World Grand Prix Championship 21 [RP/results]

[Liventia]

Week 7: Race

Conditions:      	Rainy
Laps:              	59
Nation:         	V&T
Circuit:        	Eelandii Grand Prix Course
Event:                	Grand Prix of Turori
Safety Car on Laps:	
Cars on Grid:        	26

Circuit image here

Start               	POS  # ▍DRV Name                                         Team                                     	Time        	Pts	Fastest Lap	
 1 ▍NÜL            	  1 27 ▍NÜL Dario Nülkeschlager                          Pressley Racing                              	01:43:39.502	25		
 2 ▍C23            	  2 94 ▍LAN Ryker Lane                                   Nexus Racing                                 	00:00:21.904	18		
 3 ▍GTA            	  3 37 ▍HAU Laura Haukanna                               Pryfors Bilar                                	00:00:24.811	14		
 4 ▍LAN            	  4 89 ▍GTA Abdoulaye Goita                              Ælund Grand Prix                             	00:00:40.847	11		
 5 ▍TII            	  5 77 ▍TII iBen Toralmintii                             Race Eelandii VTGP                           	00:00:41.911	8		
 6 ▍KAM            	  6 66 ▍VVV Vincent Von Visp                             Urotovsky-Gatutin                            	00:01:02.527	6		
 7 ▍VVV            	  7 58 ▍KAM Shuhei Kamado                                KISMO                                        	00:01:02.981	4		
 8 ▍PRE            	  8 96 ▍ARC William Archer                               Viska                                        	00:01:03.844	3		
 9 ▍CRU            	  9 23 ▍C23 Cocoabo #23                                  Race Eelandii VTGP                           	00:01:32.238	2		
10 ▍HAU            	 10 17 ▍LAU Janne Laukkanen                              Nexus Racing                                 	00:01:33.015	1		
11 ▍STO            	 11 21 ▍HAZ Nik Hazrin Lutfi                             Piers Ivchenko                               	00:01:37.321			
12 ▍KIN            	 12 63 ▍KIN Nepö Kinder                                  Urotovsky-Gatutin                            	Laps Down: 1			
13 ▍AKS            	 13 51 ▍CRU R.L. Cruisin                                 Piers Ivchenko                               	Laps Down: 1			
14 ▍ARC            	 14 55 ▍LNG Gil Langdon                                  KISMO                                        	Laps Down: 1	 + 1	1:39.267	
15 ▍JOH            	 15  1 ▍FAE Brendan Faloe                                Cygnus                                       	Laps Down: 1			
16 ▍BZW            	 16 12 ▍SOM Ron Sommer                                   Viska                                        	Laps Down: 1			
17 ▍HAZ            	 17 22 ▍JOH Nini Johnsilvaturr                           Pressley Racing                              	Laps Down: 1			
18 ▍FAE            	 18 95 ▍BZW Hanna Berezowska                             HiTEN.gpt                                    	Laps Down: 1			
19 ▍BLA            	 19 14 ▍VIA Skiia Vialiv                                 HMG Grand Prix                               	Laps Down: 1			
20 ▍LNG            	 20 18 ▍RAH Giancarlo Rahel                              WGPC Motorworks                              	Laps Down: 2			
21 ▍SOM            	 21 82 ▍LMN Kinu Luminna                                 Preston Autos                                	Laps Down: 2			
22 ▍LMN            	 22  9 ▍TUV Batu Tüvshinbayar                            WGPC Motorworks                              	Laps Down: 2			
23 ▍VIA            	 23 33 ▍BLA Sam Blaatschapen                             Pryfors Bilar                                	Laps Down: 2			
24 ▍RAH            	DNF 85 ▍STO Olivia Stone                                 Cygnus                                       	Ret. lap 38			
25 ▍TUV            	DNF 88 ▍PRE Ted Pressley                                 Ælund Grand Prix                             	Ret. lap 9			
26 ▍LAU            	DNF 40 ▍AKS Adriana Ela Kowalski Lillian                 Eminent                                      	Ret. lap 2

Drivers' standings

Pos # ▍DRV Name                                          Team [Engine]                                                                                Tyres                                        Pts
 1 17 ▍LAU Janne Laukkanen                               Nexus Racing [Nexus Racing Paragon Warp]                                                     Phoenician-In Motion                         48
 2 88 ▍PRE Ted Pressley                                  Ælund Grand Prix [Ælund CMYK-T20V8H]                                                         Tropicorp Racing Supply                      45
 3 27 ▍NÜL Dario Nülkeschlager                           Pressley Racing [Tropicorp TRE-2T24V8]                                                       Tropicorp Racing Supply                      39
 3 51 ▍CRU R.L. Cruisin                                  Piers Ivchenko [UrGa Zh-S-1000]                                                              Brimstone                                    39
 5 89 ▍GTA Abdoulaye Goita                               Ælund Grand Prix [Ælund CMYK-T20V8H]                                                         Tropicorp Racing Supply                      29
 6 94 ▍LAN Ryker Lane                                    Nexus Racing [Nexus Racing Paragon Warp]                                                     Phoenician-In Motion                         25
 6 37 ▍HAU Laura Haukanna                                Pryfors Bilar [Pryfors Bilar]                                                                Phoenician-In Motion                         25
 8 63 ▍KIN Nepö Kinder                                   Urotovsky-Gatutin [UrGa Zh-S-1000]                                                           Solymok                                      21
 9  1 ▍FAE Brendan Faloe                                 Cygnus [Sturmburgher PD02/25]                                                                Brimstone                                    20
10 74 ▍FTZ Adonis Fitzpatrick                            HMG Grand Prix [Preston Autos Skychief V6]                                                   Tropicorp Racing Supply                      18
11 82 ▍LMN Kinu Luminna                                  Preston Autos [Preston Autos Skychief V6]                                                    Brimstone                                    10
11 66 ▍VVV Vincent Von Visp                              Urotovsky-Gatutin [UrGa Zh-S-1000]                                                           Solymok                                      10
13 12 ▍SOM Ron Sommer                                    Viska [Viska RG Motors]                                                                      Phoenician-In Motion                         8
13 95 ▍BZW Hanna Berezowska                              HiTEN.gpt [Franklin WGP-X2]                                                                  Brimstone                                    8
13 77 ▍TII iBen Toralmintii                              Race Eelandii VTGP [Tropicorp TRE-2T24V8]                                                    Tropicorp Racing Supply                      8
16 58 ▍KAM Shuhei Kamado                                 KISMO [Kissan Motors KS.APEX-01]                                                             Solymok                                      4
17 30 ▍MAR Otto Markul                                   WGPC Motorworks [Franklin WGP-X2]                                                            Blue Sulphurate                              4
18 55 ▍LNG Gil Langdon                                   KISMO [Kissan Motors KS.APEX-01]                                                             Solymok                                      3
18 96 ▍ARC William Archer                                Viska [Viska RG Motors]                                                                      Phoenician-In Motion                         3
20 23 ▍C23 Cocoabo #23                                   Race Eelandii VTGP [Tropicorp TRE-2T24V8]                                                    Tropicorp Racing Supply                      2
20 85 ▍STO Olivia Stone                                  Cygnus [Sturmburgher PD02/25]                                                                Brimstone                                    2
22 21 ▍HAZ Nik Hazrin Lutfi                              Piers Ivchenko [UrGa Zh-S-1000]                                                              Brimstone                                    1

Constructors' standings

Pos NAT ▍Team [Engine]                                                                                Tyres                                        Pts
  1 ABL ▍Ælund Grand Prix [Ælund CMYK-T20V8H]                                                         Tropicorp Racing Supply                      74
  2 NIM ▍Nexus Racing [Nexus Racing Paragon Warp]                                                     Phoenician-In Motion                         73
  3 DOU ▍Piers Ivchenko [UrGa Zh-S-1000]                                                              Brimstone                                    40
  4 TMB ▍Pressley Racing [Tropicorp TRE-2T24V8]                                                       Tropicorp Racing Supply                      39
  5 PDN ▍Urotovsky-Gatutin [UrGa Zh-S-1000]                                                           Solymok                                      31
  6 DCS ▍Pryfors Bilar [Pryfors Bilar]                                                                Phoenician-In Motion                         25
  7 ESM ▍Cygnus [Sturmburgher PD02/25]                                                                Brimstone                                    22
  8 HÜL ▍HMG Grand Prix [Preston Autos Skychief V6]                                                   Tropicorp Racing Supply                      18
  9 AUR ▍Viska [Viska RG Motors]                                                                      Phoenician-In Motion                         11
 10 HVZ ▍Preston Autos [Preston Autos Skychief V6]                                                    Brimstone                                    10
 11 V&T ▍Race Eelandii VTGP [Tropicorp TRE-2T24V8]                                                    Tropicorp Racing Supply                      10
 12 HDR ▍HiTEN.gpt [Franklin WGP-X2]                                                                  Brimstone                                    8
 13 ANM ▍KISMO [Kissan Motors KS.APEX-01]                                                             Solymok                                      7
 14 WGP ▍WGPC Motorworks [Franklin WGP-X2]                                                            Blue Sulphurate                              4
 15 LIS ▍Eminent [Sidus 616W-1]                                                                       Blue Sulphurate                              0

[Liventia]

There are currently 11 drivers on 0 points in the Drivers Championship. Eight of them will take part in pre-qualifying for the Grand Prix de Patriotlandia sprint race, with three of them qualifying directly for the sprint race based on countback. Only two drivers taking part in pre-qualifying will qualify for the sprint race.

The three drivers avoiding the sprint race pre-qualifying on countback are Adriana Ela Kowalski Lillian (best result 13th), Nini Johnsilvaturr (best result 14th) and Anneliese Devereux (best result 17th, tied with PLA; second-best result 22nd). Taking part in pre-qualifying are: Angela Stella Tan Fang Ling, Ankei Souzare, Sam Blaatschapen, Skiia Vialiv, Pierre-Louis Archer (best result 17th, tied with DEV; second-best result 24th), Giancarlo Rahel, Naveen Kalkar, and Batu Tüvshinbayar.

The starting grid for the sprint race will be as follows, with positions 1-13 in the Championship reversed (countback applied): 1 TII 2 VVV 3 LMN 4 FTZ 5 FAE 6 KIN 7 HAU 8 LAN 9 GTA 10 NÜL 11 CRU 12 PRE 13 LAU 14 BZW 15 SOM 16 KAM 17 ARC 18 LNG 19 C23 20 STO 21 HAZ 22 AKS 23 JOH 24 DEV 25 ??? 26 ???

[Diarcesia]

OOC: Former Citizens of the Nimbus System and Auruna, thanks for helping me bring some ideas for this RP!

---

After a disappointing Nimban Grand Prix for Pryfors Bilar, they showed up a convincing performance in the Grand Prix of Turori, thanks to Laura Haukanna. Departing from the typical use of Phoenician-In Motion Blackbirds, the team opted to start the race with the frustal Nebulae of In Motion provenance—a sight otherwise only seen with the Nexus cars.

A: "The light rains continue, and many of the teams are using their respective providers' inters. Something very unusual was happening with Pryfors Bilar. Smaller tyres? They're using the frustal tyres like Nexus! How could they pull that off?"

B: "Using imagination, of course!"

A: "Last I heard, they don't have the Imagination capability that the Nimban outfit had."

B: "By that, I mean the "small i" imagination—using their heads. Have you noticed during practice that the camber in their tyres in a few laps departed from their norm? Something was afoot, and this is the result.

Laura's race start configuration, note the use of the Nebula changeable tyre

In particular, both Laura and Sam started with the Nebula changeables. The light rain continued after the lights went out. For the first 15 laps, the Changeables excelled in certain spots of the track that dried faster than others. Despite this, the drivers had polar opposite outcomes: Laura's more aggressive driving, almost akin to a rally driver when it comes to corners, kept her apace with the leaders and managed to snag some overtakes. Sam's qualifying clean air struggles continued and lost positions.

Laura's performance might have set off a moment of inspiration to her pit crew. Anticipating a dry spell, Erik called her to pit in Lap 17 so she can change to Bluebird ultrasofts. Her rallying experience allowed her to navigate the track as it was still damp, but it paid off when Erik's anticipation proved correct. The undercut gambit netted Laura a shot at a win. Alas, that was not to be when drivers undercut Laura by Lap 30, when heavier rain set in.

After that second pit stop, Laura hunted down Abdoulaye's car, which turned out to be an exhibit of exciting yet clean wheel-to-wheel racing, V8 hybrid versus nat-asp V10. Phoenician-In Motion versus Tropicorp Racing Supply.

Laura emerged ahead after that scrap. She could have overtaken Ryker Lane too, but the gap was too large and there were not enough laps left. Still, it was good enough for Pryfors Bilar to earn their first podium in WGPC 21.

Team Principal Aldauren Ginintella was later asked if PB would continue to use the Bluebird line. "I'm not even sure. Our Turori GP decision is entirely situational. We basically consulted our playbook and realized that using the Bluebirds will net us the most points," he responded. Race analysts agree, noting that the PF-3's philosophy overwhelmingly puts characteristics of the Blackbirds in its design considerations.

[Recuecn]

The rain was so thick Abdoulaye could hardly see as he crossed the finish line. The voice of his race engineer came on the radio. “P4, Abs, wonderful race.”

Abdoulaye sighed. It wasn’t a bad result, but he didn’t feel that he’d earned it. Surviving the chaos and the rain had been enough. He hadn’t done anything exceptional.

Still, it was a good result. “I’m very happy with that,” he answered back on the radio channel. He was surprised how firm and pleased his voice sounded. Did my brain forget to tell my vocal chords how I actually feel? “It’s all thanks to you and the team,” said Abdoulaye. “But let the pit know next time we’re going for a podium!” There it was again, that self-assured tone. Where was it coming from?

Terho came on the radio now. “Well done, Abs, I knew you had the confidence in you, and you showed it today on the track.” That was all, just a sentence from Terho, but from him it was high praise. Abdoulaye felt flattered, in every sense of the term. It was a good sign Terho felt that way. But why didn’t he?

---

---

Abdoulaye was on the phone with his dad again.

“I know you missed out on the podium,” his father was saying, “but cheer up! You did great! Fourth place is nothing to scoff at.”

“I know…” Abdoulaye sounded unconvinced. “It just doesn’t feel right though. Terho keeps telling me I don’t have the confidence I need, and I think he’s right.”

“It sounds like he’s hurting your confidence.”

“No, he doesn’t say it like that,” said Abdoulaye. “He’s always very encouraging. He says I deserve to be confident, says I just need to unlock my potential—that I have everything I need already. But I feel like something is missing.”

“What’s missing?”

“I don’t know! If I knew, I would do something about it.” Abdoulaye paused in thought. “Well, like I said, I think I lack confidence. But I don’t know why. I know I’m competent. I’m fifth in the championship right now—like you said, that’s not bad. I’m competing against the best drivers in the multiverse. But I still have this feeling of impostor syndrome. I don’t know how to get rid of it.”

“How did you handle it when you drove for Viska?” asked Moussa.

“Honestly, fa, I think our phone calls were an anchor for me. I don’t know if I imagined it, but I always found parallels between your stories and mine.”

“Yours?”

“My story—my life. I just think there’s so many lessons I have to learn from you still.”

“I’m moved, Abdoulaye. Other fathers must envy me to have a son who looks up to me like you do.”

“I love you, fa.”

“I’m just glad you like my stories. Maybe you see more in them than I do. I hope they can answer some questions for you.”

“Well actually… sometimes I just have more questions afterward,” said Abdoulaye. “I find some kind of meaning there, it’s certain, but I don’t always get the sense of comfort I would expect from stories about my childhood with my family. It makes me wonder. Why is my memory of that time so bad? Why have I forgotten so much? Why do I feel this foreboding sense of dread hanging over your story of our journey to Reçueçn? Every time you tell the next chapter of the story I feel like something terrible is about to happen. I can’t tell if that’s from your storytelling, or a subconscious memory mine, changing the way I perceive your story.”

Moussa was quiet for a long moment. “Just let me keep telling the story,” he finally said. “If I can answer your questions, it will be through my story. If that doesn’t satisfy you, you will have to find your own answers.”

---

---

Terho seemed happy. Abdoulaye tried to keep up a brave face and hide his misgivings. After all, it was apparent that Terho could read Abdoulaye’s emotions quite well by this point, but Abdoulaye wanted to match his sporting director’s upbeat energy, rather than pull it down with his own negative vibes. Even Ted, after his disappointing retirement, was already back to his regular, driven self. It was Abdoulaye, despite a strong race that had almost been a podium finish, who was feeling down.

The irony was not lost on the Reçuecian. Terho, picking up on Abdoulaye’s discomfort before he was even aware of it himself, had been micromanaging less, trying to build Abdoulaye’s confidence. Abdoulaye appreciated that. But after the fourth-place finish, the Abovian had said to Abdoulaye, “There you go, I knew you had the confidence in you. You just had to find it.” Yet Abdoulaye, even if he acknowledged the race a victory, didn’t feel that confidence anywhere. He resolved to fake it to avoid disappointing Terho.

The director’s more hands-off approach this past week or so made it a bit easier for Abdoulaye to hide his insecurities—and to hide in general. Instead of working with Terho, Abdoulaye had been spending more time with his race engineer as he prepared for the sprint in Vilnay.

The sprint offered a welcome shake-up to the WGPC routine, enough to help get Abdoulaye’s mind off of things. It was just different enough to have to reconsider things and be a bit more intentional this week. The way the grid was determined, the different strategy for the shorter race, the tighter schedule—all of it had to be kept in mind.

Abdoulaye felt that the starting grid favored him; even if his points were closer in number to all the drivers behind him in the standings than they were to the four ahead of him, he considered himself to be competing with the frontrunners. And thanks to the sprint format, they would all start behind him. If he could defend carefully, maybe with some of the skill he’d shown in Queensland, he’d be able to hold off the challengers and hopefully catch up just a little with some of the points the sprint put on offer.

