World Grand Prix Championship 18 [RP/results]

[Auruna]

Two days before race weekend

A few of the upgrades are done to the car and engine. It was a quick one, you can call it rushed but it shows in their work that their quality is still there. It's an intense week with everyone in the team busy in their own part. The upgrades were tested and implemented. It's promising. In any case, when you aim high and it doesn't reach, aim higher. It might be difficult but it's worth it. It's worth the risk VIska made.

The upgraded has an improved dual hybrid system, the SEF-B Hybrid Mk. II. There were a few minor issues with the first release variant so those were all fixed. The battery now holds a lot of energy and a new mode was added called "Overtake - Burst" or just "Burst" where it releases a lot of energy at the optimal rev range for a more effective usage of that energy. It still works Expected to be used in overtaking situations or combined with the hotlap setup for a faster qualifying.

Next!

The biggest upgrade to the engine is the Viska Twin-Turbo/Sequential or VTTS. It's a sequential twin-turbo system but in a more compact package where it is set up like the normal single-turbo in current Formula cars but as a twin setup to provide power in both high and low RPM ranges and to eliminate the dreaded turbo lag and it works alongside the hybrid unit. It also has an added bonus of a few fireworks when shifting and at launch, because of Viska Magic. The fans would love to see it.

The chassis upgrade is next, there's a welcome addition to the mass damper system and that is the new electric tuning system where it can be customised to suit a driver's style and the circuit. It was made simple enough so that the driver can do it themselves and make a few adjustments throughout the race if they choose to do so.

Now, Viska is ready to fight back.

Crossbay Circuit
Practice

It's time to have some fun.

As the clock ticks down to zero, the drivers are lined up at the pit exit, waiting for the light to go green and drive. Both Viskas were the first out, it has a different engine note than before but it's still the same being, it's just a better one.

Radio message incoming, and Jöna's voice is heard. "Systems check: all good. I'll hand you over to our great race engineers. Good luck and don't focus on going the fastest, save that for later."

Artur, looking concerned, asks Jöna. "How do you think our weekend will go? I know the upgrades are nice but the last time we did an upgrade in the same scale, we almost lost the championship."

Jöna, with a grin, replies. "Again, don't worry too much! Everything will go well, trust me here. We managed to pull off insane stuff like this and basically what we do is a 'why not?' thing. Give me your ideas and if it works, it just works. Focus on the strategy or do you want me to sing here?"

Artur laughs, he was just a bit off for the previous week. "Yeah..."

"You're right."

Qualifying

"Alright! We will fight! We will... er.. oh vitun helvetti I forgot. Anyway, just focus and let's go! Good luck!" Followed by laughter in the background, Jöna had a different radio message.

Artur called for a tow before they send the two out for their laps. Both cars were prepared and the setups are right. Goita was sent out first then later, Olivia was sent out. Jan discusses it with Goita during his out-lap.

"Artur called for a tow, you were sent out first. Olivia will provide a tow for you during her out-lap at the straights so that means you're on your timed. She already knows the strat, so trust her. You will be doing it for her later." Then right before the line. "Now, Mode 7, Type 5, Mix 3. Hotlap. Watch out for traffic at pit exit, good luck."

In their respective timed laps, they were benefitting from their teammate's tow at the most crucial parts of the circuit. They were pushing hard. Qualify high, it's possible but they weren't able to do it previously.

And so this time, it's different.

An excited Jöna is heard at the radio. "Yes! That's it! Both of you are through! Keep it up!"

As a response, they did. They were quick throughout qualifying. Then Goita managed to qualify P8 at the end with a time of 1:27.788 at Q3. His highest finish in this season to date. Congratulated by Jan. "Well done mate! You qualified P8!"

Then his teammate took it to eleven.

Olivia, out of nowhere, did a 1:27.504. It was fast... no wait, it's the fastest at Q4. At her home race, with all that pressure on her, she delivered. She qualified pole.

Was it a miracle? It could be but it was the result of everyone's hard work and the drivers' skill. Their luck should also be considered as well. In the end, it's a high point. Their highest so far.

[Abanhfleft]

WILLIAM JESSPER ARCHER ✓

@OffishWillArch8

Got some good memories here back in #WGP2. Here's to making more good memories today!


#WGPC18 : #NimbanGrandPrix : #GetGood

William Archer had some good memories at the Crossbay Circuit. Of course, that was where he got his first (and so far only) win in his WGP2 and WGPC career. It had come out of left field as well; in poor conditions and driving what was at best a mediocre car. And William had to come through the field somewhat to do it as well. Now William wished that he would be able to get some of that same luck that had allowed him to grab the win in the Nexus Wardship. God knows he needed it after his shitty luck in the previous two races. Two DNFs, and both within the first five laps... If that wasn't damn rotten luck then he didn't know what was.

William had decided to use the week-long break between Dashoze and Crossbay to get everything that had happened to him in the past two races out of his head. He put all his energies in completing as many simulations of the Crossbay Circuit as he could, and on his off days he took to streaming some of his favorite video games: a grand strategy game where the player took control of a dynasty in medieval times and had to see it through to the Age of Exploration, a game where the player operated a hidden hacker group trying to exonerate itself after a series of attacks both physical and cyber were pinned to them, and a simple online game where a group of players had to work out who among them was a saboteur or were saboteurs. And, much as he wanted to play some NSSCRA Heat 9, he decided against it because he didn't want to have two different driving styles trying to compete for attention in his brain. Driving a stock car was different from driving an open-wheeler, and William didn't want to be in the mindspace of a stock car driver when he came out to Crossbay...

Or maybe that was the key to the whole thing. Maybe that was what William needed to do in order to get to the next level in terms of being a WGPC driver. The previous two races had not brought him a lot of joy at all, but then again both were due to mechanical faults, nothing at all to do with driving styles whatsoever. It seemed as if William had just had that kind of shitty luck.

Nevertheless, maybe it was time for him to have a chat with a stock car driver. Well, make that it was time for a stock car driver to talk to William.

"I knew there was a reason why I had a bad feeling when you signed for Preston," William's father Guillermo Archer said a day before William was to depart for the Nexus Wardship. "That car of yours looks absolutely horrible to handle, isn't it? Like that thing you had with the Lisanderan team."

"Come on, Dad, the PGP-01 is a completely different animal from the KS-03," William replied. "Completely different. "I've just been unlucky with the parts failures, that's all."

"Are you sure about that?" Guillermo asked his son pointedly. "Are you sure that you're just unlucky? Because remember what your boss man just said back at launch: they want your teammate Edwards to be the next world champion. Rudy Edwards. Not William Archer, Rudy Edwards."

"Come off it, Dad," William said. "You may think like that but I'm pretty sure Marty Lewis doesn't."

"Hey, I'm just getting it out there, you know," Guillermo shrugged.

"Dad, there's a time and place for all things, and for talk like that, this ain't it," William said.

"I mean, I can get it out there if you'd like," Guillermo offered. "I've got my phone ready, twii.tur is just a tap away."

"No, Dad, just... no," William shook his head. "Now's not the time for that. I'm sure Preston will want to get as many points for the constructors' championship as they want. And sabotaging one of their own drivers ain't gonna be the way to do that."

"Your call," Guillermo trailed off, seemingly conceding the point to his son.

William forgot all about his conversation with his father about the possibility of his own team sabotaging his car and giving all of the best components to his teammate. For one, it simply didn't make any sense in any context at all. There was just no reason for Preston to do such a thing at all. This was their first season in WGPC after all; surely they would want to make an impact by winning as many points as they possibly could. And it was probably just his father being in a shit-stirring mood, William thought to himself. It was one of Guillermo Archer's faults, his desire to make something out of nothing and fabricate conflict when there could have and would have been none without him. It had been something that he had done in his ARTS days, a thing which then got carried over into NSSCRA and soured the opinion on him of people who watched that particular competition.

In any case, if Preston had indeed sabotaged his car for the Nimban Grand Prix (which they probably didn't), William didn't feel any hint of it at all during practice. He'd been on the Crossbay Circuit before; had driven on it and even won in it, but that had been in a car with a horsepower cap and in rainy conditions. Now that he was in a WGPC car, everything just felt... faster. The straights were over faster than he could remember, the turns just that little bit trickier. Good thing the track was still pretty much fresh in William's mind.

Practice was actually pretty good. Sixth fastest and only one tenth or so away from the fastest time on the track was nothing to scoff at. Maybe this was finally the start of the turn of William's fortunes. "Great job, William, great job out there," his engineer said once practice was over and everyone was back in their respective garages. "Now the strategists want to talk to you about our qualifying strategy, so come on over to the strat room."

"Will do," William nodded, and he hopped out of his PGP-01 and walked over to the strategy room. "Ah, just in time, the man of the hour," his race day strategist said. "We've been talking about quali, William, and now we've decided that since you are an actual race winner at this circuit, we're going to send you out after Rudy. I know we've been doing the reverse before, you going out first to give Rudy a tow, but given the circumstances we all think it's fair to give you a tow around the circuit this time. And you never know, lightning just might strike twice for you tomorrow. But first we'll need to get you up to the front of the grid for that. So let's go do that today, shall we?"

In a way, the plan did work. William Archer did manage to qualify higher than his teammate Rudy Edwards (although Rudy did suffer somewhat in going out before William in Q1, turning in a lap seven tenths slower) but any hopes of a potential one-two in quali were dashed when Rudy was unfortunately knocked out of Q2. William came close to getting knocked out himself; thankfully there was another person in between William's and Rudy's times, but of course it was a shame Rudy got knocked out. Then it was William's turn to bow out in Q3, setting the slowest time of all in that particular session at 1:28.136, the only driver in that group to go beyond the 1:28 mark.

"As long as nothing in my car breaks, I'm sure we can convert our positions into points," William Archer said in the post-qualification interview. He only hoped that he wouldn't have to eat his words.

[Auruna]

Kinu Luminna: Comeback Weekend?

It was a difficult week, even in the simulator. The race weekend approaches, he was exhausted like hell, but he developed a different mentality after training with Lukas. Even though it was very difficult, considering that he can still feel a bit of pain from where his injuries were. Well, there he is, still strong but now stronger than before.

The only thing left to do is to show the results.

Crossbay Circuit
Practice

He has a new race engineer as he felt like he didn't have any chemistry with his previous one. There's no points in guessing, it's obvious: Lukas Ziuvin, race engineer for Kinu Luminna.

The day started as usual then after arriving at the circuit, he first goes to learn the circuit before the session starts. A quick walkaround, trying to take it all in. He then heads to the garage, getting ready for practice. After a quick look at the clock, he gets his helmet, puts it on along with the HANS device and enters the car... his car.

The random background sounds of the radio fills his speakers until a voice is heard. "Ah, sorry Kinu, button layout is a bit different from usual." Lukas clears his throat. "Time to go, 30 seconds till start of practice, head out and wait at the queue."

"Heh, nice to hear your voice again." Kinu replies as he exits the garage.

"Well, don't mind it too much." Lukas laughs. "Anyway, remember what I taught you, okay? Don't let it go to waste."

"Aye, let's go!"

The light goes green, the cars ahead go first then Kinu's next.

"Alright, get used to the track while gathering data. Focus on what's important."

"Ya, etteremät!"

He leads his car out of the pit lane and speeds off at the right moment. A bit of wheelspin followed as the cold tyres struggled to grip but apart from that, the day started well. After a few laps around, Kinu's getting the hang of it. He looks into his setups carefully, trying to suit it to his style so that he can potentially go faster. There's a chance, even a glimmer of hope can get the young Aurun going.

Near the end of the session, everything started to cool down.

"Alright, after next lap, practice start then return to pits."

"While I'm at it, I should try to get a faster run around."

"Go ahead!"

"Knew that you'd say that."

He pushes after the exit of the last corner. He's going for a faster lap. During practice, he started to love going through sector two, his favourite part of the circuit. He maneuvers through it cleanly, no mistakes. He's set.

He crosses the line.

"Whew... finally, what's my time?"

"1:33.736 and that's 18th fastest."

"Need to do better for quali... say, how about a snack before quali, sounds good?"

"Yep, after this."

"Alright."

Qualifying

After a snack break, it was just some biscuits but that's enough. Qualifying is where everything is on the line, well, for the Motorworks drivers. They need to out-qualify their teammates in order to race.

It's a challenge.

Kinu asked for a slightly later run out in mediums. It's his call, Lukas thinks it should work.

"Alright, we're saving the softs for later."

He exits the garage... his qualifying starts.

An elimination qualifying, not a problem. He pushes just before the start of his timed lap. "Quickly, quickly!" He says to himself. To the team's surprise, his sector times are way faster than his teammates. Not just faster, he was WAY faster. Sector 3 comes, he made a few mistakes there in practice. Well, he managed to avoid going wide at the corners, or losing traction at the exit, he keeps it pinned. Then he crosses the line.

"Your fastest time is 1:27.833."

"I'm through, right?"

"Affirmative."

"YES! Now, how about my teammates, how are they doing?"

"Dario's through with a 1:28.893. Charyseine did a 1:29.780 and Daryl did a 1:30.681 but they're eliminated. You and Dario are going to be racing tomorrow."

"Fuck yes!"

"Keep it up mate."

A few more to go before he's set on his qualifying position. His movements during the lap looked familiar. It looked like his same form from before his accident. Is this a rebirth? Let's not go to some mythology here but it is.

A 1:27.936 at Q2 then a 1:27.683 at Q3, his times looked consistent with a slight variation. Time for the final qualifying run.

"Good luck out there, you made it this far." Words from Lukas, it was unexpected that a new driver with relatively no experience got this far. Now it's the time to strike!

His timed lap starts and he's starting to get quicker. He masterfully maneuvered through the circuit, through the sectors without a single fault. The lines are perfect then... it's done in a flash, he lost track of time for a bit there. Not too much to be disorientating. He quickly presses the radio button on his steering wheel.

"Time check, time check."

"Mate, what the fuck was that!?! You did a 1:27.526 and that's P3! P3! P3 mate!"

"No way.. no fucking way! Whooo! Let's go boys!"

"Everyone's surprised! Damn, that was a brilliant comeback! Come on! Keep this up!"

"Fuck yes, I will!" Kinu's reactions are from pure happiness, a lot of it. His highest finish to date. He looks around the paddock to see a lot of stunned faces. He felt proud of what he's done. He never expected it but then it came. It was good news all around.

[Mattijana]

Puljanka, Central Mattijana

Whilst the short break between the opening two races hadn't afforded much time for rest and relaxation, the slightly longer one between Dashoze and Crossbay had allowed Jasmin Kranjska to head back to her home in Puljanka for a few days. Located around half an hour's train ride from the capital Petrovijanka, the city was one of the oldest and prettiest in the country. Previously a base for the rich and famous of the nation, the city had taken a more modern feel in recent decades and now hosted a demographic like any other Mattijanan city, albeit with a lot of nice houses to look at.

The season was only two races young, but Jasmina felt like she needed the break. After a pre-season that was better-looking than her new teammate, the first two races had been disappointing.

Eelandii had pretty much ended before it had a chance to get going. A collision with the side of William Archer's Preston at the start had remodelled her front wing, requiring her to limp round the rest of the opening lap and pit. From there, it was every driver's worst nightmare - a plod round at the back trying to make up ground, but with no realistic chance of getting anywhere near the points.

Dashoze was similar but different. Having qualified in a decent 8th place, an issue with the kinetic energy recovery system meant she was down on power for most of the race on a track where the last thing you wanted was to be down on power. That was the reality of Grand Prix racing - one mistake or a reliability problem out of your control could scupper your entire weekend.

Jasmina had decided to escape those two results by heading home. She needed some time away from the WGPC circus to regain some energy and there was no better place to do it than the cobbled streets, leafy parks and independent pavement cafes of her home city. The morning after she arrived, she walked her dog Sofi and then sat down for a coffee with her sister Izara. Izi, as she was known to her friends and family, was a doctor in the emergency department of Puljanka's main hospital and was another woman used to working in a high pressure environment. Jasmina was excited for the coffee too. It would be one of her last before having to sample whatever decaf filth they had in the Nexus Wardship.

