WGP2 Season III [Roleplay Thread]

[Auruna]

Akresna Circuit, International
Akresna, Auruna

Akresna Circuit is one of the most popular circuits in Auruna, it is also one of the Aurun Trinity Circuits which includes the Livonsk Circuit and Veratuna Circuit. Located in the hills of Akresna, it is a challenging circuit to both drivers and cars due to its altitude and terrain. It features a variety of corners, straights, and elevation changes. The circuit held races for Auruna's AtMA and Endurance series using different layouts of the circuit depending on series. For this WGP2 season, it was decided to use the International layout to see if the circuit is good enough to hold future races before changing back to using the more popular Endurance layout. There are talks about using the AtMA layout which uses the Akresna Tunnel but there are concerns about the safety in the open-wheeled series. This is the first time Auruna is hosting an international motorsport for decades. If the race is successful and proved to be popular, it may pave the way for Auruna hosting for the next season and potentially the next WGPC season.

Akresna starts off with the start/finish straight followed by a heavy braking zone to Turn 1, Valantov, then a fast Turn 2 that goes uphill. Turns 3 continues the uphill climb where Sector 2 starts at the exit of Turn 4. Sector 2, also called the "Hill Run", starts with a short straight to Turn 5 then followed by a slightly downhill straight then to a heavy braking zone to Turn 6 that goes back uphill to a kink, where an old bunker is next to, then Turn 7 which heads to the Akresna Sun section where most of the pictures of the track are taken, usually at sunset and during endurance races. At Turn 8, Politov, the Akresna Tunnel is located, it is unused in the international layout. What follows is a series of uphill-downhill corners ending with Turn 12, this is the most challenging part of the circuit where oversteer and understeer are prevalent and demands good throttle control by the drivers if they make a small mistake in this section, they will end up in the barriers. Still going downhill, a straight leads on to Turn 13, Veren Ukä, which starts Sector 3, the fastest sector. The fast corners and chicanes of Turns 15, 16, 17, and 18. Cars go though this section flat-out and at this area is where most of the grandstands are located. Drivers usually get caught out at Turns 17 and 18 where they can oversteer into the barriers and ending their race. A final heavy braking zone to the Turn 19, Kaulinta. Another fast straight followed by a fast Turn 20, Entenalla (Similar to Parabolica of Monza) that leads to the start/finish straight which then completes a lap.

Event Schedule, Akresna Circuit
Friday | Verjentäg
- WGP2 Race of the Hills, Practice | 1300-1415
- AtMA Akresna, FP1 | 1430-1530
- Schkeska Rallycross Akresna, Round 1 | 1530-1600
- AtMa Akresna, FP2 | 1530-1630
- AtMA Akresna, FP3 | 1700-1730

Saturday | Sälentäg
- AtMA Akresna, Q1 | 1300-1315
- WGP2 Race of the Hills, Q1 | 1400-1430
- WGP2 Race of the Hills, Q2 | 1445-1500
- Schkeska Rallycross Akresna, Round 2 | 1530-1600
- AtMA Akresna, Q2 | 1600-1620
- AtMA Akresna, Q3 | 1645-1700

Sunday | Suunnäntäg
- AtMA Akresna, Junior Sprint | 1300-1400
- WGP2 Race of the Hills, Race | 1400-1600
- Schkeska Rallycross Akresna, Round 3 | 1630-1700
- AtMA Akresna, Race | 1800-2000

[Diarcesia]

Akresna Circuit
Practice
Sara Luna had a slow pit stop and at the time her fastest lap was 16^th among the drivers. To her, it looked like the Adelphia car was having some reliability issues.

"Uhm, I think a big part of this is the way our engines react with the altitude", said Luna. The pit engineer radioed back, "Our engines are used to high altitude. When we hit low altitude, our engines adjust accordingly to keep pace. With a higher altitude approach, our engines become more dialed in. Here, the feedback loop starts to make more sense. Our cars can actually make more horsepower and torque here than in San Marco."

"Then it means the throttle response threw me off. When and how I apply it is very important."

"We'll have to see what we can do", said the engineer, "I'm just guessing."

With the additional knowledge in hand, Sara's next few laps would be of a much faster nature. One would think that her performance at Filindostan is a fluke, and even she believes it (notwithstanding the fact that she gained a lot of places in Nekoni). The course would be quite challenging. There are no easy days this weekend, if the weather forecasts are an indication. Moreover, the cars would have to make a wide variety of maneuvers in a short period of time.

Post-Practice Interview
Q: "What do you think of the upcoming race?"
A: "It'll be fast paced. I'm feeling much more comfortable here than at San Marco. Other teams will give a fierce fight. This could easily be one of the more challenging weekends of the season."

Q: "How does it feel, being called the 'Luna Wolf' these days?"
A: "Because Carmi is from Strayquestria, so I must come from the Wolflands?" *chuckles* "Next thing I know, they'll name me Horus Lupercal. It feels so random."

Q: "What do you hope to accomplish this season?"
A: "I just hope I don't fall behind the curve" *laughs slightly* "The season is still early. There are always surprises. Carmi and I are still working on our styles. This would be one of those races where it'll be tested. Let's see how well our prior experiences translate to the open-wheel arena. We saw what an impact supercar tunnelling can have. I'm sure we will have to work extremely hard to get to the front. It'll be an exciting season."

[595 + 402 words]

[Savojarna]

Akresna Circuit, Auruna, SVJ Racing pit shortly before race start

Like always shortly before a race, the SVJ pit was buzzing left and right with busy action. On the left side of the garage, Juri Sandrajev and Roman Arjenko were leaning on a wall discussing the strategy for the race while a team of engineers and technicians were fidgeting around on various parts of the car, adjusting last bits of the setup before the race. “Don’t worry about your qualifying time too much, Roman. We’re not setting this car up for a short lap, and you knew that. Your pace in practice was great, and we’re having no issues with the tyres whatsoever. Drive steadily and pick up some positions, if you come into the lower top 10 we’re already good. Don’t endanger anyone, Roman”, Juri said in a quick staccato. Roman nodded attentively. “Okay, Juri. No attacks, gotcha. I just don’t know what’s wrong with my qualifyings, okay?”, he responded, somewhere between energised for the race and downtrodden by his 15th grid place. The engineer shook his head. “I don’t know either, Roman. Maybe you want too much, maybe you just have a block. But now is not the moment for this, you have to focus on the race. I know you’re ambitious, but you can’t just stick with the past all the time”.

He patted Roman on the back and tapped the tablet in his hand. “Okay, strategy. Look, you’re fast, and you have great tyres. This is what we’ll try to use to our advantage. We’re giving you the harder ones today, and make sure the field doesn’t get too clumped up for when we stop. You’ll come in late, and push hard after the change for five laps. Not more unless I say so. You’ll have to listen to me, I’ll keep an eye on those who go for two stops. With most cars, our model says two stops will be faster, but you’ve conserved the tyres very well on Friday, so they should hold - keep it together and push only with my permission. We’re going for consistency here, so you’ll have quite little fuel reserves. Is that alright?”, he briefed his driver. Roman nodded. “Consistent driving, no pushing. Gotcha. I’ll manage my fuel, but you’ll have to guide me with that”, he said, focusing his attention on the race.

On the other side of the garage, the same busy action was going on, but Abdoulaye Goita sat on a chair as his engineer hastily tried to communicate not only strategy, but also put some confidence into the driver. The week before, Markko had tried to lighten the mood with a joke, but the driver didn’t seem to take it very well. Now, he had to do better. “Look, Abdoulaye, you drive well when you believe in yourself. Right now, things are tough. This isn’t our best track, Roman struggles as well. We’re gonna have our time in the second half of the season. But look, every point matters, and we know you’ve got some good racing in you. We signed you for a reason, and SVJ isn’t gonna drop you over a bad stretch. Get into that car and make us proud to have you with us, okay?”, he said. Markko internally cursed himself for what he had done in San Marco. The Finn had never been good at pep talks. But at least it looked like Abdoulaye had gotten a bit more positive, but maybe that was just Markko’s hope talking. He’d have to see.

As the cars left the garage to drive around the track and onto the grid, Krister Arlund was about to leave the pit wall. With all the telemetrics in place, it was now time to go to the grid and check on the men in charge of this operation. He invited the two race engineers to join him and the trio walked through a gap in the pit wall, approaching the grid. It forced them to stroll down along the higher parts of the grid, with a lot of team principals and engineers somewhat satisfiedly grinning at the SVJ team as they had to pass them. Krister knew that it wasn’t anything personal. Everyone enjoyed to see the leaders fall, and their places 15 and 17 were most definitely a fall. Next to the still empty lots 15 and 17, Drake Stevenson’s eight-wheeled Nexus whirred into position. Krister still didn’t quite get used to the view, and shook his head. “Doesn’t seem to help them much”, Markko remarked. “It’s Nexus. They’ll always come up with something”, Krister responsed as the SVJ-02 with the number 75 pulled up into 15th spot. Roman was here.

