World Grand Prix Championship 20 [RP/Results Thread]

[Tropicorp]

Not-So Fast Cocoabo

Grand Prix of Liventia, Talbott Autodrome, Talbott, Liventia :: There were great expectations when Cocoabo #23 teamed up with Race Eelandii for the 20th World Grand Prix Championship Season, and those expectations remain high particularly as the team will have two races to adapt together before heading home to the Cocoabo Park Circuit, a race which the Cocoabo driver is favored to earn a first career podium - so long as the car has speed. Unfortunately, that is the lingering question at the moment as despite having finished in the Top 5 in the Constructors standings during World Grand Prix Season 19 and having the full backing of the joint Vilitan and Turorian Motorsports expertise, the duo of Lane Carter and Cocoabo #23 have been well behind the rest of the field During the second pre-season test at the Gernache Circuit, Fast Cocoabo and Lane Carter were 27th and 28th respectively in the first session - last and second to last on the scoreboard. While most teams were able to post a time within a tenth of a second of the lead, Cocoabo & Carter the C&C duo became the C&C Failure Factory at half a second off the pace of World Grand Prix Champion iBen Toralmintii who topped the session.

Things would not get much better - although Cocoabo #23 showed decent speed in practice in Liventia, when the time came to put down a lap that counted neither Fast Cocoabo or Lane Carter could do it. Cocoabo #23 would miss the Top 10 cutoff for the second round of qualifying and miss it handily, over three tenths of a second off the pace of Fastest Lap driver Darian Vilau. Of course, there was one positive note for the Cocoabo, they would be starting ahead of William Archer - the driver who won the previous two World Grand Prix events and would have to pass every car on the grid - including the Cocoabo - if they were to make it three wins in a row. On the otherside it would be the champion, iBen Toralmintii, also struggling in qualifying and starting 26th on the grid meaning that although Fast Cocoabo was... not so Fast in qualifying, if Toralmintii and Archer have the speed they are expected to and start cutting through the field at the Talbott Autodrome, a smart Cocoabo #23 could file into their slip stream and work their way up into the field on the heels of the two hottest drivers on the World Grand Prix Circuit.

SKIIA VIALIV ✓

@Skiia

So excited to have my first World Grand Prix Qualifying round behind me! And we made the Top 10!. Too bad it wasn't one shot qualifying or we would have been third. Still, if you would have asked me before the season if I could start 9th in my first Grand Prix, would i? YES! #WGPC20

[Aboveland]

Week 3: Race

Conditions:      	Dry	
Laps:              	50	
Nation:         	LEN	
Circuit:        	Talbott Autodrome	
Event:	InfoInternet Grand Prix of Liventia presented by Liventia Airways	
Safety Car Deployed on Laps:	14	
Cars on Grid:	28

Race Results

Start       	POS  # ▍DRV Name                     Team                     	Time      	Pts		
 1 ▍VIL       	  1  7 ▍DEV Anneliese Devereux       Eminent                  	01:32:57.790	25		
 2 ▍LAN       	  2 74 ▍FTZ Adonis Fitzpatrick       Urotovsky-Gatutin        	00:00:08.133	18		
 3 ▍JCR       	  3 40 ▍AKS Adriana Kowalski Lilian  Eminent                  	00:00:12.365	14		
 4 ▍CRU       	  4 51 ▍CRU R.L. Cruisin             Portland-Carvenlo        	00:00:26.341	10		
 5 ▍EDW       	  5 37 ▍HAU Laura Haukanna           GPA Pryfors Bilar        	00:00:31.588	8		
 6 ▍BLA       	  6 88 ▍PRE Ted Pressley             Kaylan Racing Team       	00:00:32.613	6		
 7 ▍ANG       	  7 42 ▍MCR Sophie McCreary          Pressley Racing          	00:00:33.696	4		
 8 ▍WAL       	  8 91 ▍WAL Kingston Walcott         Sivaleinen               	00:00:41.399	3		
 9 ▍VIA       	  9 33 ▍BLA Sam Blaatschappen        GPA Pryfors Bilar        	00:00:51.153	2		
10 ▍HAU       	 10 23 ▍C23 Cocoabo #23              Race Eelandii VTGP       	00:00:54.774	1		
11 ▍FTZ       	 11  9 ▍TUV Batu Tüvshinbayar        Scuderia Orange Cow      	00:00:57.393			
12 ▍JSY       	 12 17 ▍LAU Janne Laukkanen          Nexus Racing             	00:01:02.352			
13 ▍PRE       	 13 24 ▍JCR Jordan Crowe             Scuderia Orange Cow      	00:01:07.892			
14 ▍DEV       	 14 11 ▍CRT Lane Carter              Race Eelandii VTGP       	00:01:09.108			
15 ▍NAT       	 15 12 ▍VIL Darian Vilau             Kaylan Racing Team       	00:01:09.300			
16 ▍TUV       	 16 94 ▍LAN Ryker Lane               Nexus Racing             	00:01:12.601			
17 ▍CRT       	 17 71 ▍FAE Brendan Faloe            Cygnus Motorsports Team  	00:01:14.288			
18 ▍FAE       	 18 28 ▍DEE Aaron Deering            Viska Racing             	00:01:16.743			
19 ▍FAL       	 19 13 ▍JSY Ji So-Yeong              Tropicorp-Colourworks    	00:01:34.448			
20 ▍LAU       	 20 84 ▍ANG Angela Tan Fang Ling     Cygnus Motorsports Team  	00:01:49.427			
21 ▍AKS       	 21 14 ▍VIA Skiia Vialiv             Urotovsky-Gatutin        	Laps Down: 1			
22 ▍LUN       	 22 19 ▍FAL Dom Falepeau             Portland-Carvenlo        	Laps Down: 1			
23 ▍MCR       	 23 96 ▍ARC William Archer           Preston Autos            	Laps Down: 1			
24 ▍YAN       	 24  1 ▍TII iBen Toralmintii         Tropicorp-Colourworks    	Laps Down: 1			
25 ▍DEE       	 25 10 ▍NAT Lillý Náttmörðsdóttir    Sivaleinen               	Laps Down: 1			
26 ▍TII       	DNF 87 ▍YAN Bryce Yannec             Pressley Racing          	Ret. lap 2			
27 ▍C23       	DNF  5 ▍EDW Rudy Edwards             Preston Autos            	Ret. lap 14			
28 ▍ARC       	DNF 50 ▍LUN Sara Luna                Viska Racing             	Ret. lap 47

Drivers' Championship

Pos # ▍DRV Name                      Team [Engine]                                        Tyres                    Pts
 1  7 ▍DEV Anneliese Devereux        Eminent [Sidus]                                      Phoenician-In Motion     25
 2 74 ▍FTZ Adonis Fitzpatrick        Urotovsky-Gatutin [Preston]                          Tropicorp                18
 3 40 ▍AKS Adriana Kowalski Lilian   Eminent [Sidus]                                      Phoenician-In Motion     14
 4 51 ▍CRU R.L. Cruisin              Portland-Carvenlo [Carvenlo]                         Tabtac                   10
 5 37 ▍HAU Laura Haukanna            GPA Pryfors Bilar [Sidus]                            Phoenician-In Motion     8
 6 88 ▍PRE Ted Pressley              Kaylan Racing Team [Kaylan]                          Phoenician-In Motion     6
 7 42 ▍MCR Sophie McCreary           Pressley Racing [Kaylan]                             Brústeinn                4
 8 91 ▍WAL Kingston Walcott          Sivaleinen [Preston]                                 Tropicorp                3
 9 33 ▍BLA Sam Blaatschappen         GPA Pryfors Bilar [Sidus]                            Phoenician-In Motion     2
10 23 ▍C23 Cocoabo #23               Race Eelandii VTGP [Tropicorp]                       Tropicorp                1
11 71 ▍FAE Brendan Faloe             Cygnus Motorsports Team [Tropicorp]                  Tropicorp                0
11  5 ▍EDW Rudy Edwards              Preston Autos [Preston]                              Tropicorp                0
11  1 ▍TII iBen Toralmintii          Tropicorp-Colourworks [Tropicorp]                    Tropicorp                0
11 84 ▍ANG Angela Tan Fang Ling      Cygnus Motorsports Team [Tropicorp]                  Tropicorp                0
11 87 ▍YAN Bryce Yannec              Pressley Racing [Kaylan]                             Brústeinn                0
11 96 ▍ARC William Archer            Preston Autos [Preston]                              Tropicorp                0
11 94 ▍LAN Ryker Lane                Nexus Racing [Paragon Warp]                          Phoenician-In Motion     0
11 19 ▍FAL Dom Falepeau              Portland-Carvenlo [Carvenlo]                         Tabtac                   0
11 11 ▍CRT Lane Carter               Race Eelandii VTGP [Tropicorp]                       Tropicorp                0
11 24 ▍JCR Jordan Crowe              Scuderia Orange Cow [Tropicorp]                      Tropicorp                0
11  9 ▍TUV Batu Tüvshinbayar         Scuderia Orange Cow [Tropicorp]                      Tropicorp                0
11 14 ▍VIA Skiia Vialiv              Urotovsky-Gatutin [Preston]                          Tropicorp                0
11 28 ▍DEE Aaron Deering             Viska Racing [Viska]                                 Phoenician-In Motion     0
11 50 ▍LUN Sara Luna                 Viska Racing [Viska]                                 Phoenician-In Motion     0
11 17 ▍LAU Janne Laukkanen           Nexus Racing [Paragon Warp]                          Phoenician-In Motion     0
11 13 ▍JSY Ji So-Yeong               Tropicorp-Colourworks [Tropicorp]                    Tropicorp                0
11 10 ▍NAT Lillý Náttmörðsdóttir     Sivaleinen [Preston]                                 Tropicorp                0
11 12 ▍VIL Darian Vilau              Kaylan Racing Team [Kaylan]                          Phoenician-In Motion     0

Teams' Championship

Pos NAT ▍Team [Engine]                                        Tyres                    Pts
  1 ETL ▍Eminent [Sidus]                                      Phoenician-In Motion     39
  2 PDN ▍Urotovsky-Gatutin [Preston]                          Tropicorp                18
  3 DCS ▍GPA Pryfors Bilar [Sidus]                            Phoenician-In Motion     10
  4 LEN ▍Portland-Carvenlo [Carvenlo]                         Tabtac                   10
  5 TGN ▍Kaylan Racing Team [Kaylan]                          Phoenician-In Motion     6
  6 TMB ▍Pressley Racing [Kaylan]                             Brústeinn                4
  7 MRT ▍Sivaleinen [Preston]                                 Tropicorp                3
  8 V&T ▍Race Eelandii VTGP [Tropicorp]                       Tropicorp                1
  9 ESM ▍Cygnus Motorsports Team [Tropicorp]                  Tropicorp                0
 10 HAP ▍Preston Autos [Preston]                              Tropicorp                0
 11 ABL ▍Tropicorp-Colourworks [Tropicorp]                    Tropicorp                0
 12 NIM ▍Nexus Racing [Paragon Warp]                          Phoenician-In Motion     0
 13 CBP ▍Scuderia Orange Cow [Tropicorp]                      Tropicorp                0
 14 AUR ▍Viska Racing [Viska]                                 Phoenician-In Motion     0

[Mertagne]

I wanted to get this out between pre-season testing and the race, but other commitments prevented this from going live. IC, this information will have all been available before the first race in Liventia.

SIVALEINEN LCR ORIGAS RACING TEAM

The Sivaleinen LCR Origas Racing Team, after an impressive display of skill and determination alongside the rest of the field in pre-season testing, has finalised their driver pairing and livery before its entry into the first of many highly anticipated WGPC races. This first race, held in Liventia, will be a true test for the team and for the drivers alike as they go head-to-head in a race situation for the first time at this level - the pinnacle of open-wheel motorsport. The team, composed of a spectacular roster of the multiverse's finest talent in both drivers and engineers, is set to showcase the expertise that has been bought, fought, and sought after in order to compete for points and race wins.

The team's CEO and Owner, Annikki Sivaleinen (MRT), has historically more commonly seen at the side of the runway than at the side of the pitlane, but she remains committed to providing a strong pathway to success for the team on the WGPC circuit, and has worked well in securing key team sponsors such as Mertagnian energy giant Origas, the title sponsor of the car this season.

Born and raised four and a bit decades ago in the vibrant cultural scene that is Dannin, Mertagne, Annikki Sivaleinen's innate sense of style and passion for seeking out the next big thing have shaped her into an icon of the fashion industry, and drawn her into the world of Motorsport. From a young age, Sivaleinen, the second of five children, displayed a natural flair for the avant garde, growing up in Insulation Mertagne and drawing inspiration from the diverse artistic expressions that came from the centre of power of the remnant government. In a time where everyone was trying to take a piece of the country, Sivaleinen bit back, and with an insatiable curiosity and determination to make an impact across the multiverse, she defied expectations and worked towards her career in fashion.
Following a three-year course in fashion design at the Dannin Starlingbach School of Art, Sivaleinen went into business, designing suits from a shop in on Dannin's near-abandoned Embassy Lane, at times squatting in an abandoned Georgian terrace a few streets over which was used as a warehouse. Here she sold garments to industry veterans, and slowly honed in her distinctive fashion aesthetic, including Sivaleinen's first trademark "silver lining" that detailed many of the house's first suits. Armed with a solid foundational understanding that quality is what can truly set one apart from the pack, Sivaleinen set out to create her own fashion empire.

In the years following the Insulation, the House Sivaleinen brand has grown exponentially under Annikki's leadership. Expanding rapidly to accommodate her thirst for design and innovation, the brand has grown to evolve on existing conventions and revolutionise the fashion industry, being featured on the catwalk in fashion shows across the SARIMEA region and beyond, as well as showcases in many famous publications. Her designs have been capable of mixing up the classic elegance and combining it with the new influences of an ever expanding world, and this success has managed to enthral the attention of consumers and left a mark on the global fashion stage. The brand has gained recognition for key values, such as innovation and impeccable craftsmanship, which are showcased not just in the fashion house but in everything she touches.

Beyond the fashion empire, Sivaleinen has an interest in the development of young talent wherever she sees it. Her work as a venture capitalist has seen innovative products land on Mertagnian shelves, and from selecting the best talent in the industry, the imprint brands of Sivaleinen such as urban-army clothing outfit ꜰʀᴏɴᴛ ᴛᴏᴡᴀʀᴅ ᴇɴᴇᴍʏ are thriving with new collections released quarterly. Annikki's interest in the WGPC scene emerged from a chance meeting with now Pressley Racing star Bryce Yannec, and her respect for the sport has kept her interest and investment.

Heading the technical running of the team is Team Principal Vitaliy Aaltonen (PIS), the Polarian firebrand whose history on the track cannot be forgotten. Now returning to the grid in the Team Principal role after an illustrious career in the backrooms of motorsport, Aaltonen's experience and tenacious attitude will be vital for getting the most out of the car and the drivers this season. Having overseen the latter half of the car development, improving on Leukder Country Racing's proposed WGP2 entry, Vitaliy has guided the team towards the front of the grid in record time.

Christened as a 'diva' by the media, the mysterious yet determined WGPC star born in Torshavn, Polar Islandstates spent two seasons on the circuit, finishing a respectable 6th in the drivers standings in WGPC 12. While that was some time ago, his love for the sport has never wavered, as after retiring from WGPC competition Aaltonen experienced solid success in regional open-wheel championships. Following his successful racing career, Aaltonen made a seamless transition to the managerial side of the sport. His fantastic understanding of race strategy, technical expertise, and exceptional leadership qualities caught the attention of Audioslavian Formula Hodori outfit Johannson Motorsports. Joining the team at Johannson, Aaltonen played a key role in shaping the future success of the team, bringing them towards the front of the pack in their ensuing open-wheel championships. While the energy that the media loved to pick up on as sensational was still very present, here it was honed into a laser like focus that brought with it precision and innovation.

Off the track, Vitaliy remains a rather private and introspective person, exhibiting many of the traits that have now become synonymous with his Polarian homeland. Renowned in interviews for providing just enough snark to keep the media interested, drawing from an extensive intellect, Aaltonen appears to put people on edge discussing the key technicalities of the sport as he does describing his personal insights into Valhallan opera.

Aaltonen's next chapter on the WGPC circuit is likely to be one of success, that is deserving of his often underrated talent in the industry.

The true talent behind the Sivaleinen Team comes from its driver pairings. When compared to Annikki Sivaleinen, these two drivers look enough like the team CEO that they could be her children, and while Anniki is hoping to mentor these young drivers, their talent is far and away able to speak for itself.

In the #10 car, Lillý Náttmörðsdóttir (MLK) impressed Sivaleinen technical staff during the internal test, showing a natural affinity with the developed car and impressing further in a race situation. Her pace during the pre-season tests has been even more impressive, proving to the multiverse that the Mlima Kijani racing driver was the right choice for the team. The Kijani driver is proud of her country, and looks to showcase her skills alongside her teammate on the international tour that the WGPC circuit provides.

Lillý Náttmörðsdóttir sports car #10.

Alongside Náttmörðsdóttir and also fighting towards the front of the pack in the #91 car is Kingston Walcott (DEL). Son of Sidley Walcott, one of the richest men in Delaclava and fashion magnate in his own right, the Deleclav driver has proven his skill and shown his force of personality in his own right in the Sivaleinen car in the pre-season test at Gernarche Circuit, showing that he is more than capable of keeping up with the pack and nearly leading it. His technical skill is second-to-few, and will be looking to put in a clean drive and, alongside his teammate, clinch some vital points for the team and himself across the season.

Kingston Walcott will be driving car #91.

Joining the drivers on the other end of the radio are Cole Sewell (EOT), who will be overseeing Lillý Náttmörðsdóttir's ride, and Erno Swain (MRT), who will be engineering for Kingston Walcott. Sewell is a brilliant race engineer who has recently made the leap to WGPC, and with it he brings a keen eye for detail and the ability to think on his feet. His encouraging nature and keen eye for technical gremlins should suit to aid Náttmörðsdóttir on her journey to the front of the grid. Swain's car knowledge is second to none, and he will play a crucial role in optimising the race setup for Walcott, having a knack for identifying any performance-enhancing opportunities that can be wrought from the car.

The car the drivers will be cavorting will be the LC-04, designed incorporating the strong base provided by the takeover of Lekueder Country Racing. The cutting-edge car showcases the team's commitment to excellence and innovation, and is the result of hard work from the factory in Acerglade and beyond. By providing a keen eye in attention to detail and striving for technical perfection, the end result is a potent drivable car that promises to make an impact on the racetrack.
Equipped with the Preston Autos Skychief V6, the engine offers unrivalled power and performance which allows the car to excel, in partnership with the LC-04's aerodynamic capabilities. Promising record-breaking speeds on the straights, and a sophisticated aerodynamics package that sees the car generate exceptional downforce. It is likely that the LC-04 will be a force to be reckoned with in high-speed situations. As the season unfolds and the team gets a better understanding of the car in race situations, several upgrades are likely to be brought to the car to keep the pace with other teams as everyone iterates on their designs.
The car livery sports an iconic houndstooth pattern as part of Sivaleinen's new Dogs of Dannin collection, which launches in the spring, and the car contains sponsors from many prolific Mertagnian companies such as Calanet and Pentapetal.

