WSRC 02 | Stage Rally | RP Thread

[Kassegrochia]

Red Kalazhnikov Bar & Grill
Nachekov, Kassegrochia

Red Kalazhnikov Bar & Grill was a big hotspot in the city of Nachekov, located right next to town square. Throughout years, it had been the go-to destination to celebrate important family events with some good beer and sashlik. After dark, the family-friendly pub transformed into a wild nightlife hotspot that didn't close it's doors until morning. Indeed, Red Kalazhnikov was a place that kept on providing for the city of Nachekov and it's 22 000 residents.

Right now, Ivan and Vitaly had gotten a free pass from their significant others to go out and undertake an activity which could be best described as drinking their brains off. Indeed, the two were absolutely hammered. Ivan was leaning against the counter with his two fingers up to order another round of rum n coke. Meanwhile, Vitaly was listening to another drunk guy speak about New World Order and Reptilians controlling everyone's brains. Clearly a very self-educated young man, Vitaly thought.

In the midst of all this mess, Ivan received a notification on his phone, which instantly sobered him up quite a bit. With one hand holding a glass of rum n coke and the other clinging onto his phone, Ivan suddenly shout out all over the pub: ''VITALY! VITJAK! IDI SJUDAAAAA!''

''What?'' Vitaly asked as he somehow made his way to Ivan. ''Why are you screaming like that?''

''W... When does the first plane go to Aboveland?'' Ivan asked.

''I don't know. What, you want to go rallying again?'' Vitaly asked jokingly.

''Yes,'' Ivan said and showed the notification he had received. It was a contract offer from Iskalbil-Ælund. ''they want us and they want us now.''

''Weren't they going for... Shoudikys or whatever their names were?''

''I think they had some sort of disagreements. Maybe. It doesn't matter, the fact is, they want us in Aboveland and they want us now. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity.'' Ivan explained quickly while doing a lot of gestures with his hands.

''But... bwahaha, man I'm so wasted. I don't think we... can do it, can we?'' Vitaly was still having a hard time standing on his feet.

''Flight to Aboveland takes hours, enough time to sober up. Come on, we drop by our homes, pack our five things, say farewells to families and before we know it, we'll be off to Aboveland. I want this, my friend. I really want this. And, I know you want it too. It has been our childhood dream, man. It's an omen. We have to do it!''

''I... bwhek!'' Vitaly put his arms around Ivan, ''I would never leave you my best friend. We go and do this!''

The two put their hands together and raised them up, with Vitaly shouting all over the pub: ''NACHEKOV! WE WILL FLY TO ABOVELAND AND PARTICIPATE IN WSRC!''

Despite most of the crowd present being quite oblivious to who these two drunk middle-aged men were, the few who did know something about rallying started cheering from the top of their lungs, which caused everyone else to join in as well. Poldov and Ponomarjov were ready to fill the Iskalbil-Ælund line-up.

[Aboveland]

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Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland
Overview and Stage Guide | Leg 1

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Introduction

The Brukkifordet-based Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland returns to the WSRC calendar for the series' second edition, with an expanded itinerary covering 481.3km, 27 special stages, and faster stages than ever before. In accordance with the new format stipulated by the championship, drivers will kick off early Friday morning with the shakedown qualifying stage, before setting off on a three-day trek across the central Abovian massifs and low-lying pastures and river basins of the taiga.

Rally Rewind: 1st Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland

The inaugural season of the World Stage Rally Championship started nowhere else than Atlantian Oceania's rallying mecca: the central Abovian city of Brukkifordet. Though not home to triple WGPC champion Terho Talvela, its on both the rocky mountain roads and smooth dirt passes of the Abovian marshland that the Abovian first rose to prominence, before his far-out switch to grand prix racing sealed his fate as, arguably, the greatest driver in history.

The event was held across three days and ten special stages covering 166.36 kilometers of competitive action, which got underway with one less driver than would eventually compete on Saturday morning. Iskabil-Ælund's own Togonistani recruit Naomi Keretene was the first driver to taste success on the trying roads of Brukkifordet, winning shakedown ahead of local youngster Sakke Pajari and Mertagne's Roberta Fipps in her Iskabil Kokko XB4.

The frantic driver market was settled in the early hours of Saturday, just before the start of the first leg of the event. The Togonistani hotshot, running last on the road, was immediately on the pace, blitzing her opposition and leading the rally by almost 20 seconds at the morning's end, leading Fipps and Tumbran Francis Carpenter of EHF-Motospiel into the mammoth 37.7km test of Væltaamasikk. Her experienced teammate and reigning Hodori Rally champion — in almost the same Kokko — Axel Novikov, initially tipped as favorite for the Abovian win, only managed fourth by the end of the day after struggling for pace in the opening three stages. Kälo Aurinen and Sakke Pajari both retired on stage 3, the latter after suspension failure on the fastest stage of the day, while Pajari's teammate and eventual Hodori Rally winner Dario Nülkeschlager joined Xanneria's Rick Sutcliffe on the roadside in Væltaamasikk.

As leg two moved into the fast, flowing, tree-lined forest tracks of the Brukkifordet foothills, Axel Novikov prepared for a fightback. A slow start on the point-and-squirt Kettulampi stage quickly became an all-out attack on Toivojärvi, and the Abovian maintained his pace to blitz his rivals over Iskfjellrevendanssi, the final stage of the loop, setting a stage record in the process. Returning drivers Dario Nülkeschlager and Sakke Pajari were heavily hampered by their high starting positions following their leg one retirements, while Ruck Sutcliffe struck a tree and spelled a premature end to his rally.

Alas, the race of attrition had not yet finished. Though Novikov's deficit to the leaders was significant, with a podium also looking unlikely, the Abovian continued to press hard in the closing afternoon of the event. Keretene pipped the Abovian driver on the opening stage of the loop by half a second, but their battle was cut short on stage nine, as Tumbra's Carpenter rolled and blocked the road as the third car to strike trouble on the stage, prompting its cancellation and giving all drivers a nominal time for the stage. On the closing Vansipeili stage, Keretene again trumped the Abovian by less than a second, extending her lead of the second loop and coming home well clear of Mertagne's Roberta Fipps to take her first ever WSRC victory. Novikov, benefiting from Carpenter's misfortune, rounded off the podium in third.

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Stage Guide

All the stages in the leg are run only once, with the exception of SS2/6 Kiivenkaster. The black and white dot indicates the starting point of the stage.

Shakedown | Flukkdermestästäjä (5.76km)

Flukkdermestästäjä becomes the shakedown stage for the second edition of Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland. Despite having little elevation change throughout, drivers find themselves descending gradually as the very straight road goes on. There's a big, flat jump at 2.75km, from where the stage begins to descend even more rapidly, before taking a left 1km from the end and regaining some lost altitude on a steeper slope than before. Drivers reach up to 180km/h at some stretches of thesprint stage, which has an average speed of over 137km/h. As the shakedown stage, its blindingly quick nature rewards bravery over strategy — the opposite of what's on offer for the first full day of competition over the massif.

SS1 | Pilviløpp (23.5km)

The opening stage of the 2nd Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland starts off the same road as the Pienihøikealampi test, but heads westwards instead of up into the massif. Reminiscent of the shakedown stage, and more in tune, at first, with the character of the stages of the latter two legs, Pilviløpp (meaning "cloud race") starts off fast and flat as it follows and crosses Lakkijoki river through narrow wooden fences. The stage is exceptionally quick — with competitors reaching the highest average speeds of the rally at parts — as drivers brave the big jumps (particularly at 5 and 7km) until the road sumberges itself into the thick forest 15km in. At 17km, however, the stage begins to climb; as the trees start to part the rockfaces begin to close in, and the road becomes tight and twisty. A steep climb at the end gives way to a rapidly descending flying finish near the highest peaks of the rocky massif.

The roads of the first stage are the smoothest of the day, but that doesn't mean they're spotless. Any amount of rain can make the dirt soft and rutted quickly.

SS2/6 | Kiivenkaster (30.3km)

The Kiivenkaster stage is the furthest from the rally base in Brukkifordet, starting north of the massif and circling around most of the outcropping on which the stages of day one are held. Named after the folk deity Kiivenkaster, to whom the creation of the Brukkifordet massif is credited, the stage is far and away the fastest of the first leg. It starts with a slight climb over smoother roads than those at the end of the previous stage, lined by rockface on one side and a tumbling cliff on the other. The stage remains relatively straight with some jumps until around 6km, where the road begins to turn back towards the host city and the slope becomes extremely steep. A 2km straight follows, which drops sharply for 1km and then smoothens out for the rest of the stage. Drivers fly over the rocky terrain, peeking in and out of the granite walls, until the 12km mark. From then, the stage becomes slightly more technical and similar to the initial half of the previous stage. As the massif begins to fade and the trees start to line the road again, the stage narrows, but remains flat and quick until the end, with little in the way of jumps or deadly boulders. It is the only stage of the first loop run twice.

SS3 | Pienihøikealampi (15.8km)

The third stage of the rally greets the start of the afternoon loop, and is indicative of the character of all three afternoon stages. Drivers begin on a winding, fast and flat stretch of road for the opening 3km, before the route takes a detour up into the rocky heart of the Brukkifordet massif. The surface becomes suddenly rocky and treacherous, and though there are few sharp corners along the stage, the road has drivers constantly weaving and flying across bumps. A sharp climb 4km from the finish takes drivers along the shores of Pienihøikealampi lake, the namesake of the stage.

SS4 | Peralkaliskiiviltti (19.1km)

Peralkaliskiiviltti keeps the rocky nature of the surace of the previous stage, but as the terrain smooths out on either side of the road the drivers find themselves barreling across the Abovian mountains with a panoramic view of the landscape below. The stage climbs steeply up until the 8.5km mark, where it drops for a further 3km. From then, the road straightens back up, descending gradually as the walls of granite close back in on the drivers towards a twistier final sector.

SS5 | Væltaamasikk (46.8km)

Væltaamasikk returns for the 2nd Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland, albeit run in reverse and incorporating the final 4.5km of the iconic Nousevaatie stage, including its jump.

It's a marathon, snaking test which forces drivers to adjust their pace on the fly: the stage begins a short distance from the end of Peralkaliskiiviltti on a wooded dirt road, before quickly climbing back out onto the rough, rocky granite massif reminiscent of the leg's first two stages. After a big jump 4km in, the stage rapidly descends again towards its lowest point, where the road evens out and the walls of granite close in on the twisty, narrow gravel track. The drivers' breather from the slopes ends quickly, however, as the stage starts climbing sharply for 3km to its previous highest peak on wider, wooded roads. After another big jump halfway in, the stage quickly turns right back towards the city of Brukkifordet, and thus begins a steep, winding descent to last years' stage start. A bumpy but relatively straight and wide 2km, across the stone-strewn valleys of the massif, signal the start of the faster third of the new-look stage, which slows down as it climbs one more time to the Nousevaatie jump, and then smoothens and quickens out in its final 4.5km sprint to the finish.

