World Grand Prix Championship Season 14: Roleplay Thread

[The Republic Of Arkan]

Makeo let out a low whistle at the car. Finally seeing the car he would be driving, he laughed, a happy laugh at that. Looking back at Gil, he nodded."Yup. Fourth best team last season. Last person probably to drive this was Souzare, finished 16th overall last season, and the other person on the team,"he says, running his hand over the seat."Such a beaut of a car. Anything I should know of it? Or should I just test drive it?"

Jamie, on the other hand, also let out a low whistle. Whilst at the HQ, he'd been writing down things that he deemed important, from who works where, to the specs of the car. He'd been known for the amount of pre-planning he did back in Arkan, and now, he'd try to at least pre-plan what Oket should try to do.

[Aboveland]

Terho climbed out of his night black car and pulled his gloves out, confidently chucking them into his damp seat. He kissed the alcantara wrapped steering wheel and headed for the live timing screen to see how he'd fared. The practice in Ayarii had really paid off, as he felt confident everywhere on the circuit. He took two laps to get to know the imperfections and braking points of the track and began his maximum attack on the third lap. Give or take a few mishaps and scares, his performance was nearly perfect.

As he neared the LG monitor, Will Madison smiled at him kindly yet with a hint of bitterness, and congratulated him on "returning the favor". Eagerly, he peeked at the monitor to see why Will had reacted this way, and he understood: He'd beaten him like Will had in Proluvia. He was third fastest again.

Terho whooped silently and clenched his fist in covert celebration. Then, he checked to see how Gunnar had done and proceeded to congratulate him as well. 16th wasn't so bad for his first shot. Edvin creeped up on Terho from behind and congratulated him, then turned his attention to Gunnar, where the trio had a friendly conversation. Finally, the rally star proceeded to speak with iBen and share comments on each other's performances and the car's handling and tuning. He went to the sink at the back of the paddock to wash his face and hands, and then joined the rest of the drivers in the press room. Things were getting better and better.

[Vilita and Turori]

Gaiano Forest Circuit, Proluvia :: As the Vilita & Turori Motorsports transport rolled into the Gaiano Forest Circuit, it was perhaps no surprise that they were handed a garage placement right beside Carvenlo-Franklin Motorsports, the former World Champion and long time rival constructor who were able to snap up Vilita's most famous driver, R.L. Cruisin, as the pilot of their primary ride for the upcoming 14th World Grand Prix Championship.

Cruisin's lack of faith in the experimental Vilita & Turori team, however, opened up a slot for a hidden talent on the grand prix circuit, Abovian driver Terho Talvela. Talvela was spotted by Vilita & Turori Motorsports team members during the open simulation event at the Eelandii Grand Prix Course. Talvela hopped in an older VTF1 machine that had been set up by Vilita & Turori Motorsports research & development driver Juracai Klianiota and, with no practice, turned laps faster than some drivers in modern equipment during the simulation event.

When it was confirmed that Cruisin was going to sign with Carvenlo-Franklin, Vilita & Turori Motorsports were quick to secure the signature of Talvela to serve as their #2 driver behind Turori's iBen Toralmnitii who would be charged with serving as a mentor to the Abovian driver throughout the course of the season.

Toralmintii, however, as the teams #1 driver would also be pressed for success - his Vilitan friend R.L. Cruisin having quickly become the drivers biggest rival, with the V+T team setting a pre-season goal of placing higher than Cruisin in the opening test session in Proluvia.

For Cruisin, the goal was exactly the same - but of course in reverse. With the development of Vilita & Turori's Chassis X & Y coming along better than Cruisin had anticipated it would, the Vilitan driver was beginning to have doubts about his decision to go with the rival team for the WGPC season. Of course, there is no doubt it was the safer choice. Carvenlo Franklin being the established team while Vilita & Turori Motorsports had lost a bit of the competitive edge during their last appearance in WGPC 12.

With his #51 ride lined up directly opposite Toralmintii's #77 Chassis X machine, the two drivers hopped in their cockpits and headed out onto the track at the same time.

2 Hours later, the session was done.

Toralmintii looked up at the scoreboard. He was pleased to find himself 7th - higher than both Mcphahan cars. Then he looked above him. His teammate, the Abovian rookie Terho Talvela was 3rd! Toralmintii turned to congratulate Terho on his good time. As he turned, however, he saw R.L. Cruisin climbing out of his ride. High fives all around in the Carvenlo-Franklin garage area.

Cruisin climbed from his ride and embraced his car chief. As he took of his helmet, brimming ear to ear, he turned and looked back at the Vilita & Turori Motorsports garage. Made eye contact with Toralmintii and held up 1 finger. Then he pointed up to the scoreboard. P1. R.L. Cruisin had set the fast time in Proluvia.

It was vindication of sorts for the Vilitan driver, with his decision to join Carvenlo-Franklin validated.

Of course, for Vilita & Turori Motorsports drivers iBen Torlamintii and Terho Talvela, there really wasn't much to be disappointed about. Both drivers placed in the top 10 and it was the first time on the track outside of their home testing grounds for their brand new Chassis.

They may have failed to meet their lofty goals of besting Cruisin, but its always going to be tough to beat the best and Vilita & Turori Motorsports could take a lot of positives out of Proluvia as they packed up and headed for the Grand Prix of Turori.

---

Vilita & Turori Motorsports - Primary Location, Rockii Coast, Vilita :: Chassis X and Chassis Y arrived at the facility for their final check ups before being turned around and sent off to Hodori for round one of the 14th World Grand Prix Championships. The engineers were busy and still split with two additional Chassis still being finalized back in Eelandii for use later in the season.

The finishing touches on the two new Chassis had been delayed by efforts to package and delivery additional VTF1 chassis for use at the Proluvia test by the WGPC Motorworks team. It wasn't a concern for Vilita & Turori Motorsports officials, however, as they had always planned to use Chassis X & Y for the opening segment of the championship, never planning to detour from that plan until at the earliest point the Frenline Delpha test - unless of course an on-track accident necessitated switching chassis.

While the original plan had been to re-paint Chassis X and Chassis Y in a more traditional Vilita & Turorian paint scheme, after input from drivers iBen Toralmintii and Terho Talvela, it was determined that the drivers didn't mind the current look of the cars and decided that the re-brand could wait until the next set of chassis were completed.

Team officials noted that they would still need to put some sponsorship decals on the chassis at some point, but would wait until they arrived in Hodori to start working out those details. The most important thing was that the cars got to Hodori on time for the first practice session...

---

[WGPC]

Saturday Qualifying

ROUND ONE

* Drivers have 45 minutes to record up to six flying laps.
* Fastest lap is recorded.
* Top ten drivers move to round two of qualifying.
* Remaining 15 drivers are eliminated.

Pos.	#	Driver			Team				Laptime
1	8	Igne Spupuo		Telaris Racing			1:29.088
2	56	Terho Tavela		VTM				1:29.144
3	77	iBen Toralmintii	VTM				1:29.167
4	10	Lauren Ashburton	ENSADRINK GP			1:29.211
5	55	Asao Nadakei		ENSADRINK GP			1:29.294
6	7	Ethan Ellis		Carvenlo-Franklin Racing	1:29.346
7	3	Mateo Oket		Archer Motorsports		1:29.347
8	6	Alexander Lund		McPahan Racing			1:29.355
9	52	Sayono Souzare		Archer Motorsports		1:29.367
10	42	Alex Dimitrianov	MRT				1:29.448
11	46	Reni Sanderson		McPahan Racing			1:29.508
12	17	Oliver Bachmann		MRT				1:29.527
13	89	Will Madison		Fornax Racing			1:29.553
14	1	Alexandra Mayari	SFeG				1:29.558
15	20	Marcus Melton		WGPC Motorworks			1:29.587
16	51	R.L. Crusin		Carvenlo-Franklin Racing	1:29.590
17	18	Louis Krindle		MSA-SinVal			1:29.860
18	13	Gunnar Lindstrom	WGPC Motorworks			1:29.927
19	23	Moisés Delgado		Cygnus ATR			1:29.961
20	29	Esteban Guilhermez	Cygnus ATR			1:30.699
21	24	Victoria Gardner	SFeG				1:30.733
22	35	Jac-Irlo Val		Fornax Racing			1:31.617
23	14	Oliver Bliss		MSA-Sinval			1:32.913
24	12	Vic Convarion		Telaris Racing			1:33.484
25	21	Alexander Kohlon	WGPC Motorworks			1:33.976

ROUND TWO

* Top ten drivers are given 30 minutes to record up to four flying laps.
* Fastest lap of this period is recorded.

