World Grand Prix Championship 21 [RP/results]

by **Liventia** » Sun Apr 06, 2025 2:31 pm

CUTOFF

for the Ajian Grand Prix presented by Aji Air at Serizawa Racing Circuit

by **Liventia** » Sun Apr 06, 2025 2:40 pm

Week 11: Race

Conditions:      	Dry
Laps:              	70
Nation:         	ANM
Circuit:        	Serizawa Racing Circuit
Event:                	Ajian Grand Prix presented by Aji Air
Safety Car on Laps:	34, 35, 36
Cars on Grid:        	30

Start               	POS  # ▍DRV Name                                         Team                                     	Time        	Pts	Fastest Lap	
 1 ▍VIA            	  1 51 ▍CRU R.L. Cruisin                                 Piers Ivchenko                               	01:45:09.419	25		
 2 ▍ANG            	  2 94 ▍LAN Ryker Lane                                   Nexus Racing                                 	00:00:08.044	18		
 3 ▍HAU            	  3 84 ▍ANG Angela Stella Tan Fang Ling                  Preston Autos                                	00:00:10.161	14		
 4 ▍GTA            	  4 89 ▍GTA Abdoulaye Goita                              Ælund Grand Prix                             	00:00:52.004	11		
 5 ▍FTZ            	  5 27 ▍NÜL Dario Nülkeschlager                          Pressley Racing                              	00:01:00.563	8 + 1	1:21.140	
 6 ▍CRU            	  6 96 ▍ARC William Archer                               Viska                                        	00:01:04.527	6		
 7 ▍KIN            	  7 14 ▍VIA Skiia Vialiv                                 HMG Grand Prix                               	00:01:21.435	4		
 8 ▍PRE            	  8 22 ▍JOH Nini Johnsilvaturr                           Pressley Racing                              	00:01:24.527	3		
 9 ▍NÜL            	  9 91 ▍KAL Naveen Kalkar                                WGPC Motorworks                              	Ret. lap 70*	2	
10 ▍LAU            	 10 17 ▍LAU Janne Laukkanen                              Nexus Racing                                 	Laps Down: 1	1		
11 ▍TUV            	 11 85 ▍STO Olivia Stone                                 Cygnus                                       	Laps Down: 1		
12 ▍ARC            	 12 33 ▍BLA Sam Blaatschapen                             Pryfors Bilar                                	Laps Down: 1			
13 ▍HAZ            	 13 58 ▍KAM Shuhei Kamado                                KISMO                                        	Laps Down: 1			
14 ▍C23            	 14 12 ▍SOM Ron Sommer                                   Viska                                        	Laps Down: 1			
15 ▍SOM            	 15  1 ▍FAE Brendan Faloe                                Cygnus                                       	Laps Down: 1			
16 ▍BLA            	 16 21 ▍HAZ Nik Hazrin Lutfi                             Piers Ivchenko                               	Laps Down: 1			
17 ▍BZW            	 17 74 ▍FTZ Adonis Fitzpatrick                           HMG Grand Prix                               	Laps Down: 1			
18 ▍LNG            	 18 95 ▍BZW Hanna Berezowska                             HiTEN.gpt                                    	Laps Down: 1			
19 ▍TII            	 19 77 ▍TII iBen Toralmintii                             Race Eelandii VTGP                           	Laps Down: 1			
20 ▍JOH            	 20 82 ▍LMN Kinu Luminna                                 Preston Autos                                	Laps Down: 1			
21 ▍RAH            	 21  9 ▍TUV Batu Tüvshinbayar                            WGPC Motorworks                              	Laps Down: 1			
26 ▍STO            	 22 55 ▍LNG Gil Langdon                                  KISMO                                        	Laps Down: 1				
22 ▍LAN            	 23 63 ▍KIN Nepö Kinder                                  Urotovsky-Gatutin                            	Laps Down: 2			
23 ▍KAM            	 24 23 ▍C23 Cocoabo #23                                  Race Eelandii VTGP                           	Laps Down: 2			
24 ▍PLA            	 25 13 ▍PLA Pierre-Louis Archer                          WGPC Motorworks                              	Laps Down: 2			
25 ▍LMN            	 26 18 ▍RAH Giancarlo Rahel                              WGPC Motorworks                              	Laps Down: 3			
27 ▍FAE            	DNF 88 ▍PRE Ted Pressley                                 Ælund Grand Prix                             	Ret. lap 62			
28 ▍KAL            	DNF 37 ▍HAU Laura Haukanna                               Pryfors Bilar                                	Ret. lap 33			

*Classified finish (90% of race distance = 63 laps)

Drivers' standings

Pos # ▍DRV Name                                          Team [Engine]                                                                                Tyres                                        Pts
 1 51 ▍CRU R.L. Cruisin                                  Piers Ivchenko [UrGa Zh-S-1000]                                                              Brimstone                                    68
 2 27 ▍NÜL Dario Nülkeschlager                           Pressley Racing [Tropicorp TRE-2T24V8]                                                       Tropicorp Racing Supply                      62
 3 17 ▍LAU Janne Laukkanen                               Nexus Racing [Nexus Racing Paragon Warp]                                                     Phoenician-In Motion                         54
 3 88 ▍PRE Ted Pressley                                  Ælund Grand Prix [Ælund CMYK-T20V8H]                                                         Tropicorp Racing Supply                      54
 5 94 ▍LAN Ryker Lane                                    Nexus Racing [Nexus Racing Paragon Warp]                                                     Phoenician-In Motion                         51
 6 89 ▍GTA Abdoulaye Goita                               Ælund Grand Prix [Ælund CMYK-T20V8H]                                                         Tropicorp Racing Supply                      47
 7 12 ▍SOM Ron Sommer                                    Viska [Viska RG Motors]                                                                      Phoenician-In Motion                         39
 8 37 ▍HAU Laura Haukanna                                Pryfors Bilar [Pryfors Bilar]                                                                Phoenician-In Motion                         38
 9 66 ▍VVV Vincent Von Visp                              Urotovsky-Gatutin [UrGa Zh-S-1000]                                                           Solymok                                      26
10 55 ▍LNG Gil Langdon                                   KISMO [Kissan Motors KS.APEX-01]                                                             Solymok                                      24
11 63 ▍KIN Nepö Kinder                                   Urotovsky-Gatutin [UrGa Zh-S-1000]                                                           Solymok                                      23
11 74 ▍FTZ Adonis Fitzpatrick                            HMG Grand Prix [Preston Autos Skychief V6]                                                   Tropicorp Racing Supply                      23
13  1 ▍FAE Brendan Faloe                                 Cygnus [Sturmburgher PD02/25]                                                                Brimstone                                    20
14 84 ▍ANG Angela Stella Tan Fang Ling                   Preston Autos [Preston Autos Skychief V6]                                                    Brimstone                                    15
15 77 ▍TII iBen Toralmintii                              Race Eelandii VTGP [Tropicorp TRE-2T24V8]                                                    Tropicorp Racing Supply                      14
16 23 ▍C23 Cocoabo #23                                   Race Eelandii VTGP [Tropicorp TRE-2T24V8]                                                    Tropicorp Racing Supply                      13
17 82 ▍LMN Kinu Luminna                                  Preston Autos [Preston Autos Skychief V6]                                                    Brimstone                                    12
18 14 ▍VIA Skiia Vialiv                                  HMG Grand Prix [Preston Autos Skychief V6]                                                   Tropicorp Racing Supply                      10
19 96 ▍ARC William Archer                                Viska [Viska RG Motors]                                                                      Phoenician-In Motion                         9
20 95 ▍BZW Hanna Berezowska                              HiTEN.gpt [Franklin WGP-X2]                                                                  Brimstone                                    8
21 85 ▍STO Olivia Stone                                  Cygnus [Sturmburgher PD02/25]                                                                Brimstone                                    6
22 58 ▍KAM Shuhei Kamado                                 KISMO [Kissan Motors KS.APEX-01]                                                             Solymok                                      4
22 30 ▍MAR Otto Markul                                   WGPC Motorworks [Franklin WGP-X2]                                                            Blue Sulphurate                              4
24 22 ▍JOH Nini Johnsilvaturr                            Pressley Racing [Tropicorp TRE-2T24V8]                                                       Tropicorp Racing Supply                      3
25 91 ▍KAL Naveen Kalkar                                 WGPC Motorworks [Franklin WGP-X2]                                                            Blue Sulphurate                              2
26 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                         105
  2 ABL ▍Ælund Grand Prix [Ælund CMYK-T20V8H]                                                         Tropicorp Racing Supply                      101
  3 DOU ▍Piers Ivchenko [UrGa Zh-S-1000]                                                              Brimstone                                    69
  4 TMB ▍Pressley Racing [Tropicorp TRE-2T24V8]                                                       Tropicorp Racing Supply                      65
  5 PDN ▍Urotovsky-Gatutin [UrGa Zh-S-1000]                                                           Solymok                                      49
  6 AUR ▍Viska [Viska RG Motors]                                                                      Phoenician-In Motion                         48
  7 DCS ▍Pryfors Bilar [Pryfors Bilar]                                                                Phoenician-In Motion                         38
  8 HÜL ▍HMG Grand Prix [Preston Autos Skychief V6]                                                   Tropicorp Racing Supply                      33
  9 ANM ▍KISMO [Kissan Motors KS.APEX-01]                                                             Solymok                                      28
 10 HVZ ▍Preston Autos [Preston Autos Skychief V6]                                                    Brimstone                                    27
 11 V&T ▍Race Eelandii VTGP [Tropicorp TRE-2T24V8]                                                    Tropicorp Racing Supply                      27
 12 ESM ▍Cygnus [Sturmburgher PD02/25]                                                                Brimstone                                    26
 13 HDR ▍HiTEN.gpt [Franklin WGP-X2]                                                                  Brimstone                                    8
 14 WGP ▍WGPC Motorworks [Franklin WGP-X2]                                                            Blue Sulphurate                              6
 15 LIS ▍Eminent [Sidus 616W-1]                                                                       Blue Sulphurate                              0

by **Ile Saint-Joseph** » Tue Apr 08, 2025 2:17 am

Bienvenue à l'Île Saint-Joseph!

[Thank you to Crpostran for the WGPC 21 logo!]

This week, for the first time, the Grand Prix d'Île Saint-Joseph will be held as a full-fledged WGPC championship race. Although the history of the Grand Prix here is much older, the WGPO has come to Île Saint-Joseph only twice before. First, during the third season of WGP2, and the next year, as a non-championship race on the WGPC 18 calendar. Now, after years of anticipation, the Grand Prix d'Île Saint-Joseph takes its place in the WGP Championship.

Of course, the Grand Prix here has a long history, albeit largely unknown outside the local sphere. Throughout the entirety of that history, it has been tightly linked to the Circuit d'Arès, although the latter has seen some changes, particularly recently.

But before we talk about the circuit, perhaps the nation of Île Saint-Joseph needs an introduction of its own, and yes, if you're looking at a map, that is the whole country. Just off the coast of Normandy, the microstate is entirely located on its eponymous island, which is less than half a square kilometer. The island, 750 meters off the coast of France, is connected by a causeway that disappears at high tide, meaning the town is only accessible by land only for about ten hours every day. Since the middle ages, Île Saint-Joseph has been self-governing; originally the land was ceded by the King of France to an order of monks, who then held jurisdiction over the island themselves, but when the abbey began to struggle to make ends meet, it sold off parcels of the island until it retained only a small portion and a town had sprung up around it. This unique history meant no obligation to any external powers, and a unique system of government within Île Saint-Joseph itself.

Most of the inhabitants of the island were fishermen, and their descendants would continue to ply that same trade for most of the new nation's history, but some established themselves as sailing merchants who would voyage abroad and return with supplies necessary for the town's growth. And grow it did, as the goods the merchants brought back contributed to its prosperity and the alms from the many pilgrims who journeyed to the abbey filled its coffers. But in the nineteenth century for the first time, the island began to turn to tourism as a key part of its economy. It was by building on this history that Pierre Garibouds, Île Saint-Joseph's most famous businessman, was able to make his fortune by expanding one of the old casinos.

It was in the same spirit that the Circuit d'Arès was created in the early 1920's by a couple members of the town's échevins, or bourgeois ruling class, who had nothing better to do with their time or money. The race as it was conceived was entirely took place entirely on the island and did not traverse the causeway across the border into France. This meant it was quite short, and that to make an actual circuit through the streets of the town, it was necessary to pave over one of the old medieval streets which had always been flagged with shallow stone steps, a process that would give part of the circuit—marches—its name.

The race's potential was soon realized and it was rebranded as a Grand Prix as the organizing committee began to invite drivers of a higher and higher caliber. At the same time, the circuit was expanded via an agreement with the island's one neighbor, France, allowing the race to cross the causeway onto the mainland, adding some more distance to make the race more respectable. This development led to the three unique qualities of the Grand Prix d'Île Saint-Joseph: it was international, crossing the border between France and Île Saint-Joseph once in each direction over the course of one lap; it was a hybrid street circuit/race circuit combination, with the older, permanent half of the circuit located within the town of Île Saint-Joseph, while expressly built facilities were temporarily erected on the French side for the duration of the Grand Prix week each year; and the circuit was, for lack of a better term, amphibious—the causeway still disappeared underwater twice a day for six hours at a time. The same expansion onto the mainland gave the circuit the arrow shape from which it derived its name; looking at a map with North pointing to the bottom, the outline of the track vaguely resembles the elemental symbol of the planet Mars.

The Grands Prix here through the years, then, have had a certain inimitable quality and a strong local flavor. Fishermen still come out in their boats to watch the cars race past on the causeway (although they are increasingly joined by pleasure yachts). In fact, the entire island settles down for a week to enjoy the festivities. No one can do much else, after all; the causeway and most of the roads are closed. The circuit's unique appeal has done a wonderful job of attracting fans and racers to compete in the Grand Prix, but in the past few years the race's organizing committee has decided that the Grand Prix's sights are set higher than just local competition. Therefore preparations were made to bring the Circuit d'Arès to a level that would be acceptable for WGPC competition.

The most obvious, most visible change, has been the inclusion of the new waterproof cover on the tidal causeway. The causeway may look like the most dangerous part of the race; after all, it is the fastest section and the cars are flying along right next to a drop right into the ocean. But there are no turns on the causeway: it is merely a flat-out straight. A few decades ago the race organizing committee finally put up barriers along the edges of the causeway, in addition to the one that had always been there down the middle, to prevent cars from plummeting into the sea, although this had only happened once in the race's history. Now, as part of the circuit modernization for WGPO eligibility, the race organizing committee put in place a retractable cover over the causeway to keep it dry while underwater. Historically this had never been a problem, but as the circuit chased down WGPO licensing, it was determined necessary to anticipate any objection that might be raised. The new mechanism has proved a success, and the circuit has now been a part of the World Grand Prix Organization since WGP2 3.

Lap Summary

The starting grid lines up in the middle of the causeway. The start/finish line is in fact an international border; it being impossible to fit a Grand Prix track on the island, the track extends across the causeway into France, where the pit lane and grandstands are. With more space on the mainland, that part of the track was designed to be a racing circuit and doesn’t have the restrictions of the street circuit on the other side. More of the facilities on the French side, then, can be left permanently in place, although the road from the island does need to make its way through that general area.

A lap around the track finds the cars starting in the middle of the water, where as mentioned, many spectators come out on boats to get a nice view of the finish line and enjoy the day on the water, assuming the weather is nice enough here in often-rainy Normandy. Many of the turns in the street circuit are blind, thanks to the buildings in the way, and the first is no exception. As the cars pass through the city gate they turn to the right at La Herse, named for the now-unused portcullis under which they have just driven. Another aspect of the Circuit d’Arès is its elevation changes, and that is first encountered here, as the track begins to climb as it winds its way up Île Saint-Joseph’s main road toward the center of town. This gently curving section is taken at full speed but has no constant radius—the whole thing is usually referred to as the Change-Monnaie turn although it’s more accurately three slight corners and two small straights.

Next, the circuit bends away in the other direction, and from a driver’s point of view, disappears over a crest. Drivers can, however, see corners coming up thanks to the position of the adjacent buildings. The track winds its way down a sharply descending, hairpin-studded section to a straight along the harbor mouth. Having reached the quays, the circuit then climbs once more, arriving at its highest point—also the island’s—in the square in front of St. Joseph’s Basilica. The circuit has entered its second sector at this point, just in front of the town hall, and the second sector is dominated by fast straightaways with sharp corners, unlike the twisty first sector.

The first of these straights to begin to descend again runs from Tanneur to Falaise corners, and is just barely sloped downward as it runs past the abbey. Falaise is the most dangerous corner in the race; right at the top of a cliff, there is no space for a runoff zone, only a wall—and on the other side, a sheer drop down to the rocks and waves below. The track turns along the top of the cliff to the left, where it sweeps downward back toward the city gate. Then another sharp corner, Marches, the steepest part of the track. Turn 22, which is only the slightest of kinks, is taken at full speed, and the drivers find themselves on the causeway again, the fastest section of the track.

Having crossed the border into France by the time they reach Frontière, the cars arrive on the purpose-built section of the track in sector three. The third sector is one big bend and a few sharp turns after some more long full-speed straights, and is lined with grandstands. The pit lane is here, the only place there was space for it. Access roads connect the back of the paddocks with a gate in the track at the beginning of the causeway so teams can access the starting grid. The gate opens onto the track at Dernier, the last turn of the circuit before the cars pull away again onto the causeway and on to their next lap.

Grand Prix Week Scheduling

The Grand Prix d'Île Saint-Joseph always has an incredibly tight schedule, due to the race organizing committee's obligation to work around tide patterns. This year is no exception. There is little time to hold any events on the full circuit as whenever the entire circuit is available, it is in use by the Grand Prix, with a few exceptions to allow spectators and staff to cross over to the island. Here are some important times to know. A full schedule can be found at www.grandprix.sj/schedule

All times in local time (UTC +2)

Friday, April 11:
Causeway open for overland island access: 0:00—3:55
Low tide: 1:49 h
Practice: 13:30—14:45
Low tide: 14:12 h
Saturday, April 12:
Causeway open for overland island access: 0:30—4:25
Low tide: 2:25 h
Qualifying: 14:00—15:30
Low tide: 14:46 h
Causeway open for overland island access: 15:45—16:55
Sunday, April 13:
Causeway open for overland island access: 1:00—4:55
Low tide: 2:58 h
Race Start: 14:00
Low tide: 15:16 h
Podium ceremony at the mairie after race.
Causeway open after race.

by **Diarcesia** » Tue Apr 08, 2025 2:33 pm

PB Suspension Failure Dashes Hopes for Ajian Grand Prix Victory

SERIZAWA, AJI NO MOTO — Laura Haukanna, racing for the Diarcesian team Pryfors Bilar, was forced to retire on Lap 33 after a progressive deterioration of the front suspension sent her to a spin off-track. The car's core structure was intact and Miss Haukanna was uninjured, but the scattering of broken parts left in the PF-3 chassis's wake triggered a safety car. The hopeful team ended its race in a low note after Sam Blaatschapen failed to score any point.

"Very unfortunate, but this is not the end. The drivers' championship fight continues to be open," Team Principal Aldauren Ginintella commented on the matter.

Post-race analysis traced Haukanna's misfortune to a contact event while battling Ælund Grand Prix's Abdoulaye Goita on Lap Five. While side-by-side in the Complex, her sidepod and Goita's wheels momentarily touched. At the time, the pitwall identified no significant adverse effects and Haukanna raced as usual.

By laps 25-30, telemetry ACTO acquired and radio communications revealed that stresses in the front suspension were reaching concerning levels. The race-ending moment occurred just as Haukanna was about to pit to potentially rectify the problem. However, even if it did, it was very unlikely that she could finish in the points with the degraded pace caused by the suboptimal aerodynamics.

Overall, Pryfors Bilar produced results despite the mishap thanks to Haukanna's seven points earned during the sprint race. The team will move on to prepare for the Grand Prix d'Île Saint-Joseph and attempt to keep the Aurun driver in contention for the Drivers' Championship.

Article by: Periander Brontony
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by **Aboveland** » Wed Apr 09, 2025 8:10 pm

Nexus Racing garage
Serizawa Racing Circuit
Serizawa, Aji no Moto

Ryker smiles sadly. “I’m honoured, Janne, but I'm not certain I should be leading by example here.”

Janne's heart sinks. He's never seen this look on Ryker's face before — and it might have been violently impertinent to have one of the first times he's come up to the Nimban to talk anything other than race strategy and tyre choice be such an intercontinental ballistic bombshell. He backtracks apologetically with his palms toggling between outstretched and pressed together.

"No, no, it's okay," Ryker reassures. "It’s been a long, long time since that first season." His gaze falls briefly onto the distance as his hands fall to either side of him, then pulls up a nearby stool to perch onto. His hands clamp together; Janne sits opposite him on a stack of tyreless rims as the Nimban tries to find the words stuck between his teeth. "Maria..." A look floats on his irises - regret, but not for himself. “The title fight wouldn't have been the same without her, but I don’t know how good it all was for her. Or me, honestly.”

Janne blinks. “The title fight?”

“No, I came out mostly okay, in the end…” Ryker considers, then shakes his head. “No, me for her. To be blunt, I let myself be blinded - she was struggling, I was starstruck by her and saw an opportunity to help and she… She wasn’t in a place where she could accept that wholeheartedly - her history, the people she was surrounded by, and the pressure on top of that, it was all…” He grimaces. “And I was too optimistic and too attracted to her, and frankly too sheltered, to see or acknowledge it. I pushed too hard, it blew up in both our faces and I haven’t seen her since.”

“I think I’ve learned from it. I kept going, and I hope Maria’s been able to as well. Just… Talk, of course, and try to make sure he’s okay with what you want and hope for him, and that you’re okay with what he wants and hopes for you.” Ryker smiles again. “If you can do that, you’ll be doing a better job than I did back then.”

Ælund Grand Prix pitwall

"Box box, Ted."

Urmo's crunchy English falls on his Tumbran driver's compliant ears. The air in the garage buzzes madly with an ominous stillness — though Terho is submerged in the bean-counting strategy in camp Goita, where they've managed to put the Reçuecian out in front of Nülkeschlager on his last stop, he's captivated by the crunch time in the adjacent booth. It's been the story swarming the broadcast for most of the race, as well: the cameras locked in on the chase between a trailing Ted and a leading Janne, onboards toggling every other lap, with every lunge, every slipstream, and every swerve taking center stage.

The strategists decided to pull Ted out from the battle for virtual third in an attempt to undercut the Abovian; the Chase Cutter, as expected, has been unmatchable in sector three, but the AGP chassis — and even the hybrid power unit — have been sublime everywhere else. Edvin had been adamant with Urmo for him to be adamant with Ted: no heroics into the Bird's Beak, especially not against a Chase Cutter with their 'plasma force field shit', as Urmo understood it, and the Tumbran has so far complied — even if it means he's been chewing through his tyres while bearing down on Janne's ass. As soon as Urmo orders the stop, the row of heads hunched over the screens in the booth turn to face the pit entry in sequence.

The nosecone that leads into the pit-road gloats with its cyan shimmer, to a choir of muted groans in the Ælund paddock. Following closely behind, the yellow nosecone of their namesake. The Abovian drones past the garage in a blue blur, evaporating just as Ted thrusts his AGP into the pit box. The crew is flawless, and the fresh Sifakas squeal off the concrete no sooner they'd dropped onto the ground. As the V8 burbles outs its orange-shimmering backside, he inches closer to the Nimban pit-box. The robots try their absolute best: it's an engineering symphony to watch the Chase Cutter just about gravitate off the ground with the machines swirling around it, but there's only so much Imagination could do to defeat the realm of reality.