The changing nature of the stage, transitioning rapidly between varicose, car-breaking mountain roads and flat, yumpy forest tracks calls for caution, commitment, and compromise.

Watch out for the rocks looming out of the surface of the road on your way down: the cars running ahead may pull them out onto the line.

[Aboveland]

CUTOFF

for Shakedown and Leg 1 at Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland

Entry list:

#	DRV	Name				NAT	Team
44	SUY	Suyauey/Yliande			JOU	AP-Dëritee WRT
76	SOD	Södergren/Jansson		KML	AP-Dëritee WRT
46	DME	Mëlander/Lösspeng		DMN	AP-Dëritee WRT
4	HAR	Hargis/Holstein			LIS	Camden WRT
27	HMA	Harcourt-Mauroy/d'Ombret	GAL	Camden WRT
16	AUG	Imparato/Nogueira		VEZ	ENSADRINK WSR
21	INY	Inyuseo/Mizeyuki		HDR	ENSADRINK WSR
1	NOV	Novikov/Baardsen		ABL	Iskabil-Ælund WRT
23	KER	Keretene/Karaka			TGN	Iskabil-Ælund WRT
57	POL	Poldov/Ponomarjov		KSG	Iskabil-Ælund WRT
77	RAA	Raatikainen/Blomqvist		KIM	Sport Mikuren
84	GLG	Gallegos/Reotutar		AFT	Sport Mikuren
68	PAJ	Pajari/Kalliomäki		ABL	TGK-VK WRT
5	WAT	Watanabe/Hitchens		KOI	TGK-VK WRT
91	BOL	Boludo/de FitzLawrence		QUE	TGK-VK WRT

[Aboveland]

Shakedown

Conditions:      	Cloudy
Average SS Time:      	00:02:39.508
Nation:         	ABL

POS # ▍DRIVER                             	TIME		GAP TO LEADER
 1 76 ▍Södergren/Jansson                  	00:02:43.539	00:00:00.000
 2  1 ▍Novikov/Baardsen                   	00:02:43.543	00:00:00.004
 3 23 ▍Keretene/Karaka                    	00:02:43.556	00:00:00.017
 4 77 ▍Raatikainen/Blomqvist              	00:02:43.645	00:00:00.106
 5 21 ▍Inyuseo/Mizeyuki                   	00:02:43.649	00:00:00.110
 6  5 ▍Watanabe/Hitchens                  	00:02:43.656	00:00:00.117
 7 91 ▍Boludo/de FitzLawrence             	00:02:43.694	00:00:00.155
 8 68 ▍Pajari/Kalliomäki                  	00:02:43.721	00:00:00.182
 9 57 ▍Poldov/Ponomarjov                  	00:02:43.723	00:00:00.184
10 84 ▍Gallegos/Reotutar                  	00:02:43.752	00:00:00.213
11 46 ▍Mëlander/Lösspeng                  	00:02:44.042	00:00:00.503
12 44 ▍Suyauey/Yliande                    	00:02:44.294	00:00:00.754
13  4 ▍Hargis/Holstein                    	00:02:44.557	00:00:01.017
14 27 ▍Harcourt-Mauroy/d'Ombret           	00:02:45.980	00:00:02.440
15 16 ▍Imparato/Nogueira                  	00:02:46.341	00:00:02.802

Results after leg 1

Conditions:      	Dry	
Stages:              	6	
Nation:          ABL	
Leg:        	Leg 1	
Rally:        	Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland	
Stage(s)    cancelled on safety grounds
Starters:	15

POS  # ▍DRV Name                   	Team			Time     	Gap prev.	
1   21 ▍INY Inyuseo/Mizeyuki             ENSADRINK WSR		114:25.018	—
2   23 ▍KER Keretene/Karaka              Iskabil-Ælund WRT	114:41.387	+0:16.368
3   57 ▍POL Poldov/Ponomarjov            Iskabil-Ælund WRT	114:41.445	+0:16.427
4   76 ▍SOD Södergren/Jansson            AP-Dëritee WRT		115:13.559	+0:48.541
5    4 ▍HAR Hargis/Holstein              Camden WRT		115:19.681	+0:54.663
6    1 ▍NOV Novikov/Baardsen             Iskabil-Ælund WRT	115:27.228	+1:02.209
7   27 ▍HMA Harcourt-Mauroy/d'Ombret     Camden WRT		115:37.644	+1:12.626
8   91 ▍BOL Boludo/de FitzLawrence       TGK-VK WRT		115:46.315	+1:21.297
9   68 ▍PAJ Pajari/Kalliomäki            TGK-VK WRT		115:56.240	+1:31.222
10  16 ▍AUG Imparato/Nogueira            ENSADRINK WSR		116:01.134	+1:36.116
11  44 ▍SUY Suyauey/Yliande              AP-Dëritee WRT		116:08.522	+1:43.503
12   5 ▍WAT Watanabe/Hitchens            TGK-VK WRT		116:21.531	+1:56.513
13  77 ▍RAA Raatikainen/Blomqvist        Sport Mikuren		116:24.419	+1:59.400
14  46 ▍DME Mëlander/Lösspeng            AP-Dëritee WRT		117:09.470	+2:44.451
DNF 84 ▍GLG Gallegos/Reotutar            Sport Mikuren		123:09.469	+8:44.451 +6:00.000 Ret. SS5

[Koaiwa]

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TGK-VK: Rally Aboveland - Leg 1 Summary
The three TGK-VK drivers; Malo Boludo, Sakke Pajari and Ren Watanabe ended Leg 1 in the positions of 8th, 9th and 12th respectively as the twists of the Abovian forests give drivers trouble.

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June 3X, 201X, at 7:15 PM. By Cem Kovartz of the bet.koi Sportspage

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While conditions did remain dry although the day had started cloudy. The twisty forests alone caused problems for the team. As all three drivers were showing issues regarding understeering while during the first day of the leg. Seeing those such as Gallegos of Sport Mikuren having to retire on the day was not enough to deter the trio's determination to push forward and fight. They battled hard through out the day in the hope of gaining vital points. However, if the current standings were to be scored. TGK-VK would find themselves second-last, only in-front of Sport Mikuren in Team's Championship.

When asked about the overall performance of the team on the first leg, Wei commented "There are places to be improved upon but for what is our debut season. I am pleased with how we performed today. The entire team is doing a great job, and are under way preparing for tomorrow. We had some small issues during the day but nothing major. The weather was good and the roads were well prepared. We are looking forward to tomorrow's stage which is going to be very interesting and demanding. I think the weather might change a bit too. It could rain or maybe snow. That would make things even more difficult. But that is what makes this rally so special. You never know what to expect. So, let's wait and see!"

Wei had also this to say, in regards to the team's current standing on the table. "We are happy with the result as the first leg is known for attrition, we had no one retiring on this day. I feel if we can just ride (the attrition) out on rest of the legs, we will be able to climb through the table. We have been fighting since the beginning and we are glad to see that the work has paid off. I am sure that the next days will be exciting and challenging. There are many strong teams competing here but, we need to keep pushing to gain as much as possible, both in experience and in points."

TGK-VK's Ren Watanabe finished the first leg in 12th place. She commented "Today was a tough day for me. The forest section was really tricky. I made a few mistakes and lost some time there. However, overall we are happy with the result. The car was good enough to do more, but we still we managed to complete all the stages of the leg without any trouble. We have a lot of work ahead of us and, me and Gary will do our best to improve and get ready for the next stage."

In the Individual Classification. The fastest driver was ENSADRINK WSR's Inyuseo who set the best time overall at the end of Leg 1. His time of 114:25.018 was 0:16.368 faster than his nearest rival. The TGK-VK drivers will continue the battle tomorrow as they head to the second leg of the rally.

[Aboveland]

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Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland
Stage Guide | Leg 2

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All the stages in the leg are run twice, with a service break in the middle between the first and second passes of each.

The stages on day two are a complete change of nature for Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland. Gone are the rocky, rough, twisty massif stages: replacing the large stones and soft dirt comes breakneck fast, smooth, jumpy gravel. These stages are wider and faster than the final day's tests, and dip in and out of the Abovian forests. All four of the day's stages are new additions to the rally.

SS7/11 | Grønnejoki (15.9km)

The first stage of the second leg starts off near the main road leading up to the opening stage of the previous day. Grønnejoki is an instant change of character for the rally as it moves away from the massif towards the blindingly-quick riverside roads of the central Abovian forests. Most of the stage weaves along the shores of Senjeä River, crossing over the water five times across the 16km of the stage through narrow wooden bridges. It's among the drivers' favorite stages of the rally, and what it lacks in sheer speed, it more than makes up for in its abundant amount of jumps: it's one of the most crested stages of the rally.

Even with the river out of sight, the rally never lets go of its crests and overgrown greenery.

SS8/12 | Skyrkinjärvi (11.6km)

Skyrkinjärvi is a new addition to Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland, starting at a secluded lake burrowed between the rocky outcroppings of the Abovian taiga. Most of the stage runs along the top of a bumpy, grassy ridge after climbing slightly from the start at the scenic mirror of water. Drivers encounter three quick jumps along the road before it slows down to descend towards a river, finishing just after another of the iconic wooden bridge crossings of the rally.

The only river crossing of the stage; the wooden bridges can take a beating, but they're narrow and often lack guardrails.

SS9/13 | Tjætsyyeålmaiaskiin-pojatkka (27.1km)

The "trip of the Tjætsyyeålmaiaski" stage, the longest of the forest stages of the rally, returns after a decades-long absence from the event. The stage descends for 5km over the mossy taiga among outcroppings of granite, before smoothening out, opening up, and crossing (twice!) over the wood bridges of Iso Grønnejoki river towards Luodojärvi. Huge crowds swarm the roadside across the whole stage, as the trees clear to reveal the cars flying over the smooth roads and the big jump at 15.6km just behind the lake. After almost 20km of flat-out forest and lowlands track, the stage turns towards the wooded areas nearer the earlier stages, dipping in and out of bunches of conifers until the end. It's one of the most exciting, coveted, and revered stages of the whole championship.

This is one of the fastest and smoothest stages of the rally, and a true test of drivers' skill and mettle. At some parts, as the road nears Luodojärvi lake, the water is visible from among the trees.