Krister approached his number one driver shortly before Abdoulaye followed into his slot. “Feeling well, Roman?”, he asked him through the visor, knowing Arjenko’s quirk of only leaving his car ahead of the race if it was required. Instead of a response, the Russian gave him a thumbs up sign. “Adelphia are going to attack us today. We should get at least five, six points to keep close to the top. If you can get Fire, go for it - we’ll want to leave here as leaders”, he said. “But honestly, just drive as good as you can. I give you my full trust”, Krister finished his little talk before strolling back to Abdoulaye Goita. Markko looked at his boss. “Ready? We’ll have to keep an eye on him. The man needs some confidence”, he said in his accented Savojarsk, making Krister chuckle. He turned to the driver, who was about to exit his car and wait for the start outside the car, and switched to English. “Abdoulaye, go out there and show them what you can do. You’ve won a race. Nobody can take that from you, okay? It means you can do it again. And even if you can’t, every place is valuable here. Go show us some good old racing!”, he tried to cheer up his driver.

Unsure if it worked, Krister walked up to #15 again and wished Roman good luck before returning to his place on the wall. Then, Juri left with a few last instructions. Then, the crew. The lights went on. Sunday, 14:00 - time for racing.

[Nekoni]

"Ninth! It's been a long time coming, but your car finally woke up today!" There was an audible smile from the pit crew today as Mika Neretti crossed the finish line for the last time at Akresna for today, after a solid session. Granted, it wasn't a perfect day (she had finished yesterday in third, yet another top five practice run resulting in a worse performance in qualifying itself), but still, for once Mika would be starting the race with fewer drivers in front of her than behind her. That's progress. Additionally, her teammate would be staring directly at her back on the start line. After two losses to her, that surely felt good.

The debrief felt, naturally, much more positive, as this was Mika's first chance to really get some points on the board after her last couple of races were strong yet ultimately fruitless performances. However, as the pit boss stated, this was the easy part. It would all be for nothing if Neretti didn't hit the start with absolute precision. After all, you can't really win a race from the start line...but you can lose one.

As for precision, this track was one that suited Mika's talent for technical mastery. Whilst the Nekoni round was fast and risky, and the Filindostan round was a much slower affair thanks to being a street circuit, Akresna was a mix of the two; one side of blisteringly-quick straight sections straight into tight turns, the other side full of difficult complexes. Both parts Mika liked, but combining them...secretly, this might have be her favourite circuit of the tour, although she wouldn't tell anybody at home that.

Tomorrow, she'd have a prime shot at kick-starting her season. With the first turn, the tight right of Valantov embedded in her mind, she set a strategy. In ninth, she'd be on the outside lane, the ideal one. The plan: go outside, out-brake the pack, then use that extra tarmac to see off as much of them as possible in one quick blast round the loop at Kolantalla. Nail the first lap, then see where it goes from there. The problem was, of course...what if everybody else did that too?

[Trans-Dniesters]

The dream was well and truly over. That much was clear to Vasily Gatutin. UrGa had a golden opportunity to clinch their first ever podium, their first ever 1-2 in WGP2 even, and they let it slip in unbelievable circumstances. The double stack was unbelievable, simply unbelievable. It was the signal for the team to shake things up. Lane Carter's efforts to learn Ukrainian were admirable, but situations like the double stack should never have happened, and it was therefore decided that a new crew fluent in English would be assigned to the driver fron TJUN-ia.

Now UrGa was unsure of how to interpret the data gathered at the Akresna Circuit in Auruna. Taras Matviyenko's setup had proven almost picture perfect right off the bat, and the Pridnestrovian driver tallied the fastest time in practice. Lane Carter didn't have the same luck, struggling with his own setup throughout the whole of practice and a good chunk of the qualifying session itself. But they were able to iron out the kinks eventually, and Carter was able to secure P8. Matviyenko himself settled in P5. It was quite the disappointment for UrGa after having led for almost the entirety of the race in Filindostan.

But it wasn't the end of the world just yet. Neither of UrGa's drivers could overtake to save their lives, but as the previous races had shown, one didn't always need to overtake in order to gain positions. Just one crash or incident in front and everyone else playing catch-up could indeed do just that.

The less said about William Archer's qualifying position, the better.

(891/1000 words total, not including these.)

[Vilita and Turori]

WGP2 Pick 'em - Round 2 Recap

Race #2 Leaderboard

1 [36] :: @garbage_time

2 [32] :: @RustyIbuna71

- [32] :: @Pigeon_87

4 [28] :: @supervtm

5 [27] :: @tropicaltulsi

Season Standings

1 [57] :: @RustyIbuna71

2 [55] :: @jaqeplanst

3 [54] :: @tropicaltulsi

4 [50] :: @garbage_time

5 [39] :: @VilayeBlood

Race number two of the World Grand Prix 2 Season Three calendar was won by Sara Luna of Adelphia VMR driving the #50 with Phoenician Tyres. It was the first Grand Prix race at the WGPC or WGP2 level not won by a car numbered 77 in 6 rounds. #77 Andoulaye Goita finished the race in 16th position for the SVJ Racing team. Luna is a Tier 3 driver on the WGP2 Pick 'em and rewarded participants who chose the #50 in a big way with the 25-point haul in Filindostan. It was all around a frustrating day for local brand Solymok Tyres who were bested on qualifying day by a trio of Tropicorp Sifaka affiliated teams and then had to watch as their driver Rod Gozum was beaten at the top of the podium by Luna, the Badai Angin - IGR #44 having to settle for second position on the day. All three podium positions were occupied by Tier 3 drivers with Olivia Stone in 4th place being the highest placed Tier 2 driver. It was a difficult day at the track for Tier 1 drivers as none would finish in the points. Drake Stevenson was out of contention after just two laps while their Nexus Racing teammate the Abovian Janne Laukkanen also failed to finish. Cocoabo #23 went off the course while trying to make a pass for the lead 9 laps into the race after having the door closed by UrGa Motorsports Lane Carter. The only Tier 1 driver to accrue any points on the day was Naval Corps racing driver Jama'obo Pegasii who had issues during the race that resulted in a finish of 17th, two laps down. However, late in the event with the support of Tropicorp Racing Supply, Pegasii pitted multiple times for fresh tyres and found the ideal combination allowing the Vilita & Turorian driver to secure the fastest lap bonus point.

There was even more heartbreak for the locals in the V&T Racer WGP2 Pick 'em competition where celebrity contestant and World Grand Prix driver Rusty Ibuna of Filindostan (@RustyIbuna71) was narrowly bested by fellow celebrity contestant Nikki Kater (@garbage_time) of Vilita who posted the highest individual score for Race #2 with 36 points. There was a consolation for Ibuna, however, as the Filindostani participant would come out of the round as the overall leader in the WGP2 Pick 'em Standings.

Users can still sign up for V&T Racers WGP2 Pick 'em Regular Season competition. For those users already signed up, changes can now be made to the submitted lineup at an increasing cost per change. Any change submitted to Vilita and Turori Racer will result in the deduction of points from that users total score as a cost for swapping one driver out for another in that same tier.

---

It was a difficult day at the track for Vilita and Turori Motorsports Tropicorp Engineering as both of their drivers failed to finish the event leaving the team mired in 9th in the WGP2 Constructors standings a full 40 points behind the current leaders, SVJ Racing. Cocoabo #23 had one of the fastest cars on the track at the San Marco Street Circuit but was forced off while trying to maneuver for the race lead early in the event. The #23 VTM Tropicorp Engineering machine went slightly off course and made contact with a turtle damaging the front suspension and forcing Cocoabo #23 to retire from the race. Fast Cocoabo's teammate Jolyn Helen Caulfield did not show the same speed throughout the race but was hanging just outside the Top 10 when mechanical issues forced the retirement of the #40 Tropicorp backed machine.

The circuit now moves on to the Akresna Circuit in Auruna which should drive very similarly to the San Marco Street Circuit which could be good news for both Cocoabo #23 and Jama'obo Pegasii who showed flashes of brilliance at the Filindostani circuit before having other issues take them out of contention for the points paying positions.

Many eyes back in Vilita and Turori will be focused on the performances of Cocoabo #23 who was once deemed the heir-apparent to one of the Vilita and Turori World Grand Prix super-licenses required to compete on the World Grand Prix Championship circuit. Cocoabo #23 was the runner-up in the point standings during WGP2 Season 1 and won two of the ten events during WGP2 Season two. However, a string of three DNF's over the final four events de-railed an otherwise exceptional season for the Cocoabo who had finished inside the points in all but one event that they were running at the end.