The team remains excited for the race in Liventia, and will be looking to come out of the gate swinging in the first race of the season.

[Lisander]

<< Previously | Next >>

X. Victory

InfoInternet Grand Prix of Liventia presented by Liventia Airways
Lap 50

"I can't see the red car behind me anymore! This is crazy! They seem to be breaking too much earlier. I can't believe this! Everything's okay, Carol? Last lap already? You’re sure?" - She almost couldn't believe that was happening.

"Thank Phoenician for the tyres giving this awesome grip, but other than that, that's your fault. This is how refined you became. Great job, Anneliese, bring it home now, this one is yours..."
Anneliese was smiling below the helmet as her engineer, Carolina Lasseps, talked that was all due to her own merit. That last one and a half hours had been so productive she couldn’t believe it. She had made in that time alone more than in the previous two years. Maybe four? How many years had she been pulled and pushed from seat to seat? Politechnica, Polaris, DWG, Harlean, TAS Alliance, Bitten Heroes, Eminent. In the last seven or eight years, so many different teams in so many different series. All for that one moment. That was the pinnacle of his career, until that moment at least.

She had felt comfortable with the track since Friday, but in the race, it become more clear. She felt good to go further in the kerbs, to go for that extra centimetres. And that paid off. As the race was unfolding, the overtake possibilities appeared naturally. And when the possibility appeared, and the others had to brake earlier or slow down to hit the curve, she held the throttle for a little more, closing into the right and finding the gap. By lap 14, when the safety car entered the track to remove a Preston from the way, the pack tightened. She was already 9th, and from that moment on, it was only above. There were a lot of overtakes, and luckily for her, she was only on the winning end of those, until snatching the lead from a Carvenlo. After that, it was only wind going through the #7 halo.

Well, except for the lapped drivers. And the voice on the radio advised her of another one.

”Push for another red car. UrGa on the front, You'll have a blue flag on this one.”

Anneliese hardened the push before the 14, reaching the curve so close to Vialiv. It only could be Vialiv, since she had left Fitzpatrick behind some moments ago. Slight curve to the left on 15 and then the DRS sign appeared in front of her eyes. 3, 2, 1, open. The extra accelerator helped in the overtake, but even if it was almost not needed, as Skiia Vialiv had blue flags being waved to let her pass, she would not care less, as she kept pushing for the remaining curves, as if the red car behind her was a suitor and not a lapped one. Only when she saw the checkered flag and the pit wall sign, she started to celebrate.

_ANNELIESE_
_P1 L-50/50_
_WINNER_

“YEEEEEEEEEES! WE MADE IT! WE MADE IT! LESGOOOOO EMINENT! WOOOHOOO!”

Then the radio returned. That time, it was the Team Principal, Callum Ascander:

“Congratulations, Anneliese! Congratulations, Adriana! 1-3 for the first race of the season is an awesome result!”

“THANKS, BOSS! WE MADE IT! YAAAY! CONGRATULATIONS, ADRIANA!!!” - the lisanderian was still euphoric.

“Perfect, Anneliese, congratulations! bring it back. There’s a sign with a big one waiting for you, right below the podium…” - Carolina Lasseps handed the final advice before turning off the radio.

---

“AND THE WINNER, ANNELIESE DEVEREUX!”

She was still admiring her winning cap with her fingers when the announcer called her name. She walked to the podium and saw her own image on the big screen right behind the steps. That was like a dream coming true. The people were waving to her, so she answered waving back. Soon, her raised hands found the hands of her friend at her left, high-fiving Adriana for that great result for the team.

Soon the trophy was presented. She accepted the gold plate graciously and without even looking at it too much, raised it above her head. The people in purple right below them were happy, and she was happy too, celebrating together when her teammate received her prize too.

Then the drums filled her ears. That was the Lament of the Widows, the lyricless national anthem of Lisander. She closed her eyes and lowered her head for a bit, as it was the custom. The emotion almost escaped between the closed eyelids, but as the song entered its brass crescendo, she focused her eyes on the sky, and with deep breathing, she lip-synced the chorus, which despite not making any sense, sounded emotional. She recalled that once, in school, she asked what those words were that everyone hummed but no one wrote down anywhere. Her third-grade teacher explained that "It doesn't matter if or what you sing. Some say it's 'this force is ours', some say it's 'this is Lisander', some say something in Latin, but since there are no official lyrics, it doesn't matter." That memory made her smile.

Soon, she was brought back from her spacing moment by that upbeat march and announcer screaming:

“IT’S THE CHAMPAGNE!”

She didn’t even had the time to pick up the bottle. Kowalski and Lasseps were already spraying her with the beverage.

OOC Note:
The National Anthem of Lisander is a snippet of this lyric-less song, starting with the drums at 01:25 and until the end of the choir.

[Hapilopper]

(OOC: A big thank you goes out to Nimbus for some collaboration on this RP!)

Talbott Autodrome, Talbott, Liventia
The Grand Prix of Liventia – lap 14
The start of the Liventian Grand Prix – and the start of the World Grand Prix Championship as a whole – had gone well for Rudy Edwards. Starting 5th, Rudy was finding himself in a close duel for the lead with Ryker Lane. The battle was intense, as it seemed like there was a true rivalry coming to pass between Preston Autos and Nexus Racing, and how appropriate. The highest of high-tech vs low-tech. The most advanced-engineered race car in the multiverse vs. a car and engine put together by a bunch of hotrodders from the drag strips and dirt tracks in Hapilopper. The Imagination-powered Paragon Warp vs a production based engine. The rivalry just seemed natural.

There were those in the media that liked to compare the two teams – particularly in Hapilopper, where media pundits liked to call the Chase Cutter the “Science Fiction Special” and “The Spaceship” – owing to the advanced technology involved in the vehicle, while some figured the Preston could be better called “The Redneck Wagon”. And Preston had taken swipes at Nexus in the past – suggesting their cars were powered by an “intricate series of neural networks that connect with the human mind” – possibly misinterpreting the entire Imagination concept.

Rudy Edwards, however, didn’t give a shit about any of that – much less so than most of Preston’s mechanics and engineers, some of whom had studied the Chase Cutter through race footage. Rudy figured it wasn’t his job to worry about any high-tech vs. low-tech rivalry. The cars were interesting, but he just wanted to race and beat them. And he figured that if he could get around Lane, he could hold everyone off and get Preston its first win of the season.

It was Lap 11. 39 to go. Rudy Edwards was behind Ryker Lane by about three seconds – but not quite closing that quick. It was here that the rivalry spilled off the track and out of the hands of the drivers and into the pits and into the hands of the strategists, the men on the pit wall who called the shots.

“Alright, we’re gonna short pit, pit next time by, next time by!” barked Rudy’s race-day strategist, Michael Petree, as the Chase Cutter led the Preston past the pits. “Crew, this is an Ultra-Violence stop. Ultra-Violence on this stop.”

The crew grabbed four hard compound Tropicorp tires and readied themselves for the stop. “Ultra-Violence” was part of a code that the Preston team used to communicate with each other without anyone knowing. If the team wanted to put on mediums, Petree would have asked for “Hurt Me Plenty,” while softs would have been “I’m Too Young To Die”. Intermediate tires was the “Nightmare” code, while Full Wets were “Oh Crap”.

And sure enough, a lap later, Rudy came in, the crew slapped the hard compound tires on and away he went. Lap 12. 38 to go.

A lap later, Lane was in the pits, trying to cover the undercut as much as he could. He was down and away quickly, but when he came out, Rudy was two seconds behind and closing, having gotten his tires up to temperature and on a certain rhythm. Lap 13. 37 to go.

For much of that lap, Rudy closed in, hounding Lane. He engaged the PGP-03’s Double DRS system on every straight he could, every flat-out section he could, trying to gain as much time on Lane as he could. Finally, heading into turn 16, Rudy was right behind Lane. If he had closed up faster, if he was any closer, he might have considered throwing a divebomb move into 16 to try to take the lead. But he was too far back, and any divebomb move would have led to an unfortunate accident for both drivers. Coming out of turn 17, Rudy got on the gas too hard, the car slid sideways briefly and lost a tiny bit of ground – enough to keep him from making a move on Lane going into turn 18, and enough to leave tire marks coming out of the turn on the short straight.

Coming out of turn 19 on the main straight, Rudy closed even more. He engaged the Double DRS system again, pressing the button twice, enabling a manual override mode, and closed rapidly on the Chase Cutter. Lap 14. 36 to go.

He wanted to make a move going into turn one but he wasn’t close enough – but close enough to be right behind the Chase Cutter and in its wake of dirty, turbulent air. Close enough for that turbulent air to hurt the front downforce of Rudy’s car when he really needed it. Rudy pressed the button again, but it was too late. He was too close behind the Chase Cutter.

Rudy jerked the wheel left, then harder left, than about as hard left as he could, but the car just wouldn’t turn. Eventually, having gone off the track, he lost all control. He looked right and spotted the barrier coming closer, closer, closer, and then…

*WHAM!*

The car clouted the barrier off to driver’s right, hard enough to send the car into the air in the recoil. The car jerked back, whipping Rudy around a bit before coming to a stop not far from the track surface. Rudy had never taken his foot off the gas. He had firewalled the throttle trying to keep the car under control, when in all actuality he probably should have taken his foot completely off the gas. As a result, the impact was probably much harder than it should have been, and hard enough to bring out the safety car.

“Oh SHIT!” Petree cried out as many of the Preston mechanics rushed out of the pit garage to look over towards turn one, to see their driver crashed just past the exit of turn one.

Just before the impact, Rudy had closed his eyes. He didn’t want to see the violence of the accident. He didn’t want to visualize just how brutal of an accident he had endured. He started doing that after his wing failed at this very same track a few years ago. He opened his eyes and looked around to make sure he was still on this planet, to make sure he was still among the living. He looked over to see corner workers rushing his way to check on him, and when he saw that, it was his indication that yes, he had survived this accident and that he was OK.

He didn’t even get a chance – right then – to let the accident digest. He had to get out of his car immediately – partly to show the rest of the world he was OK, and partly to make sure to show himself he was OK. So he pulled the belts off, removed the steering wheel and got the hell out of there – all within eight seconds as per regulations. For him, the race was over, but he was just fine.

Back in the pits, Marty Lewis looked over and breathed a sigh of relief – but he was frustrated with what he had just seen. Rudy had been too close to the Chase Cutter. He was reckless with the DRS system. The Chase Cutter put out a hell of a lot of turbulent air. Rudy was going past the limit. Those four factors directly led to the accident, and Marty knew it. Rudy knew it too as he walked back to the pits. When he got back to the Preston pits, Marty got off of his pit gantry and walked towards his driver.

“What the hell, man?” Marty asked. “What were you doing?”

“Thought I could hound him for a bit and force him to make a mistake,” Rudy responded.

“Well, it didn’t work,” Marty snapped. “Go see the track doctor, get you checked out, but Christ on a bike, man. Glad you’re walking, but, shit. That didn’t need to happen.”

“I know,” Rudy muttered as he walked off.

Lap 14. Race over.

Talbott was such a scary place for Rudy Edwards.

[Commonwealth of Baker Park]

In the end, after the first full weekend of the season, Scuderia Orange Cow ended up probably where they should've been.
Jordan's second row start and Batu's 16th place in qualifying looked like a discrepancy, but given the closeness of the entire field, it wasn't a serious cause for concern heading into the race itself; the instructions given to both ahead of the start were clear, simple and optimistic: stay alert, stay out of trouble early and stay patient.

Crowe was just a little bit sluggish off the line, allowing Edwards to get alongside and overtake into turn 1 while Batu made a perfect start and then a nifty move to gain two spots by turn 2. Blaatschapen took advantage of a bit of a lockup at 10 by JC to set him back to 5th, where Angela Tan Fang Ling was now just behind.
The introduction of DRS began to jumble the order further back, as some of the experienced drivers who'd started far down the order began to pick off cars ahead of them. The safety car made it's debut on lap 14, which played to the advantage of several of those same competitors who ducked into the pits for tires, but teams that chose to stay out like SOC would rue their decision later on.
Caught up in traffic on his in-lap, Jordan's stop on lap 22 was not bad but got him back out into a dogfight for 15th/16th/17th; while Batu came in on lap 24 and had a much better situation when he rejoined.

Batu missed out on the final point by 2.6 seconds and Jordan was 10 seconds behind him in 13th at the flag, which could've been a pair of top 10's had the decision to switch tires earlier been made. All in all, both cars home in the top half of the field was not a disaster, probably a fair reflection where the team stood relative to their peers, a point Mike Lambert stressed to the mechanics and crew while they were breaking down for the return home.
To the media post-race:
Jordan Crowe--”From where I started, yeah it's disappointing to finish a minute back. But the boss said to us we're probably where we deserve to be after one race and in all honesty he's probably right. Batu did well and probably deserved a couple of points. But we'll go back, work some more and be back for the next race.”
Batu Tüvshinbayar--”It was a good first time out, could've been better but for our first GP it wasn't a disaster. I'd have loved to get by Cocoabo and had a chance with about 4 laps to go, but he showed why he's a vet and I'm a rookie. (laughs) We made a big jump between the first and second races last season (in WGP2) so we've got a lot to look forward to.”

Sunil Choudhary, Jordan's race engineer who had run the tests for the four prospective OC drivers saw Anneliese walking toward him in the paddock after the race.
"Hey, congratulations Anneliese. Well deserved win, you drove a fantastic race." She accepted the compliment and they shook hands before resuming their walk in opposite directions.

[Aboveland]

Tropicorp Racing Ælund CTF-Tropicorp
Tropicoast, Tropicorp

Tssss.

Edvin brings his hands, clenched into tight fists, to his face, pressing down on his eyes with the lower corners of his palms. He grimaces, frowns, and sighs heavily. His head falls naturally, hanging slowly into a pendulum motion, and then he shrugs, as if replying to himself. The sweat collecting on his hairline beads up and trickles down the damp sprigs of hair forming a canopy over his face, as larger drops slide down the bridge of his nose and fall plumply onto the towel beneath his legs. His pores pulse; his heart trembles; his breathing calms, as the atmosphere inside the sauna — specifically commissioned during the construction of the CTF — thins. Absently stretching his arm to his side, he ladles some more water on the stones below and next to his feet.

Tssss.

"What exactly went wrong for Tropicorp Rac— erm, Colourworks?" asked a moustache-laden journalist, facing the panel of team principals in the post-race press conference. Edvin, to whom the question had been addressed, stared towards the reporter through his eyebrows with his elbows dug into the table, his head turned down and cocked to the side, his frown impenetrable.

The Abovian shrugged, almost throwing up his hands, but catching himself before the gesture suggested a lack of accountability. "We have a lot to work on, for sure," he said, clapping his hands together, his shoulders rising to his ears. He’s not entirely sure he’s found any semblance of an answer yet, but he can’t leave himself writhing in the hot seat. “The new active suspension system has brought us more work than we expected: during the tests, it was fine, but we must look into how we can optimize the setups quickly and reliably going forward.” He teases an end to his reply, waiting for the reporter to acknowledge and thank him for his time, but they linger as if waiting for closure, or a more interesting scoop. “Ji struggled during the race, but for her it has been a very promising debut,” he added.

Not content, the journalist replied with another — venomous — question. “Do you think the world champion’s poor result can be attributed to a lack of concentration, with his concurrent NSSCRA campaign taking time off from the weekend?”

Edvin turns his head straight, his gaze rising. He feels the corner of one of his eyes twitch — an old nervous reaction he hadn’t felt in a while. Yes, and it will not go on much longer if his results with us are hurt as a result.

“No,” he responds dryly, closing with a single nod and slapping the table gently but audibly. His lips curl inward as his lower teeth search for dry skin to gnaw at; there’s not a single glimpse of levity on the corners of his mouth. “Thank you for your questions.”

Tssss.

The sauna door briefly opens, carefully not to disturb the peace. A well-built and scraggly-bearded figure glides into the room, towel wrapped loosely around his torso. “We have the meeting at four,” he mutters — it’s Terho. “So in just under two hours.”

“Hm,” Edvin acknowledges, his eyes shut, breathing in a gulp of air through his mouth. “Just a few more minutes,” he pleads. Ladling duties fall upon his new saunamate.

Tssss.

Like a guilty dog, Terho approached Edvin with his phone clasped tightly in both of his hands clutched just above the dip of his back. His awkward, almost goofy grimace precluded the incoming issue.

“Well? Spit it out,” Edvin hissed. The rumble, roar, whirr and wail of the WGPC field rang outside of the garage, as the second tier of qualifying was underway — neither of the Colourworks cars had made it, the one with the champion’s number on it languishing a lonely 24th.

“Come to the motorhome,” the former champion said, less a suggestion than his tone suggested.

Once they sat face to face, the vibrant sounds of the race weekend muffled through layers of double-pane glass and corrugated metal, Terho brandished his phone, an email materializing on screen. “She spoke with me directly, but I asked her to send a written record,” he explained. Edvin, sitting across the desk, shuffled his chair closer and brought his hand to his chin. His eyes narrowed as they scanned the text quicker with every fleeting moment. “Court case… witness… bodyguards?! What the hell?” he shrieked, his hands stiffening with alert.

“Easy,” Terho consoled, pushing a rising Edvin back down onto his seat. “Relax. Deep breath.”

The team principal trembled, frowning with a distinct look of worry. “We’re a right fucking mess, aren’t we.” His shoulders fell dejectedly with a twinge of resentment. “What are we? The fucking judicial team? What a damn nice surprise!”

Terho’s expression morphed, turning solemn with concern — for the team’s newest addition rather than the grown man in the big chair across the desk from him. “Cut it out,” he snapped. “Look how well Ji has done with all this — whatever the hell is going on. You need to keep it together because you’re not going to be fixing anything with this… defeatist attitude.” Edvin tries to pitch in, but the other continues. “It’s one sticky weekend and the first in the season, and we have to get our heads out of this mess, and we will — so long as you fucking focus

Edvin stares blankly at Terho, his mouth ajar, his eyes narrow and defiant but submissive. “You’ve been dazed like this ever since we caught the tape at Lintulahti,” the former champion continued. It’s the very first weekend — we have time to let things fall into place. Now” — he jabs at the space next to his phone with his index finger — “we focus on this.”

The team leader remains quiet, his heavy breathing calming quickly while he processes the information. “So you’ve scheduled a meeting?” he finally says, punctuated by the roar of two cars gunning down the pit straight outside.

“Yes,” Terho replies. “After this weekend, in Tropicoast. Now, we focus on the now: the racing.”

Tssss.

“You’re right,” Edvin croaks, panting as he swipes a glob of sweat away from his forehead to his temples. Terho exhales sharply, but he’s not quite sure where the conversation is going — or where it came from.

“I have to keep it together,” continues Edvin, nodding slowly to himself.