Then after that, qualification again for the feature race—and hopefully by that point, Abdoulaye would be familiar enough with the track to have finally earned some of the confidence everyone was saying he ought to have.

---

---

The cotton truck lurched to a stop at the bank of the Niger. The river was wide and dark—wider than it had been, even at Bamako. Here, at its northernmost point, no longer in the Sahel but actually within the Sahara desert, the river had actually grown during its journey across the floodplain. Further east it would turn back south once more toward the rainforest and the ocean, but here, the water it carried brought life to the wilderness. Empires had risen and fallen along this river, and on the far bank, Moussa could see Timbuktu—a city once rich in art, learning, and gold, now a dusty outpost.

Moussa hurried down from the roof of the truck, passing down his belongings first. He thanked the two truck drivers profusely, and gave them some money. It was not a lot, Moussa knew, but he only had a little, and he needed it to last a long journey.

It was dark—night had fallen during the long drive, and it was clear that the truck stopped here. There was nowhere for it to continue. No bridge spanned the wide Niger; it was crossed only by boats. Moussa could see their silhouettes on the shore, waiting to carry the cotton across in the morning.

“Will they take us now?” he asked one of the drivers.

The driver shrugged. “I doubt it. Try in the morning.”

But Moussa couldn’t wait until morning. He needed somewhere for his family to spend the night, and the city was on the other side. He approached the boats, pulled up in the dirt by some reeds, looking for someone who could help. A low voice greeted him.

“Good evening.” A man stepped out of the shadows. The moon was bright, but there was no other light, and Moussa could barely make out his face.

“Good evening. Do you own one of these boats?”

“Yes, but it is late. Come back tomorrow.”

“I need to get to Timbuktu tonight. My wife has nowhere to sleep.”

“I cannot do it.”

“I can pay.”

The man paused. “Even during the day, you must pay for the ferry.”

“Yes, but I can pay extra.” Moussa groaned internally. Could he actually afford to?

The man paused again. “Okay, bring your wife.”

Moussa returned quickly with Fanta, Malick, and Abdoulaye. The boatman groaned when he saw the large bundles they carried. “You can’t bring all that, the boat will tip.”

“We need these things,” said Moussa. “This is all we have.”

“Fine,” grumbled the boatman. “But it will cost extra.”

The bundles were loaded into the boat. Moussa was dismayed when he saw it. Maybe the boatman hadn’t been bluffing when he said it might capsize. It was a small pirogue, carved out of the trunk of a tree, that rode high in the water and swayed side to side with every move one made. The narrow canoe could hardly fit the bundles Fanta and Moussa loaded into it. The luggage stuck out over the sides, dangerously close to the water. Fanta clung to Malick, who slept on her shoulder. Abdoulaye seemed awake and alert. Moussa set him in the center of the pirogue, and instructed him strictly not to move.

~~~

“Wait, dad!” Abdoulaye interrupted his father’s story. “I think I actually remember this! I remember peering over the edge of the canoe, trailing my hand in the water as we paddled across! The water was still in the night and I could see myself in it—too dark to be reflected, but silhouetted against the disc of the moon that shone down from above and back up from the glassy surface below.”

“Yes, you did reach down with your hand to play in the water,” said Moussa. “The pirogue leaned over, nearly tipped—I spoke harshly to you.”

“I remember,” said Abdoulaye, still marveling that he had found a rare memory of his own in his father’s story that seemed to him almost a griot’s ancient tale. “You rebuked me and I pulled back. The pirogue righted and we continued on our way. Then the moon was hidden under the boat, and all the water was dark…” Abdoulaye shuddered. “It was a quiet, moonlit evening. I don’t know why the memory of that water fills me with such horror.”

“Horror?” asked Moussa.

“Yes,” said Abdoulaye. “I just remember the inky blackness. And maybe at the time it meant nothing to me, but when I remember it, I see it as a darkness that could swallow a person up.”

Moussa was silent.

“Always water is in my nightmares,” said Abdoulaye. “My images of our journey across the desert are large dunes of sand, but when my memories turn bitter, the dunes become waves, and they crash over us as if we were on a boat in a storm.”

“Maybe we should stop the story here for tonight,” said Moussa.

“No, fa!”

~~~

The pirogue ran up on the far bank with the grating sound of keel on sand. Fanta, seated in the prow, leapt out. Moussa tried to jump out to follow her, but lost his balance and tripped in the shallow water. He came up spluttering. Abdoulaye laughed, as did the boatman.

“Pull the boat further up,” cursed Moussa. “I can’t afford to drop my things in the river.”

Unloading the boat was a moment’s work. Moussa paid the boatman, though the fee was steep. And then, making their way in the moonlight, the young family entered the town to find a place to rest.

[TJUN-ia]

Week 1 - Turori

Wake up...do you hear that? The light pitter-patter on the window, the smell of dew in the air, the cool breeze coming into the room from the window, the way it feels under those sheets? Yes, minii naiz, it is indeed raining. Boroo orj baina. Noiton baina. Batu Tüvshinbayar loved the rain. he loved the way it cooled everything down, the way it made the outdoors smell, the way the water interacted with his hair and his umbrella. To some, the rain is a danger - something to avoid, something to skip - but Batu finds peace within the rain. The sound it makes is both loud and peaceful...and meditating in it, forgetting about the worries of the world, is just an experience like no other.

But heading down to the grid for the Grand Prix of Turori here in Eelandii, Batu knew that the rain was a curse for those who race cars. Rain breeds chaos, as the saying goes, and everyone would be on their toes over the 59 laps prescribed to the 26 cars that would start this 4th Round of the WGPC. Batu was given this opportunity to be here, he earned his way to race here...and now, he had to try and show everyone that he belonged here. He knew that Janne Laukkanen, right alongside him at that back of the grid, was going to shoot through the field and Batu knew he wanted to follow...but in these conditions, two objectives became all the more important: Don't Crash and Don't Finish Last.

That's why he was tentative once this race actually got underway. He didn't want to crash the car, simple as that. One by one, those unfortunate in these conditions or just had bad reliability fell - Adriana Ela Kowalski Lillian, Ted Pressley and Olivia Stone - all while Dario Nülkeschlager commanded at the front and never looked back. Dario ended up lapping Batu twice in this race but considering the conditions, the Mongolian didn't care...he just wanted to make it home. He even managed to overtake someone, his first overtake of his return, before the chequered flag - beating out Sam Blaatschapen at Turn 15 to come home in P22 - right at the back, but at least both he and Giancarlo Rahel (P20) made it back safely. At least Batu was actually in the race, unlike a certain driver at HMG whom Batu knew he had to talk to eventually. But not right now. Now, it was time to debrief...and breathe in that cool, wet air.

---

Week 2 - Tropicorp

The next week was an off week, meaning Batu could finish up his Esportivan commitments by taking home a tight 2nd and a Silver Medal in South Newlandia. After that, it was off to Comprehensive Test Facility - Tropicorp (CTF-T) for the 5th round of the OGP - taking over from Marie-Theres Paulis in the ANMARA car due to no WGPC clashes. Qualifying for this series would see compatriot Lane Carter on pole over Bryce Yannec and Renn Trigen in this very technical Layout A and while Batu was hoping to be high up the grid, he ended up knocked out in Q1 and would be forced to start in P20.

And then the rain arrived on race day, lighter than it was in Turori last week. Batu was back at peace with himself once more but this time, he would use that peace of mind and put it into action across the 45 laps of this race. His teammate, Ringo Kawagishi, was one of three cars to crash out on Lap 1 while Igne Spupuo DNFd on the final lap, but Batu simply focused on what he was doing...and ended up climbing the #9 to P8, just behind the sinking stone known as Carter. Iina Konoa won the race, Lane still led the way in the standings and Batu was 12th despite missing a race for obvious reasons. All seemed to be well again.

He and Lane would have a nice chat afterwards, discussing Batu's return to the big leagues and the hopes for the first Sprint weekend of the season in Patriotlandia - where Batu will have to attempt to Pre-Qualify for Friday's Sprint before he has to worry about actual Qualifying on Saturday. It was going to be stressful having to deal with all of that, trying to get Top 2 just to start the Sprint on a circuit he didn't know well, but he knew he had to try. Because if he didn't try, he would be admitting defeat. Lane asked about Donny as well. He didn't know what to say but did mention that he hadn't talked to him all weekend in Eelandii. "Didn't feel like the right time", Batu reasoned.

Before going to bed that night, Batu wanted to do something peaceful...and so he went out onto the balcony, in the light rain, sat down and meditated for a good half an hour. Just listening to the sounds of Tropicorp and the sounds of the rain hitting everything in sight. This was Batu's place, a space where dreams and nightmares and love and heartbreak could be forgotten like droplets amidst the clouds, and all Batu had to concern himself with was the music he chose to listen to in his mind, the music he chose to listen to before settling down for bed. Because music is the gateway to a TJUN-ian's heart. And the rain is the gateway to Batu's soul.

[Trans-Dniesters]

The white and blue Boeing 747 Freighter coming in for an approach to Recuecn City’s airport was an uncommon sight for the planespotters gathered around the airport, but it wasn’t an entirely new one either. And because the white-and-blue livery of the 747 was so clean, it made the red-green-red flag of Pridnestrovia painted on the hump all the more striking. The name of the airline that flew the 747 was written in Latin characters on one side and Cyrillic on the other, and they stated that the plane belonged to Gavanavia.

Gavanavia was a cargo airline based in Pridnestrovia, specifically the naval town of Pridnestrovskaya Gavan. It was owned by Arkady Vasilyevich Ivashchenko, a former captain of the Pridnestrovian Army’s Military Intelligence Directorate who decided to try to make a fortune in the wake of the deregulation of the country’s airline industry upon leaving the GRU. Ivashchenko used a network of former and current serving members in the Armed Forces to place himself and his cargo airline in prime position for logistics contracts. The contracts came quick and easy, and soon Gavanavia had diversified into civilian cargo charters, proving that it was a legitimate business and that it was here to stay. Arkady Ivashchenko also became one of the richest men in Pridnestrovia, putting him in rare company. His Army past quickly ingratiated him to a particular network of oligarchs who also had backgrounds in the Armed Forces and used those backgrounds to get rich off of the privatization of Pridnestrovia’s massively bloated state industries. But being as they were oligarchs, they all had negative reputations in the international scene, meaning that they had to find ways to clean up their images one way or another.

One of the methods that the Pridnestrovian oligarchs, or at least the group of oligarchs that Arkady Ivashchenko had fallen in with, used to clean up their images was by becoming affiliated with sports. The oligarchs reached deals for their respective companies to sponsor a number of teams in football and hockey, and in recent years, the oligarchs had actually extended their reach even further into motorsports. Gavanavia was named the new “official logistics partner” of Urotovsky-Gatutin Motorsports courtesy of one Yakov Leonidovich Yurievsky, and Yurievsky was also able to get his oligarch friends’ companies added as secondary sponsors for UrGa’s many teams. In the last few months, Ivashchenko and Gavanavia would become the primary sponsor for UrGa’s latest driver in the NationStates Stock Car Racing Association, Lexi Patterson.

Gavanavia’s presence in Recuecn City was also attributable to the airline’s links with UrGa Motorsports. After Vincent Von Visp had bought his way to an UrGa seat in WGP2 amid much controversy, Gavanavia announced that they were opening a new cargo hub in Recuecn City’s airport. Not only would it open up cargo operations in Recuecn’s home region to Gavanavia’s network, but it would also allow UrGa quick access to Von Visp and Recuecn should they need it. For his part, Von Visp preferred to jet in between Recuecn City, Myrilsk (headquarters of UrGa Motorsports) and the country hosting the next race on his own private jet, as was his prerogative to do. And while Gavanavia’s purpose for opening a hub in Recuecn City had been nothing more than the company taking advantage of a new market, events had played out in such a way that Gavanavia’s new hub might now actually play a key role in a new Pridnestrovian operation that was about to take place.

One of the many reasons why oligarchs like Arkady Ivashchenko needed to use sports to clean up their names was because in the early days of Gavanavia, Ivashchenko had taken contracts from questionable sources. One of those questionable contracts was with none other than the Zimmer Private Military Company, owned and led by the notorious Ivan Iosifovich Radchenko. Gavanavia had agreed to fly “unspecified” cargo items for Zimmer all over the map while the cargo airline was still finding its feet in the industry, and it would appear that Gavanavia succeeded in delivering Zimmer’s cargos because Radchenko was influential in welcoming Ivashchenko into the ranks of the oligarchs. But once the Pridnestrovian government acknowledged Zimmer as an entity, one that they had used to increase their own power projection throughout the multiverse, everyone associated with Zimmer was subsequently tarred with the same brush. And even though both Ivashchenko and Gavanavia had made strides in legitimizing themselves once again, the connection between Gavanavia and Zimmer remained, and in fact it continued to the present day, though of course they had to be much more clandestine about it.

This latest Gavanavia flight from Tiraspol to Recuecn City was one of those clandestine operations between Gavanavia and Zimmer. Yakov Yurievsky had found himself in an unenviable position now that a new administration had been sworn into the Kremlin. After years of coming up with ideas and operations that he claimed would provide a financial benefit to Pridnestrovia in all sorts of ways, Finance Minister Boris Borisovich Tokarev had finally decided that it was time for Yurievsky to pay up for everything, starting with the social media bots that had tried to make sure that a potential electric vehicle ban in Hapilopper wouldn’t get repealed as that was supposed to open up the Hapiloppian market to regular vehicles produced by UrGa. The cost of maintaining and operating the AI servers behind the social media bots had been substantial, and Tokarev had told Yurievsky in no uncertain terms that he expected the UrGa “financial advisor” to pay for that maintenance, and that he expected at least part of that maintenance to come out of the pockets of Yurievsky’s new “friend” Vincent Von Visp.

Yurievsky had gone to Radchenko to help the latter get his hands on Von Visp’s money after the Recuecian told Yakov about his own situation with his country’s customs agents, or douaniers as Vincent had called them. Yakov had immediately gone to the conclusion that stealing the money was the only way that he could pay off his “debt” to Tokarev and the Pridnestrovian government, and that was the reason why Yurievsky had decided to rope Radchenko into this entire venture. Radchenko, being friends with Minister Tokarev as well as many other prominent figures in the new administration up to and including President Raisa Fedorenko herself, had originally rejected Yurievsky’s advances because he had been forewarned that Yakov might try to drag him into helping out UrGa’s “financial advisor.” Yurievsky eventually succeeded in talking Radchenko into joining the plot, but only because he had promised the Zimmer PMC leader a cut of the take as well as access to a handful of people whom Radchenko had wanted to talk to.

It had taken Radchenko time to assemble the resources necessary to pull off a heist of this scale. He had to reach out to the likes of the Director of the Committee for State Security and the commander of the Pridnestrovian Airborne Forces to requisition the appropriate personnel for the coming operation. Radchenko’s men were good fighters, but they were also warfighters. They didn’t necessarily have the skills required to pull off a heist, and had the subtlety of a cruise missile if they were actually used for that purpose. Radchenko needed units with more finesse, units such as Company Alfa.

The existence of Company Alfa was shrouded in mystery. There was no question that Company Alfa existed; the real mystery lay in its purpose and its position in the Pridnestrovian order of battle. It was a known fact that Company Alfa had been formed sometime before the Pridnestrovian intervention in Nordskania by the man who would eventually become commander of the Pridnestrovian Airborne Forces, Major General (then a colonel at the time) Mikhail Yevgeniyevich Kutuzov. It was believed that Kutuzov had drawn the first members of Company Alfa from his own unit, the 21st Air Assault Brigade, but beyond that no one had any idea of how the unit worked or if it was still under the command of the 21st Air Assault or not. There was speculation on whether Company Alfa only recruited from within the brigade or if its doors were open to soldiers of other airborne infantry units, but that was all it was, speculation. Nobody even knew if Kutuzov was still in charge of Company Alfa or if someone else had taken over now that Kutuzov commanded all of Pridnestrovia’s desant forces.

It was because of this secrecy that Radchenko had selected Company Alfa to carry out this part of the operation. This particular unit knew how to get in and out of any given objective in whatever manner was needed. If they could get in and out quietly then they could do it. If they needed to be as loud and noticeable as possible then that was well within their wheelhouse too. Other supporting units were already on the ground in Recuecn laying the groundwork for the plan and scouting the appropriate locations, but performing the heist itself was the job of Company Alfa.

There were six people (four men and two women) on the Gavanavia 747 in addition to the two pilots flying the plane itself. According to the flight’s manifest, they were Gavanavia personnel being sent to Recuecn City to bolster of the staff running the cargo airline’s new hub. All six held Pridnestrovian passports, though none of them were flying into Recuecn under their real names. They were the so-called “strike team,” the men from Company Alfa whom Ivan Radchenko had loaned from General Kutuzov. Kutuzov had been reluctant to transfer Company Alfa personnel to Radchenko, especially for a operation fraught with many dangers like the one they were now about to perform, but eventually Kutuzov decided that if Radchenko really wanted to do this then he was going to get the best of the best.

Ostensibly, they were supposed to be mechanics, loadmasters, and supervisors for Gavanavia’s nascent cargo ops in Recuecn City, and they had already been trained to do those jobs in order to reinforce the alibi that they needed for the next few months. But their real job in-country was to scout the appropriate locations, formulate a plan of attack, and then carry out the heist once they received the go-ahead. The job was going to be difficult, especially with the knowledge that the Von Visp family’s assets were being carefully monitored by the douaniers. And while it was different from Company Alfa’s usual operations, there were enough similarities that the company was reasonably sure that success was more probable than failure. Probably.

If only the planespotters knew of the chaos and mayhem that this particular Gavanavia 747 was flying into their country then they might not be as enthusiastic as they were about seeing it. Then again, maybe the events of the next few months might make sure that they never forgot about this particular plane.