For Jama'obo Pegasii many are perhaps wondering why the Vilita and Turori driver left an SVJ Racing team that seemed to have found its form during the second half of World Grand Prix 2 Season two. Pegasii, driving the #37 for SVJ Racing, posted a runner up finish at the WGP2 Challenge of Esmerel and finished the season with four consecutive finishes inside the points. SVJ Racing has used that momentum along with its new team of Roman Arjenko and Abdoulaye Goita of Recuecen to jump out to the early lead in the WGP2 Season Two Constructors Standings. Pegasii has always been something of a slow starter however, likely due to the fact that the Vilaye Energy Drink backed driver has never competed with the same team for two consecutive seasons at any level of competition in any motorsport discipline. The constant need to re-adapt to a new team and a new car repeatedly puts the Vilita and Turori driver at a disadvantage to start a campaign though it could be said that things are going as smoothly as could be hoped with the Naval Corps racing team considering they worked through their issues in Filindostan to claim the Fastest Lap bonus point.

1. @jaqeplanst
2. @garbage_time

---

[Auruna]

Akresna Circuit, Auruna
Practice

Before sending both drivers out, Artur provided some tips and tricks about the circuit. His experience clearly helped both drivers and the team with their practice programme. Focused on getting the drivers to learn the circuit and gathering data about their race pace, they really don't mind the other teams out on track. The circuit is hard to get used to and as all drivers in the grid are driving here for the first time, once might expect chaos in the following sessions.

Qualifying

While other driver's are out to doing laps, Viska is taking a risk and going out late. Carefully monitoring the track activity end evolution, they will attempt to do their tow strategy for both drivers' laps. Olivia was out first, then followed by Baxen, the team hoped that the plan will work again.

And it did.

"Great work! P2! That lap was perfect." Hearing the over-excited Alexi on the radio was a first for Baxen. It was actually a surprise that the usually calm and quiet race engineer got this excited.

On the other side, things were a bit...different.

"It's alright Olivia. P10's a solid place, great work out there. Don't worry about it too much, let's keep up with them tomorrow."

It looks like that the tow helped Baxen more, but it doesn't matter now. The race is all that matters here, what happens there will have an effect. Viska is determined to get a podium here in front of the home crowd. If everything goes well for them.

[Filindostan]

San Marco Street Circuit
After the Qualifying Session

People flocked to the makeshift stage near the plaza for the sponsor's event after the qualifying session, as Puroll promised to raffle tickets to the NSSCRA Badai Angin 500 race that will be held in the Yoggy Oval, and either a potential trip for two to the Jakulta beach, or to a potential VIP pass to the WGPC Filindostan Grand Prix event here in San Marco. Personnel from the Rusty Ibuna's personal sponsor handed out freebies and fans to the spectators as part of their promotion.

At the paddock meanwhile, Fiona Sunarya was preparing for the second race of the WGP3 Filindostan series on the street circuit. She was forced to miss the first race as she flew to Xanneria to qualify for the race in their season opener, the Hastings 500, which she placed tenth. After this day, she'll fly back to Xanneria for the race itself. In addition to the one-off appearance, she will also do at most seven races in the NSSCRA calendar, as well as WGP3 Filindostan races, on top of her regular FISCAR schedule. She was already asked by her mentor, Hana Bhe, if she would be stressed with the heavy load of races this season, but as she was permitted to skip the San Marco race for the WGP3.FID seires, she told her best friend that she can manage her schedule. While preparing in the pit garage, she can clearly hear the sounds of the annoying hosts in the sponsor event. She would not mind them as she brings her car to the starting grid.

Once at the start/finish straight, she hears the hosts saying about their plans for the Yoggy Oval race:

"Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce the one who will race the #83 at Yoggy Oval, none other than our sponsored driver, BA's Rusty Ibuna!" As Rusty cannot make it in the event due to prior commitments, a video of him addressing his fans was played in the screen. Ibuna, wearing a Badai Angin casual gear, thanked his fans for supporting him last season and just said 'see you soon at the track' without any references to the driving series that he will run this season.

BA Timpen's crew immediately noticed the announcement, including Sunarya, and realized that the sponsors fucked up at their own event, as usually, Badai Angin is usually the first party to announce drivers, and Ibuna driving for the WGPC team is the multiverse's worst kept secret until now. The video just proved that the Filindostani had some sort of a contract with the racing team, but not only they blew the cover for Ibuna's WGPC status, but also confirmed the initial rumors that he will drive the #83 in Yoggy Oval. Fiona didn't entertain the queries by her team staff, and concentrated on the race at hand.

The next day, Badai Angin made an announcement that the deal with Puroll to run the #83 was put on the shelves and will terminate their contract to sponsor the NSSCRA teams at the end of the season. This meant that Ibuna will not race at Yoggy Oval this season. However, BA did not announce any replacement at the moment. They also used the same announcement to congratulate both Rod and Barney in their podium finishes.

---

Akresna Circuit
Akresna, Auruna
WGP2 Race of the Hills Qualifying

Rod continued his great form aboard the TT02 when the paddock hit the circuit at Akresna. Clocking 8th fastest yesterday at the practice session, the Filindostani seemed to had a good night sleep at their motorhome, taking pole position for the race after setting the fastest time in the dry qualifying session. His teammate, Dom Falepeau, finished qualifying in 6th place, capping Badai Angin-IGR's good day at the office.

It wasn't much a good day for Togoni team Kaylan, with Barney only setting the 7th fastest time, while his teammate Isaia Fanene languished at 20th fastest. Barney would be fuming once he knew who would be at the top of the qualifying standings. Results would mean that Rod might be ahead of the Gergarian for the third time this season, and that would destroy any remaining confidence the young driver has, if any, for the remainder of the season.

SVJ Racing, also on Solymok Tyres, would struggle in qualifying once again, with Roman Arjenko and Abdoulaye Goita placing 15th and 17th respectively.

[Aboveland]

Grand Prix of Nekoni
Race Day

Janne sits still on the grid, his fingers curling around his steering wheel. His vitals, closely monitored by Nexus through his more-than-a-racesuit, are nominal. For the first time in so long, he can't hear his own heartbeat or feel his temples pulsating with anxiety. Through his helmet, muffled but audible, is the rumble of the rather rudimentary US Navy contraption just ahead of him, and the idle purr of the SinVal machine behind. And yet, despite his traquillity, his face, sheltered behind a cobalt blue tinted visor, is all but content. Twelfth place in qualifying was far less than he'd hoped for with his teammate debuting on pole.

"Alright, we're starting P12," sounds through the pit radio, as he lets out a sigh, "but from what I've heard this car can really launch itself off the grid. Keep calm in the traffic but take advantage of your start and try squeezing past the car in front on the first corner. This track is tight but good for overtaking."

Janne nods at Antti's pep-briefing. "I know that," he replies, dryly, unable to shake his indifference. After a brief silence, Antti signs off with a "good luck, nulikka." That, at least, cracked a smile.

The lights counting down to the start might as well not have happened, as Janne is suddenly thrust back into his seat, the skin on his face pulling against his bones and into the back of his helmet, the eight-wheeled mega-machine he's latched into rocketing from 12th place. In an instant, Janne's reflexes tighten, his pupils wide and twitching, his gaze fixed on the car in front. The Chase Cutter whirrs as it barrels down the main straight, and winds down into the first turn in its characteristic pulsating blue glow. The Abovian lunges into turn one, forcing Pegassi wide, but sees himself forced to fall back before turn two. On lap three, a brief safety car period ensues, and by the time the race resumes, Janne realizes he's passed his teammate. He requests an extra allocation of Imagination to crack away from 12th place, and his request is granted.

Circuit Arnaud is a gorgeous track and a blast to race on, but by lap 7 he's only managed to hold his position under immense threat from William Archer behind in the Bitten Heroes machine. He'd tried making his move at turn 5, 10, and 12, and for a moment, Janne faltered and felt he'd let his position slip, but the track was slightly damp so that his Chase Cutter had the slightest of edges over his rival's conventional car. However, the ever-changing grip levels, and Janne's new found love for technical, tricky conditions, saw him rocket up six grid places by lap 12, standing within just 20 seconds of the lead.

On lap 14, as the overcast clouds rolled in over the circuit and the mist on his visor collected into drops, Antti radioed Janne to pit for wets in an ambitious call. Janne, eager to gain an advantage, complied. The strategic call was a success, and as soon as Janne exited the pits, another safety car period ensued, and the dark clouds turned black. With his fresh tyres and a newfound edge over the rest of the drivers in changebale conditions, Janne charged up the order in the final stretch of the GP to finish just behind the winner.