SS10/14 | Lampiinhypää (24.5km)

The last stage of the second leg captures the essence of the forest stages of Rally Aboveland. Fast, flowing roads; narrow, tree-lined passages; slim, rickety wooden bridge river crossings; and, though among the flatter stages of the latter two-thirds of the event, various big jumps in succession. The pond-hopping stage skirts the shores of no less than six small bodies of water, and many sections of road are relatively straight compared to the more technical and wavy stages of the third leg. On a warm, dry day, average speeds can easily reach 140km/h — on ice and studded tyres, chicanes must be added to the route to keep speeds at an acceptable level.

Lampiinhypää might seem tame at first, but the clearings in the forest that the stge presents are one-of-a-kind in Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland, and may lead drivers to relax before the road approaches the ponds it visits along its route.

[Aboveland]

CUTOFF

for Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland: Leg 2

Starting list

POS # ▍DRV Name                      Team
15 84 ▍GLG Gallegos/Reotutar          Sport Mikuren
14 46 ▍DME Mëlander/Lösspeng          AP-Dëritee WRT
13 77 ▍RAA Raatikainen/Blomqvist      Sport Mikuren
12  5 ▍WAT Watanabe/Hitchens          TGK-VK WRT
11 44 ▍SUY Suyauey/Yliande            AP-Dëritee WRT
10 16 ▍AUG Imparato/Nogueira          ENSADRINK WSR
9  68 ▍PAJ Pajari/Kalliomäki          TGK-VK WRT
8  91 ▍BOL Boludo/de FitzLawrence     TGK-VK WRT
7  27 ▍HMA Harcourt-Mauroy/d'Ombret   Camden WRT
6   1 ▍NOV Novikov/Baardsen           Iskabil-Ælund WRT
5   4 ▍HAR Hargis/Holstein            Camden WRT
4  76 ▍SOD Södergren/Jansson          AP-Dëritee WRT
3  57 ▍POL Poldov/Ponomarjov          Iskabil-Ælund WRT
2  23 ▍KER Keretene/Karaka            Iskabil-Ælund WRT
1  21 ▍INY Inyuseo/Mizeyuki           ENSADRINK WSR

Position listed is equal to the drivers' standing in the rally. On gravel rallies, drivers start in reverse order from their shakedown classification, and in reverse classification order on subsequent legs.

[Aboveland]

Leg 2 | Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland

Conditions:      Dry	
Stages:          8 (SS7-14)
Nation:       	ABL	
Leg:        	Leg 2	
Rally:        	Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland	
Stage(s)	cancelled on safety grounds
Starters:	15

Leg 2 results

POS  # ▍DRV Name                       Team                     	Time      
  1 23 ▍KER Keretene/Karaka            Iskabil-Ælund WRT          	81:05.131
  2 21 ▍INY Inyuseo/Mizeyuki           ENSADRINK WSR              	0:06.964
  3  1 ▍NOV Novikov/Baardsen           Iskabil-Ælund WRT          	0:11.327
  4 77 ▍RAA Raatikainen/Blomqvist      Sport Mikuren              	0:17.627
  5 44 ▍SUY Suyauey/Yliande            AP-Dëritee WRT             	0:31.119
  6 76 ▍SOD Södergren/Jansson          AP-Dëritee WRT             	0:33.348
  7 27 ▍HMA Harcourt-Mauroy/d'Ombret   Camden WRT                 	0:58.909
  8 57 ▍POL Poldov/Ponomarjov          Iskabil-Ælund WRT          	0:59.486
  9  5 ▍WAT Watanabe/Hitchens          TGK-VK WRT                 	1:10.879
 10 16 ▍AUG Imparato/Nogueira          ENSADRINK WSR              	1:11.182
 11 84 ▍GLG Gallegos/Reotutar          Sport Mikuren              	1:21.235
 12 46 ▍DME Mëlander/Lösspeng          AP-Dëritee WRT             	1:21.881
DNF  4 ▍HAR Hargis/Holstein            Camden WRT                 	7:21.881    DNF SS13 +6:00.00 
DNF 68 ▍PAJ Pajari/Kalliomäki          TGK-VK WRT                 	22:21.881   DNF SS8  +21:00.00
DNF 91 ▍BOL Boludo/de FitzLawrence     TGK-VK WRT                 	25:21.881   DNF SS7  +24:00.00

Overall after leg 2

POS	  # ▍DRV Name                       Team			Time		Gap prev.
 1	 21 ▍INY Inyuseo/Mizeyuki           ENSADRINK WSR              	195:37.114	—
 2	 23 ▍KER Keretene/Karaka            Iskabil-Ælund WRT          	195:46.518	+0:09.404
 3	  1 ▍NOV Novikov/Baardsen           Iskabil-Ælund WRT          	196:43.686	+1:06.572
 4	 57 ▍POL Poldov/Ponomarjov          Iskabil-Ælund WRT          	196:46.063	+1:08.949
 5	 76 ▍SOD Södergren/Jansson          AP-Dëritee WRT             	196:52.038	+1:14.925
 6	 27 ▍HMA Harcourt-Mauroy/d'Ombret   Camden WRT                 	197:41.684	+2:04.570
 7	 44 ▍SUY Suyauey/Yliande            AP-Dëritee WRT             	197:44.771	+2:07.658
 8	 77 ▍RAA Raatikainen/Blomqvist      Sport Mikuren              	197:47.177	+2:10.063
 9	 16 ▍AUG Imparato/Nogueira          ENSADRINK WSR              	198:17.447	+2:40.333
10	  5 ▍WAT Watanabe/Hitchens          TGK-VK WRT                 	198:37.542	+3:00.428
11	 46 ▍DME Mëlander/Lösspeng          AP-Dëritee WRT             	199:36.481	+3:59.367
12	  4 ▍HAR Hargis/Holstein            Camden WRT                 	203:46.693	+8:09.580 
13	 84 ▍GLG Gallegos/Reotutar          Sport Mikuren              	205:35.835	+9:58.721
14	 68 ▍PAJ Pajari/Kalliomäki          TGK-VK WRT                 	219:23.252	+23:46.138
15	 91 ▍BOL Boludo/de FitzLawrence     TGK-VK WRT                 	222:13.327	+26:36.213

[Darkmania]

Mëlander and Lösspeng didn't have a great start, placing them 11th out of 15. One reason might be him almost crashing out from the bridge at Skyrkinjärvi when he slid of and wrecked his front right wheel, and losing it after a few kilometres when it flew off the car. Luckily both fixed both the nuked wheel suspension and had a spare wheel to use. The wheel suspension was fixed during the mid-day break and Danÿel drove more carefully for the rest of the day, despite a near-crash again at the same bridge at Skyrkinjärvi.

Meanwhile, Dëritee, the darkmanian car giant, reported an investment of around NS$500 million to invest in their motorsport department .

[Koaiwa]

TGK-VK team principal, Li Wei sat in his chair, blankly, listening to the radio and hearing the cacophony as Boludo would be unable to complete yet another stage due to veering off at high speeds. Then the same from Pajari. He lost track of time as it kept repeating like it was groundhog day. Listening to errors after errors, stage after stage, as both of the high-expense foreign talents collapsed. It was unbelievable, impossible. TGK-VK was working very hard during the pre-season to prove their legitimacy to the entire world, and it was possible that they put more effort than other teams in the pre-season but the difference in performance Wei was seeing from the few weeks that had passed was mind-boggling for him, literally.

Wei started to think this was maybe a very bad dream and would wake up. "I'll see you farming trout" was a common saying in Koaiwa, as before the nation's democratic thaw trying to open up to the rest of the world, many government dissidents, corruption officials and sometimes managers of high-profile failures would get sent to labor camps disguised as fish farms. As he watched the helicopter footage of Watanabe's performance on the last stage, he started hyper-focusing on the livery.

While in reality, the koi fish was on the livery as a way to help the state-run gambling agency and help push the TGK motorsport project with their help. However, in Wei's mind, he started associating the livery with the saying. Thinking that "a dream would explain having an omen like this on the side of the car and if I wake up any time soon, I will make sure there is no fish on the side of the car before the season starts, I will cross bet.koi if that's what it takes".

His thoughts, however, kept trailing around, "What if this isn't a dream but all real? Is this some sort of divine presence sending me a message? Is there a god? Is this their punishment to me? Is it a punishment to gamblers? Maybe this is a punishment to the entire nation of Koaiwa? This can't be it, if there was a god, something this strange wouldn't happen, a god wouldn't let this happen-" before the panic would cause him to overcome him and cause him to pass out. While it was not expected that teams would have their own medical staff. The two medics on board; Ali and Kimura, sprung into action to administer first aid. It was perhaps better that they didn't end up as drivers.

Watanabe had been racing for only a few years. So when the comms channel had been accidentally opened as Wei fell from the chair, She didn't know what to make of the situation. Just moments before, the only thing on her mind at the moment was how she could improve her position in the standings. She was already ahead of Pajari by a significant amount, and now with Boludo falling behind even further, she felt like he might have a chance. There was some emotional attachment, with Wei being a part of her career from the start, allowing her to become the test driver for the GT4 program, and more.

In order to cope with this distraction coming through, She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down. If she was going to be able to finish the last stage day without issues, then she needed to focus on the task at hand. The car wasn't performing well the entire day. There were issues with the aerodynamics, especially at high speeds, and she knew a way to fix them but Wei brushed it off the entire time, maybe it was karma, she thought. On second thought, she reflected that was a bit cruel of a way of thinking, as much as she was frustrated with how the car was handling, Wei didn't deserve to die for yielding to the marketing team on the aerodynamics. The objective at this point was to mentally weather the storm and get to the end of the day.

---

---

---

Disastrous day in Aboveland sends TGK-VK team boss to the hospital
TGK-VK team principal, Li Wei was hospitalised after passing out at Rally Aboveland

---

June 3X, 201X, at 7:15 PM. By Cem Kovartz of the bet.koi Sportspage

---

The team boss of TGK-VK, Li Wei, has been admitted to hospital after collapsing in the team tent during the final stages of the race. Wei, who had been with TGK for nearly 30 years, was taken to the local hospital where he was treated for a heart attack. According to sources close to the matter, he had been under stress since the beginning of the motorsport project and, had a medical history of having a mild case of hypertension previously.

"He was always a little too hard on himself," said one source close to the team, who wanted to remain anonymous. "It's a shame, he really wanted this to work from day one when he was managing the Albatross Challenge" A second source also spoke about Wei's health, saying that he had been suffering from a mild heart condition for some time and that he should have retired a while ago. The source added that the pressure of running the team was just too much for the old man, and that he was probably overworking himself. "I'm glad he's getting the treatment he needs. He's a legend for bringing motorsports to Koaiwa in the first place."