Terho taps his fingers on the cedar of the sauna bench. “Yeah. Take it easy.” The team leader hums in agreement.

“She can have her bodyguards and whatever,” he says, rising from the bench and snatching the towel on his way up, and sighing before he opens the door to step out of the chamber. “Whatever helps — we can do this.”

As he puts a foot out onto the stone tile in the bathroom, the mellow overcast light seeping into the sauna and bathing Edvin’s glistening skin, Terho calls out before the door shuts. “I’ll see you in a bit!”

Tssss.

[TJUN-ia]

Race Day. Finally, it had arrived. For Lane Carter and Batu Tüvshinbayar, the moment had finally arrived. For one, this was the start of their 3rd season of WGPC action. For the other...it was the start of the rest of their career. It didn't matter whether you supported Lane Carter, the Galarian who first blazed this trail, or Batu Tüvshinbayar, the WGP2 Champion who was finally making this step up to the big time, this day was going to be a big day - no matter where both boys ended up. Pre-race nerves were at expected levels - Lane had done this song and dance twice before, but the thrill of a new season still brought chills even after all this time, while Batu was understandably nervous for his WGPC debut...but also knew he had to keep it together for the sake of his team. Both of them were starting towards the lower midfield, Batu in 16th and Lane in 17th, with teammates at opposite ends of the field (Jordan Crowe up in P3, Cocoabo #23 down in P27) - but none of that mattered when the formation lap started. Because they had to focus on themselves when the 5 lights went out at the Talbott Autodrome.

No one knew what would happen for these 50 laps as testing, practice and qualifying were so tight and so inconclusive that no real takes could really be taken from it...but as soon as things got going, things became clearer and clearer. Bryce Yannec DNF'd on only the 2nd lap of the season and the early going was full of overtakes and attacks as drivers across the grid tried to push the limits of what their car could do. It was stable chaos until lap 14 when Rudy Edwards ended up in the wall and brought out the safety car. Some teams opted to change strategy and pit while others, like both VTGP and SOC, opted to stay out...and that became a bit of a mistake. While Eminent and the Pressley of Sophie McCreary and Fast Cocaobo himself were making moves, others like Ryker Lane and Jordan Crowe were sliding down the order - with the TJUN-ians caught in the middle. Sara Luna would be a late casualty in the Viska, 4 laps from the end, but that would not dent what turned out to be a very interesting final result.

In the end, it would be Anneliese Devereux who came from 14th on the grid to claim her 1st career win, completing a 1-3 for the Eminent team as Adriana Kowalski Lilian rose from P21 to make the podium. R.L. Cruisin, Laura Haukanna, Ted Pressley, McCreary in the Pressley, Kingston Walcott, Sam Blaatschappen and Fast Cocaobo made up most of the points scorers. Batu was only about 3 seconds behind a maiden WGPC point in P11, just ahead of Crowe in P13, while Lane came home not too far behind in P14. Here's what both TJUN-ians felt about their performances:

Batu: ”It was a good first time out, could've been better but for our first GP it wasn't a disaster. I'd have loved to get by Cocoabo and had a chance with about 4 laps to go, but he showed why he's a vet and I'm a rookie. (laughs) We made a big jump between the first and second races last season (in WGP2) so we've got a lot to look forward to.”

Lane: "Yeah, it wasn't too bad. I wasn't exactly sure what to expect from this race considering everything before it, but I'm happy that Fast Cocoabo got that point and showed that we do have pace in the car. I'm not too concerned right now about being on 0 points because 17 other drivers are in the same position, so all I can really do is move onto the next weekend and see how we do."

But before all of that, there was one thing that had to be taken care of: Adonis Fitzpatrick. You see, the debuting UrGa team saw their Fleftic driver starting from P11 on the grid but Donny ended up doing a pretty good job in his debut race, following Devereux all the way to the finish line (and only 8 seconds back at that) in order to finish his debut WGPC race in a stunning P2. When Lane and Batu heard that the podium was "Deveraux, Fitzpatrick, Kowalski" it was a shock...but Donny being up there in his debut race for a debuting team was an excuse for them to celebrate something. And so they did, making their way to parc ferme to climb out of their cars and weigh themselves at the bridge, waiting for Fitzpatrick to finish his initial celebrations with the UrGa team before coming over to congratulate him on the performance. "Welcome to the big time, Donny!" Batu would shout while Lane simply said that "Enjoy it up there...trust me, it's a blast".

Lessons were certainly learned from this opening weekend...but this season still had a long way to go and plenty of points were still up for grabs for both the TJUN-ians and the teams that employ them. The ZX-Flow Energy Grand Prix of Togonistan would be up next with Hwoarang Circuit hosting an Elimination-style qualifying that will certainly test nerves across the grid. This journey has only just started...but it's certainly looking wacky already!

[Esmerel]

CHAPTER 4
The Long Haul

_____

May 20 - Practice

Brendan could hear the soft roar of the crowd as the season’s first free practice began.

Every sense he felt seemed to be pulling on him. Physically, his seven-point seatbelt and HANS device were doing their job, even while stationary in the garage. Mentally, he felt stuck where he was, pulled into his seat by the pressure he was only now starting to face. The Liventian crowd, expecting something incredible from the 28 drivers that would take the grid on Monday. The fans at home, hoping there would be success from not just an Esmerelian driver, but an Esmerelian team, for the first time in a long time. Even himself, hoping he could satisfy the desire of others as a simple college graduate immediately thrown into the deep end.

He wasn’t on track. It wasn’t race day, or even qualifying. And this is what he already felt. It was probably going to be a long summer.

”Radio check, Brendan, pit lane is open; we’re looking to get onto the track as soon as we can,” radioed Dr. Emerson.

“I copy you, radio is loud and clear,” Brendan replied to him.

”Copy back to you. So, I’ve got some good news; we’ve hired race engineers for you and Angela,” Dr. Emerson said. ”Afraid we’re running a tight schedule, so we’ll be making introductions right about now rather than any more in depth. I’m heading to the motorhome; passing the radio to your engineer. Cole?”

A few seconds passed as Brendan waited for his engineer to come onto the radio. Eventually, they did- rather bluntly, as Brendan heard it:

”Cole Schmied. Former engineer for Team Pevensey in the EGTC, now working here and with you. You’re Brendan, right?”

“Yeah, I am. It’s… good to meet you, Cole.”

”Guess so. Sitting at the telemetry right now, behind you,” Cole continued. ”Can’t see me from there, probably. No need anyhow.”

Just on the other side of the Cygnus garage, Angela was being introduced to her own race engineer, who had bothered to be physically present with her.

“...Carol Schmied’s the name; really glad to be working with you!” said the other new engineer. “I used to do race engineering for GT racing back at home in Esmerel, alongside my twin brother. Bet you’re ready to get going with this season, and so am I! It’s pretty exciting; you want to tell me anything about yourself?”

”Great, I bet you hear my brother going off with the other driver,” Cole remarked to Brendan. ”There’s no time for that. I’ll keep it important and brief. You want to know why I jumped ship?”

“...I don’t know my EGTC way too well,” noted Brendan, “but Pevensey was a front-running team, right? Yeah, I’m curious, why’d you leave?”

”I want more, as most people do,” Cole divulged. ”EGTC got too stagnant. Did that for a decade and a half and nothing changed. Predictable schedule, predictable rules, cars from several years prior. Cygnus was going to be different. Even if we were starting at the back. Get that drilled in; not interested in repeating. This team isn’t moving without some work, so let’s get working.”

Brendan continued to listen to his new race engineer. He found Cole very direct, which could be effective, but it didn’t serve to help him get used to things. Brendan still overheard Carol talking to Angela, as the two started to hit it up. Carol was clearly more passionate. Or at least, passionate in a more personable way.

A few cars started to roll by in the pit lane, heading out for practice runs.

”That’s our cue. Hard tires are on the car; get out and study the track conditions and we’ll run a program or two,” Cole declared.

“I copy, Cole.”

Brendan signaled to the technicians surrounding the car that he was ready to go out to the track. His car was lowered from its jacks and ready to roll. One crew member walked backwards to the pit box, watching the pit lane for openings. A few seconds later, he waved Brendan into the traffic.

Brendan put the car in first gear and lifted off the clutch, turning left into the pit lane and towards his first laps of the Talbott circuit.

He switched off the pit speed limiter and made a slow left as the pitlane rejoined the track at the outside of turn 2. Immediately, Brendan worked on figuring out the 6 kilometer track that laid before him. The map showed a twisty first sector, a high-speed second sector, and a long straight in the third sector bounded by two hairpins. Each and every part of the track had to be handled by Brendan and his car as well as either of them could- for just enough adequacy today, 1 lap of perfect adequacy tomorrow, and 50 laps on Monday. There was no better time than now to find that adequacy.

”Get the tires up to temperature; weave a bit but don’t go over the fast line; hard on the brakes but lift if you lock,” instructed Cole. ”Push when you get to the flying lap.”

Brendan rounded his way through turn 7 and into the second sector, which had been reconfigured from previous years. It wasn’t as if Brendan knew the old track, but a thought or two came to him- just as he fought to keep the car going cleanly. Maybe if I really studied sector 2, I could find an advantage, he figured. He went left, right, and left through the next few turns; while he wasn’t at race lap pace, he paid close attention to the groove and any reference points he could use.

It was important to note- and he did this to himself often- that Brendan, while never before a racing driver, had done so in simulations. Plus, living in Esmerel meant he was exposed to the nation’s strong motorsports scene, and its in-depth broadcasts of its domestic series. He knew racecraft, and the rules. It just mattered now how he would manage to apply them.

The walls were far from the track surface- further than most tracks he knew at home- but there was little room for runoff at many of the corners. He watched them for whatever he could use- wait, that braking point was early- as he studied and studied.

”Start picking up the pace; let’s get the race sim started,” Cole signaled. ”Target time is 1:46.200, let’s hope we can meet that.”

Brendan drove slowly around turn 18, carefully increasing the throttle- and a quick lift through turn 19- until he was wide open coming to his very first flying lap. To his right, the crowd didn’t give off any specific cheers as he passed, but they were watching; he was sure of it. He broke early for turn 1, the only part of the track he didn’t have a chance to study, but came back on the power early into 2; he then set out to speed up the initial outlap into a lap worthy of the timing sheets.

He first navigated the medium-speed esses- a sharp kink at 3, then smooth through 4, 5 and 6, easing on and off the power, to hard braking for turn 7. Now came the new part of the track. He could nail this and get some kind of advantage. So that’s what he set out to do. On the power quickly, rising through the gears, and especially the speed- heavy braking meant lots of energy for the capacitors, and it deployed fast, even though he was only on setting 3 of 5 for power.

Turn 8 came, a flat left kink; Brendan spun the wheel to the left and only just missed the perfect apex. It didn’t faze him- there was time to get it right. Almost immediately afterward was a hard, almost square right that flowed into a left and a flat right, and then another straight that finished sector 2, which Brendan navigated piece by piece. For his first actual time, Brendan felt that he managed it well.

A long right followed in turn 11, with almost no time to straighten the wheel out for the first of two hairpins leading to the back straight. He moved slowly to the left, then back on the throttle, and a few seconds later hit the brakes again for another slow turn, but now to the right. That was it for the slow corners, at least for a bit. Now came a long stretch to really put the foot down. Brendan opened up three things- the throttle, the boost, and the rear wing, in that order- and rocketed up to high speed. He was well over 320 km/h by the time he thought he had hit the speed trap.

The end of the lap was closing fast. He waited for the 150m board, then a split second later, and hit the brakes hard, shifting down through the gears at just the right time to provide enough engine brake without over-revving. Left he went through turn 16, then right through 17, carefully crawling so as not to break loose- and followed with a short burst of acceleration to turn 18- back to where he started. Of course, now he just had to finish his first lap- so would it be his first worthy creation?

He would find out once he did it. He rounded the last hairpin, then turned left and got back on the power, turning ever so slightly to the right- and back to the start/finish line.

”Brendan, that time was a 1:46.577; you’re at the bottom of the sheets so far,” Cole immediately informed him. ”Get on the pace and speed up, come on.”

Brendan was already braking for turn 1- this time at the right time- as he silently acknowledged Cole’s request. There was time to gain, and he had to gain it.

But at least he’d found something.

-

Brendan spent a long amount of time running different simulations- tire and fuel use, performance delta, long-distance runs, setup strategies, and the like. Eventually, he pulled into the pitlane, engaging his limiter and rolling to the next-to-last garage down the lane. He followed standard procedure as directed by Cole, bringing the car to a stop.

”Pull into the box, then face the front end of the car out towards the pit exit,” Cole directed. ”Keep the car in neutral; all four switches at set 1. Wait for the team to roll you in and put you on the jacks, then set 0 on all switches and hit the red button to switch off.”

Brendan did just that as it all happened. Quickly, he was back in the garage. He opened his cockpit window, and the technicians immediately worked to cool him down with air conditioning.

“We could take the front wing a few degrees up, the rear a few degrees down, and more aggressive gears,” Brendan radioed to Cole. “And I like running with more brake bias, so that’s why.”

”I’ll take your word; we’ll get it ready for more running and qualifying tomorrow,” Cole replied. ”Strategist is liking the tire wear. We can do a 2-stop with two soft sets and a hard set; they estimate hards will be 32 laps to the cliff. Fastest lap so far is 1:46.031, you’re a half-tenth off the top in P9. Should see what that means soon.” There was a pause. ”Few minutes while we do some work. We’ll go for one more run after.”

Brendan took a deep breath and relaxed, at least a little- he definitely needed it. Driving a car at high speeds and high forces for prolonged periods of time needed something more than average- he wasn’t “scrawny” or “unfit” by any serious definition, but he also wasn’t the most fit. Maybe with enough experience, and enough effort, he’d make it.

He just had to try.

__________

May 21 - Qualifying

Brendan waited patiently from the end of Saturday practice, all throughout his night in the Talbott motorhome, for the beginning of something more. Practice gained you the knowledge you needed to succeed. The rest of the weekend tested you on what you learned- and qualifying was its first part: a decision on where you would start the race.

There were four formats of qualifying in the WGPC, which tracks could choose for themselves. Of the four, Liventia chose two-tier, where after a first session with all 28 drivers, the 10 fastest times would move on to another session and set more laps to see if the order changed at all. It was another variable Brendan needed to get used to- how important any single qualifying lap was, and how much a mistake could cost him.

”Brendan, it’s a big ask to overperform, but let’s see if we can get a car into Q2,” Cole ordered as Brendan strapped in and started the car again. ”Big confidence boost for the team and sponsors. We’ve got to live up to the hype.”

Brendan finally decided to say more than just one word. “Cole, I copy, but you don’t have to be so forceful about it. I’ll do my job, you do yours, and we’ll see where that gets us.”

”I know. That’s why you need to do your job, or we’ll get nowhere. Pit lane’s opening. Get a banker lap in,” Cole sharply replied. Brendan decided not to pursue the matter further.

Brendan told the technicians to let him out after the crowd, close enough that he could get a tow from another car. Soon enough, he was released from the garage. Now came the hard part: getting it right. It was one thing to run lap after lap of improvements and good moments. It was another to string every good moment together into a single lap. He did feel the pressure, both from himself and from Cole.

Still, he knew that all he had to do was keep it clean. A slow lap was still better than a spin into the barriers. Brendan quickly studied the track conditions- a bit cooler in the air and on the asphalt than yesterday’s practice- and, after his outlap, took to his first flying qualy lap.

As soon as Brendan’s flying lap began, he could feel the world itself moving faster. He knew more, much more, about the track and the conditions than he had known just a day or so ago. He remembered every right and left- if not perfectly, enough to understand which corner he was coming to and roughly how to handle it. Every switch was set to attack, and the recharge was set low, providing all power in the moment- there weren’t many opportunities for the capacitor to shave off time, at least not enough to justify losing time elsewhere.

He went left and right, then right-left-right-left, following the esses and trying to stay in range of a tow. It wasn’t by much, but he could see the car ahead pulling away just slightly. It made a bit of sense, as he figured whilst simultaneously driving- Talbott was a technical circuit, and the C101 was better suited to aggression. Brendan would have to find every advantage he could, which is what he did coming out of turn 7- the capacitor boost kicked in, and he soared out of the corner, a little closer towards the top of the table.

And so he continued this for several corners more, to the back straight where he could open his rear wing and go faster yet, and then through the final turns and to the finish line. It was much, much faster than he had ever driven before.

”Flying lap done, box for refill,” Cole signaled. ”Time was… 1:40.301, you’re near the bottom, but it’s not far to the top. Pick it up next lap, but all switches down please for inlap.”

Brendan did as such. Cool down, then go again. He wheeled around his inlap and arrived in the pit lane once again.

”Box for race pit conditions, Brendan, we’ll put new tires on and a splash of fuel, carefully with the second part,” Cole directed. ”Switch on capacitor charge, go to neutral, hold in clutch and off throttle, switch engine off when stopped, wait for all clear before switching on and going back out.”

Brendan came to a stop in his pit box and stopped the engine. The pit crew lifted the car on two jacks and quickly changed the tires in about 2.5 seconds; the speed amazed him. Somewhat casually, the crew then brought over a fuel hose, carefully administering a short refill of fuel as per WGPC regulations. Brendan patiently waited a few seconds more as he remained on the jacks, the crew double checking that everything was working as intended and within procedure.

”Still waiting… Okay, switch on and hold neutral, we’ll lower you,” Cole said a few seconds later. The pit crew lowered the jacks and brought all the equipment away. ”Pit and track are clear, first gear and go.”

Brendan set out for another flyer that ended up similar to the first. Already he was starting to get into the rhythm- it wasn’t a repeat, but it was a rhyme. Again he drove, again he set a time, and again he pitted for tires and a splash.

He didn’t lose any sense of his experience in the session by the time it started to wrap up. He was just surprised he’d gotten that far already.

”Three minutes to go in Q1, this is the last attempt,” Cole said on the backstretch during Brendan’s third flying lap. Brendan put all his focus into nailing the final few corners- a wide chicane, a hairpin right, and a medium-speed left were all that separated him from his best lap. In the blink of an eye, Brendan went through them all, coming to the line at top speed… so what was the time?

”1:40.142. You’re currently about a tenth off, but below top 10. That’s it for your session,” Cole told him, in a slightly condescending tone. ”Pick up rubber and bring the car in.”

-

Brendan, ensuring he was out of the way, brought his C101 back to the garage as the clock wound down and drivers each set their fastest times. He brought the car in, parking in his box for a brief time before it would be taken to the weighbridge, then placed under parc fermé.

Brendan stepped out of the cockpit, walking over to the data center where he found Cole- and he finally bothered to speak to Brendan in-person:

“Look, I get that we’re not at the top. I get you need more experience. But we need to find both of those fast, and I, for one, want to do it sooner rather than later,” he coldly explained.

Brendan turned his attention to a TV in the garage, showing the international feed covering the end of the session. Drivers, one after another, crossed the finish line, setting faster and faster laps. Some of them, formerly behind Brendan, jumped him. Then came Angela, one of the last few cars. She immediately shot up to second place on the timing tower.