As he climbed onto the podium, apathetic Janne was no more. The last place he’d expected to be at the beginning of the weekend was on the winners’ balcony, and yet, somehow, he’d pulled it off. His 2020 title challenge was a go.

Akresna Circuit, Auruna

Janne floors the throttle out of turn 13 but his Chase Cutter lulls, whirring up as if it were unleashing its Imagination but with its electric blue glow turned faint. It sputters around turn 15, screeches its tyres down to turn 19, then goes quiet again before the final corner. He keeps quiet, finishes his lap, and comes back into the pits just shooting a look at Antti. Same story as the previous weekend, and though nothing is quite lost yet, he’s got another tall order for the race by no fault of his own.

[Former Citizens of the Nimbus System]

---

WEEK 4
Akresna Circuit, Auruna

---

Conditions:			Dry
Laps:				29
Event:				WGP2 Race of the Hills
Safety Car Deployed on Laps:	11, 12, 13, 14
Cars on Grid:			24

Start  		After 7 Laps  		After 14 Laps  		After 21 Laps
 1 ▍GOZ		 1 ▍JHC +0     		 1 ▍STO +0     		 1 ▍STO +0
 2 ▍AUR		 2 ▍MTV +3.004 		 2 ▍GOZ +7.333 		 2 ▍GTA +19.647
 3 ▍LNA		 3 ▍GOZ +11.121		 3 ▍MTV +8.8   		 3 ▍AUR +19.93
 4 ▍JHC		 4 ▍AUR +23.617		 4 ▍JHC +10.266		 4 ▍FAN +28.755
 5 ▍MTV		 5 ▍STO +24.966		 5 ▍AUR +11.733		 5 ▍WES +31.955
 6 ▍FAL		 6 ▍LNA +32.167		 6 ▍C23 +13.2  		 6 ▍CRT +40.512
 7 ▍MAT		 7 ▍C23 +35.26 		 7 ▍FAL +14.666		 7 ▍C23 +40.897
 8 ▍CRT		 8 ▍CRT +48.531		 8 ▍FIR +16.133		 8 ▍LNA +42.313
 9 ▍NER		 9 ▍FIR +59.544		 9 ▍CRT +17.6  		 9 ▍FAL +42.731
10 ▍STO		10 ▍FAL +64.657		10 ▍LNA +19.066		10 ▍MAT +43.328
11 ▍LGM		11 ▍MAT +64.711		11 ▍MAT +20.533		11 ▍FIR +45.409
12 ▍C23		12 ▍NER +74.694		12 ▍WES +22    		12 ▍MTV +53.83
13 ▍FIR		13 ▍LYN +79.36 		13 ▍GTA +23.466		13 ▍NER +66.789
14 ▍AKS		14 ▍GTA +80.504		14 ▍ARJ +24.933		14 ▍GOZ +69.677
15 ▍ARJ		15 ▍LGM +84.747		15 ▍LGM +26.4  		15 ▍ARJ +72.346
16 ▍STE		16 ▍WES +93.318		16 ▍LYN +27.866		16 ▍LGM +78.233
17 ▍GTA		17 ▍ARJ +96.262		17 ▍NER +29.333		17 ▍LYN +82.591
18 ▍LYN		18 ▍FAN +111.188		18 ▍FAN +30.8  		18 ▍JHC +89.319
19 ▍BAK		19 ▍BAK +Laps: 1		19 ▍BAK +Laps: 1		19 ▍STE +Laps: 1
20 ▍FAN		20 ▍STE +Laps: 1		20 ▍STE +Laps: 1		20 ▍BAK +Laps: 1
21 ▍PEG		21 ▍ARC +Laps: 1		21 ▍LAU +Laps: 1		21 ▍LAU +Laps: 1
22 ▍ARC		22 ▍PEG +Laps: 1 	                                        	
23 ▍WES		23 ▍LAU +Laps: 1 	                                        	
24 ▍LAU

Pos  # DRV Name				Team				Time		Pts
  1  3 STO Olivia Stone			▍Schkeska-VSK Viska Racing	01:15:22.049	25
  2 77 GTA Abdoulaye Goita		▍SVJ Racing			00:00:27.216	18
  3  7 WES Lourdina Westgrens		▍Bitten Heroes Academy		00:00:37.510	14
  4 72 MAT Barnabas Mate		▍Kaylan Racing Team		00:00:50.395	10	Fastest Lap Bonus Point! (2:05:739)
  5 18 FAN Isaia Fanene			▍Kaylan Racing Team		00:00:57.798	8
  6 85 AUR Baxen Aurora			▍Schkeska-VSK Viska Racing	00:01:02.665	6
  7 50 LNA Sara Luna			▍Adelphia-VMR			00:01:05.423	4
  8 19 FAL Dom Falepeau			▍Badai Angin-IGR  		00:01:06.584	3
  9 73 LGM Lorcan Greanaya-Matthewson	▍Polestar Racing  		00:01:08.449	2
 10 75 ARJ Roman Arjenko		▍SVJ Racing			00:01:35.704	1
 11 33 LYN Laurencia Lynds		▍SinVal Racing			00:01:39.831
 12 11 CRT Lane Carter			▍UrGa Motorsports Division	00:01:46.436
 13 69 FIR Carmichael Fire		▍Adelphia-VMR			00:01:50.647
 14 23 C23 Cocoabo #23			▍VTM Tropicorp Engineering	00:01:53.585
 15 49 NER Mika Neretti			▍Polestar Racing  		00:01:57.761
 16 44 GOZ Rod Gozum			▍Badai Angin-IGR  		00:02:08.467
 17 40 JHC Jolyn Caulfield		▍VTM Tropicorp Engineering	00:02:16.159
 18 21 MTV Taras Matviyenko		▍UrGa Motorsports Division	00:02:25.140
 19 97 BAK Edward Baker			▍SinVal Racing			Laps Down: 1
 20 81 STE Drake Stevenson		▍Nexus Racing			Laps Down: 1
 21 17 LAU Janne Laukkanen		▍Nexus Racing			Laps Down: 1
DNF 37 PEG Jama'obo Pegasii		▍US Navy  			Ret. lap 10
DNF  8 ARC William Archer		▍Bitten Heroes Academy		Ret. lap 8
DNF 76 AKS Adriana Kowalski		▍US Navy  			Ret. lap 1

---

Pos # DRV Name				 Team                          Tyres           Pts
 1 77 GTA Abdoulaye Goita                SVJ Racing                    Solymok         43
 2  3 STO Olivia Stone                   Schkeska-VSK Viska Racing     In Motion       38
 3 50 LNA Sara Luna                      Adelphia-VMR                  Phoenician      29
 4 72 MAT Barnabas Mate                  Kaylan Racing Team            Solymok         25
 5 75 ARJ Roman Arjenko                  SVJ Racing                    Solymok         23
 6  7 WES Lourdina Westgrens             Bitten Heroes Academy         Stellenbosch    18
 6 17 LAU Janne Laukkanen                Nexus Racing                  In Motion       18
 6 44 GOZ Rod Gozum                      Badai Angin-IGR               Solymok         18
 9 37 PEG Jama'obo Pegasii               US Navy                       Tropicorp       11
10 97 BAK Edward Baker                   SinVal Racing                 Tropicorp       10
11 18 FAN Isaia Fanene                   Kaylan Racing Team            Solymok         8
12 73 LGM Lorcan Greanaya-Matthewson     Polestar Racing               Cypress G2      7
13 23 C23 Cocoabo #23                    VTM Tropicorp Engineering     Tropicorp       6
13 76 AKS Adriana Kowalski               US Navy                       Tropicorp       6
13 85 AUR Baxen Aurora                   Schkeska-VSK Viska Racing     In Motion       6
16 11 CRT Lane Carter                    UrGa Motorsports Division     Tropicorp       3
16 19 FAL Dom Falepeau                   Badai Angin-IGR               Solymok         3
17 69 FIR Carmichael Fire                Adelphia-VMR                  Phoenician      2
19 21 MTV Taras Matviyenko               UrGa Motorsports Division     Tropicorp       1
19 40 JHC Jolyn Caulfield                VTM Tropicorp Engineering     Tropicorp       1
21  8 ARC William Archer                 Bitten Heroes Academy         Stellenbosch    0
21 49 NER Mika Neretti                   Polestar Racing               Cypress G2      0
21 81 STE Drake Stevenson                Nexus Racing                  In Motion       0
21 33 LYN Laurencia Lynds                SinVal Racing                 Tropicorp       0