Janne's car drops onto the concrete just as Ted's reaches his pit box a few meters from the stoplight — the In Motion tyres screech off the line as the Abovian lurches to run alongside the Tumbran out of the pit lane, but it's the cyan-clad man who has to concede once the grass on the edge of the circuit rears its threatening head. The groans behind Terho turn to whoops and bangs on tables and the flimsy garage dividing walls. "What a stop, guys," Ted pants through the radio, audible through the muffled cans on Urmo's ears.

Chase Cutter #17

"Motherfucker," Janne spits into his visor; he's holding a worsening slide off towards turn one as the row of tyres on his right scatter dirt and grass and wringed ants onto the pit exit road. On the other end, Max is silent. Outsmarted by Ælund is hardly the worst of fates, but it stings that it's worked out probably exactly as they had planned — even worse with two championships bursting at their seams.

With the both of them on aggressive strategies, the door swings wide open for a grand finale, and to Janne's favor, it's him that's been documenting each and every lunge that the Tumbran has failed pathetically to cement throughout the prior twenty laps. Commendably — he lets himself linger on the thought before turn two — the Tumbran had tried every trick in the proverbial book and not once lost his temper, even knowing how Janne tends to defend, predicting his defensve swerves into the kinks, and with the full bearing knowledge of the fact that it had been nobody other than him in front. He's exhausted and revealed all his moves while pouncing from behind; it makes Janne's life easier now that it's his turn to strike.

On the outlap, though, Ted nearly disappears into the distance. He'd already stumbled behind with the nibble on the grass on pit exit, but he struggles to get the power down for longer than the Tumbran in the Sifaka-clad Ælund. It's simple physics: eight tyres take longer to heat up than four, no matter how obscenely they gush with Imagination or how heavy the chassis bears on the rubber over the faster corners. Once the heats wears into the tread, though, his Chase Cutter lights up, and the gap ahead begins to whittle down. A growing heat pools in Janne's chest with every green delta time on his HUD — the hunger for the podium burns weaker than the objective need to trounce Ted. His radio blips to life as the Ælund Grand Prix text on Ted's rear wing materializes."Nine laps to go — tyres will hold."

He edges closer through the turn one kink, just about able to jut his nose down the inside to hold it down towards turn two, but he's in too hot to lunge and actually make the corner. The Tumbran is wiser than his emotional intelligence suggests: he covers his inside and stops Janne dead in his tracks; he vanishes down to turn three for an instant, as the Abovian claws back the time with a short spurt of DRS, but into turn three, and the complex that follows, the AGP is impossible to catch. Ted dances around the circuit through turns four, five, six and seven; Janne moans as he wrangles his barge through the Serizawa Complex, and again as he hardly makes the hairpin at turn seven. The Tumbran nearly escapes the DRS gap by the time Janne follows into turn nine and down the main straight.

"Smooth, Janne," Max reminds, but Janne bites his tongue as the Chase Cutter wafts over the tarmac. By now the ungainly quirks at the wheel of the latest gray spaceship have become almost second nature to Janne — for lack of a development fix to mend the dice-roll balance around the slower stuff — but he's on the verge of offering Max a test drive if he reminds him of the obvious again. "Copy," he ultimately replies, slamming hard on the brakes as the rear wing text ahead comes back into view. He gains precious tenths on entry into the corner, Ted perhaps believing that he'd escaped his jaws, and follows obediently down towards the Kismo Complex as the Tumbran suffers another blight of oversteer on exit. If Janne could salvage some time in sector two, he could make a move stick into the Widow's Peak.

Though the final two corners of the lap stifle his progress again, he's closer on Ted's tail into the first kink. The silver bullet hunkers down over the apex and settles into turn two; his nosecone sniffs at the Tumbran's diffuser, but he's gone in too deep, and the rear wing splattered in yellow and magenta rockets solidly out towards turn three. This time, on braking, Janne wrestles the wheel into the apex. He slides on all eight wheels; with a dash of countersteer, he's held on by turn four, and drops a tenth out through five. He's equally violent through turn six, and into seven, he's tangoing with the Chase Cutter. His inputs unsettle the rear which tries desperately to right itself, unsettling again with another tweak of the yoke and a harsh pump on the brakes. It looks slow but spectacular from the outside — a still incomprehensible driving philosophy, even after proving the marriage between the Nimban interpretation of a car and the innate Abovian folk racing gene for countless seasons on end — but it's enough to stay within reach onto the Kissan Straight: he's three tenths up on his previous lap, and he enters the dead heat with his bloodshot eyes fixed on the tantalizing taillights that tremble before him.

The monocoque around him buzzes and glows cerluean; he can almost see how the air wisps threads of surplus Imagination around the sculpted carbon that envelops him to form the tail of a bolide behind him. The wings of the car ahead also meld at ease in the rushing Ajian air: a conventional answer to the terrors that loom behind its exhaust pipe. His radio hisses for a moment before going silent again — Max doesn't need to use his words to confirm that the ICAST Imagination balance has gone to him for the imminent move at the end of the straight: Janne can almost taste the substance at the back of his throat.

As the meter boards come into view, Janne curls his grip on the steering wheel and clenches his teeth. All he can see ahead are his target and the apex amidst a dark misty vignette. He follows straight down the middle of the circuit, head bobbing over the bumps in the center of the track, and with a twitch of his hands he slowly veers to the left. The leading Ælund follows; and at his braking point, he swings sharply to the right. He dives down the inside with the precision of a Sapmi hunting spear; the Chase Cutter chassis whines and creaks as it desperately tries to scrub what feels like petajoules of energy, its rubber leaving an ephemeral streak of blue on the circuit surface, the rest of that force extruding his stomach through his ribs.

But to the left of him, the Tumbran has done much the same, and though he doesn't dare eke a glance at his rival's car, its glowing front discs come progressively into his peripheral view as the apex leaps at him from the right.

And then, the dreadful sequence he's seen before.

A shimmer. A pulse. A pang. A supernova of cyan.

It billows and puffs into a blinding nebula smattered with magenta, yellow and cyan arrowheads, and streaks and squirts of orange, yellow, and red. As the ethereal blue cloud wanes it collates with a thicker, foul screen of gray; bits and chunks of boiling rubber splash across Janne's visor, and leading from the cloud of disaster sprouts a wailing, twirling chassis careening away into the runoff. A searing, consuming heat eviscerates the crevice below his sternum.

The visor HUD flashes with his new position as it self-cleans its outer surface free of the muck. The Chase Cutter is safely through the corner, and it pins him into his seat when it takes off towards turn eleven; but it's hardly because of the acrid atmosphere he's just perforated that his tear ducts swell and his throat constricts into a vice. As he crosses the start-finish line, his radio cries awake; it's a miracle he can hear anything at all with the rushing, deafening ring in his ears that wells up to the crest of his skull.

"Uh, we have a drive-through penalty for that, Janne," Max communicates — perhaps dryly, or perhaps just as grey as the world around Janne has suddenly become. "Imagination shields saved you there. Serve next lap, please. Head down."

The Abovian whimpers into his microphone through a sob; his finger trembles weakly on the intercom button. As he brakes for turn two, the inside of his visor becomes specked with salty little droplets.

by **Katzeburg** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 3:39 am

Just what is going on at KISMO? Gil Langdon opens up about his new home, life in the fast lane, and his WGPC rookie season

By Otis Huffman, KBC Sport

As we head into the final stretch of the World Grand Prix Championship season, Katzeburgians seem to be quickly finding a new favourite sport - with record numbers of people turning in to see rookies Gil Langdon and Ron Sommer battle it out in a dramatic finish in Patriotlandia just before the mid-season break.

But with just four race weekends left in the season, does either Langdon or Sommer have a chance at shocking the world and finishing in that top spot and secure the driver’s championship? Sitting in his lavish new digs overlooking the city of Waldstein, Gil Langdon doesn’t think he’ll be in the mix this season - but that’s not going to stop him from trying.

“I would love to be up there at the end of the season, that’s the dream of anyone racing at this level,” he told me over a coffee ahead of the competition’s trip to Ile Saint-Joseph. “But at the heart of it, it’s just not clicked for us yet, both myself as a driver and with KISMO as a team as well.”

The KISMO car has been hit and miss throughout the season so far, with neither Langdon or his teammate Shuhei Kamado cracking the top five more than once all season. Langdon has been the better performing of the two, however - sitting up in 10th overall on the rankings, a far cry from Kamado down in 22nd with just a single seventh place finish to his name.

“It was really disappointing that we were able to bring it all together for our home race in Aji No Moto last time out - that’s exactly where we need to be showing just how good we are as a team, and I have to say I was really disappointed with how we both faded out in front of that demanding crowd. They deserved a lot better.”

The Aji No Moto race weekend was something of a disaster for the Kissan Motorsports team, with the brightest result coming in the sprint race with Langdon’s sixth place finish, but it was hardly the dominant performance some were expecting given it was a home team race.

“I think it’s more than fair for me to say that things have gotten really quiet on the KISMO front recently,” Langdon said slowly - to me it seemed like he was choosing his words rather carefully. “I’m sure any team has its challenges at times, but especially with two rookies fronting the grid for the team this year, we need that extra experience which comes from the pit lane. Sometimes to me, it’s just felt like it’s not been there.”

Langdon admitted freely that he was no longer overly worried about losing his seat this season, which appeared to be a real concern for him at the start of the campaign.

“I think I’ve showed more than enough what I can do in the right circumstances. At the start of the season there was a real worry in my mind that I wouldn’t be good enough, that the seat wasn’t mine on merit - but I think these last few races have shown that I can grow into the role. Barring some sort of major calamity for the Kissan team, such as their licence being revoked like we saw with Eminent - I’ll be with KISMO to the end of the season for sure.”

It’s a real confident world view from the young driver, who only weeks ago was staring down the barrel of his first ever race win in Patriotlandia. Having cracked pole position, Langdon lead for the majority of the race, only to cede the win in the final few turns after racing too aggressively against his national compatriot Ron Sommer. Did he view that as a turning point?

“I wasn’t happy with how the end of that race turned out to be perfectly honest with you,” Gil said. “But I have noone but myself to blame for that looking back on it now - Ron ran a great race and made the most of the slip-up I made. Fair credit to him - he did brilliantly to pull back into that fight and take the win.”

“It was a lovely experience being able to be up on the podium with him though in that historic moment. Yes, I would have loved for it to be me on the top step - but two Katzeburgians on that level finishing 1-2 in a way I don’t think anyone was expecting us to is a moment I will really cherish. I just hope I can get back up there again at some point.”

Was there a line of thinking that he has missed his potentially one and only chance at securing a WGPC win?

“No… No I don’t think so,” Gil said before taking a large gulp of coffee. “It’s my first season and I think at this stage it’s clear the KISMO car isn’t where we want it to be in terms of competing for wins. But that won’t stop us from trying - if not in a KISMO car, then hopefully wherever my career takes me will be somewhere we can push towards a win in the right setting.”

And what of Ron Sommer? The Viska driver sparked a wave of rumours when he fled back to Katzeburg over the mid-season break rather than continue focusing on the development of the vehicle, leading to a mixed bag performance in Aji No Moto, taking a podium finish in the sprint race before collapsing to 14th on race day itself.

“Ron…. is a class act both on and off track, and Viska are really lucky to have him as I do think he can easily get into the world championship mix with a bit of luck. He’s been a great friend and advocate of me this season, which I’ve not really appreciated the impact that can make.”

At this point I asked Gil about some of the rumours which had been circulating in recent weeks that he had actually been staying in Ron’s apartment in Waldstein over the mid-season break. While quickly bristling and becoming a bit more stand-offish, he was willing to discuss the turbulence of his last few weeks.

“I.. It’s… It’s hard. I think anyone in the WGPC has to forgo a lot if they want to reach this level and it makes a lot of things many people don’t think about hard to fall into place. I was recently left without anywhere to stay in Katzeburg because of some external family matters and Ron was gracious enough to invite me into his home while I found a new place to stay.

“I don’t think anyone tells you how isolating it can be at this level, especially if you’ve not got that support network behind you to begin with. I didn’t have that, and I regret that, but you look at someone like Ron who comes from a family background vastly different to mine and the support he gets there - when someone goes down, they rally around them.”

Gil was unwilling to press much further on the point around his being left without somewhere to live, and any questions about whether this had anything to do with his father’s sponsorship of the KISMO car and its underperformance this season was not answered.

So where to from here for Gil Langdon?

“Well, there’s only a few races left in the season, and I’d love to finish in the top 10 in the overall points just to show that I can do it on this level - and why not? The KISMO can do it on its day, we just need to have faith that we can bring it all together.

“But whether I’m here again next season, or in another team, or even WGPC altogether, I just want to be racing for me from here on out, noone else.”

Viska Factory, Sterlennau, Auruna

Ron Sommer wandered through the halls of the Viska factory as activity surrounded him. People were rapidly dashing up and down the echoing hallways working to finalise the cars before heading to Ile Saint-Joseph, and Ron was just happy to be soaking in the atmosphere for a change.

He hadn’t been in the best mindset in Aji No Moto; forced to head over to race for Viska despite his father’s condition seemingly not improving back home in Waldstein. And to his credit, he managed to push a lot of it to the side for the sprint race - grabbing a third place finish and securing the second podium of his burgeoning career. But the main race was a different story. Ron had built a growing reputation as one of the best overtakers on the grid this season, with his talent for all to see back in Patriotlandia - rising up the ranks from outside the top 10 to claim the win on the final lap - but in Aji No Moto, he failed to make an impact.

He would only move up one position in the race at Aji No Moto, thanks in major part to the dual retirements of Ted Pressley and Laura Haukanna, but sitting out the points, his chances at staying in the race for the title were quickly fading. They weren’t real expectations of a title charge, to be fair - the win in Patriotlandia had greatly pushed him towards the top of the ladder and he was just falling back to the mean more than anything, but Ron was determined to do better in Ile Saint-Joseph. To push back into that top 10 and secure his spot as a consistent challenger, especially as the season started the turn towards the finish line. He wasn’t just keen to do well, he was keen to secure a spot for next season as well with a good showing.

Thankfully, the time between the Aji No Moto weekend and the upcoming race provided a big positive - his father was finally starting to recover, even if just a little bit. Trevor Sommer was now able to keep his eyes open for more than five minutes at a time, and was starting to have minimal conversations, but the weight of exhaustion and stress his heart attack had piled on him meant he was by no way out of the woods yet. But it allowed Ron a major sigh of relief - things seemed to be on the up, and while he felt horrible for thinking it, he was a little glad to be back in Auruna focusing on racing. He was incredibly thankful for the support Artur and the team had shown him during the worst of it - Artur had skillfully navigated the comms around Ron’s trip back to Katzeburg so people were aware he wasn’t there, but not the searing trauma he was going through at the moment.

Pulling out his phone, Ron flicked a quick look up down the hall to gauge his surroundings, quickly spotting the fast-moving steps of his race engineer ahead of him.

“Ahh, Esko! Do you happen to have a moment?” Ron said, running after him with a light jog. The man stopped in his tracks and swung on his heels to face Ron.

“Of course Ron - how can I help?”

“Oh, it’s nothing like that. I just wanted to thank you for the kind gift you sent on when I got back from Katzeburg, it honestly meant a lot to me.”

“Oh, well of course - we’re a team aren’t we? I’m just glad to see you back behind the wheel.”

“Me too, I’m really glad to be racing with someone like you behind me in the pit lane - I don’t know how many other engineers would do something like that for their driver, especially as I imagine some of the reactions you’d get from us out on the track!”

“Thanks, here’s hoping the coffee can tap into a bit of a speed boost, no?”

“Absolutely! Here’s hoping - that coffee was absolutely fantastic, I’ve never had coffee as black as a moonless night - and the taste! You’ll have to point me to where I can get a bit more of that down the line.”

“I’m glad you’ve enjoyed it - it was Syrekava, lovely blend.”

“Ahh brilliant - Well, I’ll leave you to it as imagine there’s a lot to do ahead of our trip to Ile Saint-Joseph; still on for our race briefing later this afternoon yeah?”

“Of course - looking forward to it.”

“Thanks again Esko, really.”

And then the engineer was off down the hall, washing into the waves of activity washing up and down the halls of the factory. Ron simply nodded with a half-smile, and then continued down the hall, re-examining his phone and opening the KBC app. He would quickly stop in his tracks.

“An interview with Gil Langdon….” Ron muttered to himself. Thoughts raced through his head - does he read it? Ignore it? Write a letter to Huffman demanding an interview of his own? Finally, he just tapped through to the article - he had to know what was being said, especially given the acrimonious situation they found themselves in last time they spoke. Ron scanned through the article, stopping when he saw a mention of his name. Then he slowly ran through what his paddock rival had to say about him and dare he think it, it was quite nice? This seemed like a different side of Gil that Ron had only seen once before - when he turned up on his doorstep with nowhere else to go.

But he couldn’t get past what Gil had done, how he had reacted when he was in his moment of need in Patriotlandia - how he had been during the mid-season break. Ron had opened his home to him, and Gil had taken the safety of the void to an extreme degree. He was thankful he had his other friends to lean on during this difficult time, but he was living a unique experience - there aren’t many WGPC drivers out there in the world, and he just needed that support from someone who knew to a degree what he was going through on that aspect.

Ron sniffled a tear away and closed the app. He had no point focusing on the past, what’s done is done - he needed to focus more on the track. And focus he would.

by **Recuecn** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 6:31 am

Abdoulaye said many prayers of gratitude after his crash. Most of all, he was grateful he was alive. He was grateful that the race marshal had been there to pull him out of his burning car. Compared to that, nothing else felt like a big deal.

But life went on, and with new perspective, Abdoulaye was grateful for the littler things, too. He was grateful that the next week was the mid-season break, giving him extra time to recover before the races in Aji No Moto. He was grateful for the support from Agreka, Edvin, and Terho; everyone at Ælund had been supportive and beautiful. And he was grateful for his brother Malick—this certainly wasn’t the first time Malick had been there for Abdoulaye when he’d needed him most.

Abdoulaye only spent a couple days in the hospital. The doctors told him he was mostly fine. His skin would be sore for a while as the burns continued to heal, but he was recovering from the concussion quickly, and beyond that, there was no internal damage to his body.

Terho had been to see him almost as soon as he woke up. Having a director with Terho’s confidence and experience was immensely encouraging at a time like this. He didn’t push Abdoulaye too hard, his taskmaster mode forgotten as he stepped into a supportive role. Abdoulaye didn’t feel any blame or disappointment, or undue pressure to get back in the cockpit before he was ready. On the other hand, Abdoulaye didn’t want to be coddled, either.

Terho, fortunately, never coddled anyone. There was no “take all the time you need,” no talk of “if you don’t want to continue the season”—the phrases Abdoulaye was dreading. Instead Terho said simply, “The car will be ready as soon as you are,” and gave Abdoulaye a nod that seemed to lend him all his self-assuredness.

It was exactly the treatment Abdoulaye needed. More than anything, he wanted to make Ælund—make Terho—proud. Ted was surely focused on the driver’s championship and the three-way battle between himself, Laukkanen, and Nülkeschläger, but Abdoulaye, more than anything else, was aware of the constructor’s championship, and the duel that had emerged between Ælund and Nexus. Abdoulaye was happy to let Ted lead the charge, but his own goal was to be the best number two he could for his teammate, and bring Ælund that team victory that was looking more achievable than ever.

To that end, Abdoulaye intended to get back behind the wheel as soon as he could. Unfortunately, the hospital wouldn’t give him his discharge paperwork until Tuesday Morning. It was Malick who sat with him and talked with him as Abdoulaye processed the shock of the crash and tried to put his thoughts in order as he prepared to get back onto the racetrack.

“What do you think was the biggest accident in your life, Malick?” Abdoulaye asked. He fiddled with the sheets on his hospital bed, twisting them into a spiral with his fingers, before glancing up at his brother.

“I’ve never had a crash, Abs,” Malick said proudly. He held up his chin. “Totally clean record.”

“No, I don’t mean literally,” said Abdoulaye, sighing, and smoothing out his sheets again with his palm. “I mean, like, what was the biggest setback you encountered? How did you overcome it?”

Malick met Abdoulaye’s eyes, then looked away, out the window. “How much do you remember Maman?”

“Not much at all.”

Malick glanced back at Abdoulaye, but only for a moment. “Well I guess I was old enough. I think she was everything to me back then. I didn’t have anything else. She was all I had.”

Malick paused, and the heaviness of his emotion hung in the air between them. Abdoulaye could hear raindrops outside the window. He could see Malick looking at the falling water. Abdoulaye opened his mouth, wanting to say something to ease his brother’s pain, but something caught in his throat. Perhaps it was his pride, holding him from saying “I’m sorry.” He wanted to say it, but he felt ashamed—embarrassed that his brother grieved their mother so much more than he did. It felt wrong to offer his condolences to his brother. After all, hadn’t they suffered the same loss?

Maybe they hadn’t. But the lump in his throat had gone down, and the moment had passed. Instead he began to say, “How did—”

Malick spoke at the same time. “You’ve been very philosophical today. I guess that’s the effect of facing danger,” (he wouldn’t say ‘death’,) “like that.” He looked back toward Abdoulaye, confidence returning, now that he could shift the conversation into his brother’s court. “Are your races always so metaphorical to you?”

Abdoulaye thought for a moment. “I think they are, actually,” he said. “I’ve talked about it with Papa before. Whenever I race, I’m running. Pursuing something, fleeing something—it’s not always the same. But it symbolizes something to me. Life, I think. You’re born, you begin your race; someday you’ll finish your race, and die. And the racetrack is the journey you take along the way.”

“Do you feel like you’re going in circles?” asked Malick. “Constantly retreading the same ground?”

“Uh, I think that’s not part of it,” said Abdoulaye. “The metaphor breaks down, especially if you try to get too focused on the WGP details. It’s just, ‘a race’.”

“I guess footraces seem pretty timeless,” admitted Malick. “Universal.”

“Yeah. Although, there are some aspects of Grand Prix racing that I think can be symbolic. Pitstops. Teammates. Refueling.”

“Tire strategy?”

“Work-life balance, maybe? You can drain your energy to accomplish more, but you’ll burn out faster.”

“That’s pretty good actually.”

Abdoulaye smiled. “I’ve had a lot of time to think about it.”

“You talk about it with Papa?” Abdoulaye could hear the surprise in Malick’s tone.

“Yeah, it’s been really nice. He’s never opened up to me this much before. But I think driving is important to him. He remembers his old days as a taxi driver, and somehow there’s a connection for him between him driving the taxi, and me driving the racecar. It’s like something we have in common. So now he watches all the races and we talk about them on the phone afterward. I tell him Grand Prix stories, and then he tells me stories about Africa.”

“Wow.” Malick bit his lip. “I’m jealous, Abs. It’s not easy to get him to open up like that.”

“I know!” Abdoulaye exclaimed. “When I saw I’d found something that would get him talking, I realized I couldn’t let go of it. It’s our little tradition now. I mean, you know this, but he’s quite the storyteller when he wants to be. He just has to find a story he wants to tell.”

“Are his stories metaphors too?”

“I think it’s the other way around. His stories are too real to be symbolic. Everything else is about them.”

“Wow, you really are getting philosophical. Are you sure that concussion isn’t worse than they say it is?”

Abdoulaye laughed. “Hey, don’t go making fun of your brain-addled little brother! I’ve had blunt force trauma and come through fire, cut me some slack!”

“What kind of stories does he tell?” asked Malick. “I really can’t overstate how jealous I am. I wish he told me stories like that.”

“Well, lately it’s been the story about how we moved to Reçueçn. The journey we made from Mali. Do you remember that?”