“That is where you need to be. And you can be there, so do it.” Cole walked off.

Across the garage, Brendan heard Carol commending Angela for her drive. “Yes, yes, that’s 1:40 flat, you’re P2!” they exclaimed. “Bring the car in cleanly, set 1 all, please. Nice lap.”

Cole and Carol were twin brothers. Yet they seemed very different to Brendan already. He imagined having Carol as his engineer instead, just for a moment, but it would mean Angela would get Cole. The short straw would have to be drawn by someone, and Brendan didn’t want to inconvenience, or worse, ostracize, the only foreign-born member of the team.

Maybe that harsh judgement was what he needed. Something to inspire him to rise above it. And in this instance, to prove him wrong. There was every chance Brendan could still do well in tomorrow’s race.

He just had to roll the dice.

__________

May 22 - Race

Brendan sat quietly on the starting grid, surrounded by technicians near him, other cars and teams further away, and occasionally passing TV crews.

What a “first day on the job” it really was. The eyes of the Verse were upon him, as they were on twenty-seven other drivers- including 12 other rookies, though they all had more experience than him- and he had to meet their invisible, inconclusive expectations.

”Checking, checking, two minutes to formation, please copy,” Cole radioed in.

”I copy, Cole, you’re clear,” Brendan replied. “Car feels good.”

”It had better. We need this to go flawlessly,” Cole chided. ”Remember the strategy, box on lap 12 for new softs, then 25 for hards to the end. Don’t mess this up.”

Brendan turned his focus back to what was ahead of him, waiting patiently for the right moment. The lights went green, and Brendan watched as seventeen cars ahead of him rolled off their grid slots, which he then followed.

”Keep set 1 on the power for the lap, go to the set you want when you’re lining up on the grid,” directed Cole. ”Tire temps need to be higher, and report on the track conditions?”

Brendan studied the first few turns- they weren’t much different than practice or qualifying. A heat haze drifted through the air of Talbott, warming everything around it and lowering speeds just slightly. Still, Brendan could manage that.

“Feels normal out here. No big difference in conditions,” Brendan replied.

”Copy, no drops of rain on the radar, hold this feeling till the end,” Cole responded in turn.

The cockpit of Brendan’s car was already starting to heat up- with a giant engine right behind him in addition to the heat in the air, it proved a challenging mire of high temperature that he’d have to face every race. At least he felt the air moving enough- through carefully designed ventilation holes- so as not to collapse in on itself.

”Tire temps are serviceable, make sure you keep warming them, they’ll drop a bit as you wait for cars behind to line up,” Cole warned. ”Do what you can, which is more than you’ve done so far, you hear? See you at the box.”

At last, Brendan rounded the final corner and slowly approached his grid slot. He paid close attention to the bright orange and white car just ahead of him, who lined up in grid slot #16. So long as he stayed in line and drove carefully, he’d be in the right place, and after he stopped, he knew that he was.

This was it. Everything that he’d been preparing for was coming together at last- the first race of his WGPC career- and if not the first of many, hopefully not the only race of his career.

Just breathe. You’ve driven lap after lap. All you need to do is do that 50 times, stay out of trouble, and it’ll be good.

Five lights came on, shining brightly for all the drivers to see, and then they went out.

Brendan roared off the grid with the maximum power of every part of the car, carefully utilizing such to avoid any trouble heading down into turn 1. Just about everyone- twenty-eight cars, a pretty huge grid- made it through unscathed, and so they continued to settle into their positions, fighting to see who could make gains early on and who would lose out.

For Brendan, he was dramatically relieved to get through it, and he was ready to keep going with a smile under his helmet.

Brendan spent the next few laps getting used to a race scenario- driving fast enough to compete with others, but not so fast as to annihilate the car’s durability, which it somewhat lacked. And with how close qualifying was (regularly so in this series), there was little chance someone stayed where they started once race strategy and skill came into play.

There were cars behind Brendan that were quickly catching up , and cars ahead of him that were faltering in this early stage of the race. As laps started to tick by, Brendan found himself falling in line behind a few faster cars and drivers like Janne Laukkanen and Sophie McCreary (among others who had found their way past), whilst both them and him started to reel in a few cars ahead of them. It felt like Brendan, while he had a long, long way to go, wasn’t entirely out of his depth.

This sense continued for several more laps as the nature of the stint dug itself in, testing the strength of the Tropicorp rubber. Things continued to go to plan on lap 12:

”There’s crews in the pit lane; a few cars are coming in. Stick to the plan, box this lap Brendan,” ordered Cole.

Brendan broke off from the crowd of cars around him as he rounded the final corner, then pulled into the pitlane at the end of the lap. Engaging the pit limiter, he saw other teams scrambling to receive their cars (not all of them, of course, as strategies varied); Brendan’s pit crew waited for him to crawl down the pitlane at the limited speed he could. The pit stop was flawless: stop, jacks up, old softs off, new softs on, jacks down, all green, within 2.5 seconds. Cygnus had found people from all walks of life situations in their team, but there was no doubt that they had found skill.

Brendan needed to embody that skill. The tires were cold, and he needed to pull off a stormer of an out lap to get them up to temperature, as well as utilize the undercut to catch up to the cars that had gained 30 or so seconds on him by virtue of not yet pitting.

And so Brendan did. He went all-out into the first two sectors, carefully finding ways to get heat into the tires without losing control or over-wearing them the moment he started. The feeling was good, wherever Brendan searched for it. At this rate, he was bound to catch back up to where he was- perhaps even jump a few cars with the undercut.

That ideal shattered when the reality of the WGPC came back to bite Cygnus.

”Car in the barrier turn 1, and… Damn, safety car, safety car,” Cole radioed in, the disappointment in his voice easily identifiable. ”Big crash involving a Preston; it's number 5… he’s out of the car. Keep the delta positive and set 1 for all, please Brendan.”

“Really? There goes our plan,” Brendan replied.

”Yeah, there’s a lot of cars in the midfield that just dove into the pit lane. Delta means they should still come out ahead,” Cole sadly confirmed.

“Where’s Angela?” Brendan asked.

”Not for me to know or care… Fine, if you do need to know,” Cole admitted. ”Carol said she was just past the pit entry when the safety car came out. She’ll have to pit from the queue. Probably restart behind.”

Brendan sighed. It was unfortunate for the team to suffer a race setback like this. Now, the undercut meant absolutely nothing. He’d have to work even harder to claw back anything he could have hoped to achieve.

-

The rest of the race was fairly uneventful. The cars started to spread out more and more; Brendan didn’t make many more overtakes, or suffer them from others. By the final lap, he was on hard tires that had been run half the race length, starting to truly struggle. At least it was almost over.

”Keep it on set 3, let’s make sure we get this car home,” radioed Cole. ”About two seconds ahead to Lane, two behind to Deering, you’re coming in P17.”

Brendan carefully navigated the circuit one more time. With any chance of points another twenty seconds ahead of him, it would take a calamity of gross proportions for him to achieve such. Unfortunately, the same could be said for Angela, who after Cygnus’s misfortunate strategy call never seemed to recover from her strong start. He instead held position, not seeking to overtake Ryker Lane ahead of him; Aaron Deering behind seemed to understand similarly and didn’t make any drastic moves. At least from Brendan’s point of view.

At last, he came to the finish line.

”Checkered flag, Brendan. Full set 1 and pick up rubber, come to the pits and park at the end of the lane. That’s it for the weekend,” radioed Cole. He sounded somewhat solemn.

Brendan, though he didn’t speak a word, felt solemn too.

-

Brendan got out of his car, which the WGPO officials took to ensure it was fully compliant with the regulations, and went to answer interviews from the press. After the ordeal of that (though he thought he did okay), he returned to the garage. He found Dr. Emerson waiting for him.

“...Hey, Doc,” he said, somewhat lazily.

“Brendan? Good job out there,” Dr. Emerson sharply replied.

“Wait, really? I… I don’t know if I did enough,” Brendan questioned. “I barely did anything at all, and wasn’t anywhere near the points.”

“We’re a small fish in a big pond, I know,” said Dr. Emerson. “We built a good car, but it’ll take time for it to all come together. And sometimes, things just happen that you can’t plan around; you have to work around them in the very moment. We couldn’t expect a safety car right after our pit window. I’m sure without it, we would have been much better off.

Dr. Emerson paused slightly. “And let’s take in the good facts. You finished on the lead lap, ahead of where you started, and for pretty much the entire race you outdrove a World Champion! Almost two of them!” he exclaimed. “I have every confidence that with enough time, you’ll make for a great driver. Besides, this circuit wasn’t perfectly suited for our car. There’ll be others later in the season that we should do much better at. Like next weekend. Look forward to it, Brendan- I know we’ll make it somehow.”

Brendan did feel better already. Right now, he just wanted to go rest- he’d never experienced such strain in his life as he’d done with an hour and a half of high-speed driving. Still, it didn’t feel impossible. He at least had to say something in response, though.

“Okay.”

[Commonwealth of Baker Park]

The day after a race was always the drivers' day off, and Helena had told Batu on the flight back that she would drop by his place around noon-ish to get his schedule, business affairs and errands arranged ahead of the next flyaway.

She felt a bit guilty that she'd not had more time to spend in person with him in the leadup to the first weekend; a lot more of their interaction came via text or voice on the phone than it had the previous season and she only saw him in person at the factory.

She would start things off addressing that, just so he wouldn't come to think that she was distancing herself or ghosting him; at the very start of the last season Orange Cow still had a feeling of a family operation, where personal relationships could be cultivated, the spirit of the crew and the office folks was close and everything was still a bit of a lark—they would go out and put the work in, then hope some luck would go their way.

Of course, it snowballed from just that happy optimism throughout the campaign, which made the race wins, poles, the pit wall celebrations that much more special. It became hard to root against the team even if you were a fan of another driver or team because they generated a lot of goodwill for themselves in the paddock and the pitlane.

Batu had joined the Scuderia in need of an environment that was close knit (by his own admission) and he wanted to stay with the team on that same basic reasoning, so Helena felt like she needed to put her own relationship with her 'little brother' back on a proper footing; with the new facility, the OCR organization had increased the number of people employed by nearly 50%, from 108 to 168 in anticipation of a third race team as well as the in-house carbon fiber fabricating department (as well as safety/emergency personnel for the test track).

She texted him before she left Kingston if he wanted her to bring lunch along to which he immediately replied in the affirmative.
_____________________________________________________________________________________
All of the data and telemetry brought back from Liventia was uploaded and run through the simulation programs, and Monday engineering meeting started off with the question that had been on everyone's mind since the checkered flag was dropped.
"Staying out at the beginning of the safety car wasn't a statistically bad choice." Corrie Orahood, a data analyst on Batu's engineering team, began the discussion of what the simulations showed.
"The relative short length of the safety car period meant that the advantage gained by pitting was only 51.7% versus staying out; if the safety car period had been longer, the advantage of pitting early diminished to 44.6 and pitting later under the safety car would've been an advantage of 52.8%."

The testing schedule was worked out in order to find setup options for the shorter Hwoarang Circuit that had more medium speed corners; Sammi Carter would run Batu's car at Drummond Vale on the Vale layout while Batu and and Jordan would work on the simulator on Tuesday, with Nick Unger getting miles in the AOGP chassis on the test track, followed by the senior drivers running at DV on the full course while Carter would be back in Haskins to also get familiar with the smaller car on Wednesday.

[Tumbra]

Race Day — Morning

He'd always called it a "bathtub on wheels"; the baby blue and grey colours of the Nexus Racing's Chase Cutter always struck Ted Pressley as somewhat otherworldly, and it stuck out amongst those on the grid. At least, it was, until the similarly hyper futuristic Cygnus car showed up on the grid. He knew immediately that his father, sitting a few garages down in the maroon-and-gold outfit, was not best pleased at how fast the car worked; and he knew that the motormouth would be generating some controversy immediately after the weekend. Or even during it.

Cygnus, Nexus cars "unfit to be called open-wheelers"; Cygnus car "particularly dangerous" with ambitious closed-cockpit concept: Pressley Racing CEO

Right on cue. That was the push notification that appeared on Ted's phone when he woke up on Sunday morning; he knew immediately that his dad had made those statements on Saturday evening to distract from the team's poor qualifying performance. Credit had to be given where it was due; the senior Pressley was always a shrewd operator, adept at managing the media, and capable of directing headlines.

But the navy and viridian Cygnus was the least of his worries; he was more worried about the Nexus cars. Not because he wanted to drive it, mind — he'd probably last less than ten seconds in the damn thing, and it looked more complicated to drive than flying a jet plane — but rather because he so desperately wanted to talk to the man in one of the cars. Not Ryker Lane, who'd stuck the bathtub on the first row of the grid; they barely knew each other. Rather, it was the floppy-haired, blue-eyed Abovian piloting the #17 car that he wanted to talk to again. But demanding press schedules aside — world media was swarming around Talbott like seagulls to trawlers carrying sardines — they hadn't gotten much of a chance to talk, or even interact. But he got the sense that Janne himself was trying to avoid Ted.

It only made him feel more lonely on the grid. Sure, there was Bill Archer, but he was dealing with his own gremlins at the tail end of the grid; and he didn't exactly have enough of a handle on Lane Carter's personality to determine if he could be trusted. Plus, the TJUN-ians he'd come across had the slight quirk of being overemotional, almost to the point of being hypochondriacs; and he didn't know if the Race Eelandii driver could be trusted.

There was no solace to be found further down the pitlane either. It was almost as if Pressley, the team, had been given explicit instructions to not interact with Ted in any way beyond the required media conferences; he'd looked on almost forlornly every time the maroon and gold cars streaked past the Kaylan garage in the pitlane.

And even in his own house, it felt like he'd gone from being the favourite son to yesterday's man; especially since Darian Vilau had done the unthinkable and stuck the Kaylan T190 on pole, while Ted only managed thirteenth. Sure, it was only seven hundredths off; and three hundredths from qualifying for the top ten shootout, but the grid this year seemed exceptionally close, and the finest of fine margins meant that he'd missed out. He'd joined the rest of the team on the pitwall when Darian made his final push, and there were raucous celebrations over dinner, but Ted couldn't help but feel like if he couldn't match up to the Togonistani wunderkind, he'd soon be on his way to the job centre.

Race Day — Lap 49 of 50

"Keep to within a second of Haukanna, come on. Two laps remaining, fifth is very attainable."

Ted was running a rather impressive sixth, in a fight for the ages; it was the Pryfors Bilar of Laura Haukanna in fifth, Ted himself, and what looked like a surprising entrant in seventh.

"Who's that behind me on track?" Ted looked in the mirrors, and could only make out a red blur. He couldn't tell if it was an UrGa — perhaps it was Vialiv — or a Pressley. Yannec had gone out on lap 2 — a gearbox incident, so he was told — so there was only one person that it could be.

"McCreary." came the confirmation.

"Are we racing or is she a lap down?"

"A-firm, she is racing us. She is P7."

"Bloody hell, she's done well."

"Keep your head down, Ted."

The three cars raced down to turn 11, attempting to play chicken; but Laura held the apex and Ted was forced to go slightly slower through 12. "Do I have DRS?"

"A-firm, DRS is available. McCreary will have it too."

Down the back straight the three cars went, then; Haukanna hugged the inside, going slightly off the racing line, in a bid to deny Ted slipstream; but Ted's DRS meant that he was pulling level with the Pryfors Bilar. To his surprise, on Haukanna's inside, was the red car of Sophie McCreary; they were three wide heading down to the turn 16 chicane. He knew McCreary wouldn't pull up; so he decided to keep his race (and his points) alive, by letting Haukanna and McCreary contest the corner. McCreary broke earlier; Haukanna seized on the opportunity and took the apex; and he was now in seventh.

"Come on, Ted! You can do it!"

The three cars exited the chicane on the short jaunt down to turn 18; Ted seized the opportunity that had been left by McCreary's late breaking that compromised her exit and dived down the inside into the final hairpin. He used DRS to make a run on Laura; but she was already quite a way ahead. There was a sniff of an overtake to be had, but Haukanna defended expertly from Ted, and she ended up holding fifth on the run down to the finish line.

Laura, Ted, and Sophie had been separated by little over two seconds at the finish; and Ted fully expected to talk to both of them in the pits. Laura and Ted shared some kind words in parc ferme, but when he tried to talk to Sophie, she was celebrating with the Pressley team on their first-ever points finish; and immediately after, seemed to walk nervously past Ted in a manner that suggested she really wanted to talk but couldn't.

A few rows back, the bathtub on wheels piloted by Janne came in, as well; and Ted tried to catch Janne's eye as he extricated himself from the baby blue Nexus, but Janne pointedly looked away from the Kaylan driver, seemingly determined to not make eye contact. Ted celebrated with the Kaylan team — he'd salvaged a previously promising weekend for the team as Darian had dropped down to fifteenth by the end of the race — but on the inside, his heart raced; everyone he knew was ignoring him, and in a far more dismissive manner than he thought they would.

Still, though; he reflected as he fell into his bed that night; more time to focus on racing.

[Togonistan]

Talbott Autodrome, Liventia
Race Day

''You're on P1, Ryker next to you. Stay clear in the first corner and good luck.'' Vladimir spoke into Darian's ear as the Togoni took his car to the starting grid after warm-up lap. Squeezing the steering wheel, Darian squinted his eyes as the lights started showing up. Just gotta have the right timing, pull away from Ryker and start building up a gap from it. Darian was ready, more ready than ever. Lights out, the young Togoni floored it and took off. Heading into the first corner side by side with the Chase Cutter, Darian let out a frustrated sigh. No matter what he did, it seemed that the eight-wheeled monstrosity had better acceleration than he did. Refusing to let go, Darian went on to brake late into the corner and attempt to park himself in front of Ryker.

While the move was definitely an aggressive and risky one, it paid off for now as the green and orange coloured Kaylan retained it's lead. However, the battle was anything but over, with the Nexus driver still very much up in his tail.

''Good start, keep it going.''

Few laps passed by with Darian retaining his lead all the way until lap 6, where the Togonistani suddenly lost it at the exit of the ninth corner. ''Fuuuu...'' Darian cursed as his T-190 slid sideways and off the track. Darian punched his steering wheel out of anger as he watched the Chase Cutter fly past him, before pushing the throttle to get himself back onto circuit.

''Are you okay Darian? Do you copy?''

''I'm fine!''

''Okay, re-join the track when it's safe. Re-join when it's safe.''

From there on, it was time to focus on damage limitation. With grass and dirt stuck to his wheels, Darian was forced into an early pitstop, which pushed him far to the back of the grid. Slowly and steadily, Darian did manage to start pushing himself up the grid again, but to get back into battle for the points was just too much to ask. With Vladimir constantly giving him updates about the race and the condition of his hard compound tyres, Darian kept doing his job, overtaking a few cars here and there before spending the final laps of the race in a battle with the two Lanes.

''Carter in front, Ryker behind. The pace is good, tyres look okay. Three more laps to go.''

While Darian kept on closing up to Lane Carter in front, the chequered flag came before he could make his move.