In a statement released by the team, they confirmed that they are taking the necessary steps to ensure that the situation does not affect the team's performance moving forward. "For Wei, his health should be his top priority right now. We want to give him the time he needs to recover. He should be able to rest well knowing that we have got a great group of people here at the team. We're will do everything we can to do to make sure that this doesn't affect the rest of the season, in his absence."

The news comes as a shock to many within the sport, as it is rare for someone so integral to a team's structure to be hospitalized. Many are speculating that this may be the end of the road for the lifelong company man turned manager, who has been with TGK since 198X, and at the helm of their motorsport division's inception in 201X. The interim team principal is yet undecided but will be clarified in the hours before the next leg tomorrow.

[Aboveland]

---

Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland
Stage Guide | Leg 3

---

All the stages in the leg are run twice, with the exception of the first stage, the new Elvenuokkintie test.

The stages of day three are more similar to those of the previous leg, though they're narrower and, as a result, slightly slower. However, they're also shorter stages, which means drivers will be able to go fully flat out in short bursts as opposed to having to manage their pace on long stretches of road. The format of day three stokes competition to make way for a grand finale at the shores of Koiralampi.

All stages are run once in the morning, then the repeated stages are run after midday service.

SS15 | Elvenuokkintie (12.6km)

Run only once over concerns of the road becoming too rutted for two passes, Elvenuokkintie, or "the road of the riverbed", is the most unique of the Abovian stages south of the massif. It starts at the very edge of the vegetated oasis between the looming walls of granite of central Aboveland, running along a wide, soft, dried riverbed for 5km until it descends towards a stream. A bridge crossing marks a turning point in the stage, as it rises back to its starting height while weaving in and out of the trees lining the narrowing forest tracks. It ends after a spectator-favorite hairpin leads out towards a blindingly-quick 3km dash to the finish.

SS16/22 | Kettulampi (9.46km)

The second stage of the final leg is completely different to the stages of the opening day. Kettulampi sets the tone of the Abovian forest stages, serving as a blazing fast test on smooth, variable width gravel roads. It's not a particularly undulating or bumpy stage, but what it lacks in jumps and crests it makes up for in sheer speed.

SS17/23 | Toivojärvi (12km)

Traditionally run in the opposite direction, Toivojärvi is a staple of Rally Aboveland. The stage begins on a flat-out stretch of narrow gravel road with barely any elevation change, but after a sharp left at the 4km mark the stage comes into its element. Three massive jumps follow in the closing 8km of the test, each paired to a corner immediately after landing, and the final few meters are a downhill dash to the finish.

SS18/24 | Iskfjellrevendanssi (23.2km)

The longest stage of the third leg, and an all-time fan favorite, Iskfjellrevendanssi is another indisputably Abovian stage. The test begins at the shores of Toivojärvi and leaps deep into the forest of the foothills of the Brukkifordet Mountains, weaving in and out of the trees with a never-ending succession of crests, jumps and blind, sweeping corners. There are few sharp turns throughout the stage; drivers frequently graze and surpass an average speed of 134km/h.

SS19/25 | Helpposnarvei (9.64km)

Starting just off of the main road leading up to the stages, Helpposnarvei starts narrow and tight until it reaches Koivulampi lake, where it tiptoes around the edge of the water to head back into the forest. The stage then opens up halfway through to the end on a fairly smooth yet narrow road, with few crests or hidden hazards until the last 1km, where the Abovian roads start to bare their teeth and reveal the jumps they're famous for.

SS20/26 | Laidunttimasikk (7.39km)

Laidunttimasikk is a quick stage which sticks out from the rest of the stages in its leg. Heading north from the first stage of the day, this test is wide and fast with a few sharper, smooth corners in between. Between 2km and the big, fan-favorite jump at 4km, the stage takes on a rollercoaster character through sweeping turns, and once the crested jump has passed the stage becomes a flat dash to the finish line.


SS21/27 | Vansipeili (10.8km)

The closing stage of the rally starts off as jumpy as Iskfjellrevendanssi, though the rollercoaster-roads are shorter-lived. After 1km, the road turns smoother and quicker with hidden rocks strewn across the ditches either side of the road. At 3km, a sharp left-hand hairpin, littered with spectators, makes way for the final dash to the finish over a snaky stretch of road. The stage finishes with a precise dance around Koiralampi lake, where the first celebrations of the eventual winner begin against an untouched natural backdrop.

---

Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland
SS8: Skyrkinjärvi

Sakke had been sweating buckets already since the previous stage: he'd had to keep his speed down over the jumps of Grønnejoki. The issue hadn't shown itself on the rough stages of leg one, but as the pace picked up and the crests started looming taller, his Albatross began to fly.

Perhaps, a little too much.

A particularly rough jump on the opening stage of the day had already knocked his Quebecois teammate out, according to the team back in Brukkifordet. Sakke had started the stage just before Boludo, and had told the team the balance over the jumps was "sort of bad," to sugarcoat his hair-raising debut on the forest stages, but his message wasn't relayed quick enough. Around the midpoint of the stage, a bad landing had already damaged the front bumper on the three-winged sedan: the damage had further worsened the aero balance, and with three stages to go before service, it was looking to be a long morning.

As he blasted into Skyrkinjärvi, however — with his sides drenched in the sweat which, having already saturated the cloth under his arms, had begun to stream down his body — the nerves began to take over. Every jump, bump and crest could spell the end of his rally, and just as he and Jarkko cleared the shores of the lake at the start, the anxiety came kicking in. He'd been relatively relaxed since his signing at TGK: the up-and-coming promise from the middle of nowhereland had, somehow, seen potential in him, despite his horror season with HMG. His driving had begun to come naturally, even if he was focusing on finishing his first event rather than setting the world alight; for the first time in a while, things started looking up.

The same was true for his Albatross.

The car had pitched up on the first drop on the stage, but his notes for the second jump on the road were overly conservative. Full throttle into the crest, the road began to fall away from the bonnet of the car: first as the car gained altitude, and then as the trees parted and the sky came into view. The throttle remained pinned all through the instant of disaster, as he and Jarkko shrieked "Ei perkele!": the Albatross pitched up, almost 90º from the road surface, and all the two Abovians could see was the cerulean polar morning sky. The jump had seemed eternal before the rear of the car slammed into the soft dirt and caught onto the stones just below the surface. On touchdown, the front slammed back onto the road, but the dirt trail had already diverged from the car's trajectory. Unable to regain control as the suspension stayed unsettled, the pair went careening off the road, first over the razor-sharp outcroppings of granite on the early part of the stage, which ripped the right-side suspension off the car, and then into the skinny trees atop the ridge. Once their ill-fated Albatross had come to a tumbling, fluttering stop, Sakke and Jarkko sighed, wide-eyed, and panting.

"Holy fuck," Sakke muttered. "You okay?" He coughed as a plume of dust from the aftermath seeped in from the air vents on the roof.

"Holy fuck," Jarkko replied quietly, pulling his intercom wire off of his helmet and undoing his belts.

[Aboveland]

CUTOFF

for Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland: Leg 3

Starting list (from first to last on the road)

POS # ▍DRV Name                       Team
15 91 ▍BOL Boludo/de FitzLawrence     TGK-VK WRT                 
14 68 ▍PAJ Pajari/Kalliomäki          TGK-VK WRT                 
13 84 ▍GLG Gallegos/Reotutar          Sport Mikuren              
12  4 ▍HAR Hargis/Holstein            Camden WRT                 
11 46 ▍DME Mëlander/Lösspeng          AP-Dëritee WRT             
10  5 ▍WAT Watanabe/Hitchens          TGK-VK WRT                 
9  16 ▍AUG Imparato/Nogueira          ENSADRINK WSR              
8  77 ▍RAA Raatikainen/Blomqvist      Sport Mikuren              
7  44 ▍SUY Suyauey/Yliande            AP-Dëritee WRT             
6  27 ▍HMA Harcourt-Mauroy/d'Ombret   Camden WRT                 
5  76 ▍SOD Södergren/Jansson          AP-Dëritee WRT             
4  57 ▍POL Poldov/Ponomarjov          Iskabil-Ælund WRT          
3   1 ▍NOV Novikov/Baardsen           Iskabil-Ælund WRT          
2  23 ▍KER Keretene/Karaka            Iskabil-Ælund WRT          
1  21 ▍INY Inyuseo/Mizeyuki           ENSADRINK WSR

[Aboveland]

Leg 3 | Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland

Conditions:      	Dry	
Stages:              	13 (SS15-27)
Nation:         	ABL	
Leg:        	Leg 3	
Rally:        	Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland	
Stage(s)	2 (SS16)	 cancelled on safety grounds
Starters:	15

Leg 3 results

---

POS  # ▍DRV Name                       Team                     	Time      
  1  1 ▍NOV Novikov/Baardsen           Iskabil-Ælund WRT          	86:11.294
  2 21 ▍INY Inyuseo/Mizeyuki           ENSADRINK WSR              	0:31.713
  3  5 ▍WAT Watanabe/Hitchens          TGK-VK WRT                 	0:33.811
  4 76 ▍SOD Södergren/Jansson          AP-Dëritee WRT             	0:44.769
  5 57 ▍POL Poldov/Ponomarjov          Iskabil-Ælund WRT          	0:47.286
  6 91 ▍BOL Boludo/de FitzLawrence     TGK-VK WRT                 	0:50.606
  7 23 ▍KER Keretene/Karaka            Iskabil-Ælund WRT          	0:52.034
  8 84 ▍GLG Gallegos/Reotutar          Sport Mikuren              	0:59.796
  9 68 ▍PAJ Pajari/Kalliomäki          TGK-VK WRT                 	1:04.701
 10 16 ▍AUG Imparato/Nogueira          ENSADRINK WSR              	1:08.783
 11 44 ▍SUY Suyauey/Yliande            AP-Dëritee WRT             	1:14.389
 12  4 ▍HAR Hargis/Holstein            Camden WRT                 	1:42.907
DNF 27 ▍HMA Harcourt-Mauroy/d'Ombret   Camden WRT                 	Ret. SS 1
DNF 46 ▍DME Mëlander/Lösspeng          AP-Dëritee WRT             	Ret. SS 8
DNF 77 ▍RAA Raatikainen/Blomqvist      Sport Mikuren              	Ret. SS 8