Pos.	#	Driver			Team				Laptime
1	55	Asao Nadakei		ENSADRINK GP			1:28.799
2	56	Terho Tavela		VTM				1:28.865
3	6	Alexander Lund		McPahan Racing			1:28.941
4	42	Alex Dimitrianov	MRT				1:29.356
5	10	Lauren Ashburton	ENSADRINK GP			1:29.505
6	52	Sayono Souzare		Archer Motorsports		1:29.638
7	7	Ethan Ellis		Carvenlo-Franklin Racing	1:29.830
8	77	iBen Toralmintii	VTM				1:32.311
9	3	Mateo Oket		Archer Motorsports		1:32.417
10	8	Igne Spupuo		Telaris Racing			1:33.640

FINAL GRID

* Lowest finishing WGPC Motorworks driver is removed from starting grid.
* Drivers eliminated in round one of qualifying line up in the order in which they finished in that session.

Pos	Car	Name			Team
1	55	Asao Nadakei		    
2	56	Terho Tavela		    
3	6	Alexander Lund		    
4	42	Alex Dimitrianov	    
5	10	Lauren Ashburton	    
6	52	Sayono Souzare		    
7	7	Ethan Ellis		    
8	77	iBen Toralmintii	    
9	3	Mateo Oket		    
10	8	Igne Spupuo		    
11	46	Reni Sanderson		    
12	17	Oliver Bachmann		    
13	89	Will Madison		    
14	1	Alexandra Mayari	    
15	20	Marcus Melton		    
16	51	R.L. Crusin		    
17	18	Louis Krindle		    
18	13	Gunnar Lindstrom	    
19	23	Moisés Delgado		    
20	29	Esteban Guilhermez	    
21	24	Victoria Gardner	    
22	35	Jac-Irlo Val		    
23	14	Oliver Bliss		    
24	12	Vic Convarion		    
25	21	Alexander Kohlon	

Grid Image

[Dunpa]

Alex is out of his WGPC car

"1:33:976. That's okay." Alex said without looking at the position. "Alex, you DNQ'd from the race. Both of your teammates placed ahead of you." Mike said to Alex. "Man, I was planning for my first WGPC race. I even brought a pit crew." Alex points to his pit crew while saying this. "Well, Alex, pack up, we're going to Aels!"

OOC: During the race, I will not RP Alex as he is going to Aels with Mike and his pit crew (and crew chief).

[Drawkland]

Will watched with disgust from his garage as the second round of qualifying went on. Will had missed the cutoff for Top 10 qualifying by an insane 3 places. His teammate, Jac-Irlo, hadn't done any better, landing himself a spot 9 behind Will. Scott had misunderstood the first round elimination and thought Will wouldn't be racing in the actual race. Of course, Will and Mannar sniggered when he received a condolence text and they had fun digitally heckling him for making the mistake.

Will, however, was still in a bad mood as he watched the others drive around the track. This was apparent as he ranted to Mannar.
"Honestly, what even is this?!" Will said, "Tavela, I understand. He's a lot better than he lets on. iBen, I understand. He's a racing legend. The ENSADRINK pair did well at practice earlier. But Igne Spupuo topping off the chart in the first round? He's a goddamn horse racing jockey for God's sake! How the hell is he beating us all out? I'm calling doping, Mannar. Or maybe bribery. This is insane."
"Doping? This is formula racing, kid," Mannar huffed in good nature.
"I don't care! It's the most obvious explanation," Will decided, not even sure to himself if he was joking or not.
"Look, now's not the time to be fuming. You should be focusing on what you did wrong, which obviously was a helluva lot."
"I guess you're right," Will sighed after a moment, watching Lund fly by on the straightaway, recording his laps.
A few moments of silence passed, and Will stood up, "I'll need to talk to Jac about this race. We're going to have to make a serious effort to salvage the crapsack they'd managed in the qualifiers.

After the half-hour passed, they together examined the Starting grid. Will was about halfway back, behind Sanderson of McPahan and Bachmann from MRT. Jac was towards the back, behind some guys from Cyngus and one from ... whatever that weird long foreign named team is.
"Who even is Bachmann?" Will asked his teammate, "Never heard of him. Or her. That's probably why they're back here with me. Damn I suck," he rambled, not entirely serious, "Either way, we need to cover some serious ground. We'll have to be more aggressive in the race, overtaking as much as possible, if we're gonna put some points on the board, eh?"

[Vilita and Turori]

Folenisa, Liventia :: Things were looking good for Carvenlo-Franklin driver R.L. Cruisin as the team returned from Proluvia on top of the WGPC circuit, having posted the fastest time in the final pre-season practice session.

Cruisin's teammate, the Ethanian Ethan Ellis was 5th in the practice session making Carvenlo-Franklin early favorites in the constructors category. The sponsorship situation at the team was still a bit up in the air however. Ellis was supposed to bring some good money with him from Ethane as part of the deal to get the second seat, but Cruisin noted that there hadn't been any additional decals applied to the cars yet.

Ellis wasn't at the shop either, which Cruisin felt was a bad trait for a young driver just days away from making their WGPC debut. R.L. Cruisin began to wonder what would happen if Ellis - and his Ethanian money - never showed up at all. He knew there was at least one extra driver over at the WGPC Motorworks team - but he contemplated whether it would be possible for his friend Juracai Klianiota to get his WGPC liscense in short order. He assumed he'd be able to get his personal sponsor, Vilaye Energy Drink, to put up some cash to help with the bills.

Snapping out of his daze, Cruisin received word that Ethan Ellis would not be attending the team meeting, and would instead be meeting the team in Hodori. He just hoped that when the team got to Hodori, the would be as fast as they were in Proluvia.

Yakumicha Circuit, Toudekan, Eshigoa, Hodori :: Despite being outperformed by their flag-flying countryman R.L. Cruisin at the Proluvian practice session, Vilita & Turori Motorsports officials remained optimistic as they arrived in Hodori.

Just like they were in Proluvia, the Carvenlo-Franklin paddock was right next to the Vilita & Turori paddock area, ensuring that iBen Toralmintii and Terho Talvela wouldn't be more than a few steps away from Cruisin and his Liventian team. Having been outperformed by Cruisin in Proluvia, the objective for Toralmintii and Talvela had changed for Hodori. It wasn't 'Beat Cruisin' It was just 'Beat everyone else'.

More specifically, Vilita & Turori Motorsports officials were looking for both cars to make it to the final round of qualifying, and both cars to finish in the points on Sunday. Team officials felt after their strong showing in Proluvia, that their expectations for Hodori were realistic. For certain, back at the Research & Development center in Eelandii, Vilita & Turori Motorsports were feeling confident about challenging for a Constructors title. But, in the hustle-bustle of Hodori in the company of the Worlds greatest teams and drivers, a consistent points-paying Sunday was looking like a more than acceptable accomplishment.

When the drivers rolled out for the opening 30-lap practice session, it was no suprise that the locally-based Ensadrink drivers quickly climbed to the top of the leaderboard.

What was perhaps a surprise to everyone was the name that ended the session in third place. Terho Talvela.