''Okay, chequered flag. Chequered flag. You are P15. Great work, great recovery.''

Darian didn't respond. He knew damn well himself it wasn't great work. He had messed up big time what could've been a fight for a podium, maybe even a Grand Prix win if the team played their cards right. It took a good ten to fifteen seconds of silence before Vlad realised that the Togoni is not going to respond to his encouraging words.

''Well... scenario 1, scenario 1. We'll see you in the pits.''

Having made it back to the pits, Darian avoided eye contact and had a hard time hiding his disappointment. He gave Ted a cold handshake and muttered a few words of congratulation to the Tumbran, but soon disappeared into his motorhome and didn't join the team's celebrations any further.

[Chromatika]

Quarters of Ji So-Yeong
Tropicorp-Colourworks Headquarters
Tropicorp

The accommodations that Tropicorp-Colourworks had provided Ji So-Yeong weren't half bad - even luxurious, by the standards of how she had lived in the past. Her childhood had been filled with a modest home, and then the boarding houses that the government-run orphanages were after the Rainbow Revolution; though she was never in want of food or lodging, it wasn't very comfortable, mostly because the Chromatik government couldn't afford it. Then, she'd transitioned to college life at Chromatik City College University (now Chromia Central College University), and as a student on a full-ride scholarship, she'd had the best quarters of her life. Transitioning from pre-med to racing had taken a small toll in her living style, but it didn't bother Ji - she knew how to live frugally, with only the bare essentials. Simplicity meant things were easier to organize, and when her internal thoughts were so disorganized, that was a boon.

Perhaps the highlight of the quarters given to her was a small balcony attached to her room that looked out over the Tropicorps landscape. It was warm - as it almost always was here, but it wasn't sweltering in the evening air. A small breeze cooled her skin as she sat on a recliner, a bottle of a local red wine on the table beside her, already half empty. She didn't imbibe often, but the occasion called for it - almost anyone would be doing far worse if they were in her state. Seriously, just how much more could her life have been impacted in the last forty-eight hours?

First, there was the race. Her very first race of the WGPC circuit, at the international level. She'd been nervous that her email to request to talk to her Team about the impending court case would impact their preparation, but those worries had been ill-founded. Tropicorp-Colourworks were consummate professionals, and if they had any frustration or confusion regarding her request to meet with them, they didn't let it show on race day. Her personal goal for the race had been modest - finish the race in one piece, and if the opportunity presented itself, gain some positions. As the twelfth-starting driver on the track, it would only take two to earn some points in her first race; if she saw a moment, she was to go for it.

Instead, her worst fears came true. She didn't mean to - she'd steeled herself for hours beforehand - but as she walked past the #88 vehicle clad in the colours of Kaylan Racing Team, she momentarily froze. Though she was able to move past before Ted Pressley had had a moment to notice, her mind wasn't completely focused on the race any longer. Flashes of the explosion, of the shrapnel cutting her left cheek, very close to both the eye and the mouth but not hitting either, the screaming of three people, the blacking out, the waking up in the hospital to hear -

She stopped herself before her mind could go further, remembering some of the techniques that she had learned through her therapy sessions. Her chief engineer looked at her to make sure she was okay, and she gave a thumbs-up before getting into the vehicle. She tried her best to use it as extra motivation, to drive for the remembrance of her friend and mentor, and by the time that the race officially began, she was back in the right mindset - mostly.

It was mostly uneventful for Ji. Though she made couple concerted efforts to gain position, her lack of experience in when to be aggressive to commit ended up being her downfall. She finished in nineteenth, seven places behind where she began and nine places away from the podium. At least, she admitted to herself, she did finish, and wasn't lapped, meeting her bare minimum goal. She had finished her first race in one piece, and now that the team had footage of her driving, they could really break it down and try to improve for the next one.

In comparison to the first race of the season, the conversation that followed had been far more nerve-wrecking for Ji So-Yeong. It was held early in the morning, per her request, with Edvin and Terho present; there, she explained why she hadn't been allowed to inform them about her involvement in the case until the Chromatik Government had released her to do so. She expressed her apologies on getting tied into the mess, and told them about the assurances provided by the Chromatik Government that her involvement in the case would not interfere with her racing schedule. She followed that up with the suggestion from her legal counsel to have a bodyguard at hand who could masquerade as extra staff. The entire time, she tried to read the Abovians to figure out what their answers and their disposition would be - but, being who she was, she wasn't very successful, leading her to wait with baited breath for their replies.

Terho was a bit more accommodating. Though he expressed mild annoyance, he was more worried about Ji's well-being, even inquiring as to if they would need to get further security for their driver. Ji declined, of course - she didn't want to cause a scene, and the less that the racing world had to know about her involvement in the court case before there was a decision, the better. The chances of her actually being assaulted while not being in Chromatika was relatively small, and it was only due to the highly political nature of the case that they were considering a bodyguard at all. He begrudgingly gave her his blessing to continue the course, get the bodyguard, and let the team know if she needed anything else from them. As the sporting director, he was the one in charge of the drivers, and she could tell that he was doing his best to put his best foot forward.

Edvin, on the other hand, was a bit more flustered. He did his best to keep his professional composure, but expressed disappointment at the circumstances that led to the situation at hand. She couldn't blame him - they hadn't known when they signed her on that the would be wading knee deep into this mess, after all. However, all in all, the meeting went relatively well - not that they could've really done anything, really.

What she remembered most vividly about the meeting were three things. They both disagreed with letting Kaylan know too much - they didn't want things going to the Togostani press until things were finalized. When the Chromatik Government issued their court decision and everything was public, or when the Chromatik News Outlets saw it fit to disclose her name after her testimony was given, that would be when they'd be okay with Kaylan knowing the details.

Thankfully, they left what she told Ted Pressley to her own devices - assuming that the Tumbran's reputation as someone who was reserved and didn't like gossip would take care of itself if she made it clear that there was a reason why this entire matter wasn't public.

The last thing that Terho had said to her, though, was what struck Ji as the most memorable.

"Your mind has to be in the race," he said at the end of it all, "Otherwise, you're letting the circumstances win. Continue to meet with your therapists, get a new one, let us know how we can help. At the end of it all, we signed you because we thought you could win. That we could help you win, and you can help us in return. I still believe that - circumstances be damned. Do what you need to do, and let us know how we can help, all right?"

She took another swig of the wine, enjoying the sunlight on her skin, the breeze through her hair... And sighed.

Sure, a few things still remained unresolved - the trial itself (and her testimony in it), how to handle informing Ted Pressley about the fate of Anola Melani, and the medial fallout once everything got revealed.

I promised you that I will make sure that the person who did this to you will pay, Anola, and that I'll make you proud with continuing to race. It'll happen.

When she felt a single tear roll down her left cheek, over her scar, she didn't even bother wipe it.

It was earned. It was right.

It was.

[Auruna]

Talbott Autodrome
Grand Prix of Liventia
Race

We tried everything.

But what happened?

Everyone's minds revolved around that thought after a woeful race for the Aurun outfit. Trying to recover from their terrible qualifying, they attempted to pull off a plan laid by Artur with Sara Luna being their best chance for points. The team has insurmountable trust in their drivers, knowing that they can perform well. They allowed both to push as hard in their own discretion, and as one of the teams with first-hand knowledge of the Phoenician-In Motion's performance, they knew which strategy route to take.

After the cars lined up, Aaron struggled with his start, falling from his initial position at the beginning of the race ending up dead last while his teammate, Sara, had a much better start and is catching up with her competitors ahead of her. Artur knew that this would happen. Compensating for his rookie status, Aaron was put under an entirely different strat than usual in order for him to at least keep up in his current situation. Steady and fast, as Artur would say. Meanwhile, the more experienced pair of Sara and Jan are minding their own race and are managing well so Artur has his attention on Aaron, relaying his strats to Esko and hoping that he won't fuck up. A bit harsh but it was necessary, he wants the kid to perform.

After the first couple of laps, Sara was close to reaching the top 10. She was easing her way up the field with impressive overtakes that Artur and Jöna liked to see. Somewhere behind, Aaron is fighting against other drivers, bouncing back from his mistake earlier at the start and seemed to be managing to hold on his own but the tyres said otherwise.

"Aaron, easy on the tyres kid, we want them to last till around 15 to 19." Esko told Aaron. "Take it easy and don't slide around."

Then came lap 14. Preston's Rudy Edwards crashed while battling Ryker Lane causing a safety car. At this point, Aaron's soft tyres are on life support and came in to pit first while Sara planned on extending her stint. Artur watched when Aaron came in to pit, he expected a few mistakes based on recent history but he hoped that it goes flawlessly. But it didn't. When they went to change his tyres, the front-right crew blundered with inserting the wheel and tightening the wheel nut. It took several tries to eventually tighten the nut completely then Aaron was released after about 6 seconds. The crew went back inside the garage, shaking their heads. Artur went up to them, "Raukumaru." ("Calm down.") He told them before returning back to his spot at the back.

Aaron soon tried to recover on his own and with permission from Artur, he was told by Esko to go for it as soon as the safety car period ended. While he made some mistakes here and there, it was minor enough to not have that much of an effect as he went on to fight other drivers for positions. Meanwhile, when Sara went to pit for tyres, the crew made no mistakes although the time wasn't ideal, it was good enough. Jöna observed this and wrote in his notes for future sessions with Artur beside him, closely watching the scenes unfold.

It was going smoothly until the 47th lap of the race with three laps to go, the engine of Sara's VK-03H suddenly went quiet. No response, no life. "What timing this is." Jan said over the radio before reporting the engine failure. "Engine failure is confirmed. Apologies Sara, this was a sudden one."

Sara had to pull over to the side as her car gently came to a halt. Somewhere in the second sector, it sat there quietly as she climbed out of the cockpit with the yellow flag waving. It was the end of the first race for Sara leaving Viska with one driver running.

There wasn't any luck with Aaron as well, after an early push, his performance fell off near the end of the race as he struggled with Brendan Faloe and eventually, the gap between both drivers increased. Aaron's momentum slowed significantly and as a result, he finished the race in P18. It was a disappointing result and many in Viska's garage had their heads down. And there's some discussion between some of them and everyone asked.

What happened?

Artur watched without an expression on his face, he scans around the garage seeing the low morale of the team. He sighs and nudges Jöna and without saying anything, they both knew what to do. Artur stood up, making his way to the briefing room to prepare leaving Jöna to deal with the situation.

Jöna took a deep breath and he said out loud. "Nä, kaikkea!" ("Now, everyone!") Grabbing everyone's attention before continuing. "Don't let this race bring us down. What happened for the most part was out of our control. We all tried our best today, yeah? We tried everything and something went wrong, and it's all part of this sport. So we must move on now. And besides..."

Jöna stood up with a hopeful smile and said. "It's just the first race."

"We have more work to do."

---

Talbott Autodrome
Grand Prix of Liventia
Pre-Race

While her condition was certainly better than last time, Laura's fever wasn't completely gone but at least it was more manageable. She sat at the garage with a bottle of water in hand. She didn't want to do anything else after warming up for the race, just staring at a distance, at nothing, until Erik came in front of her, snapping her out of it.

"Tere, Laura."

"Oh! Erik!"

"Feeling better?"

"A bit but I think I can manage it better now."

"Make sure of it. You want to race, the team wants you to race, and everyone else wants to see you race."

"Heh, let's see what I can do."

"Alright. Let's get ready."

Talbott Autodrome
Grand Prix of Liventia
Race

Laura had an unremarkable start to her race, maintaining her initial position of 10th throughout the first couple of sectors. It was relatively quiet although she managed to overtake Skiia Vialiv in the first lap and staying close to Kingston Walcott. She managed to went through a lap without messing up badly. Trying to focus on racing while managing her condition was difficult for her at this level with the strains of WGPC but her competitive spirit is willing her on. Forty-nine laps to go.

She drove with precision with a consistent pace, some might say she drove better in her current condition but to Laura, she felt no change. She soon overtook Kingston Walcott within the next few laps but Angela Tan Fang Ling was not yet within reach so she started to preserve her tyre life. She was told by Erik to make it last up until around lap 20. If that's the case then I can make it work. She muttered to herself off the radio. What followed was a delicate balance of her pace and preserving her tyre life while avoiding a threat from behind. Although it meant that she had to make a difficult choice when defending.

The following laps were quiet in her eyes, not much action even though she managed to stay within reach of the Cygnus in front of her. Then at the 14th lap the race, the safety car came out after Rudy Edwards crashed. Laura was relieved, she can ease off the throttle and save her tyres until she was able to pit. As usual, as soon as the pit lane opened, her teammate Sam went on to pit first alongside other drivers but Laura had to back off a bit to allow room for Sam's time in the pits so that she won't have to wait while the team serviced Sam's car.

Then it was her turn to pit, on a different compound compared to her teammate as she was on a different strategy. It went smoothly without any hiccups and she was well on her way. Losing a couple of positions to drivers who didn't pit at that time, she had some ground to make up but she was feeling that a nice result would come her way. She had to make the journey to reach it.

Overtake after overtake, Laura made her way up the pack. With her skillful driving and strategy, she was now up to 5th before she even knew it and remained there for most of the duration of the race. It wasn't to say that she was comfortable as Kaylan's Ted Pressley was closing in form behind and eyeing her position.

"Pressley coming up behind, be on guard." Erik informed her. "Kiirukami, you may do your thing."

Alright then... Aina, help me out.

What followed was a two-way battle for fifth that didn't last too long as it soon developed into a three-way battle when Sophie McCreary joined in. Laura fiercely defended her position from the two. Keeping her fifth through most of the battle and being the only one who managed without any assistance from DRS. It was all the pure pace of her and her car.

With full trust in her skills and her equipment, she held on to her fifth place until the end of the race. Ecstatic on the radio upon crossing the line, she could only laugh with excitement on the radio, forgetting that she has a fever. She never felt good before with her WGP2 win being the only one to ever top this.

Aina, kiitan. Laura said to her car after parking and climbing out of it in parc ferme. She stopped for a moment to catch a breath. Damn, I did all that while sick. Then she started to look around to notice Ted Pressley approaching her, they exchanged some kind words, bringing up the intense battle at the end before Laura went on to celebrate with her team.

First race, first points. It's a good day.

[Abanhfleft]

Sometimes Adonis Fitzpatrick liked to think that he had fooled himself into thinking that he wasn’t running away from anything anymore. It wasn’t really because he was tired of running; more like he didn’t think there was anything that he should be running away from anymore. But with the announcement that WGPC was finally going to run its 20th season after a year’s hiatus, Donny realized that maybe there was still one thing in his life that he was running away from, consciously or otherwise. In the year-long gap between seasons 19 and 20 of WGPC, Donny had had some sporadic contact with a friend that he had made down in WGP2, a Mongolian TJUN-ian driver named Batu Tüvshinbayar. Batu had reached out to Donny thinking that maybe Donny needed someone to talk to, and it ended up being much more than that. Donny and Batu talked, and they talked some more, and then Donny gave Batu some advice that would eventually help the TJUN-ian driver secure the WGP2 drivers’ championship on the final race of the season.

The two of them had some sporadic contacts afterwards, seeing each other in the Sherpa Empire and Hapilopper while taking part in the supporting events over there like the Rumbles in Ramba and the Rice Fields as well as the Berman Brothers Classic. The funny thing about it all though was that Donny and Batu hadn’t me each other on the track in Ramba; as it turned out, someone in TJUN-ia messed up some paperwork which meant that neither Batu nor his friend and fellow open wheel driver Lane Carter ended up being entered into the Rumble in Ramba that season. Donny and his friend William Archer had been about to go back to their hotel at the end of the Rumble when they came across Batu and Lane, both still disappointed that they weren’t registered into the event at all. The four of them talked a little bit, and then once they went their separate ways, William dropped the bombshell on Donny: he thought that he saw Batu looking at Batu in a different way. Quite what that actually meant, not even William could say; all he knew was that he thought he saw that Batu seemed quite excited to see Donny once again.

Donny tried to downplay things and act like it wasn’t a big deal at all. But much as he tried to claim to William that he wasn’t that concerned at all, internally he was feeling a bigger conflict. At the start, Donny saw Batu as a friend and nothing much more than that, but as the months went on he found himself struggling to maintain that line of thinking. Batu was a good kid; Donny wouldn’t deny that. But on the other hand, based on what he had learned from the guy, Batu was still somewhat of a kid. Of course physically speaking, Batu was in his early twenties, just getting into his prime as a driver. And to think that he had already won the WGP2 championship at such an age… But that wasn’t the thing that concerned Donny about Batu. Batu’s life before going into WGP2 could be best described as being sheltered, with the occasional TV show being the only exposure that Batu had had to life outside of his intense family-led training. Meanwhile, Donny had seen his fair share of life away from the comforts of family. He had learned to survive and fend for himself in spite of, and sometimes because of, the way he had been treated before, especially by his own father. Donny had not yet reached the mid-twenties, but there were days when he was feeling very world-weary, and that was one of the reasons why he didn’t want to get too close to Batu just yet. Donny could sense that there was still a lot of innocence and optimism in Donny, and there was a part of Donny that was afraid that some of his worse qualities might end up rubbing off on young Batu.

Fate, however, seemed to have other plans for the two of them. Fate took on the form of William Archer and suggested that Donny and Batu have a little heart-to-heart conversation at a karaoke bar in Oxyrhynchus during the second-to-last race of the 14th season of NSSCRA. There, Donny finally came clean to Batu about having some feelings that may be more than just friendship for the Mongolian, but then he added that he wasn’t ready for another commitment just yet. It was the truth, or at least it was part of the truth; Donny indeed was still not yet ready to throw himself into another relationship. But it wasn’t the only reason why he wanted to keep his distance from Batu. However, every time his mind told him not to do it, his heart just wouldn’t stop trying to look for Batu again. And circumstances (or maybe it was fate once again) certainly weren’t helping Donny’s case either. First, there was that invitation to the Scuderia Orange Cow test to potentially decide who would be driving for them alongside Batu of all people. The test didn’t end up working out for Donny, and though he did try looking for Batu while he was at Orange Cow’s facilities, in the end they never crossed paths that day, and Donny would be lying if he said that there wasn’t a part of him, small or big, that wasn’t relieved when that came to pass.

But as the saying goes, life will always find a way. And when Donny’s phone vibrated in his pocket while he was making his way back to the paddock after just barely missing out on Q2 at the Talbott Autodrome in his first ever WGPC qualifying session, he didn’t think too much of it. It was only when he took out his phone in the comfort of his own room inside the UrGa mobile headquarters that he saw who the sender was, and he realized that staying away would be a much more difficult task than he thought. “Oh crap!” Donny muttered to himself when he saw that Batu had just sent him a text.