---

Final classification

---

POS # ▍DRV Name                       Team				Time		Gap prev.
1  21 ▍INY Inyuseo/Mizeyuki           ENSADRINK WSR              	282:20.121	—
2  23 ▍KER Keretene/Karaka            Iskabil-Ælund WRT          	282:49.846	+0:29.725
3   1 ▍NOV Novikov/Baardsen           Iskabil-Ælund WRT          	282:54.980	+0:34.859
4  57 ▍POL Poldov/Ponomarjov          Iskabil-Ælund WRT          	283:44.642	+1:24.522
5  76 ▍SOD Södergren/Jansson          AP-Dëritee WRT             	283:48.101	+1:27.981
6  44 ▍SUY Suyauey/Yliande            AP-Dëritee WRT             	285:10.455	+2:50.334
7   5 ▍WAT Watanabe/Hitchens          TGK-VK WRT                 	285:22.646	+3:02.526
8  16 ▍AUG Imparato/Nogueira          ENSADRINK WSR              	285:37.524	+3:17.404
9   4 ▍HAR Hargis/Holstein            Camden WRT                 	291:40.895	+9:20.774
10 84 ▍GLG Gallegos/Reotutar          Sport Mikuren              	292:46.925	+10:26.805
11 68 ▍PAJ Pajari/Kalliomäki          TGK-VK WRT                 	306:39.247	+24:19.127
12 91 ▍BOL Boludo/de FitzLawrence     TGK-VK WRT                 	309:15.227	+26:55.106
DNF 27 ▍HMA Harcourt-Mauroy/d'Ombret   Camden WRT                 	Ret. SS 15	—
DNF 46 ▍DME Mëlander/Lösspeng          AP-Dëritee WRT             	Ret. SS 22	—
DNF 77 ▍RAA Raatikainen/Blomqvist      Sport Mikuren              	Ret. SS 22	—

---

---

Championship standings

---

Drivers

Pos # ▍DRV Name                        Team                       Pts
 1 21 ▍INY Inyuseo/Mizeyuki            ENSADRINK WSR              25
 2 23 ▍KER Keretene/Karaka             Iskabil-Ælund WRT          18
 3  1 ▍NOV Novikov/Baardsen            Iskabil-Ælund WRT          14
 4 57 ▍POL Poldov/Ponomarjov           Iskabil-Ælund WRT          10
 5 76 ▍SOD Södergren/Jansson           AP-Dëritee WRT             8
 6 44 ▍SUY Suyauey/Yliande             AP-Dëritee WRT             6
 7  5 ▍WAT Watanabe/Hitchens           TGK-VK WRT                 4
 8 16 ▍AUG Imparato/Nogueira           ENSADRINK WSR              3
 9  4 ▍HAR Hargis/Holstein             Camden WRT                 2
10 84 ▍GLG Gallegos/Reotutar           Sport Mikuren              1

Only drivers with points scored shown.

Teams

Pos NAT ▍Team                       Pts
  1 ABL ▍Iskabil-Ælund WRT          32
  2 HDR ▍ENSADRINK WSR              28
  3 KMN ▍AP-Dëritee WRT             14
  4 KOI ▍TGK-VK WRT                 4
  5 LIS ▍Camden WRT                 2
  6 AUR ▍Sport Mikuren              1

---

[Auruna]

Sport Mikuren Rally Team, SM Motorsport Facilities
Nisko, Auruna

"Are we just cursed here or something? There's no reason to just keep finishing last." Says Juri with his hands on his head. "I'm sure that our two current drivers are starting to regret signing with us. It was inevitable, really, especially since Schkeska's experience here was with crashing out and the car giving up and they expect us to not be last in the standings! It's just embarrassing."

And as Juri continues his rant, Ari meanwhile, is on his laptop and in contact with Ivan Könä regarding the eventual contract with Kälö Aurinen. He shifts his attention back to Juri after offering the final seat to Kälö. "Hey, I think it's too early to think of that." He says, trying to reassure him. "It's still the first rally and we still have the rest of the season to make up for it."

"I just hope that we're not wasting anyone's time here." He then sighs, dropping his head onto his desk. "How's it going in your end?"

"Our third and final driver is on the bag, they just need to officially confirm it and we're good to go." Ari excited announces. "It's a shame that they missed the first rally."

"Missed it or not, it doesn't matter as we would still be last."

"Look, our two drivers just crashed out and there's nothing we could do about that. those are just mistakes."

Juri releases a deep sigh. "You're right. We could only hope for the best. Our luck is just shit at the moment... if we could find a way to break this WSRC curse."

"We'll find a way soon, this is just the start."

"Piakkaste... kakuni nÿ?"

"Vöimeä verkä, Juri. Vöimeä verkä."

---

Kälö's Apartment
Nisko, Auruna

The day was rather peaceful and since he didn't sign with a team in time, the pair completely missed the Aboveland Rally which was a shame as they were looking forward to it this season but they were relegated to just watching the event. As they watch the MNA TV broadcast of the WSRC rally, they started to take notes of the performances of the team and to no surprise, Sport Mikuren operating the Schkeska cars were at the bottom.

"Maybe Schkeska has no hope in WSRC at all." Kälö remarked. "Their luck is utter garbage and they passed it onto Mikuren."

"Mikuren should've partnered with either VSK or Viska instead."

"They probably had no choice considering Schkeska had a strong grasp in rally." He reclines back on the sofa as they watch the final few stages of the rally . Then with the Iskabil-Ælund Skua being focused on by the camera, it immediately reminded him. "Damn, I can't believe I missed Ælund's offer."

"There's no helping it, we just got back from the event, completely exhausted and Ivan's probably busy that time."

"Yeah." And before he could continue, he was interrupted by his vibrating phone. "What's this?" He picks up is phone and checks the notifications. After the barrage of emails that he got, a particular outlier was Ivan Könä's message. Unlocking his phone, he goes to check what Ivan has for him this time.

Curious, Kaiha asks. "What is it?"

"It's a message from Ivan."

"What does it say?"

"Let's see..." He reads the message first before relaying to Kaiha a quick summary of it. "So basically, we were offered Mikuren's third and final seat and we just need to accept it and let him know."

"Looks like we're going to drive that cursed car again."

"We don't have any other choice, right?"

"It's your call."

"Heh, I'm sure it won't hurt driving for them again. Let's just have fun with it while it lasts."

And with that, he sends a confirmation message to Ivan and he relaxes back into the sofa again, letting the soft material absorb him, letting out a relaxed sigh. He then turns to Kaiha, looking busy as usual. "Sure, we're still there to compete but knowing how it will end. Let's not worry about it too much."

"I hate to say it but... I think you're right."

"We'll just make the most of it. Hopefully you'll be calm along the way unlike last time."

"Kälö, kÿrkäitseet."

[Kimi-Suomi]

WSRC 2
Round 1
Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland
Brukkifordet, Aboveland

It was going so well...until it did not. That was all they could think about once this rally was over, though one more than the other. How did they get here? What happened? Is everything OK? Well...selvitämme asioita yhdessä, eikö niin?

The Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland is the first round of the WSRC2 season and the drivers of car #77, Laila Raatikainen and Pehr Henrik Blomqvist were certainly feeling ready for what was to come over the next 3 days and the 7 events after this. They knew what was coming was going to be tough, they understood that the moment Kimi-Suomi wanted them to be here, but they also knew that they were in the big time and had to try and do something here. Sport MIkurenm pink and all, were here to try and do well and both of them knew they had to prove their choice to contract them was a correct call. They had the weight of their homeland behind them, cheering them on in the sport they all loved. They knew they had the support...the question was, what could they do on debut?

Day 1 started with the Shakedown at Flukkdermestästäjä, which would set the order for the first 6 stages of the Rally. Car #76 (Södergren/Jansson) was the fastest by a whisker over #1 (Novikov/Baardsen) and #23 (Keretene/Karaka), but #77 managed to end up only a tenth down and start the day's stages 4th in line. Their sister car in #84 (Gallegos/Reotutar) would start 10th. The first 6 stages were certainly unique, long and filled with little kinks and traps that Blomqvist made sure Laila would not fall into at all. That would explain their pace too, as Laila was understandably cautious and Blomqvist was making sure that she understood all of the hidden traps in each stage, and they ended up down in 13th after Friday and nearly 2 minutes down on the pace set by car #21 (Inyuseo/Mizeyuki). Gallegos and Reotutar ended up worse off, crashing out on stage 5 but being allowed to come back tomorrow with a 6-minute penalty in tow.

Day 2 covered stages that were fast with jumps and quick corners and a certain degree of communication that is needed to ensure you don't end up doing barrel rolls into the forest. Three different cars - the #91 (Boludo/de FitzLawrence), #68 (Pajari/Kalliomäki) and #4 (Hargis/Holstein) all ended up not making it to the end and got severe penalties as a result - remember, 3 minutes for every stage you miss. Car #23 (Keretene/Karaka) would be the pacesetters of the day but car #77 wouldn't be too far behind in 4th, only 17 seconds back. That translated into a 9-second gap between the top 2 and a shirt up to P8 for car #77. Even #84 was recovering well, up to 13th despite everything from yesterday.

Then came Day 3, when DNFing means you are out for the Rally and go right to the bottom of the standings. This section is narrow but also quick and that would contribute to some late rally chaos. Stage 16 was cancelled on safety grounds after what happened on Stage 15 to car #27 (Harcourt-Mauroy/d'Ombret) and that would signal what was to come. In the end, things were interesting - #21 held on to the win over #23 by 29 seconds with #1 ending up P3. #84 ended up rebounding to 10th - 10 and a half minutes down, but a point all the same. But Car #77...well yeah, it did not go well. The loss of running on Stage 16 meant that when we returned to that same section for Stage 22, chaos would ensue. Mëlander and Lösspeng ended up crashing before Laila began her run but once she finally got out there, things were looking good to start on this fast section...until she entered a corner too quickly and ended up in the trees after a flip or two. That would be that...after all that effort to work their way back up the field, stage 22 of 27 ended their run for the weekend.

They had two different reactions to what happened, after the initial shock of the crash wore off and they returned back to the pits with no injuries to report. Laila did not take it well at all. At all. She was pissed at herself for managing to fuck it up as spectacularly as she did, even if she managed some good driving beforehand and will have good opportunities in the rallies to come. She apologised to the team for "olla vitun idiootti" before spending the rest of the day locked up in her hotel room, trying to figure out why she did that and why couldn't she just be good at something for once. Of course, she had to talk to Blomqvist eventually and that was fine...but she knew she blew away points and had to do better next time.

Speaking of Pehr Henrik, he took the incident in a different way - a learning experience that will certainly be worked on. Rally is a dangerous sport, stiff like this does and will happen and they both had to go through stuff like this in order to learn to be better rally drivers. Seeing Laila vehemently blame herself crushed him and he knew that she had to get that out of her head one way or another. But something else was also on his mind - curses. Many in this team were talking about a curse that this team apparently had...and it pissed him off. But not in the way many would think, as he explained to two mechanics who mentioned that the performances of both cars indicated the curse was "back in full swing".