Malick’s eyes glazed over. He looked back out the window. “Yes,” he said. “I don’t think I could ever forget.” The water outside was loud again.

“He’s just been telling the story little by little,” said Abdoulaye. “We just got to Timbuktu.”

Malick turned to Abdoulaye again. He seemed to perk up at the mention of Timbuktu. “I wish I’d been old enough to understand the importance of Timbuktu more back then,” he said. “All the historical significance, all the books… right there on the edge of the desert, totally dry except for the river, with the Tuaregs coming in from the north. I was just a kid, and it meant nothing to me. It was foreign, and that’s all there was.”

Abdoulaye forgot the rain outside. It was as if he could feel the heat of the Saharan sun on his skin. He rubbed a hand down his forearm and winced as he brushed his blisters. “I mean it sounds like you remember it pretty well.”

“We stayed there about a week. Enough time to take in my surroundings a little.”

“And then what happened?”

Malick smiled. “Are you trying to get me to tell the story now?”

Malick asked his father every day when they would cross the desert.

“Very soon, my son,” Moussa would always respond.

To Malick, that was meaningless. “Soon” meant minutes, not days. Days were long, slow, and hot. The journey from Bamako had been interminable for the young boy, matched only by the boredom of waiting in Timbuktu. He tried to get his father to explain the cause of the delay.”

“Can’t we just take a bus?” he asked. “Or a taxi?”

“There are no roads in the Sahara,” Moussa explained. “You travel with the sun—or the stars. We would need a guide, someone who knows the mountains and is familiar with the way. The nomads do not travel in buses or taxis: they ride camels, traveling in caravans.”

Malick had been eager to see a camel before he came to Timbuktu, and would have been thrilled by this information a week ago. But the animals he’d seen in the streets of the city were large, terrifying beasts, and when the first one he’d met had leaned down its long neck to sniff him with its ugly snout, Malick had promptly lost all interest in the species. He had no more desire to see them, let alone potentially ride one across the desert.

Moussa was usually gone most of the day working, trying to defray some of the unexpected expenses of the journey thus far. But he realized that here, far from home, in a city of a different tongue, without home or family, he would only fall even further behind than he had felt in Bamako. So one day not long after arriving in Timbuktu he set off to find someone who would take his family north. He told Malick that if all went well, tomorrow they would finally set off. Malick was overjoyed. He was so excited, in fact, he couldn’t contain himself or sit still, and so Fanta sent him off with Moussa while she and Abdoulaye rested.

Malick was brimming with excitement as he trotted through the dusty streets at his father’s side, his hand clasped in his father’s. The pain of the journey thus far had been forgotten, and the joy of setting out filled his mind. His newfound high spirits gave him courage even against the camels. He stuck out his tongue at them quite rudely whenever any went past.

Moussa led him to a square near the market. A group of men was gathered near a large herd of camels. The men were dressed in blue robes with blue shielding their faces from the sun.

“Mogo do min bε bamanakan men be yan, wa?” asked Moussa.

Fortunately, one of the Tuaregs stepped forward. “I speak a little Bambara,” he answered. “My name is Cheik Ag Touhami,” he said in the same language. “Mais si vous parlez français, c’est plus facile.”

Moussa responded in French as best he could. “My French is weak,” he said. “But my son speaks French in school. He will translate.” He looked down to Malick. “Ask him if he knows someone who can take us across the desert,” he said in Bambara.

Malick suddenly found himself transformed from hanger-on to center-of-attention. He felt honored to be his father’s mouthpiece. Smoothing his wrinkled clothes with his hands, he tried to make himself look as serious as possible, putting behind himself the child who just a moment ago had been making faces at the camels. He translated his father’s question with as much gravitas as he could muster, and eagerly rattled off the Bambara translation of the response.

“He says only two caravans a year make the azalai. No one will depart for Taoudenni for another two months.”

Moussa was almost indignant. “Surely someone is traveling soon.”

“I do not think so, but perhaps,” replied Cheik, via Malick. He gestured to some of the other men. “I can ask.”

He stepped away and held an invigorated discussion with the other nomads. He returned with another man. “This is my friend, Iyad Ag Ablil. He is very foolish, which is why he is willing to travel into the desert without the azalai. Maybe he will take you along, but I do not advise you to go with him.”

Malick grinned as he translated, tickled to be able to call the tall, imposing man before him “very foolish” without repercussions—that kind of language would normally mean a boxing from his mother.

“Tell him I want to bring our whole family across the desert to Europe,” said Moussa. “Myself, my wife, and two small boys.”

Malick explained in French, and Cheik explained to Iyad in Tamasheq. Iyad’s response was brief, but Cheik made an impassioned plea to Malick.

“He says he is happy to take your family on his camels, if you can pay. But you should not go with him. It is a difficult journey. Only men should travel like that, not children or women. With only one guide, it will be too dangerous for you.”

“He says he can take us if you can pay,” Malick told Moussa in Bambara.

“Translate everything he said, Malick,” said Moussa.

“That was everything he said,” said Malick. “It is his friend who is translating for him who doesn’t think we should go.”

Moussa seemed undeterred. “How long is the journey?” he asked.

It was twenty days from Timbuktu to Taoudenni, the Tuaregs explained, and that was as far as Iyad was willing to go. From the salt mines at Taoudenni, Moussa and his family would have to find someone else to take them through the mountains to Algeria.

For the first time, Moussa seemed to waver. “Twenty days?” he asked again.

Cheik saw Moussa’s hesitation, and leapt at the chance to show him the error of his ways. “A truck can make the journey in a fraction of the time, and it could carry your wife and children more safely. But first you have to have a truck. And then you have to pay for the petrol. It would be more expensive.”

Moussa grimaced when Malick translated the last sentence. “I have spent too much money already,” he said. “If your price is good, we will leave with you as soon as you are ready.”

Finally, they were on the move again. Malick and his family left Timbuktu early the next morning, before dawn. Iyad led the way, on his camel, with three more tied in a line behind him, carrying Moussa (with Abdoulaye), Fanta (with Malick), and their baggage.

The camels moved slowly. Malick often wanted to jump down and run ahead of them, since they traveled no faster than walking speed. But his mother would not let him, knowing that his energy would be gone in minutes. The camels, meanwhile, could keep going for days.

Iyad did not let them stop to eat or rest until dusk. He encouraged them to eat as they rode, even lighting a small stove and preparing tea on the back of his camel without stopping. He handed a glass to Moussa, and when he served the second round, less bitter, he poured some for Malick and Abdoulaye as well. Fanta he made to wait for the third glass, sugary and golden like honey.

Fanta laughed at him. “If I can ride a camel like you,” she said, “I can certainly drink your bitter tea.”

It was unclear how much Iyad understood of what they said to him. Certainly they understood nothing of him. He never said a word of Bambara or French, speaking only in Tamasheq, which to Malick sounded like a strange language full of consonants, unlike the lilting vowels of Bambara. But the difficulty of communication seemed to matter little. In the monotony of the Sahara, nothing needed to be said.

Malick found himself bored that first day, but at dusk they made camp and the beauty of the desert came alive, captivating him. The sun sank low in the sky, casting long spindly shadows through the legs of the camels. Iyad made tea again, and the grownups all squatted around a small fire as they poured out the glasses. Their silhouettes were dark against the amber sky, stark and bold. The wind was low and the air was still. Above their silhouettes, a plume of steam rose from the long spout of the tea as Iyad held it aloft to pour through the air.

Malick, a little ways away from the camp, watched the little ceremony in almost breathless awe at its simplicity and beauty. He’d seen men make tea hundreds of times, and it had never been remarkable. But here, alone in the desert, every little action breathed with intentionality. Suddenly, filled with a deep loneliness by the vast horizon around him, he ran back toward the fire.

“Maman!” he cried. Fanta caught him in her arms, and taking a cup of tea from Iyad, placed it into his outstretched hand. He greedily guzzled it down, and snuggled close to his mother. Even when he was alone in the wilderness, she would always be here with him.

When they set out again the next morning, the beauty of the desert hadn’t worn off for Malick. When the horizon passing by could no longer hold his attention, he would drift off to sleep, resting on his mother’s breast and lulled by the rocking of the camel. They had bought long cloths with which to wrap themselves against the sun, the way the Tuaregs did, and he pulled his turban down over his eyes basked in the Saharan warmth.

It wasn’t until the third day that disaster struck. It was late morning and the sun was climbing high into the sky when Iyad spotted a cloud of dust away on the horizon to their right. He pointed toward it, yelling something, and with his stick, urged the camels to quicken their pace.

Their little caravan, however, could not move much faster. The camels were burdened with Moussa’s bundles and their own straw, and weren’t used to moving faster than a walk. The cloud of dust was approaching rapidly. It seemed to be moving as if to cut them off. Iyad gestured toward it, looking more and more agitated. He spoke quickly in upset tones. He attempt to explain the situation could not overcome the language barrier, but it was clear that he did not think it was a good one.

The cloud was close enough now that Moussa could see what it was—dirt being kicked up by another group of camels, riding hard. Men rode on the camels, their faces hidden behind black turbans, and through the dust Moussa thought he could see them brandishing weapons: not the ceremonial Tuareg daggers, but Kalashnikovs and handguns.

He tried to keep is voice low and clear to warn Fanta without scaring the children, but Malick could hear him hissing, “Bandits! It looks like they’re coming for us!”

All doubts were settled as the leading figure lowered his rifle and fired a burst over the heads of the family and their guide. That was enough for Iyad. With a yell he cut the rope tying his camel to the caravan behind him, and beating his mount heartily with his stick, turned and galloped away.

Moussa and Fanta looked at each other. Malick pulled his turban away from his eyes to peer at their attackers. This, then, would be the end of their journey. Bandits were common in the desert, Moussa had known that, but he’d taken the bet… and lost. There was no reason for the bandits to spare them, and if they took their belongings, their camels, carrying their food and water, they’d all die out here anyway.

But there was another noise, a humming sound, that had been growing gradually louder. At first it was far enough away to avoid notice, but as it approached from behind, the noise began to increase. Then suddenly, there was another burst of gunfire.

Moussa whirled around. A dilapidated white pickup truck was rapidly approaching. A man hung out the passenger window and another stood in the back, both holding AK-47s like the camel-mounted bandits. Now it was their turn to fire off a couple rounds over the heads of the approaching assailants—whether the bullets were intended as warning shots, or the jostling of the truck sent the shots wide, it was hard to say.

The bandits tugged at the reins of their camels and wheeled away. The pickup truck pulled up to an abrupt stop next to Moussa. The driver stuck an arm out his window to wave at him. It was Cheik!

Cheik and his two men jumped out of the truck and hurriedly helped Fanta and the children into the back, while Moussa frantically struggled with the knots holding all the baggage onto the camels’ backs. He glanced at the bandits as he worked. They had reined in their camels and stood in formation not far away, watching the proceedings. Moussa could do the mental math just as well as the bandits. They outgunned Cheik and his men two-to-one. Now that they’d regrouped after their initial surprise, they had little to fear.

Fanta screamed as the bandits goaded their camels toward the pickup truck.

Cheik appeared at Moussa’s side with a knife. With a grunt and a jagged swipe, he slashed away the last ropes, and tossed the final large bundle into the back of the pickup. He dashed around to the driver’s door.

“Get in the truck!” he yelled at Moussa in broken French. “Let’s go!”

Both of the other men were in the back of the truck with Fanta and the boys. Moussa jumped into the passenger seat. Cheik hit the gas and the truck lurched forward, pressing Moussa into the back of his seat. He could feel his heart beating in his throat. He turned over his shoulder to look at the bandits. Their camels were galloping, and they were gaining on the truck.

The truck moved painfully slowly.

“Gear up!” yelled Moussa. “Get us out of here!”

Cheik yelled a curse, then another as he tried to shift gears and the truck stalled out. He hit the gas, but he was in neutral now, and the engine roared impotently as the pickup slowed to a roll.

“Let me drive!” screamed Moussa. “I drove a taxi in Bamako; if ever I was prepared for this moment, it’s now!”

Cheik grabbed Moussa by the shoulders and pulled him into the driver’s seat. He clambered over him, pulling himself onto the passenger side head first over Moussa like a flopping fish. Bullets began to whizz overhead, or it might have been comical.

Moussa found his feet on the pedals almost before his butt was in the seat. With practiced precision, he threw the pickup into first, second, third gear, and pulled away. Fourth gear now, now fifth, and the gunshots behind them began to sound a little further. The bandits yelled and cursed as they saw their prey outdistance them. Moussa glanced in the rearview mirror. Now they were once more a cloud of dust in the horizon.

The truck engine roared. Moussa drove relentlessly north. He throttled the steering wheel tightly with both hands, as if grabbing his own destiny. It felt good to be behind the wheel again. Whatever problems life threw at him, he’d be fine.

He’d just outdrive them all.

Timbuktu's Ancient Salt Caravans Under Threat
Azalaï: The Salt Caravans of Northern Africa
Azalai, The Caravan of Peace

by **Tropicorp** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 6:45 am

Phoenician/In-Motion To the Top after Ajian Grand Prix

WGPC21 Supplier Performance Standings (After Week #6)
[1] - 121 :: Phoenician/InMotion
[2] - 117 :: Tropicorp Racing Supply
[3] - 88 :: Brimstone
[4] - 60 :: Solymok
[5] - 7 :: Blue Sulphurate

Ajian Air Grand Prix, Serizawa Racing Circuit, Serizawa, Aji No Moto :: Into the mid-season break it had seemed that Tropicorp Racing Supply were in position to retain their Supplier Performance title and Brimstone were in free-fall, all but certain to be overtaken by Solymok at the conclusion of the Ajian Grand Prix weekend. After taking victory in the Ajian Grand Prix Sprint through UrGa Motorsports pay-driver Vincent Von Visp, who may have just paid off the drivers around him not to pass him after drawing pole position at the Serizawa Racing Circuit, it certainly seemed like Solymok were well on the way to establish themselves as the #3 Supplier on the World Grand Prix grid. That seemingly obvious trajectory would only last 24 hours. After placing three cars in the Top 7 of the Aji No Moto Sprint, Solymok drivers absolutely struggled when they actually had to turn a quick lap against the field in Qualifying. Perhaps showing that money can only buy so many things, there was nothing that could be done when Sprint winner Vincent Von Visp put in the second slowest lap of the day and failed to qualify for the feature race grid. There wasn't much better elsewhere for Solymok - only Von Visp's teammate Nepo Kinder managed a Top 10 starting position. Come race day, however, even Kinder didn't have the pace. None of the Solymok cars even came close to the points in what was by far the teams worst performance of the season coming at the least opportune time not only for their position in the Supplier Performance standings, but also coming with so many personnel from the company and local partners in attendance at the Serizawa Racing Circuit. It was the first goose-egg in the points column for Solymok since the Season Opening Abovian Grand Prix and resulted in a massive hit in the standings, particularly due to the fact that the race was won by Brimstone-supplied Piers Ivchenko driver R.L. Cruisin, netting Brimstone an instant +25 advantage over Solymok in the Supplier standings something that could be insurmountable as the season rolls on. Incredibly, after having entered the feature event just 3 points clear of Solymok, Brimstone are now equally close at a gap of 28 points to both Solymok behind them and Tropicorp Racing Supply in front of them.

While the change in the fight for third between Solymok and Brimstone was certainly the most dramatic and impactful change resulting from the results of the Ajian Grand Prix, it also meant that Tropicorp Racing Supply would fall to second in the standings for the first time since the season opener in Aboveland. After having placed at least one car on the podium in every race in the first half of the World Grand Prix Championship 21 Season - including the Patriotlandia Sprint, not a single Tropicorp Racing Supply driver managed a Top 3 finish in either of the events held at the Serizawa Racing Circuit with a best finish of 4th in both the Sprint (Abdoulaye Goita) and the Feature event (once again, as usual, in 4th place: Abdoulaye Goita). At the same time, Phoenician/In-Motion were runner up in both the sprint (Laura Haukanna) and feature (Ryker Lane) events netting the supplier a +10 advantage over Tropicorp Racing Supply on the weekend and seeing the two perennial challengers flip flop atop the standings. While the change in order among the two longest-standing suppliers of the World Grand Prix Championships is certainly noteworthy, the five point gap between them is less even than the difference in points between 1st and 2nd place in a single event. Phoenician/In-Motion have benefited from the "Top performer" points system in place for the Supplier Performance Standings as they would otherwise be narrowly behind Tropicorp if the performances of the top two drivers of a supplier were used to award points each event. Typically this formula has not be used historically as prior WGPC seasons have always had at least one supplier affiliated with just a single team necessitating the use of a suppliers single best entrant to enable the worst performing entry of a supplier to be ignore in the standings. Through the first half of WGPC Season 21, however, all five tire suppliers had at least two full teams representing them. While this did change with the folding of the Eminent Grand Prix team, Blue Sulphurate still has four cars attempting qualifying each week through the expanded lineup put forth by the WGPC Motorworks team.

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.

Aji Air @OGP, Serizawa Racing Circuit, Aji No Moto :: It was a solid weekend for Tropicorp Orangeworks at the Aji Air @OGP for the twii.tur Support Series. After having run three standalone events ever since the conclusion of the Grand Prix of Turori, the TTGP drivers and teams re-united with their World Grand Prix Championships brethren and once again it was an opportunity for the Support Series drivers to shine with perhaps a little extra attention on them from the WGPC Paddock. With two Support Series drivers having already been drafted up as replacement drivers on the WGPC grid already this season, many of the Support Series drivers had to be wondering if perhaps they could put on a little extra show at the Serizawa Racing Circuit and move their names to the top of the list should any other team find the urge to make a chance on the WGPC Grid this season.

Tropicorp's seated drivers Indori Volcanasaur and Igne Spupuo each had a solid qualifying effort, claiming a spot inside the Top 10 on the grid. For the second time this season, a race weekend was dominated by ANMARA's Ringo Kawagishi, who took advantage of the home crowd and would win the @OGP from the pole position to become the first driver this season to claim two Grand Prix victories. However, Kawagishi remains mired back in 8th in the Drivers standings after having earned just 4 points total in the races which they did not win. It might have been an ANMARA 1-2 finish in Aji No Moto if not for the inspired drive of Tropicorp Orangeworks driver Indori Volcanasaur who hung tough with the ANMARA cars throughout the day and with quick thinking on the Lap 21 safety car, was able to keep their pit strategy in advance of Marie-Theres Paulis and keep the #43 sandwiched between the two ANMARA drivers for the remainder of the event. Volcanasaur's runner-up finish coupled with a 9th place run by the Lizard King themselves, Igne Spupuo, helped propel Tropicorp back to the Top of the Constructors Standings with a 9 point advantage over the newcomers Fiarti Racing.

Both Volcanasaur and Spupuo also remain in contention for the Drivers Championship with Volcanasaur in the midst of an outstanding fight atop the standings, just two points behind leader Lane Carter of Urotovsky-Gatutin and one point behind Esportivan' Karting phenom Evangelos Kalyftakis. Spupuo is not far behind either, currently in 5th position in a battle with Axel Mausefalle of HMG Grand Prix with a distance of 13 points off the top spot.

SKIIA VIALIV ✓

@Skiia
Felt great to have such a quick car under me! I can tell that the HMG shop has been working extra hard to make the car faster and their hard work paid off. Too bad we don't score points based on qualifying! Couldn't hold it there for the race but still we held on for a finish inside the points and on the lead lap. We are making improvements and hopefully can find victory lane again before the season is over.

#WGPC21 :: #AjianAirGP :: #ForzaHMG

INDORI VOLCANASAUR ✓

@IndoriV
Back on a bit of a 'normal' track and the results were pretty obvious. I think our @Orangeworks teams really excel on these type of tracks and putting both cars in the points really helps that. I was trying really hard to get the victory considering what happened on Friday in the Ajian Sprint. But when ole' Triple-V failed to qualify on Saturday I think everyone quickly realized he didn't earn that Sprint win anyway.

#SupportSeries :: #Serizawa :: #Podium

INDORI VOLCANASAUR ✓

@IndoriV
- -@IndoriV

BTW, @URGA_Motorsports_ENG , I heard Jjuko Okafor has money and may actually be a decent driver, check them out.

works? · by **Abanhfleft** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 7:30 am

“It’s okay. It’s fine. Everything’s okay. It’s all part of the plan. There’s always going to be growing pains with a new team. Things will get better. I know they will.”

Sometimes William Archer didn’t know if he actually believed anything that he was actually saying to himself or if it was all part of the ever-growing delusion that seemed to be engulfing him more and more. He had finally managed to convince himself a long time ago that moving away from Preston Autos was the best move for him, and a quick look at the current constructors’ standings would seem to prove William right. It would appear that he was right in moving away from Preston as whatever issues that had plagued them last year clearly had not been resolved during the offseason. But now similar doubts were once again creeping into William’s mind about Viska, and it was all because his teammate won a race with the Aurun outfit before Will did.

Will Archer was not afraid to admit that part of why he was looking forward to driving with Viska was because it would give him an opportunity to get back in the groove. Driving against Rudy Edwards, someone with a similar level of experience as William, had become a mental drain to the young Fleftic. Will just couldn’t get it out of his head that Preston Autos had given preferential treatment to Edwards, who was a Hapiloppian just like the rest of the team. Preston’s leadership had said time and again that they wouldn’t still be in WGPC had it not been for William dragging their first car to the top step of the podium on a couple of occasions, even if those occasions had not been for any points in the championship whatsoever. Despite all of that talk though, there was still one corner of William’s mind that was convinced that Preston was merely giving him the soft soap while they poured more and more resources into making Edwards a championship-winning driver. Whatever the case may have been, it all went wrong for Preston last season and William left the team, seemingly jumping ship at just the right time. Even Rudy Edwards got dropped from that team, with the Hapiloppian outfit opting to go for an all-new driver lineup of Kinu Luminna and Angela Stella Tan Fang Ling. William would end up taking Luminna’s old seat at Viska Racing, and it was there that he would be partnered up with Katzeburgian rookie Ron Sommer, and at that moment William thought that this was his best chance to get his mind back on the right track.

This was not to say that Will thought that Ron Sommer was a bad rookie. In Will’s own experience, sometimes it was the rookies that could surprise the grid in a good way. In fact, the only objectively bad driver on the grid this season was Ankei Souzare. It was just so bizarre, the ways that Souzare managed to not be able to make a time within the 107% rule. People thought that Vincent Von Visp was paying off officials to keep himself on the grid; maybe they should take a look at how Souzare managed to keep himself on the grid despite god-awful performances in literally each and every race session. This wasn’t to say that William didn’t think Von Visp should have been punished for his recent actions; the Recuecian certainly deserved the penalty, monetary or otherwise, that came his way. But going back to his teammate, while Will could see that Ron Sommer was talented, the Fleftic had believed that his experience in WGPC would have given him the edge over his teammate. Unfortunately, for one reason or another, things hadn’t really gone William’s way once again this season.

William really thought that his season had finally turned the corner after a surprisingly good finish at the Turorian Grand Prix. William had not had a good time at the Eelandii Grand Prix Course the last time that he had been there, so he was just as surprised as anyone else to see himself finishing in the points in this place. This was what had sparked William’s belief that he was finally back on track; the fact that he had scored points at a track in which his own aggressive driving style was more of a detriment than an advantage. It made him believe that there was a chance that he could get points again, and maybe something more, at an even more technically minded track like Patriotlandia’s Ridgeline Raceway. But those dreams would be shot down in a blaze of glory, both figuratively and almost literally, and it was all thanks to that bastard Vincent Von Visp.