Pos NAT Team				Tyres          Pts
  1 SVJ ▍SVJ Racing			Solymok        66
  2 AUR ▍Schkeska-VSK Viska Racing	In Motion      44
  3 STW ▍Adelphia-VMR			Phoenician     33
  4 TGN ▍Kaylan Racing Team		Solymok        31
  5 FID ▍Badai Angin-IGR  		Solymok        21
  6 LIS ▍Bitten Heroes Academy		Stellenbosch   18
  7 NIM ▍Nexus Racing			In Motion      18
  8 SHW ▍US Navy  			Tropicorp      17
  9 EFL ▍SinVal Racing			Tropicorp      10
 10 V&T ▍VTM Tropicorp Engineering	Tropicorp      7
 11 NEK ▍Polestar Racing  		Cypress G2     7
 12 PDN ▍UrGa Motorsports Division	Tropicorp      4

[Recuecn]

Before Qualifying

Abdoulaye was once again leaning on the wall separating the pit lane from the main straight. It had become something of a ritual for him before getting in the car. At some point he’d find a moment to slip out of all the bustle and commotion in the SVJ Racing Garage as the car setups were triple-checked to come lean his elbows on the dividing wall—preferably with a hot drink. There wasn’t ever anywhere on a racetrack that could be considered quiet, but the open space of the straightaway and the murmur of the crowd provided something of a meditative aid. Not the “clear-your-mind” sort of meditation, but the “focus-your-thoughts” kind, which was very helpful before a drive.

Markko had caught on to Abdoulaye’s new habit, and when Abdoulaye made it clear to his engineer that his presence was not bothersome, the latter would join sometimes and the two would go over their race strategy together again by themselves. For Markko in particular it seemed that just verbalizing plans helped him to process them, as if for his brain to hear his thoughts he had to say them out loud. Abdoulaye wasn’t the same way, but going over things with his engineer an extra time without the distraction of the garage or pressure of the team principal looming over his shoulder was always helpful.

Then, sometimes, there were surprises.

“Abs!”

Abdoulaye turned around, his surprise already showing on his face.

“Malick!?’

“In the flesh! I told you I’d be at one of your races sooner or later. I figured the sooner the better!”

The brothers pulled each other into a firm hug. “How’d you get in here?” asked Abdoulaye.

“I got some of your teammates to help me pull off this surprise. But I don’t think I’ve met this one—”

“I’m Markko.”

Abdoulaye took a more formal introduction upon himself as the other two shook hands. “Malick, this is Markko Poutiainen, my race engineer. He basically drives the car from the garage with me as his remote control. I’m just the butt in the seat. Markko, this is my brother, Malick.”

“Nice to meet you,” said Markko.

“Nice to meet you too,” said Malick. “So, how are things for the team?”

“Pretty good so far,” said Abdoulaye. “Papa told you I won the first one right?”

Malick slapped Abdoulaye’s back. “That’s pretty good.”

“Yeah. The team’s leading the constructors’ standings right now, too. I haven’t had many interviews from Reçueçn yet though. What do they make of it over there?”

“I hate to tell you, Abs, nobody back home really follows WGPC, let alone WGP2.”

“You call him Abs?” asked Markko.

[Togonistan]

Akresna Circuit, Auruna
Race

Lights out and off they went! Kaylan team had, once again, went with the one-stop strategy that had proven them success in the last race. Tanielu kept a close eye on the monitors, race mechanics were constantly communicating with the drivers and Jared, who had spent the week with the pit crew practising their stops, cracked open another can of ZX-Flow Energy Drink. Tanielu looked at him with a hint of disgust on his face.

''How can you keep pouring this trash down your throat?''

''Hey, it tastes heavenly! Besides, I need a little pick-me-up. Gotta go with the flow, you know!'' Jared smirked and took a sip from the can.

Tanielu sighed and let it go, focusing on the race again. It started to seem like their strategy might be failing. Barnabas was struggling with the hard tyres, dropping like a stone from P7 to P11. Isaia, on the other hand, had indeed gained a few places, but was still at the back of the grid. The team was already discussing about changing their strategy, when Pegasii's retirement brought a safety car out. Someone hinted that they should use the opportunity to pit for a faster compound, but Tanielu shook his head: ''We stay out, keep conserving.''

It took until lap 16, when Fanene was asked to pit. With a fresh set of softs under the car, the Togoni driver turned up his engine mode and started pushing. The following laps saw him rising all the way from P18 to P4, as the V10 engined roared while he took over one driver after another. At lap 23, the team brought Barnabas to the pits as well, giving a fresh set of tyres to the Gergarian as well.

''I've been stuck behind Aurora for a few laps now. He leaves very little room and my tyres are quite worn, I don't think I can push much anymore.''

That was Fanene, speaking through the team radio. Meanwhile, Mate, had managed to climb behind his teammate. Tanielu looked at the monitors and thought for a moment. Fanene was on worn tyres and had depleted most of his battery. Mate, on the other hand, had enough left to push. Tanielu had watched Viska cars towing each other during the qualification, which gave him an idea. He spoke into his headset:

''Isaia, it's Tanielu. Barnabas is behind you and has enough power left. We need you to slingshot him past Aurora. Hook yourself up behind Baxen and let's give Viska a taste of their own medicine.''

''Understood.''

As the cars approached the next straight, Fanene and Mate formed a train behind Aurora. Approaching the Entenalla, Barnabas dived out from behind Fanene and drove next to Aurora, with Fanene shortly after following the same route, leaving no room for the Nimbian to take any defensive maneuvers.

''Incredible! That was some high class teamwork right there!'' Tanielu said as the two Kaylans had got themselves ahead of Viska's car. With only a few laps left, both Kaylans managed to stand their ground and cross the finish line 4th and 5th. The team started applauding in the pits and celebrated another great finish. Tanielu congratulated both of his drivers via team radio:

''Great work you two, fantastic weekend and some supreme driving from both of you. I'll see you in the pits.''

''Hey, someone tell Barnie that he owes me a beer for this one,'' Fanene laughed. A fraction of him was disappointed for having to finish behind his teammate, but he was neverthless happy for the result and understood it had been for the best at that moment.

[Somehow Related to Rarity]

Before the Race

---

I knew this race wasn’t gonna go right. My practice and qualifying reflected on that. While my qualifying gave me more hope than practice, I knew I was not gonna do as well.
Meanwhile, Sara almost landed on the front row. 3rd place was very commendable, especially for a second driver. Meanwhile I was here, languishing in 13th. Knowing nothing would come out of this, all I wanted to do was to complete the race...

The first half of the race was actually better than expected. I had climbed up 4 places and by lap 7 I was 9th place. Another 7 laps passed and I had overtaken Sara. This was better than expected, but then again I probably would screw up.
Which was exactly what happened. Fast forward to lap 22, and I was 11th. I was so desperate to gain some points I didn’t notice the traffic behind me.
After the race I was 13th. Back to square one. I knew this would happen.
After the team debrief I stormed back to the caravan thingy and slept. I needed to clear my mind.

[Valentine Z]

Jolyn and Adriana – Week 3 – Qualifications and Actual Race @ San Marco Street Circuit, Filindostan

JHC: 13 / 16 / 14 / DF / DF (Standings)
AKS: 09 / 07 / 07 / 05 / 06 (Standings)

Jolyn is NOT having it.

"Ever wonder why I am here, Adriana?" Jolyn said to her partner wearily. Maybe they are on a different team, but they are still as close as they can ever be. For anything else, she would just pour it out on her.

"These road courses... Sometimes, I don't even know why I bother. It was less of me winning, but this has been yet another disappointing DNF."

"Well, I mean..." Adriana started but trailing off slightly, making sure that she chose the right amount and right type of words, "Today is a hot day after all. I still think that it is the weather, you know?"

"Yeah, you're perhaps right on that. But I don't know how much I can take. I got that turn going on, but noooo, Jolyn. You took it too far and hit the curve."

"Didn't your other partner crash though? And they seemed to have DNFed way earlier than you. I mean, it's a part and parcel to me, I feel."

"Sure, you can talk about it like that. But it... I don't know, Adriana. I don't want to let them down. I'm sure they were confident about my performance thanks to my debut in NSSCRA 8. I feel, damn, I need to do better..."

Adriana simply held Jolyn's hands, along with holding her by the shoulder. She simply let out a small and genuine smile.

"It's gonna be okay."

(240 words)

[Valentine Z]

Jolyn and Adriana – Week 4 – Qualifications and Actual Race @ Akresna Circuit, Auruna

JHC: 04 / 01 / 04 / 18 / 17 (Standings)
AKS: 14 / DF / DF / DF / DF (Standings)

As promised and told by Adriana, Jolyn would do well for the next race. She remembered how her friend would cheer her up every time something happened to her. She remembered that night when she watched with her static but well-meaning and heartful robot eyes. Adriana is, and always will be, her friend. And today, Adriana needs her support.