"Can you guys please stop talking about a fucking curse? Please?! Saying that "we are cursed to fail" is like waving a white flag before you've even started the car. It makes us look hopeless, makes us drivers look stupid for signing here and it makes you guys look lazy to not try and fix the apparent problem. So please fucking stop! We will get through this, but only if you guys stop thinking that our issues are due to divine intervention! Idioter, Kristus ovan!"

Maybe there is a curse but if there was one, PHB wanted to make it his mission to eradicate it from these Aurunan minds entirely and have them concentrate on trying to win. Simple as that. 7 rallies to go, plenty of time to recover. Up next will be Wakkanai Winter Classic in Quebec, a snow event that should feel like home for the duo from the icy kingdom. No time for curses, the time was now for improvements and action. Kaikkien vuoksi. För allas skull. For everyone's sake.

[Togonistan]

Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland
SS26 Laidunttimasikk

Push, push, push. That's all Naomi had been doing throughout this whole rally. Push to finally catch the Hodoran duo of Inyuseo and Mizeyuki in front. However, no matter what they tried, no matter how many corners they cut, no matter how recklessly Naomi threw their Skua from one side of the road to another, the car with Ensadrink logos always managed to stay a few steps ahead of them.

The gap had been around nine seconds as the day started. At some point, Naomi and Heriko had managed to reduce it to seven, only to later let it grow to twelve. Next car, driven by their Abovian teammate, despite having shown steady progress and picked up multiple stage wins throughout the day, still was far away in the overall timings to fight for the overall win. With two more stages to go, it was a two-horse race for the rally win. Naomi had won here last season and she wanted it again. Oh, how she wanted it. Wide gravel road was laid ahead of her as she put her hands to the steering wheel. Heriko had his pacenotes ready.

Pedal to the metal, Naomi took the Kokko off the line. The fast Laidunttimasikk stage with it's bendy road didn't give drivers a single second to catch their breath. Gracefully, Naomi led the Skua through corners. Everything seemed fine, until one teeny-tiny mistake made the Skua slide off into a bush. ''What the f*ck?'' Naomi cursed and punched the steering wheel out of anger. Was there some loose rock on the road they had hit or what? Annoyed, Naomi put the reverse gear on and, after a while, managed to back the car back to the road. That little incident here might just be what's going to cost them the rally. Desperately trying to make back any time they had lost, Naomi floored it again and kept going. Eventually, she had made it through the corners. ''Flat left, over crest, widens into big jump,'' Heriko read out as the Skua approached a big jump. Naomi sped up and took the big leap, landing the Skua nicely on it's four wheels. Little push through a short portion of flat roads and they had done it.

''Why we... argh!'' Naomi punched the steering wheel once more and was visibly frustrated, while Heriko just sighed and looked for his final stage's pacenotes. ''I messed up. I messed up that corner. I...'' struggling to find words, Naomi parked the car by the side of the road. ''Is there any chance left at this point?''

''Unless Inyuseo has a big crash, they probably have it in the bag.''

Naomi sighed and let her head drop on top of the wheel, letting out some more mumbled frustration noises.

''Come on, we did what we could. That's what matters. Let's go, we've still got a rally to finish.''

Having taken a few seconds to gather herself, Naomi turned on the engine and started driving towards the final stage. Luckily, no more incidents occurred and the Togonistani driver pairing made it to the end in one piece. However, champagne on the podium tasted bittersweet and Naomi kept on a fake smile throughout the whole ceremony. Deep inside, she was not happy about the result. She had wanted a win, she had wanted it so bad.

[Abanhfleft]

Maybe it was a bit too early on the part of both Tre and Vicky to say that they could actually do rally racing for a whole season based on the results of a single preseason test. But sometimes it just couldn’t be helped. It was just one of those things. The human mind is many things, and eternally hopeful is one of them, even if most people wouldn’t readily admit to it. And, on the basis of doing good at the Kalmarlund test, the pairing of Gallegos and Reotutar really thought that they had finally nailed down this whole rally thing. But, once they were finally out on a real rally running real stages, Tre and Vicky were reminded yet again that they both still had a lot to learn still.

Shakedown saw the Fleftic pair put in a decent time, relatively speaking. Their gap to the fastest pair was just two tenths of a second, but in comparison to the rest of the field, Tre and Vicky could just as well be two whole seconds behind with them being in tenth place. Tenth seemed like that gray area between greatness and failure, where there was an equal possibility that they could do better, do worse, or stay right in that middle area of “sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe shit.” In fact, Sport Mikuren’s pace was a bit all over the place. Neither Tre nor his Kimi-Suomi teammates had been able to get close to each other, and it was the same thing during the shakedown. Then again, shakedown results weren’t always the end-all be-all of rally racing, just as practice wasn’t truly predictive of results in other racing series such as NSSCRA and WGPC so neither Tre nor Vicky were duly concerned just yet. And maybe they should have been.

Tre felt comfortable in the car, and Vicky was reading her notes at a good and perfectly acceptable pace, but it was clear right from the start that their pace really did hover in and around that tenth place. The likes of Inyuseo and Keretene were tearing through the stages at a good rate of knots, and it was a challenge for the actual old hands to catch up with them, let alone a pair that two years ago had never even driven a single meter in a rally car in anger. Tre could say that he felt really fast, and Vicky could claim that she had her pacenotes down to the exact meter, but the timing boards don’t lie, and the timing boards said that the 84 car was tenth fastest of all the runners. Was it disappointing? Maybe, and maybe not. It was a decent record for someone who was technically still a WSRC rookie given that Tre and Vicky couldn’t take part in the very first season of WSRC, but both of them still believed that they could do better than tenth. Maybe somewhere around eighth, or even seventh. But neither Tre nor Vicky felt that they were the tenth fastest car out there.

It would all be a moot point at the end of the day anyway.

Tre and Vicky were traversing the fifth stage of the rally. Vicky was calling out directions and instructions as expected, and Tre was following them as closely as possible. He had earlier attempted to take a few shortcuts in the hopes that that would shave a few seconds from their time, but just like the first preseason test, the more Tre tried to save those seconds, the more that he actually ended up losing them. So when it came time for them to tackle the fifth stage, Tre had decided that perhaps he was better off just following Vicky’s pacenotes as intended. But even, that wouldn’t prepare the two for what was about to come.

“500 flat to crest into K left one,” Vicky called out. The clouds during shakedown had moved away from the course throughout the afternoon, so Tre had a clear view of the jump which they were approaching. He gunned the throttle as Vicky said that he could go flat out on this stretch, and they made the jump and gained a good bit of air time. However, when the hood of the Mikuren finally started to tilt down to the ground, Tre noticed a rock right in the middle of the road right where they were supposed to land. “Ay puta!” was all that he managed to say before the car landed right on top of the rock with a great crunch.

Almost immediately, Tre could tell that he had lost his rear wheels. “Putang ina,” he muttered under his breath as he tried to coax the car forward using the two front wheels, but even that was becoming more and more of a futile effort. The best that he could do was pull the car to the side away from the driving line and inspect the damage. “What the fuck?! Where did that rock come from?” Vicky asked as the two of them got out of the car.

“Must have been one of the drivers before us who kicked it up,” Tre replied as he looked at the damage to the rear axle. “Yeah, this car is fucked,” he muttered once he had finished his inspection. “We’re not going anywhere else anytime soon.”

“Diyos ko po, what’s that going to do to our time?” Vicky asked.

“I don’t know, but it definitely won’t be good,” Tre shrugged helplessly.

---

Tre Gallegos didn’t want to say it outright, but there was something about the way in which the Mikuren crew helped him fix the car during the night that didn’t sit right with him. Maybe it was the fact that he wasn’t used to seeing damage of this scale being repaired so quickly. Not that he doubted the crew’s ability to actually fix the damn thing; he just had never seen anything like it before, and that was where most of his skepticism was coming from. But he knew that he had to set that skepticism aside if he was to continue on to the next stages of this rally, which the WSRC had allowed on condition of a six-minute penalty being added to their time. "Six minutes," Vicky muttered once the news of the penalty had been passed on to them. "How in the world are we going to come back from that?"

"Basically, we can't," Tre replied. "All this means is that the rest of this rally is going to be about damage limitation. We already got six minutes added on to our time. Let's not have any more added, okay?"

Most of the time, these things were easier said than done, but on this occasion, Tre and Vicky were actually able to do it. They kept themselves out of harm's way and were able to set a time on the second day that, had it not been for that time penalty, would have kept them in and around that tenth place that their shakedown pace suggested that they really had. The fact that they got to start the second day ahead of all the other drivers because of their crash in stage 5 may have had something to do with it. A lot to do with it, even. It seemed a little counterintuitive, but without any other drivers to stir up the paths ahead of them, Tre and Vicky were able to focus on just running the stages themselves without worrying about anyone else stirring up another rock or blocking the road due to a crash. Three other drivers wouldn't be so lucky but, having been there before, Tre and Vicky could only commiserate with them.

The third day would once again bring mixed fortunes for the team in pink as while Tre and Vicky managed to mount another good (but ultimately futile) effort to erase the six-minute penalty they sustained from their day one crash, their teammates from Kimi-Suomi would end up crashing as well. And, according to the new WSRC rules, since they crashed on the third and final day, they would not be allowed to run again for the rest of the day. That had to be a real gut punch for the Suomen pair, Tre knew. But, at the end of the day, the pairing of Gallegos and Reotutar were the tenth fastest overall in the Aboveland Rally, earning them and Sport Mikuren a single WSRC point. One point! Just a measly point. And yet, if they were asked at the start of the season if either of them would be happy with winning a point in their first ever WSRC rally event, both Tre and Vicky would have enthusiastically said yes.

"Here we are, lads and lasses," Tre said as he handed out bottles of San Rafael beer to Vicky, John, and Daisy. "To one WSRC point!"

"To one point!" the others repeated, and then they drank their bottles of San Rafa.

"Christ above," John Watt muttered. "Look at us. Celebrating a single bloody point in the World Championship!"

"Well, to be fair to Tre and Vicky, the fact that they still got a point despite being away from the sport for a whole season, and then crashing on the first day on top of that is probably more than enough for them to celebrate said point," Daisy Samuels shrugged in response to her stepbrother's comments.

"Damn right we will," Tre nodded. "I mean, come on! That's about as good of a debut as we're going to get. Sure, we could have done without the crash on day one, but even with that and the time penalty, we still got that point! I'll celebrate the fuck out of that!"

"I feel bad for our teammates though," Vicky said after taking a few gulps from her bottle. "They've been doing well enough for themselves this whole weekend, and then it all vanished on the final day. But I don't really know what to do. What should I, or we, say to them? Should we even say anything to them? I don't know!"