[Auruna]

MNA Veratuna
Veratuna, Auruna

There were a number of misunderstandings that resulted in Kinu's unremarkable and stressful race at the rainy Grand Prix of Turori, notably his heavy northern Aurun accent became more prominent in his frustrations as his race engineer misheard his radio calls several times during the race. Kinu was slowly moving up the order during the first quarter of the race, it was going so well until he misjudged his speed into a corner, going wide then messing up his front wing and possibly ruining his front-right tyre with a puncture but it wasn't obvious. Frustrated, he immediately went on the radio. "I need to pit this lap, front wing and wets." Kinu said.

However his race engineer, amidst the sound of pouring rain and the loud cars going by, only heard a garbled mess through the radio. "I'm sorry, can you repeat what you said?"

It's no better on Kinu's side as he tried telling him again but his accent only made things worse. "Yes! Pit this lap! Front wing and new wets!" Kinu couldn't even hear himself as he said it while he limped back to the pits.

His race engineer hesitated for a moment as he looked closely at the monitors. "Uh... copy that, we'll have a new front wing for you. And uh... standby, I'll check in with the mechanics."

Then when he came into the pits, Kinu was shocked to see that the wrong type of tyres were prepared for him. He immediately went on the radio. "No no! I said wets! Did you not hear me?! Sinä küje... do we have shit radios today or what?!"

"Sorry about that Kinu."

But his race engineer's words only went out the other ear as Kinu's patience was tested while sat raised on the jacks at the pits for what seemed like an eternity causing him to significantly drop down the order. Kinu sighed in disbelief of what happened and after the right tyres were fitted along with a new front wing, he made his way out of the pits. And for someone who doesn't really like the rain that much, the race was hell for Kinu and he had to endure it for the remaining 35 laps of the Grand Prix. The race felt unending as he struggled at the back. "No more talking for the rest of the race." He ordered after he nearly got into an incident with another lapped car.

Fed up with all the miscommunication and that he didn't really vibe with his current one, Kinu then requested for a race engineer who can at least understand Aurun. It wasn't immediately denied but it was thought that it is impossible to fulfill his request until his team reached out to the MNA who had a perfect candidate. And not long after that, Kinu would meet his new race engineer in Veratuna.

After reaching the agreed-upon meeting spot, Kinu's new race engineer is not what he expected. The man briefly looked up before looking back at his watch. "You Auruns are a punctual bunch, aren't ya?" He remarked then he stood up and offered his hand to shake. "Zdrau, je Aarno Lareizeno, from Marešai. Nice to meet you."

Kinu shook Aarno's hand before the two sat down. "Zdrau, you must be my new race engineer for the season. First time working with a Marešan, thankfully I learned a bit of Marešan before when I did linguistics."

"Even better if it was Tuosejärvi or Tošžarvski, whatever you want to call it. I'm from Kinamarii in Tošžarvo and it's kind of a big deal there."

"No wonder you sound familiar and different at the same time. Anyway, I'm curious, what did you do before?"

"Air traffic controller at Mirnyi Airport for six years, then I tried to race domestically but it didn't work out well so I ended up as a race engineer for one of the local teams until I saw an opportunity here in Auruna with your MNA and damn, you guys are really serious about motorsport. I was actually overwhelmed at first but it was easy to understand once you know what you're going for. Anyway, I was race engineer at Schkeska in AtMA, Garnell in Aurun WGP3, and Urakkan in E-Series and now I'm basically a free agent until I received the call."

"Interesting... I don't doubt your skills since you're the sole candidate specifically chosen by them and it looks like we're going to get along well." Kinu said. "I'm looking forward to our first race together."

"Likewise." Aarno said, shaking Kinu's hand once more.

"You're in for something crazy this weekend. Oh, and teach me more of Marešan if you don't mind, I'm quite interested in that language."

"Alright, that'll cost you extra."

"I knew you'd say that."

[Patriotlandia]

Grand Prix de Patriotlandia présenté par ASI Industries

Just a short drive away from the métropole, Port-la-Ville, in the touristic region of the Lac aux Milles-Iles, we find the usually quiet town of Vilnay. Population around 50 thousand the town offers plenty of activities to travellers from boating, hiking the surrounding hills and caravaning. For a couple weekends during the summer however the hills come alive to the roar of engines as the Ridgeline Raceway is host to some of the most prestigious motorsports events. With the WGPC in town, the area is bound to have a party atmosphere the whole weekend.

Fan guide
Travel: There are multiple ways to get to and from the circuit. For international visitors, the airport in Port-la-Ville offers the most flight options. From there, a commuter train can take you to Vilnay or one can take the scenic drive down to the Lac aux Milles-Iles by renting a car. Once in town, there is a shuttle service to the racetrack and plenty of parking pace behind the front straight grand stand.

Amenities: There is camping spots on site available for the adventurous type. Restrooms with showers are found around the camp ground but each individual spot does not have power or running water. For those who prefer more permanent lodging, Vilnay has plenty of different hotels to suit every need but race weekend can be busy so it is not impossible to have to divert to Montboreal or Vaillancourt to find last minute vacancies.

Access: For a usual race weekend, a general admission ticket allows for complete access to the site including the grandstands and the paddock area. However, for premium events, reserved grandstand seating and paddock access passes are available at extra cost. The site offers plenty of viewing spots for GA ticket holders. One of the favorite is the Vista Terrace allowing fans to see the cars run up the Uphill, brake heavily and drop down into the Slalom. Reminder that camping access only applies to the parking area and a GA ticket will be needed to explore the rest of the site.

[Tumbra]

Best read with this RP for context
CW: Death

Fremont
Tumbra

"What day is it, Mavis?" he croaks from the comfort — or is it the prison? — of his bed, as he stares at the sea. Moving is hard for him, now; the stroke has robbed him of much of his ability to move, though his mind remains as sharp as ever. Or, at least, that's what he'd like to think; in reality, spending six months by the sea doing nothing has atrophied the mind somewhat. He reads the reports sent to him, tries to, at least but he can't focus; the numbers seem to merge into squiggly lines, and he leaves them for later. It becomes an endless dance of him putting up a show that he could possibly, one day, in the future, return to his old job. Whenever colleagues visit, he tries to put on a brave face, but everyone knows that it's over. He's kept where he is as a sign of respect

"It's Friday," says Mavis as she dabs his lips with water. She affixes a napkin to his neck, and puts the little table beneath him; it's a ritual that they've grown accustomed to since moving here. Tentatively, he lifts the bread to his mouth; it's his favourite brand of coconut jam, a small comfort. She watches him as he eats, making sure that none of the crumbs land on the bed.

"When's the qualifying?"

"In a bit."

"I want to watch it. It's a sprint race...I haven't seen those since that time in Turori. Dario...Nini..."

"I know, dear. Focus on chewing." He chews; some of the coconut jam ends up on the side of his mouth. Lovingly, she cleans his spittle and the food; it's all that she can do. He's so stubborn, but always has been; he didn't get to where he was by being conciliatory.

But it's cost him many things.

Friends.

Relationships.

And his son.

"I'll get them to carry you down in a bit, dear," Mavis says as she helps him drink his tea — milk, one sugar — by raising the cup to his lips. He sips, before lying back down. Again, she dabs a napkin at the side of his mouth.

"You know, we could — we could always get a portable TV. One of those we had in the office, we could put it on like, a roller. Then we wouldn't have to go through the process of them bringing me down every time I want to watch something," he says as he closes his eyes momentarily. A brief moment of peace. Mavis knows immediately why he wants one; it's not because he wants to spare the help the arduous process of carrying him up and down the stairs, but rather because he finds it embarrassing to be lugged around like that.

"I'll see if the office has a spare one they can send over," she says. He coughs; she sits him back up and pats his back to get the phlegm out. It's a cough that has taken on a more rattly quality over time; Mavis tries her best to ignore it. "You could also move to the first-floor bedroom, then we could put a wheelchair there."

"Ah, the view...isn't as good down there." Stubborn as usual. An hour after breakfast, the help carries him down to the sofa; he grumbles, but accepts it, his body remaining limp in their arms. When he'd first arrived here, it took two of them to carry him down; now, one is all that was sufficient. Mavis massages his feet as he watches the race; he smiles and makes comments when the purple-pink cars, his other child, does well, and frowns and looks sullen when they don't.

"Was the race good?" Mavis asks after the sprint race.

"Mhm," he responds, softly, eyes looking glassier than normal. He doesn't seem to remember much of it. He sits in front of the television for the rest of the day; Mavis tends to him, but she also does her own things. In all their years of marriage, she has never really been interested in all the racing. That's not why she married him, anyway.

And he likes that, she thinks.

The sun goes down; he sits there, motionless; Mavis wipes the sweat from his brow as she looks at him. He looks paler now, his breaths raspy; she feeds him his dinner, and he chews. It takes a bit more effort this time, and more of the food dribbles out of his mouth

"Do you want to go back up now?'

"No, not yet," he murmurs. "I'll let the help know when I want to go back up, Mavis." With great effort, he caresses her cheek, she smiles and holds his cold hand in hers. "We have other races on the...DVR?"

"Oh, honey, I don't know," she whispers back, calling for the help. It turns out that he wants to watch this season's race from Doubeia; she doesn't know why. After the help sets the race replay up for him, he settles into the sofa once more.

"I'll see you tomorrow," he says.

"I will," she replies as she squeezes his hand. Can he feel it? She's not sure. He smiles as she does so. Surely that means he can still feel it.

Mavis wakes up the next morning, a sense in her heart that something is not quite right. She checks the curtains; it's still dark out. She hopes that the help tucked him into his bed like he likes; but since she's up so early, she'd best go and do some chores.But when she steps into the living room, she sees him, still there, on the sofa; the TV frozen, paused on an image. She goes over to check on him, but his hands seem frozen over. One of his hands has the TV remote; his index finger just on the pause button. His eyes are open, glassy; there is no breath. She puts a finger to his philtrum, which confirms it.

Charlie Pressley is dead.

She's rehearsed this moment, it feels like, even if she denies it; instead of falling to the floor or something, she simply rolls his thumb in her hand, before going to call the doctor. In a way, his ordeal is over; hers, too, seeing her husband suffer like that and having to take care of him; putting her entire life on hold, in stasis, doing the same thing over and over again. She switches on the light in the room, starting her day; and it's only at this point that she notices the image on the screen. It's not of Dario Nulkeschlager bringing home Pressley Racing's first-ever win in Turori, in a race soaked the whole way through.

On the screen, Ted Pressley beams, wearing the yellow of his new adopted home; he stands on the top step of the podium.

[Doubeia]

If Nini had known that being a WGPC driver would come with so much scrutiny and pressure, she'd have thought twice before putting pen to paper.

Nini didn't know what to say or do anymore, except to prepare for the next race. She thought her first few races would just be "warm-ups" and that she'd get up to speed, but when she found herself points-less after the fourth race, she realised she had a far taller and steeper hill to climb. The Turori Grand Prix wasn't anything noteworthy for Nini. It certainly wasn't filled with overtaking heroics she'd shown in the past or the not-so-brilliant displays of ineptitude she would show from time to time. It was just... nothing. It was all just poor pace. Nini didn't feel as confident in the Pressley car as she did during testing anymore. She lifted in corners where others would go flat-out. Oddly enough, the upgrades to the purple Pressley made it even more uncomfortable to drive, and she couldn't put a finger as to why.

Nini hated when she under-performed too. She remembered how she forced herself to seem cheery about Dario's first win.

"Congrats Dario! I'm so proud of you!"

She tried to come off as unsarcastic as possible, but was she really happy about the victory?

Nini couldn't help but feel a sense of jealousy when she saw how well Dario was doing, how high he was soaring in the Drivers' Championship. She should have been flying alongside him, but for now she was beached on the ground, her wings too inept to take off. It wasn't just the jealousy that got to Nini; it was the comparisons. Perhaps the comparisons fueled the jealousy, but she hated the way people always put her down to praise Dario or another driver. It made her feel weak, and weak was the last thing she ever wanted to be.

Nini could still remember what the scenes were like after the Turori Grand Prix. She got out of the car, weighed herself, and then trodged to the Pressley garage. Whilst most of the engineers — Nini's included — were celebrating Dario's victory, some stayed back in the garage. She didn't know why they were there, but she just wished they weren't there to "comfort" her. She didn't need that.

"You should be celebrating with the rest of the guys," she told one of her engineers.

"Eh, just wanted to check up on you," he replied, "It wouldn't be nice to leave you alone."

Leaving her alone... If Nini were honest, she would have thanked him for the company.

"No, it's fine. You should be celebrating the victory. It's a team effort after all." Nini felt like she had to force the words out of her mouth as she said them. She didn't know why she was shooing the engineer away. She liked the company. Hell, she wanted the company. It wouldn't hurt to have someone with her after a disappointing race, but with the way she drove, she felt like she didn't deserve to be comforted.

Everything passed by in a blur after that. Post-race debrief, packing up, the usual. Instead of taking the flight back to Doubeia, however, Nini decided to take one to Tumbra. She didn't want to deal with the bullshit in Doubeia. Not after everyone decided to make her public enemy #1. Even if that was an exaggeration, her public image went from being the nation's darling to the nation's, well, embarrassment. The press were relentless in covering how poorly she was doing, and social media was even more vicious with their mockery. Stupid nicknames, unfunny memes, needlessly aggressive forum posts on her performances... They were all making the rounds in Doubeia. To Nini, it felt so amateur, so immature. She didn't think any of her naysayers would be able to stand a second under the WGPC pressure cooker, but on the other hand, it felt like her strong resolve was already starting to crack.

On the plane to Tumbra, Nini took a look at her messages. She texted her dad a few hours ago, some team personnel... She noticed that the only people she contacted regularly were her father, Pressley staff, Maila, and Lucia, but even the texts with Maila and Lucia were starting to become more sporadic. Was her father really the only person she could turn to? She looked at the messages with her newfound "friends". Her streamer "friends". As she looked through the messages, she realised just how superficial her interactions with them were. All they did was talk to her about streaming, sponsorships and gaming. Nini didn't even know why she even considered them friends. She even recognised some of her streamer acquaintances liking memes about her shitty performances. It felt backstabby, but at the same time she didn't feel much betrayal. Perhaps she just mentally overstated how close her relationship was to those people.

Nini's time in Tumbra was... silent. She stayed in her apartment alone, she ate alone, she gymmed alone... She didn't feel like she talked to or heard from anyone much at all. As lonely as Nini felt in Tumbra, she was sure things wouldn't have been much different back in Doubeia. Her dad was always conveniently away at work whenever she was back at home, Lucia had her modelling career, and Maila simply had closer friends. It sucked being lonely, but at least in Tumbra she could put in some practice runs at the Pressley headquarters.

In the build-up towards the Patriotlandia Grand Prix, Nini spent most of her time in the simulator or on the track. She felt like she had no choice. It was either not put in practice and risk underperforming in Patriotlandia, or actually work on her racecraft and get a feel of the Ridgeline Raceway so that she could finally perform to standards. It wasn’t the hardest choice for her to make. Lap after lap, hour after hour was spent trying to break personal best after personal best. Nini was never satisfied, however. She couldn’t afford to slack anymore. She didn’t want to disappoint anyone. Not her engineers who worked hard to build her car, not the manager who had faith in her and signed her, not her fans who tirelessly supported her regardless of the circumstance.

As the days ticked, Nini found herself alternating between her house, the gym and the Pressley headquarters. It had become a routine, and a tiring one at that. The mental fatigue from slaving away at the car for hours on end was getting to her, and after the third day of the routine she found herself slightly dreading even leaving the house. It didn’t help that she often found her loneliness being shoved into her face whenever she ate out. Friends, couples, siblings all were eating together, drinking, having fun, while Nini’s single ass was sat munching on a vegan wrap, her soul sucked out of her body. Nini always felt dead when she got back home, but she felt a slight rejuvenation whenever she got a text from her dad.

It was all tiring, really. It wasn’t torturous, but for Nini, this change in lifestyle had made her days much more boring. Of course, it was much more productive than crying in her bed in Doubeia, but it felt like she still wasn’t making full use of her time in Tumbra. Still, Nini tried to brush it all off. She could do this, in fact. She was strong and resilient, and she could push through all of this. This practice surely means something…

…Nini didn’t know if she was gaslighting herself, but she just hoped that someday, everything would pay off.

[Turori]

Toralmintii, Race Eelandii suffer ups and downs in Home Grand Prix

Grand Prix of Turori, Eelandii Grand Prix Course, Eelandii, Turori :: The start of the World Grand Prix Championship 21 season had been a difficult one for Race Eelandii VTGP. After finishing fourth and winning two races during the prior World Grand Prix Championship season, Race Eelandii had scored exactly 0 points in the first three races of the new season. Its not that the teams finishes had been particularly bad, but they hadn't been particularly good either as indicated by their lack of points. In fact, Race Eelandii were one of just two teams on the grid that remained Not Classified due to their lack of points - and the other team was in the midst of the turmoil of a rumored sale or even dropping off the grid altogether.

Despite the struggles thus far, there was plenty of reason to be optimistic heading into the Grand Prix of Turori. Of course, as the home track of Race Eelandii, no team would have more cycles on track. No team would have more historical data - and no team would have an easier time commuting to the track. Taking the obvious logistical benefits aside, Race Eelandii was simply very good at the Eelandii Grand Prix course and they had the trophies to prove it. The last two World Grand Prix Championship events held at the Eelandii Grand Prix Course were won by Race Eelandii VTGP. Although neither of Race Eelandii VTGP's current drivers had ever won at the track, they still accounted for four podium finishes and had the benefit of all the knowledge of victories past.

