for a fifth place, there, and unfortunately it is your driver error that caused that. I'm not the shouty kind of leader, you know that, but I think there would be other teams that would have given you an earful for it." Erica again nodded, with a quiet "sorry, Boss" added to it. Alex immediately moved on with the positive ending.
"However, the good news is you've done a hell of a lot more on racedays with a lot worse. You nail the start of this one, mon vieux, and Polaris might actually get some points at the season starter for once."

Erica looked at the board, searching to find her teammate's name. "Where's Sayono?"
Almost as if she was being commanded by Erica, the #52 car arrived at the mouth of the pit-lane. Alex got up out of her swivel chair to meet her. "Dead last. Unfortunately her sandwich is going to be one of those Swedish open-faced ones."

by **Diarcesia** » Wed Oct 28, 2020 7:25 pm

Fatal Crash in Highway Leaves One Dead and Another Widowed
4 December 2015

The woman, who asked not to be named, said she had been asleep in her car when the crash happened. While exiting the highway, her husband, the driver, lost control.

"It's so terrible that he didn't make it out," she said, weeping. "I'm..."

The woman said she was sure her husband had been killed instantly, as if he had been thrown at all directions. Paramedics who arrived at the scene confirmed they could see no signs of life in the pile of blackened wreckage strewn across the highway.

"It's so, so, so, sad," she said. "I don't know what am I going to do."

The involved woman was said to have a history of competing in racing tournaments. She stated her husband offered to drive to give her some rest.

Pre-season

Interview with Sara Luna, WGPC Volkov Racing Driver

Interview Start: 02:00 pm                 Interview End: 02:30 pm
Corrina Amigdal (Interviewer): With me is Sara Luna from the Dieresis-Kingdom of Chiyginia, the first Diarcesian to race in the WGPC. Sara, what is your motivation to join this series?

Sara Luna: I was actually motivated to join when I got a message from Abdoulaye Goita [the WGP2 III Champion] that he liked to compete against me [in the WGPC]. I figured I still have what it takes to be competitive. I've done a lot of practice and I'm ready to show what I can do.

CA: How did you begin your career in motorsports? What can you tell us?

SL: I was looking in some classified ads and found an entry about a karting race. I went to visit my neighbor in his garage, who knows a bit more about those things. It turned into a friendship and he helped me with the equipment and getting me started in a few tournaments.

CA: Did he teach you anything?

SL: Not much himself. But he did show me the basics of go-kart racing. I learned what I could from him. And as I began to race more, I met a lot of other talented people.

CA: Fast forward to today: in addition to Savojarna and Esmerel, you had some time to perform pre-season testing in your team facility in Sorlovia. How is the country?

SL: The country is quite advanced compared to some others I've visited. There is a lot of resources available to those who don't speak the language, so it is not easy to get lost. But there is a lot of culture shock, which I think is an unavoidable part of being introduced to a new country.

CA: Who do you believe will be some of the top drivers in the upcoming season?

SL: I think most people would agree that it's premature to make predictions this early in the season. Maybe some will show up as special cases later on. One thing I expect is that everyone will do their best to do well. We have the ability and the desire.

CA: What can you say about your earlier WGP2 results?

SL: I'm just glad to be able to get as far as I did. I got to race against so many great drivers in that league. It was a great place to prove yourself. Adelphia is a great team, and I'm happy that I got to be paired with Carmi there.

...

CA: Lastly, what are you most looking forward to in future weeks?

SL: I'm looking forward to fighting for the win and to help Gregori and Volkov rack up the points.

CA: It is a great honor to get to interview you again, Sara. I wish success for you in the season. Diarcesians everywhere are eager to watch your races.

Corrina and Sara stood up from their seats and shook hands, nodding.

"Good luck", said Corrina in a gentle voice. "And may the force be with you."

Sara beamed. "Are you a Star Wars fan, too? Did you enjoy the movies?"

The green-eyed, white-haired Corrina smiled and nodded eagerly.

"I am a Star Wars fan, and I watched the original trilogy. I think I understand why people like the other trilogies. They are also sci-fi fans, for sure. But I can't help but love the original."

Week 4

Today, the Volkov Racing drivers—Gregori Krupin and Sara Luna—sat in their respective cars and took off in their first qualifying round in the Eelandii Grand Prix Course. Featuring surface types varying from purpose-built racing track to runway tarmac, and equal measure of precision-demanding corners and long straights, the course would challenge both cars and their drivers. While Sara was seventh in practice, she didn't perform as she could have in the starting position decider. It was a rough start in the qualifying round, with her team consistently in the lower half of the standings. At the conclusion of the session, Sara qualified at P16 and Gregori at P19. Fireline Motorsport's Adriana Kowalski, the fastest lap holder at the Cocoabo Expo race trials, had a slightly better qualifying start at 14^th.

Gregori and Sara would warm up their cars in preparation for their fastest lap attempt. It was challenging for Sara, who found herself out of position multiple times. She would eventually attain a time of 01:24.302 though.

With the start of the race looming, Sara wondered if her starting position would dictate whether she would land in the points table. Barring the DNF, if her WGP2 performance in Pryfors Bilar Raceway would (mostly) repeat, it could be a resounding "yes", as she catapulted from a P18 start to first within the first ten laps there. However, that outcome could be a moonshot given the more competitive nature of the WGPC.

Sara later spoke on the uncertain nature of her starting position. "I think the important thing to remember about this season is that nothing is set in stone", she said. "As we usually see with previous seasons, different situations could unexpectedly appear. We sometimes find ourselves in positions where success is not guaranteed and failure is more likely. What the driver can do is to stick to their process."

Her engineer echoed those sentiments. "There are days where I think you can make the most of your technical skill. Other days, I doubt it. But I'm sure you and the car can adapt in the more overtake-focused tracks. Rest assured that we'll keep your car in top shape."

Would her teammate Gregori agree? He might be being rusty again, but Sara knew that Gregori is more than able to do a come-from-behind victory. If they consistently put a good show throughout the rest of the season, there is a chance they can achieve respectable rankings points-wise. It will be a test of wits, and how willing they are to put on the effort that is required to succeed.

If anything, the early resistance could become a strength as Sara learns more things during the season. With that said, she was keen to discuss their performance with the team. "What could have we done differently to get the faster lap? I'm not sure if this result is what was expected of us. I'm assured that we can do better. We'll not be perfect all the time, but there should be something that will distinguish ourselves from the pack."

As the drivers began to return from the meeting, Sara decided to spend some time with the replay footage on her car. She inspected her motivation behind each engagement of the throttle and each turn. After all, she would find a few things here and there that made her laps slower. It was only a matter of time before she would think of corrections to those that she identified. This is what she is paid for. The truth is that holding back is not an option.

by **Recuecn** » Wed Oct 28, 2020 11:27 pm

Prologue

The pre-season, Abdoulaye had to admit, had gone well for him. He had impressed at the Cocoabo Expo, despite the fact that he had already had a contract. He had been fastest in the very first test session, and had had been third place or better at one test in each week. So much had happened. First he had signed with Viska, next he had shown up late to the Cocoabo Expo, and then he had left that early only to in turn show up late for training and fitting with Viska. There had been the congratulations from teammates and family when he had signed with Viska, but he'd hardly had time to notice them in the midst of travelling back and forth between Auruna, Xanneria, Savojarna and Esmerel. He had forgotten the sheer amount of travel that came with a WGP season.

In the meantime, he was moving again. Abdoulaye hadn't had the time to unpack his feelings about the move, let alone his belongings, but he sensed that eternal combination of excitement and dread. He'd be moving to Livonsk, and he pictured Auruna as cold and dead, despite the fact that he knew better. He'd thought the same before moving to Savojarna, and that hadn't been so bad after all. Olivia had mentioned a couple times how beautiful the forests outside Livonsk were, and the more research he did, the more he was beginning to realize the descriptions of Auruna sounded similar to the descriptions of Reçueçn. He would be fine then... if he could make it there in time.

At the moment Abdoulaye was back home, at his dad's house, packing up and saying his last goodbye to his father before the season began. He would only have a couple days at home. Then it was off to Auruna where he'd have just two days to move in and do a tiny bit more practice before the flight to Turori for the weekend. Between all of that, Abdoulaye was exhausted. And yet he found himself unable to sleep at night. Past midnight he was still lying awake in his bed, reliving all his mistakes on the track over the last three weeks - there had been plenty - and worrying about the future. Wondering what time it was and why he wasn't asleep yet, he checked his phone. The bright blue light blinded him, and the clock added insult to injury. 3:14 a.m.. I might as well get a snack, maybe that will help me to sleep, he thought. He groggily got up and shuffled downstairs.