"Yeah, I don't know about that either," Tre said. "And maybe now is not the time. I think I heard the co-driver yelling at the team for talking about curses and stuff."

"Curses?" Johnny asked. "What are you talking about, Tre?"

"Eh, it's just some chat I heard from some of the engineers," Tre shrugged. "Some of the guys from Schkeska or Viska, whoever's supporting Mikuren itself, talking about how this team is always cursed and whatnot. And the Kimi-Suomi co-driver—I think it was Pehr—overheard this, I think, and now he's giving them a piece of his mind."

"Oh, wow," Vicky muttered. "I didn't know that there was a curse on this team. If I did, I would have said something about you joining Mikuren."

"But hasn't this rally only been run two times?" Daisy asked. "As a round in the World Championship, I mean. I know that we humans love to find patterns in everything, but jeez! It's just been two years! Talk to me about curses when it's gone on for five years or more!"

"Hey, if this goes on for five years or more, we might not even be talking about curses anymore. We might be talking about traditions," Tre quipped as he sipped his beer.

"It's not a curse, it's a tradition," Vicky repeated. "Spoken like a true Fleftic."

[The Pearl Kingdom]

The dirt roads and wooden bridges through the Abovian forest were not all that different from the roads in rural Jouoangquoi -- but you could still tell quite easily which country you were in by the color of the soil, the dark pointy shapes of pines and firs standing by the roadside, and the complete absence of wild bananas or palms. Suyauey and Yliande had a blast bouncing and rattling down the quiet woodland roads, and probably scaring the crap out of any living thing that wasn't a tree or a human spectator.

But the most special surprise came before the start of shakedown. Suyauey and Yliande were meeting some fans and allowing people to take pictures of them with their distinctive blue and white AP-Dëritee gear -- and their equally distinctive Jouoangquoirais jewelry, which they wore everywhere because they felt naked without it. And suddenly, there in the crowd, Yliande spotted her parents and Suyauey's mom. She squealed with surprise and delight. "What are you doing here???"

"Gienly bought us tickets so we could come and see the rally with her," Yliande's mother said. "Isn't it great?" Gienly was Suyauey's mother.

There were hugs and smiles all around. The Y family were particularly exuberant since they weren't used to traveling internationally or doing anything prestigious. It was all very new and exciting, and it felt a little surreal.

[Kassegrochia]

Ivan Poldov

@Poldov57

Amazing weekend for us at Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland and big thanks to the team for being fantastic to work with! With the combined strength of everyone at Iskalbil-Ælund WRT, our team managed to secure 2nd, 3rd and 4th place in the rally. Marisa Inyuseo managed to deny the team a rally win, but we'll get her next time

#WSRC

Daxton Swanson

@DSwans0n

This is Iskalbil-Ælund's newest driver. This is who they put their hopes on. Everyone let that sink in.

#WSRC :: #WhatWereYouThinking

[Koaiwa]

Tatehama Giken Kogyo - Global ✓

@TGK

We at TGK-VK wanted to let Boludo express himself on the road the same way he does off it! So keep your eyes open at #WakkanaiWinterClassic to see Bo's new Albatross WSRC with hemp-reinforced fiberplast!


#TGK-VK : #WSRC : #WakkanaiWinterClassic

[Quebec and Shingoryeo]

A brief guide to Wakanai!

Introduction: Welcome to Wakanai, the northernmost city of Quebecois West Coast, as they look forward to host the inaugural FRQA Wakanai Classic (officially titled FRQA Empress Jeongmyeong Cup at Wakkanai Winter Classic) which will bring the finest of rally drivers from across the Multiverse.

The Federation Royale Quebecoise de l'Automobile (FRQA), which will be held as an annual event with non-WSRC years holding it under Quebecois Commonwealth Rally Circuit (QCRC) level, intends to hold the three-day competition every Christmas, in memory of late Queen Mother Nathalie (nee Ginzbourg), the grandmother of Christine II, current Quebecois monarch, and mother of late Jacques IX.

The race will be held in multiple locations, first starting off in the city of Wakanai, which would then be followed by legs in the Seven Apostle Mountains and the Coldwater Peninsula Provincial Park. The isolated location of Wakanai, as well as the presence of the Provincial Park maintained by the province of Nunavut, means that the Christmasweek race, while challenging to access, can be converted and incorporated into weeklong festivities. Fans and drivers will be welcome to interact with each other through a series of public and private events, which include a ball, a con(-vention), and market fest.

How To Make it To Wakanai:

Wakanai is located in the northwestern tip of Quebec, a nation technically based in Anaia under Foxchester Accords, but remain located on both Anaia and Atlantian Oceania. This means that access by both regions, while tricky, would be possible. City of Wakanai does have an airport on the southern end of the municipality, but with the weeklong snowstorm, the airport's operations remain closed for the time being.

Therefore, there are two ways to access the city with flying out of the option: by boat and by train. Special chartered ships, under the service of the 'Westbec Shipping Company', based in the nearest major city of Prince Eric, about 1200km south, will be able to provide a WSRC-specific ferry service from Aboveland straight to the port of Wakanai with a quick stopover in Prince Eric. Westbec and other chartered passenger companies also welcome offers to provide chartered ferry service between Aboveland and Quebec on the weeks leading up to the Christmas weekend.

As for the railways, the Quebecois National Railways provide a twice-daily service - an overnight train 'Salamantic Express' that starts from California City (20 hrs long) and a daytime train 'The Foxlander' from Prince Eric (11 hrs) - and those will arrive right to the Wakanai Station just across the Town Square from the Town Hall. To take account into extra demand, as well as the shutdown of the airport for the competition week, the QNR will be providing additional carriages to their usual 12-car set for Salamantic Express and 8-car set for The Foxlander.

The hostile climate, as well as the relatively isolated location of Wakanai, means that all visiting parties to the Wakanai Classic will be advised to arrive ASAP, and preferably not a day before or of the shakedown. This is to ensure that the competition runs smoothly even in the challenging times like this year's Wakanai Classic. It also allows the drivers to avoid committing themselves to mistakes that could be costly once out in the woods - like actual human-eating creatures (see: leg 2), and maybe have the drivers and the locals participate further and more intimately on public events and festivities.

What To See Once There:

For most part, Wakanai is a small city of about 60,000 people, and while the town itself is colourful and quaint due to the prevalence of the small, wooden houses across the town, there is certainly not a lot to do on most of the year aside from certain attractions.

Downtown Wakanai has a 200-year old Town Hall which goes back to the earliest days of the city's days as a whaling port, and the City museum, located two blocks away, reflect the city's heritage as whaling and fishing port, though whaling's long prohibited in Quebec and fishing's significance has been slowly declining over last few decades. Over the course of the competition, the town square will be hosting a daily market (usually held once every five days) on daytime and concerts on the nighttime. The Town Hall itself, as well as the Wakanai Opera House (1200-seater) and the city's five hotels will be hosting a wide range of public and private events, from a state-hosted ball under the regent's presence to a racing con.

For those also looking to have fun on the outdoors, the Seven Apostle Mountains and Coldwater Peninsula Provincial Park are great for winter-time hikes and fishing trips. The Provincial Park, just directly north of the city, has been marked as a protected area for over 100 years and is well-maintained with an active crew of park rangers. Due to the snowstorm in the area, however, it is advised that all travelers into the area travel in groups, with prior paperwork done in advance. Certain sections of the Seven Apostle Mountains are also marked off-limits per the agreement between the indigenous people of the region and the Quebecois Crown, and the park rangers and the Royal Quebecois Police will be keeping strict track of the visitors in the area.

[Aboveland]

Iskabil-Ælund Team Principal Lauds "Superb" Skua XB4-SR Debut

BRUKKIFORDET — The opening round of the second World Stage Rally Championship was a "superb" debut event for Lintulahti-based Iskabil-Ælund World Rally Team, said team principal Konrad Puntila. The Abovian outfit, fielding reigning world stage rally champion Axel Novikov, Togonistani three-time rally winner Naomi Keretene, and new-hire Ivan Poldov of Kassegrochia, finished a formation 2-3-4 at Nordenflyg Rally Aboveland; despite losing the overall victory to Hodori's Marisa Inyuseo, and Keretene missing out on two-out-of-two wins in Brukkifordet, Puntila was adamant the teams' season had gotten off to the best possible start.

"We all know how demanding Rally Aboveland is," Puntila said, "both on cars and on drivers; we saw how quickly things can go south with Raatikainen's spectacular roll on Kettulampi. And our Skuas: all three made it to the end of the rally, and we locked out the final two podium spots too! It was a spectacular debut for a brand new car, with almost no parts carried over from before, with a whole new chassis and a new engine; the team and I could not be more proud of the work we put in to make this result happen."

The team's sporting director, Marko Kivinen, echoed Puntila's sentiment, and additionally, though honestly, praised the team's three driver pairings. "Maybe Axel [Novikov] had been hoping for more, with second place in shakedown and after missing out on the victory last year — even though his pace on leg 3 was absolutely incredible. But he showed us once more how right we are to trust his skills, his experience, and his chemistry with Henrik [Baardsen, Novikov's co-driver]. And I have to take my hat off to Naomi [Keretene] and Ivan [Poldov]: I admit I had been skeptical of Naomi last year when we first signed her, but she was incredibly close to taking a repeat win in Brukkifordet as well; and Ivan, he's amazing. With Camden, he brought the consistency the team needed to really get their feet on the ground. With us at Iskabil-Ælund, he's already started to prove why we offered him the third seat."

For his part, though characteristically stoic, Axel Novikov revealed he was "pleased" with the result.

"Yes," he replied, when asked if the Skua was as great of a car as the Kokko XB4 had been to him in WSRC and Hodori. "Better, and more fun. I'm happy." He was also brief, but positive about his result in Aboveland. "I wanted to win, but I was fast on Sunday. That's all that I care about."