Jolyn did supposedly well, she thought to herself. Her qualifications and practice runs paid off, placing her 4th initially, and eventually 17th. While not exactly a good number, she didn't DNF this time, and that's all it matters.

Same couldn't be unfortunately said for Adriana.

Back after the race, Jolyn just had her lunch and made her way back to the lounging. She saw her friend sitting down and slumping a little on the bed, looking down on some corner. For someone second only to Clarissa in terms of happiness, it was concerning to see her that way.

"Adriana? Is everything okay?"

She was by no means deluded, enraged, or anything else of that sort. Rather, Adriana was focused.

"Ohh, hi Jolyn! I'm... I'm just playing the race we had today. 1st lap DNF. I cannot believe it myself! What went wrong, what went wrong...."

She kept looking though every single variables - Speed, suspension system and biases, fuel leakages... So far, all the data she got from her car - 5 TB worth of raw data just from the first lap, didn't seem to have any anomaly at first. She kept digging on and onto her own file system and she realised something.

"TURN BIAS: ERR. FALLBACK TO PREVIOUS RACE."

Adriana blushed from the dumb error that she got; her data simply overlapped! When the track analysis in her head failed, instead of letting her neural mind take over, the computer simply replaced it with the track data from the previous race. This in turn resulted in overturning, a crash, and the rest is history.

"Well, this is very very embarrassing, Jolyn," sitting on her bed, she looked up to her friend with a blush, "Mistakes happen but... Wow."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Adriana," she sat down beside her, patting her on the back, "Hey, don't sweat it. There are also other races ahead!"

Adriana's face lit up with her brand happiness yet again.

"Now... Let's go get some ice-cream!"

"Hm hm, sounds good!" Her face filled with much enthusiasm.

They went off to a local ice-cream parlor and had their just desserts. Jolyn went for the plain yam and vanilla flavor mix with rainbow sprinkles on the top, while Adriana went for banana-split sundae. Much like with most Valentian synthetic bodies and robots, Adriana does not need to eat if she does not want to; they have other means of powering their bodies. Still, delicious food is glorious food for the Valentians and thus they have managed to utilize a small degree of mass-energy conversion methods in order to convert that food into energy. The flavor and the smells, additionally, are also picked by the synthetic nose and taste buds, and perhaps even much more precise than humans and animals thanks to the spectrometers implemented.

"Delicious!" Adriana exclaimed and squealed with excitement. The prospect of a 11-feet tall robot eating a sundae is certainly humorous for the people around them, but Jolyn and Adriana are certainly taking in the scenery and the admiration that they possibly get from the others around. They are certainly very proud of who they are, through ups and downs."Hm hm, sounds good!" Her face filled with much enthusiasm.

(595 words)

[TJUN-ia]

The race was...interesting to say the least.

With 8 laps to go, Lane Carter was in P6, the head of a long train. What followed was pain as he fell from those heights to P12. No points for him today.

Next up, The Esmerelian Challenger's Prize at the Raleigh Hill Circuit in Esmerel. Hopefully some better luck.

[Diarcesia]

I could see why drivers might have a hard time getting back on track after a big week.

The Race
After about lap 8, I started to see the effects of the early race strategy. The car was dialed in with aggression. The exhaust note was still deep and very aggressive. It was a blast to drive. The mode dials seemed to constantly switch between Soft and Fast. It was extremely well balanced, with the right setting giving me the best setup for the first few laps.

A few laps later
The car was making quite a bit of power, but it was much more than I remembered (Our cars can actually make more horsepower and torque here than in San Marco, what I was told during practice reminded me why). At this point in the season, this kind of power is not a guarantee. It was an immediate threat to my driving style.

It's starting to get exhausting. The car's throttle gave me more oomph than what I really need in the hilly part of the circuit. The tires were slightly supple, and didn't last as long as I wanted.

I was forced to stop to get these changed to a firmer compound. Bad timing, for a clump of drivers passed me. It's not worth the risk of overtaking them all.

In the Team Room
"Oh, you strongling", Silver Chariot, the main pit engineer I'm paired with, said to me, "don't take the debriefing too seriously."

"It's not about the result, ma'am", she reminded me. "This is a marathon, not a sprint. If you think about it, the biggest strength that makes a difference between a strong team and a merely good one is consistency. So if we have the exact same driver for two weeks, why not call it a win or a draw? Well the team from the day one of the season did that and more. So stick to your game plan and do what has to be done to move into the lead. But be consistent."

I stared blankly across the table for a few seconds, then nodded and turned to Chariot, "I know you mean well. This is a marathon, after all." My next words came out stiffer before I'm able to rein them. "And if you can't keep your lead together, things can quickly get ugly."

Consistency indeed. For the first time in a long time, I actually felt like a contender, despite losing my starting position early on and never regaining it since. At least I never went behind the top 10 in a single moment.

I can tell that Carmi's having trouble keeping his calm, with him running 17^th in qualifying and 13^th in the race. It's like he was waiting for the debriefing to end. After a summary of what was discussed and what needs to be changed next week, he left the table and hurriedly went for his room. "Carmi..." I said with a tinge of concern, hoping that he'll turn back and talk to me.

He did neither of those things.

[513 words]

[Auruna]

Akresna Circuit, Auruna
Race

"It's lights out and away we go!"

The race started with action immediately into Valantov. Brave dives can be witnessed as the drivers try to gain positions early on. The crowd cheers can be heard but the fun had just begun. There was a retirement at the first lap, the circuit's difficulty shows but the race goes on. It looks like VIska has the advantage here with more track data, so they are prepared, and they're also taking huge risks.

Next retirement at the 8th lap, no safety car yet. A safety car is now expected

Lap 11

The first safety car's out, Viska gets their free pit, but for both drivers. Since they are running almost a second off each other and the teams wants both to pit, it's time for a double stack.

Just about a second behind, just after Kaulinta. "Olivia, could you slow down for about three seconds? Jöna called for a double-stack for this free pit before the queue is up." Erik asks Olivia. She slowed down just before Entenalla by almost four seconds. "This is great, box now. Thanks."

Baxen is at the Viska pit first. The mechanics quickly change the tires and send out Baxen just in time to prepare Olivia's tires before she's at the Viska pit. The double stack is successful, the two drivers now catch up to the safety car queue with fresher tires. There are ready to pounce on restart.

Lap 14

The safety car finally returns to the pits after what seems like forever. At restart, the two Viska drivers dive at Valantov, gaining a few places before continuing to gain more at the uphill Kolantalla. Viska's now ahead.

At turns 17-18, mistakes were made. Baxen managed to spin just at turn 18, nearly ending up at the walls but he managed to recover, only lost a few places. He can take those places again in the next few laps.

Lap 19

Baxen is now at P3, now batlling with SVJ's Abdoulaye Goita for P2 but he couldn't get past. Meanwhile, just 18-seconds ahead, Olivia just keeps increasing the gap. It seems like no one can catch up.

Lap 22

Baxen's pace suddenly went down, he dropped from P3 to P4. Then a few laps later, he was overtaken by the two Kaylans.

"Baxen, please try to hold on to your current position. Try to finish P6, fend off any overtaking attempts, good luck."

Just a few words from Alexi might help him stay within the points.

Chequered Flag

Olivia finishes P1, a win for Viska. Everyone in the garage and pit wall are celebrating their first win. Cheers from the grandstands can be heard. Winning in front of their home crowd, in their home race. This day will be remembered by the team.

"Great work out there Olivia! P1! P1! Wonderful! The team's celebrating in the garage. Laughs. Ahh... enjoy your first win!"

Jöna couldn't believe it, they won at their home race.

Meanwhile, at P6. "That was a great one Baxen. You finished P6, in the points. You did great here."

This is a great day for the team and drivers. Olivia is now second in the drivers' championship standings and Viska is second in the constructors and Baxen earning his first points in the season. Everyone hopes to continue this great performance in future races, there's no turning back now.