The kitchen was dark and warm in the middle of the night, the way he always remembered it. The fridge's hum in the pre-matinal silence seemed twice as loud as usual, yet it comforted Abdoulaye. He stepped toward it, his bare feet silent on the wooden floor, and pulled the door open, flooding the kitchen with a blinding light and the smell of ripe cheese. Abdoulaye squeezed his eyes shut to give them time to adjust, and stood there, frozen in place, with the cold fridge air wafting over him. Well, he was awake now. He opened his eyes again to find something to eat, but as he leaned forward to pull something out, a soft voice startled him.

"Abdoulaye! Why are you awake?"

Abdoulaye whirled around. His father, also wearing his pajamas, stood behind him with his arms crossed. "Fa! I didn't know you were there! I couldn't sleep. Did I wake you up?"

His father conveniently ignored the question, and stepped past Abdoulaye to pull a jug of grapefruit juice out of the fridge and shut it. "Why couldn't you sleep? Is something wrong? I know you need your rest."

Abdoulaye paused and sighed before pulling two glasses out of the cupboard. "I don't know, Fa he admitted. I think I'm still stressed, but it's unusual that I'd lose sleep over it when I'm this tired."

"Do you know what's stressing you?" his dad asked. He filled both the glasses and handed Abdoulaye one. "Is it something you can resolve?"

Abdoulaye pulled out a chair and fell into it, taking a long swig of juice before answering. "I'm maybe just overthinking... I don't know... sometimes it seems like it goes in circles." He looked up at his dad. He was quiet, listening. A good sign. "I realized I was still worrying, even after getting the Viska spot," Abdoulaye said. "And if I finally have the one thing I've wanted my whole life but I'm still stressed... what does that mean? Will I never be happy? Is there nothing I can do?"

His father sat down across the table from him and looked him in the eyes. For a moment it occurred to Abdoulaye how strange it was that his father was finally taking interest in his mental health - indeed, in anything he said. It had always been that his dad would be dismissive. But now he was serious and engaged. "Of course it is stressful, Abs," he said. "What you are doing is unique and challenging in a way nothing else is. I can't think of anything more stressful. That's normal. You just need to find a way to deal with it."

Abdoulaye stared at the glass in his hand, swirling around the juice inside it. "But what if I don't want to deal with it? What if I don't want to be stressed my whole life? What do I need to do, what do I need to get? My whole life I've been chasing after a WGPC spot; was I chasing the wrong thing? Or do I just need to stop running?"

"Running." His father repeated the word, letting it tumble over his tongue as if he was trying it out for the first time. "You're not the only one who is running. I've been running too for a long time. It took me a long time to be able to stop."

"How did you do it? Did you catch what you were chasing?"

"Chasing? Abdoulaye, I was fleeing. Half of my life, all I did was run away. And I think some of that passed on to you. Sometimes there is something you are chasing, Abdoulaye, sometimes you are being chased. But you are always running, just like me. I think it's why you race. You don't know whether you're headed somewhere else or just leaving here, but you need to go fast. I was the same way for a long long time."

"What are you talking about?" Abdoulaye's confusion was so great as to sound accusatory. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"How much do you remember of when you were a small boy, Abdoulaye?" his father asked.

"Almost nothing. Bright colors, loud noises. Riding in the car, and a big white sand dune - or maybe it was a wave of seafoam."

"Abdoulaye, I need to tell you a story that I should have told you long ago. It's a story about me, but also you, and our family, and all of us together. It's a long story, and I have learned many things from it. I think that you will too, because even if it is a story about me, I think are living the same story in some ways. There are many parallels."

Abdoulaye was listening intently now.

"The first is that we both loved to drive."

by **Sorlovia** » Thu Oct 29, 2020 12:09 am

Eelandii Gran Prix
Qualifying

Qualifying hadn’t gone the way he would’ve wanted.

A twenty fifth place finish in the practice session and a nineteenth place finish in qualifying. That was far from the result he would’ve wanted but at least he’d managed to climb seven places in qualifying to secure a marginally better result. It seemed that the season would be more challenging than he’d first thought. Had he been overly confident? Had he trained enough? He knew that he had the skill to make it in the WGPC and the track record to help him. But he felt disappointed in himself. The first race was still to come and he hoped to secure a better placing.

Perhaps he rustier than he’d thought. That would have to be atoned for on the training circuit back in Nemenyets. The car had handled well out on the Eelandii track but perhaps he had underused it. It wasn’t a practice he had made a habit of doing and that bothered him all the more. But he refused to let it get him down. He’d faced similar problems in WGPC16 and WGPC17. The early season came with its sheer of issues and it wasn’t until later in season that you worked out all the bugs. The car had been taken into the workshop for a post-qualifying evaluation and tuning. It had handled well on the track but there was something that hadn’t quite felt right.

WGPC cars were constantly being evaluated during any given season. The engineers were always on alert for quirks in the cars and for any underperformance. Gran Prix took a very heavy toll on both the cars and the drivers. The tyres wore through and the engines sometimes burned themselves out during the course of the season. Parts were replaced and upgrades were made to ensure that each driver had the best possible car to serve them in the season. He and Sara would have the chance to provide feedback to the engineers during the season to help them keep the cars at peak capability. Volkov had put a clause into his and Sara’s contract giving them the right to consult the engineers on any issue with their cars.

“Don’t let it get you down Greg,” Viktor said patting him on the back “just look at this as a chance to learn. You’ll do better next time.”

Gregori had spent the last hour looking over his replay from qualifying. He’d touched base with Sara and she was doing the same thing. He liked that their minds thought alike. He’d only spent a little bit of time with her but he knew that she was going to be a perfect teammate for the season. She had a raw skill that would serve her well in WGPC18 and she challenged him as a racer. He had experience in the WGPC with two seasons already under his belt but she had a unique skill that he hadn’t seen before. He could tell that she was going to do well.

There were many things to learn from the results of the qualifying in Eelandii. The replays gave him a chance to carefully examine how he had performed on the circuit. It showed him where his car had coped better and where it had struggled. It had exposed a few times where he had overcorrected in an effort at maximizing his battle for a higher place. His habit of pushing the car a little far in order to get ahead in the pack had reared its head again and he shook his head in frustration. The read outs showed that the car had been running hot and as a result the engine had been under pressure.

He leaned back in his chair as his mind turned to Elena. His wife was the light of his life and his greatest joy. She was a patient and loving woman. She had to sacrifice to follow him through the WGPC season but she wouldn't have it any other way. She was his greatest supporter and the love of his life. They'd married young but you knew when you'd met the person you wanted to spend the rest of your life with. Now they were expecting their first child.

by **Vilita and Turori** » Thu Oct 29, 2020 5:16 am

Eelandii Grand Prix Course, Eelandii, Turori :: As the World Grand Prix Championship began to kick off for its 18th season, teams from throughout the multiverse packed their transporters and began the long haul to the first event on the schedule. Of course, for some the distance from their home bases to the track was longer than for others. For iBen Toralmintii's Race Eelandii! Vilita & Turori World Grand Prix Motorworks team, however, the distance was a little over 100 yards. The race entry to the track itself was just 100 yards from the main shop of the Race Eelandii VTGP team at the North end of the Eelandii Airstrip. It was so close, in fact, that the team didn't even need to load their chassis up onto a transporter to get them into the paddock. They just pushed the cars across the Tarmac, across the front straight and into the pits to access the paddock.

It was a unique experience for the drivers and teams alike for Race Eelandii. While some of the crew were part of the WGPC Eelandii Motorworks team that experienced a similar short-trip across the parking lot during the WGPC's 15th season after the team moved out of the Vilita & Turori Motorsports base in Rockii Coast, Vilita to take shop in what was previously VTM's Eelandii R&D Center. There was a different feel about the event during the World Grand Prix Championships 18th season, however. While Race Eelandii VTGP had a veteran driver on the roster in Jai Kardaeri during the WGPC's 17th Season, Kardaeri was returning from an absence at the WGPC level. For WGPC 18, Race Eelandii VTGP had Vilitan driver R.L. Cruisin who had set a record for the most consecutive Grand Prix starts uninterrupted, and Lane Carter, the rookie driver from TJUN-ia who was fresh out of the WGP2 circuit. Both drivers brought funding with them ensuring that Race Eelandii VTGP would have the resources to compete beyond the level of a Works team. Neither driver could be considered a Pay driver either, as Race Eelandii was bringing their own sponsorship from twii.tur and both Cruisin and Carter were chosen for the seats on sporting merit based on their prior experience as well as their performances in the Cocoabo Exposition and WGPC Trials event held at the Cocoabo Park Circuit.

The team had not officially unveiled their livery for the season until just prior to the start of the Grand Prix of Turori race week as they were finalizing the details of a unique two-livery design with primary sponsorship from Race Eelandii, twii.tur and Vilaye Energy Drink. CoCoCo and the Dart Group would be the major associate sponsors for the team. As a result of their personal services agreement with the WGPC Veteran, the Vilaye branding would be more closely associated with R.L. Cruisin while the team looked to the TJUN-ian driver Lane Carter to represent their twii.tur marketing campaign.