William Archer had thought that he had finally managed to figure out how to gain positions in a technically inclined track like Ridgeline Raceway. It was more about patience than anything else, and that had been a tough lesson for Will to learn because he was quite the impatient person. He wanted to get past the driver in front of him yesterday, and he wanted to be in a car capable of winning the championship now. But it would turn out that there was at least one person on the grid who was even more impatient than him, and Will would end up having a front row seat of what could happen if that man ever ran out of patience. Vincent Von Visp already had a reputation for being a hard-ass of a driver, a reputation carefully cultivated through numerous clashes with other drivers down in WGP2, and he had no intention of trying to correct anyone else’s opinion of him. Heck, the red-headed bastard was even fighting his own UrGa teammate Nepö Kinder! If it was for the race or a podium, Will could understand Von Visp’s aggression, but neither one of them were even in the points! Why were both Kinder and Von Visp wasting time fighting each other for P14 or whatever when they could have worked together to move up the order? This UrGa team definitely was not the same one that had won the constructors’ title last season, that was for sure.

And then the inevitable collision happened. William could see it coming from a mile away, and yet neither Kinder nor Von Visp ever did anything to get out of the other’s path. And not only did Von Visp drive straight through Kinder’s rear end, the Recuecian sent his Hulkenbergian teammate into the other Recuecian on the grid, Abdoulaye Goita. Von Visp pootled on while Kinder limped back to the pits, and Goita himself was engulfed in flames courtesy of the impact. The marshals and the doctors were able to get him out of the wreckage, thank God, and Abs (as he was affectionately known) would be back in time for the next race, mostly because there was a mid-season break after Patriotlandia. But now everyone was aware of what Vincent Von Visp was willing and able to do when it came to racing and they were treating him appropriately. No one dared to touch Von Visp when the red-headed demon was given pole position in the second and final sprint race of the season in Serizawa, and Von Visp made it painfully clear what he thought of everyone else’s opinion at the podium ceremony when he poured champagne down on everyone else below him, both literally and figuratively.

William’s first outing at Serizawa was another one that he would rather forget. Just like the Akresna Circuit in Auruna, Will felt that there were just too many straights going into hairpins on this track, and he simply didn’t like the flow of the track. Unlike Patriotlandia, William was not convinced that he was going to make any sort of lasting impact on the standings here, whether it was in the sprint or the feature race. But that hadn’t stopped him from trying, at least not with his new team. Will was self-aware enough to realize that he simply wouldn’t have bothered if he was still driving for Preston Autos and their shitbox of a car last season. Now that he was at a new team, William hoped to impress at Viska and prove them right in taking a chance at him as well as prove all of the other teams wrong in not deciding to sign him. William thought that with a rookie teammate alongside him, he would be able to regain some of his confidence and get himself back into the form that had almost brought him a championship all those seasons ago. But it would turn out that not even that could help get Will out of his mental rut because now it was Ron Sommer who was wiping the floor with him. It was Sommer, the rookie, who had scored almost all of Viska’s points this season, and it was Sommer who had won the team’s first race, which happened to be the same race in Patriotlandia where William saw firsthand the rage of Vincent Von Visp and the near-death of Abdoulaye Goita.

It was not supposed to be like this. As the more experienced driver, William was supposed to be the team leader, taking Viska to the top of the podium and teaching Sommer a few tips and tricks here and there. Instead, Sommer was outperforming Will in practically every aspect, and the team was now beginning to revolve more and more around the young Katzeburgian while William Archer was once again left by the wayside. The only silver lining that William could see in his situation was the fact that Viska was at least open enough to let Will know that they were focusing on Sommer since he was now clearly the better driver. No more bullshit about how there were no favorites, no bullshit about how the team loved William and wanted him to stay because he won a race that wasn’t worth even a single point in the championship. In Viska, Ron Sommer was Driver Number One and William Archer was the second one. Such a decision would have hurt the ego of more than just a handful of drivers, but Will was just happy that his role was now more clearly defined.

But while Will may have been happy to finally have a clearly delineated role in his new team (even if it wasn’t the role that he wanted when he first signed for the Aurun outfit), there was still something that just didn’t feel right. Will had heard whispers that the second Viska seat might be cursed, and he didn’t really want to believe it despite being a somewhat superstitious person himself. The poor results were explainable without having to bring a curse into the conversation. This was William’s first season with Viska; he was still getting used to the design philosophy after three years in Preston. That said, surely he would have finally managed to find his rhythm or balance in Viska by the halfway point of the season. Was William just stuck in a massive patch of bad form? Was he still not all there with his new team mentally speaking? Was it bad luck? Was there some truth to the whispers of a cursed second seat at Viska? Or perhaps it was simply a combination of the first three factors? Perhaps. But the events in the Serizawa sprint race directly concerning William Archer were about to convince him that there might actually be something to all of that talk about curses.

William was just minding his own business near the back of the field. Despite his low placing in the drivers’ standings, he didn’t get a high place on the starting grid for the sprint race. And given that it was much tougher to score points in a sprint (and it also gave out less points compared to a feature race), Will didn’t really see the point in pushing. He would rather wait until the feature race to see if he could do something to get a couple more points next to his name. But even that almost became a tall task for him because on lap 27 of the Serizawa sprint, William felt the one thing that all racing drivers dreaded. “I’m losing power,” he called out on the radio. “I’m losing power!”

“Roll it into the pits if you can,” his race engineer told him. “Mode four switch. Switch to mode four. Try to bring it home if you can.”

“I’m in the middle of the back straight!” William shouted back. “I can’t bring it back without power!”

“Ok, find a place to park,” his engineer advised. “Get to the marshals, get to the runoff. Find a place to park and then switch off.”

“This is just… unbelievable,” William muttered as he rolled to a stop on the side of the road. “What are the freaking chances?” He almost uttered a different word that also started with F instead of what he actually said, but Will managed to switch mid-sentence before the radio could actually pick it up.

William had managed to park his stricken car right in front of a gap in the fence, meaning that the safety car didn’t have to be deployed while the marshals rolled Will’s Viska out of harm’s way. The young Fleftic cut a frustrated figure on the sidelines while the marshals recovered his vehicle, and as soon as that image was broadcast around the multiverse people had already begun speculating if William Archer was already thinking about jumping ship once again courtesy of more bad fortune to his hopes of winning a championship. When pressed about it, Will would eventually admit that the thought crossed his mind, but he also wanted to stay with Viska a few more years to show that he could fight for the title with any team. Of course, Viska might not come back for him next season given how the free agent system worked in WGPC, so the onus really was on William to show Viska that he was someone worth re-signing.

That didn’t stop William from releasing some of his pent-up frustration once he got back to the garage. He threw his gloves to the ground and let out a short yell of “Fuck!” The DNF itself wasn’t the frustrating thing for him though; he never really looked like he was going to make an impact against the top of the grid in the sprint race, especially here in Serizawa. But whatever happened to his power unit could very well be a terminal issue that could remove it from the pool of usable elements, and it was a relatively new PU as well! That was the truly frustrating thing about the DNF; losing an engine during a session that had never really been a focus for William Archer.

“Well, look at what we have here,” the depressingly familiar sneering voice of the doubter said after Will had finally picked up his gloves. “I didn’t think it was going to happen this quick, but brother, I think it’s now official: you are cooked. Viska don’t even care about trying to keep you onside now. At least Preston kept buttering you up even while they were giving all their best parts and upgrades to Rudy. Viska don’t even care to tell you that you’re literally second best in their eyes!”

“Took you long enough to come back, didn’t you?” Will snapped at the figment of his imagination. “I hate to say it, but I’ve been waiting for you to come back. What the fuck took you so long?”

“Who, me? I’ve been here this whole time,” the doubter replied. “The only waiting I’ve been doing is waiting for you to realize that you’re no better off here in Viska than you were at Preston. Let’s face it, Willy. You are washed.”

“Washed?! Who the fuck are you calling washed?”

“You’re washed, brother!” the doubter continued. “You’ve been washed since you let the golden boy overtake you at Hap City when you finally had the freaking win under lock and key! You could have held off Rudy or make him burn his tires trying to fight you. You could have done a Von Visp and sent Rudy into Brendan Faloe. But no, you just rolled over and let the golden boy take your well-deserved win away from you. And for what? It’s not like Preston was even in a fight for the constructors’ title, so what difference would it have made if you won over Rudy? Nothing, that’s what. But it told Preston that you’re just a little bitch who rolls over on command. And now Viska doesn’t even have to tell you to roll over because they don’t care about you at all. They already got the next hot thing in Ron fucking Sommer. You’re washed, Willy. The only thing you’re good for now is to absorb that second seat curse they’ve been so hot and bothered about!”

“Why are you always so fucking hard on me, man!?” William shouted. “You have never said anything good about anything I’ve ever done in my career! First you were shit-talking Preston for treating me like a number two driver after they promised to support my title charge, and now you’re telling me that I’m not even good enough to be a number two for Viska! I just don’t understand how your fucking mind works!”

“You don’t have to understand anything about me, Willy! All you really need to do is understand yourself!” the doubter shrugged. “I’m the part of your mind that admits and accepts everything that you’re afraid to acknowledge. You’ve always thought that the people at Preston didn’t like you because of your father, but I’m the only one brave enough to say it to your face! I’m the only one who acknowledges that Preston wanted Rudy to win a championship before you. And now that everything is going wrong here in Viska, I’m just telling you everything you’ve always believed but won’t ever accept!”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“It means that you’ve been living a lie, little Willy!” the doubted proclaimed. “Who the fuck told you that you were going to win a championship anyway? Your dad told you that your mom visited him in a dream and told him you were going to be a champion?! Brother, wake up! Your dad lied to you! How could he talk to your mother? She’s dead! And even if your dad talked to your real mother, how can you be so sure she didn’t lie to him about you as well?”

“What did you just say to me about my mother?!” William shouted as he reached out to grab the doubter’s neck. But just as quickly as he appeared, the doubter disappeared, and in his place was a hapless member of the Viska team who looked like he was about to faint now that it looked for all intents and purposes that William was trying to strangle him. William quickly let go of the poor man’s shirt and tried to straighten it out. “I am sorry,” he apologized. “I don’t know what came over me. I… I think I need a break.”

Before the Viska staffer could stay anything, William beat a hasty retreat back to his quarters in the Viska garage. He may have finally had his first mental breakdown in front of someone else, and he was afraid of what could happen if it got out there that he was actually hearing and seeing things that weren’t actually there. And if any of this was to get out there, William Archer may as well kiss his WGPC career goodbye. If word got out that Will was perhaps not all that mentally stable, there might not be a single team on the grid that would sign him in the future.

by **Doubeia** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 7:55 am

Doubeia wrote:“Well… I have something to say.” Oliveira gulped and huffed a small puff of air. As the two made eye contact, Kokomiya could see the desire in Oliveira’s eyes. They held an expression so foreign, so unlike anything she had seen from him. Was he…?

“I love you.”

Oliveira saw the exact moment Kokomiya's eyes went dim. He awaited her answer with bated breath, but he had a gut feeling the answer he'd receive was the answer he didn't want. He looked again at Kokomiya, just in time to see her open her mouth.

"I'm sorry," she said, "I'll be frank, I don't see us as anything more than friends." Oliveira's world shattered into pieces then. He sat still, stone-faced, as he tried to recover from the rejection. He tried so hard to swallow the pill of truth, but nothing could ever wash it down his throat. It was just, he prepared himself for rejection, but why was it so hard to accept it?

They both shared an awkward glance as they reeled from the tricky situation they found themselves in. Oliveira wanted to do himself in and then some. He felt he truly loved her. It wasn't just puppy love or an infatuation; he saw a future with her, but was he too naive to think that Kokomiya felt the same? He had been festering these feelings for a while, and while the rejection was the last thing he wanted to hear ever, he felt an ironic calmness in his heart. Perhaps it was because all these feelings he had been penting up were finally released. He really wanted to tell Kokomiya he loved her, and since he had already achieved that, what was next?

The two sat in a pensive silence, both unsure of what to do or say even. Oliveira knew that Kokomiya must have been feeling very conflicted over the entire matter, and as for him... it was just rather humiliating. Perhaps Kokomiya could read Oliveira's mind because she decided to leave a short while later.

"I just... I just don't want to make things more uncomfortable for us," Kokomiya said, "I... I'm sorry." Oliveira couldn't read her expression: was it sombre? Sad? Pissed?

"It's fine, I caused the situation anyway," Oliveira replied. As he saw Kokomiya walk away from the table, Oliveira entered a state of introspection.

Just what was he thinking?

Oliveira knew he shouldn't have acted on his feelings, but at the same time he felt a need to let them all out. He just wanted to tell her that he loved her, even if it was at the expense of their friendship. Now that the dinner had taken an absolutely wrong turn, what did this mean for their friendship? He couldn't see her the same way anymore, and neither did he think she could see him in the same light. Their dynamic had changed, and for worse. The longer Oliveira thought about it, the more he regretted his decision. He should have kept it to himself. He shouldn't have acted on impulse. Those small acts of kindness were enough! He had been trying to be her secret Santa for a while now. He hoped that she appreciated everything he bought or made for her. If he couldn't express his love for her in person, at least let it be known through his gifts.

Even when Oliveira received his food, he barely had an appetite anymore. He just missed Kokomiya. He remembered when they started as colleagues. They had a good platonic relationship in and out of work, but as time passed, Oliveira feared the relationship might have gone down a romantic path. He started obsessing over her looks — many did — but his lust gradually turned into a like, and then a love. Maybe it was the way she was touchy with him, or maybe it was how she seemed to be nicer to him than most. Oliveira didn't have many friends, but amongst those he considered his closest friends, Kokomiya was one of them. He used to appreciate her presence, but he started to crave it. Was it her looks or personality? Oliveira didn't know, but he was entranced.

The age gap between him and Kokomiya had always meant that their relationship was more of a junior-senior one, and maybe that's how Kokomiya viewed Oliveira: her junior. Oliveira felt so wrong for even thinking about her romantically, but he liked — or loved — how gentle she was when she was with him. Sure, she could be rambunctious with him sometimes, but she often had a soothing effect on his soul whenever he felt stressed. Her words of affirmation and comfort would always calm him down after a hectic day of work, and Oliveira... he just liked it, there was no other explanation. His attraction to her wasn't even really about her beauty anymore, he genuinely felt that she complemented him really well. However, now that he's gone and thrown all this away, his life suddenly felt a lot more empty. The Kokomiya-sized hole in his heart that he had carelessly left was not easy to fill, and Oliveira just couldn't get over her.

"It's okay, Oli," he convinced himself, "It's not the end of the world. There'll be someone else out there."

As Oliveira finally dug into his food, a tear fell out of his eye.

"Cruisin, you fucking legend!" Stefen, Cruisin's race engineer, yelled into the radio as Cruisin crossed the chequered flag to take his second victory. The Piers Ivchenko garage erupted into chaos. Chairs were knocked down, celebratory fist-pumps were flung, and someone had even managed to sneak a beer can. Everything felt unreal for the Doubeinese outfit: they went from not having a confirmed slot in the WGPC to winning their second race. Victory had never tasted sweeter.

Amidst all of the euphony (or cacophony) of the celebrations, Kokomiya sat quietly, her celebrations being much more muted. She wasn't one to be expressive, but this time she couldn't even maintain a smile for more than a few seconds. Not even the prospect of even more sponsor money could lift the ends of her mouth up. She wasn't going to sugarcoat it: she was still thinking about Oliveira. She knew that it was foolish to stay stuck on what happened yesterday, but she couldn't help but feel sorry for Oliveira. She didn't know why she felt sorry. She just did. As she watched all the team members absolutely lose their shit, she finally cracked a small smile. She was happy for the team, but she couldn't bring herself to feel happier. It was absolutely stupid, but she couldn't help herself.

Kokomiya knew that her relationship with Oliveira wouldn't ever be the same, and it would be foolish to hope for things to return to the status quo. Still, Kokomiya felt that... whatever. Kokomiya mentally reminded herself not to be so bothered by Oliveira. The team had achieved an even bigger milestone. That's what she should be celebrating! When she finally got out of her seat to join the celebrations, she was suddenly whisked into the air as she was carried around in celebration. As her team made their procession to the podium, Kokomiya looked around her. The ocean of gold coloured the grandstand as Piers Ivchenko fans all around the world gathered to celebrate their second-ever win. She suddenly felt a pang of pride and accomplishment. Seeing the massive support from her team and her fans lifted her mood, and at that moment, she forgot all about Oliveira.

...

When Kokomiya returned back to her lodging after dinner, she decided to sleep early. She needed the sleep anyway. Of course, her bedtime ritual consisted of her scrolling through her socials, and as she mindlessly looked through all of her friends' posts, she suddenly felt jealous. Most of her friends had posted their wedding anniversary pictures, some with their children and others with their pets. All of her friends seemed to be living happily married lives while she was lying on her bed, scrolling through social media. Kokomiya so wanted to have a partner, but she didn't know if she would make a good one. It was something she would think of regularly: she had a busy and hectic schedule, yes, but she was just as eager to settle down if she needed, maybe take on a more administrative role. She was willing to upheave her entire livelihood if it meant she would have company...

That night, Kokomiya slept alone, but she yearned for someone else's warmth.

by **Trans-Dniesters** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 8:09 am

It was one of the strangest missions that Gavrina Vasilyevna Kumilyova had ever received. She had encountered her fair share of strange missions throughout her time as a soldier and officer of the Pridnestrovian Airborne Forces, but this one had to take the cake of being the strangest mission of them all. The Airborne Forces, though considered an elite unit within the Pridnestrovian military, were still part of the military nonetheless, and most of the missions that they had carried out had been part of an overall military objective. This current mission, as far as Kumilyova could see, had no military value for Pridnestrovia at all.

On paper, Gavrina Kumilyova was a major in the Pridnestrovian Airborne Forces, specifically the famous 21st Air Assault Regiment, and she was also one of their most decorated officers to boot. But aside from the 21st Air Assault Regiment, Kumilyova was also the commander of the highly secretive Company Alfa. Company Alfa was the brainchild of Major General Mikhail Yevgeniyevich Kutuzov, the current commander of the 21st Regiment. Kutuzov had seen the value of squad-based tactics during the Second Pridnestrovian-Ixanian War and thought that small squads of highly trained soldiers capable of autonomous operation could achieve objectives that the larger groups of Spetsnaz operators might not. The Airborne Forces did not have their own Spetsnaz units at the time, and Kutuzov wanted them to have at least one such unit that was under the Airborne’s direct command. As a proof of concept, Kutuzov assembled the first ever Company Alfa squad from members of the regiment with whom he had fought during the Second Great Patriotic War and used them to great effect in assisting Jugoskanian separatists during Operation Knife Edge, Pridnestrovia’s first foreign intervention mission since joining the APOC Coalition. Gavrina Kumilyova had been one of those six soldiers who had made up the very first Company Alfa squad, and given that she was one of Kutuzov’s own proteges, it was almost inevitable that Kumilyova would take over Company Alfa once Kutuzov was promoted to commander of the 21st Air Assault Regiment.

Company Alfa had grown into a platoon-sized unit during the Pridnestrovian intervention in Nordskania, with the elite and secretive nature of the unit ensuring that it would never grow larger than absolutely necessary. General Kutuzov’s brainchild had been very successful during Pridnestrovia’s campaigns in Nordskania, Estoria, and Ceroat, which had led to Company Alfa working alongside the likes of the GRU and KGB Spetsnaz as well as Zimmer PMC. No less than Ivan Radchenko himself was impressed by the speed and skill of Company Alfa, and he had told Kutuzov that he would like to work with Company Alfa as much as he could in the future. But neither Kutuzov nor Kumilyova would have thought that what Company Alfa was about to do in Recuecn was what Radchenko actually had in mind. Assassinations and sabotage were more Company Alfa’s thing, and those were things that the unit had already done before. But a heist? That was a new one, even if many of their tactics were still applicable to the situation.

Gavrina Kumilyova had received the mission order from both General Kutuzov and Ivan Radchenko themselves a few weeks after she and two squadrons of the 21st Air Assault Regiment had returned from their third deployment to Estoria. When she had asked if the general was serious, Kutuzov merely said that he wouldn’t have gone to her if he wasn’t serious. Radchenko also had claimed that his men would need assistance in the mission that only Company Alfa could provide thanks to their small size compared to other Spetsnaz units. When Radchenko revealed that Zimmer PMC had been hired to carry out a heist in the middle of Recuecn’s capital city, Kumilyova’s skepticism only grew larger. “Sir, Company Alfa is a military unit,” she had told Kutuzov. “We don’t do heists. Not in a ‘neutral’ country anyway.”

“I agree with you, Gavrina,” Kutuzov acknowledged. “But Ivan Iosifovich here was insistent in borrowing the services of Company Alfa, and I’m in no position to refuse at the moment. Besides, he only wants to borrow a squad, not the whole unit, and I figured that lending Ivan Company Alfa’s best squad was the best way to get this done quickly and efficiently.”

That was how Gavrina Kumilyova and the five other founding members of Company Alfa had ended up in Recuecn, preparing for what was possibly the biggest mission in their respective careers. And given the depths of setup and preparation that had been done in terms of getting them into the country, it was now clear to Kumilyova that the mission, the heist, was supported by the highest echelons of the Pridnestrovian government. How else would they have been able to secure visas and employment records that would ensure that they had airtight bonafides upon arriving in Recuecn? Someone in the Kremlin, maybe even President Fedorenko herself, wanted this heist to go off without a hitch. But until she and her squad finally had a target, an objective, right now there was nothing to do but wait.

Gavrina Kumilyova had been told that all of the relevant information about the target of the heist would come from the KGB, but she certainly didn’t expect the KGB to hand over the intel in person. And she didn’t expect the KGB officer that was handing over the intel to look like the man standing in front of her. He looked more like an actor or a model than an intelligence officer. He looked like he was supposed to be in a recruitment ad or a propaganda film, not skulking around in airport cargo terminals failing to look like he was actually supposed to be there. “You’re the man from the insurance company?” she asked. “The insurance company” was a popular idiom for the KGB in Pridnestrovia courtesy of the fact that the Committee’s headquarters were in a building formerly occupied by the now-defunct Nistreanu Insurance Company.

“Da,” Makar Faddeyevich Bittsevsky nodded. “I’m here to make a delivery to Tiraspol.”

“Uh-huh,” Kumilyova nodded back. “Forgive me for asking, but you don’t really look like an insurance agent.”

“I think that was part of the job description,” Bittsevsky replied as he brought out the dossiers that he had compiled.

“Slava!” Kumilyova called out, and her deputy, Vyacheslav Ilyich Klimov, walked over to her. Klimov was a tall man with short blonde hair and tall cheekbones who, like Kumilyova, was a protege of Major General Mikhail Kutuzov and a founding member of Company Alfa. “Is this the insurance agent they were talking about?” Klimov asked her, pointing at Bittsevsky. “Sure doesn’t look like one, does he?”

“So what do you have for us, insurance man?” Kumilyova asked Bittsevsky.

Bittsevsky opened up his dossier. “The target is Visp Financier,” he said. “The location is Capital Saône. Well, actually, the location is la Tour Visp, but Capital Saône is where you really want to go. Capital Saône is Visp Financier’s largest bank. Heck, it’s even its own conglomerate. La Tour Visp is the tallest building in Recuecn City, and because it’s the tallest, it has lots and lots of security. There’s a bank in it, it’s a tourist attraction, there’s lots and lots of people in it. Fighting your way inside and out is not recommended, even if you could probably do it.”

“We’ll be the judge of that,” Klimov said. “Floor plans for the bank?”

“Of course,” Bittsevsky nodded. “Open floor plan typical of modern banks today. Counters for the tellers on the right side and the back, a large lobby in the middle, and then the offices are to the left of the entrance. The vault will be in the basement, holding an estimated 5 to 15 billion guilders in bills inside. Opening the vault usually requires a passcode and two keys, held by the manager and the assistant manager, that need to be turned at the same time. But this can be overridden by a pass phrase spoken by the owner of the bank.”