Thats not to say there aren't some distractions racing at home - there were more people to see. More interviews to do. Friends and Family were more likely to show up - not just for the drivers but for every single member of the crew. There was a burden attached to it. Yet it was a burden that Race Eelandii had proven to manage in the past - and a burden that had been managed thus far during the WGPC 21 season as every event thus far had seen a home driver or team finish within the Top 4 positions.

It was perhaps no surprise that iBen Toralmintii was fast in practice posting the third best time of the session and tops over the long runs. Despite a struggle with the imploding Tropicorp Colorworks team during WGPC Season 20, there was no doubting Toralmintii's skill as one of the winningest drivers in the history of the World Grand Prix Championship. Couple that with a strong ride on a track they practically designed themselves and it was a difficult combination to overtake. Unfortunately Toralmintii was just a step off in qualifying - a very tight qualifying session that would see "Fast" Cocoabo #23 miss out on pole position by just 0.003 seconds. Toralmintii wouldn't be far behind but due to the Top 4 drivers being separated by just 0.008 seconds on the grid, Toralmintii would have to start the race from the 5th position.

Despite missing out on the pole position, Toralmintii and the Race Eelandii team were still confident that between iBen's #77 and Fast Cocoabo #23 starting on outside pole they would still be able to put together a season-changing performance, challenging for the win and at the very least pressuring to get both cars on the podium. After a picture perfect race weekend, it would all change on Sunday. The rains moved in and the teams had to start from scratch putting on the rain tyres and buckling in for the long haul. Ultimately the Tropicorp Storm tyres performed well. After starting on pole position, Dario Nülkeschlager would sweep the weekend taking their first Grand Prix victory and righting the ship at Pressley Racing. Things weren't as celebratory in the Race Eelandii paddock. There is an old saying in Turori "Better for an Eel than a Cocoabo" when desribing the weather when it starts to rain, and that certainly seemed the case at the start of the Grand Prix of Turori where Cocoabo #23 found their way out of podium position and eventually shuffled back into a 9th place finishing position. While it was certainly 2 points gained for a team that hadn't earned a single point all season long before that, it felt to most of the team far more like points lost - particularly finishing 7 positions under grid. It was out of characteristic for Fast Cocoabo who was the season leader in Positions over Grid for much of the WGPC's 20th season. Still it was points.

On the other radio, at the end of the race, it was frustration and disappointment. Perhaps in the dry Toralmintii's knowledge of the course could have shown through. Instead, they were stuck behind a familiar chassis. In front of them was the Ælund Grand Prix #89 of former Race Eelandii reserve driver Abdoulaye Goita. There were no handouts to be given on this day. If this were the NSSCRA, Toralmintii likely would have punted Goita's #89 out of the way long before. Instead, the cautious Goita dragged the brakes long enough to slow the duo down, but not quite enough for Toralmintii to make the pass in the wet. It was a frustrating way for the champion to ride out their last ever Grand Prix of Turori. Stuck behind their old car in 5th place. It would be the first time Toralmintii ever finished off the podium in Turori. In fact, the first time they ever finished worse than 2nd at the track. It was also the worst showing for a home track competitor on the season.

Driving the cool down lap, Toralmintii wasn't sure where their emotions lay. Any other week, on any other track, a 5th place finish would have been great considering the circumstances. Considering the way the last 13 races had gone. But not here. Not now. Not in front of all these local fans. They wanted more. They expected more. iBen expected more.

Making the hard turn into the paddock at the end of the Grand Prix, iBen took off their helmet and began to get out of the car. The flashbulbs went off as media looked to capture the moment. He had pictured it differently. He had pictured climbing atop the podium and retiring on the spot, stepping aside for one of the reserve drivers to finish out the season. But not now. It can't end like this. The disappointment had quickly started to fuel a motivation. A desire to prove they still had what it takes to win. Then, like a roller coaster, the crash once again. A glimpse in the distance of the champagne at the podium. iBen wasn't there. Race Eelandii wasn't there.

iBen found a seat and sat down, contemplating and taking in the moment. Just then, the team's technical director Intoreil Palmstii'i approached iBen and showed them something on the tablet.

"Whats this supposed mean?" iBen asked as Palmstii'i showed the current point standings.

"Get your head back in the game. You're on Pole in the next race."

Just like that, Toralmintii's mood changed again. Pole position. Just like that. The rain won't get in the way. Ultra defensive cars won't get in the way. Just take the straight shot. Get to the corner first and drive away. Thats all it would take. Don't make a mistake. Checkered Flag.

Toralmintii gathered themselves up, and walked back out to approach the media gathered outside the paddock waiting to hear from the Turorian. For all their career victories on the World Grand Prix circuit, iBen Toralmintii had never won at the same track twice. Perhaps a brand new circuit, hosting its debut Grand Prix, was an opportunity for Toralmintii to write a very different chapter in their racing career. Just like that, smiles and a word from the sponsor, iBen was back in the game and ready to race.

---

---

R.L. Cruisin ✓

@Cruisin

Oh man, so frustrating with the rain out there. It was a rough day for the Brimstone contingent. I feel like we had great grip in the dry conditions on Friday and Saturday but once the rain came down it was game over. The flat surfaces led to some ponding and it was just enough for us to slide outside the points. I was really hoping to keep up the solid momentum we had built up the last two races and see if we could make a charge in the standings. Stinks to come away with nothing at a track we've had so much success at in the past, but grateful for all the hard work this team is putting in and the great results we are getting in our first season of competition. New format next week with the Sprint Race first, should be exciting.

#WGPC : #PiersIvchenko : #GrandPrixTurori

---

---

Grand Prix of Turori, Eelandii Grand Prix Course, Eelandii, Turori :: With three strong showings to start the season including a podium finish by Nepö Kinder in the Nexus Wardship, confidence was certainly high across the grid. However, the field would get smaller entering Turori with two rookie drivers Otto Markul and Azalia Kawakai being jettisoned from their seats at WGPC Motorworks. While Kawakai would make a soft landing in the twii.tur Support Series, Markul is still holding out for other opportunities should they arrive this season. In their place comes the newcomer from Indusse, Naveen Kalkar who had two prior starts in the twii.tur Support Series before landing their Motorworks opportunity. While Kalkar was unable to qualify for a debut Grand Prix in Turori, they will get another chance with the entire nation supporting them as the series moves on to Patriotlandia.

With just two rookies finishing in the points at the Grand Prix of Turori, their charges thwarted by the rainy conditions, there was very little change to the overall Toys '4' All Rookie of the Season standings. Vincent Von Visp would move up slightly into the 2nd position overall courtesy of a disturbing 6th place finish for the #66 Urotovsky-Gatutin car which earned the 'VVV' driver 6 points in the standings. Just one spot behind was KISMO's Shuhei Kamado, the only other rookie in the Top 10 though Kamado's teammate Gil Langdon would gain them self a bonus point for the fastest lap. With the result there are now two teams that have both of their rookie drivers on the board with points this season, though UrGa now clearly lead the way - just as they had done a season ago, with both of their drivers at the top of the Rookie of the Season standings. With the series heading to Patriotlandia next, Pierre-Louis Archer will be hoping they can become the second WGPC Motorworks driver to find their way onto the standings this season.

Pos # ▍DRV Name                                          Team [Engine]                          Pts

1 63 ▍KIN Nepö Kinder                                   Urotovsky-Gatutin [UrGa Zh-S-1000]       21
2 66 ▍VVV Vincent Von Visp                              Urotovsky-Gatutin [UrGa Zh-S-1000]       10
3 12 ▍SOM Ron Sommer                                    Viska [Viska RG Motors]                   8
- 95 ▍BZW Hanna Berezowska                              HiTEN.gpt [Franklin WGP-X2]               8
5 58 ▍KAM Shuhei Kamado                                 KISMO [Kissan Motors KS.APEX-01]          4
- 30 ▍MAR Otto Markul                                   WGPC Motorworks [Franklin WGP-X2]         4
7 55 ▍LNG Gil Langdon                                   KISMO [Kissan Motors KS.APEX-01]          3
8 21 ▍HAZ Nik Hazrin Lutfi                              Piers Ivchenko [UrGa Zh-S-1000]           1

     
-- 22 ▍Nini Johnsilvaturr   
-- 13 ▍Pierre-Louis Archer   
-- 16 ▍Azalia Kawakai                        
-- 18 ▍Giancarlo Rahel
-- 10 ▍Ankei Souzare
-- 16 ▍Naveen Kalkar

twii.tur Support Series ✓

@OGP

Welcome back to the top of the Podium Lane Carter!! Having already conquered the @EelandiiGP course on the WGPC side of things the former Race Eelandii driver made good on their commitment to Urotovsky-Gatutin by taking the checkered flag in the Race Eelandii twii.tur @OGP. Pole winner Winston Klossovsky would fall out of the race halfway through in a disappointing showing for the @RaceEelandii team though prospect driver K.D. Fintnhii was impressive driving a Motorworks entry all the way up to a 3rd place finish. Next Up: Back-to-Back races in Tropicoast

#WGPC21 :: #SupportSeries :: #EelandiiGP

[Valentine Z]

Part 10 – A moment of frustration, anger, melancholy, raindrops that keep falling on her head. And warmth.

Head Secretary Jamie Izabella Maxie Clara “The Elegant and Magnificent Mathematician” Pernella Ellie Natie Lexie Marie Valerie Ruby Æstriðr Fni. Clementine Millicent Lizbeth Jade Cass Eirian: Hello and a very good afternoon to you all, my dearest friends, citizens of Voorzichtigheid, and of Valentine Z. It has been yet another fantastic year so far for the territories of the United States of America, Australia, and New Zealand. Indeed, I am well-aware of the fact that only a couple of months have elapsed since the new year, but I am amazed by the cohesion of us as people, along with the developments that we have done along the way. I and along with the rest of The Sixty, on behalf of them, naturally, are elated with this outcome and that we ask that you keep on forward with your kind, compassionate, and cheerful natures. With all of this said, I am however also obligated to let you all know about what has been happening elsewhere, as there is not much internally in Valentine Z that constitutes as an emergency. As you all know by now after decades, traveling to other worlds and universes is an activity that the Valentians have not only acknowledged, but full-on encouraged and embraced. We have went though millions and millions of worlds covertly, even going as far as exploring our pasts thanks to our very own Eveline Gwen Allison T. Hepburn’s T-Rev Time Travel Tourism. To get straight to the point, do be aware of the dangers when you are going to the other worlds. This can be many forms, including but not limited to: wars, chances of being discovered, extreme conditions, inhospitable environment (which can be mitigated by wearing protective suits and outfits) and more importantly – the laws of physics. It is my utmost regret to inform you that we have lost 82 Valentians so far in this year, them having stepped into these worlds and the hostile laws of physics doing manners of unspeakable manipulation to them. However, 75 of them were able to be reconstructed thanks to their memory and body backups, while the rest decided not to, resulting in them achieving true death. [A minute of silence later] So – I urge you – Valentians and non-Valentians, to please be careful going on forward, and may Valentine Z achieve greater heights and beyond!

-----

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 turned off the TV, then standing up and walking around in her spaceship in a designated lot. The domestic news cheered her up (minus the deaths, of course), and something to always look forward to – whether it is just Holly showing off her new magical device, or Valkyrie Valentijn working as a televised construction worker for 4 hours, or Marcus discovering a new form of space flight along with the rest of the Valentian Space Agency. The last part, naturally, is the thing that always perks up Angela. “I would rather be exploring other parts of our universe, or other universes. But noooo, I decided that I wanted to go for racing, and then all I did was bring two teams down,” she mused, delivering soft and undamaging kick to one of the seats in frustration. It also didn’t help that Valentian friend is not doing well at all in the most recent race – a retirement on the 2nd lap already, that must have sucked big time. Then again, Kinu was also unable to get any points for this one. She donned her lab coat over her casual outfit, combed her hair neatly, but skipped the makeup. Angela opened the door of her spaceship, walking slowly outside. “It must have been the weather.”

The rain pounded on her indiscriminately. In a matter of minutes, the bombardment of raindrops have soaked her hair, her labcoat, her casual outfit worn inside, and her gloves. The only exception was her boots, which is water-proof among many other things for the places that she goes to on a regular basis. Angela raised her right hand to her chest-level, palm facing the sky as if to collect and catch the raindrops that were falling on her. “It’s just like stars. Wonderful, wonderful stars,” she reflected, then looking down at the puddle to look at the woman who could have been. “We have explored worlds and multiverses, haven’t we? Then, why fail here? 2 DNQs, what a disgrace, Angela,” she continued on for a while. In a twist, there was water welling up near her eyes, but it was not her tear and rather just the raindrops that were falling on her face. It was not a matter that would make her cry, but one that was clearly stressing her out and for the first time, lost. If Adriana was trying her best with what she could with Eminent – a team that she has been familiar with – then what chance would poor Angela Stella Tan Fang Ling have?

-----

Preston Autos was wrapping up their team at Eelandii, with Kinu Luminna also two laps down. Not too good, but he’s got 10 points already, and the rainy weather was just not ideal for them. “Better that we try, I suppose,” Lewis quipped, “Good job, everyone, please take a lot of rest, stay under the shelter, and stay warm.” A rather usual conduct with the team and the staff, nothing much to it. In the garage, he would go around talking with the engineers, in particular as to what to do with Angela’s car and how they can improve it. In his heart, he knows that she was trying her best. The usual clichéd phrases that everyone said and have done, but then again, there are also a lot of the other drivers who have not gained a point, such as the likes of Nini Johnsilvaturr, another enthusiastic driver out there at the grids. As he was musing about for a while, something else got his attention, “Mr. Lewis, you might want to come with us,” was simply what one of the Preston staff said, along with what seemed to be a WGPC official. Oh good grief, he thought to himself. With an official around, what could be happening? Did they mess up elsewhere?

“We got reports of a tall woman standing in the rain outside her ship. Said she’s been there for 30 minutes,” he said, much to Lewis’ surprise. Something like this should not warrant concern in the slightest, but in the current state, that was definitely Angela in distress. “Ohhhhh shit,” Lewis spoke out, “She’s going to get sick. THEN we will be down without a driver. Better get to her ASAP.” The WGPC staff went separate ways as Lewis and one of the Preston staff then made their way to the parking lot. Minutes later, they saw her, holding out her hand periodically to catch the rainfall on her hands. She was soaked from top to bottom (minus her boots), but otherwise, she did not seem to show any signs of her feeling cold, let alone getting sick. “Angela!” he called out to her, to which the latter then turned around and looked at them, her head looking down. Deep down, Lewis still could not believe that Valentians are always this big. Sure, he has seen people who are a little over 7 feet tall, but “21 feet and 10 inches”? It was quite a sight. When the Hapilopperians and the Valentians saw each other starting from NSSCRA, the two were of the relative caution and scrutiny – the two teams and nations minding their own business and not interacting as much. As years went on, however, Fate positively intertwined the two nations and so there they are, used to each other.

“Angela? Come on, please come back into the lounge with us,” Lewis pleaded, which must have worked perfectly well, for Angela nodded. Although, rather than following them, she went back into the ship, stating that she would like a change of clothes and then dry herself up. She did just that, and then fast forward to the lounge, Angela sat there together with the rest of the Preston staff. Kinu Luminna was nowhere to be seen, mainly because this only concerned her. Back in her casual clothes, Angela did not show any signs of feeling cold as they have confirmed. “Wow, so you must have had worse conditions to live in,” Lewis quipped, “But please do be careful, Angela, we did not want you to get sick, that’s all.” Angela nodded with a reply, “Yeah, I know. I’m sorry as well to make you all worry. Well, you know as to why, yeah. It’s not the fault of you all, I promise that. It’s just, things have not been well.”

There it is again, with no surprise to Lewis. It was more than understandable that she is feeling this way, but he felt that Angela was taking it way too harsher than they would like. It was a frustrating affair, but she was definitely not the first one (nor will be the last) to have a relatively lower performance. Besides, it was not that Angela was purposely wrecking their car; in fact, it was seen that she handled it too carefully to the point of the car not needing much in the way of after-practice/qualifications/race tuning up. With absolute remorse in her eyes but without tears, Angela explained what was really bothering her. “I don’t want to bring you guys down a lot, like really. I know you are not all saying it, and I appreciate it. I really just feel bad about it. It’s not really so much because of the WGPC itself. If I was in MeowMeow Racing, for example, I would not mind the fact that I am occupying the bottom of the leaderboards, and instead would take it as a learning experience. But with you all – yeah, I just feel bad. Not the fault of the team, to be clear. I just feel bad when I am letting my friends from other nations and teams down.”

Lewis nodded, sympathetic to her concerns. “I know just how to handle this, I believe,” he thought to himself, followed by a hand on Angela’s shoulders. He typically would ask, but in such a case, it seemed like Angela needed it and that was all that mattered. The two talked for a little bit more before he asked one of the Preston staff members for a little something. “Oh, just something to help you understand as well,” he quipped when being asked upon, “Maybe it will help you clear your mind a little bit about it and… that hey, this sort of thing just happens. For example, I will assume that you have heard quite a fair lot about our team? I mean, not just in WGPC, but more especially in NSSCRA. It was… quite interesting there. You might have seen the news, and if not, a lot of the Valentians might have surely tell you.” He wanted to tell her the cold, hard facts: The fact that while they really do appreciate this reaction of taking responsibility and telling herself that she needs to work harder – it’s that she is not the worst driver that they had both in terms of performance and especially conduct. “I think our history in detail should help.”

[Aji No Moto]

"Shuhei, that's P7, good work out there buddy. Sorry that you just lost out 6th place by some tenths."

"Yeah, thank you for the car team. Appreciate it."

Shuhei Kamado is now a point-scorer in the World Grand Prix Championship. Having not scored any points in the first three races, in fact missing one of those, there is no secret that pressure has been mounting for the Ajian rookie as his teammate from Katzeburg and fellow rookie, Gil Langdon, has given KISMO their only point-scoring finishes on those races. It was a close last lap between him, UrGa's VIncent Von Visp, and VIska's William Archer for 6th, which was Shuhei's grid position at the start of the race, with the three finishing within two seconds.