In addition to branding on the body of the cars themselves, the VTGP-18 livery in its totality also highlighted the increased relationship with Tropicorp by turning the wheels orange. Tropicorp Engineering has officially become the teams Engine Supplier for WGPC Season 18 meaning that Race Eelandii VTGP will have the same engine as the reigning WGPC Constructor Champions Tropicorp Racing Aelund.

While the team had fewer total laps in Pre-Season testing than some of their competitors, the opening practice at the Eelandii Grand Prix course showed that Race Eelandii VTGP was in the ballpark as Carter and Cruisin found themselves 5th and 6th on the charts respectively after a wet morning practice session. When it came time for qualifying the duo was just as strong, sneaking into the Top 10 in a slightly damp first qualifying session that was led by Annelise Devereux and Fast Cocoabo before turning up the wick on a dry track in the second qualifying session to take up the second row on the grid with Carter & Cruisin securing front row seats to the first green flag of the WGPC 18 campaign earning the 3rd and 4th starting positions respectively.

For the Eelandii VTGP team the strong showing in qualifying at their home track was a real confidence boost. For the local fans in attendance, however, it was disappointment as the driver they came to see was not driving the 11 or 51 cars but the 77 for Tropicorp Racing Aelund. While Eelandii VTGP is the local team in Turori, their brand had not yet been firmly established in the world of motorsport. A few seasons as a Works team and one mid-table campaign as a full-fledged outfit with just two podium finishes to their name had yet to endear the young supporters of Turori. They were all rooting for iBen Toralmintii.

While a generation of Turorian motorsports fans had been raised knowing no better driver from their nation than iBen Toralmintii, very few had ever seen the Turorian driver race on Turorian soil. Until the WGPC12 era there was no recognized internationstatal racing circuit on the Island Emirate. Thats when Toralmintii themselves helped to craft the semi-permanent Eelandii Grand Prix Course out of the streets of the purpose built Sportropolis of Eelandii. Since then, however, Toralmintii has competed just twice in major internationstatal competition at the course. Both times he finished an agonizing second place - missing out on the opportunity to celebrate victory on home soil with the local supporters.

The first attempt was at the Super Formula Round Turori during the 2nd International Super Formula Championships. As reigning series champion, Toralmintii had it all going for him. Teammate Juracai Klianiota had pipped Toralmintii to the pole position but as had been common during the Super Formula days, Klianiota could not put together a consistent race and ultimately found themselves off track and out of the event. It seemed to leave the door open for Toralmintii to take the checkered flag but instead the Turorian was left wondering what could have been as a strategy gamble for Hyak Racing driver Yelizaveta Mikhailov saw the foreigner steal the victory in what would be Mikhailov's only career victory in motorsports. It would not be until the 15th World Grand Prix Championship season that Toralmintii would get the chance to race in Eelandii once more driving for the WGPC Eelandii works team. After stunning the entire World Grand Prix Community by putting the Works machine on pole position for the Grand Prix of Turori, Toralmintii put on a full-hearted show on race day only to come up narrowly short once more, finishing as runner-up to Juliano Lemos of Bitten Heroes. While the fans cheered Toralmintii's podium finish - iBen couldn't help but look up at Lemos on the top step and wonder if that would ever be them.

It was at the Grand Prix of Turori during the 16th World Grand Prix Championship season that Toralmintii had decided enough was enough. He wasn't ready to retire yet. Watching Juracai Klianiota fail to finish at the Eelandii Grand Prix Course inspired Toralmintii with the old adage 'If you want something done right, do it yourself'. Toralmintii would replace Klianiota behind the wheel for Tropicorp Racing Aelund the next week in Audioslavia and the rest, as they say, was history as Toralmintii and Terho Talvela combined to lead Tropicorp Racing Aelund to the World Grand Prix Championships 17 Constructors Title amassing a record number of points for a team in a single season. There was, however, no Grand Prix of Turori during WGPC 17. With the event now being held only every other Grand Prix season and with Toralmintii having already toyed with the idea of a full-time retirement from the sport, it didn't take a master mathematician to calculate the fact that the opening round of the 18th World Grand Prix Championships in Turori could very well be iBen Toralmintii's last career start at the Eelandii Grand Prix Course.

#77 iBen Toralmintii did a burn out after winning Grand Prix of Falcania from 17th on Grid

When iBen Toralmintii arrived to the Eelandii Grand Prix Course for the start of Practice, he realized that it was the first time in his career that he was returning to race the World Grand Prix Championships for a second consecutive season in a top-tier ride. Of course, he'd only raced in Top-Tier equipment two seasons of his career - World Grand Prix Championships 14 with Vilita & Turori Motorsports and last season, the 17th, with Tropicorp Racing Aelund. Every other season that Toralmintii did compete in the WGPC it was with a Works team. He didn't really know what to expect for the season. There were a lot of new faces, new teams and drivers in the paddock. There was a chance that any of them could have stumbled upon something in the offseason that would help them catch TRAE on the track. There were new engine suppliers and a shakeup in the Tyre compounds for the season which could also play a factor. However, there was one thing Toralmintii had going that no one else could claim - The Track. With the season opening Grand Prix of Turori, no one knew the track as well as Toralmintii. It should have been the Turorians race to lose but from the outset the #77 Tropicorp Racing Aelund machine had run into problems. The car was simply not set up for the rain and both Talvela and Toralmintii struggled during the wet conditions in the opening practice session. As the track began to dry, however, it did make its way back into the favor of the Tropicorp powered machines. Toralmintii set fast time early in the first qualifying session but as the track continued to dry off, the other drivers clicked off faster laps. Toralmintii had dropped to 10th place and attempted a late flying lap to improve their position but slower traffic impeded his entry into the stadium section of the course and he couldn't recover back around the loop losing too much precious time. Then, Cocoabo #23 came across the line with the second fastest time of the session, bumping Toralmintii from the Top 10. Ultimately the Turorian would have to settle for 12th. It was not where iBen had hoped to be starting the Grand Prix of Turori. While he had already accomplished securing pole position at the track during WGPC 15, iBen was well aware that with the Eelandii Grand Prix Course not likely to return to the schedule until WGPC Season 20, this could be their last chance to claim victory on Turorian soil. While he would rather have been starting in the front of the field like the Eelandii VTGP Drivers, the Cocoabo and his teammate Terho Talvela, Toralmintii was still optimistic. He had once won a race in Falcania starting from the 17th position. Starting 12th was still much better than that.

Having missed out on the second round of qualifying, Toralmintii decided to head over to the Tiones Lumberjack Challenge to take his turn head to head against former Tropicorp Racing Aelund driver Juracai Klianiota in the Climbing Challenge.

by **Hapilopper** » Thu Oct 29, 2020 9:41 am

The Eelandii Grand Prix Course, Eelandii, Turori
Following qualifying for the Grand Prix of Turori
Marty Lewis turned around in his seat along pit wall and looked at his team wrapping up their qualifying efforts for their first-ever Grand Prix, the Grand Prix of Turori. On paper, it wasn’t much to write home about. Rudy Edwards was 17th quickest while William Archer was 21st. But those positions had followed months of hard work, sleepless nights and agony wondering whether or not this was indeed the right move to make – to start up a World Grand Prix team.

And as he sat there, watching the mechanics put various tools and other items away, watching Rudy Edwards and William Archer debrief with their race crews, watching photographers get shots of the PGP-01 and the crews working around it, watching various hangers-on from different sponsors take in the moment, Marty realized at this point that he had made it. Sure, Rudy and William were in the back half of the grid, but that didn’t matter to him. They could build off this start, and plus, they weren’t hopelessly off the pace. Rudy was less than two-tenths off the fastest lap from the first round of qualifying and William was a half-second off. That could be improved very easily. Sure, 17th and 21st was less than impressive, but there was room to improve, room to build.

And Marty knew that as he got off his chair on the pit wall and walked towards the paddock, where Doug Goodman was waiting to talk to him.

“Marty? Doug Goodman from the Hap Television Network. Got a moment to answer some questions?”

“I know who you are, Goodman,” Marty chuckled. “Hell yeah, what’d you got?”

“Not the best run for the Preston team in qualifying, do you think that will mean a tough day tomorrow?”

“No,” Marty responded. “Well, it might, but I’m not going to worry too much about it. If you look at the difference between where the fast guy was in the first round of qualifying and where we were, that’s only a half second at the most. That’s even closer than it is in the NSSCRA half the time, and that’s one of the closest forms of motorsport anywhere. I think that, regardless of where we’re starting, if we have a good start and we can get past guys, we can do something great tomorrow.”