“What’s the name of this owner?” Kumilyova asked. “And what’s the override pass phrase?”

“The man you are looking for is Vincent Von Visp,” Bittsevsky, turning his dossier to the corresponding pages. The dossier on Von Visp was dominated by a picture of the red-headed Recuecian wearing red overalls matching his hair with a broad green stripe, a design that was clearly trying to evoke the flag of Pridnestrovia. “He’s one of the richest men in Recuecn,” Bittsevsky explained. “Von Visp owes most of his wealth to his family, which owns Visp Financier, but he’s no stranger to making and spending his oan money, usually through underhanded means. And when he’s not busy forcing his targets into bankruptcy and insolvency, Von Visp also moonlights as a racing driver in the World Grand Prix Championship. Bastard actually drives for Urotovsky-Gatutin Motorsports, which might explain why the fortress*, the insurance company, and the composer** are all so interested in his fortunes.”

“Bozhe moy,” Klimov muttered. “All of them are interested in Von Visp’s cash? No wonder they wanted us to be out here, Rina,” he told Kumilyova.

“And what does Von Visp do back home?” Kumilyova asked Bittsevsky. “Where does he spend most of his time?”

“Right there in la Tour Visp,” the KGB officer replied. “Von Visp owns the penthouse at the top of the tower. He does most of his business there, most business that doesn’t require his physical presence.”

“And how easy would it be to keep him isolated from everyone else?”

“It’s actually quite hard,” Bittsevsky acknowledged. “Von Visp is always accompanied by his personal secretary, Valerie Vuillermoz.” Bittsevsky flipped through the dossier before finally landing on a picture of a woman with a professional aura that radiated even from the pages of the dossier. “Von Visp is never far away from Valerie, and Valerie is never far away from Von Visp. In fact, the only time that Valerie would be away from Von Visp’s side is during Grand Prix races and when she’s running missions or errands for him.”

“Man, I don’t blame him for trying to keep that girl as close to him as possible,” Klimov said while looking at the photo of Valerie. “What do we know about the relationship between these two? Surely there has to be something going on between them.”

“Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case,” Bittsevsky said while shaking his head. “The relationship between Vincent and Valerie is, as far as we can tell, a purely professional one. And if it weren’t for the fact that she is Recuecian, she could actually be one of the best insurance agents ever. She’s ruthlessly efficient. Or efficiently ruthless. What I’m saying is that Valerie could foil any attempt to isolate Von Visp.”

“We’ll worry about that when we have to,” Kumilyova said.

“And that’s not all,” Bittsevsky added. “We aren’t the only ones interested in Monsieur Von Visp’s finances. There is a ministry here, I believe that they combine aspects of the Finance Ministry, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the Customs Authority, that is currently investigating Von Visp for financial irregularities. I believe that the douaniers, as they are called here, believe that someone in Pridnestrovia may be extorting Von Visp. But owing to Von Visp’s connections to our country, I think what’s happening is the opposite of extortion. I think Von Visp is actually sending bribes to Pridnestrovia.”

“I would suggest that you keep this to yourself if you know what’s good for you,” Klimov said to the KGB officer.

“All right, now we know where the cash is. What about the gold?” Kumilyova asked.

“The gold?” Bittsevsky repeated.

“The gold,” Kumilyova said again. “Aurum. Zoloto. The fortress was very keen on seeing the Von Visp family gold. I thought the insurance company had made that clear.”

“I’m sorry,” Bittsevsky apologized. “I misunderstood your question. The gold is not at Capital Saône. It’s in another place altogether.”

“Well, do tell,” Klimov sneered. “Don’t keep us in suspense.”

Bittsevsky flipped through his dossier once again before arriving at a picture of a squat brick building surrounded by other similar-looking buildings. “This is the Societe Credit Reçueçienne,” Bittsevsky explained. “This is where everything involving Visp Financier, Capital Saône, la Tour Visp, all began. This is where Visp Financier was born. And this is where the Von Visp family gold is stored. It’s located in the old quarter, and because it’s a small bank compared to Capital Saône, security is much lighter in comparison. Security is still tight—we are talking about gold bullion, after all—but compared to the security in la Tour Visp and Capital Saône, the gold might as well be guarded by provincial policemen from the ass crack of the Krav Mountains.”

“Looks like we just found the place where the composer’s orchestra is going to play,” Klimov muttered. “Lucky bastards.”

“No wonder the composer needed our help,” Kumilyova said. “This is definitely beginning to look more like a double strike.”

“Does that mean we’re the main story then?” Klimov asked.

“Da, unfortunately, I think it does,” Kumilyova nodded her head. “The general told us that we were not to get our hands wet as much as we possibly could. That might be impossible once we have to get back here, but no one has to be killed at the bank. It should be all about getting in, taking the money, and getting out.”

“What about Vincent Von Visp?” Klimov asked. “What are we going to do about him?”

“He’s not needed in the plan right now,” Kumilyova explained. “We’ll worry about him when we have to worry about him. Get the rest of the guys ready. We have to start preparing for the heist.” She then turned her attention back to Bittsevsky and asked him, “Do you mind if we keep this?” as she pointed at the dossier.

“All I was told was that I was not supposed to send it in the diplomatic pouch,” Bittsevsky replied. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s already yours.”

“Spasibo, Mr. Insurance Agent,” Kumilyova nodded as she took the dossier.

NOTES:
* "Fortress" refers to the government of Pridnestrovia, seated within the Tiraspol Kremlin (kremlin itself means "fortress in a city")
** "Composer" refers to Ivan Radchenko, owner of Zimmer PMC (which takes its name from a notable composer)

by **Banija** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 8:12 am

Jjuko Okafor, sitting in his apartment, in Aissa

Okafor lived in a luxury apartment, with some of the best views in Aissa. The city alongside the Kuanen River also served as the largest Banijan city that was directly on an international border, as he could see across into Geisenfried from his penthouse apartment. The apartment was being floated by his father, Abel Wesoloski-Okafor, who currently lived out in South Newlandia. As a child, he had witnessed his father reach the greatest possible heights in his chosen sport, association football. Everyone knew that man's accomplishments. But while many athletes in Banija followed their famous fathers into big sports, the results were a mixed bag. You could be a cautionary tale, like Sebowa Jawara- the deeply unpopular nephew of Isaka Jawara, who was floundering as the quarterback at Loyola-Istria.

Jjuko had a tough life for himself, however- despite his famous parent. Shortly after AWO arrived in Banija to play for Busembe, he fell in love with a young woman, named Najja. They started dating, a whirlwind summer romance, and quickly, Najja was pregnant. AWO was 20 years old, and Najja was 19 years old, and they were going to have a baby. It was all roses throughout the pregnancy- and then, when the baby was born, they had a brutal falling out, and a brutal divorce case. And Jjuko, most unfortunately, paid a lot of the price. Ugly custody battles led to the mother getting full custody, and AWO paying child support. But when young Jjuko was just 6 years old, his mother died while on vacation in Fröndt, after getting stung by one of the lethal flying jellyfish. And then, after a minor custody battle between his maternal grandparents and AWO, Jjuko was eventually given to his father- who hadn't seen his child in 5 years.

At that point in time, AWO had a new wife, and one new son- and now, he had four kids with the new wife. So Jjuko was the oldest child in the house- but the only one for whom the lady of the house was the stepmother, rather than the birth mother. It would lead to quite a dynamic. Jjuko ended up being a sort of rebel child, especially as a teenager. Lots of shouting matches, lots of brutal arguments with his parents- beyond the typical teenager stuff. The worst? When he got kicked out of his public high school for doing drugs on campus. It led to another one hellacious fight. Eventually, they had to move him to a boarding school, that he despised, just so that he would finish high school. His parents wanted him to go to college- but he did not want to do that.

It led to the same argument, over and over again.

"Jjuko- what are you doing with your life?" AWO would ask him.

"Leave me alone, Dad." Jjuko would always respond. The two would go back and forth, but then, you know- he'd have to leave again, and then the younger Okafor would be on his own.

Six months ago, the worst moment happened. Another blowup between the two- and boom, Jjuko was kicked out of the house. Crashing on a friend's couch for a day, AWO eventually came to visit, and they came to a compromise. Jjuko was adamant about not wanting to go to college. AWO was saying he had to. So Jjuko would be given an apartment, further away from the family- all the way out in Aissa. And he would have one month to come up with a plan for his life- or else his father would cut him off.

So he moved out, and for the first two weeks, things went off the rails. Multi-day benders. All sorts of drugs and alcohol. Getting arrested for selling coffee on the streets. He even got beat up, on the street. And that streetfight caused him to really think about things. What did he want to do? He started to sober up, and really consider. What did he want to do with his life? College wasn't his path- but if that wasn't, what was?

He remembered the conversation with his father, when he came, 2 weeks after that, as promised.

"Dad." He had told his father.

"Son." AWO had replied, coldly. The relationship was poor.

"I want to go into motor racing."

"What??" His father had replied. He thought deeply about it, and there was silence for about 5 minutes. "You can't succeed as a racecar driver in Banija. There's no scene here! And to go abroad... Well, how are you going to do that? You've never lived abroad. And I mean- look at the state of this place." The younger Okafor's apartment was an abject disaster- complete mess.

"Dad." He told his father. "I can do it."

"No- you can't." AWO replied. He sighed.

"You succeeded as a professional athlete, Dad!" He responded. "You are probably the greatest athlete Banija has ever seen! Why can't you see that I'm trying to forge my own-"

"There is no path in streetracing!" Boomed Wesoloski-Okafor.

"I CAN DO THIS DAD!" He yelled back. The two were glaring at each other. Wesoloski-Okafor sat down. "I can't be here, son. I'll come back tomorrow." And Wesoloski-Okafor left the house. That night- it might have bene the longest of the younger Okafor's life. And then, the next day, AWO was back in the apartment, from his hotel.

"Son." AWO said. "I cannot emphasize enough- this is not the career path for you. You can't succeed while doing this."

"Yes- I can!" Jjuko argued. "Look- there's a really good trainer here, it'll require some investment, of course, but you were going to pay college tuition anways-"

"College tuition helps you make something of yourself." AWO said simply.

"You didn't even go to college Dad!" His son cried back in response.

"I was an all-time prospect in soccer." AWO replied back simply. "That path- is not for everyone. And that was a track in a sport where the path to wealth and success is strong. It's a hard road, of course- but there are metric tons of footballers, from so many countries, many more that you've never heard of, who have gone from working class to upper class via this great sport. But no Banijan has ever sustained himself as a racer."

"I can be the first Dad. I just need you to have faith in me." Jjuko said to him. The two stared at each other for about 30 seconds- but for what felt like eternity. His father started to cry- outside of being on the actual football pitch, he had never seen his Father cry.

"I fear for what you will do with your life, son." AWO said. "I'm gonna give you some seed money. But I can't sit here and support you ruining your life like this. So I have this check, right here." And just like that, his father reached into his pocket and ripped out a check. "This is a year's rent here, plus a year's worth of training with this street racer at the rates you told me- plus a hefty check. But I'm gonna give you two options." Jjuko sat up and listened.

"Option #1. Say no to this. Come to South Newlandia with me. It's a great place- Rüsselsheim is fantastic. Maybe you can go to school at the Ratzupalfu University of Nature. What a program they have- I know you love animals." Jjuko kept staring, as his father continued. "Option #2. Take this money, stay here, pursue this. But you can't come home. Not to your mother and siblings, not to Rüsselsheim with me. Your siblings need their oldest brother to be pursuing a sensible path- not throwing his potential away on something like streetracing as a Banijan."

Jjuko started crying too. "Dad. You can't do this."

"Son, I will not stand by." Both men were crying- but AWO composed himself. Put the check on the island. "Goodbye, son. If you choose a different path- please call me. I will go to the ends of the earth for you. But like this..."

Jjuko simply stared off as his father left the room. He sat down, in exhaustion. He cried. He tried calling his stepmother- she didn't pick up. He tried calling a couple of his little siblings, or even the home house phone- nobody picked up. HIs father wasn't kidding. He was going to pursue this dream- but on his own.

Half a year after the events above, Jjuko visiting his mother's grave in Busukuma, National Capitol Region, Banija

The last 6 months had been intense for Jjuko. He was, night and day, a different man after that conversation with his Father. It was an interesting time. His father would mail him checks from time to time- but the personal relationship was broken. He had kept that entirely a secret, from the world. His friends, rivals, competitors, the press, etc... As far as anybody knew, he had a picture-perfect relationship with his famous father, and the rest of his family. But it tore at him every night. Not only did it tear at him- but it was an angry motivator. He developed into a pretty good(by Banijan standards, anyways) open wheel racer in Aissa. He was the champion of the city's circuit(low bar), and his team said that he had some serious potential.

So a week prior, he had went in front of the Aissa Circuit, and asked for a PR push to see if he could be signed by a team in the World Grand Prix. And after 6 days, they had told him- they will back him. And so, ahead of that push, he flew down to Busukuma to do something that he hadn't done in a while- visit the grave of his mother.

As he walked up to the grave, he looked at her tombstone, with flowers.

"Here Lies Najja Okafor.
Mother of Jjuko Okafor.
Daughter of David and Allison Botobo.

for behold, ye are free; ye are permitted to act for yourselves; for behold, God hath given unto you a knowledge and he hath made you free." - Book of Mormon

It was an inspirational quote- one that he always enjoyed thinking about when he came to his mother's grave. He still had no idea whether or not his journey would be successful- but, reading this, he knew that he had to be. He had to prove his father wrong. He had to do it for his mother- a free spirited soul, whose sense of adventure had her ripped away from this earth at far too young an age.

He sat. He stared, he prayed, he was in deep thought. After an hour, he got up and left. It was time.

Aissa.Racing.Circuit
21 minutes ago

Our man @Jjuko.Okafor is making a push to be the first Banijan to race in the World Grand Prix! We've got all his highlights- let's get him out there!

Aissa.Metropolitan.Events.Force
9 minutes ago

Won 5 of 6 races in this short season in Aissa- let's make a push for Okafor to hit the WGPC! #GetOkaforToWGPC
Jjuko.Okafor
6 minutes ago

Thanks for the support! I'll definitely be headed to Circuit d'Arès to take in their Grand Prix in person! We'll see if a push can be successful
Banijan.GPFan.2018
57 seconds ago

A Banijan in the WGPC? That'd be badass! Let's get Okafor there.

by **Nico Hulkenberg** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 9:44 am

Ridgeline Raceway
Patriotlandia

Having qualified in a lowly twenty-fourth for the grand prix with her teammate just up ahead in twentieth, Nepö expected very little of note to occur in the race, electing to go with a cautious-yet-effective strategy of running long on a hard tyre in case of a safety car, ditching to the soft if it worked out. Upon race start, she and Vincent found themselves climbing a few positions, and a struggling Abdoulaye Goita soon came into view. The Reçueçian - at least, the one that wasn’t her teammate - appeared to be struggling on his tyres, and Nepö knew she had to pounce if any points were to be on the table. Exiting turn four, she felt the Ælund driver hadn’t got the best of drives out the corner, and she began to drift towards the inside to set up the overtake. Going for the move on Goita, she hoped to be exiting the corner having gained a position, but as she looked back into her mirrors she noticed that her teammate didn’t appear to be slowing down.

”Oh fuck.”

Nepö felt an almighty jolt as Vincent misjudged his braking point and ploughed into the rear of her car, lifting it up into the air momentarily only for it to clatter back into the ground, bits flying off the UrGa as she scrambled to regain control. Immediately, she got onto the radio to her engineer, who was presumably just as aghast at the whole thing as she was.

”What the FUCK was that?”

“I don’t know, just keep going for now.”

“He could have killed me, man! Did he forget which pedal to push or what!?”

“Calm down, focus on your race.”

“What race, mate? We had a race until thirty seconds ago, now we have nothing. Nothing!”

“How’s the balance, can you continue?”

“The car feels awful, practically undriveable. What a mess!”

“You will experience severe aero loss coming from the rear and underfloor. Lap times will suffer as a result.”

“Well, duh! Does he have any damage or what?”

“Negative, all okay.”

“That rat bastard!”

With her rear diffuser totally wrecked, Nepö contemplated throwing in the towel and retiring from the race, but sheer seethe and anger kept her going, even as she continued to tumble down the order, lap after lap. The remainder of her conversations with her engineer throughout the race consisted of many complaints of oversteer, understeer, and sometimes no steer whatsoever, all while she continued to curse her teammates. Ultimately, it was being told that he had finished in the top ten whilst she had barely managed to stave off being two laps down that truly set her off. Parking her car up as the last finishing car, she sauntered up the pit lane in search of her teammate, catching him before he got too far away.

“Don’t you fucking move, Vincent!” Nepö yelled, her face turning redder than her UrGa suit.

The admittedly funny sight of Nepö angrily stomping towards Vincent would have set anyone off in a fit of giggles - himself included, cracking a smile as his diminutive teammate locked eyes with his.

”Something wrong, sweetie?” he said, struggling to maintain a straight face. His general demeanour and expression suggested he wasn’t expecting her to push him to the wall with as much force as she could muster. Before she had a chance to do any proper physical harm to Vincent, the Reçueçian held his arms out to keep Nepö at arms length, leaving her swinging at air.

”What the hell were you doing? What the fuck were you thinking? Why did you do it, Vincent? Why?!”

“I thought there was space, there wasn’t. End of.”

“No, no! Not ‘end of’, definitely not fucking ‘end of’. You could have killed me, and not only that, you could have killed the Ælund that had to swerve to avoid the carnage you caused! And for what, fourteenth?”

“Well, I don’t see any dead people.”

“Do you seriously not see the problem here? Are consequences as alien to you as, say, sabotage? Or bribery? Or common fucking decency?”

“Completely baseless allegations, especially considering our date. And, as I seem to recall, it was me being sabotaged, not you.”

“Oh, you wish. It’s too easy to say that when you aren’t beating the teammate you paid to beat, isn’t it. Too easy when you’re losing to a girl.”

“The misogyny card? Really? Nepö, you can’t say that, I love all women. You know this.”

“Yeah, maybe too much.”

“Impossible. I still love you, despite the fact you’re trying to violently attack me.”

“Shut up, shut up, shut up! Right now, the feelings are definitely not mutual. In fact, if I was a little bit taller, I’d beat the shit out of you in front of everyone here. Fuck the cameras, fuck the rest, you wouldn’t even be standing up.”

“You know, I could get you a stool if you wanted to be more intimidating.”

“See? It’s that endless smarm and petulance that can make you just so fucking unlikable. I wanted to like you, I really did, but your sheer lack of compassion and inflated ego does not make you any hotter, I promise you.”

Vincent raised an eyebrow as Nepö continued to breathe heavily, her voice straining from screaming so much abuse.

”So you think I’m hot in the first place?”

“Just stop this charmer act and apologise, for god’s sake.”

“I’m not going to apologise for a racing incident. Perhaps you should consider looking in your mirrors.”

Tired of the whole thing, Nepö grabbed Vincent’s arm and bit his hand, drawing a yelp from him as he drew his arm back.

”How’s that for intimidating, arsewipe!” she said, storming off in the direction of the UrGa pit garages.

Vincent stared mouth-agape as Nepö strode away, caressing his bitten hand with his other. He looked down at the teeth marks she’d left in her anger - indeed, the closest physical contact they’d had since their date - before looking up to see the eyes of multiple other drivers and staff members staring back at him.

“What are you all looking at? Never had an argument before?”

THE HÜLKENBERGER HERALD
Is ‘Kincent’ over? Paddock heartthrobs spotted in frenzied fight

Urutovsky-Gatutin teammates Nepö Kinder and Vincent von Visp have long been the subject of rumours and scrutiny. From the moment the ink dried on their contracts, expectations were high, albeit the season itself has not transpired as such for the reigning constructor’s champions. The Herald’s Josef Wortsagen wrote during grands prix earlier in the season that tensions between the two were high, with the Hülkenberger greatly distrusting her Reçueçian teammate for reasons unknown. However, when the two were spotted in a car prior to the Nimban Grand Prix, rumours began to arise that the tensions had transformed from distrusting to romantic, with Kinder and Von Visp being secretly snapped at a post-podium afterparty seemingly enjoying the company of one another. This led fans on social media to begin ‘shipping’ both drivers - a new-generation way of implying two people should be in a relationship - and calling it ‘Kincent’, a portmanteau of Nepö’s surname and Von Visp’s forename.

However, following an incident during the Patriotlandian Grand Prix and subsequent public outburst from Kinder, many are wondering whether their brief fling is coming to an end, or if it is just the beginning of something more. The Hülkenberger didn’t hold back in her comments, with insults and threats of violence being hurled with purpose as Von Visp appeared bemused, merely trying to prevent himself from being hurt. The bite mark on his hand, however, suggests that he was unable to do so, as paddock photographers caught the Reçueçian nursing his hand as he left the scene of the potential breakup.

”This is tabloid gold,” began Herald racing correspondent Josef Wortsagen. ”So many of us journalists have been praying for something besides gay sex between championship contenders to be the main story of the lot, and here we have it. Two teammates, two properly hot-headed competitors going at it in full view of everyone, with no regard for the world around them. I’ll be sure to stalk them around the paddock in subsequent races to see if anything more comes of it.”

Neither driver could be reached for comment, but a response was received from Vincent von Visp’s media manager, who stated that her driver wouldn’t be commenting on speculation around his love life, ”no matter how much he wanted people to know about his love for women”. She would go on to state that Von Visp was ”categorically not a misogynist, and that he loves tall and short women indiscriminately, no matter how beaky their noses are”. We hadn’t even asked that, but it’s good to know!

by **Tumbra** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 11:51 am

Grantfeldt
Tumbra

What was this, his...third cup of tea for the day?

Stephen Cheung, Deputy Team Principal and Head of Factory Operations, sighed as he sat back down in his room and looked at the clock. It was a slow week, all things considered; the midseason upgrade package had been pushed out the door earlier in the week, and it was about that point in the year when individual departments and divisions were starting to look forward to next season; while this connoted an air of excitement, what it really meant was more and more bureaucracy and minutes and corporate-speak while most of the progress was hefted onto the Operations side of the team.

It was 3.40pm. Too early to be leaving the office, even with the cloud of Thomas Kim's ever-watchful eye of 'productivity' receding under new executive leadership. Cheung had met the new CEO, Ian Ashburn, earlier in the week, and found him to be a breath of fresh air; thoroughly agreeable, and with an actual knowledge of how sports worked (the Ashburn scion was, after all, a retired footballer). They'd both agreed that Ian would give Stephen a wide berth with which to function as factory manager; and in return Stephen would, when it eventually came down to it, boost Ian to make his temporary role permanent.

Sealed with a wink, of course.

He sipped as he looked back at his email inbox. The black-and-blue interface of Outlook seemed to dampen his mood whenever he looked at it; silently, he clicked through the things that he'd been sent. Most of them were, as usual, looking to keep him in the loop. Simple, perfunctory tasks, really; "Noted", "Okay", "Good" responses before chucking them into the memory hole that was the recycle bin. He worked for what felt like ten minutes, then looked back at the clock.

Five minutes. He groaned as he drained the last dregs of his tea. At least going to wash his mug would serve as a useful distraction. But even with the low thrumming of the coup attempt against Thomas Kim — the tension of which had been jacked up quite a bit since the entrance of Ian Ashburn, the variable that not many had seen coming — he still wanted something exciting.

Then there was a knock on the door. Without waiting for a response, the door opened. There stood Minerva O'Leary, head of the Talent Identification and Development Division; she was holding a couple of manila folders.