The result not only gave Shuhei his first championship points, but also a boost coming into the sprint race weekend at Patriotlandia. He was probably set to participate in pre-qualifying for the Sprint race had he not scored any points in Turori, but the finish gave him the points to break free from those who were yet to score points. Both KISMO cars would be certain to participate in the Sprint race, however, they should still be on their toes as they should still be able to qualify for the Feature race, which have a significantly higher points yield compared to the Sprint.

For Shuhei, it relieves him some of the pressure aimed at him as their initial reserve driver, Batu Tuvshinbayar, already has a racing seat at the Liventia-based WGPC Motorworks team. It also gave him optimism for his home race at Serizawa, the second of two Sprint race weekends after the Patriotlandia race.

---

Kousuke Kasai would be a bit disappointed that Shuhei did not capitalize his 6th place grid position in the Turori race, but at the same time, he was relieved to see both KISMO drivers scoring points in the weekend, despite Langdon finishing outside the point scoring positions, he was able to set the fastest lap, adding a solitary point to KISMO's total of 7 points after four rounds.

The Ajian team is still languishing near the bottom of the constructors' standings, only placing 13th of 15 teams. They finally got ahead of the WGPC Motorworks team but being outscored by Race Eelandii VTGP kept them in 13th position. It's a concern right now by the deputy team principal, but the team should now focus on the two Sprint race weekends in the coming rounds, including their home race in Serizawa that fans are expecting a great performance from the team.

[Tropicorp]

Tropicorp Factory Power Triumphs with Pressley Racing Victory in Turori

WGPC21 Supplier Performance Standings (After Week #4)
[1] - 82 :: Tropicorp Racing Supply
[2] - 63 :: Phoenician/InMotion
[3] - 53 :: Brimstone
[4] - 27 :: Solymok
[5] - 5 :: Blue Sulphurate

Grand Prix of Turori, Eelandii Grand Prix Course, Eelandii, Turori :: Just one week prior on the dry streets and tunnels of the Crossbay Circuit, the Brimstone-supplied Piers Ivchenko team gave Hapilopper's hottest supplier its first ever World Grand Prix race victory. Then, the rains came down. With last weeks winner starting inside the Top 10 and having been a two-time winner at the Eelandii Grand Prix Course, it didn't seem like a question whether or not Brimstone would score points in the Grand Prix of Turori, but rather a question of just how many they could score, and could they keep putting the pressure on Tropicorp atop the Supplier Performance Standings. In Short, the Answer was no.

Based on performance at the track, the Brimstone wet-weather tyres were unable to keep pace with Tropicorp, Phoenician/InMotion and even Solymok tyres who all appeared to supply a better product for handling the wet weather conditions. Phoenician/InMotion even offered two different full wet variants depending on which side of the partnership an individual team would lean. For the drivers on the Brimstones, however, it was a struggle. Piers Ivchenko once again stood out from the pack with both of their drivers narrowly missing the points finishing 11th and 13th to lead the way among Brimstone supplied teams. Defending series champion Brednan Faloe is the second highest Brimstone driver in the standings but also couldn't get much out of the tyre in Turori finishing in 15th position. Altogether, the Hapiloppian supplier had nothing to show for their efforts and after climbing so close to the Top of the Supplier Performance Standings, it all came crashing down in spectacular fashion as just like that they are closer to being passed by Solymok for 3rd place in the standings then mounting a charge on the leaders. As for Tropicorp Racing Supply, it was a huge race weekend. While it was expected that one of the Tropicorp factory back entities could make a splash and perhaps even take the win in Eelandii, the surprise came in which driver and car ended up making it happen.

It was a dominant weekend of racing for Dario Nülkeschlager who led all three session on the track to take home the victory for themselves, for Pressley Racing and for Tropicorp. Although Phoenician/InMotion would take the next two spots on the podium it was still a solid points day that allowed Tropicorp Racing Supply to expand their lead to 19 points overall. It was also another strong showing by Solymok who had two drivers finish in the points for the third consecutive race after failing to score any points at the season opening Abovian Grand Prix. While the rain was out in full force at the Grand Prix of Turori, the odds of a repeat at Ridgeline Raceway in Patriotlandia are much lower with rain expected to be only half as likely as it was in Eelandii. Nevertheless, if the rain should fall, the traditional powerhouses in Tropicorp Racing Supply and Phoenician/InMotion will continue to not bat na eye at the challenge which both suppliers have proven they are fully prepared for this World Grand Prix Championship season.

---

Tropicorp Supplier Performances Standings are calculated by taking the points total of the best finisher of each supplier into consideration each week. Fastest Lap is not a consideration in the standings as presented.

---

Eelandii Grand Prix Course, Eelandii, Turori :: If it was the future of Tropicorp Motorsports on display during the twii.tur Support Series event at the Eelandii Grand Prix Course, then the future does not look bright for Tropicorp. After a strong start to the season with back-to-back Podium finishes, Igne Spupuo would retire once more and fall down a spot in the Drivers Standings. When Spupuo would get back to the Paddock at the Eelandii Grand Prix Course, they would find the car of their teammate Indori Vulcanasaur, who had already retired from the race just 3 laps into competition.

With over 20 laps of racing until they found out who the race winner would be, Indori Vulcanasaur and Igne Spupuo found time to unwind and put the troubles of their day behind them with a carefree game of "Rocks, Paper, Lizard, Cocoabo." Per the rules of the game Rock crushes Lizard and so Indori Vulcanasaur won virtually every single round. Still, the two seemed to take their early retirements in stride, using the opportunity to bolster their comradery - something that could prove beneficial as they head to Tropicorp looking to get back in the thick of both the Drivers and constructors championship battles.

---

SKIIA VIALIV ✓

@Skiia

Was a bit of a lost weekend in Turori. The cars weren't up for it. Donny failed to qualify and the team morale is pretty low right now. Hopefully we can change things up a little bit when the Sprint Race gets introduced into the equation. Thats if we can qualify for it!

#WGPC21 :: #EelandiiGP :: #ForzaHMG

INDORI VOLCANASAUR ✓

@IndoriV

Can't wait to take the @Orangeworks car to Tropicorp's Comprehensive Test Facility. I think this will actually be the first official race event at the track, which should be pretty interesting to see. Its quite an interesting track but there isn't really a lot of infield for the fans to enjoy. Hope it works out!


#SupportSeries :: #WGPC21 :: #WGPC

[Former Citizens of the Nimbus System]

Eelandii Grand Prix Circuit, Eelandii, Turori
Post-Race

Ryker steps onto the podium for what a part of him wonders might be the last time.

It is a warm feeling. The cheers of the crowd and the light scattering through the rainclouds join together in a way that is achingly familiar, and he waves in greeting. Though won’t be any drinking of champagne for him, the lightness of spirit passes nonetheless runs through and suffuses him well. This has been a place of belonging to him for many years; he returns to it with all the relief of such a homecoming.

Such satisfaction has been earned, too.

---

Lap 30

Through the long turn 4, drumming rain accompanying the scream of gears and electricity, Ryker sights the gold and fuchsia of Goita’s Ælund through the spray. He has hunted him for a dozen laps now, trading times, edging closer and drifting further each time. Now, with this round of pit stops complete, Martin’s call to pit early for the rain echoing in the back of an eager mind, he closes.

5, then 6. Eelandii is a circuit that’s appeared a few times across his career; this weekend, that circuit has clicked. Even in weather that makes this street tarmac oh-so-slippery, Ryker feels the potential of the car beneath him. He guides it through the double-apex hairpin, sliding ever so slightly, a slight glow marking the tiniest of brushes against a barrier that he can barely see.

Closer now, down the straight – then closer still. He drifts right, shining cerulean occupying the mirrors of the car ahead, closer, closer… Goita shuts the door – and Ryker weaves back to the left, to the outside, widening the line to maximise drive from 7.

One should not be able to overtake on the next part of the track, certainly not easily, certainly not in the rain. The long bend’s widening angle creates a clear fastest path through, one that the driver ahead will always take to the detriment of the one behind.

But Ryker’s wet tyres, run for two laps and the current target of the Imagithermal convertor embedded in his Chase Cutter’s array, are well-warmed. Goita’s, fresh from pitting and exposed, unaided, to the ravages of the elements, are not.

To the outside he darts, maintaining as much speed as he dares, placing trust in the car, trust in the team, trust in the millions of souls whose efforts, meagre in contribution to this moment they may each be, collectively culminate in this.

It is not misplaced. The grip holds; the directional Imagikinesis lashes out, as it has done all season, but not nearly so much that he cannot bring it under control and drive on. And Goita, held to the inside and unable to take that fastest line, cannot.

Thus does Ryker Lane surge into second place, where his race will conclude.

---

But has it been earned by him?

Nexus Racing played their own, vital part today. The artifice of car and team made that overtake possible where another would likely have faltered. Gertrude and Victoria’s Imagination convertors, the grip of the eight-wheeled chassis so well-maintained by Lucia and her team, his dear race engineer’s strategy calls – even In Motion’s tyre design – all came together today to produce this result.

As for himself…

Ryker’s gaze tracks as the race’s winner, Dario Nülkeschlager, strides out with a fierce cry of joy on his lips. There is no envy, only empathetic warmth. His fight with Goita removed any chance that he had to chase down the leader, especially with the new limitations that the team put on ICAST distribution for this weekend, as Victoria pushed for on his behalf.

If Dario was in his car, with as much experience of Ryker’s Chase Cutter as he has of his own Pressley, could he have won? Possibly not – controlling a race lead from the start is a very different task than charging one down – but it seems a good bet that he could have come second. His pace today seemed masterful.

Could Janne? Almost certainly, as embedded in the team as he is now. He might even have challenged for the win. WGPC is a different beast now than it was in his Championship season – so many drivers with talent, each on their day a match for any other in the field.

And yet… Jean would have been able to push through to secure a podium, were he still here to carry Nexus Racing’s banner. Terho would have without any doubt.

If he is so redundant… What about this victory, then, is his?

Even as Ryker receives his trophy and holds it aloft to the cheers of his team and bathes in the joy of the moment – the distance surrounding him, and between it and him, only seems to grow. And a part of him wonders how soon it will be before it separates them entirely.

---

Previous Chapter
7. Guilt, Fear, Sorrow

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9. Agility

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[Nico Hulkenberg]

Dario

Dawn broke, and as team personnel began waking up it was clear that a dry race was out of the question. Conditions at the circuit were significantly wetter than the previous two days, and the track’s drainage facilities were bound to be working overtime. Shortly prior to the race, during the installation laps, Dario made a few remarks to his engineer.

”It’s incredibly drizzly out here, I can feel my arse getting wet.”

“Must be the rain.”

“Ha ha, very funny. Are the conditions going to lighten up at all?”

“Negative, Dario, our radar says that it’s gonna be pretty miserable for the full duration.”

“Lovely. Looking forward to it.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I’ll be warm and dry thanks to the pit wall heaters. Might even get [reserve driver] Sophie to bring me a coffee.”

“It’s times like this that I wish I had some… warmers, under the seat.”

“That can be arranged, you know. Just have to remove some insulation between the seat and the engine bay. Don’t complain if your back gets scalding, though.”

“Thanks for the offer, Sonia, but I think I’ll stick so having wet buttocks.”

“Your loss.”

Installation laps would be followed by the formation lap, wherein Dario would be the one driver unaffected by spray from the car ahead. Whether this provided much of an advantage would yet to be seen, but it was rather comforting to know that - provided he held the lead - his visibility would be far better than everyone else’s. Stopping in his grid box, he waited patiently to hear his engineer’s voice, letting him know that he would be starting soon.

”Last car lined up.”

Dario tensed up, slightly nervous at the prospect of having his first start from pole position since his junior racing days. Much like those days, he knew that he just had to trust his instincts and let the good vibes guide him and the car home. Lights went out, and Dario was quickest off the line as the cars struggled to grip to the slippy surface. The driver in second, Cocoabo #23, seemed to particularly struggle, and Dario powered into the first corner relatively unchallenged for the lead, avoiding the stramash of cars jostling for position behind. By the time most of the field had began to settle into a rhythm, he had sailed off into the distance, showing absolutely no signs of looking back. With his lap times being over two seconds quicker than his teammate, it didn’t take long before lapped cars came into the equation, their spray slightly jolting Dario’s concentration.

”Blue flags! Move!”

Mid-way through the race, he came up behind and promptly lapped his teammate. He felt a lot of sympathy for Nini, having struggled to get to grips with the PRE-025, but he shoved these feelings to the back of his mind as he continued to scythe through lapped traffic. Eventually, it was time to exchange his old, worn treaded tyres for some new ones, and a swift pit stop saw him exit only behind a couple of drivers, who would also be forced to pit not long after. With no real danger of losing his lead, Dario took it easy for the last ten or so laps, carefully navigating the traffic as it came. Rahel, Faloe, Cruisin, Rahel again, before finally, just a lap before the end, fellow Hülkenberger Nepö Kinder’s UrGa came into view, and as blew flags flashed for car 63, his old teammate in HMG Challenge GT moved aside, giving each other a wave as they went by. After all, it’s not as if she was going to hold up someone she considered a mentor - or indeed, a friend. Dario knew this, and as his engineer came over the radio to signal that it was the last lap, he savoured every moment, every droplet of rain, every inch of drenched tarmac, as he edged his way towards the finishing line. The chequered flag once again flew for Dario Nülkeschläger, position one next to his name - but this time, came with it an extra twenty-five points. Oh, and some champagne - real champagne this time, none of that poxy rose water pish.

”What. A. Drive. That’s P1, and that’s yours and Pressley Grand Prix’s first ever victory. I think you’ve earned yourself a round of applause.”

The aura of the occasion seemed to get to Dario, who initially didn’t reply to his engineer as he coaxed the car into parc fermé. This ended once he climbed out of the car, however, as he roared and leapt into the arms of jubilant team staff who lined the fences, an army of purple-and-pink-laden engineers there to greet him. All in all, a momentous occasion for everyone involved, as the moment that both team and driver showed their testing pace had finally arrived.

”Our season starts here, everyone! This is the boost we needed, let’s carry this momentum over to Patriotlandia, you hear me? We’re gonna take this trophy, drink our champagne, and sing all the way there! Onwards and fucking upwards!”

[Aboveland]

Grand Prix of Turori
Eelandii Grand Prix Course
Eelandii, Turori

“I’m worried too - worried almost sick, sometimes."

The mist in front of Janne clears as he edges his Chase Cutter up to the grid slot line. It diffuses the blinking glimmer of the twenty-five brake lights lined up staggered in front of him; wisps of spray billow around vents and exhausts as the fine droplets that collect on his visor refract the lights around the grid. Splotches of warm, clear light mix with streaks of red; the circuit surface mirrors the blinking lights and billboards that sprout across the track on its glassy rippled surface. Gertrude's face flashes in his head, her voice ringing in his ears. When his mind wanders away from the image of her gaze and her comforting touch on his hands, a knot of angst tightens in his stomach.

“But I have to trust that those people will make something good of it.

The way the lights in front of him shimmer in the dissipating spray has a cinematic quality to it, as much so as Gertrude's words had been raw and honest. Every time he finds himself sat in front of his higher-ups, he remembers why he'd been Nexus Racing's posterboy all these years. For every victory, there was a legion of hypemen; for every struggle, an array of pairs of ears and a roster of caring eyes; and for every challenge, an indomitable will to succeed. As he lets the image simmer in his mind, the knot in his stomach unwinds; the first set of red lights glows ominously into life, followed by the next, and then the other two, and thought they're tiny amidst the rumbling grid lined up ahead of him, his brow furrows with determination.

"They’re fallible like anyone else, but they’re still the best in the world at what they do. I hope you can trust them, too.”

Trust. A word too short to spell out before the lights vanish in an instant. All his eight wheels scramble to claw a sliver of grip from beneath the surface of the standing water; rooster tails sprout ahead of him and tower up and beyond the flag booth. The circuit goes a tad darker as the lights vanish in the spray and, submerged in a pulsing cloud of cyan light, he shoots away towards turn one.

---

Lap 9

The race fades into a blur once Janne enters into his rhythm. He'd made expeditious work of the backmarkers in the opening laps of the race, eating up Tuvshinbayar before turn one with the traction advantage he had over the Motorworks car. The Chase Cutter's attitude remains unchanged from qualifying: a dizzying mess of over-under-neutralsteer from corner to entry to apex to exit. He opens lap nine with the KISMO of Gil Langdon squarely in his sights ahead. He's skittish on the main straight, the team having played with the camber on his conical tyres to reduce friction at the expense of having him shit his pants over every puddle, but as he slams on the brakes into turn one, the blotchy distant red glow on the car ahead turns into a discernible screen of red diodes, and the glow of the exhaust becomes visible even through the muck that clutters his visor.

His car pounces like a rabid lion, squatting as it ejects the rain that it glides over. He's not overeager enough to lunge into turn three; there's still 10 places left ahead of him before he can sniff a single point. He holds his temper down to turn five, and with a snap of oversteer on exit for Langdon, he swipes cleanly past through the inside of six as a flash of cyan casts a fleeting shadow of his wing mirrors across his face. Too close for comfort, perhaps, but his mind instantly shifts away from the potential incident to the sight of a stranded streak of cyan, yellow and magenta on the exit of turn seven. His heart skips a beat as the knot in his stomach suddenly returns and tightens like a vice. He feels his eyes about to roll off his skull, down his cheeks and into the mouth notch on the inside of his helmet.

But his pitlane radio remains quiet, and for his own good, he keeps his thumb off of the radio button. One less, he reckons, suppressing the incoming heads-up display alert on who'd been the latest retiring driver.