Donny had honestly forgotten about the fact that he and Batu used to text each other during their WGP2 days. Back in those days, Donny still remembered checking his phone every few hours trying to see if Batu had sent him a text or a reply. But that was two years ago. Now, not only was Donny surprised to see that Batu not only still had his number but had texted him as well, but he was also afraid and nervous all at the same time. Donny was nervous because this was going to be the first time in a long time that he was going to use texting as a means of communicating with Batu, and he was afraid because he didn’t know if anything he was to say on this particular medium would carry over well to the recipient. Donny didn’t want to give off the impression that he was trying to Batu (which was sometimes the complete opposite of what he actually wanted to do) but Donny still wanted to maintain some distance between the two. So perhaps texting was the best solution to his situation because it allowed Donny a way to keep in touch with Batu without actually seeing the person face to face. It wasn’t that Donny was afraid to see Batu though; no, he was more afraid of what he might say to Batu if they were both in person. Texting was a better and much more acceptable alternative.

Hey there. Long time no see. Yeah man, can’t believe that we’re both now in the big time. Still feels weird 4 me 2 say it out loud but ur right. We’re here 2 stay.

Shame abt wut happnd 2 William ik. Knowing d guy, he’s serious rn but its eating him up inside. 0.5 frm pole is a decent time any other time except now.

So that explains things. I tried looking arnd 4 u at OC but didn’t wanna poke arnd 2 much. Shame we didn’t see each other bt maybe its 4 d best.

& good luck 2 u 2 out there. If we gotta fight 4 position, podium, or win, let’s fight hard but fair, and may d best man win.

Kaya natin ‘to boy!

Once he hit the send button on the text, Donny felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. At least now he could safely say that he was keeping in touch with Batu as best as he could. But deep inside, he knew that this was still only a stop-gap option. William was right; sooner or later, he and Batu were going to have to talk in person again, and Donny would have to figure out for himself if he wanted to continue this or if he was only to keep leading Batu on with no end in sight. Of course, that wasn’t what Donny wanted to do, but his constant vacillating might end up doing that anyway.

Of course, Donny had to forget about everything else and focus on the coming race on Sunday. It was still a strange and surreal feeling for Donny when he thought a little more about it. He was finally about to embark on his first ever official World Grand Prix Championship race! Nothing could have ever hoped to prepare him for this particular moment, not all of those hours and days spent in UrGa’s simulator getting used to the company’s WGPC car back when it was still a hypothetical exercise, when it wasn’t yet sure if UrGa was going to become a constructor in the top tier of the competition or if they would forever remain in the clutches of WGP2. Not even the thrill of winning a race in WGP2 could have prepared Donny for the weight of the momentous occasion right in front of him. He was about to take this UrGa out onto the track and drive his first ever laps as a licensed WGPC driver. Sure, it could have been better, what with him just barely missing out on getting into Q2 by a matter of four hundredths of a second. His new teammate, Skiia Vialiv, might have actually had a hand in knocking him out in Q1 as she put herself in the reckoning for fastest lap of Q1, setting the same time as Sam Blaatschapen of Pryfors Bilar but ending up in third place due to setting the same time after Blaatschapen did. But there was no time to think about that now. There was only the five red lights ahead, along with the fifty laps around the Talbott Autodrome that Donny would have to complete before seeing the checkered flag.

Donny had a good start to the race; he overtook a couple of cars in the first corner to put him inside the top 10, and then he executed two more overtakes in the first lap to take to put him in 7th place. Bryce Yannec of Pressley Racing crashed out of the race on lap 2 (or it might have been an engine failure or something of that sort), and then a massive Rudy Edwards shunt brought out the safety car at lap 14. Donny went into the pits to slap on some of Tropicorp’s hard compound tires to last him for the rest of the race, and the quickness of the stop itself allowed Donny to jump up another place so that he now lined up in 6th place behind the safety car. After that, once he had warmed up these hard tires, Donny made his way up the rest of the order, before he eventually found himself in lofty, lofty second place, and there was only one more driver standing in between him and a maiden win in his very first start in WGPC. That driver was Anneliese Devereux of Lisander and Eminent Racing, a driver who had attained a reputation of being “Miss Friday”: great during practice but unable to come up with the goods come Saturday or Sunday. It seemed as if Devereux had finally had enough of carrying around that reputation, and now she was determined to prove that she could be the fastest driver in the field today. And that was the party that Donny Fitzpatrick had to try to spoil.

“Devereux is ahead of you by three seconds,” Vladimir Kripchak, Donny’s race engineer, informed him. “We’ve got five laps to go, Donny. You can do this.”

“Copy,” Donny nodded even though he knew that Kripchak wouldn’t be able to see the gesture. Donny drove his GPC20-1 as smoothly as he could, gliding over the curbs and taking as much as he could without getting him with a warning for exceeding track limits. On the straights, when he wasn’t getting DRS through lapping a couple of backmarkers (which unfortunately included Donny’s teammate Skiia Vialiv, who couldn’t pit under the safety car because UrGa weren’t that confident in their ability to double stack during pit stops just yet so she had to pit under green flag conditions and thus lose a lot of her positions), Donny used his ERS to put him closer to Devereux. However, that three second gap that Kripchak had told Donny would end up being the closest that the Fleftic driver would ever get to the Lisanderan (Lisanderite?), and Adonis Fitzpatrick ended up crossing the line in P2 with a substantial gap in between him and the race winner, the UrGa meat in an Eminent sandwich as one commentator would have described it.

Still, if someone went back in time and told Donny that he was going to get a podium in his first ever WGPC race, he would have most probably been fine with it. And Donny was indeed fine with having gotten on the podium in his maiden race in the top level of open wheel racing in the multiverse, as were the UrGa crew and personnel that had filed out onto the pit lane to greet Donny once he had parked his car into parc ferme. The bright red and green uniforms of Urotovsky-Gatutin stood out in stark contrast to the striking violet of Eminent Racing, and both Anneliese and Donny were dwarfed on the podium by the driver in third, Devereux’s teammate, the Valentian Adriana Kowalski Lillian. And due to the fact that both Donny and UrGa were debutants to WGPC in a manner of speaking (both the team and Donny himself had achieved some podiums down in WGP2), many people up and down the paddock were congratulating Donny on his achievement. William Archer, Donny’s best friend and a victim of circumstance in this particular race, still managed to make his way to Donny to congratulate the other Fleftic driver on his historic achievement. “Pare, you got a fucking podium in your very first race in WGPC!” William said. “Not everyone can say that! Heck, even I can’t say that!”

“I’m fucking shaking, man!” Donny said back. “Is it always supposed to feel this way?”

“If it’s your first time, of course it is!” William said. “Now go up there and enjoy that champagne for me, will you? At least one Fleft’s gonna celebrate today!”

“Sure thing, man,” Donny nodded before breaking off from William to make his way up to the cooldown room and the podium itself. Some of the other drivers were patting him on the back and congratulating him on a job well done, while others just nodded at him before going on their way. Donny didn’t hold any hard feelings for these guys; they were just fresh from driving a finely tuned machine around and around for 50 laps, and only some of those drivers had driven the races that they wanted, so it was understandable why some of them wouldn’t be so chipper at congratulating the new guy right at that moment. However, there were two other drivers who would also end up patting Donny in the back and give him a few words of encouragement and congratulations, and they were the two drivers that Donny probably could claim that he didn’t really want to see right at that moment: both the TJUN-ians, Lane Carter and him, Batu Tüvshinbayar.

Donny had to admit that his heart skipped a beat or two when he finally saw Batu in the flesh once again, but he wasn’t sure if it was because he was excited to see him again or because he actually dreaded this moment finally coming. However, as it turned out, at that particular moment all Batu really wanted to do was congratulate Donny on what he had just done. “Welcome to the big time, Donny!” Batu shouted at him, while Lane was more measured and controlled, and simply said, “Enjoy it up there, Donny. Trust me, it’s a blast.” And, just as soon as they had arrived, both TJUN-ian drivers left, leaving Donny alone to make his way up to the podium. Once there, it was now Donny’s turn to congratulate Anneliese Devereux on a job well done, namely building up a gap to him that he couldn’t possibly claw back in the last few laps of the race. He also congratulated Adriana for making it onto the podium with him and her teammate, although Donny wasn’t really familiar with how all of that had happened in the first place. And then it was time to pour and drink the champagne, and for a few brief and blissful moments, Adonis Fitzpatrick could forget about everything else in the world and just enjoy the moment.

Meanwhile, the other Fleftic driver on the grid, William Archer, was busy dealing with some stuff of his own at the moment…

To be continued

[Diarcesia]

Memory Sun

Right after the start, it was tough for Laura to find a spot to exploit an opening to overtake. The first five laps saw some frantic diving into corners as drivers jostled for position. A half spin by Yannec ended up being a race-ending incident for him.

By lap six, the Laura gained enough places to be just behind Angela Tan Fang Ling. However, she wasn't the only one; the Eminent cars, using the same tyre and engine combination as the PBs were quickly climbed up the grid as well...

So far so good, Sam Blaatschapen thought to herself. Stay out of trouble and everything will be okay... She was on lap seven when a radio message from Creusa came in: "Lap times consistent with second group." That meant she could build a comfortable gap with the pack trailing her.

With her attention turned to the laps ahead, she missed a message from Creusa that came in on lap 10. She had slowed down to carefully pass through Intermediate One. The race for her was unusual for now, so Sam didn't think much about it at first: but then, isn't it too quiet? It took until halfway through lap 12 before she suddenly realised what happened: "Creusa! What's going on?! Can you hear me?" The response caught Creusa by surprise :"We have an issue with the radio. I can hear you now, so it's fixed. I didn't get a response from you a couple of laps ago, so... so I needed to fiddle some things."

"Okay," Sam said, trying to make sense of the situation. "Nothing new to report."

A few moments passed before Creusa spoke again: "I think it might be better if you come in now. We need to check something out." Now that made more sense: Aldauren had mentioned some sort of vibrations in Sam's car that registered in the telemetry during the first stint... "Copy that, I'm on my way back now." There was no time for her to lose concentration as she had just entered Intermediate Two; luckily, there were no incidents with the car. She entered the pit lane at the next opportunity where the mechanics quickly got ready with the tyre change and a visual inspection. They found that an object may have hit the front wing and caused enough damage to warrant a change. This discovery and remediation would mean that Sam lost a lot of places.

It was an anticlimatic way for Laura to emerge ahead of Sam, but she paid no heed and continued to maintain a consistent pace and find opportunities to gain positions. Given the circumstances, it was a good sign for her team. The transmission issues that bedeviled Pryfors Bilar in the past did not seem to return yet.

Meanwhile, as Laura's second stint began, she made a mistake at the first turn and lost her chance to overtake Cruisin . Under braking, she overshot the car a little and hit some dirt. It was not too costly, and she was unfazed as she skillfully defended her position against aggressive attempts from drivers behind her. It didn't take long for her to shake them off. She could see that the train of cars she could see in her mirror was getting smaller by the lap, such is the gripping power of the Phoenician-In Motions when cornering.

As she crossed the chequered flag on lap 50, the team celebrated the achievement. Erik congratulated Laura. Aldauren, all this time, was aware that she was not feeling too well the day before... "Laura, I'm so proud of P6. Well done considering the situation. We'll help you get rested right away. You deserve it." On Sam's part, she tried her best to make up for the lost places after the pit stop but have to settle for P9. Still, a double-points finish in the inaugural race of the season is a very respectable result for the team out of Pryfurium, Diarcesia.

The atmosphere in the garage was one of relief and joy after the race. The team celebrated, a great start to their campaign! It's not over yet though, they have to maintain this pace if they wish to keep up with their rivals... No time for resting just yet - except for Laura. Aldauren insisted for Laura sleep early so she can recover as quickly as she can. But there's no doubt that this race finish is etched in her memory like a radiant sun.

Re:Genesis - Finishing Race in Another Week

Sara is a quick learner and showed her ability to adapt to a different chassis, engine, and tyre manufacturer from her last season. With learned studiousness, she took to executing the strategy and manoeuvres as discussed with Jan. For lap after lap, she managed to replicate her signature performance when she has a good race: overtaking other drivers one-by-one with clincial precision; at this point in time, everyone in the Viska Pitwall was cheering on their screens as Sara caught up with Sophie McCreary's Tumbran car. The two started in the same row, but different pit strategies resulted in Sara starting her second stint playing catch-up, which she did successfully.

Meanwhile, back at the pit wall in Lap 47...

''She's up to 7^th now. Sara is doing a great job! Keep it up, girl!'' encouraged the engineer beside Jan. ''Yeah,'' replied Jan half-heartedly as he watched another driver overtake Sara on track. ''I wish we could give her more power.'' In that moment, Sara noticed that the car, which she gave the name Pleiades, is not going as fast as she expected... "I'm losing speed. Something's wrong with the car?"

"Engine failure is confirmed. Apologies Sara, this was a sudden one."

She muttered a curse in Diarcesian Latin.

Sara had to pull over to the side as her car gently came to a halt. Somewhere in the second sector, it sat there quietly as she climbed out of the cockpit with the yellow flag waving. Although disappointed, she sat beside the car while waiting to be picked up, waving to cameras and appearing to be in great spirits despite what happened.

Simultaneously, the team analyzed the data and investigated the cause of the engine failure. It was a frustrating setback for both Sara and the entire team, who had worked tirelessly to prepare for this race. Pundits may point to the sudden failure as expected from an unproven engine, but Viska took a brave step in fielding their own. Of course, there would be birth pains along the way. In the next couple of hours after Sara's retirement, there were many meetings and discussions inside Viska Racing's pit garage about how to approach the situation going forward.

''We'll need extra engine. Sara's is a writeoff,'' said Jan as he sat down at Artur's office later that night. No matter how hard you may try, there are always things out of your control in motorsports - sometimes you need luck on your side too. ''How about we go for a milder mapping?'' Jan suggested. ''Maybe one that would stress the new engine less.''

Artur wanted to figure out what's going on with the current batch of engines before making a decision.

''Alright,'' Jan agreed. ''I'll ask our guys to put that on the list of things to look at.''

Artur asked if Jan got any feedback from Sara.

''She's unhappy about the situation, but she knows that it's not her fault. She feels bad because of our efforts put into this race.''

Artur nodded. He personally felt that Sara did a good job in terms of managing her car throughout the weekend and looked like she had taken to driving with Viska well enough to compete for points today had things not gone haywire. But no matter how hard you may try, there are always things out of your control in motorsports - sometimes you need luck on your side too.

IT'S BEEN 0 DAYS SINCE SARA LUNA'S LAST DNF

[Tropicorp]

Fast Cocoabo Passes 17 Cars to Steal Points in Liventia

WGPC20 Supplier Performance Standings (After Week #1)
[1] - 25 :: Phoenician/InMotion
[2] - 18 :: Tropicorp Racing Supply
[3] - 10 :: Tabtac
[4] - 5 :: Brústeinn

InfoInternet Grand Prix of Liventia presented by Liventia Airways, Talbott Autodrome, Talbott, Liventia :: Generally when you look at the qualifying board and see your time squeezed between that of the defending World Champion and the winner of the last two Grands Prix, it means you are Fast and that you are going to be in contention for the victory. Unfortunately, for Cocoabo #23 at the Talbott Autodrome, that was not what it meant. William Archer, winner of the previous two races for Preston Autos Grand Prix was the slowest in the field of 28 drivers for the Grand Prix of Liventia. Just ahead of him was Cocoabo #23 as Race Eelandii! Vilita and Turori World Grand Prix Motorworks continued to struggle while iBen Toralmintii piloting the #1 for the first time was very far from the first position just on place ahead of the Cocoabo in 26th. It was a bit of a surprise however as Fast Cocoabo was Fast in practice - 4th on the time sheet in fact so to have qualified 27th came as a shock to the team.

On race day, however, Fast Cocoabo would make up for it, and then some. With a little strategy help from the team either side of the Lap 14 safety car, Cocoabo #23 would leave Archer and Toralmintii in the dust and stream up through the field. By the end of the race, Fast Cocoabo would find themselves in a battle with World Grand Prix 2 Graduates Sam Blaatschappen and Batu Tüvshinbayar. Of the trio, only 2 could finish in the points and Cocoabo #23 was not about to be the one left out in the midst of a pair of Toys '4' All Rookie of the Season contenders. The Cocoabo powered the @CocoaboPark twii.tur machine around the reigning World Grand Prix 2 Champion to knock Scuderia Orange cow out of the points. While it was only a single point it was a hard earned point for Fast Cocoabo and the Race Eelandii VTGP team that quickly silenced any doubters who questioned whether the team should have gone with the Cocoabo driver or a more traditional choice like Nimban driver Olivia Stone who was off the grid in Liventia.

While Cocoabo #23 kicked off their third full time season of World Grand Prix Championship competition with a spectacular run that might have been worthy of Driver of the Day Honors if it weren't for the stunning performances by the three podium finishers, the Grand Prix of Liventia also marked the first time two Tropicorp Licensed drivers started a World Grand Prix event - with reigning champion iBen Toralmintii retaining their Turorian License despite having competed 4 seasons under the Tropicorp Banner.

Tropicorp's other licensed driver was Skiia Vialiv, runner-up in the World Grand Prix 2 standings one season prior for the Tropicorp VilBev GP2 team, Vialiv's day in Liventia was quite a bit different than the Cocoabo's. Driving for Urotovsky-Gatutin, Vialiv started the race inside the points with a very strong showing in qualifying. Though she struggled in the Final Round of qualification and fell to 9th, Vialiv was fast all weekend. Unfortunately, some mistakes for the rookie driver who got pushed off on the opening restart and had to make an extra pit stop eventually resulted in a 21st place finish one lap down. Still, Vialiv was in good company despite finishin outside the points in her first World Grand Prix Championship Race, as she was able to lead the Dom Falepeau, William Archer and iBen Toralmintii - the top 3 finishers in last seasons point standings, across the stripe.

While there wasn't much to remember on the day for Vialiv other than the fact it was her first career start, it was a strong day for her team Urotovsky-Gatutin as the teams other driver Adonis Fitzpatrick managed a strong run from their 11th starting position to a runner-up finish scoring a podium in their first start at the highest level of competition. With the run Fitzpatrick would also be the highest finishing driver on the Tropicorp Racing Supply Sifaka Tyres, surrounded on the the podium by a pair of Eminent Grand Prix drivers utilizing one of the multitude of Phoenician-InMotion compounds on offer as the joint partnership continues to search for ways to manipulate the standings to appear as if they are a superior Tyre provider than the Calanian Rubber forged offerings from Tropicorp. Of course, in this case, no manipulation was required as Phoenician-InMotion would be atop the standings regardless with the stunning upset victory from Anneliese Devereux - a driver who very nearly was without a ride just two weeks before the start of the season. All four Tyre Suppliers that have been certified for World Grand Prix Championship Season 20 managed to place at least one car in the Top 10 at the Grand Prix of Liventia ensuring that no Supplier will be shutout with a 0 this campaign.

SKIIA VIALIV ✓

@Skiia

Secure a World Grand Prix Championship Drive? Check. Start my first World Grand Prix Championship Race? Check. Get my first World Grand Prix Championship Points? Well, gotta have a reason to come back to the track next week I guess. See you in Togonistan! #WGPC20

[Mlima Kijani]

Selection of articles from Kijani news media.