"Figured you needed some excitement," she said in an Iswilyn ^[Irish] accent as she sat down. "So we've got you these. A few young, exciting names to keep an eye on."

"Yeah, but I'm not the one you're supposed to be letting see these."

"You are the highest-ranking member of the team right now, here, in this factory," she shrugged. "Mind if I grab a biscuit?"

"Sure, if it's not empty," he said. "And close the door."

She complied.

"What's so special about these?"

"Well, I just thought you'd like a regular update on our work. And the tone of your email responses suggest you could use this," she said casually as she munched on a butter cookie. "One of the names in there is interesting. Or could be interesting to the new man up top, if he still cares about football."

"Feels like nobody really does these days," mentioned Cheung off-handedly as he looked at the folder. "Okafor. Surname sounds familiar." He let the surname roll across his tongue. "Oh-kahh-fooor. Where have I heard that."

"Father's a footballer," she replied. "Which is why Ian might be interested. Probably faced off against each other a fair few times, if anything."

"He good? Or is his surname doing most of the work?"

"Banija's not known for their depth in motorsport talent, which is surprising considering it feels like they've won everything on the damn planet. Including —"

"— yeah, the hiding they gave Chromatika in Straton back in World Cup 93," Stephen sucked air through his mouth as he looked at his biography. "He's got a license," he said, semi-approvingly.

"Mhm, just approved, which is what pushed him to the top of the pile. By the way, Sophie should really re-apply for hers, y'know? Just in case and all that."

"Aren't you in charge of that?'

"We've told her, but she's dragged her feet on it."

Stephen flipped through the folder. "I could see us giving him a test. Of sorts. Let him know what the big leagues really are like, y'know? Factory tour, test day with Sophie as a benchmark and mentor, let him try out the WGP2 car. At least we won't need to teach him how to drive. Maybe a nice press opp for him, see whether any Banijan companies bite. Could always reach out."

Pressley Racing reaches out to Jjuko Okafor to offer him a private test and general introduction to the WGPC grid.

by **Auruna** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 12:02 pm

Akresna, Auruna
During the Patriotlandia Grand Prix weekend

Jöna found it hard to adjust to a more "normal" life compared to what he is used to. It was slow, but calm and the stresses of running a WGPC team are nowhere to be found yet he honestly thought that it was boring. He found himself itching to get back to running Viska in WGPC but ultimately knew that it was too soon especially when it was Kiiro who was concerned about his health and ordered him to take a necessary break from the sport. He just couldn't say no to his boss. At least Viska is under good hands with Artur at the helm and the last time that he became acting team principal, the team achieved relative successes and so Jöna has his full support for his closest friend.

Now he would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy his time at home. It's been a while since he last spent some time with his family, it was difficult to do when he was busy with work as a team principal and his daughter being busy with her own racing career. But now he is thankful that he got a chance to do so even when Aira is understandably only at home for a certain time. While having a relaxing time at home seemed to be a foreign concept to someone who is dedicated in their work, Jöna has been absolutely enjoying this change of pace.

Although, even with all that, Jöna just couldn't take his mind off from motorsport, his heart is with racing. He couldn't help but tune in to whatever racing there is on TV. It didn't matter what kind of motorsport it was as he had a diverse selection to choose from whether it be domestic or international, all with dedicated MNA channels. He initially avoided watching any WGPC broadcast as he feared that the result will just put him in a bad mood, especially when it's with Viska. He might inadvertently revert to his team principal self while watching. But for the Patriotlandia Grand Prix weekend, he mustered up the will to watch his team race after weeks of being out of the loop in WGPC. While he set his expectations low, just to be safe, he still hoped for Viska to at least perform well.

Forcing himself to wake up at 0200 because of the undesirable schedule of the live broadcast but he couldn't do much about it as he wanted to watch all sessions live. He already planned ahead as with the help of several cups of coffee, it should keep him awake enough to get through all sessions in their respective day. He felt unusually excited, it was far different from his typical serious mindset when it comes to race weekends as he instinctively adjusts some phantom headphones before he even realised.

First day, it was the Pre-Qualifying and Sprint Race. Jöna didn't show that much interest in the former where there's only a few drivers he recognised and only the top three for that session were closely matched. But for the Sprint Race, he is unsure how it will go especially for Viska based on prior experiences. And so with his fourth cup of coffee, he is prepared for whatever result his team gets. And it was as he expected. He found it hard to stay awake throughout the race not because it was objectively boring to him, but because he still felt tired after several cups of strong coffee. At least it's done for the day and he could finally get some sleep.

Second day was for Qualifying, a relatively short session compared to the others so Jöna figured that he could stay up for the entirety of the session. While biased towards his team, he doesn't necessarily have a driver to root for. Probably because of his team principal self or the fact that he doesn't have a hand in choosing the drivers for this season as Artur proudly took on the role. Jöna was deeply invested in qualifying as it reminded him of his own racing career years ago before he had the opportunity to run a team. His eyes are glued to the TV screen while listening in to the excited Aurun commentators in a low volume as to not wake up the others in his small Akresna house. He even found himself muttering some strategies to himself as he watched, he just couldn't help it as his excitement took over him in this viewing of a proper qualifying session. In the end, he didn't care much about the results as he wanted to watch the drivers go as fast as they can and this made him want to look forward to the race.

When race day came, Jöna couldn't contain his excitement as he disregarded any sleep while waiting for the live broadcast. Stocked with snacks and coffee plus a dedicated live chat, the following two hours should be tolerable to someone returning to just a spectator to the sport. Once the race went underway, he was solely focused on the TV albeit with brief glances towards his phone. He was at the edge of his seat during battles, never knowing who will come out on top and the thing that he is more interested in is the strategy that the teams went for, curious as to how they approached the race. This gave him a wider perspective compared to when he was only focused on his team. It was a more thrilling ride that he never experienced in a long while and it made the end all the more satisfying to see live. He never expected Viska to win based on what he saw before his break, lacking in an unknown aspect that was holding them back to reach the top spot in the race but thanks to Ron's miracle drive towards the top, Jöna had to believe it to be a possible reality as he quietly celebrated in his dark living room and he needed some time to calm down after that.

Not long after while he cleaned up, he suddenly receives a call from Kiiro. Sleep is delayed but it must be important if Kiiro is calling early in the morning. Jöna didn't let his phone ring for long as he answered the call. After exchanging greetings, Kiiro went straight to why he called and briefly told Jöna. "I'm going to need you for next week. If it's too soon for you and you can't go... just stay tuned to the news."

Kiiro hung up before explaining it further, leaving Jöna confused as to what is going on. More so when Artur then texted him worriedly saying, "When are you going to be back? I have a bad feeling that something's about to happen."

Jöna just couldn't respond back yet he is ultimately worried about what's going on with his team. He wants to return after hearing all that but he knew that it was just too soon to come back. This exhausted him further as he laid down on the sofa under the illumination of the bright TV screen before eventually falling asleep.

by **Turori** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 1:21 pm

WGPC 21 Statistics & Data Zone (Aji No Moto)

Aji Air GP, Serizawa Racing Circuit, Serizawa, Aji No Moto :: After having spent the first half of the season entirely out of the points, two rookie drivers finally got out of the "Also competed" category for World Grand Prix Championship Season 21 and onto the official standings by scoring their first points of the season at the Serizawa Racing Circuit. For Nini Johnsilvaturr, the former Race Eelandii AOGP driver and video game racer extraordinaire, it was a hard earned 3 points half a season in the making. As Her team, Pressley Racing, fights to stay within range in the battle for the Constructors Title, Johnsilvaturr's first points - while small having been earned from an 8th place finish in the Aji No Moto feature, are a sign of great promise for the team who has thus far had to fully rely on the contribution from Dario Nülkeschlager who by contrast currently sits in second position of the World Grand Prix Drivers Championship standings immediately behind R.L. Cruisin.

While Johnsilvaturr's first points as a World Grand Prix Championship driver were certainly celebration worthy for Pressley Racing, it was the dramatic manner at which another driver scored their first World Grand Prix points that would be remember for quite some time. After getting a start in the twii.tur Support Series while attempting to qualify for the first ever WOrld Grand Prix Championship event with the WGPC Motorworks team, Indusse's first ever World Grand Prix competitor Naveen Kalkar would be the biggest beneficiary of updated rules allowing any WGPC Motorworks driver to grid for a feature event even if two of their teammates were already higher on the grid. After several consecutive weeks of failing to qualify for the WGPC Grid, Kalkar only had to beat two drivers in order to earn a starting spot for the Aji Air Grand Prix. Kalkar would do just that - and only that, to earn the 28th and final spot on the Grid. No one could have predicted at that moment that 24 hours later it would by nothing short of a victory celebration for WGPC Motorworks and the entire Indusse Motorsports community. While strategy and perseverance had held Kalkar on position to finish on the lead lap. the Indusse driver began to struggle late on. Finally, on the very last lap of the race, it all literally came un done. After having taken the white flag, Kalkar 's car was done. After having already started their 70th lap there was little else that Kalkar could do, eventually pulling the car off the road. However, in a piece of good news - Kalkar had been the 9th and final car on the lead lap. During the 70 point feature, having started their final lap already means that by default they would be scored in front of any lapped team. So when the WGPC Motorworks car screeched to a halt, the Indussean was likely pleased to learn that despite failing to finish the race, they would still be awarded the points for a 9th place finish after being classified there due to the fact that from 10th place down, starting with Janne Laukkanen, all the drivers were lapped, officially placing Kalkar's finishing position as 9th.

While the story of Johnsilvaturr and Kalkar picking up their first career points, The real change was closer to the Top were Vincent Von Visp has moved to the 2nd position in the Toys '4' All Rookie of the Season standings behind Ron Sommer of Viska Motors. Altogether it means that there are now just four rookie drivers remaining who have yet scored a point, only 3 of which are still contracted to drive for a team this week while former WGPC Motorworks driver Azalia Kawakai has moved on to compete instead in the twii.tur Support Series.

Pos # ▍DRV Name                                          Team [Engine]                          Pts

 1 12 ▍SOM Ron Sommer                                    Viska [Viska RG Motors]                  39
 2 66 ▍VVV Vincent Von Visp                              Urotovsky-Gatutin [UrGa Zh-S-1000]       26
 3 55 ▍LNG Gil Langdon                                   KISMO [Kissan Motors KS.APEX-01]         24
 4 63 ▍KIN Nepö Kinder                                   Urotovsky-Gatutin [UrGa Zh-S-1000]       23
 5 95 ▍BZW Hanna Berezowska                              HiTEN.gpt [Franklin WGP-X2]              8
 6 58 ▍KAM Shuhei Kamado                                 KISMO [Kissan Motors KS.APEX-01]         4
 7 30 ▍MAR Otto Markul                                   WGPC Motorworks [Franklin WGP-X2]        4
 8 22 ▍JOH Nini Johnsilvaturr                            Pressley Racing [Tropicorp TRE-2T24V8]   3
 9 91 ▍KAL Naveen Kalkar                                 WGPC Motorworks [Franklin WGP-X2]        2
10 21 ▍HAZ Nik Hazrin Lutfi                              Piers Ivchenko [UrGa Zh-S-1000]          1



-- 13 ▍Pierre-Louis Archer   
-- 16 ▍Azalia Kawakai                        
-- 18 ▍Giancarlo Rahel
-- 10 ▍Ankei Souzare

Aji Air GP, Serizawa Racing Circuit, Serizawa, Aji No Moto :: As the World Grand Prix Championship season resumed in Aji No Moto, there is a new name on the board for Positions over Grid, both at the top and bottom of the standings. After having command of the top spot all season long Ron Sommers was the only remaining driver on the World Grand Prix Championship grid to qualify for and finish every single WGPC event with an improved grid position in each of the selected events. At Aji No Moto, Sommers kept the streak alive but did so with the narrowest margins they have earned to date improving just a single position from their starting spot in the Aji No Moto feature. It would reduce Sommers' overall average positions gained over grid to +7.5 which kept them roughly double the nearest number of any driver below them in the standings.

Of course, it is to say nothing of the drivers above him. All season long there hadn't been anyone there to consider but now its arguably the shock of the season as Naveen Kalkar pickups up what would have otherwise been a season best +19 positions over grid to slide from the fery last position up into 8th place. Kalkar's success was cancelled out from a numbers perspective entirely by Ted Pressley of Pressley Racing who dropped -19 positions over their grid position. While Kalkar's achievement was incredible, their reign as the greatest improving over starting position on the season lasted only until the leaders actually crossed the line. Right behind the race winner R.L. Cruisin was Ryker Lane, the long time Nimban driver who would incredibly advance their #94 Chase Cutter from a 22nd starting position all the way up onto the podium for a runner-up finish. It marked the first time during World Grand Prix Championship Season 21 that a driver had improved 20 positions or greater from their starting position and eclipsing the season best performance set by Vincent Von Visp during Race 3 of the season and tied by Naveen Kalkar on the Day in Aji No Moto.

Off in the other direction is the disappointing tale of Laura Haukkanen who had a great opportunity on the day starting in the 3rd position but ultimately being credit for dead last after an early DNF. At -25 spots it is by far the biggest long way drop of the season for any World Grand Prix Championship driver and certainly effected Haukkanen's placement in the PaKaMo Positions over Grid Standings. Haukkanen had been one of the top drivers on the grid concerning improving position from lights out and was near the top of the standings before the maga wish impact of a -25 result. Perhaps it was Haukkanen who took all the negative energy away from Olivia Stone. The Cygnus Racing driver had entered the mid-season break as the only driver to start all 6 points events in the first half of the season and not advancing their position from grid in any of the races causing them to amass a huge negative positions deficit averaging over -8 spots per event and over 50 spots lost or overtaking this season.

Those things are seemingly now a distant memory of the past as Olivia Stone had her best run of the season in the AjiAir Grand Prix Sprint improving by 16 positions to break the "red Curse" then backing it up in the feature race improving 11 positions and leaving Angela Stella Tan Fang Ling in the dust at the bottom of the table after Aji No Moto.

 Movin' on Up!

 1 :: KAL +19.0
 2 :: SOM +7.5
 3 :: NÜL +3.8
 4 :: KAM +3.4
 5 :: LAU +3.4
 6 :: VVV +3.3
 7 :: TUV +3.0
 8 :: JOH +3.0
 9 :: LMN +2.4
 10 :: LAN +2.1
 11 :: RAH +1.8
 12 :: HAU +0.4
 13 :: HAZ +0.4
 14 :: FAE +0.3
 15 :: TII +0.1
 16 :: BLA 0.0

 It's a Long, Way, Down!

 17 :: BZW -0.3
 18 :: GTA -0.6
 19 :: CRU -1.0
 20 :: LNG -1.0
 21 :: C23 -1.4
 22 :: MAR -2.0
 23 :: AKS -2.0
 24 :: KIN -2.5
 25 :: ARC -2.8
 26 :: VIA -2.8
 27 :: STO -2.8
 28 :: PLA -3.8
 29 :: PRE -3.8
 30 :: FTZ -4.2
 31 :: DEV -4.3
 32 :: ANG -5.2

twii.tur Support Series ✓

@OGP
The twii.tur Support Series @OGP Motorworks team sponsored by Toys '4' All has an open seat available for the upcoming Solymok Race of Gemischtvegyes event at the Wiesenblumering in Gergary. Interested drivers should submit their CV soonest to the @OGP and @Toys4All team.

#WGPC21 :: #SupportSeries :: #FreeRide

NOTE: This is an earlier, reduced draft of the actual RP that was posted. I foolishly overwrote the final version by posting a later RP into this older tab instead of as a new reply. This version is missing a few paragraphs, a twii from V&T Racer and another twii from Pakamo Sports about Olivia Stone which were added in the final version

by **Aji No Moto** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 1:24 pm

TORQ
The official news outlet of Ajian motorsport

WGPC 21
Kamado's WGPC drive in jeopardy?

ILE SAINT-JOSEPH - As the WGPC paddock travels to Ile Saint-Joseph for the seventh round of the multiverse's premier open-wheel racing competition, officials at Kissan Motorsport are considering whether to drop Ajian driver Shuhei Kamado from their lineup for the rest of the season after the team's dismal home weekend at the Serizawa Racing Circuit.

Despite the track suiting the characteristics of KISMO's challenger, the KSH03, the team could only manage to add a paltry three points courtesy of Gil Langdon's 6th place finish at the sprint race. Both Langdon and Kamado finished outside the top ten in Sunday's feature race, with the constructor mired in a midfield battle in the World Constructors' Championship picture, with only 28 points to boot so far, with the Katzeburgian driver getting majority of the points thanks to his 2nd place finish at the Patriotlandian Grand Prix's feature race.

In a pre-race conference in Ile Saint-Joseph, team principal Hiromu Sugiyama has admitted that they should have entered the Ajian rookie in WGP2 level first prior to entering WGPC. With reserve driver Batu Tuvshinbayar currently contracted to drive for the WGPC Motorworks team, Sugiyama must decide whether to promote Zsanett Bokor, currently driving for UrGa in the Support Series, to the KISMO seat or to find another free agent should they decide to drop Kamado after this round.

Rumors are circulating that team representatives have approached Banijan driver Jjuko Okafor to drive for the team for the remaining three races of the season, which was neither confirmed nor denied by Sugiyama in the press conference. Kamado currently sits 22nd in the World Drivers' Championship at 4 points, and has not done much to impress team officials in the eight races he had participated, which included a DNQ in the Doubeinese Grand Prix, KISMO's only non-qualification so far in the season.

Netizens are divided on the issue, as some agree that Kamado was entered to the WGPC too soon and should have done at least a season in the WGP2 series first, but some argued that the setup of KISMO's chassis for this season as well as their driver lineup prevented the young Ajian from needed development as a WGPC rookie.

The team will decide on Kamado's fate after the race in Ile Saint-Joseph, with Bokor already notified of the potential seat swap ahead of her home race in Gergary as part of the Support Series schedule.

by **Hodori Motorsports** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 1:25 pm

bfr.himeblog.net
The Blue Flag Report

Circle: Blue Flag Report
Post by 87 Pigeons

Pigeon_87

Hanna Berezowska, probably

Hello everybirby!

I’m back from the bowels of self-inflicted tech support hell: fixing the mistakes made by past me at my day job and replacing the mess of computers held together with CAT-5 cable and enough wishful thinking to meet Nimban energy needs until the heat death of the multiverse with proper servers, a mess only instituted because DHTI seized the old servers when they arrested the Previous IT Guy after I fixed his ransomware mess and accidentally found his porn collection and the boss hired me on the spot to come up with a replacement before the end of the day using what they had on hand: a bunch of old, deprecated workstations. And this was when Bytecoin was still a thing so that should tell you how old and unfit for purpose the equipment I had available was.

There was also the matter of cameras hidden under the desks Previous IT Guy had placed, so those had to go. And they did on my second day on the job. Most of the employees at BadApple Software (you can find this just by clicking on my profile, so there’s no point in me trying to hide this; they’re why my name is in shiny gold) are women, and they tend to wear skirts, so I’ll let you figure out why Previous IT Guy put those cameras there. Bonus: it’s part of why the boss fired him, but it’s got nothing to do with why DHTI arrested him.

We’re still at zero signups, so I’m extending the deadline for the Blue Flag Report Pigeon’s International Silliness Season to the end of this next grand prix. Also, given the total lack of engagement, I have an announcement regarding the future of Blue Flag Report, but I’ll put that at the end of this article.

Engage in fun silliness with simulated teams here and pretend drivers here.

WrenchBitch has given me an update on her investigation on Cryptofucker AI Techbro Idiot. She’s compiled everything the private investigators she hired gave her and sent the report to the WGPO. You can download a copy here (External link to PDF file, 98.4MB) or if you can read Hodoran you can look through the ~11GB raw dump sorted by investigator here (External link to Torrent file, 109.3MB). TL,DR: Ankei Souzare does not have a legitimate racing license issued by any organisation Hodoran or international and does not meet the criteria for a WGPC license, only acquiring a WGPC license through fraudulent means. But we all already knew that based on his on-track performance and the conclusion WrenchBitch shared in her last post.

Let’s get back up to date with the two races in Aji no Moto.
Sprint!

 P  No  DRV  Driver               Constructor             LNC    BFP    MBP    Lap Rate
 1  17  LAU  Janne Laukkanen      Nexus Racing              0      0      0    100    %
 2  27  NÜL  Dario Nülkeschlager  Pressley Racing           1      1      0     99.722%
 3  66  VVV  Vincent Von Visp     Urosovsky-Gatutin         1      1      0     99.722%
 4  55  LNG  Gil Langdon          KISMO                     2      2      0     99.444%
 5  94  LAN  Ryker Lane           Nexus Racing              2      2      0     99.444%
 6  37  HAU  Laura Haukanna       GPA Pryfors Bilar         2      2      0     99.444%
 7   1  FAE  Brendan Faloe        Cygnus                    3      3      0     99.167%
 8  12  SOM  Ron Sommer           Viska                     3      3      0     99.167%
 9  21  HAZ  Nik Hazri Lutfi      Piers Ivchenko            4      4      0     98.889%
10  77  TII  iBen Toralmintii     Race Eelandii VTGP        4      4      0     98.889%
11  63  KIN  Nepö Kinder          Urosovsky-Gatutin         4      4      0     98.889%
12  22  JOH  Nini Johnsilvaturr   Pressley Racing           6      6      0     98.333%
13  23  C23  Cocoabo #23          Race Eelandii VTGP        6      6      0     98.333%
14  82  LMN  Kinu Luminna         Preston Autos             8      8      0     97.778%
15  96  ARC  William Archer       Viska                    10      7      3     97.222%
16  95  BZW  Hanna Berezowska     HiTEN.gpt                12     12      0     85.278%
17   9  TUV  Batu Tüvshinbayar    WGPC Motorworks          13     13      0     40.278%
18  58  KAM  Shuhei Kamado        KISMO                    13     13      0     85.000%
19  30  MAR  Otto Markul          WGPC Motorworks          20     20      0     14.167%
20  74  FTZ  Adonis Fitzpatrick   HMG Grand Prix           21     21      0     66.667%
21  84  ANG  Angela Ling          Preston Autos            28     28      0     74.167%
22  16  KAW  Azalia Kawakai       WGPC Motorworks          30     30      0      0.000%
23  33  BLA  Sam Blaatschapen     GPA Pryfors Bilar        36     36      0     58.333%
24  14  VIA  Skiia Vialiv         HMG Grand Prix           39     23     16     67.778%
25  91  KAL  Naveen Kalkar        WGPC Motorworks          40     40      0      0.000%
26  18  RAH  Giancarlo Rahel      WGPC Motorworks          44     44      0     30.556%
27  13  PLA  Pierre-Louis Archer  WGPC Motorworks          47     47      0     48.611%
28  51  CRU  R.L. Cruisin         Piers Ivchenko           51      2     49     85.833%
29  88  PRE  Ted Pressley         Ælund Grand Prix         51      0     51     85.833%
30  85  STO  Olivia Stone         Cygnus                   79      6     73     78.056%
31  40  AKS  Adriana Lillian      Eminent                  80     22     58     38.889%
32   7  DEV  Anneliese Devereux   Eminent                  95     75     20     51.944%
33  89  GTA  Abdoulaye Goita      Ælund Grand Prix        117      0    117     67.500%
34  10  ASZ  Ankei Souzare        HiTEN.gpt               306    306      0      0.000%

Skiia Vialiv and my former almost-son-in-law William Archer are the newest members of the Meatball Club. Combo Meal #23 continues to be not-so-fast food by collecting another blue flag with a lap down finish. One half of one of the better WGPC ships continues to top his partner, maintaining a full 100% of laps completed so far. Cryptofucker AI Techbro Idiot continues to show off his uselessness on track with another qualifying outside of 107%.