"It's good to have you back" Izi smiled. "Must be nice to get out of the pressure cooker."

Jasmina smiled her thanks. "Speak for yourself, you spend all day stopping people from dying."

"It's generally people who've stuck a firework up their arse whilst drunk or broken a finger playing hockey, but yes, sometimes someone comes in who might actually die. They're probably easier to please than Johan Struna though."

"Johan's alright" she laughed. "I'd be pretty grumpy if I had to run a WGPC team all year anyway."

Izi shrugged amicably. "You're the one who knows him. I'm sure you have to put up a bit of a shell at this level anyway, what with all the fan and media pressure. How do you find it?"

"The Mattijanan media aren't too bad, to be fair. There's always tricky questions to answer about bad results, but they don't ignore the facts. Some of the papers from other countries can be different. They want the little quips that they can gossip over, so you have to be careful, but we get some media training. Some drivers like to toy with the media a bit to make them look stupid for speculating, others just say the usual bland bumpf and get on with driving."

"You'd be so much more interesting if you picked a fight with them" Izi said dryly. No, I like your approach. I prefer life when my little sister's not known across the world for being an egotistical knob."

"Yeah." Jasmin sipped her coffee and looked out over the river. "No-one became a champion because of a ripping post-race interview they did."

Izi looked in the same direction. The view from the coffee shop was a nice one to be fair.

"What do you think of Dom?"

Jasmina raised an eyebrow and took another sip of coffee. "He's a cool guy. We have different personalities I guess. He's got a flashy social media presence and a more liberal attitude to recreational drugs, but underneath that he works hard. You'll see him watching previous races and flying laps on the plane between races and he takes the technical data pretty seriously too."

"As well as being devilishly handsome..."

"Oh shush."

"Are you sure you're not just jealous of his admiring fans?

"Are you suggesting I don't get fan mail?"

"No, but I don't see a mountain of letters every time you open your front door."

Jasmin smiled a wry smile. "All on the internet these days isn't it. What makes you so interested anyway?"

"Well if you don't want him, the least you can do is set him up with me" Izi said jokingly. "No seriously, you should get to know him better. I don't want to fuck the triage nurse, but I wouldn't be able to do my job half as well if I didn't talk to him."

"It's not like we don't talk at all. He starts conversations with other team's mechanics, that's how chatty he is. They think he's trying to steal their confidential team secrets and he actually just wants to know what they're doing that evening."

"Maybe that's because you're not doing anything interesting in the evening?"

"Says the person who spends their Friday nights cutting people out of their high heels."

"It's interesting. Murders my social life, but it gives me funny stories to tell people."

"That's assuming you actually see other people. Look, I'll see what I can do. Doubt I'll be able to take all his setup secrets, but it might be nice. It'll be good to chat outside of a race environment anyway. It's hard when we're both focused on driving."

"That sounds good Jasmina. When you get his number, you know where to send it."

"Why can't you just propose to him on TwiTur like everyone else?"

I've got professional standards to uphold. May as well make the most of those personal connections as well..."

Izi finished the last of her coffee.

"The results will come Jasmina. I know you're working hard, I'm sure the team are doing all they can to cut out the reliability problems. We're rooting for you here, don't worry about that."

"Thanks Izi. I'll do my best to make you guys proud."

"You're doing that already...sistaaa."

"Don't ever say that again." Said Jasmina as the two hugged their goodbye. "Make sure you're around whenever I'm back next."


Seeing Izi had been a boost. She was older, smarter and probably wiser and generally had some good advice to give between the traditional sibling jibes. She would certainly make the most of her home town whilst she was here, and more time with her friends and family would be welcome, but she felt more optimistic about racing in Crossbay. She just wanted to give her home nation another reason to smile.

[Lisander]

12. Sissie Devereux

---

With no stage in Lisander this season, WGPC is not so much in the spotlight this time around. The bad results of the local teams in the last seasons have not been of much help either. So much so that we hadn't stopped to talk about Anneliese Devereux. The poor girl of a poor team. In fact, few people believed she would win the seat, perhaps because of her incredibly poor (not a pun) record. Sissie, as she is called, is not a pilot used to victories, on the contrary, she has never been at the top. Her best result in a race was seventh place in the first race of this WGPC season. But if her courage on the track can be considered "questionable" by the most pessimistic, her reliability is one of her strengths, and her appearance opened some doors. Recently, the lisanderian driver was recently elected the prettiest female in the grid by Togonistanian media. Sissie needs to work hard to prove that he is not only a reasonably pretty face but that he is able to dare and achieve her best results with a better car in his hands.

Full Name: Anneliese Letícia Devereux Monte
Nickname: Sissie
Age: 25
Previous Experience:
WGP3 Alpha League: 1 season by DWG Harlean, 20th (season cancelled)
Alpha League (Pre-WGPC): 1 season by Team Polaris Racing, 14th.

History

---

Sissie comes from a family with fewer resources. Her mother, Lia Devereux, is a cook and her father, Adam Monte, is a car mechanic. Neither has had the opportunity for a university education. Sissie was born in the midst of the last great economic crisis that hit Lisander about twenty-five years ago. For some time, she and her family lived on a welfare payment, and she studied in an orphanage near her home, since they lived far from any schools and her parents could not pay the school transportation fee. However, the situation changed when Adam moved to a workshop that prepared karts. He was already a fan of motorsports so the way was paved. Sissie, then 12-13 years old, was curious about those small vehicles and how they could race. Sometimes her father would take her to drive, and her performance in karts surprised some benefactors. After a few years, she was a female promise in karting. She is part of a generation that competed, as great promises, in the first season of the Alpha League, a single-seat category that lasted only one season before being replaced by the also short-lived WGPC Alpha League. Other exponents of this class are Kevin Venn, Mila Vendrell and the other WGPC-sanctioned driver for this season, Athan Lille, who was her teammate in Team Polaris Racing (not related to the WGPC Polaris Racing Team).

Lisander's entry into the WGPC with Bitten Heroes made the Danès-Woking Group, holder of what was "Team Polaris", abandon that name (to avoid confusion with the WGPC team of the same name) and become Team DWG, while the replacement of a one-spec category with a multi-manufacturer category brought Harlean Motors into the life of our young driver. After a very irregular season (which was interrupted by Lisander's expulsion from the Imperan League in winter), Sissie's contract was not renewed, and she was ready to give up her race track career and dedicate herself exclusively to her Mechanical Engineering College. However, the desire to have a beautiful woman behind the wheel as a honey trap for fans made Harlean Motors hire her as a test driver. And her life turned 180 degrees when she was selected by TAS Alliance (even if on basis of "we will not have to pay her a salary, because Harlean will take care of this")to race in this WGPC. From zero to the top in a mere six months, who could imagine a Cinderella on racing boots?

Personality

---

Today, Anneliese owns a (recently increased) employment contract that pays half a million dollars (L$250,000.00) per season with Harlean, which is still far less than its predecessors in the WGPC. But since she grew up as a poor child, she sees this amount as something impressive. In a way, it has given her a certain reputation as a stingy one. When she was younger, she was very afraid of breaking or damaging the karts she used, because she knew that her parents would have to pay for them, and it would not be cheap. This made her an extremely careful driver, at the cost of damaging her aggressiveness. Over the years, care became enviable reliability and technique, yet Sissie remains a driver of little initiative to overcome, and this probably explains her bad results. She may not get podiums, but she always delivers the whole car at the end of the race. Recently, this has become a kind of gimmick, which she honestly hates. With the team, Sissie is a dedicated worker who always looks for the best possible setup for the car. She always seems to be under the impression that she will be fired by the team, so she is always dedicated to the development of the car. Because of that, she's sometimes scolded by Carolina Lasseps, that doesn't like drivers meddling more than she allows.

[TJUN-ia]

WGPC18 - Round 3
Nimban Grand Prix
Crossbay Circuit, Nimbus Bay, Nexus Wardship of Former Citizens of the Nimbus System (From Togonistan, with sheer disbelief!)

Now then, here is a sight for sore eyes! Hello all, and welcome back to Crossbay Circuit for the NImban Grand Prix, Round 3 of WGPC18. This is a circuit you will all remember fondly as it was here the WGP2 crown for season 3 was decided with Abdoulaye Goita taking the throne by a whisker, William Archer coming from nowhere to win the race and Lane Carter to convert last on the grid to points in his final race for UrGa.

Lane will be hoping that the good feels benefit him after a quiet weekend at the back in Hodori. Now many are questioning the ability of the Galarian in terms of this series but if motor-racing is anything, it is a game of many chances. One week may be good, the other not so good. It's too early to judge right now, but I'm sure he knows he must improve too.

---

Friday - Practice
Indeed, he did. Hodori was a disaster for the Galarian in many ways...in fact, all of the ways. He was struggling on Friday, slippery on Saturday and uncompetitive on Sunday. It was, by many accounts, an embarrassment for Lane to be that bad in a series like this. But he wanted to improve by any means by the time Friday arrived in Nimbus Bay.

It was a godsend to Carter that he was in Crossbay. It was a circuit he knew well from the WGP2 days, a track on land and on water, and he felt confident of improving his standing in the series after this weekend. Unfortunately, Friday wouldn't be kind to the Galarian. While he did know Crossbay, that was through one weekend in a car that was slower by design to a WGPC car and that was something he had to learn the hard way. 27th again, 2.6 seconds off the pace set by Gregori Krupin of all people. R.L. Cruisin was faring better in 5th, so at least he knows the car is good on this track. It just needs the Galarian to find more time in order to succeed.

---

Saturday - Qualifying (Elimination)
Saturday arrived and it was still bright and sunny on Nimbus Bay. Carter suited up in Q1 unsure of how well he would do. Would he have to start last again? He started at the rear last time he was here and got points out of it, but he knew that wouldn't happen in this series. So it was down to him and he certainly delivered. He felt more confident in himself after the lesson Friday delivered and he wouldn't start last after all. In fact, he punched his way to Q2 for the first time with a 01:28.199, half a second back on the pace set by Alex Dimitrianov. iBen Toralmintii could only manage 22nd, to everyone's surprise at Race Eelandii, and both Kinu Luminna and Dario Nülkeschläger knew they would be racing for the Motorworks tomorrow after making it themselves.

So on to Q2 and he was continuing to impress. His time was slower than his Q1 time but it was still 3 tenths off of Terho Talvela's time and enough to make it to Q3 - something unimaginable to the Galarian only a week ago. Both Krupin, the fastest on Friday, and Nülkeschläger missed out on joining Carter but Luminna was still alive. Q3 was the best time of the day from the Galarian, as he broke the 1:28 barrier with a 1:27.895. Unfortunately, being only 2-tenths off of Talvela again wasn't enough this time and Carter ended up in 13th for tomorrow, exactly half his grid position in Hodori. Local and name-counterpart Ryker Lane would be ahead of him in 12th with Cruisin only managing 9th.

Pole was eventually won by Olivia Stone, the local who lost the WGP2 title here not that long ago. Terho Talvela will be alongside the Nimban on the front row but the big story was Kinu Luminna, who managed to drag the Motorworks car to P3 by himself. The Aurunan had pulled a blinder on most of the field and it was great to see him prove himself worthy of being in this class.

So it was a good day for Lane, compared to Hodori at least, but he knew he could potentially get more out of that car. He will need to bring his a-game if he wants points tomorrow, but the day ended with a bit of a surprise. He discovered that a publication from Togonistan called 'Behind The Curtains' had named him the 4th hottest man in the grid. Lane Carter, the Galarian with no real friends, was considered "handsome" by this gossip magazine he'd never heard off in his life. He didn't really know what to think about it at first, his face as pink as Malta by this point, but a great debate was being made in his head:

This is good, Lane! Someone out there clearly sees you are cute in some way and that must be celebrated. You are cute, no doubt.
How does this publication judge "hotness". Clearly, it is a mistake as no one would want to date a fucking Galarian and certainly not you.
If it says he is cute then he is cute! I'm sure many people back home have fawned over him online, in fanfiction or otherwise.
But look at him. He's a fucking hodgepodge who can't drive a car to save his life, let alone race with the best of them. He is nothing and will never be anything!
How could you say that about this man! He is cute, mark my words! He has the cutest face on the grid if you exclude Charyseine Valkyria and I know that people love him for that. He may be reclusive and not really the talkative type, but many people like that in him! Shyness is not a bad trait to have at all!
Shyness will get him nowhere in a world like this! He might as well be a hermit, only coming out when required and doing the bare minimum. He doesn't have any true abilities because he is the runt of the litter, in my opinion. He will never have the athletic prowess of Jester and the likability of Prince because he is just...Lane, the fatass who represents his nation with failure at every turn!
Blasphemy!
You know what I say is true! You know he is nothing, TJUN-ia knows he is nothing and that is FINAL! Who would want to date this fucking guy?! I know, NOBODY!
OH SHUT UP!
NO, YOU SHUT UP!
I HATE YOU!!!!!!

He had those thoughts all the time because that's who he is. He is Lane Carter and a man who just doesn't know how pretty or how brilliant he really is. He knew tomorrow was another day, but he doesn't know if he can be the best he can be with the roots of doubt in his mind...

[Togonistan]

Nimban Grand Prix
Practice

Dom Falepeau crossed the line. ''01:35.458'' his engineer said in the radio. Dom shook his head. Something was off. It just didn't click. Both of the cars had been sent out with the same setup for the track, and it added even more burden on Dom when his engineer went on to announces his teammate's time: ''Jasmin's best time is 01:33.328, you're around 2 seconds off the pace compared to her.'' Indeed, according to the team, the two cars were supposedly running the same setup. It had to be the different driving styles they had. Dom took himself a liberty to speak up about this.

''The current setup is just not working for me. It just doesn't. I don't know about Jasmin, but I struggle big time.''

''What is the issue? We can see if we can do something about it.''

''Could we loosen the back end a bit? Maybe less angle on the rear wing. The car sticks to track but I really lose time in these corner exits.''

''Copy Dom, box box! We will try to change it for you.''

As Dom pulled into the pits, the mechanics rushed to the car to make some tweaks to the aerodynamic setup. Dom looked at the clock. 5 minutes until the end of the session. Dom tapped his fingers on top of the steering wheel as the team were working on the car. Next thing he knew, he received a thumbs up from them. Off the pits and onto the track he went again. During his out lap, Dom could already feel the difference. As he crossed the line and started his flying lap, he floored it and started attacking the corners. Coming across the line, he heard his mechanic on the radio again.

''01:33.555. I don't know what the boys did, but it seemed to have worked. Nice lap.''

''Thank you mate. It felt like night and day. Car felt much nicer now. Great job guys and girls.''

''Session ends in 30 seconds. Box this lap, box box! See you in pits.''

Dom pulled into the pits again and got out of his car. He took a look at the timing sheets and was overall happy. That last-minute tweak to the setup seemed to have done the job, and he was up to pace again. That definitely added some confidence for the qualifying next day. Dom took off his helmet, discussed a few details with the team about tomorrow and went on to give a few post-practice interviews, followed by a dinner and his routine evening workout session, after which he hit the sack.

Nimban Grand Prix
Qualifying

''Heph! Heph! Heph! Heph!''

That was the sound people heard coming out of the workout area as they walked past it. Dom had a boxing helmet on and was doing some taekwondo sparring with Mark, his performance coach. It was part of his, perhaps unusual, routine reaction training. Dodging the kicks his coach would send his way to get his senses awake before the session. Mark had suggested this method when the two had found out their common interest in Taekwondo. They had used this method for some time now, and it seemed to work.

''Alright, halt!'' Dom's coach said and the two bowed at each other. ''Should we do the neck now?'' Dom asked. ''Yep.'' Mark said as he opened his sports bag and took out the head harness, which he placed around Dom's head. Dom took a seat on one of the lifting benches and closed his eyes as Mark started pulling the harness. Having done that a few times on all four sides, he removed the harness and Dom stood up to do a few stretches. ''All good?'' Dom asked. ''Yep, good luck in the quali mate!'' Dom pat Mark on the back as he took his towel and walked out the door.