[Former Citizens of the Nimbus System]

---

WEEK 5
Raleigh Hill Circuit, Esmerel

---

Conditions:		Dry
Predicted Optimal Time:	00:01:23.100
Session Length:		75 minutes

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

POS #   DRIVER                                  FASTEST LAP     GAP TO LEADER		
 1 76 ▍Adriana Kowalski                      	00:01:27.331	00:00:00.000
 2 49 ▍Mika Neretti                          	00:01:27.351	00:00:00.020
 3 44 ▍Rod Gozum                             	00:01:27.364	00:00:00.033
 4 69 ▍Carmichael Fire                       	00:01:27.373	00:00:00.042
 5 19 ▍Dom Falepeau                          	00:01:27.404	00:00:00.073
 6 37 ▍Jama'obo Pegasii                      	00:01:27.439	00:00:00.108
 7 75 ▍Roman Arjenko                         	00:01:27.440	00:00:00.109
 8 11 ▍Lane Carter                           	00:01:27.442	00:00:00.111
 9  3 ▍Olivia Stone                          	00:01:27.510	00:00:00.179
10 72 ▍Barnabas Mate                         	00:01:27.575	00:00:00.244
11 21 ▍Taras Matviyenko                      	00:01:27.655	00:00:00.324
12 18 ▍Isaia Fanene                          	00:01:27.700	00:00:00.369
13 81 ▍Drake Stevenson                       	00:01:27.783	00:00:00.452
14 17 ▍Janne Laukkanen                       	00:01:27.794	00:00:00.463
15 85 ▍Baxen Aurora                          	00:01:28.072	00:00:00.741
16 97 ▍Edward Baker                          	00:01:28.079	00:00:00.748
17 33 ▍Laurencia Lynds                       	00:01:28.087	00:00:00.756
18 73 ▍Lorcan Greanaya-Matthewson            	00:01:28.799	00:00:01.468
19 23 ▍Cocoabo #23                           	00:01:29.035	00:00:01.704
20 77 ▍Abdoulaye Goita                       	00:01:29.147	00:00:01.815
21  7 ▍Lourdina Westgrens                    	00:01:29.200	00:00:01.869
22 50 ▍Sara Luna                             	00:01:30.470	00:00:03.139
23  8 ▍William Archer                        	00:01:30.983	00:00:03.652
24 40 ▍Jolyn Caulfield                       	00:01:32.481	00:00:05.150

---

Conditions:		Dry
Predicted Optimal Time:	00:01:23.100
Qualifying Type:	Traditional

POS #   DRIVER                                  FASTEST LAP     GAP TO LEADER		
 1 76 ▍Adriana Kowalski                      	00:01:23.143	00:00:00.000
 2 17 ▍Janne Laukkanen                       	00:01:23.203	00:00:00.060
 3 49 ▍Mika Neretti                          	00:01:23.273	00:00:00.131
 4 75 ▍Roman Arjenko                         	00:01:23.304	00:00:00.161
 5 11 ▍Lane Carter                           	00:01:23.425	00:00:00.282
 6 73 ▍Lorcan Greanaya-Matthewson            	00:01:23.471	00:00:00.329
 7 69 ▍Carmichael Fire                       	00:01:23.529	00:00:00.386
 8 33 ▍Laurencia Lynds                       	00:01:23.545	00:00:00.402
 9 44 ▍Rod Gozum                             	00:01:23.569	00:00:00.427
10 50 ▍Sara Luna                             	00:01:23.630	00:00:00.487
11 77 ▍Abdoulaye Goita                       	00:01:23.743	00:00:00.600
12  8 ▍William Archer                        	00:01:23.854	00:00:00.711
13 85 ▍Baxen Aurora                          	00:01:23.856	00:00:00.713
14 19 ▍Dom Falepeau                          	00:01:24.008	00:00:00.865
15 18 ▍Isaia Fanene                          	00:01:24.096	00:00:00.954
16 72 ▍Barnabas Mate                         	00:01:24.286	00:00:01.143
17 23 ▍Cocoabo #23                           	00:01:24.356	00:00:01.213
18 40 ▍Jolyn Caulfield                       	00:01:24.361	00:00:01.219
19  7 ▍Lourdina Westgrens                    	00:01:24.477	00:00:01.335
20 21 ▍Taras Matviyenko                      	00:01:24.564	00:00:01.422
21 97 ▍Edward Baker                          	00:01:24.938	00:00:01.796
22 81 ▍Drake Stevenson                       	00:01:26.001	00:00:02.859
23 37 ▍Jama'obo Pegasii                      	00:01:30.303	00:00:07.160
24  3 ▍Olivia Stone                          	00:01:30.374	00:00:07.231

[Recuecn]

Abdoulaye knew he couldn’t complain as he tailed the safety car, driving back and forth in tight zig-zags to keep the solymoks warm. The safety car was obviously there for his own—well, safety. But after four laps it began to feel a little ridiculous. What sort of problem could possibly be taking them so long to clean up? This wasn’t racing. It was more like follow the leader.

Abdoulaye could see the cars in front of him—more than a dozen. This felt like San Marco all over again: stuck at the back of the field and with no way to advance. The race was about half over, so if he wanted to make any big plays, he had to move soon. Yet here he was trapped at the back of the safety car line-up. This was two races now that he’d started with awful qualifying times, and the first time he’d had hope that he could fight his way up through the pack on the challenging corners of the San Marco street circuit. But after accomplishing exactly nothing last race, he had no expectations here whatsoever. Sure, he’d gained four places, but one of those was teammate, and another was Pegasii, whose retirement had brought out this safety car.

Abdoulaye did have a couple things going for him. What assets do we have? he thought to himself, as if he was Westley in The Princess Bride about to storm the castle. I guess fortunately this ridiculously long safety car let me pit for fresh tires, and I do have Roman right behind me to hold off attacks and let me focus my attention forward… but that’s not much.

The electric flags flashed from yellow to green. Way down the track, thirteen cars ahead of him, Abdoulaye say the safety car pull off to the side. Instantly, the train of thought was put aside as he floored the accelerator, and pulled around Lourdina Westgrens, who’d been in front of him.

Abdoulaye began to pass car after car. It was almost ridiculous. It was as if he was driving past parked cars. The SVJ-2’s start mode was helping, and he could feel the extra torque and acceleration from the electric motor helping two. That’s two things I forgot, I guess. The Solymoks, the best tire on the grid so far this season, pushed him forward, and his attacking skill did the rest. Ok, that’s four things… He finished the quote from The Princess Bride: Well why didn’t you list that among our assets in the first place?

His success surprised even him. In no more than two or three laps, he had made up twelve positions. “P2,” he heard Markko saying over the radio, and he couldn’t believe his ears. “Only Stone’s in front of you.” It was hard, after fourteen laps of stagnation followed by three of unbridled aggression, to once more not be able to pass anymore. But try as he might, Abdoulaye was entirely unable to pass the Nimban driver at any time over the last twelve laps. The pair fought it out for a long time, but eventually Stone managed to put some distance between them, and the finished in that order, followed by Westgrens, the only driver whose ascension through the grid had been even more meteoric than Abdoulaye’s.

Finishing second would always be hard, especially when Abdoulaye had had so many laps to fight for first. Standing on the podium as Stone celebrated, he felt, as they say, like the first loser. But afterwards, back in the paddock, he found himself smiling to himself, proud of what he’d accomplished. He’d been able to do this week what he hadn’t in San Marco. Now he just needed to finally do well in qualifying...

[Diarcesia]

From: sara.luna@pilarmanesi.dc
To: tom.bennett@pilarmanesi.dc

Thank you so much for the support in the new season. I am really excited about the prospect of seeing you. I've been itching to get my feet into the pedal in the next races. I've been looking at the pics of Zac and Violet you sent to me. I know the two of them have a lot in common. They both went through quite a crisis together, but they are fighters.

So I heard Violet's time at school will be even more interesting. You've been watching her, on and off, just to stay in the know. She has a competitive edge, and always wants to bring success to her school team. I think she took it from you, having expressed similar sentiments, though with a different way to put it.

In the time since we last spoke, I've seen the results of your interest in politics. You may remember we discussed a bit about the potential Taplonianese invasion of the Dyrrhonian Isles, and that Diarcesian soldiers were deployed there to defend it. I was not fully available to have a more thorough conversation, as I was busy that week's race. I'm doing some research on that in my spare time, however. What I found was educational.

Love you always.

Sincerely,
Sara

Phoenician Tires HQ
Week Five, Post-qualifying
"We're now starting to identify common patterns, being three races and four qualifying sessions into the season. The signs are encouraging. We supply our products to a single WGP2 team, and I am proud to say that so far, we are not letting them down."

"So let's look at the qualifying sessions of two other teams, one from Savojarna and one from the USS Monitor. We saw what SVJ did with Goita from the Auruna race last week, and how they used the same strategy with the Solymok products today. Now, the US Navy went the opposite direction with maximizing track performance and doing frequent set replacements. What do you think?"