The Abovian driver piloted Chassis Y to a fast lap time just .05 seconds behind the mark set by the Ensadrink duo. Vilita & Turori's #1 driver iBen Toralmintii was just another tenth of a second back in 6th place. As the drivers returned to the garage area in their night black chassis the team greeted them with high fives and high confidence. The mood was quite different just one stall over.

R.L. Cruisin was one of the slowest drivers on the track "The freaking works team was faster than us!" one could over hear the disappointment in Cruisin's emotions. He was partially right. All three WGPC motorworks drivers posted a faster lap time than R.L. Cruisin, but none of them were higher in the chart than Cruisin's Carvenlo-Franklin motorworks teammate Ethan Ellis - a fact that was not lost on Cruisin, or on Ellis who, perhaps looking to spark a bit of a rivalry, was believed to mutter something to the effect of "Who's the #1 driver now?" as he exited his own cockpit. The 9th place showing was certainly nothing to brag about for Carvenlo-Franklin, however and Frederik Helmarsson was left scratching his head at the performance of his cars that had been fastest just one week prior in Proluvia.

Back in the Vilita & Turori Motorsports paddock, with the practice session behind them and the cars in 'near perfect' setting according to both the feedback from the drivers and their position on the scoring pylon, the teams crew members would finally have an opportunity to put some decals on the car. They had hastily put some numbers on the wing ahead of the practice session but would now have the chance to put the decals of the teams primary benefactor - Tropicorp, as well as some of the minor sponsors including a pair of companies brought in from Aboveland to offset the cost of the teams second car driven by Terho Talvela.

There was certainly no time to re-paint the Chassis but luckily the orange and white decals stood out just fine on the night-black base. After applying the sponsor decals to both Chassis X and Chassis Y, one crew member with a bit of an artistic taste decided to have a little bit of fun and, using some of the decal scraps, put a stripe of color behind each drivers head to identify each car and label it with the drivers last name. As a final touch, each drivers home-nation flag was painted on to the mirrors by a local Hodorian artist who had been found in the fan area painting caricatures for a small fee.

As dawn broke, Toralmintii and Talvela jumped into their slightly new-look chassis and headed out for the first of the multi-round qualifying session. As Toralmintii's car was pushed out by his team they had to slam on the brakes as Carvenlo-Franklin's Ethan Ellis broke protocol and piloted his ride straight out of the paddock, much to the dismay of his distracted teammate R.L. Cruisin. Cruisin, who was preparing to climb into his cockpit as the Ethanian sped off, questioned team officials decision to bring Ellis into the fold.

Once again, however, Ellis would have the last laugh. Ellis would post the 7th fastest time of the first round, good enough to advance to Round Two while Cruisin's lap nearly 2 tenths of a second slower was only good enough for 16th on the starting grid. While Cruisin had improved from the practice session, he was still searching for speed - and even worse - was still beaten by one of the three WGPC Motorworks drivers.

Cruisin didn't say a word as he got out of his ride. He looked to his left and saw a confident, cocky Ethan Ellis speaking with his car chief and preparing for Round 2. Then, he looked to his right and saw the opportunity he had passed up. Vilita & Turori Motorsports was beaming. Terho Talvela had posted the 2nd fastest time of the first round, less than a tenth of a second off the fast time. iBen Toralmintii was just hundredths of a second behind him in third. The Vilita & Turori Motorsports team had not only bested Cruisin, but accomplished the first of their goals for the weekend: Make it to Round Two of qualifying.

Perhaps one surprise in the first round was that the Ensadrink GP team appeared to have been caught by the field. That, perhaps, or perhaps they were just putting in a comfortable effort and saving the best for round two. Asao Nadakei was certainly saving the best for Round 2 posting a lap nearly 3 tenths of a second faster than Igne Spupuo's top time of the first session, knocking Terho Talvela off pole position and forcing the continuously improving Abovian driver to start from the second position on the grid. Things didn't go quite as well for iBen Toralmintii. The Turorian driver didn't hit the track until 10 minutes into the session, hoping some of the traffic would clear out. Unfortunately, just ahead of him on the track, Igne Spupuo of Telaris Racing went a little hot into the Shameimaru Chicane and landed awkwardly on the track, losing a small piece of the front wing. Toralmintii ran straight over the wing piece causing minor damage to the chassis but also puncturing the tire and forcing him back to the pits. The incident rattled Toralmintii out of his rhythm and the small damage kept his speeds off the pace.

The team would have his chassis fixed and he would fight from the 8th position on the grid on Sunday, 8 spots ahead of Cruisin who would have his own adversity to overcome, starting from the 16th position and looking to prove his decision to go with the known entity in Carvenlo-Franklin was still a smart one.

---

[Taeshan]

It was perhaps not the qualifying that Oliver would have wanted to have. He had been doing rather well in the practice. 12th overall was rather impressive. But the difference having an hour and a half to run laps, and having thirty count vs just a few laps count really took a toll on Oliver's qualifying effort. It was not the greatest he'd ever had. 23rd of 25 drivers, with a 5 second slower lap time then the practice session. The MSA team seemed a bit put off by his weak times, especially against his new teammate Louis Krindle's 17th place time.

But Krindle was also two seconds slower than Oliver had been in the practice session and over a long season Oliver had the hope that it would get better. Also he was a practice fiend, and a slow qualifier, but over the course of a long race he was likely to make an impact. He may have faded in the preseason sessions, but he had always not been favored in those, and with the season young, and everyone's hopes up, and the equipment new it seemed likely that everyone was ready to give it their all.

Oliver had watched the second part of qualifying from the stands and watched the lines that each of the opposing drivers had taken. He and his crew were taking notes on what lines would work best to pass who, who he could trust to get out of his way, and who might be a bit more difficult. If he and the team could find the speed to catch up to the other drivers, and get off a to a good start. Maybe catch a few breaks, a points finish wasn't out of the question. And hey he had to start somewhere.

[Eastfield Lodge]

Victoria just sat in her car, trying to take in what had just happened.

Around the track was the sound of drivers trying their utmost to get as quick a time as possible in this first part of qualifying, but it was some way off for Victoria as turn 18, the Hairpin, was devoid of drivers for the moment. It wasn't so quiet moments ago, as she was tearing back up the hill from the Valley, grateful for the clear air on her third flying lap - her first two had left her around 14th and she needed to push on. But as she slowed down to enter the right-handed hairpin, she felt something major give, and the car kicked out, sending her into a majestic spin that took her off-track and into the gravel pit. Her head had just stopped spinning, and she took in the fact that one of her wheels was still spinning - she was beached, and that meant the end of her session. She could see the stewards running over in her wing mirror, and she decided that it was time to get out.

Back at the paddock, she was just sitting and watching the rest of the session unfold, not that it took that long as she got back with only 5 minutes to go. She watched as drivers beat her quite poor benchmark time, and slowly but steadily she was pushed down to 21st, nearly 1.3 seconds behind tenth. And worse still, Louis has beaten her, even if he was only 2 rows in front - she wouldn't hear the end of it until the race started tomorrow. Frankly, that he'd managed a respectable time given his reliability record astounded her; that car must have been more reliable than she thought it'd be. From the team's perspective, at least Mayari was somewhat close to the points in 14th, but it was going to be a tough ordeal for both of them come race day.

[OIsINiSTAn]

Oliver stretched his legs. He pulled out his phone. 'One missed call from Paw.' This was his dad, probably wishing him luck. He had a good long 60 minute phone call with his dad, about how the neighbour's cat had gone missing, about old Larry Wilkins breaking his foot while trying to lift boxes, and everything in between. Oliver was bursting out laughing by the end. Good old Paw.