“With that in mind, what do you mean by ‘something great’?” Goodman asked.

“Well, we’re hoping for points,” Marty responded. “If we can score points on our WGPC debut, we’ll be in great shape. There’s some very tough contenders out there that we’ll have to watch out for, guys like Abdoulaye Goita…”

“…who both your drivers outqualified…”

“Well, yeah, but he’s still going to be tough to beat. Either way, guys like Goita, Ryker Lane, Jean Mercer-Daly, Terho Talvela, iBen Toralmintii, R.L. Crusin, Rustom Ibuna, and Dom Falepeau, guys like that are at the top echelon of motorsport for a reason. If we can get them behind us and keep them behind us, we’ll be in great shape on race day.”

“And last question, what is Preston’s goal for this season?”

“Well, we have two, Doug,” Marty said. “Actually, three. The first goal is to get on the podium at one point or another this season. The second is to end up in the top half of the constructor’s standings at the end of the season, so… 6th place or so. Anything there and above and this season is a success. And third, we want to be able to sell other teams on the Skychief V6. As you know, it’s a stock block engine and runs on a better price point more likely than any of the engines that run in the WGPC. We’ll be refining it throughout the season, and if we can get another team or two to run these engines next season, then we’ve considered this season a success.”

“Thank you very much, Marty,” Doug responded as he looked over towards the pit garages. “Where did Rudy go?”

“Probably went over to the Tiones Lumberjack event,” Marty said. “He was talking about wanting to compete in the Drivers Challenge. You might want to visit him there.”

“Thank you!” Doug rushed off to look for the Tiones Lumber area where Rudy had already made his way to.

Marty slowly walked into the pit paddock and alongside a spare car. He smiled as he idly played with the left-side wing mirror on the car. This was his. All of this was his. He was no longer the perpetually drunk party animal that demolished hotel rooms, having to be fished naked out of Lake Eclipse after a wild night partying with a group of HASCAR drivers, and being the first person typically accused of wild stunts like the time a reptile was put inside an NSSCRA driver’s car.

That wasn’t him anymore. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be here. And in one day’s time, he would be leading a World Grand Prix Championship team to battle for its first race.

works? · by **Abanhfleft** » Thu Oct 29, 2020 9:45 am

At least now William Archer had probably figured out the solution to at least one of his problems: he was just shit in interchangeable conditions.

It wasn't the answer to all of his questions about why he wasn't performing as well as he believed himself capable of doing, but it was a start nonetheless. The forecast had said that there was only going to be a twenty percent chance of rain at Eelandi during the practice session, but they got the rain anyway. Light showers, not actual pouring rain, but it meant that all times out on the track were not going to be representative of everyone's true pace at all. Nevertheless, William was more than excited to strap on those green-walled tires and take to the track for his first ever official WGPC session. The end result left a lot to be desired though, and it was certainly a forgettable result from his point of view. But at least Rudy Edwards was almost as poor as William was in the conditions. Then again, William was eight-tenths away from his teammate and dead last in the standings. Oh well. At least he was officially a WGPC driver now, even if he was currently the shittest driver on the grid.

Why William was shit in wet conditions though; that he didn't know. Rain was most definitely a thing in the CGPRA; rain was a thing when you live in Abanhfleft. He had driven in his fair share of wet races before. But he had not done well in all of those races either. Maybe it did have something to do about the fact that he liked to have more downforce than other drivers. Maybe it was because he loved having grip in his tires, and rain didn't allow him such luxuries. But it was definitely something for William to think about if he wanted to improve himself and make a name for himself as a proven WGPC driver.

The rains had moved away by the time qualifying came around, which was a good thing for Preston as a whole. Both William and Rudy Edwards had performed poorly in the previous conditions, so the dry track was a welcome change for them. Gone were the green-walled inters, and in their place were a nice fresh set of tires designed for maximum speed around the track.

"All right, William, a few more things before we send you out there," William's strategist Claude Stacks said. "I know that we were last in the practice session before, but that's in the rain. Light rain, maybe, but it's still rain. This is the first time we're gonna see our true actual pace. Fact, this is the first time anyone's gonna see their actual pace. So put everything that happened before out of your mind and concentrate on driving the car. You nailed this track during the acclimatization program. You got this. We believe in you. You're in this team for a reason. Get out there and show everyone your speed!"

So William Archer went out there and took the PGP-01 as fast as he possibly could. There were a good number of ninety-degree corners on the track. Some drivers liked it; others didn't. William's preference for higher downforce was helping him out on these corners, but once again it was a bit of a hindrance for him when it came to hitting the straights as well as the long left hander between turns 9 and 10. Nevertheless, William felt really good about his lap times. However, he had told his crew not to inform him of his laps until the checkered flag had fallen.

"All right, guys, now let me know my times," William said as he passed by the waving flag that marked the end of the first qualifying session.

"4.635, William. 4.635," came the reply. It meant that William's fastest lap was 1:24.635.

"Is that good enough? Tell me that's good enough," William said.

"Sorry, it's only good enough for P21," his engineer admitted. "You're five tenths off the pace."

"Damn it," William muttered under his breath. "Okay, what about Rudy? What's his lap?"

"4.320. He's .19 off provisional pole. And it's only for P17."

"You're kidding me. Who's fastest anyway?"

"That would be Devereux. She's got a 4.129. The top 10 are separated only by eight hundredths. That's 0.08."

"Damn," William repeated. He had always known that the WGPC was going to be much more competitive than the CGPRA, but this was on a completely different level. The old cliche of the top 10 being able to be covered by a blanket was running well and true today.

"Don't worry about it, William," Claude Stacks said. "They don't give out points on a Saturday."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," William nodded begrudgingly. Later, once he got back into the garage, he would note that he managed to finish higher than the defending WGP2 champion Abdoulaye Goita. William could have a little friendly banter with Goita about that.

by **Filindostan** » Thu Oct 29, 2020 9:53 am

Badai Angin Tim Motorsport Headquarters
Yogyakulta, Filindostan

During Joko's visit of the motorsport team's headquarters, the trio of leaders, Rudolf, Bryant and Eko were summoned by the CEO of the Petrofilindo Corporation and part owner of the Badai Angin automotive company, wanting to discuss another matter somewhat related to motorsport. He was contacted by Kristian Szusza, CMO of Solymok Tyres, about the possibility of funding a drive for test driver Barnabas Mate. It would be a ride in the stock car NSSCRA series, and Joko have tentatively agreed to supply one BA Kecepatan for the Gergarian driver to race almost full-time next season. The problem is, the stock car operation of Badai Angin have two full time entries in Hana Bhe and Fiona Sunarya, and the team will not use Solymok for the upcoming season.

"We have already discussed this with Werner, Mr. Joko, Solymok already pulled their funding and supply where they claimed that they cannot supply more than one full time entry next season. That's why we switched suppliers. I don't think there will be a spot for Barney in the team I'm afraid."

With Joko not able to convince the trio to enter a third car for Barney, he turned his attention to Rusty, BA Tim's #2 driver in the WGPC and is owning a team in the domestic FISCAR series. "Rusty, will it be fine for you to own a team in the NSSCRA for Barnabas? I seem I cannot convince your father to open up a spot in the operation."

"If it is for his own development, then why not? I can hit up with my personal sponsor to appropriate some of the funding to the operation if you want."

"No need for that, kid. Solymok will fund the drive."

"Okay then, maybe if that's the case then I can use some of the FISCAR sponsors to include in that operation."

"Okay, sure, I'll be going now for some final touches before we fly to Turori."

It was decided then. Barney will have a part-time gig while doing testing for the Badai Angin Tim.

Eelandii Grand Prix Circuit
Eelandii, Turori
After the qualifying session

The trio at the helm in Badai Angin would have worried faces before the qualifying session. Light showers grazed the track yesterday and the session brought the two drivers outside the top ten, Rusty placing 14th and Alex even lower in 20th. The Locssanas GTx tyres were no match to the Storm variant of Tropicorp and the other two suppliers, with only Sissie Devereux being the fastest of the Solymok-shed runners in 9th. The weather improved for the qualifying session however, and the two were able to make it to the Q2 shootout with their fastest laps inside the top to by the end of Q1. Alex was the faster of the two, but just by two thousandths of a second from his less experienced teammate.

It was not the case though in the second qualifying session, with Rusty finding a bit of speed in turns 10 to 12, having been already familiar in the circuit due to his performance last season in the Eelandii tryouts when he rode for the Eelandii VTGP team. By his last flying lap, his BAP002 car crossed the start/finish line with seconds to spare in the session. He asked his race engineer, Mattias Sinco, on which position he finished the session with.

"Mattias, what position do I place?"

"Rusty, confirm, P7, plus zero point one two six."

"How about Alex, has he crossed the line?"