"It's initially more difficult to field products for a higher-tier team initially, as opposed to the present. Unlike then, there are currently more data points, and Adelphia's engineers are more familiar with the ins-and-outs of the car's behavior with our tires. Also, the popularity of the app we provided has enabled them to run important simulations. It's more of an out of the box thinking, though, since the drive to give the best all-around performance from the tire manufacturers is just as cutthroat. The teams with the best chance of running well this season will be those with the most balanced mix of performance and longevity with respect to the cars. The seeds have been sown though, and those seeds will be taken to the next level. I am delighted to see more of Adelphia's results in WGP2."

[513 + 471 words]

[TJUN-ia]

The Esmerelian Challenger's Prize
Raleigh Hill Circuit, Esmerel

Season 3 of WGP2 is heading towards its halfway point with increased urgency, and the room for error is getting tighter by the weekend. Round 4 of 10 kicks off today at the Raleigh Hill Circuit in Park City, Esmerel. The Tour Circuit Layout presents many challenges for the drivers, but nothing that anyone hasn't dealt with before.

As for TJUN-ia's own, Mr. Lane Carter has not been having a good time so far in his debut in open-wheel racing. However with the season getting shorter and shorter, Lane has got to showcase his abilities sooner rather than later if he wants to continue racing at this level.


Lane's week was...surprisingly normal. He was talking to everyone again, he was continuing his running and his Ukrainian. It was all normal, which is surprising considering he blew another opportunity to score points at the Race of the Hills. It's almost as if Lane had become numb to these failures, and he wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

PRACTICE

To be perfectly honest, Lane wasn't expecting to be this close.
Raleigh Hill seemed to fit Lane's driving style, as well as most of the grid. The top 17 was with a second of the leading time of Adriana Kowalski. Lane was 8th, but only a tenth back. Taras was 11th, but only 3 tenths back. Tight was the name of the game in practice. Was that an omen for quali?

QUALIFYING

Qualifying was just as tight as practice predicted, as the top 15 all was within a second of pole. Adriana Kowalski converted her practice pace into pole position for the race, looking just about the better of everyone else in Esmerel.

Lane's lap was slower than practice, but it was still good enough for 5th tomorrow. A nice result for the struggling Galarian. Taras seemingly had an issue with his car, as he could only manage 20th. Let's hope that isn't an omen for the race....

[Trans-Dniesters]

William Archer was not feeling confident at all about the race in Auruna. And it had nothing to do at all with the fact that he was starting in the second to the last row on the grid.

Practice had gone well enough. After all of Bitten Heroes' struggles in the previous races, to even get P12 in practice was amazing in itself, at least for William. His Lisanderan teammate Lourdina Westgrens could only muster P22, and that would end up being a close appromixation of her qualifying pace as she dropped a place on the starting grid. But as practice came to a close, the almost happy feeling that William could feel building up inside him suddenly went away when he heard a soft but still noticeable sputter from his engine, accompanied by a slight drop in RPMs. "Hey," he called out, "are you guys hearing this?"

"Yes, William," his engineer replied. "Let's go C24, C24, and bring her back to the pits."

"What do you think is wrong with it?" William asked once he was back in the Bitten Heroes garage.

"Can't tell for sure," the engineer replied. "We'll have to take a good deep look to know for sure. It could be anything, honestly."

William nodded his head. "Okay, do what you need to do," he said, and then he walked over to his room to rest.

Come race day and William Archer was still not feeling too confident about his engine. His engineers had told him that they had gone over the thing with a fine toothed comb but could find nothing that could cause the sputtering and RPM drop that they had observed the day before. William never thought it was a good thing if the engineers couldn't find what was wrong with an engine or just anything in general.

But never mind that now, William told himself. He had a race to drive.

One, two, three, four, five red lights, and then it was showtime.

William had an absolutely horrible start to his race. His KS-03 didn't seem to want to move from its place on the grid, resulting in his Bitten Heroes teammate Lourdina Westgrens overtaking him almost immediately. William maxed his revs and was able to beat Janne Laukkanen to the punch, meaning William wouldn't have the indignity of being the absolute backmarker of the field for this lap.

But that was to be the only bit of good luck that William would have for this race. Despite pushing the thing with all his might, William's KS-03 absolutely and adamantly refused to get up to the speeds that he knew it was capable of. Soon he had been lapped by the lead cars, and judging by the radio chatter that he could hear in the background of his engineer's messages, it seemed as if Lourdina was absolutely tearing through the grid.

It was because of this that William was surprised to see that he was catching up to Jama'obo Pegasii. The driver from Vilita and Turori appeared to be struggling with his US Navy machine, and although to William it appeared that Pegasii was going through the same problems he was concerning engine power and raw speed, he couldn't really be too sure. It could be a myriad of other things William might or might not know.

Finally, in the eighth lap, William's bad luck finally delivered the final blow to his race. The engine began coughing and wheezing, and everything began to drop. RPM, speed, power, everything began to go down. "Uh, what the hell is happening?" William asked.

"Mode LP 44 please, William," his engineer asked. "LP 44 now please."

"Yeah, okay, LP 44," William replied. "But what is it? What the fuck is going on?"

"We're noticing a drop in oil pressure, William," came the reply. "Find a safe place to park. We'll come pick you up."

"Copy," William muttered sadly. All those years spent in karts... That one season in the APOC Coalition's grand prix racing series... All that had just culminated in William Archer's first ever WGP2 DNF. What a time to be alive.

And, as if to rub salt in the wound, Lourdina Westgrens absolutely turned things around. From P23 to a podium. William was both happy for his teammate and envious. How could she have powered the damn KS-03 to third place? Westgrens did have the benefit of not having any engine problems in practice or quali or the race itself after all. Maybe William could watch the highlights and learn a thing or two from his teammate...

(763/1000 words total, not including these)

[Togonistan]

Raleigh Hill Circuit, Esmerel
Post-Qualifying

It seemed as lady luck was not smiling for the Kaylan team this time. Both cars around a second off the pace in qualifying, it seemed as they were lacking speed in Esmerel. The team had spent both the practice as well as qualifying session trying to make adjustments to the car setups, but there still seemed something to be off. Both of the drivers had complained about lack of speed either in the corners with one setup, or on the straights with another setup. It seemed like there was no good in-between solution, thus the team decided to eventually go with the low downforce setup, with plans to gain their ground on the straights.

Isaia Fanene was sitting on his bed in his trailer, re-watching a footage of his qualifying laps from a TV, when he heard a knock on his door.

''Yes? Come in.''

Tanielu Felafa opened the door and stepped into the trailer, ''All good? Ready for the race tomorrow?''

''Yeah... well, no. I'm a bit worried actually.''

''What's wrong?''

''I'm not really sure what happened there today... we tried one way or another, but still, we were a second off the pace.''

Tanielu took a seat next to Isaia and looked into his eyes: ''Okay, I'm gonna be honest... yes, the grid positions today were nothing spectacular. However, nothing is decided yet. Anything can happen during a race, remember, this is WGP2 after all. We have bottled the qualifications before, yet ended up in points, and I have no doubt we can do the same tomorrow. You definitely have what it takes, and so does Barnabas. We're going to run a low downforce setup for the race, to give that extra umpfh to our speed on the straights. Therefore, the plan for the race is simple - gain ground on the straights, hold ground in the corners. If we can manage that, I have no doubt we can turn this quali into another great result during the race.''

''Right... yeah. Speaking of Barnie...''

''Go on!''

''He's a really good driver. We're glad to have him on board.''

''Yes, he is. And so are you. As long as you both are up to your game, we have a great chance for a solid result this season.''

Isaia nod and put a slight smile on his face. Tanielu stood up, took a remote and turned off the TV. ''You better get some sleep now, it's going to be a tough day tomorrow.'' he smiled as he walked out of the trailer.

[Filindostan]

Dahon plans to enter WGP3 Filindostan next season
by TGF Staff

It seems that Ajian automotive company Dahon has plans to end the Badai Angin monopoly at the pinnacle of Filindostani domestic motorsports.

After partaking in the FISCAR testing with their Dahon Sivick, Mitsuharu Tojo hinted in the post-session conference that Dahon is also building a single-seater prototype that they plan to usurp Badai Angin in the national WGP3 championship. Currently the series only permit a single chassis for all the participants with Badai Angin supplying both chassis and engines for the teams. However, the organizers are open to allow a second manufacturer to enter the competition, at least as an engine provider.

However, Tojo would like to push for either Dahon to supply a different chassis to potential teams as well, or homologate a common chassis, similar to other domestic racing championships, such as Formula Hodori, where a common chassis FH170T is being used by current Badai Angin drivers Kyoko Fujisaki and Tyra Tabuso and is being used also by other drivers.

Should Dahon completes their application for next season and be allowed to compete, we may see several teams, such as Drymark-Katana Racing and Team Fortunas Racing to switch allegiances. The future is bright for Filindostani domestic motorsports.