---

Whatever fluid runs down his face could be any ungodly amalgam. The grime on his helmet had been mercifully wiped clean by the standby pit crew during his last stop, but as the lap count ticks down his heart trembles and his temples drum. His mouth collects the salty, gritty beads of dirt and sweat that mould together under his eyes and streak down to his lips, their gritty taste doing more than his empty drink bottle to keep him stimulated. An appropriately timed switch back to wets shot him up a couple more places, but he's still got one more on-track battle left to his own personal victory.

He's patient through the closing sector of the circuit; the dry line that's formed stifles his progress, and eggs on the orange-clad rookie in front of him. There's little wiggle room between the glossy lines; a couple of times, he nibbles the edge of grip and chews his own teeth in frustration. Not even the damp straights are enough to offer him an easy pass: any overeagerness is punished by a snap of oversteer or a surging wheel. As he brakes hard into turn one again, keeping clean behind Lutfi, his radio blips. "Okay," begins the zenful voice of his engineer. "You have full ICAST these last few laps. Go for it, trust the car."

Trust. In the car, in the team, in his tyres, in the sensation of slip angle in the seat of his pants and in the novice hands of the guy in front. Trust.

He's clean through to turn three and keeps collected through four, five, six and seven. Lutfi holds the inside through nine, and he edges close around the outside, but there's no room left by the time the braking at ten arrives. Hard on the brakes, he lets the Sharktailian through, but he brakes a tad late and overcooks the entry into eleven. The corner is far too tight to make a move, but Janne switches back to take the outside through it and twelve; Hazrin is on the faster line through the hard right, but it's the Abovian with the edge into thirteen. As they both nudge past the apex, he gives the throttle an ambitious, ass-clenching squeeze. The rear steps out as his hands twist blindly into the slide; in his mirrors, the circuit lights catch on the Piers Ivchencko's nose and flash a yawing ray of light into his eyes. The Sharktalian grapples with his own bout of oversteer as the Chase Cutter pulls like a freight train. "P10," confirms his engineer. Janne clamps down on the insides of his cheeks.

In clean air again, he pulls clear of Hazrin, with a growing VTGP in his sights ahead. His tyres, though, are blasted, and so are his arms and his mind. Though he's quicker than the guy slash thing in front, he holds position and navigates himself through to the end of the race. When Max comes on the radio, all he can muster is a chuckling sigh of relief.

"Thanks guys," he says back, audibly winded and nearly on the verge of tears — not of joy, but of the tension that's pooled in his neck. "I knew I could trust in us. Onwards, then!"

He hears claps and cheers in the background as Max gives him the final rundown on the race classification. "Nülkeschlager has won ahead of Ryker in P2," he says cheerfully. "And, double congratulations, Janne: you've extended your lead in the championship, too!"

He frowns, but it only takes a moment for the realization to start setting in, and still he pops the question just to make sure.

"Affirm," Max replies. "Pressley retired on lap 9 with mechanical trouble."

Janne licks his upper lip and bites down softly to suppress a visceral, guilt-riddled smirk.

---

Credit Nimbus for the Gertrude quotes we cooked up together :)

[Sharktail]

Eelandii Grand Prix Course
Turori

The chequered flag is waved as Pressley Racing Dario Nülkeschlager won the Grand Prix of Turori. Another disappointing, just a little bit more power might change all the events happening today. As he confirms with his race engineer in the last lap battle about their gaps.

"How much gap between me and the car in front of me?"

The answer from the crew is not really favouring him. He keeps thinking, is his only option now just to push the car to the finish line and finish the race safely, or should he push the car to the limit that his fate is uncertain?

But, entering the last few turn, and he able to close the gaps and battle hard for P10, as they enter turn 13, he pretty, much lose it to Janne, he just has to accept another no-point race as he can feel the car not being able to catch up with Janne.

"Is there any difference with the gap now?"

Expectations, a lot of times not really match reality. His gap keeps getting far rather than improving. He feels a little emotion but tries to control as much as he can, and just as he sees the flag, it's over.

After he congratulate Janne, Hazrin makes his way into the paddock. His face show a bit of frustration to miss yet another point chance. A gap of around three to four seconds shot from the 10th place Janne Laukkanen. He sit at the paddock while listening to the commentary and post race feedback from his mechanic. He tries as much as he can to consume every bit of word. Just... he still thinks the last few laps should be better than this, and he should be able to catch Janne.

This week is still a much better performance, and he was able to push the car from 17th to 11th. Thanks to Piers Ivchenko's crews and mechanics, a good strategy, even with failing to push through the Top 10 and also failing to snatch the fastest lap, nothing could be better performance here.

As WGPC21 reaches week 8, which also includes sprint races and feature races, there will be more chances to win a point and more chances to miss more points. He should shift his focus and hit more hours of simulator ahead of the Grand Prix de Patriotlandia. Onto the next.

[Liventia]

CUTOFF

for Pre-Qualifying and the Sprint Race at Ridgeline Raceway

[Liventia]

Week 8: Pre-Qualifying

Conditions:      	Dry
Lap Record:      	00:01:25.210
Qualifying Type:	Traditional
Nation:         	PTR
Circuit:        	Ridgeline Raceway

POS # ▍DRIVER                                               	FASTEST LAP	GAP TO LEADER
 1 33 ▍Sam Blaatschapen                                     	00:01:27.618	00:00:00.000 
 2 18 ▍Giancarlo Rahel                                      	00:01:27.696	00:00:00.078
 3 84 ▍Angela Stella Tan Fang Ling                          	00:01:27.917	00:00:00.299  DNQS
 4 14 ▍Skiia Vialiv                                         	00:01:29.732	00:00:02.114  DNQS
 5  9 ▍Batu Tüvshinbayar                                    	00:01:29.790	00:00:02.172  DNQS
 6 13 ▍Pierre-Louis Archer                                  	00:01:29.926	00:00:02.308  DNQS
 7 91 ▍Naveen Kalkar                                        	00:01:30.544	00:00:02.926  DNQS
 8 10 ▍Ankei Souzare                                        	00:01:57.732	00:00:30.114  DNQS

DNQS – Did not qualify for sprint race

---

Week 8: Sprint Race

Conditions:      	Dry
Laps:              	25
Nation:         	PTR
Circuit:        	Ridgeline Raceway
Event:                	Grand Prix de Patriotlandia présenté par ASI Industries – Sprint
Safety Car on Laps:	
Cars on Grid:        	26

Start               	POS  # ▍DRV Name                                         Team                                     	Time        	Pts	Fastest Lap	
 1 ▍TII            	  1 94 ▍LAN Ryker Lane                                   Nexus Racing                                 	00:39:27.434	8		
 2 ▍VVV            	  2 66 ▍VVV Vincent Von Visp                             Urotovsky-Gatutin                            	00:00:25.171	7		
 3 ▍LMN            	  3 77 ▍TII iBen Toralmintii                             Race Eelandii VTGP                           	00:00:45.176	6		
 4 ▍FTZ            	  4 74 ▍FTZ Adonis Fitzpatrick                           HMG Grand Prix                               	00:00:55.197	5		
 5 ▍FAE            	  5 51 ▍CRU R.L. Cruisin                                 Piers Ivchenko                               	00:00:56.574	4		
 6 ▍KIN            	  6 37 ▍HAU Laura Haukanna                               Pryfors Bilar                                	00:01:04.510	3		
 7 ▍HAU            	  7 89 ▍GTA Abdoulaye Goita                              Ælund Grand Prix                             	00:01:05.918	2		
 8 ▍LAN            	  8 88 ▍PRE Ted Pressley                                 Ælund Grand Prix                             	00:01:07.463	1	1:29.253	
 9 ▍GTA            	  9 17 ▍LAU Janne Laukkanen                              Nexus Racing                                 	00:01:16.148			
10 ▍NÜL            	 10 23 ▍C23 Cocoabo #23                                  Race Eelandii VTGP                           	00:01:19.726			
11 ▍CRU            	 11 12 ▍SOM Ron Sommer                                   Viska                                        	00:01:21.744			
12 ▍PRE            	 12 95 ▍BZW Hanna Berezowska                             HiTEN.gpt                                    	00:01:27.779			
13 ▍LAU            	 13 58 ▍KAM Shuhei Kamado                                KISMO                                        	00:01:29.281			
14 ▍BZW            	 14 27 ▍NÜL Dario Nülkeschlager                          Pressley Racing                              	00:01:30.278			
15 ▍SOM            	 15 63 ▍KIN Nepö Kinder                                  Urotovsky-Gatutin                            	00:01:31.132			
16 ▍KAM            	 16 55 ▍LNG Gil Langdon                                  KISMO                                        	00:01:31.661			
17 ▍ARC            	 17  1 ▍FAE Brendan Faloe                                Cygnus                                       	Laps Down: 1			
18 ▍LNG            	 18 21 ▍HAZ Nik Hazrin Lutfi                             Piers Ivchenko                               	Laps Down: 1			
19 ▍C23            	 19 82 ▍LMN Kinu Luminna                                 Preston Autos                                	Laps Down: 1			
20 ▍STO            	 20 18 ▍RAH Giancarlo Rahel                              WGPC Motorworks                              	Laps Down: 1			
21 ▍HAZ            	 21 40 ▍AKS Adriana Ela Kowalski Lillian                 Eminent                                      	Laps Down: 1			
22 ▍AKS            	 22 85 ▍STO Olivia Stone                                 Cygnus                                       	Laps Down: 1			
23 ▍JOH            	 23 22 ▍JOH Nini Johnsilvaturr                           Pressley Racing                              	Laps Down: 1			
24 ▍DEV            	 24 33 ▍BLA Sam Blaatschapen                             Pryfors Bilar                                	Laps Down: 1			
25 ▍BLA            	 25 96 ▍ARC William Archer                               Viska                                        	Laps Down: 2			
26 ▍RAH            	DNF  7 ▍DEV Anneliese Devereux                           Eminent                                      	Ret. lap 7

Drivers' standings

Pos # ▍DRV Name                                          Team [Engine]                                                                                Tyres                                        Pts
 1 17 ▍LAU Janne Laukkanen                               Nexus Racing [Nexus Racing Paragon Warp]                                                     Phoenician-In Motion                         48
 2 88 ▍PRE Ted Pressley                                  Ælund Grand Prix [Ælund CMYK-T20V8H]                                                         Tropicorp Racing Supply                      46
 3 51 ▍CRU R.L. Cruisin                                  Piers Ivchenko [UrGa Zh-S-1000]                                                              Brimstone                                    43
 4 27 ▍NÜL Dario Nülkeschlager                           Pressley Racing [Tropicorp TRE-2T24V8]                                                       Tropicorp Racing Supply                      39
 5 94 ▍LAN Ryker Lane                                    Nexus Racing [Nexus Racing Paragon Warp]                                                     Phoenician-In Motion                         33
 6 89 ▍GTA Abdoulaye Goita                               Ælund Grand Prix [Ælund CMYK-T20V8H]                                                         Tropicorp Racing Supply                      31
 7 37 ▍HAU Laura Haukanna                                Pryfors Bilar [Pryfors Bilar]                                                                Phoenician-In Motion                         28
 8 74 ▍FTZ Adonis Fitzpatrick                            HMG Grand Prix [Preston Autos Skychief V6]                                                   Tropicorp Racing Supply                      23
 9 63 ▍KIN Nepö Kinder                                   Urotovsky-Gatutin [UrGa Zh-S-1000]                                                           Solymok                                      21
10  1 ▍FAE Brendan Faloe                                 Cygnus [Sturmburgher PD02/25]                                                                Brimstone                                    20
11 66 ▍VVV Vincent Von Visp                              Urotovsky-Gatutin [UrGa Zh-S-1000]                                                           Solymok                                      17
12 77 ▍TII iBen Toralmintii                              Race Eelandii VTGP [Tropicorp TRE-2T24V8]                                                    Tropicorp Racing Supply                      14
13 82 ▍LMN Kinu Luminna                                  Preston Autos [Preston Autos Skychief V6]                                                    Brimstone                                    10
14 12 ▍SOM Ron Sommer                                    Viska [Viska RG Motors]                                                                      Phoenician-In Motion                         8
14 95 ▍BZW Hanna Berezowska                              HiTEN.gpt [Franklin WGP-X2]                                                                  Brimstone                                    8
16 58 ▍KAM Shuhei Kamado                                 KISMO [Kissan Motors KS.APEX-01]                                                             Solymok                                      4
17 30 ▍MAR Otto Markul                                   WGPC Motorworks [Franklin WGP-X2]                                                            Blue Sulphurate                              4
18 55 ▍LNG Gil Langdon                                   KISMO [Kissan Motors KS.APEX-01]                                                             Solymok                                      3
18 96 ▍ARC William Archer                                Viska [Viska RG Motors]                                                                      Phoenician-In Motion                         3
20 23 ▍C23 Cocoabo #23                                   Race Eelandii VTGP [Tropicorp TRE-2T24V8]                                                    Tropicorp Racing Supply                      2
20 85 ▍STO Olivia Stone                                  Cygnus [Sturmburgher PD02/25]                                                                Brimstone                                    2
22 21 ▍HAZ Nik Hazrin Lutfi                              Piers Ivchenko [UrGa Zh-S-1000]                                                              Brimstone                                    1

Constructors' standings

Pos NAT ▍Team [Engine]                                                                                Tyres                                        Pts
  1 NIM ▍Nexus Racing [Nexus Racing Paragon Warp]                                                     Phoenician-In Motion                         81
  2 ABL ▍Ælund Grand Prix [Ælund CMYK-T20V8H]                                                         Tropicorp Racing Supply                      77
  3 DOU ▍Piers Ivchenko [UrGa Zh-S-1000]                                                              Brimstone                                    44
  4 TMB ▍Pressley Racing [Tropicorp TRE-2T24V8]                                                       Tropicorp Racing Supply                      39
  5 PDN ▍Urotovsky-Gatutin [UrGa Zh-S-1000]                                                           Solymok                                      38
  6 DCS ▍Pryfors Bilar [Pryfors Bilar]                                                                Phoenician-In Motion                         28
  7 HÜL ▍HMG Grand Prix [Preston Autos Skychief V6]                                                   Tropicorp Racing Supply                      23
  8 ESM ▍Cygnus [Sturmburgher PD02/25]                                                                Brimstone                                    22
  9 V&T ▍Race Eelandii VTGP [Tropicorp TRE-2T24V8]                                                    Tropicorp Racing Supply                      16
 10 AUR ▍Viska [Viska RG Motors]                                                                      Phoenician-In Motion                         11
 11 HVZ ▍Preston Autos [Preston Autos Skychief V6]                                                    Brimstone                                    10
 12 HDR ▍HiTEN.gpt [Franklin WGP-X2]                                                                  Brimstone                                    8
 13 ANM ▍KISMO [Kissan Motors KS.APEX-01]                                                             Solymok                                      7
 14 WGP ▍WGPC Motorworks [Franklin WGP-X2]                                                            Blue Sulphurate                              4
 15 LIS ▍Eminent [Sidus 616W-1]                                                                       Blue Sulphurate                              0

[Katzeburg]

Apartment 12B, Foxworth House, Waldstein

Ron Sommer yawned as he poured out his second cup of coffee for the morning and turned to face his apartment window. With a view of the scenic downtown Waldstein (or at least, a scenic view of the back alley of a fast food joint located just off the high street), Ron was taking in the familiar sights of home while he could. He had come home for a short break to visit family and collect mail, mostly before he would head on over to Patriotlandia for the next race of the season - the first sprint race as well. It hadn’t been the easiest week on the circuit for him, truth be told - he had failed to get anywhere close to the points in Turori and with William Archer finally getting himself on the scoring board for the season, Ron knew the pressure was starting to warm up on him.

But his sixth place finish at the Nimban GP showed he could fight still, and fight he did - but as he slowly dawdled back from his window towards his couch, he couldn’t help but reflect that he had gone really quiet immediately after the Turori GP. He had lost track of time a lot this past week, often just zoning in and out of sessions with Viska. Surely they had to know he was distracted, right? What would this hold for his chances at keeping the seat? The short, off-hand text from his father after the Nimban GP had thrown him for a loop. He knew his father didn’t have the best of health, but fainting in the storeroom at work? That was definitely new, and Ron was rightly worried. He hadn’t heard anything further about it after the planned visit to the doctor, his dad just playfully shrugging it off when Ron swung by to visit (a ‘surprise’ visit with all the subtlety of a train derailment).

“It was nothing,” Trevor recalled to his son the previous evening, as the whole family sat around the small kitchen table at the Sommer family home on the outskirts of Waldstein; a large bucket of fried chicken doing the set decorating on the table as the family enjoyed one of their infamous takeaway tuck-ins.

“Dad, I wouldn’t say a visit to the doctor is often nothing,” Ron said as he tried to slowly escort the large tub of gravy away from his father. “Did they at least tell you anything more about why you fainted?”

“As much as I’ve told you, basically,” Trevor replied. “Mostly down to exhaustion combined with the heat in there; I’ve told Mr Marksburg so many times that he needs to put in air con in there, hopefully now he’ll finally get about it.”

“But why the exhaustion? Is it something recent?”

“What is this, 20 questions? It’s probably because I’ve not been getting much sleep as I’ve been awake at all hours of the evening following along with my jet-trekking son as he races across numerous time zones! That Turori Grand Prix was at an absurdly early hour, may I remind you?”

Ron frowned. He knew his dad was continuing to play it off, but pushing would be akin to getting nowhere fast. So he shuffled the conversation onto something else and moved on with the evening - ultimately a nice one, as the family enjoyed a night they’ve not had in years, sitting around the table, digging into chicken and playing board games. It was a rare moment where Ron could forget, just for a moment, that he was a WGPC driver and the pressure which comes with it at times.