"Rusty, can confirm, Alex is on P9, plus zero point three one nine. You are ahead of Alex."

"Nice, Mattias, hope we can fight for the win tomorrow. Could you help prepare my lumberjack suit in the pits? I'd run to the lumberjack challenge"

"No, Rusty, you will not have that. We have media sessions and the challenge should have been done yesterday."

"Oww."

"Sorry for that Rusty, but you will not have the challenge."

Rusty's loud groan earned much laughter in the Filindo's side of the garage, but in his mind, he would be happy to edge out his #1 teammate. He'll need all the focus he has to mount a challenge to Dom and the other drivers, where the Togonistani driver dominated pre-race proceedings, taking the fastest lap in practice, and pole position for tomorrow's race.

by **Aboveland** » Thu Oct 29, 2020 10:05 am

Eelandii, Turori
Qualifying

Terho pulls back the blinds from his hotel room and purses his lips. Overcast skies. Maybe not so great.

The first practice session of the year hadn't gone exactly to plan for TRÆ. There had been no real issues at all with the cars--though iBen reported needed some tweaking to his own wet setup, Terho didn't feel there was much room for improvement. They'd both set out on similar setups to the ones used in Esmerel, just less biased towards top speed and with extra downforce, and though the running went smoothly, the times were atrocious. Terho had thought, after Esmerel, that he'd ought to do some sort of rain dance in his hotel before qualifying and the race, but his performance in practice greatly subdued his confidence. To make matters worse, MRT's Dom Falpeau, of WGP2 fame, was absolutely living up to his pre-season promise.

Whatever, thinks Terho, hands on his hips and ruffling his bed hair. I'm no slouch. He cringes at his own thought as he makes his way to the kitchenette and drops a coffee pouch in the small machine next to the stove. The brew smells musty, filling the room with its stale aroma. Somehow, it's a refreshing feeling in the dark hours of the morning. The season is well underway.

***

"And... go, go now," radioes Edvin, signalling Terho to speed up. He's set five laps so far in the second session; though his times are quicker than in the first session, so are everybody else's, and he's under pressure from the Fast Cocoabo.

After practice, the team had made the active aero more aggressive, to cope with the lack of grip on a damp track; this year, the winglets surrounding AGP003 respond purely to throttle and brake inputs, in addition to information from roll and yaw sensors scattered around the chassis. Should any of those sensors fail, the system falls back solely onto the drivers' inputs. In addition, the TRÆ challenger now employs a dynamic brake balance system operating similarly to how the aero had in season 17, fed with GPS data from the circuit and aided by presets developed during testing and practice. To prevent potentially catastrophic failures, both cars are equipped with failsafe override buttons, far more accessible than last year's emergency systems. With the aero now more robust, the rear wheel steering more dynamic and the brake balance auto-adjustment system, AGP003 should be even more maneuverable around tighter tracks than its predecessor.

Now, however, an issue has arisen. The winglet system can be tweaked to offer more aggressive inputs and higher downforce with the same inputs according to the nature of the track and the weather conditions. Practice was the first trial of this adjustable system, only modifiable manually from the garage, but the aggressive setting had inadvertently left on for the dry runs in qualifying. Though AGP003 now had more grip, it also produced more drag. There wasn't quite enough time to remedy the situation during the first session, and Aada was unable to revert the changes done in practice, much to Terho's dismay.

Terho rounds the final corner of the track and speeds towards turn one, AGP003's winglets flexing under the pressure of the running air and by virtue of their electric motors. The Eelandii circuit, far more suited to its own creator's driving style, is at times stop-start in nature, and only past turn three does Terho begin to feel the adrenaline swell inside him. He brakes hard for turn five, taking the late apex for turn six and holding his line at turn seven. Into turn nine, he trembles his right foot over the pedal, the twin-turbo V8's antilag burbling, the winglets just barely giving way on a corner which, bone dry, should be flat, and pressing down the accelerator towards turn ten and braking hard for turn eleven, slightly off line but measuring his braking force to avoid a lock up and maintaining control under braking. Into the final four turn complex, he's calm and patient, as the right-angle corners demand, and barrels down the start finish straight to finish his lap. He grunts, unsatisfied, and not letting off the throttle.

"P5, Terho, good work," Edvin says.

"Fucked up turn 11," Terho comments annoyedly. He repeats to himself, but leaves the radio on. "Slow in, fast out, slow in, fast out!" He pauses for a moment, as he closes in on turn one, and once he's past the corner he messages the pit wall again. "I'm going for one more."

Edvin chuckles. "Copy, radio off."

It's the same story as before, though Terho is more committed into turn nine and quicker through turn ten. He peeks at his steering wheel before the braking into turn eleven to check his previous lap delta; he's only a couple thousandths up on his previous lap, though he's careful to brake neater, on the line, this time. As he exits the corner, he peeks down at his screen again; for a split second, he spots his green delta to be two tenths up on his previous lap, enough for pole, but before his brain can process the implication of the time the screen goes yellow, flashing in black block letters.

P1 FAL/MRT

The visual distraction is enough for him to miss the braking for turn twelve, locking up on entry and missing the turn-in point. The delta is now over half a second down on his best lap, and increasing. He grunts louder than before on the radio.

Once he's back in the paddock, his newfound cheery, laid back style has all but dissipated. He pulls his helmet off calmly and stuffs into it his balaclava and gloves. As iBen stumbles out of the #77 AGP003, he glances over and smiles politely. A few garage spots away, he hears the claps and modest cheers of the Nexus garage congratulating Ryker Lane on his second place. I should give him a pat on the back myself, he thinks, clasping his hands together and resting his palms on the back of his head, breathing deeply. The sharp, fiery glare of a driver on a mission develops on his face, his exterior communicating a false sense of anger and remorse.

In actual fact, he's confident for the race, yet also feeling the creep of a pang of concern spiral up his spine. Dom Falpeau, he repeats to himself, in his mind and with his mouth closed, but moving his tongue to form the vowel and consonant sounds of the Togonistanian driver's name.

by **Auruna** » Thu Oct 29, 2020 10:23 am

Eelandii Grand Prix Course
Practice

Viska's first practice session in the WGPC. Jöna knows what they're up against: seasoned veterans with tons of experience. Hell, this is Viska's first time in this circuit but as usual. Practice times doesn't matter much so they're just out there, gathering as much data as they can that will be useful for the setups and the race.

Practice starts and stops, the usual programmes in practice sessions. There's a lot going on even for practice.

"How are the engines?" among other questions to the drivers. Well, the data is important and there's nothing wrong with the cars.

In the end, there's still a few problems left to be sorted out but these are minor ones compared to Viska's lack of experience in WGPC.

"Whew, what's my fastest time?"

"Kinu, it's a 1:33.6, 1:33.6"

"Heh, you guys will love the data gathered. Also, I'd like to run with less wing at the rear."

Practice was alright for him. He has a bit of a hard time driving the Motorworks car but he's getting there, it was very different than the previous ones he drove in the Cocoabo Trials and the Preston Test.

This was just the start and he has more potential, something or someone just needs to light the fuse to unleash it.

Qualifying

It was a difficult qualifying for Viska. They aren't going to attempt their tows here, they just need to focus more on actually qualifying for now.

And they got close.

After a few fast laps, Olivia managed a time of 1:24.218, so close to the P10 qualifier in Q1. For Goita, it's P24 in the end with a 1:24.781. That's where they will be starting. Jöna gets on the radio to both drivers on their in-lap after quali.

"P11 and P24. It's alright. There's a chance to get in the points at the race. You two know what to do, we trust in you. Don't worry too much, don't get too stressed out, you can't focus if you're like that."

Jöna takes a sip of his drink before turning to Artur. "The tow will be too risky here, I don't trust this circuit for that." He looks at the times of the drivers. "What would we gain from it? A few tenths? Competition here is fierce and we're inexperienced here but that's why I'm alright with our results."

"You're right... it's different than the MNA ones, even our campaign at the WGP2."

"To me, that was luck on our side but great performances for our two drivers. That's why we should trust our drivers, give them the respect they deserve."

"Heh, alright. Quali's done for us anyway, drinks are on me, let's go!"

Was it the car that was letting us down or the drivers? No, it's not both, we know it. There's nothing wrong with them. There's only us that is to blame.

"Kinu, you're out-qualified by Dario and Charyseine. So you and Daryl won't be racing tomorrow."

"Whoa, nice one to them. Say, after this, I'd like to explore this place then watch the race tomorrow. Heh, I tried my best here. Good luck to the two tomorrow."

by **Mattijana** » Thu Oct 29, 2020 10:26 am

Forest Cross Raceway, Esmerel

"Nice one Jasmina. That's P1. P1. Lets get to Eelandii."