Having gone through his motorhome to take a quick shower and put on his racing suit, Dom head down to the paddock to start preparing for the qualifying session. He greeted everyone as he entered the pit garage. ''Hey Dom, ready to hit the track?'' Dom's race engineer said as the two approached each other and shook hands. ''Sure mate, the show must go on as they say.'' Dom laughed and when his engineer put one of the nicotine pouches under his lip, Dom answered with the same. He looked around and saw Jasmin standing by her car, discussing something with her engineer. ''Morning Jas!'' Dom said and raised his hand as a greeting, before heading on to his own car to check how things were going. Everything seemed fine. Mechanics doing preparations to set the car out. Dom didn't want to waste much time, thus he reached for his helmet and put it on. Next, he took his gloves and steering wheel and went back to his car. ''She's all set, feel free to hop in!'' Dom nod and took a seat in his car. He went over a few details with the mechanics, before the session started and he left the pit garage, being amongst the first cars to do so.

The next hour seemed to go by for Dom quicker than he would've expected. Driving down the circuit, car handled great. The setup they had applied to the car yesterday seemed to do it's job rather well. After a few flying laps, he was safely through Q1, and onto Q2. Gone through the pits, second session started and Dom was on the track again.

''End of Q2, end of Q2. Jasmin is P21, Jasmin P21. Your best time was 01:27.782, you're through to Q3. ''

''Ah, bummer!''

''Don't worry, just keep pushing in Q3. I have faith in you mate.''

Starting Q3, Dom pushed the car more, took bigger risks. Pace was good, but the timing updates his engineer kept giving him via radio made him a bit worrying.

''Okay, we need your best in this lap. Goita is currently P7, Goita is target to beat for now.''

Dom floored the pedal as he crossed the line for his final flying lap in Q3. Going through the corners, he was in the zone. Chants from the spectators felt so distant, he didn't pay much attention to them, focusing fully on the track instead.

''01:27.782, faster than Goita! That's Q4 again Dom, Q4!''

''Haaaah! Amazing! Come on guys! Wooh!''

It was time for the final round. Dom went out on track again, driving a few flying laps. As he crossed the line for the final time, he heard his engineer again.

''Okay, that is end of the session. P7 today, P7. No improvement but it is a great result.''

''Thank you mate! Thanks everyone! Great job!''

''Final grid for tomorrow is Stone, Talvela, Luminna, Dimitrianov, Mercer-Daly, Bjarnason, yourself. Rounding up top 10 behind you are Goita, Cruisin and Ibuna.''

''Luminna is P3? That's some fantastic job in a Motorworks car.''

''Correct, Luminna P3.''

''Well, great job guys. See you all soon.''

''Yup, see you in parc ferme. Scenario 1.''

As Dom had driven back into the pits and got out of his car, he immediately went to Kinu Luminna and congratulated him on his result. ''I don't know how you did it, but that was great. You sure shocked a lot of people here today,'' he said to Kinu as he shook his hand, before moving on to go back to his team, doing some dance moves as he walked past a cameraman that happened to be filming him.

[Valentine Z]

Post 8 – Positive Networks.

21st on Practice, 24th on Qualifications. Not that bad, Adriana thought, “Okay, who am I kidding, that was rather awful. I wonder what has been happening to me, or what I was lacking…”

Qualifications aren’t everything, but they are still something at the very core of it. A bad qualification is not the end of the world, but it is still a huge setback, and Adriana certainly could not use any more of that.

“I really don’t know what I am doing wrong,” Adriana aired her thoughts out to her friends, who have been listening and consoling their android friend for a good half of an hour, “I know I don’t have a lot of data to work with, but then again, so aren’t the rest of the people, right? We are all on the fair ground here, maybe apart from my computational speeds.”

“Well, the way I see it, Adriana,” Angeline started off, trying her best not to wrongly word it, “It is not that you are bad. Everyone makes mistakes sometimes, and everyone has bad starts. I mean, I am sure you have heard of your friends back in NSSCRA.”

“Oh yeah, poor Gwen. She did not make it into so many races at the start of her career… and Jolyn nearly crashed into a wall, and she even died at one part.”

“There you go. I am not saying that you are awful, once again. Everyone has their bad moments, and I am sure that you can do better at the future races! That, and you are also racing against the best of the best, so that is definitely a challenge that you will have to settle for.”

“Yeah, perhaps you are right!”

“That, and you will definitely need A LOT more data!” Angela exclaimed excitedly, motioning at the USB thumb drive that she got in her hands, “Here, I put these in a convenient .csv form! I think it really is worth checking later if you have the time! I am sure that you should be able to process them now, right?”

“Hmm, I don’t know. How much data is in there?”

“Well, a lot! Past year drivers, races, course conditions, performances! If you are going to race like an android and an AI, then you need to get those little neurons to get working on actual data and adapt to them!”

Adriana took the thumb drive from Angela, giving her a soft hug and plugging it into her head. 500 MB+ of .csv data, she thought to herself. She transferred them in a whim and handed the thumb drive back to Angela. It might not be that much, but in that format, 500 MB is a lot of data, and Adriana was confident that she could learn something from these. Still, even with all the computational power, she figured that she would leave this to the practice or the simulations later. After all, she did not want a faulty learning to affect her actions adversely.

“I guess I will do it later, but thanks, Angela! You are such a sweetheart, haha! Ahh, yeah, later because… you know, not because I don’t trust you.”

“Ohh, I know! Neural networks, am I right? They take a while.”

[Nico Hulkenberg]

Is This Good Or Bad?

Practice

As usual, Dario was crap in practice. He always seemed to have the ability to produce decent results in qualifying, but practice was definitely not his forte. Over the course of the 75 minutes, Dario completed around 23 laps, with a couple of them breaking the 1 minute and 35 second mark. However, a 1:34.849 was definitely not good enough, compared to the times that other drivers were setting.

bleepity bloop

”That’s practice over, Dario. As it stands, you’re sitting in P23. Daryl is just behind you in P24, and he’s just over three tenths off. However, Kinu and Charyseine are in P18 and P10 respectively, so if you want to race tomorrow you need to get a move on.”

“How far ahead of me were they?”

“You were over a second behind Kinu, and around 1.4 seconds off of Charyseine.

“Damn. I definitely need to improve, then. Any ideas on where I went wrong?”

“Well, the team will give you a rundown when you’re out of the car, but to put it shortly you’re not using enough energy. Make sure to use plenty of it on the straights, and especially when you’re coming out of turns 12, 14 and 17.”

“Was I not using energy on all of those turns?”

“I think you’ve been pressing the radio button instead of the energy button at some points, so that might be why you’re quite slow on the straights compared to Kinu and Charyseine.”

“Oh, that’s a bit embarrassing. I’ll make sure to avoid that in qualifying, eh?”

“If you want to race tomorrow, then definitely.”

Qualifying

After a quick memorisation of where the energy and radio buttons were located, Dario was strapped in and ready to go. Q1 began, and Dario was one of the first out of the pits to get some laps done. He knew what he had been doing wrong, and now was his chance to right the wrongs of practice. As one of the early runners, he took this opportunity to do one quick flying lap around the circuit, As Dario completed his slow lap, he came out of turn 17 and began to floor it. Coming into turn 1, he lifted from the throttle and coasted around slightly, before tapping the energy button and flooring it round turn 2. Turns 3 and 4 were a bit difficult to navigate, but Dario got a good exit leading up to turns 5, 6 and 7. Turns 8 and 9 felt like a bit of a repeat of turn 1, and turns 10 and 11 required a bit more wheel action than turns 5, 6 and 7. Turn 12 felt like yet another turn 1, but Dario put his foot to the floor coming out of turn 12 and began to unleash the true pace of the car. Turns 13 and 14 were like kinks in the road, but Dario really had to step on the brake at turn 15. He tried his best to keep pace coming into turns 16 and 17, before flooring it down the finish straight.

bloopity bleep

”That was a decent first lap, Dario. You can definitely still improve, though. Energy use is still too low, you need to use as much as humanly possibly on the straights and corner exits.”

“Hey, uh, Tom... can you say the thing?”

“The what?”

“Y’know... since I’m the first one to do a flying lap... can you say I’m P1?”

“Oh, you’re P1, purple in all three sectors, heh.”

“Cheers Tom. Time for a cooldown lap.”

Dario wasn’t P1 for much longer, however, as other drivers began to complete their flying laps. The time remaining in Q1 was ticking down fast, and Dario knew that he needed to get back out there and try his best to get into Q2, and especially to get ahead of his teammates.

bleepity bleep

”Dario, as it stands you will not be making it into Q2, and you won’t be racing tomorrow either. Give it everything in this next lap.”

“Got it.”

“You can do this, man! Let’s get it!”

And “get it” he did. Dario smashed his previous time out of the water, and earned himself a spot in Q2 and a spot on the grid for tomorrow’s race.

bloopity bloop

”Well in Dario, well in! That’s a 1:28.893, ahead of both Daryl and Charyseine!”

“WOOOOOOOO! How did Kinu do?”

“Kinu is going into Q2 with you, but they’re also well ahead of you in terms of their lap time.”

“How far ahead is ‘well ahead’?”

“Over a second.”

“Jesus Christ, Kinu’s absolutely flying around this circuit. Hey, at least it shows that this car isn’t that bad, eh?”

While Q1 may have went quite well for Dario, Q2 didn’t go as well as Q1 for the young Hülkenberger. He finished Q2 in 17th place, being almost seven tenths off of his teammate, who seemed to be getting every bit of performance out of that Motorworks car. Still, at least Dario would be racing tomorrow!

Post-Qualifying

With qualifying over and done with, Dario decided to check social media. After all, Dario didn’t have much else to do, so he might as well. The first things to come up on Dario’s feed were the usual, run of the mill memes. Y’know, memes such as:



and



However, one specific article caught Dario’s eye. He had been tagged in the comments of an article by a media company called Behind The Curtains, and he decided to check it out. As he scrolled down the page, he came across the list that said “Top 5 male drivers”, and began to look at the names.

”Alright, hm. I can agree with Ibuna, yep. Carter as well. Ooooh, Chars is in there too? Nah, I think he should be at least second. Falepeau in second? Mad. Who’s in first...”

He couldn’t believe his eyes. According to this article, the hottest male driver on the grid was... him. He began to read the description.

”We don't think there is any doubt about this one! While the Hülkenberger might have not impressed many during the races, he sure has impressed many on the paddock with his stunning looks! Let's be honest, those are some really, really smooth hair!”

Dario cracked a smile and ran his hand through his hair. He felt a big sense of pride after reading that, and he now understood why his fans had tagged him in the article. In response, he decided to reply to the article himself.



Dario’s smile widened as he clicked ‘Send’. His slick hair had finally earned him some foreign admirers.

[Liventia]

CUTOFF

for the Nimban Grand Prix at Crossbay Circuit

[Liventia]

Week 6: Race

Conditions:      	Dry
Laps:              	64
Nation:         	NIM
Circuit:        	Crossbay Circuit
Event:                	Nimban Grand Prix
Safety Car on Laps:     18, 19, 20
Cars on Grid:        	28

POS  # ▍DRV Name                               Team                               	Time      	Pts	Fastest Lap	
  1 94 ▍LAN Ryker Lane                         Nexus Racing                       	01:47:13.730	25		
  2 28 ▍LNA Sara Luna                          Volkov Racing                      	00:00:07.058	18		
  3 14 ▍BJA Sigur Bjarnason                    SVJ Racing WGPC Team               	00:00:39.417	14		
  4 71 ▍IBU Rustom Ibuna                       Badai Angin Tim Motorsport         	00:00:43.676	11		
  5 22 ▍KRA Jasmin Kranjska                    Mattijana Racing Team              	00:01:15.229	8 + 2	1:30.322	
  6 47 ▍OKU Erica Okumura                      Polaris Racing Team                	00:01:15.564	6		
  7 19 ▍FAL Dom Falepeau                       Mattijana Racing Team              	00:01:21.485	4		
  8  8 ▍ARC William Archer                     Preston Autos Grand Prix Racing    	00:01:22.801	3		
  9 25 ▍KRU Gregori Krupin                     Volkov Racing                      	00:01:24.215	2		
 10 51 ▍CRU R.L. Cruisin                       Race Eelandii V&T GP               	00:01:27.485	1		
 11 50 ▍EDW Rudy Edwards                       Preston Autos Grand Prix Racing    	00:01:28.489			
 12 42 ▍DIM Alex Dimitrianov                   Badai Angin Tim Motorsport         	00:01:33.998			
 13 85 ▍STO Olivia Stone                       Schkeska-VSK Viska Racing          	00:01:35.381			
 14  7 ▍GTA Abdoulaye Goita                    Schkeska-VSK Viska Racing          	Laps Down: 1			
 15 46 ▍ARB Kitti Armbruster                   SVJ Racing WGPC Team               	Laps Down: 1			
 16 52 ▍SZR Sayono Souzare                     Polaris Racing Team                	Laps Down: 1			
 17 11 ▍CRT Lane Carter                        Race Eelandii V&T GP               	Laps Down: 1			
 18 27 ▍NUL Dario Nülkeschläger                WGPC Motorworks                    	Laps Down: 1			
 19 76 ▍KOW Adriana Kowalski                   Fireline Motorsports               	Laps Down: 1			
 20 82 ▍LMN Kinu Luminna                       WGPC Motorworks                    	Laps Down: 1			
 21 12 ▍DEV Anneliese Devereux                 TAS Alliance Racing                	Laps Down: 1			
DNF 56 ▍TAL Terho Talvela                      Tropicorp Racing Ælund             	Ret. lap 46		
DNF 77 ▍TII iBen Toralmintii                   Tropicorp Racing Ælund             	Ret. lap 41			
DNF 37 ▍SCH Niklas Schonbaum                   TAS Alliance Racing                	Ret. lap 29			
DNF 41 ▍JMD Jean Mercer-Daly                   Nexus Racing                       	Ret. lap 17			
DNF 23 ▍C23 Cocoabo #23                        Fireline Motorsports               	Ret. lap 3				
DNS 72 ▍VAL Charyseine Valkyria                WGPC Motorworks                    	DNS			
DNS 63 ▍MIZ Daryl Mizushima                    WGPC Motorworks                    	DNS

---

Drivers' standings

Pos # ▍DRV Name                                Team [Engine]                                                            Tyres                              Pts
 1 94 ▍LAN Ryker Lane                          Nexus Racing [Paragon Warp]                                              In Motion                          38
 2 28 ▍LNA Sara Luna                           Volkov Racing [WGPC Motorworks Engineering]                              Tropicorp Racing Supply            28
 2 42 ▍DIM Alex Dimitrianov                    Badai Angin Tim Motorsport [Badai Angin]                                 Solymok                            28
 4 51 ▍CRU R.L. Cruisin                        Race Eelandii V&T GP [Tropicorp Engineering]                             Tropicorp Racing Supply            26
 5 41 ▍JMD Jean Mercer-Daly                    Nexus Racing [Paragon Warp]                                              In Motion                          25
 6 77 ▍TII iBen Toralmintii                    Tropicorp Racing Ælund [Tropicorp Engineering]                           Tropicorp Racing Supply            20
 7 56 ▍TAL Terho Talvela                       Tropicorp Racing Ælund [Tropicorp Engineering]                           Tropicorp Racing Supply            19
 7 71 ▍IBU Rustom Ibuna                        Badai Angin Tim Motorsport [Badai Angin]                                 Solymok                            19
 9 14 ▍BJA Sigur Bjarnason                     SVJ Racing WGPC Team [Johansborg Motor Collective]                       Solymok                            14
10 19 ▍FAL Dom Falepeau                        Mattijana Racing Team [Nordija]                                          Tropicorp Racing Supply            12
11 23 ▍C23 Cocoabo #23                         Fireline Motorsports [Tropicorp Engineering]                             Tropicorp Racing Supply            11
12 22 ▍KRA Jasmin Kranjska                     Mattijana Racing Team [Nordija]                                          Tropicorp Racing Supply            10
13 47 ▍OKU Erica Okumura                       Polaris Racing Team [Polaris Trois]                                      Deyoze Tires                       6
13 52 ▍SZR Sayono Souzare                      Polaris Racing Team [Polaris Trois]                                      Deyoze Tires                       6
15 25 ▍KRU Gregori Krupin                      Volkov Racing [WGPC Motorworks Engineering]                              Tropicorp Racing Supply            5
16 12 ▍DEV Anneliese Devereux                  TAS Alliance Racing [Harlean 1]                                          Solymok                            4
17  8 ▍ARC William Archer                      Preston Autos Grand Prix Racing [Preston Autos]                          Tropicorp Racing Supply            3
17 11 ▍CRT Lane Carter                         Race Eelandii V&T GP [Tropicorp Engineering]                             Tropicorp Racing Supply            3
17 46 ▍ARB Kitti Armbruster                    SVJ Racing WGPC Team [Johansborg Motor Collective]                       Solymok                            3
20 50 ▍EDW Rudy Edwards                        Preston Autos Grand Prix Racing [Preston Autos]                          Tropicorp Racing Supply            2