Eminent got culled, so they’re frozen in terms of blue flags and meatballs. I guess Cryptofucker’s checks are continuing to clear since the WGPO hadn’t given him the boot Hopefully this will change.

 P  Constructor             LNC    BFP    MBP    Lap Rate
 1  Nexus Racing              2      2      0     99.722%
 2  Urosovsky-Gatutin         5      5      0     99.306%
 3  Pressley Racing           7      7      0     99.028%
 4  Race Eelandii VTGP       10     10      0     98.611%
 5  Viska                    13     10      3     98.194%
 6  KISMO                    15     15      0     92.222%
 7  Preston Autos            36     36      0     85.972%
 8  GPA Pryfors Bilar        38     38      0     78.889%
 9  Piers Ivchenko           55      6     49     92.361%
10  HMG Grand Prix           60     44     16     67.222%
11  Cygnus                   82      9     73     88.611%
12  Ælund Grand Prix        168      0    168     76.667%
13  Eminent                 175     97     78     45.417%
14  WGPC Motorworks         194    194      0     66.806%
15  HiTEN.gpt               318    318      0     42.639%

No real shakeups here; everyone’s pretty much settled by now. As we approach the final leg of the championship, things will likely get spicy. As spicy as the best sauce to pair with Cocoabo #23.

FEATURE!!

 P  No  DRV  Driver               Constructor             LNC    BFP    MBP    Lap Rate
 1  17  LAU  Janne Laukkanen      Nexus Racing              1      1      0     99.767%
 2  27  NÜL  Dario Nülkeschlager  Pressley Racing           1      1      0     99.767%
 3  94  LAN  Ryker Lane           Nexus Racing              2      2      0     99.535%
 4  55  LNG  Gil Langdon          KISMO                     3      3      0     99.302%
 5   1  FAE  Brendan Faloe        Cygnus                    4      4      0     99.070%
 6  12  SOM  Ron Sommer           Viska                     4      4      0     99.070%
 7  21  HAZ  Nik Hazri Lutfi      Piers Ivchenko            5      5      0     98.837%
 8  77  TII  iBen Toralmintii     Race Eelandii VTGP        5      5      0     98.837%
 9  22  JOH  Nini Johnsilvaturr   Pressley Racing           6      6      0     98.605%
10  63  KIN  Nepö Kinder          Urosovsky-Gatutin         6      6      0     98.605%
11  23  C23  Cocoabo #23          Race Eelandii VTGP        8      8      0     98.140%
12  82  LMN  Kinu Luminna         Preston Autos             9      9      0     97.907%
13  96  ARC  William Archer       Viska                    10      7      3     97.674%
14  66  VVV  Vincent Von Visp     Urosovsky-Gatutin        11     11      0     83.488%
15  95  BZW  Hanna Berezowska     HiTEN.gpt                13     13      0     87.442%
16   9  TUV  Batu Tüvshinbayar    WGPC Motorworks          14     14      0     49.767%
17  58  KAM  Shuhei Kamado        KISMO                    14     14      0     87.209%
18  30  MAR  Otto Markul          WGPC Motorworks          20     20      0     11.860%
19  74  FTZ  Adonis Fitzpatrick   HMG Grand Prix           22     22      0     71.860%
20  84  ANG  Angela Ling          Preston Autos            28     28      0     78.372%
21  16  KAW  Azalia Kawakai       WGPC Motorworks          30     30      0      0.000%
22  33  BLA  Sam Blaatschapen     GPA Pryfors Bilar        37     37      0     64.884%
23  14  VIA  Skiia Vialiv         HMG Grand Prix           39     23     16     73.023%
24  37  HAU  Laura Haukanna       GPA Pryfors Bilar        40      2     38     90.698%
25  91  KAL  Naveen Kalkar        WGPC Motorworks          41     41      0     16.047%
26  18  RAH  Giancarlo Rahel      WGPC Motorworks          47     47      0     41.163%
27  13  PLA  Pierre-Louis Archer  WGPC Motorworks          49     49      0     56.512%
28  51  CRU  R.L. Cruisin         Piers Ivchenko           51      2     49     88.140%
29  88  PRE  Ted Pressley         Ælund Grand Prix         60      0     60     86.047%
30  40  AKS  Adriana Lillian      Eminent                  80     22     58     32.558%
31  85  STO  Olivia Stone         Cygnus                   80      7     73     81.395%
32   7  DEV  Anneliese Devereux   Eminent                  95     75     20     43.488%
33  89  GTA  Abdoulaye Goita      Ælund Grand Prix        117      0    117     72.791%
34  10  ASZ  Ankei Souzare        HiTEN.gpt               376    376      0      0.000%

With a finish one lap down, Laukkanen can no longer complete 100% of all laps run this season. Thanks in part to a mid-round rules change, Naveen Kalkar finally gets released from 0% Prison. Laura Haukanna is the latest to be welcomed to the Meatball Club. Azalia Kawakai (dropped from WGPC Motorworks) and Cryptofucker AI Techbro Idiot (a waste of grid space) are the only two still serving sentences there. As there are not enough laps remaining, no other driver can possibly finish worse than Ankei Souzare, our second winner of the Sigur Bjarnason Blue Flag Cup for Drivers.

Congratulations you piece of shit. You’ve finally won a legitimate award through your efforts. Also based on what’s happened to your site again (17th time today, 87th time total between your last one and this one), your network security is still shit.*

 P  Constructor             LNC    BFP    MBP    Lap Rate
 1  Nexus Racing              3      3      0     99.651%
 2  Pressley Racing           7      7      0     99.186%
 3  Race Eelandii VTGP       13     13      0     98.488%
 4  Viska                    14     11      3     98.372%
 5  Urosovsky-Gatutin        17     17      0     91.047%
 6  KISMO                    17     17      0     93.256%
 7  Preston Autos            37     37      0     88.140%
 8  Piers Ivchenko           56      7     49     93.488%
 9  HMG Grand Prix           61     45     16     72.442%
10  GPA Pryfors Bilar        77     39     38     77.791%
11  Cygnus                   84     11     73     90.233%
12  Eminent                 175     97     78     38.023%
13  Ælund Grand Prix        177      0    177     79.419%
14  WGPC Motorworks         201    201      0     87.674%
15  HiTEN.gpt               389    389      0     43.721%

With Haukanna’s DNF, GPA Pryfors Bilar sinks down to the bottom half of the table. Ælund Grand Prix are still the only team to have all of their missing laps coming from DNFs. Everyone except Viska in the top seven and the bottom two owe all of their missing laps to either poor qualifying or lap down finishes.

Now, regarding the future of the Blue Flag Report.
Due to a lack of engagement, I will be stepping away from writing duties after the end of this WGPC season. WrenchBitch, and any guest writers she suggests to me or wants to invite, will handle the Blue Flag Cup in the future. Blue Flag Report as a circle will continue, and I will be doing videos for this circle where I and a couple of friends screw around playing games.

*So a fun story here

HiTEN had a previous website before Himekaidou.net got pissed at them for violating site terms of service by scraping Himekaidou to collect training data for their AI image generator. A lawsuit and cease-and-desist later, hiten.ai was forced to take their image generator offline. And then some people I am aware of and friends with given my actual, other day job is network security research took hiten.ai down. After about a dozen times of this, this group who have decided on the name “Big International Team of Catgirl Hackers on Estradiol” (or “BITCHES”) just straight up stole the domain from HiTEN. And they did so by exploiting the exact same unfixed vulnerabilities every single time

So now the registered owner of hiten.ai is Trans Lesbian Catgirls LLC, based somewhere because who even cares at this point, and the site is now used as an erotic image board. If you’re familiar with Japanese and you know that the “Hi” in “HiTEN” is pronounced like it is in English, then like me you’ll be upset that some shitty techbro beat me to the punch and also you should have a very good idea of the kinds of pictures that get uploaded to it, other than hardcore gay porn.

So enter hiten.gpt the webshite. Guess who kept messing with HiTEN. Guess how they did it.

It was BITCHES, via the very same vulnerabilities that continue to go unaddressed.

I have no idea what HiTEN’s IT security department’s demographics are, but I’m suspecting they don’t have enough personnel there that are some combination of gay/lesbian/bi, trans, or furry.

So after another relaunch during the mid-season break where HiTEN falsely claimed a partnership with Himekaidou.net again as a training data supplier among other false partnership claims in addition to revealing that HiTEN had not complied with the terms of the previous cease-and-desist, Himekaidou has now filed a second lawsuit against HiTEN within an hour of the relaunch. So now two Ministry of Law Enforcement departments are pissed at Ankei Souzare (Department of Financial Crimes Invesitigations and Department of Intellectual Property Protection). And those two are the ones with the authority to issue arrest warrants for violations of criminal law, unlike the other departments of MLE which can only issue citations and fines for violations of civil law.

Also since we’re talking about AI image generators DHTI is from what I know regarding other similar services quite interested in the training data and the potential to (mis)use the image generator to make illegal lewd images. Going by how HiTEN have so far drawn the ire of two of Hodori’s law enforcement agencies they’re likely to express an absolute lack of any self-preservation instinct, and go three for three.

Additional fun happenings:
The relaunch included something called “HiTENCoin, the future of decentralised finance”. It’s a cryptocurrency. There was also an associated NFT, consisting of AI-generated slop purporting to be of legendary moments in (sporting) history. Headline image: Ankei Souzare on the top of the WGPC winner's podium. It’s the year of our lord 2025. What kind of fucking idiot launches a fucking NFT?!

Oh wait I forgot. There was also a second NFT to be launched alongside the first one. “The future of ownership in gaming”. All the “games” are just shitty, poorly optimised asset flips. Also the supposedly cross-compatible item NFTs don’t work outside of the “game” they’re made for. As is typical of cryptogames.

It’s the year of our lord 2025. What kind of fucking idiot launches TWO fucking NFTs?!

Ankei Souzare.

Duh.

By the time I started writing this, DFCI already issued a public statement of a very swift, open and shut investigation into the matter. Ankei Souzare now has a second arrest warrant waiting for him. And if DFCI is issuing public statements on an investigation into you and that the criminal acts are so clearly obvious that a quick look is all they need to get enough to issue an arrest warrant, you sir and/or madam are seriously, severely fucked.

The fun does not stop there.

Other AI initiatives include “the future of race strategy” with false (naturally) claims of partnerships with teams like Nexus Racing and Preston. I imagine they’d be upset if BITCHES hadn’t defaced the site and taken down pretty much everything relating to HiTEN, replacing the entire site with gloriously garish graphic-design-is-my-passion text on eye-searing backgrounds and (non-lewd) dancing catgirl GIFs. So now, the AI-generated text on every one of HiTEN’s webpages have been replaced with walls of text clowning on the fucker.

And also, since it was their 87th attack on HiTEN, they’ve given me a shoutout. I love you guys too.

by **Valentine Z** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 1:43 pm

Part 13 – Determination, Qualification, and a Stellar surprise from Stella herself. The Season of Extraordinary Events.

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 got herself ready for the Sprint Race, the thoughts and the discussion that she had with Preston Autos still fresh in her mind. Suited up and with just the helmet left to don, she walked into the garage, striking up short conversations and discussion with her team while she waited for her turn for the qualifications. While she still would like to try her absolute best as she always thought of, a certain wave of relief was felt for this time. “That talk with you guys helped me quite a fair, that’s for sure,” Angela mused and told the team, “Don’t worry, I will still try out there and hey – maybe for this Qualification I might be able to get in!” Stepping into her car, she wanted to show them what a Valentian can do, even with all of the blunders that both Adriana and herself have been given for this entire season so far. Come her turn, she went out of the garage and then did her qualifications. 5th, not bad, she thought. As per the regulations, she was going to be at the bottom of the starting grid, but the opportunity of being able to race far outweighed that negative sentiment. Angela went to sleep soundly with a bit more relief, knowing that she might just have a good chance at this race.

Come the race, however, it was not as cracked out as she was expecting it to be. By any and all metrics, she was scraping the bottom of the barrel as she was constantly at the last place of the race. Nothing much she could do as she navigated around the track. “It was- well, at least I know the track,” Angela explained to the rest at a meeting later, “It seems like for this one, the qualification REALLY does matter. Sure, there are exceptions to this rule, such as Ron Sommer being able to climb up, but you also have to see the likes of Vincent Von Visp and Nik Hazrin Lutfi, the two contrasts. Look at their starting position and then their finishing position. So in my personal experience, I need a good qualification for the feature race.” She would say her usual phrase, one that has been a little bit shared with the other Valentians: I will try and do my best. Here, however, Angela feels that it might be the start of a new trend, or a comeback as they have called it. While it is certain that the Drivers’ Standings for Angela and Kinu, as well as the Constructor’s for Preston Autos respectively, are going to be a rather tough call with regards to climbing up the ranks, these few races just might be able to work in their favor. Despite the shape, it’s not the most technical track, and Angela knows that it’s a lot more forgiving than the others that she has seen. “Let’s gun for that quali.”

The next day came in a rather similar manner. Rise and shine, brush one’s teeth, eat breakfast, and don a new set of clothes. It was her signature outfit, but just like with a lot of the Valentians, Angela has many sets of the same outfit – part of it was fashion, the other was simply to be a bit more recognizable. Case in point, in her fresh set of a smart casual outfit underneath her white labcoat, Angela walked into the meeting room whereby the other staff members [and presumably Kinu] were all gathered up for a pre-qualification meeting. As he finished sipping a cup of his drink, Marty Lewis announced that the cars have already been tuned based on the two drivers’ feedback on top of what the engineers believed were the most optimal settings. “Other than that – yeah, nothing too unusual. Just do your best out there and Angela, like we have said – please don’t take this too hard. There is always a next race and next season, and we might just get you an offer in the place. Although, of course, err… for purely legal and non-personal purposes, I cannot guarantee that statement. Still, we will do our best for the two of you next time!”

The qualification commenced for the Feature Race. As she went around the course, Angela felt the car working together with her; every degree of a turn on the wheel was registered nicely and smoothly, the gears shifted sharply and snappily just like the buttons that they were controlled by, among many other things. “Handled quite a dream!” she commented out on the radio as she made turns 2, 3, and then slowing down properly enough for 4 and 5. It was the turns 6 and 7 that were a bit of a concern to her… at first, anyway. For this particular moment, instead of braking and turning too early as she did, Angela decided to press the accelerator a little bit more, followed by then pushing the brakes with only a little bit of space left between her car and the barriers on the side. As she approached turn 7, she did the same thing, but this time pressed down the brake a little harder and turned the car sharply. As soon as she went out of turn 9, she gunned for it, pressing it as hard as she could before the speed trap once again slowed her car. It felt different this time, she thought to herself. Not only that Angela felt that she was getting better at controlling the car (better late than never!), it was as if she has learned the track just like Adriana did and then applying the most optimal of braking and accelerating. While it is certain that she will not be able to crunch all of these numbers just like Adriana, she is sure that this would be the race whereby she would give her car a little bit more challenge than taking it conservatively and slowly. Soon enough, the qualifications were wrapped up…

Angela could not believe her eyes. “Second?” she exclaimed gleefully, unable to contain her joy as she fist pumped the air with a small jump. Once again, it was just qualifications, but so far, it seems like her plan is slowly setting into motion. “Okay, okay, let’s be cool with this,” she mused to herself as she looked around to make sure no one is listening to this large Valentian talking to herself, “This is just the qualis, let’s not get too overconfident… ahh, I am going to sleep early after the team meeting! Oh boy, I need to make sure everything goes well in my favor – no daring foods, no late night binge, nothing! Meeting, shower, sleep!” And so Angela did, sleeping soundly for the first few hours. It was then an unholy hour that is 3 AM, to which Angela woke up after tossing and turning in her spaceship’s bed. “Ughhhh,” she groaned, “This is what I feared – too excited for tomorrow! Well, for the morning.” She got herself a glass of water as she slowly browsed through her favorite websites on the Valentian internet (along with the archives that they have obtained from many other universes). 45 minutes passed, sleep didn’t come.

Tool used: https://ifaketextmessage.com/

Gripping the steering wheel a little bit more than usual, Angela sat a little nervously on the seat, wondering if this was going to be any different for her. One would say that her fears or anxiety were not resolved, and perhaps just merely replaced. While she was no longer fearful about being a disappointment to Preston Autos, she now feared that she was going to blow this opportunity that was pretty much handed over to her on a silver platter (literally). After much deliberation, and with the signal of a green light, it was time for her to go and to not look back. “Not going to care much about what is happening in the background. I am going focus, that’s it,” she said onto the radio. The car handled like a charm once again, just like she did during the qualification session. It was only that for this moment, she was competing with the other drivers, as well as the tire changes – basically a race instead of quali. And for Angela, she was more than ready to take it on. Marty Lewis and the rest of the Preston Autos were rather indifferent, simply letting her do her best. Some might say they are even resigned to waiting for yet another season which may or may not come very soon. However, that is not the case for the flies on the wall, for that night where Angela was drying up near the fireplace as they’ve been talking to her. “[…] you’ll get your ass kicked. It’s just how things go. And you got your ass kicked. But you got to get back up again. And we know you can get back up again. We have faith in you.” Angela entered the DRS area, and with that, came the roar of the Preston engine that was never heard before. The car, surprisingly, did not groan nor complain about it, as per Angela’s words. “It could go, and I suppose I just have to unleash it.” The #84 then weaved and waved around, Cruisin and Lane in front of her.

However, she did not care, for when she hit the finish line, there it was. “Angela Stella Tan Fan Ling at 3rd!” in what was quite a massive upset, all in a positive way, of course. There she was, she thought. “Wow… Oh, oh shit!” she said and exclaimed, screaming and cheering her heart out after having stopped her car. From just having a single point in the likes of the previous season (this time thanks to the Fastest lap), an extra 14 points added a lot to her driver standings. With the end of this race, came the positions and spots. It propelled her from the bottom of the ranks to the middle, standing at 14th and then with one Brendan Faloe right on top of her. “Ahhh, Cygnus,” Angela said quietly, a small smirk forming up on her, “I should not celebrate too early but I guess now I can show you all what I can do. Sure, it did suck that it was happening at the last half of the season, but I am going to shake things up just a little bit.” Cheers and congratulations were all coming from Preston Autos team, along with one Marty Lewis who relayed the wonderful news to the rest of the higher-ups and to Jim Preston himself. Of course, with all these hubbub about Angela getting 14 points, they also were aware that Kinu Luminna didn’t do so well for this race – one lap down and no points to contribute to. Marty voiced it out to delay this for a moment, “That’s all right, we will discuss this as a team once again. For the time being, I believe we should let Angela celebrate and let her have her moment, and Kinu also to make sure that he feels better. These things take a toll, just like the last race.”

by **Former Citizens of the Nimbus System** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 1:55 pm

Serizawa Racing Circuit, Serizawa, Shibara, Aji No Moto
Ajian Grand Prix; Formation Lap

Ryker Lane does not stare up at the starting lights as the cars line up on the grid for the eighth time this season. Suspenseful as he might once have been at times like this, that is not him now. Instead, he sinks back into his seat; places his hands on either side of the cockpit’s inner walls; replaces them on the steering wheel, flexing his fingers.

He lets what feeling he can enter him… Still distant, still held back by friction. He accepts it; sucks in air, seeking the rush of it through him as grounding instead. A poor replacement, but what he has. His eyes flick up to those same lights, then, so that he is not surprised. Four – then five on.

And then he is off.

A start as cannon-like as any the Chase Cutter can provide. Imagithermally-heated tyres, Imagikinetic impulse imbued into the car during the wait and even the PAAS system to detect the lights shutting off, that earliest and most humble of the additions to Nexus Racing’s cars – all fuse harmoniously to launch him away, faster than any others around him. Ryker hangs onto the wave, lets the Chase Cutter carry him forward through the field, maintaining only what control he can.

For a few moments, it is enough – but by Turn 1, many of those others have taken on their own currents and surged forward with them. Berezowska’s HiTEN is stalwart in defence on the left, blockading his natural line; on the outside, Langdon’s Kismo makes a daring lunge, his team’s home crowd gasping and cheering at the sight… And Ryker sees it – the car can’t quite maintain adhesion, starts to slip wide – leaving a gap for him and the Chase Cutter to scythe through…

For a moment, the distance imposes itself again, tells him he cannot, must not. All five metres and eight wheels of the car? Through that? No, an impossibility, not without spearing into the Kismo’s side, ruining Langdon’s race and his own…

But his momentum is such that he must. And something else, something ecstatic in its quality, cries out in that moment – that, in fact, he can.

For the first time in a long, long while, he truly listens.

For the first time in a long, long while, feeling truly melds with thought.

He feathers the brake, barely turns in, leans on those already-warm, frustal tyres as much as he dares and it holds and bites and turns – and then he is level with Berezowska, caught up in the concertina – then ahead of her, pushing on to Turn 2, his car carrying momentum, drawing level with – and then past the violet car of Sommer ahead of her too, darting into the newly opened gap into Asahi Kerb and clear by the time he leaves it.

Ahead of him, now, Cocoabo #23’s Eelandii, one of the few sureties on the grid as great as him in his Chase Cutter. Down to Turn 3 they speed, carrying that same momentum, the Chase Cutter’s blue shining in the wing mirrors. He feels the oversteer coming, controls it, glides through the corner, set back a few metres… Enough to see what unfolds ahead: Lutfi’s fight with Tüvshinbayar, wrong-footing the Cocoabo, sending him wide into the Complex… And suddenly Ryker is there again – natural line through 4, natural line through 5, the tyres finally complying as the Chase Cutter, his Chase Cutter, launches away, towards and past!

“Superbly done, Ryker,” the sonority of his race engineer’s voice sounds in the cockpit. “Now, keep to the plan.”

Because for all his tyres have been warm from the race’s start, they are the second-hardest of In Motion’s offering.

Glancing to the corner of his HUD and flicking at the buttons on his steering wheel, he sees the temperatures fluctuating. Carrying speed into Sugiyama, he feels it – the give of them, the strain.

Feeling he’s barely had all season.

Thank you. “Can do, Martin,” he says, smoothening his exit just a touch.

He will make these tyres last, and hold.

Lap 33

And for it, fortune smiles on him.

“Are they okay, Martin?”

“She’s getting out of the car now.”

“Good… Box?”

“This lap.”

“Right.” He and his Chase Cutter dive for the pits and judder down to the speed limit, much, he is sure, to the relief of the cars behind him, bottled up for over two dozen laps – and their dread at knowing that they’ll end up behind him when they pit again.

Just doing what Jean always did so well… whispers the friction in his mind.

And your defence was any less brilliant? answers Victoria.

Old, tired tyres off, the regenerative cerulean glow of Imagination long faded to rubber’s black; new, shining ones on with the whirring of servos; and out again. P11, not far from the elevated position that this long first stint offered him; many of those behind, it seemed, had followed him in.

“Martin, how’s the strategy looking?”

“Very good, Ryker – you can make it to the end if you protect these H-1s. Most of those ahead will have to pit again.”

“Okay… Okay.”

Lap 36

Cruisin’s restart is well-timed and electric, swinging in from the outside edge of the final turn and driving forward. Ryker’s is more awkward, his Chase Cutter ungainly through the latter stages of the Kismo Complex even on fresh tyres… But he still feels them like he could not before, and with that he drives off the corner. The temporarily imbued energy rockets him away…

The distance…

Doesn’t seem so great.

Ryker only thumbs the button, not committing the full reserve just yet; Blaatschapen and Kamado duel ahead of him, and he cannot overtake yet, yet, yet… The start-finish line passes; now, the spare power built up behind the safety car is unleashed, now –

He gathers it. Swings to the inside as they contest the racing line, three wide, the whine of the motors and the roar of the engines beside him and the rush of the air whipping between the cars – and then he is through again.