Náttmörðsdóttir disappoints on WGPC debut

Sivaleinen driver Lillý Náttmörðsdóttir finished in last place in the Liventian Grand Prix, marking a downbeat end to an exciting first ever Grand Prix week for the Kijani driver. Náttmörðsdóttir shot to notice with an impressive series of drives during Sivaleinen’s testing day and was a surprise signing for the Mertagne based racing outfit, but struggled to make an impression through pre-season testing and found the technically demanding Talbott Autodrome course beyond her skill set. Náttmörðsdóttir started in 15th, just behind eventual winner Anneliese Devereux in 14th, but was overtaken by 10 of the 13 cars starting behind by lap 14, at which point the safety car was deployed. Stuck towards the back of the pack, Náttmörðsdóttir never recovered, and ended up rolling over the line a lap down, 25 of the 25 finishers.* Náttmörðsdóttir particularly struggled on the two formidable hairpins marking the Talbott’s distinctive “looks a bit like the flaps on a butt plug that stop it getting sucked up into you” shape. “We chose the right wheels, the pit strategy was fine, she just wasn’t good enough on those corners,” admitted Cole Sewell of the Sivaleinen team. “Lillý’s a learning project and racing on courses like these is going to help her for the future.” He also suggested next week’s race at Hwoarang would suit her driving style better. “It’s a less technical course [in Togonistan] and I think it’ll be more of an opportunity to show off her stuff.” Náttmörðsdóttir pronounced herself “very disappointed” with her race, twii.turing “I can do better” (though the cryptic social media comment may also have referred to her now ex-boyfriend, whom she left, sobbing, in Liventia).

* Though listed as a finisher, Sara Luna retired on lap 47.

Delaclav telehealth firm partners with regional governors to develop rural healht infrastructure

While Lillý Náttmörðsdóttir congratulating Kingston Walcott on a good drive in Liventia may be the most visible representation of closer Delaclav-Kijani relations, away from the glamour of WGPC racing, the two countries are forging more meaningful links. The latest such involves Delaclava-based Dove Medical, who are rolling out pilot telemedicine programs in three Kijani provinces, with a few to a longer term commitment across the country should the projects succeed. Dove will engage with regional governments to create telemedicine hubs where trained doctors and nurses can provide remote consultations to patients visiting village treatment centers equipped with mobile phone telemessaging software. While the state of Mlima Kijani’s hospitals in major cities is often criticized, its rural health infrastructure is even more poorly developed, and hindered by few good transit links. Osogo Ochuka of the Ministry of Health said, “Very few rural villages have even a nurse, let alone a doctor, and it can be difficult and expensive to travel to the town for an often oversubscribed doctor’s surgery visit; many patients would be better served by a telemedicine consultation, allowing only those in critical need to travel.” Kabawenge, Bungoma and Bwiziwa are the three provinces working with Dove Medical, who will help supply the technical infrastructure, while the medical personnel will be a mixture of Kijanis and international personnel.

Militants destroy girls’ school one day after Græntfjaller force leaves

One day after the last Græntfjaller special operations forces withdrew from Kigabuga Province, where they had been assisting in counterinsurgency operations against Islamist militants, a girls’ school building at Muhoroto has been blown up, in an action claimed by splinter group Wafuasi-wa Sharia. There were no reported injuries as the school had been abandoned following the Græntfjaller withdrawal. Wafuasi-wa Sharia opposes the teaching of girls and had regularly attacked schools prior to the deployment of the Græntfjaller task force as part of Operation Reinkaos. Græntfjaller Prime Minister Kaija Michaelsdóttir had supported the deployment in part because of its potential for improving the status of women and girls in the region, but growing unpopularity at home and dissent from within her governing Progressive-Liberal party have forced into the withdrawal. With the school destroyed, locals say there is no school that will teach girls within 80km of Muhoroto.

Also in the news:

• New species of sloth discovered in Kijani jungle, to be named “Lillý Sloth” after slow paced racing driver
• International Consortium for Convenient Press Pull Quotes warns Bank of Mlima Kijani’s monetary expansion “could lead to unsustainable hyperinflation”
• Government ministers among those identified as leading inter-ethnic riots by war crimes prosecutors
• Planned literary festival shut down following threats of violence from militant groups
• Wave of protests sweeps Ntukabanda following corruption report

[Vilita and Turori]

VILITA & TURORI RACER ✓

@VTRacer

Is Toralmintii's Head in the Game? Controversy abound after Liventia as World Champion @iBen77 finishes outside the points then promptly leaves the track via Chopper to head back to Atlantian Oceania and Compete in an NSSCRA Race. Now, Toralmintii is expected to compete in the #Rumble in the Rice Fields, an @IRACT Stock Car event in The Sherpa Empire before meeting back up with the Tropicorp Colourworks team in Togonistan. Is all this racing keeping the Champion Sharp or wearing them too thin? Only (Lap) Time will tell!

#WGPC :: #NSSCRA :: #GPTogonistan

[Lisander]

<< Previously | Next >>

XI. The new LSiD of Laura Werner

OOC: This is a sequel to "The Red Sportscar of Laura Werner". Laura Werner is the fake identity Anneliese Devereux was handed by a government official.

"But sir... I take a bus from Brax to Soria, every holy day that God let me, to go to work in the house of Missus Corinna. Tell him, boss. I am poor but I am a straight girl, I would never do these absurd things. What have you ever seen, selling your identity for someone to do something like that... This is even worse than harlotry... I mean... err... this I wouldn't do at all either!" - the blonde girl, shrieked, making a nervous, frightened expression, while defending herself from what made it look like an unfair accusation. Her hands on her lap were still only because one hand was holding the other, like as if she was covering her legs under the old dress.

Beside her, a lady in her fifties or sixties, well-dressed enough for them to see that she was in fact wealthy, and not feigning.

"Laura is a lovely girl, officer. I've already told her she could come and live in our house, we have enough rooms for a maid, but she won't accept, she says she'd be at the mercy of certain people who aren't very respectful over there. The worst thing is that these guys who keep whistling and flirting with her are my husband's employees, and I can't do anything about it. She lost her bracelet and someone did these things. Come on, check the system, if there is any fine I will pay it now. Maybe someone found it and used it to do these things. But that one, poor thing, would never do anything criminal."

"If I'd known, I never would have swapped my card for a bracelet when that "go for upgrade rally" happened in Montferrand. These internet things only serve to complicate the lives of people who are poor, Ms Corinna." - Laura grunted in dismay.

The attendant at Brax Town Hall, a man in his forties, looked at the computer. His expression seemed tired. It was perhaps the tenth LSiD problem he had solved that day. Since Lisander's government had implemented that completely digital, microchip-based identity system years ago, things had certainly gotten harder for him, who had grown up with paper documents.

"So, ma'am, there's no fine, like I said. Let me explain it to you again. It is recorded here in the system that Miss Laura Werner is the owner of a red Camden Ira, which was booked for high speed between Brax and Sirenia on the night of last November 23rd. Do you know what..."

"Yes, I know, dear sir, I'm just poor, I'm not dumb! It's a pretty expensive car. The boss has one of those. " - the younger woman replied, and her expression was clearly reviled.

"You are making it difficult, officer... The girl is travelling with us to Togonistan, for an event my husband and I need to attend, and she can only travel if she has a new LSiD. A card, a bracelet, anything... Come on, please." Corinna repeated, with more emphasis.

"All right. I'll proceed with issuing a temporary LSiD, after all, she can't be without a document. However, I'll have to ask for an inspector to visit the address you indicate, all right?" - the officer answered, in a bored tone. He had already given up arguing with the maid of rural origin and her wealthy mistress.

"All right sir. I told you I have nothing to hide, I don't have that car you are talking about. I just want my LSiD, which is sur'ly my right. And this time I don't want more bracelet, that's just a problem."

"No problem, the temporary LSiDs are chip cards. If you change your mind, just detach the chip and put it in a bracelet." - the officer said with a tired expression - "I will mark the two LSiDs for checking in the system, and after the visit, you will have this problem solved. Now, I'll need you to answer my questions, just like the first time you received a document. I'll made only the basic ones, for you to be able to travel."

"mmm'kay. Hell I would" - Laura Werner mumbled.

"Name?"

"Laura Rose Werner"

"Birthdate?"

"April 12, 1996."

"Birthplace?"

"Montferrand Commune"

"Gender?"

"Feminine. I am a true woman!"

"Don't say that in a Trans people event. Now please look at this camera, please. We'll record your face to match the one in the system. Don't blink."

Laura looked to the camera for some seconds until the officer said the process was over.

"Okay, your temporary LSiD is T0LAUWER. Don't lose this again."

"Thank you sir, I won't!"

"Laura Werner" and her employer, Corinna Vetinari, rose up from the chairs. Both of them kept their expressions until leaving the Town Hall. But both of them knew that the inspector would never reach the house. The information would soon be altered by a bigwig pulling some clout on the functioning of the system. All of that has been a façade, or better saying, a ploy to "strengthen the proof" of Laura Werner's existence. Fortunately for Anneliese, getting on the list of people sponsored or benefiting from the Crown of Lisander was a safeguard for her liberty, money and endeavours. It was like being above even some laws.

With a mischievous smile that did not match her age, Corinna Vetinari spoke:

"It is a pity that I am going to lose a maid as gentle as you, little Laura..."

Anneliese replied, with a smile just as mischievous:

"Mistress, I don't think you would be a good maid. Even as a driver, I would have no way of guaranteeing you any kind of traffic safety. My license would be revoked in the first week."

After those words, the two women said goodbye, getting into different cars. While Corinna got into the driver's seat of an SUV, something completely unusual for a sixty-something little lady, Anneliese got into the back seat of a black sedan (more specifically a "Gunmetal Black" Sidus Aquila). Inside, a male figure greeted her:

"Everything in order now, Lady Seven?"

"Yes, all going well. In a couple of weeks, I will need to go to Kasandora, to make note that Laura Werner will be leaving the Principality. The humble maid is to be hired as a governess by Lisander's ambassador to a certain tropical nation, where she will start a new life, looking after company registrations and the like. With a lot of effort, she'll finish a bachelor's in economics and become a reasonably wealthy person, looking after the interests of Lisander companies abroad."

"Is that going to work out? I think this plan is getting too complicated. Isn't leaving more traces worse?" - The male voice asked, from the driver's seat, being answered soon after:

"Almost no problem. The ambassador owes me some favours and was extremely helpful when I said I needed his help. Also I like Laura. I like to be her, and it's all OK as long as she and I never have to appear in public together. Something like that, obviously, is never going to happen. She's such a good little girl, so innocent. You have to be a heartless knave to doubt a poor maid who came from the countryside, practically begging in tears not to be left without documents... By the way, the worst part is the hair. Even if that blonde comes out in the wash, I'll certainly still have some light locks in Togonistan."

[Aboveland]

CUTOFF

for Practice and Qualifying at Hwoarang Racing Circuit

[Aboveland]

Week 4: Practice

Conditions:      	Dry
Lap Record:      	00:01:10.103
Session Length:	75 minutes
Nation:         	TGN
Circuit:        	Hwoarang Racing Circuit

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

POS # ▍DRIVER                           	FASTEST LAP	GAP TO LEADER
 1 12 ▍Darian Vilau                     	00:01:15.847	00:00:00.000
 2 71 ▍Brendan Faloe                    	00:01:15.850	00:00:00.003
 3 87 ▍Bryce Yannec                     	00:01:15.850	00:00:00.003
 4 14 ▍Skiia Vialiv                     	00:01:15.853	00:00:00.006
 5 88 ▍Ted Pressley                     	00:01:15.855	00:00:00.008
 6 50 ▍Sara Luna                        	00:01:15.868	00:00:00.021
 7 19 ▍Dom Falepeau                     	00:01:15.876	00:00:00.029
 8 10 ▍Lillý Náttmörðsdóttir            	00:01:15.883	00:00:00.036
 9  7 ▍Anneliese Devereux               	00:01:15.890	00:00:00.043
10 94 ▍Ryker Lane                       	00:01:15.892	00:00:00.045
11 24 ▍Jordan Crowe                     	00:01:15.894	00:00:00.047
12 40 ▍Adriana Kowalski Lilian          	00:01:15.913	00:00:00.066
13 13 ▍Ji So-Yeong                      	00:01:15.914	00:00:00.068
14 37 ▍Laura Haukanna                   	00:01:15.918	00:00:00.071
15 96 ▍William Archer                   	00:01:15.939	00:00:00.092
16  1 ▍iBen Toralmintii                 	00:01:15.948	00:00:00.101
17 84 ▍Angela Tan Fang Ling             	00:01:15.969	00:00:00.122
18 51 ▍R.L. Cruisin                     	00:01:15.984	00:00:00.137
19 17 ▍Janne Laukkanen                  	00:01:16.010	00:00:00.163
20 91 ▍Kingston Walcott                 	00:01:16.040	00:00:00.193
21 28 ▍Aaron Deering                    	00:01:16.074	00:00:00.227
22 74 ▍Adonis Fitzpatrick               	00:01:16.132	00:00:00.285
23 42 ▍Sophie McCreary                  	00:01:16.173	00:00:00.326
24 33 ▍Sam Blaatschappen                	00:01:16.181	00:00:00.334
25 23 ▍Cocoabo #23                      	00:01:16.323	00:00:00.476
26  5 ▍Rudy Edwards                     	00:01:16.436	00:00:00.589
27  9 ▍Batu Tüvshinbayar                	00:01:16.478	00:00:00.631
28 11 ▍Lane Carter                      	00:01:16.951	00:00:01.104

Week 4: Qualifying

Conditions:      	Dry
Lap Record:      	00:01:10.103
Qualifying Type:	Elimination
Nation:         	TGN
Circuit:        	Hwoarang Racing Circuit

POS # ▍DRIVER                           	FASTEST Q1	GAP TO LEADER	FASTEST Q2	GAP TO LEADER	FASTEST Q3	GAP TO LEADER
 1 19 ▍Dom Falepeau                     	00:01:10.292	00:00:00.011	00:01:11.134	00:00:00.004	00:01:10.821	FASTEST : Q3
 2 42 ▍Sophie McCreary                  	00:01:10.317	00:00:00.035	00:01:11.131	FASTEST : Q2	00:01:10.828	00:00:00.006
 3 17 ▍Janne Laukkanen                  	00:01:10.400	00:00:00.118	00:01:11.201	00:00:00.070	00:01:10.829	00:00:00.008
 4  5 ▍Rudy Edwards                     	00:01:10.481	00:00:00.199	00:01:11.236	00:00:00.105	00:01:10.839	00:00:00.017
 5 11 ▍Lane Carter                      	00:01:10.406	00:00:00.124	00:01:11.306	00:00:00.175	00:01:10.842	00:00:00.021
 6 74 ▍Adonis Fitzpatrick               	00:01:10.404	00:00:00.122	00:01:11.168	00:00:00.038	00:01:10.848	00:00:00.026
 7 12 ▍Darian Vilau                     	00:01:10.466	00:00:00.184	00:01:11.181	00:00:00.050	00:01:10.849	00:00:00.028
 8  7 ▍Anneliese Devereux               	00:01:10.282	FASTEST : Q1	00:01:11.150	00:00:00.020	00:01:10.851	00:00:00.030
 9 88 ▍Ted Pressley                     	00:01:10.410	00:00:00.129	00:01:11.227	00:00:00.096	00:01:10.870	00:00:00.049
10 84 ▍Angela Tan Fang Ling             	00:01:10.612	00:00:00.331	00:01:11.274	00:00:00.143	00:01:10.877	00:00:00.056
11 37 ▍Laura Haukanna                   	00:01:10.447	00:00:00.165	00:01:11.249	00:00:00.118	00:01:10.879	00:00:00.057
12 94 ▍Ryker Lane                       	00:01:11.309	00:00:01.027	00:01:11.338	00:00:00.207	00:01:10.885	00:00:00.063
13  9 ▍Batu Tüvshinbayar                	00:01:10.484	00:00:00.202	00:01:11.334	00:00:00.203	00:01:10.894	00:00:00.072
14 96 ▍William Archer                   	00:01:11.085	00:00:00.803	00:01:11.316	00:00:00.185	00:01:10.922	00:00:00.101
15 71 ▍Brendan Faloe                    	00:01:10.492	00:00:00.210	00:01:11.339	00:00:00.208		
16 28 ▍Aaron Deering                    	00:01:10.621	00:00:00.339	00:01:11.343	00:00:00.212		
17  1 ▍iBen Toralmintii                 	00:01:10.592	00:00:00.310	00:01:11.425	00:00:00.294		
18 14 ▍Skiia Vialiv                     	00:01:10.590	00:00:00.308	00:01:11.462	00:00:00.331		
19 13 ▍Ji So-Yeong                      	00:01:11.276	00:00:00.995	00:01:11.479	00:00:00.348		
20 33 ▍Sam Blaatschappen                	00:01:10.797	00:00:00.515	00:01:11.712	00:00:00.581		
21 23 ▍Cocoabo #23                      	00:01:11.223	00:00:00.941	00:01:11.983	00:00:00.852		
22 51 ▍R.L. Cruisin                     	00:01:11.502	00:00:01.220				
23 91 ▍Kingston Walcott                 	00:01:12.031	00:00:01.749				
24 24 ▍Jordan Crowe                     	00:01:12.063	00:00:01.781				
25 50 ▍Sara Luna                        	00:01:12.277	00:00:01.995				
26 10 ▍Lillý Náttmörðsdóttir            	00:01:12.749	00:00:02.468				
27 87 ▍Bryce Yannec                     	00:01:12.921	00:00:02.639				
28 40 ▍Adriana Kowalski Lilian          	00:01:13.465	00:00:03.183				

[Valentine Z]

Part 5 – Randomized chances of luck, and how Adriana learned to stop worrying about qualifications.

Zastępca Strażnika Adriana Krystal Desiree “Cudowny Manipulacja Światłem” Venus Kowalski Faith Stanisława Engelse I. Cherise Krystyna Zaborowska Sztormowska Pamela Alina Re. T. Lillian’s best timing netted her a rather abysmal qualification – at a whopping 21st out of the 28, there would be 20 cars ahead of her to overtake. There was a large feeling and bug in her code and thoughts that she could not easily get rid of, to be afraid of what is to come ahead for the race. She could make them go away, but her emulated human mind would still have that feeling. Shaking her head slightly at the sight of the scoreboard, she collected herself, her helmet, and then made her way to the garage and eventually to a lounge, presumably one where there were a lot of Eminent crew going and working around the clock in order to get the best performance out of them. The work and effort towards Anneliese seemed relatively simple, she thought to herself. She is, after all, a human. Adriana, on the other hand is a top-of-the-line robot for modern day standards that, while impressive, still need a lot of calibrations and fixes to her code.