[Aboveland]

CUTOFF

for Shakedown and Leg 1 at Wakkanai Winter Classic (SD)

Entry list:

---

#	DRV	Name				NAT	Team
44	SUY	Suyauey/Yliande			JOU	AP-Dëritee WRT
46	DME	Mëlander/Lösspeng		DMN	AP-Dëritee WRT
76	SOD	Södergren/Jansson		KML	AP-Dëritee WRT
4	HAR	Hargis/Holstein			LIS	Camden WRT
27	HMA	Harcourt-Mauroy/d'Ombret	GAL	Camden WRT
16	AUG	Imparato/Nogueira		VEZ	ENSADRINK WSR
21	INY	Inyuseo/Mizeyuki		HDR	ENSADRINK WSR
1	NOV	Novikov/Baardsen		ABL	Iskabil-Ælund WRT
23	KER	Keretene/Karaka			TGN	Iskabil-Ælund WRT
57	POL	Poldov/Ponomarjov		KSG	Iskabil-Ælund WRT
77	RAA	Raatikainen/Blomqvist		KIM	Sport Mikuren
84	GLG	Gallegos/Reotutar		AFT	Sport Mikuren
87	AUR	Aurinen/Kailenta		AUR	Sport Mikuren
5	WAT	Watanabe/Hitchens		KOI	TGK-VK WRT
68	PAJ	Pajari/Kalliomäki		ABL	TGK-VK WRT
91	BOL	Boludo/de FitzLawrence		QUE	TGK-VK WRT

[Aboveland]

Week 2 | Wakanai Winter Classic

Shakedown

---

Conditions:      	Dry
Average SS Time:      	00:02:06.000
Nation:         	QUE

POS # ▍DRIVER                             	TIME	       GAP TO LEADER
 1 77 ▍Raatikainen/Blomqvist              	00:02:08.582	00:00:00.000
 2 91 ▍Boludo/de FitzLawrence             	00:02:08.610	00:00:00.029
 3 76 ▍Södergren/Jansson                  	00:02:08.682	00:00:00.101
 4 44 ▍Suyauey/Yliande                    	00:02:08.721	00:00:00.140
 5  1 ▍Novikov/Baardsen                   	00:02:08.797	00:00:00.215
 6 23 ▍Keretene/Karaka                    	00:02:08.799	00:00:00.218
 7 87 ▍Aurinen/Kailenta                   	00:02:08.801	00:00:00.219
 8 27 ▍Harcourt-Mauroy/d'Ombret           	00:02:08.824	00:00:00.243
 9 84 ▍Gallegos/Reotutar                  	00:02:08.904	00:00:00.322
10 46 ▍Mëlander/Lösspeng                  	00:02:09.046	00:00:00.464
11 57 ▍Poldov/Ponomarjov                  	00:02:09.191	00:00:00.609
12 68 ▍Pajari/Kalliomäki                  	00:02:09.213	00:00:00.631
13  4 ▍Hargis/Holstein                    	00:02:09.218	00:00:00.636
14  5 ▍Watanabe/Hitchens                  	00:02:09.253	00:00:00.671
15 16 ▍Imparato/Nogueira                  	00:02:09.259	00:00:00.677
16 21 ▍Inyuseo/Mizeyuki                   	00:02:10.118	00:00:01.537

Leg 1

---

Conditions:      	Dry	
Stages:              	3	
Nation:         	QUE	
Leg:        	Leg 1	
Rally:        	Wakkanai Winter Classic	
Stage(s)		 cancelled on safety grounds
Starters:	16

Leg 1 results

POS  # ▍DRV Name                       Team                     	Time      
  1 44 ▍SUY Suyauey/Yliande            AP-Dëritee WRT             	97:16.429
  2 23 ▍KER Keretene/Karaka            Iskabil-Ælund WRT          	0:19.659
  3 76 ▍SOD Södergren/Jansson          AP-Dëritee WRT             	0:34.785
  4  1 ▍NOV Novikov/Baardsen           Iskabil-Ælund WRT          	1:15.485
  5  5 ▍WAT Watanabe/Hitchens          TGK-VK WRT                 	1:16.287
  6 87 ▍AUR Aurinen/Kailenta           Sport Mikuren              	1:20.009
  7 46 ▍DME Mëlander/Lösspeng          AP-Dëritee WRT             	1:38.064
  8  4 ▍HAR Hargis/Holstein            Camden WRT                 	1:50.825
  9 84 ▍GLG Gallegos/Reotutar          Sport Mikuren              	1:55.818
 10 68 ▍PAJ Pajari/Kalliomäki          TGK-VK WRT                 	1:57.956
 11 91 ▍BOL Boludo/de FitzLawrence     TGK-VK WRT                 	1:59.579
 12 27 ▍HMA Harcourt-Mauroy/d'Ombret   Camden WRT                 	2:03.635
 13 21 ▍INY Inyuseo/Mizeyuki           ENSADRINK WSR              	2:42.984
DNF 16 ▍AUG Imparato/Nogueira          ENSADRINK WSR              	Ret. SS 2 +6:00.00
DNF 57 ▍POL Poldov/Ponomarjov          Iskabil-Ælund WRT          	Ret. SS 1 +9:00.00
DNF 77 ▍RAA Raatikainen/Blomqvist      Sport Mikuren              	Ret. SS 2 +6:00.00

Results after Leg 1

POS  # ▍DRV Name                       Team			        Time            Gap prev.	
  1 44 ▍SUY Suyauey/Yliande            AP-Dëritee WRT             	97:16.429	—
  2 23 ▍KER Keretene/Karaka            Iskabil-Ælund WRT          	97:36.088	+0:19.659
  3 76 ▍SOD Södergren/Jansson          AP-Dëritee WRT             	97:51.215	+0:34.785
  4  1 ▍NOV Novikov/Baardsen           Iskabil-Ælund WRT          	98:31.914	+1:15.485
  5  5 ▍WAT Watanabe/Hitchens          TGK-VK WRT                 	98:32.717	+1:16.287
  6 87 ▍AUR Aurinen/Kailenta           Sport Mikuren              	98:36.439	+1:20.009
  7 46 ▍DME Mëlander/Lösspeng          AP-Dëritee WRT             	98:54.493	+1:38.064
  8  4 ▍HAR Hargis/Holstein            Camden WRT                 	99:07.254	+1:50.825
  9 84 ▍GLG Gallegos/Reotutar          Sport Mikuren              	99:12.248	+1:55.818
 10 68 ▍PAJ Pajari/Kalliomäki          TGK-VK WRT                 	99:14.386	+1:57.956
 11 91 ▍BOL Boludo/de FitzLawrence     TGK-VK WRT                 	99:16.008	+1:59.579
 12 27 ▍HMA Harcourt-Mauroy/d'Ombret   Camden WRT                 	99:20.065	+2:03.635
 13 21 ▍INY Inyuseo/Mizeyuki           ENSADRINK WSR              	99:59.414	+2:42.984
 14 16 ▍AUG Imparato/Nogueira          ENSADRINK WSR              	102:59.413	+8:42.984
 14 77 ▍RAA Raatikainen/Blomqvist      Sport Mikuren              	102:59.413	+8:42.984
 16 57 ▍POL Poldov/Ponomarjov          Iskabil-Ælund WRT          	105:59.413	+11:42.984

[Auruna]

Sport Mikuren Rally Team, SM Motorsport Facilities
Nisko, Auruna
A few days before the Wakanai Winter Classic

Signing late and missing a rally, it was no problem for Kälö who brushed it off as minor inconveniences. However, he ended up signing with a new but familiar team. As Kälö and Zuiha enter the compound, they were immediately stunned by the differences between it and Schkeska's larger, rally-focused compound in Livonsk. Doing a bit of research beforehand, they know that this place houses all of Mikuren's motorsport teams. Walking around in awe, they search for the rally team.

After a while, they finally end up in the rally team's section and as they enter, they were met with a gloomy view of some of the team members and Kälö immediately knew that they were the Schkeska crew that were sent to support the team. It was not that he remembers them, it was because of what he knew about Schkeska, rooted in their culture was believing in curses, giving off a depressing vibe. The pair first head to the team principal's office to meet Juri and formally introduce themselves to him.

Kälö knocks at the door and the pair was called into the office by Juri. They walk in and Juri greets them. "Finally, you two are here. Welcome, tarvellanet." As he gestures for the pair to sit down on the chairs.

Settling themselves on the chairs, Kälö and Zuiha introduce themselves to Juri then followed by a brief conversation about the team, the cars, and the drivers. Later on, Kälö reminds Juri about something. "Oh by the way." He starts off. "The Schkeska crew you have here are putting the team's morale down. I bet they're talking about some kind of curse or whatever because of the opening round's results. Seemed like they still couldn't get over what happened last season. You should replace them or just tell them to shut up 'cause it only adds to our problems." He says in an unusually stern tone.

"Right..." Juri says. "I already told them to shut it after Pehr got to them." He pauses briefly to think about what to do. "I think.. I should replace some of them with ones from VIska. I really want us to succeed and to not go Schkeska's way with these international competitions."

After Zuiha agreeing with Kälö, he then encourages Juri to go forth with the decision. "Just do it mate, I'm sure you've been suggested to do it multiple times by your colleagues here."

"You're right."

Ending the conversation, Kälö stands up. "Well, thanks for having us here, we should go check the car the we'll be driving." He then offers his hand to Zuiha and helps her stand. "Oh right, we should first see our teammates."

"Alright, alright. You two lovebirds should go now, you pretty much have it covered already. It's from experience I guess."

The pair leaves Juri's office after being dismissed and they first head to the drivers' lounge area. Introductions starts soon after they arrive as they approach the Kimi-Suomi pair of Raatikainen and Blomqvist. "Täre!" Kälö greets them. "Miin Kälö Aurinen je tään Zuiha Kailenta." He says in a lively manner. Then he heads off to another part of the lounge to introduce themselves to Gallegos and Reotutar. After getting to know their teammates for a bit, they then head off to the garage to meet their car.

It was already getting late as they make their way to the garage, past the mechanics working on the other two cars with Kälö looking interested on the liveries on the cars. "The cars look awesome now." He remarked then as Zuiha calls his name, he turns his attention toward where she pointed at. It was their car. He approaches the Kana and walks around it. "We meet again, buddy." He says, talking to the car. "Let's do our best again, hopefully you were treated better here."

Zuiha looked surprised as she follows Kälö. "Talking to the car now?" She asked."

"Yep."

"I'm guessing that you got it from Laura, right?"

Kälö stops infront of the car and crouches. "Laura told me to try something different... and I think it works. Well, for her at least. But let's try it this season and see how it goes."

"Sure then but don't be weird and replace me with this car."

"Heh, I won't." And as Kälö takes another look at the car, he notices the livery on theirs is different than the rest. "Why do we have some kind of girl on our side?"

Zuiha glances at the car's sides and remembers what she looked up online about Mikuren. "If I remember correctly, Sport Mikuren is usually being used by its parent company Studio Mikuren to promote their works. This is probably one of their 'anime' things."

"Well then, that makes sense, I don't mind it but it is noticeably different."

"At least it's cute."

"Knew you would say that." Kälö giggles a bit before continuing. "Anyway, let's do our best in our first rally of the season. It shouldn't matter to us if it goes well or not, let's just give it our all and show them what he can do." Kälö then gets inside the car to start it up. Bringing it to life.

"Heh, looks like it's got our backs."

"Let's push it to the limits then."

"Let's go!"