Inside the car, Ryker feels something surge within. Up ahead, Archer and Goita and Nülkeschlager – and beyond them, locked in their own duel… An Ælund and a light of blazing blue.

He takes a breath, steadies himself, turns in for 1, and goes hunting.

Lap 42

He sees it as it begins.

“Martin, how hard are they fighting up ahead? Janne and Ted Pressley.”

A hum. “Extremely. Laps are leader plus… 1.4 seconds last lap, 1.2 the lap before.”

Ryker presses the brakes for 10, glancing at the rear wing of the Viska that stays stubbornly out of reach. “Martin, I can’t make ground and make up time like this – this set’s going to be shot by the race’s end.” They’ll catch me long before the flag.

“Okay, Ryker… Can you fight them on their terms?”

“It’ll help, I know it, but it’s up to you what you do with it, Ryker.”

It wells up suddenly, all of it. The alienation from the car and everything else, the inertia that he needs to fight through when he tries anything, the sheer, grinding incapability of it all…

And the surge rises to meet it – the familiar surge. The car, all about him – he trusts it. He knows it. He is connected to it. And what is that connection without him?

There is Coalescence.

“I can, Martin,” he says, his voice unsteady. Then, again, firm. “I can!”

“Understood – then you are free to push. No ICAST yet but everything else is available to you.”

Ryker Lane takes that ecstatic communion and seizes it.

Lap 46

Just a touch of oversteer from Archer gets him close enough. Ryker feels his own tyres protesting, rounding the 8-9 curve, feels them drift ever away from grip – but he still feels them, and they are not yet close to the cliff. Archer’s… They may be.

Now.

Ryker cranks up the array, feels the power, that power of so many souls, offer itself to him – and once again, he seizes it. Into Archer’s slipstream, metres separating them, fewer, fewer… He pulls to the outside, but Kissan Straight isn’t long enough –

Once again, the whisper. He refuses it.

– back to the inside, waiting as long as he dares, and then braking – and he shoots up the inside, and the tyres grip as he knows they will, and he is away!

Lap 52

Past Goita. Closer to Nülkeschlager. The tyres burn, hotter and hotter.

And, once more, he knows.

“Martin, it’s time!”

“I hear you, Ryker – box now for S-1s.”

Earlier than anyone else around him. Early enough to stay on terms with the leaders, if he is fast enough.

For the first time this year, he knows he will be.

Lap 53

And he is.

Lap 57

Angela Stella Tan Fang Ling (she of many more names than this) pits for a fast final stint. She emerges behind Coalescence.

Ryker lets the ecstasy flow through him; he pushes on.

Lap 62

She is close. Behind, Janne and Ted arrest their own pursuit when they come together, and Ryker winces – but he pushes on.

Lap 65

Right behind him now. She probes, seeking an opening – at Turn 2, at Turn 10. Ryker offers her none.

Lap 67

A dive, nimble as light, into 2 – opportunistic, confident, calculated! Ryker glances right, measures it…

He will make it.

He touches the brake, lets the tyres grip, pins Angela to the inside… And drives off the corner, still ahead, thrumming with purpose.

She drops back. No further challenges come. And thus it is…

Chequered Flag

Martin. “Shades of Cityprix, there, Ryker… That would be P2.”

Gertrude. “Measured, composed, bold – First Builders, Ryker, that was a beautiful drive! Well-earned and well done!”

Ryker sinks back into his seat; places his hands on either side of the cockpit’s inner walls; replaces them on the steering wheel, flexing his fingers.

Looses the energy, letting it fly free.

And, as joy and satisfaction rush in to replace it, he laughs.

Previous Chapter
11. Confrontation (Part One)

Next Chapter
13. Confrontation (Part Two)

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(O.O) · by **TJUN-ia** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 2:00 pm

Another weekend, another Race. Another high starting position hoping to be cashed into those glorious points he was desperate to achieve. The start of the 2nd half of this season for Batu Tüvshinbayar has started off well, with 17th in the Sprint Race and 11th in Qualifying yesterday, but all of that effort might have been for nothing if he couldn't convert those performances into actual championship points. While all of these performances allowed the Mongolian to regain confidence in his attempts to get back to where he was long ago, the points drought had certainly not been a fun stat to look at. The podium he got with Orange Cow at Akresna, Round 6 of last season, felt like a miracle at the time - a breakthrough moment for the WGP2 Champion and the team he won that title with. Thinking about that moment again brought Batu so much joy - but it also presented the ugly truth. That podium, that moment, was the last time a TJUN-ian scored points in the WGPC. Ever since that weekend, neither Lane Carter nor Batu himself have gotten themselves into the Top 10 and into the points - and Batu was angry at that fact. TJUN-ia had won 3 Motorsport titles, two in NSSCRA and Batu's WGP2 crown, but yet it was in this rut? It almost seemed impossible to think a nation like TJUN-ia could suffer this much for this long, but the facts spoke for themselves...and Batu wanted to change them quickly.

For most of this weekend, Batu had confidence that this WGPC Motorworks car could help Batu take him back into the points. All the signs this weekend pointed to this car being, at least, decent and while points was certainly the goal, Batu was hoping for at least a Top 15 to build into next week. But that didn't happen at all. Instead, once those five lights went out, what happened in Patriotlandia happened again: a gentle slide towards the back of the pack as drivers in other cars swept past. While Ted Pressley and Laura Haukanna did not finish the race, both Pierre-Louis Archer and Giancarlo Rahel were rooted to the back while Batu ended up failing on all counts: No points, No battle with Adonis, P19, Do No Pass 'Go!', Do Not Collect M200. R.L. Cruisin shot themselves to the top of the Championship tree after beating Ryker Lane and Angela Stella Tan Fang Ling, while all Batu could show for all their hard work was 17th and 19th.

But that didn't mean the Motorworks team would leave Aji No Moto empty handed. As everyone else slumped, Naveen Kalkar - in his first ever start - rose from dead last towards the points. His pace was simply incredible and while he did suffer a DNF on the final lap, only 8 cars finished this race on the lead lap - so he got 2 points while Janne Laukkanen got 1. Indusse's hope had pulled off a racing miracle and the whole team was ecstatic about finally having someone other than Otto Markul with points on the board. In the end, the guy who replaced Markul ended up bringing two points home and Batu was certainly happy for Kalkar. He worked hard to get onto this grid, he fucking deserved this moment in the sun.

But at the back of his mind, Batu felt...jealous. Angry at himself and angry at the universe, in some respect. Kalkar did deserve this glory...but Batu was a former champion, a former podium finisher in this series, why can't the Mongolian do what Kalkar, a rookie, just did? Experience is supposed to matter when it comes to results on the track and yet, Kalkar has got two points and Batu has zero. In the back of his head, Batu was starting to question if he himself was the true problem - that leaving Orange Cow through no fault of his own fundamentally changed him for the worse. Something didn't feel right back there and Batu didn't know if he could ever fix it in this car.

TJUN-ia's points drought in the WGPC continues for another race.
Île Saint-Joseph, the race of truth itself, is up next.
Qualifying should mean something...but is Batu the one to break this cycle?
He didn't know. He simply didn't know.

by **Liventia** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 2:33 pm

CUTOFF

for Practice and Qualifying at Circuit d'Arès

Side note: I have informed ANM that should they so wish, they can opt to ICly promote Batu Tüvshinbayar from WGPC Motorworks; if so, Motorworks will either continue the season a driver short or seek a replacement.

by **Liventia** » Fri Apr 11, 2025 2:43 pm

Week 12: Practice

Conditions:      	Cloudy
Lap Record:      	00:01:33.312
Session Length:		75 minutes
Nation:         	ISJ
Circuit:        	Circuit d'Arès

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

POS # ▍DRIVER                                               	FASTEST LAP	GAP TO LEADER
 1 96 ▍William Archer                                       	00:01:41.430	00:00:00.000
 2 33 ▍Sam Blaatschapen                                     	00:01:41.441	00:00:00.011
 3 23 ▍Cocoabo #23                                          	00:01:41.460	00:00:00.030
 4 77 ▍iBen Toralmintii                                     	00:01:41.461	00:00:00.031
 5 88 ▍Ted Pressley                                         	00:01:41.464	00:00:00.034
 6 66 ▍Vincent Von Visp                                     	00:01:41.569	00:00:00.139
 7 58 ▍Shuhei Kamado                                        	00:01:41.677	00:00:00.247
 8 51 ▍R.L. Cruisin                                         	00:01:41.687	00:00:00.257
 9 82 ▍Kinu Luminna                                         	00:01:41.704	00:00:00.275
10 22 ▍Nini Johnsilvaturr                                   	00:01:41.705	00:00:00.275
11 27 ▍Dario Nülkeschlager                                  	00:01:41.732	00:00:00.302
12 21 ▍Nik Hazrin Lutfi                                     	00:01:41.742	00:00:00.312
13  9 ▍Batu Tüvshinbayar                                    	00:01:41.782	00:00:00.352
14  1 ▍Brendan Faloe                                        	00:01:41.785	00:00:00.355
15 12 ▍Ron Sommer                                           	00:01:41.794	00:00:00.364
16 37 ▍Laura Haukanna                                       	00:01:41.795	00:00:00.365
17 85 ▍Olivia Stone                                         	00:01:41.848	00:00:00.418
18 63 ▍Nepö Kinder                                          	00:01:41.988	00:00:00.558
19 17 ▍Janne Laukkanen                                      	00:01:41.989	00:00:00.559
20 94 ▍Ryker Lane                                           	00:01:42.040	00:00:00.610
21 95 ▍Hanna Berezowska                                     	00:01:42.365	00:00:00.935
22 14 ▍Skiia Vialiv                                         	00:01:42.437	00:00:01.008
23 89 ▍Abdoulaye Goita                                      	00:01:42.809	00:00:01.379
24 91 ▍Naveen Kalkar                                        	00:01:42.971	00:00:01.541
25 84 ▍Angela Stella Tan Fang Ling                          	00:01:43.324	00:00:01.895
26 55 ▍Gil Langdon                                          	00:01:43.408	00:00:01.978
27 74 ▍Adonis Fitzpatrick                                   	00:01:43.702	00:00:02.272
28 18 ▍Giancarlo Rahel                                      	00:01:44.188	00:00:02.758
29 13 ▍Pierre-Louis Archer                                  	00:01:46.883	00:00:05.453
30 10 ▍Ankei Souzare                                        	00:01:48.583	00:00:07.154

Week 12: Qualifying

Conditions:      	Dry
Lap Record:      	00:01:33.312
Qualifying Type:	Traditional
Nation:         	ISJ
Circuit:        	Circuit d'Arès

POS # ▍DRIVER                                               	FASTEST LAP	GAP TO LEADER
 1 88 ▍Ted Pressley                                         	00:01:35.174	00:00:00.000
 2 14 ▍Skiia Vialiv                                         	00:01:35.344	00:00:00.170
 3 89 ▍Abdoulaye Goita                                      	00:01:35.363	00:00:00.189
 4 37 ▍Laura Haukanna                                       	00:01:35.428	00:00:00.254
 5 77 ▍iBen Toralmintii                                     	00:01:35.455	00:00:00.281
 6 51 ▍R.L. Cruisin                                         	00:01:35.467	00:00:00.293
 7  9 ▍Batu Tüvshinbayar                                    	00:01:35.476	00:00:00.302
 8 22 ▍Nini Johnsilvaturr                                   	00:01:35.476	00:00:00.302
 9 23 ▍Cocoabo #23                                          	00:01:35.485	00:00:00.311
10 74 ▍Adonis Fitzpatrick                                   	00:01:35.510	00:00:00.336
11 84 ▍Angela Stella Tan Fang Ling                          	00:01:35.523	00:00:00.349
12 82 ▍Kinu Luminna                                         	00:01:35.549	00:00:00.375
13 58 ▍Shuhei Kamado                                        	00:01:35.689	00:00:00.515
14 27 ▍Dario Nülkeschlager                                  	00:01:35.752	00:00:00.578
15 66 ▍Vincent Von Visp                                     	00:01:35.895	00:00:00.722
16 12 ▍Ron Sommer                                           	00:01:36.030	00:00:00.856
17 63 ▍Nepö Kinder                                          	00:01:36.224	00:00:01.050
18 55 ▍Gil Langdon                                          	00:01:36.319	00:00:01.145
19 96 ▍William Archer                                       	00:01:36.407	00:00:01.233
20 95 ▍Hanna Berezowska                                     	00:01:36.436	00:00:01.262
21 17 ▍Janne Laukkanen                                      	00:01:36.447	00:00:01.273
22 33 ▍Sam Blaatschapen                                     	00:01:36.674	00:00:01.501
23  1 ▍Brendan Faloe                                        	00:01:36.852	00:00:01.678
24 91 ▍Naveen Kalkar                                        	00:01:36.884	00:00:01.710
25 21 ▍Nik Hazrin Lutfi                                     	00:01:36.957	00:00:01.783
26 18 ▍Giancarlo Rahel                                      	00:01:37.355	00:00:02.181
27 85 ▍Olivia Stone                                         	00:01:37.549	00:00:02.375
28 94 ▍Ryker Lane                                           	00:01:38.969	00:00:03.795
29 13 ▍Pierre-Louis Archer                                  	00:01:40.773	00:00:05.599	DNQ
30 10 ▍Ankei Souzare                                        	00:01:43.465	00:00:08.292	DNQ

by **Tumbra** » Sat Apr 12, 2025 7:17 am

Events riff off this RP and credit is assigned accordingly.

Aji no Moto
Lap 62

Ted was back. Tyres screeching out of the pitbox, and the undercut was done. Now the work was to keep the baby blue Nexus of Janne behind him; which was a change from how they were usually, but the question of their physical relationship was secondary to what was going on here. A podium was in reach; a chance to make up for the disappointment of the Friday sprint race, where he started 13th and suffered the ignominy of being overtaken — on track, no less — by someone from the country which had effectively retired Tumbra from international football. That was somehow more humiliating than his first retirement of the season, which had forced him to limp off the track in Turori with a mechanical problem; gearbox gremlins had been identified as the cause, but it still stung to be reminded that he and his car were still subject sometimes to the laws of chance.

But never mind. A good qualifying performance more than made up for the disappointment that was the sprint race, and he was back in the fray. All he had to do now was stay where he was, and a podium was on the cards. He'd talked a lot about there not being a championship fight yet, but he was damn well going to make sure he was up there for the second half of the season.

And then —

Bang.

The screech — or was it the grind? Of the carbon fibre against whatever the Nexus car was made of made a horrible sound; even in his helmet he knew something had gone wrong. It had tipped him into a spin; which was probably terminal, but Ted was unwilling to accept it and immediately pressed on the brakes even as he careened onto the gravel. Immediately it felt like someone had yanked his chair out from under him; and the half-a-millisecond flinch was replaced by a determination He struggled with the steering wheel still despite the futility of it all; perhaps it was just a denial that he'd be leaving Aji no Moto with a grand total of zero points, and that he would effectively be surrendering the lead of the driver's championship without so much as a peep of resistance. Gravel flew up and around him, landing in his cockpit; but that was no matter.

If he could still —

A wheel detached itself from the tethers and flew over his head, which was the moment he realised it was over. Almost on instinct, he pushed his head back as far as it would go, in the hope that the wheel would not strike his head. It probably wouldn't, but the car did not have one. Ted had always been a bit nervous about this, but he had always uneasily accepted it as being able to bring a bit more performance to the car. Now, in a situation where the car was about to be totaled, it mattered a smidge more.

Giving up, he unlocked his arms to lessen the impact that the inevitable stop would have on him and braced for impact. When it came, it felt like his soul had been thrust out of him a little; and it took him quite a while for him to return to his senses, with his race engineer Urmo desperately checking up on him. He took a few seconds to squeeze his extremities, make sure he could still feel everything; and reached out to turn off the engine. Everything was a bit sore, but at least everything still moved.

"Ted, Ted, are you alright? Ted, talk to me, Ted, if you can."

He groaned a bit into the mike, confirming he was at least still alive; softly, with the wind still knocked out of him, he replied in the affirmative.

"Yeah, just...Heavens."

The engine died down, and he got out of the car slowly; refusing the stewards' help, he ambled onto the gravel and just as quickly struck a quick wave to the stands to confirm he was alright. There was a bike to get him back to the garages; quietly he sat down on one and contemplated what exactly had just happened as he made the journey back. Janne lingered on his mind — would he really do that to him, for the sake of points and getting the upper hand in the championship, anyway?

"You alright, then?" asked Urmo as Ted and him sat in the medical centre, waiting for him to be checked.

"Yeah, I'll live," said Ted half-jokingly. "Sucks we couldn't score any points."

"You still think about that?" Urmo said, reproachfully. "You're alive, that's what matters. To all of us."

That shut Ted up for a solid minute.

"You're okay, but are you okay, okay?"

"What's that mean, Urmo?"

"You know. You got rear-ended by Janne. You and him, you're close. You sure you're okay?" Again the topic of Janne. Ted didn't know where he'd finished — the moment he'd returned to the pits he'd been whisked to the medical centre, away from every prying eye — and, to be honest, Janne was probably the last thing he wanted to talk about right now. They were bound to clash at some point — that was the nature of their jobs, and racing, and especially the current situation they found themselves in — but having it actually happened stung. That it looked like Janne had driven into him felt like some sort of added betrayal, even; as if their title clash was worth more than whatever they had up to this point.

"Mm."

"Not really a fan of that answer, but if you'd rather talk to someone else about it, you know the team will always be there to talk to you."

"Raise your left arm. Does it hurt?" A voice, cold, clinical, pierces the silence of the examination room. Ted is half-undressed; there are cuts and bruises on his body, but nothing that would require medical examination or further care. For both the people concerned in this room, this is routine; it's theatre, to show the WGPC that Ted is fine. The cold air cuts into his skin, but it's a pleasant chill; the high heat of the Ajian summer makes the clinical, sterile-flavoured air almost a relief from outside.

His injuries are more mental, anyway.

"Slightly."

"Soreness?" A few touches in a few key areas, neoprene gently exploring.

"Mhm."

"Okay. Other arm, now, please." He raises his other arm; he winces slightly as he lifts it above his head. Again, the same problem with the soreness. The doctor looks at him, slightly concerned. "Were you holding on to the steering wheel when you made impact?"

"No, I'd already let go by then."

"Good," she says approvingly. More touches; the examination has a strangely intimate quality to it, even though Ted and the attending doctor barely know each other, if at all. Maybe it's just the closeness that he's missed for a while; he hasn't met Janne for a while now, what with the funeral, and how busy they both are, and he isn't entirely sure whether he wants to meet the Abovian right about now. Mainly because he doesn't know what he will hear; or what he wants to hear.

An apology? No, that sounds too grovelling, and Ted is fairly certain it was, to some extent, a racing accident — even if he is starting to be convinced that the baby blue bathtub Janne pilots around the track might be a bit too dangerous for the sport.

A promise it won't happen again? No, too naive, and both of them probably know it. So long as they drive for different teams — and Ted is fairly certain their career paths will, in the short term, lead them to always be on different teams — the chances of them engaging in this manner is too high to have a promise.

Maybe just an acknowledgement that this was a fuck-up will be fine. Off track it's clear they're still hopelessly in love with each other, and such clashes are inevitable. But he's not sure if he wants to see Janne right about now, nor is he sure that Janne wants to see him. Maybe a week off will do them both the world of good.

That sounds about right.

by **Valentine Z** » Sat Apr 12, 2025 9:24 am

Part 14 – Opportunity from the other parts of the world and organizations.

Zastępca Strażnika Adriana Krystal Desiree “Cudowny Manipulacja Światłem” Venus Kowalski Faith Stanisława Engelse I. Cherise Krystyna Zaborowska Sztormowska Pamela Alina Re. T. Lillian: A lot of times, opportunity came in the most interesting of ways! So, first and foremost – Eminent lost their spot, so that means no more myself and Anneliese trying for this season. I mean, we could as free agents but at this point, it’s for certain that no one would want me (or her, I’m not sure; I feel bad talking about her this way, but that is the unfortunate truth for this season). So, for the next season, it would be time for me to look at another team. I can deal with that, for sure. It’s indeed sad that I have to do this but ahh, things do not last forever, I suppose. I don’t understand what happened to them – they have been helpful and active in the previous seasons, and this one they just took a nosedive. The team was there physically until they got booted out, but until then… yeah, I can’t describe exactly as to how or why. I do not have the data to make such assumptions. More importantly, I feel that I should not. So this is the very awful news.

The very good news, however, came in the way of a Support Series. As it turns out, there is an additional series being ran concurrently alongside this main WGPC, typically a day later after it. Valentine Z was one of the nations that has been reached out to, and naturally, we have our MeowMeow Racing to join in the fray. Jenny made a couple of phone calls and emails back and forth, and just like that, we are in! I am going to be doing this in MeowMeow itself alongside Tracie Valentina Kat S. H. Harper Lindholm. That’s wonderful, I thought, and I was excited for this. The first already was a lot more promising compared to, well, what happened in WGPC. I know I should not speak too ill of them, and I really don’t want to. I just could not wrap my head around how bad they have gotten for this season. Anyway, going back to that race – yeah once again I didn’t get the points, but Tracie did! And she did it pretty well too, it’s not just one or two points. She finished 8th and got 7 points for the team. “Very wonderful!” I thought with much enthusiasm, and gave Tracie a hug, which I did ask permission, of course; she isn’t really much of a hugger.

Granted, we entered too late for this supporting series, and we are absolutely certain that we are not going to be able to get the points that we need in order to get some nice standings. However, this is a really nice opportunity for the all of us, and we don’t have to fight during the qualifications. That is more than I could ask for when WGPC was bad luck. I am not sure which team I will join next time. I thought of Preston Autos because hey, I love them too! The thing is, however, they got Angela for this season, and given her performance (which, for the record, isn’t a sarcastic from me – she placed 3rd on the recent race and got herself to the middle of the standings. I am not sure if they will have her again, but either way – I am genuinely happy for her! There is also Cygnus, and… many others, but that is also the problem – will we be enough for them? These are the cream of the crop here, and of course, I am not implying or insinuating that other teams are worse, oh no. Well, you can see how some of the teams were and are just heavy hitters for a lot of the seasons. I feel that I will be a wrench into their gears. end(); skip_next(); done!

Ahhh right, Nini! It did not get anywhere fast that time when I was talking to her. Poor girl, I could feel a little bit of the emotions that she was feeling – the anger and disappointment as there was no points to her name once again. From what I could recall, she finished 12th, and for that moment after the race, she was not talking to anyone… much. She did, however, managed to say a few words to me, to which I am grateful and happy for. It was a relatively small and simple couple of sentences, but again, I like that. “Oh, hey Adriana! Uhh, I… I’d appreciate the company,” she said to me at that moment. I know it was not a good time to ask her immediately back then because hey, she was a wee bit away from the points. So I gave her a bit of the choice to make sure that I was not being pushy. “Ooooh, wonderful!” I replied her back as she stopped for a moment then, “Please do let me know the time and date, and maybe the place as well, whatever you are comfortable with. Here’s my number, hehe. I hope this is not too much because I don’t want to feel too pushy. See you soon, and I’m also sorry to hear about the race for you today.”

And there was that! I like to give them some time and to let them make their decision because- yeah, I already said that, whoops! Anyway yeah, I would like to talk to Nini just to help her out (and myself a little), and then the race!

World Grand Prix Championship 21 [RP/results]

Supplier Performance Round 6

WGPC21 - Statistical Data Zone - Post Aji No Moto - Older Ve

12. Feeling

WGPC21 VIII-3 - Retread

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