OOC: Oliver's morale had been low, but it's boosted now

[Nekoni]

"These fucking brakes, seriously!" yelled Patrice, displaying an unusually flared tone in his voice. And he had good reason to: both of the cars had shown brake issues during the qualifying at Hodori, and both cars had missed the qualifying session, a shock for a team that shut out both championships in the last season.

"We tested them back at Neocastella, they were fine after we tweaked them," an suddenly shaken pit mechanic responded.

"Well, you clearly didn't do temperature tests on them, did you? Remember last season?"

The mechanic visibly cringed at the memory of last season, when the pit boss showed the team the conditions of Hodori the hard way by placing them in the paddock with the air-conditioning off to show them what Alexandra and Victoria were to be racing in. That weekend was a crowning glory for Nekoni, with both championships being sealed for the team in one race...and oh, how the mightly had fallen. Both cars spun off, both drivers missing the second phase of qualifying. The early spring made Hodori milder than last season, but it was still far beyond what Nekoni's hottest was, even in mid-summer. The brakes didn't cope well in the heat, some corners were obviously cut, and everybody knew it.

"Look, you know how dangerous this sport is. Every corner, no matter how easy it looks, is a potential deathtrap. You hit a wall at high speed, and the driver rolls the dice, and if you're not working at 100% capability, you make it all the more likely that they're going to roll snake eyes."

Minna rifled through the toolbox and handed him a screwdriver.

"You'll need this. Fix it. I know last year started off all wine and flowers, but we've got a championship to defend, and if we're not hitting the ground running, we're going to get stamped on. Consider this your one and only warning. Don't slack off again."

The mechanic, visibly shaking after an uncharacteristic Minna bollocking, stuttered "Y...yes, Sir" and headed off to the car to focus on fixing both the car and his job. Minna now turned to the drivers, who saw the whole thing.

"You saw that. Now, I've seen you driving. I know that what happened today wasn't your fault. But don't think for one moment you get a free pass every time you come off, right? The pressure's on both of you the most to perform, and if either of you aren't showing the defending champion performance that we expect, I will know, and you'll be getting what you just saw but worse."

Both drivers nodded in agreement. It seemed that both reasoned that saying anything would probably make the situation worse.

"Right, Alex, you're in 14th. You've turned races around from worse positions. All you've got to do is nail the start and play it safe. Don't risk much, from your position any points on the board will be a good start. Vicky, get the car home. Any points will be a bonus, but the car getting home is your number one concern. Understood? Good, now prepare. You've both got a big day tomorrow."

---

Alex, back in her trailer, went over the footage of the qualifying and tried to come to terms with witnessing the dressing-down of the mechanic. She didn't think it was wholly his fault. After seeing her best laps out there, even now, she had struggled in the Junior circuit's turns, just like last season, particularly the complex from 12-14. It SHOULD be so easy, being three consistent radius turns, but somehow...it just wouldn't gel. The second turn was tighter than the other two, which seemed to throw her off. It's never a nice thing to admit, particuarly from someone that recently was called the best ever, but she was struggling with the track. Coupled with her performance at Proluvia (scuppered by the pit team's bad strategy) it didn't make for happy reading. Alex's previous two seasons both started off poorly, and just this once, she didn't want it to be a third.

Checking her mail, Alex suddenly noticed an email in her inbox from a name she hadn't seen in a while, and really didn't want to see again.

Hello Alexandra,

I'm in Hodori right now. I watched you as you race. You were better than I thought when you won the title, but it seems that again you're taking your eye off the ball again. Anyway, I digress, I'm not your boss anymore. As you know. You destroyed me. You destroyed my career. You destroyed my life. And to watch it all fall as I saw yours hit the heights I deserved? That isn't fair. And you know it. Your success is MY doing and I will not rest until I take it back for myself. Enjoy your sleep. Because I am on to you.

-- C.Fatali

[Mattijana]

MRT garage, Qualifying

"O.K Oliver, that's P.12, P.12, solid effort. Good chance of some points tomorrow."

Meanwhile, Alex Dimitrianov had gone one better. Going 7th after his final lap, he was pushed down to 10th and faced a nervous wait as Reni Sanderson came to the end of his lap. Running wide round the final turn, Dimitrianov breathed a huge sigh of relief as Sanderson stayed 11th.

Going through into the final session, Dimitrianov and the team received even more delight as he went faster moving up to third. He was nudged back down a spot by Asao Nadakei who took pole, but there was still much back slapping and high fiving in the garage when he returned.

"Great work Alex! P.4, that sets us up strongly for a really good points finish tomorrow."

"Good times. The car feels really pacey now."

In truth, the team had expected an upturn in pace from practice as they only turned the engine up to its full power capacity for quali in order to save fuel and reduce engine wear at the car's first high pressure event. But fourth place was well beyond expectation.

Meanwhile, the team had turned its attention to working out how to get both cars into the points. Reni Sanderson was targeted as a car to get passed fairly quickly having not shown any particular threat when testing in the MRT. iBen Toralmintii was the pantomine villain in Mattijana following his dispute with Jasmin Kranška and he would also make a good victim. The team were also planning to operate a split-strategy with Bachmann using more sets of the faster tyre with agressive undercuts whilst Dimitrianov was going to use a more cautious strategy to hold onto his high position.

"Whilst we're at it Alex, what do you think of this qualifying system?"

"I quite like it, but wouldn't it be cooler if instead of cutting off the top ten, you had an elimination every 90 seconds?"

"Nah mate. That's a stupid idea."

[Hodori Motorsports]

Souzare returned to the garage, her four Q2 laps used up. There was still a good ten minutes left on the clock, but she was pleased with how her qualifying had gone so far; making the cutoff for the second session and out-qualifying Mayari in damp conditions had put Souzare in a good mood for the second round of qualifying. She exited the car, removed her helmet and flame-resistant balaclava, and twisted open a bottle of sports drink as the final few laps came in on the timing screen, noting the results of those she had identified in her personal notes as key rivals.

After post-qualify debrief and returning to her hotel room, she looked over her notes, both for the course and her personal key rivals list.

Number three target Asao Nadakei, her uncle and last season’s runner-up, had captured pole. Terho Tavela, not a name she was familiar with, but he clearly had pace to maintain his Q1 placement. She wasn’t sure yet where to rank him. Number four target Lund, the Audioslavian former world champion in the missile-with-wheels. The McPahan didn’t seem to be as dangerously unreliable as it was in the twelfth Championship, but with their most notable incidents seared into collective memory Souzare still found herself wanting to give their cars as wide a berth as possible at times.

She shook her head, then took a sip from her bottle of water as her phone buzzed. A text message from Hakusa. Souzare sent a reply then returned to her notes.

Lauren Ashburton, Souzare’s teammate at Archer last year and in Formula Hodori, would be starting from fifth. With the first half of the lap being an endless barrage of direction and elevation changes, Souzare thought she’d be able to pull ahead if she got a good enough launch into the 320-plus meters from the line into the First corner. Ashburton’s Dekijika machine would have the power advantage over the Archer in the second half of the lap, plus the Dekijika carried a driver cooling system similar to the ones used in FH and in the Hodoran GT championship.

Another sip of water. Souzare didn’t think any of the other teams used the liquid cooling vest; such systems tended to be rather heavy. In the Hodoran heat and humidity, they had to be suffering. Souzare got up to pace around the room for a few minutes, then returned to her list.

Starting directly behind her was iBen Toralmintii. When the Turorian driver made his return to the WGPC, Souzare had decided he would be her number one target. After finishing second to him in the second Super Formula championship, she wanted little more from this season than placing better than him at the end.

Further down the order, outside the top ten, was Mayari having fallen victim to brake issues. The cute catgirl from Nekoni and the defending champion, Souzare’s number two target. A knock on the door interrupted her thoughts. A mental image of fuzzy cat ears lingered in her mind as she got the door.
- - - - -
Souzare had wanted to keep studying last night. Hakusa’s arrival had put a stop to that. Early Sunday morning, Souzare slipped out of bed for her morning routine of light exercise and some more reviewing of her course notes before she headed to the circuit. She’d do a more thorough review there with her teammate before the pre-race briefing.