She was called into the office as soon as she entered, not out of the disappointment, but one of excitement and anticipation. What did they have for her in store, she thought to herself. “Oh, hello, Adriana!” one of the staff, most likely a highly-ranked staff, started talking to her, “That was not a bad qualification session that you had today. However, I heard from a lot of my peers, as well as yourself, that you seem to be having a bit of problems driving the car. Now, that is NOT your fault, of course, I am not saying that!” he paused for a while for Adriana to take in, then continued on, “We are wondering if you would like to do a couple of calibration tests?” Adriana’s face lit up at that moment; perhaps this is the thing that she needed. She needed the calibration, to be able to fit into her car a lot more and for the staff to tune and adjust the car accordingly. “And of course, we will need other more intricate stats.” She nodded with all her code, heart, and mind, her willingness to do well not extinguished, just that she had to fish it out of all the sea of paranoia that her emulated human side was getting into her. “Sure! Are we starting now?”

And so the test began. At first, there was a measurement of herself, so as to compensate and adjust for the car in terms of suspension. Adriana first slowly walked to the height and weight measurement station, for the very first time that they are going to do so but it was definitely better to be late than to have never done it. “On top of that, well, we are not trying to implicate anything, but it would just really help everyone if you take the measurements for us again. Please step over to the marked box, and have your height and weight taken.” To which Adriana did, with her height and weight (at least, for the car and during her race) to be at 200 cm and 160 kg, which is a little bit on the heavy side, in parts due to her body, the amount of equipment and machines that are inside of her to run, and of course, of her muscular complexity with those extra parts putting on extra weight. “We can arrange for that, it is fine,” the staff have told her, “Okay, so the physical properties are complete. Now, Adriana, please do go through these next series of tests, we will need the data to make sure that our cars are tuned accordingly to you at its best.” It was a tame and even typical one, she thought. It felt like one of those tutorials that she would encounter every time she plays a new game, but just that this is not for a video game. The first test was a handling test, whereby she was instructed to use the steering wheel as she normally would. “All right, Adriana, now please sit down on the simulated car seat. Hold onto the steering wheel like you normally would, but do not turn or anything like that yet. A simple grip test is all we needed.” Adriana did as she was told, slowly holding onto the steering wheel as she relaxed herself, her grip registered by the sensors that they have set up for her. “Okay, seems good! Now please do a couple of gentle turns,” she followed suit, and those were also recorded. More turning, pressing the buttons, and even a simulation of a course so that they could get some real-life driving data of her turning around actual corners.

All in all, the simulation and her test session went well, and Adriana certainly didn’t mind doing it right after the qualifications themselves; anyone else might have gotten tired and needed a break, but for her, she had more than enough power in her to do all these several times over. All of the notes and data having been recorded, Adriana’s task was done, and the Eminent crew and staff knew by then what to do to Adriana’s car for the race tomorrow. “All right, the data is good,” the staff said, “We can do another quick test run before the actual race, but if you are feeling confident about it, I think then you can take a break for today. I think it would be good to go for the race with a clear memory in mind!” Adriana gave a thumbs up along with a reply, “Hey, good looking out! Thank you, you guys, it’s much appreciated! And of course, it is definitely an honour to race for Eminent once again with Anneliese.”

1st Cpt. Angela Stella Trista Josephine Natalie Rv. E. Tps. “The Eternal Explorer” Bethany Alyssa Valeska Payton. Mikayla Gosling Josie Rowan Serenity Chelsea Lynette Hannah Tan Fang Ling’s qualifications went relatively better compared to her Valentian friend in Eminent Racing. She was quite aesthetic of that, though no way because she beat Adriana; they were never rivals to begin with, anyway. No, it was the fact that she was able to do good with the car that Cygnus have provided to her, and that she felt natural inside of it. There were a handful of things that were taught and shown to her, and most of them were in the style of academics, that is, like typical school lectures she used to attend in her own education days, as well as in the Valentian Space Program. With a 7th spot on the qualifications, it was a pretty good feeling for Angela as she then finished off the meeting on a high note, going back to her lounge early, perhaps thinking about how this has been working amazingly well for her, at least not solely in the department of racing, but with how quickly she was meeting new people. “Just like my space travels,” she then remarked to herself, “Just that, well, everyone is nicer here. And lesser chances of getting acid spit splashed at you.” She thought the whole thing – from the practice and qualifying sessions, and more importantly, new engineer.

She was there together with her as the introductions are exchanged. She looked a little down – but not too down – as she looked at the race engineer right in front of her, “...Carol Schmied’s the name; really glad to be working with you!” said the race engineer to Angela, the latter then nodded and introduced herself as well. “That is nice and great to meet you! I am Angela Stella Tan Fang Ling! You may have heard about me having way too many names, so Angela will do!” she then continued on, getting slowly back into business but did not want to give her new person assigned to her (and possibly going to be a friend, if a Valentian’s attitude is anything to go by) that she is not going to get way too serious on this. “I do am glad to be working with you too!” Angela said back in return, “Yeah, this is going to be a pretty eventful season, I’m sure.” Carol gave her own exchange in return, and perhaps striking up a conversation, one Angela didn’t mind, “I used to do race engineering for GT racing back at home in Esmerel, alongside my twin brother. Bet you’re ready to get going with this season, and so am I! It’s pretty exciting; you want to tell me anything about yourself?” Angela nodded once again, “Oh yes, I totally am! Hmm, something about myself? Well, err, first and foremost, I came from the world of Valentine Z, as you may be able to tell a little! I was born during the Valentian Era itself, to a lovely Valentian Canadian family, with a little bit of Chinese ancestry as far as my family tree goes. I have – and still am – in the Valentian Space Program and have explored, well, quite a lot of worlds beyond that of our own universe.” She paused for a while, trying her best to choose her words – mainly because she did not want to put anyone into an existential crisis. With a bit of throat clearing, she went on, “Most of the worlds do not have a life, so they are not as interesting. Other worlds, you usually have the usual hostile lifeforms, ones that don’t really care, or the ones that are more amicable. The last one, is obviously as to why have been in good graces in the world of sports.” That was hopefully enough for her to take in, though Angela’s bigger worry is more about the possibility that she told a little too much. Shaking the thought off, Angela went to the bed early.

The good sleep was enough to last her through the entire day for the race, and then some more. She was ready to take it on, to be able to become a Valentian in WGPC (and then in WGP2 if time comes) who can push it over the edge and to break the limits. In a relatively non-clichéd sense, that means that Angela simply wanted to get a strong start at the early parts of the season, and to be able to get points or even a podium finish across entire season. Full of hope and determination, she hopped into the car after the engineers and staff have ran through some final checks with her; it was then just a matter of her slowly driving the car through the starting grid. With a series of button presses, along with radio checks and making sure that her helmet was set up nicely and keeping her hair neatly instead of it sticking out into the engine cover and upper bodywork behind her. “All right, let’s get to it!” she chimed in cheerfully, full of hope on what is next to come, and to do a pretty good job at it. She would weave through the drivers ahead of her, make sure that the pit stops go swimmingly and without error, and to make full use of the DRS zones to get as many overtaking as possible. Then come the end of the race, there was indeed a Valentian who would place a podium, much to the surprise and cheers of everyone around them – the teams, the staff, the drivers themselves, the audience, the whole nine yards. She held that trophy proud, placing 3rd, while her teammate placed 1st, slingshotting this team towards the front in terms of points, and possibly being able to hold it there.

“Congratulations to you guys, Annealise and Adriana!” the reporters swarmed around them as they were pushing to get a terrific shot of the two shaking hands and even possibly giving each other a hug. What a dynamic duo, and to get the Eminent off with an amazing start, everyone thought. Angela was, naturally so, disappointed; that really could have been her and Brendan, she thought to herself. “Maybe another race. It’s okay, this is simply the first race, after all. There will be more to come, and I know I will be prepared.” For that moment, however, as with what friends do, Angela made her way slowly towards the front and saw Adriana and Anneliese still celebrating for the photos, drenched in champagne as they splashed her and then one another. “Congratulations, Adriana!” she said, followed by shaking the hands of Adonis Fitzpatrick and Anneliese Devereux respectively. “Congratulations to you guys as well! An amazing start for an amazing season, wishing you all the luck for the next races!” she offered to give them hugs, but whether or not they accept, she’ll accept it as a matter of personal preference. Next race, it is.

[Hapilopper]

Hwoarang Racing Circuit, Hwoarang, Togonistan
Before practice for the Grand Prix of Togonistan
Poor Chet Worthy. Simply because he had shown up at Andrew’s Pub on Monday talking about how his weekend gig – a wedding out on Lake Eclipse – had fallen through, he was finding himself with high-powered camera equipment on the outside of turn seven at this track in a place he had never been before – in a nation he had never been before. Simply because someone from Preston Autos Grand Prix Racing overheard him talking about his free weekend. You see, by trade, Chet Worthy was a photographer, covering sports for the Hapilopper City Herald, sports like gridiron football and baseball. On the weekends, when he didn’t have a sports gig, he covered weddings, and unfortunately for him, his planned event had fallen through after the husband was caught being way too friendly with another woman.

So the staffer from the Grand Prix team overheard him and offered him triple what he was supposed to be paid to go to Togonistan – on the dime of Preston Autos – and shoot race cars. Figuring he needed the money, Chet agreed to it, and brought his camera equipment out to Togonistan to shoot race cars. Photo credentials – as well as a Preston Autos photo vest – came easily, as Preston liked staging photographers around different parts of the track to get photographs of what their car was doing. That could then be transmitted back to the paddock, where crew members could see those photographs just after these pictures had been taken.

Chet’s camera equipment, on the other hand, was different. It couldn’t transmit immediately – he never had the need to do that. All he needed to do was send the photos in to Todd Stroud of Preston Autos. And interestingly, his orders didn’t involve photographing the Preston. Instead, his orders were to photograph every other car.

"Why?” Chet asked Marty Lewis on the flight over to Togonistan. “I get wanting to get photos of your car, but everyone else’s?”

“It’s a little healthy espionage,” Marty said. “Now, I shouldn’t have to tell you, but if anyone asks you, just say you’re working for an outlet in Hapilopper and move on. But we want to get better shots of what everyone else is doing. We want to get some kind of high-resolution shot of what the other teams are doing.”

“So, everyone but you guys,” Chet said.

“Correct,” Marty explained. “I’d like to see close shots of the aero elements, the suspension, even the rear of the car if you can get it, because I’d like to see how the other teams do their underside aero. And if a car goes airborne and you can see the bottom of the car, by all means, shoot away because we’d love to see what the underside of the cars look like.”

“Any cars you’d like to see more than others?” Chet asked, a little nervous.

“The Eminent Bitten Heroes car,” Marty said. “That feels a little suspicious, I’d like to see what they’ve been doing. Ditto with the Colorworks car, the Kaylan and the Portland. And maybe get some shots of the Cygnus and the Chase Cutter. You’ll know the Chase Cutter when you see it.”

“Why?” Chet asked.

“Well, for starters, it’s got eight wheels,” Marty responded. “It’s also got fans on the back of it, feels like some real science fiction shit. It’s easier to spot than any of the other cars on the grid, and you’ll know it when you see it.”

So Chet walked his way over to turn seven, hoping nobody would ask him what he was doing, or ask him why he was there. He figured if another team knew he was there, it wouldn’t be pleasant for him. After all, he wasn’t a racing photographer – he casually watched racing on the weekends when nothing else was on, but it wasn’t his sport of choice. He didn’t know how other photographers worked or how competitive they would be, and nobody had really told him anything. So he found a place to shoot, stood where he was told to stand, and started shooting race cars. Since he was properly credentialed, nobody could tell him to go away, and since he was doing his job as a photographer, nobody could tell him to let someone else take photos there.

While all that was going on, Rudy Edwards was feeling some level of heat. Preston Autos had pretty much pinned the blame on his accident on him – for the fact he had followed Ryker Lane too closely in that race in Liventia and that allowed the turbulence to take the downforce off the front of his car and put him into the scenery. It wasn’t the fact that the Chase Cutter had so much rear downforce, it was the fact that Rudy Edwards was a fool and ran too closely behind the Chase Cutter.

Consequently, when he got to Togonistan, Marty Lewis went over to Rudy and gave him one explicit order: Don’t be an idiot.

More specifically, Marty had some choice words for Rudy when they arrived in Togonistan.

“So if you’re behind someone, don’t be a hero and try to hound them for a lap or two, just go around them! Don’t stick your nose right behind them, your nose ain’t no good if the air won’t hit it!” Marty snapped at him before he went out on track. “We could have had a great run if you hadn’t messed it up. Just… use your damn head, please.”

Rudy nodded his head. He had heard it from all sides – from his crew who had fumed over losing a car so quickly after working for months upon months on it; from Marty, who thought the accident was about as avoidable as could be; from pundits and talking heads on television, including one nationally syndicated newspaper columnist, who branded Rudy the “Moron of the Week” for taking himself out in Liventia; and even Rudy’s girlfriend, who roasted him over twii.tur for the accident. He just wanted people to stop talking about the accident.

But he knew very well – too well, that just telling people to stop talking about it wouldn’t work – in fact, it’d have the opposite effect. He’d have to force people to stop talking about it. And he’d have to do so by just outracing everyone. He’d have to do so by not being an idiot on the track. He’d have to do so by running as hard as he could to the greatest of his ability. And he’d have to do so by doing what he did best. Liventia was in the past. Togonistan was next, and Rudy could start over fresh.

[Diarcesia]

TT's Peculiar Experience: Action Tendency

After an incident that happened at the In Motion plant in the Wardship, Théotime was summoned to the Phoenician office so his superiors could ask questions. As part of his duties, he had written as much as he could on his observations during his stay with his counterparts (as much as that is permissible, of course). He learned that almost no one in In Motion was aware of what was happened. Despite the weirdness happening, they foudn no cause to investigate it on their own.

While Théotime's superiors discussed how to handle this incident with him, he had quietly explored some parts of the office which was normally off-limits to the public... a situation which gave rise to an idea in his head: "Perhaps I can find something related to this issue here..." After all, as someone who is learning how the machines there work and other aspects about running a business that uses Imagination-forged materials for its products, he knows just how important information is when it comes ensuring safe working conditions. He does not know if there might be any clues or hints relating this phenomenon at their office—but perhaps there are! And so begins his search...

But he couldn't do it alone. He needed help and asked for Phoenician to bring in some of the best researchers they could hire. Struggling to pin down what type of experts they'll bring in, they ultimately decided on a small cross-disciplinary group of neuroscientists and psychologists.

"This must be a peculiar problem," said one of the experts, who was an expert in human behaviour. "It's either that this is a new kind of mental disorder, or it has something to do with how people interact and use Imagination energy."

"But Imagination is an otherworldly concept that only very few Diarcesians properly understand. I need to study its properties too, so I can do my job. And I don't think that the few people who are aware of its properties would be affected by this issue."

"Hmm... Well, it's worth a try to persuade some Nimbans to join us. What if this is related to how human brains work and function to prolonged exposure or use of Imagination?"

"It's a very possible hypothesis for a cause, but we need to test that and to what extent it affects the Nimbans. If this is a human issue, it needs to be addressed. If not... we may have to rethink our assumptions about Imagination."

As Théotime and the experts continued their investigation into the matter, more Diarcesians became aware of what was happening in the Wardship. The fact that incidents like this one were happening at all has left many them uneasy. They do not know how long would these incidents last or where they will strike next...

---

TV SCHEDULE - ACTO SPORTS WGPC 19 COVERAGE IN THE TOGONISTAN GP

Soul Eaten?

A deceptively quick left followed by a fast right, a hard braking zone followed after for Sara. That's what lay ahead of her when she crossed the line to start her hot lap. She had done quite a lot of practice in this track, as this was the location of one of WGPC 19's preseason testing before. Its layout was mostly very simple, with two lenghty straights and two chicanes that could be easily flat-out run at full throttle for all cars. Sara's car engine roared through turns five and six before braking hard down to enter turn seven; she kept her head down while powering out, then slingshot past all other drivers towards the main straight where she would brake again in the last wo turns.

''00:01:12,'' declared Jan calmly as Sara entered pit lane after ending her lap around Hwoarang Racing Circuit. ''That puts you in P25.''

Sara groaned while stopping next to Garage Six at Viska's pit stop bay area. Jan jumped off his seat ready to receive additional technical data. ''Definitely an improvement over your last lap in practice,"

"That'll make me laugh. Yeah, out of Q2, and almost two full seconds slower than the leader. Maybe I wasn't aggressive enough,'' Sara replied as she unbuckled her seat belt. Before leaving the car, she looked at Jan with an expression of mixed feelings: disappointment at herself and confidence that there's more room for improvement in future sessions. She watched the remaining rounds and later decided to meet other drivers who had posted quicker times than her; their names were Lane Carter (P5), Ted Pressley (P9) and her own teammate, to whom she congratulated for making Q2 (P16).

''How did it go for you?'' Sara asked as she approached Ted.

Ted mentioned a mistake in braking into turn one that was potentially pole-losing, but he guessed that it was alright. He glanced at his watch to check if he needed to move. Sure enough, he realized his next item on the agenda was two minutes away and needed to take his leave.

Sara walked away, making her way towards her own spot in the Viska garage. Once she reached it, she took a seat on one of the chairs that was prepared for her. After a few moments, she looked at Jan. ''Can we talk for a second?''

Jan took his seat next to Sara and faced her. He had an idea of what was about to be discussed, but he wanted it said loud and clear. ''Okay,'' he started calmly as the two were still looking each other in the eyes, ''I know you're worried about your performance.''

Sara nodded while replying with a frustrated tone: "It looked like I was not even trying!" She calmed herself down before continuing: "You have got to realize that I'm here because of you guys! If it weren't for Artur... if he didn't believe in me..." Sara shook her head again before letting out another sigh. ''I was so sure I could do better than this. But it seems like my own performance is really holding me back."

Jan nodded in agreement: ''That's what you think now, and that's understandable. You're facing setbacks recently; it takes time to get acquainted intimately with a new team's inner workings.'' He looked away from Sara before looking her back into eyes again: "You know why Jöna assigned you to me? Because we we work very together during a race. This is far from a lost case, at least as far as WGPC goes." Jan stood up and started pacing around his spot while he spoke further. ''We knew about all your struggles since last season onwards - but we fully believe on the potential that you have in store. You have the right tools and mindset to excel in a pressure situation like this one. You're on the right track, Sara."

Sara nodded again while listening attentively. She didn't feel pressured at all by Jan's words; she felt comforted that her race engineer was looking out for her interests as usual and had confidence in herself to perform well today, tomorrow or any other day of WGPC 20 so far. ''I'm sorry if I disappointed you...'' she said solemnly after another moment of silence between both drivers and engineer.

Jan shook his head: ''Don't be! We can only do our bests with what we've got.'' He smiled before adding: "And remember - there are no such things as 'impossible' when it comes to racing."

In what seems to be a case of good timing, Sara's mobile phone vibrated, she checked it and found that it was from Violet, her daughter. Probably, her family is watching her qualify from the comfort of their home in Diarcesia.

"Hey, Violet! How are you, sweetheart?" Sara asked with a smile on her face. "Yes, I'm at the track right now! Yes, you saw me on TV a few minutes ago?" Sara listened to Violet as she spoke about some concerns regarding an upcoming school test.

As Sara finished talking with Violet and placed her phone in her pocket again, Jan was standing by ready to receive more instructions from his driver before moving towards the garage exit.