---

Constructors' standings

Pos NAT ▍Team [Engine]                                                            Tyres                              Pts		
  1 NIM ▍Nexus Racing [Paragon Warp]                                              In Motion                          63		
  2 FID ▍Badai Angin Tim Motorsport [Badai Angin]                                 Solymok                            47		
  3 ABL ▍Tropicorp Racing Ælund [Tropicorp Engineering]                           Tropicorp Racing Supply            39		
  4 SOR ▍Volkov Racing [WGPC Motorworks Engineering]                              Tropicorp Racing Supply            33		
  5 V&T ▍Race Eelandii V&T GP [Tropicorp Engineering]                             Tropicorp Racing Supply            29		
  6 MTJ ▍Mattijana Racing Team [Nordija]                                          Tropicorp Racing Supply            22		
  7 SVJ ▍SVJ Racing WGPC Team [Johansborg Motor Collective]                       Solymok                            17		
  8 NEK ▍Polaris Racing Team [Polaris Trois]                                      Deyoze Tires                       12		
  9 ETN ▍Fireline Motorsports [Tropicorp Engineering]                             Tropicorp Racing Supply            11		
 10 HAP ▍Preston Autos Grand Prix Racing [Preston Autos]                          Tropicorp Racing Supply            5		
 11 LIS ▍TAS Alliance Racing [Harlean 1]                                          Solymok                            4

[Sorlovia]

Crossbay Circuit
Raceday

There was nothing but him and the car.

All else faded away until all he saw was the track and the cars in front him. He focus was so great he could not distracted from what lay in front of him. The advice Sara had given him in the race lounge after the last race and Elena’s way of seeing things came back to him in that moment. The trick was to listen to the car and learn how it handled best. His usual habit of trying to dominate the car had to be superseded by an adaptable hand on the wheel. He knew that he had to work with the car and not attempt to bend it to his will. Crossbay Circuit was another of the tracks that seemed to favour him. In order to make the most of it he had to adapt his driving style.

He planted his foot and tore off down the short straight using the burst of speed to slingshot around the first two corners and through the hairpin after the third corner. Crossbay, with its corners and its long straights, was another track that favoured Gregori’s driving style. Since first entering the World Gran Prix arena in the Championships’ sixteenth season he’d had a particular skill with these kinds of tracks. He had never quite been able to put his finger on it but the bends and straights just felt like a perfect race environment. They lent themselves to his particular technique and yielded to his skill on the track.

“Stay frosty Gregori,” Viktor said over his earpiece “keep it level and listen to the car.”

Gregori pushed his Volkov Mark II into the twelfth corner using it to slingshot himself down the short straight towards the gentle bend at the thirteenth corner. William Archer, one of the Preston racers, used the corner to push past him and a frustrated frown spread itself across his face. His frown grew even deeper at the arrogance of the slogan painted on the back of the Preston car and he pressed as close behind William as he could. The taunt in bold lettering did not bother him. But it did make him think of the Preston team in a lesser light. A race team, at least in his eyes, that felt that sort of need to resort to petty taunts was a team that lacked confidence.

He chased William into the fourteenth and fifteen corners keeping close on his tail. He was happy to provide a challenge for the Preston racer if that was what he was after. Gregori pushed even closer to probe William’s defences looking for an opportunity to pass him. But the newcomer to the WGPC scene managed to fend him off and that made Gregori all the more amused. Terho had been his rival in his first two seasons. Perhaps this Archer guy would be his new WPG18 rival. There was nothing at all wrong with having a sporting rivalry in a WGPC season. Sometimes it provided the boost that kept you competitive and gave you an edge in the races. But he would have to make sure that Archer did not mistake it for ill-feelings like Terho had in WGPC17.

In the heat of the race Gregori had forgotten to keep an eye out for Sara. He'd been so focused on what lay in front of him that he'd forgotten his teammate. Though it seemed WGPC18 was turning out to be her season. Her skills behind the wheel were impressive and Volkov Racing had quickly offered her a contract extension for the next season. Though he quietly suspected that she might not take it. Perhaps Volkov was a launching pad that would propel her up the WGPC ladder with a new team in the next season. Switching teams was nothing new. Gregori had done it himself. He'd launched his career with VMR in WGPC16 and then moved to MRT when they had offered a more lucrative contract in WGPC17. The race teams knew that racers would move between them and it was a game of seeing who could snag the best racers first. WGPC18 was the season that would allow Volkov Racing to make a name for itself as an official WGPC-licenced team.

[Recuecn]

duna ma yɛlɛma
bi ma de yɛlɛma la

the world hasn't changed
people have changed

---

Bamako, 20 years ago

Moussa shouldered his way through the crowd at the airport. Airline agents, porters, security, immigration officials and other taxi drivers thronged the luggage claim, pestering the passengers, tubabuw and Maliens alike. The competition for the passengers was fierce, especially for the foreigners who had no idea how much a taxi ride ought to cost. A decent number had gotten off the latest plane, but Moussa watched them turn away all the porters and drivers who accosted them. He glanced through the crowd. There were plenty of clients he could choose who might be more receptive, and certainly less fought-over. He singled out one wealthy-looking man in a hat and a long starched robe and approached him.

"Aw ni su." Good evening.

"Mba." An acknowledgment.

"Aw ka kεnε wa?" Are you doing well?

"Tɔɔrɔ te." No trouble.

"Aw somɔgɔw ka kεnε?" And your household?

"Hεrε dɔrɔn." Only peace.

Moussa paused and they repeated the greeting, the stranger inquiring after Moussa this time.

"Do you need a taxi?" Moussa asked. He didn't give the man a chance to answer. "I have the best taxi in the city. It's clean, and it runs well. And I know all of Bamako."

"I live in Hippodrome," the man said. Moussa wasn't surprised; it was one of the nicer neighborhoods. Even better, it was not too close - the trip would be worth it.

"Please come, sir," he said. It wasn't worth haggling over the price with a respectable man like this.

The pair made their way out of the airport into the warm night air, still alive with the sounds of the city. The hum of the motos threading their way through traffic mingled with the noise of voices in the distance. Moussa led the man to his taxi and put his only luggage, a small bag, into the trunk. He put on an old CD as he left the parking lot, and they set off on their way across town.

Moussa glanced in his rearview mirror as he drove. His passenger met his gaze, a sign which Moussa took to mean that an attempt at conversation would not be remiss. "How long have you been gone?" he asked.

"About a year," said the man. "I need to come back to attend to business every so often and visit family."

"Oh, so you don't live in Mali?" Moussa was a little surprised.

"No. I've been living in Europe for almost a decade now."

"Oh, wow." That was even more surprising. "What's Europe like?"

"I have grown used to a lot of things now, but it is still a very strange place. The people confuse me. They don't have much respect. And they are always rushing from place to place. Maybe because it is so cold?"

"How cold?"

"Nɛnɛ ka bon dɛ! In the winter if you put water outside, it will become ice."

"Eh!"

"Mm!"

A moto cut in front of Moussa, who laid on the horn, but continued asking questions unfazed. "And is it true that everyone is rich? That you get paid so much more?"

"Yes. Everyone gets paid a lot. But everything is expensive. So people don't think they are rich."

"Everything is expensive?"

"Yes."

"How much would they pay for a ride like this?"

The man thought for a moment. "Thirty-five thousand francs. Probably more."

"Thirty-five thousand!!?" It was incredible. That was seven times what Moussa hoped to make for the same trip. Moussa had heard some stories before, but the number put it in perspective. For a moment he was silent, first in disbelief, then in amazement as he processed what that could mean. Imagine how much money he could make if he worked there!

"How did you get to Europe?" he asked. "What did you do?"

"I won a scholarship. I was sent to go to university there."

"Wow." Moussa thought about his own time at school, and his two young boys, Malick, who had just begun for himself two years ago, and Abdoulaye, who was starting for the first time very soon. It was hard to connect the mental picture he'd always had of his children sitting in the classroom wearing their school uniforms with the idea of a life in Europe.

"So what happened after university? You stayed?"

"Ɔwɔ. I got married and found a job there."

"Married to a tubabu?"

"No. But she was born in Europe so she is a citizen there and now so am I."

"In France?"

"No... I went to school in Paris but my wife was not from France either. We live in Reçueçn."

"Reçueçn?"

"They speak French there too."

"Ah, I've never heard of it."

---

Dashoze, 2 weeks ago

Seventy-five minutes was not a lot of time to practice on a track you'd never driven before. As Abdoulaye pulled his car back into the garage, the radio in his ear came alive with surprising news. "You've set the tenth-fastest lap," Jan said. "Tenth-fastest."

After the way qualifying had gone in Turori, Abdoulaye was plenty happy to be tenth in practice. During the pre-season tests he'd done so well; first in Xanneria, third in Savojarna, second in Esmerel. He'd done well at the Cocoabo Expo as well. How come as soon as the season started he was outperformed? Tenth in practice was only mediocre but even that was an improvement on Turori.

Unhooking the steering wheel, he pulled himself out of the cockpit and stretching his legs, began to walk over to where Jan stood on the other side the garage. As he did so, Olivia pulled in from her last lap, shutting down her car and beginning the same post-practice ritual every driver goes through. Abdoulaye didn't want to interrupt, but he flashed her a quick thumbs up. A look at one of the monitors in the garage told him what he had already guessed, that their practice times were very similar. Very similar. He had come in right behind Olivia, separated by a gap of only eight hundredths of a second. Consistency, Abdoulaye thought to himself, then smiled. Neither he nor Olivia were known for their reliability.

Unfortunately, Jan seemed to think that if anything, Abdoulaye would have to be more consistent to do better. "The fact that the times are so close shows that we're already nearing maximum performance under current circumstances. I hate to say this, but there's not a lot of room for error. If you go out there and mess up, you might blow your chances, whether that's in the race, or in qualifying. If we're trying to keep up with the teams like Nexus and TRÆ, we can't give them anymore chances to get ahead."

Abdoulaye didn't think it was a great time to mention that Nexus and TRÆ were already ahead, or that, in fact, every team on the grid was ahead. It was hard to keep up without any points. But it had only been the one race so far. There was time.

"I'm confused when you say that we're at peak performance," Abdoulaye said. "It's still the beginning of the season. Is this as good as the car is going to get? Won't we still be working on it? I'll still be practicing throughout the season - there's room for improvement, right?"

"Yes, yes. I mean that it seems like you're approaching maximum performance for where we are right now under current situations. Next week for example we have some new tuning for the mass dampers we'll be testing at Kalnatranne, and a new HUD for you to try out. So there should be improvements. But for now we need you doing your absolute best every time you get in the car."

"I can commit to that. Now, was there anything you noticed today I should pay attention to?"

It was an encouraging conversation, and the next day, Abdoulaye felt absolutely ready for qualifying. But as soon as he woke up, he realized that the situation was not the same. Thunder rumbled faintly in the distance, and he could hear gusts of wind testing their strength against the window. Once he was in the garage he raised an eyebrow at Jan. "Is the forecast as bad as I'm guessing it is?"

"Worse," said Jan. "They're going to be rushing through qualification because they're worried the whole thing might get rained out. I hope you're ready."

"Always."

Elimination qualifying was always the most exciting format, the sole exception perhaps being one-shot, but of course that was just a crapshoot. Abdoulaye would be toward the end of Q1, so he waited in his car for his chance to go out with a worried eye on the sky. He'd decided to start on softs, but he was slowly becoming more worried he wasn't going to beat the weather. The rumblings were growing closer as he pulled out of the pit lane. The lap began well with the opening sector - wide open and blindingly fast. "Great time in sector 1," came Jan's voice in the radio. "Keep it up and you're on track for P5."

Abdoulaye slowed into Stadium and the Underpass, but as he came out from under the bridge he saw the track growing darker in front of him.

"Weather update?" he asked.

"Yes, rain will be starting now." He could hear the disappointment in Jan's voice even as his lap began to fall apart. "Do your best and we'll get in right in Q2."

Abdoulaye cringed as he felt his great start slipping away from him through the Esses. A noticeable loss of traction at turn 17 and he slowed things down for the last few turns. On the final straight again he floored it, but hit the brakes immediately at the finish line and slowly wheeled the car back around the track through the rain that was now pouring down. He heard the sigh of relief in Jan's voice as the radio came alive again.

"P21. You're through to Q2. Repeat: you're through to Q2."

Barely. Abdoulaye had slipped through in the last spot. "Softs were not a good idea there. Didn't meteorology know this was going to happen?"

"Yes--"

"So what was that?"

"Remember that you had asked for softs yourself."

Abdoulaye shut up.

Q2 he went out on inters. He wondered if he should have done full wets, but this time he let meteorology make the call. But he couldn't blame the tires. As he struggled around the circuit again, he realized that he simply wasn't mentally prepared to drive it in the rain. He took the exact same position: twenty-first. Only now that meant that he was last. He wouldn't be moving on to Q3. There's so much potential here, he thought. This great car, my talent... surely there's more I can do?

---

the world hasn't changed
people have changed

---

Moussa had, uncharacteristically, decided to walk with Fanta to the market this week. He had told her he needed a new bazin to wear to mosque - he wasn't going to admit that he needed a chance to talk to her and persuade her. Somehow he had the idea that if she knew he was trying to convince her of something, she would be more likely to push back. But he had laid out his whole plan of attack to make it seem like a natural conversation.

The sun beat down on them as they walked; it was always hot, but today seemed particularly so. They passed a group of men taking shelter in the shade of a mango tree, and Moussa greeted them with raised hands. The men, playing a game of cards, paused to acknowledge the greeting and went back to their game. Moussa and Fanta turned the corner onto the market street, and instantly everything was lively. A group of children were chasing each other down the middle of the dusty dirt road, while a mangy dog poked through trash in the corner. Seamstresses sat in front of their shops with their treadle sewing machines busily clacking away, doing their advertising for them. The hammering of the men starching the bazin came from deeper within the market, its rhythm interrupted by the shouts of the vendors hawking their goods: roasted peanuts, tinker's wares, fruit, brochettes, farming utensils, cleaning supplies, used cellphones, shoes, anything you could imagine. It was Moussa's moment.

"How much do you need for the groceries?" he asked.

Fanta looked at him, a bit surprised that he would offer the money without first being asked. She mentally ran down her shopping list. Rice, onions, insombe... cassavas, certainly. That was just the beginning.

"Give me fifteen," she said.

"Fifteen!?" Moussa had known she had many things to buy today, but the high price played into his plan. "That's so much!"

"Bamako prices are so high," said Fanta.

"You can't live in the city anymore these days," said Moussa. "It's impossible."

