Metavira, Tongonistan
Mikuren arrived at Togonistan for the third round of the season confident in their performance especially in the gravel where they should do well if not excel. Excitement and anxiety are felt in the team as they prepare everything for the rally, some of the Schkeska mechanics that remained were talking amongst themselves about their previous experience here in Tongonistan, while the rest from Mikuren and Viska continue on. Mick, the technical director, couldn't help but listen in on their woes, leaning on the side of Laila's car after a brief check.
"I didn't expect it to be tat bad." One of the Schkeska mechanics said as he recalled what happened previously. "The car kept shaking itself apart for some reason which caused Luna to crash out."
"It was out of our control at that time. Nothing we could do."
"Reliable, am I right?"
Mick remained silent as the group continued on. He waves at the other mechanics as they leave to take their breaks, and continued on listening.
"I hope it won't happen again."
He took this is a cue to enter, as loud as he can, he sternly says to the mechanics. "It won't happen again." As he turns toward them. "While we're still proving ourselves as we clean up your shit, we managed more points in the first two rounds and that says something. We haven't had any failures apart from driver error from pushing." And he was right as the Schkeska mechanics look at each other before conceding to Mick. There was no doubt about Mikuren's slow rise and they were there to continue it, maybe even speed it up a bit. "I can say that we managed to tame Schkeska's beast."
And after some "nice" words about their behaviour, Mick leaves the group to clean up after themselves as he goes on to help prepare their "new" recce cars that they had just bought with their increased budget after struggling with an outdated econobox that they inherited from Schkeska.
Trevon Gallegos during recce
(Please ignore the fact that he forgot his co-driver)
Sport Mikuren Tent
In preparation for the rally, Kälö gathered both Gallegos and Raatikainen, and their co-drivers around a table to discuss about the stages and the Tongonistan Rally in general. Offering some coffee and snacks while taking a sip of his, he starts off by sharing the notes he took during the previous season about certain quirks and features of the stages during his peaceful drive throughout the rally.
"I guess that's all the interesting stuff I had. Oh, I heard about the cars literally falling apart last time we were here. I certainly had some issues but not as bad as my teammate's. I can say that the ads about the reliability were a bit misleading. Anyways, I'm confident that we will finish this in one piece... or with a small bit or two fallen off."
...
"Well, with that said, let's just go for it."
Later, after the four left to do whatever they do, Kälö reclines on his chair as Zuiha brings some more snacks to him. "Here." She says as she hands over a bag of kuurami (lit. "small ear"; small cinnamon rolls, usually paired and dipped in coffee) to Kälö before sitting beside him. "You think we can keep up?" She asks as she runs through her notes about the rally.
"Yep, I'm sure we can. Mikuren's different from before and their approach is nicely refreshing." Kälö says before pausing to devour the snacks. "They support us well and I'm confident that we can pay them back with results. We ain't giving up on anything."
"I see." Zuiha smiles after hearing Kälö's thoughts then she sets down her notes and joins him on eating some kuurami.
"As I said before... let's just go for it."
Shakedown and Leg 1
Even knowing that the home hero Keretene will have it in the bag, there's nothing stopping Mikuren from trying to get close. And get close they did. As Keretene sets the fastest time of 2:46.933, the Mikuren drivers did everything they could to at least try to deny her pole. Raatikainen and Blomqvist were out first, pushing to the best of her abilities, the Kimi-Suomi pair were exactly a tenth off of pole. Up next was Gallegos and Reotutar who came second to Keretene, leaving Aurinen and Kailenta to try their hand on coming first in the shakedown. While they did their best, it was only enough for third with Poldov splitting the Mikurens of Aurinen and Raatikainen in P4.
The performance of all three were promising and it set the mood for the remainder of the rally starting in the first leg. While both Raatikainen and Aurinen had some major mistakes, leading them to gain a lot of time only to end up finishing P8 and P9, Gallegos was the star of the first day as the Fleftic pair finished first and nearly 15 seconds ahead of Keretene.
Celebrations ignited within the team as they couldn't believe what they managed to do.
Although it was short-lived.
Leg 2
As things were going right, it suddenly made a sharp left turn as Gallegos crashed out of the 14th stage of the rally. Back at the tent, Juri, who was watching the following events unfold, slammed his table and yelled "FUCK!" and with this retirement, Keretene and Ælund leads, and Mikuren was left with two drivers for the second leg as the team scrambled to repair the car upon its arrival back at the service park. The retirement was offset by the performances of both Aurinen and Raatikainen with the former finishing third. Both drivers were up to P3 and P6 respectively in the overall standings.
Leg 3
Then came the third leg of the rally. Gallegos managed to bounce back but it wasn't enough for a significant gain in the overall standings, leaving him out of the points. Raatikainen was the next of the Mikurens to go and it was their best performance of the season. A flawless but blitzing drive through the challenging stages to secure a lead over Poldov and Keretene. It wasn't enough to compete for the overall lead against Ælund but eventually, it landed them in third giving themselves and Mikuren their first podium. The celebrations continued as it was their best result to date.
Meanwhile, as they try to keep up with their teammates, Kälö inadvertently pushed too hard in the final stage and he went wide, sliding the tail on a fast right-hander, clipping a large tree stump with the rear, spinning his Kana around and leaving it on the side of the road for a moment. He managed to get it going again but the rear-left of the car was severely mangled as he tried to finish the stage with an injured car. Thankfully, this occurred near the end of the stage so there weren't any significant time gained but they were the last to actually finish. Still, it landed them P8.
Later on, they join in on the P3 celebrations with the rest of the team. It lasted throughout the remainder of the day as Mikuren's gradual but upward trajectory became noticeable as they take P4 in the teams' championship standings and earning more points than Schkeska in the first three rallies. With such positive gains, many are now looking forward to their performance in the next rally in Kimi-Suomi.
A return to snow.
Juri's Office, Sport Mikuren Rally Team, SM Motorsport Facilities
Nisko, Auruna
After the Tongonistan Rally
Juri, Ari and Mick are just casually talking about the Tongonistan Rally with a few inserts of the team's future plans in the season. Their conversation was briefly halted as Juri's phone started to ring. The three joked around a bit, with both Ari and Mick teasing Juri about the phonecall before Juri actually answers. The room falls silent as Juri takes the call. It was obvious that the caller had a lot to say as Juri couldn't respond much. Upon realising that there's something going on, Ari waits for the call to end to ask Juri. "Who was that and what's going on? Tell us if it's something serious."
"It's Schkeska again."