But now the next morning and reality was here. Ron needed to turn his mind back to the situation at hand - Heading to Patriotlandia, Viska could hardly be happy with where they were sitting on the constructor’s ladder. The team was in ninth, but a far way away from the teams at the top - Ron was the brighter of the two so far, but William Archer was starting to have things click finally, which made him nervous. His sixth place finish just a few weeks ago was starting to feel like a bit of a fluke; a key indication of his raging imposter syndrome. But quitting was not an option. Sommer’s never give up, it’s one of the cornerstones of their entire family ancestry. As he flicked through a few race notes he had brought with him from Auruna, Ron couldn’t help but recall one particular family anecdote his father told him, about when his great-great-great grandfather refused to give up on getting a refund from a pub over in Katzestadt. This was well before unification, but as far as Ron understands his grandfather was slighted by a pub over a small wager made in good fun - and when he wasn’t given his barins, his grandfather would spend the next eight months staging a protest out the front of the pub until he got his money.

Despite rain, hail, or even snow, he would sit out the front of the pub on the banks of the river and let anyone who walked by know all about his plight. According to some versions of the tale told by Trevor Sommer, his grandfather lost more than 20 pounds during the protest because he often forgot to eat he was so angry. But he would win in the end - the pub finally gave him his barins to put it to rest. The total sum? Less than 10 barins, barely enough to buy a couple of pints in the pub itself at that time. Whether it was derangement, or a distinct stubbornness which buried itself into the genes of all Sommers, none of them could walk away from something easily. And Ron had spent a good chunk of the season constantly on edge, worrying if his seat was under pressure, worrying whether William Archer was going to swoop in scoring a bucket load of points and making Ron look well out of his depth.

But as of this moment, neither of that had happened yet. And the realisation hit Ron like a ton of bricks. Even though he wasn’t at the front of the grid, he had earnt this spot and was holding his own. So why not drive like it? Ron’s eyes opened wide as his epiphany formed in front of him, and he chuckled at the pure ignorance he had been experiencing all season long. He needed to race for himself, not because he needed to race for survival. And he was going to do that the second he touched down in Patriotlandia. Nothing could bring him off his high, as he plopped the race notes back down on the table and walked back up to the window, coffee in hand. He was Ron Sommer, race car driver. And as he stared out the window once more, he knew he was going to be alright, no matter what would happen next.

What he didn’t expect though, was his door bell to ring just a moment later.

And what he also didn’t expect, was that when he flung open the door to apartment 12B he would see a man he wasn’t expecting to see anywhere else but the racetrack itself. For the tall man with increasingly shaggy brown hair standing in front of him was none other than Gil Langdon.

---

27 Stump Hill, Penntop.

It had been an awful couple of weeks for Gil Langdon. Kicked out of his home by his own father for not being successful enough on the track, Gil returned back to Penntop to see what essentially amounted to his entire life belongings sitting outside on the front step of the terraced house in a damp box - thanks in no part to the unseasonable rain which had befallen Penntop in the time between Gil getting kicked out and being able to return to the premises after the Turori Grand Prix. Pleas to his mother for understanding fell by and large on deaf ears. Archie had dug his claws into her and all but forced her to cut off any contact with her son for the moment. “It will all be good for you,” his mother said at the end of their most recent phone call, shortly before Gil was due to take to the course for the Turori GP.

Gil had been lucky that he was able to spend some time over in Aji No Moto at the KISMO headquarters, but the tension there had continued to rise - Shuhei Kamado would storm to a seventh place finish in Turori to now put him ahead of Gil on points; and while Gil was pleased he was able to snare the fastest lap point, it left him on the back foot in the swirling political machinations which seemed to be going on behind the scenes at Kissan. He didn’t feel like he could turn to anyone at the team for support, especially at a time like this where Shuhei was actively out gunning for him to prove he should be the rookie they keep rather than Gil. So he forced it all down while in Aji No Moto, walking around the headquarters with a beaming smile on his face and not a worry in the world. All while inside, he was panicking. But finally, after collecting his belongings and dashing into a small diner down the road from Stump Hill, Gil had a moment for himself to reassess and figure out just what the hell he was going to do.

As he was now just starting to realise, being a bit of a dick in the one scene you actively take part in means that your circle of support for when things are tough becomes exceedingly small. For Gil, his circle of support was two people - his former pit chief Duff McRuff, who didn’t follow Gil into WGPC after the Katzeburgian Qualifier, and his agent, Don Hundmeister. Gil pulled out his phone and dialed Duff, hoping, praying, he would pick up. But no answer ever came. Duff was a burly and blunt talking man, sure, but he had always at least tolerated Gil when they were racing together. But after the qualifier, Gil had admittedly lost touch with him, as he turned his focus towards securing a seat. He even ignored Duff when he sent a congratulatory message after securing the seat at KISMO, thinking he had better things to do than respond to the person who had dedicated so much time and effort towards getting Gil towards where he wanted to go. Was it his ego which was the problem? Or was he just an asshole?

Gil sighed and ordered a cup of coffee from the passing waitress before turning towards his second and potentially only option. Don Hundmeister had been by Gil’s side ever since the qualifier, being a key reason he even got a seat in the first place. He had suggested using Archie’s status and funds to push towards a seat as a pay driver - something which, despite how Archie Langdon was treating his son, was never for a second being taken off the table. Despite kicking him out, Archie was more than keen to schmooze the Kissan officials and take all the benefits being a sponsor brings. But Don had been a rock of advice for Gil regardless, helping him navigate the shifting tides of the political sphere which is attached to motorsports. And now he just needed a bit more help than he would have ever expected.

“Don Hundmeister speaking, baby” came the response down the line. He had picked up.

“Don? It’s Gil. Gil Langdon?” he squeaked. He felt a pang of embarrassment ping throughout him, as if he was a child being asked to be picked up from school because he loudly and violently shit himself during quiet reading time.

“Gil, baby! How is everything over in Aji No Moto? Still stealing points I see!”

“Yeah, it’s been good. Look, here’s the thing and I’m wondering as my agent whether you’d be able to help me out here.”

“You’ve not killed someone baby? I can spin many things, but if the gloves fit, then they often won’t acquit.”

“What? No. It’s… My dad. He’s kicked me out of my home and I’ve not got anywhere to stay here in Katzeburg.”

Silence echoed down the line. Gil gulped. “I… I was wondering whether you’d be able to put me up for a couple of nights, just until I can get a new place sorted?”

“Gil, baby… You know I’d love to help. But I have to let you know that your father pulled funding a few days ago. I’m no longer your agent, baby.”

“What? You can’t be serious. Please. I just need some help here. You know I’ll be able to make sure you get paid in one way or another.”

“I’m sorry baby, but liability is liability. Why don’t you just try and book a hotel for a night or two to get back on your feet?”

“It’s not just that,” Gil snapped. “I.. I just need someone to talk to I think.”

“Maybe try a therapist baby, there’s no-one who knows what you are going through in Katzeburg. Now I need to get running, I’m on the clock for clients who can actually pay the bills. Take care, baby.”

Click.

Gil sat there motionless for a moment, tears welling in his eyes. There’s no-one who knows what you are going through. He slammed his phone down on the counter, rattling the freshly laid down coffee the waitress had just brought over and tipping it over the now freshly-cracked phone Gil had thrown down in a fit of rage. He had nothing. He had no-one. Why even bother going back? Why bother going to Patriotlandia and continuing being a WGPC racer if this is what it brings him? As he dropped his head down, a lone thought scattered across his brain. An insane one, to be sure, but at this point, he had nothing left to lose except his pride - might as well toss that onto the pile.

---

Apartment 12B, Foxworth House, Waldstein.

Gil paused for a moment before ringing the doorbell. Was this the right move to make? He had been nothing but a thorn in the side of his fellow Katzeburgian racer in the past - someone who constantly lauded his wealth and status over Ron’s head as a weapon. To show he was better. To prove he was someone. And where did that get him? In a team more toxic, in a car constantly behind him on the grid, homeless, and without a friend in the world. He had constantly been the one antagonising, the one desperate to show he was the best in the nation, the best in the world. But Ron had never fired back - at least not to his face. He was humble, someone who surely would be understanding. But Gil hated every second of his trip over here, every step up the small walk-in to Ron’s door, knowing that this could never be let down. To him, this was rock bottom.

But despite all that, he was here. He had to roll the dice. And so he pressed his finger against the door bell, beckoning the call of whatever would come next.

“Gil?” Ron stammered out as he cracked open the door. “What are you doing here?”

“Hey Ron. Are you free for a moment? I was wondering if I’d be able to talk to you.”

Ron was hesitant, but he could tell from the sheer desperation in Gil’s eyes, something had gone horribly, horribly wrong for his WGPC compatriot. “Uh… Sure. Please, come in. Want a cup of coffee?”

As Ron opened the door to his small apartment, Gil fostered an actual, genuine smile. Someone had answered. And they weren’t turning him away.

[Tumbra]

Patriotlandia
Saturday

Ted Pressley had arrived at the Ridgeline Raceway on Saturday morning ready for more. He'd been pacy during the sprint race, only ending up a second and a half behind Abdoulaye while keeping the charging Abovian of Janne Laukkanen off his tail for most of the race — even if Laukkanen, who'd kept pace with him and was proving to be extremely difficult to shake off, slipped back a little near the end — and rescued a point from it all.

He felt chipper as he walked into the Ælund garage, wanting to talk to his race engineer Urmo — he'd managed to bung a coffee (milk, two sugars) and donut (glazed) from the engineers' table, and the sugar was helping him feel good — but instead of finding Urmo, he instead ran into Terho, the sporting director. They hadn't chatted much for a while — he was more focused on helping Abdoulaye get up to speed with the team, after what felt like a longer-than-expected adjustment period — but the tension Ted thought had existed between them had largely dissipated. Winning on his second outing would do that, really; now that he'd proven his chops, they were now focused on moving ahead together.

"Hey, Terho," he smiled at the three-time world champion; but instead of the real smile he expected to receive in return, it was more of a mouth-smile. Immediately after the courtesy, the smile faded; and Terho looked like he wanted to say something, but couldn't bring himself to do it.

"Yeah...?" Ted asked, looking at Terho, who seemed now to be pondering something. "Everything alright?"

"Ted, ah..." the Abovian began after a bit. "Have you...seen the news?"

"What news?"

Terho patted his shoulder. "Let's find somewhere to sit down."

---

Hearing the words "Your father died last night" didn't really have the effect he thought it would have on him. Perhaps it was the coffee buzz, perhaps it was the fact that Ted was mentally ready for the race; but days later, when he left Tumbra after the funeral, the feeling crystallised as relief. Of course, there was grief too, particularly when the cherry-wood coffin descended into the grave; but it felt at the end of the day like there was a weight lifted off his shoulder. It didn't matter that his mother told him that Charlie had passed in his sleep, while watching a replay of Ted's win in Doubeia; he didn't have that presence in his life anymore.

To him, that was the most important thing, and while he felt a bit selfish for thinking that, it was his life now.

Terho had offered any support he could, and all Ted said was he wanted a therapist to talk about it when they returned to Aboveland. Of course, there was also the matter of the funeral; he would, of course, be given leave for that, but Ted promised he would focus on the race at hand. They'd made good progress in the sprint race on Friday; if he could just convert it to a high position on the grid again...

"Talk to me if anything, okay?" Terho looked mildly concerned. "I know your relationship with your dad wasn't the best — that's why you're here now — but..."

"Yeah," Ted replied. "It probably won't affect this weekend, if anything."

"I think it might, actually," Terho replied, looking back down at his phone. "Jack Brook from Pressley messaged me. Said a lawyer was looking for you."

"Can't it wait till Monday?"

"No, actually, the lawyer's here."

"Here? Like, here here? Now?"

"Yeah."

"And the briefing?"

"Doesn't matter. This is...really important, apparently." Terho exhaled as he locked his phone. "I told him I'd send you over."

"I don't really wan—"

"Ted, listen to me. When you grow older, you'll eventually learn that you really, really don't want to fuck with lawyers." Another pat on the shoulder. "Just be back by lunch. I'll tell Urmo."

---

The short walk down the rear side of the paddock felt like it took forever. The yellow of Ælund faded, replaced by the auburn of Pryfors Bilar; then, the purple-pink of Pressley. Ted saw a short figure; evidently she'd been anticipating his arrival, because she sprinted up to him and hugged him.

"Ted," murmured Sophie McCreary in a low voice. "It's good to see you. To feel you."

Ted patted Sophie's head. They'd always shared a close relationship; they saw each other as brother and sister, almost. "I'm always in the paddock, Phie. You say that as if I haven't been here..."

"Yeah, but you never came over."

"I'm in a different team now, Phie, in case you didn't realise."

"Fuck off," she laughed. "Congrats on the win, by the way, all the way back — I forgot to send my congrats —"

"Yeah, I appreciate it," he said, now ruffling her hair. "How's the team doing?"

"Apart from that asshole at the top trying to ruin everything, it's fine, I guess? Nini hasn't been scoring points, and I'm really worried for her —"

"You should speak to her," Ted replied without missing a beat. "I think she just needs someone. Like you did. Be that someone. Where's Jack?"

"Up in the motorhome, second floor," she replied, jabbing her thumb in the direction of it. The lawyer arrived a few minutes ago, Jack said he'd messaged Terho —"

"Yeah, that's why I'm here now," he responded, checking his watch. "Hope it won't take too long." Ted disentangled himself from Sophie, who looked a bit disappointed. "Walk with me?"

She nodded gratefully. There were a few seconds of silence as they reached it. "How are you feeling?" she asked as they entered.

"I don't know. Calmer than I thought I'd be." He shrugged. "I'm...not a bad person if I described it as a relief, right?"

Sophie shook her head as they ascended the stairs. "I know what things were like, Ted, I'd...be lying if I didn't say I didn't feel the same way." She sighed. "We can talk more later, if you've got time."

"Yeah," he said as he knocked on the temporary office and opened the door. "See ya."

---

"Jack? It's good to see you," said Ted as he stretched out his arms, happy to see his ex-racing engineer.

"Aye, it is, too," said Jack as he hugged Ted. "I hope you're doing fine."

"I am. Hope this won't take too long, or...be too much," Ted replied, finally acknowledging the presence of the third person in the room. "You're not the usual lawyer the family hires."

"Mr. Pressley — ah, Mr. Charlie — he decided to engage someone more specialised in wills to handle the execution of this particular one," said the lawyer, clad from head to toe in a black suit — looking very out of place in the WGPC paddock. "Mr. Peter Fletcher, Sherman, Halleck, and Grant," he said, extending his hand to Ted, who gripped and shook it.

"I didn't know SHG did this. Thought they were more in for...everything. Not wills."

"I'm just a partner, and we do have a division for this," he smiled kindly in response. "Now, as the legally-appointed executor of the will of Mr. Charlie Pressley, I'm here today to tell you what you stand to get from his will."

"Thought he'd had written me out of it," Ted chuckled. Why was he being like this? This was wholly inappropriate, and inside Ted was screaming at himself to stop it with the wisecracks, but it felt...good to get it off his chest.

"Ah, Ted, don't be like that," said Jack, who was evidently more affected by the passing of Charlie Pressley. He adjusted the black band on his arm slightly. "He loved you right to the very end."

"I'm sure."

Peter sat down behind the office table present in the room, and began reading from a piece of paper. "In accordance to his will, you, Mr. Theodore Edward Danson Pressley, are entitled to sixty-seven percent of the estate of the deceased, one Mr. Charles Ellis Johnson Pressley. This includes all movable and immovable assets, including and limited to cash, assets, both physical and otherwise, stocks and so on, as far as they are divisible. The remaining thirty-three percent goes to your mother, Ms. Mavis Pressley, also known as Liu Man-yu, who has already indicated her acknowledgement of this will. There are a few exceptions, and one in particular which will be of interest to you."

"Like what?"

"Mr. Pressley had specifically dictated that the amount in his primary bank account would be split fifty-fifty."

"You could probably make that 33-67 and I'd be okay. Mom needs the money."

"The will is legally binding."

"Sure. Whatever."

"Mr. Pressley's two primary properties in Tumbra, one in Grantfeldt, and one in Fremont, are bequeathed to Ms. Pressley in their entirety."

"Sure. I don't live in Tumbra anyway."

"In return, Mr. Pressley, you are entitled to most of his stock portfolio, and his entire stake in the ownership of Pressley Racing Engineering."

"Yeah, su—what?"

[Abanhfleft]

Adonis Fitzpatrick had never really known how he should feel whenever it was raining. The rationalist in him said that there was no intrinsic meaning to rain other than the fact that the clouds had decided to precipitate right on the location where he happened to be. The racer in him said that rain was good because rain could shake up the Turorian Grand Prix and throw up an unexpected result or two. The nostalgic part of Donny remembered how the rain reminded him of the times when his father Rolando had tried to force Donny’s sexuality out of him by repeatedly trying to drown him in a drum of water. It seemed strange for Donny to be nostalgic for the times when his father had tried to kill him simply because he was gay, but time tends to do strange things to people and their memories of events. In any case, it was all in the past. There was no use dwelling in it, just like how there was no use in Donny dwelling about the fact that he crashed into a wall and cost himself and HMG a chance to get some points in what was proving to be an interesting race in Turori.

Donny had said in previous interviews that he had begun to develop tunnel vision with regards to getting a fast lap more than navigating the course safely and in one piece. He wasn’t lying though; he really had been more concerned with getting a green or purple sector more than watching where he actually was, and that had undoubtedly cost him the opportunity to take part in the grand prix. But that wasn’t the only reason why he had binned it, if Donny was being honest with himself. There was a new face on the grid, though he wasn’t actually new, as in, he was a rookie. Anyone who was casually familiar with either WGPC or WGP2 would know and should know about Batu Tüvshinbayar. The TJUN-ian was just the champion of the 5th season of WGP2 and a former WGPC driver himself with Scuderia Orange Cow. He was only a former WGPC driver because the team from Baker Park had opted to sit out this season for reasons known only to them, and Batu had found himself sidelined until a spot opened up for him in the Motorworks team.