"Mmm." Fanta agreed.

"You know..." Moussa hesitated as he sidled past a boy wheeling a broken bicycle into a repair shop. This was the moment of truth. "I had a client, he said in Europe taxi drivers can make seven times as much money for a small trip."

Fanta threw him a look. "Why are you saying these things, furucɛ? You've been acting so strange lately."

Not a promising first reaction. "What do you mean I've been acting strange? I haven't been acting strange."

"You keep making vague comments and moping... all this talk about money. What do you want to do, move to--" She cut herself off with a shout and raised her hand as if to slap him. "Eh! You want to move to Europe!?"

Time to backpedal. "What are you saying? Who said anything about moving?"

Fanta shook her head to herself but lowered her hand and resumed her march. "Mmm, exactly! We are doing well here!" She raised her eyes to heaven, imploring. "Ala, what husband do I have who wants to drag our family out of our home!"

"Don't be crazy, kɔrɔmuso! You're making things up."

Fanta didn't reply.

"The world is changing, Fanta. People are changing. If we want to keep up, we will have to try something new. The world is changing..."

Fanta only shook her head.

"I'm just saying, it would be nice to be able to afford things..."

---

Race day at the Grand Prix of Hodori. This was the sort of spectacle Abdoulaye had signed up for when he'd inked his deal with Viska. Hodori was the home of motorsport, and it couldn't have been more apparent. Fans crowded the circuit, sold out crowds in the bleachers enjoying the sunshine, now that yesterday's rains were gone and forgotten. Abdoulaye grumbled as he lined up twenty-first of twenty-six. How was he supposed to compete from here?

Profit from chaos, the answer turned out to be. Only five laps in Archer mysteriously pulled over, confusing the field. A few teams guessed a safety car might come out, hit the pits, and instantly the foreseen race strategy had gone out the window. Abdoulaye somehow found himself toward the middle of the pack. It seemed surprising that it could happen so quickly. But then it was thrown away.

"Box, please."

Already? Abdoulaye groaned. The stop was even worse than he thought. He stopped, felt himself lifted into the air, and then - he didn't come back down. He waited: one second, two seconds... finally, the car was lowered, and he pulled back into the pit lane. What the hell had that been?

Jan answered even before he could ask. "Front-left wheel was stuck, front-left wheel was stuck, something probably broke in the rim, sorry. Pit was a 3.5, we'll make up the time lost, let's go."

"Ok, roger," returned Abdoulaye. "No problem. Täitä."

Jan responded with a chuckle. "Yes, täitä." It was the one useful word of Aurun Abdoulaye remembered. Fight. He would have to.

Fortunately, the new softs that had been put on were the perfect attacking weapons. Abdoulaye began to climb again, alongside his teammate Olivia. Lap thirty and another pit, more fresh tires, and a continued fight upward. Abdoulaye could feel his momentum building. Only a couple positions remained between him and the points, and he was gaining quickly. Then, more chaos. Another retirement and a safety car this time, but the shake-up robbed him of his tempo.

"Racing car will be coming in this lap," Jan alerted him. "Täitä. Täitä."

"Ya." 'Yes' in Aurun was a little less exotic.

But as the green flag waved again, Abdoulaye found that he'd lost his edge and no longer had the freshest tires on the circuit. He gained only two more positions to find himself behind Gregori Krupin. Their battle lasted a dozen laps, Krupin desperately holding off Goita even as he tried to gain on Edwards and Luna. Abdoulaye attempted chance after chance but was denied at every turn.

"Turns 22 and 23 are your last chance to catch him," Jan foretold. It was the last lap. Abdoulaye couldn't tell if Jan's message was one of hope or despair. "You can do it," Jan added. Hope, then.

Abdoulaye came into 22 on the outside, braking later than Krupin. He surged ahead, slipping into the racing line for turn 23. Yes, yes, yes. He gritted his teeth. Then, in his left mirror, he saw it - the blue nose of the Volkov powering past him on the outside. Onto the straight now. Abdoulaye floored it. Was he gaining? He was! He began to pull alongside Gregori - they were neck and neck - and that was the finish line. Krupin soared away in front of Abdoulaye.

"Did I do it?" Abdoulaye asked.

"Sorry," Jan's voice is as professional and unemotional as ever. Fuck. "He had you just by three tenths of a second as you crossed the line." Merde, bordel.

Then Jöna's voice on the radio, filling his role as encouraging team principal. "Great work out there. Keep it up and we'll have points in no time. We've yet to score a point but I know that will come. Just keep doing what you do great, race. We'll keep on developing the car."

That's easy to say, thought Abdoulaye. Of course they would keep developing the car; they had to. But if Abdoulaye could put in that performance, gain 10 positions, and still missing the points by a fraction of a second... would it be enough?

He heard his dad's voice echoing in his head. "The world is changing." Why was that story coming to mind now? "If we want to keep up, we will have to try something new. The world is changing..."

Was it true? Were Abdoulaye's efforts not going to be enough? Surely the engineering team and Viska's coaching would be sufficient, would they not? Täitä. 'Fight.' Were there battles that couldn't be won? Abdoulaye thought back to his father, telling him his story. Abdoulaye knew the end of the story - the success that followed the new beginning. Was that the only way?

---

duna ma yɛlɛma
bi ma de yɛlɛma la

[Lisander]

Week 6: Race

21 12 ▍DEV Anneliese Devereux                 TAS Alliance Racing                	Laps Down: 1

---

Drivers' standings

Pos # ▍DRV Name                                Team [Engine]                                                            Tyres                              Pts
16 12 ▍DEV Anneliese Devereux                  TAS Alliance Racing [Harlean 1]                                          Solymok                            4

---

Constructors' standings

Pos NAT ▍Team [Engine]                                                            Tyres                              Pts			
 11 LIS ▍TAS Alliance Racing [Harlean 1]                                          Solymok                            4

"So, what do you have to say about that last result, Sissie? Finishing last between the ones who completed the race, and one lap behind..."

"How dare you! I'm just doing my work! I'm a good girl I am! I can't be blame if the gub'na don't gimma good car to drive..." - Anneliese answered in a cockney accent, as if she was to cry. It was exactly as Alicia Littledoer, protagonist of My Lovely Dame, an old film, where two ambitious teachers turn her, a poor florist, into a elegant lady.

"Pardon?" - some reporter asked.

"I even said to 'em grey days in the bay always come without a say, but he couldn' afford a betta' car, poor man."

The room resonated in laughter.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Have you seen "My Lovely Dame" recently? I was just thinking about Alicia Littledoer. I'm feeling like her these days. I was so nervous due to the bad qualifying that I couldn't take the best from the car. I felt like Alicia in the horse races... So the difference was I couldn't ask the racer to move his blooming arse, because I was the one racing there, and my horses don't have arses They're too much. But just you wait, I'll be in a podium as soon as possible."

"So, So, if isn't a bother to you, lovely dame, could you tell us if this feeling is due to the report from "Behind the Curtains" that chose you as the prettiest female in the grid?" - another reporter asked.

"Yeah, something like that. Alicia Littledoer is a simpleton, with no great expectations, but she is thrown on this great world of fame and glamour... I felt the same with all of this. I'm just a poor girl dealing with a lot of stuff in a hurry. It's kind of new for me too. I think you read the recent report on me from the Turbo Magazine. They not failed on her reports. They made their research very well, including the part of being too careful with the Karts. Now I can afford to break a car or two, because Harlean is giving the engines for the team. And how patient are Nasunen and Vetinari? Thy're saints! Or better saying, They are saints. They have the patience of the entire world... Missus Lasseps is more strict, like Madam Gilroy, but I think this is from another musical."


"Well, they're not playing with their own money, or at least not their much? How do you feel about the financial health from this team? Do you think this result can make some shareholders cease their support?"

"Our fans are loverly. They keep supporting us. There were many messages of encouragement when I opened my team message box after the race. Things like 'do not mind a bad result' and 'we'll keep supporting you, Sissie!' come daily. Maybe some people think we're not deserving people. We're clearly undeserving people, but we keep doing what we can. We'll travel to Auruna now, for the next round, hope for the best, and work for the best."

"Talking about hoping for the best. What can you say about your team partner, Niklas Schonbaum? Being honest, your results aren't the best, but Lisanderian people supports you and will understand. But how do you see the his performance? You outperformed him in the three races of the season. Is the team already beginning to regret the choice?"

"Not at all! He's a hard working young'un. We're hard working young'uns, you know. You should be reasonable. As well as me, he skipped WGP2 too." - she said, and the last two syllables sounded funny, probably on purpose. - "we started from zero, and we'll keep doing our best until we reach somewhere. We're grateful for the support of his sponsors and for his hard work. People should give a time on him too, he's as experienced as me, and I only hear criticism... You're so bad... Garn! - more laugh, as she mimicked Alicia when saying "Garn!".

"Gentlemen, I say this interview is over. I really want to finish that movie. I'm on that part when she throw the slippers at Professor Wiggums."

[Sorlovia]

Volkov Racing HQ

Sergei sat at his desk with his hands neatly folded in his lap.

He’d taken a risk signing Sara Luna. A few of the board members had warned him against signing her due to the fact that she was an unproven rookie. But he had taken a chance on her. Her results from the Volkov Test Day had convinced most of the board but there had been a couple of holdouts. They wanted to sign one of the more experienced racers with a proven track record instead of a promising rookie. The more experienced racers were always the more appealing candidates for a race team but Sergei had seen a lot of raw potential in Sara. She had the skill to do well and her handling of the car was impressive to say the least.

He smiled softly to himself. It seemed that his gambit was paying off. Sara had taken second place at Crossbay and continued to do well in the qualifying sessions. The thirty seven year old drove with an impressive skill and confidence that was serving her well. Her performance at Crossbay would draw in much needed funds for the team and, quite frankly, look good on their record. Sara was becoming popular on the racing scene and Sergei had instructed Volkov Racing’s media department to ramp up the advertising of her name. When she did well the team did well.

“That’s my girl,” Sergei said with a smile “keep it up and you’re going to go far!”

Volkov Racing Headquarters building in Nemenyets

Gregori’s car had been returned to the Volkov Central Workshop. It seemed that the young Sorlovian wasn’t exactly having the start to the season that he would’ve liked. The initial readouts revealed his car had been underperforming at the Head Mechanic had expressed a desire to bring it back for an immediate service. It had gone through a couple of races so far and there was a chance that some part of it had been damaged. Sara would also have the opportunity to have her car examined by the team if she wished. It wasn’t uncommon for the cars to need a tune-up during the course of a WGPC season and parts had a tendency to wear out over time.

Volkov Motors wanted the best results it could get from its debut race team. They had invested such a great deal of money into the endeavour and the performance of the team would show whether it would be renewed for a second season. If it wasn’t fully satisfied Volkov Motors could very well put its funding forcing the team into bankruptcy. The Volkov name would be pulled and the team would then have to secure the backing of another automotive brand in order to continue in the WGPC. But for now at least Volkov Motors was pleased. Volkov Racing was fourth in the Constructors’ Ranking meaning that they still had a shot at the Constructors Cup. Then add to that Sara’s continuing skill in the races and it made for a happy sponsor. But when it all came down to it it was about money. The race team sponsors invested heavily in their teams and as a result expected to see a return on their investment. A race team secured more funding and support if they continued to be competitive and successful on the WGPC stage. The performance of their paid drivers impacted on them.

---

Gregori felt good being back in Sorlovia. There was something relaxing and healing about coming home. He savoured every moment of the World Gran Prix Championships. It was his favourite part of the year and a source of immense excitement. But there was something special about coming home. Even if it was only for a week.

He'd spent the first three days at the Nemenyets Test Circuit. But when the Head Mechanic had ordered his car into the workshop he'd been left with a break in his standard training schedule. So he'd traveled to Solnichniy to visit his parents and his grandparents' graves in the local cemetery and had then traveled across the country to Tarchenko.

The Sorlovian capital was a sight to behold. It sat on the picturesque shores of Bolshoy Bay and was surrounded on all but one side by thick pine forests and mountains. From the ornate onion domes of St. Pyotr’s Cathedral to the historical Mikhailov Square it was the cultural heart of Sorlovia. Just as it was the political and economic heart. The ancient city had a long and storied history that was dear to the heart of every Sorlovian.

"I don't know why we don't come here more often," Gregori said softly "this city always moves me. There is so much history here."

"Perhaps we are just too busy," Elena replied with a smile "taking a bit of time off sometimes would do us both some good."

Between his racing schedule and her modelling one neither of them often had much time off. If he wasn't racing in the WGPC then he was racing in the Sorlovian Gran Prix or some other race. If she wasn't away at Tarchenko Fashion Week she was away at a magazine shoot or some other sort of high profile event. They were both extremely busy individuals and that took a mental toll on them. There always seemed to be things that needed to be done or appointments that had to be attended. Gregori had begun an overnight celebrity in Sorlovia after WGPC16 and found himself with all the demands that came with that.

He was often taking part in commercial ads or promoting his own products. If that wasn't the case he was away taking part in interviews with motorsports magazines or making guest appearances in motoring shows. The small boy from Solnichniy never would've been able to imagine what he would one day find himself doing. Not even in his wildest dreams. He'd started with soapbox cars and worked his way up to go-karts. Racing in the WGPC, something he'd only seen a few times on snippets of international news, had always been a dream.

[Nekoni]

It can be said that the Nekoni way of doing things, particularly in motorsport, is to have everything split into two halves, one the complete diametric opposite of the other, and in the middle, a major incident that turns the tide in, or (usually) against their favour. In the case of Scuderia Fuoco e Ghiacci way back in its first season, the turning point was that moment where the madman pit boss, Christian Fatali, punched Alexandra Mayari in the face for having the audacity to chide him in public for tampering with her car in Vilita. At that point, Alex was the last of the entire grid to be yet to score. The moment they switched the fiery old drunk bastard out with a younger, fairer hand, the season completely inverted, ending up with somehow, dominating the back half of the championship to do the double. The seasons after, however, were nearly all the opposite side of the coin.

The season after, a modest, yet consistent season completely died at the moment that Alex nearly did at the hands of a vengeful Fatali. The one after, SFeG's swansong, saw a change to Nekoni's circuit up to Nova Valley, which put the final nail in the coffin for Alex's "finish top 10 or resign" contract stipulations. A change of paint didn't do anything to fix this issue, either. Polaris' first season in 16 started amazingly strong. Out of nowhere, as one of the underdogs, Erica Okumura, the plucky young driver with Hodoran blood, ended up taking the top prize at the first ever Nimban Grand Prix. She carried so much momentum into her home Grand Prix at Rivoli, and...it died. She flopped, and, as that flagstone was removed, the rest of the season fell into the abyss with it. This season was no different. What hurt even more, though, was that Erica peaked when there was nothing on the line.

The fire in Eelandii mentally hurt her, much more than it perhaps should have. Seeing flames that close to her for the first time, the sudden grasp of fear tighten around her heart when she immediately had to embrace the prospect of being burnt alive for all the world to see. It was a new, horrible feeling for her, and the terrible performance at Hodori could be chalked up to it. Her breakdown at Dashoze seemed to be the head of a problem that had been building and building up inside of her for a long time. However, when it rains, it inevitably pours.

The first half of the weekend at Crossbay was, to put it bluntly, dire. Whilst a thirteenth in the practice was just merely 'fine', the team could tell that Erica's heart really wasn't in the right place. She didn't smile in the paddock. She barely spoke, only making a sound when someone asked her something, to which she'd reply in as few words as her brain would let her muster, head down. This led to one godawful qualifying session. After leaving the track for a quick warm-up, Erica laid down a basic 1'31 for a laptime to give the tires a bit more play. She continued a decent-looking lap through the underwater tunnels for the first 'proper' lap.