[WGPC]

GET HYPED for the first race of the WGPC season.. CUT OFF is only an hour and a half away...

(jumped the gun a bit there. BST, CET, UTC, they're all the same to me...)

[Ethane]

It had been a long, exhausting day for Ethan. Never before had he had to put so much effort into his racing, as he was always able to cruise to the win when competing in Ethane. However, this was not those pathetic tournaments in Ethane, and was now something much greater, much larger, and much more tiring than those competitions at home. Ethan had made the final step to the world stage, he had managed to receive a place on a World Grand Prix Championship team, something that he had dreamed of all his life. He used to watch the WGPC when he was younger, admiring his heroes that used to race in these competitions, such as Jai Kardaeri and André Luís Caconde, in the teams of the day from WGPC 8. He dreamt of replicating their success, achieving the wins they managed to do all those years ago.

He sat down on the sofa in his accommodation. Sighing, he flicked on the TV, which just happened to be on the news on the channel he was watching. A ringing sound erupted from the hall.
''Damn it. The phone.'' he grumbled to himself, before lifting himself off the sofa and strolling to the phone, picking it up off the hook.

''Hello. Who is it please?''
''Hey Ethan. How are you doing? It's your brother, Michael.''
''Oh. Hey Michael. Things are awesome, but a little bit tiring. Had a long day qualifying.''
''I know, I know. Just come up on the news. Have to say bro, you've really outdone yourself. 7th place in qualifying. You've never even raced there before.''
''Yeah. I'm ecstatic. It's bloody marvellous/ I'm already outdoing my team mate, really want the race to come around.''
''Well, we'll be watching you from home alright, its on the tv.''
''Yeah.''
''YOU'RE GONNA BE ON THE BLOODY TV. ITS WONDERFUL. MY BROTHER. FAMOUS. ON TV. Never thought it would happen. Anyways, isn't it almost race time?''
''I got half an hour til I gotta go.''
''You do? I better let you get on with it then. We'll talk after the race as well, alright?''
''Of course, love you bro.''
''Love you too bro.''

[Ceni]

---

YAKUMICHA, Toudekan, Eshigoa, Hodori - Jac-Irlo Val threw off his helmet and stormed off out of the track after a poor performance - 22nd - in the first round of the Yakumicha Circuit in Hodori. His teammate, Will Madison, hadn't done much better - thirteenth place. Both were not eligible for the final qualification round and thus the plum starting spots at the race. It was a disappointing finish, especially considering the two had done excellently at the qualification in Proluvia. Val has an explanation: "The big shots are finally revving up their engines now that their big salaries are on the line." It was certainly a warm welcome to the track for Fornax Racing, one of the new teams this season in the World Grand Prix Championship circuit of races, and the first real race is coming up.

The team has two up-and-coming racers - Jac-Irlo Val of Ceni and Will Madison of Drawkland. Madison has performed well in qualifying - but a bit weakly when actual qualification is on the line for some of the bigger players. Val has always gone behind Madison, a fact he attributes to the types of circuits they've raced on so far. "There's just not enough room for me to accelerate..." he grumbled to this paper. Overall, both racers have talent - but will it be enough to prevent a sweep by the more experienced practitioners on the racing circuit?

Fornax is a new entity on the circuit. Founded by petrochemicals tycoon Owen Keteris, it aims to break the stranglehold of some of the older teams on the circuit with some novel methods. First, its business model does not rely on extorting large amounts of money out of drivers to make the team - Keteris believes that makes for a more stable team, and one not beholden to outside sponsors. Thus, he believes there will be more incentive to perform well for the team. "Our team has a substantially different business model than a lot of the other teams - we don't earn much money from outside sponsors. Instead, we're trying to promote our team in Ceni itself," says Keteris.

A part of the business model relies upon bringing racing to the Cenian populace - and Keteris believes it can be done. "Football - maybe 20 years ago, it wasn't very popular. We had a lot of bad luck, and tennis was still going strong, so we had a lot of popularity stay in tennis. Now, with the Cenileague and two straight qualifications, we have a new vibrancy of football in Ceni. I believe we can do the same with racing." Keteris thinks that racing has a lot of potential to expand within Ceni: "Cenians love aggressive and exciting sports. Racing certainly brings both to the table." Part of his strategy was founding Fornax and grooming Cenian drivers, namely Val and Vic Convarion, who races for Telaris.

Jac-Irlo Val, a young, dashing 22-year-old, has overabundant energy and enough skill to try and perform well on the racing circuit, qualities that Keteris believes will endear him to a Cenian audience. Vic Convarion is still a teenager and hopes to be one of the youngest to score points in a WGPC race; he prefers a technical approach, which might attract more educated viewers to auto racing. Val is a bit optimistic, though realistic, about his chances in the upcoming racing circuit: "I hope we can do well on the circuit, but we have to work hard, and practice hard, to beat the more established drivers."

Besides Fornax, Ceni has another racing representative on the world stage: the more technical racer Vic Convarion. Initially touted as one of Ceni's best racing hopes, along with Val, Convarion has seemed to sputter so far, almost always placing near the back of the pack in qualifying and practices. Convarion hopes that this will change as the season goes on: "I know I haven't lived up to some of the high expectations placed on me, but I think that if I gain more experience racing with all these other drivers, I can do well in the international circuit. The more I'm exposed to the real thing, the better I'll be." That same statement can be applied to Cenian racing in general, and the growth of fans inside the country.

Back at the Yakumicha Circuit in Hodori, the Fornax team engineers are hurriedly making last-minute tweaks to their car and engine, designed by Selaphoros, a major Cenian petroleum company. It's had some glitches before, and the engineers need to change around the layout. Owen Keteris is impatient: ""Hurry up! We need to have this fixed before the race tomorrow!" He looks a bit worried about his team's cars. "I really don't want to let my team down with these engines... It will be a nightmare for all involved." Later, though, everything appeared to be under control, and the engines were fixed in time for the race. Keteris then looked a bit relieved, but still had an unreadable expression on his face. "I'm still not sure about how successful Fornax will be. Ultimately, though, I'll give my all, and the racers will give it their all, and we'll see where that takes us."

[San Jose Guayabal]

A couple of weeks after the official presentation of Igne Spupuo and Vic Convarion, came the formal moment to make the act of signing the contract, which would link Telaris Racing for a couple of seasons, Gutiérrez invited both racer to take a seat in his office in Moncada, he called his secretary and both ordered some coffee to liven up the conversation, which obviously would be long, this included their legal representativse and the attorney of Telaris Racing in order to sign the contract and abide to the Guayabalense contract signing laws, in that quite cold night in Moncada, both drivers were going to proceed and sign their contracts with Telaris Racing for this WGPC season.

"You two seem pretty euphoric, aren’t you?" Gutierrez said at the time to sit with him in the office, with a splendid view of the skyline of Moncada and parts of San Salvador.