The chirpy, but somewhat muffled tones of Dani Neumann came over the radio of Jasmin Kranjska's MRT, before preceding to go through the series of engine mode settings that would keep the Nordija power-unit in the back of the car in the best shape. The 25 year-old tapped the required buttons on her steering wheel and started the long cruise back to the pits.
MRT, and Jasmina in particular, had had a great pre-season. The Mattijanan had topped the timesheets at 2 of the 6 sessions, whilst her new teammate Dom Falepeau had been in the top 5 in all four of the sessions he had competed in. All testing results had to be taken with a bucket, let alone a pinch of salt, but they would much rather be at the higher end of standings than languishing at the bottom, even if it didn't mean much in the long run.

The next time she got in the car, it would be in practice at the Eelandii Grand Prix Circuit, the first competitive event of the year. It would be more intense, more pressurised, but also way more thrilling than driving a car around a track collecting data. It was time to shine.

Eelandii Grand Prix Circuit, Turori

"That's P20 Jasmina. Unlucky. Lets focus on tomorrow."

A chain of Mattijanan swearwords were volleyed back at Dani over the radio. The experienced race engineer had learned not to take them to heart by now. She had hears worse. Besides, for a team and driver with obvious pace and high expectations, barely scraping into the top 20 was not the ideal result.

A lock up down at turn 11 had ultimately been the error that cost the MRT number one a place in the shootout. It had pushed her out wide on the corner entry, meaning she had to take the long way round the apex and then struggled to get a decent run down to turn 12. It was one of the shorter straights on the circuit, but with only a second covering first to 25th, it was more than enough to scupper her chances of a decent qualifying, particularly with the underused track getting faster by the second as it collected rubber.

Her teammate then going and sticking the same car on pole position hadn't done much to improve Jasmina's mood. It was great for the team of course, but it made the mistake even more of a missed opportunity.
She hadn't had much of an opportunity to chat with Dom yet, but he seemed nice. His style choices and vlogger lifestyle presented a fairly flashy exterior, but underneath that, he seemed like a hard worker and the relationships he had built with many of his mechanics during the WGP2 series were genuine. So far, he had said the right things, not pissed anyone off and gone like a bullet on the track, so the holy trinity of pre-season testing were nicely fulfilled.

And as much as Jasmina didn't want to admit it, he was pushing her to go faster as well. So far her teammate battles had been horrifically one-sided. She had won the most points of any Kissan driver despite only racing in half the season and made Dahlia Dahl look like the amateur pay-driver that she more or less was at SinVal. Some healthy rivalry would do her a world of good.

Still, there was work to do first. It wouldn't be impossible to overtake around the slippery right-anglefest that was the Eelandii Grand Prix Circuit, but it wouldn't be a walk in the park either. There was a good chance the reliability gremlins and race rustiness that usually characterised the opening race would strike and a lot of inexperienced drivers were up ahead of her though, so she was far from out of it. A wet race could spice things up as well and they weren't unheard of round these parts. Having spent a lot of time training in Kopylov, Jasmina backed herself in the rain.

Regardless of the permutations, she didn't need to overthink things at this stage. It was early in the season and one mistake had cost her. She would get away from the circuit, get some rest and kick some ass tomorrow.

And at least if it was really boring...or she crashed...or a part of the car that had behaved itself so far suddenly decided to break, she could go and watch some people chop up bits of wood.

by **TJUN-ia** » Thu Oct 29, 2020 11:54 am

WGPC18 - Round 1
Grand Prix of Turori
Eelandii Grand Prix Course, Eelandii, Turori (It's time...)

Usually, your first race should be nice and simple - stressful, yes, but simple. But here in WGPC18, TJUN-ia's representative has a twist to manage - location. Hello and welcome to the opening weekend here at the Eelandii Grand Prix Course on the island of Turori in what promises to be another entertaining season of WGPC action. The circuit acts as home base for the Race Eelandii V&T GP team, as the circuit is literally on their doorstep, and the circuit itself looks like a "T" with an added curve (a "C" maybe?). Turori, however, will not be focused on the team as much with full attention expected on the team's owner - IBen Toralmintii of Tropicorp Racing Ælund. Yes, IBen owns one team yet drives for another. Not sure how legal that is, but it's an oddity for sure.

Race Eelandii also includes our interest for proceeding this season: Lane Carter of all people. The Galarian has somehow managed to get himself into a position to race in this series, despite mixed results in that UrGa. But now, in his team's home race, we finally get to answer this burning question: Is Lane the real deal?

Heading into the weekend, Lane Carter wasn't exactly sure of the answer to that question either. Even though he had made it to the big time itself, he still felt that he got lucky in this regard. Why? Simple: Carter has a seat but his former teammate, Taras Matviyenko, does not. For most of his time off, he thought that Taras was the superior driver to him but as the WGPC Motorworks team announced their drivers (all 4 of them), his friend was nowhere to be seen. It was puzzling to him. Why didn't they see good in Taras as a driver? While sure, the 4 they did choose was good in their own right, he just felt...sad that the one driver he really knew wasn't going to join him in this series. As the other 12 teams arrived in Eelandii for the opening weekend, Carter had to push all of that bad energy out of his head. He wasn't "forgotten" anymore: he had a team, he had a deal with Tropicorp, he would be representing twii.tur out on track and the home team. If Taras was to ever make it here, he would be sure to congratulate him, but right now, the focus was just on making the team happy at their home event.

Friday - Practice
The 4 most hated words were uttered on Friday morning: Practice will be wet. It was only light but it was enough to dampen everyone's mood on the only practice day available on this technical circuit. But still, work had to be done and Carter rolled out of his pit box in the brown #11 car to start the 75-minute session. As he began his installation lap, he wasn't exactly sure how he would do in this car. Would he be up to scratch against the more experienced teammate in R.L. Cruisin or would he be out of his league? Was he actually good enough or not?

As it would turn out, he had nothing to worry about on the damp racecourse. The car was a beast around here and, to many people's surprise, Carter flourished in the conditions. The course was simple enough for Lane to remember too. The lap started with 2 slow left-handers before a small straight lead to a hairpin at turn 3. After a fast left came the technical section, beginning with the hairpin-esque turns 5 and 6 leading into the actual hairpin known as turn 7. A small lean into turn 8 and a long sweeping turn 9 lead into a kink at 10 and the braking zone at 11. You re-enter the "T" here, going through some 90 degree turns all the way to the final corner, 17, which leads into the start/finish straight. Once the checkered flag came out, he got this from his team radio.

RE: Good job, Lane, really good job! P5, P5!
LC: Oh, wow! Nice! How's Top 10 lookin'!
RE: It's Falepeau, Okumura, Ryker Lane, Kowalski, yourself, Cruisin, Luna, Nülkeschläger, Devereux and Souzare.
LC: OK, copy that!

So, all in all, a not bad session considering the conditions. His confidence was certainly getting better, but he knew the real work would be tomorrow and that first qualifying session of the season...

Saturday - Qualifying (Two-Tiered)
The weather improved to make it a cloudy but dry qualifying on Saturday. For this event, it would be two-tiered meaning only the Top 10 in Q1 would fight it out for Pole in Q2. So the pressure was certainly on everyone to succeed and that would show in the times. Only Daryl Mizushima need the session with a time more than a second behind the fastest time, set by Anneliese Devereux of all people. The Top 17 was separated by less than 2 tenths and the Top 11 by less than a tenth. The unlucky one would be Olivia Stone but Lane Carter did well to make into the session in 5th. The local hero and (technically) Carter's boss, iBen Toralmintii, could only manage 12th while both Charyseine Valkyria (18th) and Dario Nülkeschläger (23rd) would represent the Motorworks team tomorrow ahead of Luminna and Mizushima.

So that left Q2, the shootout for pole, and times skyrocketed by more than 1.5 seconds in this do-or-die scenario. Everyone wanted to be the one who got pole first in this new season, the first shot in this war known as motorsports, and Lane was one of them. He didn't enter the weekend with pole in his sights but suddenly, it was there for the taking and he knew he had to try and go for it. He pushed all of his might into a great lap, a lap to rival even San Marco far in the past, and he took the corners with as much precision as a rookie in his first weekend would do but with great swiftness as well. His car was flawless across the apexes and as he crossed the line at the end of the session, he felt a feeling for he hadn't felt for a long time: pure bliss. That lap felt good and he knew it would be good, but how good was it for this series. His engineer let him know...

RE: P3, my friend, P3! Well done! That was a brilliant lap! It will be a Race Eelandii 3-4 tomorrow, well done!
LC: WOOHOOO! NICE! Thanks, guys! That felt good...I hope we have more of this soon.
RE: Same here, dude. Top 10 is Falepeau, Ryker Lane, yourself, Cruisin, Fast Cocoabo, Talvela, Ibuna, Devereux, Dimitrianov and Bjarnason. Well done, mate. Bring it in, mate - you'll start in the Top 3 tomorrow.
LC: Thanks, guys! Wow...didn't expect that!