The circuit was easy enough, after all, Erica had experience of turning race wins from ninth place on it before. However, that was when she was hopeful, and it all came to a premature end on turn 15. She had attempted to do the same line she'd done for years, and, in an uncharacteristic display of carelessness, took the turn far too fast. She launched the car sideways-first, off into the gravel, and, unlike the off-track excursion in Turori, she said nothing. No angry French screaming. She was dead silent. "Eri, are you alright? Eri, let me know, please!" pleaded Alexandra from the team radio, but Erica was still saying nothing. She was empty.

When the medical staff arrived on the scene, perturbed by Erica's lack of movement for over a minute, only then did she react. She climbed, defeated, out of her car, right next to the Armco barrier, and she sat in the gravel, resting her back against it, helmet still on, face buried in her hands. Her eyes were closed, saying nothing, but, given the minor shoulder movements, you could tell she was weeping.

---

Erica didn't turn up to the paddock at the end of the session. She wasn't around to know that she would be starting from last place tomorrow. She didn't care that Sayono would be attempting to continue her point-scoring ways from a respectable 11th. As day turned to Saturday night, as the lights of the main roads glowed surrounding the track, Erica was still in the darkness, literally so. Her trailer lights were off, her TV was off. The only thing that she had energy to do was to sit, as she did, in her bed, halfway in, face buried in her knees. The only thought she could muster in the past 6 hours was the recurring though that 'I don't belong here anymore'.

Suddenly, a knock on the door. Erica didn't want to answer. She didn't want to open up, and she remained on her bed. Another knock. Still no reply. Eventually, a voice came, muffled through the walls of the trailer:

"Eri, mate? It's me, Alex. Are you up for a chat?"

Erica, despite really not wanting for company right now, figured that Alex was the sort of person that would be knocking all night if she had to. It would have been just easier if she got it over with now. She slid to the end of the bed, perching on the end of it, and flicked the lock on the door, and the door opened under its own gravity. The build quality of these trailers weren't the greatest, despite certainly looking the part. Alexandra entered, and instinctively flicked the lightswitch on in the room. As the flourescent tube brought light to the room, she could see that Erica's eyes were red raw. She had been crying. A lot.

Alex knew that she needed to do something, maybe see if she could talk her up. She never really thought of herself as a counselor, but Erica needed her help, even if Erica didn't know it. Even though it was buried under layers of grief, depression, who knows what else, Alex needed to drag her out of it. She sat down on the bed next to her. As she did, without any prompt at all, Erica said the first thing that she had said in about 6 hours.

"Are you mad at me?"

Alex reached an arm around her and hugged her tightly. The first bit of warmth that Erica had felt in a while. As she felt the warmth, she dug her face into Alex's shoulder and wept. Alex gently patted her shoulder as the embrace continued. "Of course I'm not, love." Since becoming a pit manager, Alex remembered what she had been through under Fatali. All of the humiliation, seeing a man reduced to belittling her drunkenly, physically assaulting her, heck, trying to KILL her. As a pit boss, Alex swore it upon herself to never become the person that Fatali became. She would be a leader like Minna turned out to be, the fair hand willing to give out as many chances as needed be. And with Erica, someone who Alex saw a lot of herself in, she would have hated to see Erica go through what she had done. "Is there anything you want to talk about? You'll have my honour that it doesn't leave this room."

Erica trusted Alex. Perhaps more than anybody in the world. From the very beginning, through being her bodyguard when the paparazzi came around at the airport, to being almost effectively her PA at that disastrous interview last year in Marina Point, she knew that Alex had always had her back. She had even forgiven that time when Alex threw her out of the plane with a Rubik's Cube. Alex was her boss, but she was also a colleague, and more importantly, someone who she could genuinely call a best friend. She realised that perhaps she should talk. There was no better person to talk to.

After Alex had prepared a round of tea, completely black, just as she knew Erica liked it, and, after calming down a little after her emotional outburst, taking a long, deep sip, Erica came out with something she had never told anyone before. "Did I ever tell you what happened to my parents?"
"You never did. They were Hodoran, right?"
"Yeah, they were." Erica paused, in her mind still unsure whether it was a good idea to tell Alex what was on her mind. "I don't remember much of them. I think I was five when I saw them last."
"What happened?" Alex asked, uneasily.
"House fire. Right when we were sleeping. Dad got me out first. He went in to save Mum and..." Erica took a deep breath. "I never saw him again."
Alex stared back at Erica, open-mouthed in shock, unsure at quite what was the best acceptable way to respond to what she had just heard. "Bloody hell. I'm so sorry, Eri."
"You know what the weirdest thing is, Allie? My foster parents got me into this whole racing thing. And, in a weird way, when I've been racing, it's almost made me forget about seeing that night." Her voice went quivery again, as if she was about to cry again, but her resolve just powered her through. "But, when I saw those flames...I went back again. I thought I was over it, but...I never will be, will I?"

There was a small, awkward silence, as Alex tried to figure out the right words to say. As nasty as her last few years got, it wasn't anywhere near as bad as that. It made Alex want to protect her more. "I can't imagine what you're going through. But I will say this," Alex continued as she downed the last bit of her tea. "For you to come this far, in this hell of a sport, knowing what the risks are, and still be smiling most of the time? Mate...you've got more fucking mental strength than I ever had." Erica let out a brief smile at that. The first smile that anybody had seen in weeks. Well done, Alex. You're getting in there.

"And what I do know is that the Erica that I know doesn't give up when the results aren't going her way. The Erica I know spent the last two damn years spinning goddamn gold out on the track from the back half of the pack." Erica nodded in agreement. Jesus, thought Alex, am I really doing this? "And the Erica that I know, that YOU know, the Erica Okumura that has been clamouring to break free, is gonna dust herself off, stand on her own two feet, take a big fucking shot of confidence and tomorrow, mate, you are going to give the world the drive of your damn life. And I KNOW that you can do it."

This was working. Erica stood up out of her chair, and gave Alex a big hug. "Thank you. Thank you so much." Alex, touched that she had seemingly brought her back around, accepted the embrace, and planted a friendly kiss on the top of her head. "No matter what you do tomorrow, love, you're not gonna let me down."

---

A new, freshly-invigorated Erica strode into the paddock on raceday, wearing a reserved smile that hadn't been seen for many a while in the Polaris garage. Now that she had thrown a large weight off of her shoulder the night before, all her mind was on raceday. Politely, she smiled and nodded through the pre-race speech, noting that Alexandra's talk of needing to drag the weekend out of the shit was really for the purpose of the other crew there. She already knew what she had to do. Get the car over the line, as close to tenth as possible. She knew that any talk of podiums was silly from the back of the pack, and any real points scored would be a miracle, however, a good surprise on the launch, coupled with an actually complete race, and...well, who knows?

As she sat in the purple and orange car, facing twenty-five drivers ahead, she knew that she'd have to go big. As the lights dropped...she went for it. As all the cars darted around the first turn, up to three wide, Erica knew that she had to cut through the pack. Going deliberately wide around the first turn, and bravely outbraking, she took three on the bend, and another couple immediately after. By the time she exited the last tunnel, and managed to get round the turn that did her chances in yesterday, she was in the late-teens.

"ERI!" shouted Alex through the radio. "I'm loving that! More of that please!" In the zone, she smiled, and responded back with "Coming right up!", and darted down the start/finish straight, catching Devereux as she went. Seventeenth. Nine positions in one lap. Alex was right. She WAS doing the drive of her life.

As the laps continued, Erica settled into a slightly less manic drive, only attempting the overtakes when she was certain that she didn't need to stretch too hard to make it. Bringing the car home was the big issue here, but of course, at this point, points were on her mind. She figured out that her best move here was to go for an early pit in, switch to harder tires and attempt a one-stop race. It worked for her two seasons ago. She would have a prime window on lap seventeen. Coming out of the first tunnel, she noticed the flashing yellow lights lining up the entire track, and the radio responded. "Mercer-Daly's down. 24 left. Safety car's out, Sayo's about to get in the pit, but we'll have time to see you in this lap if you keep it below the delta."

Erica chanced it. Wasting a bit of time slowing down her car around the faster back half, the Polaris garage welcomed Erica's car just after they had waved off the #52. In the lightning quick tire change, Erica looked out of the corner of her right eye. Mayari was at the pit entrance. Noticing her looking, she let a quick smile and a nod to her, as if to say 'Keep it up. I'm proud of you'. Although she had said to Erica that she couldn't let Alex down, Erica had zero intention of putting that pledge to the test.

As the race resumed from its safety car procession, the circuit traffic started to space out again, as Okumura tried to cut through the pack to regain places better than the twenty-first she currently was. Fortunately, a track like Crossbay was very, very much one of Erica's wheelhouses. No majorly difficult sections to have to plan, just a progression of constant radius turns. Every overtaking opportunity was a simpler matter of cause and effect. Turn 15 became safer again, and now, thanks to the new-found confidence of Erica, was an overtaking point again. When a rival dared to go as fast as they could in 14, she seened to dare that bit more, which made the eventual passing point three seconds later much, much simpler. Plus, the more predictable style of turn meant that Erica could push out her second stint on harder tires much longer than on other tracks. This all combined to a blur. A purple, shining blur, expertly piloted by a now smiling Erica.

The tire management went off without a hitch, as a bunch of other drivers had to pull in for their second stops, whilst Erica continued, passing them simply whilst they were stuck at 50mph exiting the lanes. At lap 55, Erica heard from the radio a sound that she'd been waiting for, for a long while...

"Keep it together, Erica. Ten laps left, and you're in the points. Bring it home, Eri!" See, when a drive like this happens, to the person controlling the car, it all becomes a blur. Almost like a mirage, or a dream. Time itself seems to cease meaning. The mind of the driver perfectly syncs with the circuit, the arms turning the steering wheel become a machine on auto-pilot, as if pre-programmed to turn an exact degree, for an exact moment. When everything manages to fall in the right place, everything perfectly balanced to the rhythm of the circuit, driving, in a way, almost becomes like music. A sequence of events, each one occuring at the precise moment that it was meant to, the precise speed and position it was intended. Each event, every turn, every gear change or pedal press, all releasing more endorphins into the brain of the driver, just as every note of a favourite song does to the listener. This was driving euphoria...and it had been so long since Erica last experienced it. Perhaps it was last when she was in Hodori with the FH cars. Whenever it was, it was here now, and an Erica that had spent so long silently fighting her inner demons had seemed to have finally given them the exorcism that the Erica that Alex knew could give it. As the car went round the once-thorn in her side turn 15, another dragon slayed by her, she felt the goosebumps stand on the back of her neck as she crossed the line at the end for the first time this season, and, despite there being no massive crowds to cheer her like her win here, the sound that greeted her was more than enough.

"P6! You bloody did it, mate! I'm so goddamn proud of you!" Alex screamed through the mic. It was only six points. But, they were six that she didn't have two hours ago. A night ago, she didn't have the will. She had won that back, too. As the car pulled into the garage, in the complete opposite to both the race at Dashoze and the qualifying yesterday, Erica couldn't wait to climb out, rip off her helmet and immediately run into the outstretched arms of Alexandra. As she batted a tear of joy out of her eye, she spoke in Alex's ear: "I couldn't have done it without you. Thank you!"

Alex responded back in the same way.

"It wasn't me driving. This was all you." As she gripped tightly, she continued. "I think it's fair to say that my old nickname doesn't fit me any more. I think you're the real Phoenix here."

[TJUN-ia]

Sunday - Race
Starting 13th was certainly way better than starting dead last and for Lane Carter, it was better than nothing. He knew he could improve from P13 at Crossbay but with the field as stacked as it was, he didn't know how good he might be. As he began his formation lap on Nimbus Bay, with one Nimban one pole (Stone) and the other directly ahead of him (Ryker Lane), he thought that this race will definitely show his abilities to the world. Hodori was a fluke and it would be here that he would shine. He lined up ready to drive and have fun and the five lights went out.

Unfortunately, it would be a quiet race for him but a chaotic one for everyone else. Cocoabo #23 only survived 3 laps and Jean Mercer-Daly went off after 17, bringing out a safety car. Most of the grid pitted, including Lane, but that wouldn't change his fortunes as he slipped down the field a bit. Niklas Schonbaum went on lap 26 but the big shock would come from Ælund as both iBen Toralmintii and Terho Talvela retired 5 laps apart. It was a shock to hear on the radio but it wouldn't change his fortunes as he crossed the line a lap down in 17th. Ryker Lane, who started ahead of the Galarian, ended up winning the race ahead of high-rising Sara Luna and Sigur Bjarnason to take the lead of the Drivers Championship by 10 points. William Archer, who started behind the Galarian, ended up with points in 8th ahead of Gregori Krupin and R.L. Cruisin. Lane Carter started in the middle of two point-scorers and ended up with nothing. He's now tied-17th in the standings, with Race Eelandii now down to 5th in the Constructors.

As he walked down the quiet grid, he started to wonder what the point was anymore. He just wasn't delivering anything to his employers and he felt like a liability. His inner demon was right: he was nothing. Who would want to actually be friends with him? He's nothing, a loner at heart. Next up was Arkensa in Auruna but he felt that he wouldn't do anything there either. He found a quiet spot to sit down, at a table out of sight, and he remembered a song that spoke to him well. He got out headphones, plugged into his phone, and found said song. He hovered his finger above the play button and realised that this song was all he was: an example, nothing to be excited about. He pressed play and began to listen in silence, taking in the words that he knew all to familiar because he was Lane Carter and his might as well be a ghost...

[Togonistan]

Nimban Grand Prix
Race Day

''That's P7 Dom, P7.''

Dom Falepeau heard his engineer over the radio as he crossed the finish line. Having started on soft tyres, Dom had a decent start to the race and managed to slide himself into top 4, until he got pitted for mediums during safety car. The safety car definitely had benefit some drivers more than others, but overall, he had managed to stick inside top 10 for largely the whole race and eventually finish the race right where he started, despite his tyre wear starting to hurt his pace at the later stages.

''That's 4 points for your efforts today. Solid pace throughout the race, some great tyre management. I admit we were a bit worried if the strategy would work for you but you managed to hold on to it. Well done.''

''Thanks mate. Thank you everyone. Car felt great, tyres started to feel really worn by the end but yeah, all good.''

''Yup, we noticed, but you managed to hold on to it.''

''What are the final results?''

''So top 3 is Lane, Luna, Bjarnason. Jasmin is P5 and also got fastest lap. That's 14 points for the team in total.''

''Great job from her too. It's a nice result for the team, hope we can keep it up like this.''

''Same. Scenario 1, scenario 1. See you soon.''

As Dom parked his car at the pit lane and got out, he stretched his legs that had got a bit sore from sitting in the car. Next, he walked over to Jasmin and gave her a fistbump for the result. Both MRT-s had earned points and Dom felt positive as he walked over to weighing area for... weighing, obviously, after which he gave some interviews, followed by other routine post-race procedures. Next morning, he would leave The Wardship, to which he couldn't help but look forward to. He would surely sit down with some teammates in a bar to enjoy a drink or two, as well as possibly smoke a whole pack of cigarettes in one go. Those nicotine thingies he had been doing whole weekend surely helped a lot, but they were not even close to some good old-fashioned cigarettes.

2 days later...

Following Nimban Grand Prix, Dom had boarded a plane back to Mattijana with other team members, where he would stay until the next round in Auruna to help the team with testing and a bit of this and that. Although he was offered a quick break to visit his home back in Togonistan, Dom had politely declined the opportunity this time, stating he would rather not undertake another long flight just to return a few days later. He didn't really feel the need to anyways, as he kept contact with his operations back home via means of technology. Dom was rest assured his domestic racing team was in the safe hands of Timo, with whom he had spoken via phone just last night.

Dom had woken up early in the morning and left the team facilities for a morning run at the nearby roads. He had invited Mark, his performance coach, to join him. Being an early bird as always, the latter had happily agreed to accompany him. So, there they were, the two men, jogging side-by-side, surrounded by beautiful Mattijanan scenery. They had picked a comfortable pace, allowing the two to have a little chit-chat while doing it.

''So tell me Dom, what is your secret?''

''Secret?'' Dom raised his eyebrows, ''what you mean?''