"Yes, I think both of us are euphoric, it is no wonder that after a hard work, we are finally on the WGPC, especially I, when I was a horse racer just one year ago.” Said Spupuo.
“Tell me more about it please, what made you took this drastic decision?” said Gutiérrez.
“Well, there was a couple of factors that make me take this step such as: I didn’t felt the same passion at Horse Racing anymore, I needed to take part into something with more action included?”
“But why the WGPC?”
“Because it’s exciting”
“Hmm, any other factor that pushed you to do this?”
“It was an intrinsically need for speed, as Horse Racing didn’t involve a lot of that, considering that I was normally caught by police by doing speeding on the motorways, so, I needed to canalize that need for speed into something that wouldn’t carry me more problems.”
“How you’re not in jail now?” said Gutiérrez laughing.
There’s not a good application of law in Deiorus, police is corrupt and can be easily bribed, I did just to get out of problems and take care of my reputation in Horse Racing, I’m not a bad person, I acted as anybody would do in that situation.”
“Heh, no problems, I found it a bit funny, but take care of this here, we can have unlimited speed roads but don’t abuse of it.”
“Unlimited speed roads? Cool!”
“Yeah, but do your job on the circuit, not at the motorway, ok?
“Yessir, will do it on circuit.”
“Alright Vic, tell me more about you” said Gutiérrez.
“I don’t have experience on motorway racing, what it was my passion since I was a child was racing in circuits, when I was twelve, I started karting, it was mostly like a hobby but then it turned into a need to compete professionally.” Said Vic Convarion.
“Tell me more.”
“Okay, since I won trophies in karting, some people dedicated to racing sent me to do training and get involved into the sphere of racing in Eura, I did it and the experience was really enjoyable since I won trophies there, as you see, I’m competitive and I like to win, I risk it all in order to do it.”
“That’s what we really need in Telaris, we need racers with enthusiasm and with that need for speed as Igne has and the competitiveness of Vic.
“We are pleased to know that we meet your requirements.” Said both racers.

"Well, it's interesting to see how they feel now, but proceed to what we have come," said Gutiérrez while calling his secretary to bring him two contract and thus proceed when key negotiation.

The secretary took the contract and gave Gutierrez, who read it in detail, letter by letter and with meticulous care, considering the perfectionist trend of it in terms of grammar and Spanish spelling is concerned, even to the point of being too critical. Just as he was halfway, he grabbed the phone and called his secretary with some dissatisfaction. "Hey, you were wrong in a couple of accents, omiting an ñ and you were wrong with this tense" he told the secretary, who is speaker of Finnish natively and therefore does not have excellent verbal wording, although the less able to defend themselves everyday situations.

"But as a tick can cause so much trouble," Sonja said.

Gutierrez coughed and said in sarcasm. "Go and culturize yourself you are butchering Spanish, you are embellishing the language with it." Then finished by saying "please, go and correct it, ¡Salvaje!".


Sonja walked away, she was disappointed on what she did, thinking about little mistake she did, it took a while to make corrections in order that the document again to have no error as to the wording, particularly in words that could be key in the contract. After 10 minutes of correction and analysis, she arrived and gave the document to Gutierrez, who gave the guarantee without making major revision, considering that Sonja is not capable of being wrong too many times.


"Well, these conditions are offered to you, depends on both of you and your lawyers if you accept them." Gutiérrez said already in serious tone.
1) Sign-on fee: $ 17 million NS
2) Wage p / race: $ 350k NSS
3) Length: 1 year
4) Bonus: NS $ 20 million to finish if he manages to finish within the top 5 at the end of the season in drivers' championship.

“It seems fine” said Igne Spupuo’s manager.
“Same here, there’s no issue against this, it’s fine and we accept all the terms” said Convarion’s agent.
“Okay, as Igne signed first, he will be the first driver” said Gutiérrez.
“No problems with the seat number, we just want to win this” said Igne while Vic nodded.

"Okay, let’s do this and sign the contracts, welcome to Telaris Racing" Gutierrez said.

Both proceeded to sign the contract, Igne Spupuo and Vic Conavarion shaked hands with Gutiérrez, the same did the managers of both racers, Sonja received them with handshaking while another employee called them to take measures for their uniforms or this season, now it was everything ready to have the start of the season and ace in this tournament.

[WGPC]

Grand Prix of Hodori
Sunday's Race

* Laps: 59
* Conditions: Dry

Pos	Car	Name			Team		OVERALL TIME	TIME GAP
1	56	Terho Tavela		    	1:29:40.197	+00.000	
2	6	Alexander Lund		    	1:29:40.997	+00.800	
3	55	Asao Nadakei		    	1:29:41.444	+00.447	
4	8	Igne Spupuo		    	1:29:56.985	+15.541	
5	7	Ethan Ellis		    	1:30:00.498	+03.513	
6	18	Louis Krindle		    	1:30:09.762	+09.264	
7	89	Will Madison		    	1:30:13.079	+03.317	
8	17	Oliver Bachmann		    	1:30:32.084	+19.005	
9	46	Reni Sanderson		    	1:30:37.954	+05.870	
10	3	Mateo Oket		    	1:30:48.694	+10.740	
11	42	Alex Dimitrianov	    	1:30:53.661	+04.968	
12	51	R.L. Crusin		    	1:30:55.096	+01.434
13	13	Gunnar Lindstrom	    	+1		+01.000	
14	20	Marcus Melton		    	+1		+16.997	
15	1	Alexandra Mayari	    	+1		+17.266	
16	23	Moisés Delgado		    	+1		+11.900	
17	14	Oliver Bliss		    	+1		+00.769	
18	24	Victoria Gardner	    	+1		+09.374	
19	12	Vic Convarion		    	+1		+19.890	

DNF	77	iBen Toralmintii	    	Ret. Lap 38
DNF	29	Esteban Guilhermez	    	Ret. Lap 29		
DNF	10	Lauren Ashburton	    	Ret. Lap 26
DNF	35	Jac-Irlo Val		    	Ret. Lap 24
DNF	52	Sayono Souzare		    	Ret. Lap 16

DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

Pos	#	Name			Team				Pts
1	56	Terho Tavela		VTM				25
2	6	Alexander Lund		McPahan Racing			18
3	55	Asao Nadakei		ENSADRINK GP			14
4	8	Igne Spupuo		Telaris Racing			10
5	7	Ethan Ellis		Carvenlo-Franklin Racing	8
6	18	Louis Krindle		MSA-SinVal			6
7	89	Will Madison		Fornax Racing			4
8	17	Oliver Bachmann		MRT				3
9	46	Reni Sanderson		McPahan Racing			2
10	3	Mateo Oket		Archer Motorsports		1
11	52	Sayono Souzare		Archer Motorsports		0
11	51	R.L. Crusin		Carvenlo-Franklin Racing	0
11	23	Moisés Delgado		Cygnus ATR			0
11	29	Esteban Guilhermez	Cygnus ATR			0
11	10	Lauren Ashburton	ENSADRINK GP			0
11	35	Jac-Irlo Val		Fornax Racing			0
11	42	Alex Dimitrianov	MRT				0
11	14	Oliver Bliss		MSA-SinVal			0
11	1	Alexandra Mayari	SFeG				0
11	24	Victoria Gardner	SFeG				0
11	12	Vic Convarion		Telaris Racing			0
11	77	iBen Toralmintii	VTM				0
11	20	Marcus Melton		WGPC Motorworks			0
11	21	Alexander Kohlon	WGPC Motorworks			0
11	13	Gunnar Lindstrom	WGPC Motorworks			0

CONSTRUCTOR'S CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

VTM				25
McPahan Racing			20
ENSADRINK GP			14
Telaris Racing			10
Carvenlo-Franklin Racing	8
MSA-Sinval			6
Fornax Racing			4
MRT				3
Archer Motorsports		1
Cygnus ATR			0
SFeG				0
WGPC Motorsports		0

[Vilita and Turori]

Yakumicha Circuit, Toudekan, Eshigoa, Hodori :: Just under 25 laps from the end of the Grand Prix of Hodori and the two Vilita & Turori Motorsports drivers iBen Toralmintii and Terho Talvela could not have been having a finer day. Chasing down the leader Asao Nadakei of ENSADRINK GP, the Vilita & Turori Motorsports drivers were part of a four-car breakaway at the front of the field along with McPahan's Alexander Lund. Then the unthinkable happened. Coming around the tight turn 16, iBen Toralmintii stepped hard to the throttle like he had 37 times before. This time, however, he wasn't treated with the energizing thrust of the Chassis-X powerful engine. Instead, the prototype Chassis was quickly engulfed in a thick smoke. Something had broken. The experienced Toralmintii quickly darted to the inside of the track so as to get out of the way of his teammate Talvela who would be accelerating just moments behind him. Talvela narrowly avoided clipping the right rear tire of the slower Toralmintii machine but managed to steam on.