Donny was happy that Batu had found a way back onto the grid; he really was. But now that he and Batu were in close proximity to each other once again, the question that had been at the back of Adonis’s head had reared its ugly head yet again. What did Dojnny want his relationship with Batu to be? Being friends was good, but did Batu still want to be something more? Did Donny want there to be something more? When they had first talked about it, Donny was still fresh from a breakup, and he hadn’t wanted Batu to feel like he was just a rebound. Batu had understood, or at least he said he understood, and that had been that. But that was how many years ago now? Had Batu moved on from Donny and found someone else? Had Donny moved on from Batu at this point? That was difficult to say. Adonis had still had Batu on his mind more times than he would care to admit. And Donny had asked himself if Batu still liked him at least once a week. That, to Donny at least, seemed to indicate that he hadn’t moved on from the TJUN-ian. But since he hadn’t told anyone about it, no one knew. Sometimes, even Donny didn’t know if he still liked Batu regardless of the amount of times that he kept thinking about the Mongolian.

The rain pelting down on the Eelandii Race Course was almost symbolic of the storm of emotions that Adonis felt within himself as the five red lights grew closer. Now that he was an HMG driver, his allegiance was supposed to be with the Hulkenbergian team, and it was. Nobody could question Donny’s commitment to the team and their cause, especially after he had dragged their machine to a podium at the Crossbay Circuit. Heck, even his teammate Skiia Vialiv had approached him to ask for tips and tricks on how to wrestle her own car into a points-paying position. Donny had done what he could and told her to feel the car and treat it like an extension of her body, but now that the rain was pouring down, he had no idea if his tip was going to have any effect on Skiia’s race at all.

Donny also wanted to support his friend William Archer. William had not had the best of times adapting to Viska after three years in Preston, and Donny was honestly worried for William’s mental health especially after the last few races. Donny knew that William wanted to win the drivers’ championship. Well, yes, everyone who had made it into the WGPC wanted to be a champion, but for William, it had turned into something bordering on an obsession. William challenging for the title against the likes of iBen Toralmintii may have been the best thing to happen to him, but it may also have been the worst. It may have made William believe that he was already a title contender when he maybe should have spent some more time honing his craft before making the plunge. Now, William was nowhere near challenging for the title, not with Preston and definitely not with Viska this season. For his sake, Donny hoped that William could finally score some points, or else Viska might not like what they had invited into their home.

And then of course there was Batu. Donny had to show support for his other friend as well. Adonis was under no obligation to support the Mongolian, but he wanted to do it nonetheless. He felt that that was the least that he could do. Batu’s chances in the race didn’t look too good, but racers didn’t call rain “the great equalizer” for nothing. If there was a time for Batu to prove that the other teams had dropped the ball by not signing him this season then the Turorian Grand Prix was perhaps the best time to do it. If only Donny had three eyes instead of two then he could keep an eye on Skiia, William, and Batu. If only he could be out there and help all of them. If only, if only…

[Aboveland]

Ridgeline Raceway
Vilnay, Foubrac, Patriotlandia

Janne stumbles over his own feet as the sharp noon sun casts shadows of his brows on his eyes. He's trying to catch up with the Tumbran in front of him, throwing a desperate hand at the saggy elbow of his garish Ælund kit. Ted turns back stunned as the fabric snaps back into place; the Abovian stops just short of launching himself into his arms.

"Hey hey, Mr. Stoic," he teases, bringing his shoulder against Ted's to make him lose his balance. A whiff of his cologne finds its way into his nose; its sweet, tangy smell makes his tear ducts well up, half from the strength of it, and half from the neural pathways it fires up in his brain. He gives his elbow a light squeeze for good measure — since Crossbay and his sudden confidence lull, though Ted had been there to console him in Eelandii, they'd been somewhat quiet together. He didn't want to consider the implications why, or whether their drowsy refractory period conversation in his Nimban flat had tugged too far at Ted's locked-away anxieties — the sprint weekend, though more hectic than the others for them to spare their shared moments of dissociation from the rest of the world, had set them up in the fan zone just right.

Ted's expression mellows once he realizes it's Janne that had pulled at his brand new sweatshirt. "Hi," he says — its little in the way of words, as per, but Janne devours the way his grin grows, the budding rooster tails on the corners of his eyes fold into each other, and how his nose points gently upward when he smiles. He doesn't reciprocate the elbow squeeze, instead choosing to knead a bit further down with his tongue between his teeth. "I've missed you a bit."

"You don't have to be modest, Ted," Janne smirks back, his voice fading in the shrieks of the crowd. It's a different vibe to the crowds he's used to in Aboveland and the Wardship: at home, they're rabid, but feel married to the idea of Terho Talvela even more than their fanatism for the WGPC itself. In the Wardship, the fans are there for Nexus, for Ryker, and definitely for himself too, but with an underlying aura of respect and thoughtful admiration that's quite particular to the Nimbans. But here, though, on neutral ground, they're feral: and as he and Ted turn their eyes to the fences that contain the crowds, their gazes cross with the fans', and hang on their pens, their notebooks, their face cutouts, their fan drawings, and even the sun visors from their cars. The more they walk, the more they slow their pace — and the sooner they realize that the eyes are on them. Together.

They approach the fans together but start to part a purity gap between them as they exchange complicit glances: Janne's eyes light up as he picks up the crowd's pleads: they offer their hands, their foreheads, the centers of their chests for signatures and messages, and among the commotion, he hears a portmanteau that chills his spine with... excitement.

"Tednne! Teddne!"

Among the chants, a sticker sheet is thrust right before his eyes: there's a beady eyed caricature of him, his tufty blonde hair perched above his deep blue eyes, drawn glassily and gazing up longingly at a caricature of Ted. They've captured his features well: the dimples of his smile, the shape of his nose, the serious look of his eyes betrayed by the lines around them and the curve of his surprised brows. He takes it with a chuckle and calls out to the Tumbran beside him, who's got his hands deep in the audience and his face smeared with pens and markers; all he can muster back is an undecipherable look of eager surprise, a little bit of overwhelmed shock, and a dose of fear.

[Turori]

Toralmintii Slips from Pole, Hangs on to Sprint Race Podium Finish

Grand Prix de Patriotlandia présenté par ASI Industries – Sprint, Ridgeline Raceway, Vilnay, Foubrac, Patriotlandia :: The anticipation had been building all week. Honestly, it was the perfect distraction for iBen Toralmintii and Race Eelandii VTGP after a difficult rainy sunday at the Grand Prix of Turori. Sure, they under-performed at their home track and failed to find a place on the podium, and it was disappointing. But unlike every other race weekend on the schedule where they would have to pick up, regroup and wait until the next weekend to qualify and set their place on the grid for the next event, the Grand Prix of Turori preceded a special Sprint Race weekend on the World Grand Prix Championship 21 schedule where the starting lineup would be set by points. Shortly after the finish of the Grand Prix of Turori, the points were finalized and the starting lineup for the Patriotlandia Sprint was revealed. iBen Toralmintii would start on pole position.

With the entire team still in Turori, the weekly planning sessions for Race Eelandii VTGP took on an entirely different feel. Everyone was there, and everyone was excited. On Monday, the day after the Grand Prix of Turori, the normal team meeting would have an extensive review of the previous days race. What went right and what went wrong. How the team could learn from it and what they could do differently the next time. But no one was interested in talking about what happened at the Grand Prix of Turori. The team was unified in their desire to look forward. Instead of simply talking about setup, they could already talk strategy. What would they do to keep the #77 car in front at Ridgeline Raceway? What would they change if they were unable to keep the lead on the first lap. How would they adapt in the event of rain? Points in the Grand Prix de Patriotlandia Sprint were greatly reduced from that of a regular feature event, just 8 points on the line for the winner and dropping down a single point from there back to the 8th position. Over two-thirds of the drivers in the field would have no points to show for their 25 laps of effort. Race Eelandii spent three full days planning to ensure they didn't completely blow the opportunity that was handed to them, and they can stay in the points for the Sprint event.

The Grand Prix de Patriotlandia would also be a unique opportunity for iBen Toralmintii to concentrate on racing without as much of the distractions associated with their retirement from World Grand Prix competition. The Ridgeline Raceway was the last circuit on the WGPC Season 21 calendar that Toralmintii had never raced on previously. There would be no film highlighting Toralmintii's prior success at the track, no local sponsors that had previously done local advertising deals with the Turorian to circle up with one final time and no additional obligations. Just the standard WGPO hosted media sessions and the rest of the time was just focused on race preparation and on track action.

While the strategy for iBen Toralmintii was rather simple - don't let anyone pass and win the race, things were a bit more complicated for Cocoabo #23. Having only just earned their first 2 points of the season at the Eelandii Grand Prix Course, Fast Cocoabo did not have enough points accrued to take a position inside the Top 13 in the point standings where the starting lineup inversion zone was for the Sprint Race. Instead, Cocoabo #23 would be starting from their points position: 19th, needing to improve by 11 positions just to earn a single point. Having at times averaged a +11 Positions over Grid during World Grand Prix Championship Season 20, it would seem like something that could be achieved but thus far in WGPC Season 21, Cocoabo #23 was not only not averaging +11 positions over grid per race, but quite the opposite. After dropping 7 positions from their second place starting position at the Grand Prix of Turori, "Fast" Cocoabo was on an average of -4 positions lost in each Grand Prix having only improved against their starting position on a single occasion during Round 2 in Doubeia. Of course, the Doubinese Grand Prix was held at the Queensland Street Circuit, one of the most difficult to pass at on the WGPC calendar. By contrast, Ridgeline Raceway was projected to be on the easier side, potentially opening up the opportunity for Cocoabo #23 to make some moves and attempt to climb their way forward toward the points.

After Mondays team meetings in Eelandii, some of the crew got the day off to spend with friends and family before heading to Patriotlandia. Cocoabo #23 made a stop in at Cocoabo Park to do an appearance and do some comparison driving with some of the trainee Cocoabo at the Cocoabo Park Circuit. From there, everyone would begin making their way to Patriotlandia....

.. As the crews and media began to disperse, it was time to strap in one more time and warm up the cars for the formation lap. iBen Toralmintii led the field around and had one final look at the track condition at moderate speed. Toralmintii settled the #77 car into the pole position spot on the grid and awaited the lights ..

.. With three laps to go in the Patriotlandia Sprint, iBen Toralmintii was just trying to hold on. Whatever he had driven over early in the race had done its damage and the leaders were off into the sunset. The Turorian still had a chance to finish on the Podium and he wasn't going to let it go. Behind him was HMG Grand Prix driver Adonis Fitzpatrick who was especially motivated to maintain their good finish after failing to qualify for the Grand Prix of Turori.

A little deeper in the field, an exciting battle was taking place between 'Fast' Cocoabo #23 and Ron Sommer, the Viska Racing driver. Cocoabo #23 had passed HITEN.gpt rookie driver Hanna Berezowska a number of laps before but was stuck behind Sommer as they pressed to break into the Top 10. Finally, after a great launch off Turn 3 and some momentum through the uphill, 'Fast' Cocoabo had the position and made it stuck, passing Ron Sommer into Turn 5 and then finalizing the move with precision movements through the Slaloms. It was a relief for the Cocoabo to make their way into the Top 10 from a 19th starting position, but, in the Sprint Race it still wasn't enough. Only the Top 8 positions paid points and with only two laps to go, there was no more time to advanced. While it would be a second consecutive Top 10 finish and a welcome improvement in form for the team, they would walk away with little to show for it other than some setup notes that they could use as the race weekend continues in Patriotlandia Saturday and Sunday.

As for iBen Toralmintii, the Turorian would nurse the #77 car home in 3rd position, finally landing on the podium that many had expected them to one week prior. Similar to the situation at the end of the Grand Prix of Turori, finishing solidly in the points was a welcome adjustment for Toralmintii and the whole Race Eelandii team - yet they still felt they left something on the table, missing a chance to take the checkered flag. Regardless, even before the halfway point in World Grand Prix Championship Season 21, iBen Toralmintii had now surpassed their points total from the prior season. While that many not have been a high bar to cross, it still showed the progress the team was making. More evidently, iBen Toralmintii was one of just two drivers on the World Grand Prix Championship grid who had improved their finishing position in each of the first 5 races of the season, with the only other driver who has also accomplished the feat being Urotovsky-Gatutin driver Vincent Von Visp. If the duo will further extend their streak of improving their finishing position onward to the Grand Prix de Patriotlandia présenté par ASI Industries then the only positions left for them to finish would be 1st and 2nd. First, however, they would have to hit the reset button after the Sprint and start fresh with a Traditional pole qualifying session on Saturday.

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Grand Prix de Patriotlandia présenté par ASI Industries – Sprint, Ridgeline Raceway, Vilnay, Foubrac, Patriotlandia :: At the beginning of the season when Piers Ivchenko was forming in the 11th hour before the start of the World Grand Prix Championship season, if you had told the team that they were going to have their two drivers finish 11th and 13th in the 4th race of the season, they almost certainly would have happily committed to such an outcome expecting that it would show progress for their team and likely be the teams best outing of the season. However, nothing could be further from the truth. After back-to-back podium finishes in the Dubinese Grand Prix and the Nimban Grand Prix, Piers Ivchenko rolled into the Eelandii Grand Prix Course with a massive aire of confidence. Not only had their driver, R.L. Cruisin, just put the team into victory lane for the first time in their history, but now they were coming to race at a circuit that Cruisin had won not one but twice at in the past - one of two tracks that the veteran driver has accomplished the feat at. While 11th and 13th may have sounded great at the beginning of the season, this was a new attitude for Piers Ivchenko. The thought process was no longer just about solid finishes - nor was it even just about scoring points. Following the Nimban Grand Prix, a new phrase entered the lexicon: Championship Contenders.

While still considered a Dark Horse bid based on past performances and the inexperience at the World Grand Prix Championship level of the Piers Ivchenko team, there was no denying the possibilities when Cruisin rolled out of Eelandii with a deficit that stood just 8 points behind the drivers standings leaders Janne Laukkanen of Nexus Racing. While things would be a little more complicated in the Constructors Standings, Piers Ivchenko were still sitting in a fine position as Best-of-the-Rest as the team were currently placed third of fifteen teams on the grid.

Cruisin would start the Grand Prix of Turori in 9th position and was well aware of the opportunity that sat in front of them. 8 Cars. Thats all that was in front of them. 8 Cars. Pass those 8 cars, win the race. For the third time. Very few races on the World Grand Prix Championship calendar either past or present have been won by a single driver on multiple occasions. Even one of the winningest drivers in the history of the World Grand Prix Championships - iBen Toralmintii - has never won two Grands Prix on the same circuit. Yet here was R.L. Cruisin with not one but two chances to win a third Grand Prix at a specific circuit, the first opportunity coming at the Eelandii Grand Prix Course.

Unfortunately for Cruisin, there was an external factor at play. The Weather. While Brimstone tyres had been highly succesful in the dry conditions on the NSSCRA Multiversal Cup Series, the technology team had to work overtime to develop and 'virtually test' a wet variant for the 21st World Grand Prix Championship season through a mixture of on track and simulation evaluation. The drivers of the Piercs Ivchenko, Preston Autos, Cygnus and HiTEN.gpt machines would soon learn that there may have been a bit of a speed difference over distance in the Wet between the Brimstone tyre and the rest of the more proven tyres on the grid from Tropicorp, Phoenician/In-Motion and Solymok. Only one Brimstone driver would see a sizable improvement form their starting position at the Eelandii Grand Prix Course. It was R.L. Cruisin's Piers Ivchenko teammate Nik Hazrin Lutfi who would finish in the 11th position for the second time this season to once again narrowly miss out on a Top 10 finish. Though they already have a single point from earlier in the season, the Sharktail driver is still fighting hard to get that Top 10 finish. For Cruisin, the grip simply wasn't there particularly when the tyres got a little dirty and the track was no longer pristine. From their 9th position, Cruisin would drop down four spots to the 13th position just out of the points. In fact, it wasn't just Cruisin and Lutfi who finished out of the points, but instead it was every single Brimstone driver who dropped out below the Top 10 to finish the entire Turorian Grand Prix Weekend without a single point to show for it.

With Ted Pressley having failed to finish in Turori, just one driver was left who had finished in the points in every single race: The Abovian Janne Laukkanen. The format for the Patriotlandia Sprint would put all of that in jeopardy with the current WGPC points leader starting in the 13th position and having to climb up through into the Top 8 to not be shut out. By virtue of the standings, R.L. Cruisin would start the race in 11th position needing to move up at least 3 spots to find their way into the points. Cruisin would do that and then some. As the Brimstone rubber melded with the track, Cruisin set sale progressing up all the way into the 5th position before they came up behind the HMG Grand Prix machine of Adonis Fitzpatrick. There was no getting around Donny late in the Patriotlandia sprint. Ultimately, the paddock area was thrilled with the 5th place finish particularly considering where they had started the race. Critically, it closed the difference at the top where Janne Laukkenen still leads the Driver Standings leader but R.L. Cruisin is back to within just five points at the top. As one of the top improving drivers on course in the Patriotlandia Sprint, Piers Ivchenko and R.L. Cruisin will look to continue their momentum as part of the upcoming exercises and Regular Race in Patriotlandia with even more points on the way if they can manage to secure a strong starting position for Sundays Grand Prix.



R.L. Cruisin ✓

@Cruisin

Our tyres struggled just a little last week, but in the Dry Conditions at the Ridgeline Raceway the tyres were absolutely flawless. Nik and I were able to push them to their absolute limits and we were both able to improve or finishing position over the start. Its our third Top 5 finish of the season which is a big deal for a small team like ours. Now that we've done the work and got the setup where we wamt it, I'm hoping we have a strong qualifying run and set ourselves up once more to challenge for another Top 10 finish.

#WGPC : #PiersIvchenko : #RidgelineRaceway

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