''What I mean is, how come you seem to get along with everyone you meet?''

''I don't know mate, I guess I just like talking to people.''

''You sure do. I mean, heck, by now, you seem to know everyone on the paddock by their name.''

''Ah come on now... I don't know that many people..''

''Sure, that's why I saw you playing cards with two mechanics from Volkov after the race. Because you obviously don't know that many people.''

''Hey, we had a good game! Besides, had I known you were nearby, I would've invited you to join in.''

''Thanks Dom but... I'm not very good at that.''

''Haha, no worries mate. As they say, one who is not lucky with cards is lucky with love.''

''Is that some Togonistani saying I've never heard of?''

''Yeah... something like that.''

''Speaking of love, you must be doing quite well in that department.''

''You think so?''

''Come on Mr. Handsome, you being amongst the sexiest drivers in WGPC and all that, surrounded by admirers everywhere.''

''Oh, are you referring to that article everyone's been talking about lately?''

''Well it has been hard to look past.''

''Yeah haha, knowing that tabloid, their article was probably written by some random bloke in 5 minutes. It's nothing but some quick clickbait. You see, there are tabloids, then there are yellow tabloids, then there are peestain-yellow tabloids, and then there is Behind The Curtains. It's basically a Togonistani equivalent of MattiGoss.''

''They sure like to write about you though. Didn't you pose for them a while ago?''

''That was like 2 years ago or something. But you know, it's all marketing in the end. All publicity...''

''...is good publicity. I've heard that one before.''

''Haha, exactly!''

Dom and Mark stopped at the side of a road, facing each other to do some quick stretches and check their pulse.

''But seriously, do you have someone by your side?''

''Nope. But last time I checked my socials, I had... 5 348 209 pending marriage proposals. Quite a variety to pick from.''

''Too much to choose from, eh?''

''I know right... no but, to be honest, I'm actually hoping to find someone special. Someone who would be able to look beyond all the glitz and glam the public likes to attach to me.''

''You mean someone who would like you for your true self, not just the flashy exterior?''

''Yeah, exactly.''

''Thought so. To be honest, you've never struck me as a f*ckboy, despite the rumours.''

Dom smiled. ''Thanks mate.''

''There must be someone you have your eye on though, right?''

''Well there is someone I have a certain sympathy towards but that's it for now.''

''Oh?''

''I'm not sure it would work out anyways. It's a bit complicated.''

''Have you two known each other for long?''

''Not that long. I've known her for a bit but I'd like to get to know her better though. I just don't really know what to do with her.''

''Oh come on you stag! Look at yourself! Just do your usual thing and chat with her. Ask her out, can't be that hard.''

''Yeah, easy for you to say.''

''Look Dom, I've been married for 4 years now. 4 happy years. My other half has always been there for me, it's an amazing feeling and I really want you to experience the same. Take a chance, you never risk you'll never drink champagne.''

''Hey, are you the guy with smart sayings all of a sudden?'' Dom laughed.

''I just speak from my experience... listen, do I happen to know her by any chance?''

''Well, maybe. Can I trust you? Without having to read about it from Behind The Curtains tomorrow?''

''Dom,'' Mark looked Dom deep in the eyes, ''I can swear on behalf of all that is holy for me, that this conversation will stay between us.''

''Sigh, fine... It's Jasmin... look, it's not like I have a crush on her or anything, I'd just like to get to know her better.''

''Oh...'' Mark took a moment to think, ''Look, I might be able to help you with a piece of advice on that. You should invite her for a coffee some time. If there's one thing I know about her, it's that she adores coffee.''

''You know what... you're right. I should do that soon.''

Mark nod and pat Dom on the back. Suddenly, there was a smirk on his face and next moment, he started running again. ''Come on now, first one back to the HQ wins!''

''Hey! I don't even need four wheels to be faster than you!'' Dom said while laughing and started chasing Mark.

[Diarcesia]

[Includes a contribution from Auruna]

Nimban Grand Prix

The team's pit strategy for Sara was a no-brainer. "It's one-stop or bust today. We have addressed the problems with the ECU. Do what you do best, Sara. Leave the rest to us."

There was nothing but her and the car now.

Sara raced the machine hard. On lights-out, her car was a little shaky, but she eventually controlled that. The works engine rumbled as the starting grid chaos opened up and allowed her to get the jump on the navy AGP003 of iBen Toralmintii, something that she didn't notice. She hoped her team and she would work wonders today, one segment at a time.

Her timings during this race were impeccable. Recognizing Sara's reputation as a street-race specialist, Gregori taught her some more tricks on the more driver-oriented tracks. She was grateful for that, and her regard of her number-one driver as more of a mentor figure than a potentially jealous rival only strengthened. Those tricks proved useful in Crossbay Circuit.

It did not take long for Sara to notice how Jasmin Kranjska immediately ahead of her skillfully bested the other drivers. The Volkov Mark II had a lot of room to turn up its pace, so Sara decided to shadow Kranjska and bask in the slipstream in the straights. Then, the Diarcesian will minimize exposure to dirty air behind the Mattijanan around the corners. And when the latter overtook someone, the former did the same. Polaris's Erica Okumura appeared to have caught on to that as well, and the qualifying last-placer was constantly on Sara's back.

That meant that spectators bore witness to a procession of Kranjska, Luna, and Okumura working their way up the field, overtaking other drivers but not each other. It stayed that way for a while until Sara pitted. The team insisted for her to keep on the race while the safety car was out.

"Are we gonna pit yet? We're approaching the end of our window," Sara asked during lap 22.

"Push some more to get closer to Kranjska."

"The tires don't have much left."

"Just do what you can. We're attempting to undercut Kranjska."

"Copy that. I just hope I won't end up in a barrier or something."

Sara's next lap felt like an eternity as she waited for the signal. Thankfully, the Tropicorp Sifakas still had their grip.

"You can box now, Sara."

"Finally, the tires are starting to fall off the cliff."

The pit stop lasted 1.83 seconds.

"Go, go, go," Sara's engineer radioed as the car sped off.

Commentary
A: "And Sara Luna finally pulls over for the pit stop."
B: "Volkov definitely took their time there. They did not grab the opportunity to do it during the safety car."
A: "Looks like Luna is going for a one-stop race."
B: "Would it pay off? We'll find out soon."

A few laps later...

A: "Jasmin Kranjska will now have her pit stop. She doesn't have enough gap to defend against Luna. Luna's gonna undercut her!"
B: "Sara Luna just stole the position from Kranjska! What an audacious move from Volkov Racing!"
A: "Here comes Kranjska after a very quick pit stop, scrambling to get out in time. Would Okumura also make the jump on Kranjska?"
B: "Okumura didn't make it! Kranjska barely managed to get ahead, and she and Okumura are neck-to-neck!"

The race was now wide open for Sara. All the while, she did not worry much about initiating overtakes. She kept the temperatures in check, optimized her tires' longevity, and stayed in the racing line for as long as she can.

Kinu Luminna was a tough one to crack, however, and Sara had to fight to pass him. She was at P4, and Kinu was on his way to a podium for the WGPC Motorworks team. He was highly motivated to defend his position. For a time, Sara was unable to get past him, and she only succeeded because he made a crucial cornering mistake. Kinu locked up on entry, went wide, got on the kerbs, then spun off the track. His car was intact and he was able to finish the race, but he lost a lot of time and positions in the process.

Sara's engineer excitedly radioed her after she crossed the finish line.

"And that's the end of the race. P2, Sara. P23 to P2. Congratulations."

"Nica! Nica! Yes!" she exclaimed in Diarcesian Latin as she stopped the car. Tears were starting to flow from her eyes.

"I can't... This is unbelievable, you all are miracle workers! Спасибо большое," she added with a phrase she learned in Sorlovia.

"Пожалуйста!" her engineer replied. "I know you can do this!"

"Still can't believe it."

Sara turned on her inter-driver radio to talk to Gregori. "P2, Gregori. I'm at P2! Thank you, thank you. Push as far as you can!"

Instead of a perfect storm, the stars aligned and everything went well for Sara. There were no ECU issues, no mistakes were made, the pit strategy worked nicely, and she also had some luck on her side. The starting circumstances were difficult for Sara, even more than the previous races. Fortunately, she was with a decidedly galvanized team. She now had her second podium in Crossbay Circuit in as many appearances, and her first in WGPC. In the post-race conference, she announced that she would donate part of her winnings to a charity for less-fortunate children.

---

An Email That Looked Like a Contract Extension

It was the night after the race day. Sara opened her laptop for the first time this night. She read part of the contents of an interesting inbox item aloud. "I just want to thank you for your excellent performance with Volkov Racing. We have decided that we would like to extend your contract for the next WGPC season..."

"'I'll keep my options open,' that's how I will reply," she told herself. She was being her usual self when it came to these affairs. Once she got that luxury after entering WGP3, she would test several cars from different teams every season. She would watch closely how each worked as she drove it. Afterwards, she would sign with the team that had it best. In the WGP3, it was Norris Racing who consistently won over Sara. Even after a few disappointing results, she had never felt that the team failed her.

Now, would the next logical step be a proper win? Three races into the season with Volkov, she earned her first podium. With her currently placed high in the driver title standings, she was aware that the pressure would be kept up. She had been within the top 10 finishers in every race so far. She had to be not deterred and maintain her form.

For the next race, she would try harder. Her previous qualifying positions left much to be desired. Constantly fighting to reach the top 10 takes a lot of energy and could lead her to making mistakes. The best she could muster so far was P16 on the grid. The team relied on her to start closer to the front, especially in the street circuits. It would be critical for their future in the season.

This was no easy task. There were multiple scenarios where she could fail to score points in a bad starting position. If kept at that rate, she would miss out on her chance to win the championship. She had to start making plans to fix this soon.

Sara spoke to a few people over the next few days. Some of them included Gregori and the team staff, and others would be her friends from outside racing. All of them gave Sara advice that she thought made a lot of sense, one way or the other. It doesn't hurt to keep prepared during a season in the WGPC.

[Valentine Z]

Post 9 – Regretion.

19th. Close and very nearly at the bottom, she thought to herself. Adriana was sure that she would end up like Jolyn, which would mean no offense to her friend, but the matter of fact that both of them happened to be on the losing end when it came to WGP2 a long while back. Adriana is more or less suffering the same fate, with her results not giving her the points that she needs for the team.

“I cannot be constantly doing this,” she thought to herself, “I cannot let Fireline down. They chose me, and I need to make them proud, maybe just a little.”

The other drivers were certainly no slouch. They were all doing well, especially one Sara Luna, who she has been constantly hearing about over and over the news. Maybe she could get some wisdom out of these champions, or veterans. That, and her data. Of course, it would not be a Valentian AI without data. Clarissa, Adriana, Tiffany, and the countless other AIs and robots, on top of people, all rely on cold and factual data. Adriana happened to get what she needed today.

As she was preparing for the race today, she figured that she would simply use her onboard sensors to get some meaningful data. One of them, perhaps, was “Braking Distance,” to determine the minimum distance needed in order to clear the path. The formula itself was simple: Speed, divided by 10, then square the whole thing, and you will get the braking distance for your vehicle. In a race, however, things can get a little different, and the data indeed shows.



“Fascinating,” Adriana commented, alongside Angela and Angeline who have been looking at the data in turn, “And imagine, this was on the Dry condition of today! Imagine a wet road, or with several other factors kicking in!”

“50,000+ data points? That’s a pretty good start!” Angeline squealed with a clap, “I am happy that you managed to get a lot of data from today’s race. Acceleration, velocity, distance – not displacement, mind you… all of this to present this data. Simple, yet elegant!”

“Why, thank you! Yeah, I always figured that I could use this. You know, such a thing as braking too much, or braking too little.”

“Did you manage to get the track-specific data as well?” Angela asked, curious.

“Oh, unfortunately no. I thought about it, but with the layout of the track, things get a little bit more… complicated.”

“That, and I suppose that you don’t need it anymore when you are going over to the next track. Maybe you can get some during a practice!” Angeline suggested in turn.

“That’s a brilliant idea, haha!” Adriana nodded, whilst sitting down and slowly removing her right leg to apply some lubricant to it.

“Oooh, something the matter?” Angela asked.

“Oh nah, I’m fine. Just need a little bit of frictionlessness.”

With a bit of downtime their way, news and simply playing on the sims was not going to be enough for the Valentians. They figured that they could at least visit around the towns and cities that they have been deployed to – some shopping here and there, trying out the delicacies, the whole nine yards. Angeline managed to buy a smartphone for herself, citing that the camera was really nice and magical. Angela, on the other hand, came back empty-handed, unsure and conflicted on what to get for herself, and not finding anything nice in particular. As the sun sets and came the night life, the three Valentians enjoyed the company (and the eyes) that they were getting, as well as the simple food and drinks that they have treated themselves to.

“Quite a beautiful place, isn’t it?” Angela asked, her eyes brightened up by the beautiful night sky along with the city nights. Angeline, in the meantime, called the Valentians with her new smartphone, but to no avail.

“Ooh, oops, my bad, hehe,” she remarked, “I forgot that these devices cannot do… interdimensional.”

As she finishes her sentence, she used her wrist computer to call the Valentians back home for a casual conversation. Smiles and informalities were exchanged, along with a couple more drinks between the three Valentians. Angela and Angeline went for a little bit of drinking, while Adriana stick to orange juice.

“… So I have been thinking,” Angela suggested, continuing on with the conversation, “I think you should go and talk to a few people around us, haha!”

“Ohh, right, more interaction,” Adriana nodded, “Who do you think would be good this time? I would love to talk to those… robot people, but I’d hate to be a bother.”

Angeline: “Hmm, what about Lune?”

Angela: “You mean Luna?”

Angeline: “Oh yeah, Sara Luna. She seems like a pretty nice person.”

Adriana: “I agree! But err… I don’t know, would it even be good? Or awkward? What if it seems like I am just warming up to her just because she is doing great?”

Angela: “I don’t think they will feel that way. So far, everyone here are nice and friendly, you know? Maybe it was our heights, sure, but they are welcoming!”

Angeline: “Ohh, I got it! What about that Dario fellow? He sounds like a bundle of joy.”

Angela took out her tablet and showed the two a couple of Dario-related memes. One in particular where he has a very distinctive and bold set of glasses and a mustache.

Adriana: “Heh, I do love a person with a great sense of humour! He seems like a dashing man.”

Angela: “Maybe just go up and talk to him if you have the chance. Nothing too romantic, you know? Just a friendly “Hey, how are you?” and then offer out for coffee or lunch, then just talk to the fellow!”

Adriana: “Yeah, I will see to that. Haha, thanks, guys!”

The three of them clinked their glasses before downing their last shot. Angeline slowly shuffled back to the plane alongside Adriana while Angela was fast asleep, being carried by Adriana.

---

The opportunity rightfully came, indeed. Navigating through the corridors and checking the loungings, Adriana soon found the signage that leads to the racer that she thought she would talk to: Dario Nülkeschläger.

“German? Well, that’s pretty nice!” Adriana thought to herself, approaching the door and readying herself. Do robots get nervous? Adriana sure is feeling one, but she is an AI.

*Knock knock knock*

“Hello there! Ahh, I am Adriana! I hope you are, err, home, Mr. Dario! If you are free, I would just like to talk to you! You know, friendly conversation, maybe a lunch or coffee outside, and maybe tips on how to drive better. I could use a little, if you don’t mind.”

Maybe that last part should have been saved for later.

[Squidroidia]

"Daryl that is a 1:30.681."

"FOR WHAT?"

"Uh, Daryl, it's your qualifying time. 1:30.68-"

"FOR WHAT? I bust my ass out her all day and I spend 90 seconds bumbling around Crossbay?"

"You are aware the Motorworks car is made of bricks, right?"

"I'm at least glad that I get to spend my day driving cars around!"

"Unfortunately you won't spend tomorrow racing your car. P26, worst Motorworks car on the grid. You are once again going home."

"Great."