It felt good to be in Top 3 once again and he was certainly happy for the post-qualifying rituals. He shook hands with Falepeau, a man he raced with before, from MRT and Ryker from Nexus, who he certainly didn't know but it was nice to know someone else using the same name as him. He did the interviews and looked ahead to the main event tomorrow. Who knows what could happen and with Race Eelandii locking out the 2nd row, it was looking to be a very entertaining race for the Galarian...

by **Sorlovia** » Thu Oct 29, 2020 12:06 pm

Eelandii Gran Prix

“Stay focused Gregori.”

Gregori had spent the last several hours on the test circuit. His nineteenth place finish had given him a drive to do better and the urge to get back into his rigorous testing schedule. Every bad result was a learning opportunity and a chance to improve in the areas where you weren’t doing well. He spent the previous few hours watching and re-watching the replay from his qualifying run looking for even the slightest issue with his driving and in the performance of the car. But there was no replacement for being out on the test circuit. Watching replays and studying readouts only got you so far.

“Even it out,” came the voice over his headset “this is a race not a sprint. You’re doing well Gregori.”

The race at Eelandii would soon be upon them. The Eelandii Gran Prix would be the first official race of the WGPC18 season and the first taste many of the drivers got of the WGPC. He’d experienced it in the WGPC16 and WGPC17 seasons and had developed a love for it. There was nothing the feel of being out on the track on raceday. In the off-season he so often found himself looking back on all the races with fondness and anticipating the next season. The news that WGPC18 was going ahead gave him a distinct sense of excitement and joy. He’d ever dared to imagine that he might have a chance at the Championship. That was the ultimate goal of any WGPC racer.

The wheels squealed as he rounded the corner and his engine roared as he accelerated out onto the straight on the other side. The car ate up the track like a swarm of ravenous piranha at the carcass of a cow. He eased back on the accelerator coming into the second bend and felt the engine purr as he did so. When he adapted his approach to the weather conditions and the elements of the track he found that his car fared better. Perhaps he’d been too familiar with Forest Cross and it’d made him a little overconfident on the Turori track.

Read the track Gregori. Feel it.

With each lap Gregori adapted his approach. On the first lap he pushed hard and fast into the bends. Then on the next he took a gentler and more even approach. Then on the next he used a mixture of the two approaches and watched how the car handled. The engineers had tweaked the engines and put new tyres on the car. It seemed that the upgrades and the careful tweaking in the workshop had improved the performance of the Mark II Volkov.

The analysis readouts and the feedback from his car had been used to maximize its handling. It had been tailored to his specific driving style and the way he handled it. His test laps on the circuit would provide further feedback which would then allow the race engineers to further optimize the car. The entire experience was a case of learning how the car handled and how it’s driver drove it. Then the car was tweaked to best perform under its driver’s hand. Sara’s car would receive the same careful treatment to ensure that it was in the best possible performance capability to serve her.

by **Nico Hulkenberg** » Thu Oct 29, 2020 12:46 pm

Practice Makes Perfect

Eelandii Grand Prix Circuit, Turori
Practice

Your first time in a proper pit garage is always an interesting one. All these different people are standing around you - some with clipboards, some with tyre blankets, and a few watching some screens over at the side - and they’re all there to make your car drive that bit better, tracking your performance at all times. Dario had experienced a scaled-back version at Cocoabo Park, but this garage at Eelandii was the real thing. For once, Dario also had a race engineer speaking to him over the radio, which he hadn’t experienced before.

”Radio check, radio check.”

“Loud and clear, Dario.”

“Nice to know I’ve done the first thing right, then.”

“Haha, yep. Now, engine on. You’ll be released into the pit lane shortly.”

“Engine on... engine on... that’s the button at the bottom left of the wheel, yep?”

“It’s the red one labelled ‘Engine’ at the bottom left.”

“Ah, okay.” *clicks*

The engine at the back of the car sprang into life, and it seemed like it was as ready to go for a drive as Dario was.

”That’s the engine on now, but you should be able to tell by the noises coming from the rear of the car.”

“What next, pit wall guy?”

“The name’s Tom. Anyhow, make sure you turn on the pit lane speed limiter before you drive out, otherwise we’ll get a bollocking from the stewards.”

“Pit lane limiter... on.”

“Alright, that should be you set. There’s nobody else coming down the pit lane as far as I can tell, so just drive out now.”

At this point, the tyre blankets were taken away, and Dario pulled out of the garage and began driving down the pit lane. Once he reached the white line, the pit limiter was switched off, and Dario could do a little drive around the track before performing a few flying laps.

”Right, so. While you’re out there, make sure to run a few quali practice laps. It’ll help us to find out how much fuel we REALLY need for qualifying.”

“Aye aye, Tom.”

Amazingly, Dario managed to finish practice within the top 10, with his best lap being a 1:32.786.

”Good job, Dario! We got some great data out of those laps, and you’re P8 in the timing sheets. Well done, man.”

“P8? Wow!”

“Yeah, man. You were only five one-hundredths of a second off of Luna in P7, so give yourself a pat on the back for that.”

“Jeepers! I hope I can keep this up in quali, because I’m pretty satisfied with that!”

Qualifying

Long story short, Dario did not keep it up in qualifying. Whether it was complacency or just a lack of focus, Dario was well off the pace compared to practice, languishing near the bottom of the timing sheets instead of in the top half.

”Hard luck Dario, that’s P23. Qualifying is over for you.”

“Agh, not my best of sessions. I take it I’ll be at the sidelines tomorrow, then?”

“Actually, you won’t be. Both Kinu and Daryl finished below you, so you and Charyseine will be starting on the grid tomorrow.”

“Oh, really? It’s been a hard session for all of us, then. I’ll make up for it during the race, trust me.”

“I’m sure you will. Now, making sure you have your pit limiter on, just go ahead and come back into the pits.”

Despite his tone, Dario was still pretty pleased. While his performance was nowhere near as promising as it was in practice, he was still going to be starting on the grid tomorrow - meaning that the Hülkenberger fans would have their main man to support at the Turori GP. It would be his name on the TV screens that the fans at home would be fixated on, and it would be his name that the Hülkenberger media would be reporting on. To say that Dario was excited for tomorrow’s race would be an understatement. He was bloody ecstatic.

by **Hodori Motorsports** » Thu Oct 29, 2020 12:52 pm

Soeshu, Hodori
Pre-Season Negotiations
A partly cloudy Sunday afternoon in the Archieplago, and Sayono and Hakusa were spending time at their apartment complex’s pool. Sayono was swimming laps in the deper section of the not-quite-Olympiad-sized pool, cordoned off from the shallower end occupied by playing families. Hakusa was relaxing poolside, watching a video on her phone.
I wanna eat him, Can I eat him? I’m gonna eat him, was the message Pigeon had sent with the linked video. “No Pigeon you are not eating people,” Hakusa had muttered under her breath as she tapped the link.

“...Oh my god what is this.”
“Yes it is generally expected for adults to be capable of adulting.”
“‘Multitasking’...Menu plan sounds good but I don’t see this ending well.”
“Formality is generally good, yes.”
“...You...you don’t know what a body is?” Holding her phone with one hand, Hakusa felt the fingers of her free hand curl up. As the nothing happened for a solid minute and a half, she slowly brought it to her chin. “How cute.”
“What is?” An’ue’s voice. Hakusa paused the video.
“Just something Pigeon sent me. What’s up?”
An’ue pulled a pair of envelopes from her purse. “Never underestimate the power of fancy emails.” An’ue visibly tried to fight it, but her curiosity eventually prevailed. “So what are you watching?”
Hakusa repositioned on the deck chair to better show An’ue the screen.
“Oh, this trainwreck.” An’ue returned the envelopes to her purse.
“I think he needs professional help.” Hakusa unpaused the video.
“I’m not licensed for that.”
“...Not that kind of help. Maybe.” Hakusa continued to stare at her phone’s screen, showing Chars staring at his laptop’s screen. “His eggs are way overdone by now.”
“An unfortunate turn of events that could not at all have been unforseen.”
“Oh my fuck what is this.”
“I already told you: a trainwreck.”
“This man needs help.”
“At least he hasn’t set the kitchen on fire.”
“At least there’s that. And yep, eggs are overdone.”
“An unfortunate turn of events that could not at all have been unforseen.”
“At least he can make bread. I give his culinary adulting a C minus.”
“Still better than Sayono.”
“Please don’t remind me.” Hakusa shuddered as she fought to keep buried the memories of Sayono’s failed attempts at making breakfasts or romantic dinners. She returned her focus to the video. “He really does need professional help.”
“I’m still not licensed for that.”
“Not that kind of help.”
“Who needs help?” Sayono’s voice this time.
“This guy.” Hakusa pointed at her phone. “He’s trying to simultaneously make breakfast and write an email. Things are going predictably.”
“So he’s set the kitchen on fire?” Sayono asked, rummaging through their bag and extracting her wallet.
“No.” The other two replied.
“Oh.” Sayono left the two, heading for the vending machines.
“He really does need an agent.” Hakusa returned her attention once more to the video.
“Not it.” An’ue preemptively unvolunteered herself.
“And now he’s boxed for cereal. He seems to be going for a no-milk strategy.” Hakusa noticed the look An’ue was giving her. “What? I’m trying to have fun.”
“Who is this guy, anyways?” Sayono had returned, bearing a bottled sports drink (a member of the Ensadrink product line, given its crimson and silver label) and a canned coffee.
Hakusa shrugged as she took the canned coffee. “Dunno. Don’t really care.” Setting her phone down, she opened the can and took a sip. “Sayono, dear? Is this…?” Hakusa examined the can, and let out a sigh as she got her confirmation. Decaf.