The Turorian driver managed to limp back to the pits under his own power requiring only a localized yellow flag. Just as he rounded the West Chicane and headed towards the garage area, Carvenlo-Franklin's R.L. Cruisin motored by. At this point it was clear that Toralmintii would lose the drivers battle on the day between the Vilitan and the Turorian. He could only hope that his teammate Talvela could bring home the war for Vilita & Turori Motorsrports.

For R.L. Cruisin it had certainly been a frustrating day. His car lacked the speed he thought that it would have and perhaps in a bit of frustrated driving he had made contact with the Formax of Jac-Irlo Val forcing Cruisin to the pits for repairs. The pit stop wasn't all bad as it allowed Cruisin to get on a new strategy but even that wasn't enough to put the Carvenlo-Franklin driver in contention for the points. It was all Cruisin could do to finish on the lead lap - which he did, albeit barely. Saving a bit of embarrassment on the day, Cruisin would finish just ahead of the two WGPC motorworks drivers in Vilita & Turori based chassis.

While Cruisin already knew he was going to place higher than iBen Toralmintii, what he did not know until he could see the night black livery in his rear view mirror on the final lap was that Toralmintii's Vilita & Turori Motorsports teammate Terho Talvela had not only caught, but had passed Asao Nadakei to take the lead and would end up hanging on beating Alexander Lund to the stripe on the final lap for an incredible debut victory to become the first Abovian driver to win a Grand Prix and the first victory for Vilita & Turori Motorsports in their return to action for the first Grand Prix campaign since the conclusion of WGPC 12.

The upset victory thrust Talvela atop the drivers standings and put Vilita & Turori Motorsports at the top of the constructors standings, an early boost for a team that just weeks prior was unsure if they would even make the grid. Despite the victory and the inevitable night-long celebrations, there would still be real work to do back in Rockii Coast as Vilita & Turori motorsports engineers would have to dig deep to find root cause of the failure on Toralmintii's ride that forced the Turorian driver to retire early and preventing the team from challenging for a double podium placement.

The hours would be just as long back at Carvenlo-Franklin where R.L. Cruisin would have serious work to do to determine whether it was the car, or perhaps was there another cause for his inability to challenge for a points-paying position as his rookie teammate Ethan Ellis made his way up to the 5th position to place in the standings after the first round.

---

[Dunpa]

Continued after last RP

"Man, Mike, I hope I can qualify this time." Alex said to his confident agent. "Relax, struggle is part of being human. Don't get too scared or you'll go worse than you can go. Beside, we're the only ones here in Aels." Mike said to Alexander.

"I wish our teammates were here. Oh, I'm glad you have my laptop. OK, it says here that Terho Talvela won the race. Nice for him." Alex said to Mike and himself.

"Anyway, while we are waiting for everyone to come, let's play freeze tag. First to win 5 rounds wins." Mike told Alex. "Oh, it's on."

To be continued

[Drawkland]

It was all nerves on Will Madison when the Grand Prix of Hodori first dropped the green flag. As soon as he was open, he slammed the throttle down and whipped from the straightaway and into First Turn. Oliver Bachmann from MRT was the one to Will's left in the opening, and Reni Sanderson from McPahan in front. Right before the straightaway broke into the wide turn, Will managed to wedge his way in between Bachmann and Sanderson, forcing the Oisinistani onto the outside of the turn and immediately giving Will the upper hand. Still filled with initial adrenaline and hyped by the quick pass on Bachmann, Will stayed with the aggressive streak, forcing his car to stay nearly touching Sanderson's. Will had a lot of faith, if Sanderson took a bad swerve, they'd both end up in the gravel. But luckily, Sanderson stayed out of Will's way as the next 3 turns of the Esses came through. Since Will was neck & neck with Sanderson, he forced her to take the outside of Turn 3, and when it came to Turn 5, Will gunned it again and overtook Sanderson with much finality, passing Whiterock. This endeavor had cost him though, the more careful and forced driving from the encounter with Sanderson left Will a considerable gap between him and the next competitor, Spupuo.

It would take nearly a dozen laps before Will would close the gap with the front pelaton. By then, Spupuo had gone ahead, Dimitrianov had fallen back and behind, and Will was trailing behind Makeo Oket of Archer. Over the course of the next few laps, Will got close to passing Oket, his closest attempt in Lap 16. He had managed to poke through after 45R in turn 14, which would give him the inside in the Valley. But out of nowhere was Arhcer's Sayono Souzare, with some sort of spinout, jutting into the very section of track Will was on. He had to brake and jerk out to get behind Oket to avoid a crash. To make matters worse, this slowdown by both racers put Louis Krindle, a native from the Eastfield Lodge on MSA-Sinval, was hard on Will's tail, putting even more pressure on him. This same sequence continued for another dozen laps, and Will was starting to lose hope, figuring he was doomed to a 9th place finish.

As if the situation could deteriorate any further, Will got a message on his radio in Lap 24 that his teammate Jac-Irlo was gone out of the race. When Will inquired the issue, after staying silent a moment to negotiate HIEDA, all he got was a cryptic and curt "technical problem." This brought the prospect of a 9th place finish even more negative connotations, as Will would have to carry the team, quite heavily in the figurative sense, through this Prix if they had any chance at a decent start. But two laps later, Ashburton apparently also was out of the race, although Will didn't know much because she was in the pits by the time he'd passed that point. 8th place took SOME pressure off his chest, but not much. His team was counting on him, and probably a lot of Ceni too. Not to mention Drawkland and -
Shut it, Will's voice of reason chided him through the Shameimaru Chicane, You gotta concentrate.

However, a break came in Lap 38. As Oket, Will, and Krindle came firing down the straightaway and into the Valley of turn 15, Will took a quick glance to his right and saw a billow of black smoke erupt from one of the V&T drivers, but he couldn't tell from that distance. It seemed his pursuer noticed this too, but Oket didn't notice until right before he got up to the nearly stopped car, causing the driver to hit the brakes. Will saw this coming and managed to turn away to prevent a huge collision while retaining speed. Unfortunately for the Drawkian, Krindle had been more prepared than he, and the MSA driver shot around the two and continued racing. Will moved around Oket in hot pursuit of Krindle, while taking a moment to ascertain the identity of the troubled driver. It was iBen Toralmintii himself, equivalently limping about the edge of the course on the way to the pits. It appeared to Will that the Turorian's day was done as he watched the local yellow flag be called behind them. Will grinned. This forced Oket and all the racers behind him to slow around Toralmintii, opening up a huge gap as Krindle and Will sped through the straightaway and navigated the hairpin with ease. A gap of at least 10 seconds had opened up, and it seemed the two competing racers were going to widen that gap very soon.

In lap 47, Will and Krindle both came into the pits for the final tire switch and such before the end of the race. But Will had a small slip coming out of the lane and Krindle ran ahead while Will took a precious second to readjust safely. This brought him back by a few seconds, which Krindle just refused to give up for the rest of the race. Try as they both may, they not catch up to Ethan Ellis in 5th, but luckily they launched a huge gap between them and the now trailing Bachmann and Sanderson. It was there, 7th place, trailing by over 3 whole seconds, that Will came over the line with.

---

When Will drove into the paddock after the race, he was slightly bitter. Especially when he read the board and realized he'd only scored 4 points with the meager 7th place finish. And poor Jac-Irlo was far behind, not finishing added a remorseless zero to their score. Will was slightly comforted in the fact that his jump of 6 places did at least make sure Fornax was on the board at all. But it was time for him, Jac, and the engineers to have a talk. It's apparent that something at Fornax was not up to snuff, as evidenced by the several failures of varying degrees this Hodori weekend.