Unfortunately, Daryl was still susceptible to this phenomenon in the motorsports world named "Losing your cool". Surely after qualifying for the race in Hodori he would start cranking out qualifications over the other 3 drivers at Motorworks, but of course this fight wasn't over. 3 races were done and 7 rounds were left to go. He knew that the Motorworks team was going to bring the best out of him, but all he could hear was a crack. This was his worst qualification position. He hasn't made Q2 yet in either 2 tiered or elimination format. As the 63 car headed into the pits, Daryl got out, being careful not to damage his steering wheel as he lamented another poor qualification run. It was another trip up to the stands for the Squidroidian.

The Motorworks crew, however, did have a high placing driver that got to Q4, but in traditional Motorworks fashion, Kinu Luminna's brick of a car fell down the order to 20th once the Nimban Grand Prix ended and the home team's Ryker Lane got the win and a trip to the top of the Drivers standings. All Daryl could do was watch Luminna's brick fall down onto the ground, not cracking as was expected from that high of a starting position - 2nd row.

As Luminna kept falling, he took light of this situation. He was driving a brick. A brick that can't qualify on anything but a rainy day, and even then he could only barely qualify over the Hulkenbuger. But the fact that he was even driving a car motivated him. It didn't matter how bad he did on qualifying day or even race day if he made it, he was still driving a car. And even if it was a brick (Even if it was one designed and developed by a legendary racing team), it was faster than most of the cars wizzing through Squidroidia, if not all of them. And Daryl was a speed demon at times.

His father Yusuke also helped him through this, not through absolutely spamming FunStar all over the paddock, but by calming him down. He knew that his son was only human, he wasn't as advanced as some of the drivers coming through the field. The guy was only 18 and in his rookie campaign, he had plenty of time to develop with the best setup possible on any given race day. And hey, call the Motorworks car a brick all you like, at least Daryl and company aren't crashing all the time.

Now it was off to Auruna. Hopefully the antics stop otherwise he could be acting up for a while... And don't make him mad.

[Sorlovia]

So far it didn’t look like it was going to be his season. But Gregori was not the type of man to give up. He mightn’t win the Championship but there was still the exhilaration and enjoyment of the season to make the most of. Still, he told himself, there was no reason to give up on the Championship quite yet. It might not be looking good for him at the moment but it was still early in the season. He could still come from behind to surprise the leading racers with a comeback. After all, he was known for a habit of taking out higher place finishes when it looked like he would be relegated to the bottom or middle of the pack. It was never wise to discount Gregori Krupin or any other race for that matter. If they were skilled enough an outlier could become a leader.

Gregori had spent the past hour with his pastor Dmitry Popov. The man was his closest friend and his spiritual advisor. Gregori was, after all, an openly Christian man with a firm faith. It was no surprise to learn that he regularly met with his pastor and attended a local church whenever he was home in Sorlovia and abroad. Sometimes it felt good to forget about the pressures of the WGPC season for a time and enjoy some normalcy. Gregori’s faith was the anchor of his life and a source of comfort for him in the midst of everything that was going on.

“So Gregori,” Dmitry continued “it looks like you’re in a bit of a rut this season. But it is often in such times that we learn about ourselves and the Lord. I am pleased to see that you have been keeping up with your devotionals.”

“Thank you Dmitry,” Gregori replied “it is hard to find time sometimes. But I find that they help me to find peace in the difficult moments. This season is looking like it’s going to be a challenging one. I admit that there have been a few moments of frustration.”

Gregori had, prior to meeting with Dmitry, spent a full day out on the training circuit in Solnichniy. In order to get down to the cause for his seeming underperformance in the season so far he’d spent an incredibly long time out on the track pushing his car to its limits. It had been given a full service and a tune up to bring it back to peak efficiency. The mechanics had found a fault between the accelerator and the engine that had meant that the car wasn’t properly maximizing acceleration. A turbocharger had been faulty and had been swiftly replaced. Apart from those mechanical faults his car was in optimal condition ahead of the next race. But it had had its oil changed and its fluids refreshed as a precautionary measure.

The car was now being shipped in preparation for the coming race. All the while Gregori pushed himself to do better in the next race. He'd read over the practice readouts more times than he liked to admit and had taken part in countless laps around the track. All he could do now was prepare for Auruna.

"That's good Gregori. I know that you live a very busy life what with your racing career and all. It is good to hear that you are still keeping up with your faith. We all enjoy seeing you in church in Solnichniy when you are able to make it and I want you to know that we're all praying for you."

[Auruna]

Crossbay Circuit
Race

A hopeful weekend. This is a chance to take what they want with all they have. It will be a difficult race as even qualifying pole doesn't ensure your win, no, you will fight to keep it, fight you way up.

Fight... täitä.

Täitä etteremät!

Before they head on to the track, before the race starts, Jöna goes to motivate Goita and Olivia. He heads to the garage, looking for the two then he sees them next to their respective cars. He calls both of them to him.

"I know it's been difficult for you recently, I have been there before but remember... you two are great talents, we're just lacking the experience but we have been making progress. A lot of progress." He looks at the clock before continuing. "It looks like it's time to race. Just fight. Täitä. Everything will be worth it if you fight for it. Good luck." He heads to the pit wall.

"Tähtä je kuu, kuula hÿtsä."

The cars were lined up, the mechanics leave then the formation lap starts. Everyone was following Olivia as she leads them around the circuit. There's a lot of pressure on her right now, in front of her home crowd. She can handle it.

"Line up at the grid, nail those starts, let's go!" Jöna's feeling pumped up, a bit too much but there's no blaming him, there's a Viska at the front row. It's what he was waiting for. That chance. It's something to witness. They need to pull it off.

The lights go out, the Viskas' starts were spot on. They got maximum grip off the line. It's a start of a crazy 64-lap journey.

On lap three, a Fireline's out. They don't mind it that much as they are focused on their race, not of others' races. Lap by lap, they're managing their gaps and Goita gain a lot of positions, as usual. It looks like Jan and Goita are performing well together.

"Let's try the hybrid upgrades. Set up for overtake, Type 4 Burst, Type 4 Burst, press and hold overtake. Take two or three in one." Jan says while closely watching Goita's performance. It was a well-setup overtake at 15-17 taking three positions. They are well on-track. They need to keep this up, the consistency, the speed, the fighting spirit.

Then yellow flags followed by the safety car. The planned pits at the end of Lap 20 were canceled due to a safety car that was caused by the retirement of Jean Mercer-Daly from the race at Lap 17.

"Wait for the pits to open, we don't want to take a penalty. SC's out next lap." They waited for a while before they are allowed to pit. "Box, box, box, we can take the mediums to the end we're doing well with our tyres."

Olivia's pitted first, followed by Goita with a double stack. The pit stops were without fault, for the first time that there were no issues at all. Both stops were around 2 seconds, give or take a few milliseconds. They were out in no time, queued behind the safety car. After three safety car laps, the restart was all set, the Viskas were off to a great restart. They were slowly climbing up the bunched up grid. The performance and strategy differences were obvious at the restarts. Well then, it's time to take those much needed points.

At Lap 54, it went horribly wrong. An opportunistic overtake by Goita on Kinu Luminna failed when he clipped his front wing onto the rear-right wheel of Kinu, damaging it in the process then Goita spun after due to the sudden forces of the event. "Are you alright?" Jan's voice is heard on the radio, sounding worried. "Any injuries?"

"I'm alright." Goita answered. He then waits for a few cars to pass before going back onto the track. A lot of positions lost.

Jan gets back on the radio. "Front wing damaged, we need to pit so box at the end of this lap, box box. We're also getting you into the softs so that we can gain those positions back." The start of another recovery drive.

A few laps later, Olivia spun.

The commentators can be heard on TV or any other media. "The leader has spun out! The leader has spun!"

It was due to taking too much of the inside kerb, the car bottomed out, losing a lot of grip. It was a heartbreak.

The tyres were ruined, a lot of positions lost. "Let's get you on the softs as well." Heard on the radio. They will try to fight back at all costs.

It was a close run to the end, they didn't break their streak this time. They finished P13 and P14, no points in the bag. A gloomy feel inside the garage, it was an unusual one for a team like Viska.

It was a good thing that they have Jöna. The one that made them successful.

At the cooldown lap, he quickly goes on the radio. "It's a hard day, I know." That voice... that calming voice... "Don't look at it like we failed, we made a lot of progress and you did great today, that's what I like to see. That's what we need. That progress. We can fight." He was followed by Artur with an announcement. "We're going to have a few more tests back home, there's a lot of upgrades coming, it should be fun." Then everyone goes silent.

When will they be able to break their bad luck? They were performing well so how? How and why is it happening?

[Hapilopper]

The Preston Autos Grand Prix shop, Hapilopper City
A few days after the Nimban Grand Prix
Marty Lewis was looking at a number of documents related to the performance of the Preston PGP-01 since the start of the WGPC season. The car had shown some flashes of brilliance with its drivers Rudy Edwards and William Archer, but the fact was, Preston only had five points in the Constructor’s Standings. Archer, with his 8th place finish in the recent Nimban Grand Prix, had scored his first three points, while Rudy had only two points to his credit. Not bad for a first-year team, but not good either, especially after the results the team had shown during pre-season testing.

Having seen enough, Marty called a meeting with the engine and chassis department for why it seemed like the team was just not performing up to the caliber they felt they needed to go. He figured it wasn’t Rudy’s or William’s fault, it was probably that the car needed to be developed a little bit further.

Earl Southwind, the chief designer for Preston Autos, had worked with Sapp Racing Cars in the past to build the top cars in the Hapilopper Championship Series, the top open-wheel single seater series in Hapilopper. He had spent somewhere along the lines of 25 years building and perfecting race cars, so if there was a person who knew his stuff on the aerodynamic and chassis side of things, it was Earl.

“The thing is that we’re trying to refine our aero,” Earl said. “I think you’re correct in your assessment that the car probably isn’t as developed as we’d like it to be, but we’re trying to hit that moving target that you talked about during the preseason. Everyone else is refining their cars. We’re trying to do the same thing.”

“Anything new you guys have in mind?” Marty asked.

“Well, I’m looking at adjusting the wings to provide a little extra downforce for us,” Earl said. “In fact, some of my guys are in the wind tunnel right now reviewing several proposed revisions. We think these changes will give us some extra speed going into the next race in Auruna.”

“That’s good,” Marty replied. “Report back to me on this because I want to see what they’ve got. Now, Milo, explain to me what’s going on with the engine side of things.”

Milo Pinkman was, by the purest definition, a hot-rodder, as were most of the people in the Preston engine department. Most of the department had been plucked from the top teams that ran top fuel and funny car dragsters in the Dominion Hot Rod Association’s drag racing series, as Preston executives felt that drag racers knew how to pull the most power out of an engine that few would expect, and the V6 engine from the Preston Skychief road car was not an engine known for its power.

The Preston Skychief, the standard sedan sold by Preston Autos at its dealerships across Hapilopper, had a 3.5 liter V6 that put out about 250 horsepower, and could push the Skychief to a top speed of about 120 miles per hour. This was a figure rarely seen in Skychiefs unless some idiot trying to run away from police was trying to go as fast as they could go, and even then, the V6 had to strain to get up to 120. Either way, the Preston engine department had been tasked with turning that 250 horsepower engine to a 1,000 horsepower monster.

Realistically, they weren’t there yet reliably.

“The problem is that we’re limited with this platform,” Milo explained. “We can get up to 1,000 horsepower, but then the engine blows sky-high. We had one explode on us in a dyno when we put a little extra boost in. The thing is we need a little bit more time to develop it. We can get this engine as strong as you want it, but we’re going to need more time with this platform.”

“You said we’re limited with the platform,” Marty responded quizzically. “What do you mean by that?”

“Well, you see, if we had a purpose-built racing engine, we could develop the block to our specifications, we could develop the individual parts to those specifications and we could build a strong engine that we wouldn’t have to worry about.”

“Well, I get it, but you understand why we’re using this platform, right?” Marty asked.

“Yeah.”

“I mean, one of the goals that my bosses have with this program is that we want to build a strong, low-cost racing engine that other teams in this series could use,” Marty said. “I get it, we could build a more purpose-built engine, but at what cost? Would we be pricing ourselves out of the series and out of business? We had to think outside the box, and that means going with a stock block. We think, based off what Major Motors has done with their program, that we can build a similar one that can produce results.”

“But Major’s worked on that program for years,” Milo responded. “We’ve been working on ours for a few months.”

Both men were right. Major Motors, the largest auto manufacturer in Hapilopper, had been working on a stock block program for championship teams for ages, for teams competing in the Hapilopper City 500, the largest race in the Hap Championship season. The motor had been refined over the course of about 15 years – while the Preston boys had been working on their engine for about 15 months at this point.

“Even still, later this year and next, I’m imagining that motor is going to be in a lot better shape than what we’ve got now,” Marty said. “We’re playing the long game with this program, and that’s why we hired you. We know you can produce a lot of power out of something like that.”

“Well, I’ll do my best.”

[Cocoabo Forest]

3 Tyre Suppliers Share Podium at Crossbay

Nimban Grand Prix, Crossbay Circuit, The Nimbus System :: It was a quick day at the track for Cocoabo #23 at the Nimban Grand Prix - but not the good kind of quick. After being the slowest of the 28 cars on track for the opening practice session, Cocoabo #23 did find a little bit of pace in qualifying to roll 18th off the grid. That would effectively be the highlight of the race week for Fast Cocoabo and the Fireline Motorsports team as Cocoabo #23 would only make it three laps around the Crossbay Circuit before retiring from the event. There was no initial word from the team as to what happened to Fast Cocoabo but the replay showed contact heading into turn one on the first lap which may have caused something on the car to fail. The team had the #23 Tropicorp-powered machine packed up and ready to move on to Auruna before half distance in the Grand Prix had even been completed. The story was not much better for Fast Cocoabo's Valkyrie teammate Adriana Kowalski. While the rookie driver was classified in the final results there were just two cars that completed the race in a slower time than Kowalski who was even beaten by the WGPC Motorworks driver Dario Nülkeschläger. The team will now press forward to the Aurun Grand Prix which will be the first highly technical track of the season thus far and a track that the Fireline team are hoping to improve their placement with Kowalski and Fast Coaoabo both having better Technical attributes.

WGPC18 Supplier Performance Standings

[1] - 67 :: [color=#DD8000]Tropicorp Racing Supply
[2] - 52 :: InMotion
[3] - 42 :: Solymok
[4] - 12 :: Deyoze

While it was no surprise to see the Nexus Racing driver Ryker Lane atop the leaderboard when the checkered flag came down at the Crossbay Circuit, it was actually a well-balanced field with the top six places all being occupied by drivers from different teams and every spot on the podium being occupied by a driver using different Tyre Suppliers.

Ryker Lane's victory for Nexus Racing was also the second consecutive victory for the InMotion Tyres putting them ahead in Victories on the season 2-1 over Tropicorp Racing Supply. The result moved InMotion up to second in the Tyre Supplier Standings where they still trail Tropicorp who have scored in the Top 2 in all three events thus far. At the Nimban Grand Prix it was Volkov Racing driver Sara Luna earning the bulk of the points for Tropicorp Racing Supply with her runner-up finish while fifth place finisher Jasmin Kranjska earned a further two points for the Tropicorp Supplier by virtue of posting the fastest lap of the race.

Sigur Bjarnason's best finish of the season gave Solymok their third consecutive third place finish - having put a driver on the podium in all three races thus far in the season yet but having not yet placed any higher than third in any one event. Fittingly, Solymok have slid into third place in the current Supplier Performance Standings.

While Deyoze Tyres have clearly struggled to keep pace with the big three there has been a little bit of optimism from the performance as Polaris Racing Team's Erica Okumura finished 6th in the Nimban Grand Prix to secure points for a Deyoze Tyres driver for the second straight event. It is, however, looking very much like a three-supplier battle as the season crests its first hurdle and marches towards the half-way mark.

---