Back in their apartment, a pot of proper coffee brewing, An’ue again extracted the pair of envelopes and gave them to their recipients. “Arrangements have been made.”
“Just two?” Sayono asked, looking from the airplane ticket in her hands to the one Hakusa held.
“Just two.” An’ue confirmed. “I have things I need to take care of here.”
The other documents contained in the envelope: printed confirmation of a hotel booking and a slip of paper with a trio of Nekonian addresses written in An’ue’s neat handwriting. Sayono knew the first listed location. And then she saw the additional note: Enjoy your date (^_-)-☆. Hakusa likewise had a printed confirmation and a slip of paper with a pair of handwritten addresses.
A quick check on her phone matched the other two addresses to the hotel they would be staying at for their trip and a fancy restaurant.
“The little extra note here,” Sayono waved the slip at An’ue.
“Yes?”
“Which location are you referring to?”
“Yes.”

Myrtle, Xanneria
Pre-Season Testing
“Ladies, lunch time!”
“What the fuck is this.”
Sayono and Hakusa stared down the food An’ue delivered. “Authentic Hodoran Cuisine,” the cartons blatantly lied.
“A taste of home.” An’ue kept a straight face. “Nah I wanted to see how far they missed the mark.”
“No urchin?” Sayono asked.
“No urchin.” An’ue confirmed.
“I’m going to guess whoever put the menu together has never actually been to the Archipelago.” Hakusa glared at the food and their cartons’ baseless allegations.

Chunks of chicken, drowned in a thick pineapple curry sauce and served on steamed white rice (Hakusa: “The sauce has the wrong colour, it’s too sweet, and what the hell did they do to the chicken?”). Pork, noodles, and thinly sliced cabbage and carrots stir-fried in a soy-based sauce (An’ue: “Modern Hodoran cuisine does have quite a bit of foreign influence, but this isn’t a Hodoran dish.”). Fries, topped with seaweed flakes (Sayono: “The potatoes used in this don’t grow in Hodori. Also what even is this.”). Fried rice with shrimp, peas, and diced carrots (Sayono: “...I guess it’s seafood?”, An’ue: “Still not a Hodoran dish.”, Hakusa: “You tried dot pee en gee.”).

Soeshu, Hodori
Pre-Season Testing
Hakusa leaned back in her chair, sipping at her half-full mug of lukewarm coffee as she waited for the latest build to compile. Day two of testing in Savojarna was...yesterday? she mentally calculated the time zone difference. A quick check on her phone to confirm, and to see the results. Oh nice.
The internal messaging system jumped into focus.

13:50:16    (")>	something terrible has happened
13:50:54    (")>	the coffee's all gone
13:51:22    stiruno	so make more
13:51:44    (")>	you misunderstand
13:52:03    hjunsa	oh no
13:52:06    stiruno	Pigeon
13:52:07    kmaki	pls no
13:52:11    hjunsa	no no no no no no
13:52:33    stiruno	please don't tell me
13:53:01    (")>	we have no more grounds
13:53:16    kmaki	NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Oh not nice.
Hakusa took another sip of the quadruple-brewed Coffee Witch Special she had made in the morning. As despair filled their floor of the multi-tenant office tower, she locked her work station and went to assess the situation in the break room.

With the coffee depletion incident long resolved in a satisfactory manner, Hakusa looked over the Esmerel test results between bites of grilled chicken skewers, drizzled in a salty-sweet sauce. Seeing who was at the bottom of the table in both sessions, confirming what team they drove for, recalling that team’s advertising campaign. Hakusa decided now was the time to pull the trigger on that.

0x00C0FFEE

@khakusa91
This is how the new Preston will see the rest of the WGPC

#getgood : #wgpc

This couldn’t possibly come back to haunt her and make her look silly. Nope. Not at all.

Lounging on the couch at home, Chen curled up beside her, Hakusa checked the qualifying results from Turori.

…

Well.

Shit.

by **Ethane** » Thu Oct 29, 2020 1:33 pm

"So, why work with Fireline this season?"

"They're not exactly the first team you think about when you hear the word 'success' or 'ambition' are they? Fireline have been neither here nor there, hovering around the WGPC but not really making an impact. I guess that's where I'm stepping in, where I want to make a difference. This is a team that, with some help, can really find some success in this competition."

"So you think Fireline could win the constructors championship?"

"It's not likely. There is still a lot of work to do with the team as we go into the season. They've not got the best pit stop times, and are a little rusty around the edges. But we've been really training, analysing the car, looking where we can make improvements."

"And the car? Is it good this season?"

"Well, it is certainly an improvement on the car from last season. That one seemed a little sluggish and off the pace, and had some issues with reliability on occasion. I feel we've really made strides in the development of the car for this year. A real focus in this team is on reliability.

"Why the focus on reliability?"

"Well, of course it is important that you finish a race. If you're fast but you never finish then of course there's problems there. And we have noticed a problem with reliability with our cars before. So we thought, why not make that the focus. Start with making sure the car can finish a race then work from there. That's an ethos that runs through our team - reliability is so important to us. That means our car might be slightly slower than others. But we have the right drivers and the right engines to make sure that we stay in the fight."

"About the drivers. Do you think you've picked well?"

"Well, Adriana as we all know is a really talented driver. She's shown in the past that she can be reliable - that's the team ethos speaking out again. But she's also fast. You saw in the trials - despite Cocaobo #23 knowing the track, Adriana picked up the fastest lap of the race, albeit not finishing the trials. But that fastest lap - that was enough for us. And then you have Cocaobo #23. Fast and technical. Cocaobo #23 will bring the speed that this car really needs, complementing our setup well."

"It is interesting, your driver choices, because of their links with Tropicorp. With your team choices and engine choices, aren't you basically a Tropicorp team now?"

"I don't see what is wrong with a team powered by Tropicorp. When we were looking at the available engines and tyre suppliers, it wasn't a tough choice for us. Yes, we had that recent partnership with Solymok which we are thankful for last season. But we made the change in our engine and tyre suppliers because the Tropicorp supplier offered the best parts to complement our car. It was a no-brainer for us. Tropicorp are extremely successful at what they do, and their engine and tyres can be trusted to deliver for us as we make the change over."

"And where are the Ethanians this WGPC?"

"While we're disappointed that Ethane won't have any drivers on the grid this year, we as a team have to make the best choice for us as a unit. Unfortunately for Talison and Toggard, that wasn't signing them. Adriana and Cocaobo #23 complement our team well and really should fit into the ethos and values of Fireline. The Ethanian drivers just didn't inspire the same confidence as these two drivers did, and were notably absent in the trial periods. So we had to go with these two drivers."

"Well, we wish you the best of luck this WGPC."

"Thanks, we think it's going to be an exciting season. We look forward to seeing you again soon."

Design made by Vilita/Turori

Briefing Notes
We've set a good pace for the first qualifiers leading up to the first race of the calendar. Adriana Kowalski, you impressed in practice. You clearly quickly got used to the layout of the track and put in some laps. But you lacked pace in the qualifying. That's going to set you back in the race, but you have it in you to make up lost positions. Focus on getting the most out of the car that you can. Think about the best line going into corners, make sure you're getting the optimal exits. And take care of the tyres. Cocoabo #23, you were fast. Qualifying 5th is a great success for the first race back. You're in prime position to really exploit the top order. Just make sure you get to the end of the race. Don't be too rash, don't be too harsh on the braking, and focus on managing wear on the tyres. Keep those in mind, and keep up your pace exhibited in qualifying, and you could be challenging for a podium position. Keep it up.

World Grand Prix Championship 18 [RP/results]

WGPC18 - Grand Prix of Turori :: Event Preview

Debut Weekend Starts Well, Even Saturday!

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