Mannar, however, was still pleased with Will's performance in the day.
"Look, kid, I don't care about your points or your team's fancy placement on the board. I care about your advancement as a racer. And what I saw today was very high-quality, aggressive, intelligent racing. Don't discount yourself for that. A 6 spot jump is more than any of those joes who started ahead of you can claim to their name. Doesn't take as much talent to pass one guy and block a couple others, now does it?" the coach soothed the young racer's mind.
"I suppose you're right," Will replied, watching the pit crew clean up and fix up his car. He noticed his name on the chassis of the car, and it did fill him with some pride.
"Plus, you got 7th place. You know the Backwards Folks back home will eat that up. Think of the publicity," Mannar continued.
"Not as much as all folks would eat up a first place finish," Will shot back.
"Hey, nobody expected you to jump 13 spots in 59 laps without a huge crash. Not even the most cluelessly optimistic reporter or team intern expected that. Even they expected to start off the season with a flat performance from both of you. You did yourself and your team proud, dammit. Now act like it."
"I just feel that I could've done more ..."
"Work on keeping your cool and staying stable at all times. You might've jumped the extra Lodger if you'd have just kept your bearings. Not just out of the pits that last time, but during the race as a whole. Improve there, and there's nothing stopping you," the old man instructed.
"Yessir. This week," Will promised, and he hopped off his seat in search of Jac-Irlo and some engineers.

[OIsINiSTAn]

Oliver smiled. 8th from 24, and even though he came in 30 seconds after 7th, he was happy that he got a decent 3 points. He'd got many texts and call. 'Well done Ollie, you killed it!' 'Fantastic job Bachie!' 'G'man Ollie, owning the track yeah xD'


That night, at 2am, he couldn't sleep with his crippling anxiety eating at him. So he went in for a quick practice lap around his small track in his own 40 kph mini go kart. To get the stress out of racing, a wise man once said, you must treat it like a game, not a sport. This tired him out enough to get some sleep. He wrote in his diary, 'GET MORE SLEEP,' before turning out his light and going asleep.

[Aboveland]

"HOLY SHIT!"

Terho whoops into his helmet as he crosses the line first in his first ever WGPC Grand Prix.

"Damn, take it easy!" scolded Edvin with a smiling frown. He could tell he saw eye to eye with everyone else, who'd stuck their fingers in their ears.

Terho went around the track, waited for everyone to get into pit lane, and spun the car twice on the long straight to celebrate what he'd done. He then went into the pits.

As the car entered the paddock, hot and bug-dotted, an overwhelming wave of applause greeted Terho's ears as he removed his patriotic, sponsored and damp helmet. His jaw dropped in awe and his eyes shone. In the crowd of people he could spot Edvin, clapping as hard as he could, iBen, with a deep sorrow in his eyes but with great pleasure in his face, a fatherly grin peeking out, and numerous reporters taking shots of him and the car for the next day's paper. He made a few awkward leg movements and got out of Chassis Y, kissing it on the front wing. He put one foot on each front tire and stood triumphantly before his teammates, jumping down moments later to hug Edvin and iBen together. He then took a half turn, thrust his arms into the air and yelled. Out of the corner of his eye he could spot more people approaching the paddock area, happy for him, whilst others had a look of disbelief. He then hopped down, had a drink of water, put on his cap and headed towards the podium, where he shared a nice champagne shower with his fellow podium placed colleagues.

Finally, in the dressing rooms, shirt flinging and singing took place as Terho and some other young members of the WGPC celebrated his achievement, notably Gunnar Lindstrom. Clean and refreshed, the Abovian driver exited the rooms and had a chat with Edvin.

"Hey hey hey!" Terho exclaimed, content with his debut win.

"Heey hotshot! Nicely done out there. I'm genuinely impressed. This is gonna go down so well with the media and the sponsors, let alone the team and your future. This is something unbelievable."

"I know, I can't believe it. I was lucky to get away with that stupid spin, and to regain my places when iBen broke down and backed up a few people. Still, second place on the grid and first place in the race looks nice to me!"

"It better have made you feel like you can actually acknowledge your talent."

"Well, I'd prefer to stay low for now."

"How'd the car feel?"

"Pretty good actually. Save for that reliability issue that iBen had and a few brake problems I felt it was great. Oh, and I got a sudden surge of power when I lost the back of the car on the winding turns. Maybe that was just me or maybe it was a problem with the pedals."

"Great, I'll pass it on to V+T. Get ready for a reporter ambush."

"I was born ready!"

[Ceni]

Owen was sitting in his office when his secretary slapped a copy of the Cenial Tribune on his desk. He read through some of the main headlines on the front page, turned to the business, and then turned to the sports page. On the second page, the Tribune had blazoned the headline: "Terho Tavela wins first first WGPC race of the season." The subheader ran: "Newcomer shocks racing world with upset win". The article went on to say "Fornax Racing had a decent showing, with Will Madison finishing seventh and earning four points. Jac-Irlo Val, also of Fornax, did not finish, while Vic Convarion placed nineteenth - last place of the finishers."

Owen started cursing to himself - "fuck, shit, damn," etc. Questions abounded: Selaphoros was disappointing with its engine performance - was it time to look for another engine design? could you even do that in the middle of the season? would the team be stuck with that engine forever? why didn't the team sign Tavela? what's wrong with the team overall?

Owen reminded himself that it was only the first race - there would be 11 more in the circuit. Next year, Owen decided that he would submit the Westport track in the Isles of Avon for consideration. It would hopefully increase Cenian interest in racing and give Fornax a bit of a home team advantage when the circuit came around to the track. But it might not be enough, especially if one of their two finishers did not finish.

Tavela's first place finish was disappointing, and yet heartening, to Owen. It was disappointing because Fornax did not win the race, but it was heartening because it showed that an unheralded racer could go toe to toe with the world's best, and win. Will Madison and Jac-Irlo Val were both unheralded racers, and Will at least had the talent to win. Owen definitely hoped that Jac-Irlo and Vic too had the talent to do well in these races, but only time would tell on that count.

In short, Owen was a bit worried about his team's future, but there was still plenty of time left in the season to make changes if necessary, and enough time for Jac-Irlo, Vic, and Will to all prove themselves with the world's best racers. Only time would tell the fortunes of Fornax Racing...

[Mattijana]

Mixed Debut for MRT

The Mattijana Racing Team had contrasting fortunes in their first ever race in the World Grand Prix Championship as Oliver Bachmann brought home the team's first points, but Alex Dimitrianov dropped from 4th to 11th after a puncture midway through the race.

Oliver Bachmann drove an impressive race to underline why he should have a place in the championship. He made a good launch at the start to get past the sluggish Sanerson and swept into 10th by going round the outside of the long turn 1 and therefore past Mateo Oket for 10th. He then benefitted from two incidents as both iBen Toralmintii and his teammate, Dimitrianov slipped backwards with Toralmintii forced to retire. He stayed clear of any competition and settled into a more conservative strategy after his first stop, having earlier planned an agressive tyre strategy. He earned 4 points for his efforts.

Dimitrianov on the other hand was having an interesting time at the sharp end of proceedings, running fourth for around a quarter of the race, he eventually succumbed to pressure from behind and slipped to fifth.
Disaster struck on lap 32 when, whilst trying to hold on to 5th, he was clipped on the entrance to turn 15 and got a right-rear puncture. Having run wide and spun at turn 16, he limped back to the pits for a new set of tyres. Dropping to the back of the field, he fought back up to 11th, but was unable to get close enough to Oket to take points.

Johann Struna was pleased with his team's performance after strong-looking qualifying and race pace following Dimitrianov's strong quali performance and Bachmann's race pace. He also hinted at the introduction of a new aero package in the practice session for the next race.